Salvation: How Christ Brings Us to Life

by Robert L. Reymond

We know that Jesus came to save sinners through His life, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. But how does a sinner benefit from Christ’s redemptive work?

In Salvation, noted theologian Robert Reymond explains the beautiful and orderly way that the triune God applies all that Christ has purchased in order to rescue us from our great predicament. It is a picture of how Christ brings people to life, triumphantly delivering them from the guilt of sin, the dominion of sin, the curse of sin, the punishment of sin, and, ultimately, the very existence of sin.

146 pages, Paperback

Published May 14, 2025

About the author

Dr. Reymond received his B.A., M.Div., and Ph.D. from Bob Jones University. He has in the past taught at BJU, Covenant Seminary, and Knox Theological Seminary, and pastored several different churches. He is currently serving as the organizing pastor for Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC).

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a refreshing review of the basics regarding our salvation. I don’t subscribe to a rigid reformed system in terms of confusing the effectual call with actual regeneration before faith. But one can make adjustments and still benefit from this book.

Its uniqueness is how Reymond incorporates sermons from Charles Spurgeon into the chapters. This was a creative way to incorporate the timeless insights of Spurgeon’s sermons into a short book on soteriology.

Two chapters were especially good: chapter on effective call and the chapter on the perseverance of the saints.

Quotes:

In sum, the whole system of Christianity rests on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. John Calvin declared that our whole salvation is "comprehended in Christ":

We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is "of him." If we seek any other gifs of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain. If we seek redemp-tion, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from his fountain, and from no other. (Calvin, Institutes, 2.16.19) (ix-x)

Where death leaves us, there judgment finds us; and where judgment finds us, eternity will hold us fast forever and ever. (xii)

The moment people trust Christ, God justifies them, forgiving them of all their sins and declaring them righteous in His sight. He also definitively sanctifies them, adopts them into His family, and seals them to the day of redemption by the indwelling Spirit of adoption. (2-3)

The writer to the Hebrews says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 3:15). Every tick of the clock says, "Now! Today!" Every beat of your pulse says, "Now! Today!" My heart says to you, "Now! Today!" The Holy Spirit says to you, "Now! Today!" Tomorrow is a day only in Satan's calendar. (7)

The summons of sinners to faith in Christ is not a thing that God might do. He must do it. It is as much a necessity that He summon sinners to salvation as it is that He keep His covenant promise that never again will He drown the world in a flood. It is necessary for three reasons: because He eternally and immutably purposedto do so, because he eternally and immutably promised) to do so, and because Christ infallibly purchased sinners at Calvary with the price of the blood of the eternal covenant. So when Christ tells the sinner that He must stay at his house, what can the poor sinner do but oblige Him? (13)

"Today," the gospel always cries, for if it tolerated a single sin a single second it would be an unholy gospel. If the Bible told you to repent tomorrow, it would be allowing you to continue in sin today, and that would pander to human lusts, which God will never do. But the Bible makes a clean sweep of sin, and it demands that people throw down their weapons of rebellion now and repent of their sins today. So down with your weaponry! You must not keep one of them! Throw them down at once. As long as you continue unrepentant you continue in your sin and are increasing your sin by your refusal to repent. Today is your time to repent. It is the only time you can call your own. Tomorrow! Is there such a thing? In what calendar is it written except in the almanac of the fool? Tomorrow! O how that word "tomorrow" has ruined the lives of multitudes! "I will repent tomorrow," men say. But they are like the rear wheels of a car that are always near the front wheels but never get one inch nearer no matter how far or fast they go. "Tomorrow" is still beyond them, yes, only a day, but they never come to Christ. They speak as the old poet who said:

“I will tomorrow, that I will, I will be sure to do it.
Tomorrow comes, tomorrow goes, and still I have "to do it."
Thus, then, repentance is deferred from one day to another, until the day of death is one, and judgment is the other. (38-39)

True repentance strips of all pride and is always accompanied by true faith in Christ that clothes with humility. True repentance ejects sin as an evil tenant and is always accompanied by true faith that admits Christ as the rightful Master of the house. True repentance purges the soul from dead works and is always accompanied by true faith that fills the soul with living works. True repentance ordains that there be a time for weeping and is always accompanied by true faith that announces there is a time for dancing. True repentance makes sinners weep and abhor their past life and is always accompanied by true faith in Christ that elates them because He has pardoned them. True repentance looks at the mountainous pile of sins that made Christ's death necessary and is always accompanied by true faith that looks at the sorrow of Jesus and His bleeding wounds and knows that He was nailed to the cross for those sins. True repentance leads believers to resolve that in the future they will not live as they have in the past, according to the lusts of the flesh, and is always accompanied by true faith that leads them to resolve to live like Jesus, who redeemed not with corruptible things, like silver and gold, but with His own precious blood. This is the repentance that leads to life and salvation. (36-37)

