• 30-minute explanation of the Bible •
NUMBERS MARK THE SAME TOPIC:
In: Shame & Fear & Guilt & Emptiness
• In: English & Japanese versions.
• In: Short and Long versions.
1, 2, 3, etc. – are along left margin.
These markers are not links.
0-1
WHAT WAS BEFORE THE BEGINNING?
初めに神は…
創世記 1:1（新共同訳）
the first words in the Bible
あなたが地と世界とを生み出す前から、まことに、とこしえからとこしえまであなたは神です。
詩篇 90:2（新改訳）
1
創造者なる神様とは、どのような方でしょうか？
Creator.
初めに神は天と地を創造された。
創世記 1:1（聖書協会共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
「お前たちはわたしを誰に似せ、誰に比べようとするのか。」と聖なる神は言われる。目を高く上げ、誰が天の万象を創造したかを見よ。
イザヤ 40:25-26（新共同訳）
Only God.
（創造の神は言われる。）「わたしより前に造られた神はなく、わたしより後にもない。」
イザヤ 43:10（聖書協会共同訳）
Lord over everything.
（神は言われる。）「わたし、わたしが、主である。」
イザヤ 43:11（聖書協会共同訳）
Loving Father.
主（なる神）はあなたを造った父ではないか。
申命記 32:6（新改訳）
この世界とその中にあるすべてのものを御造りになった神は、天地の主です。…確かに、神は、私たちひとりひとりから遠く離れてはおられません。私たちは、神の中に生き、動き、また存在しているのです。…「私たちもまたその子孫である。」
使徒言行録・使徒の働き 17:24, 27-28
神は…人を創造された。…男と女に創造された。
創世記 1:27（新共同訳）
神は彼らを祝福（された）。
創世記 1:28（新共同訳）
主はすべてのものにいつくしみ深く、そのあわれみは、造られたすべてのものの上にあります。
詩篇 145:9（新改訳）
天の父（なる神）…は悪人にも善人にも太陽を昇らせ、正しい者にも正しくない者にも雨を降らせてくださる。
マタイ 5:45（新共同訳）
Only Savior.
（創造の神は言われる。）「わたしのほかに救い主はない。」
イザヤ 43:11（新共同訳）
All powerful.
主がお救いになるのを妨げるものは何もない。
１ サムエル記 14:6（新改訳 2017）
神にはどんなことでもできます。
マタイ 19:26（新改訳 2017）
Totally reliable.
（主）に信頼する者は、たれも恥じを見ることがない*。
ローマ 10:11（新改訳 2017）
* 新改訳 2017 Footnote
Judge of all.
（神は）…この世を正しく裁く日をお決めになった…（の）です。
使徒言行録・使徒の働き 17:31
1-God-in-3-Persons: or, the same essence in 3 forms –
• God the Father
In the Bible "God" usually refers to God the Father.
• God the Son
The Son of God – Jesus Christ
• God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit – God's Spirit / Christ's Spirit / the Spirit
They have the same:
Nature
Heart
Purpose
Character
神は愛…です。
１ ヨハネ 4:8（新共同訳）
「あなたたちの神、主であるわたしは聖なる者である。」
レビ記 19:2（新共同訳）
But they have different:
Roles
Functions
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mentioned together in the Bible:
（神の子どもたちは）父なる神が予知されたことに従って、（聖）霊により聖なる者とされ、イエス・キリストに従い、また、その血の注ぎを受けるために選ばれた人たち（です）。
１ ペテロ 1:1-2（聖書協会共同訳）
（イエスは言われた。）「行って、すべての民を弟子としなさい。彼らに父と子と聖霊の名によって洗礼を授け…なさい。」
マタイ 28:19-20（聖書協会共同訳）
Does 1-God-in-3-persons make logical sense?
At first it may seem to be a logical impossibility.
But we all know a very common substance that is 1-essence-in-3-forms.
So, while amazing, something being of 1 essence in 3 forms is not outside our common experience.
1-5
WHAT IS THE BIBLE?
神の言葉（聖書）をきいたととき、あなたがたは、それを人の言葉 としてでわなく、神の言葉として受け入れた。
１ テサロニケ 2:13（新共同訳）
あなた（神）の言葉の一切が真実です。
詩篇 119:160（聖書協会共同訳）
（イエスは言われた。）「天地は消え去ります。わたしのことばは決して消え去ることがありません。」
マルコ 13:31（新改訳 2017）
（イエスは言われた。）まことに、あなたがたに言います。天地が消え去るまで、（神の）律法の一点一画も決して消え去ることはありません。すべてが実現します。」
マタイ 5:18（新改訳 2017）
2
人とは、どのような者でしょうか？
神は言われた。「我々にかたどり、我々に似せて、人を造ろう。 そして彼らに、…地のすべてのもの…を支配させよう。」神はご自分にかたどって人を創造された。…男と女に創造された。
創世記 1:26-27（新共同訳・新改訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
私たち人間は、神様によって造られました。ですから、私たちが神ではないのは明らかです。
Anything that is created is inferior in status to the one who created it.
けれども、私たち人間は、神様に似た者として造られましたから…
• 私たちは、動物とは比べ物にならないほど複雑なコミュニケーションをし、洗練された創作活動を行い、高尚な愛を持つことができます。
そして、神様と深いつながりのある生き方ができます。
• 私たちは、天のお父様である神様と、比類なくすばらしい霊的関係を持つことができます。これは動物にはできないことです。
• 私たちは神様と共に、永遠に生きることができます。
神である主は、土地のちりで人を形造り、その鼻にいのちの息を吹き込まれた。そこで、人は、生きものとなった。
創世記 2:7（新改訳）
神である主は、エデンの園に人を連れて来て、そこに住まわせた。そこを耕し、守るためであった。
創世記 2:15（聖書協会共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
神は、「…彼らに、海の魚、空の鳥、家畜、地のすべてのもの、地をはうすべてのものを支配させよう。」と仰せられた。
創世記 1:26（新改訳）
God gave us an honorable, important status:
• to rule over the earth.
God gave important responsibilities:
• to take care of the Garden and work it.
3
この世界は、初めは完全無欠なものでした。
神は、造ったすべてのものを御覧いなった。それは極めて良かった。
創世記 1:31（聖書協会共同訳）
人とその妻はふたりとも裸であったが、恥ずかしいとは思わなかった。
Genesis 2:25（新改訳 2017）
Sin and evil had not yet entered the world and drastically impacted it.
So, there was no:
Death.
Guilt.
Shame.
Fear.
Suffering.
4
神様は、人にただ一つだけ制限を与えました。
神である主は人に命じられた。「…園のどの木からでも思いのまま食べてよい。しかし、善悪の知識の木からは、食べてはならない。その木から食べると、あなたは必ず死ぬ。」
創世記 2:16（新改訳 2017）
Manga Vol. 1, page
（最初の）女（エバ）はその実を取って食べ、いっしょにいた夫（アダム）にも与えたので、夫も食べた。
創世記 3:6 (新改訳)
Manga Vol. 1, page
This resulted in the following disaster for the whole world.
5
この恐ろしい問題とは何でしょうか？
それは、「罪」と「死」です。
罪を犯す者は皆、（神の）法にも背くのです。罪とは、（神の）法に背くことです。
１ヨハネ 3:4（新共同訳）
That is what Adam did.
He did what God told him not to do.
このようなわけで、一人の人（アダム）によって罪が世に入り、罪によって死が入り込んだように、死はすべての人に及んだのです。すべての人が罪を犯したからです。
ローマ 5:12（新共同訳）
罪の報酬は死です。
ローマ 6:23（新改訳 2017）
Sin and death are our greatest problems.
All around us, it is evident that sin in people is the source of evil in the world.
And death is our enemy:
…敵である死…
１コリント 15:26（新改訳）
But aren't sin, evil and death just a natural part of our world?
We are so used to evil and death that we think they are just a natural part of life –
that they are unavoidable.
But, at the beginning God created the earth without these things.
As we already read:
一人の人（アダム）によって罪が世に入り、罪によって死が入り込んだ。
ローマ 5:12（新共同訳）
So, sin and death are not a natural part of our world.
They are the direct result of the first man's choice to disobey God.
6
罪を犯した後、アダムとエバはどうしましたか？
その日、…彼らは、神である主が園の中を歩き回る音を聞いた。そこで人とその妻は、神である主の顔を避け、園の木の間に身を隠した。
創世記 3:8（聖書協会共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
Sin destroys the Father-child relationship we have with God.
お前たちの悪が神とお前たちとの間を隔て、お前たちの罪が神の御顔を隠させ、お前たちに耳を傾けられるのを妨げているのだ。
イザヤ 59:2（新共同訳）
私たちはアダムやエバとは違うと言えるでしょうか？
正しい者はいない。一人もいない。悟る者はいない。
ローマ 3:10-11（聖書協会共同訳）
神を探し求める者はいない。皆迷…った。
ローマ 3:11-12（聖書協会共同訳）
7
一方で、人が罪を犯した直後、神様が最初になさったことは何でしょうか？
主なる神はアダムを呼ばれた。「どこにいるのか。」
創世記 3:9（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
Think how significant this is!
What did Adam deserve?
「…食べると必ず死んでしまう。」
創世記 2:16（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
But what did God do?
God, because of his great love for us, took the initiative to come looking for man to call him back to himself:
「どこにいるのか。」
God did this on about page 4 of the approximately 2,000-page Bible!
What does this tell us about the message of the rest of the Bible?
Throughout the entire rest of the Bible, though we deserve death, God is calling us back to himself.
Unless God does this, we are doomed, because...
7-5
SIN HAS VERY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES:
神はアダムに向かって言われた。「お前は…食べるなと命じた木から食べた。お前のゆえに、土は呪われるものとなった。お前は、生涯食べ物を得ようと苦しむ。…お前は顔に汗を流してパンを得る、土に返るときまで。お前がそこからとられた土に。塵（ちり）にすぎないお前は塵に返る。
創世記 3:17, 19（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
主なる神は言われた。 「人は…善悪を知る者となった。今は、手を伸ばして命の木からも取って食べ、永遠に生きる者となるおそれがある。」主なる神は、彼をエデンの園から追い出し…た。
創世記 3:22-23（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
It took just one sin to separate mankind from God.
What was the immediate spiritual result?
Spiritual death for Adam and Eve.
In time, what was the physical result?
Physical death for Adam and Eve.
So it is with us.
すべての人に死が及んだのです。すべての人が罪を犯したからです。
ローマ 5:12（聖書協会共同訳）
Sin separates all mankind from God for all eternity.
So what can God do to re-establish our relationship with him?
8
GOD PRESENTS OPTION #1 FOR OVERCOMING SIN:
First, God gave very general, logical instructions:
主はカイン（アダムとエバの息子）に言われた。 「…もしあなたが正しいことをしているのなら、顔を上げられるはずではないか。正しいことをしていないのなら、罪が戸口で待ち伏せている。…罪はあなたを恋い慕うが、あなたはそれを治めなければならない。」
創世記 4:6-7（聖書協会共同訳・新改訳 2017）
Manga Vol. 1, page
First, God told us to "do what is right."
He told us to "master" sin.
So, God's instructions were general and obvious:
It is your responsibility not to do bad things.
It is your responsibility to do good.
Illustration:
This is what parents and teachers teach children. So this makes perfect sense! Just do what is right. Do what you are supposed to do. Don't do what you shouldn't do.
But much later, God gave very specific instructions:
（創造の神は言われた、）「わたしの掟と法とを守りなさい。これらを行う人はそれによって命を得ることができる。わたしは主である。」
レビ記 18:5（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
(It is said that God has given over 600 commands in the Old Testament!)
（掟は、）命をもたらすはずの掟「です」。
ローマ 7:10（新共同訳）
神様の律法を完璧に守り通せば、永遠の命をいただけるのです。
That was the original purpose of the Law.
So this is Option #1 for gaining eternal life:
Trying with all our power we must never sin and always do right.
神様がしなさいと言われることは、一つも残さず従わなければいけません。
完璧な人にならなければいけません。
That means that, in the end, we are judged for what we do:
In the Old Testament it says:
ああ、主なる神よ、…あなたの目は人の歩みをすべて御覧になり、各人の道、行いの実りに応じて報いられます。
エレミヤ 32:17, 19（新共同訳）
Finally, at the end of the Bible it says:
死者たちは、これらの（神の）書物に書かれていることに基づき、彼らの行いに応じて裁かれた。
黙示録 20:12（新共同訳）
And we are even judged for our motives, thoughts and words!
「わたし、主が心を探り、心の奥を試し、それぞれの生き方により、行いの身にしたがって報いる。」
エレミヤ 17:10（新改訳 2017）
人はうわべを見るが、主は心を見る。
１サムエル 16:7（新改訳 2017）
By taking even our motives into consideration, God judges our actions very fairly.
（イエスは言われた。）「人は自分の話したつまらない言葉についてもすべて、裁きの日には責任を問われる。あなたは、自分の言葉によって義とされ、また、自分の言葉によって罪ある者とされる。」
マタイ 12:36-37（聖書協会共同訳）
私をさばく方は主です。…主は、やみに隠れたことも明るみに出し、心の中のはかりごとも明らかにされます。
I コリント 4:4-5（新改訳 2017）
主がいとうのはすべての高慢な心。確かに罰を免れることはない。
箴言 16:5（聖書協会共同訳）
おくびょうな者、不信仰な者、忌まわしい者、人を殺す者、みだらな行いをする者、魔術を使う者、偶像を拝む者、すべてうそを言う者、このような者たちに対する報いは、火と硫黄の燃える池である。
黙示録 21:8（新共同訳）
So we get from God exactly what we deserve.
And God is so just that he even takes our thoughts and motives and words into consideration.
But is it good news that God is so just and fair?
Do you really want to get what you deserve?
9
私たちは罪に打ち勝つことができるでしょうか？
Did Cain, and the people who came after him, "do what is right?"
Did they "master" sin?
Answer:
Unfortunately, centuries after Cain during the time of Noah, Option #1 had already proven to be a failure.
地上に人の悪がはびこんだ。
創世記 6:5（聖書協会共同訳）
Yet even today, most people are still attempting to use Option #1 as their way to be good in God's eyes.
But, do they realize that God even judges motives, thoughts and words?
主は、地上に人の悪が増し、常に悪いことばかりを心に思い計っているのを御覧になっ…た。
創世記 6:5-6（新共同訳）
And, do they realize that God's heart is grieved?
主は、…地上に人を造ったことを悔やみ、心を痛められた。
創世記 6:5-6（聖書協会共同訳）
So, God decided to start over with Noah.
