SALVATION BIBLE BASICS —Lesson 3

REVIEW FROM PREVIOUS LESSONS

We said we were going to look at things from God's viewpoint. God is the one who looks at the heart of man. He doesn't just look at the outside, just at the circumstances, just the things that are known by others. But God sees the very heart of man. God tells us that we will stand before Him one day. Our lives will be judged in every deed done in this body. We will be judged according to truth, and that truth is the Word of God.

In the first study we also looked at God's law found in the Ten Commandments, which shows us what God requires of a person who wants to get to Heaven on their own merits. We found that no one can keep the Ten Commandments perfectly all their life through. Yet in the book of James the Bible tells us that if a man offends in one point, if he breaks just one point of the law, he is guilty of all of it. Therefore man is guilty.

Then in the second study we said that God looks at men in two different groups: either without a relationship with Him, or having a relationship with Him. They either belong to God or they do not belong to God. In the Bible there are different terms that describe these two groups, and we looked at some of those terms.

God says a man without a relationship is lost, unable to find his way. But a man with a relationship has been saved, rescued. God sees a man who has no relationship with Him as not right, unrighteous. But those who have a relationship, God sees them as having been made right in His eyes, or righteous. He sees those without a relationship as being unforgiven. They have sinned against God, and they have never been forgiven. Those who have a relationship with God have wronged God, but God has forgiven them. Those without a relationship are the enemies of God, fighting against God. That is our nature when we are born into this world. Yet the Bible says, there are some who have a relationship with God who have been reconciled, brought back together with God.

Those without a relationship are walking around already condemned by God, guilty before Him. But those who are related to God have been justified, made or declared just by God. Those who have no relationship are under the wrath of God already. Not only are they under the condemnation, but the very wrath and anger of God is pointed towards them. But He has accepted those who have a relationship with God. Finally, those without a relationship are headed to a place called Hell, and those with a relationship are headed to a place called Heaven.

Notice that the seven terms used to describe those who have a relationship with God   are all things that God promises or things God does in a person's life. They are not things that you and I can do. You can't find yourself. You can't declare yourself just. You can't forgive yourself for sinning against God. You can't cause yourself to be reconciled to God. These are all things that happen to you, something God has to do for you.

Then we talked for awhile about how man tries to make himself right with God. He does things like getting baptized, going to church, praying, giving his money, and trying to be a good person. But we saw in the Bible what God has to say about our good deeds. We saw that all the good   deeds that you and I ever do will never make us right with God.

GOD'S PROVISION

It seems obvious as we look at the Scriptures that every man, woman and child is born into this world in trouble with God. We are in trouble with God because of our sin, because we choose to sin against a holy God. We are in trouble, and we are going to stand before Him one day. Yet the Bible also makes it clear that it is possible to have a relationship with God. We saw in the last study that there are some people who have a relationship with God, some who have been forgiven, some who have been made just, some who have been made right, some who are headed towards Heaven.

The obvious question for us to ask is: how does this come about? How can it be, that some have Heaven as their home and most have Hell as their home? How can it be?  Since we are born sinners and are under the condemnation of God, and since we can't work our way to Heaven, there must be a way somehow for us to get there. We know it must be outside of ourselves, outside of our own ability, our own goodness, our own working, our own endeavors. There has to be a way provided so that people can have a relationship with God. That is literally what God has done. That is what we are going to talk about in this study: what God has done to provide this relationship.

THE GOSPEL

First of all we want to look at the fact that, in God's provision, God has given us the Gospel. The word Gospel means good news.  God's way of provision, God's way of getting a man from no relationship to a relationship, is by the Gospel. Notice in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the_____________ of Christ:  for it is the power of God unto salvation  to every one that  believeth;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the Greek”.

1. POWER OF GOD

First he says the Gospel is the power of God. This Gospel of Christ, the good news about Jesus Christ, is the power of God. That word for power there is the same word from which we today now get our word “dynamite”. Therefore, the Gospel is a powerful  explosive used to move us from  no relationship to a relationship with God.

2. UNTO SALVATION

Notice that Paul says this Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It brings people to salvation. That word salvation is the same word that we used when we said there are some who have a relationship with God who are called saved. How do I get this salvation? How does God rescue me? The Bible says here in Romans 1:16 that God does it by means of the Gospel.

3. NOT BAPTISM

If the Gospel is the way God moves men from no relationship to a relationship, and if the Gospel is God's dynamite that saves men, then next we need to understand just exactly what the Gospel is and what the Gospel is not. In First Corinthians 1:17 Paul tells us what the Gospel is not. “For Christ sent me not to _______________ , but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect”.

In the previous chapter we talked about the things men do to try to make themselves right with God. One of the things we listed there was that people like to get baptized to make themselves right with God. Many people today believe that as long as you have been baptized, you are going to be okay. They believe they are going to be in Heaven because baptism takes away sins. They believe that somehow baptism takes you from no relationship to a relationship with God. But that is not what the Bible teaches. Paul says that he wasn't sent to baptize, but he was sent to preach the Gospel. In other words, the Gospel and baptism are two different, separate items. They are not related.

Paul is not saying that baptism is not important. He is just saying that baptism does not save anyone. He is making clear that baptism is not the Gospel. It isn't even part of the Gospel. Remember, we are not looking at this from how I look at it, or how you look at it. We are asking ourselves how God sees this, and God says baptism is not the Gospel. So what is the Gospel then?

4. DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

First Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the which I  preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are, if ye keep in memory what I  preached unto you, unless ye have  believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures”. In these verses Paul lays out plainly for us what the Gospel is. Let's take these verses apart and see what he says.

In verse 2 Paul uses the phrase “unless ye have believed in vain”. He is not saying you can get saved and lost, and saved and lost. He is saying very simply that if you really believed the Gospel, you will never go back on the Gospel again. You will never turn away from it. Once you understand what God has done for you in Jesus Christ you will never change your mind. Once you come to know Christ as your Savior and fall in love with Him, you can't ever leave Him again.

5. OUR SUBSTITUTE

So what is the Gospel? He tells us in verses 3-4. The Gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The Gospel, the good news, is that Jesus died on the cross, He was buried, and He rose again from the dead on the third day. So why is that good news? First, because He died for our sins. He died as our substitute. You see, those who have no relationship with God are condemned and under the wrath of God, and ultimately heading for Hell because they have sinned against God. They have violated every law that God has given them. They flagrantly live their own life and do their own thing as they thumb their nose at God. But those who have a relationship have been rescued from Hell. How do they get rescued? How do you move from no relationship to a relationship with God? Someone has to pay the price for your sin.

God is a just God. God demands that sin be paid for. How is that sin going to be paid for? Either you are going to die and go to Hell to pay for your own sin for all of eternity, or you are going to take the way that God has provided to pay for your sin so that you can have a relationship with Him. What is the way that God has provided? It is the Gospel, the good news. What is the good news? It is that Jesus died, was buried and rose again. But specifically that He died for our sins. He died in our place. He took our place and died for us.

The death of Jesus Christ in our place is called substitution. It is as if you had been sentenced in some court of law and had to pay a five thousand dollar fine. But someone else walked up, pulled out the cash and paid the fine for you. They mark your fine, “Paid in Full”. The law would no longer have any recourse. They would have no more claim on you. They could no longer come after you and say, “You   owe   this money”. That is exactly what Jesus did when He died on the cross. He paid for the sin of mankind, dying as our substitute. He became our Redeemer, the one who bought us back.

6. SCRIPTURAL

There is another phrase that we want to look at in the above passage. Paul said Christ died for our sins, “according to the scriptures”. He was buried, and He rose again from the dead, “according to the scriptures”.  In other words, Paul is telling us that the Gospel is also Scriptural. Why is that phrase, “according to the scriptures” so important? It is important because the death of Jesus Christ as recorded in the New   Testament is not something that was done in a vacuum. In other words, it didn't just happen. Jesus didn't show up one day and say, “You know what? I think it would be great for me to die on the cross. And after I die on the cross, I'll rise from the dead and solve all of man's problem”. That isn't how it happened at all.