Because the wise framers of the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) understood the human desire to be accepted by others, they realized that the minister of the gospel might be tempted to proclaim faith in Jesus Christ as the sole necessary response to the gospel proclamation to the neglect of preaching repentance as equally necessary for salvation. They understood that when and where this is done, the faith in Jesus Christ that the minister then elicits from sinners is abstracted from their need for salvation from sin, the only context that gives faith in Jesus Christ its significance. Such faith, absent the clarion call to repent and the resulting response of repentance, they also understood, inevitably takes on the dimensions of "easy decisionism" for the respon-dent, which is no true faith at all. Therefore, even before they define the doctrine of repentance, they remind the minister that preaching repentance is not to be regarded as a foreign or disrupting element in gospel proclamation. To the contrary, they describe it as an aspect of evangelical preaching. And they insist that none may hope for pardon without repentance, even though it is not to be rested in as if it were itself a satisfaction for sin or the cause of pardon, for repentance per se is and can be neither. (30)


I think there is no better definition of repentance than that of the children's hymn "Since Jesus Christ Was Sent to Save Us":

Repentance is to leave
The sins we loved before,
And show that we in earnest grieve,
By doing so no more. (34)

Jesus saves not by what you feel but by what you believe about His finished work, the blood and righteousness that God accepted on behalf of His people, Always remember that no repentance is worth having that is inconsistent with faith in Christ or that keeps one from believing in Christ. Any so-called repentance, even if it sinks a person as low as hell, is of no use except it is accompanied by a faith that lifts him or her up to heaven. (36)

Today,' the gospel always cries, for if it tolerated a single sin a single second it would be an unholy gospel. If the Bible told you to repent tomorrow, it would be allowing you to continue in sin today, and that would pander to human lusts, which God will never do. But the Bible makes a clean sweep of sin, and it demands that people throw down their weapons of rebellion now and repent of their sins today. So down with your weaponry! You must not keep one of them! Throw them down at once. As long as you continue unrepentant you continue in your sin and are increasing your sin by your refusal to repent.
Today is your time to repent. It is the only time you can call your own. Tomorrow! Is there such a thing? In what calendar is it written except in the almanac of the fool? Tomorrow! O how that word "tomorrow" has ruined the lives of multitudes! "I will repent tomorrow," men say. But they are like the rear wheels of a car that are always near the front wheels but never get one inch nearer no matter how far or fast they go. "Tomorrow" is still beyond them, yes, only a day, but they never come to Christ. They speak as the old poet who said:

I will tomorrow, that I will, I will be sure to do it.
Tomorrow comes, tomorrow goes, and still I have "to do it." Thus, then, repentance is deferred from one day to another, until the day of death is one, and judgment is the other. (38-39)

When he was nearing death in 1833, British preacher Rowland Hill said he had one regret, and that was that a "dear friend" who had lived with him for sixty years would have to leave him at the gate of heaven. And that "dear friend,” he said, was repentance. "Repentance has been with me almost all my life, and I think that I shall shed a tear as I go through the gate to think that I cannot repent more than I did." (39)

According to Scripture, saving faith consists of three constituent elements: knowledge, assent, and trust. Benjamin Warfield explains, "We cannot be said to believe or to trust in a thing or person of which we have no knowledge; 'implicit faith' in this sense is an absurdity. Of course we cannot be said to believe or to trust the thing or person to whose worthiness of our belief or trust assent has not been obtained.
And equally we cannot be said to believe that which we distrust too much to commit ourselves to it."2-

2. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, On Faith in Its Psychological Aspects, in Biblical and Theological Studies (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1968), 402-3. (49)

The doctrine of justification means, then, that in God's sight the ungodly person, now in Christ as the result of the Spirit's regenerating work, has perfectly kept the moral law of God, which also means in turn that in Christ she has perfectly loved God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength and her neighbor as herself.

It means that saving faith is directed to the doing and dying of Christ alone and not to the good works or inner experience of the believer.

It means that the Christian's righteousness before God is in heaven at the right hand of God in Jesus Christ and not on earth within the believer.

It means that the ground of our justification is the vicarious work of Christ for us, not the gracious work of the Spirit in us.

It means that the faith-righteousness of justification is not personal but vicarious, not infused but imputed, not experiential but judicial, not psychological but legal, not our own but a righteousness alien to us and outside of us, not earned but graciously given through faith in Christ, which is itself a gift of grace.

It means also in its declarative character that justification possesses an eschatological dimension, for it amounts to the divine verdict of the final judgment being brought forward into time and rendered here and now concerning the sinner. (66)

I am not advocating by this doctrine of definitive sanctification that Christians actually achieve, personally and existentially, sinless perfection the moment they trust Christ; this would leave no room for progressive sanctification…But I am advocating here-indeed, insisting on it-that all Christians, the moment they become a Christian, by virtue of their union with Christ, are instantly constituted a saint, enter into a new relationship with respect to the former reign of sin in their life and with God Himself in which they cease to be slaves to sin and become servants of God and of Christ. (82)

The Spirit of the Son comes to our hearts crying, "Abba, Father," as our teacher, prompting us who are now sons and daughters of God to cry, "Abba, Father," as Romans 8:15 teaches. But it is His cry first because He suggests it, approves it, inspires it, and educates us to it. (88)

As for our responsibilities as beloved children, we Christians should love God in return. We should rejoice in being in our Father's presence and delight to commune with Him. Children of God, shouldn't we, His chosen favorites) love our Father in heaven? Shouldn't we say, "Whom have we in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that we desire in comparison to You" (see Ps. 73:25). "Glorious Father, we will give You our hearts, and You will be our guide from our youth. Because You love us, You will have our hearts as Your own forever."(92)

Holiness is the architectural plan upon which God builds up His living temple, and those who despise holiness of heart are in direct conflict with Him. (96)

It is the Christian's certain assurance of eternal glory that Augustus Toplady immortalizes in "A Debtor to Mercy Alone":

A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on,
My person and off ring to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.

