GOD IS PRESENTED AS SAVIOR

GOD IS PRESENTED AS SAVIOR

GENESIS 3:20-24

Rivers of Joy Baptist Church, Minford, Ohio

God by nature is a Savior of sinners.
I Timothy 1:1, 4:10, Titus 1:3-4,

• To save them from sin,
  
• to save them from the consequence of sin,
  
• to save them from the power of sin,
  
• to save them even from the presence of sin.
  

God is presented as a Savior: Genesis 3:20-24

• We find Him being introduced as the Savior
  
• We discover here the introduction of His plan of redemption.
  
• We hit upon here the indication that He is bringing salvation to sinful people.
  

FOUR COMPONENTS OF SALVATION:

From man's side there are essentially two components of salvation: faith and hope.

• Built into faith is repentance. And a belief in God that God would do what He said He would do.
  

From God's side two things are necessary: atonement and security.

• God has to provide a right way for the purpose of being able to give the atonement to cover our sin, and then he has to hold onto us to keep us saved until we get to glory.
  

THE INDISPENSABLE ELEMENTS OF SALVATION:

• The salvation of sinners.
  
• Their deliverance from sin.
  
• Their deliverance from death and hell. By faith and hope.
  
• Through divine atonement and security.
  

GOD PROVIDES A MEANS FOR SALVATION IN THE ATONEMENT.

• Genesis 2:21: God provides the means for sin."The Lord God made garments of skins."
  
• Atonement is a covering for sinners provides by the death of an innocent substitute.
  
• Isaiah 53 gives us the picture of Jesus Christ as the sinners substitute.
  
• God had every right to kill Adam and Eve instantaneously, but as Savior, He brings a substitute, slays the substitute and covers the sinners' shame and guilt by the death of a substitute; His judgment, His justice, His wrath being satisfied by the death of the substitute. Which is the purpose of the death of Jesus on the Cross. 2 Corinthians 5:21
  

So, then, the first element of salvation introduced to us is faith; faith in the fact that God has provided a deliverer. The second element of salvation, faith would be pointless, unless God has provided atonement, and He has. Now the third component, or building block in salvation is:

Salvation requires security: The assurance that salvation will not be taken away.
Vs 22 "Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.:

• Knowing good and evil in that Adam knew it, because he experienced it.
  
• Now knowing evil, Adam didn't like it, and would have tried to alleviate its circumstances.
  
• Now looking for some way to get out of the mess you have gotten yourself in.
  
  • The shame, dying, the moral, physical and spiritual consequence.
    
• Knowing the impact, how can it be rectify to turn that around? Head toward the tree of life!
  
• So, "Eve, we must get back to that tree of life, and we will live. If we eat of the tree of live we will live forever." Adam. Believing they would have counteract the effects of death.
  

Verse 22 is an introductory clause, but there's no completing clause. It's God just saying,

• "I know what he's going to do, he is going right to that tree of life, and he's going to reach out, and he's going to say if I can get that tree of life, and eat, it, I'll live for ever, and alleviate the consequences of my sin. Well, God said, I can't let him do that."
  
• Verses 23 "Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden."
  

LITTLE FOOT NOTE HERE:

• The Garden of Eden was still there, the tree of life was still there, paradise was still there. And could have possible being there until the Flood, or long before that died out.
  

Had Adam and Eve eaten of the tree of life they would have lived forever.

• The eternal life in the tree of life is not in the botany of the tree. It's not in the chemical of the fruit. Simply by divine decree that tree would gave life.
  
• Had they eaten of the tree, they would have lived forever. Only one problem!
  
  • They would have lived forever as wicked, depraved, fallen sinners. That's not good.
    
• God has something much better. "Just go and die and I'll raise you in a new kind of life without sin." Good right? Right.
  
• ETERNAL LIFE AS A FALLEN SINNER, THAT'S WHAT HELL IS.
  
• If they had eaten of the tree of life, they would have sentenced themselves to the most gruesome kind of living.
  
• They had seen death. Remember? God had killed the animal. And they didn't want that.
  
• Death would have been a just punishment, God could have said, "Go ahead, and sentence yourself to a hell of uninterrupted, eternal wretchedness.
  

BUT GOD… He wouldn't do that? YOU KNOW WHY?