God is Love
Have you ever heard that God is love?
1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love. I often hear that God is love. My problem with that statement is that it uses two of the most difficult words to define, to define each other. Here is what I mean, people hold a wide range of ideas connected with the word “God” and the same is true of the word “love” so I can say God is love and people can have all kinds of ideas of what that statement means. I am not saying the statement is incorrect. I am just saying that we need some context in order to better appreciate the truths expressed by that statement.
Personally, I find that the cross really helps clarify what God is like. I believe that many of the key characteristics of God come to light when we better understand Jesus’ death on the cross.
The Cross
Though the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus may be familiar to many, I would like to take a moment to re-tell it here. But I wish to do it by stepping back and seeing how it fits in the great scheme of life the universe and everything.
The death of Jesus on the cross can be really hard to understand. Some think that God was angry at us and wanted to destroy us all but Jesus stepped in and saved us.
Some think the whole thing was a ploy, a cunning plan, to show us God’s love and make us love and worship Him.
Some think that God had a plan in place, but it was not a very good plan, so He sent Jesus to update it and now we can experience salvation 2.0 Grace Edition.
The Plan of Salvation
I would like to propose to you that the death of Jesus plays a crucial role in God’s plan of salvation and that it was meant to be from the very beginning (1 Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8). I do not mean that God meant for us to fall, but rather that the plan was in place even before we fell. The Bible teaches that there is only one plan of salvation, and Jesus is the only way (Acts 4:12; John 14:6).
If we want to have a better understanding of God’s plan of salvation we need to go all the way back to the beginning.
Creation - A Perfect World
Our Story begins with God, and He is creating everything through His Word. Genesis describes God speaking and the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:20). John 1 identifies the Word of God as Jesus. So effectively, we have the trinity involved in the creation of life on our planet. God creates and organizes, and by the time He is done everything is very good (Genesis 1:31). Not only did God create our planet as stated in Genesis 1 and 2 and John 1, but Colossians 1:17 also reaffirms that in Jesus all things consist.
Everything that is, is because of Jesus, and can only continue to be in Jesus.
Do you follow the story so far? God created a perfect world. Humans, animals, and plants live in perfect harmony in a physical world. There is nothing wrong with the world at this point.
The Problem - Why So Much Suffering?
Now we run into a problem.
Because if Jesus created and sustains everything that exists and we have pain and suffering and death and all kinds of terrible things, does that mean that Jesus created that as well?
We would say no! As Bible students, we claim these terrible things are the results of sin, the result of rebellion against God.
The next question then becomes where did sin originate?
Which is a great question.
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.
— Isaiah 14:12-14 NKJV
Another passage that describes Lucifer is found in Ezekiel 28:12-19 (I don't think the literal king of Tyre was in Eden the garden of God).
So God created a perfect angel called Lucifer and he rebelled against God.
However, sin did not affect the Earth until Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:5-6). Adam and Eve essentially chose to trust Satan instead of God.
From this point on Adam and Eve were doomed to die because God said if they ate the forbidden fruit they would die (Gen. 2:17).
A Legal Problem
We can see that sin is a legal problem because its wages is death (Romans 6:23). God had made this clear in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15-17).
A Relational Problem
Sin, however, is also a relational problem because it separates us from God, this is why Adam and Eve hid from God (Gen. 3:8), and now we can no longer face God for our sins hide His face from us (Isa. 59:2).
A Governmental Problem
Finally, sin is also a governmental problem since sin is rebellion against God and His government, against His laws (1 John 3:4), therefore "he who sins is of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Satan wants to be God, he desires for us to break God’s laws and live under his influence.
What about me?
Due to the first two humans sinning we are condemned to die for "in Adam all die" (1Cor. 15:22) because that was the consequence of eating the fruit from the forbidden tree.
Because Adam plunged humanity into rebellion against God and His government, we are predisposed to disobey God's laws from birth (Ps. 51:5). This is why we face the struggle mentioned in Romans 7:21-25. Though we are not born guilty of sin, we are born with a tendency to sin, that is to disobey God rather than obey Him.
Part 3. The Solution - Jesus is The Solution!
Thankfully, God has a solution for this problem, Jesus is the solution.
In the same way that all of humanity is doomed to die in Adam, in Jesus we can all be saved (1Cor. 15:21-22). Not meaning that we were physically or spiritually inside of Jesus, but rather that He paid the wages of sin, He died for us, that is, in our place.
God has to punish sin in order to save His government. Sending Jesus to die for us is how God chose to save us without encouraging more rebellion. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
Why not just change the law?
For God to change His law, would mean that Satan was right and God’s law was problematic, God’s leadership was flawed and therefore someone might be a better leader. But with the death of Jesus on the cross, God both upheld His law (it remains perfect), and God still found a way to save all who wish to be saved.
In order to understand how salvation works, we must understand the Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary
The sinner comes voluntarily to the sanctuary, confesses his sins while laying his hands on the head of the lamb transferring (symbolically) his sins to the innocent lamb (or sacrificial animal, bull, goat...) (Lev 4:4,24).
Thus the sinner is separated from the sin, an exchange is made, and the lamb is sacrificed fulfilling the penalty for sin. The sacrificial substitute must die in the sinner's place, then the sinner must depend on the priest who represents the sinner, to complete the process (Lev.4-5).
We are the sinners, and Christ is the Lamb, who died for our sins, and the Priest who makes the atonement (Heb.4:15; 7; 9:7,15), thus the law is fulfilled.
Even though the price was paid for sin and the legal part has been taken care of, we need to have faith in order to be saved (Eph.2:8).
Faith
According to John 3:16, whosoever believes (has faith) in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. However, it is not just any faith, we must have faith in God (Mark 11:22), and a faith that works outwardly (James 2:14-17). We must have a practical faith that does what God wills despite our feelings or thoughts (Heb.11).
Making it Practical
This is the subjective part, this is what affects our personal lives, we must practice righteousness (1 John 3:7, 1 Tim 6:11-12), salvation is a real experience.
Part 4. The Culmination - The Second Coming of Jesus
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
We can never forget that there is a future part to salvation when we are taken to heaven, where God has prepared new homes for us (John 14:1-3, Rev. 1:6; 21:4; 22:12).
