Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
SALVA'TION, or deliverance, supposes evil or danger. Ex 14:13; comp. Ps 106:8-10 with Isa 63:8-9. But in its ordinary use, in the N.T. especially, the term denotes the deliverance of sinners from sin and death through faith in Christ. "The day of salvation," 2 Cor 6:2, "the gospel of your salvation," Eph 1:13, and other like phrases, are employed in this sense. They all suppose mankind to be lost and ruined by sin, and hence to be in a state of
guilt and deplorable misery and exposed to the just penalty of the divine law. The salvation which the gospel offers includes in it the pardon of sin and deliverance from its power, pollution, and consequences, and also sanctification of the soul and the joys of the eternal world. Matt 1:21; Gal 3:13; 1 Thess 1:10; Heb 5:9. Hence it is justly called a great salvation. Heb 2:3.