"Saved" - what does that MEAN?

[Novice]

I was corresponding with a Christian friend, and mentioned to him that we Christians throw the word "saved" around so much, that I don't think we stop to truly ponder what it means. Saved from what, and for what? We have pat easy answers that jump to mind, but like LOVE, words can be used so often that they lose some of their immediacy, their reality.

He replied after a few days with words I have to share. He may identify himself later, but I will quote him anonymously for now:

"I get to thinking about the salvation that comes through Christ from God... and I can't help but think that salvation comes each and every day from moment to moment. And really, for the most part, we're being saved from our own sinful nature. You know, the way we belittle others and even ourselves at times, the pride, deceit that we won't admit and the justifications that make us feel like our wrongdoings are just and "Fair"... And I am reminded how life isn't "Fair" and I don't think it was meant to be fair. I think it was meant that we might obtain an understanding of what God's grace is, and we are to endure the furnaces that beat us and break us until God's loving arms are the only avenue we have... and at that point, we let go of ourselves and allow God to do his mysteries within us. "

 

[Merry Menagerie]

Saved from the law of sin an death so that we may live! Because we were dead in sin but now, through Jesus Christ we have life.

 

[trust_faith]

Saved means that God has already accepted us and we accepted God. saved means that we believed in God and knows that God is the only way to heaven.