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SALVATION DEFINITION: A Christian has been saved from the penalty of sin; is being saved from the practice of sin; and will be saved from the presence of sin.

Long, long ago, perhaps many millions of years before there were any people, animals or even a world, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit developed a marvelous plan.[1] This plan was kept secret from the people on earth until after Christ ascended into heaven. God did, however, give the people in the Old Testament days tantalizing glimpses of tiny parts of this wonders scheme. Since the plan was a secret it is referred to in the New Testament as a “mystery.”[2] God’s mysterious secret plan can be considered as follows:

GOD’S DESIRE, GOD’S DREAM, GOD’S DILEMMA, THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOD’S PLAN AND GOD’S DREAM COMES TRUE.

God created many, many animals for man to enjoy. He allowed Adam to name each of them. None of the animals ate meat and all of them were tame;[3] therefore, Adam was not afraid of them, they were his companions. God told Adam to rule over all the animals on earth; therefore, they were his servants.[4] What more could anyone want? God looked down from Heaven and said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” We can easily see why Adam would need a companion.[5] The animals were nice but they were not quite enough.

Now that we understand why God made women for men, I think we’ve got a glimpse of why God created mankind for Himself. Like man, God was served by many, many angels[6] but, although the angles were nice, they were not quite enough as far as a companion was concerned.

God wanted a companionship with someone like Himself.[7] God wanted to be loved.[8] Surely we can all understand this. Every father and mother wants three things from their children. Parents normally don’t ask their children for money or even for the children to pay their own way. The three things parents want from their children are love, imitation and companionship. We want our children to freely pour out their love on us and to share their lives with us. We want our children to grow up to become like us, to imitate our ways.

Way out there in eternity, before the world was created, God had a dream. He decided to make a beautiful world and filled it with millions of things that would make people happy. Then on this beautiful world God would make a companion for Himself. But now comes the sticky part. Just how should He make this companion?

God may have considered making mankind like a robot. Sometimes we wish He had. Let’s think about this possibility for a moment. If everyone was like a robot, God could have made us so no one would sin. No one would hurt other people. Everyone would be happy for ever. We sometimes ask, “If God is all powerful why couldn’t He have kept little Children from their terrible suffering? (See also Common Questions) It must be that God is too weak to stop suffering or He just simply doesn’t care.” Why didn’t God make us like robots?

Joe owned a large factory and parked his new Porsche near the entrance. Jake was a janitor at the factory and parked his beat-up 1980 VW at the far end of the parking lot. When five o’clock came they both went to their respective vehicles and drove to their respective homes. Joe drove to a huge mansion. He had a sail boat in his drive, four wheeled motor cycles in his yard and an array of other big boy’s toys. When he got up to his front door he punched a special button. The door automatically opened. He heard the sound of a motor and then, rolling down the hallway toward him came his robot. The robot stopped when it reached Joe. Joe punched a couple of buttons on the robot’s chest and it raised its arms and brought them down around Joe’s body and gave him a squeeze.

Mean-while Jake was still struggling to get his VW started but finally it did. He drove home and found no expensive toys but instead a rather humble shack. He walked up and opened the door. It opened with a squeak. Jake had no robot but he heard the sound of little feet running toward him. Suddenly a small blond haired girl jumped into his arms. She gave him a big hug and said, “Daddy, I love you!”

Which of the two men, rich Joe or poor Jake, got the greatest thrill from the hug? Of course it was poor Jake. But why? The reason was that Jake’s hug came from one that had a free will. His daughter could have walked up to him, kicked him in the shins, spit in his face and said, “Father I hate you!” But out of her free will she hugged him. This is what God wants. This is why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was placed in the Garden of Eden. Without this tree mankind would have been reduced to the status of a robot. To eat or not to eat was man’s only moral choice. God has two wills, an expressed will (what He wants us to do) and a permissive will (what He will allow us to do.)

God did not want Adam and Eve to eat of the tree but He wanted them to have the opportunity to do so. In a since we are all given the opportunity to eat or refrain from eating when we reach the age of accountability. God doesn’t want us to sin but He does want us to have the choice to sin. This brings us to the next step in the great scheme of redemption; I call it, “The Dilemma.” This is only a dilemma from our stand point since God knows all things and can do all things. (See Guest Book)

God is like an omelet. Let’s say all the ingredients are blended together to make a tasty treat and then someone mixes in an egg that has been lying out in the sun for about two weeks. What will a rotten egg do to the omelet? One rotten egg mixed in with our wonderful Heavenly Father would destroy His perfect goodness.

