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Why Do We Need A Saviour?

Jesus is the Saviour. Saviour from what? Why do we need a Saviour? Many people seem to live great lives without God. They have wonderful families, they work hard, and they sacrificially benefit society. They are good people. Life is working well for them. Do they need a Saviour? Sure, drug addicts, people with broken marriages and others in trouble could use Someone to help them. If a higher Power can do that, why not? But what about the nice people, the good people? What benefit would Christianity be to them? What exactly would they be saved from?

Some realize that however good this life may be, the life after death’s doorway continues forever. A good life now, without a good life later, would be a tragic miscalculation. They feel we need a Saviour to save us from Hell. We need a wonderful life now and after death. What’s a few Sundays of church-going if it secures our future? Wrong! Jesus did not come to save us from Hell. The Christian’s salvation is not some fire insurance we take out so we can have the best of both worlds.

If We Have A Good Life, Why Do We Need A Saviour?

Remember what Esther said to her husband, King Ahasuerus, in Esther 7, verse 4?

Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have kept silent, because the distress would not be sufficient reason to burden the king.”

Esther would not have bothered the king except for the most dire emergency - the planned total annihilation of her people. In the same way, the entire human race going to the Hell that we so richly deserve for our hateful and rebellious way would not have been worth the Son of God leaving heaven to save us.

If we can live good lives on earth without God, and Jesus didn’t come to save us from Hell, then why do we need a Saviour? What can He possibly offer us?

Below, I will reveal the most offensive fact of the Christian Gospel, but first, let’s look at why we need a Saviour.

We need a Saviour in order to become human. Look in the mirror. What you are seeing is a member of the unhuman race. The dictionary defines unhuman as “not resembling or having the qualities of a human being.” Take a good look in that mirror. What you see is the form of a human being, but what is inside is a hideous perversion of true humanity. Lurking behind that smile and good life is a being so twisted and deformed that it cannot be salvaged. It is a being - like every one of us - that needs a Saviour.

Human Independence

Do you resent this? After all, how could a good, pleasant person with a beautiful family, a good job, and a concern for social issues be described like that? How dare anyone think that of the person staring back at you from the mirror! It flies in the face of all decency and self-respect. It attacks our proud independence.

Remember the words of the poet William Earnst Henley?

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

We all want to be the master of our fate, the captain of our soul. We will proudly defy anyone who says otherwise. We ARE good people, and we ARE in control. And therein lies the issue. That is not how human beings were designed to operate; that is how unhuman beings operate in their world of delusion. Do you think you are in control? What about when the drunk driver crosses into your lane? What about when you hear the cancer diagnosis? What about when you get fired or your spouse leaves you? What about creeping Alzheimer’s? How much control do you have then?

Only Three True Humans

There have only been three true human beings in the history of the world. Only three people had the potential to experience real humanity as it was designed to be, and only One actually achieved it. Adam, Eve, and Jesus were the only ones who experienced what it was like to be fully human.

What is the original design, and what does it mean to be fully human? We could examine the creation history and discover many parts of humanity, but the key is found in the life of Jesus, Who modelled perfect humanity.

We see the first clue in Genesis 3, verse 8.

Now they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…

Communion with God was a normal part of Adam And Eve’s life before the Fall. It was a beautiful, unfolding relationship as part of their core design. Mankind was never designed to be independent of God. Since, in the Bible, a new day started in the evening, Adam and Eve started each day talking with God, discussing past and future events while developing their relationship.

Look at the life of Jesus…

And in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and prayed there for a time. Mark 1:35, NASB

But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Luke 5:16, NASB

Jesus, as the perfect Human, spent a lot of time developing His relationship with the Father. It was His joy and His delight. Having an interpersonal relationship with God is how we are designed to operate. Without it, we are unhuman - not fully human. But there is more…

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same way. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. John 5:19-20, NASB

Not only did Jesus spend time with the Father, but His heart was so united with God that He did only what pleased the Father: true unity and love expressed in selfless service to others.

Some may object by saying that Jesus was also God. Jesus was indeed fully God and fully human. But Paul teaches in Philippians 2, verse 7, that Jesus laid aside His divinity when He came to earth. This means that Jesus did nothing on earth except by the power of the Holy Spirit in accordance with the will of the Father. Until His work on the Cross, Jesus did nothing that a Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit and following the will of God, cannot do.

While we like to focus on Jesus's miracles, being fully human will focus more on His character. If you want to understand humanity’s original design, read and study the life of Jesus. He was filled with compassion for the people and the suffering He saw around Him. He courageously stood against powerful oppressors. He loved to bless children. Women felt safe around Him. Men admired Him. He could cry and have his heart broken. He could be angry at the abuses of God’s Word. He was loyal and friendly. He worked selflessly to help others and walked in perfect obedience to the Father He loved. His was the most fulfilling and exciting life ever lived. His was a fully human life. Anyone who thinks Christianity is boring has never tried the real thing.

This is true humanity. This is real Christianity. God’s goal for all the ones He has saved is to make them like Jesus and restore them to being completely human.

Romans 8 verse 29 declares:

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters…

Human Corruption

We know we were designed to live in perfect unity with God and have a mutually enjoyable and exciting relationship with Him. We also know that Jesus is the only One Who achieved this. What happened?

