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I'm taking these straight out of my Bible, so I acknowledge Nelson for the notes. I will be inputing my own info as I go along, but those will be in a separate colour as you will observed. We have to 'Know our faith so we can Show it, as well as these are put here for anyone who wanders in curiously.

arrow Adam's sin caused a separation between God and humankind.

'Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned' (Rom 5:12)

We can't understand what salvation is without understanding sin. Otherwise, we couldn't answer what we're saved from. Sin is that which is opposed to God. Sin is when we do something that is wrong, or that the Bible tells us not to. God is sinless, and He cannot tolerate sin. Prior to Adam and Eve's sin (Gen 3), they had a great relationship with God- they walked and talked with Him. But their sin placed a wedge in their relationship with God that caused their separation from Him and that case them into spiritual darkness.

As children of Adam, we have inherited the sin nature. We are inclined to sin and often find ourselves doing what is not right in God's eyes. All of us are separated from God and need to have this gap filled if we are to experience the relationship with Him, which He intended from the beginning.


arrow God shed blood to cover Adam's sin.

'Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them.(Gen 3:21)


I am going to input another scripture or two right here.

[In fact] under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood, and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins. (Heb 9:22)

For the wages of sin is death...(excerpt from Romans 6:23)



Because of Adam and Eve's sin, they became ashamed of their nakedness: they felt they were "uncovered" before God. Realizing that they had sinned by doing something God had told them not to do, they wanted to hide from and not be seen by Him. (After sinning, they felt like... how we'd feel when our 'dirty laundry is hung out in public'...before they had no 'dirty laundry' to keep hidden It is my understanding that they didn't know what exactly they needed covering from, so they attempted to hide themselves physically, which was insufficient.) This passage shows God covering them by making clothes from skin of animals. The animals, of course, would have had to be killed inorder for God to do this. This is the Bible's first record of the shedding of blood, and it was shed to cover human sin. This is very significant, because it shows God's standard - that sin must be paid for by death. We see this later in the development of the Old Testament sacrificial system and, ultimately, in Jesus' blood being shed on the cross for the salvation of all who would accept His gift. We can be free from sin because Jesus' blood paid the price to be the covering for us.


arrow Jesus came and lived on earth as a man.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.


The "Word" mentioned here is Jesus. Jesus became flesh and lived with us. It is important for us to understand that God desires to have relationship with His people. He does not want to cut off all contact because of sin. In fact, that causes Him great pain. God wants so much to have relationship restored with man that He sent Jesus to live among us. He is a personal God. What greater example of God's reaching out to humankind could there possibly be?

When Jesus was on earth, He experience the same temptations we face, but He did not give in to them. He encountered the same pressures that we do, but He did not fall prey to them. He experienced being hated and ridiculed by His peers and; and finally, He was crucified - nailed to a cross. There can be no question that a God who would endure such pain as this and still lay down His life to save human souls is a loving God who desires, at great cost, to have relationship with His people.


arrow Jesus gave His life as a final sacrifice for all who believe.

We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb 10:10)

In God's great love for people, He sent His Son to be the final sacrifice for sin. Otherwise, there could have been no end to humankind's constant state of guilt and depression, knowing they could never live up to God's standards. Since God wanted restoration in His relationship with man, He ofference the perfect sacrifice to take care of sin once and for all - and that was His Son, Jesus. This one final sacrifice took care of allsin - past, present, and future.


arrow Jesus' resurrection guarantees eternal life.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live." (John 11:25)

Equally important as Jesus' sacrifical death is His resurrection. The fact that He rose from the grave is the great physical evidence that separates Him from being just another martyr who died for a cause. The darkness of death had no hold over Jesus; and since He was able to conquer death, He is able to guarantee eternal life to those who believe in Him. The blood of Jesus was shed on the cross to pay the price for our sin; and His resurrection from the dead guarantees us eternal life. Although we still die a physical death from this life, we can live eternally in heaven if we claim Jesus' victory as our own. By receiving Him and Lord and Saviour, we are guaranteed eternal life with God.


arrow Salvation cannot be earn through works, but is a gift of grace.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lets anyone should boast. (Eph 2: 8-9)


We are taught from childhood that we can only have what we can earn. No wonder we feel that way about salvation, too! We think that the more good deeds we do, or the nicer we are, the better our relationship with God will be. Actually, this way of looking at salvation cheapens the work Christ accomplished through His death and resurrection. When Jesus became the final sacrifice for sin, He finished the work! Our own goodness has no bearing on our salvation; that is God's gift.

