Soteriology
Soteriology is the study of salvation. It is relevant to the triunity of God when theological statements form boundaries for being inside or outside of the Christian faith. In an ongoing, separate exegetical research project, 959 NT statements have been sorted into 24 categories, but only 4 of those categories directly concern the subject of this website.
Confessing / "Having" / Knowing The Monogenic Son of God [49]
Matthew 7:23 ⇒ "I never knew you" from Jesus equals Hell.
Matthew 10:32-33 | Luke 12:8-9 ⇒
Whoever acknowledges me before people, I will acknowledge before my Father
in heaven. But whoever denies me before people, I will deny him also before my Father in heaven.
Matthew 11:27 ⇒ No one knows The Son except The Father, and no one knows The
Father except The Son and anyone to whom The Son decides to reveal Him.
Matthew 16:16 ⇒ Speaking by the Holy Spirit, Peter said Jesus was The Son of the
Living God, and Jesus said He would build His church on it.
Matthew 21:41 | Mark 12:9 | Luke 20:16 ⇒
Those who killed/rejected The Son will be destroyed.
Matthew 25:12 ⇒ "I do not know you" from the Bridegroom equals exclusion from
the wedding feast.
Luke 2:34 ⇒ The source of a falling and rising for many in Israel.
Luke 13:27-28 ⇒ Those whom The Son knows not will be thrown out of the Kingdom
of God, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
John 3:15-18 ⇒ Everyone who believes in The Son of Man—who must be lifted up
like Moses's serpent—may have eternal life. Everyone who trusts in The One and Only Son is not condemned nor will perish, but will have eternal life.
John 3:36 ⇒ The one who trusts in The Son has eternal life. The one who rejects The
Son will not see life, but God's wrath remains on him.
John 5:40 ⇒ You are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.
(The point of the contention was Sonship, just raised in John 5:18 where the audience
recognized it was a claim of equality with God.)
John 5:43 ⇒ Not receiving The Son, even though He comes in The Father's Name.
(This was "not having the love of God within you," v.42, and "not having eternal life," v.40.)
John 6:29 ⇒ The deed God The Father requires is to believe in the One whom He sent
[The Son].
John 6:40 ⇒ The will of The Father is for everyone to have eternal life who looks
unto The Son and believes in him, and Jesus will raise him up in the Last Day.
John 6:47 ⇒ The one who believes has eternal life.
John 8:21 ⇒ "I am going away, and you will look for me but will die in your sin."
John 11:29 ⇒ The one who believes in Him will never die.
John 12:36 ⇒ "Believe in The Light so that you may become sons of Light."
(Answered the question from v.34, "Who is this Son of Man?")
John 14:1 ⇒ "You believe in God. Believe also in Me."
(The Son because v.2 was "…my Father’s house…")
John 14:6 ⇒ "No one comes to The Father except through me."
John 17:3 ⇒ Knowing Father-and-Son is eternal life.
John 17:8 ⇒ The Eleven have accepted The Son is "from God."
This was also said in 16:27 by Jesus, but at 16:29-30 The Eleven finally
understood it fully, that He is ontologically equal with The Father, and now Jesus restates it of His true followers, as a dividing line.
John 20:31b ⇒ Jesus's signs are recorded in John's gospel so that the reader
may believe He is The Son of God, and thus have life in His Name.
Acts 22:14 ⇒ Sins washed away by calling on His Name.
Romans 8:1 ⇒ "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus."
(Paul then exposits this was accomplished "By sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin He condemned sin in the flesh.")
Galatians 4:4 ⇒ "God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem
those who were under the Law, so that we may be adopted as sons."
Colossians 1:14 ⇒ In "The Son of His love" we have forgiveness of sins.
This Son is "image of the invisible God" (v.15), all things in Heaven and on Earth were created in Him (v.16), He is before all things and all things are held together in Him (v.17), and the fullness of God dwells in Him (v.19).
Colossians 1:22 ⇒ "But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through
death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before Him"
The final "Him" is The Father (v.19, also "Himself" from v.20).
