Soon after we met, my wife-to-be told me about an experience of attempting to share her faith. Having grown up in an Adventist environment, she’d been taught to “always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). So, while a first-year student at a secular Australian university, she shared her belief in salvation through Jesus with a fellow student. The astonished young man responded, “Saved? Saved from what?” In the many years since that time, I’ve often pondered this question. For many, at least in the Western world, the answer would be that there is nothing to be saved from.
For contemporary secular people, who tend to embrace an understanding of humans as inherently good, the concepts of “sin” or “sinfulness” are an outdated mythical concept that they often find offensive. Yet current world events sometimes cause even those with a secular worldview to question the innate goodness of humanity. For example, in a recent online publication entitled “Conflict Everywhere . . . What Is Wrong With Humans?” one commentator lamented, “I truly despair of the human race and its mindless obsession with obliterating our species from the face of Planet Earth.”1 While the secular person may find the biblical narrative unconvincing, Christians believe that the only meaningful explanation of human life is found in the Bible, which outlines the problem of sin, as well as its solution, in what I believe are five interconnected themes.
The Revelation of God’s Character
The first and most important biblical theme is the revelation of God’s character as love (1 John 4:8), that is, that God is a good and loving Creator who does everything in His power to solve the problem of sin (Jer. 31:3; Ps. 86:15; 103:11). All other biblical teachings cluster around this foundational idea. Beginning in the book of Genesis, we see God pursuing Adam and Eve, who had sinned, and proposing a solution. This plan, established “from the foundation of the world,” involved God becoming a human and giving His life for humanity (Rev. 13:8).
As Ellen White wrote: “In redemption God has revealed His love in sacrifice, a sacrifice so broad and deep and high that it is immeasurable.”2 Through His self-sacrificing love, God will ultimately end the problem of sin, heal sinful human nature, and wipe away all tears (Rev. 21:4). This theme of God’s love is the alpha and omega of God’s plan for human salvation.
Innate Human Sinfulness
In contrast to this theme of God’s character of love is a second biblical theme of human sinfulness. Most Christians believe that the fall of the first humans, described in Genesis 3, impacted all humanity. The degree of human sinfulness, however, has been debated throughout Christian history. This debate continues, and such questions as “Are we born sinners?” or “Is human sinfulness learned?” continue to cause controversy. But the Bible clearly teaches that the Fall resulted in the spiritual and physical death of human beings and disrupted human communion with God, resulting in the inborn tendency to sin and death in subsequent generations of humans. Accordingly, the psalmist describes the human situation in this way: “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies” (Ps. 58:3; see also Ps. 51:5; Jer. 17:9; Eph. 2:3). Similarly, Ellen White describes human nature in this way: “[Seth] was a son of Adam like sinful Cain, and inherited from the nature of Adam no more natural goodness than did Cain. He was born in sin.”3
This second biblical theme of human sinfulness appears to be supported by contemporary social science. Researchers at Yale University’s “Baby Lab” discovered that babies do not appear to be born morally neutral. Carefully structured scientific experiments suggest that infants as young as 4 months exhibit a moral bent toward evil. Summarizing the Baby Lab’s findings, lead researcher Paul Bloom concluded that, along with a degree of goodness, we also possess “ugly instincts” that can easily “metastasize into evil.” Accordingly, Bloom, an evolutionary scientist, suggested that “the Reverend Thomas Martin wasn’t entirely wrong when he wrote in the nineteenth century about the ‘native depravity’ of children and said [that] ‘we bring with us into the world a nature replete with evil propensities.’ ”4
Thus, the Bible, the writings of Ellen White, and, surprisingly, even contemporary research affirm that we are deeply enmeshed with sin when we enter the world. This explains why all our actions and motivations, no matter how righteous they may appear to us, are “like filthy rags” to God (Isa. 64:6) and why no one can claim any form of innate or earned righteousness (Ps. 14:3; Rom. 3:10). So the question posed by my wife’s friend, “Saved? Saved from what?” can be answered that we need salvation from ourselves. Unless we understand this second biblical theme of innate human sinfulness, we cannot truly appreciate God’s sacrifice for humanity. As Ellen White expressed so well: “No deep-seated love for Jesus can dwell in the heart that does not realize its own sinfulness.”5
The All-Sufficient Savior
A third biblical theme, that God alone is the Saviour of humanity, runs like a golden chord throughout the entire Bible. In the Old Testament, in contrast to the polytheistic nations surrounding them, the people of Israel are repeatedly reminded that the Lord, their God, is one (see, for example, Deut. 6:4), and that besides God, there is “no saviour” (Isa. 43:11; Hosea 13:4). The Old Testament theme of God’s unique position as the only true God and exclusive Saviour of His people is repeated in the New Testament.
