What Does Jesus Save Us From?
Part 1: Being God

God intended that Adam and Eve have children who would be perfect as they were perfect – children who knew God intimately and lived their lives motivated by His kind of love, His kind of goodness, His kind of compassion – well, you get the picture. But now that Adam and Eve had died in their spirits, what would their children be like? The Bible says of one of their first sons (Genesis 3:5): “When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.” Adam and Eve’s children were like them – dead in sin. And so the Bible says that “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Let’s have a look at what it means to be in the image of Adam. All that it means is what Christ undid for us on the cross. This is bad news and good news at the same time for those of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus. It is the news about what we were saved from when we put our hope and faith in Him and gave our lives to Him as the only Saviour. 

(1) We lived our lives as if we were God. 

The Bible says that we naturally do not seek God and, even if we did, cannot understand anything that has to do with Him (Romans 3:11;[1] 1 Corinthians 2:14).[2] But what about all those religions in the world, you might be wondering? Doesn’t that show that people really are looking for God? No, that still shows that people like to live their lives as if they were God. They decide by themselves what they want to worship, they create what they call a god or gods, but which are not the real God at all, and worship their own creation. Romans 1:22b-23 says that people “became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles”.
The next question that might come to mind is: “If people can’t understand about God, what other choice do they have than to create their own Gods?” That question usually comes from not understanding how much God loves people and wants them to come to His Son to be saved. Jesus said (John 6:44): “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” 2 Peter 3:9 says that God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”. (Coming to repentance is what was explained in the previous lesson about giving your life to Jesus; it simply means turning around and going the opposite way, in this case, turning from living your life independently of God and giving your life over to Him.) God is doing all He can to draw people to Himself. Hebrews 1:1 says that God, throughout human history, has spoken to people in many ways and in many places. He is actively seeking to get every man, woman and child to understand about Himself. Because there is no natural ability to understand in any of us, He gives that understanding. One way He does that for everyone is through what He has made – the created universe (Romans 1): 

18  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19  since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
20  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

What did we do with that knowledge? According to this passage, people suppressed it, preferring their sin (remember that sin is living life without God as part of it). In the western world, we covered our sin by claiming evolution – there is no God, just a huge cosmic explosion out of which all the intricate creation that we see came about all on its own. Other cultures have different substitute theories about our origins, but all these theories have one thing in common – they keep God at a distance from us. People do love their independence from Him, even though all He wants is to bless us: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). This is the God who is so full of love and mercy that He blesses even those who reject Him. Jesus, in teaching His followers to love even their enemies says that this is how God loves (Matthew 5): 

44  But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45  that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
47  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
48  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 He is a kind God, and it is His hope that His kindness will lead each and every sinner to repentance because, if we do not repent, the second death awaits, and God does not want that for any of us (Romans 2): 

4  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
5  But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
6  God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
7  To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
8  But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

And after we come and are saved and brought into His family, God, who does not change, still blesses and pours blessing over us out of His kindness and love:  

Romans 8
32  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Ephesians 1
3  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

2 Peter 1
3  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Psalm 37
4  Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5  Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:
6  He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Isaiah 58
11  The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Matthew 11
28  Jesus: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

John 10
10b  Jesus: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

John 15
11  Jesus: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

John 16
Jesus: 33  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Scripture upon Scripture could be added to this list. Yet people every day turn their backs on it all. Why? Because Adam chose to become like God. He decided He could know the right and wrong way to live all on His own. He did not reject God totally. He was not an atheist. He simply chose to redefine how he was going to relate to God. Having God out there somewhere on the sidelines was O.K., but He could not be Lord. Adam was going to decide how he lived his life. God was, practically speaking, out of the picture – a distant God with no involvement in Adam’s life.
And we were born just like Adam. History shows what a good job we have done at running our own lives. We have unprecedented wars, family breakups, crime, relational difficulties, abuse, stress-related health problems, psychological and emotional difficulties, and so on, and so on. Take the best-living person you can think of and, for no reason, hit him across the face. What reaction are you most likely to see in this very good person? Anger? An instant desire to retaliate? Because this is a good person, he or she might shove all that down and still give you a gracious response, but the first instant is the “natural” response – the one that shows you what is really there in that person’s nature. What is the godly response to those who come against us? 

2 Timothy 2
25  Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
26  and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

 What did Jesus do that undoes this deep-rooted tendency in people to live as gods? He died to provide faith. Faith is depending on God. It’s believing what He says and living our lives based on that. The Bible says that, in its simplest terms, faith can be described as believing that God “exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6b).
Some people make the mistake of believing that when they decided to stake their eternal life on Jesus, that was because they chose to. Their faith did not come from God. It came from themselves, and being saved was their decision. But the truth is that faith is a gift (Ephesians 2:8): “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”. Christ is the one who initiates our faith. He is “the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 2:12a), and it is God the Holy Spirit, who is also called the “Spirit of faith” (2 Corinthians 4:13), who puts it in our lives (1 Corinthians 12:8-9).[3] Once it is there, we can choose what to do with it – run with it and start living lives of faith in God, or reject it and continue to live independently of God. But it is God who gives the faith that allows for the choice to be made.
So what is our part in faith? What does it mean to “run with it”? It means, as we have already seen, that we choose to believe that the God of the Bible exists and that He is the only living and true God. It also means that we believe He rewards us when we come to Him. As Jesus said (Matthew 7:11): “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Finally, it means that, in all of life, we keep turning to God. Part of that is asking for what we need. James 4:2 says: “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” And Jesus invited us in Matthew 7: 

7  “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
8  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9  Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” 

What this verse invites us to do is to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Don’t ever feel like you are being a bother to God. God invites us to ask every day. After all, the prayer Jesus gave His disciples when they asked Him how they should be praying included the words: “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).
The other part of turning to God in all of life is looking at life from God’s point of view and living according to how He sees things. How do you do that? Ask Him: “How does this look to You, and what would You suggest I do in this situation?” Believe it or not, God speaks to His children, and He will answer that question. How does He speak? Usually as a quiet thought that comes from somewhere deep in your spirit. If you have never heard Him, ask Him to speak and sit quietly and see what happens. It may take a while to recognize His voice, but you will come to hear it and know it. Jesus said: “My sheep listen to my voice” (John 10:27a). So faith involves listening to God for how to live life, doing what He says, and not doing what He does not say to do. It is trusting that He always has our best interests and heart and that He is always good to us and always blessing us. He can always be trusted, and we can always be sure that our faith in Him is well placed.

Sharon Currens