Right Judgment Before a Dirty Heart Part Two : The Way of Man and God’s Solution

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Right Judgment Before a Dirty Heart Part Two : The Way of Man and God’s Solution

Key Points:

1.    The main problem of man is sin.

2.    To Sin means to disobey God.

3.    Because of sin, men were eternally separated from God and the ones perfect creations are now being perverted with shame, selfishness, hardships and poverty.

4.    Satan’s tactics is to instill doubt to the Word of God and the Love and Righteousness of God.

5.    The root cause of sin is ignorance to the Truth.

6.    God’s solution is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ – the Word who became flesh.

7.    God’s Gospel of Righteousness centers on Jesus crucifixion, burial and resurrection to which we place our hope and faith today.

The Way of Man

Being like gods of our own selves, man surely wouldn’t just sit back, relax and enjoy the moment while waiting for the judgment day and be forever doomed to eternal damnation. Men’s wittiness surely find ways to reach to heaven: from the building of tower of Babel (Genesis 11:4), burnt offerings, sacrifices, commandments (Exodus 20), and they even made calves of golds and stones. (Exodus 32:1-5)

History also made it a clear witness of so many religions being formed through time. From the formation of the Protestant Church as backed up by King Henry VIIIhimself, in order to divorce his wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon, and made way to his lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn, to the conversion of King Constantine to Catolicism, forming the Roman Catholic Church (Universal Church of the Romans) in order to increase territory.

We also witness nations worshipping nature, idols and other created things as a desperate act of searching and finding for miracles. The most grievous of these acts is the assumptions of man to be of God even what is it that is in their lives states otherwise. (Isaiah 4:1, Matthew 7:21, 2 Timothy 5-7).

All these things are just results of our ignorance with the truth.

Paul, in his expedition to Athens, declared to all the Athenians the truth about this UNKNOWN GOD whom they ignorantly worship.

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ Hill, and said, ‘Ye men of Athens, I perceived that in all things ye are too superstitious,

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.  Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

God that made the earth and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us;

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, graven by art and man’s device.

And the time of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent:

Because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:23-31)

Again, let us examined the underlined words and rightly dividing the truth.

1.       God is not really far from us if we only just diligently seek Him with all our hearts (Jeremiah 29:13). Its never been a mystery. We were just blinded. Why? Simply, for in him we live, and move, and have our being. Meaning, even we lost the dominion of this planet to Satan, God still is the King and the center of this world, for He already set up the stage for His plans, even longed before the beginning of times, and it is just awaiting for execution one-by-one. Meaning, for God, it is already finished (Isaiah 14:24,26-27).

2.       We are God’s offspring (John 1:12, Romans 8:13-16) because we were created after His own image and likeness. If we are offspring of God, how can we say that the Lord can be ever compared to animals, to nature and even to carved stones of gold? He is much more than that.

3.       For so many years, God is deliberately tolerating our ignorance because he is patiently waiting for His appointed time in which His Righteousness will be revealed to man.(1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Romans 6:4-11, Romans 9:22-23)

The truth number three leads us to the greatest plan of redemption wherein the Righteousness of God was revealed in the form of the Man Jesus Christ.

God’s Solution

As most of us never knew, God is not only a God of love but He is also a God of Righteousness. To be righteous simply means that the love that our God offers is not the kind of love that the world knows (which is ruled over by emotion), but the love that He offers us is a love that is equivalent to His justice – the love that entitles a moral responsibility to show us what went so wrong and how to correct that wrong (Proverbs 3:12, Revelations 3:19). This justice is also entangled with the word faithfulness that is why God always remain faithful to His words (Isaiah 11:1-5).

At this point, let us recap that the main problem of man is sin, and the root cause of that problem is our doubt to the Word of God and to His Righteous love for us. Because God is a God of order, on this junction, God’s solution is also associated with the root cause of the problem.

John the Beloved wrote in John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The very Word of God, who is also with God, and is God is what created all things. In this Word is the very life of God (the Holy Spirit) and this same life is what gives light to people (Exodus 13:21, 40:38, Isaiah 4:5).

Men sinned as a result of not believing this Word concerning life. This sin leads to death and that is applicable to all mankind that was, is and ever will be existed. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12).

God’s solution is to revoke what the first Adam, in his ignorance, committed concerning the Word of Life. In John 1:14, it states The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Verse seventeen of the same chapter then reveals that this Word is no other than Jesus Christ.

14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come. 15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! 18Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all. 19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ. (Romans 5:14-21)

Now, why did I say that God’s solution is to revoke what the first Adam, in his ignorance, committed concerning the Word of Life?

