Summary
What Are We Saved From?
"Are you saved?" is a familiar question, but it begs a sharper one: saved from what? Scripture answers plainly. We are saved from sin, from the just wrath of a holy God against sin, and—at the deepest level—from ourselves. The Apostle John lays this out tenderly and precisely in the opening verses of 1 John 2:1-2, where he calls his readers "my little children" and writes "so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
The problem John exposes is universal. He has already warned in 1 John 1:8, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves," and in 1 John 1:10, "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar." The Greek word translated "sin" is the most common in the New Testament and means to miss the mark. The mark we miss is God's own holiness. Even John's gentle "if anyone does sin" carries a verbal force in Greek that assumes the reality—and you certainly will. There is no point in this life when a Christian ceases to be a sinner.
To grasp what we are saved from, we must reckon with who God is. Holiness has two dimensions in Scripture: absolute moral purity and absolute otherness—being set apart. When Moses meets God at the burning bush, he hides his face. Isaiah cries, "Woe is me! I am lost… a man of unclean lips" Isaiah 6:5. Peter falls down and says, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" Luke 5:8. John collapses as though dead before the exalted Christ Revelation 1:17. God commands, "Be holy, for I am holy" 1 Peter 1:15-16, and Jesus says, "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" Matthew 5:48. There is the problem in one sentence: God is holy, and we are not. He is just; He cannot wink at sin.
Into that gap John speaks the gospel. "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." The word advocate is a courtroom term—the one who comes alongside the guilty to plead their case. Jesus alone qualifies, because He alone is righteous: God in the flesh, sinless, the perfect one. "And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" 1 John 2:2. At the cross, the spotless Lamb took upon Himself all our sin, bore the wrath we had earned, and credited His perfect righteousness to us. Atonement literally means at-one-ment—reconciliation. The relationship severed by sin is restored. As Paul says, "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" 1 Corinthians 2:2. The whole sweep of Scripture drives toward this fruitful moment.
This reconciliation is for the whole world. God "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" 1 Timothy 2:4. The victory of the cross and empty tomb is received by faith—and even that faith is not our own doing but the gift of God, given through Word and Sacrament. In Holy Baptism, God washes us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, taking the cross's victory and pressing it personally upon us: mine.
So, from what are we saved? In one word: ourselves—our sin, our death, our standing under God's righteous judgment. And by whom? By Jesus Christ the righteous, our Advocate, the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. May our answer always be that clear and that crisp.
Video citations
- "What are We Saved From?" - 1 John 2:1-2 — Would you open your Bibles please with me today to first John the second chapter for our study, first John chapter two. The late R.C. Sproul, a theologian, a told story of when he was walking along…