Salvation and our human condition

If God the Father’s heart and also Jesus’ heart is to save mankind, then it means that the condition of all men in the eyes of God is described with the word “lost.” How “lost” is man? The biblical answer is: Completely and utterly lost, without any hope of finding his own way back to God. Cf. being “lost at sea,” rudderless, tossed about in a small dingy at the mercy of mountainous waves, taking in water and just waiting for the inevitable when a huge wave would just totally swamp the dingy and send the helpless sailor to the bottom of the ocean.

The truth is that no man can save himself no matter how outwardly good or respectable they may appear to be. We sometimes think: This or that person is such a good-living person, they must be so close to the kingdom of God. But the truth from Jesus’ encounters with the best-living people in His day is that they were the very ones who were the “blind,” whereas the ones who “saw” and were “saved” were the “sick” and “lost” ones according to the opinion especially of the “good” people. (Cf. Roman Catholic theology  human nature is essentially good and with that innate goodness, man can make it a long way “up” towards God.) “Saved” means being rescued by a merciful God when we were in this absolutely and utterly hopeless condition.

God, our Saviour, sends Jesus, the greater than Moses, to come down to earth to rescue us, to take upon Himself the ultimate penalty for our sin, i.e. our condemnation and death. Only God’s Son could pay this penalty because only He has never broken any of His commandments. Only Jesus, God’s Son, could save us because He alone was the perfect, sinless Substitute and Sacrifice who could take away our sins.