The work which His goodness began,
The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is yea and amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
Nor all things below or above,
Can make Him His purpose forgo,
Or sever my soul from His love.

My name from the palm of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is giv'n;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heav'n. (110)

Not to affirm the eternal security of the truly saved and actually and justified and to whom He also freely gives, along with the gift of His Son, all things necessary to their salvation; to teach that those for whom the Son paid the penalty of sin by bearing their curse and dying their death, procuring thereby their salvation; and to teach that those whom the Holy Spirit has regenerated and sealed to the day of redemption can still finally lose their salvation and never be glorified because of some action on their part is truly an ill-advised counsel of despair. For in addition to the insult that such teaching hurls at the triune Godhead, it virtually places all Christians beyond the pale of final salvation since it makes their attainment of it turn ultimately on their own vacillating human will and efforts as they seek to keep themselves in the faith. But no Christians are capable of keeping themselves in the state of salvation through sheer force of will. (112-13)

Second, in addition to the express testimony of Scripture, this doctrine [perseverance of the saints] is supported by all the attributes of God, and if those who have believed in Christ can be finally lost, then all the attributes of God are in peril. Where is His wisdom if He began a work that He did not intend to finish? Where is His power if the obstinacy of people's sin is greater than His grace? Where is His immutability if He casts away those whom He once loved? Where is His faithfulness to His promises that He has sealed with His unchangeable covenant and His oath? Where is His grace if He casts away those who trust Him, if after having tantalized us with sips of love He will not bring us to drink finally and fully from the fountainhead? Where is His veracity if he leaves the soul who has looked to Him for His mercy and is then finally lost?

Seven grounds for perseverance of the saints:

The first ground is the express teaching of Holy Scripture in this text and elsewhere in Scripture, which is saturated with this truth; the few verses or passages alleged to teach the contrary have been many times explained by insightful exegetes. (117)

Second, in addition to the express testimony of Scripture, this doctrine [perseverance of the saints] is supported by all the attributes of God, and if those who have believed in Christ can be finally lost, then all the attributes of God are in peril. (118)

Third, what kind of atonement did Jesus accomplish if those for whom He died can finally perish? (118)

Fourth, the doctrine of justification demands it.

Fifth is the intercession of Christ for His own in heaven. "He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).

Sixth, every believer is a member of Christ's body,

Seventh, the nature of the inner life of Christians guarantees that they will not go back forever to the old life. (119)

I am responsible to address as best I can your questions, but I am not bound to give you understanding if you have none. It is hard trying
It is hard trying to make things appear right to eyes that squint. (122)

I live as if my salvation depended wholly on me,
all the while relying on my Lord, knowing that it does not depend on me in any sense at all. (122)

We preach no rickety gospel that will not bear your weight. It is not like a car whose axle may break or whose wheels may come off. The everlasting God who wrote His law on your hearts has pledged Himself by covenant and by oath — by two immutable things in which He cannot lie — that He will not let you depart from Him. He will keep you, and He will not let you wander back into sin and be finally lost, and if even for a time you should stray, He will restore you again to the path of righteousness. So cast your lot with Christ. When you trusted Christ, His precious promise to keep you forever became yours. (122-23)

In light of both the sanctions of the surpassing glory that will be ours and the surpassing glory that awaits the children of God-even the Consummation of our "so great salvation," all the benefits of which we are His pensioners and beneficiaries by grace alone—it seems entirely appropriate to bring our study on the application of redemption to its consummation by quoting Robert Murray McCheynes great hymn "How Much I Owe":

When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When we stand with Christ on high
Looking der life's history,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

When I hear the wicked call
On the rocks and hills to fall,
When I see them start and shrink
On the fiery deluge brink,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own,
When I see Thee as Thou art,
Love Thee with unsinning heart,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.

When the praise of heav'n I hear,
Loud as thunders to the ear,
Loud as many waters' noise,
Sweet as harp's melodious voice,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know, Not till then, how much I owe.
Chosen not for good in me,
Wakened up from wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Savior's side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,
By my love, how much I owe. (142-43)


The Lord Himself must not only open the gates of heaven to us at the last but also must open the gates of our hearts to faith at the first.

Why should God allow you to love your sins and yet enter into His heaven? Your love of sin would make His heaven hell.

[Saolomon Mouacheupao · Rating 4 out of 5]

A combo of spurgeon sermons with Reymond’s Westminster confessionalism expositing some of the great doctrines of salvation. It was sufficient and succinct unlike other resources on the topic. Will be handing out for a Sunday school class at church on salvation