What does God do when He saves a person?
When a person cries out as a sinner, believing Christ died for them, God does everything else: He imputes righteousness, forgives, cleanses, and baptizes them into the body. Salvation is the all-inclusive work God performs on behalf of the believer, received by faith, not by feeling or sight, but because Scripture says so.
Les explains that salvation is an all-inclusive word implying everything God does on behalf of the believer who cries out, “I’m a sinner, I’m in need of salvation, I believe that Christ died for me.” Then God does everything else. He imputes righteousness, He forgives, He cleanses, He baptizes us into the body, and He does everything that needs to be done. Les stresses that we know He did it by faith—not by feeling or seeing—but because the Book says so. He also reminds us that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, not church membership, not a baptism, not a work.