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Salvation Comes from God and for God
“He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.”
— St. Augustine, Sermo 169, 11, 13: PL 38, 923
Salvation establishes a relationship between God and sinful humans, a relationship by which God saves them from past sin, reconciles them when they continue to sin, and helps them to avoid sin in the present. His goal is abundant life and holiness, a love of truth that motivates people to share God’s truth with other people, and eternal life after death. Ultimately, God, who created humanity in his image and likeness, is graciously working to transform sinners who fall short of his glory (Rom 3:23) so that they might be restored to the full image and likeness of God, who is Jesus Christ.
Study
Salvation Is a Relationship
In this relationship of salvation, the Lord God takes the initiative, as he has done since the time of the original sin by Adam and Eve, calling to the new sinners, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9). In response to the sound of his approach, the no-longer-innocent couple chose to hide themselves from God, until he insisted on their coming out to meet him. True, after a thorough examination of the man, the woman, and the serpent, the Lord God imposed punishment on each of them, and yet he also showed mercy to the man and woman. He cursed the serpent with a promise about salvation for the humans: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).
A Woman’s “Seed”
The woman’s “seed” is an odd expression, since in Hebrew and other languages, the seed refers to the man’s contribution to the conception of a child. This promise of a woman’s seed was perplexing, until a Virgin conceived a Child by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit millennia later, and he was named “Salvation” — that is, Jesus. The curse of the ancient serpent was at the same time the promise of a future salvation.
After the punishments, the Lord God showed mercy by clothing the couple with animal skins to cover the shame engendered by their disobedience to his commandments. Even their exclusion from the Garden of Eden was a mercy; they would not be allowed to eat the fruit of life in their sinful state until the defeat of the serpent by the Seed of the Woman at the new tree of life — the cross.
This episode shows that while God took the initiative, the couple still retained their own free will. They chose to hide, and at the Lord God’s insistence, they came forth to meet him for justice and for merciful promise. The salvation of humanity entails a true relationship because both God and humans have free will within it. God chooses to freely give his grace to save sinners, and humans can either hide or come forth to meet him.
This free quality of the relationship is what makes the process of salvation seem so complicated. However, like any relationship of free persons, the complexity is the basis of the richness of the relationship. In the Introduction, we saw that the Lord God took the initiative to walk in the cool of the Garden of Eden and call out to the recently guilty man and woman, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9).
Consider
Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wonderfully saw “Where are you?” as the most basic question of the Bible, one which distinguishes the Bible from human philosophy. Philosophy poses the human questions that seek where God or the meaning of life might be found, and looks for answers based on reason and experience. From Genesis 3:9, the Bible is a story of God asking human beings, “Where are you?” — seeking them out for a purpose greater than they can conceive.
The Lord God sought out Noah (he was the one staring at the skies for a rainstorm). The Lord sought out the pagan Abram and called him to become a blessing for all the nations of the world by worshipping the one God alone. Moses was looking for sheep when the Lord found him and spoke from the burning bush. The apostles were mending nets, or following John the Baptist, or caring for a tax collector’s booth when the Lord Jesus called each of them from private business to God’s mission. God takes the initiative with human beings, and asks “Where are you?” in order to draw them to himself.
Study
Furthermore, as with the case of Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes, he calls them while they are still sinners and does not wait until they are perfect: “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6, 8).
The fisherman Simon Peter recognized this reality when, after the greatest catch of his career, he knelt before Jesus and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Lk 5:8). Many people are tempted to think that they must make themselves perfect, holy, and good before God will accept them. However, the biblical history points out that salvation is always offered at God’s initiative to undeserving sinners. For that reason, Jesus said to some Pharisees who were offended that he sat at table fellowship with sinners: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:12, 13).
Love of Israel
The Lord made clear to the people of Israel that his love for them was prior to their love for him.
Stop here and read Deuteronomy 7:7 and Isaiah 63:9 in your own Bible.
Not only did the Lord declare his love for Israel before they chose to love him, but he also made it clear that they did not deserve his love; his choice of Israel was undeserved and yet filled with his gracious devotion and concern for them. He would love and guide them as a father does his small children.
