"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken be the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;" (Hebrews 2:3 KJV)
""Listen to me, my people. Hear me, Israel, for my law will be proclaimed, and my justice will become a light to the nations. My mercy and justice are coming soon. My salvation is on the way. My strong arm will bring justice to the nations. All distant lands will look to me and wait in hope for my powerful arm. Look up to the skies above, and gaze down on the earth below. For the skies will disappear like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing. The people of the earth will die like flies, but my salvation lasts forever. My righteous rule will never end! "Listen to me, you who know right from wrong, you who cherish my law in your hearts. Do not be afraid of people's scorn, nor fear their insults. For the moth will devour them as it devours clothing. The worm will eat at them as it eats wool. But my righteousness will last forever. My salvation will continue from generation to generation."" (Isaiah 51:4-8 NLT)
There was something else that God did to Abraham that day when He signed that covenant for the both of them; He allowed him to see the condition of his descendants, in a dream, of them being slaves in a foreign land for 400 years; and how they would come away from that land with great wealth. Basically, this was his way to see the reality of the descendants that would come from him, making them real and now cherished within his heart.
This might be hard to explain, but it was the same for me at the moment I was saved. In a strange sort of way, there was a perfect illustration in my mind, of how badly I needed the salvation I was being offered. It wasn't my sins that revealed my great need, at least not at that particular moment; it was the reality of having separation from the God that loved me.
The salvation began with God showing me what I needed; that God-shaped whole I had been trying to fill all of my life, had been presented; now was my time to accept it and be born again! There may have been some discussion about sins and repentance, as I'm sure there was, but my focus on the Creator who I saw in my mind, as He sacrificed Himself on that cross!
As I have shared before, but without much interest: The second day of creation, God did not say that it was good; which was the day He created a divide, as it says, "And God called the firmament Heaven." This is where the separation began; as He is so Holy, even though the world had not yet fallen, it was already determined to happen.
When God made man, He wanted man to freely love Him; but in order to make that happen He needed to demonstrate the powerful love He had towards us...
""For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But everyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son."" (John 3:16-18 NLT)
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