The more truth we learn, the more unlearning we realize is necessary. The systemizing of error so permeates our thinking we must always be of a ready mind to reconsider what we think we already know. The temptation is to hold on to the old as if we owed it some allegiance. Perhaps it’s because we feel confident with that which we know, or at least think we know. Or perhaps we think it is safer to continue believing the way we have been taught, than to consider we have been wrong and contemplate a tedious restructuring of our beliefs.
We are reminded of a suitable quote by A. E. Knoch.
"It may be painful to forsake much that we hold dear, and which may have cost us much to gain and maintain."
One major area of our failing is in not distinguishing between things that differ. The Holy Spirit chooses to use words for very specific purposes. We must be careful not to treat them as being placed haphazardly. Such is the case with "salvation". Most will talk as if being saved and being born again mean the same thing, that if one is saved he must automatically be born again and vice versa.
But if this is the case, we have many scriptures that beg to be explained. Let’s look first at a few of them and then after that see if we can arrive at a more accurate understanding of what being saved fully entails.
JUDE 5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
This is referring to the great Exodus where GOD sent Moses to rescue the nation of Israel from the heavy hand of the Egyptians. However, once they had escaped across the Red Sea, they rebelled against GOD and returned to their old ways. Therefore GOD "destroyed them that believed not". These were "saved" but "believed not!" Saved by GOD from the Egyptians they were later destroyed by GOD in the wilderness.
It goes without saying that their salvation had nothing whatever to do with being born again. They were simply saved from some particular bondage or destruction. Let’s consider another.
JOHN 12:27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
Yeshua (Jesus) was approaching the hour of His capture, torture and crucifixion. He poses a hypothetical question to the people, "What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?" Did being "saved from this hour" have anything to do with Yeshua being born again? Of course not. Again, this salvation had to do with His being saved from bondage and destruction.
Lets look at an example of the Apostle Paul’s salvation during the period of ACTS.
ACTS 27:20 And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.
They were sailing across the Mediterranean Sea for Italy when they were caught in a violent storm. Every man feared for his life for if the storm overwhelmed the ship, which it had every indication of doing, they would surely all die. Therefore, "all hope that we should be saved was taken away".
Again, like the previous passages, their being saved had nothing whatever to do with being born again. They were simply hoping to be saved from destruction. No matter how you squeeze it and twist it, you cannot make "saved" the same as "born again". Now I will concede that if one is born again, as a son of GOD, he may very well be saved from a host of destructive and enslaving situations. But that is a far cry different than the two being the same.
Here is another interesting example of salvation concerning Yeshua.
MATTHEW 27:42 He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
They were saying, "He saved others from bondage and destruction, but He cannot save Himself from bondage or destruction". Many times Yeshua did save others from some sort of bondage or destruction but we should not assume that each time He "saved" them they were simultaneously "born again". Lets look at a few.
MARK 5:22-23 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him [Yeshua], he fell at his feet, And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed [sozo, saved]; and she shall live.
Sozo, the Greek word here translated "healed" is the same word translated "saved" elsewhere. This ruler of the synagogue was not asking Yeshua to convert his daughter to Christianity. He simply wanted her freed from her bondage, he wanted her healed, hence he wanted her saved. As Yeshua journeyed to go to the girl, another woman sought to be healed.
MARK 5:25-28 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole [sozo, saved].
She desperately sought to be healed, to be saved from her bondage. The text does not indicate to us that she desired to be born again, only that she wanted to be whole, sozo.
MARK 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole [sozo, saved]; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Is there peace in salvation? There certainly is. To be saved from some bondage or destruction is wonderful. It is always disheartening to see someone afflicted by some distress when we know "salvation" is available. But being healed, being made whole, being saved from some sort of bondage or destruction is not the same as being born again.
Here is an interesting usage of "saved" by the Apostle Peter.
1 PETER 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
These "righteous" are still in need of being saved, and that salvation they are only to "scarcely" obtain. This is a substantially different concept of salvation than what we hear many teach today. They proclaim that being saved, being righteous and being born again are just different phrases describing the same thing.
Here is another interesting passage.
ROMANS 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
The Apostle Paul is saying that the salvation of himself and those to whom he is writing, is closer now then when they believed. What salvation is he seeing approaching?
He writes in the first chapter of Romans that "the gospel of Christ…is the power of GOD unto salvation to everyone who believes". Now he writes that his salvation is nearer than when he believed. Is this another salvation? Can we be saved twice? Can we be born again twice?
One can be saved every time there is a bondage or destruction to be saved from. At the very least when we are born again we are saved from all that the unbeliever is destined for, such as "the wrath of GOD" and "the final judgment". This does not mean that later in life we will not be in need of being saved from some other calamity that might befall us. Over the course of our lives, we could be saved many times from different situations. However, only once are we ever born again.
If you ask most "Christian" groups how one is born again, many will be able to quote from memory their particular formula to acquire "salvation". Most utilize a verse in Paul’s epistle to the Romans.
ROMANS 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
This is their formula, "confess Jesus as Lord and believe GOD raised Him from the dead and you are born again". But it doesn’t say "born again", it says "saved". Many see no difference, for they are not reading what is written. Rather they are reading their preconceived ideas into the text. They believe saved and born again are the same, so they can take the liberty to transpose the two whenever it suits their fancy.
