Rex Banks.

A Natural Question

Generations of men have looked at the massive stones at Stonehenge and the statues upon Easter Island and wondered about the men who built these great structures. This is quite understandable. In both cases there is clear evidence of design and purposeful activity, and it is quite natural that our curiosity is aroused.

Of course it is also quite natural for men, confronted by an orderly, arranged universe, to be curious about the mind which lies behind this unimaginably complex structure. Just how does the Creator view His handiwork? What does the Builder feel for His handiwork if anything? In fact it is because man has the ability to ask such questions and a compulsion to seek answers to them that he is unique and set apart from the rest of creation.

A Biblical Answer

As fragile human beings subject to anxiety and doubt, it is comforting to learn from the Bible that "...the builder of all things" (Heb 3:4) is not an indifferent, unfeeling force or a cruel tyrant but instead a being who is perfect in love. John tells us that "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8) and the Bible is clear that God's nature is such that He simply cannot act in an unloving manner. In this context the inspired writer of Psalm 136 makes clear the fact that the creation event was an act of divine love:

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His loving-kindness is everlasting.
To Him who made the heavens with skill,
For His loving-kindness is everlasting;
To Him who spread out the earth above the waters,
For His loving-kindness is everlasting;
To Him who made the great lights,
For His loving-kindness is everlasting,
The sun to rule by day,
For His loving-kindness is everlasting,
The moon and stars to rule by night,
For His loving-kindness is everlasting."
(Ps. 136:1, 5-9)

So when God called the universe into existence He was acting in harmony with the loving-kindness which is essential to His very being, and so we are not surprised to read that after six days of creative activity, culminating in the creation of the human race, "God saw all that He had made and behold, it was very good". (Gen. 1:31) Man, created in the very "image" and "likeness" of God (Gen. 1:26) and crowned with "glory" and "majesty" by His Creator (Ps. 8:5) was given dominion over all living creatures (Gen. 1:26-28) and placed by God in "a garden toward the east, in Eden". (Gen. 2:8) "Eden" means "delight" in the Hebrew Bible, and the name evokes a picture of idyllic delight and rest. Garnished with "every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food" (Gen. 2:9) the garden in Eden supplied ample evidence to Adam and Eve that "His loving-kindness is everlasting."

An Objection

But if God, acting out of pure love created a habitat for man which was designed to gratify every sense and to meet every need, just how do we explain the present lamentable state of our world? Men and all other living creatures die, often in great pain. The history of humanity records a grim succession of wars, famines, plagues and disasters. The fossil record speaks of death and carnage on a vast scale. Our modern cities are decaying from within, ravaged by poverty, crime and drugs. Far from resembling a paradise, our planet is more like a gigantic mausoleum hurtling through space! Which are we to believe - the evidence of our senses that all is not well, or the Biblical portrait of Edenic bliss?

A Closer Look

Actually if we follow the Biblical record a little further, the apparent conflict between reality and revelation dissolves. Indeed scripture not merely acknowledges the fact that paradise has been well and truly lost, but it also explains why a perfectly loving God has permitted the glory of His original creation to be marred.

You see, part of what was involved in man's having been created in God's image was that man was constituted a rational creature, capable of choice. The God of love desired that those who bore His image chose to love Him just as they themselves were freely loved by their Creator. But of course freedom of choice inherently involves the possibility that the wrong choice will be made.

Listen as the Genesis account continues:

"And the Lord Cod commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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.'

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it nor shall you touch it lest you die!' " And the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever -' therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." (Gen. 2:16, 17; 3:1-7, 22-24)

Incredibly, although blessed beyond imagination, man chose self above his Creator! Surrounded by evidence of God's love, man chose rebellion rather than loving obedience! Man lost his Edenic home (v.24), his access to the tree of life (v.22), and the very earth itself became less fertile and productive.

"Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying,'You shall not eat of it' cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 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.' " (Gen. 3:17-19)

Mankind then, inhabits a world which is but a shadow of its former glory, and man's life on earth is but a mockery of what it could have been. The apostle Paul reminds us that "the creation was subjected to futility.. (and) groans and suffers the pains of child-birth together until now". (Rom. 8:20, 22) Poor afflicted Job complained, "Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil." (Job 14:1) Paradise is well and truly lost! Inconsolable after the death of a lovely daughter, Mark Twain complained bitterly:

"A myriad of men are born; they scramble for little mean advantages over each other; age creeps upon them and infirmities follow; shame and humiliations bring down their prides and vanities. Those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned into aching grief. The burden of pain, care, misery, grows heavier year by year. At length ambition is dead; longing for release is in their place. It comes at last - the only unpoisoned gift earth ever had for them and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence, where they left no sign that they have existed - a world that will lament them for a day and forget them forever."

