Why do I need Salvation?

A teaching by Onyinyechi Ihesiaba

Before we begin I want you to think about the implications of the truth about the need of salvation

Here's a detailed study on why man needs salvation.

Let’s do a quick study on salvation now that we have understood the gospel a little . If you missed our last post check it out here.

Remember how last time we learnt that the bible was not written in English rather it was written in Hebrew , Greek and a bit of Aramaic.. Today we'll be doing a simple study on the word Salvation. I don't want you to get overwhelmed so take a breath and prepare yourself.

Let's begin:

Salvation comes from the Greek word Soteria which means to preserve from , to rescue from, to be delivered, to be preserved, to be kept safe from.

That word is gotten from two words sótér (Saviour) and sózó (to save)

When we put them together it becomes “Saviour to save”

This simply shows for a person to be saved a Saviour must do that. It shows the need for a Saviour.

Let's cut to the point. Here's why man needs salvation

Simply put sin is the reason man needs salvation ; it’s seen in the verse below ;

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Therefore sin is the reason man needs salvation. So salvation indicates a need to be rescued from sin, to be delivered from sin, to be preserved from sin. Remember to take notes why reading this or even pause to fully understand what you are learning.

You're probably wandering what sin exactly did man commit? Don't worry we'll discuss that as well.

THE SIN OF MAN.

Let's go back to the very beginning, to the genesis of man's sin predicament by looking at the scriptures.

Genesis 1v26-27

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (27) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Starting out this verse shows that man was made in God’s very image and likeness. Man once had the nature of God. This shows how man was before the disobedience of Adam and the introduction of sin into the world. Afterwards God gave a very important instruction to Adam and Eve.

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:17‬ ‭KJV‬‬

This was the word of instruction God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden . That anyone who shall eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil shall surely die. This story had a bad ending because as you would have guessed Adam and Eve surely did die when they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-7).

Now, one might ask what was the actual sin they committed ?

It is important to know that sin is primarily disobedience to God and his word.

The first thing the serpent did was to attack what God said(his word). Here I would like you to open your bible and read the verses for yourself. The devil came and the first thing he did was challenge what God said and sadly Eve acted upon what the serpent's evil suggestions, the bible says the way she looked at the tree changed "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was[a]pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate..."Genesis 3:6

The devil connoted that God’s words were false and Eve acted upon his words.

The moment Eve and Adam fell into unbelief of what God said ,they ate the fruit and committed sin and that sin brought death but this death was not a physical one, keep reading I'll explain as we go.

WHAT DID THAT SIN DO?

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:17‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Romans 6:23.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. KJV

“.....thou shalt surely die” disobedience to God's word brought death. “For the wages of sin is death” This death was a spiritual death rather than a physical death (remember Adam lived till 930 which means if God meant a physical death Adam and Eve would’ve died physical deaths instantly but they lived yet they died Spiritually).

This shows us there are two (2) types of death:- Physical death and Spiritual death. What the whole of humanity suffered because of that sin is Spiritual death which is a separation from God. The fact that every human will one day leave this world through death is physical death. To reiterate the point spiritual death is eternal separation from God because of sin and this is what happened to Adam and Eve. Recall the first verse we read ,I'll share it again it says

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So this death passed on to all who were born from Adam , why? because we are all descendants of Adam.

Let's look at one more scripture.

Isaiah 59v2

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.

Sin separated us from God but that wasn't all, the bible let's us know that there is a just wrath of God that will come on all who are separate from him but good news God himself saved us from the just wrath. Don't worry, I'll explain.

Romans 5:9 

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

WHY WAS SIN A BIG DEAL?

Because of who we sinned against. I'll give an example. Let's say you walk into a junkyard and you go around kicking stuff around and smashing the trash into the air , the consequence to your actions will not be grave, why? because it's a junkyard. Let's switch up the scenario and say you walk into a Car store, specifically a Mercedes Benz store and you pick up a tiny pin (a really, really small pin) and you scratch a G wagon or you scratch the most expensive Car there and the dealer sees you. What do you think will happen? You'll be in so much trouble I tell ya. The punishment you'll receive this time will be big so big you might ask yourself "is it really a big deal?" and the answer will be yes .

The point is that gravity of sin and it's consequence is highly dependent on who we sin against.

