What has God done to save man and to restore His creation?

Man's fall into sin, described in Genesis 3, changed everything in God's good creation. As a result, all of us are born into sin and evil fills the earth. We must work hard to earn a living. We suffer pain and illness and, finally, we die and return to the dust of the ground. But as we heard from Genesis 3:15, God promised the Seed of the woman to crush the serpent's head and undo his evil work.

What has God done to save man and to restore His creation? Perhaps the most simple and clear answer to this question is recorded for us in the words of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Though God is a just God who must punish sin, His first desire for each and every one of us is that we might be saved from eternal condemnation and punishment and live forever in fellowship with Him. In order to provide salvation for fallen and sinful mankind, God sent His Son into this world as a true man to take our place under God's law and fulfill it for us, and to suffer and die upon the cross to bear the full punishment and condemnation for the sins of all people.

God promised a Savior from the beginning, immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve. He said in His words to the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15).

God's Word tells us: "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4-5).

Since man was unable to fulfill the righteous demands of God's law and could not make atonement for his own sinfulness, God sent His own Son into this world, born miraculously of the Virgin Mary, true God and true man (cf. Luke 1:26ff.; Matthew 1:18ff.). God's Son, Jesus the Messiah, or Jesus Christ, lived a sinless life under God's commandments. He walked in perfect fellowship with God the Father in heaven. In obedience to the Father, He then went to the cross and was forsaken and condemned of God the Father that He might suffer the full and just punishment for the sins of all mankind (cf. Matthew 27:46).

Again, the Bible says: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). The Bible tells us that "if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:1,2).

The Bible tells us "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Because Jesus died for our sins and rose again, God is gracious to us, forgives our sins and accepts us as His own dear children. Through faith in Jesus and His blood shed for us upon the cross, we have forgiveness and life everlasting in God's eternal kingdom.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace..." (Ephesians 1:3-7).

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer and also the pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Rogers. Opinions expressed are those of the author. The above column is copyright protected and used by permission from scripturalreview.com. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.