It is in the New Testament that we meet Jesus Christ, who is described as God Himself and the only agent of human salvation. “There is no other name under heaven,” the apostle Peter boldly proclaimed to the Jewish leaders, “by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Similarly, the apostle Paul spoke of only “one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6). Throughout her writings Ellen White also echoes this profound biblical theme. Jesus, she wrote, is an “all-sufficient Saviour . . . our only hope of salvation.”6 In a world in which many things claim to serve as our “saviours,” the Scripture points us to the one true God, who alone provides hope for humanity. Nothing, not even our obedience, can contribute to what Christ, the sole Savior of humanity, accomplished for us on the cross.
Salvation by Grace Through Faith
This brings us to the fourth biblical theme of salvation by grace through faith. While this theme was unreservedly embraced by the New Testament writers, it became increasingly controversial after the death of the apostles. Impacted by Greek philosophy, which affirmed the inherent goodness of humans, many postapostolic Christian thinkers began to question the inborn sinfulness of human beings. As a result, the postapostolic church adopted the idea that humans can contribute to the process of salvation, i.e., that their obedience, together with God’s grace, were the basis of salvation. This understanding of human salvation was most clearly articulated in the Council of Trent’s “Decree on Justification,” which was the Roman Catholic Church’s response to the sixteenth-century Reformation.
This, however, is not what we find in the Bible. As soon as sin entered the world, we find God seeking humanity, not vice versa. It is Yahweh Elohim who utters the first prophecy of a coming Messiah, who would one day destroy the sin that had entered the world (Gen. 3:15). Similarly, in the story of Abraham and Isaac, in which Isaac is bound and laid on the altar (Gen. 22:1-19), God is revealed as Yahweh Yireh, God the only provider (verse 14). It was not the perfect obedience of Abraham and Isaac that saved them. Rather, it was God alone who acted on their behalf by providing the sacrificial ram. This theme of salvation by grace is repeated throughout the Old Testament and expressed in such stories as that of the abandoned infant in Ezekiel 16, and Hosea and Gomer.
This fourth theme of human salvation by grace through faith is reaffirmed throughout the New Testament, the quintessential passage being Ephesians 2:8, 9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ellen White expresses this biblical truth thus: “If you would gather together everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely in man and then present the subject to the angels of God as acting a part in the salvation of the human soul or in merit, the proposition would be rejected as treason.”7 Unless we wholeheartedly embrace the truth of salvation by grace through faith, we will always seek to make our inherent goodness, our “righteousness,” play a part in our salvation. This can never result in the joy that comes from the assurance of salvation.
Obedience and Holiness: The Fruit of Faith
This brings us to the fifth major biblical theme, which addresses human obedience. Both the Old and New Testaments describe God as desiring His followers’ obedience. God’s call in Leviticus 19:2, “be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy,” is echoed throughout the New Testament (see, for example, Matt. 5:48; Luke 6:36; 1 Peter 1:16). Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, however, it is God who is the agent of His people’s holiness. It is God who brings forth holiness and obedience in His people: “For I, the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy” (Lev. 21:8). But if human obedience is the work of God in the life of His followers, then what role do we play? Jesus provides a clear answer: “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4). When we abide in Christ, He produces obedience in us, not to be saved, but because we are saved. Thus, obedience is the outcome of salvation, not its basis (Eph. 2:8-10). Or, as Ellen White wrote: “We do not earn salvation by our obedience; for salvation is the free gift of God, to be received by faith. But obedience is the fruit of faith.”8 Obedience as the fruit of faith reminds us that God has not only saved us from ourselves, as elaborated above, but also that He has saved us for a special mission, i.e., reflecting His love to a dying world (Matt. 5:16; Eph. 2:10).
Conclusion
The Bible tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This central truth undergirds the five biblical themes outlined above, which in turn are central to all the teachings of the Bible. So, as followers of Jesus, we have a choice: looking to our own righteousness, thus never being sure of our worthiness and never experiencing the true joy of salvation; or “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2), and restfully and joyfully abiding in Him until He returns to take us home.
1 https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/conflict-everywhere-what-is-wrong-with-humans-20231010-p5eb1l.html, accessed Jan. 22, 2025.
2 Ellen G. White, Sons and Daughters of God (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1955), p. 11.
3 Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy (Battle Creek, Mich.: Seventh-day Adventist Pub. Assn., 1870), vol. 1, p. 60.
4 https://behavioralscientist.org/babies-and-the-science-of-morality/, accessed Dec. 21, 2024.
5 Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1956), p. 65.
6 Ellen G. White, From Eternity Past (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1983), p. 303. (Emphasis added.)
7 Ellen G. White, Faith and Works (Nashville: Southern Pub. Assn., 1979), p. 24.
8 E. G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 61. (Emphasis added.)
The original version of this article was published in Adventist Review.
