Christ and Salvation

The doctrines of Christ and Salvation occupy a central part of Christian theology. Interpreting who Christ is and what he has done is crucial in understanding the Christian faith.

Sadly, these topics have attracted a large number of false teachings throughout history and at present. These are of great concern because one’s belief about Christ and his work affects one’s salvation. It is the task of every believer to discern the true doctrines of Christ and Salvation from the Scripture lest his faith is endangered.

The reflections in this volume intend to be both Reformed and contextual. “Reformed” refers to the catholic aspect of the Christian faith. It testifies to the fact that true theology ought to be part of the holy, catholic faith, rather than something sectarian. It belongs to the mainstream of historic Christianity. “Reformed” also refers to that historic stream of Christianity originating from the Reformation of the sixteenth century, particularly that of the Calvinistic tradition. Standing firmly within that tradition, we also need to be critical of that tradition. Such is the genius of Reformed theology. Its ultimate source is Scripture itself, and not any historic expression.

The “contextual” element in these reflections simply refers to the fact that all good theology ultimately has to be relevant to the questions raised by one’s contemporary context. A theology that ignores these questions will be too scholastic, archaic or irrelevant. Good Reformed theology is not just a rehash of pioneers of the past, giants as they were. The answers we give in our theology must be sensible to the concerns of the context, while being faithful to the Scripture and affirming the catholicity of the faith. Certainly, a lot more needs to be done in integrating catholicity and contextuality than is done in this work.

It is my humble prayer that all readers of this feeble work would not only be more accurately informed about the subject matter, but will be confronted with the living Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. May he alone be glorified through this effort!

– Mohan Chacko