Why Focus on a Saviour?

A video blurb I saw on social media questioned why the focus of Christianity was often on a Saviour and man's need to be saved.  A false assertion made was that Christianity introduces the problem of sin in the Garden of Eden with the fall of mankind and then offers a cure through control by the church.  As a contrast, he said indigenous spirtuality never required a saviour because the world is not sinful but sacred, that salvation was never the goal.  While there are several fundamental errors with these claims concerning Christianity from a biblical worldview, the main problem with the explanation is the Garden of Eden nor the earth itself are the starting point.  The mic-drop moment for all humanity is the first verse of Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  The purpose of this post is not to criticise or take shots at the spiritual traditions of people but to answer the original querey:  why do Christians focus so much on our Saviour?

Every person's response to the objective statement of the opening verse of the Bible will begin to form a worldview that impacts how we see everything.  For those who deify the earth or believe our fine-tuned planet simply came to be as a result of chance, such are unwilling to believe they are beholden to the God revealed in the Bible who created the heavens, earth, sea, the sun, moon and stars, plants and all living creatures from nothing by His word alone.  According to the natural laws we have observe on earth, something cannot come from nothing; life never arises from non-life.  The best possible explanation for the existence of the earth and living things that reproduce after their own kind is a Being with greater wisdom and power than we possess who created us.  In the Bible, God reveals Himself to be the supreme God who Created all things, and all He has created is under His authority.  At one time neither the earth nor man existed, yet God always was, is and will be.  It is this holy, everlasting God before all men must give account (Romans 14:12; 1 Peter 4:5).

It is true Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the tree He commanded them not to eat, they and all the earth were put under the curse of sin that brings physical death and eternal separation from God.  To Adam and Eve were born two sons, and the older brother Cain killed his younger brother Abel--and the ugliness of sin's consequences were laid bare for all to see with Abel's demise.  The Bible then follows the lives of God-fearing people to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God revealed Himself and then to Moses of the children of Israel.  The line of David is followed all the way to Jesus the Son of David, the Messiah God alluded to in the Garden of Eden who would crush the head of the serpent.  The New Testament begins with the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that each chronicle the life of Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God and Son of David who is Christ the LORD--God in human flesh.  The prophecies of the suffering Servant in Isaiah 53, Psalm 22 & 118 were fulfilled by Jesus Christ when He died on the cross, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven after being seen by His disciples for over a month.  The church was birthed on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus' followers in Jerusalem, and on the solid foundation of God's word Christians have flourished to this day.

Jesus said in Revelation 22:12-13 (the last chapter of the Bible):  "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."  The Bible says plainly--and we can know we are sinners that need salvation before we too go the way of the earth--that the soul who sins shall surely die (Ezekiel 18:20).  We do not need to Bible to break this news because we have observed an endless parade of people born who all die, and one day we will breathe our last.  The God who has revealed Himself as a Saviour has provided an gracious offer at the price of His own blood to be born again by faith in Him, for all who believe in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life.  Because Jesus lives and is God who spoke all things into existence--the almighty I AM who is the central figure of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and all the books in between--that is why Christians focus so much on a Saviour.  The goal of Christianity is not salvation, but to know God and rejoice in His presence forever who loves us with an everlasting love and died to save us.  Because Jesus died for us, our aim is to live for Him.  A day is coming when the earth, everything and everyone on it will be dissolved and gone forever as 1 John 2:17:  "And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."

The love, grace, and life Jesus offers mankind is not of this earth or man's design.  God's kingdom is beyond what we can see with our physical eyes or understand through philosophy, and the poverty of the world's wisdom is exposed by the wisdom of God who uses weak and foolish things to confound the wise.  All the idols of the world and spiritual traditions are dust and ashes compared to knowing the living God who fills us with the Holy Spirit and causes us to pass from death to abundant life.  When Jesus is your life, and you only live because of Him, that's why Christians are always going on about a Saviour.  He does not need us, but we desperately need Him!  Psalm 34:8-9 rings true to the experience of God's people by grace through faith in Him:  "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! ⁹ Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him."