God tells us that He wants to save all men and women:

"This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

God also tells us that He will fill the earth with His glory and knowledge:

"Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen." (Psalm 72:19)

"They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:9)

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." (Habakkuk 2:14)

God will fill the earth with His glory and knowledge by saving men and women who know God and reflect His glory. However, today we see a world that is torn apart by war, disease, poverty, suffering and disaster, and many people do not know, or want to know, anything about God. It is a world that is far from reflecting the glory of God.

When the earth is full of people disobeying God's laws how can the earth be filled with His glory? Ever since the first human failure in the garden of Eden, all men and women have inherlted a natural tendency to disobey God. As a result, all people sin and eventually die:

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." (Romans 5:12)

Before the earth can be filled with God's glory, sin must be removed. When sin is removed all the problems associated with sin will also disappear. For this to happen, God has told us about His plan of salvation. Without such a plan, the earth would never reflect the glory of God and we would be without hope.

Consider the steps that led to the introduction of sin and death in the Garden of Eden:

1. The earth was full of God's glory until Adam and Eve disobeyed God's commandment (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6-13).

2. They were punished with a mortal (dying) nature that would experience suffering (Genesis 3:15-19).

3. All people have inherited the same mortal nature (Romans 5:12, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

To rernove sin and death and fill the earth with God's glory, the above steps must be REVERSED. And this is exactly what happened. Jesus Christ succeeded where Adam failed. Jesus never sinned, he was totally obedient to God and as a result he opened a way for God to save us and fill the earth with His glory.

The steps leading to the removal of sin and death can be summarized as follows:

1. Jesus Christ obeyed God completely (Hebrews 4:15).

2. He was rewarded with an immortal nature that was not able to sin (Acts 2:22-24).

3. All CAN inherit an immortal nature (Romans 6:8-12).

It is through Christ than God can save men and women from sin and death. We can be given a nature that will reflect God's glory perfectly - one that does not experience suffering and does not die:

"For since by man (Adam) came death, by man (Jesus) came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

It is understandable that Jesus could be raised from the grave and be given eternal life because he was perfect. But how can we, who are sinners, share in this blessing of salvation?

It is by God's 'grace' or favour that we are saved. Although we are personally sinners and deserve death (Romans 6:23), if we follow the essential steps for salvation we will be presented as perfect in the day of judgement (Colossians 1:22, Jude:24). And if we are perfect in the sight of God then we will be rewarded with the same reward He gave to His perfect son - eternal life.

This is an incredible thing for God to do. He is willing to blot out all our failures, see us as perfect and give us a reward so great we cannot fully comprehend it. This highlights the enormous love of God and His great desire to save us.

God's plan of salvation is like a person putting on a coat to cover himself. When we sin we become symbolically naked in God's eyes, our human weakness and imperfection is exposed before God. This idea can be seen when the first sin was committed in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve felt naked and ashamed when they sinned and they tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves (Genesis 3:7). However, this was not an acceptable covering for their sin and instead, God provided them a covering made from an animal skin (Genesis 3:21).

From this time onwards, the shedding ot blood - which was required in the provision of the animal skin - became an essential requirement for covering sin (Exodus 29:36, Leviticus 1:4, Hebrews 9:22).

Because we are all sinners, we are all 'naked' in God's eyes and need a covering if we are to be seen as perfect and be saved by God.

Today, when we are baptized into Christ, we symbolically put on Christ, and he becomes our covering for sin:

"For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." (Galatians 3:27)

This putting on of Christ is also likened to putting on a white robe that has been made clean by the blood of Christ (Revelation 7:13-14).

Having provided this covering for our sins, God can count us as just and right like Jesus Christ (Romans 5:8-11). But this covering can be spotted by sin (Jude:23) and needs to be kept clean by seeking forgiveness (1 John 1:7-9). Christ also warns us in Revelation that we must 'keep' our garments. If we lose our garments by backsliding, we lose our covering for sin and God will not save us:

"Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." (Revelation 16:15)