The Bible tells us that the coming of Christ to this earth to die for the sins of mankind was planned out. In fact, the death of Christ was planned before the beginning of time. The coming of Christ was planned before God created the earth. From the book of Genesis at the very beginning of the Bible, all the way up until the coming of Christ, God had given to man a trail of prophecies. Down through the generations He  had given the prophecies about  when Christ  would come, about  how and where He  would be  born and live, and that He  would die  for the  sins  of  the  world. Through these prophecies God was setting the stage for what He was going to do in the person of Jesus Christ, “according to the scriptures”.

What difference does that make to us today? Well, it makes a great deal of difference.  If Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, if He  is the  One who can  pay for your sins  and  mine  through His death,  then  He   will  meet all the  qualifications  for  the Messiah listed in the Old Testament. Therefore we will be able to go back in the Old Testament and look up all the prophecies that had to do with this Messiah who was going to die as our substitute, and compare them with the life of Jesus Christ. If we did that, we would be able to see that He meets all the qualifications of the Old Testament perfectly.

That is why the Bible says He died for our sins, “according to the scriptures”. He rose again from the dead, “according to the scriptures”. Because everything Jesus did was according to the Scriptures. God didn't just drop in at the middle of time and say, “Jesus is going to die, so He can pay for the sin of the world”. No, God was planning this from the beginning of time, all the way up until Jesus came. It was planned by the Father that Jesus would come and die   for your sins and for mine. That ought to be a comfort to us to realize that the death and resurrection of Christ was not just a mere whim but was according to the very plan of God to take care of the sins of the world.

One of the things men do  is try to live  as good  as they can, to somehow get God  to forgive them  of  their sin and hope God will  see all the  good   things  they do   and  overlook the  bad things  they  do. In this way they think they will get into Heaven. But the Bible says it is the Gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, that is the power of God that saves us. In fact, the Bible plainly tells us that if a man tries to keep the law, he is cursed.

In Galatians 3:8-14 we read, “And the scripture, foreseeing that  God would justify  the  heathen   through  faith, preached  before the  gospel unto  Abraham,  saying,  In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, ________________ is every one that continueth not in things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith:  but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the_________________ of the law, being made a ___________ for us; for it is written, Cursed  is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham  might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit though faith”.

When Abraham was saved, God says he was justified. Remember that word means to be made just, the same term the Bible uses about people who have a relationship with God. How was Abraham justified? Was Abraham made right with God by doing the law, by being obedient, by being a good person?  No, we read in verse eight that he was justified by faith in the Gospel. How   could Abraham have faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ since he lived many years before the time when Christ came?

Even back in Abraham's day, God had already given the Gospel. He had already told the good news that this Jesus was coming to earth to live and die. God had already promised a Messiah that was going to take care of sin. Now Abraham didn't understand all the details, but he understood enough of the Gospel to know that God was sending a Messiah that would pay for the sins of the world. Abraham, by faith, believed God, and that is how he was made right and just with God and given a relationship with Him. That's how men today are also justified.

Notice in verse ten it says, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse”. If you try to keep the Ten Commandments, the law, you are cursed. That curse comes because you can't keep the Ten Commandments.  Is there anyone who can say they have never told a lie in their whole entire life?  If you tell only one lie in your entire life, you have broken the 9th Commandment. Remember that James 2:10 says that if you sin in one point of the law you are guilty of it all.

We like to look at things in our own way and forget what God said. We  excuse lying as  being a little sin and  no big  deal since everyone does it, from  the Prime Minister on down. But when we stand before God, you and I are not going to be doing the judging, nor will it be done according to our standards. God   is going to be the Judge and He will judge according to His truth. God's truth says that if you offend in one point of the law, you are guilty of it all. You are under the curse of condemnation. You are already condemned. You are under God's wrath, and ultimately headed to Hell.

Again  in verse  ten, he  says,  “Cursed  is  every one  that continueth not in all  things which are  written in the book of the law to do them”. If you can't keep all the law perfectly, you are cursed. On the authority of God's Word, I can plainly say that we   are all cursed. We all are under condemnation and without hope if we try to get to Heaven by keeping the law. If you are trying to get to Heaven by being a good person and hoping your good works outweigh your bad works, God says you will never make it. You are cursed, you are without hope. So what are we going to do? What is the answer?

We find the answer in verses eleven and twelve.  “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them”. Salvation is not by the law. Salvation, or being given a relationship  with  God,  being  forgiven,  is  by   faith  in  the Gospel, by  putting your trust in what God  has  done for you. Salvation is found  in giving up on your own goodness, giving up  on  trying  to  get  God   to  accept  you,  and  determining instead to be  thankful for what God  has done, and rest in His mercy and His offer of forgiveness.

He goes on in verse 13 to tell us this good news, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us”. When Christ came to earth to die for our sins, He became our Substitute. He hung on the cross to pay for our sins, to become a curse for us, so that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law.

Then in verse 14 he says that just as Abraham was saved by believing on the Messiah that would one day come, we today are saved by faith, by believing on the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary. Abraham looked forward to that day by faith, and we look back to that day and by faith believe in what Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary.

FORESHADOWED

We said that this Gospel is found in the Old Testament written long before Jesus ever came to this earth. We find the very first mention of the Messiah that would come in Genesis 3:15. You have heard the story of the fall of Adam and Eve, how they sinned in the garden when they ate of the fruit that God told them not to eat. When God   offered to make them right in His eyes, what did He do? In Genesis 3:21 we read, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them”. Here we have, in the Old Testament, the Gospel of Jesus Christ foreshadowed.

The word foreshadowed means “a picture”.  If I were to show you a picture of my family, I would say, “Here is my family”. You would understand what I mean. The picture is not my family, it merely reflects my family. It is a representation of my family. It points to the real thing. My family is made up of people, not a picture. The picture lets you see what my family looks like, but the picture is not my family. If you study the picture,  and  some  day  happen  to  meet  one  of  my   family members,  you  would recognize  them  immediately  because you had seen this picture.

That was what God was doing in the Old Testament. He  was giving pictures in the Old  Testament  of  what He  was getting ready  to  do   when Jesus  came  into  the  world. When God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins, He had to kill the animal to get the skins for them. When you kill an animal, blood has to be   shed.  The killing of the animals to clothe Adam and Eve is a foreshadowing of the fact that one day Jesus would come and shed His blood to pay for our sin. He died in our place just like that animal had to die in the place of Adam and Eve.

In Genesis 22 we find another foreshadowing, another picture of the coming of the Lord Jesus. Abraham has been told by God to take his son, Isaac, to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to God. God was testing Abraham's faith to see if he really loved God. Abraham obeyed and set out toward the mountain with the servants, Isaac, wood and fire. Isaac recognized that they were missing one very important ingredient, and asked his father where the lamb for the burnt offering was. In Genesis 22:8 we   find his answer. “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together”.

I'm not sure Abraham fully understood what he had to say there, but I know what God meant by it. Abraham may have meant, God will somehow provide, and God does eventually provide. But more importantly, God meant that one day God will provide Himself as a sacrifice. He'll be the sacrifice. That is literally what happened on the cross of Calvary, where it is God  who becomes human  flesh  to die  on the  cross  for your sins and mine.

Abraham and Isaac went on to Mount Moriah. Abraham laid his son down on the altar and raised the knife to the sky ready to plunge it into his son’s breast and kill him. But then an angel appeared and stopped Abraham. Look again at Genesis 22:13. “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son”. God new that Abraham would not withhold his son but was willing to obey God. Therefore Isaac was spared and the ram that was caught in the brush was caught and offered as a sacrifice in the place of Isaac.  That is exactly what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary. He died in your place to pay for your sin. This is another picture, a foreshadowing of the death of Christ in our place, found in the Old Testament.

