The recognition of one’s sinful state, followed by a complete turning away from that sinful lifestyle and attitude, is called repentance. Repentance in the New Testament has a wider meaning than simply regretting the mistakes of the past. "When the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, repentance meant to be sorry for rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior,[Acts 2:22-37] accompanied by a subsequent change of mentality. The same change in attitude toward Jesus is required today. This repentance followed by a complete turning toward and believing in the atoning death and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for one's sins is what results in salvation. Christianity teaches that Jesus is not a mere man, a prophet, a guru or something similar, but the savior of the world, the only "name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."[Acts 4:12] Only then can the atoning death of Christ become an actual solution for one’s sins.[1]
According to Christian theologian Frank Stagg, salvation is rooted in the grace of God. "For bankrupt sinners with no ground of their own upon which to stand, with nothing of their own upon which to stand, with nothing of their own to hold up to God for [one's] reward, it is their only hope, but it is their sufficient hope."[41]:80
According to the New Testament, this salvation is a gift from God that anyone may receive by exercising faith in Christ and repenting for their sin.[Acts 20:21]
Some of the benefits of this salvation are that people become "new creations in Christ,"[2 Cor 5:17] their sins are forgiven, they receive eternal life and become children of God. They also receive the Holy Spirit, who enables them to live a new life based on God's requirements and to spread the gospel to others.[Acts 1:8] [2:38]
In Christianity, the human problem is sin that causes suffering in this life but may lead to eternal suffering in the next life. According to Christian teachings, God is good, perfect, and just, and so sin by its nature prevents a right relationship with God and provokes God to anger at all humanity who consistently rebel against His law and commandments. Therefore, people who have not accepted salvation cannot enjoy the full benefits of knowing God in this life, such as peace and comfort in times of trouble. They also cannot spend eternity in God's presence, and will consequently suffer the eternal wrath of God's righteous punishment and judgement in a place called Hell.[6]
Christianity claims to offer "good news," and this good news is that it is possible to be saved (attain salvation) from sin and the wrath of God's holy and righteous judgement. The solution, then, is salvation from sin, temporal suffering, and suffering under the eternal wrath of God.
According to Christianity, eternal life is not the annihilation of soul and personhood, but an embodied existence of perfect and eternal communion with God.[1]
In the Protestant view, Jesus took God's justice and wrath upon himself and was crushed in order to conquer death and bring into right standing with God, those who believe and repent.[Is 53:10] [Jn 3:16]
Broadly speaking, Protestants hold to the five solas of the Reformation which declare that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone through grace alone to the Glory of God alone.
- Some Protestants understand this to mean that God saves solely by grace and that works follow as a necessary consequence of saving grace (see Lordship salvation).
- Others rigidly believe that salvation is accomplished by faith alone without any reference to works whatsoever, including the works that may follow salvation (see Free Grace theology).
- Still others believe that salvation is by faith alone but that salvation can be forfeited if it is not accompanied by continued faith and the works that naturally follow from it.
- Karl Barth notes a range of alternative themes: forensic (we are guilty of a crime, and Christ takes the punishment), financial (we are indebted to God, and Christ pays our debt) and cultic (Christ makes a sacrifice on our behalf). For various cultural reasons, the oldest themes (honor and sacrifice) prove to have more depth than the more modern ones (payment of a debt, punishment for a crime). But in all these alternatives, the understanding of atonement has the same structure. Human beings owe something to God that we cannot pay. Christ pays it on our behalf. Thus God remains both perfectly just (insisting on a penalty) and perfectly loving (paying the penalty himself). A great many Christians would define such a substitutionary view of the atonement as simply part of what orthodox Christians believe.[42]
Debates about how Christ saves us have tended to divide Protestants into conservatives who defended some form of substitutionary atonement theory and liberals who were more apt to accept a kind of moral influence theory. Both those approaches were about 900 years old. Recently, new accounts of Christ's salvific work have been introduced or reintroduced, and the debates have generally grown angrier, at least from the liberal side. Those who defended substitutionary atonement were always ready to dismiss their opponents as heretics; now some of their opponents complain that a focus on substitutionary atonement leads to violence against women and to child abuse.
— William C. Placher[42]
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