God’s Redemption and Salvation for Humanity

God created the earth in perfect beauty and splendor, and everything was at peace, with no death and no toil. And God created the human in His image and likeness and gave him dominion over all creation, as in Genesis 1:26: “And God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” … Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And Adam became a living soul.” … “And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” … “And the Lord God made a wife for him by taking one of his ribs and brought her to him. … And they were both naked, and they were not ashamed.”

But Satan, with his craftiness and cunning, caused the human to doubt God’s love and goodness and deceived his wife; she ate from the tree, and she gave to her husband, and he ate; thus sin entered the human and corrupted him and left him exposed in shame. God then had to pronounce the sentence of death on him and expel him from the garden because he had become corrupt. But before expelling them, He promised a Savior who would crush the serpent’s head (Satan), and He made for them tunics of skin and clothed them. The question here is, where did the skin come from? The answer: from a animal that was slain, its blood was shed, and its skin was taken to make the tunics; thus the human was covered. (Read chapters 1, 2 & 3 of the Book of Genesis.)

And God’s unchangeable laws: “The soul that sins shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:20) and also in (Hebrews 9:22) “And almost everything is purified under the Law with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness!.” When our first parents disobeyed the Lord God, they came under the sentence of death. But God, in His love, willed that the human should not perish and gave him a second chance. God accepted a redemption for the human. But could an animal like the one slain be sufficient for redemption? No, because the animal was made from the earth and does not have the breath of life from God as the human does. As it is written in Genesis 1:25, God said: “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, and creeping things, and wild beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so.” The value of the human is very great, for he was created in the image of God and His likeness, so much so that the whole world is not enough to redeem one person, as in the Gospel of Luke 9:25: “For what does it profit a person if he gains the whole world and destroys himself or forfeits his soul?” And sin is against the infinite Lord God, so there was need for a substitute to die for the human so that he might live and not die. But this human had to be righteous and without sin. Did God find such a human? God says in Psalm 14:2: “The Lord looked down from heaven on the children of man to see if there were any who understood, who sought God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one.” And even if one were found, his substitutionary death for a sinner would redeem only one. So what is the solution?

Every person must understand who Jesus Christ is:
Dear friend, the Gospel describes God like this: “the blessed and only Sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords, King of the ages, who does not perish, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen nor can see, the only wise God, eternal and everlasting, to whom be honour and everlasting power. Amen.” He willed to reveal Himself, so He became incarnate and appeared in the form of the human Jesus Christ. Thus we can say of Christ, “God incarnated in the flesh.” He is 100% God and at the same time 100% human like us. The Qur’an in Surah al-Kursi states that “the Throne of God fills the universe,” that is, God is unlimited; and in many verses He is described as having a Throne, meaning that He can limit Himself and sit on His Throne, and also in Surah al-Qalam that He will uncover His shin on the Last Day and call for prostration, that is, He will appear in human form. And also in the Torah, in the Book of Exodus 24:10: “Then Moses and Harun and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel, and under His feet there was something like a pavement of blue transparent sapphire, like the very heavens for clarity.” The Gospel summarizes this mystery in 1 Timothy 3:16: “Great indeed is the mystery of godliness”: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Therefore God in the richness of His love and mercy and grace decided to take a body and become as a human like us and live on the earth, tempted in everything as we are without sin and victorious over the devil. He is the only one who committed no sin, knew no sin, and who was without sin. And because He is at the same time the infinite God, His atoning sacrifice is infinite and sufficient for all humanity. On the cross, when all our sins were laid on Him, God hid His face from Him, and He said as a human, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” All the vials of God’s wrath were poured out on Him, and by the grace of God He tasted death for each one of us, and He did not give up His spirit until He said, “It is finished,” and He was buried and triumphed over death, so that He did not see corruption, and rose from the dead, appeared to His disciples, and ascended to heaven, and He is now interceding for us (thus He completed our redemption).

