Salvation
Christians across the world celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday. Palm Sunday is a remembrance of the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt. As he came into the city, people lined the sides of the roads and placed palm branches before him to welcome him as their anticipated king. As he rode in the people were shouting "Hosanna!" which means "Save us!" The people of Israel were looking for someone to save them from the Roman Empire, but Jesus never intended to serve as their political or military leader. Salvation, to Jesus, went far beyond freedom from a difficult situation.
What does it mean to be "saved?" What or whom are we saved from?
When the people of Jerusalem lined the streets waiting for Jesus, they were hoping to be saved from oppression. What they came away with was entirely different. Instead of saving them from the Romans, Jesus gave them an opportunity to be saved from themselves. "I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me...What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:21,24). In other words, Jesus indicated that we will never be perfect, but he'll take the punishment for our failures.
Second, I think salvation means that God saves us from Himself. "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men" (Romans 1:18). The Bible is very clear that the Living God is perfectly pure and blameless. He is holy. Therefore, He will not accept anything or anyone into His presence that is impure. Jesus, by taking our impurities, our mistakes and our failures on himself, saved us from the wrath of God.
What is salvation? To the best of my understanding, salvation is Jesus setting us free from our enslavement to evil (see Romans chapter 6) and from the wrath of God...forever.