The Lord declared this while the Israelites were turning away from him to worship Baal, Asherah, and the other Canaanite gods that personified the mere forces of nature, a nature he had created. Yet he continued to love Israel and guide it through a salvation history that culminated with the mission of God the Son to redeem Israel first and then the whole world.
Stop here and read Hosea 11:1-4 in your own Bible.
Consider
The New Testament
The New Testament continues the same message that God initiates the saving relationship with people. As Jesus gave his first instruction on the Eucharist, he told the crowd of disciples, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:44). Later, the Lord Jesus told his eleven apostles at the Last Supper, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (Jn 15:16), which he follows with the command, “This I command you, to love one another” (Jn 15:17). St. John, one of those present at the Last Supper, wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10), followed by the great truth that “We love, because he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). Like St. John, we can only marvel at this tremendous and unearned gift: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn 3:1).
Stop here and read Acts 9:1-22, 22:4-16, 26:9-20 in your own Bible.
Paul, an Apostle by Grace
St. Paul, whose conversion from being a persecutor of the Church and therefore of Jesus Christ himself, knew that his call to be an apostle was an act of God’s undeserved grace when he wrote to the Galatians, “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (Gal 1:15).
Investigate
“Unworthiness”
Read the following passages and note where St. Paul recognizes his unworthiness to be an apostle.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| 1 Corinthians 15: 9 | |
| Ephesians 3:7-8 | |
| 1 Timothy 1:12-17 |
Note also how he wonders at the conversion and redemption of all Christians in Romans 8:29-32.
“Let there be Light”
A gaze into the amazing night sky shows the vastness of space and stirs up wonder at God, who made all of space and is infinitely more vast than the universe he created with a word, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3), a light that exploded in a “big bang” and brought forth the orderly universe where we live. Such is the Lord God, who is “mindful” enough of man to care for each person and save all who would accept him as Creator and Savior!
Investigate
God’s Grace
Read the following passages and take notes on how justification and the salvation of sinners are given by God’s freely offered grace.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Romans 3:24 | |
| Romans 6:23 | |
| Ephesians 2:4-7 | |
| 2 Thessalonians 2:16 | |
| 2 Timothy 1:8-9 |
Consider
Why Is Saving Grace Undeserved?
The most basic reason that God’s saving grace is undeserved by people is that each individual person (and humanity as a whole) is sinful. The Old Testament saw this reality of the sinful nature of humanity, as does the New Testament.
Ancient Pagan Texts
The reality of humanity being prone to sin was recognized even in ancient pagan literature. “Never has a sinless child been born to its mother, / … a sinless worker has not existed from of old” (James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement, Third Edition, 1969).
Akkadian prayers of different kinds express the same idea:
• “Who is there who has not sinned against his god? Who that has kept the commandment forever? All humans who exist are sinful.”
• “Mankind, as many as there are, Which one of them comprehends his faults? Who has not transgressed and who has not committed sin? Which one understands the way of the god?”
• “Whoever was there so on his guard that he did not sin? Whoever was so careful that he did not incur guilt?”
(The above quotes in English and their original sources are from Robin C. Cover, “Sin, Sinners,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 6, ed. David Noel Freedman [New York: Doubleday, 1992], pp. 32-33.)
Investigate
“Only” Human
Look up the following passages and note what Scripture says about the nature of humanity.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Genesis 6:5 | |
| Proverbs 20:9 | |
| Ecclesiastes 7:20 | |
| Isaiah 53:6 | |
| Isaiah 64:6 | |
| Romans 3:9 | |
| Romans 3:22b-24 | |
| 1 John 1:8 |
Study
The Enormity of Sin and the Infinity of the Savior
Contemporary culture has difficulty treating sin against God as a serious concern. People understand frequently enough that they are sinners, since often enough their sinful behavior gets them into a variety of serious problems: important relationships are ruptured due to various forms of infidelity; arrests and convictions are the result for those sins that society still recognizes as criminal, such as theft, perjury, or murder; and/or physical ailments and even death can result from certain sins of drunkenness, drug abuse, sexual excess, gluttony, and so on. Reality has a way of indicating to sinners that their behavior is not good for them.
