God has Come to Our Rescue

God has come to our rescue.

Consider the significance of the condition in which we come into this world, not only bearing Adam’s guilt but also spiritually dead and with a sin nature. We’re not only unable to relate to God spiritually, but also, because of our sin nature, reject God and constantly seek after evil. Like Adam and Eve, our natural inclination is to hide from God and go our own way, relying on ourselves. Our focus is on ourselves, and we are driven by greed, lust, pride, and selfishness.

Since we come into the world in the same condition Adam and Eve found themselves after they sinned, we need the same two things they needed. First, we need God to draw us to Himself in spite of our fallen nature and dead spirit. Second, we need Him to provide a covering for our sins, a means to remove the barrier to fellowship caused by sin. We’ll examine God’s response to those needs in reverse order, first examining how He has provided a means to cover the sins of every person ever born, to remove the sin barrier to fellowship between Him and fallen man.

That means is through Jesus Christ. God sent His own sinless Son to pay the price for all sin. When Jesus died on the cross, all sin was covered, past, present, and future. Because of His sacrifice, the sinless for the sinner (2 Cor. 5:21), sin itself is no longer a barrier between natural man and God. This is an important point: Jesus paid the sin debt for all, period. Regarding sin, God is satisfied. There is no further penalty to be paid for sin.

In addition to Jesus paying our sin debt, God has graciously provided us a means to obtain the benefit of that payment, eternal fellowship with God, spiritual life. That means is through faith in the one who paid the debt, Jesus Christ.

This is no different from the way God redeemed Adam and Eve and other Old Testament saints, but for the fact that they lived and died before Christ came, and we live and die after Christ came. Before Christ came, sin was temporarily covered by sacrifice, looking forward to His permanent payment for sin, which we now enjoy. We saw that in the example of God covering not onlyAdam and Eve’s bodies, but also their sin, through animal sacrifice.

Though Adam, Eve, and other Old Testament saints couldn’t specifically place their faith in Jesus, who was yet to come, they did place their faith in God the Father. They looked to Him for salvation in light of His revelation of Himself up to that point. Their faith was credited to them as righteousness,¹ and they were saved on the basis of Christ’s future coming to pay the sin debt for all mankind.

Since all sin debt has been paid, sin isn’t the ultimate barrier that separates us from God. Man isn’t condemned because of sin. He’s condemned for not placing his faith in the One who paid the debt, Jesus Christ. Recognizing Him for who He is, and trusting in Him for one’s salvation, is what is meant by “believing in” Him and having “faith in Him.” It is looking to Christ for salvation, without a backup plan.

When we put our faith in Christ, we pass from spiritual death to spiritual life. This is what is meant by being “born again;” we obtain new life, one we never had, spiritual life. We are no longer lost, separated from God. On the contrary, we are eternally part of God’s family, with His Spirit living in us and allowing us to relate to Him and fellowship with Him. In this life God works all things to our good (Rom. 8:28), and after physical death He provides us with a glorious eternity with Him in heaven.

The truth that one obtains eternal life by believing in Jesus is stated in many verses and many ways in the New Testament, including the single verse in the Bible best known by both believers and unbelievers, John 3:16:

For  God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Scripture is also plain regarding unbelievers who never come to faith in Jesus Christ. They remain lost, spiritually dead.² After teaching that those who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal life, the Apostle John continues:

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 3:17–18)

John is saying that those who don’t believe in Jesus have fallen under God’s judgement. As long as they remain unbelievers they are condemned. They remain spiritually dead, unable to understand Him, love Him, or connect with Him for the good.

On the contrary, they are at war with God. He doesn’t work all things out to their good, and if they die in a state of unbelief they will spend an eternity in Hell, separated from God. The question then arises as to why anyone would choose eternal separation from God over eternal glory with God, particularly when the only requirement for the latter is to place one’s faith in Jesus Christ.