Why Do I Need Salvation?

Sin is defined by God as a transgression, or violation, of his law in I John 3:4. Sin is something that we are all guilty of. We have all, at some point, violate a law of God. That is point out to us in both the new and old testaments of the Bible in Ecclesiastes 7:20 and Romans 3:23. In fact, we are born into sin. Because of Adam's disobedience to God, sin was introduced into the world, and as a consequence, so was death. As Paul explained in Romans 5:12, sin and death are passed onto everyone at birth, we are guilty by nature, we are all sinners.

"But I'm not that bad."

God doesn't put degrees on sin. He doesn't regard some sins as worse than others or separate them into categories like carnal and venial, felony and misdemeanor. To God, all sins are capital, requiring the sentence of death. James 2:10 says that even if you manage to keep all of God's law for 40 years of your life, then steal a ballpoint pen from work, you are guilty of violating the whole of the law of God. The payment for that sin is death, Romans 6:23. Unless we can turn from temptation, there is a natural progression from temptation to death, James 1:13-15.

Why do we need salvation? Because we are all in mortal peril and in imminent danger of death, separation from God, eternity in darkness. In the presence of God there will not be any need for the sun, moon or table lamps because the glory of God will be our light, Revelation 22:5. But where the condemned go is eternal, outer darkness where no light is possible, Matthew 8:12 and Matthew 22:13. There will also be weeping and gnashing of teeth, which means sadness, anger and loneliness. To avoid that fate, even for the most selfish person, would be reason enough. But there are more reasons still.

Start with God as our creator and sovereign. By virtue of that alone we owe him our obedience and allegiance. Do we want to be eternally secluded from the love of God?

Another reason is friends and family. Do we wanted to be separated from those going to heaven? Do we really want our unsaved friends and family to suffer the fate that God outlines for those who do not accept his salvation? Wouldn't we rather see them in heaven?

There is going to be a payment for sin. There has to be. God is a righteous God, dealing justice according to his own law, which he is obligated to uphold. Because there has to be a payment for sin, there are only 2 choices, and both are eternal. You can pay for you sins yourself, or we can accept Christ's gift of salvation and let his the shed blood of his death, burial and resurrection pay it for you.

"But I'm not ready to make that kind of decision."

Then you've made your choice to reject his gift; there is no fence sitting.

If you're traveling down the freeway at 100 miles an hour, without any brakes and with no way to stop or slow the car, and you see a sign that says, "The bridge is out, take Salvation Way Exit", you will either continue on the freeway and go over the cliff to certain doom, or you will take the exit that saves your life. You can't sit back and not make a decision and wait until you get further down the road; by default, that is a decision to refuse to take the exit. You can't slow down or stop life so that you can give it some thought for a few years; there's no guarantee that you will have that long. Saying, "I'm not ready to accept Christ." is a decision to reject him. You can't sit the fence on this issue. You are already lost, not accepting salvation is a decision to stay that way.

Paul told the Corinthian church in II Corinthians 6:2 that "Now is the accepted time . . . today is the day of salvation." There is no guarantee that there will be a tomorrow for you. Anything could happen at any time to take your life. The saddest words I think anyone can here is, "It's too late." Hebrews 9:27 says that there is death, then judgment. Nothing in the Bible provides for salvation after the death of this mortal body.

There are 2 sides. There is God's side and there is Satan's. There is no middle ground. We are called to make a choice, and God requires a decision. The failure to make an active decision forces a passive decision on your part that is disastrous. This call to decisive action is timeless. In Exodus 32:26 Moses calls the people to choose who's side they would be on. In Deuteronomy 30:19 Moses requires a decision between life and death, and blessings and cursing. In fact, that whole chapter is dedicated to that choice. In Joshua 24:15 Joshua requires from the people on whether they will serve the only true God, or the false gods of the Amorites. In I Kings 18:21 Elijah requires a decision of the people on whether they will serve God or Ba'al because they liked to sit the fence and take the best of both worlds. Jesus says in Matthew 6:24 that this isn't acceptable or possible.  Ruth had to make a choice in Ruth 1:15 whether to go with her sister-in-law and to the false gods, or with her mother-in-law to the land of the one true God. In fact, she had to have the fortitude to stick with the right decision, even when her mother-in-law tried to talk her out of it. In Mark 10:21 the rich young ruler had to decide if he would continue in the wealth of this world, or seek the wealth of the kingdom of God. In John 6:67-68 some of the disciples were asked by Jesus to decide right then if they would continue to follow him, or forsake him. Peter had the perfect answer, "To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

You are asked to make a decision the moment you are presented the gospel of the salvation of Christ.

"But I don't believe a loving God would send anyone to hell to suffer eternal torment."

God is indeed a most loving, kind and forgiving God. So much so that he sent his son, Jesus, to take the form of a man, live on this planet in the middle of sin, suffer a tortuous, agonizing, humiliating death on the cross and rise again in glory so that we would not have to spend eternity in hell away from him. That's how loving our God is. If you will only accept Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, you too can be saved from it. There is no pain in that, no suffering, no torture. To say that it isn't necessary to accept the gift of Christ's salvation is to say that his suffering, death, burial and resurrection were unnecessary and unimportant. If that was true, he wouldn't have done it.

But God is not only a loving and forgiving God, he is also a righteous and just one. If he sets a law, he holds himself to it. When he said that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, he held himself to that standard, even at the cost Jesus paid. Leviticus 17:11 tells us this, and it is repeated in the new testament in Hebrews 9:22. God did not go back on his own law because it was painful and inconvenient, Deuteronomy 32:4 and Ecclesiastes 3:14. He can't turn back from his own judgment, but he made things easy for us.

Those who say that God wouldn't send anyone to hell want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to live their life the way they want, by their own rules, without concern for any consequences and without a thought for God, but then they want to be accepted by God in the end.

What we think about the way things should be is irrelevant. What matters is what God says about the way things really are. If what he says differs from what we think, what we need to change is our thinking, not God's words. We need to conform go him, rather than trying to conform him to us.

God's word stands alone and for itself. We are sinners in needs of salvation. Without this salvation, we suffer the punishment of eternal torment and separation from the love of God.

Next time we'll explore a most controversial issue - just how to be saved.