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Introduction

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

— John 3:16-17

We begin this Bible study with the assumption that God wants to save the world because of his love for human beings. From his very conception and infancy, Jesus is identified as the one who saves his people. For instance, the meaning of his name in Hebrew is explained by the angel in St. Joseph’s dream when he says that the still Virgin Mary “will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). When the angel appears to the shepherds after the birth of Jesus, he tells the shepherds “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the

Lord” (Lk 2:11).

As Jesus walked toward Jerusalem with his disciples before his passion and death, he taught them that “the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk 19:10); “the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). When he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he announced that “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47). An often-quoted verse points out Jesus’ mission: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). At the Last Supper, he made it clear that his mission is not for abundant life that centers on this world but eternal life, which means knowing the Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent (Jn 17:3).

Salvation was not defined as a political deliverance from the Romans but as the forgiveness of sin and a new life of holiness and goodness. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15). St. John taught that “he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). The extension of salvation to the whole world was a promise of the prophets: “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is 49:6). Jesus taught this as well: “[May they] all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:21, RSV-SCE).

Clearly, Jesus is the focal point of salvation: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn 14:6), and “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). Yet the vision is directed outwardly to the whole world: “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice” (Jn 18:37).

For that reason, this Bible study will explore a number of the rich mysteries of salvation with the sole purpose of deepening and enriching the interpersonal relationship of every human being with the tri-personal God, who is one and yet Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.