Salvation

Turn to Me, and be saved all the ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other (Is. 45.22).

Salvation refers to God's work of saving man from sin and its consequence, death. Salvation became necessary for mankind after Adam and Eve sinned. Theologically known as the Fall, sin passed upon all mankind from their sin. According to the account in Genesis,

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die'" (Gen. 2.16-17).

Adam and Eve did eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Death was instantaneous--not physical death but spiritual death. This death was immediately apparent. God regularly walked in Eden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. This day, however, instead of meeting him Adam and Eve hid themselves. Our running away from God is an obvious and visceral indicator of our fallen state. The problem God faced was this: how to restore the relationship between himself and mankind and still solve the problem of man's sin.

We have already seen that the penalty of sin is death (Rom. 6.23). Adam died immediately spiritually and eventually physically when he disobeyed God. For God to simply dismiss or ignore man's sin would violate God's justice. For God to do nothing would violate God's love. Another solution had to be found to satisfy God's character wholly. God resolved the problem by the death of his Son. In love, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ to the world. He died on the cross as a substitute for mankind and satisfied God's justice. For hundreds of years God spoke through the nation of Israel. The Levitical animal sacrifices were pictures, examples, of the final and great sacrifice made by Jesus of Nazareth. The resurrection of Jesus is the proof of his victory over sin and death. With the death and resurrection of Christ, sin and death no longer held dominion over man.

Jesus' death and glorious resurrection is what Christians call the gospel--the good news. What could be more wonderful news than that sin and death have been defeated? This is the great victory in the universe. All other victories, all other battles, all other struggles, pale in significance to this. Jesus' death and resurrection solved the sin problem. It solved the the penalty of sin, i.e. the death problem. It reconciled man to God.

What is mankind's responsibility to this wonderful news? It is simple to believe it. God has always dealt in grace to mankind. Faith is all mankind can do to respond to God. Paul says,

"Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" (1 Cor. 15.1-5).

Faith is how God's salvation is apprehended. Simply by believing God one can be assured of his salvation and eternal life. As the Scriptures say,

"Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness" (Rom. 4.4-5).

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Eph. 2.8-9).

By putting your trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ you can be assured of God's salvation--that your sins have been forgiven and that you have eternal life.

a)gapw~nti h(ma~j kai\ lu/santi h(ma~j e)k tw~n a(martiw~n h(mw~n e)n tw|~ a(i/mati au)tou~.