It Gets Worse

But if man's present plight on earth is distressing to contemplate, scripture paints an even grimmer picture of fallen man's eternal destiny. You see, according to the Bible human nature consists of two parts - body and spirit. Man's body has no life independent of the spirit: "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." (Jas. 2:26) However according to scripture man's spirit can and does continue to exist (in a conscious state) after the death of the body. Isaiah 14:3-20 for example describes the entrance of Babylon's king into "Sheol," the unseen world of the spirits, and also describes the "spirits (or shades) of the dead" who rise up to meet him. Jesus reminds us that while man may destroy the body, he is not able to "kill the soul". (Matt. 10:28) Solomon carefully distinguishes between man's body which returns to the dust at death, and his spirit which survives physical death. (Eccles. 12:7) Thus while man's body is mortal, his spirit is eternal - and therein lies fallen man's real problem.

Man's real problem is simply this - although he does not inherit the sin of Adam, he does, as Adam's son inherit the knowledge of good and evil at the age of accountability, and he always fails to render perfect obedience to His Creator. This is true of even the very best of men.

Listen again to scripture:

"For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin." (Eccles. 7:20)

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23)

Like Adam, all men fail to obey God perfectly. Like Adam all men are separated from God by their own sin. Like Adam, all men created in God's image, possess an eternal spirit. And, since man's spirit is eternal so too is the separation from God endured by those who are alienated from Him by sin. Yes "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 3:23) but the "death" spoken of is not physical but spiritual, not extinction but ruination; not the cessation of conscious existence but eternal separation from the One who is the source of all goodness, truth and righteousness.

"But Surely Since God is Love..."

"But" the question is asked, "would not a God of love simply overlook sin, simply forgive and forget and accept man in his imperfect state?" This is surely a legitimate point. After all, love delights in forgiveness, and love manifests itself in mercy and compassion. Why cannot the God whose "loving-kindness is everlasting" simply ignore man's sin and overlook his rebellion?

The answer to this question is simply this: "Just as surely as God is a God of perfect love, He is also a God of perfect justice, holiness and righteousness." Listen again to scripture:

"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face." (Ps. 89:14; 97:2)

"He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." (Ps. 33:5)

"He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name." (Ps. 111:9)

Now it is because God is perfect in righteousness, justice and holiness, that He cannot simply ignore or overlook sin. Sin is the transgression of divine law (1 Jn. 3:4) and God's perfectly just and holy nature demands retribution for each and every sin ever committed. For God to simply ignore or overlook sin (even one!) would be for God to deny His perfectly holy nature, and this God cannot do. Thus we read:

"You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness." (Ex 34:7)

"The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the dust of His feet." (Nahum 1:3)

The bottom line, according to scripture, is that rebellious humanity stands condemned before a God whose holy wrath and righteous anger impel Him to pass a dreadful sentence upon those created in His own image - the sentence of eternal ruination.

The "Good News"

Thank God the Biblical record does not end there! You see, according to scripture, the same God who acted in loving-kindness when He created man, also offered man a way of escape when he fell. Again God acted in love, and this time His action involved terrible cost to Himself. No, the God of perfect justice could not simply overlook or ignore sin but we are told that out of pure love God Himself met the demands of perfect justice which fallen man could never meet. This is the heart of the message of scripture, "the gospel (good news) of (about) Jesus Christ". (Mk. 1:1)

Again we turn to the Bible for an explanation. The apostle Paul wrote:

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Phil 2:5-8)

So according to the inspired writer Paul, the man Jesus Christ, who is the focus of scripture, was both fully man and at the same time fully divine. He was God in the flesh. ("And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." [Jn 1:14]) His "death on the cross," although painful and shameful was in fact a fulfilment of "the predetermined plan" of God (Acts 2:23) a plan whereby His precious life was offered to meet the demands of perfect justice. Amazingly, the hands that framed the world were nailed to a wooden cross, symbol of shame, to pay the price for sin that man himself could never meet. According to scripture the sacrifice of the "precious blood" (1 Pet. 1:19) of Jesus Christ, the God-man, met the demands of perfect justice. The innocent suffered for guilty; divine perfection was offered for human imperfection; the demands of perfect love and perfect justice were both fully met. In the words of Isaiah the prophet concerning Christ:

"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. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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. All us 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." (Isa. 53:3-6)

"Grace!"

