This is how God loved the world: He sent his one and only son, to die instead of you and take the punishment that is rightfully yours, and if you believe and receive this, you will not perish, instead, you will have the life of God.
John 3 v 16, paraphrased.
Love is the substance of God’s nature. He is love. There is never a second where he acts out of love. Yes, even in his Justice, even in his Holiness, even when he wiped out nations, he was acting in love.
The problem is that you and I, we don’t know love. So we don’t understand love. Love is a person. We presume to understand him (or her because out of love came the expressions that we now refer to as him and her, but I digress)
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1 v 27
We think we know what love is but we really don’t. We think we know how love should act, in fact, we’re guilty of telling love what to do and when love does not meet our standards, we judge love.
A few weeks ago, God called me out. Somewhere in my heart, I had convinced myself that he was being unfair to me in a particular situation, and I had judged him. Here’s what he said to me:
After humanity fell by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You all came into a crisis. In your hearts you determine what is good and what is bad. When your heart perceives that a thing is bad based on your limited understanding, you judge me unfaithful.
We all do this. We ask, why is there so much evil in the world? What’s God doing about it? Why did God create Adam and Eve when he knew that they would eat the fruit? Why did God let this happen to me?
Asking questions is not bad. God loves it when you ask questions like this. He’s not afraid. He’s happy because it means that he will get to tell you the truth and reveal himself to you. What he does not like is the fact that we often don’t wait for answers, we just run ahead with our assumptions and paint him in a bad light. Sometimes we even push our assumptions on other people and categorically state that God is a certain way.
God does not need PR. However, he wants the truth to be known, so we’re writing this together to help hearts understand this truth.
Father, I thank you because these are your words 100% not mine, I pray that you will help whoever is reading this right now receive your truth and that you will lift the scales of falsehood and bring them into your eternal light. In Jesus name, amen.
To understand salvation, why it is necessary and what it means, we have to start from the very beginning.
Before we start, keep this in mind. God is not a tyrant. Yes, he has the power to break all the laws of creation that he set in place. but he does not. He created a system and bound even himself by that system because of his faithful, consistent and unchanging nature. Once he says this is how a thing should be, he binds himself to abide by those rules.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was created as a dwelling place for humanity. God made human beings in his own image, having his likeness, nature and character. Then, gave us the earth to rule and dominate just like God dominates in heaven.
‘Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”’ Genesis 1:26
God made all of these and saw that it was good. This means at the point of creation, the earth and man were exactly as God intended for them to be. Perfect and a reflection of him and his nature. The earth and human beings were created to be in complete synergy with God and Heaven.
God created us to have agency. To choose to reciprocate love or not. To have free will. He didn’t want stooges, robots or creatures who would obey him on autopilot. He wanted friendship and love. He revealed himself to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve and provided all they needed with the intent that they will naturally grow to trust him and listen to Him because of the love he showed to them.
God placed Adam and Eve in a garden and told them that they could eat of anything except the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because they would die.
‘Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground — trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden — except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”’ Genesis 2:8–9,15–17
A lot of people ask why God kept the tree there when he knew that they would eat of it. Even though God knows the choices that we will make. He doesn’t design a world/simulation that prevents us from making those choices. Then it wouldn’t be free will. We would be living in a system that he has gamed to ensure that things turn out the way he wants it to and none of it will be real. Instead, he presents us with those choices, fully aware that we will choose fleeting pleasures over him, and then he goes ahead to undo the consequences of the mistakes we make.
In summary, God won’t prevent us from making choices that hurt us, because he has designed us with the right to do so. He doesn’t force us. However, he will go to any length to redeem us from the terrible outcome, even if it means that he has to die. His love is incomprehensible.
Now, back to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve ate the fruit and the consequence was death. Spiritual death. They lost the nature of God that they had and were no longer like him. The life of God inside of them died. The physical death that followed was only a result of the spiritual death that occurred first.
The serpent knew this and it was the prize he was after, the eternal separation between God and humanity. He knew the human beings were not designed to live without God and God couldn’t abide sin even if he wanted to because His Holy nature would immediately repel it.
He believed that by tempting them to eat the fruit he thought he had put an eternal barrier between God and these creatures of dust he seemed to love so much
Although God was sad about the choice they made, He immediately kicked off his redemption plan aka operation save Adam and his seed and restore them to their original design.
God always has a backup plan for our stupid choices.