And the salvation of Christ does not stop at the forgiveness of sins only, but also salvation from the dominion of Satan and deliverance from the power of sin, as Jesus Christ said to the crowds in the Gospel of John 8: 34: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” This happens with every person enslaved to any habit or sin. The Holy Bible is filled with such testimonies of many people, and here are some of them:

Mark 5:1–17: They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gadarenes. And when He had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met Him a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with chains, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and broke the shackles in pieces, so that no one could subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before Him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure You by God, do not torment me!” For He was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.” … And they came to Jesus and saw the man who had had the Legion, sitting Clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who saw it told them how the demon-possessed man was delivered...

Also in Luke 19: 1-10 Then he entered and passed through Jericho. And behold, a man named Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector and he was rich, sought to see Jesus, who he was, but he could not because of the crowd, for he was short of stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was about to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up, saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully... Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord: “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have extorted anyone, I restore fourfold.” Then Jesus said to him: Today salvation has come to this house, for he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

And the angel Gabriel announced to the holy, blessed Virgin Mary "And his name shall be called Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." And the apostle Peter testified to the priests and the people in the Acts of the Apostles 4: 12 "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among people, by which we must be saved." And also 10: 42 "To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.". And in the Epistle to the Hebrews 7: 25 "Therefore he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he lives always to intercede for them." If you ask the Lord Jesus with all your heart and of your own free will, by faith not relying on any merit in yourself, as in the Epistle to the Ephesians 2: 8 ""For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not from works, so that no one may boast." Then he will forgive your sins and cleanse you from them and deliver you from everything that has enslaved you—cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, sexual matters... and you will experience the saving and liberating power of the Lord Jesus in your life and begin a new, happy life filled with joy and peace, ending with your arrival in heaven.

This is a story that happened in one of the very poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of Cairo:
An evangelist went to share the good news with a Christian family and began to speak about the value of a person in God’s eyes from the verse "You have become precious and honored in my eyes and I have loved you" and about the need for repentance toward God and to live in holiness and reverence for God. During the conversation he noticed that the father was looking at his daughter as if he were saying something meant especially for her. After the prayer, as the evangelist was about to leave, the girl asked him to wait, and she spoke sharply with her father and said to him: “All year long we did not eat even one chicken. When I went out at night at 10 o’clock and came back at 1 o’clock and gave you 100 pounds, did you not wonder where I got them? Why did you look at me like that? Now I am well known, and I have 200,000 pounds—where do you think I got them?” The girl collapsed in tears, knelt to pray with weeping and groaning, and sobbed, asking God for mercy, forgiveness, and deliverance from the state to which she had come—of contempt, loss, and low self-worth. She rose from prayer a new person, and the peace of God filled her heart. In the morning she went and withdrew the 200,000 pounds from the bank and went to one of the churches to give them to the Lord. But the priest refused to accept this amount, in fulfillment of the Lord’s command that the wages of a prostitute must not enter the Lord’s treasury, but he directed her to a church that cares for and supports those like her, and she went and paid the money. Her father was not pleased with this and told her to bring the money back and live as she had before, otherwise she could not stay with them in the house, and he expelled her. Some devout people took an interest in her story and collected 30,000 pounds to open a grocery shop for her, and her monthly income was about 1,500 pounds, content and thankful. A devout Christian young man came to know her and married her, and he asked her to leave the work to evangelize those like her so that they might repent and return to the Lord. She now cares for nine young women whom she has won, and they have turned from living a life without meaning or purpose to a better and everlasting life. The Lord restored to her her value and dignity and self-respect, and she now has a purpose to live for, enjoying the love of God and her husband and the fullness of divine peace and his care for her.

Do you want to be saved from your sins and their terrible judgment and to have a happy eternal life and a personal relationship with your Creator, who loves you for who you are and values you and cares for you every day? Ask him now from all the depth of your heart for he is waiting to hear you and to find in you a longing for him; honor him and respond to him. He is determined to do this, and he is waiting for you.

Prophecies in the Old Testament about the birth of the Messia

Micah 5: 2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small to be among the thousands of Judah, from you shall come forth for me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity."

Isaiah 9: 7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 53: 3 Despised and rejected by men, Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom we hide our faces, he was despised and we did not esteem him.4 Yet he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. But we considered him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (This prophecy about the sufferings of the Messiah for our sake was written about 700 years before the coming of the Messiah)