Salvation
Overview:  The word salvation is a very powerful word. Even the most skeptical person who would be asked to define the word salvation, would provide a definition that implies something great has happened. The word implies something dramatic or deliverance from someone or something.

Merriam Wester’s Dictionary defines the word salvation as follows: sal·va·tion means deliverance from the power and effects of sin b : the agent or means that effects salvation 2 : liberation from ignorance or illusion  3 a : preservation from destruction or failure b : deliverance from danger or difficulty.

As we study the Bible we realize that when Adam and Eve were created, they had daily communion with God. God only required that they not eat of one certain tree in the Garden of Eden.  They had access to everything else, including daily fellowship with God.

Genesis 2:15-17  Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 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."

When they disobeyed God, or sinned, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden because they disobeyed God. 

Genesis 3:22-23  Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"—23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Sin had destroyed their close relationship with God and they needed to do something to pay the price for their disobedience or sin.  They were ashamed and covered their nakedness with fig leaves.  God then killed an animal to provide a covering for them as they were cast out of the Garden of Eden and sent out into the earth to live. This was the first recording of a sacrifice of something innocent being killed to cover the mistake or sin of Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3: 6-7  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. 

Genesis 3: 20-21 And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

After God called Abraham to become the father of His chosen or elect people, the Jews, animals continued to be offered as a sacrifice for sin.  The system was formalized when Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and God established the Levitical priesthood to serve as the intermediary between God and man.  Animals continued to be offered as a sacrifice for sins and provided a temporary covering or freedom from guilt.

Genesis 22:13-14  Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided."

Exodus 24:5-8  Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. 6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient." 8 And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words."

Leviticus 17:10-12 "And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.' 12 Therefore I said to the children of Israel, "No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood.'

750 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah, gave us a picture of what God had planned.

Isaiah 53:3-6  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,  he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. ⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The pattern had been strongly established by God from Adam and Eve in Genesis to Moses and Abraham.  An innocent animal was killed and offered as a sacrifice for sin. God’s plan for mankinds ultimate redemption and salvation was about to begin.

Now, in the New Testament, a man, called John the Baptist is sent to prepare the way for what God had intended, since before the beginning of time, God’s sacrifice for mans sin.

Luke 3:3-5  John the Baptist went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all mankind will see God's salvation.’ ”

John 2:29-30  The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, "After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.'

Then Jesus, spoke with a Jewish leader named Nicodemus about God’s plan for mankind.

John 3:16-17  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. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Peter cries out to the Jews, who have gathered to listen, after Jesus is resurrected into heaven.

Acts 4:10-12  then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11He is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

God, then opened the door for all mankind to experience salvation as Paul revealed in his letter to the church at Rome.

Romans 1:15 17 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.

16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Then the writer of Hebrews makes it very clear that God has established a new way.

Hebrews 9:14-15 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

God’s ultimate sacrifice, sending His Son to become a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

I John 4:10  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Conclusion:  Salvation or to be saved is one of the most powerful promises in the entire Bible.

Salvation, a simple word with life changing possibilities, when expressed or experienced by a person. Salvation means that we accept God’s way or sacrifice for our sins by faith.  As we understand the depth of God’s love for us and the depth of our sin and separation from God we have only one decision to make: 

1) Acknowledge that we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. 

2) Repent and turn from our life of sin that has separated us from God. 

3) Accept by faith the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sins.

This is God’s way of salvation for all of mankind.  Accept, believe and receive the gift of eternal life that God has provided for you.