Why do we need a Savior?

 

Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man [Adam in the book of Genesis] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  We are all sinners, born under the law of sin and death (if you sin, you must die), and we, by our own power, cannot escape the punishment of death that we deserve.  But that is not the end of the story!

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1 Corinthians 15:21-22, “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”

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The only way for humans to escape the law of sin and death was for someone to die, someone who had never sinned, blameless before God.  But there was no such person on Earth.  So God Himself came down as a man and died in our place, being nailed to a cross, but three days later, He came to life again and ascended into Heaven.  Now we wait for His return when He will make all things new, and we can once again be free from death, pain, temptation, and fear, and those who have accepted Jesus will live for eternity in Heaven.

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Jesus didn't have to die for us; Ephesians 2:8 says, "for by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."​
 

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How do we get to Heaven?

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So, how do we accept Jesus?

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Thankfully, the Bible gives us a very clear answer to that.

In the book of Acts (Acts 2:37-38), some people asked the same question, “What shall we do?”  One of Jesus’ disciples answered them and said, “Repent, even each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

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After following the plan of salvation laid out for us in Acts, we are commanded in Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, and righteously and godly in the present age…”

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God will help us conquer our temptations if we turn to Him and pray for His aid.  Galatians 5:1, ”It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

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If we do this, we can say with the apostle Paul, “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable...But when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘death is swallowed up in victory.  Oh, death, where is your victory?  Oh, death, where is your sting?’  The sting of death is sin...But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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“Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.  Submit therefore to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

James 4:7-8

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- Clay Riggs