Salvation: What is it and who needs it? (2)

When Adam and his wife, Eve sinned against God, they died as God had earlier warned in Genesis 2:17. Through their sin, every man on earth born of a woman became a natural sinner because all men descended from them and through their blood. Their sin has passed unto all men on earth irrespective of race, religion, color, tribe or ethnicity.

Through their sin, death came into the lives of men. Recall that God who created man in His own image lives forever and cannot die. He created the man to live forever on earth but through their sin, death came into existence and has passed unto all men on earth born of a woman.

Sin and death as repercussions of the disobedience and Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden are universal:

‘’All men have sinned and have come short of the glory of God’’ (Romans 3:23)
‘’The wages of sin is death…’’ (Romans 6:23)

The death that resulted means separation and there are 3 types of death that came into the existence of men. They are physical death, spiritual death and eternal death.

 Physical death
Recall that man was created as a three-in-one person having a body, soul and spirit. Physical death results when the body is separated from his spirit. As a result of the Fall of Man and the curses that followed, his body has to return to dust from where it came (Genesis 3:19) (Ecclesiastes 12:7). His spirit is from God and must return to God to give an account of his life on earth in the body.

As a result of the fall of the man, men on earth have lost the power to live forever on earth. Men have to die (when the spirit separates from the body) and the body returns to dust.That means that eternal life was lost during the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Sin has cut short the life span of men on Planet Earth.

 Spiritual death
Spiritual death means a separation between the spirit of man and God. God is a spirit and man also is a spirit. Sin has polluted the spirit of man and made him an unclean person before a Holy God who cannot behold sin. Sin has caused a separation between God and man meaning that communication has broken down between the spirit of man and the spirit of God.

Isaiah 59:1-2 says,
‘’Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His hear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that He will not hear’’

All men born of a woman, descended from Adam and Eve were born spiritually dead in sin. We were born with the sin nature in our blood and are natural sinners cut off from God. No one teaches a baby to commit sin. It is when he comes of age that he naturally begins to do things that are sins in the sight of God.

Being born spiritually dead and cut off from the Spirit of God, every man born of a woman who descended from Adam and Eve was born into the Broad way to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).
Repentance and conversion is necessary to move a man who was born into the Broad Way to destruction, to the Narrow Way that leads to life.

It is spiritual death that leads to eternal death. Eternal death will occur when a man born spiritually dead, still remains spiritually dead while passing away in physical death. A man who was born dead in sin i.e. spiritually dead must be made alive to be reconciled with the Spirit of God.

Fellowship and relationship with man was God’s original purpose for creating man before sin thwarted it creating a separation. But God is still interested in reconciling with man for the benefit of the fellowship and relationship.