What are we saved from? Many of us know the answer to this question, but may struggle to put it into words. In Scripture, there are four key things the Bible says we are saved from. Understanding these helps us better appreciate the Gospel, whether we are the ones evangelizing or the ones being evangelized.
Salvation from the Love of Sin (Regeneration)
How does God save his people from the pleasure of sin? He does so by imparting a new nature to them—a nature that hates evil and loves holiness. It happens when they are born again, which means actual salvation begins with regeneration.
The heathen can’t perceive their desperate need for salvation or come to Christ for it until the Holy Spirit has renewed them. As it says in Ecclesiastes, “He hath made everything beautiful in his time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and we can lose much of the beauty of God’s spiritual handiwork if we are not patient enough to wait on God’s timing.
Many people may disagree that they are helplessly sinful and incapable of loving God. They point to their good deeds and discipline, but even those cannot give them standing before a holy God. Instead of questioning their sincerity, we tell them the solemn truth that “the human heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). This isn’t a matter up for debate. The plain teaching of God’s Word settles the point once and for all, and there is no appeal beyond its verdict.
God’s word doesn’t deny that there are pleasures in sin; it expressly speaks of “the pleasures of sin.” But it immediately warns that those pleasures are “but for a season” (Hebrews 11:25), as the aftermath is damning. God’s word also refers to those who are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God” (2 Titus 3:4), those who “love vanity” (Psalms 4:2), and those who love violence (Psalms 11:5). It says, “thou love evil more than good” (Psalms 52:3), and “scorners delight in their scorning” (Proverbs 1:22). It even mentions those who “delight in their abominations” (Isaiah 66:3) and those whose “abominations were according as they loved” (Hosea 9:10). The prophet Micah says they “hated the good and loved the evil” (Micah 3:2). John says, “if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
To love sin is far worse than to commit it, as a person may be tripped up or commit it out of weakness. The fact is, we aren’t just born with an evil nature; our hearts, apart from Christ, are thoroughly in love with sin. Sin is our native element. We are wedded to our desires and are no more able to change the bent of our corrupt nature than the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots.
But what is impossible for man is possible with God. When he takes us in hand, this is where he starts—by saving us from the pleasure or love of sin. It is the great miracle of grace. The Almighty God stoops down, picks up a loathsome person from a trash heap, and makes them a new creation in Christ. The things they once loved they now hate, and the things they once hated they now love. God starts by saving us from ourselves. He does not save us from the penalty until he has delivered us from the love of sin.
How is this miracle of grace accomplished? It is not by eradicating the evil nature or even refining it. Instead, it is by imputing a new, holy nature that loathes evil and delights in all that is truly good. God saves his people from the pleasure or love of sin in several ways, as highlighted in these verses (Proverbs 8:13, 16:6, Romans 5:5).
The sincere Christian often has serious doubts about whether they’ve been delivered from the love of sin. They may wonder, “Why do I so readily give in to temptation? Why do some of the world’s vanities and pleasures still have so much attraction for me? Why do I struggle so much against my desires being restrained? Why do I find the work of mortification so difficult and distasteful? Could such things be if I were a new creation in Christ?”
How can someone be assured that they have been saved from the love of sin? First, it is part of the mystery of the Gospel that those who are saved are still sinners in themselves. Faith and doubt can exist side by side in a quickened soul, as is evident in the words, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24). In the same way, the Christian may exclaim and pray, “Lord, I long after holiness, help me in my lusting after sin.” It is because of the existence of two separate natures within the Christian, one at complete variance with the other. The flesh (the principle of sin) wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit (the principle of holiness) is at war with the flesh.
How to Know the New Nature Has Been Imparted
Sin Becomes Burdensome
When God takes us in hand, the sins and transgressions of our past life become an intolerable load on our conscience. When we are given a glimpse of ourselves as we appear before a holy God, we will exclaim with the Psalmist: “For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me” (Psalms 40:12).
Sin Becomes Bitter
When the veil of delusion is removed, and we see sin in the light of God’s countenance, we know that we are steeped in carnality and death. When sin is revealed in all its secret workings, we feel the vileness of our hypocrisy, self-righteousness, unbelief, impatience, and the utter filthiness of our hearts. And when a repentant soul views the sufferings of Christ, they can say with Job, “God makes my heart soft” (Job 23:16). This experience prepares the heart to turn to Christ. Those who are whole don’t need a physician, but those who the Spirit convicts are anxious to be relieved by the great Physician.
First, He saves them from the pleasure or love of sin by bestowing a nature that hates it; this is the great miracle of grace. The Christian suffers under temptations, is pained by Satan’s fiery assaults, and bleeds from the wounds inflicted by the evil they commit. It grieves them deeply that they make such a wretched return to God for his goodness and respond so poorly to the promptings of the Spirit. It is a sorrow that is blessed, for “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).