ノアは主の好意を得た。…ノアは正しい人で、彼の世代の中にあって全き人であった。ノアは神とともに歩んだ。
創世記 6:8（新共同訳）
創世記 6:9（新改訳 2017）
神はノアに言われた。「すべての肉なるもの（人々）の終わりが、わたしの前に来ている。彼らのゆえに地は暴虐で満ちているからである。今こそ、わたしは地とともに彼らを（洪水で）滅ぼす。あなたは…箱舟を造りなさい。…また、あらゆる生き物…の中から、二匹ずつを箱舟に入れなさい。あなたと共に生きるためである。それらは雄と雌でなければならない。
創世記 6:13-14,19（聖書協会共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
主はノアに言われた。「さあ、あなたとあなたの家族は皆、箱舟に入りなさい。」
創世記 7:1（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
彼らと共に、それぞれの種類のあらゆる獣、それぞれの種類のあらゆる家畜、それぞれの種類のあらゆる地を這うもの、それぞれの種類のあらゆる鳥…が、二匹ずつ、ノアのもとに来て箱舟に入った。・神が命じられたとおりに、すべて肉なるものの雄と雌とが来た。主は、ノアの後ろで戸を閉ざされた。洪水は四十日間地上を覆った。…天の下にある高い山はすべて覆われた。
創世記 7:14-15（聖書協会共同訳）
創世記 7:16−17, 19（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
地の面にいた生き物はすべて…大地からぬぐい去られ、ノアと、彼と共に箱舟にいたものだけが残った。
創世記 7:23（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
How many ways were there to be saved from the Great Flood?
Only one.
Only God's way.
Did human effort help anyone who was not on the ark?
No.
No matter how hard they tried, no one could save themselves by their own efforts.
Yet even today, most people are still attempting to save themselves –
so they use Option #1 to try to be good in God's eyes.
But what made Noah different from everyone else?
Only one thing:
信仰がなければ、神に喜ばれることはできません。…信仰によって、ノアは… 恐れかしこみながら、その家族を救うため箱舟を造り、その信仰によって世を罪に定め、信仰による義 （正しさ）を受け継ぐ者となりました。
ヘブライ 11:6-7（聖書協会共同訳）
（新改訳 2017は「ヘブル」）
So Noah earned nothing by his own efforts, but received a great gift from God because of his faith:
ノアは主の好意を得た。
創世記 7:23（新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
(We'll discuss this more in a little bit.)
Can we accuse God of being unfair in sending the Great Flood?
Actually, whose responsibility is it to "master sin?"
主は…言われた。 「…罪はあなたを恋い慕うが、あなたはそれを治めなければならない。」
創世記 4:6-7（新改訳 2017）
Manga Vol. 1, page
So the problem of sin belongs to us.
Sin is not God's responsibility. He has no obligation to solve our sin problem.
We know the consequences of not "mastering sin:"
罪の報酬は死です。
ローマ 6:23（新改訳 2017）
彼らは、そのような（悪い）ことを行えば、死罪に当たると言う神の定めを知っていながら、それを行なっているだけでなく、それを行う者に心から同意しているのです。
ローマ 1:32（新改訳）
So, even today, people do not take sin seriously.
悟る者はいない。神を探し求める者はいない。皆迷…った。
ローマ 3:11-12（聖書協会共同訳）
During the time of Noah, people did not take sin seriously either:
洪水になる前、ノアが箱舟に入る日まで、人々は食べたり飲んだり、めとったり嫁いだりしていた。・洪水が来て、すべての人をさらってしまうまで、彼らには分かりませんでした。
マタイ 24:38（聖書協会共同訳）
マタイ 24:39（新改訳 2017）
JESUS BELIEVED THE ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD – AND OF CREATION (MARRIAGE).
But didn't God care?
Of course, he did!
主は、…悔やみ、心を痛められた。
創世記 6:5-6（聖書協会共同訳）
How did God show that he cared?
義を説いたノア…
２ ペテロ 2:5（聖書協会共同訳）
So, through Noah, people had the opportunity to turn from their evil ways.
ノアの時代に箱舟が造るられていた間、神が忍耐して待っておられた。
１ ペテロ 3:20
(God waited a long time. The ark likely took 60 to 80 years to build.)
(創世記 5:32; 6:18; 7:6)
私たちの主の忍耐は救いであると考えなさい。
２ ペテロ 3:15（新改訳 2017）
主は…一人も滅びないで、すべての人が悔い改めるように望み、あなたがたのために忍耐しておられるのです。
２ ペテロ 3:9（聖書協会共同訳）
Even more amazingly . . .
キリストは捕らわれていた霊たちのところへ行って宣教されました。この霊たちは、ノアの時代に箱舟が作られていた間、神が忍耐して待っておられたのに従わなかた者です。
１ ペテロ 3:18-20（新共同訳）
This is a mysterious statement – but one important point is very clear:
God provided clear opportunities for everyone living before the Flood to turn from evil and seek him.
Because of his great love, God went far beyond anything he was obligated to do.
Even so, do you think that God is serious about getting rid of sin?
（主よ、）あなたは不正を喜ぶ神ではなく、あなたのもとに悪がとどまることはありません。・誇り高ぶる者たちは・あなたの前に立つことはできません。あなたは、悪事を働く者すべてを憎み、偽りを語る者を滅ぼします。血を流す者と欺く者を主は忌み嫌います。
詩篇 5:5-7（聖書協会共同訳・新改訳 2017・） （新改訳 2017は詩篇5:4-6）
But did the terrible punishment of the Flood change people’s hearts?
（洪水の後、）主は…心の中で言われた。「…人が心に計ることは、・幼い時から悪いのだ。」
創世記 8:21（聖書協会共同訳・新共同訳）
Manga Vol. 1, page
Nothing had changed!
But, why not?
Because we, ourselves, are wrong – from the very beginning.
わたしは咎のうちに産み落とされ、母がわたしを身ごもったときもわたしは罪のうちにあったのです。
詩篇 51:7 （新改訳と新改訳2017は詩篇51:5）
We are wrong even before we do anything good or bad.
Our problem starts with what we are.
Our problem isn't simply what we do.
Then we all continue down the wrong path.
わたしたちは皆、汚れた者となり、正しい業もすべて汚れた着物のようになった。
イザヤ書 64:5（新共同訳）
（新改訳と新改訳2017はイザヤ書 64:6）
正しい者はいない。一人もいない。悟る者もなく、神を探し求める者もいない。皆迷（った）。
ローマ 3:10-12（新共同訳）
The threat of punishment ...
• May frighten us.
• May even get us to control our outward behavior to some degree.
• May cause us to conceal our inner thoughts and motives.
And God's Law ...
• May pressure us to do good and avoid evil.
But neither great punishment nor God's Law:
1. Can change who we are inside – can change our identity.
2. Can give us the power that we need:
To always do right.
To never do wrong.
律法が（私たちの）肉により弱くなっていたためになしえなかった。
ローマ 8:3（聖書協会共同訳）
But don't we get credit for doing some good things?
律法全体を守ったとしても、一つの点でおちどがあるなら、すべての点について有罪となるからです。
ヤコブ 2:10（新共同訳）
例：
God’s Law is like a priceless vase: If you drop it once, you completely shatter it.
The Law is not like an exam with a passing score of 51%.
The Law is not like a scale that balances the good against the bad.
律法の実行＜罪の解決策 その１＞に頼る者はだれでも、呪われています。「律法の書（旧約聖書）に書かれているすべての事を絶えず守らない者は皆、呪われている」と（旧約聖書に）書いてあるからです。
ガラテヤ 3:10（新共同訳）
God's Law is also based on a relationship:
「私は主、あなたがたの神である。…わたしの法を行ない、わたしの掟を守り、それに従って歩みなさい。私は主、あなたがたの神である。」
レビ記 18:2, 4（聖書協会共同訳）
律法全体を守ったとしても、一つの点でおちどがあるなら、すべての点について有罪となるからです。・なぜなら、「姦淫してはならない。」と言われた方は、「殺してはならない。」とも言われたからです。
ヤコブ 2:10（新共同訳）
ヤコブ 2:11（新改訳）
What matters is who said it!
Our Creator said it.
Our Father said it.
So our sin completely breaks our relationship with our Creator who made us –
it betrays our relationship with our Father who loves us.
This is true, even when we sin against other people, as in the incident being confessed below.
Our moral responsibility is first and foremost to our Father in heaven who created us.
神よ、わたしを憐れんでください…。あなたに、ただあなたに私は罪を犯しました。あなたの前に悪事を行いました。（ですから）あなたの言われることは正しく、あなたの裁きに誤りはありません。
詩篇 51:1, 4（聖書協会共同訳）
（新改訳と新改訳2017は詩篇 51:1, 4)
Question:
Since this is all true . . .
Do you really want to be judged by God, himself?
Do you want to be judged on what you have personally done to God?
And, do you want to be judged on whether you kept his Law perfectly?
So what is the end result?
人間にはただ一度死ぬことと、その後に裁きを受けることが定まっている。
ヘブライ／ヘブル 9:27（新共同訳）
We only get one chance at life.
So, please, don't waste it.
The Bible has sobering prophecies about the judgment that will come at the end of the world:
多くの者が地の塵の中の眠り（死）から目覚める。…あるものは永久に続く恥と憎悪の的となる。
ダニエル 12:2（新共同訳）
死者たちが、大きな者も小さな者も、（神の）玉座の前に立っている…。幾つかの書物が開かれた…。死者たちは、これらの書物に書かれていることに基づき、彼らの行いに応じて裁かれた。
黙示録 20:12（新共同訳）
（イエスは言われた：）「世の終わりに…人の子（イエス・キリスト）は天使たちを遣わし、つまずきとなるものすべてと不法を行う者どもを自分の国から集めさせ、燃え盛る炉の中に投げ込ませるのである。彼らは、そこで泣きわめいて歯ぎしりする。」
マタイ 13: 40-42（新共同訳）
First, God told us to "master" sin – but we couldn't do it.
Then, God told us to obey his specific Law – but we couldn't do that either.
BUT WHAT ABOUT RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES & RITUALS?
Can't they restore our purity? Our relationship to God?
Mastering sin is our responsibility – but we can't do it and only deserve death.
Yet even here God is loving and merciful to us.
Creator God actually gave Israel a yearly purification ceremony.
This happened in about 1440 BC during the time of the great leader Moses, and of Aaron the high priest.
It was about 1,400 years before the Messiah came to earth.
This ceremony was an important part of Option #1.
Option #1 is the great effort people must make – to always do right and to always keep all of God's Laws.
But the people of Israel could not avoid sinning.
So God put a temporary solution for sin into his Law.
律法は、約束を与えられたあの子孫（メシア）が来られるときまで、違犯…（の*）ために付け加えられたもの…です。
ガラテヤ 3:19（新共同訳）
* 原語のギリシャ語による
This solution was a crucial part of Option #1 – it covered people when they sinned.
The Day of Atonement – God's temporary solution for sin.
主はモーセに告げられた。「…年に一度、イスラエルの人々のために、あらゆる罪の贖いをしなさい。」
レビ記 16:1, 34（聖書協会共同訳）
主はモーセに言われた。「アロンに告げよ。・勝手な時に垂れ幕の内側の聖所にはいって…はならない。、
The Lord said to Moses: "Tell…Aaron [the High Priest] not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain [in God's sanctuary] …, or else he will die, because I appear [there]."
Leviticus 16:2
Creator God is holy – so no one is worthy to come into his presence.
Even the High Priest could not come freely into God's presence.
This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering. …Aaron is to offer the bull [on the altar] for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household.
Leviticus 2:3, 6
Before going into Creator God's presence, even the High Priest's sins had to be paid for.
Something or someone must pay the penalty of death for sin.
From the Israelite community he is to take two males goats for a sin offering. …Aaron shall bring the [one] goat…and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the [other] goat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert… . He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites––all their sins––and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert... . The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place.
Leviticus 2:5, 9-10, 21-22
The first goat paid the penalty of death for all the people's sins.
The second goat carried all the people's sins far from them.
This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.
Leviticus 16:34
Why were animals sacrificed?
Because –
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
The soul who sins is the one who will die.
Ezekiel 18:20
So, our life is on the line when we sin.
Unless something dies in our place, we forfeit our life for all eternity.
So God said to the Israelites:
"The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."
Leviticus 17:11
The animal that was sacrificed died in their place.
The animal's life becomes payment for their life – by shedding its life-blood.
So –
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:22
Is this not shocking?
This ceremony is shocking because it makes very clear that:
• Sin is a life and death matter for us.
• In fact, the payment for sin is extremely costly – it demands the payment of a life. And it can only be eliminated in a very horrific manner.
• So, the problem of sin cannot be dealt with lightly and casually.
But even this ceremony had major weaknesses:
This is also true of other ceremonies, sacrifices and gifts to God found in God's Law.
In fact, these weaknesses apply to any religious ceremony meant for spiritual purification.
1. People still couldn't enter directly into God's presence.
Only the High Priest entered the inner room [the Most Holy Place], and that only once a year. …The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been [made known].
Hebrews 9:7-8
So people's relationship to God was not truly restored by this ceremony.
2. People didn't feel cleansed from their sins.
The gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings––external regulations.
Hebrews 9:9-10
Religious ceremonies cannot purify us from our sins or change our hearts.
They are only external.
3. The sacrifices themselves were inadequate.
The Law…can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship… , because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Hebrews 10:1, 4
Even the sacrifice of animals (though commanded in the Old Testament) cannot remove our sins and make us perfect.
How do we know it is impossible?
If it could [remove sins], would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
Hebrews 10:2
The Bible asks a brilliant question!
If something has to be done again, it is proof that it was not effective in the first place.
And if it has to be done repeatedly, it is proof that it will never be effective.
Something to think about:
If any religious ceremony, meant for our purification, has to be repeated, why do we rely on it?
4. The High Priest was supposed to represent us to God – yet he was inadequate!
Every High Priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Hebrews 5:1
This is because we are incapable of going into God's presence on our own.
Who can endure the day of his [the Lord"s] coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiners fire.
Malachi 3:2
So we need an intermediary – someone who can go between us and God.
• Yet even the High Priest, himself, lacks the status or ability to go directly into God's presence.
The Lord said to Moses: "Tell…Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain …, or else he will die, because I appear [there]."
Leviticus 16:2
• The High Priest, himself, is a sinner.
Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself.
Leviticus 2:6
• The High Priest can only go into God's presence because of the blood of another.
The High Priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood.
Hebrews 9:7
• The High Priest was powerless to bring us into God's presence.
The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been [made known].
Hebrews 9:8
• The High Priest cannot give us eternal life – because even he dies.
There have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office.
Hebrews 7:23
So, what do we need?
We need a High Priest who . . .
…lives forever… and has a permanent priesthood. …He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Hebrews 24-25
So, any priest who dies has no ability to purify us from our sins and give us eternal life.
Question:
Are you depending on a priest who will die?
Are you depending on someone who will die, or has died, for your . . .
• cleansing from sin?
• spiritual purity?
• eternal life?
So the Old Testament priesthood, itself, had to be changed.
