Mackenzie Voiles
Professor Werner
THEO 202(006)
14 February 2021
Soteriology DS
1. The Nature of Salvation:
Humans are born with a sin nature, and because of that, we are all separated from God
and need that broken relationship to be restored (Erickson, 2015, pg. 332). Not everyone
will be saved, although salvation is offered to everyone, as stated in 1 Timothy 2:4. We
are saved when God calls us to Himself and removes our heart of stone against Him, and
we respond to this by confessing and believing in Christ, which brings us to new life in
Him through conversion. Salvation is brought about completely by God through
regeneration, not of our works, and is described by Piper (2013) as unity to Christ “in the
embrace of His electing love” (pg. 54).
2. Faith and Repentance:
Erickson says that repentance is “the negative aspect of conversion, turning from ones
sin,” and faith is “the positive aspect, laying hold of the promises and the work of Christ”
(Erickson, 2015, pg. 354). Repentance occurs in response to conviction, and faith comes
afterwards, but both are gifts from God (Erickson, 2015, pg. 355).
3. Faith and Works:
Works are not necessary for salvation, but they are evidence of it through sanctification.
Romans 6 says that we no longer live in sin as Christians because we have died to it in
salvation and are being made into Christ’s likeness through sanctification. We are saved
by God’s grace through faith, not of works, that no one may boast according to Ephesians
2:8-10, but that justification will produce good works (Erickson, 2015, pg. 368).
4. Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification:
Erickson (2015) posits that these three parts of salvation occur at different times, which I
agree with (pg. 332). Justification is the crux of salvation that occurs immediately as we
are saved, because salvation means that we are justified and declared righteous in God’s
eyes through Christ. Sanctification is a product of salvation that involves being
progressively conformed into Christ’s image. Glorification is the completion of
sanctification upon death when our spiritual nature is perfected.
5. Election:
Jesus said in John 6:65 that “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from
the Father. This encompasses election, which is the “free and sovereign choice of God,
made in eternity past, to set his love on certain individuals, and, on the basis of nothing in
themselves but solely because of the good pleasure of his will, to choose them to be
saved from sin and damnation and to inherit the blessings of eternal life through the
mediatorial work of Christ”, as Ephesians 1:4-5 says (MacArthur, 2017, pg. 368). God
does not elect everyone to salvation, evidenced in Romans 8:29-30. I subscribe to the
Calvinistic view of election, which is that we have the free will to come to God but are
unable to until He changes the hearts of the elect (Erickson, 2015, pg. 344).
6. Atonement:
Atonement is the way by which reparations are made to God’s wrath over our sin by the
death of Christ. Christ died as a substitute for the sins of the world so that God could
show His reconciling love to us by exercising His full wrath against the sins of the world
upon Christ (MacArthur, 2015, pg. 389). I believe MacArthur (2015) is correct in his
assertion of limited atonement, because Christ’s atoning work is sufficient for all, but
only efficient for those who repent and believe in Him, namely, the elect whom He died
in place of (pg. 400).
References
Erickson, Millard J., and L. Arnold Hustad. Introducing Christian Doctrine. Baker Publishing
Group, 2015.
MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible. Thomas Nelson, 2006.
MacArthur, John, and Richard Mayhue. Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible
Truth, Crossway, 2017, pp. 363–482.
Piper, John. Does God Desire All to be Saved? Crossway, 2013.
