. . . there was a Savior. Before there was a need for redemption, there was a Redeemer.
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27). They were not sinners.
God placed them in a perfect environment and gave them everything needed for life and happiness. He gave them but one restriction: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). It was then that they became sinners and suffered spiritual death.
The sinfulness of man progressed. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth . . . And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, . . . And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth . . ." (Genesis 6:5-7). Every living creature upon earth died except eight humans and reproductive specimens of the other creatures.
From those eight humans have come all of the sinners alive today. How many are there? What is the population of the earth? God says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). That puts us all in the category of "sinner" and under the penalty of death.
But God planned redemption for all sinners before there ever were any. Concerning Jesus Christ, Peter says, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it (Acts 2:23, 24).
God declares, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God" (I Peter 1:18-21).
God covered Adam and Eve with the skins of slain animals and restored them to fellowship with Himself on the basis of substitutionary sacrifice. "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Genesis 6:8), entered the ark by faith and was spared the judgment determined upon the rest of the human race.
But those temporary provisions were effective only because of God’s eternal plan. It called for a final and complete sacrifice for sin. That sacrifice was Christ and His atoning death upon the cross. That plan was laid before the foundation of the world, before there was ever a sinner. It is in effect today for your sins. Will you trust God’s Son for your redemption? You need Him!