The first thing God did, was to send Adam and Eve out of the garden so they wouldn’t complicate the situation further. In the garden, there was another tree: the tree of life. The result of eating the fruit of this tree is immortality. An eternal unchanging nature. If Adam and Eve ate this fruit, they would have become immortal sinners and it would be impossible to change their nature. Man would live in eternal separation from God.
‘Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. ‘ Genesis 3:22–23
The living forever referred to in the verse above, means to live forever in a particular state. God did not want human beings to live forever in a state of spiritual death, so he had to send them out of the garden.
Now, a lot of people say that God cursed humanity after Adam and Eve ate the fruit. That’s not what happened.
God simply read out the consequences of their actions and the results of spiritual death to them.
And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”’ Genesis 3:17–19,22–23
Pain, sadness, sorrow, hardship and death came into the Earth as a natural consequence of the death that had occurred in the ones God gave dominion over it. It was not God’s original design for things to be like this, but simply a result of the choice that Adam and Eve made. His love also includes justice and he has bound himself to the rules he created. If He says the result of eating the fruit is spiritual death, then that must happen. If not, he wouldn’t be God. He has to enforce the consequences of man’s actions.
Now, Adam was the father of humanity and everything produces after its own kind. You can not bring forth what you don’t have. This means that since Adam was spiritually dead, every man born through him would bear the same DNA and by default be spiritually dead as well. This means you and I, the seed of Adam were born spiritually dead.
The spiritually dead man does not have the life of God and is by default susceptible to sin no matter how hard he tries. His nature simply loves to sin. A lion can’t help but want raw meat. Even when he does “good/moral actions”, he is still spiritually dead.
It is important to note that we can’t simply reduce all of this to moral or immoral actions. A man could do everything correctly by the book and “be good”, but still unacceptable to God. Why? Because by default he is spiritually dead and completely cut off from the life of God. Fundamentally, this is about our nature and the type of spiritual life we carry. Whether we are spiritually dead or alive.
This is why Adam’s son, Cain found it so easy to kill Abel his own brother. He was spiritually dead and susceptible to sin. In fact, this is what God said to Cain before he killed Abel
‘You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”’ Genesis 4:7
Sin became the new master of the world since it dominated man who dominated the world. Remember that God’s design was for man to subdue and dominate the earth. He willed the earth to man and could not interfere in earthly affairs except through man. This is the legal basis of operation on the earth as God designed it to be.
‘The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity.’ Psalms 115:16
For example, when a Landlord lets his house to a tenant, although he is the owner of that property, he has no legal right of entry except he is invited and can in fact be sued for trespass. The tenant has possession of the property. Think of God as the landlord(owner) and man as the tenant who is in full possession. For God to do anything on earth, he has to be invited by man through prayer. That is the legal basis upon which things operate. Which is why, in the bible, God says things like this:
‘“I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one. So now I will pour out my fury on them, consuming them with the fire of my anger. I will heap on their heads the full penalty for all their sins. I, the Sovereign Lord , have spoken!”’ Ezekiel 22:30–31
It’s really simple. God doesn’t want to punish them, but if he does not find a man to beg for mercy (the legal remedy for the rightful punishment they deserve) he has to punish them because he is a just God and has bound himself by the rules that he created.
So why do bad things happen on Earth? Simply because man who has full control over the affairs of the earth (in partnership with God) is naturally predisposed to evil and sin. Man is responsible for letting sin enter the world and giving the devil and demons a foothold in the first place, and also responsible for perpetuating evil and not inviting God in prayer to let things be on earth as it is in heaven (the prototype for earth).
This is why Jesus taught the disciples to say in prayer:
‘May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.’ Matthew 6:10
And why James reminds us that:
‘The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.’ James 5:16–18
Simply put- bad things happen in the world because God gave us dominion and we messed up. However, as I said earlier, he anticipates our silly mistakes and gives solutions.
Since the beginning of sin was brought by man, the ending had to come through man too. But all the children of Adam had his nature, so only God could solve this problem because He does not have the nature of sin. However, because of the system, he would have to become a man to fix this issue. This is how he did it:
Adam was the father of the human race and through his seed, God will come as a man to replace the fallen man that was birthed through Adam and restore man to his original design and nature.
‘Because God’s children are human beings — made of flesh and blood — the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.’ Hebrews 2:14–15
This seed was Jesus. Fully God and fully human and a descendant of Adam.
