Destroyed

It’s probably safe to assume we believe strongly that Jesus is our savior. But what does that mean? It means that Jesus is going to rescue us from something bad. You don’t save someone from a good situation. Salvation always implies the existence of a negative circumstance. Jesus is the one who will take us out of that negative circumstance and place us in a perfect one. What is this negative circumstance? To understand this, we have to study the word translated “salvation” (σωτηρια). God told us what his son will save us from. 

1. Hb 11.7 — Noah was saved from the flood, meaning that he and his family didn’t drown with the rest of the world. 
2. Acts 7.25 — Moses thought the people of Israel would understand that God sent him to save them from Egypt, but they didn’t. Their salvation meant rescue from Egypt. 
3. Lk 1.68-79 — God speaks through John the baptist’s father, saying that God would save Israel from their enemies and from the power of those who hate them. 
4. Phil 1.28 — Paul says that suffering for Christ is proof that he will save us while our enemies will be lost; word for lost here is απωλεια which means “destruction”. We will be saved from destruction. 
5. II Cor 7.10 — Paul says that the kind of sorrow God wants to see leads us to avoiding the fate of evil people. 
6. I Thess 5.9 — Paul connects salvation/rescue to Jesus’s return, whether we’re alive or dead; this rescue means we live with him when the ungodly are destroyed. 
7. Hb 5.9 — The Hebrews writer says that Jesus will save us from death, just like God saved him from death. 
8. I Pt 1.9 — Peter makes it clear that our salvation comes after death when Jesus returns. 
9. II Pt 3.7 — Peter says that the current earth and sky are being preserved for a specific fate: judgment of earth in the form of consuming fire and the destruction of ungodly men. A few verses later, our fate is very different. Our rescue means that we won’t suffer the fate of ungodly men. 
10. Lk 21.28 — Jesus commands his followers to stand up and shake off their fear when sun, moon, and stars all show some kind of terrifying indication that the world is ending — he says, “Know that it is almost time for God to save you.” From what? Earth’s destruction!

So we’ve established two things: One, Jesus is the one who saves. We have no hope for salvation through any other source. Two, we are being saved from three things — 1. Sin 2. Death 3. Destruction. All three of those things are pretty much interchangeable. Sin is death and sinners will be “destroyed” at the end. Every person on this planet will be made immortal when Jesus returns. The difference is that our immortal bodies will leave this earth with Jesus when he comes back, and everyone else will suffer on this earth as it burns. Jesus is saving us from the fate of the wicked at the end by saving us from our sins.