Salvation - What, Why, and How?
Why Do We Need It?
Why do we need salvation? This question has been around for a very long time, and many people have given conflicting answers. Two of the most popular answers are "We don't need it" and "I'm good enough; I haven't done anything that bad." Unfortunately, both of these answers are wrong. The simple fact is that we are all sinners.
Romans 3:23 states, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." To truly understand this verse, we need to have a better understanding of two key parts. What is sin, and what is the glory of God? In the simplest and easiest to understand terms, sin is simply doing something that God does not want us to do. It could be something as little as telling someone you are doing fine when you are not—that would be a lie, and God doesn't want us to lie. You see, God views all sin—disobedience to God—the same. This might not seem fair, but in reality, it is. No one can argue that their sin(s) are not as bad as someone else's.
The next thing that needs to be defined is the glory of God. Part of God's glory is the fact that He is perfect—without sin. This should be easy to understand since the definition of sin is disobedience to what God wants. Now that we understand Romans 3:23, let's talk a bit about the punishment for sin. But before we get into what that punishment is, I think it is wise to have a little backstory on how this punishment came about.
Contrary to what a lot of people think, the punishment for sin was not meant for us (mankind). Before mankind sinned, some of the angels sinned. One of the top angels—and some of the angels under him—rebelled against God, so God kicked them out of Heaven and cast them down to Earth. Eventually, they will be cast into Hell for eternity. Now comes the tricky part. What does their punishment have to do with us? One of the attributes of God is that He is just. If God is just, and He views all sin—disobedience to what God wants—the same, God then must punish all sin the same way. Even though Hell was meant for the fallen angels and not us, God, being a just God, gave us the same punishment that he provided the fallen angels.
Now that we have the backstory on how the punishment of Hell came about, let's look at Hell itself. In our society, we often downplay the idea of Hell. This can easily be noticed with popular statements like, "I want to go to Hell because that's where all my friends will be, and we can have one big party!" Regardless of whether or not your friends will be there, Hell is not some place you will want to be, and there will definitely not be any parties there. The Bible states that Hell is a lake of fire that no amount of water can put out. Take a look at these verses:
"In flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might," (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).
"Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire," (Revelation 20:14-15).
Hell is forever. If you go there, your eternal soul will burn forever—but not be burnt up. This means that the torture of burning alive will never end. Hell is not a desirable place to be.
Good Isn't Good Enough
Another misconception is that the good things we do can cancel out the bad things we do. This is not true. Isaiah 64:6 states, "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away." This makes sense if we think about it. If the punishment—otherwise known as the cost of your sin(s)—is eternal damnation to Hell, then performing any good deeds will not make that payment for you. They simply are not the same thing.
The only way we (mankind) can pay the debt we owe for our sins is to go to Hell for eternity. That is the payment. This means that we can't do anything to get out of going to Hell. If we are not to go to Hell ourselves, we need someone else to make that payment for us. The only way someone could make that payment for us is if that someone did not owe that payment themselves. This puts us in a rather bad situation.
We need a human that has never sinned to volunteer to die and go to Hell to pay a debt they do not owe, then they need to come back from the dead and offer us their payment as a substitution for our own debt. In essence, they are saying to the judge that the payment has already been paid by him, and therefore, we do not owe it. That's a huge request. But we do have someone who has done this for us. His name is Jesus.
Who Jesus Is
So, who is this Jesus? Was He, or is He real? Let's look at the first question. In a short answer, Jesus is God who came down to Earth as a man, and lived a perfect life without sin. He voluntarily died on a cross, paying the price for sin that He did not owe. After dying on the cross, He rose from the dead—therefore concurring death and the grave—and now, He offers that payment for sin that He made—but did not owe—as a substitution for our payment for sin. Wow. That's very heavy for "short and simple," but that is about as concise as I can put into words about who Jesus is and what He has done for mankind.
Look into reading the gospel of John, one of the books of the Bible. It goes into detail about Jesus' life, death and resurrection. You can click the following link to read the gospel of John for free: John:1.
For quick reference, look at this passage from John 1:1-17:
"¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³AII things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
"⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
"⁹The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹²But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
"¹⁴And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵(John bore witness about him, and cried out, 'This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'') ¹⁶For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
To boil these verses down, they are saying that the Word is God, and that Jesus is the Word. Therefore, Jesus is God.
What Jesus Did
As we have already talked about, we are condemned to Hell for our sins; there is nothing we can do to pay that penalty for our sin but to go to Hell for eternity. Because of this, we need someone who did not owe that penalty to pay that penalty for us, and then give us it as a gift. This is exactly what Jesus did for us. God the Son left Heaven and came to Earth as a man, putting Himself subject to mankind. This was completely voluntary, and at any point He could have said, "Nope, I'm done," and quit, but He didn't. Jesus saw it through to the end. Jesus lived a perfect life without sin, therefore not owing the penalty for sin. Jesus then gave his life on the cross, dying for us, and paying the price for our sin. Next, Jesus rose from the dead concurring sin and death. He now offers the payment for our sins as a gift.
You can click the following link to read for free about Jesus' gift to mankind:
What Jesus Offers
So now we know that Jesus paid the price for our sin and that He offers it to us as a gift. All we need to do is accept that gift. How exactly do we do that? Romans 10:9 says, "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved," and Romans 10:13 says, "For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" In essence these verses are stating that if you confess with your mouth (speak it) that Jesus is who He said He is—God—and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you have accepted Jesus' gift of salvation.
If you have sincerely done these things, God promises you salvation from the punishment of sin, and he will provide eternal life with Him in Heaven.
