Salvation

John 3:16-17

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

In our day and age there seems to be an uprising of Christianity.

Many people, especially young people, seem to be turning to God and receiving salvation. You may have heard people talk about it or preach about it. You may still be wondering, what is salvation, why do I need it, and how do I get it?

Salvation is the very foundation of the Christian’s faith. If you know any Christians, they may constantly tell you of your need for salvation and how their lives have changed since they found Christ. We often hear of the miraculous changes done in people’s lives through salvation and these stories might leave us wondering what it is.

So what is salvation?

Salvation is defined as preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.

When the Bible says we are all in need of salvation, it means we need saving and rescuing.

But what do we need rescued from?

Well the answer to that is not complicated, but it is a little odd. If you believe that the universe was created in a collision or that we evolved from monkeys, then you may not understand what I am about to tell you. For if you believe that we came from a scientific coincidence, then it is highly likely you deny the existence of spiritual beings, whether they are good or evil. If you deny the existence of spiritual beings, then what I am about to tell you will make no sense.

You see, you live your life in the midst of a battle for your soul. This battle is being waged between the armies of two spiritual beings. You have the army of God. The Creator of all and THE highest being—the King of kings and Lord of lords. And you have the army of Satan who is a fallen angel and the Prince of Lies. Both of these beings are constantly calling your name, trying to get you to turn to them and follow their way and their example.

So at this point you understand that there is a war being waged between God and Satan for your soul. But who is God? And who is Satan? And why do they want your soul?

God is the Creator of the universe and the ruler of all. He is an all-knowing being who resides in Heaven and watches over this earth. Satan is a fallen angel who wishes to be God and rule the earth. The two of them are engaged in a war for all of humanity.

Since the beginning of time God has wanted what is best for man. When He created the earth He created a beautiful garden with animals and trees and flowers. Then, when He created man in His own image, He placed him in the garden and gave him a helper (woman) to help him tend it. All was good, the man and woman working together in the garden and eating the fruits of the trees that grew in it. They walked with God each day, living in His presence.

But Satan still wanted to be God. So he approached the woman and enticed her to break the one rule in the garden: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan told the woman that if she ate the fruit she would be like God, knowing good from evil. The woman found that appealing, so she ate the fruit and shared it with her husband.

God was furious. He cursed the serpent, and punished the man and woman, causing work to be toil and childbirth to be incredibly painful. His creation became cursed and all that lived would one day die. Every perfect thing was now corrupt in some way.

God kicked the man and woman out of the garden, for if they stayed they could eat of the Tree of Life and they would live forever in their sinful state. God cannot be in the presence of sin (any thought, spoken word, or action that goes against God’s will), therefore if they stayed in the garden, they would have to endure separation from God forever.

God loved His people and did not want them to be eternally separated from Him, so as the earth was populated he established a nation of people, the Jews, and he gave them a list of laws to follow. If they broke these laws they had sinned and their sin needed to be paid for, otherwise they could not have a relationship with God. So he established a system of animal sacrifice to pay for the sins of his people. Each type of sin required a different type of animal sacrifice.

This worked as a temporary system to allow God to be with His people. But this was not a permanent solution, for every person is born with a sinful nature and disobeys God. We are unable to keep from sinning in our own power and because of this, God’s people were constantly sacrificing animals to pay for their sins. It was a constant cycle of animal sacrifice, and each time someone sinned, their previous sacrifice no longer covered them, and they had to sacrifice another animal. So God decided He would send His son to earth as part of His plan to atone the sins of all humanity.

Now when God’s Son (Jesus) was sent to Earth and born of the virgin Mary, Satan did everything in his power to get in Jesus’s way. Rulers opposed Jesus and tried to trap Him in the confines of their laws. Eventually Jesus was put to death and crucified, and Satan had thought he had won.

But little did he know that Jesus’s crucifixion was part of God’s plan for the redemption and atonement of His people. For when Jesus died, all the sins of the world were laid on Him. Even though He Himself had never sinned, making Him the perfect sacrifice, he took on all of our sins. He even defeated death itself when He rose from the grave three days later.

Since the crucifixion Satan has worked endlessly to lead people astray, giving them false truths and offering them false security so that they stray away from God. For he knows that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Anyone who believes in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ shall be saved.

So what does this have to do with you? Well God and Satan are battling for your soul right this moment. God wants you to come to Him, for you are His child and He loves you. He knows you are meant for a relationship with Him and He wants you to fulfill the purpose He has laid out for you since before you were born.

Satan on the other hand doesn’t want to know you personally, he just doesn’t want you to know God. For if you know God, it’s one less follower of his. And if you know God and follow His will, then you will help lead others to God, damaging Satan’s cause. God pursues people out of a love for them. Satan pursues people out of love for Himself.

So what is biblical salvation? It is a deliverance from a life of sin and an eternity in Hell. How do you experience biblical salvation? By believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, then you will be set free. And what happens once you receive and experience salvation? You spend your life working for God’s will and telling others about His grace. And once your life is over, you pass onto an eternity spent forever with God.

See, God’s biggest desire is to have a relationship with each and every one of us. But because He is a holy God, our sin gets in the way of that. Every wrong choice we make, every selfish action, separates us from Him. So he sent His Son to die for us so that we can live with Him forever.

Now this information leaves you with a choice. You can turn to God and follow Him or you can choose to walk away and reject His presence. Turning to God will result in a life of fulfillment and purpose and an eternity in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Rejecting God means a life of futility and an eternity separated from Him.

But let me warn you, a choice to simply absorb this information and do nothing with it is still a choice. Those who have the information and choose to do nothing with it, will be judged. Choosing to purposefully reject God and choosing not to make a choice are the same choice. God’s gift of salvation is readily available to anyone who wants it, they just have to receive it. So I will leave you with one last question.

What will you do?