Daily Devotional

The Fall and the Promise of Salvation

The Story of Salvation: Day 2

Through this new eight-day devotional series based on the short iBIBLE film The Real Story of Jesus, explore Jesus’ presence in all of God’s Grand Narrative. If we are to believe in Jesus and share Him with others, we must first understand the foundational elements of our faith.

Why Does the Fall Matter?

Adam and Eve sinned in the garden by disobeying God, and this curse of sin has been passed down to every human since. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8, ESV). Sin is anything that separates us from God—sins we willfully commit, sins we are ignorant of, and even those sins that result from us ignoring the good God calls us to do.

Just one sinful thought is like a drop of dye diffusing through a glass of clean water. No matter how hard we try, we can’t take that dye back out and purify the water. We can’t strain the dye out. We can’t will it out. We can’t even add more water and hope the dye becomes diluted enough that no one, especially God, notices. That dye will still be there.

Just like we can’t take back a drop of dye, we can’t take back even one little sin. A single complaint or white lie or moment of greed or pride is enough to separate us from a holy God for all eternity.

Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.

—Isaiah 59:2–3

Sinful humans cannot offer anything perfect to God to save ourselves. So God, out of His infinite mercy, chose to save us Himself through the offer of His only Son. Salvation through Jesus is the miracle that purifies our souls and seals them for God’s eternal kingdom.

Sinful humans cannot offer anything perfect to God to save ourselves. So God, out of His infinite mercy, chose to save us Himself through the offer of His only Son.

The Promise of Salvation in Scripture

While Adam and Eve’s sin grieved God, He was not taken by surprise at their betrayal. Even as God pronounced the consequences of their sin, He gave them their first glimpse of the Savior Who would redeem them from the sin that they had allowed into God’s perfect creation. When He spoke to Satan, He said:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” —Genesis 3:15

The offspring God is referring to is Jesus! This is the first of many times in the Old Testament God reveals the One Who will defeat Satan and death—after all, “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8b).

God hates sin, and yet He chose to wait to send the Messiah. He destroyed wicked humanity through a flood, saving only Noah and his family because of Noah’s righteousness, but sin was not defeated. He called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be the patriarchs of His chosen people, but they all sinned. Moses led the people out of slavery, but he was not their Savior. Where was the One Who would crush the head of the serpent? What was taking Him so long to arrive?

Where was the One Who would crush the head of the serpent? What was taking Him so long to arrive?

When God called Abram to follow Him, even before Abram had any descendants, God promised him that “I will make of you a great nation . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2–3). And in Revelation, we are told that people “from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9b) will worship Jesus, Who would come from the great nation of Israel to bless and redeem all nations.

The whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, tells the same story of Jesus, the Messiah. This is the Son of God Who came to earth to live the perfect life we could not and sacrifice His life to save ours. God sent Jesus “when the fullness of time had come” (Galatians 4:4a), in His timing, because with God “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8b).

The Israelites desperately waited for the promised Messiah, the One destined to be their Savior. This waiting must have been especially excruciating when Assyria, Babylon, and Persia carried the Israelites into captivity, and yet the prophets from this same time told the Israelites to wait for God to move on their behalf. 

“So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” . . . I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.” —Hosea 12:6, 9

God promised salvation for the Israelites, and He provided it in His timing, not ours. And, just as He had promised Abram thousands of years before, Jesus would be a blessing to not only Israel, but to every nation on earth. Through Jesus, sin and Satan would be defeated forever. What a Savior!

Looking Forward

When the time came, God sent Jesus to earth as a baby to a humble virgin named Mary. This story of Jesus’ birth is one of the most important foundations of our faith, and one we often forget to study in awe of its miracles. Next week, we will study the incarnation of Jesus and discover just how miraculous His birth was.

Prayer for This Week

Our perfect and most holy God, we know we have sinned against You since the beginning of time. Thank You for Your gracious plan of salvation through Jesus, and that You did not abandon us to our sins. We are never wrong to wait for Your plans to succeed, because we know Your plans are good. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.