How are we saved? What role does God play—and what role do we play?
This illustration (which I’ve used before) uses the image of a sea rescue to compare how different Christian traditions understand salvation. No analogy is perfect, but this one can help highlight the distinct emphases each tradition brings to the relationship between grace, free will, and divine sovereignty.
Rescue Analogy – Word Representation Key
- The Water – Sin and Death
Humanity’s fallen condition, alienation from God, and the threat of judgment. - The Boat – Salvation / Righteousness / Life with God
The place of spiritual safety, reconciliation, and eternal life. - The Life Preserver – Grace / The Gospel / The Means of Salvation
God’s provision for salvation through Jesus Christ. - The Captain – God
The Savior—who sees, initiates, calls, rescues, and sustains according to each view. - Drowning – Being Lost
The condition of spiritual peril due to sin. - Calling Out – Human Initiative / Seeking Salvation
Represents faith, repentance, or prayer. - Grabbing Hold – Faith in Action
Trusting in God’s provision and responding to His offer. - Swimming Along – Human Cooperation
Ongoing obedience, good works, or sacramental life in synergy with grace. - Letting Go – Apostasy / Rejection of Grace
Turning from God’s offer, abandoning faith, or ceasing to cooperate. - Dead in the Water – Total Depravity / Inability
Complete spiritual helplessness; no capacity to respond apart from God’s intervention.
1. Pelagianism
View: Humans are born morally neutral and not in need of God’s grace until they sin.
Everyone begins life already safe in the boat with God—like Adam before the fall. Sin occurs when someone chooses to jump into the water, following Adam’s bad example. Now they are in danger of drowning. Still, because Christ died, God’s grace is available. The drowning person can call out, and in response God throws the life preserver. If they grab it and swim, they are saved.
Key Traits: No original sin; salvation begins with human initiative (synergism).
2. Semi-Pelagianism
View: Humans are wounded by sin but retain the ability to seek God.
Everyone is born in the water, already drowning due to inherited sin. They cannot rescue themselves, but they can still raise an arm or call for help. When they do, God responds by throwing the life preserver. If they grab it and cooperate, they are saved.
Key Traits: Original sin is real; grace follows human initiative (synergism).
3. Eastern Orthodoxy
View: Humans inherit corruption and death, but not Adam’s guilt; salvation is cooperation with God’s grace.
All are born in the water—mortally affected by sin, though not guilty in Adam. God initiates salvation by throwing the life preserver. The person must respond freely and continually, kicking in the water as God pulls the rope. Salvation is lifelong, moving toward theosis—union with God. Though the preserver is always extended, the person may still let go.
Key Traits: Inherited mortality, not guilt; divine initiative with human cooperation; salvation is relational and synergistic.
4. Roman Catholicism
View: Humans are born spiritually dead; salvation begins with grace and continues through cooperation.
All are born dead in the water due to original sin, but revived through baptism. The Captain throws the preserver and reveals their peril. The person may reject it or grab hold (faith). God then begins pulling them in. But they must also swim along—cooperating through sacraments, repentance, and obedience. Letting go or refusing to cooperate can result in being lost again.
Key Traits: Grace initiates; cooperation is essential; salvation is a process and can be lost (synergism).
5. Arminianism
View: All are born spiritually dead, but prevenient grace restores the ability to respond.
Everyone is dead in the water from birth. God revives all through prevenient grace, enabling a real choice. He then throws the preserver and calls each one to grab hold. Those who do are saved by faith alone. Yet they must continue holding on; letting go means falling back into death.
Key Traits: Grace universally enables; salvation depends on free choice and perseverance (synergism).
6. Calvinism
View: God alone saves, beginning to end, without human contribution.
Everyone is born dead in the water—utterly unable to respond. God calls to all, but only the elect are sovereignly made alive (regeneration). For them, He enters the water, gives life, places them on His shoulders, and carries them into the boat. They cling to Him not to be saved, but because they already are.
Key Traits: God chooses and saves unilaterally; grace is effectual and permanent (monergism).
Final Reflection
Every view, save Pelagianism, agrees on one thing: salvation is by grace through Christ (the life preserver). Therefore, every view, save Pelagianism, is Christian. The differences are about how grace works, when it comes, who initiates it, and whether we can lose it.
But Pelagianism is the exception. Because it denies the necessity of grace, it has always been considered outside the bounds of Christian teaching.
As for me—I’m a Calvinist. I believe we are dead in the water, and salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. At the same time, I believe in what’s called compatibilism—that our cooperation matters, but only because God enables it.
Still, across all true Christian traditions, the essential truth is this: we cannot save ourselves. Salvation is the gift of God’s grace, through Jesus Christ—the life preserver thrown to us in the storm.
So the question becomes: where are you in this picture?
Get Your Own!
