One of the questions we hear from Christians is this: “Are you saved?”. When a Christian says ‘Yes’, what does this person really mean? Mostly the person thinks, if he believes in Jesus, has taken baptism, attends church regularly, he thinks he is saved. Is this what the Bible speaks of having been saved or in other words “received salvation”?
For example, A man has fallen into a trap pit, plotted by a hunter. Sometime later, his older brother walks by that pit and sees his younger brother there, he hurries to get a rope, rescues him from that pit and finally brings him back to normal conditions. In this example, the man was saved from the trap pit he fell into and now he is restored to normal living condition. So 2 things are important here – ‘Saved from what’ and ‘Restored to what’.
Likewise, we need to ask, what did we fall into that Jesus came to save us from? The whole of mankind fell into sin, and Jesus came to rescue us from our sins (Matt.1:21). This is the first promise of the New Testament. Before mankind fell into sin, what was their condition? The first humans, Adam and Eve was having a good fellowship with God. And from that fellowship, they ruled the earth. They were rulers/kings. When they fell into sin, they lost their fellowship with God and instead of ruling the earth, they started ruling one another. But God could not save them immediately, because of the law he established that only humans were to rule the earth (Gen.1:26). God does not violate His own laws. That is why, Jesus had to come as a human to save mankind from their sins. If you don’t know what you are saved from, then you will never appreciate or understand salvation that came through Jesus.
Now, we know that Jesus saved us from our sins, but what are we restored to? Primarily, We are restored to a relationship/fellowship with our Heavenly Father (John.14:6). Secondly, We are restored with the life of God (Eph.2:4-5 NLT). Thirdly, We are restored to rulership – ruling over sin (Rom.6:14). When God created man and woman, He purposed them to rule the earth (Gen.1:26). But after mankind fell into sin, God told mankind to rule over sin (Gen.4:7 ESV).
All mankind needs salvation (1Tim.2:4 NLT) because we have all fallen into a pit(sin) and living in the pit. The solution is found in Jesus alone (Acts.4:12 NCV) who came to save us from that pit. But if we don’t know that we are fallen and don’t need salvation, then the hunter(from the example above) has done a good job of either convincing the fallen people that nothing is wrong with them(2Cor.4:4 NLT) or deceiving the world with a counterfeit rescue solution(Rev.12:9) and also deceiving the children of God with sin-insensitivity (Heb.3:13 NLT), false preachers (Matt.24:24) and false doctrines (2Tim.4:3-4), so he can retain them or pull them back into the pit. The ultimate end of a person who does not get saved from his sins through Jesus, is a permanent residence(Bible calls this place as Hell) together with the ruler of this present world – the hunter(the devil) and eternal separation from God.
Are you saved from your sins and restored to relationship with God; restored to walking with the life of Jesus in you; and restored to rulership and having victory over sin today?
