To
understand the meaning of salvation, one must understand what salvation
is. Dictionary.com defines salvation as
“the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction”. The word “salvation” in the Biblical sense
means “deliverance.” What is it we need
salvation from and how do we get it? To
answer this question, we are going to take a little trip.
In
Genesis 3, we read the account of man’s fall at the Garden of Eden. But before we read the account, we must
rewind to Genesis 2, “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any
tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will
surely die” (Genesis 2:16,17). At this
point, creation was beautiful.
Relationship between creation and Creator was in perfect harmony and
fellowship. Nothing stood in the way
between the two and in all its glory, creation was perfect, until we reach
chapter 3. What changed? What came between the perfect fellowship
between creation and Creator? The answer
is one word: sin. Sin is simply
disobedience to God. When sin entered,
the relationship became separated.
When
one reads the Scriptures, the effects of sin upon creation became obvious. In the previous chapter we read about
Christianity being a relationship, in essence, it is the restoration of a
relationship that has been separated. In
Genesis 2, the resulting consequence of disobedience is death. Did you know that death is separation? What most people argue the reasons on why God
did not immediately cause Adam and Eve to die, I believe it is important to
understand that death is separation. At
the moment that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, their relationship with the Creator
died or became separated. It was God’s
holiness and man’s sinfulness that caused the separation.
With
this basic understanding in mind, let us now take another trip to gather a
better understanding, this time to the book of Romans. In this sixth book of the New Testament,
there is a road that is found within its marvelous passages, a road that helps
to bring clarity and understanding of a relationship that was separated. Not only that, it brings to light the answer
of how that divided relationship between creation and Creator can be
restored. It is most often called the
Romans Road to Salvation and within these simple verses, lies the greatest
story ever told in a nutshell.
Everyone is a sinner
For all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
When sin became a part of
the human race, it consequences had a far reaching impact, notice the word
“all” in this verse. It was not
relegated to one or two people, it was spread throughout the human race like a
cancer. One of the key arguments that I
have heard concerning the way to Heaven or to be in a right relationship with
God is we just simply must be a good person.
In Romans 3:10, Paul writes, “As it is written, "THERE IS NONE
RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE.” There is an
importance in understanding the meaning of the word righteousness. It is translated from the word “dikaios” (dik'-ah-yos)
meaning innocent or holy. When Paul
wrote this, he was actually repeating a text from the Psalms 14:3, “They have
all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does
good, not even one”. What a dreadful
thought concerning the human race, there is no one who is innocent, there is no
one who does good. To really get what
Paul is saying, it would be better understood as this, there is no one who is
good enough or holy enough to be in a right relationship with God, there is no
one who is good enough or Holy enough to get into Heaven. Each one of us, no matter who we are or where
we are from have sinned and each one of us have fallen short of God’s
glory. The Greek word in which “glory” is
translated from speaks of praise.
Another way to view this is found in John 12:44, “For they loved the
approval of men rather than the approval of God.” Now let’s go back to the idea of Christianity
being a relationship. Being in a
relationship, our desire is to honor that in which we are in a relationship
with and in return we receive approbation from the one we honor or love. The most important commandment as expressed
by Jesus in Matthew 22:37 is to “LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND” and the second one is to love
others as yourself. Any action that
fails to honor those two commandments is a sin.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they failed to honor God and instead of
praise, they suffered the judgment of God for their disobedience, death.
The wages of sin is death
For the wages of sin is death, but the
free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
What
a bleak outlook. It is bad enough that
we have all sinned, it is even worse that the wages of sin is death. There is a payment that is required, but
unfortunately, we are not able to make that payment by our own doing. In our vain attempt in doing so, we will
forced to face eternal separation from God.
It is not just a physical death that is being referred to here. It is the spiritual and the eternal. It is this death that occurred
instantaneously at the Garden of Eden during man’s disobedience. No hope, no fellowship, no joy. To stop there though is to miss the
blessing. Thankfully, there is more to
the verse than the revelation of that sin brings death. For following the first clause of the verse
is the word “but”. Paul, the author of
Romans, has given us the bad news, but…
What a wonderful turn of events.
All
of us have sinned and the wages of sin is death, but...
From bad news now to good
news: the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord. What
phenomenal news. Sin costs us, but God
has given to us a free gift. Sin equals
separation and death but God’s gift is life!
It is reconciliation! It is
bridging the chasm that separates us from our Creator. What is this free gift of eternal life in
Christ Jesus? The answer to that
question is found at the next stop on the Romans Road.
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