Still, many modern people have a difficulty in understanding that sin is an offense against God. Some people think that God is so big that sins by puny humans cannot really affect him. Some think that humans are so small that he will not notice their sins. Others presume that he is all merciful and automatically forgives everyone, like an indulgent grandfather might do. Still others believe that since everyone is committing the same kinds of sins, particularly the sins of the flesh, God cannot condemn so many people and that he will just ignore the common sins and sinners — like a mob of gatecrashers busting into heaven. None of these ideas fit the understanding of sin that God has revealed in Scripture.
A more accurate picture flows from a common understanding of offenses: the seriousness of the offense is determined not by the person perpetrating it but by the person who is offended. For instance, fighting with my brother was wrong; hitting my parents or grandparents would have been be a far worse offense because of their greater status in the family, even though I would have been doing the very same bad action against any one of them. In civil society, a barroom brawl will land a person in the county jail for a short while; however, even threatening to strike the president of the United States will land a person in federal prison because of his status under the law.
We must apply this principle to God. Precisely because Almighty God is infinite, truly eternal, and all good, the sins we commit against him acquire an infinite and eternal quality of greater evil, not unlike the way that hitting the president acquires a federal quality to the offense and its punishment. Each person must consider his or her sins in light of the infinite God whom we offend. Humans, by their very nature, are finite, time-limited creatures incapable by nature of ever accomplishing a way to make up for an infinite, eternal sin. Furthermore, humans, even when they want to be good, still find that they have a wounded human nature that is incapable of accomplishing the good they may want to do.
Consider
We can examine ourselves and realize that by nature we are incapable of ever paying the infinite and eternal debt for sin. Further, like St. Paul, people realize how difficult it is for them to do the moral good even when they truly want to avoid sin and act morally. For centuries, sinners have been able to relate very personally to St. Paul’s response to the dreadful human dilemma of serving God with the mind but sinning with the flesh.
Stop here and read Romans 7:14-23 in your own Bible.
Two Steps to Recovery
Paul here expresses the powerlessness experienced by those recovering from addictions to alcohol, drugs, sexual and lustful urges, gambling, gluttony, or other compulsive behaviors.
The first step to recovery for addicts is the profound realization that they are powerless over the object of their addiction. Every sinner needs to arrive at the same point as Paul or the addicts: each sinner is powerless over sin, and if left to its own logic and dynamic, sin is a destructive force that will lead a person to spiritual, emotional, social, and eventually to physical death.
The second step to recovery is acknowledging that nothing within creation and no sin is more powerful than God, and that only he can free an addict from addiction and only he can free any sinful human being from sin. God’s merciful grace infinitely exceeds human sin because he has sent his own infinite, divine Son to become flesh and dwell among us.
The Christian contemplates this reality, that God the Son, who is infinite due to his divine nature, truly became flesh, so that as a true human being he can represent all of humanity. Yet he did so without ever having sinned like the rest of humanity.
Investigate
Jesus’ Characteristics
Look up the following passages about Jesus and list his characteristics.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| John 1:29 | |
| Hebrews 4:15 | |
| Hebrews 7:26 | |
| Hebrews 9:13-14 | |
| 1 Peter 2:22-24 | |
| 1 Peter 3:18 | |
| 1 John 3:5 | |
| Revelation 5:6 |
God’s “Own Blood”
One of the most interesting passages in Scripture has St. Paul telling the bishops and priests of Ephesus that they must “shepherd the church of God which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28, author’s translation). Some modern translations add “the blood of his Son,” but “Son” is not in the Greek manuscripts; it is God’s “own blood” (tou haimatos tou idiou). Clearly, this verse recognizes that Jesus Christ, the only Person of the Trinity who became incarnate and shed blood, is God and thereby has obtained the Church through his precious blood. (See Session 3, pp. 81-82, for further discussion of this text in light of the Holy Eucharist.)
Elements of the Savior
Christians understand that the mystery of salvation encompasses three essential elements of the Savior.
First, he is God the Word, infinite and without limit to save sinners, whose offenses against God possess an infinite quality due to the One who was offended by them. Unless the Savior were infinite, he would be incapable of overcoming human offenses against the Infinite One.
