The Hebrew word tebah refers to a floating storage box or chest used to keep a living person alive on water. God instructed Noah to construct an ark of this type with specific dimensions, a window, a door, and multiple decks but with no rudder or means of propulsion. The vessel had no ability to navigate and its sole purpose was to stay afloat while keeping its occupants alive during the flood. God served as the navigator of the ark. The same word tebah describes the small vessel in which the infant Moses was placed among the reeds. That ark likewise had no means of steering and its purpose was to remain afloat. God protected Moses from the current and navigated the vessel. Both arks received a covering of pitch inside and out to prevent water from entering. Both vessels operated under divine protection with God in total control at every moment. The occupants of each ark experienced physical salvation through this arrangement as their lives were preserved while they remained inside.

Physical salvation involves the rescue of Noah and his family through the Flood and their delivery into the new water-washed world. Physical effort was required of Moses and the Israelites when God rescued them from Egypt and delivered them to the Promised Land. As God delivered the Israelites into the physical Promised Land, so we are being delivered into our spiritual Promised Land. Physical effort is required when stirred to action to reject the world and follow Christ. God evaluates mental effort and counts some worthy of delivery based on conditions of submission to His will. The Bible presents multiple stories of physical deliverance from harm into safety.

The Greek word sozo, translated "save," basically means to make safe, and it often refers to physical deliverance from a dangerous or undesirable situation, which is why it is also translated "heal," "preserve," and "make whole." When Jesus told the sick, "Your faith has made you whole," He was saying their faith had saved them, but the salvation was physical, a rescue from a condition of misery. Not every use of "save" therefore means eternal salvation or justification. A person is not ultimately safe until this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality, so until then everyone needs deliverance, protection, healing, and restoration. Humans can also provide a lesser kind of saving. James 5:19-20 says that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way saves his life from death. This is not eternal salvation or justification, but helping a man stop a sin and move to a safer course. Wherever sin is diminished, greater safety results. Such salvation is only a shadow of what God gives, yet a saving occurs whenever protection or deliverance is provided. In this sense Paul's desire in I Corinthians 9:22 to "save some" refers to this kind of protective help, not to bringing people into a relationship with God.