THEO 202
Connor Horn
Professor Burroughs
THEO 202
September 27, 2021
Biblical Images of Salvation
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. That statement is the verse
Genesis 1:1 from the Bible; the very first sentence in the Bible and the sentence that describes
the beginning of human existence. In the beginning, the world was perfect and flawless because
God had created it. That is, until humans came in and introduced sin into the world. They
disobeyed God one singular time, and brought terrible change upon everything around them.
Ever since, sin has taken over our human lives and influenced us as a people. That is, until God
sent his son Jesus to save our sins. Jesus died so that we do not have to go to hell and suffer for
all of eternity but rather, we can spend eternity in euphoria with him. Jesus redeemed us of our
sin that was fated to ruin our lives forever. Jesus gave us his salvation through redemption. This
is the ultimate gift. This doctrine of redemption can be described in biblical, historical, and
theological methods. This essay with detail the doctrine of redemption through these methods
and how it relates to the images of salvation.
The Bible is the basis for Christian faith. It contains everything we need to know about
following Jesus, how to act as a Christian, how to love as a Christian, and many doctrines of
important truth. It also contains a lot of information about the biblical image of salvation. The
THEO 202
entire New Testament of the Bible is about how we are redeemed through Christ, and Christ
alone. The first four books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the gospels as they recount the
life of Christ. These are considered some of the most important books in the Bible. All four
gospels talk about how Jesus, a perfect flawless man, was sentenced to death for claiming to be
the son of God. The importance of his death is then explained in letters, mostly written by Paul,
to the churches he started. Paul explains that we are redeemed through Christ by believing he
that God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. By believing that he died for us, we are
granted salvation in Christ. This is the epitome of our faith. Redemption was given to us by God
as a gift to everyone. As Paul states in Ephesians: “For it is by grace you have been saved
through faith, it is not from yourself it is a gift from God. Not by works so that no one can
boast”.
Before the coming of Jesus only God’s chosen people, the Jews, were able to join God in
heaven. But in order to repent their sins, they had to make an animal sacrifice at an altar. This
method was only available the Jews so no gentiles had any way to make it to heaven. This
separated the Jews from the gentiles and caused an unhealthy division between the people
groups. God wanted everyone to be given the chance to spend eternity with him in heaven, which
is why he sent Jesus. The Jews were redeemed through their sacrifice, and the gentiles had no
way of redeeming themselves. Salvation was only given to them after the death of Jesus on the
cross. This troubled the Jews because it was different from how they had been living and
previously, redemption was exclusive to them. This is the reason for the disbelief of the Jews at
the time that Jesus really was the son of God. They were too ignorant to see the truth. Many of
Jesus’s followers realized the truth and became Christians and decided to fully commit to Jesus.
But many refused to accept the truth and the redemption that was granted to them through Christ.
THEO 202
Redemption is an image of salvation because Jesus redeemed us when he died for our
sins. By believing that he is our savior, he can achieve salvation through him. This connects to
back to the beginning where I referenced sin entering the world and ruining everything it comes
in contact with. Our solution to sin, are the images of salvation; specifically, redemption. By
being redeemed we are made “brand-new” in a sense because Jesus washed away our sins on the
cross. Not only are we redeemed in Christ to gain salvation, but also to become a follower of
Christ. We become a new person in Christ when we allow Jesus to come into our heart and guide
us in our everyday lives. We strive to live a new, better, and loving life following after Jesus’s
own heart, just as King David did. King David is known as the “man after God’s own heart” as
he made his life goal to live and think as God would do if he were on Earth. Without redemption,
we would not have salvation through God and would still be performing animal sacrifices to
repent for our sins. Jesus gave us a way to live forever by redeeming us, all we have to do is
believe.
