Elijah2come

"Salvation" and "redemption" are words that Christians use frequently. But what do these words mean? According to the dictionary, "salvation" is being protected from harm. If someone is in danger and you help her, then you have saved her. According to the dictionary, "redemption" is purchasing. We often redeem a coupon at a store, or redeem money. Redemption is simply paying the price. If someone has been "redeemed" then that person has been bought. Jesus is our savior and redeemer. We are dying under a burdensome debt, a debt that we cannot pay. Jesus has protected us by paying our price for us. Let us learn about this salvation and redemption.

Everyone is tempted to sin. When you disobey God you are sinning. For example, if I were to steal something, God would not like that. That would be a sin. Everyone has sinned. You, the person reading this, have sinned. I have sinned. The Bible says that the punishment for sin is death:

Everyone dies (with a few Biblical exceptions). But you do not have to experience what the Bible calls the "second death". You can live forever with God!

I am not going to discuss what "death" is here because lots of people have different opinions about what "death" is. It is enough just to say that I do not want death, and you probably do not want it to happen to you either.
So, everyone has a death sentence over them. Since you have sinned, you must pay for your sin, and the only payment for sin is for you to die. You deserve death! What are you going to do? There is no way that you can pay this price and not die. You can not ask your friend or relative to pay the price for you, because everyone else also must pay their own death sentence. What you need is someone who has never sinned to pay the price for you. Jesus is that someone!

Jesus never sinned, and so Jesus did not have a death sentence to pay. Unlike us, He did not have to die. But He died anyway -- on purpose! The main reason why Jesus came from heaven to us as a human was to die. If you read in the Bible about Jesus' arrest and trial you will see that Jesus could have escaped, but He chose not to.

Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?
(Matthew 26:53-54)

... I lay down my life .... No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord ...
(John 10:17-18)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16)

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
(Mark 10:45)

God demands a blood sacrifice, and Jesus is this sin offering. You and I have sinned, and so blood must be spilled as a result. Jesus loves you so much that He chose to spill His own blood so that you can live forever with God. God wants you to have eternal life! This is why Jesus paid your death penalty for you. You are so special that Jesus died so that you can live! And now Jesus is in heaven.

God is a loving God. You can not earn eternal life. There is nothing that you can do to win eternal life. Some people believe that if you behave nicely then you will deserve to get to paradise, but they are wrong! Remember that you have a death penalty to pay for the sins you have already done. Also, you will still do more sins in the future. Christians are tempted to sin, and sometimes they fall and do the sin. No one is free from sin. You do not deserve eternal life. You deserve death! But you can have eternal life anyway. Eternal life is a free gift. All you have to do is choose to take it. You cannot win it. You cannot buy it by doing good things or even by going to church. But it is given to you for free. All that you need to do is choose to take it.

    How do you choose eternal life? You must pray and tell Jesus that you are sorry for your sins and ask Jesus to forgive your sins, and you will be forgiven! You will not die forever. You will live forever with God in paradise.
    Of course, you must really be sorry! If you just say "sorry" but you do not mean it then you are lying, and you are not really sorry. For example, if I stole someone's money that would be a sin. I should then tell Jesus that I am sorry for stealing. But it is not enough just to say "sorry", but keep on stealing from people, because I would be lying! If I do not care about stealing then I am not really sorry. God knows what you are thinking, and He knows if you are really sorry or if you are lying when you say it. You cannot trick God! If you are really sorry then you will turn away from your sin -- you will try your hardest never to sin again!

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey -- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
(Romans 6:15-16)

If you fill your life with sin then you are following the devil. If you ask for forgiveness but follow the devil then you will not be forgiven. Think about this: the devil believes in Jesus, but the devil does not obey! The Bible makes this quite clear:

Jesus provided us with the perfect example for us to follow in his life here as a human. Jesus went through the same kinds of situations that you and I go through, and he did it without sinning. We must follow His example and obey his teachings. God said:

It is often difficult to obey God because the devil continues to try and trap you. However, the devil is weak -- God is strong. The devil can only manipulate your life if you let him. Ask God to help you to obey God. With God's help, sinful acts will become repulsive to you. When you make mistakes, and you will from time to time, ask Jesus for forgiveness again.
If you do good deeds you still will not deserve to go to paradise, because you are still a sinner. But, behaving in a good way is how Christians show that they follow God. Being a nice person is proof that you are trying your hardest not to sin.

You must choose whether you want the free gift of eternal life or not. You have two choices: life or death! God allows you to pick one of these. Which one do you choose? You are offered, free of charge, eternal life -- but it is up to you if you want it or not.

