The Word of Truth: Immortality

The Word of Truth

 

Immortality

 

 

 

          We have discovered over the past lessons that the Bible is the Word of God. It reveals to us the truth about God, about life, about sin and about the wonderful savior from sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the word of truth the Bible also teaches us about death and the hope for immortality. Only in the Scriptures do we find the truth about what death is and how it can be overcome.

 

          But sadly, one of the most misunderstood teachings of the Bible concerns death and immortality. So many people wrongly believe that everyone has an immortal soul, the invisible real person, encased in a body. People believe that at death the soul goes immediately to heaven for its everlasting reward. Or it goes to a fiery place called hell where it is tormented forever. Both of these beliefs are wrong according the Bible.

 

          The original, simple and clear teaching of Scripture is that there is no immortal soul. In fact 1 Timothy 6:16 reveals that God “alone has immortality.” And Romans 2:7 reveals that humans must “seek for glory, honor, and immortality.” So let’s explore the word of truth to understand who and what we are, what death is and how it is overcome. Genesis 2 gives us the account of man’s creation.

 

                    And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,

                    and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man

                    became a living being.

                    (Genesis 2:7)

 

          Here is God’s definition of what man is. We are made from the dust of the ground. We are composed of many of the elements found in the earth. Then, secondly, God breathed into Adam’s body the breath of life and man became a “living being” or a living soul.[1] It is this combination of body and breath life that makes us a living soul or being.

 

          The Hebrew words translated “living being” are nephesh chai. The word chai means living, alive and nephesh means a being, a living breathing creature.  Before Adam received the breath of life he was an inanimate soul or being or nephesh. After he received the breath of life he was a living being or soul. God does not place an immortal soul within us. We are not spirit beings trapped in a body as pagan religions teach.[2] Nor are we a spark from the bottom of the pond as evolution teaches. We are a creation of God and we are mortal. You should know that the words nephesh chai are used of animals as well as humans in the Bible.[3]

 

          There is nothing immortal about us as human beings and God made this very clear to Adam.

 

                    Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the

                    garden of Eden to tend and keep it. ¹⁶ And the LORD

                    God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of

                    the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the

                    knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the

                    day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

                    (Genesis 2:15-17)

 

          Immortality is not something we have in our nature; we do not have an immortal soul.[4] Immortality is conditional; it is granted as a gift from God.[5] Adam was warned that sin would lead to death. And after Adam sinned God revealed what would happen at death.

 

                    In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
                    Till you return to the ground,
                    For out of it you were taken;
                    For dust you are,
                    And to dust you shall return.

                    (Genesis 3:19)

 

          Notice carefully that God did not say when you die your body will return to the dust, but your immortal soul will live on. He said you are dust, every part of you, and to dust you shall return. At death one is no longer a living, conscious being. There are a number of places in Scripture that reveal this to us.

 

                    For in death there is no remembrance of You;
                    In the grave who will give You thanks?

                    (Psalm 6:5)

 

          In death there is no consciousness and therefore no remembrance of God or praise to God.[6]

 

                    Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain;
                    He is like the beasts that perish.
                    ¹³ This is the way of those who are foolish,
                    And of their posterity who approve their sayings.  Selah 
                    ¹⁴ Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
                    The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
                    And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from

                    their dwelling.

                    (Psalm 49:12-14)

 

At death we cease to exist; our beauty is consumed as we return to dust.

 

                    For what happens to the sons of men also happens to

                    animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies

                    the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no

                    advantage over animals, for all is vanity. ²⁰ All go to one

                    place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

                    (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20)

 

                    For the living know that they will die;
                    But the dead know nothing,
                    And they have no more reward,
                    For the memory of them is forgotten.
                    ⁶ Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have

                    now perished;
                    Nevermore will they have a share
                    In anything done under the sun.
                    ⁷ Go, eat your bread with joy,
                    And drink your wine with a merry heart;
                    For God has already accepted your works.
                    ⁸ Let your garments always be white,
                    And let your head lack no oil.

