As we head into the Easter weekend, we hear the usual messages about Easter. Bunnies, chocolate, colored eggs…

We also hear the usual messages from the pulpits, discussing the impending death and resurrection of our Savior.

Most people who have grown up in the church may be comfortable in knowing that they are in need of salvation and may have never questioned that need. However, I’ve heard this question many times from non-Christians. It’s usually in the style of, “I’m a good person, so why do I need to be saved?”

Now, if you’ve never questioned your need for salvation, I would ask you to pause this weekend and give it some thought. Most of us were taught that our need for salvation stems from our sin. But I’m here to tell you that’s not quite right. In fact, while the need for salvation has to do with sin it actually has nothing to do with your sin. What?!?

Stay with me here…

In order to understand the need for salvation, we need to start at the beginning, as in, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1). More specifically, Genesis 2:7, “And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (emphasis added) (American Standard Version text). I don’t speak or read Hebrew, but I trust my teaching pastor Aaron Budjen when he says that the Hebrew text differentiates between the life breathed into the animals and the life breathed into Adam. The life breathed into Adam was the very spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit entered into Adam, he became not only physically alive, but also spiritually alive.

Whereas the animals of the Earth were created to live a physical life only, man was created to live a spiritual life as well. We were created as vessels for our very God to inhabit as we lived and worked in the Garden of Eden. We were designed by our God to function with him. In his perfect design, God would provide all that we needed and all he asked of us was to depend on him to provide it. Much like a mother and father provide their children with food, clothing, shelter, clean diapers, playtime, hugs, and love, without asking or needing anything in return, so our God intended to provide for us. But, just as those children someday turn into rebellious teenagers, so too did Adam and Eve rebel against God.

The serpent told the very first and most powerful lie in history, “You don’t need God.” He said if we simply have the knowledge of God, then we can be like God. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5). This is a lie perpetuated today in many churches around the globe. It goes something like this, “Follow God’s Commandments and you will be right with the Lord.” In other words, know what is good and do it (and its corollary, know what is evil and don’t do it), and you will achieve sinlessness, also known as holiness. Instead of living in dependence on God, you can be like God. Sound familiar? Now, I certainly don’t believe that clergy around the world are deliberately repeating the lies of the devil. This only shows how powerful this lie is, especially because it sounds so true!

God told Adam and Eve that they would die the moment they ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yet, according to Genesis 5:5, Adam lived 930 years. So, did God lie to them? Was he simply bluffing to keep them away from the tree? No. He told the truth.

In the very moment that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they disobeyed their God. They sinned. Leading up to their sin, the Holy Spirit of God was dwelling within them, a part of them as surely as your heart and mind are a part of you now. God cannot (or will not) coexist with sin, with evil, and therefore the Holy Spirit departed from them. In that moment, they spiritually died. And this leads us to the need for salvation.

Every child descended from Adam and Eve has been born spiritually dead, including you and me. This is why we need a Savior, to restore to us spiritual life. And how is this accomplished? Through the forgiveness of sins, right? Well, sort of…

Let’s think of the issue of sin, forgiveness, and spiritual life as a man with cancer (cancer is sin in this analogy). Let’s say this man suffers cardiac failure due to his cancer and dies. Now let’s say the medics are able to revive him. Yay! He’s alive! But for how much longer? The medics still haven’t treated his cancer. He still faces death (probably soon) if his cancer isn’t cured. And this is similar to how sin was dealt with in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites laws that governed how they would atone for their sins. But that atonement was only a masking or covering over of the sin. It was a temporary bandage, not a permanent cure. If we were ever to “get right with God” then we would need a permanent solution to the sin problem.

God was gracious enough to provide us a permanent solution. A once-and-for-all solution. Let that sink in…Jesus died once, for all the world’s sins, two thousand years ago. Many churches today would have you believe that the only way you can receive the forgiveness of sins is if you ask for it over and over again. This comes from 1 John 1:8-9, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (New International Version). But this is frequently taken out of context, since 1 John 1:1-4 clearly shows that John is writing to non-believers. He is telling them that they must acknowledge that they are sinful and need their God to obtain righteousness.

Now let’s look at 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God…” and at 1 John 2:2, “He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world,” and finally at Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (New International Version). What these verses tell us is that Jesus died once, for all, and that nothing we do (or say) can bring about the forgiveness of sins.

And this brings us around to my original point, that salvation has nothing to do with your sin. Two thousand years before you were born (give or take a few decades), all of your sins that you have committed and will commit in your life were washed clean. Even your future sins! How? Because all of your sins were in the future when the price was paid once and for all. Whether they are sins you committed ten years ago or ten years from now, they were all known to God and paid for in full on the cross at that moment. What does this mean for us?

There is no sin issue between you and God. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (emphasis added) (Hebrews 8:12, New International Version). Two thousand years ago, Christ paid the ultimate price for your sins, they were forgiven, and God forgot all about them. Everyone is forgiven.

So then, everyone born after Christ’s death is saved?

Unfortunately, no. And this brings us back to Genesis, the creation of man, and the loss of spiritual life. Though the introduction of sin caused the Holy Spirit to leave us, the forgiveness of sin does not automatically restore the Holy Spirit to us. Going back to our analogy of the man with cancer, if that man dies in the middle of surgery to remove his cancer, then simply removing the cancer will not bring him back to life. The cancer must be removed and he must be resuscitated. Only then will he be both cancer-free and alive.

And that is why you need a Savior.

Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection removed the cancer from our spirits. He paved the way for your spiritual resuscitation, but you have to accept his offer. Will you accept the Holy Spirit this Easter and live as God always intended, in dependence on him and free from the guilt of sins long forgotten?