FROM ME PASTOR AUGUSTINE SMART TO YOU. (THE MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL) This is a short presentation of the good news of how God has provided that men might know Him and experience eternal life. GODS DECLARATION TO MAN. “And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (I John 5:11). THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW. “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (I John 5:12). This passage teaches: (a) that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son, Jesus Christ, and (b) that the way to possess eternal life is to possess God’s Son. MAN’S SEPARATION FROM GOD According to Romans 5:8, God demonstrated His love for us through the death of His Son. Why did Christ have to die for us? Because Scripture declares all men to be sinful. We are all sinners. “To sin” means to miss the mark. The Bible declares, “we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory (the perfect holiness) of God.” In other words, our sin separates us from God who is perfect in holiness (righteousness and justice) and who must therefore judge sinful man (Romans 3:23; Habakuk 1:13; Isaiah 59:2). THE FUTILITY OF MAN’S WORKS Scripture also teaches us that no amount of human goodness or human works or human morality or religious activity can gain acceptance with God or get anyone into heaven. The moral man, the religious man, and the immoral and non-religious are all in the same boat—they all fall short of the glory of God (God’s perfect righteousness). After discussing the immoral man, the moral man, and the religious man in Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:8, the Apostle Paul declares “that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin,” that “there is none righteous, not even one,” and “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:9-10, 23). In Addition to this are the declarations of the following verses of Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. Titus 3:5-7: He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Romans 4:1-5: What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. No amount of human goodness is as good as God. God is perfect in righteousness. Because of this, He cannot have fellowship with anyone who does not have perfect righteousness. Your eyes are too pure to see evil, and you are not able to look at wrongdoing (Habbakuk 1:13a). In order to be accepted by God, we must be as good as God is. Before God, we all stand naked, helpless, and hopeless in ourselves. No amount of good living will get us to heaven or give us eternal life. THE SOLUTION FOR MAN’S PROBLEM. God is not only perfect in holiness (whose holy character we can never attain to on our own or by our works of righteousness) but He is also perfect in love and full of grace and mercy. Because of His love, grace and mercy He has not left us without hope and a solution. Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were 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 man (the God-man), lived a sinless life, died that we might be reconciled to God.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 12:59:13 +0000
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