A good analogy of this would be if I were show you two bowls, one filled with candy and the other filled with dirt, and asked you to choose which you wanted to eat. You may have either. (It is amazing how many people would choose to eat the dirt -- I don't know why.) I hope that you will follow God and choose life!
I try my very best to be a nice person, and I ask God to give me the strength to be a nice person, because I know that is how God wants me to be. My motivation is to serve God. We can not earn eternal life, but we should be good out of loyalty to God. We should be good because it would make God happy. When I make mistakes and do something wrong, then I ask Jesus for forgiveness, and I try my best not to sin again. And the Bible says that my sins are forgiven. I know that I will live forever with God in paradise. You can have eternal life also.

Jesus died, and then He rose from the dead. Jesus appeared before many people after his resurrection. Here is one of my favorite accounts of this:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance .... Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher") .... Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" .... On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
(John 20:1,11-16,18-20)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made .... He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God .... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth .... For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
(John 1:1-3,10-12,14,17-18)

The Jewish people are God's chosen people. God chose Israel to fulfill His plans, and Jews are, at least a part of, Israel. The name "Jew" comes from the Israeli tribe of Judah! The Jews are descendants of Abraham, and thus are heirs to the irrevocable promises that God made to Abraham. God said that He will never reject Israel (Jeremiah 31:37).

I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew ....
(Romans 11:1-2)

... as far as election is concerned, they [Jews] are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
(Romans 11:28-29)

The Bible makes a distinction between God's chosen people and everyone else. Everyone else is a non-Jew, or a "Gentile".
    It is important to note that being "chosen" does not imply superiority. Actually, being chosen is both a blessing and a curse. As God's people, they have added responsibility as they are used by God to do God's will. This position of responsibility brings with it extraordinary rewards for obedience as well as extraordinary punishments for disobedience. In contrast, the Gentiles do not have these consequences of high rank or eminence, since Gentiles are not chosen in the same way.
    Even when the Jewish people experience hardship, God never rejects them. They remain chosen by God. For example, the evil holocaust, which killed six million Jews in an attempted genocide, eventually lead to the creation of the holy nation of Israel. The evil work of the devil was transformed into a fulfillment of prophecy, as Jews were finally forced to create there own country to protect themselves. The restoration of the holy nation of Israel after thousands of years is proof that God has chosen, and continues to choose the Jewish people.
    Sometimes people will falsely blame the Jews for the death of Jesus. These people deny the sacrifice that Jesus made for them. As I said earlier, Jesus died on purpose to pay for our sin, as a sin offering. Jesus said:

The truth is that we (you and I) killed Jesus, because He died for our sins -- Jesus died because we sin.
God warns the world not to curse the Jews; the descendants of Jacob, from the line of Abraham. Anyone who does not favor the Israelites will be cursed by God:

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse ...
(Genesis 12:3)

.... May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed .... Jacob ...
(Genesis 27:29-30)

... O Jacob, ... O Israel! .... May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!
(Numbers 24:5, 9)

If you still doubt that Jews are God's chosen people, consider who God usually chooses to do His will: Jesus was a Jew. His mother Mary was a Jew. The apostles were Jews. The Bible was written by Israelites. The Jewish people are obviously special.

We can be adopted children of Abraham. Before I continue this controversial topic, let me explain what I mean. I do not mean a literal adoption. I am referring to a figurative adoption. In a literal way, a person is either born a Jew through a Jewish mother, and thus has a clear and provable lineage, or else that person is not Jewish. Someone can be formally converted into Judaism through education and ritual under Jewish law, but that is not what I am referring to when I speak about adoption. Instead, I am referring to a figurative adoption of people linked by their faith and acceptance of the Word of God. In other words, people who follow God are accepted by God, but they have not necessarily been admitted into a human club. Christians are "adopted" son's of Abraham. Although our lineage is impure, and we have not been borne into a specific group, we are completely accepted by God.

God loves everyone, not only those in His chosen group. God's plan of salvation is not only for Jews, but is for all other people also!

... "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile [non-Jew] or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean .... I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right" .... While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised [Jewish] believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles .... When they [the Jewish believers] heard [of] this, they ... praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."
(Acts 10:28,34-35,44-45; 11:18)

Just in case you think that this is just in the New Testament (Christian scripture), the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) also says this clearly:

Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
(Isaiah 45:22)

...It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
(Isaiah 49:6)

If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits [the patriarchs] is holy, then the whole batch [the Jews] is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either .... And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
(Romans 11:16-24)

Jesus will return by descending from Heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:16). You will not need to be told when He arrives because everyone on earth will see Jesus descending from the sky in the same way that everyone on earth can see the sun or flashes of lightning:

At that time if anyone says to you, "Look, here is the Christ!" or, "There he is!" do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect -- if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. So if anyone tells you, "There he is, out in the desert," do not go out; or, "Here he is, in the inner rooms," do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
(Matthew 24:23-27)