Well, let’s take a look at this: as a result of one man’s sin, we are brought under judgment and is destined for condemnation. However, God did not want His children to suffer wrath that’s why He revoke it with His abundant provision of grace and gift of righteousness, reign in life through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the righteous act of God which resulted in justification and life for all, as we are now made at peace with God (Romans 5:1) : For God showed His great love for us, that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

In the Heart of the Gospel: Penal Substitutionary Atonement, Jonathan Leeman explains it this way ‘ Penal substitution shows us a God who is three in one.

Only by the Trinity could God absorb the wrath of God—what John Stott calls the self-substitution of God. It shows us the simplicity of God. Penal substitution affirms that God’s love cannot be separated from his justice and his justice cannot be separated from his love, his holiness from his goodness and his goodness from his holiness. It shows us the self-sufficiency of God. Christ can undertake to pay our penalty and count that transfer of guilt as just because the moral law of the universe is his law. It is not outside of him but is the expression of his own character.

Penal substitution shows us the love of God and the nature of that love. When he stands in our place, he makes a covenantal vow, like Adam declaring “Her bone is now my bone; her flesh is now my flesh.” Only Christ says, “Her sin is now my sin; my righteousness is now her righteousness.” His love is love for a bride—not a pristine one, but one who has played the whore.

God’s love is equivalent to His justice, and justice demands that whosoever did wrong must be punish – not because you want to get even but because morality insist that every sin and injustice must be punished.

Thus so, God, in His righteousness did not remove the verdict of death on our sins, but in His faithfulness provides us a way out (Isaiah 16:5), and the same way as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, (when Israel sinned against God in the wilderness) even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: (John 3:14; Numbers 21)

That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:15-16)

That is the cure! To believe. The Word of God that the first Adam despise and disobeyed because of unbelief, is the very same Word (only manifested in the flesh) that we must also believe today in order to be save.

John 1:12 states But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name.

This only proves that salvation only applies to those who received God and the first step to receive Him is to Believe in His Son first.

In fact, Jesus also challenged Martha in this area, when her brother Lazarus died, to believe Him when Jesus said unto her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet that he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this?’ (John 11:25-26)

This challenge is also the same challenge of God in us today. It never change. Do you believe?

So the centrality and the entire message of the Gospel is this: that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) to which we place our hope and faith up to this day, that even though our body is dead because of sin, our Spirit is alive with Him and one day we will also be resurrected with Him (Romans 6:4-5, Romans 8:20-21, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58).

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: (Romans 6:4-5)

20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:20-21)

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58)

King James Version (KJV)

This is what comprises the overall idea of faith - to hold on steadfastly to the hope of resurrection in Christ (Romans 6:4-5) and the promise that one day we have a glorious freedom from sin (Romans 8:21).

And the Bible is clear, that faith is the confidence of what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17). This same Word is the very Gospel that gives power unto salvation to those who believe. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." (Romans 1:16-17)

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

What then is the consequence of unbelief?

                                John 3:17-18 states For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

                Simply put, the consequence of unbelief is condemnation. When you say condemnation, it is an expression of very strong disapproval. Synonyms are accusation, denunciation, judgment, censure, disapproval, proscription, sentence, stricture, denouncement, blame, reprobation, damnation, reproof, doom, reproach, etc. To condemn a person simply means to punish or to sentence that person. John 3 states that whoever does not believe stands condemned already. Meaning to say, it is already happening to someone who does not believe God and His Son Jesus Christ. And the Bible is clear, for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and that death means eternal separation to the Creator. If the punishment  is already happening, it only explains a reality that even though a person is still breathing, without God in his or her life, it is as if he/she is already dead.

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We cannot hide anything from God. Soon, though nobody can tell exactly when, the Lord will come back to judge us, and so we need to turn away from all our sins and humble ourselves to God in repentance. If not, we will be thrown in eternal punishment in the fire of hell.

It wasn’t complex, really. All you have to do is ask for forgiveness for all the things, great and small sins that you did. Then don’t do them again. And then read the Bible to learn about the plan of God. Easy, your love for God will make everything easy. The apostle John was right when he wrote in 1 John 5: 1-5 that love for God means keeping his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

 That’s why he gave Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. He was the solution to all our problems. All we have to do is have faith that He is the only begotten son of God who died on the cross to save us from our sins, and ascended into heaven to be our King forever and ever. That genuine faith will lead us to repentance. Something that the Lord has been waiting for all of us to do, turn away from our old sinful life and go back to his presence (John 3: 3-21). He wants us to have life, good life here on earth, and eternal life in his Kingdom.

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****To Follow Part 3: "Jesus' Way and The Way of the Cross"