We don’t talk a lot about salvation in America, except in what many would call a “religious” or spiritual context. The history of our nation does not lead us to look outside our own selves for help when threatened by some foreign power or devastating economic trouble. We tend to work hard, instead, on solving the problem ourselves.

This is not to say that we don’t value our international allies, partners, and friends, both militarily and economically. We know that we cannot do everything on our own.

But we have had such a long history of independence and success, that we don’t find ourselves hoping that someone somewhere will have pity on us and help us. As a people, we are often pretty confident that we can work out any problem that comes along.

And the same kind of thinking holds true for many of us as individuals. We are as prone as anyone to make stupid choices that land us in debt or other trouble. But most of us will tackle the problems we create for ourselves without a lot of thought to some great “outside” help. Although that kind of thinking is changing.

More and more companies, cities and individuals are starting to look for government help, or for some kind of assistance from large corporations, such as credit consolidation companies. And the more we get used to this kind of bail-out, the more we train ourselves to rely on others for the solutions to our problems. Such a tendency can lead us to stop taking personal responsibility for our own lives, and for the future we are preparing for our children.

In the spiritual world, however, we do need to recognize that we are not able to fix the problems that reach beyond this world into eternity. While we do need to take full responsibility for our own behavior, we also need to realize that our sins cannot be somehow “worked off” or otherwise dealt with in regular human fashion. We need God’s direct intervention and rescue. Otherwise, hell looms large.

The problems of sin begin before we are born, being passed along from generation to generation, starting with the very first two human beings to ever live on Earth. And when a problem is of such universal magnitude, we cannot expect small private solutions to fix very much. We cannot reach beyond ourselves to uproot the problem, since the problem is a central and integral part of our own nature as living beings.

No man can pay for his own sins.  The stain goes too deep for his own physical life to account for it or cleans it.  The curse is already in place for sin, as soon as anyone is born.  We are born spiritually dead, and cannot do anything in our own power to make ourselves alive again.  We must have help from “outside” human nature and thinking.

Thankfully, God is truly merciful and kind, willing to forgive and to make us new again. He offers us a new spirit (His very own) and a new heart, as Ezekiel preached. The Lord takes on the problem of sin as only God can: from the very root. He Himself takes on our sin and puts it to death in Jesus Christ. And all who trust in Christ are made clean and right again. It is as though we had no sinful ancestors, not deep root of sin’s curse on our lives, no sinful behavior of our own, and no sentence of hell ever placed on our heads.

God, by grace alone, makes us holy in His own sight. And not only in His sight. God is always perfectly thorough and truly just in all that He does. When He declares us righteous, we are right and without guilt before all the universe and all that exists beyond the things we can see and know in this lifetime. Even Satan cannot honestly find fault in us anymore (although he is still willing to distort the facts at every opportunity).

Since God Himself pays for our sin, having given up His own eternal Son to suffer and die for us, the breach caused by sin is truly healed, both in eternity and in the present time. Only Christ, who is eternal, could pay for the sins of all time. And since God alone is the Judge of all the earth, He is able to declare us — once and for all — free of all guilt.

It is exactly as He has always said:

“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.”  (Isaiah 43:25, NKJV)

“Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22, NKJV)

The secret to survival, as a nation, as a family, as individual men and women, is not pride or haughtiness, but crystal clear honesty.  We may bluff other human beings for a little while.  We may bully our way through, now and then.  But not forever.  And human life does go on forever.  All of us will live again to give an accounting to God for all our deeds when the books are opened and we are called to appear before Him.  We will all be judged according to our deeds in the flesh (Revelation 20:11-15).

Unless, of course, we have hidden ourselves away in Christ.  Jesus offers us the one and only way out. He Himself said it this way: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”  (John 5:24, NKJV)

As a sinful generation (and we are that, beyond all doubt), we need to learn again how take full responsibility for our behavior.  We cannot blame our mothers and fathers for the sins we see working in our own lives.  We cannot blame Adam or Eve for the sins of the countless generations that followed after their day.  We are, each of us, wholly responsible for the sins we commit and for the evil that spews forth from our own hearts and minds.

We must also realize that no amount of philosophical toying with ideas and doctrines will make us right with God, or make God, hell, or guilt simply go away. We are who and what we are, no matter how we may wish to pain the picture.  We are guilty and we need help.  God offers all the help and rescue we need in Jesus.  And the Lord is kind to all.  Anyone may come to the Lord and find mercy.  All who trust in Him will be made clean and whole.

Put simply: Jesus saves us.  And only Jesus saves us from our sin.

God’s peace to all who hope in Jesus.

Jim