Second, the Savior is truly human: he became flesh (Jn 1:14). He did not merely take on a human appearance, the way the Greek myths describe their gods doing — almost always to work mischief against humans and especially against women. Jesus Christ truly became man, with a human body and soul, will and mind, without in any way ceasing to be infinite God. As a true human being he could authentically represent the human race as a go-between or mediator between human beings and God, which is what makes it possible for Jesus to be the New Adam who redeems the sins of the first Adam.
Third, Jesus, unlike the rest of humanity, is without sin and guilt, and therefore he is able to be the innocent sacrifice for others and truly atone for their sins, without the least need to atone for any sins of his own.
Investigate
Jesus’ Role
Look up the following passages and make notes on the role of Jesus.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| 1 Corinthians 15:22 | |
| 1 Corinthians 15:45 | |
| 1 Timothy 2:5 | |
| Hebrews 9:15 | |
| Hebrews 12:24 |
Mary, the Immaculate Conception
The sinful mass of humanity excludes the sinless mother, the Virgin Mary, who, being “full of grace” (Lk 1:28), was given a gift of the redemption — from her Immaculate Conception — in anticipation of Jesus’ saving work on Calvary (which she witnessed in John 19:25: “But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.”). For that reason, the Blessed Virgin could speak truthfully in her Magnificat, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Lk 1:47).
Study
Jesus as the New Adam includes two elements: (1) he removes the original sin and its punishment of death that the first Adam passed on as a heritage to all of his descendants, as well as any other sins committed by any individual person; and (2) he is the New Adam, who restores the image and likeness of God to all who accept him in faith, hope, and love as their Savior.
First, we examine the ways in which Jesus Christ, the New Adam, removes the sin of the old Adam, who introduced disobedience and original sin to the human race.
Stop here and read Romans 5:15-21 in your own Bible.
The second element of being the New Adam is seen in Jesus’ role as restoring the image and likeness of God to all of humanity who come to him and accept his offer of salvation, especially as seen in Ephesians 4.
Stop here and read Ephesians 4:11-16 in your own Bible.
Investigate
A Complete Change in Lifestyle
Not only does Jesus Christ the New Adam establish the norm of mature human living and stature, but following him also means rejecting the ways of the world.
Read the following verses and indicate how following Jesus involves a complete change in lifestyle.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Matthew 5:48 | |
| Luke 6:36 | |
| 2 Corinthians 5:17 | |
| 2 Corinthians 7:1 | |
| Galatians 6:15 | |
| Ephesians 2:10 | |
| Ephesians 4:17-19 | |
| Ephesians 4:20-24 | |
| Ephesians 5:1 | |
| Philippians 3:12 | |
| Colossians 3:9-10 | |
| 1 Peter 1:14-15 |
Consider
How Does Jesus Redeem Sinners?
We have already asserted the New Testament teaching that saving grace comes only through Jesus Christ because he is truly infinite God, truly human, and sinless. He is the one source and foundation of salvation, holiness, and righteousness.
Stop here and read 1 Corinthians 1:30, 3:11 in your own Bible.
We now indicate that the way that he chose to save sinners was not easy. He accepted the fact that justice required him to take on the punishment for sin, which from the beginning was stated by God to be death, in Genesis 2:16-17: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Eve had learned of this commandment from Adam, since she was able to relate it to the serpent at the beginning of his temptations. Since God had decreed from the outset that death was the punishment for sin, at the time when he passed judgment on Adam’s sin, from that point on, God’s revelation demonstrates that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).
Investigate
More Info About “The Wages”
To learn more about death being the punishment for sin, read the following passages. Note the number of times “death” or “die” is mentioned.
| PASSAGE | NOTES |
| Ezekiel 18:4-20 | |
| Ezekiel 33:7-11 | |
| Romans 6:16-21 | |
| Romans 8:6-13 | |
| James 1:15 | |
| Revelation 21:8 |
Death on a Cross
From the beginning of sin by Adam and Eve until the end of time and the Last Judgment, sin will be punished by death. For that reason, it is appropriate that the Savior should take on not only sin but death by himself dying on a cross so as to fully reconcile the human race with God.
