Why Did God Save Humanity?
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Scripture speaks of God’s great salvation available for all people through the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking at humanity, we know we need serious help. Our brokenness and corruption has led us to death, division, destruction, all of which we deserve. As the ultimate judge, God would be just to let us suffer the consequences.
If we deserve punishment, why would God save us?
Perhaps the most famous verse in the world tells us simply, “For God loved the world so much, he gave his only Son, that whoever would believe in him wouldn’t perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Yes, God acts as judge, but he is love.
What Does “God Is Love” Mean?
1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Love isn’t something God does; he is love. God doesn’t simply adhere to a moral code or idea of love outside himself. Since he is love, his actions, nature, and essence define love. Every expression of love we witness or experience reflects God’s character. Love originates from and is sustained by him.
For every action of God — whether creation, redemption, or even judgment — love lays at the root. God’s love doesn’t exist separate from his other attributes, such as justice, holiness, or wisdom, but is perfectly integrated with them. For instance, God’s justice doesn’t primarily act punitively but redemptively. God wills and acts for reconciliation and redemption, the highest form of justice, which explains his love and forgiveness. No one can separate love from God, making it impossible to know love apart from God.
God expressed ultimate divine love through sending Jesus to die for humanity’s sins. He didn’t merely feel love toward us. He demonstrated it through sacrificing his Son. This act reveals the selfless, sacrificial nature of God’s love, which seeks the good of others at personal cost, knowing as Christ gained all things through his sacrifice, so will we.
Additionally, Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love proactively reaches out to humanity, even when we are undeserving. In fact, it can’t be love if we deserve it. If we can earn it, then it’s transactional and eventually manipulative. God’s love doesn’t wait for us to be worthy of it. Instead, it meets us in our brokenness and offers restoration. Only God fully embodies this love.
Since God is love, any understanding of love must be rooted in knowing God, his character and his actions. Human definitions fall short, reducing it to emotions, sexuality, attraction, or acts of kindness. Biblical love proves deeper and more complete. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 lays out love’s characteristics — patience, kindness, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeping no record of wrongs, always protecting, always trusting, always hoping, and always persevering. Paul appropriated a little-used Greek word agape for this divine love, which God has toward us.
While God is infinite and all powerful, his love for us is both personal and relational, existing within himself in the Trinity. The eternal, relational love serves as the foundation for humanity’s salvation.
What Does the Bible Say about God’s Character?
As we said earlier, God’s love interconnects with God’s rich and multifaced character. Understanding his character helps us understand his nature, his relationship with humanity, and why he chose to make a way for salvation. God’s character can’t be defined by the abstract or intellectual, but expressed through his actions, his Word, and his reign over creation. Here we will cover a few of the Lord’s amazing qualities.
The Bible declares God the ultimate peace. Philippians 4:7 talks about “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,” a peace that only comes from God’s presence and rule over a believer’s life. Isaiah 9:6 refers to Jesus as the “Prince of Peace,” indicating peace as a core aspect of Christ. When Jesus offered peace to his disciples in John 14:27, he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Christ’s peace doesn’t depend on circumstances but flows directly from God’s character, calming the storms of life.
Along with peace and love, God is righteousness, inseparable from his justice and love. Again, God doesn’t do what is right according to some separate morality, he is right and acts from his goodness and purity. Psalm 11:7 leads us to sing, “For the Lord is righteousness, he loves justice; the upright will see his face.” God always acts in accordance with his inherent righteousness. He will never bend to sin, injustice, or corruption. Romans 3:25-26 explains that through Christ, God demonstrated his righteousness by being both just and the justifier of those who have faith in his Son. His righteousness leads to forgiveness of sins and restoring relationship with the Father, showing mercy accompanies righteousness.
God is also the source of joy. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). True joy comes from God and sustains us. Joy isn’t a fleeting emotion but a profound sense of well-being only available in God’s presence. As Psalm 16:11 says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” When he created the world, he had joy in his creative acts, and he desires his people experience the same joy in him.