1 Thessalonians 1:10 ⇒ Christians wait for The Son from Heaven, our deliverer from
the coming wrath.
1 Thessalonians 1:15 ⇒ He "came into the world to save sinners."
1 Thessalonians 1:16 ⇒ those who believe in The Son receive eternal life
"Christ Jesus" is a general ascription in v.16; Sonship is in view. He was described as having "come into the world to save sinners" in v.15, and is contrasted with a distinctive litany of descriptors denoting The Father in v.17.
Hebrews 2:14 ⇒ The Son made into flesh defeated the Devil who formerly held
power over Death itself.
Hebrews 3:1 ⇒ Jesus is the "apostle and high priest" whom those in God's house (v.2)
confess [in a salvific sense].
"Apostle" corresponds to the χαρακτήρ of God (1:3), who is God Himself (1:8), The Son who was sent into the world by being "made lower than the angels for a little while" (2:9).
Hebrews 4:14 ⇒ "Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed
through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession."
Hebrews 7:25 ⇒ This new High Priest, who is not of the tribe of mere humankind
(v.13), "is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them."
(v.28: "a Son made perfect forever")
Hebrews 10:5-6 ⇒ When the High Priest "came into the world," He said, "Sacrifice
and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. Whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you took no delight in." It is He, rather than "the blood of bulls and goats" (v.4) that will "take away sins" (v.4).
Hebrews 10:28-29 ⇒ Someone who rejected the Law of Moses was put to death. How
much greater punishment exists for those who "trample underfoot The Son of God" (καταπατέω).
Hebrews 12:22-23 ⇒ Christians have entered into the assembly and congregation of
the Firstborn.
1 Peter 1:20 ⇒ He was known before the foundation of the world but manifested in
order to be the salvific ransom.
1 John 2:22b-23 ⇒ He who denies The Son does not have The Father.
1 John 3:23a ⇒ The commandment to all Christians entails believing in the name of
His Son, and by this one resides in God (v.24).
1 John 4:15 ⇒ If anyone confesses that Jesus is The Son of God, God abides in him
and he in God.
1 John 5:5 ⇒ The Christian believes that Jesus is The Son of God.
1 John 5:10 ⇒ The one who does not believe The Father's testimony about The Son
makes God out to be a liar/false one.
1 John 5:12 ⇒ The one who has (ὁ ἔχων) The Son of God has (ἔχει) eternal life. The one
who does not, does not.
2 John 1:9 ⇒ The one who remains in the teaching of Christ has (ἔχει) God: The
Father and The Son.
Revelation 12:11b ⇒ The saved overcame the Accuser by the word of their testimony
in the blood of The Lamb (who is the blooded Son of God).
Confessing / Honoring / Saved by Jesus as Yahweh [31]
Mark 12:34 ⇒ Believing The Shema alone does not save.
Jesus quoted The Shema [Mk 12:29]. A scribe affirmed it, but then the scribe also quoted Deuteronomy 4:35: “He is one, and there is no one else beside Him.” Jesus said the scribe was “not far from the Kingdom of God”—but very notably not “in” it. Believing Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18; and Deuteronomy 4:35 was not enough! The very next paragraph in Mark’s Gospel has Jesus quoting Psalm 110:1, where there is someone beside YHWH: the lord of David who is also David’s descendant. The corollary is that “the Lord” beside The Father is also YHWH, and lack of belief in that is what separated the scribe from the Kingdom. (A similar claim caused the High Priest to tear his clothes and clam no need for more witnesses [Mk 14:62-64].)
John 5:23 ⇒ "The one who does not honor The Son just as they honor The Father
does not honor The Father."
καθώς has a semantic range, but here it means “exactly as.”
John 8:24 ⇒ "Unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."
The immediate context was John 8:23, in which Jesus declared, "You are from Below; I am from Above. You are from this world; I am not from this world." The pericopal references of "I am" culminate in John 8:58, where Jesus calls Himself the great "I AM," which colors the meanings of the progressive "I am" statements nearby (a phenomenon called cataphora). But even by itself 8:23 is ontological, declaring that Jesus is not native to Earth. The reader of John is already in on the secret: Jesus is God from 1:1, and God The Only Son from 1:18. If one does not believe He is God, one will die in one's sins.
