A question answered for one of our readers:

What’s the difference between Gospel Salvation and Eternal Salvation?

Primitive Baptists use various terms while contrasting God’s sovereign work in salvation with the blessings that exist in obedience. In short….

• Regeneration is the act of God upon man in giving him new life.

• Believing the gospel is, 1) built on the prior work of regeneration, 2) brings assurance and peace to the born again individual. In essence, believing delivers (or saves) a person from sorrow, false doctrine, and the guilt of sin.

Regeneration delivers the soul, believing delivers the now regenerated mind.

Consider this like baptism. Baptism does not regenerate us, but it does NOW save us from this untoward generation. See 1 Peter 3:21, Acts 2:38. Through actively showing the newness of life which is in conjunction with baptism, a person is delivered from the consequence of a sinful disobedient life.

Finally, if a Primitive Baptist speaks of a gospel or temporal deliverance, he is describing the blessings that are afforded to a born again individual who is walking in obedience.

Making this practical, can you testify to the deliverance you felt when first understanding the sovereignty of God and the liberty you have in Christ?

Originally published August 2016