By: Sunny David
Christ Jesus came into the world that the world through Him might be saved, that a door of salvation might be opened for all and whoever would might enter in by it. The golden text of the Bible is, “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” (John 3:16 NKJV). The next verse reads, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” This is the good news to a convinced conscience, that Christ, our Judge, came not to condemn but to save.
God not only sent Him into the world, but He gave Him up to suffer and die for us, as the great propitiation or expiatory sacrifice. No man could have died for all men to be the propitiation for the sins of the world or humanity. Only God Himself, in the form of man, could have done it (John 1:1, 14). “In this the love of God was manifested toward us,” says the Bible, “that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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 4:9–10). The gift of God’s only begotten Son was the highest possible manifestation of love, and in the nature of things could have issued only from a benevolent Father. This love on the part of our Heavenly Father was the result of no act on our part. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6–8).
That God gave “His only begotten Son” signifies “the only one of its kind.” He is a unique Son in a sense characteristic of no other being in the universe and used to distinguish from all others who become sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. To Christians, the apostle Paul said, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:36–27).
No man is outside the mercy of God, except as he deliberately places himself there through the repudiation of the plan that was made by God to save him. The propitiation Jesus became makes it possible for all people to be saved (Hebrews 2:8–9), and salvation becomes reality to all who allow themselves to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19–21). Christ gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:6). Ransom is the price paid for the redemption of a captive. Man had through sin sold himself as a captive to the evil one. Jesus became mortal, shed His blood from the cross and died to redeem man. All who believe in Jesus Christ and confess Him as the Son of God, repent of all sins and are baptized (immersed in the watery grave) for the remission of sins, Christ has promised to save them from their sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 8:35–39; 22:16). He adds all the saved ones to His church, which He established and purchased with His own blood (Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:47; 20:28), which is the spiritual body of His followers (Ephesians 1:22–23). Christ has promised His followers that one day He will come back to receive them unto Himself and to take them with Him, to live with Him in Heaven for evermore (John 14:1–3).
