people interpret salvation without first identifying the biblical principles that govern it. I am approaching this teaching from a law perspective: what laws, rules, and principles does Scripture reveal about salvation? Once that foundation is clear, the subject becomes less vulnerable to opinion and more anchored in what the Bible says.
This teaching moves in six steps: what salvation is; the laws that govern sin, death, life in Christ, and condemnation; the evidence of transformation; why eternal judgment must be understood through Christ; what Scripture means by the curse of the law; and what salvation settles eternally.
What Is Salvation According to Scripture
Salvation is God's rescue of sinful humanity from sin, condemnation, spiritual death, and eternal judgment through faith in Jesus Christ. Those four realities matter because they show that salvation is more than moral improvement. Salvation is God's answer to humanity's deepest spiritual condition.
John 3:16 gives the key: whoever believes in the only begotten Son shall not perish but have everlasting life. That is how I accepted Him. I believed from my heart, confessed with my mouth, and was made righteous before God instantly. My righteousness did not begin with a works requirement. It began with faith in Christ's finished work.
I got saved in 1996, and I still had a long road in front of me. As a Christian, I dealt with poverty, more than three hundred thousand dollars in debt, and sexual immorality, and what brought me out was consistency in the word of God over years. I come back to that story at the end because it explains the difference between what salvation settles for you and what you still have to work out.
No matter how much I refrained from smoking, sexual immorality, or lying, I could never become righteous on my own. Righteousness comes through the finished work of the cross. So when someone quickly corrects a new believer over appearance or outward habits, they may be revealing that they still equate salvation with what a person does or does not do.
Which Laws Govern Salvation
Three laws govern everything else in this teaching. Learn them first, because they explain both what salvation delivers us from and why transformation must continue after a person accepts Christ.
What Is the Law of Sin and Death
God told Adam in Genesis 2 to eat freely of every tree except one, and in the day he ate from it, he would surely die. Adam ate. He did not drop dead. He lived more than 900 years. The death God spoke of was spiritual: separation from God that eventually led to physical death.
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12)
Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. The law of sin and death is the fixed pattern where sin leads to death, and human effort under the law cannot break it. The Mosaic law reveals right and wrong, but the law does not give the power to obey. The law exposes sin and even provokes it.
For those who have questions about generational curses, here is the first evidence of one. Adam's disobedience placed every human being after him under sin and death.
What Is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
As an unbeliever, I might quit smoking or stop drinking, but none of that removes the law of sin and death. Accepting Christ does.
Look at Paul in Romans 7. He is a committed believer writing the epistles, yet he finds a law within himself. Every time he resolves to do good, evil is present with him. He sees a different law in his body warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to sin. Paul is not describing a sinner. He is describing himself as a believer, and he uses the word bondage.
This is why I say salvation has a progressive work in the believer's life. The moment you accept Jesus Christ, you are made right with God. Your character, desires, habits, and thinking still have to be renewed over time.
What Does Romans 8:1 Actually Say About Condemnation
Romans 8:1 says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. To be condemned means someone has been judged, found guilty, and sentenced to punishment. The person who rejects Jesus Christ remains under that judgment because they have refused the only rescue God provided.
Most people stop reading at that verse. The rest of it says, "to them who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Paul is calling believers to repent, then continue walking in the Spirit by following the laws, rules, and principles of Scripture. Those are what produce transformation. This is not a license to stay where you are. A confession of faith should begin to shape the way a believer walks. I am not here to condemn anybody. Scripture is the standard.
What Does Real Transformation Look Like
The Kevin you see today is not the Kevin who got saved in 1996. Before salvation, I was bound by sinful patterns and foolish decisions. Over time, through God's work and the renewing of my mind, those things stopped defining me. That is the fruit of transformation.
My transformation is not a coat hanging in my closet, one I put on around fellow believers and take off in private. Whether I am at home or in public, the transformation remains the same, because the change came from the heart through applying the laws and principles of Scripture.
Here is a challenge in many Church settings. People adjust their behavior when they enter the building and revert when they leave. That kind of outward adjustment looks spiritual, but it is not transformation. My job is not to monitor sins, judge people, or publicly call out new converts. My job is to point people to Scripture. Conviction belongs to the Holy Spirit, and when He works on you, correction begins in the heart before anyone has to address the outside.
Imitation looks spiritual without producing lasting fruit. People copy what others do in a service, but after the movement and the emotion, the question remains: what changed? If nothing changed, the outward expression was not transformation.
New here? Start with my teaching on the law of sin and death, then come back to this one.
Do People Go to Hell for Sinning or for Unbelief
I once said publicly that people are not in hell simply because they sinned, and that statement was strongly challenged. Here is what I meant. Sin reveals humanity's need for rescue, and John 3:18 identifies unbelief as the reason a person remains condemned. The one who believes in Him is not condemned, and the one who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son.
Take two people struggling with alcohol who go to Church. One accepts Christ, and one does not. They both leave, stop by a bar, and both die unexpectedly. Many people assume both were lost. Read the verse again. Did it say the perfect person is not condemned, or the one who believes? One received God's requirement. The other rejected the only rescue God provided.
If sin alone sent people to hell, every one of us would go, because the Bible says there is no righteous person on this side who does not sin. Yes, liars and those who practice sexual immorality have their part in the lake of fire. The root of their end is rejecting Jesus Christ.
What Is the Curse of the Law in Galatians 3:13
People quote Galatians 3:13 halfway: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law." That does not mean He removed every earthly hardship from a believer's life. Deuteronomy 27:26 says everyone is cursed who does not confirm all the words of the law by doing them. In that context, the curse of the law is the sentence over anyone who fails to fulfill every word of the law, and nobody could satisfy all 613 commands.
Test the popular teaching against real life. If Christ redeemed you from every earthly hardship the moment you believed, sickness would end immediately, and financial burdens would disappear overnight. Yet sincere believers still walk through healing, stewardship, discipline, and renewal after they are saved.
What Does Salvation Settle, and What Do You Still Work Out
Salvation secures my eternity and deals with the most important part of my life: my soul. Believers still need instruction for the struggles that remain in earthly life, including sickness, poverty, lust, and debt. Romans 12:2 gives that instruction: do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Why would God give you a whole Bible if salvation were meant to remove every earthly struggle instantly? You are saved now. Engage His Word, His wisdom, and His principles as you grow in freedom from lust, greed, sickness, and poverty.
Go back to my debt. Three hundred thousand dollars, as a Christian, alongside poverty and sexual immorality. What brought me out was not public correction. It was consistency and discipline in the word of God until, over time, the desires and patterns that once controlled me were broken. Nobody preached that debt off me. I applied the principles until they worked.
This is why I love my salvation. I am secure, I am no longer condemned, and the transformation keeps going.
You are secure. Now do the work of renewing your mind. Get the prayers and the scriptures to pray in Prayers That Work: Using Scriptures That Bring Change, available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook, with English, Spanish, and French translations.
Pastor Kevin L.A. Ewing
ewinglakevin@icloud.com
www.kevinlaewing.com