                    ⁹ Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days

                    of your vain life which He has given you under the sun,

                    all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life,

                    and in the labor which you perform under the sun.

                    ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might;

                    for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in

                    the grave where you are going.

                    (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10)

 

          It should have been perfectly clear from the Bible that death brings an end to our existence. So if the Bible, the word of truth, teaches that as living souls or living beings we are not immortal in any way, where did the idea of going to heaven or hell come from? The answer is not from the Bible but from pagan philosophies and religions[7] influenced by the first lie in Scripture spoken by Satan who said “You shall not surely die.”[8]

 

          There is no verse in the Bible anywhere that says you go to heaven when you die. There are Scriptures that say we go to hell, but that word is terribly misunderstood. Let’s examine a verse in Psalm 9.

 

                    The wicked shall be turned into hell,
                    And all the nations that forget God.

                    (Psalm 9:17)

 

          Here we have the word “hell” and we are told that the wicked will go there. And because of our pre-conceived ideas we think “hell” is a place of everlasting torment. But the Hebrew word translated “hell” is sheol. The Greek word in the New Testament is hades.[9] And both sheol and hades do not refer to a place of everlasting torment, but simply to the realm of the grave, to gravedome.[10] Let’s re-read a psalm we read earlier, Psalm 49.

 

                    This is the way of those who are foolish,
                    And of their posterity who approve their sayings.  Selah 
                    ¹⁴ Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
                    Death shall feed on them;
                    The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
                    And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from

                    their dwelling.

                    (Psalm 49:13, 14)

 

          Both times the word “grave” is used in verse 14 it is the Hebrew word sheol the same word translated “hell” in Psalm 9. The Bible translators used the word “hell” in Psalm 9 because it specifically spoke of the wicked and they want to reinforce the idea of torment. But sheol or hades simply describes the realm of the dead. All of the dead are in gravedome as the following verses declare.

 

                    Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might;

                    for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom

                    in the grave where you are going.

                    (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

 

                    What man can live and not see death?
                    Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave?  Selah

                    (Psalm 89:48)

 

          The word “grave” in the above verses is again the Hebrew word sheol. And there is no man or woman who can rescue themselves from death and the grave. But there is Someone who can. Let’s return to Psalm 49.

 

                    Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
                    Death shall feed on them;
                    The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
                    And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from

                    their dwelling.

                    ¹⁵ But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,
                    For He shall receive me.  Selah   

                    (Psalm 49:14, 15)

 

          In this psalm we are told that everyone who dies is in the grave, in sheol. But the believer in the one true God has hope to one day escape the grave. The wages of sin is death. And at death we return to dust. There is no immortal soul. But God will redeem His people from the power of the grave. They shall be resurrected to new life. But the foolish, the unbeliever who does not understand God’s will, will perish.

 

                    A man who is in honor, yet does not understand,
                    Is like the beasts that perish.

                    (Psalm 49:20)

 

          The unbeliever, the unrighteous, the wicked die and are held in the grip of sheol and they perish. Psalm 37:9 says, “For evildoers shall be cut off,” literally, destroyed. Verse 20 says,

 

                    …the wicked shall perish;
                    And the enemies of the LORD,
                    Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish.
                    Into smoke they shall vanish away.

 

The New Testament reveals that the unbelieving and the wicked,

 

                    shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the

                    presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power

                    (2 Thessalonians 1:9)[11]

 

The unbelieving and the wicked are not tormented forever; they are destroyed forever.

 

But now, someone might ask, “Didn’t Jesus Christ teach that we could be thrown into hell fire?” Yes, he did. Let’s read what he said in Mark 9.

