It is of God the Father that we have been saved (2 Thes. 2:13). To say that salvation is of God the Father means that the Father is the origin of our salvation. The Father originated our salvation.
Furthermore, we are saved in God the Son. The Son is the element, the sphere, and the means in which we are saved. First John 4:14 tells us, “We have beheld and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.” The Lord Jesus is the Savior of fallen mankind. His being the Savior is based on His person and redemptive work. He is the very God becoming a man to be our Savior, and He has accomplished full redemption for us, through which He has saved us from God’s condemnation and from our fallen condition. Therefore, in 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul testifies, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Christ came into the world by incarnation (John 1:14) to be our Savior. He was incarnated in order to save us through His death and resurrection in His human body. Hence, the believers are saved in God the Son.
The believers are saved through God the Spirit (Titus 3:5). The Spirit is the Triune God reaching us and applied to us. Thus, we are saved through the Spirit’s application. Our salvation is of the Father, in the Son, and through the Spirit.
God’s salvation is an eternal salvation (Heb. 5:9), and this salvation is not simple but has many constituents. These constituents include God’s calling, the Spirit’s sanctification, and the believers’ being joined to the processed Triune God, redeemed, and made a new creation. With each of these items there are many details. God’s calling is according to His predestination and purpose, through His own glory and virtue, in Christ, and through the gospel. This heavenly calling is a calling out of darkness into God’s marvelous light and into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. It is a calling to the suffering of Christ, to the peace of Christ for His one Body, unto the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, into His eternal glory for the expression of the God of all grace, into God’s own kingdom and glory, and for the believers to be separated and made holy unto God. In order to sanctify us, separate us unto God, the Spirit sought us by enlightening us and convicting us concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. As those who have been joined to the processed Triune God, the believers have been joined to God the Father as the source of the divine Trinity, to God the Son as the embodiment of the processed Triune God, and to God the Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. The believers have been redeemed by being bought, forgiven of their sins, freed, washed positionally and dispositionally, sanctified, justified objectively and subjectively, and reconciled to God in the first step. Moreover, the believers have been made a new creation by being regenerated, by receiving the Spirit of God, by having eternal life, by being renewed, by being transferred, and by being freed. From this we see that, far from being superficial, God’s salvation is rich in its constituents.
God’s eternal salvation saves us from many things.
First, the believers are saved from God’s condemnation and eternal perdition. John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not judged [condemned]; he who does not believe has been judged [condemned] already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” In John 5:24 the Lord Jesus tells us, “He who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and will not come into judgment [condemnation], but has passed out of death into life.” As sinners, we were under God’s condemnation and His sentence of eternal perdition. But we have been saved from God’s condemnation and from eternal perdition.
The believers are also saved from God’s wrath. “Having now been justified in His blood, we shall be saved through Him from the wrath” (Rom. 5:9). In John 3:36 the Lord Jesus says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Furthermore, 1 Thessalonians 1:10 speaks of “Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath which is coming.” This is the wrath of the coming judgment of God. Before we were saved, we were under God’s wrath. But as believers in Christ, we are saved from the wrath of God.