In Exodus 12 we find another Old Testament picture of the death of Christ. The nation of Israel was in bondage in Egypt. God sent many plagues on the nation of Egypt to convince Pharoah to let the Israelites go free.  God   told Moses as the final plague He was going to kill all the firstborn among the Egyptians and then Pharoah would let them go. These are the instructions that Moses gave to the children of Israel.

In Exodus 12:21-23, “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you”.

Each family was to take a lamb, kill the lamb and catch the blood in a basin. Then they were to take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood and sprinkle the blood on the lintel, the top piece of the door, and the two door posts. They were then to go in the house and stay in the house until morning. That night the death angel went through the land at midnight. He entered into every house  in the land of  Egypt that  did   not have the blood on the lintel and door posts, and the first born male  child of  those families  and the first  born of  all  their animals was killed. The death angel passed over the houses that had the blood applied.

I'm sure there were probably some who didn't believe that God would really do such a thing. But it happened, just like God said. The people who believed God did what He told them to do. The lamb had to die, so the blood could be put on the door posts and the lintel, so the death angel would pass over the house and the firstborn could live. The Lamb died in the place of the firstborn. That is exactly what Jesus Christ did when He died on the cross of Calvary. He died on the cross so that His blood could be applied to your life and to mine, so that when we stand before God in judgment God   could be justified in passing over us rather than judging us for our sin.

There are so many Old Testament pictures, foreshadows of the death of Christ, that we could look at but we are just hitting a few highlights. Let's  look  next  at  the  Day  of Atonement  found  in Leviticus  16:15-16.  The Day of Atonement  was  a  special  day  on  which  the  priest  offered a sacrifice  for the  whole nation  of  Israel. “Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that  is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: And  he shall make an  atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness  of the  children  of Israel,  and  because  of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that  remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness”.

Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would kill an animal, carry the blood into the Holy of Holies, and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. Only the high priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies, and he was only allowed in once a year on this special day. The blood would cover the mercy seat and make an atonement for the sins of the nation of Israel. The Jewish people were sinners, just like we are today. God says the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat for an atonement. Maybe one way to look at the word atonement is “at-one-ment” or being made at one with God.

That was the whole purpose of the death of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to pay for our sins, so we could be at one with God. Remember that word reconciled, brought back together with God. We are not brought back together with God because of what we do. We are not brought back together with God because we are good, because we   give money, because we get baptized, because we join the church or pray or read our Bible. We are brought back together with God, at one with God, because of a sacrifice that has taken place. That sacrifice took place when Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed His blood for our sin.

IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Every Jewish person knew these stories that I have just told you in brief. They had heard them many times and knew them inside out, and many others also that we didn’t look at. Each one was a picture, a foreshadowing of the Messiah that would one day come. But what do these Old Testament pictures, this foreshadowing have to do   with the New Testament Jesus Christ?

In John 1:29, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the of ______________ , which taketh away the sin of the world”. John the Baptist used these words to introduce Jesus to the crowd that was gathered to hear him preach.  We find the same phrase in John 1:36. Why does John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God?

John the Baptist was a Jew, and he knew as he used those words, every Jewish person would immediately know that Jesus was the Messiah promised by God all through the Old Testament that would die for their sin. They would remember that an animal died that Adam and Eve might be clothed. They would remember that ram which had to die in order that Isaac might live. They  would  remember  Leviticus  16 and Exodus  12  and  the  myriad of  other chapters that  talked about  animals  dying so that  others  might live, so that  sin could be  taken  care of, and  so that  God  could forgive the  sin of those people.

In  all  those  stories,  the  animal  was  the  picture,  but  the animal was not the payment. Jesus is the One the picture is all about. Jesus was the One who would make the payment for sin. The animal sacrificed in the place of someone pictures the coming of Jesus. That is what John was saying, when he said, “Hey everybody, wake up! There is a great announcement I have for you now. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. He was letting them know that Jesus was the Messiah.

Look at Hebrews 10. We are going to walk through some verses very carefully to help you understand. Verse 1—“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the  very  image  of  the  things,   can  never  with  those sacrifices  which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto_____________”. Remember that we are looking at how God sees things. God says the law does not make men right with God. He plainly says that the sacrifices offered every year never made the people perfect, right with God. Every year, the Old  Testament  priest on the Day  of  Atonement  would  have  to  offer  the  same   sacrifice again.  Why? Because that sacrifice never took away the people’s sin.

Verse 2—“For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the  worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins”. Doesn’t it make sense that the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement couldn’t take away sin? If it could take away sins, why would the high priest offer the sacrifice again next year? If the sins are gone, they are gone. So if he keeps on offering it, it is because it didn’t take care of the sin problem.

Look at verse 4—“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away ________________”. It was not possible that the blood of animals could take away sin because the blood of bulls and goats, as verse one said, was nothing more than a shadow. It was nothing more than a picture.

Look at verse 10—“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. How many times did Jesus die? Once. Why once? Because that was all that was needed.  One time paid for all the sin. If Jesus had to keep on dying over and over again, it would be because He wasn’t able to pay for the sins. He would just be a picture like all the Old Testament sacrifices were. But Jesus died one time because His death was enough to pay for all the sins of the entire world.

Look   at  verses  11  and  12—“And  every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can take away sins: But  this man, after be had offered sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand  of God”. Jesus only had to die one time. Once He died on the cross and paid for our sins.

That is the good news, remember? The Gospel—the good news that Jesus died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, He was buried and rose again from  the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures. The good news is that Jesus died once and forever paid for the sin of mankind.

Hebrews 9:12 says, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood be entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us”. The death of Christ was enough to pay for the sins of the world. All He had to do was die one time. The holy place was that inner room in the temple where God met with the high priest one time per year. It was like   coming into the inner sanctuary to talk to God. No one else was allowed except the high priest, one time a year.

The Bible says Jesus didn’t enter into the holy place, into the very throne room of God the Father, by the blood of goats and calves. He didn’t kill an animal to get there. But He entered into that very holy place by His own blood. He died on the cross. The shedding of His blood is what bought His right, if you will, to go into that throne room for us.

Notice then Hebrews 9:13-14,  “For if the blood of bulls and of goats,  and  the  ashes  of an  heifer  sprinkling  the unclean, sanctifieth  to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the______________ of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” In the Old Testament, people could offer sacrifices and talk to God, and God accepted them, even though those sacrifices  were not  able  to  completely wash away their sins. How much more powerful then is the blood of Christ which does literally take away the sin!

The Old Testament sacrifice was just like a guarantee. It would be like you signing a note down at the bank saying, “I’ll pay my bill”.  Next year when it comes due, you go down and sign it again. Year after year you keep signing it, “I'm going to pay my bill”. But there comes a day when you walk in, lay the money down, and get your bill marked “Paid in full”.  After that you don’t keep going back again to the bank, signing the paper saying you will pay the bill, because the bill has already been paid.

The Old Testament sacrifices did not take away the sins of the people. It was like they were saying, “I know my sins are going to get paid for. It is going to be taken care of. They are literally going to be wiped off the books. One of these days it is going to happen”. They didn't know when it would happen, but they believed that it would happen. When Jesus came into the world, He died on the cross, and once for all He paid for that sin. That is why Jesus cried on the cross, “It is finished!”

Look at Hebrews 9:15, “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance”. I know that is a long involved statement, so I will try to explain it for you. Jesus Christ is the One who is in charge because He died on the cross for our sins. He is the One who is in charge of taking care of sin. He is the mediator, the go between.

