In Need of a Savior
We all have many needs.
Jesus wants to fulfill your greatest one.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
Introduction
Our lifestyles and choices are greatly influenced by our needs. For example, we devote countless hours to our jobs to secure food, water, and clothing. We also maintain our homes to ensure we have shelter. In addition, we pursue relationships to fulfill our emotional needs. However, humanity’s most critical need is not only immensely overshadowed by these but is also greatly misunderstood.
This occurs because it lies beyond the countless physical, emotional, financial, and relational needs that endlessly consume our time, energy, and thoughts. This need also transcends the physical and emotional fabric of mankind and concerns our innermost parts. Furthermore, it concerns the internal deadness all people feel and desperately strive to cure to no avail with relationships, religion, accomplishments, and possessions. In addition, it concerns our eternal fate and standing before a holy yet loving Creator. Despite this need’s deep nature and serious implications, it possesses a simple, complete, and beautiful solution that is only found in one source: Jesus Christ.
Although He freely offers His perfect solution to humanity’s greatest need, most people unfortunately reject it. Many of these people do so because they cannot see this need in their lives nor care to understand it. Others confidently believe they can live their lives in human goodness and earn a place in heaven through their good behavior, works, and religion. However, this booklet shows how the Bible clearly warns against these devastatingly erroneous beliefs, for it provides infallible and convicting proof that all people need Christ as their Savior.
Chapter 1: The Need
To recognize our need for Jesus, we must first understand the way God created us, which is recorded in Genesis. During the sixth day of creation, He created the first man and woman, who would become the forerunners to the entire human race. As Genesis 1:26 states, mankind was created in God’s image, who established its members to be above the animals and have dominion over His creation. Further differentiating us and animals was a pivotal distinction with which the Lord blessed humanity: the ability to directly fellowship with Him. As Ecclesiastes 3:11 explains, the Lord created all people with an inherent need to be filled with His love and an eternal destiny to dwell with Him forever.
However, while the Lord created people to worship and adore Him, He never forces them to do so. As John 4:23-24 states, He desires sincere worship based in spirit and truth. Thus, instead of forcing us to love Him, He gave us free will and granted us the choice to serve or reject Him. Thus, we hold a special place in God’s creation, being made with an eternal purpose to forever fellowship with Him, an inherent dependence on His providence and love, and a glorious responsibility to serve and worship Him through voluntary obedience.
Unfortunately, humanity’s spiritual status before God dramatically changed when sin entered creation. When the Lord made Adam and Eve, they and all creation were initially perfect. However, to respect the first couple’s free will, the Lord created two trees to respectively represent obedience and rebellion: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 2:9). In Genesis 2:15-17, the Lord warned Adam that the consequence of eating the latter tree’s fruit would be inescapable death. Unfortunately, Genesis 3 records that Adam and Eve fell into temptation and rebelliously chose sin and self-sufficiency over God’s perfect love and providence. Upon eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first couple received a new worldview and frame of reference on good and evil that was detached from God’s. This change caused them to lose their perfection as sin’s corrupting power consumed their very nature. This sinful nature passed down to their descendants and caused all humanity to be born dead to God. Also, Romans 3:10 and 23 reveal that it caused us all to be declared unrighteous before Him and fall short of His glory. In addition, Romans 5:19 states that Adam’s rebellion condemned all humanity to endure sin’s consequences, including spiritual and physical death. Thus, the fall of humanity corrupted all creation with sin and caused it to lose its perfection and bare the burdens of weakness, disease, and death.
Furthermore, sin’s presence caused radically destructive changes to our very being. According to 1 Thessalonians 5:23, human beings are triune in nature and comprised of body, soul, and spirit. While the former two parts allow people to respectively interact with the world and other people, the spirit was created to be humanity’s sole means of communicating with God. Unfortunately, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they experienced an immediate spiritual death. When their spirits died, their souls took over as the central part of their being. This radical change severed mankind’s relationship with God and put it at enmity with Him and His ways. Again, John 4:23-24 states that God can only be worshiped in the spirit and not through the flesh and its soulish efforts. Thus, this inherited spiritual death causes all people, starting from birth, to possess a hole in their very being that leaves them spiritually unfulfilled, stained with sin, and controlled by their soulish natures.
Hence, it is this very state that leaves us in need of a Savior. With inherited corrupt natures, all humanity, according to Romans 3:23, is sinful and thus declared unrighteous and deserving of judgement in the eyes of our holy, righteous God. Although some may believe they are good through abstaining from certain sins, Jesus states in Mark 7:20-23 that we are defiled by the wicked motives that dwell within our hearts. While many of us have never committed theft, murder, or adultery, Christ teaches that even the desire to commit these and other outwardly sinful acts comes from our corrupt nature. For example, Christ in Matthew 5:21-22 explains that while we may outwardly follow the law and abstain from murder, harboring a strong hatred for someone causes us to commit that sin in our hearts as an inward motive. Furthermore, James 1:14-15 notes how temptation to sin comes from our heart’s wicked desires, which lead to outward sinful acts. Thus, no amount of outward human goodness can cleanse the permeated stain of sin that has corrupted our very nature.
