Salvation is a Person, not a Thing

Because I come from a Christian background where salvation is limited to the notion of a simple one-time prayer, or a decision made when you walk down front, or raise your hand to agree with the speaker’s summation of the Gospel, it can be quite easy for me to lose site of the real meaning of the Gospel. The Gospel is a person, not a moment, or a thing.

It is the continual grace bestowed on me through the work done in and through the Person of Christ.

Salvation is not a detached gift of God in some gracious and miraculous way bestowed upon man.

Salvation is Christ, and to experience salvation is to experience Christ. It is not the experience of something, but of someone.


The Bible does not teach that Christ has salvation and dispenses it like a benevolent master giving gifts to his servants who obey him. Christ is our salvation and gives Himself to us as our salvation. He is our life; He is our strength; He is our peace; He is our joy; He is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.”

—George W. Peters, A Biblical Theology of Missions (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972), 65