Everyone who lived during the Old Testament days was saved, if you will, on “credit”.  “Our bill is going to be paid one of these days, but we don’t have it paid yet”.  But when Jesus came and  died on the  cross,  His New  Testament,  His new covenant,  His payment  for our sins  was also the payment  for their sins.

Let’s look now at Hebrews 9:24-28. “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;  For then must he often have  suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by  the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation”.

Jesus didn’t have to come back and die again and again. He only had to die one time. When He died, He not only paid for all the sins of all the Old Testament saints, but He also paid for the sins of the people who would be born in the future. He paid for all the sins of the entire world. He paid for all the sins of every person who had ever lived up to that time and every person who would ever be born down to the end of time. He only had to die once.

Now He is at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf. It is as if He is saying, “Here’s the bill marked Paid in Full, Father. See that fellow right there  who  is  just  now trusting  in Me  alone  to  get him  into  Heaven? Father, I’ve already paid for him. There is another one, Father. He is trusting in Me alone. He has given up on himself. He is not trying to get in here by his own ways anymore. He is trusting in Me, Father. He is one of Mine also”.

That is what the good news, the Gospel, is all about. You and I can’t get to Heaven on our own, but the good news is that Jesus has made a way for us to be right with God.

QUALIFIED

How do we know that Jesus is qualified? In John 5:31-39, we see the five proofs of   who Jesus is. Number one, Jesus said, “I tell you who I am. But you don’t have to listen to me if I’m the only One who says it”. For instance, if I stood up and made some bold, brash statement, and had no witnesses to agree with me, you probably wouldn’t listen to what I said. Jesus told the people that He was the Messiah, the One who came to pay for their sins.

But there were other proofs besides just Jesus saying it. Second of all, there was John the Baptist. He pointed at Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world”. He knew who Jesus was and he pointed him out to the crowds.

The third proof that Jesus was the Messiah were the works Jesus did, the miracles He performed. How do you explain the miracles that Jesus worked? He made the blind to see. He made the lame to walk. He made the dumb to talk. He made the people who were deaf to hear. Jesus worked miracle after miracle. How could He do it? Because He is God. He is who He claims to be. He is the Messiah who paid for the sin of the world.

The fourth proof came from God the Father. Remember when Jesus was baptized and Jesus came up out of the water? God spoke from Heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. Again, when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John,  God   spoke out  of  heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son; hear  him”. God the Father recognized who Jesus was and He declared it publicly for all to hear.

The fifth proof that Jesus was indeed the Messiah is the c, the Scriptures. This one is the strongest proof of all. We can literally go through the Bible, from beginning to end, and find hundreds of Scriptures that talk about Jesus Christ, telling who He is and identifying Him as the Messiah. In fact, there are thirty-seven different prophecies about the Messiah in the Bible. These prophecies were fulfilled in the life   and ministry of Christ, proving that He is indeed the Messiah.

One of those prophecies is found in Micah 5:2. There we find that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. Do you remember the story of how Jesus was born? Because of the decree of Caesar Augustus, Joseph and Mary had to go over to Bethlehem in order to register or the census. When they were there, Jesus was born. If it hadn’t been for that decree, Jesus would not have been born in that town. God worked it out so Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, just as the Bible had prophesied.

Isaiah 7:14 tells us that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. How can a virgin be a virgin and have a baby? It is impossible apart from the intervention of God. It was definitely a miracle of God. That prophecy was fulfilled literally in the life of Mary, for the Bible tells us that she did not know a man sexually until after the birth of Jesus. As you look at all the things that happened in the life of Christ, you have to say, “There is no way Jesus could have been just a normal man. Jesus has to be God in the flesh, as He claims to be”.

There are many passages that talk about the death of Christ and how He would die. Isaiah 53:7, 9, and 12 is just one of those passages. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, Isaiah said He would be numbered among the transgressors. The New Testament  tells us  that  there was a thief  hanging on either side of Jesus when He was crucified. It happened exactly as the Bible had prophesied. Isaiah also prophesies that He would make His grave with the rich. Where was His tomb? It was a borrowed tomb, but it was the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, a very wealthy man.

Isaiah 53:7 says when He died, He was like a lamb led to the slaughter. Lambs go to the slaughter with their mouths closed. They don't say anything.  They are docile and quiet.

When Jesus went to the cross of Calvary, He didn’t fight back. He could have called the angels to rescue Him. He didn’t do it. He could have objected because of His illegal trial. But He didn’t do it. He could have kicked up a fuss, but He went quietly to the cross, bearing shame and humiliation.

Not only are there prophesies of the death of Christ, but there also are all the prophesies about the ministry of Christ and about the life of Christ. As we look at all the prophecies and see that they were all fulfilled literally in the life and death of Jesus Christ, we must say that He is indeed the Messiah. He fits all the requirements. He   meets all the qualifications. There is no way a mere man could plan all those prophecies to come true. Jesus Christ could fulfill all the prophecies because He was God in the flesh, the Messiah who came into this world to pay for the sins of mankind.

SUBSTITUTE

In 2 Corinthians 5:21 the Bible says, “For he hath made him to be sin ______________, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. God the Father made Jesus to become sin. He took your sin and my sin and placed it on Christ. Jesus Christ never had any sin of His own. Yet He took our sin, so that you and I, who are sinners, could take His righteousness. In other words, Jesus Christ traded places with you. Suppose you have a million dollars in the bank and I have a negative balance in my account. You decide to help me   out, so we trade bank accounts. We go down to the bank, sign all the right papers, and I take over your bank account and you take over mine. Now I can go out and spend all I want, and you have to go out and work all you can to pay back the bill.

That is exactly what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross. He took our negative account, our need to pay for our sin, and He gave us His positive account of righteousness. We just traded places. He died on the cross to pay for our sin. He became our Substitute.

Look again in Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”. The word redeemed means to buy back. It was a word used when you went into the slave market to buy a slave off the auction block. You would buy him back, in order to set him free. Remember we said the law curses us. It points out our sin and shows us our condemnation. Because we have broken the law, we deserve Hell itself. But Christ came to buy us back off that auction block of sin, and He bought us back to set us free.

Why did   Jesus die   on the cross? Because He was fulfilling Scripture. That was where God’s curse was. He was being cursed for your sins and mine. He didn’t sin. He never had a sin. He was dying in our place. He was taking our place so we could be free from the curse.

Last of all, in Romans 5:8-11 it says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died______________. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the___________”.         

Let's take these verses apart carefully. The word commendeth is a big word, but it very simply means that God showed, or demonstrated. God demonstrated His love to us by sending Jesus Christ to die in our place, to be our Substitute. How then are we justified, or made just?  It is through His blood which He shed for us. He had to die for us to pay for our sin. Those without a relationship with God are not only under the condemnation of God, but under the wrath of God. But when Christ died on the cross, shedding His blood for your sins and mine, He made it possible for us to be justified and saved or rescued from that wrath to come.

Notice also God says that we receive the atonement through Jesus Christ. How do we get “at one with God”? We get “at one with God” because of the death of Jesus Christ. Notice those two words right in the middle of these verses: “For if”—here is the key.

We said that there are two groups of people, those who have no relationship and those who have a relationship with God. We have seen that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world. But there are still two groups of people. How can there still be two groups, if Jesus died for all the sins? There are still two groups because not everyone has been reconciled.

He says “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled” through His blood, then we have been saved. But if we have not been reconciled, then we are still an enemy of God. This is what we call a conditional promise. The condition of us being reconciled to God must be met through the blood of Jesus Christ.

You may understand that you are a sinner and that Jesus died for you. You may even understand that you are an enemy of God. But it is not enough for you to just see it and understand it. You must be reconciled to God. How does a person get reconciled? The Bible says it is by repentance and faith. That is the subject we will discuss in the next lesson.

