We need salvation; and we cannot save ourselves.
Too often people try to muddle along on their own. But we find ourselves as human beings in truly dire straits – alienated from God, in conflict with one another, and faced with serious troubles of all kinds and the final onslaught of death.
The first step toward rescue is to recognize our need for help! The good news is that God acts to save us. Even before we call to God, God is already reaching to us. God comes to us in Jesus, who offers his life for us on the cross, to bring us into a saving connection with God.
The theological word for what Christ does on the cross is atonement. As Paul said, “God put Christ forward as a sacrifice of atonement, effective through faith.” (Romans 3:25) An atonement removes everything that would separate us from God – thus it means a wiping away of our sin – and restores us into fellowship with God. Atonement makes us “at one” with God. This is what Christ accomplishes for us on the cross. Through Christ we can be saved from our troubled human condition and brought into the life and promise of God.
So if God through Christ acts to save us, how do we need to respond? The atonement, as it is said in Romans, becomes “effective through faith.” We need to receive the saving action of Christ in faith! But what exactly does it mean to “have faith”? Does it mean simply to “believe in Jesus”? Do we need to do something? This will be the subject of the next sermon in the series, on this coming Sunday! The sermon will be entitled, “The Way of Life.”
Sunday’s Scripture Readings:
Isaiah 53:3–11
Romans 3:21–26