Chapter 2: The Solution
Fortunately, the Lord chose not to abandon sinful man, for in His perfect and unconditional love, He made a plan of redemption to rescue us from our otherwise irredeemable state. In His eternal omniscience, God foreknew that mankind would rebel against Him and fall short of His perfect glory. However, as Ephesians 1:4-5 states, He knew that many people would accept His love and forgiveness through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus, after Adam and Eve sinned, He gave them and their descendants hope through a prophetic promise in Genesis 3:15 to send a Redeemer who would reconcile mankind back to God. This Redeemer would be God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, who came to this world as both fully God and fully man as John 1:14 states. Thus, as John 3:16 famously proclaims, God’s unconditional love for humanity led Him to send Jesus into this sinful world to deliver those who would believe and place their faith in Him.
Christ performed this perfect work of redemption by satisfying God’s nature of justice. Because the Lord is holy, sinful humanity cannot commune or dwell with Him, for Psalm 5:4 states that evil cannot dwell in His presence. Also, meeting the demands of God’s holiness to receive His forgiveness requires the shedding of blood, according to Hebrews 9:22. Because of this, the Lord required the Israelites to make sacrifices to Him with their livestock (Lev 1-6). However, these animals were only substitutes that could never remove the permeated stain of sin in humanity’s nature (Heb 10:4). Thus, a perfect sacrifice was needed to rescue humanity from an eternity of judgment and banishment from God’s loving presence (Heb 9:12).
Thankfully, the Lord simultaneously satisfied His natures of justice and mercy through the Way. This Way was established by Christ Jesus, who put aside (but did not forfeit) His status in the Godhead to come down to earth as God Incarnate. Although Hebrews 4:15 notes He dealt with the temptations all people do, He perfectly abstained from sin to live a perfect life. Using His perfection, He willingly chose to suffer a brutal and torturous death to become the spotless Lamb for our sins. Humbly and lovingly putting Himself in our place as a substitute, Jesus took on all of humanity’s past, present, and future sins. This allowed Him to bear His Father’s righteous wrath instead of the unworthy people He so unfathomably loved as Romans 5:8 proclaims. It is through Christ’s selfless, redemptive sacrifice that He bore the entirety of humanity’s sin and appeased the Father’s righteous wrath by fully paying our sin debts to earn our forgiveness.
However, we do not have a dead Savior, for Christ’s work does not end with His crucifixion. Rather, He claimed total victory over death through His resurrection. By rising from the dead three days after His burial, He proved that sin and death could not defeat Him. Days after overcoming both in a glorious display of His unconquerable deity, He returned to heaven. Today, He sits at the Father’s right hand and continuously intercedes for God’s beloved children.
Furthermore, Revelation 3:20 reveals that Jesus is knocking on the door of people’s hearts and seeking those who will accept His free gift of salvation. While He perfectly atoned for all our sins, it is every person’s responsibility to make a critical decision with this knowledge. According to Romans 6:23, the redemption and eternal life Christ provided on Calvary is a gift that must be accepted before it can be received. This simple yet critical action necessary for receiving this eternal life and escaping hell’s unending judgment is clearly summarized in Romans 10:9: “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Conclusion
Today, many people do not see or understand the inherent sinfulness of man. Instead, many hope to appease God with an outward appearance polished with human goodness while others disregard His existence altogether. However, sin severed humanity’s relationship with God, permeated its members’ very nature, and alienated them from His holy presence. Because of this, the greatest works people can offer are tainted with sin, unacceptable before God, and therefore insufficient to escape His righteous judgment. Fortunately, the Scriptures joyfully proclaim that we need not look to ourselves for salvation. Instead, it is solely found in Jesus Christ, who lovingly gave His perfect life for our spiritual and eternal wellbeing. The permanent cleansing from His blood, an eternal life with the Lord, and a beautiful relationship with Him await those who confess their sins and ask to receive from Him the redemptive victory that was miraculously won on Calvary.
Thank you for finishing this booklet. Please continue to this last section to learn how to apply this knowledge.
Applying this Knowledge
Now that you have heard the greatest and most important news ever given to mankind, the choice is yours to make. While Jesus loves you immensely, He will not force you to choose Him. Rather, God allows you to choose Him with your free will. All He requires is for you to place your faith in Christ as your Savior. Acts 2:21 tells us that “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you desire to receive Christ into your heart and accept His perfect salvation, simply pray, “Dear Jesus, I know I am a sinner who deserves judgment. I confess my sins and receive You as my personal Savior. Thank you for this free gift of salvation you lovingly paid for with your life. I repent of my sins and commit my life to You and Your will. Amen.”
Upon receiving Christ’s salvation, you will begin to experience the new life found in Him. However, how deeply you experience it depends on how much you pursue a deeper relationship with Him. To do so, begin reading the Bible, praying, fellowshipping with other Christians, and attending a Bible-believing church. Also, avoid allowing sin from discouraging you. While you will never live perfectly as a Christian, 1 John 1:9 promises, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Although being a believer will come with its difficulties and trials, God’s Word promises that He will never stop loving you, nor will He ever forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).