As we ponder our life and the experiences we have had on our journey, one of the activities one might have experienced is Christmas and all that comes along with that season. If any of us have ever attended a church play, or watched a Christmas program on TV we will have for sure heard the account from the Bible found in Luke chapter 2.
Luke 2:8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Okay, let’s just think about that statement a bit. Here are some shepherds tending their flock and an angel shows up and says to them, “Unto you a savior is born”! Do you suppose that one of these shepherds might have looked at one of the other shepherds and said, “Do we need a savior?” One might have replied, “What is a Savior?”
The question of “Why would anyone need a savior” would certainly then lead us to the question of “What or who is a savior, or who is qualified to be a savior?” To begin to determine the definition of a savior, we will first go to the dictionary. The American Heritage Dictionary gives this definition for a savior.
sav·ior 1. A person who rescues another from harm, danger, or loss. 2. Savior. Jesus.
Let’s look at a savior from the natural realm. If a person should rescue another person from a life-threatening situation, such as #1 a burning building or #2 a car wreck that ends in an explosion, then the person, who rescued the person in danger, would normally be called a hero but according to the dictionary “savior” could also be grammatically correct.
Certainly in each case above a person could have lost their life, if the “savior of the moment” had not been there to perform the rescue. One might say, “You saved my life"! One might even refer to them as their “savior.” Of course this is pertaining to a natural situation on earth in the here and now. The persons in our above hypothetical dangers were definitely in need of a savior and they had a savior show up in our hypothetical situations used here.
Let’s examine the opposite possible result with this question, “What if no one had been there in either of the above hypothetical situations to rescue the person in danger? If no one was present of near those people in danger, then the outcome might have been tragic and there could have actually been a loss of physical life. A life cut short is always a tragic end.
This could possibly bring up a question to our mind, “Is there any form of a conscience life that continues for each individual human being after the death of our natural body”?
This is a question that is discussed by many people on the earth today! A serious question here; “Is there some form of life after our physical life on earth is over”? If one should live to the fullest of life to a ripe old age or if a life should be cut short by some tragic circumstance, is this present life, as we know it here and now, all that there is to our existance? Does every person just cease to exist after we die?
Our investigation will assume the position that there is a future life after this natural life here on earth has expired. This assumption also lends itself to another question. What is the origin of our natural life here on the earth?
There are some, who are of the opinion that mankind evolved from primeval ooze through vast amounts of time. There are some that hold the view that mankind was created by a Supernatural Being, usually known as God or the Lord. Either would point to some origin in the distant past.
Our investigation will assume the position that God created the heavens and the earth and also that God created mankind in His own image, and that God placed mankind on the earth with authority over the earth. Of course we are taking our position from the Bible that begins with the book of Genesis. It is highly suggested that one would take the time to read this account in Genesis and become familiar with the individuals participating in this great Bible account of the history of mankind’s beginnings on the earth as per the scriptures.
We see the Lord God along with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Lord is giving them orentitation of their environment and how there are to rule and have dominion on the earth. There is one point of the orentitation that is highly important to this examination or discussion as we may call it. Remember the question here. Why does anyone need a savior?
This is such an important point to the above question, that we will use a scripture from this Biblical account in Genesis to stimulate our thinking and understanding.
Gen 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to 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 of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.
Notice that the Lord did not say, “I will kill you”! The Lord said, “If you eat the fruit of this tree you will surely die”! The fruit of this tree contained everything that opposed the Lord God. It contained death. It contained sin. It contained every evil known to mankind that we see in the world today.
Well, one might ask, “How did all this evil of sin and death get released into the earth and affect mankind”? We will introduce our next entity or being in the Garden of Eden account. This would be an ancient created being named Lucifer.
At one point in time past, Lucifer held a high position in the kingdom of God and served God faithfully for some period of time. However, at some point in time, Lucifer made an attempt at a hostile takeover of the Throne of God. Lucifer was utterly defeated and kicked out of heaven and given a name change. He is now named Satan and given the titles of “the Devil” and “that old serpent the dragon”.
Just as when he was Lucifer and he challenged God for His Throne, we now see him in the Garden of Eden as the serpent with a plan to try a similar hostile takeover of the earth from Adam and Eve. The serpent, the Devil, beguiled Eve to the point that she ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Then she gave it to Adam and he chooses to eat of the same fruit with her.
What was the warning statement that the Lord God gave mankind in the Garden of Eden? The day you shall eat of it, you will surely die! The word “surely” is there because the KJV translators did not have good understanding of this passage. In the original Hebrew text the word for “die” is there twice! It should have read in English, “Dying you will die”!
This is the most critical point in the whole of our understanding that we hold to be truth. When Adam ate the fruit of that tree, spiritual death entered him instantly and his seed became tainted with sin and death. As we read of his life we see that he died physically at the age of 930 years.
Again, just as the Lord had said, Adam and Eve died spiritually the day they ate the fruit of that tree. The reason is because the law of sin and death entered him the day he ate the fruit and then his physical body followed suite and began to die and lay down and died at the age of 930 years.