God is like a great orchestra playing beautiful music. Give me a violin and let me play with them. I hardly know one end of a violin from the other. I can’t play a proper note. Now I start playing while they are performing and what do you get? I destroy everything.

God is like an expectant mother waiting anxiously for the new arrival, longing to hold it tight, to show it love and to give it all kinds of good things. Something goes wrong with the baby. It’s not the mother’s fault. The baby has something wrong within it and therefore it cannot be carried any longer. That’s the way it is with God and us. He wants us. We are sinful and therefore we must be separated from him. To remain with Him would be to ruin Him.

God’s nature is perfection. Man’s nature is sin. XE "Man’s nature is sin."

We sinned in the past. 1 John 1:10 “If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.”

We sin in the present. 1 John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

All of us have sinned. Rom 3:10-12 “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

What is the passing grade to get into heaven? Does God grade on a curve? Let’s draw an imaginary curve and see where we would fit. Near the top of our curve we would place a dot for Abraham, Moses and the apostle Paul. Near the bottom of the curve we place a dot for Hitler and Judas Iscariot. Now where do we place our dot? We are not as good as Abraham and Moses but surely we’re not as bad as Hitler, so let’s place our dot about halfway. We like to think, “I’m not that good, nor that bad. I don’t step on baby chicks or do anything that is really bad I think I’ll make it at least by the skin of my teeth.”

James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”

Isaiah tells us, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” Isa 59:2.

God is all knowing. He knew man would sin and He knew that sin would separate man from God, thus the dilemma. God’s dilemma was, how could He allow us to sin and yet get us into His presence so we could be His companions?

God decided to send part of Himself to the earth to live as a man and to suffer and die as a man, in order that He could purify the sinner, wash the evil off the sinner, and purchase the sinner back to Himself.

Justice means to get exactly what we deserve. When we think of justice in contrast to injustice we see what a wonderful thing justice is. I recently saw pictures from the Holocaust. Bulldozers were used to push up huge piles of bodies so they could be buried. Six million innocent Jews were slaughtered and we cry out, “Where was the justice?” It was mainly God’s gift of teaching pure justice that molded the disorderly mob of slaves, under Moses, into a united civilized Jewish nation. That nation soon became the greatest nation on the earth.

Justice is when we drive down the road at 70 in a 50 mile per hour speed zone; a police officer pulls us over and gives us a $100 dollar ticket for speeding. That’s not police brutality, that’s justice!

Some times, at funerals, we look down at a man that was a real scoundrel and in an attempt to comfort his family we say, “He’s in the hands of a just God.” Although that’s good, it’s not good enough. Don’t ever say that about me or my loved ones! If justice is all that God has to offer we will all go to hell, straight to hell, do not pass go and do not collect two hundred dollars.

Mercy is not getting the punishment we deserve. We break the speed limit. We are pulled over by a policeman and he says, “I’m going to let you off with a warning.” “Whew! That was a close one. I thought I was going to have to pay a fine.” I like mercy much better than justice but even with mercy I have no hope of Heaven.

Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Grace is when we break the speed limit and the police officer pulls us over, asks our name and then takes out his little pad and starts writing. We know that we deserve to be fined. We know that this is justice but our finances are low. Will we have enough money to pay our fine? Will we end up in jail? We start to sweat and the Cop says, “You deserve to be fined” (justice). I’m not going to fine you (mercy). Here take this.” And you just know he’s playing a cruel joke. You reach out to receive the ticket and you see your name written across the top. With a shaking hand you read further. It’s not a traffic ticket it’s a check. It’s made out to you. It’s made out for one thousand dollars! With your heart pounding in your chest and eyes filled with tears of gratitude you look up to the one in authority and humbly exclaim, “I don’t understand it, but I appreciate it. This has got to be the best day of my life!” This is grace. God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.

But wait a minute. God is a just God. He is fair. Justice demands that the punishment (payment) is equal to the crime. How can a just God let me off Scot free, and give me a reward to boot? Rom 3:26 “...He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Jesus paid my price. He suffered in my place. The debt was paid and justice was satisfied but not by me. Jesus redeemed me with his blood. Redemption means to buy back. He made me and he bought me and now I am twice His. I now have “justification” which means “just as if I’d never sinned.” I have “reconciliation ” which means I have been made friends again with God. I now have true “religion” which means I have been tied back to God as I was in the first place. I now enjoy “propitiation” which means that my sins have been covered-hidden by the blood of Jesus. I have “atonement” which means I have been made one again with God.