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Ready for lesson 4?

SALVATION BIBLE BASICS—Lesson 2

REVIEW FROM PREVIOUS LESSON

We started in the first lesson by saying we were going to look at things the way God does. Remember that when God looks at our life, God looks on the heart. He sees what is on the inside. A man's heart is so deceitful that a man on his own cannot even know his own heart (Jeremiah 17:9). So if you want to know how God sees things, and how God sees you, you are going to have to come to God's Word.

One day, we will all stand before God and give an answer for our lives (Romans 14:12). We will have to give an account for everything we have ever done, everything we have ever said, everything we ever thought, and God will judge us. He will judge us according to truth (Romans 2:2). The Bible tells us that truth is found in the Word of God (John 17:17). So when we come to the Bible, what we are really doing is checking out the manual by  which God  is going to judge our lives one day. Therefore, we are looking at our lives in light of the Word of God. We know the Bible is true because of how it was put together and the claims it makes that it is God's Word. God has given us His law to show us what He demands of our lives. There are 613 laws in the Old Testament, but the whole law is summed up in the Ten Commandments.

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Not one of us can say we have lived our life in complete love, subjection, honor, and respect to God Himself. We live our lives our own way, our own direction, doing our own thing.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

Most of us do not worship idols, but the Bible talks about people who make a god in their own mind. They decide how they want a god to be. Maybe they want a god who is kind, good, loving, merciful and overlooks sin, or who gives whatever they want and desires. That is not the God of the Bible. Even if you have the right concept of God   there are times when in your mind, you decide how you want God to be and to act. You have broken the second commandment.

3. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

This includes cursing, but goes much further than just that. The word vain means emptiness. To take God's name in vain also means to take God's name and treat it lightly, to treat God as if He means nothing.

4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

This speaks of giving God time in our life, time each week that we might spend with Him. It means more than just giving God an hour on Sunday morning. Most of you have your whole agenda for today planned and God is not even in it, except for this hour you will   endure in church. Even while you are sitting in church, your mind is caught up with a million other ideas. Your mind is not even giving God the honor that He rightly deserves.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother.

Who can say they have honored their parents all their lives? Who can say they have lived their lives in complete respect of their parents at all times and never said anything wrong or never acted in a wrong way or never had a wrong feeling in their heart towards their parents?  I don't think there is anyone who can say they have always lived, honoring their parents as they should.

All the good deeds in the world will not save you if you have broken God's law. If you have offended in one point of the law you are guilty of it all. If you have ever committed one sin, you are guilty. It doesn't matter how many good deeds you do in your life, it will never make you right with God. If those good deeds  could  make  you  right  with  God,  you  would  strut through   Heaven  boasting  of your goodness  and patting yourself on the back. God says our good works will not get us into Heaven.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

Hopefully most of us have never killed anyone. But Jesus interprets this command for us in Matthew saying if you hate your brother or have anger towards a person it is the same as murder. In a sense, you have killed him in God's eyes. That is how God sees it.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Jesus said that if you look upon a woman to lust after her in your heart, you are guilty of adultery.  Not only the physical act, but also just the wrong thought makes you guilty before God.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

That means anything, no matter how small.

9. Thou shalt not lie.

There is not a person alive who can say they have never broken that commandment.

10. Thou shalt not covet.

Coveting means desiring, wanting something so much that it consumes your whole being. All you can think about is how you can get it.

As we look at the law of God we must say that we are guilty, condemned before God.  Some people pride themselves in doing the best they can and hoping God will overlook the rest. However, James 2:10 tells us that if a man offends in one point of the law, he is guilty of all.

The bottom line of it all is that we have broken the law of God. There is not one person down through history today that has ever been able to keep all of God's law perfectly all of his life. There will not be one person from now until the end of time that will be able to perfectly keep God's law all of his life. It is impossible to do. Therefore, we all stand guilty and condemned before God.

NO RELATIONSHIP OR RELATED

We said at the end of the first study that when God looks at the world, He sees two different groups of people. There are those who have no relationship with God, and those who have a relationship with God. Two different groups of people: some who belong to God, and some who do not belong to God. We are going to look at these two different groups. The Bible uses many different terms to talk about these two groups of people. We are going to look at a few of those terms.

1. LOST

The first one is the word lost and it is found in Luke 19:10. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was_____________”. What was the purpose of Jesus coming into the world? In this verse it says His purpose was to ________, to find, and to ______________ those who are lost. That term lost is a rather interesting term.  There are very few connotations in which you can use the word “lost” in a good sense. If a man loses his health, or his wealth, it is not a good thing. If a man loses his family, or parents, or loses a child, it is not good. Generally when you talk about something being lost, you are talking about something that is tragic.

The Bible says the way God looks at people who have no relationship to Him, those who have broken the Ten Commandments, those who are guilty according to God, is that they are lost. It is the picture of a child going out into the bush, forgetting to mark his trail, and getting lost. He doesn't know where he is and he doesn't know how to get out. He is in the middle of a large, vast rainforest, thousands of hectares with no hope of finding his way out on his own. The term is a description of a person who is in great need of help. It describes a person who can't solve the problem on his own. If you are lost, you can't get out of where you are. If you are lost, you can't find your way out. If you are lost, you need someone on the outside to come and give  you the assistance you need to get out of the condition you are in, lost. That is how the  Bible describes  people who have  broken  the  Ten Commandments. This is how the Bible says God  looks upon you and upon me, because we are guilty.

2. SAVED

The next  term  though  is  for those  who are  related  to  God, those  who have a relationship  with Him. That is the word saved.  In Romans 10:13, the Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be_______________”. Think about that term “saved”.  That is a great word, one of my favorites.

When I first started to attend a Baptist church, I remember hearing them talk about being saved.  It almost caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. My thoughts were something like   this. “Saved?  What do you mean, saved?  I don't need to be saved”. Then I began to realize that I was a sinner before God. I began to see myself as God saw me and I realized that indeed I was lost. The night when Christ saved me, I was ready. I wanted Him to save me, because I knew I was hopeless and helpless. I was like a child out in the middle of the bush, not knowing which way to turn. If a child was lost in the bush and someone came along to rescue him, that child isn't going to be particular about what they look like. The child will just be glad to be rescued.

Suppose you go out in an ocean liner and fall overboard in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the ocean liner keeps right on sailing. Now you are out there, bobbing in the water, good shark bait. You can't swim to shore because it is way too far. After a few days a boat comes along and sees you there in the water and throws out a white life preserver to you. Would you say, “Excuse me but I don't like white life preservers. I want a red one please”. No, you are going to be willing to grab hold of anything that will rescue you. Why? Because you realize you are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you can't save yourself. You need someone to rescue you.

That is exactly what “saved” means. It means to be rescued. The Bible says you and I have broken the Ten Commandments, God's law. It is a sin to break just one of them, and we are guilty of breaking them all. We are guilty before a holy God. Therefore, when God looks at you and me, He sees us as lost. But there are some who have a relationship to God, some who are saved. For a person to be rescued, there had to be a place and a time when they were lost. They weren't born saved. Likewise you aren't born rescued. You are born lost, in the rubbish heap, apart from God, in need of being rescued. A rescued person is one who had been in danger, but was pulled from danger.

3. UNRIGHTEOUS

There is a second term we want to look at—the term unrighteous. In First Corinthians 6:9-10 the Bible says, “Know ye not that the____________ shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God”.

Who are the unrighteous?  They are people who are not right in God's eyes. The term unrighteous means not right, not having the quality of rightness in your life. If you considered the Ten Commandments carefully, there is no way you can honestly say you are right with God. There is no way that you can say you have kept all the commandments all your life. In fact, the Bible tells us that everyone on earth has broken the 9th commandment because they were born a liar. In Psalm 58:3 the Bible says, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking___________”. We were liars from the time we were born.  We have to teach our kids to tell the truth. We don't have to teach them how to lie. They already do that by nature.

