Due to mankind’s need of salvation, many wise men and philosophers have tried to invent different ways of salvation to meet man’s various needs. Some of these ways are intended to meet the needs in man’s behavior. Since man’s behavior is neither proper nor upright, some wise men invented the way of self-cultivation. They believed that what man does and how he behaves will be proper and upright if he sincerely exerts his effort to cultivate himself.
Other wise men have said that a person’s nature is easily corrupted if he is accustomed to living an easy life. Thus, if man endures more hardships by buffeting his body, he will be able to restrain his lusts. Some philosophers have considered that the meaning of human life is determined by a person’s accomplishments and his ability to make a name for himself in the eyes of the next generation. However, others have thought that the meaning of man’s existence is for him to enjoy himself while he can. Thus, they devised different theories and methods for man to have accomplishments and enjoyment. They emphasized that man only needs to be successful in his career and to obtain various kinds of enjoyment in order to have a meaningful human life. These methods are man’s inventions to take care of the sense of the vanity of human life.
In addition, some wise men invented the way of rendering distinguished service to mankind in order to achieve virtue so that they can atone for their mistakes. They believed that a person who commits sins during the first half of his life can render distinguished service when he becomes old to make atonement for his past mistakes. Many people believe in this way of salvation.
All the ways of salvation invented by the intellects throughout the generations are nothing but an attempt to solve the problems of man’s behavior, man’s nature, the vanity within man and the meaning of human life, and man’s eternal destiny.
If we examine all the man-invented ways of salvation, we will see that they are only temporarily effective. Self-cultivation cannot solve the inherent problem of man’s behavior, buffeting oneself cannot solve the basic problem of man’s corrupted nature, accomplishments in man’s career and material enjoyment do not remove the sense of emptiness that comes from man’s ignorance of the meaning of his human life, and doing good deeds and developing virtues cannot atone for one’s wrongdoings in the past. All of these are only ways to bribe man’s conscience and bring in a false and temporary comfort. Therefore, all the man-invented ways of salvation cannot solve man’s problems.
However, we thank God that the way of salvation lies in God. The Bible tells us how God prepared a wonderful way of salvation for the human race in order to deal with and to meet all of man’s needs.
God’s wonderful way of salvation has three major steps, and each step comes out of God’s heart of love toward man. God has a fervent love for man. The Bible says, “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). If we consider the words of the Bible, we will see that God’s heart is set completely on man. God has no other love in this universe but man. Although we do not know why God loves man so much, we know that His entire heart is set on man. In a sense, all that He thinks of, all that He is concerned for, and all that He worries about is man. Human words cannot describe God’s love toward man. The Bible uses the love of a mother for her child to describe God’s love toward man (Isa. 66:13). From our experience we know that the greatest, richest, sweetest, and most intimate is the love of a mother toward her children. However, the Bible says that God’s love toward man is greater than a mother’s love toward her children. God said, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, / That she would not have compassion on the son of her womb? / Even though they may forget, / Yet I will not forget you” (49:15). God is not willing to lose or forget man.
Without man, God would feel lonely and would not be satisfied. After creating the first man, Adam, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). In saying this, God was also referring to Himself. In other words, it is not good for God to be alone, to be without man. Therefore, He created man so that man could be His counterpart. As a result, God is man’s unique satisfaction, and man is God’s satisfaction. God is man’s happiness and rest, and man is God’s happiness and dwelling (Isa. 66:1-2). Man lacks everything if he lacks God, and God lacks satisfaction if He lacks man. If man does not have God, he is empty, and if God does not have man, He has no one to fill. Man needs God, but God also needs man. The relationship between man and God is like the relationship between children and their parents. Children need their parents, but parents need children even more. Although the prodigal son needed his father, he did not know how much more the loving father had been eagerly awaiting his return (Luke 15:20).
All parents find it difficult to sleep when their children are out until late at night. When the children are out wandering, they may forget about their parents, but their parents at home will be thinking of them restlessly. Sometimes when the children return home at three or four o’clock in the morning, they are fearful that the noise from parking their car or walking to the entrance might wake their parents. Thus, they try to come into the house quietly, expecting everyone to be asleep. They do not know that at the moment they stand at the entrance, their parents will hear them and will rush out to open the door and let them in. A parent’s heart is always thinking of his children.
Therefore, on the surface, children need their parents, but actually, parents need children more. Children who are without parents have no rest, and parents who are without children are even more without rest. This is the analogy that the Bible uses to describe God’s love toward man and His need for man. We often feel that, as desolated sinners, we greatly need God. But we hardly consider that God also needs the desolated sinners because His heart loves man, is toward man, and is fully on man.