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So, what is God’s solution to the sin problem? God is not only perfect holiness (whose holy character we can never attain to on our own or by our works of righteousness) but He is also perfect love and full of grace and mercy. Because of His love and grace, He has not left us without hope and a solution.
Rom 5:8 - “But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is the Good News of the Bible, the message of the gospel. It’s the message of the gift of God’s own Son who became the God-Man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sin, and was raised from the grave proving both the fact that He is God’s Son and the value of His death for us as our substitute.
Rom. 4:25 - “He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification.”
2 Cor. 5:21 - God made the one who knew no sin to BE sin for us, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God.”
1 Peter 3:18 - “Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but being made alive in the Spirit.”
HOW DO WE RECEIVE GOD’S SON? Because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross, the Bible states: “He that has the Son has life.” We can receive the Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior by personal faith, by trusting in the person of Christ and His death for our sins.
John 1:12 - “But to all who have received Him - those who believe in His name - He has given the right to become God’s children.”
John 3:16-18 – “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
THIS MEANS WE MUST EACH COME TO GOD THE SAME WAY: As a sinner who recognizes his sinfulness. Realizing no human works can result in salvation, and relies totally on Christ by faith alone for salvation.
Jew and gentile alike are under the condemnation of God and deserving of His wrath (Romans 1:18). (Rom. 8:1-2, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”) Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All of us deserve His wrath and punishment.
God in His infinite grace and mercy has provided a way that His wrath can be appeased and we can be reconciled to Him. That way is through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus Christ, as the payment for sins. It is through faith in Jesus Christ as God’s perfect sacrifice that we can be reconciled to God. It is only because of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day that a lost sinner deserving of hell can be reconciled to a holy God.
The awesome truth of the gospel is that Christians are saved from God’s wrath and reconciled to God not because “we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
If you haven’t done so already, now is the time. Jeremiah 33:3 makes it easy: “Call unto me and I WILL answer you...” Give it over to Him today and get connected.
Last Update: Mar 03, 2019 2:21 pm CST