If perfection could have been attained through the [Old Testament]…priesthood…, why was there still need for another priest to come––…not in the order of Aaron?
Hebrews 7:11
Those Old Testament priests were part of Option #1.
Option #1 cannot make us clean in God's sight.
So perfection was impossible through those priests and through those sacrifices.
The type of priesthood determines the type of law.
On the basis of it [the Old Testament priesthood] the Law was given to the people.
Hebrews 7:11
This Law was Option #1.
But this Law and this priesthood were ineffective.
The Law appoints as High Priest men who are weak.
Hebrews 7:28
So . . .
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the Law made nothing perfect).
Hebrews 7:18
So Option #1 was set aside.
And a new High Priest was necessary.
Such a High Priest meets our need––one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
Hebrews 7:26
But a new kind of priest means a new law – a new way to God.
When there is a change of the priesthood there must also be a change of the law.
Hebrews 7:12
So Option #1 must be changed:
• Its High Priest must be changed.
• Its sacrifices must be changed.
• Its Law must be changed.
What, then, is the benefit of the Day of Atonement?
It causes us to see ourselves as we really are.
Those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
Hebrews 10:3
The Day of Atonement, and all other purification ceremonies that must be repeated over and over, make one thing very clear:
We are sinners.
This should cause us to seek another solution for our sins.
So, it points us to a permanent solution.
A better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
Hebrews 7:19
What is this better hope?
The Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ [the Messiah] .
Galatians 3:24
The Day of Atonement is one of the greatest symbols of what the Messiah will do.
It points us to:
• a new High Priest.
• his new sacrifice.
• a new law.
And it points us to a new solution for sin – Option #2.
"This is the covenant [Option #2] I will make with them after that time," says the Lord. "I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
Hebrews 10:16-17
So the Day of Atonement was unsuccessful in removing our sins.
But the Messiah would come and do everything the Day of Atonement could not do.
10
Then the Lord answered… "Who is this that [speaks]…words without knowledge? Brace yourself…and I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me if you understand. …Surely you know, for you were already born!
Job 38:1-4, 21
Question:
Does God exist in our minds?
O God…even the highest…heaven cannot contain you.
1 Kings 8:26-27
So, isn't it the other way around?
In him we live and move and have our being. …We are his offspring.
Acts 17:28
Or, can we make our own god?
This is what the Lord says…who created the heavens…and made the earth … "To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, as though we were alike?"
Isaiah 45:18 (NIV) …
Isaiah 46:5 (New Revised Standard Version)
This is what the Lord says––"I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare…what is yet to come––yes, let him foretell what will come. …Is there any God besides me?
Isaiah 44:6-8
God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. But…[the nations'] idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
Psalm 115:3-8
Who is God?
Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?
Deuteronomy 32:6
If God is our Father, how can he be less than what we are?
Our human nature tells us something very important about God's nature.
[Since we are] God’s offspring, we ought not to think that …[God] is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
Acts 17:29
Can our imagination make God?
Can our hands make God?
Do you want to shame your Heavenly Father?
Can a child create his own father?
Did we create him –
or did he create us?
Creator God says . . .
I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
Isaiah 42:8
Do you want to think of him as an inferior object?
If you are a person –
can your Father be represented by a statue of wood, stone or bronze?
Do you want to disrespect your Creator?
Can a child invent his father out of his own imagination?
Do you think that the one who created us was invented in our minds?
Or, could Creator God be nothing more than an animating spirit within nature?
O Lord…there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below. …The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.
1 Kings 8:23, 27
What is the brilliant sun, a gorgeous tree, a thundering waterfall, or a majestic mountain?
These beautiful things are simply God's amazing art work!
How could they possibly contain Creator God?
Even heaven cannot contain him!
How could any of these things be our Father?
The Lord says: "…[They are] disgraced…They say to wood, 'You are my father,' and to stone, 'You gave me birth.' They have turned their backs to me and not their faces."
Jeremiah 2;5, 26-27
WHO IS MAN? WHAT ARE WE REALLY?
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7
Manga Vol. 1, page
God made us – as he made everything else.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: …plants and trees…according to their various kinds." And it was so. …And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:11
God said, "Let there be lights in the…sky to separate the day from the night." And it was so. God made two great lights––the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. …And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:14-16, 18
God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds." …And it was so. God made wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:24-25
So everything is divided into just 2 categories:
But when the Heavenly Father made humans, he gave us a magnificent identity.
God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over … all the earth.” …So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them.
Genesis 1:26-28
Manga Vol. 1, page
We are unlike all other created things!
Think how special we are in Creator God's eyes!
Think how much he cares about us to make us in his own image!
Of course, we are not God, for we were created by God.
Anything that is created is inferior in status to the one who created it.
But we are similar to God in important ways:
• We can communicate, create, and love in very sophisticated ways –
far above animals.
And we can relate personally to God:
• We can have a unique spiritual relationship with our Heavenly Father as his loved children –
which is something animals cannot do.
• We can live with God forever.
2-5
Creator God gave us great honor and important responsibilities:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15
Manga Vol. 1, page
God said, "…Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Genesis 1:26
We must wisely and conscientiously:
• work it
• take care of it
• rule over [it]
Creator God appointed us as his managers!
3
THE WORLD WAS PERFECT
God blessed [Adam & Eve].
Genesis 1:31
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Genesis 1:31
Sin and evil had not yet entered the world and drastically impacted it.
So, there was no:
Death.
Guilt.
Shame.
Fear.
Self-doubt.
Suffering.
Adam & Eve were perfect.
The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Genesis 2:25
They had nothing to be ashamed of.
They had nothing to hide from God or from one another.
4
And God was very generous with them.
The Lord God [said]… "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden."
Genesis 2:16
God is still generous with us today.
God…richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
1 Timothy 6:17
GOD GAVE MAN ONLY ONE RESTRICTION
God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
Genesis 2:16
Manga Vol. 1, page
Did they submit to their Father – to their Creator?
She [Eve] took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband [Adam], who was with her, and he ate it.
Genesis 3:6
Manga Vol. 1, page
This resulted in a great disaster for the whole world.
5
WHAT IS OUR INESCAPABLE PROBLEM?
It is Sin & Death.
Sin is the breaking of [God's] law.
I John 3:4
Holman Christian Standard Bible
That is what Adam did.
So Adam was guilty.
[Adam] sinned by breaking a command.
Romans 5:14
And Adam betrayed his Heavenly Father.
Adam didn't just break a rule.
The Lord God…said [to Adam], "…I commanded you not to eat…"
Genesis 3:11
Adam rejected the one who made him – and who gave him the rule.
So, we can say of Adam:
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
Deuteronomy 32:18
Then, Adam's sin drastically affected all people born after him.
Sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.
Romans 5:12
To put it simply:
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
Even today, this is the tragic situation for all people everywhere.
5-5
Sin and death are our greatest problems.
All around us, it is evident that sin in people is the source of evil in the world.
And death is the terrible enemy that defeats everyone of us.
The...enemy...death.
I Corinthians 15:26
But aren't sin and death just a natural part of our world?
We are so used to evil and death that we think they are just a natural part of life –
that they are unavoidable –
that they have always existed.
But, at the beginning God created the earth without these things.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Genesis 1:31
Then, as we have already read:
Sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin.
Romans 5:12
So, sin and death are not a natural part of our world.
They are the direct result of the first man's choice to disobey God.
But that is not all –
And in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.
Romans 5:12
So, sin and death are also the result of our choices.
6
HOW DID ADAM & EVE REACT TO THEIR SIN?
They felt shame.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Genesis 3:7
Their sin fundamentally degraded who they were.
Their disgrace was exposed.
They felt fear.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden…, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:8
Manga Vol. 1, page
Why did they hide from God?
[Adam said to God:] "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
They no longer felt safe with God – but, rather, they felt very vulnerable.
What happened to their relationship to God?
Sin destroys the Father-child relationship that we have with God.
Your iniquities [sins] have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you.
Isaiah 59:2
Are we any different from Adam & Eve?
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands.
Romans 3:10-11
There is...no one who seeks God. All have turned away.
Romans 3:11-12
7
BUT WHAT WAS GOD'S FIRST REACTION TO ADAM & EVE'S SIN?
They hid from the Lord God… But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Genesis 3:9
Manga Vol. 1, page
Think how significant this is!
What did Adam deserve?
"...when you eat of it you will surely die.”
Genesis 2:16
He deserved instant death.
But what did God do?
God, because of his great love for us, took the initiative to come and look for man and call him back to himself:
“Where are you?”
Then God was doubly gracious to Adam and Eve.
He covered their shame.
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Genesis 3:21
This, too, was very significant.
Instead of destroying them in their guilt and fear and shame as they deserved –
God the Father covered their shame –
he covered their incapacitating vulnerability.
When did God show them this double kindness?
When did he come looking for them and cover their shame?
God did this on about page 3 of the 1,000+ page Bible!
What does this tell us about God's intention throughout the whole rest of the Bible?
Father God's purpose is to call us back to himself –
to restore us as his children.
God is love.
1 John 4:8
Love covers over a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.
1 John 4:18
So we…rely on the love God has for us.
1 John 4:16
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
1 John 3:1
The Bible is the historical account of what Creator God had to do to bring us back to himself.
Did you notice what had to happen to cover Adam and Eve's shame?
God made garments of skin.
Genesis 3:21
An animal's life was sacrificed so that their shame could be covered.
(This sets a pattern throughout the whole Bible.)
For from the very beginning . . .
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
THEIR ONE SIN HAD OTHER SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES:
To Adam he [God] said, "Because you...ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' ...cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life… By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
Genesis 3:17, 19
Their blessing was turned into a curse.
The noble work for which they were created was frustrated.
And they would shamefully end up in the dust of the ground.
The Lord God said, "The man has now [come to know]…good and evil. He must not be allowed to...take also from the Tree of Life, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:22-23
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Adam and Eve were shamefully banished from God's wonderful garden.
But worst of all –
they were separated from eternal life –
from the eternal life which only Creator God can give.
Just one sin separates mankind from God.
What was the immediate spiritual result for them – as well as for us?
You were [spiritually] dead in your…sins.
Ephesians 2:1
Adam and Eve died spiritually.
In time, what was the physical result?
Adam lived…and then he died.
Genesis 5:5
So it is with us.
Death came to all men, because all sinned.
Romans 5:12
Sin separates all mankind from God for all eternity.
Just one sin also damaged Adam and Eve's relationship with one another.
The Lord God called to the man, "…Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
Genesis 3:11
Then Adam turned on Eve.
The man said, "The woman you put here with me––she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
Genesis 3:12
Adam blamed Eve for his own sin.
What, then, can God do to re-establish our relationship with him?
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GOD PRESENTS OPTION #1 FOR OVERCOMING SIN:
First, God gave very general, logical instructions:
Sometime after Adam and Eve were banished from the garden . . .
The Lord said to Cain [Adam & Eve’s son], “…If you do what is right will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
Genesis 4:6-7
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First, God told us to "do what is right."
He told us to "master" sin.
So, God's instructions were general and obvious:
It is your responsibility not to do bad things.
It is your responsibility to do good.
It is your responsibility to overcome sin.
This makes perfect sense!
This is what parents and teachers teach children:
Just do what is right.
If you want things to go well for you, do what you are supposed to do. Don't do what you shouldn't do. Do good things – not bad things.
But God also said something very fearful:
The Lord said to Cain, "…Sin…desires to have you."
Genesis 4:7
It is a fearful thing not to "master" sin, because . . .
Everyone who sins is a slave of sin.
John 8:34
And, even more fearful is the fact that . . .
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
1 John 3:8
You are doing the things your own father does. …You belong to your father, the devil.
John 8:41, 44
So, God told us to "master" sin so that we could:
• Keep from becoming a slave of sin
• Keep from becoming a child of the devil
• Receive eternal life.
DID CAIN AND THE GENERATIONS AFTER HIM "MASTER" SIN?
Did they always "do what is right?"
Unfortunately, Option #1 proved to be a failure.
Centuries after Cain, during the time of Noah . . .
The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become.
Genesis 6:5
How did the Heavenly Father feel about this?
The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
Genesis 6:6
Even though he knew from the beginning that people were unable to master sin,
the Heavenly Father was greatly disappointed at the outcome.
So, Cain failed to "master" sin, but what about his brother Abel?
Is there any other way to please the Heavenly Father besides Option #1?
THE MYSTERIOUS BEGINNING OF OPTION #2:
What did Abel do?
Abel kept flocks [of sheep or goats]. …As an offering to the Lord…Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering.
Genesis 4:2-4
Why did this sacrifice please God?
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
So . . .
Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins.
Abel knew that something must die in his place –
just as his parents' shame was covered by the death of an animal.
Abel did not try to cover his sins with his own good actions [Option #1].
Instead, Abel knew that he had to rely on God's love – on God's favor.
So Abel trusted God to be merciful to him.
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Hebrews 11;6
Abel knew that he couldn't please God by trying to do good things [Option #1].
Abel knew that the only way to please God was by believing in God [Option #2].
So Abel acted in keeping with his faith.
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice.
Hebrews 11:4
Abel offered to God the sacrifice that he knew God wanted –
that he knew was necessary to approach God.
What happened to Abel because of his faith?
By faith he was commended as a righteous [good] man, when God spoke well of his offerings.
Hebrews 11:4
God said that Abel was righteous –
God gave Abel the gift of righteousness.
This is Option #2:
• We believe in Creator God our Heavenly Father.
• So God gives us his righteousness (goodness).
FAITH –––> RIGHTEOUSNESS (GOODNESS)
Righteousness is a gift from God that we cannot earn –
We just trust God and receive it.
But Option #2 starts very quietly in the Bible.
[It is a] mystery…kept hidden for ages and generations.
Colossians 1:26
Option #2 was seen by the few who had faith in Creator God –
but most people could not see it.
Why couldn't they see it?
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.
Romans 11;18-22
What does this say about our personal perspectives, opinions, reasoning, preferences about spiritual things?
What does this say about our cultural viewpoint on spiritual matters?
If we don't start in the right place, can we end up in the right place?
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."
Psalm 14:1
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One [Creator God] is understanding.
Proverbs 9:10
The Lord looks down from heaven on…men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
Palm 14:2
The mystery behind Option #2 would not become completely clear for 1000s of years –
not until . . .
…the time had fully come.
Galatians 4:4
Then, how did Abel know how to approach God?
Thousands of years later Jesus called Abel a prophet:
“…the prophet…Abel…”
Luke 11:50-51
In the Bible a prophet:
• knows God's truth
• speaks God's truth to the people
• and often predicts what God will do in the future
How did Abel speak?
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice. …And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
Hebrews 11:4
Abel speaks to us on about page 4 of the Bible:
But he does not speak to us with words.
He only speaks to those who have a heart that can hear.
"By faith he still speaks" to us.
To everyone who came after him in the Bible, Abel's faith pointed out the only way to God.
