Salvation from sin is gloriously pictured in several different ways in the New Testament:
It is conversion: a reversal of direction.
It is redemption: an emancipation from slavery.
It is regeneration: a new birth.
It is justification: a washing away of sin’s filth and guilt.
It is forgiveness of sin: pardon given to a spiritual criminal.
It is remission: a clean bill of health given to one who suffered with the incurable cancer called sin.
It is adoption: the legal declaration of divine sonship.
It is a resurrection: a spiritual “do-over” called newness of life.
Those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, hopelessly doomed to eternal damnation because of their willful and ignorant disobedience, God can make alive together with Christ, raise them up together with Him, and make them to sit together in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:1-6).
Just as Jesus stated in John 5:24-25, He is God’s ordained agent for the first resurrection. Everyone who hears His voice and believes in Him can pass from death into life. This first resurrection is essential to receiving the resurrection of (eternal) life when His voice calls all from their graves in the final resurrection (John 5:28-29).
Jesus’ authority and ability to perform the first resurrection assures us of His authority and ability to perform the final resurrection.