John 10:28–30 ⇒ Jesus's sheep listen to His voice; no one can snatch them from the
hand of The Son because no one can snatch them from the hand of The Father—He and The Father are one.
John 10:38 ⇒ Humans must know and understand that Jesus is in The Father and
The Father is in Him.
John 20:28-29 ⇒ After Thomas said to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!", Jesus tied it to
[saving] belief.
Acts 2:21 ⇒ All those who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved [Joel 2:32].
Acts 3:14-15 ⇒ "You rejected the Holy and Righteous One…you killed the Originator of
Life."
Acts 11:17 ⇒ God gave the indwelling Holy Spirit to Gentiles after they believe in “the
Lord Jesus Christ.”
Acts 16:31, 34 ⇒ "Believe in The Lord Jesus and you will be saved"
Immediately after the jailor of Thyatira had been told “Believe in The Lord Jesus and you will be saved,” it says he rejoiced because “he had believed in God.” Even if the triune God generally or The Father specifically was denoted in v.34, this is an extreme conflation and direct ascriptional equation of Jesus with God, all within an explicit soteriological statement.
Rom 10:9 ⇒ Only the one who confesses Jesus is Lord will be saved.
Rom 10:13 ⇒ Everyone who calls on The Name of the Lord will be saved [Joel 2:32].
Jesus is the Lord here; Paul replaced Him in the quotation as Yahweh.
1 Corinthians 1:2d ⇒ The Church of God consists of "all those in every place who call
on The Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their lord and ours."
"Call on The Name of" is a technical phrase used by the Jews of YHWH (cf. Romans 10:13; Joel 2:32).
1 Corinthians 8:6 ⇒ After citing The Shema in v.4, Paul continues "For us there is one
God…and one Lord…."
The word "Lord" is the one that matches "YHWH" in The Shema, and here Paul is identifying Him as Jesus. This becomes a soteriological matter because Paul said "for us," meaning The Church.
Philippians 3:8 ⇒ "all things" are liabilities (to salvation) "compared to the far
greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
Paul repeats the concept in 3:20 using Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, and there Κύριος = YHWH.
Philippians 3:20 ⇒ we await a savior from Heaven, "Lord Jesus Christ," where "Lord"
signifies Yahweh, who will transform all humans' bodies into the likeness of His own.
Colossians 2:6 ⇒ Christians by definition have received "The Christ Jesus The LORD,"
having been rooted and built up in Him and firm in faith in Him.
Colossians 2:8-9 ⇒ Paul tells the Colossians to not be taken captive by an empty,
deceitful, non-Christian philosophy and then immediately contrasts it with, "For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and you have been filled in Him."
Colossians 2:11 ⇒ In Him (the one in whom "all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily
form") Christians "also were circumcised," which is further described in v.12 as being buried and raised with Him.
1 Timothy 3:15-16 ⇒ "God," "The Living God," "was manifest in flesh…believed on in
the world." This is described as the great axiom of piety, and the believing is salvific in sense.
1 Timothy 4:10 ⇒ "we have set our hope on The Living God [who was Jesus in 3:15-16],
who is the Savior of all people, especially of believers."
2 Timothy 1:9 ⇒ salvation was granted to humans in Christ Jesus before time began
Titus 1:3–4 ⇒ "God our Savior" in v.3 becomes "God The Father and Christ Jesus our
Savior" in v.4.
Titus 2:13 ⇒ "our great God and Savior Jesus Christ"
Titus 2:14b ⇒ Jesus gave Himself on the cross "to purify for Himself a purified people
who are truly His."
This the sole domain of Yahweh (Exod 19:5; 23:22; Deut 7:6; 14:2; Mal 3:17; Jer 31:31-33; Ezek 37:23-28).
Hebrews 13:12 ⇒ Jesus sanctified the People by His own blood.
2 Peter 1:1 ⇒ saving faith is granted through "our God and Savior" Jesus Christ
2 Peter 2:1 ⇒ Destructive heresies brought by False Teachers, who will even "deny the
Master who bought them."