 

                    But whoever causes one of these little ones who

                    believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him

                    if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were

                    thrown into the sea. ⁴³ If your hand causes you to sin,

                    cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed,

                    rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the

                    fire that shall never be quenched— ⁴⁴ where ‘Their

                    worm does not die And the fire is not quenched

                    (Mark 9:42-44)

 

          Jesus Christ declared that a terrible fate awaits unrepentant sinners—hell fire that is never quenched. The Greek word translated “hell” is not sheol or hades but gehenna. Gehenna referred to a literal geographic place called the Valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem. This was a garbage dump and the rubbish of the city, the carcasses of animals and the bodies of criminals were burned there. The fire of gehenna never went out, it burned day and night. But everything that was thrown into gehenna was destroyed, consumed and brought to ashes. So it will be for the unsaved on the day of their judgment. Here is what Jesus had to say about the coming judgment.

 

                    Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word

                    and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life,

                    and shall not come into judgment, but has passed

                    from death into life. ²⁵ Most assuredly, I say to you,

                    the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will

                    hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who

                    hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in Himself,

                    so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,

                    ²⁷ and has given Him authority to execute judgment

                    also, because He is the Son of Man.

                    ²⁸ Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which

                    all who are in the graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come

                    forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection

                    of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection

                    of condemnation.

                    (John 5:24-29)

 

          One day everyone who is in the grave, not in heaven or hell, but in sheol or hades will hear the voice of Jesus Christ and come to life. Those who have hope in God and Christ will receive the gift of everlasting life. Those who rejected God will face judgment and condemnation. Revelation 21 declares that everyone not found in the Book of Life will be judged, sentenced to the second death and destroyed in the lake of fire. Death and hades will be cast there too.[12] As there is a second and higher life, so there is also a second and deeper death. And as in that higher life there is no more death[13], so in that deeper death there is no life.

 

          Upon learning all of this what should our reaction be? Truth matters; not just as facts store in our minds, but as truths to affect our whole heart and outlook on life. Understanding the true nature of our mortality we should realize that life, this life, is our opportunity to serve God. King Hezekiah was deathly sick, but God had mercy upon him and healed him. Here is Hezekiah’s response.

 

                    Indeed it was for my own peace
                    That I had great bitterness;
                    But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit

                    of corruption,
                    For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
                    ¹⁸ For Sheol cannot thank You,
                    Death cannot praise You;
                    Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
                    ¹⁹ The living, the living man, he shall praise You,
                    As I do this day;
                    The father shall make known Your truth to the children.
                    ²⁰ “The LORD was ready to save me;
                    Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments
                    All the days of our life, in the house of the LORD.

                    (Isaiah 38:17-20)

 

          Today is the day to thank God for the forgiveness of your sins. Today is the day to praise God and to serve Him with all your heart. Today is the day to teach your children the truth. This is because,

 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only

begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should

not perish but have everlasting life.

(John 3:16)

 

          How urgent it is for us to share the love of God and the good news of Jesus Christ—today, to as many people as we can. While life remains for us, let us praise God for our salvation. And let us share the good news of Jesus Christ lest someone die, as Scripture says as “strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”[14]

 

 

 

 

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[1] The King James Version and some other translations use the word “soul.”

[2] The Erdman’s Bible Dictionary (Erdman’s Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1987. P. 518) has this to say about the pagan and biblical ideas about “soul”: “The question of human immortality inevitably involves a comparison of biblical and Greek views of the subject. The Greek view, expounded by Plato’s Phaedo, is based on an anthropological dualism of body and soul. The body is gross, corruptible, subject to illusion. The soul, on the other hand, is immortal…Biblical anthropology is not dualistic, but monistic: human beings consist in the integrated wholeness of body and soul, and the Bible never contemplates the disembodied existence of the soul in bliss…Biblical immortality” is achieved “in connection with the resurrection of the body.”

[3] According to God’s Word animals are living beings, nephesh, too as these verses from Genesis 1 reveals: v. 20 – “creatures” = nephesh, v. 21 – “sea creatures” = nephesh, v. 24 –“ living creatures” = nephesh, v. 30 – “life” = nephesh. The translators of our English Bible have done us a disservice by hiding the fact that animals are living souls or beings. The nephesh and it’s New Testament equivalent psyche can be used figuratively for our emotions or thought life but nowhere in Scripture is immortality associated with our being a living being or soul.

