Biblical Metaphors for our Salvation

08/04/2009 59 min

Listen "Biblical Metaphors for our Salvation"

Episode Synopsis

The Bible is not always as simplistic as we want it to be or perhaps think that it is. That is surely the case regarding the doctrine of salvation. To display the full understanding of all that is our salvation, the Bible uses a wide variety of metaphors or word pictures. We can understand the basis of these metaphors easily enough. However, we often miss a subtle difference in them ��� a temporal difference. For instance, salvation is depicted as a reality that is the actual possession of true believers right now by divine right as joint-heirs with Christ. At the same time, salvation is also depicted as a future reality that has not yet been inherited by those same true believers. This tension between past and future is usually termed the "already-but-not-yet" by theologians. Some passages describe the "already" and others the "not yet." However, a majority of the metaphors for salvation surprisingly fall into both categories. To emphasize one over the other is to fall into theological error. This type of error most easily creeps into our understanding of eternal security so we must grasp the Bible multi-faceted presentation of salvation.