Have you ever tuned into a TV program in the middle of a story? If you missed the plot, you may never figure out what’s going on. Understanding the Bible and God’s plan for man can be something like that. It’s possible to go to church all your life and never be able to “connect the dots” so to speak. Most likely you have heard the Christmas story about the birth of Jesus the Savior and the Easter story about His death, burial and resurrection. But that is the middle of the story, and you may not understand the plot.

The purpose of this Story is to help you understand God’s plan of salvation; the problem, God’s solution, and the only thing left for you to do. The best place to begin is Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning, God….” God has always existed. We have to accept that by faith because the Bible says it is so. The Bible also says we have only one God, who is three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. All three share the same attributes, beliefs and purpose, but each has a different mission. We might think of God the Father like the Chief Executive Officer who does the planning and directing. God the Son is Jesus, our Savior, intercessor and protector. And, God the Holy Spirit helps us to understand the Bible, convicts us of sin, and indwells the believer to give strength, wisdom, guidance and comfort. Again, we can never fully understand the concept, but we accept it by faith.

Our faith in God hinges on our being able to trust him completely. In order to do this, we need to know what He is like. The Bible tells us:

• God is righteous (always right)
God is all powerful
• God is all knowing
• God is faithful—He keeps His promises
• God is patient and kind
• God’s spirit is present everywhere (but He indwells believers)
• He is a jealous God. He wants us to put Him first in our lives. All of our relationships are enriched by giving God His rightful place in our lives.
• God is to be feared. That means we are to respect God, honor and obey Him. He gives us principles by which to live so that we can have better lives—not to keep good things from us. If we choose not to obey Him, then we should know there are consequences attached to our actions, which may not be of our liking. But, in addition, by choosing disobedience, we forfeit the blessings and peace that comes from God.

Such is the nature of God. He is worthy of our trust. Now let’s proceed with the story.

Before God made man, He made the angels, special beings who live with Him in heaven. Lucifer, the head angel, began to think he was like God. That was sin and God cannot allow sin in heaven. Sin always has to be punished, and God cast Lucifer, and the rebellious angels who sided with him, out of heaven. He sent Lucifer and some of his angels to earth, and he became known as the devil or Satan. He isn’t a mythological red-suited demon with horns and a tail, who is confined to a fiery hell. He is a spirit whose temporary kingdom is this earth. His goal is to keep people from knowing God and going to heaven. The only way he can accomplish that goal is by keeping people from trusting Jesus as their Savior. He is responsible for the evil in the world, but we must not forget his real goal. He began his work with Adam and Eve.

God created Adam and Eve in His image. They were perfect—without sin—but God did not make them robots, who must do His bidding. God gave them a free will to choose to do what they wanted. And they chose to disobey God. When they did, sin entered into the world and with it the consequences of sin. We cannot have free will and, at the same time, have a perfect world.

God had told them the punishment for sin is death, and every living thing began to grow old and die. Although Adam and Eve lived to be over 900 years old, they experienced spiritual death (separation from God) immediately. In spite of their sin, God still loved them. And He promised them some day He would send a Savior to restore fellowship between God and man.

Adam and Eve’s children were born in the likeness of their father, Adam, who had become a sinner. Thus, they were born with a sin nature—separated from God. And so are we. “…through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Rom 5:12) If that does not seem fair, think about this: If God gave us the same choice, we would choose to sin, and the outcome would be the same. But we also see that God was not willing to leave man in such a hopeless situation. Rom 5:18 says, “…through one transgression (of Adam) there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness (by Jesus Christ) there resulted justification of life to all men.”

Christianity is unlike the so-called great religious of the world, which require man to make himself acceptable to God. According to human thinking, it should be what we do or do not do that determines whether or not we go to heaven. We are prone to think we can earn our way into heaven by our good deeds or that our bad deeds can keep us out of heaven. But that is not God’s criteria. God’s standard is perfection—one sin would prevent us from entering the presence of a Holy God. Knowing that we could not be perfect, God made another way for us to go to heaven—not through our works but through His grace. “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” (Eph. 2:8,9)

Our salvation is not based on our good works but on the work of Christ on the cross. “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God….” (1 Peter 3:18) And “This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10) How much does God love us? He loved us enough to die for us. God the Son came to earth to be born as the Baby Jesus. Mary was His mother, but God (the Holy Spirit) was His father. Jesus was not part God and part man. He was God and man. God didn’t send someone to take our punishment—He came Himself.

When Jesus was 30 years old, he began his ministry. He was a great teacher, a miracle worker, a perfect example. All of that was good, but it was not His real purpose in coming to earth. When Jesus was 33, he was arrested and, although the authorities could find no fault with Him, he was sentenced to be crucified. He was flogged, mocked and spit upon. The perfect, sinless Son of God was nailed to a cross—punishment reserved for the worst criminals.

As Jesus hung on the cross, the sky turned black at mid-day—a symbol of the sin that was engulfing Jesus. The Bible says, “He bore our sins in His body on the cross.” (1 Peter 2:24) God took all the sins of the world for all time and placed them on Jesus. Then He declared Jesus guilty of them all and carried out the death penalty.

