Before we can understand salvation, we first have to understand sin itself. Sin was born when Satan rebelled against God.

• Isaiah 14:12-17 : How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

After Satan's fall, he set out to destroy mankind when he brought sin to the Garden of Eden.

In Genesis 2: 16-17, God told Adam and Eve they could eat of any tree in the Garden other than the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Warning them not to eat of the tree, He told them they would surely die if they disobeyed Him.

Satan, knowing this, came before Eve in the form of a serpent (Genesis 3:1-6) and tricked her into eating the fruit. She gave the fruit to Adam and he ate as well.

The result of this rebellion on the part of Adam and Eve brought sin and death into a world that had never known it, creating a divide between God and man.

The Father in Heaven, having established death as the punishment mankind would have to pay for rebelling against Him, imposed death on the world.

As death became the punishment mankind would have to face as a result of his sinful nature, God, fully understanding man is sinful by nature, began allowing animals to be slain in place of men to make atonement for man's sins. This is why we see the sacrificial death of animals used as an atonement for sin in ancient Jewish religious traditions documented in the Old Testament. It is also why we see Jesus referred to in the Bible as the Lamb of God.

Jesus, the Son of God, came to surrender Himself to death on the cross to make atonement for our sins so none of us would have to experience eternal separation from God as a result of Satan's influence in our lives and our sinful nature.

What is salvation?

Salvation is the gift of God!

Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 3:16-18: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Romans 10:9: "...if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Acts 4:12: Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.