Salvation: God's Love Story

"The Jews looked upon a serpent to be freed from serpents; and; and we look upon the death of Christ to be delivered from death." –Augustine[i]

Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah[ii]

A German protestant lady was witnessing a catholic. The catholic lady said, "Doesn’t Peter hold the keys to heaven?" The Protestant said, "I don’t care who holds the keys, but Jesus said, ‘I am the door: by me, if any man enters, he shall be saved.’ And as I have the open door, I do not care who has the keys."

Funny, isn’t it? The way we perceive our salvation often varies even in the family of God. One of the greatest questions of our time that humans must consider is how can we be saved, and what is salvation? We must answer these profound questions since everything is at stake in this question’s answer. I am not going to describe what other religions teach about salvation. I will stick to the word of God – from the Bible. The word salvation can be equally synonymous with the word "rescue." Now, have you ever experienced drowning? I once experienced near-death, drowning in deep water as a little boy. Someone rescued me, seeing that I could not swim even until today. When you cannot save yourself, you need someone to rescue you. If nobody rescues you, then you would drown deep and would perish in due course. Likewise, Salvation is to be rescued from grieve danger, which would eventually lead to death. The Bible tells us that; "All have sinned" and consequently dead, the eternally condemnation and alienation from God, as a penalty. Therefore, we need to get rescued from the repercussion of sin.

Now, let me pause here for a while and ask you a question. Do you want to know what is the will of God concerning your salvation and your purpose in this plan of God?

My mother often used to talk about the will of God. Whatever she did and up to it, she would pray about it, just to make sure it was the will of God. She was somewhat very obsessive about doing the will of God and restrained what was not. She passed on this passion to me. Her discerning of the will of God used to be through her prayers and Holy Spirit inspirations, the sermons she heard over a lifetime of faith. The Bible reveals the will of God; therefore, let’s dive into the word of God to discover and find out His will for us.

In Mark 3:31-35, we see a very drastic response from the mouth of Jesus when He was teaching inside a building, which was very crowded. His mother and brothers came to meet Him, but they could not get to Him. Therefore, someone from the crowd said to Jesus, "Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you." The Lord answered the call, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" This might have shocked the listeners. Again, He said, "For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." This implies that if you want to be in God’s family, you will have to do the will of God.

There are many aspects and dimensions that cover God’s will for our lives but let us acknowledge the first steps. What is that first step for us to abide by God’s will?

1^st Timothy 2:3-4 says, "this is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." The text proves that God wants us to know the truth and be saved. If we are not saved then, it is meaningless for us to talk about God’s will for our lives. God does not want us to perish, but He patiently waits for our repentance. Now you may ask, what are we saved from and saved to do what? To understand this, we need to look back in the scripture the original plan of God for humanity.

Sin And Sinner
God created Adam and Eve in His image and likeness and commanded them to be fruitful and have dominion over the earth and everything on it. The whole creation of God was perfect, and He called it "good." There was no sin and death; humans were expected to have fellowship with God. And love and worship Him, and glorify Him through their lives. This was the ultimate purpose of their creation.
Humans were not created like robots preprogrammed to do whatever the creator wanted, and this is because God always does what is right and good. If He restrained and coerced us to do what He desires, then He is not good. God does not force anyone to love and worship Him. As Norman Geisler says, "Forced love is rape, and God is not a divine rapist. He will not do anything to coerce their decision."

Therefore, Adam and Eve were given free will and the power of choice. The Bible makes it clear that man is free, and it’s his or her choice to love and worship God and walk on his mandate or do whatever pleases them. But whatever the man chooses, follows a consequence. God desires for us to choose life, blessings, and Him. As the book of Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before your life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."

These instructions from the Lord to the Israelites in the wilderness give us understanding that the power of choice in our lives makes the difference, and we are the products of our choices. Whether it’s deliberate or reckless, still it brings the outcomes to us. As we sow, so we reap; it is the law that applies to our lives, with these perspectives in our mind, when looking into the life of the first man and woman. They had the power of choice, and God had given them the freedom to eat and enjoy the garden and everything in it.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:16-17.

God’s instruction to them was straightforward, do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told them the dire consequences of eating from it – death.

The book of 1^st John 3:4 says: "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness."

Therefore, sin is lawlessness, which means breaking the law of God or, in other words, not obeying God’s command.

"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took off its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths." Genesis 3:6-7.

Eve was captivated by the look of the tree. Wisdom in the adages goes like this: "everything that glitters is not gold." Satan lured and deceived Eve. He made her believe that she would not die; rather, her eyes would be open and be like God. She could not control the temptation to be like God, so she ate it and gave a portion to her husband, Adam. They disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, and consequently, their lives did not remain the same again. They lost their glory, and the whole creation was subjected to futility and corruption. Death emerged, and Satan took the authority from man. The world shifted to another state that’s fallen and cursed because of sin.

However, God loves His creation – Adam and Eve; after they sinned, He came looking for them, but they both hid from Him because they could sense their nakedness and felt ashamed about it. They did not face God. "But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"

This inquiry of God to Adam was not about Adam’s geographical location; rather, it was to ask where he was spiritually. God knew that they had eaten the fruit, yet He came looking for them. That’s the heart of a father who cannot leave his offspring despite their rebellion. God prophesied the redemption plan for humanity. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Genesis 3:15.

This was the promise and prophecy of hope that the messiah would come one day to deliver, and he would come from the womb of the woman. Our Lord Jesus already bruised the head of the serpent on the cross of Calvary. He defeated the power of Satan over death through which he used to enslave the children of God.
Our Heavenly father clothed them with animal skin, which biblical scholars call an indication that a sacrifice was made for both of them by God and also a hint towards the ultimate sacrifice of His son Jesus on the cross of Calvary for the sins of the world.

Afterwards, God cast them away from the garden, and they had to toil for survival. Since then, death, disease, suffering, and all the ugly consequences of sin manifested in the lives of the whole creation.

Three Kinds Of Death
Death is the final repercussion of sin. Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And the word of God also tells us that "Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die."

There are three kinds of death the Bible describes. The first is the spiritual death, that’s to be alive away in the presence of God. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they lost God’s physical presence, and they were cast away from God’s presence. Then will have the physical death; as a result of sinning, the physical death started in their lives; they were not meant to be old and weak and finally, die; but to be alive eternally with God in their glorious bodies. But because of sin, they died physically. There is a third type of death mentioned in the Bible – the eternal death or second death, which is to be away from God’s presence. To be in hell for the punishment of sin forever. So, to escape eternal death, one should reverse the spiritual death in this life, or else there will come eternal separation from the presence of God.