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Why the Need for Salvation
Gods Plan of Redemption
What is Salvation?
Salvation is the actions taken by God on our behalf to deliver humankind from
the power of sin and death. In order to restore our fellowship with Him, a fellowship
that was broken by our sinful nature, and a death that comes as a result of sin.
Salvation is a means of restoring our connection with our Holy God.
Why the Need for Salvation?
One of the essential attributes of God is His holiness. The Bible tells us of God's
holiness and our need to be holy.
- "For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves,
and you shall be holy; for I am holy." (Leviticus 11:44)
- "Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to
them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy."
(Leviticus 19:2)
- "And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy"
(Leviticus 20:26)
Because of our nature, sinful man is separated from God. Humankind is unable to approach
God; because of our fallen state we are not holy. We read the Old Testament story of Moses
who wanted to see God's Glory, His Holiness. God responded to Moses's request by placing
him in a cleft in the side of a mountain, this was after he had explained to Moses that
his physical sinful body could not see God's glory and live. So God placed Moses in the
cleft of the rocks, held His hand over until He had passed by. Moses was then able to see
the after glow as it were; the remnant of holiness after God had passed on by. This alone
was enough to change the appearance of Moses's face, so much so that Moses had to wear a
veil because the people could not behold the brightness of his face.
God by His very nature is separated from sin and a sinful humanity, and because of this
we are unable to approach God directly by our own merit or on our own terms. Sinful man can
not make his own way, or create his own terms because of our pre-existing sinful nature.
God therefore must provide a way, a means to cleanse us of our sins, so that we can become
holy and make our approach to a holy God. That way of salvation, that means of becoming holy
is provide by God to us through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us at the cross. Only Jesus,
God in the flesh, could provide the perfect sacrifice necessary to cleanse us of our sins.
Without Jesus there would be no salvation, a sinful man can not offer any sacrifice worthy
enough to remove sin. What could we offer that is not a product of our already fallen
state?
The Importance of Jesus to Salvation
The saving work of Christ at the Cross of Calvary is the central pillar of God's redemptive
plan. God first showed us the need for salvation, and then He showed us the way to salvation
through His son Jesus Christ. We see throughout the Old Testament, stories that speak of Gods
deliverance and salvation. As we read we see the plots play out again and again the story of
man's ongoing struggle with his sin and the sin of others. This culminates in the New Testament
with God's grace and His gift of salvation through Jesus and His death at the cross, to pay for
the sins of all humankind. Through the death of Jesus and His resurrection we see the triumph
of salvation and the offer of eternal life through accepting the sacrifice Jesus made on our
behalf.
Bible Verse that Speak of Gods Holiness
Leviticus 11:44
For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy;
for I am holy.
Leviticus 11:45
For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore
be holy, for I am holy.
Leviticus 20:26
"And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples,
that you should be Mine."
Leviticus 19:2
"Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: You shall be holy,
for I the Lord your God am holy."
1 Peter 1:15-16
"...but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written",
"Be holy, for I am holy."
Bible Verse Regarding Sin and Salvation through Jesus
Romans 4:24 - 5:2
It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was
delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. Therefore,
having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of
the glory of God.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 15:6
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received
and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to
you-unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures... After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren
at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.
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