Lesson #6Reading : Isaiah 53
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What is wrong with the world?There is certainly something wrong with the world we live in. Every daywe hear grim news of crime and violence. All over the world there are warsand the threat of wars. Terrible diseases spread rapidly. Many die of hunger,while others have more than enough. Many kings and rulers are not concernedfor the happiness of those they rule over.
These things are happening all the time. We get so used to them, we takethem for granted. But if we stop to think about it, we are bound to ask"Why?"
Surely, when God first made the world - and made it such a perfect placefor men to live in - He intended something better than the world of troubleand uncertainty we live in today.
The beginning of the troubleIn the beginning, when God made the very first man, called Adam, He taughthim His ways. He also gave Adam a simple law, and, just as a father expects obedience from his children, so God expected obedience from Adam. God said:
"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the treeof the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in theday that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17).
Adam disobeyed God. The punishment for disobedience was death. Adam's sinful& dying nature is prone to desires leading to disobedience of God'scommands
In Romans 5:12 we read:
"...as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; andso death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
So Adam sinned, and because he was a sinner, he died. Notice that God didNOT promise Adam and Eve that they would go to heaven when they died. Thatwould have been a reward. They were sentenced to death - this was a punishment,not a reward.
It happens to us, tooWe also sin and die. When you read the chapter in Isaiah, did you noticethe words of verse 6?
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to hisown way. "
The prophet Jeremiah tells us the same thing, in different words, when hesays:
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked"(Jeremiah 17:9). This verse tells us much about humannature.
We read these things in the Bible, and we know from our own feelings thatthey are true, just as the apostle Paul did when he said:
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing"(Romans 7:18).
We all have to agree with Paul - somehow we never manage to be as good aswe want to be. And many people do not even want to be good.
What is the remedy?Before he sinned, Adam lived in harmony with God. Now that friendshipwas broken. Adam was a sinner, and could no longer have fellowship withhis Maker.
Adam probably did not know what a lot of trouble he was starting. Ever sincehe disobeyed God, for thousands of years, every one of his descendants (includingyou and me) has followed in his footsteps and sinned (except Jesus, of course).And because we are all sinful, we are all cut off from God.
In fact it is even worse than that. From our birth we are in Adam's familyand inherit the effects of Adam's sin. We are dying creatures from our beginning.And then we all make things worse by adding our own sins.
What a hopeless state! Men can do nothing to save themselves.
Saved by God's graceGod, in His love and His pity, did not leave men to die in their sins.He found a way in which they could come to Him and have life. We read inJohn 3:16:
"God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoeverbelieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".
The apostle Paul says:
"By grace are ye saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8).
God's grace is His love which He gives us freely, forgiving us for Christ'ssake. He has done His part. He has given us Jesus. He has opened up theway.
The way is 'through faith'. When the Bible talks of 'having faith' it simplymeans believing and trusting. If we do not believe God's Word, it simplyis not possible for us to share in His grace:
"Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh toGod must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligentlyseek him" (Hebrews 11:6).
Jesus and the crossJesus never sinned. He always did those things that pleased God. Andyet they crucified him! God did not save him from this terrible death. Theverse already quoted from Isaiah 53 goes on to say:
"The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
The Bible teaches us plainly that through the death of Jesus on thecross,in obedience to his Father's will, we may have our sins forgiven, and havea hope of life.
There is something very wonderful about this - the love of God in givingHis only Son, and the loving obedience of Jesus to his Father's will. Bybelieving in him, we may have life. We cannot think about this too often.We shall come back to it again and again in all our searching of the Bible,because it is at the heart of the Christian's hope.
To which family do you belong?One way to consider salvation is to think of families. Adam was the headof the family of Man and from him, and his wife Eve, all of us are descended.Adam sinned and brought death to the human race; so all mendie. The LordJesus Christ established a new family. He could only do this by breakingthe hold of sin. it needed a perfect sacrifice to overcome the curse thatAdam had brought on mankind. Jesus was that perfect sacrifice.
So there are two families - Adam's family and Christ's family. We are allborn in Adam's family and if we do nothing about it and die in Adam's familywe will perish for ever. We have to act! Christ wants us to join his familyand we can do so by learning about Jesus and the purpose of God and thenby being baptized. Baptism (as you will learn later) is a symbol of dyingand rising to life again. So we die to the family of Adam and rise againinto the family of Christ.
If you read Romans 5:12,18-21 you will see how the Apostle Paul uses thisidea of families.
We should be very grateful to God and the Lord Jesus for making it possiblefor us to escape from the family of Adam.
Believing in himWe have already seen that, if we are to please God, we must believe inwhat He has done for us through the death of Jesus. John 3:16 tells us:
"Whosoever believeth in him (Jesus) should not perish, but have everlasting life. "
This does not mean that we have only to say, "I believe in Jesus"and we shall be saved from sin and death. It may seem so at first, but stopand think about it. If we really believe anything, we act upon it. If ourchild is sick, and we believe the doctor can help him, we do not just say,"I believe in the doctor", and let the child go on suffering.Of course we do not. We send for the doctor, and, because we trust him,we do whatever he says.
Now it is just the same with believing in Jesus. If we really believe, weshall find out what he wants us to do, and do it to the best of our powersand abilities. And obeying God begins by being baptized by full immersionin water, as He commanded.
Only if we do this, can we hope to be among those who 'will not perish,but have everlasting life'.
The gift of everlasting lifeLife in His kingdom is God's gift to those who believe His Word and striveto obey Him. Such men and women pray every day, "Thy kingdom come".
When Jesus comes, he will set up the Kingdom of God. He will sit on David'sthrone in Jerusalem, reigning over the whole world. Then the men and womenwho have waited for him, trying to live as God wanted them to, will be giventhe greatest of all gifts - immortallife. They will never die.
They will live for ever and help the Lord Jesus in his task of ruling theworld. Then they will sing the words we read in Revelation:
"...thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out ofevery kindred and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us untoour God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Revelation5:9,10).
Summary1 . All the troubles in the world come from man's sinful nature, inheritedfrom Adam and Eve.
2. Because of sin we all die, and death is a punishment.
3. The gospel, the good news, is that God has provided a way for men andwomen to be saved from the effect of sin.
4. We cannot save ourselves, however hard we try. We are saved by God'sgrace =1Fsalvation is a gift.
5. The way of salvation is through the Lord Jesus Christ and was made possibleby the sacrifice of Jesus.
6. Our part is to believe - trust - have faith.
7. Those who show real faith will respond by being baptized and strivingto obey and follow the Lord Jesus.
8. God promises that those who believe and follow the Lord Jesus will liveforever in His Kingdom on the earth with Jesus as their King.
Chapters to read : Ephesians 2
Learn by heart : John 3:16
"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoeverbelieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.