Why Is Salvation Necessary?
This Seems Easy…
While we continue our study of soteriology, it’s time we ask the most obvious question of all time. I know you’re probably thinking it’s a dumb idea to write a blog with such an easy answer to a simple question, but I promise you there is a point to this. Right away, before you even read further, I want you to answer this question yourself. Why do you personally believe you need salvation? The reason we are going to break this question down is because as obvious as this answer may seem, so many people get it wrong. If your answer to this question had to do with us needing saving in order to achieve salvation, congratulations! You’re not entirely wrong! However, there is more to this answer than we may at first think there is. To give you a hint at where we will be going, take to heart what David Strain has to say here. He notes, “The justice of God is fundamental to the character of God and provides the fuel for the praises of His people in every age. He must be just because He is unchangeably and necessarily righteous and good in all He does.” To add on to our most obvious question, let’s look at the most popular Bible verse to go along with it. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” I’ll ask again, why do we need salvation? And if God is God, why must it be in this way? Let’s dive in.
We’re Messed Up
To start, if your answer was anything like my first guess, you probably make a majority of Christ followers. You aren’t wrong by any means in saying that you need to be saved. In fact, one of the saddest things in the world today is the amount of people who don’t take their relationship with God seriously because of a belief that they’ve been ‘a good enough’ person. I’m sure you know quite a few people like this. I’m even willing to be there are a lot of people unfortunately with this mindset in the church today. It’s sad to say, but a vast majority of people will believe that salvation has already been accomplished for them, not because of anything Jesus did for them, but because of how good they’ve been on this earth. No one on this earth will ever know how much they need a savior until they realize how lost they really are. Or as C.S. Lewis beautifully puts it, “We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.” I couldn’t agree more with C.S. Lewis, and neither could Paul. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:1-2 “And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” It’s hard to read this passage and think that you personally are responsible for your own salvation. This scripture clearly tells us that we were dead in our sins. We weren’t just half-dead, or badly injured, or in need of help. We were dead. No amount of good that we can ever accomplish will ever raise a dead person. This is why our first answer to this question is undeniably true. We absolutely need salvation because of how lost and fallen the human race is. And we can never overlook that.
God Is Just
The other side of this answer, however, is the part I believe we overlook far too often. Were you able to figure it out yet? Of course, we need saving because of our sins, but if we were to play the devil's advocate, what would you say if I asked you, ‘But why Jesus?’ Sure we might be unholy beings, but why torture someone in the most inhumane way possible just to achieve this salvation? What would your answer be? This is the part that many believers overlook or just avoid answering altogether. The answer to this question and the aspect most overlooked in why we need salvation is simply because God is just. That’s it. It’s that simple. The reason we need to be saved is that we are incapable of saving ourselves, and in order to save a sinful person, something must pay for the sins of this person in order to make them righteous to a just God. As depressing as this is, the reason many believers don’t mention this aspect of salvation is because they don’t like the answer.
Like many non-believers today, our minds just tell us, ‘Couldn’t God forget all of this?’ ‘Why not make salvation easier to accomplish?’ ‘If God really is God, He wouldn’t have had to kill Jesus in order to save the World!’ What a poor view of justice we all have!! If you struggle with these thoughts as I have early on in my life, let me encourage you that these thoughts are natural, however, they stem from a low view of God. Once you realize that God is perfect in nature, you will understand that God can’t pardon sin without a sacrifice. Otherwise, it would make God unjust and unholy, and therefore, He wouldn’t be God. As David tells us in Psalm 18:30 “As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the LORD is refined; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.” God’s very nature is perfect and refined. Therefore, if He wanted to dwell among imperfect and unrefined people, something must be able to clean these beings of their imperfections. This is why we need salvation. Yes, we need saving because of how lost and sinful mankind is, but we also need saving because of how perfect our Lord is in justice. This is indeed why we need salvation as lost people who serve a just God.
Sources
[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/
[2] God is just | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org. (n.d.). Ligonier Ministries. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/god-is-just
[3] A quote by C.S. Lewis. (n.d.). https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/99392-no-man-knows-how-bad-he-is-till-he-has
Comments