Jim Goodrick (1 Feb 2011)
"For Susan W's friend : why we need Salvation"
Hi Susan,
Your correspondent friend thinks the way
I used to think before I got born again. My problem was .. I was a two-step
thinker.
Quoting your correspondant :
"Hence my statement: what am I being saved for? If for my
sins, where do they come from? If from my human nature, who gave me that nature?
If God, then why would He go through the process of making something that He
thinks I need saving from?
Would God create what He abhors? And then condemn
it for its abhorrent nature?
If the human nature springs from Satan, who
created Satan? If God, did God know Satan was evil? If yes, then why didn’t God
defend us against Satan by giving us a natural resistance against Satan in our
human nature? Are you saying God left us at the mercies of Satan and then sent
his son to die so that we could believe in the son that died and gain freedom
from Satan?
But how and why? If God is all powerful and all seeing,
surely a beast like satan would not be a problem?
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/jan2011/susanw131.htm
____________________________
Today
I am a three-step thinker and understand my sin nature better.
Let's
start with Satan.
Satan was the most perfected being God ever created.
He was far more intelligent than any other created angel, Ezekiel 28 : 12-19
...
" thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom; " ( v. 12 )
" thou wast
perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, until iniquity was found in thee." ( v. 15
)
Two- step thinking :
1. Satan was created perfect.
2. Therefore
he is a perfect being, harmless.
Three-step thinking :
1. Although
Satan was created perfect, he always had free-will.
2. At some point in
his history he chose to serve himself ( pride "iniquity" ) rather than
acknowledge God as His supreme Creator.
3. Satan lost forever his position (
"O Lucifer how thou art fallen."... Isaiah 14: 12-16 )
and he
seeks to bring as many humans into hell with him ( 1 Peter 5: 8 ) by
causing them to sin through various temptations and trials.
Now we will
look at our own human condition:
Two-step thinking :
1. God
created Adam and Eve " and it was good" ( Genesis 1:31 )
2. Since God created
good beings in the beginning, then all of us are inherently good. ( assumption )
Three-step thinking.
1. Although Adam and Eve ( the progenitors of
the whole human race) were created "good"
2. They too had free-will and chose
to disobey God, ( Gen. 3 ) proving that we
can lose our relationship with God.
3. As inheritors
of their human nature, we also have free will, and can choose to disobey God,
and thus lose our relationship with Him, even though He created us "good" from
the beginning.
Now to answer the question, " Where do my sins come from
"... they come from SELF-will.
Satan chose self -will, Adam and Eve chose
self-will, and all of us choose self, to our hurt.
" All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; ( the abuse of
free-will )
"and the LORD hath laid on Him ( Jesus ) the iniquity of us all."
Isaiah 53: 6
We are inherently prone to wander ( sin ) because ever since
the First Sin in Eden, we gave Satan the insight into our wayward
hearts. We gave him the key, as it were.
"The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked; who can know
it ? Jeremiah 17:9
Therfore we must conclude that since
our SELF-nature is prone to evil or wrongful motives ( self-justification
),
we are in need of Someone greater than ourselves to help us resist our
selfish nature, and to resist Satan who exploits our weakness ... our
vulnerability to succumb to temptations. 'fiery darts ". Ephesians
6:16.
We supply the tinder; Satan supplies the fire.
We also need Someone
to atone for our sins, since God is holy and cannot accomodate
sin.
As in any court case, the judicial system of Heaven needed proof
that Satan should be condemned for all eternity to the pits of hell.
That
happened when Satan and his cohorts became too greedy for soul-destruction and
had TPTB crucify Jesus who was found to have no sin in Him, though He
was fully man and fully God.
The demons manipulated events to bring
about the death of Jesus, without justification or cause.
"The wages of sin
is death " ( Romans 6:23 ) but since Jesus had no sin, He should not
have died in the maliscious demonic events surrounding His
death.
It was at Calvary that God made an open display of Satan's
ignorance ( Colossians 2:15 ).
"And having spoiled principalities and powers
( demons ) , He ( Jesus ) made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in
it."
And 1 Corinthians 2:8 tells us :
" Which none of the princes of
this world knew :
For had they known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory."
For now "the prince of this world is judged." ( John 16: 11
).
By that judgement, Jesus redeemed ( bought back ) for us the "key" to
God's heart, when we trust in His perfect atonement for our sins. We now
have Jesus' Blood shed on the cross to cover over our repented
sins. Our repentence is sincere if we have a broken heart and a contrite
spirit ( Psalm 51: 17 ). Our sins are then forgiven and we restore our
relationship with God, becoming justified in Him and inheriting His
kingdom, as long as we remain in a close obedient relationship with Him ( "abide
in me" John 15 )
In conclusion, God created all things good in the
beginning, including Satan and humans.
Both Satan and humans took the
beautiful gift of free will and abused it to serve self rather than God.
Our
nature has been willfully corrupted.
God provided a way for us to return
to a full relationship with Him by trusting in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
He alone has the deed to our Redemption ( Rev. 5: 4, 5 ). Salvation is
through Jesus alone, and there is no other
( John 14: 6 ). Hebrews 9 is a
good summary.
In the Millenium, there will be no Satan to blame for
tempting us to sin. He will be bound for 1,000 years.
Yet there will be
sinners that number the sand of the sea ( Rev. 20: 8 ) , even with King Jesus
reigning upon this earth.
How ? Why ?
Because God has given to us a
free-will . We can choose to serve Him freely, or reject His
atonement.
Free will is the
middle step that I did not fully realize before I became born again .....
but now I do.
May this help your correspondent friend,
Jim
Goodrick