The Bible says we are not right before God. We have broken the Ten Commandments.  He also says in the verse we read, (1 Corinthians 6:9-10), that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. That is pretty tough. Let's take those verses apart and see what God is talking about.

Be not deceived:  Remember we are looking at things from God's viewpoint. He says don’t be stupid, don't tell yourself a lie. That is what people are doing in our world today. They think because they go to church and are religious, or because they are a good person or they have been baptized that they are right with God. They have their list of things they have done and think surely since they have done all those things, they will be okay. God will make an exception for them. But God says, be not deceived. Don't tell yourself a lie.

Neither fornicators: Fornication involves the sin of the mind, sexual lust, thinking wrong thoughts.  Have you ever had a bad thought about someone of the opposite sex, or even a bad thought about someone of the same sex?

Nor idolaters: Did  you ever make a god  to your own image, a god   which you thought  this  is how God   ought  to be   like, instead of letting God  be  God?

Nor adulterers: Did   you ever commit adultery?  Since you have been married, have you ever been sexually active with someone besides your spouse?  Have you ever even had a wrong lustful thought about someone of the opposite sex? Jesus said that is the same as adultery.

Nor effeminate: There is a tough one in our generation. We talk about Sodom and Gomorrah of the Bible days, but we have Sodom and Gomorrah around us everywhere. Homosexuality is everywhere you turn.

Nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor    drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall  inherit  the  kingdom   of  God:  These people whom God  has  listed  for us  here  in these  two verses are not going to make it to heaven because they are not right with God. Remember I didn't write the Bible. We are looking at things from the way God sees it, and God says that people who violate the commands of God are guilty of sin and will not inherit the kingdom of God. We are all in trouble.

Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous; no, not one”. Just in case you are thinking you are not in that group so you must be okay, God says, “There is none righteous; no, not one”. Now if you are not righteous, that makes you unrighteous.  God said very clearly in First Corinthians 6 that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Remember we are looking at how God sees things not what we think.  One day you and I will stand before God so we had better be prepared for that day. We are going to stand there before God who says, “You are not right before me”.  I think we’d better get concerned.

4. RIGHTEOUS

But look at what God says in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you; but ye are________________ “. Not only are there  some  on  one  side  that  are  not  right  and  have  no relationship with God, but there are some people on the other side who  do   have  a  relationship  to  God. There are some people who were unrighteous, but now they are right with God. Something has changed them.  They have a relationship with God and are termed “righteous”. At one time these people weren't right with God; they were seen as vile in the eyes of God. But now God sees them in this condition of righteousness. Somehow God cleansed them.

Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall  many be made_______________”. We read in Romans 3:10 that no one is righteous on their own. Yet it says in Romans 5:19 that there are some who are made righteous. Something happens to them. They don't make themselves righteous. That is not what that verse says. Notice the words again. It says they were made righteous. Something, some power from outside of them works upon them, to literally pick them up out of the unrighteous side and put them into the righteous side. Something happens to move them from no relationship with God to having a relationship with God.

Note these two things we have seen so far. There are some that are lost. They can’t find their way. They can't get to Heaven. They don't know how to get to Heaven. They don't have a clue on how to find God on their own. But somehow God is able to rescue them, to save them. There are those who are not right before God. But something happens in some of their lives, and they are picked up out of the column of not right before God and are put over on the side of being right with God. Again, it is something that is done for them. It is not anything they do on their own.

5. UNFORGIVEN

Let's look now at a third term found in Romans 4:6-7. “Even as  David also  describeth  the blessedness of the  man, unto whom God__________                           righteousness without works,  saying,  Blessed  are  they  whose  iniquities   are forgiven, and  whose are  covered”. The word imputeth means “to put on the account”. It’s a bookkeeping term, and is used when something is charged to a person's account. God says there are some people to whom He has imputed righteousness. Notice that the righteousness He is speaking of is imputed to them and did not come because they worked for it. Notice then in verse 7 He describes these same people as having their iniquities [sins] forgiven. Obviously, for God to say He has forgiven their iniquities there had to be a time in their life when their iniquities were unforgiven.

Remember we are talking about how God sees those who have no relation with Him. Every person born in the world has sinned against God. We have violated His law and mistreated Him. We are guilty, lost, unrighteous, and therefore in the state of not being forgiven by God. Forgiveness is not something you get on your own. It must come from the other person.

Suppose I went down into the congregation and slapped someone on the face very hard just because I felt like it. Then I declared myself forgiven and walked away.  Would that be forgiveness? Can I give myself forgiveness when I have wronged someone else? No, of course not. If I am to have forgiveness, the person I slapped has to forgive me. The person who is sinned against has to give the forgiveness.  It won't do me any good to strut around and say, “I'm forgiven because I said I'm forgiven. I say it is all right now, so it is okay”.

Yet that is how most people on earth live their lives, isn't it? They walk around declaring that they are okay, yet they have never been forgiven by God. The Bible declares that we have all wronged God. We have all sinned against Him. Wait until you meet up with God and see what happens then. When you stand before God, you will realize it is not you who can forgive yourself. God says there are many people who have not been forgiven.

6. FORGIVEN

But God says in Ephesians 1:7 that it is possible to be forgiven. “In whom we have   redemption through His blood, the_______________ of sins, according to the riches of His grace”. It is possible to have forgiveness in Christ. Romans 4:6-7 describes this   forgiveness as something given by God. It also describes forgiveness as being a covering for sin. Forgiveness comes from God, and it was made possible by the blood of Christ. It is God who has to forgive you because He is the one you have wronged. Therefore, God says there are those who have a relation with Him because He has forgiven them. They have wronged God, but God has forgiven them.

Remember, we are looking at the two groups of people that God sees in the world today. When you stand before God, you are going to be standing there in one group or the other: unforgiven or forgiven. There are some that God has not forgiven. Many people think that if they just tell God they are sorry, everything will be okay. But I've known people who say they are sorry but they don't truly mean it.

Remember God knows the heart. There are also some that will be standing before God who have been forgiven. God promises to forgive, but He only promises to forgive if we come on His terms. God knows what is in our hearts. He knows whether we are just trying to manipulate and use Him. He knows if we are trying to make a god after our own image, or whether we are willing to come to Him the way He says we have to come.

7. ENEMIES OF GOD

Another term that God uses to describe those without a relation with God is in Romans 5:10. “For if, when we were____________, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life”. He says there is a group of people who are enemies of God. When God looks at those who have no relationship with Him, He sees them as lost, unrighteous, unforgiven, and as His enemy. In most churches today you will not hear this truth preached. But it is true. The God of the Bible says you are His enemy. You are fighting against Him.

Notice that God says we are enemies against Him, not the other way around. It is not that God sits up in Heaven and says, “I hate you and I want to find a way to annihilate you”. If He wanted to do that, He would not even have to snap His fingers. He could speak the words and you would be gone, you would be history. But you are the one fighting against God. You are God's enemy. Yet, you think God is going to let you into Heaven the way you are. God says, “This is a joke. You think you want to come to my Heaven? Do you think I'm going to let you in after the way you have treated Me?”

Suppose my family and I were going to stay at your house for a week. But before we get there I started telling others what I really thought about you. I  told them you were a low  down rat,  lower than  a  flea's  belly, a  lying, cheating  scum,  etc. When word gets back to you about what I have said, are you going to open your door wide and say, “Come on in, pastor. We just love to have you here with us. Everything we have is yours. Just help yourself”. No, I hardly think so. You would be very upset and cancel the invitation promptly, and rightly so. Now, if you would not be happy about that, why do you think God up in Heaven is any different?  Why do you think God is going to let you into heaven when you hate Him? God is not going to say, “He hates me, but when he dies, I think I can reform him”.  You don't find that in the Bible. God says you are His enemy.