It is as though someone offered you a huge gift - one that on your own you would never be able to afford. Although you might gladly accept such a gift, you would do so, knowing that you could never repay it. That is the way it is with salvation. Because we cannot pay for it on our own, Jesus paid the price once and for all and offers it to us as a free gift. All we have to do it accept it.


arrow It will make a difference in the way we live our lives.

Thus also faith by itself, it if does not have works, is dead (James 2:17)

Therefor, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Cor 5:17)


Although we cannot work to pay for our own salvation, it is true that it will change the way we live. When we make the decision to accept the gift of salvation, we then becoem new cretures. We are no longer ruled by the sinful nature that once controlled us, but we become open to change because of the great work that Jesus Christ has done for us.

The two Bible passages above state that there may be a difference in the way we lives after we accept the gift of salvation. This may have to do with big areas in our lives, such as career decisions or relationships. Or it may have to do with smaller areas, such as the kind of language we use or the kind of entertainment we take part in. Whether the changes are large or small in out lives, our new relationship with Christ will free us to be what He wants us to be. We will be excited about the possibilities of making ourselves available to God for whatever He wants us to do and about letting others know of the great gift of salvation that is available to them, too!


Each of these seven points leads us to understand that salvation is something we really need and are not able to obtain on our own. but God has provided a way, and that way is Jesus Christ. Once we have opened ourselves to receive what Jesus' death and resurrection have done for us, we will be changed and the change will be obvious to others.

Wow - ASHA - this was very concise and truthful and to the point. Thank you. You wrapped up the importance and our need of salvation so well!! Thank you for laying down an extremely important foundation of our walk with Jesus - the living Christ - our big brother who is also the King of Kings!!

I agree, you did a wonderful job- as God's mercenary. ^^

It's nice to remember the reason we're all here, from time to time. whee

I have a question.

How exactly does the Holy Trinity work? I mean, I think I know, but I never asked anybody to make sure. What is it, exactly? The way I see it is first there was the Lord. When Adam and Eve sinned, He thought of sending a savior, but He didn't do it right away. When the time came, He impregnated mary with the Holy Spirit, which means Jesus is a man, but He has the EXACT qualities of God and the same athourity. But, since He's also a human, He's a few human qualilties, like fearing death and free will and respecting God over himself. But since He has the Spirit of God, and is exaclty like God, He did nothing wrong and did everything right and did miracles and forgave sins and taught people for the Lord. In that way, He is God, but separate from God, The Holy spirit is of course the Lord, because that's His spirit. Is that correct? or did I do I misunderstand something?

Also adding in a few things to what I said in reply to you James.

I don't think Christ actually feared death. The most heart-wrenching moment of Jesus was the moment He was separated for God. Can you imagine being with God...forever; forever in fellowship with Him and suddenly losing that? We grow up feeling empty when we don't know the Lord. And when we feel like we've lost Him (even when we haven't) that alone is rattling for us. We've experienced it to that extext, though He has NEVER left us and NEVER will! But the moment Christ went up on the cross, all the sins, past, present and future of everybody were thrown upon Him and because God (the Father, at this moment) cannot dwell where sin is, He had to turn His back on Him too.

Also, God didn't sent Jesus right away because He had to work everything out and do it in the fullness of time. There were prophesies to be said, covenants to be made, forerunners to be brought forth and alot of other things or else no one would have recognized Him as the Christ... and there also would not have been that appreciation for Him as Lord and Saviour, nor the appreciation of Yahweh as Adonai. We wouln't have the Word to help us, like we do now, nor know the signs of the Messiah...etc.

I hope it helped clear some stuff up? Funnily enough, it's just what I had read on last night.

That's what we're here for. heart