James 2:10 says that if we sin in one point we are guilty of all. Let’s say that to get to heaven we must jump a 100 foot chasm. The furthermost a man has ever jumped was about 15 feet. Here’s a guy that is really good. He eats right. He exercises every day and does all the right things. He runs as fast as he can and jumps. He makes it all the way to the 15 foot mark of the 100 foot chasm and down he goes. I’m pretty good. I try to eat right and be good. I try to walk a mile or two several times a week so I jump and I make it to 7 feet and down I go. Now here comes a fellow that’s very bad. He eats nothing but junk food. He never exercises or does any of the things he should. He approaches the chasm in a broken down wheel chair and just rolls right over the edge. What is the difference in our final outcome? No one can do it on his own. We have all sinned at least once so we are guilty of all!

In the days when the Canadian prairies were first being settled a farmer sniffed the air one morning and smelled the faint scent of smoke. Realizing how devastating a prairie fire could be he quickly hitched his team to the plow and spent most of the day plowing a large fire break across the field. That evening he hauled many barrels of water to his barnyard and soaked everything. Suddenly the fire was upon him and for an hour or so he fought the blaze and then as suddenly as it had come, it was gone.

The farmer walked aimlessly across the blackened fields beating out any remaining fires. He noticed a pile of smoking embers. “What could that be?” he wondered. He walked up to it and with a kick of his foot he tipped it over and there before his startled eyes he found a whole brood of tiny yellow chicks. Suddenly he realized the whole gruesome story. His old red hen had obviously tried to coax her chicks into the safety of the barn yard but they were having too much fun catching bugs and playing in the tall grasses. The chicks simply would not respond. Eventually the fire was upon them. Now it was too late for their tiny legs to carry them to safety. They turned to their mother for help. She called them to safety under her wings, faced the fire, and died.

With a blackened hand the farmer wiped a tear from his eye and thought about his loving savior who had done the same for him. He remembered too Jesus’ words when he cried, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matt 23:37).

The Scheme of Salvation is God’s mysterious secret plan. Out in eternity, long before the He created the world, God devised a plan that He kept as a secret until the time of the Apostles. His plan was that He would create people and make them in His own image, so that they could be like him, and so that He could have a perfect companionship with them. In order for God to truly enjoy His relationship with these people they must choose to love Him. This ability to choose made it necessary for Him to create people with the ability to also reject Him. Knowing that at one point or another everyone would reject Him, He decided to send part of Himself, in Jesus, so that we could have a second chance.

God’s plan was to send Jesus to take our penalty for sin so that we could be His companions.

Rev 21:3-4, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

12. As the plan actually developed what was the major event that made the dream possible?

17. How could God be just (give punishment for sin) and justify (treat us as though we have not sinned) at the same time?

Get a good concordance and look up all references to “mystery” and see what more can you learn about the Scheme of Salvation?

[1] BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD:

Eph 1:4 XE "Eph 1\:4" “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” KJV

John 17:24 XE "John 17\:24" “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” KJV

[2] MYSTERY: The word mystery is mentioned 24 times in New Testament.

Rom 16:25 XE "Rom 16\:25" “Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past...”

1 Cor 2:7-8 XE "1 Cor 2\:7-8" “We speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

[3] Gen 9:2-3 XE "Gen 9\:2-3" “The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”

[4] Gen 1:28 XE "Gen 1\:28" “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

[5] Gen 2:18 XE "Gen 2\:18" “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper (counterpart, or mate Strong: 5048) suitable for him.”

[6] Heb 1:7 XE "Heb 1\:7" “In speaking of the angels he says, ‘He makes his angels servants flames of fire...”

[7] Isa 43:21 XE "Isa 43\:21" “...the people I formed for myself.” Gen 1:27 XE "Gen 1\:27" “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him...”

[8] Mark 12:29-31 XE "Mark 12\:29-31" “’The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”

[9] Eph 3:10-12 XE "Eph 3\:10-12" - “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” Notice this was an eternal purpose. God had this plan firmly set in His mind before the world began.