Let'slook at some scriptures real quick

“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭51:4‬ NIV VERSION

Psalms 51:4

[4]Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. KJV VERSION

He has sinned against God. God the maker of the heaven and the earth. The God that dwells in glory. Whose holiness knows no bounds. Because our God is righteous he must judge sin. This is why sin separated us from God.

WHAT WAS THE CONSEQUENCE OF THAT SIN?

The consequence of sin is the sinful nature death

Romans 6:23.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. KJV

This verse shows us that the consequence for sin is death(separation from God) but the good news is that eternal life came through the man named Jesus Christ.

“For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:19‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3:23-24‬ ‭KJV‬‬

These verses show that all men had sinned because of what? because of the disobedience of one man Adam. So all men then got a sinful nature from that one disobedient act . Man became a sinner from that act of Adam which caused them to disobey laws & commandments because they weren’t even made at that time(the law came with Moses).

I like to summarize this by saying the nature of sin birthed acts of sin in us.

THE SACRIFICE FOR OUR SALVATION

Remember we have looked at the reason why God saved and the reason is love in the post about the gospel revealed

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭1:4‬ ‭

Our loving God paid a price for our salvation because he loved us, while we were yet sinners he gave his son as the sacrifice for our redemption and this has always been the will of God.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Again we see in the verse above God displayed his love for us by granting us salvation from sins.

Here's why Jesus was the sacrifice

“In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭9:22‬ ‭NIV

The above verse makes it clear that for sins to be forgiven blood has to be shed. Now we understand why Jesus had to die for man.

But there’s a good news in all this. The good news is that despite all these that happened God always loved man .

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Again in the verse above we learn that

“The price paid was the life (the blood)of the only begotten son of God”

To quickly explain let’s look at Leviticus 17:11

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”

‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭17:11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Above we see the life of a creature is in the blood and thus we understand that In the blood of Christ he gave his life for us all.‬‬

One last time in the book of Ephesians 1:7 we see that the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus is what granted us forgiveness of sins

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Man is redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to be redeemed?

Redemption translates from the Greek word “apolutrósis(ap-ol-oo'-tro-sis) “ which means a release effected by payment of ransom. It means winning back what was previously forfeited (lost)."

So what Jesus did was to win us back by paying a ransom on our behalf. He did this with his blood as the ransom.

A couple more verses

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Hebrews 9:12

[12]Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

It is by the blood of Jesus we have been forgiven of our sins.

The blood of Jesus through his death wasthe ultimate sacrifice for our sins and by it, we are redeemed forever.

WHO CAN BE SAVED ?

1 Timothy 2:1-4 KJV

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; [2] For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. [3] For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

We see that “all men” can be saved. Salvation is not for a special group of people but for “all men”.

Let’s recall

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16 KJV

The above verse is a very popular one which talks about God's love for us, the extent to which he loves us and how he demonstrated this love for us through his son Jesus Christ and once again we can see that it is not limited to one individual or certain individuals but for EVERYBODY in the whole wide world.

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,”

‭‭Titus‬ ‭2:11‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Above we see that this grace appeared to all men not a particular tribe ,race or color, but to all men. All men can be saved, Jesus died for all men.

“for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Salvation is for all who call on the name of the lord which means salvation is for all who believe in Jesus(this will be explained shortly).

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:1‭-‬2KJV

This text shows us that Christ is an advocate which can also mean an intercessor for the sins of the whole world, this tells us that he did not due for specific people but for everyone through out the whole world.

Romans 3:22 KJV

Even *the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe*: for there is no difference:

Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ will be saved.

THE WAY TO SALVATION:- WHAT TO DO TO BE SAVED.

To be clearly said man is not saved by self effort (works) . Man is saved by grace through faith(belief).

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Now it is important to define the act of which God showed his love to man. That act is called Grace.

To be simply explained Grace is “defined as God’s unmerited favour ”; meaning there is nothing man did to deserve God’s favour from sin, but he gave it to us anyway through Jesus.

John 1:16-17

And of his fullness have we all received grace for grace

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:4

Paul said I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which has been given to you by Christ Jesus.

From the verses above we see that God’s grace has been given by whom? By Jesus Christ . Not by human works or the law but by Jesus.

Now we understand that the decision God made to give his only son for our sins was not dependent on human action. It was a decision solely made by God .

One last time man is not saved by works, but by grace through faith(belief)

So the question is FAITH IN WHAT?( BELIEF IN WHAT?):-

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10:9-10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10:9-10‬ ‭KJV‬‬

The above verses though in different versions pass the same message which is simple ; “..believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved..”