Module 5 - Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation

The lectures in this fifth module on the Doctrine of Salvation are, like the others, introductory, not exhaustive, and they’re intended to furnish you with a foundation that you can build upon in your further studies. As you’ll recall from the first module, theology, broadly defined, has to do with the study of the knowledge of God, and all that he has revealed for us to believe and do. We noted that it is the doctrine of living unto God through Christ, thus addressing both our thinking and our living. The Doctrine of Salvation, therefore, is an indispensible component to Systematic Theology.

Lessons

Lesson Number Title Summary
1 Introduction Which is worth more: a container of water, or a container full of gold coins? I suspect that you’ll say the latter—the gold coins. Water is inexpensive or free, because there’s lots of it, and it’s...
2 Union with Christ Ezekiel 16 provides us with a very graphic picture. It describes God’s people as an infant abandoned in an open field, lying in its blood. In this deplorable condition, God came. He rescued, he...
3 Effectual Calling In John, chapter 11, we’re given the remarkable account of a man named Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. He had fallen sick, and his family called for Jesus to come. But in the intervening...
4 Saving Faith Imagine coming into an empty room after a long day of very hard work. Your exhausted, your feet and back ache, and your legs are weary. You are eager to sit down and rest. In the room, you see a...
5 Repentance Have you ever been on a trip, only to discover at some point that you are lost? You may have been traveling by car, or bicycle, or public transport, or even walking. You were heading blissfully...
6 Justification How important is Justification to the doctrine of Salvation? Martin Luther, the great German Reformer, said that Justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls....
7 Adoption Imagine a poor, poverty-stricken boy, living in a garbage dump of a major city. He has to fend for himself day by day, picking through trash to find scraps to eat, while wearing nothing but a few...
8 Sanctification Those who are in Christ are heirs with Christ, and come from the seed of Abra- ham. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Jew or Gentile, we have a shared history. And yes, each child of God is given a...
9 Good Works How do you distinguish between different types of fruit trees? Well, that’s a pretty simple question. You look at the tree to see what kind of fruit is growing on the branches. Either bananas, or...
10 Perseverance of the Saints The Apostle Paul compares the believer to a runner, and the Christian life to a race, in a few different places in his epistles. Well, this is a helpful illustration. But what kind of race does the...
11 Assurance of Grace and Salvation Think of a newborn child born into a loving, godly home. That infant has so many blessings of which he is not aware. He has life, though he’s not conscious even of the concept of life. His parents...