3/21/2023
By Elijah McSwain, Sr.
Salvation is a major theme of the Bible. It entails of the redemptive history of God to reconcile a fallen world back to Himself. Reconciliation, of course, is demonstrated through the exercise of faith in the salvific work of the cross in connection with the personage of Jesus.
The Bible is a collection of holy sacred writings that pertains to the creation of man, the fall of man, the waywardness of mankind throughout different intervals of human history, and the redemptive plan of God to bestow salvation to the lost as a means of reconciliation through repentance, faith, belief, and confession in Jesus.
In order to better understand salvation being the ultimate aim in Scripture, we must analyze the problematic issue that led to the unveiling of salvation.
The Problematic Issue
Shortly after mankind was created, as a human race, we fell from our holy state which by default was our initial creative design by God through Adam. Adam stood as the representative for all of mankind. Any action that he took would set the course for our future as he was given federal headship. Federal headship in this sense is based on the representation of a group, the human race, through the person of Adam. Adam’s lack of exercising good judgment of obedience to God caused the world to head in a down spiral state as he fell is his federal headship over all of mankind. By the course of his disobedience unto God, it allowed sin to enter the ranks of the world.
The writings of Romans 5:12 records, "through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned."
“The Fall” created separation and alienation from God due to sin being introduced into the world via Adam. Up until sin entered the world, mankind did not know separation from God because the first humans, Adam and Eve, experienced perfect harmony and fellowship with God up until the time of “The Fall”. The very act of disregard for adhering to the command of God gave way for the human race through Adam to enter into a spiritual state of death. The short-lived state of holiness after creation was replaced by an infectious condition of sinfulness that produced eternal death apart from God.
Humanity fell from grace as Adam willingly choose to ignore God and in the process, fellowship was distorted between the first man and his divine Creator.
“It must be kept in mind that Adam and Eve were free moral agents. That while they were sinless beings, it was possible for them to sin, just as it was possible for them not to sin. The sin of our first parents was purely volition; it was an act of their own determination. Their sin was, like all other sin, a voluntary act of the will.”2
As represented through Adam, humanity failed in their vocation to adhere to the standard of God by missing the mark. Sin equates to simply missing the mark or the standard set forth by God. The instruction of God was given unto Adam and by him knowing what was required of him, he then purposefully chose to operate by the seat of his own desire and will. Consequently, he exalted his own will over the will of God.
“Originally man was made to be the created image of God, to live in union with God’s divine life, and to rule over all creation. Adam and Eve’s failure in this task is their sin which is known as “the fall of man. The fall of man means that man failed in his God-given vocation. This is the meaning of Genesis 3. Adam and Eve were seduced by evil, the serpent, into believing that they could be “like God” by their own will and effort.”5
The very act of operating from the seat of one’s own will and ignoring the commands of God equates to rebellion.
Rebellion through disobedience opened the pathway for sin, death, hell, and the vengeance of God set against man. Thus, a great gulf was wedged between God and mankind. Hence, relationally without God the human populace was headed for ruin and destruction.
The Scriptures and God’s Plan of Salvation
The premise by which mankind needed to be delivered from the malady of sin could not come through human methodologies or solutions. “The great rift that stood between man and God could not be appeased by any human effort and human intellect, or any human influence to bridge the gap in order to bring a sinful creation back into a rightful fellowship with God.
Therefore, it is inevitably clear that salvation could not be a product of the curse or “The Fall” of man. Salvation could not be a process engineered through human invention, human philosophy, human reasoning, or human methodology resultant upon the fact that sinfulness cannot reconcile sinfulness. The very nature that tainted the souls of men cannot provide the remedy or the solution to the pandemic of sin given that mankind does no possess the ability to bring about redemption, reconciliation, or the cure for their own immorality. The solution of providing resolve for sin had to subsist outside the realm of sinfulness.”4
Early in the Genesis account of Scripture particularly Genesis 3:7-21, we see the outworking plan of God’s salvation when God came searching in the garden for Adam and Eve. In His searching, He provided garments of skin from the slaying of an innocent animal; which signified that His covering for the nakedness of mankind superseded the symbolism of the figs leaves that Adam and Eve tied together to hide their nakedness when their eyes were opened after The Fall.
John MacArthur quoted that “the nature of God is to seek and save sinners. From the opening pages of human history, it was God who sought out the fallen couple in the Garden.”3
Paul would concur that Jesus came on a rescue mission to save sinners by His declaration in 1 Timothy 1:15 which states "this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The word salvation in passages like Acts 4:12 that is penned "and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved", carries the idea that salvation means safety or rescue.
The Bible highlights salvation in the Old Testament and New Testament, whereby, God introduced the theme of salvation in the Bible through symbols and antitypes. The symbolism and antitypes can be seen in the passages outlined below:
Provided covering: Genesis 3:21
Promise of the Seed: Genesis 3:15
Day of Atonement: Leviticus 23:27
Sacrifices of innocent animals to cover sin: Leviticus 1:1-5
The virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14 foreshadowed the virgin birth in Matthew 1:23
God’s salvation depicted through redemption by returning unto Him: Isaiah 44:22
Jesus is displayed as the ultimate sacrifice for sin: John 1:29 & Hebrews 10:1-10
God’s demonstration of love: Romans 5:8
Faith in Jesus justifies as a means of salvation: Romans 4: 23 - 5:2
Await the final culmination of our salvation: 1 Peter 1:5
Max Lucado made mention that “though the Bible was written over sixteen centuries by at least forty authors, it has one central theme—salvation through faith in Christ.” 6
Max Lucado further asserts that “the purpose of the Bible is simply to proclaim God’s plan to save. It asserts that man is lost and needs to be saved. And it communicates the message that Jesus is God in the flesh sent to save.”6
God sent Jesus to reclaim a lost world. John 3:16 paints this narrative in that "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."
The redemptive narrative of the Bible speaks of God’s desire to reclaim His creation of fallen mankind. His desire entails of Him longing to restore humanity back to a holy state. The redemptive avenue to reclaim the world is revealed in the exertion of God’s divine will. Richard Lints proclaimed “that redemption is the activity of God that unfolds over time, which projects the story of God’s involvement with creation in a restoring manner. Redemption with His people is acted out on the stage of history with many distinct but related parts.”1
The Holy Scriptures highlight that salvation is its ultimate end and theme. The lost are able to be granted eternal life by repentance, belief, and confession in Jesus as the Savior, who was given to set humanity free from the bondage of sin and death.
References:
Bingham, Jeffrey and Glenn Kreider. Dispenstionalism and the History of Redemption. 2015.
William Evans. The Great Doctrines of the Bible. 1974.
John MacArthur. The MacArthur Study Bible.
Elijah McSwain, Sr. The Great Debate Over The Doctrine Of Salvation. 2021.
https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/what-is-the-fall-of-man-genesis-3-explained.html
https://www.christianquotes.info/top-quotes/20-awesome-quotes-salvation/