Articles by: Kenneth J. Ester
Why do we need Salvation?
The shortest answer to why we need Salvation, to which you would likely never make the connection, is because God loves us.
God could have easily made us to be perfect. To never sin. However, in order to do that, God would have had to create us without Free Will. We would have been no better off than a Ken and Barbie doll in the hands of a child. We would wake up in the morning and lay there staring at the ceiling, perfectly still until God told us to sit up. We would sit up and stare ahead until God told us to get dressed. We would then get dressed, never caring what items of clothing we grabbed to dress ourselves with unless God told us to wear particular items. After we were dressed, we would stand there perfectly still until God told us to go use the bathroom or to get breakfast or go feed the pets. Every single move we make would depend on what God told us to do. The only things we would not need God to tell us to do would be the involuntary actions we never think about, like breathing, blinking and farting. Any action we would need to make a conscience choice to do, we would never do unless God told us to do it first. Without free will, we would not even be able to choose what our favorite colors and flavors and foods are. Imagine how perfectly horrible that kind of life would be!
Only God loves us too much to give us that kind of senseless life. God wanted us to do more than be alive. God wanted us to live life! God wanted us to laugh and love. He wanted us to enjoy special moments and have our favorite ice-creams or to savor the smell of coffee in the morning! I don't care for that, but I put it in just for you coffee drinkers out there! The people we fall in love with, the jokes we laugh at, the excitement we feel when catching a big fish, those are a few of the things God wants us to experience! And we can only experience those because we have free will. We become individual people because we have free will!
Unfortunately, with free will, comes the freedom to make bad decisions as well. God gave free will to His angels too. It was due to free will that Lucifer rebelled against God and took a third of the angels with him. It was through free will that Satan lured Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was through free will that Eve led Adam to eat from the tree as well. It was because of free will that mankind gained the knowledge of good and evil and our souls became stained with sin.
After Lucifer, the devil, also known as Satan, rebelled and a third of the angels joined him, God created a lake of fire. This place of torment was meant to be the final place where those fallen angels would suffer forever. A perfect punishment for an eternal being. Then when man fell, his sin stained soul could never be in the presence of God in his full glory. That meant we could never go to heaven, and so that Lake of Fire became our final destination as well.
That is why we need salvation. Without it, we cannot be in the full presence of God. From the day we are born, we are destined to sin because nobody is good enough to never sin in their life. We are lost to God and destined for suffering forever in the Lake of Fire, where our torment will never end.
That is "why" we need salvation. Because we fell due to Free Will. A free will God gave us because He loves us. Thankfully however, because God does love us, He has given us a way to be saved!
Also read:
What did God do to Save us?
How exactly are we Saved?
God could have easily made us to be perfect. To never sin. However, in order to do that, God would have had to create us without Free Will. We would have been no better off than a Ken and Barbie doll in the hands of a child. We would wake up in the morning and lay there staring at the ceiling, perfectly still until God told us to sit up. We would sit up and stare ahead until God told us to get dressed. We would then get dressed, never caring what items of clothing we grabbed to dress ourselves with unless God told us to wear particular items. After we were dressed, we would stand there perfectly still until God told us to go use the bathroom or to get breakfast or go feed the pets. Every single move we make would depend on what God told us to do. The only things we would not need God to tell us to do would be the involuntary actions we never think about, like breathing, blinking and farting. Any action we would need to make a conscience choice to do, we would never do unless God told us to do it first. Without free will, we would not even be able to choose what our favorite colors and flavors and foods are. Imagine how perfectly horrible that kind of life would be!
Only God loves us too much to give us that kind of senseless life. God wanted us to do more than be alive. God wanted us to live life! God wanted us to laugh and love. He wanted us to enjoy special moments and have our favorite ice-creams or to savor the smell of coffee in the morning! I don't care for that, but I put it in just for you coffee drinkers out there! The people we fall in love with, the jokes we laugh at, the excitement we feel when catching a big fish, those are a few of the things God wants us to experience! And we can only experience those because we have free will. We become individual people because we have free will!
Unfortunately, with free will, comes the freedom to make bad decisions as well. God gave free will to His angels too. It was due to free will that Lucifer rebelled against God and took a third of the angels with him. It was through free will that Satan lured Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was through free will that Eve led Adam to eat from the tree as well. It was because of free will that mankind gained the knowledge of good and evil and our souls became stained with sin.
After Lucifer, the devil, also known as Satan, rebelled and a third of the angels joined him, God created a lake of fire. This place of torment was meant to be the final place where those fallen angels would suffer forever. A perfect punishment for an eternal being. Then when man fell, his sin stained soul could never be in the presence of God in his full glory. That meant we could never go to heaven, and so that Lake of Fire became our final destination as well.
That is why we need salvation. Without it, we cannot be in the full presence of God. From the day we are born, we are destined to sin because nobody is good enough to never sin in their life. We are lost to God and destined for suffering forever in the Lake of Fire, where our torment will never end.
That is "why" we need salvation. Because we fell due to Free Will. A free will God gave us because He loves us. Thankfully however, because God does love us, He has given us a way to be saved!
Also read:
What did God do to Save us?
How exactly are we Saved?