Psalm 3:2 many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah

Psalm 3:8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah

Psalm 9:14 that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.

Psalm 13:5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

Psalm 14:7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

Psalm 18:2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Compare these six lines of verse with just four from Romans.

Romans 1:16

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 10:5

The Message of Salvation to All

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

Romans 11:11

Gentiles Grafted In

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.

Romans 11:25

The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

These lines of verse indicate that the meaning of salvation has been clarified only after Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension. All mystery has been removed.

That still does not answer what it means to the individual, as we all have our reasons for placing our faith in Christ.

Leaving off yesterday I asked what it means to be saved. Here is a very unexpected offering.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Save:

sav: In the sense “except,” the word came into English through the French (sauf) and is fairly common (38 times, in addition to “saving,” the King James Version Ec 5:11; Am 9:8; Mt 5:32; Lu 4:27; Re 2:17). It represents no particular Hebrew or Greek terms but is employed wherever it seems useful. It is still in good (slightly archaic) use, and the Revised Version (British and American) has few modifications (De 15:4 the King James Version; Ps 18:31, etc.), but the English Revised Version has dropped “saving” in Lu 4:27 and Re 2:17 and the American Standard Revised Version also in Ec 5:11; Am 9:8, retaining it only in Mt 5:32.

There are no particular Hebrew or Greek terms that have representative meaning.

In the French translation into English one might see “except” as being an alternative outcome to what should be expected. This renders a variety of meanings based on what one expects.

John 6:63 English Standard Version

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

The first time the word save is used in the KJV is in Genesis 12:12 with the Biblical outline usage of the Hebrew word ḥāyâ is to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health.

Our attention will turn from the OT sense of being threatened by our enemies to one usage that holds meaning to us in the NT, “be quickened”.

John 6:63 King James Version

63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

John 3:3 English Standard Version

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Romans 6:4 English Standard Version

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Where we were once spiritually dead, we are now spiritually alive by the grace of God through our faith in Christ. If it were that simple why so many different uses of the word salvation?