Why is salvation necessary?

Genesis 6:5-22The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made

1 Peter 3:18-21Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit. So he went and preached to the spirits in prison—those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Just as God righteously condemned the world in Noah’s time because of rampant sin, yet rescued a handful to demonstrate his mercy, so the baptism of believers illustrates how the resurrection of Jesus confirms salvation to those still otherwise living among sinful humanity.

Romans 3:23Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Romans 6:23The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Colossians 1:22Now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

1 Thessalonians 3:13May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people.

Salvation is necessary because a sin against a holy God separates us from him, bringing judgment and spiritual death. An unholy being cannot live in the presence of a holy God. Jesus not only took our place as sinners but gave us his place by making us righteous in God’s sight. Both necessary actions are accomplished by salvation.

Acts 4:12“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

Although it may sound exclusive, the Bible’s claim of “one way” to salvation is actually an expression of the grace and kindness of God in letting all people know how to escape eternal judgment. God invites anyone and everyone to come to him. Given the sinful state of humanity, the miracle isn’t that there aren’t numerous ways to become right with God but that there is actually one way when no way seems possible or likely.

Exodus 12:13“The blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Matthew 26:17-20; 26-28On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?” “As you go into the city,” he told them, “you will see a certain man. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.’” So the disciples did as Jesus told them and prepared the Passover meal there. When it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the twelve disciples. . . . As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

Salvation through Jesus is dramatically foreshadowed through the Passover lamb. Jesus was painfully aware of this during the Last Supper (a Passover meal) while he instituted the practice we call Communion or the Lord’s Supper.