And his faith speaks to us today.
It says to us:
You too must have faith.
You can only come to God by faith.
Did anyone after Abel have faith in Creator God?
The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
Genesis 6:5-6
But didn't anyone believe in the Heavenly Father?
Didn't anyone have faith in Creator God?
YES, NOAH ALSO BELIEVED CREATOR GOD.
Centuries after Abel, Noah also followed Option #2.
So, God decided to start over with Noah.
Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. …Noah was a righteous [good] man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
Genesis 6:8-9
So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people [with a great flood], for the earth is filled with violence. ...So make yourself an ark [a wooden ship]. ...You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.”
Genesis 6:13-14, 19
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The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family.”
Genesis 7:1
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They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind. ...Pairs of all creatures...came to Noah and entered the ark...as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. …And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights… For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth...and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. ...Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out.
Genesis 7:14-16, 12, 17, 19, 23
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Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
Genesis 7:23
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How many ways were there to be saved from the Great Flood?
Only one – only God's way.
And only Noah had the faith to follow God's way.
God's favor/grace to Noah came through the ark.
Noah showed his faith in God's grace/favor by building the ark.
Did human effort help anyone who was not on the ark?
No.
No matter how hard they tried, no one could save themselves from the Great Flood by their own efforts.
The ark was the only method that Creator God provided for people to be saved from death.
Surprisingly, many people today still try to use Option #1 as the way to be good enough for God.
Most people are still attempting to save themselves by trying to be good.
But it is unsuccessful, because. . .
You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors.
Psalm 5:4-6
What made Noah different from everyone else?
Only one thing:
Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that [1] he exists and [2] that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah…in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Hebrews 11:6-7
What resulted from Noah's faith:
• God gave Noah righteousness [goodness].
Noah was an heir of his Heavenly Father –
so he inherited righteousness from God.
No one can become righteous without a child-Father relationship with Creator God.
Righteousness is a gift – we inherit it from our Heavenly Father.
There is no other righteousness.
• Noah was obedient to God only as a result of his faith –
So he built the ark –
And he saved his family.
This shows that faith must come before action.
[God] call[s] people…to the obedience that comes from faith.
Romans 1:5
• Noah condemned the world for not having faith in Creator God.
The world rejected Option #2.
So the world was judged based on Option #1 –
They were judged solely on what they had done.
So Noah earned nothing by his own efforts –
but he simply received a great gift from God because of his faith:
Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Genesis 6:8 (New King James Version)
WHAT HAPPENED TO MAN'S SIN AFTER THE GREAT FLOOD?
Did the terrible punishment of the Flood change people's hearts?
[God said after the flood:] “Every inclination of his [man’s] heart is evil from childhood.”
Genesis 8:21
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Nothing had changed!
But, why not?
Because we are born in a most shameful condition.
I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Psalm 51:5
(Psalm 51:7 in Japanese, New Interconfessional Translation)
We, ourselves, are wrong even before we do anything good or bad.
Our problem starts with what we are.
Our problem isn't simply what we do.
Look how far we have fallen!
Men…have been made in God's likeness.
James 3:9
This is still true today!
But look what has become of me!
I was…sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Psalm 51:5 (same in Japanese: Shinkaiyaku - New Japanese Bible)
(Psalm 51:7 in Japanese: Shinkyodoyaku - New Interconfessional Translation)
Why are we born sinful?
Because we are . . .
. . . in Adam [the first man].
1 Corinthians 15:22
What does "in Adam" mean?
He represented us.
Let's think about it this way:
Why do we each have the eye color, skin color and hair color that we have?
It is because of our ancestors –
we inherited our physical characteristics from them.
We could say that:
We are in our ancestors –
they represented us when our physical features were determined.
Adam is our spiritual ancestor –
so we inherited our spiritual nature from him.
Sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin. …The many died by the trespass [sin] of the one man. …The result of the one man's sin…was condemnation for all men. …Through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners.
Romans 5:12, 15-19
From Adam we inherited a sinful nature – an old self.
Our old self…[makes us]…slaves to sin.
Romans 6:6
And from Adam we inherit a shameful condition.
We were by nature objects of [God's] wrath.
Ephesians 2:3
What a terrible position to be in.
Then we just continue down the wrong path.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
Isaiah 64:6
(Isaiah 64:5 in Japanese, New Interconfessional Translation)
So, even our attempts to do good are unacceptable and repulsive to God.
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away.
Romans 3:11-12
The threat of great punishment ...
• May frighten us.
• May even get us to control our outward behavior to some degree.
• May cause us to conceal our inner thoughts and motives –
and make us look good on the outside.
But the fear of great punishment:
1. Cannot change who we are inside – cannot change our identity.
2. Cannot give us the power that we need:
To always do right.
To never do wrong.
God knew that after the Flood nothing had changed:
The Lord…said in his heart: “…Every inclination of his [man’s] heart is evil from childhood.”
Genesis 8:21
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This is exactly what God had said before the Flood.
SO CREATOR GOD SET IN MOTION THE ONLY PLAN THAT COULD SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD.
This happened centuries later.
Option #1 was still in operation.
And Option #2 was still hidden in mystery.
But about 2000 B.C. Creator God set in motion a long process that could actually save the whole world.
God started by choosing one man Abraham – and one nation.
God promised Abraham great blessing and great honor.
[God said:] “I will make you [Abraham] into a great nation and I will bless you; …and you will be a blessing. …And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:2-3
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Think about this!
4,000 years ago, in blessing Abraham, God was also arranging for great blessing to come to you and your people.
What's more, this event happened on about page 10 of the 1,000+ page Bible.
Did you notice who Creator God was thinking about and including in his plan from the very beginning?
It was your people!
But Abraham, who was about 80 years old, had a big problem.
To make the problem worse –
his wife Sarah was about 70 years old.
Abra[ha]m said, "O Sovereign Lord, ...You have given me no children."
Genesis 15:2-3
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How could Abraham become the father of a great nation without any children?
Then Creator God made Abraham a promise.
Then the word of the Lord came to him: "...A son coming from your own body will be your heir." He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars. ...So shall your offspring be."
Genesis 15:4-5
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Then comes one of the most important statements in the Bible!
Abra[ha]m believed the Lord, and he [God] credited it to him as righteousness . . . and he was called God's friend.
Genesis 15:6 • James 2:23
This is Option #2 again!
• Abraham believed Creator God –
he believed God's promise.
• God gave him a gift – this gift was righteousness [goodness].
What then shall we say that Abraham…discovered in this matter? …God justifies the wicked.
Romans 4:1, 4
God, in his love for Abraham, made Abraham as though he had never sinned.
• So Abraham went from being an “object of [God's] wrath” to becoming “God's friend”!
Abraham's shameful status was replaced with a glorious status because he believed God.
No one in the Bible was ever accepted by Creator God by following Option #1.
Abraham did not earn God's favor by trying hard to be a good person or by trying hard to "master" sin.
He was only accepted by God because:
1. God showed Abraham love and kindness that he didn't deserve –
God showed him grace.
2. Abraham believed and trusted God –
he relied on God's grace and kindness.
How would God's blessing to Abraham come to all people?
Only through . . .
Jesus Christ… the son [descendant] of Abraham.
Matthew 1:1
2000 years after Abraham, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was born in the country of Israel (in about AD 1).
God would bless the whole world through Jesus Christ.
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[God said:] “I will make you [Abraham] into a great nation and I will bless you; …and you will be a blessing. …And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:2-3
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But the world would not be ready for the Messiah to come for 2000 more years.
HOW DID GOD PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH?
First, God turned the one man Abraham into a nation – Israel.
For salvation is from the Jews [from Israel].
John 4:22
Why would Creator God focus on one nation?
God had to have a concrete plan to save us –
it couldn't just be a theoretical, mystical or imaginary plan –
it had to be real.
• It had to happen in an actual physical place –
and creator God chose Israel.
• God's action to save us had to be an actual, historical event –
just as Adam's first sin that condemned us was an actual, historical event.
God's act of saving us had to be a real action –
as real as the events that happen in our world every day.
• And our sins had to be actually erased –
someone had to actually . . .
. . . take…away the sin of the world.
John 1:29
• The one who would take away our sins had to be a real person.
Since the children [of God] have flesh and blood [so are human], he [the Messiah] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death––that is, the devil––and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:14-15
Human beings are all guilty of not "mastering" sin –
so a human being had to pay the penalty.
• Creator God's character does not allow him to simply ignore sin.
"I, …God, am holy.
Leviticus 19:2
It would be unjust of holy God to simply ignore or brush aside all the sin and evil in the world.
He [God]…will judge the world with justice.
Acts 17:31
Think how unjust it would be for God to ignore all the evil in the world.
So God's magnificent plan progressed over 2000 years down to one point – his Messiah.
He chose to speak to the whole world through one man Abraham, through one country Israel and through one Messiah Jesus Christ.
Only in this way could God accomplish his purpose for the entire world:
All peoples on earth will be blessed through [Abraham].
Genesis 12:2-3
But, why did God take 2,000 years to prepare for his Messiah to come to earth?
Think about this:
If someone suddenly showed up and said to you . . .
"I am the Messiah. Believe in me. Obey me. Then you will live forever."
. . . would you believe that person?
Wouldn't you ask:
Who are you?
How do I know you are really the Messiah?
Why do I need to believe?
What will you do for me?
Can you actually do what you say you will do?
What if I don't believe in you?
It is the Old Testament that told everyone 100s and even 1000s of years ahead of time . . .
who the Messiah would be and what he would do.
So, when the Messiah came to earth, people could recognize him.
How did Creator God make Abraham into a nation?
The Lord made a covenant with Abra[ha]m and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi [dry river bed on the eastern border] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates [maybe at its northern end]."
Genesis 15:18
"All the land that you see I will give to your offspring forever."
Genesis 13:15
This is the land just east of the Mediterranean Sea.
But this plan would only come about over many centuries and with great difficulty.
Then the Lord said to him [Abraham], "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a[nother] country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions."
Genesis 15:13-14
"Your descendants will come back here [about 600 years from now]."
Genesis 15:16
The place where Abraham was standing would eventually become Israel's home.
Territory Promised to Abraham:
How did Abraham's descendants become enslaved in Egypt?
Jacob, Abraham's grandson, was living in Canaan (the current land of Israel).
His small clan lived in tents like his grandfather Abraham.
They still did not possess the land –
and wandered from place to place in Canaan.
Then something dramatically changed.
Seven years of famine began. …There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. …And all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain."
Genesis 41:54, 57
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God spoke to Israel [the new name that God gave Jacob] in a vision at night and said, "…Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again [to Canaan].
Genesis 45:25; 46:2-4
What was God's purpose in sending them to Egypt?
"I will make you into a great nation there."
Genesis 45:25; 46:2-4
Then Jacob left. …He took with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters––all his offspring.
Genesis 46:5, 7
The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all.
Exodus 1:5
Protected within the borders of the great country of Egypt, this small clan would grow during 400 years into a nation of over a million people.
After many years in Egypt what happened?
Now all that generation died, but the Israelites [Abraham's and Jacob's descendants] were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. Then a new king…came to power in Egypt. …He said to his people, "The Israelites have become much too numerous for us." …So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor.…and worked them ruthlessly.
Exodus 1:6-11, 13
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Did Creator God care about the Israelites?
During that long period…the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help…went up to God. God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac [the son God had promised Abraham] and with Jacob.
Exodus 2:23-24
So God chose a leader for the Israelites.
Now Moses…came to…the mountain of God [in the Sinai Peninsula]. …God said, "…I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. …I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. …I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them…into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. …So now, go. I am sending you to [King] Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
Exodus 3:1, 5-8, 10
But would Pharaoh let the Israelites go?
God said to Moses…"I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go."
Exodus 3:14, 19-20
Beside Pharoah, what other powers did Creator God need to defeat?
The Lord said to Moses… "I will pass through Egypt…and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord."
Exodus 12:12
Israel needed to be freed from the power of Satan who was behind these many gods.
We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. …[Is] a sacrifice offered to an idol…anything…? No, but the sacrifices…are offered to demons, not to God.
1 Corinthians 8:4 & 10:20
Demons were the actual power behind the gods of Egypt.
God sent 9 terrible plagues that ruined Egypt.
But –
Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go.
Exodus 9:35
What was God's great purpose in doing all this?
Of course he planned to free Israel from slavery.
In addition, God clearly stated the following purpose about 10 times:
"…that you may know that I am the Lord…"
God wanted the whole world – and us – to know something very important.
"The Lord said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, "…By now I could have…struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
Exodus 9:13, 15
"…So you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth."
Exodus 9:29
Who is this amazing God?
Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites…and they ask me, 'What is his name?'
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."
Exodus 3:13-14
What an amazing answer!
Creator God is the only self-existing person in the entire universe.
No one created him.
No one gives him life.
Creator God just "is".
Father [God] has life in himself.
John 5:26
God speaks for himself!
This is what the Lord says––Israel's King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare…what is yet to come––yes, let him foretell what will come. …Is there any God besides me? No, …I know not one."
Isaiah 44:6-8
"To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?"
Isaiah 46:5
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. …What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do."
Isaiah 46:9-11
So . . .
God said to Moses, "This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
What a privilege you also have today!
The God who "is", is right here, right now to show himself to you.
His words in the Bible are meant for you personally . . .
. . . "that you may know that I am the Lord."
How did Creator God finally free Israel from slavery?
Now the Lord had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely."
Exodus 11:1
The Lord said to Moses, "…Say to Pharaoh, '…Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"
Exodus 4:21-23
Do you see the great hope for you here?
Creator God first chose Israel for himself:
God…said to Moses, "…I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God."
Exodus 6:7
You may say:
"This is about Israel. I am not an Israelite. So what does the Bible have to do with me?"
But, think about this amazing fact:
If Creator God has a "firstborn son," he of course has more children!
And he loves those children like he loves Israel.
[About 1400 years later Jesus would say:] "I am the good shepherd. … I have other sheep that are not of this [Israelite] sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd."
John 10:14, 16
How is this great hope described at the end of the Bible?
I looked and there…was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne [of Creator God]… And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne."
Revelation 7:9-10
So you too are invited:
Come! Whoever…wishes, let him take the free gift of…life.
Revelation 22:17
But the penalty for not listening to Creator God is enormous.
The Lord said to Moses… "I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn––both man and animals––and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord."
Exodus 12:1, 12
Those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.
Deuteronomy 7:10
What about the Israelites: Were they automatically excused from God's judgment?
No.
The Lord said to Moses… "Each man is to take a lamb for his family. …Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses. …The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."
Exodus 12:1, 3, 6-7, 13
So this lamb is called the Passover Lamb.
Because of the lamb's blood, the Lord . . .
. . . passed over the houses of the Israelites.
Exodus 12:27
Were the Israelites saved by Option #1 – were they better than the Egyptians?
No. They were not better than the Egyptians.
