I’m sick of the question, “Are you saved?” My frustration with the question is that 90% of the people who ask it have never considered the responding question, “Saved from what?” You gotta be saved! Are you SURE you’re saved?! You gotta be sure! If you’re not SURE you’re saved, you’d better come to church with me this Sunday! Bah.

Are you saying I need to be saved from Hell? Who’s sending me to Hell? God!? Why would God be sending me to Hell? Was it something I did? So you’re saying that I should want a relationship with a God that is currently sending me to Hell for something I did to offend Him before I even knew He was there? Or are you saying that it was something Adam did… it wasn’t necessarily something I did, but what that Book says that guy did thousands of years ago that makes me destined by God to Hell? What the Hell?!

I’m on a roll now, keep reading…

You said that Christ died to save me. How does that work? Because there was a Law, and since Adam broke the Law, all men have to be punished in Hell? (The Law didn’t come until Moses, how could Adam have broken the Law?) Oh, Adam passed on some kind of genetic predisposition that we’re all now by nature going to break the Law, and therefore we all have to pay the price in Hell. Gotcha. So Christ came, and was punished for all of us, so that if we believe that story, we’re off the hook? God punished His Son instead of me? His Son paid the “price” for my freedom? The Father and the Son are One. God punished Himself as a payment for my freedom? He sounds like a sicko to me.
What if the “price” was paid to the Devil, because he held us ransom? Is that any better? No. Then the Devil would have some power over God. Why would God have to give Satan anything?! You said God was supreme, you can’t go taking that back.

I think your whole premise is wrong. I think the inheritance Adam passed on was Death. I think it’s the condition of Death that we’re being saved from, not necessarily Hell. After all, the Good News (gospel) that was being reported is that Jesus is ALIVE! It’s the fact that he’s NOT DEAD that’s remarkable. It’s not that He’s dead, but in Heaven instead of Hell. It’s that He’s Alive!

We’re being saved from Death! The price that was paid, in other words, the debt that was owed, was Love. Christ came into the world to Love God and His neighbor as Himself. By sacrificially Loving God and His neighbor (even His enemies as they killed Him), He fulfilled the Law, and passing into Death, He continued to Love (and happened also to be God as He experienced Death), filling the big gaping hole of Death (and Hell) with Love, and paid the “price” of Love saving us as we participate in His Body which is made alive again. Saves us from Death, by becoming alive in Him.
The implication of the Good News that Christ is Alive, is that we will rise again too! We no longer fear Death! St. John Chrysostom, take it away:

By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh.
And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry:
Hell, said he, was embittered
When it encountered Thee in the lower regions.

It was embittered, for it was abolished.
It was embittered, for it was mocked.
It was embittered, for it was slain.
It was embittered, for it was overthrown.
It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.
It took a body, and met God face to face. <– I love this line!
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is risen, and thou art overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion
Unto ages of ages.

Amen!