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Soteria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Extract

In the Gospel according to St. John it is written that ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever-lasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.’ In these familiar words is summed up the message of the Bible as a whole, and of the New Testament in particular. In spite of all that may be said of sin and depravity, of judgment and the wrath of God, the last word is one not of doom but of salvation. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a Gospel of salvation, of deliverance and redemption. The news that was carried into all the world by the early Church was the Good News of the grace and love of God, revealed and made known in Jesus Christ His Son. In the words of Paul, it is that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself’.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1953

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References

page 406 note 1 John 3.16 f.

page 406 note 2 2 Cor. 5.18.

page 406 note 3 Cf. Brown, Adams, ‘Salvation’, in HDB, iv, pp. 357 ff.Google Scholar

page 407 note 1 Cf. the relevant articles in HDB, etc., and Richardson, Theol. Word Book of the Bible.

page 407 note 2 Cf. Matt. 19.16, 23, 25; John 3.16, 17, 10.9 f; 2 Tim. 4.18; 2 Pet. I.II; and see Wagner in ZNTW, 1905, pp. 213 ff.

page 407 note 3 Op. cit., pp. 205 ff.

page 407 note 4 Even here, however, it may be questioned whether he is right in regarding the Exodus (Jude 5, etc.) not as a deliverance from the land of bondage but as a deliverance from the land where destruction and extermination awaited the people. It is true that sozein is frequently contrasted with apokteinein and apollunai, but this does not mean that the contrast is inevitably implied in every case. The Exodus itself is certainly ‘the most signal instance of the Divine salvation in the early history of Israel, and the one which made the deepest impression on the national memory’ (Adams Brown, loc. cit.).

page 407 note 5 Murray, Five Stages of Greek Religion, Chap. iv.

page 408 note 1 Cf. Wendland, σωτ⋯ρ in ZNTW, 1904, pp. 335 ff.

page 408 note 2 Dittenberger, SIG.

page 408 note 3 Epict., 3.13.9.

page 408 note 4 Cf. Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery Religions; Scott, Anderson, Christianity according to St. Paul, pp. 22, 122 ff.Google Scholar

page 408 note 5 Cf. Mackintosh, , The Person of Christ, p. 75 n.Google Scholar

page 409 note 1 Cf. Poim. 26: This is the good end for those who have attained knowledge, to be deified.

page 409 note 2 Corp. Herm., 10.15 ap. Reitzenstein, HMR, p. 295.

page 409 note 3 The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, s.vv.

page 409 note 4 Cf. for example in NT. Matt. 9.21 ff (cf. the parallels); Mark 5.23 (cf. Luke 8.50), 6.56; Luke 7.3, 8.36; John 11.12; Acts 4.9, 14.9; James 5.15.

page 409 note 5 Cf. the references to the Flood (Heb. 11.7; 1 Pet. 3.20); also Matt. 8.25,14.30; Acts 27.20, 31, 44, 28.1, 4. In Acts 27.44, 28.1, 4, the compound diasozein is used, in the passive, with the meaning ‘escape’ in 27.43 the same word occurs in the active with the meaning ‘bring safely through’ (cf. 23.24 of safe conduct under escort).

page 409 note 6 Cf. Ps. 118.25, 106.4, 5. Reference may be made also to those cases in which the danger comes from human enemies, or in which the threat is that of death in general: e.g. John 12.27, with which may be compared the prayer in Gethsemane in the Synoptic tradition (Wagner compares Heb. 5.7); Matt. 27.40 ff carries an undertone of deeper meaning.

page 410 note 1 Cf. Luke 1.69, 71; Acts 7.25; Jude 5.

page 410 note 2 Cf. HDB and DCG s.v. Salvation. For such prophets as Hosea and Isaiah the true well-being of the nation lay not so much in its material prosperity or earthly glory as in its fidelity to the God of its fathers. But in the later portions of Isaiah this is combined with a ‘Messianic’ hope of a future salvation (see Adams Brown, loc. cit.).

page 410 note 3 Brown, Adams, in HDB, iv, p. 360.Google Scholar

page 410 note 4 ibid. The doctrine of individual resurrection ‘meets us for the first time in Isa. 26.19, and is repeated in Dan. 12.1–3’. It was to undergo considerable development in the period between the Testaments (see HDB and Richardson, TWB, s.v. Resurrection).

page 411 note 1 Kennedy, , St. Paul and the Mystery Religions, p. 218.Google Scholar

page 411 note 2 Agnostos Theos, p. 11, n. 1.

page 411 note 3 Matt. 1.21. According to Taylor (in Richardson TWB, p. 220), only in this one passage is salvation explicitly stated to be from sin, but ‘the close connexion of specific troubles and dangers with disobedience to God means that this particular text does express the meaning of the NT as a whole.’

page 411 note 4 Luke 19.10.

page 411 note 5 John 1O.1O.

page 411 note 5 Luke 15.3 ff. Cf. the following parables of the Lost Coin and the Lost Son.

page 411 note 7 Eph. 3.20.

page 411 note 8 Judges 2.18, 6.14. Cf. Taylor, op. cit., p. 219, Adams Brown, op. cit., p. 358.

page 412 note 1 Taylor, loc. cit.

page 412 note 2 Cf. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and its Developments.

page 412 note 3 Rom. 1.18.

page 412 note 4 Cf. Rom. 6.23; Eph. 2.1 ff.

page 412 note 5 Rom. 6.2.

page 412 note 6 Rom. 6.10.

page 412 note 7 Gal. 2.20.

page 412 note 8 Cf. Kennedy, op. cit., p. 270.

page 412 note 9 Col. 2.13.

page 413 note 1 Rom. 6.4.

page 413 note 2 Cf. Rom. 12.1: ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. …’ Ethics for Paul is the outcome of theology—the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (cf. Gal. 5.22 ff).

page 413 note 3 2 Cor. 5.17. Cf. the indignant protest of Rom. 6.1 ff.

page 413 note 4 2 Cor. 5.15.

page 413 note 5 Cf. Richardson, ‘Heal’ in TWB.

page 413 note 6 Mark 2.1–12; note also the whole passage in Acts 4.9 ff.

page 414 note 1 2 Cor. 5.17.

page 414 note 2 I Peter 1.5.

page 414 note 3 Cf. Rom. 7.7 ff, esp. verses 14, 15; Angus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity, pp. 206 ff, 212.

page 414 note 4 Eph. 2.8 ff.

page 414 note 5 Cf. Mark 6.5 and parallels.

page 415 note 1 Rom. 8.20 ff.

page 415 note 2 ibid., 38 f.

page 416 note 1 I Cor. 1.23 f.