| God's Solution to Our Sin Problem |
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Hopefully, you've read the two previous articles: "Our Great God" and "Our Sin Problem". If so, then you've seen how incredible God is and how worthy He is of our complete love and devotion. You've also seen how incredibly sinful we are and how worthy we are of God's just judgment. We shall now see God's incredible solution to our dreadful sin problem. We really have two major problems because of our sin. The first is that our sin makes us subject to the just wrath and judgment of God and the the second is that we are bound by our own sin for "whoever commits sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34 NKJV). We shall see that God has provided for both of these problems.
Part of a watercolor by James Tissot at Brooklyn Museum.
“Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” -1 Peter 3:18
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. (Isa 53:4-9 ESV)
Then just over two thousand years ago, "when the fullness of
time had come" (Gal
4:4), the virgin Mary become pregnant with Jesus
by the power of the Holy Spirit, and an angel told Joseph, her fiancée: "Joseph, son
of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is
conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from
their sins" (Matt 1:20-21 ESV). And thus the
long awaited Messiah, Savior, and Son of God came into the world. Then at approximately
thirty years of age, Jesus began His public ministry and when the prophet John the Baptist saw Jesus
coming towards him, he said:
"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
(John 1:29 ESV). So John recognized Jesus as the
one who had come to bear our sins. And just as lambs had to be
examined and found flawless before they could be used as a sacrifice, Jesus, the Lamb of God was tempted and tested in every way by the world and the
devil and was found to be flawless, perfectly sinless in word, thought, and deed
(Heb 4:15,
1 Peter 1:19). Jesus told His disciples beforehand that
He was going to die and rise again:
"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be
betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will
condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will
mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the
third day He will rise again" (Mark 10:33-34 NKJV). And
then, just hours before He was crucified, at the last supper with
His disciples, Jesus gave them wine, saying
"Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant,
which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt
26:27-28 ESV).
And so even though Jesus was put to death by evil
men, they were unwittingly doing just what God had planned all along (Acts
2:23-24). And
three days after He was crucified, Jesus was resurrected just
as He had said. He then spent forty days coming and going
among the disciples and was seen by multitudes before finally
ascending back to heaven (Acts 1:3-11,
1 Cor 15:3-6).
Just before ascending to heaven, Jesus told His disciples to wait in
Jerusalem until He sent the Holy Spirit in power upon them, and that
they should then begin to proclaim the message of repentance and
forgiveness throughout the world (Luke
24:45-49). This message is often called the "gospel"
which means "good news". But it's actually great
news because it tells us that even though we are sinners who
are separated from God by our sin, God has made a way through Jesus
Christ for us to have our sins forgiven and to have fellowship with
Him. Our sin need no longer keep us from God. But this
message also brings with it a command from God to repent and believe
in Jesus. When a man asked the apostle Paul and Silas how he
could be saved, they said "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). Later, the
apostle Paul told a crowd in Athens:
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. (Acts 17:30-31 ESV)
And Jesus Himself had said "unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3 ESV) and when some had asked Him what they should do in order that they might be doing the works of God, He told them "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (John 6:29 ESV). To believe in Jesus means to trust in Him or to have faith in Him. So we see that Jesus and His apostles preached both repentance and faith. True Biblical faith and repentance are inseparable. Some have said they are like the two sides of a coin. To repent means to change one's mind. As the term is used in the Bible though, it goes much deeper than that. It is really a change of heart. H.A. Ironside wrote that it is a change of heart regarding sin, self, and God. It is recognizing ourselves as sinners, agreeing with God about our sin and about His solution, and turning from our sin unto God. This turning unto God is faith. It is trusting what Jesus has done on the cross as our only means of acceptance with God and trusting in God's goodness and ability to save us from our sin and submitting ourselves to Him as our Lord and Savior. Just as it would be nonsense to say that we completely trust our doctor and yet refuse to take the medicine he prescribes, so it is nonsense to say that we trust in Jesus Christ and yet refuse to submit ourselves to Him. Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6 ESV). There is no way to be saved but through Jesus. Many are familiar with John 3:16, but read it here along with the verses that follow it:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. (John 3:16-21 ESV)
God's desire for us is that we would be saved by repenting and believing in His Son, Jesus. Anyone who truly trusts in Jesus will be saved. Those who do not trust in Him have already been condemned. To refuse to trust in Jesus is the ultimate sin in God's sight. God's Spirit urges us to trust in Jesus and Heb 10:29 says "Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?" (NKJV). When we repent and trust in Jesus then God's Holy Spirit comes to live within our hearts (Acts 2:38). And it is by His word and by His indwelling Spirit that God changes our hearts, setting us free from the power of sin, and performing the life-long process of making us like Jesus in character:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29 ESV)
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom. (2 Cor 3:17 ESV)
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires
of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,
and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are
opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to
do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the
law.... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
against such things there is no law. (Gal 5:16-17,22-23 ESV)
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“whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” -Romans 10:13
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who
has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your
labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and
eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline
your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I
will make with you an everlasting covenant ...
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on
him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isa
55:1-3,6-7 ESV)
Jesus said to them,
"I am the bread of life; whoever
comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never
thirst." John 6:35 ESV
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up
and cried out, "If anyone
thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart
will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the
Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet
the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:37-39 ESV
whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
John 6:37 ESV
So Jesus again said to them,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door
of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone
enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find
pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I
came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
John 10:7-12 ESV
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Matt 11:28-30 ESV
He is also able to save to the uttermost those
who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make
intercession for them. Heb 7:25 NKJV
Then Jesus told his disciples,
"If anyone would come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses
his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man
if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a
man give in return for his life? For the Son of Man is going to
come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will
repay each person according to what he has done." Matt
16:24-28 ESV
When Jesus heard it, He said to them,
"Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come
to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." Mark
2:17 ESV
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man
who trusts in Him! Ps 34:8 ESV
whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.
Rom 10:13 ESV
The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call
upon Him in truth. Ps 145:18 ESV
If you have never repented and trusted in Jesus, would you do so
today? Scripture warns us, saying "Today, if you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts" (Heb 4:7 ESV). Jesus
has died so that we might come unto God. Don't stay away.
Don't cling to your sin. It will destroy you. Come to
Him just as you are, acknowledging your sin and your sinfulness, and
looking to Him to save you. Don't let the fear of not being
able to live the Christian life keep you away. There's absolutely no way
you could live the Christian life if it were up to
you, but it isn't. If you truly come to Him and live in
dependence on Him then God will enable you to live the Christian
life (2
Cor 12:9). And when you fail, He won't let you go, but will correct
you as a loving Father (Heb
12:5-11). Let nothing keep you from Him today! If
you need to talk with someone about this important matter then check
out the contacts on the Help page.
Related Links:
Faith
and Repentance Inseparable by Charles Spurgeon
(an excellent sermon from 1862 that explains repentance and faith
by one of the world's best known preachers.
Or
click Here to listen to the same sermon on
SermonAudio.com)
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