Jesus Christ, Our Salvation Series

Introduction:

The theme for today’s sermon is “Jesus Christ our salvation”.

The first words of Scripture are “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. Everything begins with God. From the Scriptures we learn that God created everything that man would ever need before creating man. This tells how much God loves man; He loved man even before He created him. God’s love was such that He created man in His own image and likeness and gave him authority and dominion over His whole creation. Satan, who had failed in his rebellion against God, was aware of God’s love and so directed his attention to man who bore God’s image and likeness and had authority over him. He devised a plan to deceive man. He began by creating doubt about what God had said about eating the fruit of the one tree that was forbidden by asking “Has God indeed said?” Once the devil had succeeded in creating doubt about what God had said, he proceeded to change the word of God. God had told Adam “you shall surely die” and the devil changed it to “you shall not surely die”. According to Dr. Warren Wiersbe, when we change the Word of God, we change the God of the message and that is idolatry. Once Satan had succeeded in changing the Word of God, he could now question God’s motive. He implied that God was withholding the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from them because He did not love them and did not want them to become like Him. Satan still uses the same method to deceive today. He and his followers first plant doubt about God’s word, then change the word of God and then apply their own motives to the words they had changed to make their hearers focus on them rather than on God. When Adam and Eve obeyed the devil rather than God, the intimate relationship that had existed between them and God ended.

Step One: Sin brings an end to our relationship with God

a) The wages of sin is death

Beloved! Sin brings an end to our relationship with God for “The wages of sin is death”. (Rom 6:23) When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, they also chose to live without Him. They immediately became aware of their sinful state, and filled with guilt and fear, hid from God’s holy presence. In Adam “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). We have all inherited Adam’s sinful nature.

b) Separation from God deprives man of his authority

Sin creates a barrier between man and a Holy God and separated from God man lost his authority. Satan took advantage of man’s choice to live without God to lead him into captivity. Satan becomes the one who determines and controls his activities and he is forced to obey even when he does not approve of what he is doing.

c) Satan’s interest is to steal, kill and destroy

Satan’s interest is to steal, kill and destroy and those under His control often see nothing wrong with their evil acts. This is the reason for much of the suffering, destruction and death that we see in the world.

Illustration:

The Psalmist declares that “Justice and judgement are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face”. (Psalm 89:14) God could not compromise His justice. When Satan rebelled against God he was judged and cast out of heaven. Since Satan could not come against God, he directed his attention to man who he knew was greatly loved. He sought to abort God’s divine plan for man by deceiving man to sin so that God would judge the man He greatly loved. The only one who could save man without compromising God’s justice was God Himself and it was for that reason that Jesus Christ gave His life to save man without compromising God’s justice. Satan tried to abort God’s divine plan for man; he only succeeded in delaying it. He came as a thief to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: but Christ came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

Application:

Beloved! A drowning man cannot save himself. He needs a saviour. God saw man drowning in sin and sent a Saviour, Jesus Christ. We can either trust Him to save us or drown in our sins. Jesus Christ is our only Saviour. No other person can save us and restore our relationship with God.

Step Two: Christ restored our relationship with God

a) Christ’s blood was shed for our forgiveness

Sin destroyed our relationship with God; Christ met God’s righteous requirements to restore it. Jesus Christ, born without a sin nature, tempted in all ways as we were yet without sin, shed His blood for the forgiveness of sin to make available God’s gift of eternal life to all believers. (Rom 6:23)