Here’s the genealogy of Jesus to prove this:
Jesus was known as the son of Joseph.
Joseph was the son of Heli.
Heli was the son of Matthat.
Matthat was the son of Levi.
Levi was the son of Melki.
Melki was the son of Jannai.
Jannai was the son of Joseph.
Joseph was the son of Mattathias.
Mattathias was the son of Amos.
Amos was the son of Nahum.
Nahum was the son of Esli.
Esli was the son of Naggai.
Naggai was the son of Maath.
Maath was the son of Mattathias.
Mattathias was the son of Semein.
Semein was the son of Josech.
Josech was the son of Joda. Joda was the son of Joanan.
Joanan was the son of Rhesa.
Rhesa was the son of Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the son of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the son of Neri.
Neri was the son of Melki.
Melki was the son of Addi.
Addi was the son of Cosam.
Cosam was the son of Elmadam.
Elmadam was the son of Er.
Er was the son of Joshua.
Joshua was the son of Eliezer.
Eliezer was the son of Jorim.
Jorim was the son of Matthat.
Matthat was the son of Levi.
Levi was the son of Simeon.
Simeon was the son of Judah.
Judah was the son of Joseph.
Joseph was the son of Jonam.
Jonam was the son of Eliakim.
Eliakim was the son of Melea.
Melea was the son of Menna.
Menna was the son of Mattatha.
Mattatha was the son of Nathan.
Nathan was the son of David.
David was the son of Jesse.
Jesse was the son of Obed.
Obed was the son of Boaz.
Boaz was the son of Salmon.
Salmon was the son of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the son of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the son of Admin.
Admin was the son of Arni.
Arni was the son of Hezron.
Hezron was the son of Perez.
Perez was the son of Judah.
Judah was the son of Jacob.
Jacob was the son of Isaac.
Isaac was the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the son of Terah.
Terah was the son of Nahor.
Nahor was the son of Serug.
Serug was the son of Reu.
Reu was the son of Peleg.
Peleg was the son of Eber.
Eber was the son of Shelah.
Shelah was the son of Cainan.
Cainan was the son of Arphaxad.
Arphaxad was the son of Shem.
Shem was the son of Noah.
Noah was the son of Lamech.
Lamech was the son of Methuselah.
Methuselah was the son of Enoch.
Enoch was the son of Jared.
Jared was the son of Mahalalel.
Mahalalel was the son of Kenan.
Kenan was the son of Enosh.
Enosh was the son of Seth.
Seth was the son of Adam.
Adam was the son of God.’
Luke 3:23–38
How can we be sure that Jesus is God and that God came to the earth to save us from the destruction we brought upon ourselves? Is that not too good to be true?
I’m glad you asked! God is super intentional so he revealed his plans in through the lives of men who lived thousands of years before he even walked the earth.
Let’s start with Abraham.
There’s a lot to say about Abraham, but we’ll talk about one story.
Remember that Abraham is the Father of Jesus (genealogically). God singled him out, not because he was exceptionally good, I mean he did some really sketchy things but because he took God at his word and believed everything God said. This is the foundation of being made right with God through faith. Abraham believed God, and because of that, God saw him as a righteous man. It’s the same thing today, simply believe what God has done through Christ and you will be made right with God. Remember what I said about this not being just about morality?
Of course, this doesn’t mean you get a free pass. Once you have the life of God, you naturally want to do the things that please him and sin loses its appeal. You don’t even have to stress honestly. All you need to do is abide in him. We’ll talk about this in more detail later, back to Abraham.
‘Sometime later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” “Take your son, your only son — yes, Isaac, whom you love so much — and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.” So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together. When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!” “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.” Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”’ Genesis 22:1-14
On the surface, this seems like a really mean thing to do. Ask a man to slaughter his only son that he waited for 100 years to have? However, we know that God is not mean. He simply wanted Abraham to truly understand the gravity of the sacrifice He would someday make because of his great love for humanity. God always intended to be the one to provide the perfect lamb for the sacrifice.
This is why Jesus is also referred to as the Lamb of God. It helped the ancient Jewish people understand who he really was and what he had come to do.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
The Jews understood the similitude of Jesus to a lamb, because for many years, according to the law of Moses, they sacrificed lambs and other animals as sin offerings and guilt offerings.