Paul repeats the exhortation in quite a different way in verse 13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved". There is an interesting commentary on this section of ROMANS by A. E. Knoch that I will give below for the student of truth to consider.There is here an illusion to the ancient custom, still in vogue in eastern lands, of the right of sanctuary. One who is in danger of death by the hands of the blood avenger, if he cannot reach a safe place in time, may invoke the name of some great and powerful person, and thus find salvation through his name. If the avengers of blood refuse to listen to his appeal, and take his life, it devolves upon the person on whose name he has called to take swift and summary vengeance. He gathers together all his friends and allies to assist him in punishing the outrage and in defending the honor of his name. For three and one third days he executes vengeance on all who were concerned in killing the one who had invoked his name. "Whoever should be invoking the name of the Lord shall be saved." When vengeance visits the earth, the only shelter will be the name of Jehovah. Therefore it will require not only heart belief, but also the avowal of the mouth. Thus it is that Israel will be saved and all others who, in that day, will seek refuge in His name.
This analysis makes very good sense. We have already seen that salvation does not simply mean born again, so what "saving" is being promised by this confession in ROMANS 10? Lets take some time to explore the context in which these passages in ROMANS are set.
Paul begins in the first verse by declaring the desire of his heart for Israel is " that they might be saved". He is not desiring here that they be born again, but rather that they might be saved from some destruction. Saved from what destruction, we find in the remoter context as we look back at chapter nine.
ROMANS 9:27,29 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved…And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
This "remnant" was to be saved from a similar fate that befell Sodom and Gomorrha; they were to be saved from destruction. He goes on in chapter 10 to note Israel’s failure in obtaining their own salvation, which is that "they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of GOD" (verse 3). Rather, because of their ignorance, they went about to establish their own righteousness. They thought they would be saved from destruction because of their own works, their own accomplishments.
Paul then attempts to explain to these Israelites that true righteousness is "the righteousness which is of faith", (verse 6) not of the works of the law.
Again, the remoter context of chapter nine sets this for us by declaring "…the Gentiles, which followed not after righteous, have attained to righteousness [9:30]…But Israel, which followed the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness" (9:31).
His obvious concern here is not for the Gentiles, for they "have attained". His desire and prayer is for Israel, for it is they who "stumbled at that stumblingstone" (9:32). As Esaias had cried over Israel (9:27) so now Paul. It is their fate with which he is concerned here in this section of ROMANS.
"The word is nigh thee [Israel], even in thy mouth, and in thy heart" (10:8). Paul reaches back here to DEUTERONOMY, Israel’s book of the law, to make his argument against their ignorance. Paul is not trying to evangelize the Gentile nations here in ROMANS 10, rather he is bleeding his heart out for his "brethren", his "kinsmen according to the flesh", (9:3) "that they might be saved" from destruction (10:1), from the same fate that befell the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The word that is "nigh thee" is the true way of their salvation! "Nigh thee" is the word that can save them from destruction. What word is he referring to? The answer is found in the next verse.
ROMANS 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved [from destruction].
This was written for Israel, not us! It was written for their salvation, not ours. Sure, there is no difference between the Judean and the Greek, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved" from destruction (10:13). But here Paul is beseeching "his kinsmen according to the flesh", for the Greek was already there. It was the Judean who had stumbled. It was the Judean who had gone "about to establish their own righteousness". It is the Judean who had this word "nigh thee" (DEUTERONOMY 30:11-14). It was the Judean who was approaching the wrath of GOD.
Judean or Gentile, we believe it is abundantly clear that "ROMANS 10:9" is not the formula for becoming "born again". Only by removing this passage from its context can one arrive at that conclusion. These are not the words that the sinner must utter "aloud" from the altar of the Church so that he can go to heaven and be with Yeshua.
Being saved from some bondage or destruction is an absolute gift from GOD. Although Paul wrote this section of ROMANS to the Judeans, whether one be a Judean or a Gentile, ROMANS 10 gives him the assurance that "in that day" whosoever shall invoke His name, Yeshua, the name of the King of kings, shall be saved from the wrath which befell Sodoma and Gomorrha.
"For by grace are you saved" Paul wrote to the Ephesians. What else could it be? If we could save ourselves from some bondage or destruction, we wouldn’t need to be saved. The reality that we are unable to save ourselves causes us to call upon HIM who is able. Whenever we are saved from some bondage or destruction, it’s always grace. Absolute grace!
When we read in Scripture of those who are about to be "saved," we see a Believer in a most dire situation. There is nothing left for them to do but to seek the Almighty’s hand. However, being born again is an entirely different matter, for in that situation we are given words of truth to believe. After having considered and believed, we enter HIS kingdom and begin a journey into a new world. Continually we will be given new truth to consider and believe. As we grow to believe more, our eyes are enlightened. Salvation on the other hand, is a brief event that saves one from some calamity. Being born again however ushers us into a new life, a new world, a new journey.
Being "born again" and being "saved" are both critical in the life of a Believer, yet they are each distinct with their own purposes and results.