They were only saved:
1. By the blood of the Passover Lamb that was sacrificed for them –
and by God's kindness in giving them this protection.
2. By their faith in God.
By faith he [Moses] kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
Hebrews 11:28
They were not saved because they were a good or special people.
[Moses said to the Israelites:] "The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to you forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt."
Deuteronomy 7:6-8
It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity…for you are a stiff-necked people.
Deuteronomy 9:5-6
The Israelites' freedom from slavery, from the Egyptian gods, and from Satan was a gift from God.
They did not earn it.
In fact, it was the opposite:
They did not deserve it.
So the Passover Lamb is one of the greatest pictures of Option #2 in the Old Testament.
Option #2 is a complete gift from Creator God.
• God gives us his mercy and grace –
in this case through the life blood of the Passover Lamb.
• We receive God's mercy by faith –
in this case people showed that they truly believed and trusted God by painting the blood around the doorway.
It is as simple as that!
In comparison to that, Option #1 is exhausting and hopeless.
What else does the Passover Lamb picture?
About 1400 years later a prophet . . .
. . . saw Jesus [Christ] coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
John 1:29
So the Passover Lamb points forward 1400 years to Jesus Christ.
Jesus is God's Passover Lamb for the whole world.
[Jesus Christ came] to give his life as a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45
In this way . . .
Jesus…will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21
But when Israel was in Egypt, this part of Creator God's plan for the whole world was still hidden in mystery.
So Creator God completely saved Israel from slavery.
At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt. …During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses…and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds…and go."
Exodus 12:29, 31-32
Did this great deliverance change people's hearts?
How about 3 days later?
Then Moses led Israel…into the desert. …For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. …So the people grumbled against Moses.
Exodus 15:22, 24
Despite the Israelites complaining, Creator God miraculously provided them with fresh water.
After a month and a half were the Israelites trusting God?
On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt…in the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and [his brother] Aaron…"If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
Exodus 16:1-3
So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "…You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord."
Exodus 16:6-8
Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day."
Exodus 16:4
Daily for 40 years, God miraculously provided over 1 million people with food in the desert.
How about in the third month?
In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt…they came to the Desert of Sinai…in front of the mountain [of God]. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. …The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up. …And God spoke all these words: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. …Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold."
Exodus 19:1, 18; 20:1-2, 23
Did the people worship Creator God alone?
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron [Moses' brother] and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that you…are wearing, and bring them to me." …He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf. …Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."
Exodus 32:1-4
Moses did come down from Mt. Sinai.
Moses told Israel:
"The Lord said to me, 'I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven.' …Then…I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights. …I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But…the Lord listened to me. And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but…I prayed for Aaron too."
Deuteronomy 9:13-14, 18-20
Moses added:
"You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you."
Deuteronomy 9:24
Being saved from slavery in Egypt did not change the people's hearts.
And it would be a long time before the Messiah would come and . . .
. . . take…away the sin of the world.
John 1:29
Then, how could rebellious Israel ever approach Creator God?
How could they ever come into God's presence?
GOD GAVE ISRAEL A VERY DETAILED RELIGIOUS SYSTEM –
A VERY DETAILED VERSION OF OPTION #1.
This system is called THE LAW.
What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added because of transgressions [sins] until the [Messiah]…had come.
Galatians 3:19
Until the Messiah would come 1400 years later, something needed to be done about all the sins of the people.
So the Law was a stop-gap measure.
What was wrong with the simple version of Option #1?
The simple version was:
Do what is right. …You must master [sin].
Genesis 4:7
Manga Vol. 1, page
But no one carried out this general responsibility that God gave to people.
Now, Creator God told Israel exactly what he wanted them to do.
What does this detailed version of Option #1 require?
Perfection!
The Lord said…"I am the Lord your God; …be holy, because I am holy."
Leviticus 11:1, 44
Be perfect…as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48
You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors.
Psalm 5:4-5
What is in THE LAW?
What did God tell the people to do in order to please him.
THE LAW contains 4 important parts.
1. Commands or Rules – also called the Law.
2. A place of worship.
3. A High Priest.
4. Sacrifices.
Why are we talking about these 4 things? What do they have to do with us?
Because, even today, many people depend on one or more of these things to:
• Gain God's approval and earn eternal life.
• Persuade God to give them what they want or need in this life.
• Gain power over Satan and evil spirits.
So, we need to find out the answer to 2 big questions:
1. Can these 4 parts of THE LAW, given by Creator God himself, actually give us what we desperately need?
Are these 4 things actually effective, or not?
Can they bring us into Creator God's presence?
2. And, what does Creator God's religious system tell us about all other religious systems in the world?
THE LAW was given by the God who made heaven and earth.
There is no one greater than Creator God.
There are no religious rules or religious systems better than his.
So, no other religious system in the entire world can surpass this one.
But, could another religious system be as effective as this one?
If Creator God's religious system is effective, maybe other religious systems can also be effective.
Let's find out.
Let's look at the 4 things that are in THE LAW.
1. Commands or Rules.
Some of us today are trying hard to follow God's rules –
we are trying to be good enough for God –
we are trying to be a good person that God will accept.
The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain…and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction.”…And he wrote on the tablets the words of the…Ten Commandments.
Exodus 24:12; 34:1, 28
Manga Vol. 1, page
Does God have only 10 rules?
No, it is said that there are about 600 other commands in God's Law!
God was very specific.
But the Ten Commandments summarize what God wants everyone to do.
These are the Ten Commandments:
But does God begin the Ten Commandments by listing the 10 rules?
Or does he begin with something completely different?
God spoke… "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
Exodus 20:1-2
God begins with his relationship to his people –
"I am…your God."
I am your Creator and Heavenly Father who loves you greatly – so . . .
"I…brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."
For the Father in Heaven, everything is based on relationship –
He is looking for far more than outward performance.
Later, Moses explains to Israel:
The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath [promise]…to your forefathers that he brought you out [of Egypt] with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 7:7-9
An Everyday Example:
Good parent-child relationships don't start with a list of rules.
Good parent-child relationships start with love –
with the love of parents for their children.
Then good parents teach their children –
and the relationship grows as the children are taught to respect their parents.
Healthy parent-child relationships are the result of parents providing a healthy balance of love and discipline.
So, based on his relationship to his people, Creator God goes on to tell them:
1. "You shall have no other gods besides me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol. …You shall not bow down to them or worship them…
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God…
4. Remember the Sabbath day [rest day] by keeping it holy [special for God]…
5. Honor your father and mother…
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not give false testimony…
10. You shall not covet…anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Exodus 20:1-17
In case we missed the main point of the Ten Commandments, God even summarized them!
[A man asked Jesus:] "Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Matthew 22:36
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul …and with all your strength… and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.
Matthew 22:37-38 • Luke 10:27
"And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Matthew 22:39
Jesus…[said], "Do this and you will live."
Luke 10:28
What is so important about this summary?
The Heavenly Father cares first and foremost about relationships –
Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?
Deuteronomy 32:6
God takes it very personally when we reject him –
when we reject what God says we are betraying our Heavenly Father who created us.
O God. …Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
Psalm 51:1, 4
(Japan Bible Society Interconfessional Version – Psalm 51:3, 6)
We have also betrayed his Son Jesus.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised . . .
. . . and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:3
And God cares about our relationship with people.
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:4
So the focus of God's Law is love –
Love for God
and love for people.
Love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7-8
What did Jesus say was the purpose of God's commands?
[The] commandment…was intended to bring life.
Romans 7:9
[Creator God said,] “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 18:5
Manga Vol. 1, page
So following the Law perfectly results in eternal life.
Obey and live forever!
Love God and love people – and live forever.
In fact, The Law was God's preferred method for enabling us to live forever:
If a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness [goodness] would certainly have come by [obeying] The Law.
Galatians 3:22
Is this not obvious?
If we can always obey God's Law – if we never disobey it – we will always be good in God's eyes.
We will never sin.
God will never be angry with us.
We will never become children of Satan.
We will never go to hell
– and we will live with God forever.
But, can anyone do this? Can the Law actually give life?
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
What is the result for us?
No one is declared righteous before him [God] by…[obeying] the Law.
Romans 3:20 (NET Bible)
Instead –
Through the Law we become conscious of sin.
Romans 3:20
And what is the final result?
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
Instead of helping us, the Law continually reminds us of how hopeless we are.
In fact, it is worse than that:
I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
Romans 7:10
When the commandment came, sin came to life and I died.
Romans 7:9
Does this mean that there is something wrong with God's Law?
Certainly not! ...The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Romans 7:7, 12
So . . .
It is not as though God's word had failed.
Romans 9:6
Then, whose fault is it?
God found fault with the people and said: "... they did not remain faithful to my covenant [Option #1]."
Hebrews 8:8-9
The commandments fail because of us.
We betrayed the Heavenly Father and spurned his love for us.
We rejected his commands.
We are the problem!
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. …I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do––this I keep on doing.
Romans 7:15, 18-19
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me?
So, the first of the four things intended to bring us into God's presence results in failure.
God's commands (or Law) cannot make us acceptable to God.
The Law was powerless to do [it] because it was weakened by…[our] flesh[ly evil desires].
Romans 8:3
Trying to follow God's detailed commands and rules cannot help us –
because we fail to follow them.
Our fleshly evil desires don't even want to follow God's Law.
But it is actually worse than that –
we cannot do it!
The mind…set on…flesh[ly evil desires] is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s Law; indeed, it cannot.
Romans 8:7 (English Standard Version)
How then can anyone come into holy God's presence?
THE LAW added 3 more things for that purpose.
2. The Tabernacle – a tent for worship.
The first covenant [Option #1] had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A Tabernacle was set up.
Hebrew 9:1-2
What was God's purpose in making this tabernacle?
The Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to…make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them."
Exodus 25:1-2, 8
God's purpose was to live with his people.
What an amazing purpose!
Throughout the whole Bible, from beginning to end, Creator God's desire is to be with his people.
God desires to be with you –
to have a personal relationship with you that lasts forever.
So he told the Israelites to build a tabernacle.
What was the Tabernacle?
The tabernacle was a beautiful tent –
it was a sanctuary or chapel where the Israelites could come to God.
But what does this have to do with us?
People everywhere in the world go to special buildings or places to try to meet God.
So the question is:
Can a special building or place bring us into Creator God's presence?
Let's find out.
What was in the Tabernacle?
Inside was the exact location where Creator God would come down to meet with his people.
The tabernacle was made of 2 rooms:
• the Holy Place
• the Most Holy Place
They were lined up end to end.
In its first room [in the Holy Place]…[was a] curtain.
Hebrews 9:2-3
What was hidden behind the curtain?
The curtain…separate[d] the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.
Exodus 26:33
Behind the…curtain was…the Most Holy Place.
Hebrews 9:3
The Most Holy Place was the most important place in all Israel –
it contained something extremely holy.
The Most Holy Place…had…the gold-covered Ark.
Hebrews 9:3-4
[The Lord said to Moses:] "There…I will meet with you."
Exodus 25:22
What was the Ark?
Ark = a chest or box
[On] the gold-covered Ark…[was an] atonement cover.
Hebrews 9:4-5
What does "atonement' mean?
Atonement =
to pay for sins –
to make up for being unholy or unclean or unworthy.
The atonement cover was the place where the sins of the people could be covered up.
Why was the atonement cover the most important place in all of Israel?
The Lord said to Moses, "Place the [atonement] cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the… [Ten Commandments] which I will give you."
Exodus 25:1, 21
What was under the atonement cover of the ark?
A copy of God's Law – the Ten Commandments.
What was above the cover?
[The Lord said to Moses:] "There, above the cover between the two cherubim… I will meet with you."
Exodus 25:22
This is why it was the most important place in Israel.
The holy Creator of the whole universe chose to come down and meet with Israel above the cover.
This is wonderful news!
Then, could all the people go into the Most Holy Place to meet with God?
Sadly, no.
The people still could not go in –
because the Law beneath the atonement cover could not make them good enough to meet God face-to-face.
No one will be declared righteous [pure and good] in his [God's] sight by observing the Law. …For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:20, 23
So . . .
The way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed [– it had not yet been made known].
Hebrews 9:8
God was in the Tabernacle, but people could not go in to meet him.
People had no way in.
In the same way, there is no holy place on earth that can allow us to meet Creator God face-to-face.
Then, how could people, who couldn't keep The Law that was below the atonement cover, meet with Creator God who was above the atonement cover?
They needed someone to go into the Most Holy Place in their place.
They needed a High Priest.
Even today, all over the world, people look for someone else to bring them close to God.
We instinctively know that we are unworthy or incapable of coming directly into God's presence.
We look for a guru, or holy person, or priest, or pastor –
we hope that they can bring us into God's presence.
In the Old Testament God provided such a person.
3. The High Priest – the only person who could stand between the people and God.
Only the high priest entered the inner room [the Most Holy Place].
Hebrews 9:7
What was special about the High Priest?
A plate of pure gold…[saying] HOLY TO THE LORD…will be on Aaron's [the High Priest's] forehead…continually.
Exodus 28:38
The High Priest had to be holy in God's eyes.
Priests…must be holy to their God… Because they present the offerings made to the Lord by fire…they are to be holy.
Leviticus 21:6
What makes him holy?
The Lord said… “I am the Lord, who makes him holy."
Leviticus 21:1, 15
Why else did the High Priest need to be holy?
Because he had to stand between sinful people and holy God –
he had to carry the people's guilt –
the guilt of the people fell upon him.
As the holy High Priest, Aaron had this enormous responsibility:
Aaron…will bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts [of] the Israelites…so that they will be acceptable to the Lord.
Exodus 28:28
Without a holy High Priest, the people's sacrifices would have been completely unacceptable to God.
Why should Creator God accept any gift or sacrifice from sinful people?
God only accepted sinful people's gifts and sacrifices because their High Priest was holy.
Since the High Priest was holy, could he go freely into the Most Holy Place?
The Lord said to Moses: "Tell…Aaron [the High Priest] not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover."
Leviticus 16:2
What?
He couldn't go into God's presence freely?
When could the High Priest enter the Most Holy Place?
The High Priest entered the inner room…only once a year.
Hebrews 9:7
Only one person in all Israel could go directly before God –
that was the High Priest.
But he could only go in once a year.
Question to think about:
Does this sound like a personal relationship with Creator God?
Is this the level of closeness that either God or we desire?
Was the High Priest able to go into God's presence once a year because the High Priest was good?
No.
It is true that in order to perform his duties . . .
The Lord said… “I…make…him holy."
Leviticus 21:1, 15
But the High Priest still had a great problem.
What did the High Priest need in order to enter the Most Holy Place?
The High Priest entered the inner room…never without blood, which he offered for himself.
Hebrews 9:7
He is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering.
Leviticus 16:11
He is to take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover.
Leviticus16:14
The High Priest, too, was a sinner – like we are.