The punishment for sin involves two types of death: physical death and spiritual death (separation from God). When our sin was placed upon Jesus, God, who is so holy He cannot look upon sin, had to turn His back upon Jesus; the Holy Spirit had to withdraw from Him. When Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me!” it was not a question. He knew the answer. As Jesus gave us His spirit in physical death, He said, “It is finished.” His work of salvation had been completed.

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

Jesus paid for all sin—even murder, rape, child abuse; every vile and heinous offense. Jesus has the right to forgive sin because He paid the penalty for sin. He has the power and authority to forgive sin because He is God. The only sin that God cannot forgive is the sin of unbelief. If we do not believe in Jesus and accept Him as our Savior from sin, we must take the punishment for our own sins.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) This scripture tells us there is something we must do to be saved—we must believe. The Bible says even the demons believe—they know who Jesus is. So “believing” means more than just “knowing.” It means acknowledging our need to be saved. It means accepting Jesus’ death on the cross as full payment for our sin, knowing there is nothing else we need to do or can do that will bring us to God.

People tend to believe that everyone is a child of God, but that is not what the Bible says. John 1:12 says, “For as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” The fact that we had to be redeemed (purchased, ransomed, bought back) attests to the fact that we were separated from God. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 3:23-24) And “…you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold…but with…the blood of Christ.” (1 Peter 3:18-19) We don’t like the idea of being separated from God—perhaps because it may be interpreted as rejection. But God did not reject us—rather, He made a way for us to come to Him. Any rejection is on the part of man, who rejects God.

The Bible also says we must be born again—not of flesh and blood but of the spirit. Our spiritual birth is into God’s family. Being born again simple means that when we trust the Lord Jesus as our Savior, God gives us life in our spirit with which we can known Him. Adam and Eve suffered spiritual death when they sinned, and man’s fellowship with God was broken. In receiving Christ, we experience the rebirth of our spirits, and fellowship is restored.

This new life begins at the moment of rebirth and lasts through eternity. Our name is written in God’s Book of Life and our citizenship in heaven is established. If we could lose our membership in God’s family, it would be not eternal. He can never disown us nor can anyone take us away from Him. We are His children and He is our Heavenly Father. Eternal life has no on again/off again conditions.

In addition to being with God when you die, there are many earthly benefits to being a child of God. He sends the Holy Spirit to live within you, and He gives you a new nature that is sin-free like that of Jesus. But He does not take away your free will. Since you are human, you still have a sin nature and will continue to sin. Sin does not cause you to lose your membership in God’s family, but it does cause you to lose fellowship with God. Fellowship is restored through confession of sin. (1 John 1:9)

You begin your new life as a “babe,” but you are expected to grow in faith and become more like Christ through obedience to God (choosing to use your new nature instead of the old nature), reading and/or hearing the Bible, prayer, and Christian fellowship. God wants you to enjoy the victorious, abundant life, which is filled with meaning, peace and joy. He does not promise you freedom from trouble, pain and sorrow, but He did promise, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5)

The Bible brings us bad news followed by good new. The bad news is we are born separated from God. The good news is we don’t have to stay that way. When we realize we are sinners separated from God and that there is a way we can come to Him, it becomes a matter of choice. Membership in God’s family is open to all who place their faith in Jesus Christ.

God’s plan of salvation is simple. It does not require extensive knowledge of the Bible or that you accept all the teachings of the Bible. However, there are some things you must believe in order to be saved:

• You are a sinner in need of salvation.
• There is a punishment for sin—physical death and spiritual death, which is separation from God.


• Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, died on the cross to take the punishment for your sins.


• Jesus rose from the dead and now lives in heaven.


• The only way to have eternal life with God is through trusting Jesus Christ alone to save you.


• When you believe these things and trust Jesus as your Savior, He forgives your sins and you become a child of God. You receive the Holy Spirit to indwell you on earth and your citizenship is established in heaven.

Is believing that Jesus is the only way to be saved some narrow-minded, bigoted, opinionated believe? Should we think we can choose our own way of getting into heaven? Is it all right to believe that we can get to heaven by being good? Or by believing that God is so good and fair that He would not send anyone to hell? Or by believing that any and all beliefs in God are the same—it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe in God? If that were the case, then Jesus died in vain. His death was not necessary. People could choose some other way of salvation. While God has given us free will, He has not given us free choice of ways to come to Him. There is only one way—His Way—through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)
Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and Savior of Mankind. Jesus’ place in history and the fact that hundreds of Bible prophecies were fulfilled through Him should be sufficient cause for you to consider His claim very carefully. You must decide what you will do about Jesus Christ. To ignore Him is to reject Him. The choice is yours.

Are you already a member of God’s family? If not, do you want to be? Are you ready to confess that you are a sinner, separated from God, and that you need the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive your sins? You can do that now by praying a simple prayer, such as:
Dear God, thank You for loving me enough to send Your Son Jesus to take the Punishment for my sins. I trust Him alone to forgive my sins and to give me eternal life with You. I now accept Jesus as my Savior and Lord. I ask You to help me live a life that is pleasing to You. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

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