‘The Lord called to Moses from the Tabernacle and said to him, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you present an animal as an offering to the Lord , you may take it from your herd of cattle or your flock of sheep and goats. “If the animal you present as a burnt offering is from the herd, it must be a male with no defects. Bring it to the entrance of the Tabernacle so you may be accepted by the Lord . Lay your hand on the animal’s head, and the Lord will accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him. ‘ Leviticus 1:1–4
The purpose of this was to help them understand that God can be approached with the blood of a worthy substitute and that one day, God himself will send the perfect sacrifice whose atonement would be once and for all time, for all humanity.
An excerpt from this article captures the purpose of the sacrifices perfectly:
It’s important to note that none of the animals offered in these sacrifices could, in themselves, take away a person’s sin or truly pay the debt for sin. But by offering these sacrifices in faith, the people of the Old Testament demonstrated their faith in Christ, the superior, once-for-all sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Dear reader, I hope you now understand that Jesus didn’t die because God was upset with him, but that the purpose of his death was love and to reconcile you to God. Jesus also didn’t come to this world just to be an example of morality but came to die and give us access to the life of God which helps us naturally live above sin.
A lot of Prophets also spoke about Jesus and in his life, he fulfilled every single prophecy. Here are some examples:
Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. When the deed had been done, he returned the money to the Priests and went to hang himself. However, the Priests felt it wasn’t right to put the money back into the treasury because it was payment for murder, so they bought a potter’s field and turned it into a cemetery for foreigners.
‘This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says,
“They took the thirty pieces of silver — the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel, and purchased the potter’s field, as the Lord directed. ”
In Psalm 22, King David paints a wonderfully poetic and prophetic picture of the emotions Jesus must have felt on the cross. In verse 18 he says,
They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
This actually happened. When Jesus was crucified, the soldiers cast lots for his clothing. Remember that David lived thousands of years before Jesus and there are various records from eyewitnesses that confirm that lots were cast for the clothing. Also, remember that the disciples weren’t learned scholars for the most part and probably didn’t even know that psalm until after Jesus died and the Holy Spirit helped them make the connection.
After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. Matthew 27:35
This example is my personal favourite because Jesus himself confirmed that the prophecy spoken by the Prophet Isaiah had been fulfilled.
‘The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord ’s favor has come. He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”’ Luke 4:17–21
I could go on and on but this story is already long enough.
Jesus lived as a human being however, he did not commit any sin. Not because he couldn’t, but because he chose not to. He restrained himself because of love. Remember that he was tempted by Satan. He was actually tempted, but he chose not to give in to the temptation. Scripture isn’t cavalier with words. If it says he was tempted, it means he was tempted.
Jesus death on the Cross meant that he took on the punishment meant for you and bore the full weight of God’s justice and wrath on your behalf. He actually died.
Jesus himself became a sacrificial lamb and made it possible for every single human being to come before God. By accepting Christ, his record of righteousness is imputed to you. You become like God. You don’t have to do anything to earn this. You just have to believe that Jesus died for you and rose again on the third day and confess that he is LORD and SAVIOUR. That’s all!
Jesus sacrifice means that enmity and strife between God and man because of sin have ended and God wants to reconcile ALL men to him through Jesus Christ.
Think this is somehow too good to be true? God did something similar with a bronze snake.
‘So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!’ Numbers 21:6–9
Despite all they had done, all they had to do was look at the snake and be healed.
Jesus himself said this:
‘And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.
John 3:14–15
All you need to do is believe. Are you ready to say yes to love? The full price has been paid. Just receive it, and rest.
6 Responses
Expository write-up on the subject of salvation.
Love how you laid bare the place of Grace and faith for salvation and discountenance works of the law as a requirement for human redemption.
I’m blessed reading your blog, you are a light 💡, continue to shine.
Thank you so much for this 🙏🏾 Never seen the creation story and Jesus’s death from this perspective🙏🏾
Thank you so much Raks Doe taking out time to write and explain salvation in so simple terms , I am enlightened even more than before.
The “landlord and the tenant ” illustration got me and now It’s even clearer why it is important that I pray….
Love you Raks🤎
Thank you so much Raks for taking out time to write and explain salvation in so simple terms , I am enlightened even more than before.
The “landlord and the tenant ” illustration got me and now It’s even clearer why it is important that I pray….
Love you Raks🤎
Itís nearly impossible to find educated people about this subject, however, you seem like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks