Theology 101 No.16

God’s threat of death and hell for the sinner is quite real. But so is His promise of forgiveness and salvation. Salvation from sin, death, and the devil is a gift from God. It is not something that can be earned by an individual. Though it is our human tendency to want to “earn” salvation for ourselves, our salvation is an extension of God’s grace and mercy. God’s Law shows the perfect way to heaven, but it is a way that a sinful and imperfect mankind cannot use.

Since a perfect keeping of God’s Law is necessary, it is clear that our salvation must come from outside of us. We have that salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Scripture teaches us: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) and Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus kept the Law of God perfectly in our place and paid for our transgressions through His death on the cross.

The question, however, often arises, “What moved God to save us?” That is easily answered with what is perhaps the most well known Bible verse – John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Our gracious God is merciful (Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8) and does not desire that anyone go to hell (I Timothy 2:4). God wants us to be with Him forever as He originally created us to be. Even though man was responsible for breaking the perfect relationship he once had with Him, God has provided the way out of eternal damnation and it is pure gift.

Since salvation is a gift, man need not (and cannot) add anything to it. What Jesus did on the cross is sufficient to cover our sins. We need only to have faith in the promises of Christ to access that forgiveness. God’s grace in Christ is always able to save, always efficacious, and can change any heart. The reason some are not saved has nothing to do with the value or power of Gods grace. It is not that Christ is unwilling or unable to save them. The fault lies in the will of man (cf. Matthew 23:37; Acts 7:51). It is man who refuses God’s peace. It is man who refuses God’s gift of grace. Man is his own destroyer.

To achieve the salvation we have through faith, Jesus had to be a special individual. It was necessary that He possess two natures. These two natures are the human nature and the divine nature. In His divine nature Jesus had existed from all eternity along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In His birth by the Virgin Mary, Christ is also true man. Scripture attests to both of these natures in many different verses.

In order to save man, Jesus had to be a man. The penalty for sin is death. Man sinned and only a man could pay the penalty for sin. About this St. Paul wrote, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4,5). Christ came to do what we sinful human beings could not do: Keep God’s Law perfectly as a human being.

In order to keep the Law perfectly Jesus had to be different than other human beings. No man can keep the Law for himself let alone for another. The salvation of souls costs more than any human being could ever pay. God alone is not “under” the Law and He has the unique position to be able to do something about our situation. Only God could reconcile the world to Himself. And only God could carry the burden of the sins of the world. To be able to bring about salvation in the manner that God has, our Savior needed to be both God and man. In this unique way Christ was able to reconcile God and man. “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation . . .We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God” (II Corinthians 5:19ff).