INTRODUCTION

A. This study can aptly be described as ‘purest theology’.
1. From time to time we must touch on the essentials.
(a) The subject is probably the most important of them all.
(1) It has been suggested that Christology (the doctrine of Christ) is more important.
(2) But this lesson in fact includes Christology; it moreover assumes that our doctrine of Christ is already correct!
(b) It deals with the reason God sent his Son into the world.
(c) It deals with our own souls—where we will spend eternity.
(1) If there is a heaven and a hell, and we go irrevocably and irretrievably to one or the other when we die, nothing is more important than going to heaven.
(2) We must know that we are saved.

B. Soteriology: doctrine of salvation.
1. It comes from two Greek words: (a) Soter: saviour; (b) Logos: word.
2. Soteriology deals with two questions:
(a) Does man need to be redeemed? (b) If so, how?
3. ‘Saved’ is thought to be an old-fashioned word.
(a) Some refer to being ‘converted’ or ‘committed’.
(b) The Bible’s word is unashamedly ‘saved’.
(1) ‘She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:21).
(2) ‘Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved’ (John 5:34).
(3) ‘Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).
(4) ‘He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ’ (Acts 16:30).
(5) ‘That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved’ (Romans 10:9).

p 137 C. This study will give a panoramic view of the biblical history of redemption.
1. The terms ‘salvation’ and ‘redemption’ can be used interchangeably, but each has its own meaning.
(a) Salvation: saved from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9). This will necessarily includes being saved from the penalty and power of sin.
(b) Redemption: being brought back. This refers to Christ’s blood buying us back from the lost condition into which we were born.
2. To understand the need for salvation and redemption we need to look at the doctrine of man:
(a) Man as he was created—before the Fall.
(b) Man as he became after sin came in—after the Fall.
(1) The Fall: the moment of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden.
(2) The Garden of Eden was a place on the map; the Fall was a date in history.

D. The first major theologian to articulate the theology of sin and salvation after the apostle Paul was St Augustine (354–430).
1. When asked why no-one since Paul had dealt with this matter he replied, ‘No-one had to counter the error of Pelagius’ (c.400).
(a) Pelagius, a British monk, was angry when he read Augustine’s famous prayer, ‘Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.’ He wrote a treatise attacking the predestinarian implications of Augustine’s thinking.
(b) Augustine replied to Pelagius; the result was the first major treatment of the subject of sin and salvation.
(c) The doctrine of salvation in church history was never the same again. From then on, a person was either Augustinian or semi-Pelagian (a view that anticipated what many today would call Arminianism).
2. Augustine’s soteriology can be summarized generally by his famous ‘four stages’ of man in the history of redemption.
(a) Posse peccare—‘able to sin’.
(1) This is man as he was created—before the Fall.
(2) He was thus created sinless but with the possibility of sinning.
(b) Non posse non peccare—‘not able not to sin’.
(1) This is man after the Fall.
(2) Man was thus unable to do other than sin after sin emerged; a condition into which all men were born.
p 138 (3) Note: Pelagius regarded all people as being born as Adam was before the Fall.
(c) Posse non peccare—‘able not to sin’.
(1) This is man after being saved.
(2) Man was thus able, by the power of the Holy Spirit, not to sin.
(d) Non posse peccare—‘not able to sin’.
(1) This is man after he is glorified (Romans 8:30.
(2) In heaven man will not be able to sin.

E. Why is this study important?
1. It is absolutely essential that we have a right understanding of this aspect of theology.
2. Our soteriology assumes a correct Christology.
(a) We may have a correct Christology and a faulty soteriology.
(b) But a correct soteriology almost certainly presupposes a correct Christology.
3. When it comes to witnessing to others, the doctrine of salvation is what we’d better be sure about!
Kendall, R. T. (1996). Understanding Theology, Volume One (pp. 136–138). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus.