Articles by: Kenneth J. Ester
What did God do to Save us?
Man was lost to God. Sin had separated us from Him. God would allow man to make animal sacrifices, the shedding of the blood of certain animals would atone for sin, but it would never be good enough to cleanse our souls. No animal was pure or holy enough to wash the stain of sin from our souls. They only wiped away some sins to allow for us to continue building our relationship with God. In the end however, we were still lost to God. Only God had a plan to save us.
To understand how God saved us, it is important to understand the Trinity. You see, there is only one true God! There are many false Gods that man has created through the ages, but only one true God! The one true God reveals Himself to us in three very distinct persons. There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Bible which is the word of God, clearly teaches us that all three of them are God. Yet it also teaches us they are all distinct from each other and they are not each other. The Father is not the Son and neither of them are the Holy Spirit, but all three are the One True God! I understand that can be difficult for some to wrap their heads around. You need to understand that God gave us physics. He Himself does not need to adhere to physics. Whether you can wrap your mind around it or not, it is what the Bible does teach us!
God the Son is also known as "the Word".
Revelation 19:13 (NASB)
13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God
The Word chose to put His godly powers aside for a short time and become flesh and blood, to walk among us. He was born to a virgin, and He was named Jesus. Actually He was given another name, and some like to believe you cannot be saved if you call Him by another name, but the truth is the word He uses for a name is not what is important. Yaweh, Yeshua, whatever the correct name is, it has changed through the ages to be known as "Jesus" today, and I assure you, He accepts that name all the same.
So Jesus grew up to be a man, and He was fully man. He was truly God in the flesh, but because He had set His godly powers aside for a short time and became flesh and blood, while He walked on earth, He was fully man. You can read my article on this subject here.
As Jesus was fully man, He did not perform a single miracle by His own power. He performed many miracles through faith! It was the Holy Spirit who healed the blind, cleansed the lepers, cast demons out of people, brought the dead to life, etc... Jesus performed these miracles through faith! In doing so, He taught others how to walk in true faith as well. He taught us by example how to live by faith, to deny temptation of sin by faith and how to love God through faith! Then Jesus fulfilled his mission to save us by sacrificing Himself for us.
Jesus knew well in advance, exactly what he would endure. It scared Him so much that He prayed to the Father, asking Him to spare Him from having to go through it. He prayed so hard over this that His sweat came out like great drops of blood. A condition called Hematidrosis. Yet as stressed out over what He would endure as He was, He ended that prayer by telling the Father that His (the Father's) will must be done and not His (Jesus') own will. Even knowing what was coming, and being so afraid of it that he sweat blood, Jesus still chose to go through it in order to save us.
So Jesus waited in the garden where He knew Judas would bring the soldiers to betray Him. He went quietly and when His disciples tried to fight to defend Him, He stopped them and even healed one of those who had come for Him. They beat Him mercilessly and scourged Him. Shredding His flesh until He was barely recognizable as a human. They mocked Him and shoved a crown of thorns deep into His scalp. Then they spiked His hands and feet to a cross and stood Him up for all to watch Him die.
Jesus hung on that cross, suffering immense pain as the soldiers below gambled for His clothing. Then Jesus did the unthinkable. After everything they had done to Him, He looked up at the sky and asked the Father to forgive them because they didn't understand what it was they were doing! After everything they did to Him, He still had nothing but love and forgiveness for them! Then He gave up His spirit and He died!
Though Jesus had died, He was not done. He took back His Godly powers and descended to Hades where He took away the keys to Hades and Death. He liberated a place in Hades that was named "Paradise" and then He rose from the dead three days after He had died. When He ascended to Heaven, He took with Him a host of those who were in Paradise and He opened the doors to heaven.
When Jesus died on the cross, He became a sacrifice for sin. After living a sinless and perfect life, Being the Son of God and being the Word of God, Jesus was truly a sacrifice that was pure enough that it covered all of our sins. A sacrifice that was Holy enough to cleanse the stain of sin from all of our souls.