 

[4] The New Catholic Encyclopedia (p. 1124): “As is clear from Genesis 2:7, the primary meaning [of soul/nephesh] is possessing life…the word [soul] is never used for the spirit of the dead.”

[5] Even the Lord Jesus Christ did not have an immortal soul. Isaiah 53:12 prophetically states that when Jesus died for our sins “He poured out His soul [his being/life] unto death.” Jesus truly died. But he did not see corruption, because God raised him from the dead (Psalm 16:9-11; Acts 2:24-28).

[6] This is why death is often spoken of as sleep (Duet. 31:16; 1 Kings 2:10; Psalm 13:3; Daniel 12:2; 1 Corinthians 15:18, 20, 51; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).  Just as in deep sleep there is no consciousness of time, so there is none in death. One moment we close our eyes in death and figuratively in the next moment we awake to newness of life (Psalm 17:15).

[7] Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (Vol. 1, p. 545): “The strongest force working in favor of a general acceptance of the belief in natural immortality has been the dominant influence of Platonism in the early stages of the development of Christian doctrine.” N. H. Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament, (Epworth Press, London, 1955), pp. 187, 188. “. . . the reinterpretation of biblical theology in terms of Greek philosophers has been both widespread throughout the centuries and everywhere destructive to the essence of the Christian faith . . . Neither Catholic or Protestant theology is based on biblical theology. In each case we have the domination of Christian theology by Greek thought.”

[8] Genesis 3:4

[9] The modern English word Hell is derived from Old English hel, helle and ultimately from Proto-Germanic halja, meaning covered up or hidden.

[10] The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: “Nowhere in the Old Testament is the abode of the dead regarded as a place of punishment or torture. The concept of an infernal “hell” developed in Israel only during the Hellenistic [Greek philosophical] period.”

[11] See also Psalm 92:7; Proverbs 24:19, 20; Philippians 3:18, 19; 2 Peter 2:12

[12] Revelation 21:11-15

[13] Revelation 20:6

[14] Ephesians 2:12

The Word of Truth: The Sacrifice of Christ

The Word of Truth

 

The Sacrifice of Christ

 

 

 

          The Bible is the written Word and will of God. It is the Word of truth. And it reveals to us who God is, who we are and why life in our world is the way it is and how to change it. We’ve learned that when God created the first man and woman they were innocent and blameless. They enjoyed life in harmony with God and one another.

 

          Adam and Eve were to be fruitful and multiply and they and their descendants were to have dominion over the earth. But on a fateful day Adam deliberately rejected God’s authority over his life and sin and death entered the human experience. Sin is the cause of all our troubles, the source of all our sorrows and death is its ultimate penalty.

 

          In the Garden of Eden, Adam was given a choice to obey God and love Him or to disobey God’s will. Now, you might ask why Adam was given the freedom to choose what he would do. Why make sin and sorrow a possibility? The answer is that without freedom to choose how we live, we are merely puppets controlled by another’s will. And without freedom to choose there is no real love towards another. Love is not simply a feeling. It is the decision to bring honor, respect and good to another. Adam had to choose to love and honor God.

 

          But even though Adam sinned and passed that inherent sin nature on to all of us, God promised a Redeemer, the seed of the woman[1], who would restore all that Adam lost[2]. That Redeemer is Jesus Christ. He is the remedy for the disease of sin.[3] In contrast to Adam, Jesus loved God fully, freely and obediently; he was without sin. And Scripture tells us that he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.[4] In other words Jesus chose to live a holy life before God and then to offer his life as a sacrifice for sin so that we might be reconciled back to God.

          Jesus Christ made the decision to be our substitute paying the price for sin, which is death, because of his love for God and his love for you and me. In the Old Testament there are two great prophecies concerning Christ’s death for our sins. One is Psalm 22 and the other is Isaiah 53. Psalm 22 reveals the personal agony that Jesus endured as our substitute paying the penalty for death. Isaiah 53 enables us to understand what was accomplished by Christ’s death on the cross. Nowhere in the Old Testament is the sacrificial death of Christ revealed more clearly.

