Tag Archives: Religion

Part 5 – God’s Remedy

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In these blog posts, I’ve been musing about the purpose of life and how God fits into the picture. The Bible clearly describes our condition as one of rebellion and sin against God. He is our creator, and we have rebelled against Him. The punishment for that rebellion, or sin, is death – eternal separation from God forever.

But the Bible presents us with it calls the Gospel – the Good News. The good news is that Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, took on human flesh and came here to live among us. He did not do this merely to be a good example. What good is a good example if we don’t want to follow that example, or are incapable of following that example?

The gist of the Good News of the Christian message is this:

1) Jesus Christ came and took our punishment on Himself when He died on the cross.

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the [cross], that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. (Isaiah 53:5)

For [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

2) God offers salvation and forgiveness as a gift to everyone who repents and believes the Gospel.

Repent and believe in the gospel. (Mark 1:15)

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

3) God offers to give us His righteousness in exchange for our sin.

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:3, 23)

And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. (Philippians 3:9)

4) God offers eternal life to those who trust Him with their souls.

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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16, 17)

Part 4 – God is Not a Grandpa

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So far in my musings about the meaning and purpose of life, I have tried to show that there is a God who exists, and that he is greater than all that we can imagine, and he created and owns everything and doesn’t need our advice and counsel to figure out how to run the world. The second thing we looked at is the Bible’s teaching that God’s purpose for all he does is his glory. We were created by him in his image in order to reflect his glory and majesty, and when we get side-tracked from that we lose our focus and then find ourselves without meaning and purpose. Finally, I tried to explain the Bible’s point of view that all of us have sinned against God by not acknowledging him and by not being thankful for his provisions for us and finally disobeying his just commands.

Most people view God as being a kind old man who doesn’t really expect much of us. He wants us to be happy and helps us now and then, but pretty much stays out of our way. When it comes to some sort of final judgment, God realizes that we all pretty much do our best, and nodding his approval, welcomes us into his home. The problem with this is that it is not at all the way the Bible describes God. The Bible describes God as being a just God. Being just means that he cannot just ignore sins against him. He loves people, but in that loving, his character of justice cannot simply overlook sin. Think about it this way. How would you feel about a judge who freed the same criminal over and over because he really liked the guy. Suppose the criminal was in court for his 50th murder in the act of committing a robbery. Would you be pretty content with that judge if he just kept letting this man go because he was a nice guy and was really likeable? We all know that such a judge is not just and should be removed from the bench. And yet we are hoping that God is like that judge.

The God presented to us in the Bible is completely just and will not overlook sin.  He has already demonstrated that to us in this world by putting all creation under a curse. We know something is wrong. We have a sense about how people should ideally get along, and yet we see so much abuse, fighting and killing in the world that we know something is wrong. We picture what an idyllic garden should be like, and yet there are constant attacks on that garden by weeds and pests of one kind or another. We are trying to grow a few beautiful roses right up next to our sunroom, and suddenly one morning every bud was gone. A deer had come up to the house and had eaten every bud that was available. That same deer has to be careful to avoid being attacked by a predator or killed by a hunter or run over by a car.

We know things are not like we think they should be, and it’s not because we’re just lazy and want an easy life. We know things are out of whack somehow.  The Bible explains that God cursed the ground because of us – because of our sin. Paul writes in the book of Romans, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”

So my thoughts today are aimed at understanding that God is a just God and he will and has responded to our sin and disobedience with appropriate punishment.

Numbers 14:18 “He will by no means clear the guilty.”

Ezekiel 18:4 “The soul that sins shall die.”

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”

Next time we’ll look at God’s solution to our problem.