Even he could not go freely into Creator God's presence based on his own goodness.
Even he needed something that could make up for his sins!
But this wasn't the only problem that the High Priest had.
There have been many of those [High] Priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office. …For the Law appoints as High Priests men who are weak.
Hebrews 7:23
Something to think about:
Are you depending on someone who will die, to enable you to live forever?
Can a person who is dead give you eternal life?
Is there a spiritual guru, or holy person, or priest, or pastor, or ancestor who has the power to give us eternal life?
Are they not all weak and defeated by death just like we are?
But THE LAW provided one more thing – maybe this can bring us into God's presence.
What did the High Priest, and all the people, need in order to cover their sins?
4. Animal sacrifices.
The blood of animals was used to cover people's sins.
[The High Priest] shall…slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain [into the Most Holy Place] and…sprinkle it on the atonement cover.
Why is this?
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:22
Why must blood be shed for our sins to be forgiven? Isn't this very strange?
No. It is very understandable!
1. The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
In fact, as soon as we sin, we die spiritually . . .
…dead in your transgressions and sins.
Ephesians 2:1
Death came to all men, because all sinned.
Romans 5:12
So we forfeit our lives.
But God loves his people.
So he created a way for people to buy their lives back from death –
to atone for their life.
And he created a way for our sins that cause our spiritual and physical death to be forgiven.
This can only happen if something gives its life for us –
if something dies in our place.
2. Life…is in the blood.
Leviticus 17:11
When something's blood is shed, it dies.
When something dies in our place our sins are forgiven –
and our life is atoned for.
[God said,] "Life…is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."
Leviticus 17:11
3. (So) without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:22
Either we die for our own sins –
or something must die in our place, and we can be forgiven.
But only certain animals were acceptable to Creator God.
1. The sacrifice had to be holy (or "clean").
You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean.
Leviticus 10:10
You must …make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds.
Leviticus 20:25
God said that only lambs (sheep), goats, cows, pigeons and doves could be offered to him –
only they could be a holy sacrifice.
2. The sacrifice had to be perfect.
When anyone brings…a[n] offering to the Lord…it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable. Do not offer to the Lord the blind, the injured or the maimed, or anything with warts or…sores.
Leviticus 22:21-22
The Lord said…"The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it [the blood of animals] to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."
Leviticus 17:11
In this universe made by Creator God, only blood can make atonement for one's life.
It must be a life for a life.
What about foreigners? Could they also offer sacrifices to Creator God?
Did God love them too?
God said to Israel:
Whenever an alien [foreigner]…living among you presents an offering made by fire…to the Lord, he must do exactly as you do. The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the Lord.
Numbers 15:14-15
Are you Jewish? Or, are you not a Jew?
This is another reminder that in 1400 B.C. the Heavenly Father cared about you both.
Even though Creator God focused primarily on Jews [Israelites] in the Old Testament,
Creator God's concern for non-Jews was permanent –
this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
Numbers 15:15
So, the love that God had for your people in 1400 B.C. continues to this day.
The love that the Heavenly Father had for his people Israel in the Old Testament
is a picture of the love the Heavenly Father has today for his people all around the world.
But were these animal sacrifices able to bring people into God's presence?
When Moses and the people finally finished building the tabernacle and the ark, what happened?
Do you remember God's purpose in making the tabernacle?
The Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to…make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them."
Exodus 25:1-2, 8
This is the Heavenly Father's desire throughout the entire Bible – to live with his people.
In fact, the very last pages of the Bible describe what eternity will be like on a new earth.
It says:
Now the dwelling of [Creator] God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. …They will see his face. …There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Revelation 21:3; 22:4; 21:4
What a wonderful future!
So Moses finished the work [on the tabernacle]. Then the cloud covered [it]…and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:33-34
For Israel, this was the climax of a whole year in the desert receiving God's Law and building God's Tabernacle.
Were people then able to meet with God face to face?
Moses could not enter the Tent…because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:35
Not even Moses was able to enter!
And, not even the High Priest could go into the Most Holy Place freely!
The Lord said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron [the High Priest] not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover."
Leviticus 16:2
If that is true, how could anyone come into Creator God's presence?
God's very next instructions sounds nothing like the wonderful scene at the end of the Bible that we just read:
Now…God…will live with them. …They will see his face.
Revelation 21:3; 22:4
It sounds sadly anticlimactic:
The Lord called to Moses…from the Tent…
Leviticus 1:1
Does this sound like a personal conversation?
God is on the inside.
And God calls to Moses – who is on the outside.
But God doesn't invite the people into the tent.
He said, "…When any of you brings an offering to the Lord…from the herd, …he must present it at the entrance to the Tent…so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. He is to lay his hand on the [animal's] head…and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him."
Leviticus 1:1-3
No one was pure enough to come directly before God.
They could come to the entrance of the Tent, but they could not go inside.
Each person needed to be atoned for.
Something fundamentally and shamefully wrong with them had to be paid for.
So each one needed to bring an animal sacrifice.
He is to slaughter the [animal]…before the Lord.
Leviticus 1:5
A bull, sheep, goat or pigeon had to die in the person's place before he could be accepted by God.
But that wasn't all he needed.
Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar at the entrance to the Tent. …Then…the priests shall…burn all of it on the altar.
Leviticus 1:5, 9
He needed a priest to offer his sacrifice.
Even if he had a sacrifice, he could not approach God on his own.
He needed a priest to intercede for him before God.
He needed a priest to make his sacrifice acceptable to Creator God.
So, with the help of a priest and the blood of a sheep could a person go into God's presence inside the Tent?
No!
The person could not go inside the Tent, past the curtain, and into the Most Holy Place to meet face-to-face with Creator God.
The person could only come near . . .
the altar at the entrance to the Tent.
Leviticus 1:5
Because . . .
The way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed [made clear].
Hebrews 9:8
If that is true, was Creator God pleased with these offerings?
Yes . . . but . . .
[The person] must present it [the burnt offering] at the entrance to the Tent…, so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.
Leviticus 1:3-4
It is a burnt offering, …an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
Leviticus 1:9
So, in a sense, God was pleased with these sacrifices.
These sacrifices allowed people limited access to God.
Yet it says . . .
"Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offers you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the Law required them to be made).
Hebrews 10:8
The aroma was pleasing to God.
And The Law required the sacrifices to be made.
Yet God was not pleased.
Why was God displeased with these animal sacrifices?
The gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. …Never [can]…the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship…because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.
Hebrews 9:9; 10:1, 4
The blood of animals had only limited power.
It couldn't free people from their sins.
It couldn't remove their sense of being a sinner.
How do we know that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin?
If it could, would they not have stopped being offered?
Hebrews 10:2
What an obvious question!
The fact that these sacrifices were offered year after year for 100s of years proved that the problem of sin was never solved.
Instead . . .
. . . those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
Hebrews 10:3
Instead of solving the problem of sin, these sacrifices kept reminding people how sinful they were.
The blood of goats and bulls…[only made worshipers] outwardly clean.
Hebrews 9:13
It didn't make the worshipers truly clean in God's eyes –
It only made the worshipers acceptable to God for the time being . . .
. . . external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
Hebrews 9:10
So, a permanent, totally effective solution was needed –
and Creator God already had one in mind.
So, THE LAW with its commandments, tabernacle, High Priest and sacrifices was inadequate –
as are all the world's spiritual commands, spiritual places, spiritual leaders, and spiritual sacrifices, gifts and ceremonies.
Jesus said… "What can a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Matthew 16:26
What can we offer Creator God?
Nothing!
This is what we learn from these sacrifices required by the Creator of the universe –
If what God specifically asked us to offer him was inadequate to bring us fully into his presence,
there is nothing in this world that we can offer to the Heavenly Father that can atone for:
Our shameful rejection of his love for us.
Our rebellion against his commands.
Why not?
For…[Jesus Christ] is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.
Matthew 16:27
This is the killer in Option #1 –
I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne [of God], and books were opened. …The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
Revelation 20:12
We get judged according to what we have actually done – and . . .
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
If we rely on Option #1 there is no law, holy place, holy person, or sacrifice or gift to God that can erase our shameful sinfulness –
We will be held accountable for every one of our actions.
But God keeps another book.
Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. …I saw a new heaven and a new earth… I saw the Holy City…coming down out of heaven from God. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. …Nothing impure will ever enter it [the Holy City], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's [Jesus Christ's] Book of Life.
Revelation 20:12; 21:1-2, 27
If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.
Revelation 20:15
How can our names be written in the Book of Life?
THE LAW was only God's preparation for this wonderful solution.
Why was that necessary? What was wrong with these sacrifices?
In the Old Testament God gave amazing pictures of what the Messiah would do?
And God gave an amazing picture of Option #2.
Passover Lamb
What should God do about sins until the Messiah came?
God gave a a temporary solution.
Then God made Option #1 very specific/detailed/precise.
Option #1 was still based on "mastering" sin and always doing what was right –
But now God told Israel precisely what he wanted them to do.
In about 1400 B.C. when Abraham's descendants had finally become a nation, God gave them very detailed rules for living:
Though the general version of Option #1 (to "master" sin) had failed, God had a special purpose for this detailed version of Option #1.
[Creator God said:] “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 18:5
Manga Vol. 1, page
God told people exactly what he wanted them to do.
(It is said that God gave as many as 600 commands in the Old Testament!)
The...commandment...was intended to bring life.
Romans 7:10
Keeping God's Law perfectly results in eternal life!
That was the original purpose of the Law.
The purpose of Option #1 was to gain eternal life:
Trying with all our power we must never do wrong and always do right.
We must obey everything God tells us to do.
We must be a perfect person.
So, we are judged for what we do:
In the Old Testament it says:
Ah, Sovereign Lord, ...your eyes are open to all the ways of men; you reward everyone according to his conduct and as his deeds deserve.
Jeremiah 32:17, 19
Finally, at the end of the Bible it says:
The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in [God's]...books.
Revelation 20:12
And we are even judged for our motives, thoughts and words!
[God says:] "I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
Jeremiah 17:10
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
I Samuel 16:7
By taking even our motives into consideration, God judges our actions very fairly.
[Jesus said:] "I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
Matthew 12:36-37
It is the Lord who judges me. ...He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts.
I Corinthians 4:4-5
The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 16:5
The cowardly...their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Revelation 21:8
So we get from God exactly what we deserve.
God is so just that he even takes our thoughts and motives and words into consideration.
But is it good news that God is so just and fair?
Do you really want to get what you deserve?
9
CAN WE REALLY OVERCOME SIN?
But, do they realize that God even judges motives, thoughts and words?
The Lord saw…that every inclination of the thoughts of his [man's] heart was only evil all the time.
Genesis 6:5
And, do they realize that God's heart is grieved?
The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
Genesis 6:6
Can we accuse God of being unfair in sending the Great Flood?
Actually, whose responsibility is it to "master sin?"
The Lord said… "Sin…desires to have you, but you must master it.”
Genesis 4:6-7
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So the problem of sin belongs to us.
Sin is not God's responsibility. He has no obligation to solve our sin problem.
We know the consequences of not "mastering sin:"
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:32
So, even today, people do not take sin seriously.
There is no one who understands. There is...no one who seeks God. All have turned away.
Romans 3:10-12
During the time of Noah, people did not take sin seriously either:
In those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.
Matthew 24:38-39 (New American Standard)
JESUS BELIEVED THE ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD – AND OF CREATION (MARRIAGE).
But didn't God care?
Of course, he did!
The Lord was grieved…, and his heart was filled with pain.
Genesis 6:6
How did God show that he cared for the people?
Noah [was] a preacher of righteousness.
2 Peter 2:5
So, through Noah, people had the opportunity to turn from their evil ways.
God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
1 Peter 3:20
(God waited a long time. The ark likely took 60 to 80 years to build.)
(Genesis 5:32; 6:18; 7:6)
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation.
2 Peter 3:15
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
Even more amazingly . . .
Christ…went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
1 Peter 3:18-20
This is a mysterious statement – but one important point is very clear:
God provided clear opportunities for everyone living before the Flood to turn from evil and seek him.
Because of his great love, God went far beyond anything he was obligated to do.
Even so, do you think that God is serious about getting rid of sin?
You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors.
Psalm 5:4-6
And God's Law ...
• May pressure us to do good and avoid evil.
But neither great punishment nor God's Law:
1. Can change who we are inside – can change our identity.
2. Can give us the power that we need:
To always do right.
To never do wrong.
The Law was powerless to do [it] in that it was weakened by [our]…Flesh.
Romans 8:4
But, don't we get credit for doing some good things?
Whoever keeps the whole Law [of God] and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
James 2:10
Illustration:
God’s Law is like a priceless vase: If you drop it once, you completely shatter it.
The Law is not like an exam with a passing score of 51%.
The Law is not like a scale that balances the good against the bad.
Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything [Option #1] written in the Book of the Law [the Old Testament].
Galatians 3:10
God's Law is based on a relationship:
"I am the Lord your God. ...Obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God."
Leviticus 18:2, 4
Whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder."
James 2:10-11
What matters is who said it!
Our Creator said it.
Our Father said it.
So our sin completely breaks our relationship with our Creator who made us –
it betrays our relationship with our Father who loves us.
Even when we sin against other people, our debt is first and foremost to our Father who created us.
Notice this prayer of confession for sins committed against other people:
Have mercy on me, O God. ...Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
Psalm 51:1, 4
Question:
Since this is all true, do you really want to be judged by God, himself?
Do you want to be judged on the basis of what you have done to him?
Do you want to be judged on whether you kept his Law perfectly?
So what is the end result?
Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.
Hebrews 9:27
We only get one chance at life.
Please, don't waste it.
The Bible has sobering prophecies about the judgment that will come at the end of the world:
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake...to shame and everlasting contempt.
Daniel 12:2
The dead, great and small, [were] standing before the throne [of God], and books were opened. ...The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
Revelation 20:12
[Jesus said:] "At the end of the age...the Son of Man [Jesus Christ] will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Matthew 13: 40-42
First, God told us to "master" sin – but we couldn't do it.
Then, God told us to obey his specific Law – but we couldn't do that either.
BUT WHAT ABOUT RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES & RITUALS?
Can't they restore our purity? Our relationship to God?
Mastering sin is our responsibility – but we can't do it and only deserve death.
Yet even here God is loving and merciful to us.
Creator God actually gave Israel a yearly purification ceremony.
This happened in about 1440 BC during the time of the great leader Moses, and of Aaron the high priest.
It was about 1,400 years before the Messiah came to earth.
This ceremony was an important part of Option #1.
Option #1 is the great effort people must make – to always do right and to always keep all of God's Laws.
But the people of Israel could not avoid sinning.
So God put a temporary solution for sin into his Law.
The Law…was added because of transgressions until the Seed [Messiah]...had come.
Galatians 3:19
This solution was a crucial part of Option #1 – it covered people when they sinned.
