The word “cause” is defined as – to bring about, to bring into existence. When we think about salvation we need to know the “causes” of this blessing. As with any topic we must go to the Bible to find the answer.

God of course is the original cause of salvation. God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). When you read about the creation you find God did it in an orderly manner. Think about it, if man had been created on day one, what would he have stood on, what would he have eaten? You see God created man at the right time so that man had what he needed to survive. God provided for man physically, but not only physically but spiritually.

When Adam and Eve were overcome by temptation God provided a way for them and all who have followed them to be saved. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15).

John wrote of God, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life; For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16, 17).

The sacrificial cause of salvation is Jesus. When man sinned in the garden a perfect man sinned, therefore a perfect sacrifice was needed for redemption. “

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus left heaven to come and give His life for our sins. What a wonderful, yet horrible sacrifice it was.

Death by crucifixion was not a humane way to die. The victim suffered for hours in agony. Our Lord was exhausted from the trials held during the night. He was scourged (which many times killed the person), beaten, spit upon, mocked, finally to have nails driven through His hands and feet to hang from the cross till death occurred.

Breathing was a chore from the cross as the weight of the body was pulled by gravity toward the earth. The pain He suffered is unimaginable.

This is the horribleness of the death of the Lord. The wonderfulness of the death of Christ is that He died that man might live. Peter wrote, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” (1 Peter 3:18). In the book of Hebrews we find, “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself … So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:26, 28).

The procuring cause of salvation is in the blood that Christ shed. “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb. 9:12). Paul wrote about the saving power of Christ’s blood, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” (Eph. 1:7).

Next week we will continue studying about “Salvation”.