The ground work of salvation by faith through grace has been established by the Bible. Faith requires some sort of response. Most religions teach some sort of eternal life. If most people were asked the question, if they wanted to be an eternal or immortal beings, they would most likely answer in the affirmative. The real question then becomes, how is a person does a person attain that state of immortality? What must they do to be saved from the death? First we must establish the condition of man and define his need.
Jn 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Jesus implied that even though the Pharisees searched the scriptures, and believed they had found eternal life, they had missed the really important aspects of the scriptures. The Pharisees believed that through their study and understanding of the scriptures they had found salvation. They recognized the scriptures concerning the second coming of Christ, but failed to recognize or acknowledge the scriptures concerning His first coming. They were, therefore, looking for, and waiting for, their Messiah, the genealogical son of David, to overthrow the rule of the Roman Empire and set up His eternal physical Kingdom on earth. This led to the religious Jews rejecting Jesus.
Mt 23:23-24 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Their salvation was based on their ability to obey the law. Their obedience involved a legal system which kept them in right standing by finding ways around the law. They were looking for legal loop holes in the law, that allowed them to circumvent and thus keep the law. In other words finding technicalities, that would allow them freedom to live as they pleased, yet avoid prosecution. This is not unlike our criminal and civil justice system today. Actually the American version of common law is based on the Jewish legal system. For the criminal, It is all about how they can avoid prosecution or through technicalities, and evade taking responsibility for their actions. The problem with this line of thinking is that it precludes God from salvation. It says that if a person would follow God’s rules by what ever means that are available, they can save themselves. The truth is no-one can save themselves. We can not exclude God from the plan of Salvation.
Jesus went on to explain in John 5:39, the scriptures really testified of Him. We know there are many prophecies in the Old Testament scriptures that testify about the coming Messiah. Jesus, however was making a deeper statement. He was really saying that all of the scriptures testified of Him, because He is the manifestation of the eternal God. In other words everything written in the scriptures referred to Him.
Is 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
I Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
Man cannot of his own volition save himself. Man needs a good attorney to stand before the King’s court and testify on his behalf to save him from the penalty of the law. Jesus is the only advocate, counselor, or attorney that can justify man. So how does it work? Well we first need to establish some things about man’s condition in the world.
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Ever since the fall of man in the Garden, man has been sinful. In other words by nature, the earthen vessel we dwell in is sinful or full of sinful desire. The Bible says all or everyone is in this sinful condition.
Ps 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Ever since the fall of man in the Garden, when Adam disobeyed God’s one commandment, we are all literally born into sin. No one is exempt from this condition. The idea that everyone is basically good is a false humanistic doctrine. The idea that there are no bad people in the world, is diametrically opposed to the word of God. Just because people believe that there is no such thing as a bad boy, does not make it so.
Is 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
All of man’s attempts at righteousness are as filthy rags. In other words everything man tries to do to make things right or to correct his condition is to God, refuse, trash or garbage. No matter how good we try to be, we can not save ourselves. It displeases God that we would even try. He not only wants us to depend on him, he requires it of us. As our Creator, he is sovereign, and thus has the right to make the rules for man. If he chooses to create us in a helpless state, so that we will be dependant on him, that is his privilege. God has given man great powers of reasoning and intelligence. We are, however, finite or limited beings. There are limits to what we can do. Our only hope of salvation is to put our faith and trust in Him.
Rm 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Paul says that we can never be justified by following the law of God. The law was given to us to define sin. The law was given to us so we would have the knowledge to be able to recognize sin. The recognition of sin, then brings us to the knowledge of the need to repent or change our ways. Through the law, if we are honest with ourselves, we should begin to recognize our limitations and helplessness, when it comes to obeying the law of God. Life itself teaches us there are consequences of not following the law and sinful behavior. We see the affects of disrespect for authority, murder, adultery, theft, covetousness, hatred, and lying in our world.
Rm 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wages we earn, or payment we receive for our sin is spiritual death. All sin can be defined as rebellion against God. In other words, it is done in direct disobedience to God’s law. No matter how hard we try, it is not in our nature to be sinless and our sin will lead to death. This is not necessarily speaking of physical death, though the penalty for some criminal behavior is punishable by physical death. Rather, it is speaking of spiritual death that comes from all sin no matter how small in our eyes. Had sin not entered into the world, man might not have suffered physical death.
Deu 6:4-9 Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
When we truly love God, we must obey his commandments. The first and greatest of which, is Deuteronomy 6:4-9. When we put God first, we will begin to obey Him. When we obey Him, we show our love for him, and desire to please Him. We want to find out what pleases Him most and strive to seek the necessary changes in our lives that will reverse the effects of sin.
Since men have chosen to disobey God, the world then became a place full of sin. This is illustrated in nature and the laws of science. A layperson’s definition of the second law of thermodynamics is, the world is in decay. In other words the order of the universe is evolving more and more toward disorder. We see this in society as it becomes more rebellious and chaotic. We see it in biblical history, when man was not affected genetically by the intermarriage that was common in Genesis, but now there are serious effects of such behavior in today’s world. We also see that antediluvian man lived to ages in excess of 900 years. After the flood, the length of man’s life span rapidly deteriorated. With the advent of modern medicine, man’s life span has somewhat improved, but not to the degree of the antediluvian man recorded in the Bible.
Gn 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The sin nature of man goes all of the way back to the garden. God gave Adam one dietary rule of law in the garden. He said Adam could eat of every tree but one. We know that in rebellion against God’s commandment, Adam violated the one rule of God’s law. When Adam violated the law, he did not immediately die physically, but rather spiritually. Why? Because he was cast out of the garden, away from the tree of life. He was also cast out of the spiritual presence of God.
Eph 2: And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Paul writing to the Ephesian church, a people who had already obeyed God’s plan of salvation, said they were, past tense, dead in trespasses and sin. In other words their past spiritual condition had been reversed. What they once were, they are no longer. So how was this spiritual condition reversed?