That is what God did to save us. He sacrificed His only begotten Son to save us. While every man made god expects man to earn his way to heaven, the one true God literally came to walk in the flesh and sacrificed Himself to save us. How awesome is that!
Also read:
Why do we need Salvation?
How exactly are we Saved?
To understand how God saved us, it is important to understand the Trinity. You see, there is only one true God! There are many false Gods that man has created through the ages, but only one true God! The one true God reveals Himself to us in three very distinct persons. There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Bible which is the word of God, clearly teaches us that all three of them are God. Yet it also teaches us they are all distinct from each other and they are not each other. The Father is not the Son and neither of them are the Holy Spirit, but all three are the One True God! I understand that can be difficult for some to wrap their heads around. You need to understand that God gave us physics. He Himself does not need to adhere to physics. Whether you can wrap your mind around it or not, it is what the Bible does teach us!
God the Son is also known as "the Word".
Revelation 19:13 (NASB)
13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God
The Word chose to put His godly powers aside for a short time and become flesh and blood, to walk among us. He was born to a virgin, and He was named Jesus. Actually He was given another name, and some like to believe you cannot be saved if you call Him by another name, but the truth is the word He uses for a name is not what is important. Yaweh, Yeshua, whatever the correct name is, it has changed through the ages to be known as "Jesus" today, and I assure you, He accepts that name all the same.
So Jesus grew up to be a man, and He was fully man. He was truly God in the flesh, but because He had set His godly powers aside for a short time and became flesh and blood, while He walked on earth, He was fully man. You can read my article on this subject here.
As Jesus was fully man, He did not perform a single miracle by His own power. He performed many miracles through faith! It was the Holy Spirit who healed the blind, cleansed the lepers, cast demons out of people, brought the dead to life, etc... Jesus performed these miracles through faith! In doing so, He taught others how to walk in true faith as well. He taught us by example how to live by faith, to deny temptation of sin by faith and how to love God through faith! Then Jesus fulfilled his mission to save us by sacrificing Himself for us.
Jesus knew well in advance, exactly what he would endure. It scared Him so much that He prayed to the Father, asking Him to spare Him from having to go through it. He prayed so hard over this that His sweat came out like great drops of blood. A condition called Hematidrosis. Yet as stressed out over what He would endure as He was, He ended that prayer by telling the Father that His (the Father's) will must be done and not His (Jesus') own will. Even knowing what was coming, and being so afraid of it that he sweat blood, Jesus still chose to go through it in order to save us.
So Jesus waited in the garden where He knew Judas would bring the soldiers to betray Him. He went quietly and when His disciples tried to fight to defend Him, He stopped them and even healed one of those who had come for Him. They beat Him mercilessly and scourged Him. Shredding His flesh until He was barely recognizable as a human. They mocked Him and shoved a crown of thorns deep into His scalp. Then they spiked His hands and feet to a cross and stood Him up for all to watch Him die.
Jesus hung on that cross, suffering immense pain as the soldiers below gambled for His clothing. Then Jesus did the unthinkable. After everything they had done to Him, He looked up at the sky and asked the Father to forgive them because they didn't understand what it was they were doing! After everything they did to Him, He still had nothing but love and forgiveness for them! Then He gave up His spirit and He died!
Though Jesus had died, He was not done. He took back His Godly powers and descended to Hades where He took away the keys to Hades and Death. He liberated a place in Hades that was named "Paradise" and then He rose from the dead three days after He had died. When He ascended to Heaven, He took with Him a host of those who were in Paradise and He opened the doors to heaven.
When Jesus died on the cross, He became a sacrifice for sin. After living a sinless and perfect life, Being the Son of God and being the Word of God, Jesus was truly a sacrifice that was pure enough that it covered all of our sins. A sacrifice that was Holy enough to cleanse the stain of sin from all of our souls.
That is what God did to save us. He sacrificed His only begotten Son to save us. While every man made god expects man to earn his way to heaven, the one true God literally came to walk in the flesh and sacrificed Himself to save us. How awesome is that!
Also read:
Why do we need Salvation?
How exactly are we Saved?