Bible Verses About Salvation

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Paul says everyone has fallen short of God's glory, and that people are put right with him freely by grace through Christ. The problem is universal, and so is the offer.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sin pays out death, while God's gift in Christ is eternal life. One is a wage earned; the other is a present given.

“Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.”

Centuries before Jesus, Isaiah pictured a servant wounded for the wrongdoing of others while everyone else wandered like sheep. Christians see the cross foretold here.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”

God's motive is love, and his purpose in sending the Son is rescue rather than condemnation. It is the most familiar summary of the gospel.

“For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.”

Salvation comes by grace through faith, not as a reward for effort, so no one can boast. Good works follow as what God prepared for us to do, not as the price of entry.

“But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God showed his love by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. He did not wait for us to clean ourselves up first.

“But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.”

Paul says God saved us out of mercy, not because of anything righteous we did, through renewal by the Holy Spirit. Salvation is both forgiveness and a new beginning.

“This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Love is defined not by our love for God but by his sending his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. The initiative is always his.

“that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved. It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

Paul links confessing Jesus as Lord with believing in the heart, and says the offer is open to everyone who calls on the Lord. There is no entry test other than trust.

“Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.””

A jailer asks what he must do to be saved, and Paul and Silas answer with a single instruction: trust in the Lord Jesus. The promise reaches his whole household.

“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.””

Peter's listeners are moved and ask what to do; he points them to repentance, baptism and the gift of the Spirit. Christians differ on how baptism relates to salvation, but all agree it belongs at the start of Christian life.

“But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.”

Those who receive Jesus and trust his name are given the right to become children of God, born of God rather than by human effort. Salvation is welcome into a family.

“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”

Jesus says his sheep hear him, follow him and cannot be snatched from his hand or the Father's. Christians have long drawn deep comfort from this picture.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul is convinced that nothing in all creation can separate believers from God's love in Christ. Traditions weigh the relationship between this assurance and human freedom differently, yet all treasure the promise.

“being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Paul is confident that the God who began a good work in his friends will carry it on to completion. Salvation is a journey that God himself finishes.

“And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

John writes so that believers may know they have eternal life, and he places that life in the Son. Assurance rests on Christ, not on how strongly we feel.