Lesser markedness of meaning here might have Messiahship or lordship in view. But the correlation of the verb "bought" to both the ransom which Jesus effected and the cosmic planning inherent to this context, coupled with the rare use of δεσπότης (Peter at Acts 4:24 and Jude at Jude 1:4) likely denote Jesus in His role as Yahweh.
Jude 1:4 ⇒ Evil men "deny The Only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."
Revelation 21:22 ⇒ The Temple of the New Jerusalem "are" The-Lord-God-and-The-
Lamb.
Revelation 22:3 ⇒ God+Lamb's servants, the only ones who are not in the Lake of
Fire, will worship Him.
CONFESSING / BELIEVING / SAVED BY THE SPIRIT [8]
Colossians 2:12 ⇒ Believers are raised to eternal life through belief in the active
movement of the Power of God [The Spirit] who raised Jesus from the dead.
Titus 2:11 ⇒ The Holy Spirit, here given the ascription "the grace of God" is bringing
salvation to all people.
Even though "appearing" or "shining upon" (ἐπιφαίνω) is the verb here and 2:13 uses ἐπιφάνεια of Jesus, the grace of God in 2:11 correlates semantically to the content immediately following in 2:12: "trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age." "Grace" doesn't "teach/train" (παιδεύω). This is the function of The Spirit [e.g., Neh 9:20 (שׂכל); Luke 12:12; John 14:26 (helps the disciples remember everything Jesus spoke to them); 1 Cor 2:13 (teaching and explaining spiritual things)].
Titus 3:5 ⇒ God saved us "through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of
the Holy Spirit."
Hebrews 6:4–8 ⇒ Those who have become partakers (μέτοχος) of the Holy Spirit but
then have fallen away (παραπίπτω) cannot come again to repentance, are "useless, near to a curse," and their fate is to be burned.
The "falling away" here is genuine "apostasy" (the word the NET chooses), not lesser ideas of "deviating" or "drifting." Paul asserts elsewhere that God is faithful to the faithless [2 Tim 2:12a], but denies those who deny Him [2 Tim 2:12b].
2 Peter 1:3 ⇒ God's divine power (usually the Holy Spirit) has bestowed on us
everything necessary for [the Christian] life.
1 John 4:13-14 ⇒ By this believers know they abide in God: "He has given us His Spirit,
and we testify that The Father has sent The Son to be the Savior of the World."
Revelation 21:6 ⇒ "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the
end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water free of charge from the spring of the water of life."
Revelation 22:17 ⇒ "Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take
the water of life free of charge"
SAVED BY THE TRIUNE GOD [7]
Ephesians 2:18 ⇒ Through Christ we have access in One Spirit to The Father.
Contrasted with being "without God" (v.12), so this one is soteriological.
Colossians 2:13 ⇒ The triune God (God, His Power, and Jesus from v.12) made us alive
with Him, having forgiven all our transgressions, after we were dead in those transgressions.
Hebrews 9:14 ⇒ "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without blemish to God [The Father], purify our consciences from dead works to worship the Living God."
Hebrews 10:10–18 ⇒ The New Covenant, which is the means of removing sin and
providing salvation, is instituted by the will of The Father (v.10a), the self-offering of The Son (v.10b), and the non-remembrance of human sin by The Spirit (v.17).
Hebrews 10:19–23 ⇒ The hope of eternal life which Christians confess is based on
the trustworthy promise of The Father (v.23), who sent The Son as "great priest" over His house (v.21), after whose blood was given (v.19) the Holy Spirit translated it to the spiritual realm by sprinkling Christian hearts clean from an evil conscience (v.22).
1 Peter 1:2 ⇒ believers are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God The Father
by being set apart by The Spirit for obedience and for sprinkling with Jesus Christ's blood.
1 Peter 1:3-5 ⇒ Salvation achieved by faith in the triune God: The Father mercifully
gave humans new birth by resurrecting The Son (v.3), and faith in Him is protected by the Holy Spirit (v.5, "God's power").