The Story of Salvation is All About Jesus

This is the story of the grace of salvation through Jesus Christ. 

God created us in love for his glory and for our joy. We were made in the image of God to glorify God in all we do, especially by loving God, seen in our lives by our love for each other. However, every one of us has fallen short of this glory. By demanding our autonomy and seeking the right to judge ourselves we’ve traded the glory of God for a false glory of self and Creation rather than the Creator. The Bible calls this failure to glorify God, sin. Because of our sin, every one of us deserves to be separated eternally from the God we have willingly abandoned. Instead, God offers us a free gift of grace, by which we may be rescued from our death penalty and returned to our original purpose. He accomplished this by sending Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to the fallen, wicked world he dearly loved, not with a message of condemnation, but an open invitation to be saved from our own corruption. Jesus, both God and human, lived a perfect, God-glorifying life, as God had always intended for humanity, and then willingly went to his death so that all of us, no matter how sinful or far from God, may have our debt paid for us. Jesus, who never sinned, took the curse of our sin for us once for all, and offers us his eternal life with God in return. When we receive this gift of grace through faith in Jesus our old life, corrupted by sin, dies on the cross, and we are given Jesus’ resurrection life in return. By his grace we are then given the power to live for the glory of God from that point onward and for all eternity, in love, satisfaction, and joy.

That was a lot, so here it is again:

God created us in love for his glory  

I will say to the north, Give up,
    and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
    and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
    whom I created for my glory,
    whom I formed and made.

 Isaiah 43:6-7

and for our joy.

You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

 Psalm 16:11

We were made in the image of God  

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

to glorify God in all we do,

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

especially by loving God,

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind..."

Matthew 22:37

seen in our lives by our love for each other. 

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you..."

John 15:12

However, every one of us has fallen short of this glory.

...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...

Romans 3:23

By demanding our autonomy and seeking the right to judge ourselves we’ve traded the glory of God for a false glory of self and Creation rather than the Creator.

For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Romans 1:21-23

The Bible calls this failure to glorify God, sin. Because of our sin, every one of us deserves to be separated eternally from the God we have willingly abandoned. 

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Instead, God offers us a free gift of grace, by which we may be rescued from our death penalty and returned to our original purpose. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8-10

He accomplished this by sending Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to the fallen, wicked world he dearly loved, not with a message of condemnation, but an open invitation to be saved from our own corruption. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:16-17

Jesus, both God and human, lived a perfect, God-glorifying life, as God had always intended for humanity, and then willingly went to his death so that all of us, no matter how sinful or far from God, may have our debt paid for us. 

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit...

1 Peter 3:18

Jesus, who never sinned, took the curse of our sin for us once for all, and offers us his eternal life with God in return. 

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:13-14 

When we receive this gift of grace through faith in Jesus our old life, corrupted by sin, dies on the cross, and we are given Jesus’ resurrection life in return. 

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

By his grace we are then given the power to live for the glory of God from that point onward and for all eternity, in love, satisfaction, and joy.

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In short, it’s all about Jesus. Our sin separated us from God, who loved us so much that he paid the penalty himself, in Jesus. His death for our sin and his resurrection made available to us his life so that by grace, through faith, we could be restored to God.

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Would you like to hear more? This blog entry is part of a longer sermon, and you can read the transcript for it here. Or, the audio is available in a forty minute YouTube video, linked below.

All Bible quotations from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Anglicized Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers