Songfacts®:

• This was the title track of Saved, the second album of Dylan's "Christian trilogy," which followed his conversion to Christianity. Its lyrics expressed Dylan's strong personal faith and this song finds him giving praise for being saved from the consequences of sin by Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.
  
  Unlike Dylan's previous release, Slow Train Coming, which was generally well-reviewed, the upfront religious nature of Saved wasn't well-received by the secular press. However Dylan gained a new wave of fans from the Christian community.
• Bob Dylan set aside a mere four days during touring to record Saved. Little Feat's Fred Tackett, who played guitar on the album recalled to Uncut magazine: "Saved was done real old-style. (Producer) Jerry  Wexler was talking to us about it and he said it was just like when he worked with the Ray Charles band. We were on the road, doing the tour, and we basically just pulled the bus into Muscle Shoals, Alabama, went into the studio for four days, then got back on the bus and drove away. And, you know, Bob's basically saying as we leave, 'Send me a copy when it's done.' He didn't participate in the mix; we recorded the songs basically live, and then got back on the bus to get to the next show."
  
  "And yeah, Jerry Wexler pointed out, that's the way Ray Charles and all those other people would do it too," Tackett added. "There wasn't like some big, months-long preparation, and then months spent in the studio. It was 'Well, today, we're dropping by the studio, and we're going to record.' That's the way that one worked. It was a real lot of fun."