 

          Seven hundred years before Jesus Christ died on the cross God opened the eyes of a prophet to see into the very heart of Christ’s saving work. And at the heart of Christ’s death is substitution. The righteous one died in the place f sinners.[5] The loving shepherd gave his life for the lost sheep. Jesus died for you and for me. As we read the prophecy in Isaiah may God open our hearts to His love and grace.

 

                              Who has believed our report?
                    And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
                    ² For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
                    And as a root out of dry ground.
                    He has no form or comeliness;
                    And when we see Him,
                    There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

                    (Isaiah 53:1, 2)

 

1. Rebellious sinners

 

          There are five truths that Isaiah reveals to us and the first concerns rebellious sinners. The first two verses of this prophecy tell us that despite this and other prophecies concerning the redeemer only a few people would recognize him when he came. There was nothing in Jesus’ appearance that made him stand out in a crowd. He looked like any other person. There was no halo over his head. He ate a slept and was just as human as any of us. But now Isaiah goes deeper and says the Redeemer was not only unrecognized by many, but he was despised.

 

                              He is despised and rejected by men,
                    A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
                    And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
                    He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

                    (Isaiah 53:3)

          When Jesus ministered in Israel there weren’t many people who realized the value of his life and what he means to all humanity. There are still too few people who see his beauty and value today. This is what lies at the heart of rebellious sinners. On our own we do not think about God. We do not think about His grace to us in Jesus Christ. And so without God in our thoughts nothing in the world seems more natural than to do our own thing, to go our own way.

 

          Christ is despised and rejected and this means that God’s love and grace are rejected. On their own sinners cannot see the poverty of their condition. This is why a substitute is needed. On our own we can do nothing about sin.

 

2. The ransoming substitute

 

                              Surely He has borne our griefs
                    And carried our sorrows;
                    Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
                    Smitten by God, and afflicted.

                    (Isaiah 53:4)

 

          Isaiah is predicting that Jesus would bear the consequences of our sins. When Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross he carried all our heartache, all our sickness, and all our sorrows, because he carried all of our sin.[6] Yet, when people watched him suffer and die on the cross they thought he was being punished for his own sins. But in reality he endured God’s wrath against sin on our behalf.[7]

 

          This is the heart of the good news that God has for rebellious sinners if we are willing to lay down our rebellion. Instead of increasing our sorrows, Christ carried them. He bore and still carries what we find so difficult, our sorrows and grief. Isaiah then proclaimed the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.

 

 

3. The substitutionary sacrifice

 

                              But He was wounded for our transgressions,
                    He was bruised for our iniquities;
                    The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
                    And by His stripes we are healed.
                    ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
                    We have turned, every one, to his own way;
                    And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

                    (Isaiah 53:5, 6)

 

          As I mentioned earlier, Isaiah had his eyes opened to the sacrificial work and worth of Christ seven hundred years before it occurred. So verses 5 and 6 are not only a wondrous revelation of Christ’s saving death in the place of sinners, it is also a powerful validation of its truth. Jesus not only died for us so that we could be saved. He died for us in fulfillment of explicit prophecy so that we could know for certain that we are saved. When you read the story of your redemption seven hundred years before it happened, you not only have revelation but validation.

 

          Every one of us should suffer the sorrows of our sins and pay the penalty which is death; a death which is real and not a passing from this world to the next, but a death that leads to destruction and annihilation.[8] But through God’s mercy and love Jesus Christ bore the consequences for the sins that we deserved. God placed all of our sins upon His Son and treated him as if he had committed every sin committed by every person in the world.

 

          Jesus Christ who was sinless and undeserving of death gave his life to satisfy the demands of divine justice.[9] Jesus Christ is the ransoming substitute! Instead of avenging our transgressions, Christ is wounded for them. Instead of bruising or crushing us for our iniquities, Christ was crushed for them. All of the chastisement that we deserved Christ took on himself that we might be healed and have peace.[10]

 

          The LORD, Yahweh, laid on Christ all of our iniquity. In the New Testament 2 Corinthians 5:21 declares that God made Christ “who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The fourth truth revealed to Isaiah was that the ransoming, redeeming substitutionary sacrifice was according to the will of God.