Finally, as he is righteous, God’s mercy and grace are also essential to his character. Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” We see his mercy in his willingness to forgive sins and extend saving grace to undeserving humanity. In Ephesians 2:4-5, Paul describes how God, “being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.”
What Was God’s Will and Plan from the Beginning?
God, being righteous and all good and loving, had a plan from the beginning, even before creation. He enacted a plan to manifest his love and glory through creation, particularly through humanity. The Bible reveals that God created the world and people from love, intending his creation to experience a relationship with him and reflect his glory. He always planned to share his goodness and have a people who enjoyed his presence, lived in harmony with him, and spread his glory and creative order throughout the earth.
God’s will and plan from the beginning of creation was to manifest His love, goodness, and glory through His creation, particularly through humanity. The Bible reveals that God created the world and mankind out of love, intending for His creation to experience a relationship with Him and to reflect His glory. His plan was always to share His goodness and to have a people who would enjoy His presence, live in harmony with Him, and spread His glory throughout the earth.
Genesis 1 recounts creation’s story. Repeatedly, after each creative act, God saw what he made and called it “good” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), and when he created man, he declared us “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Creation expressed God’s goodness.
The Lord meant humanity to be the pinnacle and linchpin of his creation. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Being made in God’s image, he meant us to reflect God’s character, capacity for love, creativity, artistry, and reason. God wanted mankind to have a relationship with him, know and enjoy him, and from that reflect his attributes and bring him glory through their lives.
Creating Adam and Eve reflected his desire to share himself with creation. He placed them in the Garden of Eden, a paradise specifically designed for them to experience his presence and goodness. God gave the man and woman the responsibility to care for the garden (Genesis 2:15), and he commanded them to “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” As God’s image multiplied across the earth, so would his glory be magnified. From the very beginning, God planned to dwell with his people, allowing them to experience and exude his goodness and love.
As we know, Adam and Eve sinned and lost this privilege, joy, purpose, and eternal life. With epic disobedience, humanity marred and twisted God’s image.
But God’s plans always prevail.
Why Did God Save Humanity?
Just because humanity gave up on God and lost his plan, and continues to through our selfishness, doesn’t mean God gave up on his plan. He is all good and loving, and he planned creation from his being. Why would he settle for second best?
Even when sin entered the world through Eve and Adam, God’s plan didn’t fail. And it won’t. His love remained steadfast, and he initiated his commitment to redeem and restore humanity. God’s saving not only rescues people from sin but also fulfills his eternal purpose for all creation, since they are interconnected. His loving plan will not be thwarted.
God will have what he desires, and his purposes can’t be frustrated by human failure or sin. “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God’s declaration, “it is good” or “very good,” may be stained and corrupted for a time, but it will one day return to that goodness. God’s word and will are unstoppable. Despite our rebellion, God’s plan will succeed. As he spoke the world into existence, his desire for humanity to share in his glory remains unchanged.
God’s saving work through the Lord Jesus Christ is simply a continuation and restoration of his original plan. Through Christ, God provided the ultimate solution to sin and death, making it possible for us to be restored to our rightful and intended place, in relationship with him.
Therefore, since humanity is an integral part of his plan, his choice to save us isn’t arbitrary. He created humanity to play a unique role. Ephesians 2:10 explains, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God intends people to be active participants in fulfilling his purposes. We aren’t just saved from sin but for an eternal relationship and purpose.
God’s plans always lead to good (Romans 8:28), and he redeems us and makes us co-laborers in his work on earth and in heaven.
The Father’s abundant love is the root of his salvation. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). God’s saving work isn’t based on our worthiness but entirely upon his love. The same love which created all things compels him to restore what was broken.
Finally, God saves humanity because it brings him joy. The Father’s plan — to reconcile all creation back to himself through his Son by the Spirit — makes him happy. In Colossians 1:19, we see, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things.” This reconciliation pleases God. Every soul saved, every broken relationship restored, brings God joy because it means his love has triumphed and he gets the glory.
Peace.
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