The Only Way to Salvation

The different religions of the world teach different ways to achieve salvation from God’s wrath. All other religions apart from orthodox Christianity teach that salvation comes through human good works. Even many Christian denominations subscribe to the idea that there are different ways of coming to God. Some Christians teach that in different dispensations God used different ways to save people, and in this present dispensation of grace God saves sinners through their faith in Jesus Christ.

But this passage, Romans 4:23-25, teaches that there is no diversity in God’s salvation program. There is only one way of salvation. It is the way God the Father revealed through his Son Jesus, who declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

God has one way of salvation, not only for Abraham, who lived in 2000 B.C., but also for all people throughout the ages, both Jew and Gentile. God’s pattern of salvation is justification by faith alone. In this passage we read that Abraham was not justified by his good works, nor by circumcision, nor by keeping the law, but by his faith in the promised Messiah. Abraham believed God and his promises, and his faith was credited to him for righteousness. We want to examine the history of Abraham and the application of this history to our lives.

The History of Abraham

Paul writes, “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone but also for us” (Rom. 4:23). Here we find both history and application. This idea of Abraham being justified by faith is first found in Genesis 15:6: “Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it for righteousness.” It is part of Abraham’s history, and Paul refers to it several times in this chapter (vv. 3, 9, and 22). Genesis 15:6 is foundational to Paul’s teaching of God’s singular way of salvation for all the people of the world. Abraham was chosen to illustrate the only way of salvation-the way of justification by faith alone in the promise of God. Every true child of God in every age, whether Moses, David, Paul, or any Christian today, is declared righteous the way Abraham was. There is only one God, only one people of God, and only one way of salvation.

Biblical history, therefore, is important, and we cannot ignore the Old Testament. Some people say only the New Testament is relevant today. Such people are ignorant of God. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. There is promise and fulfillment. That is why Paul illustrates God’s way of salvation through the life of Abraham.

Biblical history has great significance for our lives today. Referring especially to the Old Testament, Paul declares, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). We will have no endurance if we neglect God’s word. Paul also states, “For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. . . . These things happened to them as examples and were written down by divine inspiration as a warning to us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 9:9-10; 10:11). Elsewhere Paul says in reference to the Old Testament, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

Redemptive history as found in the biblical revelation has been meaningful to all God’s people throughout the ages. The psalmist declares, “I will utter hidden things, things from of old-what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children” (Ps. 78:2-7).

Abraham’s justification by faith, therefore, was not unique, nor was it a private affair. Justification by faith is God’s single, universal plan of salvation. Abraham believed God’s promise of a Son, the Messiah. He believed in God who raises the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist. Simply put, Abraham was saved by faith in the promised Messiah who would die and rise again. Jesus himself said, “[Abraham] rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

In some way by faith Abraham saw the day of Jesus Christ-his life, death, and resurrection-in the virtual death and resurrection of Isaac on Mount Moriah. God had a purpose in directing Abraham to go to Mount Moriah to sacrifice his son. This earthly location was where David was later directed to sacrifice to God to receive mercy that he may be spared of death (1 Chron. 21; 2 Chron. 3:1). It was on Mount Moriah that Solomon built the temple, where the sacrifices foreshadowing the sacrifice of Christ were offered to God. It was there that Jesus himself was crucified for the sins of all God’s elect.

Application of the Historical Record

The historical record of Abraham’s justification has application for us today. Paul says it was written for us also, “to whom God will credit righteousness-that is, to us who believe God” (author’s translation). Notice the phrase: “who believe God.” Not only did Abraham believe God, but every one of God’s elect throughout the history of the world has also done so. We must also believe God, whether we are Jews or Gentiles.

“God” here means God the Father. Unlike Judaism, Islam, and other monotheistic religions, Christians believe in the triune God, meaning one God existing in three Persons-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet many Christians speak mostly about Jesus Christ and do not pay sufficient attention to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But here Paul explains, “It was written for us also, to whom God will credit righteousness.”

Yes, we believe also in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:22, 26). But Paul is saying that we are to believe continually in God the Father. It was the Father’s plan to save us; we must not ignore him. The Son agreed to become incarnate and die for our sins, and the Holy Spirit applies this Christ-accomplished redemption to each elect sinner. But the work of Jesus Christ is to bring us to the Father. “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).

Paul says this biblical history of Abraham is written for us also, that we may be justified by faith in God the Father as Abraham was. The faith that justifies will emulate Abraham’s. The one who believes in God will also believe in his promises. God is the only one we can trust implicitly because God is not man, that he should lie or die. We are fools if we do not trust in God and his promises. Not only does faith believe in God the Father and in his promises, but it also gives glory to God, as Abraham did.

Justifying faith believes specifically in God the Father’s work of raising Jesus from the dead. Note the singular importance of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can never be saved without believing in the physical, literal resurrection of Christ by the Father. Paul himself emphasizes this throughout his epistles. In Romans 1 he writes of “the gospel [God] promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:3-4). In the same epistle he declares, “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” (Rom. 10:9).