 

4. The sacrifice of Christ was according to the will of God

 

                              Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
                     He has put Him to grief.

                    (Isaiah 53:10a)

 

          Do you feel the weight of this, the heaviness of this truth? Do you understand that it pleased God to punish His Son instead of you? Do you rejoice in the reality that God’s heart does not desire your suffering or your sorrow or your grief or your death? He desires your redemption from sin and its penalty. According to the good and loving and righteous will of God, Jesus Christ gave his life for us that we might be justified and delivered from this sinful and evil age.

 

5. Justified and delivered

 

                              He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
                    By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
                     For He shall bear their iniquities.

                    (Isaiah 53:11)

 

          Jesus Christ understood from his knowledge of Scripture that he would live again to see the benefit of his sacrifice. May people would be justified, they, we, would be cleared of all the guilt of sin. Isaiah understood all of this seven hundred years before it happened. How good God is to give His people hope! Let’s turn to the New Testament, to Galatians 1, and read about the affect of Christ’s sacrifice after it was accomplished.

 

                    Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our

                    Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave Himself for our sins, that He

                    might deliver us from this present evil age, according to

                    the will of our God and Father, ⁵ to whom be glory forever

                    and ever. Amen.

                    (Galatians 1:3-5)

 

          On account of Christ’s sacrifice for sins grace and peace are extended to us. Grace is God’s loving and merciful favor and good will towards us. It includes our having His wisdom, power, care and protection. And because of His grace we have peace. We have been delivered from this present evil age.

 

          What does it mean for us to be delivered from this present evil age? The present age is evil because sin has such a grip on people and on the institutions of society. 1 John 5:19 declares that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” In 2 Corinthians 4:4 the Bible says that the “god of this age has blinded” the minds of people to keep them from seeing the truth about Christ. But for those of us who trust Christ, liberation from this captivity and blindness has taken place. Colossians 1:13 boldly asserts that God has “delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”

 

          We no longer need to be enslaved to the fear, guilt, anger, pessimism, selfishness, greed and the false pride of this world. We can bear witness by our love, faith and hope in God that we belong to Jesus Christ and his coming kingdom. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says,

 

                    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

                    old things have passed away; behold, all things have

                    become new.

 

          So the message of redemption is this—you are free![11] Loose yourself from this world. Don’t feel, think or act like this world thinks.[12] Jesus Christ died and rose again to cleanse you of all your sins so that a holy God could come to you and give you grace and peace. And Jesus Christ ever lives to empower us to be free of a mindset that leads to destruction[13]. Have faith in Christ[14]. Rejoice in Christ[15]. Grow to be more like Christ[16] and set your hope in his return.[17]

 

 

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[1] Genesis 3:15

[2] God knew that Adam would fail and therefore even before the creation, God’s plan of salvation envisioned Jesus Christ and his redemptive work. Revelation 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This does not mean that Jesus’ sacrifice occurred before the foundation of the world, but that it was known to God before the foundation of the world. God was not surprised by Adam’s sin nor was He ever at a loss as to how to redeem humanity from the power and penalty of sin.

[3] Matthew 1:21

[4] Mark 10:45 – The word “ransom” refers to the price paid to free slaves or hostages. Christ’s life was sacrificed for others, in their place.

[5] 1 Peter 3:18 – “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit”.

[6] 2 Corinthians 5:21

[7] Romans 5:8, 9 – “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

[8] John 3:16; Philippians 3:19; 2 Thessalonians 1:9

[9] Romans 3:21-26

[10] 1 Peter 2:23-25

[11] Galatians 5;1

[12] Romans 12:1, 2

[13] Hebrews 7:24, 25

[14] Galatians 2:20

[15] Philippians 4:4

[16] Romans 13:11-14

[17] 1 Peter 1:13