John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

The first thing that needs to be explained is what exactly are we saved from?

Romans 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Over the next four devotionals I will be covering the four aspects of sin from which we are saved. Today it is P1, the first thing we are saved from is the pleasure of sin. Sin never stops being what sin is, pleasing to the flesh. We are not talking about the salvation of the flesh, we are talking about the salvation of the soul.

Psalm 72:13 He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

We are first saved from the pleasure of sin when we recognize we need to be saved. No one will come to a doctor unless they feel like they need to be healed.

Luke 5:31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.

Let me put it yet another way.

Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

If you have ever seen a dog eat until they make themselves sick and vomit, it is disgusting to watch that dog eat his own vomit. Disgusting as that is, we were or are like that before being saved. At what point do we recognize we need help? When do we know we are sick!

Recognize that what we are doing is no longer satisfying. Sin does not provide the lasting pleasure we seek. We repeat the sequence of sin over and over and it does not satisfy.

John 4;13-14 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Allow me to take you back to the beginning of life as we know it. God breathed life into man. This is the process of breathing life into man. We became spiritually dead because of sin so the process of becoming spiritually alive is resuscitation. We all know about resuscitation, right?

Is there more to resuscitation than just breathing into the mouth of the dead person? Of course there is and so it is with being quickened by the spirit. Being saved is not a single item issue, it is more than just being breathed upon. Without getting the heart started again, the victim remains dead.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

If it were not so, then everyone that has ever heard the gospel would be saved. If only it were that simple, but it is not. Life giving oxygen must be circulated by the heart to save a life. In the same way the spirit must be circulated by the heart to reanimate the spiritually dead.

Ezekiel 3:10 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Jesus is the Word, received in the heart, to be circulated by the spirit within the body making the spiritually dead alive in the spirit.