Chapter 1: How Mankind Got Saved

How Mankind Got Saved

Audio read by Tom Parks - MP3

The Byte Show Interview of ABC's of the Gospel Part 1 - Listen • Download • MP3

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Audio read by Charlie Corder - MP3

We will find in this survey of the Gospel that preachers and evangelists usually teach the message of Christ in quite a perverted manner. Most of them in their evangelistic sermons usually emphasize what mankind must do in order to be saved. They normally start out by stating that humans must repent of their ways and ask forgiveness for their sins, and show a belief and faith in Christ, and some add that they must be baptized and others state they must join some church here on earth. The truth is, though, while Christians do in fact repent, ask forgiveness, and show a belief and faith in Christ, the Gospel message reveals that none of those works is essential for a person to be saved. None of them is a means to achieve salvation. Evangelists should not be telling people what works they need to do to get saved. People need to be told what Christ did for them that GOT them saved.

The Gospel is the message that provides mankind with inspired information about what God the Father and Christ Jesus did for mankind before the foundation of the world that GOT mankind saved! That is what the true teaching of the Gospel is all about and what Christ came to teach.

The apostle Paul made the subject of salvation in Christ to be a very simple matter. He said that people were saved even before the world was founded. That’s right. Even before Adam and Eve were created, God already had it in his plan to save the humans he was going to create. Carefully notice what the apostle Paul said that shows this essential fact of the Gospel.

"Who hath saved us, and, called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

2 Timothy 1:9

What the Gospel of Jesus Christ provides is a notification to humans that they were saved in Christ even before the foundation of the world. It also shows why humans have been placed on earth and what God has planned to do for them in a future spiritual existence that will be glorious indeed. The message of the Gospel is simply God’s blueprint to explain why he created mankind (both males and females and all the various races and divisions of mankind) and what mankind has been created to become.

Every single human being who has ever lived, who is living now, or who will ever live is involved in that blueprint that was established by God the Father before the foundation of the world. The goal for mankind in this wonderful plan was adopted and secured long before the first man and woman were created. The ultimate success of the plan was also known by God the Father and Christ Jesus before it was put into operation with the creation of Adam and Eve. The apostle James recorded the foreknowledge of God in all of his works that he plans,

"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world."

Acts 15:18

God made a plan at the very beginning to save the human race that he was going to create. That plan was put into action and verified by the purpose and will of God the Father before the foundation of the world. Here again are the words of the apostle Paul,

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

Ephesians 1:3–5

The purpose of God in creating mankind (both men and women) is to bring forth his own children who will be a part of his divine Family — individuals who will be just like he is. That is what mankind is destined (or rather, predestined) to become according to the good pleasure of God’s divine will and purpose. And our being chosen in Christ to perform this role of becoming God’s very own children was accomplished in the plan of God before the foundation of the world.

No human being was consulted by God the Father or Christ Jesus when they put this plan into operation of creating new children to be in the Family of God. Indeed, how could they be consulted when they were not yet in existence? It was the Father himself who decided to increase the number of children in his divine Family through the creation of us who make up the human race from Adam and Eve. This is the plan of salvation.

Yes, God the Father has a Family, and the Father is the head of it. It is the one divine Family that controls all things in heaven and on earth. Paul said,

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."

Ephesians 3:14–15

What is glorious is the fact that we humans are reckoned by God the Father as being a part of that Family (the very "Household of God"). In the Bible the word "Household" is the equivalent of "Family." And humans are acknowledged as being a part of God’s divine Family.

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the HOUSEHOLD of God."

Ephesians 2:19

The reason mankind was created was for the express purpose of becoming members of that divine Family. Each of us is destined to inherit the "divine nature" of God himself. The apostle Peter put it this way.

"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these [by inheriting these wonderful promises] ye might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE."

2 Peter 1:3–4

Mankind has been created by God the Father and Christ Jesus in order to become members of the Family of God and to inherit the divine nature of God himself.

"Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. ... Now we are the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he [Christ] shall appear [at his Second Advent], we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

1 John 3:1–2
(The Greek says we are now "children of God," not "sons of God.")

Understand that God’s Family is made up not only of "males," but also "daughters." Paul spoke of the Father saying, "‘Ye shall be my sons and daughters,’ saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Corinthians 6:18). That is why the phrase "children of God" (as used by the apostle John) means something more than male children alone. The Family of God is made up of males as well as females. Remember, the apostle Peter said that a husband and wife who truly love one another are "heirs together of the grace of life" (1 Peter 3:7), and that involves sexual as well as emotional union.