A Guide to Salvation
Do you realize that God has a plan for your life? The plan of God for your life starts with salvation. The word salvation carries the idea of being rescued from danger. God created us in His image to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him (Genesis 1:26). Because of sin, this fellowship was broken.
The book of Genesis takes us back to the beginning of human history. In the first two chapters, we see a perfect environment created by a perfect God; over and over again, God looked at what He had made and said, “It is good.”
In this perfect environment, God placed perfect man and perfect woman and gave them the gift of freedom. To make the freedom real, God gave the man and woman real choices. And so, in the Garden of Eden, there was a test of the human will.
“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” Gen. 2:16–17
God knew that the minute He gave man and woman freedom, danger would enter this perfect environment. He knew that with freedom man could make a personal decision to reject Him and, with Him, everything good. He knew that with freedom man could turn Paradise into hell on Earth. In this perfect environment a fallen evil angel called Satan entices man and woman to disobey God.
Temptation
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?”’” Gen. 3:1
“The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said “You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.”” Gen. 3:2–3
“And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” Gen. 3:4–5
Eve was faced with a choice. Believe God’s word or believe the lie of the serpent.
“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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” Gen. 3:6
Man’s problem
The woman believed the lie, and the man willingly and knowing disobeyed God.
The moment Adam and Eve sinned they received a sinful nature and experienced spiritual death. Spiritual death is separation from God. As a result of Adam’s sin, all human beings are born spiritually dead being descendants of Adam, captives of “the domain of darkness” (Gen. 2:17; Col. 1:13; Rom. 6:23). So, all men are born with a sin problem, and if they die with this problem, they will spend eternity separated from God. God’s plan has never been to be separated from man because of sin.
God in His love and grace had a plan to save man from this sin problem.
God’s Solution to the Sin problem
“And the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly shall you go, And dust shall you eat All the days of your life, And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed, He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel.’” (Gen. 3:14–15)
In this verse we have the promise of a Savior. The woman’s child will come to defeat sin and death and rescue men from the penalty of sin. What the Lord God describes here is the work of the cross, where Satan would bruise the heel of Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ would smash the head of the serpent. Sin is the barrier between God and man. At the cross, Jesus Christ would remove the barrier and open the door to God so that anyone could have freedom to approach God by faith in Him. God judged sin at the cross.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”. John 3:16
“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds, you were healed”. 1 Peter 2:24
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”. (2 Corinth 5:21)
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16:31
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. Romans5:8
For He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2
Will you receive God’s plan of salvation today? Here is how you do it!
- Admit to God that you are a sinner
- Tell God you believe in His Son Jesus Christ and His work on the cross for forgiveness
- Receive God’s free gift of salvation!
“And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:11-13
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Romans 8:1
What do you do now?
-
- Find a good Bible teaching Church
- Read your Bible daily and start with the gospel of John, Romans, Ephesians, and then 1 John
- Fellowship with like mind Christians
- Share your faith and what God is teaching you with others close to you
If you have questions about salvation or the story of Jesus Christ, please contact Keithian Starling, pastor of Grace Bible Church, at gbibleministries@gmail.com