HERB KOPP
New life

The Bible teaches that everyone was created to have a relationship with God. The problem is that we are alienated from God because of “sin” (the bad things we have done). When God created the first people, He created them perfect and without sin, but it didn’t take long before they had succumbed to temptation and disobeyed God. This act of disobedience opened up a vast gulf between God and humanity. Therefore, God banished humans to a life characterized by hard work, pain and alienation from God, followed by the ultimate penalty, death.

All human beings are now contaminated by sin. Not only are we all born with a tendency to sin, but we also practise sin every day.

Some people think that they can change themselves and become good enough to meet God’s requirements, but they need to understand two things about sin. First, the primary problem is that we are, by nature, sinful. Sin has enslaved us, contaminated us at the core of our being, and we are helpless in this condition. In order for the problem of sin to be addressed, we need a fundamental change in our nature. The second problem is the sins we commit (actions, words, thoughts) as a result of our sinful nature.

Only God can save us from this terrible problem of being controlled by our sinful nature, and God has offered to do just that through Jesus Christ. This is what the Bible means when it says, “Have faith in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). When the power of sin has been broken through Jesus, then we will be able to deal with the sins we commit day by day.

When we accept God’s gift of salvation, at least four things happen to us.

We become reconciled to God. This reconciliation can happen because God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be born as a human being. Jesus, being God, became a human in order to save humanity. Unlike us, He was born without sin and lived a life without sin. Then He died so that we do not have to suffer eternally for our sinfulness. God accepted Jesus’ sinless life and His death as an acceptable sacrifice to make up for our sinfulness. We are set free. Through Christ’s death, the power of sin was broken, and we receive Christ’s righteousness (goodness) as a gift; we are now declared to be righteous (good) by God Himself. Salvation is freedom – freedom from the compulsion to sin and freedom to serve God and our fellow human beings. We are forgiven for the sin-things which we have done and which we continue to do. The key lies in asking for and accepting the continuing forgiveness of God. We receive the Holy Spirit. As we are reconciled to God, as we are freed from the power of sin and as we are forgiven, the alienation between us and God is broken down, and God’s Spirit comes to live in us.

A gift, by definition, is something that comes to us through the generosity of the giver. We cannot demand it nor work for it. All we can do is either accept or refuse it. The gift of salvation bridges the gulf which exists between God and sinful humanity, and, in accepting salvation, we acknowledge our need to be reconciled to God. Accepting salvation also means that we “repent” or “turn around”, that we have such great sorrow over our sinfulness that we become willing to leave our old life behind and begin a new life with Jesus Christ. The person who has received this gift of salvation is now a part of God’s family, the church.