The Day of Atonement – God's temporary solution for sin.
The Lord spoke to Moses…: "Atonement (payment) is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites."
Leviticus 16:2
The Lord said to Moses: "Tell…Aaron [the High Priest] not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain [in God's sanctuary] …, or else he will die, because I appear [there]."
Leviticus 16:2
Creator God is holy – so no one is worthy to come into his presence.
Even the High Priest could not come freely into God's presence.
This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering. …Aaron is to offer the bull [on the altar] for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household.
Leviticus 2:3, 6
Before going into Creator God's presence, even the High Priest's sins had to be paid for.
Something or someone must pay the penalty of death for sin.
From the Israelite community he is to take two males goats for a sin offering. …Aaron shall bring the [one] goat…and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the [other] goat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert… . He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites––all their sins––and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert... . The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place.
Leviticus 2:5, 9-10, 21-22
The first goat paid the penalty of death for all the people's sins.
The second goat carried all the people's sins far from them.
This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.
Leviticus 16:34
Why were animals sacrificed?
Because –
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
The soul who sins is the one who will die.
Ezekiel 18:20
So, our life is on the line when we sin.
Unless something dies in our place, we forfeit our life for all eternity.
So God said to the Israelites:
"The life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."
Leviticus 17:11
The animal that was sacrificed died in their place.
The animal's life becomes payment for their life – by shedding its life-blood.
So –
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:22
Is this not shocking?
This ceremony is shocking because it makes very clear that:
• Sin is a life and death matter for us.
• In fact, the payment for sin is extremely costly – it demands the payment of a life. And it can only be eliminated in a very horrific manner.
• So, the problem of sin cannot be dealt with lightly and casually.
But even this ceremony had major weaknesses:
This is also true of other ceremonies, sacrifices and gifts to God found in God's Law.
In fact, these weaknesses apply to any religious ceremony meant for spiritual purification.
1. People still couldn't enter directly into God's presence.
Only the High Priest entered the inner room [the Most Holy Place], and that only once a year. …The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been [made known].
Hebrews 9:7-8
So people's relationship to God was not truly restored by this ceremony.
2. People didn't feel cleansed from their sins.
The gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings––external regulations.
Hebrews 9:9-10
Religious ceremonies cannot purify us from our sins or change our hearts.
They are only external.
3. The sacrifices themselves were inadequate.
The Law…can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship… , because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Hebrews 10:1, 4
Even the sacrifice of animals (though commanded in the Old Testament) cannot remove our sins and make us perfect.
How do we know it is impossible?
If it could [remove sins], would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
Hebrews 10:2
The Bible asks a brilliant question!
If something has to be done again, it is proof that it was not effective in the first place.
And if it has to be done repeatedly, it is proof that it will never be effective.
Something to think about:
If any religious ceremony, meant for our purification, has to be repeated, why do we rely on it?
4. The High Priest was supposed to represent us to God – yet he was inadequate!
Every High Priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Hebrews 5:1
This is because we are incapable of going into God's presence on our own.
Who can endure the day of his [the Lord"s] coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiners fire.
Malachi 3:2
So we need an intermediary – someone who can go between us and God.
• Yet even the High Priest, himself, lacks the status or ability to go directly into God's presence.
The Lord said to Moses: "Tell…Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain …, or else he will die, because I appear [there]."
Leviticus 16:2
• The High Priest, himself, is a sinner.
Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself.
Leviticus 2:6
• The High Priest can only go into God's presence because of the blood of another.
The High Priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood.
Hebrews 9:7
• The High Priest was powerless to bring us into God's presence.
The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been [made known].
Hebrews 9:8
• The High Priest cannot give us eternal life – because even he dies.
There have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office.
Hebrews 7:23
So, what do we need?
We need a High Priest who . . .
…lives forever… and has a permanent priesthood. …He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Hebrews 24-25
So, any priest who dies has no ability to purify us from our sins and give us eternal life.
Question:
Are you depending on a priest who will die?
Are you depending on someone who will die, or has died, for your . . .
• cleansing from sin?
• spiritual purity?
• eternal life?
So the Old Testament priesthood, itself, had to be changed.
If perfection could have been attained through the [Old Testament]…priesthood…, why was there still need for another priest to come––…not in the order of Aaron?
Hebrews 7:11
Those Old Testament priests were part of Option #1.
Option #1 cannot make us clean in God's sight.
So perfection was impossible through those priests and through those sacrifices.
The type of priesthood determines the type of law.
On the basis of it [the Old Testament priesthood] the Law was given to the people.
Hebrews 7:11
This Law was Option #1.
But this Law and this priesthood were ineffective.
The Law appoints as High Priest men who are weak.
Hebrews 7:28
So . . .
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the Law made nothing perfect).
Hebrews 7:18
So Option #1 was set aside.
And a new High Priest was necessary.
Such a High Priest meets our need––one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
Hebrews 7:26
But a new kind of priest means a new law – a new way to God.
When there is a change of the priesthood there must also be a change of the law.
Hebrews 7:12
So Option #1 must be changed:
• Its High Priest must be changed.
• Its sacrifices must be changed.
• Its Law must be changed.
What, then, is the benefit of the Day of Atonement?
It causes us to see ourselves as we really are.
Those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
Hebrews 10:3
The Day of Atonement, and all other purification ceremonies that must be repeated over and over, make one thing very clear:
We are sinners.
This should cause us to seek another solution for purification from our sins.
So, it points us to a permanent solution.
A better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
Hebrews 7:19
What is this better hope?
The Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ [the Messiah] .
Galatians 3:24
The Day of Atonement is one of the greatest symbols of what the Messiah will do.
It points us to:
• a new High Priest.
• his new sacrifice.
• a new law.
And it points us to a new solution for sin – Option #2.
"This is the covenant [Option #2] I will make with them after that time," says the Lord. "I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
Hebrews 10:16-17
So the Day of Atonement was unsuccessful in removing our sins.
But the Messiah would come and do everything that the Day of Atonement could not do.
SO OPTION #1 FAILED.
If there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant [Option #1], no place would have been sought for another [Option #2].
Hebrews 8:7
So the first covenant [Option #1] failed because:
• The Law failed.
• The sacrifices failed.
• The High Priests failed.
Whose fault is it?
God found fault with the people and said: "...They did not remain faithful to my covenant [Option #1]."
Hebrews 8:8-9
We failed.
Because of us, the Law (with its rules, sacrifices, and High Priests) failed.
For the Law:
• can tell us what to do.
• but cannot give power to do it.
• and cannot make us good.
The Law was powerless to do [it] in that it was weakened by our…Flesh.
Romans 8:3
And who have we offend?
Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you.
Deuteronomy 32:6
Your iniquities [sins] have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you.
Isaiah 59:2
And his [God's] heart was filled with pain.
Genesis 6:6
There is…no one who seeks God. All have turned away.
Romans 3:10-12
So we are separated from God our Father forever.
And what are we enslaved to?
Sin & Death & the Devil.
[Jesus said:] "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin…
…Now a slave has no permanent place in the family."
John 8:34-35
[Jesus said:] "He who does what is sinful is of the Devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning."
I John 3:8
[Jesus said:] "You belong to your father, the Devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire."
John 8:44
The Devil...has the power over death.
Hebrews 2:14 (Good News Translation)
All their lives [people] were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:15
So what is our situation?
[It is] without hope and without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:12
So we are eternally doomed.
BUT . . .
God is love.
I John 4:8
The wages of sin is death [Option #1], BUT the GIFT of God is eternal life [Option #2].
Romans 6:23
11
SO GOD PRESENTS OPTION #2 FOR OVERCOMING SIN:
While Option #1 was still in operation, God set in motion a long process that could save the whole world.
This plan is very specific.
So about 2000 BC, starting in one specific place on earth, God chose one man Abraham to become the father of one nation Israel.
The Lord...said to Abra[ha]m, “I will make you into a great nation, …and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:1-3
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How would God bless all people through Abraham?
Jesus Christ [was]… the son [descendant] of Abraham.
Matthew 1:1
About AD 1, God would send the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to this earth to be born in the country of Israel.
But Abraham, who was about 80 years old, had a big problem:
Abra[ha]m said, "O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless. ...You have given me no children." ...Then the word of the Lord came to him: "...A son coming from your own body will be your heir." He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars. ...So shall your offspring be."
Genesis 15:2-5
Then comes one of the most important statements in the Old Testament!
Abra[ha]m believed the Lord, and he [God] credited it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:6
Manga Vol. 1, page
This is Option #2:
Abraham believed God, and God gave him a gift.
This gift was righteousness.
This gift only came to him because he believed God – because he had faith in God.
He did not earn it by working hard to be good or trying hard to obey God's Law (Option #1).
So Abraham was saved by Option #2 – not by Option #1.
What then shall we say that Abraham…discovered in this matter? …When a man works [for an employer], his wages are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. However to the man who does not work [Option #1] but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness [Option #2].
Romans 4:1, 4-5
Instead of working to please God, Abraham had faith in God.
God credited Abraham's faith to him as righteousness.
And, the righteousness he received from God allowed him to receive eternal life.
And…Abraham…was called God's friend.
James 2:23
What is "faith"?
Faith = Believing / Trusting
What is "righteousness"?
Righteousness = Being clean, pure and good in God's eyes – as though we are without sin!
[The Bible] speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness [Option #2] apart from works [Option #1]: "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."
Romans 4:6-8
So, God forgiving all our sins is an important part of God making us righteous.
Is the gift of righteousness only for Abraham?
The words "it was credited to him [Abraham]" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness––for us who believe.
Romans 4:23-24
Illustration:
You may have no money in your checking account. But if the bank decides to credit $1 million to your account, then you have it. In the same way, we have no righteousness of our own. But if God credits it to us, we have it!
So we too are made righteous by Option #2, believing God –
and not by trying hard to earn our own righteousness [Option #1].
What especially do we believe?
Abraham, who was about 80, had to wait about 20 more years before God fulfilled his promise to give him and his wife Sarah a son.
So, like Abraham, we believe that God can raise the dead –
He believed [in]...the God who gives life to the dead. ...Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed. ...Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead––since he was about a hundred years old––and that [his wife] Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, ...being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised. ...The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness––for us who believe in him [God] who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Romans 4:17-21, 23-24
So Abraham is the father of everyone who has faith in God!
He is the father of all who believe. ...He is the father of us all. ...He is our father in the sight of God.
Romans 4:11(-12), 16-17
So, you too can be included!
But isn't Abraham just the father of the Jews?
No! Because Gentiles (non-Jews) are actually included in God's plan from the very beginning.
He [Abraham] is the father of all who believe. ...He is the father of us all. As it is written [in the Old Testament]: "I [God] have made you [Abraham] a father of many nations."
Romans 4:11, 16-17
God never thought of Abraham as the father of just one nation, Israel.
God always thought of him as the spiritual father of all nations.
So your country was already included in God's plan, through Abraham, 2,000 years before the Messiah came.
In fact, all God's children were actually chosen by God even long before that!
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...chose us in him [Christ] before the creation of the world.
Ephesians 1:3-4
Only those who have faith in God's promise are true children of Abraham:
Not all [Jews] who are [physically] descended from Israel are [true] Israel. Nor because they are his [Abraham's physical] descendants are they all Abraham's children. ...In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as...offspring.
Romans 9:6-8
In Creator God's eyes, there is something far more important than your physical ancestry.
Are you a Jew by birth?
There is something far more important than that in God's eyes.
Are you a non-Jew by birth?
There is something far more important than that in God's eyes.
No matter your ancestry...
Your faith in God's promise is what makes you a true child of Abraham – a true child of God!
This was God's plan for you from the beginning.
Remember, God chose his children before the creation of the world – before your country ever came into existence.
So don't miss God's plan because of your ancestry.
In God's eyes we are all one – if we have faith.
Because eternal life is a gift from God, God gives it to anyone who has faith:
[God's] promise [of eternal life] comes by [our] faith, so that it may be by [God's] grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring–– ...to those who are of the faith of Abraham.
Romans 4:16
[Abraham] is the father of all who believe but [are not Jews]..., in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is the father of the [Jews]...who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that...Abraham had.
Romans 4:11-12
[Now,] a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written [in the Old Testament]: "The righteous will live by faith."
Romans 1:17
And this gift of righteousness and eternal life comes to us only through the Messiah:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son [Jesus the Messiah], that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
Before believing in the Son of God ...
You were dead in your transgressions and sins. ...BUT because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. ...It is by [God's] grace you have been saved, through faith––and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God––not by [your] works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:1, 4-5, 8-9
So Option #2 was completely based on what the Messiah would come to earth to do.
This was clearly predicted long before Christ's birth!
About 1300 years after Abraham and about 700 years before Jesus Christ was born, God's prophet Isaiah gave this description of what Jesus Christ would suffer on the cross. Isaiah foretold this about the Messiah:
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all…have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him [the Messiah] the iniquity [sins] of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6
Do you know when God actually planned to send his Son?
Creator God actually planned Option #2 before the creation of the world!
You were redeemed...with the precious blood of Christ...[who] was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
I Peter 1:18-20
So God went to great effort over thousands of years of time to set up exactly the right circumstances to send his Son to us.
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son...to redeem those under the Law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
Galatians 4:4-5
Before Jesus Christ came, God's plan remained a mystery:
[Jesus said:] "I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men [in the Old Testament] longed to see what you see [today] but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
Matthew 13:17
But...
To you the word of God [comes] in its fullness––the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations.
Colossians 1:25-26
What is this mystery?
[Now] God has chosen to make known...the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:27
God's eternal plan (Option #2) is all based on one thing:
Christ in you.
He who has the Son has life.
I John 5:12
Today, in his great love, God the Heavenly Father offers you the opportunity to become part of his family forever.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
Hebrews 3:15
HOW AMAZING IS GOD'S LOVE ...
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen!
Romans 11:33-36
We can't save ourselves [Option #1], so God gave us a gift [Option #2]:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son [Jesus the Messiah], that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
Why did Jesus come to this world?
Jesus said... "[I] came to seek and to save what was lost."
Luke 19:9-10
When he [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:36
[Jesus said:] Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ...Learn from me, ...and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29
This is our only hope.
No matter how strong or self-sufficient you may think that you are...
• You will be defeated by death.
• You cannot overcome the sin and evil in your own heart.
There is no hope in Option #1 – which is the impossible task of trying hard to be good enough for God.
12
SO WHAT DID THE MESSIAH DO FOR US?
1. Christ took our death penalty on himself.
He [Christ] suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 2:9
Why did he have to die for us?
Because...
The wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
Therefore...
Without the shedding of blood [death] there is no forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:22
So there was no other way.
Someone has to die for our sins –
either we,
or Christ.
2. Christ took our sins on himself...
He [Christ] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree [cross].
I Peter 2:24
God made him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that ...
II Corinthians 5:21
3. ...We became God's righteousness!