When Adam, of his own free will, decided to disobey God, Who is pure Love and Goodness, he joined himself and everyone who would be born from him to Satan, who is pure evil. Satan’s corruption has infiltrated every aspect of human existence until the spiritual realm can no longer recognize us as human. Our inner being has become twisted, hateful and self-absorbed. Satan, with our cooperation, deceives us as to the extent of our depraved condition. But even in the “nice” people, the curtain slips down occasionally. That angry, bitter word to your spouse? A peek into a dark heart. That lustful thought? A hideous window to a depraved soul. That satisfaction when your competitor fails? A glimpse of a corrupted spirit. It’s all there if we have eyes to see it. Our inner nature is so far gone that it is unredeemable, unsavable. We are without hope.

That’s not true! Some will say. There is goodness in everyone! Yes, there is goodness in everyone. But as Jesus declared in Mark 10 verse 18, only God is good. And James tells us in James 1 verse 17 that every good gift comes from God. People are likeable and do good things because of a miracle called Common Grace. Common Grace is where God gives some of His goodness to everyone so that society can function. Without Common Grace, everyone would fully express their evil nature and the world would self-destruct. Special Grace is the grace given to believers to have their sins forgiven, receive a new nature, be developed into the image of Christ and become truly human again.

At death, the non-Christian enters an unchangeable eternity with God's goodness gift removed. Anything likable or desirable about them no longer exists. They are unrecognizable as their former self with God's good gifts. The Christian has whatever evil desires are left in them removed, and they begin to enjoy a fully human life in the presence of God forever.

The Plan Of Salvation

We need a Saviour to become who we were designed to be now and in eternity. Our sinful nature is so perverted and evil that it cannot be saved. It must die. The Good News of Christianity is that Jesus took our sin nature upon Himself and died in our place. For Christians, their sin nature is dead in Christ, and they have received a new pure nature to be restored to God’s original design for humanity.

Paul shares this in Romans 6, verses 8-11:

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Now, here comes the part that is offensive to everyone. You cannot choose to be saved. You and I have no control over the matter. Is that because the Way of Salvation is hard?

God made the Plan of Salvation so easy that even a child can embrace it.

He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your household.” Acts 16:30-31, NIV

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that Gord raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Rom. 10:9-10, NIV

We Are All Spiritually Dead

Why can’t we choose to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour? Our pride rises up and declares that, of course, we have a choice. We have free will. If we want to follow Jesus, we can. Besides, it would not be fair for God to send us to Hell if we had no choice in the matter!

Paul shares the horrifying truth in Ephesians 2, verses 4 and 5, where he says, But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. [NIV]

Look carefully. We were DEAD in transgressions, spiritually without life. A dead body cannot make itself alive. A dead body cannot make any decisions. For a dead body to have life, it must be resurrected by an outside force. It is God Who must make us alive. Salvation is a work of God from start to finish, with no credit going to mankind.

Is Salvation Our Choice Or God's Choice?

If this is the case, why are Christians commanded to share the Good News with everyone? If only those God chooses to make alive will accept the Good News, isn’t it a wasted effort to preach it to everyone?

God has chosen to save those whom He has given faith to through the preaching of the Gospel. He has not revealed to us who those people are. Everyone should hear the Gospel. It is God’s reasonable requirement for everyone to repent of their sins, seek His forgiveness and enter into a relationship with Him. And everyone could choose to do this. Confused?

How could Salvation be a choice mankind could make and a choice they cannot make simultaneously? This is where our twisted, corrupted inner nature once again exposes itself. There is nothing physically to stop us from coming to God. The invitation is there. The Father’s arms are open wide.

It is not the ability that is the problem, but the desire. No matter how we outwardly express it, inwardly, we all hate God. We are at war with Him. We want nothing to do with Him. Human beings will only act according to their desires. In our evil sinful nature, we will never desire God; therefore, we will never choose God. He doesn’t even make it onto our radar screen.

In order for a person to come to God by “accepting Jesus,” God must first, in His love and grace, kill our sinister nature and cause us to be reborn with a new nature in Christ Jesus. This new person, with a new nature, loves God. While this person instantly has a new nature that seeks God, the mind is not renewed automatically. It still struggles with good and evil as competing desires wage war. But now, it has a real choice between good and evil.

Is God Unjust?

That’s not fair! How can God send people to Hell without giving them a choice? Our heinous, corrupted, sinful nature cries out its accusation that God is unjust. Satan laughs as he whispers this monstrous idea into the minds of people. If this false accusation has entered your heart, now is the time to fall before God with tears of repentance. God may be just, or God may be merciful, but God is never unjust.

When we, through Adam, join Satan in his evil rebellion, Hell became our just punishment. Every human being deserves Hell. The question is not, Why doesn’t God save everybody? The proper question is, Why does God save anybody? If God allowed every human being to go to Hell, that would be total justice. That is what we deserve, and God’s holiness would be vindicated. Every sin that we commit, no matter how small, is an intimate violation of God’s holy nature. It is an assault on His very Being and an attempt to erase God from His own universe. It is only because of God’s love and mercy that anyone is saved. The miracle of salvation is that God would endure such vicious attacks, enter into humanity, take our sin on Himself and provide a way where He could save the ones He chose. And then we complain about His choice!

While it is not apparent at this point in history, the Bible indicates that the vast majority of humans created will be saved. Hell is a small place compared to Heaven. God didn’t need to save a single person, but He chose to save a multitude. If you don’t feel you are saved right now. You need to get on your knees before God, repent of being a rebellious sinner and beg for His mercy. Call out to God, and don’t give up until He answers you. He longs to wrap you in His loving arms, but first, you must die to your sin nature and be reborn in the nature of Christ.

For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.

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