After this huge mistake of judgment in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve, God, in His love for mankind, began to describe, through out the whole Old Testament, of how a redeemer, a savior of mankind would manifest and how He would be brought into the earth. The purpose was so that this evil success by the Devil against God’s man, or mankind (male and female), could be reversed. This is none other than Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God and the Son of man, birthed into the earth almost 2,000 years ago by the Virgin Mary.
God loved his beautiful creation of the earth and God loved his innocent, holy and righteous man, who was created in His Own image! God commanded them to be fruitful and multiply on the earth. God had a great desire to have an earth full of people, created in His Image, with whom He could fellowship and enjoy on a one to one basis.
With this brief summary, we can come to an analytical answer to the question with which we started this examination. Why would anyone need a savior? Well the answer is “EVERONE”, who is a descendant of Adam i.e. every human being on the earth is in need of a Savior!
We can see that Satan, the Devil in the Garden of Eden, had gained and entrance into the man through Adam’s disobedience to the commandment of God, which was to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam’s seed was tainted with “sin and death”. So when Adam and Eve begin bearing children that law of sin and death passed to their descendants. Although we looked so cute and adorable, every human being born into the earth is a descendant of Adam. We all tested "sin positive" at the time of our birth.
Let’s look at New Testament scriptures, which explains this whole problem of “sin and death” being resident in all human beings born into the earth. Romans explain this in detail.
Rom 5:8 But God has commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved (by a Savior) from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that (one sin of Adam) all have sinned: (it was passed to us through our genes from Adam)
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one (Adam) many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned (Adam), so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man's offence (Adam) death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one (Adam) judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one (Jesus Christ) the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience (Adam) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Jesus Christ) shall many be made righteous.
What we have examined here should make it very clear that we simply received the “sin and death nature” through the genes of our great, great many times again, grandfather Adam.
We should also be able to see that EVERYONE needs a savior. In the scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ is called “The Last Adam.” The first Adam put his lineage into the debt of “sin and death.” In the Garden of Eden, Adam sold his progeny into slavery to the Devil and the Devil has a legal claim on every man and woman born into the earth, through “the law of sin and death”. All men are born into the earth as a slave to sin and death. We all tested “sin positive” at our birth! We all need The Savior and The Redeemer, who is the Lord Jesus Christ!
One might ask, “Well how do I make that happen in my life”? Well, the Lord made it so easy that every human being on the earth can accomplish this with ease. It is as simple as believing in our heart and confessing with out mouth. See! Nothing complicated here!
Rom 10:8 But what does the scriptures say? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture says, whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
See how easy that is to accomplish? The question we must ask our self is, do we believe the scriptures?
Do we believe the scriptures that Jesus is who He said He was?
Do we believe the scriptures that Jesus was the Son of God?
Do we believe the scriptures that Jesus lived a sinless life?
Do we believe the scriptures that Jesus was made to be sin for us and atoned for our sin?
Do we believe the scriptures that Jesus died on the cross according to the scripture?
Do we believe the scriptures that Jesus was buried and rose again on the third day?
Do we believe the scriptures that Jesus accomplished what the scriptures said that He accomplished?
If we actually believe these statements in out heart and we are confident and willing to confess these statements with our mouth out loud as Truth, then we only need to finish by asking Jesus to become our Savior and ask Jesus to become the Lord of our life and He will be more than happy to do so according to the scriptures as He promised.
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Depending on where you were raised on the earth, different men have a different style or message when preaching salvation. There are those who have preached a hell, fire and brimstone message to try to scare folks into confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior just so we can escape the horrors of hell fire after we die. With those sermons came the feeling that we are the worst sinners and just scum of the earth that have ever been and frankly some of us might have been.
If that is the case and only worm low sinners need a Savior, then where does that leave some of us “pretty good folks”? Some of us are good people and try to do good as often as we can. We help our fellowman. We don’t commit adultery. We are honest in business. We only lie when it is absolutely really necessary. We could go on and on about all of our good deeds on the earth. Surely, that has got to account for something in the judgment in heaven! Right?
Many feel that when we stand before God that He will lay all of our “good deeds” on one side of the scales and all of our “bad deeds” on the other side of the scale. Which way the scale tips will determine our eternal destiny. We should be willing to consider the counsel of this thinking and compare it with the Word of God as the discerner of every thought and the intents of the heart. The book of James states; “If we offend in one point we are guilty of the whole law”! The righteousness of God is like a plate glass. If you shoot a BB through it or drive a truck through, it is broken. EVERYONE has offend in one point and EVERYONE needs a Savior.
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Please give consideration to the fact that the only reason that anyone would need a Savior is because of the sin that our forefather Adam committed, which tainted his seed with “sin and death.” All of mankind born of Adam inherited the “sin and death nature” from Grandfather Adam.
Even Mary, the mother of Jesus, needed a Savior and her Savior was her own son! That is pretty heavy in the scope of eternity.
Grace and Peace multiplied in the name of Jesus.
Compiled by Jerry Thomas 10/15/18
All scripture references are (KJV) unless otherwise denoted.
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