Jesus Christ was well aware that he had been born to die for the sake of sinful human beings so that they may have forgiveness and reconciliation for their sins as well as victory over death, itself the decreed punishment for sin. He knew that he came to fulfill the prophecies about the suffering, dying, and rising Messiah, and he made known to his disciples that his mission required him to die and then be raised from the dead.
Stop here and read Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:18-19, 20:28 in your own Bible.
Study
In John’s Gospel, while teaching that he is the Good Shepherd, Jesus makes known the necessity of laying down his life for his sheep (Jn 10:11-18). His understanding that he must die for his sheep flows from his knowledge that he is on a mission from his Father to redeem sinful human beings. His depth of understanding his mission from the Father is especially developed on the occasion of having healed a paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda and then ordering him to sin no more (Jn 5:1-16).
In these actions, Jesus gave a clear indication of his divinity through showing lordship of the Sabbath and by an explicit assertion of his mission. While his compassion for a suffering paralyzed man led him to heal and forgive the man, his opponents saw only sin and blasphemy. In response to their being scandalized by him, he set forth more information about his relationship to his Father and his mission to redeem humanity, which we do well to hear and learn.
Stop here and read John 5:19-24 in your own Bible.
Infinite Love
On one hand, the Son is completely dependent on the Father, and everything he does is itself a gift of the Father. On the other hand, the Father holds back nothing of his own infinity and gives all to the Son, who can receive it all only because he, too, is as infinite as the Father. The Father’s total and infinite self-gift corresponds to the Son’s total and infinite acceptance of all that the Father gives — such is the nature of the infinite love between them. In that context, the Son mentions the gifts that are specifically related to the salvation of human beings: the power to raise the dead and give life, and the authority to judge human hearts and souls for the final judgment based on whether a person has faith in the word of the Son and in the Father who sent him. In this way, Jesus accomplishes the Father’s will.
Stop here and read John 5:25-30 in your own Bible.
Jesus then makes it clear to his hearers that the purpose of his words is that they may be saved. In fact, the testimony of John the Baptist (“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” [Jn 1:29, 36]) is accepted by Jesus so that people may be saved by accepting that testimony.
Stop here and read John 5:31-38 in your own Bible.
Finally, the Scriptures, which at the time of Jesus’ public ministry included only the Old Testament, bear witness to him through the many Messianic prophecies that foretold his birth of a Virgin in Bethlehem; his death, burial, and resurrection; and his heavenly enthronement as the Son of Man. Ultimately, the key to accepting Jesus as the Savior sent by his Father is whether a person humbly loves God or not. Humble love allows a person to accept God’s Incarnate Word and Savior on God’s terms without demanding that God fit our expectations.
Consider
In summary, Jesus died so that all people in every place and at every epoch of time might be saved. Jesus Christ contended with sin and death and brought about a total victory by absorbing the full punishment for sin, even though he was a sinless victim who did not deserve it. Then he rose from the dead so as to defeat death, the very punishment itself. In that way, his resurrection empowers those sinners who believe in him to also have a saving hope that they will be raised from death as well.
Spreading the Message
After the Resurrection, the disciples understood the import of this message and made it the essence of their preaching wherever they went in the world. They spread the word from Jerusalem to Thessalonica, Caesarea, Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, Rome, and beyond. From these places, their message about the way God redeemed the world through his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, spread throughout the whole world and continues to spread. The next session will look at the ways human beings respond to this message.
The Sacrifice of the Lord
The following passages are some of the references in Scripture to the salvific action of Christ:
• Romans 6:10: “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.”
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:14: “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.”
• Hebrews 2:9: “But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one.”
• Hebrews 7:27: “He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”
• Hebrews 9:25-28: “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
• Hebrews 10:10: “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
• Hebrews 10:14: “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
• 1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
• 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”
Discuss
1. Why is death the punishment for sin? Do people believe that is true today?
2. Explain what “salvation is a relationship” means to you.
3. In what way is humility a key to accepting Jesus as Savior?
Practice
This week select one of the Scripture passages in this session that looks at the need for the Messiah to suffer and die on our behalf, and spend some time in prayer and reflection on it. What does this passage teach you? How can you make it become more “real” in your life? What changes do you still need to make in your life to fully appreciate this great sacrifice?
