Why a Savior?

Holy Trinity Series

To save us from our sins. More specifically, to save us from the penalty due to us because of our sin.

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in

her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:20-21 ESV

To save us from the wrath of God that will be poured out upon the unrighteous.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His

Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.

Romans 5:9-10 ESV

Death, both physical and spiritual, came into the world due to sin.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

Romans 5:12 ESV

We choose to either serve the world and the law of sin and death, or serve God and the law of liberty. We are either enemies of God or children of God. We get to choose which that will be by our response to the gospel message – that being rebellion or surrender to God.

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you

suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that He has made to dwell in us”?

James 4:4-5 ESV

Enmity means hatred, being hostile, or ill will. This is a portion of what we are being saved from. We get to be friends with God in love rather than facing Him with hatred, hostility, and ill will. Before salvation, we see God as an enemy, someone who is full of rules and looking for a reason to punish us. After we surrender to Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we come to know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a loving God who wants to be in a relationship with us.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what

the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the

law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1-4 ESV

As we read in Romans 5, sin entered the world through one man, Adam. All who have been born since have lived in the weakness of the flesh, living against the law of God. All were born under the law of sin and death. Even before the law had been given to us through Moses, mankind was at odds with God, serving self-interests rather than living in the intended relationship with God in which Adam walked before sin entered into the world through his disobedience.

Likewise, through one man, Jesus, God entered the world to reclaim what was lost, or to redeem mankind and restore the relationship that was severed. That relationship is restored to those who choose God over the world and sinfulness, or living according to the flesh. We must choose the way of the Spirit or remain in the ways of the flesh.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Romans 8:5 ESV

We see that we have the choice to remain worldly or to receive the salvation that is being offered to us. We already possess at birth a life under the law of sin and death. The choice is not to choose one or the other, rather, we choose whether we will receive the deliverance from it that is being offered by God, through Christ Jesus. We cannot deliver ourselves out of the law of sin and death. Due to the weakness of our flesh and sin entering in, we cannot fulfill the law of God and in ourselves we cannot change our destiny. The Father sent the Son to fulfill the law for us. We choose whether or not we will accept Jesus as our proxy and our Savior. The choice we make does have consequences, bad or good.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it

cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:6-8 ESV

The author of the book of Hebrews states it as a matter of faith.

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And what have I been describing faith as?

Believing that God is who He says He is
Believing that I am who God says I am
Believing that God will do what He says He will do

In this case, God says that Jesus is our Savior, that we are sinners in need of the Savior, and that salvation will be provided to those who believe. Those who believe will be covered by the righteousness of Christ, forgiven of sin.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you,

although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead

will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Romans 8:9-11 ESV

We will be given the right to become children of God as we turn away from the ways of this world, and turn toward the ways of God, which is repentance, and the Spirit of God will dwell within us and restore our spirits to life in a loving relationship with Him.

But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of

God.

John 1:12-13 ESV

God provided the Savior for the need that was created through the disobedience of Adam. God gave clear instruction to Adam, and He spelled out the consequence in case Adam were to disobey.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep 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 2:15-17 ESV

Adam did eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Through his disobedience to that command of God, sin and death entered into the world. Upon doing so, his eyes were opened to things he had no need of knowing; he simply had to trust God and walk in obedience in love.

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 the fruit and ate, and she also gave

some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Genesis 3:6 ESV

Adam was with his wife when they came upon the tree in the garden. Knowing the command of God, why didn’t he stop her? And after she ate, why did he join her? Was it his love for his wife that was so great that he laid down his life to be with her, that she not be alone? Was this a foreshadowing of Christ Jesus laying down His life for us, for His bride?

What was the woman’s sin?

Heeding the words of the enemy rather than the words of God
Good for food: lust of the flesh
Delight to the eyes: lust of the eyes
Desired to be unnaturally wise: pride of life

For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world.

1 John 2:16 ESV

What was the man’s sin?

Following the action of the woman rather than obeying God
Disobedience to the command to not eat of that tree
And later, blame shifting (Genesis 3:12)
- Blaming the woman for giving him the fruit
- Shifting to God: “The woman whom You gave to be with me”
It was a confession with rationalizations

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 3:7 ESV

Their eyes were opened to their guilt and life was changed for them and for us. Indeed, they attempted to hide themselves from God among the trees of the garden. The need for a Savior had now been introduced into the world. Though they confessed to their sin, the consequence remained just as God had warned them. They were helpless to do anything about it other than pray to God for mercy, repenting of their behavior. They used leaves for a purpose other than what they were created for; to make clothing.

And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Genesis 3:21 ESV

Were the skins from animals? A sacrifice which covered their nakedness. This was a foreshadowing of the righteousness of Christ covering the nakedness of our unrighteousness. There was a blood sacrifice for the first man and the first woman, provided by God. The first blood sacrifice in the death of an animal. Death had entered the world. Christ was a sacrifice of the precious blood of the Son, provided by God for the forgiveness of our sin. This was a deliverance for all mankind, for whoever will receive it.

This story concerning the need for a Savior should add clarity to the verses that are used so often, in fact, we have kind of grown immune to them. They are the words of the Savior, the Word of God, Christ Jesus.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,

but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name

of the only Son of God.”

John 3:16-18 ESV

Do you believe that God is who He says He is?

Refer back to the podcast, episode 30, Who God Says He Is.

Do you believe that you are who God says you are?

Refer back to the podcast, episode 16, Identity in Christ, Who God Says I Am.

Do you believe that God will do what He said He will do? Do you even believe that God exists?

There are consequences to the choices and decisions we make, as it has been from the beginning.

The apostle Peter wrote about the blood sacrifice offered for us.

knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a

lamb without blemish or spot.

1 Peter 1:18-19 ESV

The apostle Paul wrote of this Christmas/Easter story concerning those who would believe.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And

because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, than an heir through God.

Galatians 4:4-7 ESV

If you have not yet done so, I urge you to confess yourself a sinner and receive the salvation that is offered to you from our loving Creator. Say a prayer in your own words, or begin with the prayer that I said which changed my life now and for eternity.