8. RECONCILED TO GOD

Notice the other term that God uses twice in Romans 5:10—the term reconciled. This is another term that God uses in the Bible to describe those who have a relationship with God. He says they have been reconciled. We find this term used in Colossians 1:21 also. The word reconciled means “to bring two parties back together who have been at odds with each other”.

We are enemies of God because we wronged God. God never wronged us; He has never sinned against us or done anything wrong against us. Therefore, God doesn't have to change. God is not the one that needs to be reconciled. Reconciliation has to happen on our side. We have to be brought back to God.

Reconciliation is not something that we can cause to happen. Reconciliation is something that has to happen from outside of us. It is not something we can bring about on our own. Suppose I broke your window, but then I come and say I'm sorry and want to be reconciled to you, but I can't afford to pay for the window. You have to be willing to say, “All right, I'll bear the cost of your wrong in order to have a right relationship with you. I'll put your wrong in the past, and whatever it costs me, I'll pay the cost and we will move on from there”.

But our sin against God is far greater than just breaking a window. Our sin debt is so great, it is a cost you and I can never pay on our own. It is a cost that only God could pay and He did that by the death of Jesus Christ.

That is how we are reconciled with God. God loves you so much and desires a relationship with you so much He is willing to forgive your sin and reconcile you to Himself. He  is willing to  pay  the  price  for  your sin  through  the  death  of Jesus Christ on the cross.

9. CONDEMNED

John  3:18   says,  “He   that  believeth  on  him   is   not condemned, but  he  that   believeth  not  is  condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”. Those who have no relation with God are lost and not right with God, they are unforgiven and enemies of God, and they are condemned. It is as if we have already been to a court of law, we have already sat through the proceedings, all the testimonies have been heard, and the judged has banged the gavel on the table to pronounce us condemned and under the sentence of death. That is how God looks at you and me.

Many people think that when they get to Heaven, they will have an argument with God   and work things out. But you need to understand that when you stand before God, all the arguments have already been heard. It is already over with. You are guilty and God knows you are guilty.

There won't be any slick lawyer you will be able to hire to get yourself off.  You will stand before a holy God who knows everything about your life, every sin you have ever committed and every vile thought you ever had. God knows everything about you, and He has already declared in the Bible that you are condemned.

Suppose you had been tried and had been found guilty of murder. The judge has pronounced the sentence as hanging. Then on the way out of the courtroom, somehow you escape. Now how would you feel when you walk down the street? You would feel guilty. How would you feel when you see a police car cruising by? You would panic and immediately turn in towards a building, hoping he doesn't see you, ready to run at a moment's notice. If someone treats you wrong, can you pick up the phone to ring the police to report him? No, you have to handle the wrong on your own. You are under   the condemnation of the law. For the rest of your days you would be running for your life, trying to stay alive, knowing one day you are going to get caught and then it is all over with. There is no plea and there is no way out. You are finished because the sentence has already been pronounced.

If you have no relationship with God, that is how you are right now in this life. You live under the condemnation of your sin. If you drop over dead without Christ, you would be in the presence of God, and immediately condemned because you have no relationship with God.

10. JUSTIFIED

The next word is found in Romans 5:1, “Therefore being____________ by    faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. That word justified means to be declared just. It is a legal term. If you are tried and condemned in court and the judge assesses the penalty, you must pay. But if someone walks up to the bench and hands over the cash to pay for the penalty, the judge bangs the gavel and you walk out of the room. Your fine has been paid in full and you are no longer condemned.

When you walk out and see a policeman, how do you feel now? It doesn't scare you or bother you because the policeman can't do anything to you. They can't arrest you for the same crime again. You don't get scared because you have been declared just in the eyes of the law. You are no longer under the condemnation of the law. You have been justified.

Notice that it doesn't mean you have never sinned. It doesn't mean that you never committed a crime, but it means you have been declared just. The penalty has been paid. The law has no more pull on you, no more power over you, no more condemning power on your life. The payment has been made; your account is settled. That is what justification means.

So there are two kinds of people God sees. First, there are those who are condemned before an Almighty God because of their sin. The Bible teaches that we are all condemned when we start this life because we are all not right with God. But there are some that God has justified, those whom God has declared just. The penalty has been paid. The condemned has become justified.

11. UNDER  WRATH

There is another term in Romans 5:9.  “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from____________ through him”. Romans 1:18 says, “For   the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who bold the truth in unrighteousness”. Another way that God describes those   who have no relationship with Him is that they are under the wrath of God. These people are described as “holding the truth” in unrighteousness. That phrase means holding down the truth, choking it out. You see, it is possible for you to sit in church every service and not accept the truth.  It is possible to be a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, a church member, and even a preacher and still not be right with God, but to hold down the truth, to keep it from having full effect in your life. Truth isn't just meant for us to hear about. Truth is meant for us to obey.

How did you do on the Ten Commandments when we went through them? Do you know how you ought to treat God? Do you know how you ought to treat others? Is that how you are doing it? If you are not, then you are holding the truth down, not responding to it as you should. People who have no relationship with God are under the very wrath of Almighty God. Not only are they condemned, guilty before God, but they are walking around the world with God angry at them.

It is like being on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. If you are on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List and the police find you, do you think they are just going to come up and tap you on the shoulder and politely ask you to go with them? That is not how they are going to arrest you. They are going to come at you with guns drawn, with five or ten agents around you, stick their guns at you, and expect you to do what they say.

When you have no relationship with God, you are under the wrath of God. Yet many in our world that are in that very condition walk around like everything is just fine between them and God. When you stand before God looking at Him, you will find out everything is not fine. You will find out that God isn't smiling at you. God is in wrath. God will be looking at you in anger because your sin is against Him, and you are ignoring His way of dealing with that sin. God is looking at you in anger right now you but you may not have realized it yet. That is pretty serious.

12. ACCEPTED

But  those  who  have  a  relationship  with  God    are  called accepted in Ephesians  1:6. “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein be hath made us ______________in the beloved”. Everyone starts out life under the wrath of God. But there are some that have moved to the column of having a relationship with God, some who are accepted in Christ. What does it mean to be accepted? It means to be welcomed, to be wanted.

That is what God offers. He offers to you the opportunity to be accepted. How do you get accepted?  Is it dependent upon something you do?  Can you be kind enough to a person until it makes you accepted? No. Acceptance is something the other person has to offer to you. Acceptance is what God offers to you, through Jesus Christ.

13. ETERNITY IN HELL

The last term that God uses to describe those who have no relationship with Him is that they will spend eternity in Hell separated from God. Revelation 21:8 has been called the phone book of Hell, because it lists the people who will be there. “But the   fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”.

The lake of fire is another name for Hell. Those who live their whole life without a relationship with God are lost. They can't find their way to God. They are not right when God looks at them. They are unrighteous, and they are not forgiven. They are enemies of God, fighting against Him. God has already condemned them, and in condemning them, His wrath, His anger is poured out. God is angry with them because of their sins. He has a place waiting for them that we call Hell. It is the lake of fire, where even liars go. All you have to do is tell one lie and you are guilty.

14. ETERNITY IN HEAVEN

On the other hand, those who have a relationship with God will spend eternity in heaven. First Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we________ ________ with the Lord”. Jesus is coming back again, and when He comes, those of us who belong to Him   will go to be with Him, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That is what we today call Heaven, to be with Christ.

Getting to Heaven is not something I can do myself. It doesn't matter how many times I jump up. John Glenn has already been up into the heavens two times. But it doesn't matter how many times he goes up. John Glenn is never going to get into Heaven by getting on a space shuttle. You don't get into Heaven by doing it yourself. You will never build a jet big enough. You will never build a space ship big enough to get you to Heaven. You will never live a life that is good enough for you to get to Heaven on your own. The only way you will ever get to Heaven is for God to take you there, and He will only be taking those who have a relationship with Him.

