15 [WATCHMAN NEE] LESSONS ON SALVATION

1. Salvation as a personal and subjective experience rests on the Lord’s resurrection rather than His death. Though the death of Christ was necessary for atonement objectively before God, the New Testament lays emphasis on our faith in resurrection. It is through His resurrection that we have the proof of His death being accepted. 
2. Salvation is a matter of position. As long as a person is in Adam (walking according to the course of the world), he stands opposite to God, making him an enemy to God.
3. Salvation is more than the saving of our souls; it is also deliverance from former things. 
4. Many people have the idea that salvation is not only by God’s grace, but also by our works: God’s grace – plus our works – equals salvation. The natural man is always seeking to get saved by his own efforts. 
5. Salvation deals with what I have come out of, as well as what I enter into. Eternal life tells me what I have entered into. 
6. Just as the beginning of salvation is by grace, so the keeping of salvation is likewise by grace. The condition for obtaining salvation is the same as the condition for preserving salvation. 
7. The basic condition for a sinner’s salvation is not belief or repentance, but simply presenting an honest heart toward God. 
8. According to the Bible, salvation is related primarily to the world, not to hell. The opposite of salvation is the world. And as long as we belong to the world, we are not saved from it. 
9. The salvation of the Lord is manifesting Christ before men – in presenting to them the Lord who is within us. We should not attempt to draw attention to the earthen vessels, but to the Christ that is within us. 
10. From God’s view, the shed blood of Jesus on the cross has completely solved the sin problem of the world. But from humanity’s standpoint, man still needs to add one ingredient – faith. 
11. The Cross has been given to procure salvation for us; the Spirit has been given to produce salvation in us. 
12. Victory is actually a remedial facet of salvation. At the time of our being saved, something was missing – yet not on God’s part, for He never gives us a salvation that lets us live a wandering life. He wants us to have full salvation. He wants us to experience His victory in our lives. Hence, it is the experience of victory that is the remedial facet of salvation. 
13. We are saved to such a degree that even as God is, so will we be. Henceforth, God’s security has become our security; His destiny has become our destiny; and His glory, our glory. This is salvation: God with us. 
14. There can be no salvation without Immanuel (“God with us”). Why? Because when we are outside of Christ, God is not Immanuel to us; outside of Christ, man is God’s enemy. It is only when we are in Christ that He is Immanuel. Anything more or less is not salvation. 
15. Not only can one not be saved by doing good works, but he who seeks to be saved by doing good is to be cursed (Gal. 3:10)

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By S. E. Entsua-Mensah. ©2014 Christ for Humanity Outreach 

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