Many today will say that Jesus is a good man, a nice man, or even a revolutionary thinker. But unless they believe God raised him from the dead, they cannot be saved. To the Corinthians Paul writes,

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born. . . . If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. (1 Cor. 15:3-8, 14-17)

This Jesus, whom the Father raised from the dead, is also Lord of all. Paul says God’s promise of righteousness was not only for Abraham, “but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness-for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 4:24). Notice, Paul uses the word “Lord” instead of “Savior.” Jesus is our Savior; his name is Jesus because he came to save his people from their sins. (PGM) But here Paul says, “Jesus our Lord.” When Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, Paul addressed him as Lord and confessed him to be Lord (Acts 9:15). To be saved, we must confess, “Jesus is Lord” (Rom. 10:9). When we make that confession, we come under his rule. “Jesus is Lord” means he is our Master, our Owner, our Sovereign.

Paul says, “Jesus our Lord.” Is he your Lord? Have you come under his rule? Do you confess and obey him? Beyond that, do you confess him as God? Do you confess him as one Person in two natures, divine and human?

Jesus is true God and true man. Yes, he is the man Jesus, so he is Savior. But he is also God, so he is Lord. It is the Father’s will that we believe in his Son. Do you believe that Jesus was delivered over to death for the multitude of sins that we have committed? Neither Judas nor Pilate nor Herod nor the Jews nor the Romans ultimately delivered Jesus over to death. God the Father delivered him over to death on the cross for our salvation, as we read in Isaiah 53. Paul also speaks of it: “[God] did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). Jesus bore the legal penalty of our guilt. All our sins were put on him and the wrath of God that was against us was poured out on him in its entirety. Christ our substitute was delivered over to death by the Father. He was without sin, yet he was punished for all our sins.

Why did Jesus have to die? Because we are sinners, and the penalty for sin is death. God had said to Adam, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Adam disobeyed, and all his descendants became subject to sin and death. Paul writes, “The wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. . . . All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. . . . The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 1:18; 3:23; 6:23). Ezekiel declares, “The soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezek. 18:4).

The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ was not an accident. It was the design of the Father, planned even before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). On the Day of Pentecost Peter told the crowd, “This man [Jesus Christ] was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23). Nor was the death of Jesus optional. It was a divine necessity. There was no other way to save us from our sins except by the vicarious death of the sinless Son of God.

Christ died on benefit of all God’s elect. Jesus himself states, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). In his high priestly prayer he said, “For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him” (John 17:2). We are the Father’s gift to the Son, who died in our stead that we may be saved. Not only did God the Father love us and send his son to die for us, but Christ himself also loved us. “[Christ] loved the church and gave himself for her” (Eph. 5:235).

The Father handed his sinless Son over to death because of our transgressions. We sinned defiantly against God. But we have been spared because God punished his Son in our place. We sinned, yet Jesus was put to death. And, thank God, he was punished, not for some of our sins, but for all our transgressions, past, present, and future. Now God is justifying us through faith in the Son. We were like the criminal Barabbas, about to be executed. Yet we were released and Jesus was crucified. Now we are free of the burden of our sin, guilt, and punishment. There is no death, no hell, no judgment for us because the wrath of God has been turned away from us and poured out upon Christ Through the death of Jesus we have forgiveness of all our sins.

We believe in God the Father who delivered over his Son to death in our place for our eternal salvation and raised him from the dead for our justification. Why was Christ raised up? Peter declares, “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24). Death could not keep Jesus in the grave because he is sinless God-man. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, we would have to conclude he was a sinner just like us who needed a Savior. Christ’s literal, physical resurrection by the Father proves that his atoning sacrifice in our behalf was accepted by the Father. It was sufficient to effectively once-for-all deal with all our sins. Christ’s resurrection guarantees our justification. Without the resurrection, there would be no forgiveness and justification. It proves that Jesus is the sinless Son of God. Christ is our substitute and representative. When he died, we died; when he rose, we also rose, never to die again.

Christ’s resurrection proves that we are not only made alive spiritually now but that we also shall experience a literal, physical resurrection as he did. Paul asserts, “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead and he will raise us also” (1 Cor. 6:14). Elsewhere he states, “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (2 Cor. 4:14). The unbelieving theologian Rudolph Bultmann said, “An historical fact which involves a resurrection from the dead is utterly inconceivable.”¹ He believed in naturalism because he was blinded by the devil. He could not see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He was not justified as Abraham was, who believed God who raises the dead and creates out of nothing. But contrary to Bultmann, the resurrection is utterly conceivable to all whose eyes are opened to believe in the God of the Scriptures.

Only One Way to God

There is therefore no diversity in God’s salvation plan. Abraham was justified by faith in God’s promise of a Savior; we are justified the same way. Abraham looked forward to the Messiah; we look back to God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who was delivered over to death for our sins and raised for our justification. There is only one way to God; Jesus is that way.

If you believe in God who raised Christ from the dead, you shall also be justified as Abraham was. If you believe in God, you shall and must believe in his Son and his resurrection. Therefore I urge you today to believe that Christ died for your sins and was raised for your justification. The wrath of God is revealed against every sinner. We must either believe in Christ and be saved, or we will personally and eternally suffer God’s wrath. There is no believing without thinking. God has spoken in his word. Think, believe, and be saved. Sin is absolute irrationality.

I believed in God and his Christ. Now my sins are forgiven and I have been justified forever. This is true of all God’s people. The wrath of God is no longer against us, and when we die, we will go to God’s presence to await the day when we are raised physically with a glorious body.

¹ Quoted by Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation and Authority, Vol. IV: God Who Speaks and Shows (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 333.