... so that in him [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God.
II Corinthians 5:21
4. Jesus Christ frees us from our slavery to sin.
[Jesus said:] "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ...If the Son [of God, Jesus Christ] sets you free, you will be free indeed."
John 8:34, 36
We know that our Old Self [that we were born with] was crucified with him [Christ], so…that we should no longer be slaves to sin–because everyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:6-7
5. So God forgives and forgets our sins.
（神は言われる、）「わたしは、彼らの不義を赦し、もはや彼らの罪を思い出しはしない。」
ヘブライ 8:12
6. We become God's children.
（イエス）は、自分を受け入れた人、その名を信じる人々には神の子となる資格を与えた。
ヨハネ 1:12
7. We become a new creation.
What were we before we believed?
あなたがたは、以前は自分の過ちと罪のために（霊的に）死んでいたのです。この世を支配する者（悪魔）…に従い、過ちと罪を犯して歩んでいました。
エフェソ・エペソ 2:1-2
わたしたちも皆、…生まれながら神の怒りを受けるべき者でした。
エフェソ・エペソ 2:3
わたしたちは皆、汚れたものとなり、正しい業もすべて汚れた着物のようになった。
イザヤ 64:5 （新改訳はイザヤ64:6)
肉にある者は神を喜ばせることができません。
Romans 8:8（新改訳）
肉の支配下にある者は、神に喜ばれるはずがありません。
Romans 8:8（新共同訳）
What is the Flesh?
Flesh seems to be a general term or over-arching label in the Bible for the strong pull within us to do evil.
It is definitely not our physical body – because we serve God with our bodies.
あなたがたの…五体を義のための道具として神に献げなさい。
ローマ 6:13
Flesh seems to include:
• The sin nature we are all born with.
• Our Old Self.
The Flesh does the following things:
• Uses our minds and bodies for evil purposes.
• Desires to rebel against God.
• Is controlled by Sin.
• Thinks evil thoughts.
• Has bad attitudes.
• Does evil deeds.
Our Flesh controls us before we believe in Jesus Christ.
But after we believe, we can and must control the Flesh, with the help of God's Spirit.
So we are able to have victory over our Flesh in this life.
But, our struggle against the Flesh will be difficult and continue until we see Jesus face to face.
For Bible references and more details see: How Do I Defeat My "Flesh?"
When we believe we get a new identity:
しかし、あわれめ豊かな神は、私たちを愛してくださったその大きな愛のゆえに、罪過の中に死んでいたこの私たちをキリストとともに生かし…てくださいました。
Ephesians 2:4-6
私たちが、この方（キリスト）にあって、神の義となるためです。
II コリント 5:21
だから、キリストと結ばれる人はだれでも、新しく創造された者なのです。古いものは過ぎ去り、新しいものが生じた。
II コリント 5:17
God transforms us into a new person in Christ.
Then we make a conscious choice regarding our new identity.
その教えとは、…あなたがたの…古い人（古い自分）を脱ぎ捨てるべきこと、またあなたがたが…、…神にかたどり造り出された、新しい人（新しい自分）を身に着るべきことでした。
エペソ・エフェソ 4:22, 24（新改訳）
Illustration:
When someone is chosen by the coach to be on a football team or soccer team, their identity changes: they become a football player or soccer player. And they receive a new uniform that represents their new identity.
Then they must make a choice. Will they choose to identify themselves by their new identity, or will they hold onto their old identity? Before they do anything else they must embrace their new identity.
So they take off their old clothes and put on their new uniform.
Then they go out to play the sport.
Illustration: Your identity matters.
ARE YOU A FAKE TREE OR A REAL TREE?
Before we believe in Jesus Christ, we are like an artificial Christmas tree.
An artificial Christmas tree has no life in it – it is dead.
No matter how much you decorate it to try to make it look good, it has no life within.
The decorations do not change its true identity – it is a dead tree.
Before believing in Jesus Christ we are spiritually dead.
No matter how many good deeds we do to make ourselves look good, they are no better than decorations on a fake tree. These deeds do not please God – in fact, they cannot please him.
This is because...
人はうわべを見るが、主は心を見る。
I サムエル 16:7
Good deeds do not change our true nature: We remain spiritually dead because of our sins.
After we believe in Jesus Christ we are like a living tree.
We receive the Spirit of Christ; we become a New Creation. We have God's life within us.
A living tree produces real fruit. And Christ's life in us produces real spiritual fruit.
その人は流れのほとりに植えられた木。ときが巡り来れば実を結び、葉もしおれることがない。その人のすることはすべて、繁栄をもたらす。
詩篇 1:3
So our good works flow out of the life of God's Spirit that is within us. They aren't just decorations attached to the outside. Just as the life within a living tree produces real fruit, God's Spirit in our lives produces genuine good works that are pleasing to him.
（聖）霊の結ぶ実は愛であり、喜び、平和、寛容、親切、善意、誠実、柔和、節制です。
ガラテヤ 5:22-23
All God's children should produce this fruit.
私たちは神の作品であって、良い行ないをするためにキリスト・イエスにあって造られたのです。神は、私たちが良い行ないに歩むように、その良い行ないをもあらかじめ備えてくださったのです。
エペソ・エフェソ 2:10（新改訳）
御霊（みたま）の賜物（霊的な才能）にはいろいろの種類がありますが、御霊は同じ御霊です。奉仕にはいろいろの種類がありますが、主は同じ主です。働きにはいろいろの種類がありますが、神はすべての人の中ですべての働きをなさる同じ神です。
I コリント 12:4-6
So our lives have great purpose here on earth:
For God gives each of us different things to do for him – things he has already planned for us to do!
We should do these things motivated by love for God and love for others.
（神は言われる。）「わたし、主が心を探り、思いを調べ、それぞれその生き方により、行ないの結ぶ実によって報いる。」
エレミヤ 17:10（新改訳）
So my heart and motives matter:
わたしは…愛がなければ、無に等しい。…愛がなければ、わたしに何の益もない。
I Corinthians 13:1-3
In this life we may not see the full results or prosperity of much of what we do for God.
But God does not forget.
（イエスは言われた。）「わたしの弟子だという理由で、この小さな者の一人に、冷たい水一杯でも飲ませてくれる人は、必ずその報いを受ける。」
マタイ 10:42
Some of the results will only be seen in the next life.
8. The Spirit of Christ lives in us.
神の霊があなたがたの内に宿っている…。キリストの霊を持たない者は、キリストに属していません。
ローマ 8:9
(Holy Spirit = Spirit of God = Spirit of Christ = Spirit)
9. Christ defeats Satan – now and eternally
He who is in you is stronger than he who is in the world
Fear not, I have overcome the world.
Satan thrown into the Lake of Fire
10. We receive an eternal reward – never put to shame
11. We receive eternal life and a resurrected body.
イエスは言われた。「わたしは復活であり、命である。わたしを信じる者は、死んでも生きる。生きていてわたしを信じる者はだれも、決して死ぬことはない。このことを信じるか。」
ヨハネ 11:25-26
私たちの住まいである地上の幕屋（体）がこわれても（死んでも）、神の下さる建物があることを、私たちは知っています。それは、人の手によらない、天にある永遠の家です。…むしろ肉体を離れて、主のみもとにいるほうがよいと思っています。
II コリント 5:1, 8
[The Bible's final prophecy about the future says:] 新しい天と新しい地を見た。最初の天と最初の地は去って行（った）。…わたしは（神の）玉座から語りかける大きな声を聞いた。「見よ、…神が人と共に住み、人は神の民となる。神は自ら人と共にいて、その神となり、彼らの目の涙をことごとくぬぐい取ってくださる。もはや死もなく、もはや悲しみも嘆きも労苦もない。最初のものは過ぎ去ったからである。」すると、玉座に座っておられる方が、…「書き記せ。これらの言葉は信頼でき、また真実である」と言われた。
黙示録 21:1, 3-5
13
SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
– a 5-minute response –
Believe:
The jailer…asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved––you and your household.” …Then immediately he and all his family were baptized. …He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God––he and his whole family.
Acts 16:29-34
Acknowledge:
If you confess [acknowledge] with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess [acknowledge] and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trust in him will never be put to shame."
Romans 10:9-11
(NIV & Strong's Greek Dictionary)
Repent:
Repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his [Christ's] name to all the nations.
Luke 24:47
They must turn to God in repentance [for their sins] and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
Acts 20:21
Love:
“'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (and with all your strength).' And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law...hang[s] on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:37-40 / (Mark12:30)
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Galatians 5:6
Read the Bible:
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk [the Bible], so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.
I Peter 2:2
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Colossians 3:16
Pray:
This…is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven ...”
Matthew 6:9
Prayer is talking to your Father who loves you!
Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the saints [God's children].
Ephesians 6:18
Don't worry • Be content • Be thankful:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
I Thessalonians 5:17-18
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
Hebrew 13:5
God's continual, loving presence with us is the foundation for all our attitudes!
Don't be afraid or timid • Be bold and full of faith:
works prepared for you to do
don't be afraid to testify about and suffer for Christ
Obey:
[Jesus said:] "If you love me, you will obey what I command."
John 14:15
Our motivation is:
love for God and others –
not trying with all our might to follow the letter of the Law.
The power comes from:
our cooperation with the Holy Spirit who is living and working in us.
We...call people...to the obedience that comes from faith.
Romans 1:5
This obedience is based on our faith in Christ, not on trying hard on our own to follow a list of rules.
Righteousness from God...is by faith from first to last, just as it is written [in the Old Testament]: "The righteous will live by faith."
Romans 1:17
We started out by faith in Christ – and we became a child of God.
Then, by faith in Christ we are to live each day in obedience to him.
And, by faith in Christ we will live for all eternity.
But "the obedience that comes from faith" isn't automatic:
God works,
And we work.
You...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Philippians 2:12-13
So learn to avoid the 2 extremes:
• Of trying to do it all in your own power;
• Of expecting God to do it all for you.
So, we please God by relying on his Holy Spirit...
...because we are not Sin's slaves any longer:
We know that our Old Self [that we were born with] was crucified with him [Christ], so…that we should no longer be slaves to sin–because everyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:6-7
A very powerful truth:
1. Our Old Self was Sin's slave.
So, before we believed in Christ, we couldn't help but commit sins.
2. But our Old Self was crucified on the cross with Christ.
Illustration:
Obviously, when a slave dies, he is no longer under his master's control.
He's dead!
3. So now we are free to serve another master – God.
(Visual Illustration: Old Self crucified with Christ)
Before we believed in Jesus Christ...
• Our Old Self made it impossible for us to please or obey God.
• Sin, as a force or slave master within us, made it impossible.
• Our Flesh, with its evil desires, made it impossible.
But our Old Self was crucified with Christ, and now we have Christ's Spirit living in us.
So now we have the ability and power to please God!
[Now] the righteous requirements of the Law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the Flesh but according to...[God's] Spirit.
Romans 8:4
"Righteous requirements" are God's lofty standards. Now we can meet them!
They are different from slavishly trying to follow a long list of commands that are part of "the Law's written code."
So…we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the [Law's] written code.
Romans 7:6
An Important Key: Our Minds.
[Don't have your] minds set on what the Flesh desires; but...have...[your] minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of the Flesh is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8:5-6
Where we focus our minds is crucial:
To please God each day we must focus on...
• Things of the Spirit.
• Not, things of the Flesh.
Our minds guide our words and actions.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is––his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
Put Off & Put On:
With regard to your former way of life, ...put off your Old Self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.
Ephesians 4:22
Put on the New Self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:24
Go to church with God’s children:
Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.
Hebrews 10:24-25
In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ...Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Romans 12:5 / I Corinthians 12:27
There are different kinds of gifts (spiritually abilities)... There are different kinds of service... There are different kinds of working. ...All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. ...Now to each one the manifestation [expression] of the Spirit is given for the common good.
I Corinthians 12:4-6, 11, 7
The Holy Spirit wants to bless you through God's other children.
But he can't, if you don't go to church!
The Holy Spirit wants to bless God's other children through you.
But he can't, if you don't go to church!
Greet Priscilla and Aquila. ...Greet also the church that meets at their house.
Romans 16:3, 5
... his [Christ's] body, which is the church ...
Colossians 1:24
Christ's church or body is not a building.
Christ church is made up of God's children – those who believe in Jesus Christ.
So it can meet anywhere.
Together we:
• Worship God.
• Learn about God through the Bible.
• Encourage one another in our relationship with Christ.
• Pray to God together – and pray for each other.
• Tell about Jesus to people who don't know him.
• Do God's work and serve each other.
How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
Psalm 147:1
Be baptized:
Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Acts 2:38
Tell others about Jesus:
I am not ashamed of the gospel [of salvation], because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.
Romans 1:16
As Jesus was sitting…the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "...what will be the sign of your coming [back again] and of the end...? Jesus answered: "...This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
Matthew 24:3-4, 14
Don't give up during hard times:
Consider it pure joy...when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. ...For...God...predestined [us] to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. ...If God is for us, who can be against us? ...Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convince that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:28-29, 31, 35, 37-39
In the midst of trials:
• Rejoice – God loves you. Nothing can keep you from his love!
• See it through to the end:
God's intention from the very beginning is to make you like Jesus!
Don't give up part way and miss out on the spiritual benefit.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:11
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, ...who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, ...so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:2-3
You have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves..." ...God is treating you as sons.
Hebrews 12:5-7
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Hebrews 12:12-13
In the midst of trials:
God is working in you to make you grow spiritually.
It is also your responsibility to make the effort to grow spiritually.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
James 1:12
It will be worth it!
Be prepared to face persecution for Jesus’ sake:
[Jesus said:] “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of me. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven, ...for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Luke 6:22-23 & Matthew 5:12
[Jesus said about the end times:] "You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ...But he who stands firm to the end will be saved."
Matthew 24:9, 13
[Jesus said:] "Do not be afraid of those [people] who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One [God] who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ...Even the very hairs of your head are numbered [by your heavenly Father]. So don't be afraid."
Matthew 10:28, 30-31
Now if we are children [of God], then we are heirs––heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8:17-18
Focus on the key:
With Christ!
• Now.
• Through all eternity.
[Jesus said:] "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33
Rejoice!
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Psalm 146:1-2
OUR UNAVOIDABLE DECISION.
We are given only 2 options!
Whoever believes in [Jesus] the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.
John 3:36
What is God's heart toward you?
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise [to judge everyone], as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
II Peter 3:9
"As surely as I live," declares the Sovereign Lord, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live [eternally]. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die [eternally]?"
Ezekiel 33:11
But ...
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the [physical] death of his saints [those who believe in Jesus].
Psalms 116:15
God looks forward to being with his children forever!
Jesus says: First, consider the cost of following me.
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man [Jesus] will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
Mark 8:34-38
So God’s invitation to you on the last page of the Bible is: Come!
The Spirit…say[s], “Come!” …Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life [Option #2].
Revelation 22:17
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