CONCLUSION

We said all that to come down to this. There are those who have no relationship with God. In fact, the Bible tells us, “There is none righteous; no, not one”. Every person who is born into this world starts out on the wrong side. We are born in sin and have no relationship with God. We are lost, unrighteous, unforgiven, enemies of God, condemned, under the wrath of God, and will spend eternity in Hell. None of us have a right relationship with God when we start this life.

But God says it is possible for that to be changed and a person somehow to be moved into a right relationship with God. God calls those people saved, righteous, forgiven, reconciled, justified, accepted, and gives them a home in Heaven. Notice that these people did not make themselves right. They were made right through a power outside of themselves. As we will learn in the next lesson, that power is God. Through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross He is able to move some people from no relationship to a relationship with God.

MAN'S ATTEMPTS

Now   let  me   ask  this  question:  Is  it  possible  to  somehow someway, do  something to have this relationship with God? Is it possible for a person to change   themselves to have a relationship with God? There are certainly a lot of people who try. In fact, the Bible says in Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of ________________”. The way that seems right to us as humans is that we ought to be able to work our way to Heaven by being good enough. Surely if we do the best we can then God will overlook all the bad.

That is the lie that Satan has placed in every person's heart. If you don't believe that, just ask ten people walking down the street how they think a person gets to Heaven. Every answer will include doing something good, unless that person happens to be saved and already knows what God says.

People try many different things. Some try good deeds like being good to a neighbor. I know a lot of tremendous people in this world who have no relationship with God, who are under God's wrath, heading to Hell itself, but they are some of the best neighbors you could ever have. They are wonderful people, but they don't know God. They do lots of good deeds, but they have no relationship with Him.

What are some other things that people do to try to make themselves right with God? There are people I know who tried things like   getting baptized or reading their Bible. Some give their money to the church to buy their way to Heaven. Some attend church and pray. These people think, “Surely if I do all these things, God will overlook some of these things I've done wrong”.

Let's look at it this way. Suppose you are convicted in a court of law of first degree murder. The judge asks you if you have anything to say before he pronounces your sentence. You boldly walk up to the bench and reply. “Yes, Your Honor, please give me a moment. I know I committed this murder. I believe it was wrong for me to do it. But that was five years ago. It took them a long time to catch me. But I want you to know that in the last five years, I've been a model citizen. I've not killed anyone else. In fact, my next door neighbor was having real problems and I helped him. I heard about a family that got burned out, and I donated money to them. I've been volunteering in the hospital. I even started reading my Bible, and I've memorized much of it. I go to church. I don't hoard my money. I'm a good guy. I'm nice to people. And I promise you, if you will let me off, I'll never do this again”.

Now what would you think if the judge said, “That is a moving testimony! I think I'll let you go. You've done so much good, I think you have made up for this murder you committed”.

No judge in his right mind is going to let you off just because you have reformed your ways. You still have to pay the penalty for committing murder. But suppose you made one more plea to the judge that went like this. “But Your Honor, one more thing, please. I throw myself on the mercy of the court. I've heard a lot of good things about you.  You are a good man.  I've   heard  how wonderful  and  kind  you  are,  how  forgiving you  are.  Your Honor, please, forgive me”.

What kind of judge would he be if he said, “I forgive you. Go free”. He would not be judge for long. That wouldn't work in a court of law.

That doesn't work with God either. God is a God of justice. He is not just a God of mercy; He is also a God of justice. When you and I come into this world, we are guilty before God. We are condemned, heading for Hell itself and rightly so because of our sins. But many think that somehow, by just reforming their life and doing some good things, maybe somehow God will let them into Heaven. But that is not what the Bible teaches. Remember we are looking at things God's way.

GOD SAYS

1. Romans 3:20

What does God   say?  Is it possible that maybe we can do enough good things to be right with Him? No, because God says in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be______________ in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of______________”.

Suppose this man who has committed murder stands before the judge and says,  “Your  Honor,  you don't  understand. Since I committed the murder five years ago, I've obeyed every law in this land. I've researched all the ATO tax laws. I have meticulously made sure that I have kept every single tax law and I've never violated anything.  I don't jaywalk. I go to the crosswalks. I never walk even if it is yellow. I don't go through yellow lights when I'm driving. I'm so very careful. If the speed limit is  60,  I  go   59,  just  in  case  my   speedometer  is  one kilometer  off. Your Honor, you don't understand. I've obeyed the law. You have to understand, I've obeyed the law”.  But what does all that matter if he has committed murder? He is still guilty.

We try to impress God   with all the good   things that we do. But doing good things was never meant to make up  for sin. Keeping the law or doing right does not save a man. God’s law was not given so we could keep it and earn our way into heaven. God's law was not given so we could keep it and be acceptable to God. The Bible says the purpose of the law is to show us our sin. God gave us the law to give us the knowledge of sin. God gave the law so we could see what God expects of us, which is total perfection.  If we break one point of the law, we are guilty of breaking it all.

It is impossible for a person to get to Heaven by keeping the law. God gave us the law so we could understand that we are in violation of God's law. The law can't save you. The law was given to condemn you. There is no hope in the law for you and me.

2. Isaiah 64:6

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away”.  How does God describe us? He says we are all as an unclean thing. We would proclaim all our good deeds we have done, but God   says they are as filthy rags in His sight.

Now remember we are looking at things from the way God sees them. How does God look at me? I say I'm a good person. I've been baptized. I go to church. I give my money. I do good deeds. I'm the best person I could be. I pray. I read my Bible. I believe in God. Surely this is good enough. But God says all my good works are like a filthy rag.

Let  me   explain what  a  filthy  rag   is  briefly  to  help  you understand what God  is describing. A filthy rag in Bible days was a rag hung on a post outside of town. Lepers weren’t allowed to go into town because they would infect others with their oozing sores. But on a post outside of town was a rag hanging, called a filthy rag. A leper could come by with the puss oozing out of their sores and take that rag and clean their sores off. They would leave it hang on the post and the wind would dry it, the rain would come and wash it a little bit, and then another leper would come by, grab the rag and wipe his sores.  The filthy rag was the community wiping rag of all the lepers.

God says your good deeds, all the good things you have done, your church   membership, your attendance, your giving money, being a preacher or Sunday school teacher, is like a filthy rag in His eyes. That is how horrible it looks to God. That is how much good it does for you. God says He views it like a filthy, vile rag. Can you imagine, ladies, taking that rag home and washing your dishes with it?  You wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. But that is exactly how you propose to get into Heaven, isn't it? By a filthy, vile dishrag.

3. Titus 3:5

“Not  by__________ of righteousness  which we have  done, but according to his mercy he saved  us, by  the washing of  regeneration,   and  renewing  of  the  Holy Ghost”.  It doesn't  matter  how many  good   works  I  do,  if  I  have  no relationship  with God, it will  never be  able to move me  over into the column of  having a relationship with God. My good works cannot and will not make me right with God.

4. Ephesians 2:8-9

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of___________: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast”. Now hear what God says. We try to impress God with our good works, but God says, “You are not saved by yourself or by your good   works. If you were, you would boast”.

CONCLUSION

But I don't want to leave you without hope. Obviously, since there are two groups of people, those without a relationship and those who have a relationship, God has a way to get you and to get me   into a right relationship with Him. That way is through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But everyone does not have a relationship with Him. There are only certain people who are in a right relationship with God, because they have come to God the way God says you must come to Him.

Don't deceive yourself into thinking you can stay in your unrighteous, ungodly, sinful condition, and God will let you into Heaven. Let's go on to the next lesson, to see what God has done to change you from no relationship to a relationship.

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