Now it is because God out of pure love offered to mankind the unearned, unmerited and undeserved gift of eternal life at terrible cost to Himself, that the word GRACE features so prominently in the Bible. "Grace" quite simply means "unmerited favour," and it is God's work of grace in Jesus Christ which forms the very basis of the Christian's relationship with God. No teaching of the Bible is more basic, fundamental or central to its message than the doctrine of salvation based upon grace! Listen again:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Eph. 2:8, 9)

"...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom 3:24)

What was it that motivated first century men and women to commit their lives utterly, totally and without reservation to God? Listen to Paul - "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Cor 15:10) God hanging on a cross is the great incentive. Calvary is the great transformer! Grace the great motivator! Amazing grace!

Faith - Man's Response

But if the Bible teaches that salvation is a free, undeserved gift from God, it also teaches that salvation is conditional. Just as surely as Adam and Eve possessed free will in the garden, their descendants possess free will in the post-Edenic world. Just as God demanded and expected a response to His goodness from our first parents, so too He demands and expects a response to Calvary from those for whom Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice. The Bible calls the human response to divine grace "faith," and it is an indispensable ingredient in man's salvation. If grace is indisputably the very ground, source or basis of salvation, faith is indisputably the condition of that salvation. Again we turn to scripture:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." (Eph. 2:8)

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith in this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. 5:1-2)

"But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for 'The just shall live by faith.' " (Gal. 3:11)

So then grace is obtained by means of faith. The divine gift offered in love is accepted by those who respond in faith to God's work in Christ. Now of course a gift does not cease to be a gift just because conditions are attached to its reception. For example, in the Old Testament God promised the land of Canaan as a gift to Israel. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, Jehovah is said to be about to "give" the land to the former slaves of Pharaoh. (Deut. 1:20, 25; 6:10,18; 7:13; 8:1; 9:5) Concerning Jericho, the first city to fall to the sons of Israel, the Lord says:

"See, I have given Jericho into your hand..." (Josh. 6:2)

Jericho was "given into" the hand of a band of ex-slaves who could never have taken the great city by force of arms. It was a gift. By God's power (not human might) the walls of Jericho crumbled to the ground as God had promised (Josh.6:5, 20) and Israel tasted the first of many victories. Yes, the land of Canaan was a gift - unearned, unmerited, undeserved, and by no means did Israel have the ability to capture Canaan by her own efforts.

But significantly the God of Israel demanded that His covenant people cooperate in order to possess the gift. Listen to Josh. 6:3-5:

"You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. Then it shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him."

We know the story. Israel obeyed and she obtained the promised gift of victory.

Centuries later the Hebrew writer states: "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days." (Heb 11:30) Grace does not cease to be grace, and a gift does not cease to be a gift simply because its reception is conditional upon obedient faith.

Faith - its source

Since "faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6) is essential to salvation, it is appropriate for every man to ask the question: "How do I come by such faith?" Again scripture provides the answer: "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God." (Rom 10:17) Paul's point here is simply that faith comes by hearing the message of the Bible, the "good news" or "gospel" concerning Christ's death to take away man's sin. Saving faith is always and only the result of hearing the "good news" about Christ and making a response to that message. Thus when Paul speaks to the Corinthian church of his work among them he reminds them:

"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15: 3-4)

Saving faith then is the response of the good and honest heart to the news that the very Son of God died for humanity's sin, was buried as all men are buried and was raised up on the third day having conquered death for all mankind. This is the very heart of the message which has brought about faith in good and honest hearts for about two millennia and has caused men to exclaim: "O Death, where is your victory? O Death where is your sting? (1 Cor. 15:55)

Amazing grace; life-giving faith.

Faith in action

So transformed and so zealous were those early Christians that by the 60's of the first century, Paul could speak of the gospel as having been "proclaimed in all creation under heaven." (Col. 1:23) The message was simple and uncompromising - either believe in Christ or "die in your sins". (Jn. 8:24) Either place your trust in the crucified and resurrected Son of God as "..the way, and the truth and the life," or be eternally lost, because quite simply, "no one comes to the Father except through...(Him)" (Jn. 14:6) Multitudes of good and honest hearers who joyfully believed the "good news" of salvation in Christ were told to do three things in order to take hold of the gift of life:

1) "Repent"

Saving faith always involves what the Bible calls "repentance." While on earth Jesus Himself offered just these two alternatives: "unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Lk.13:3) Repent or perish. Peter urged his Jewish brethren: "Repent therefore and return that your sins may be wiped away..." (Acts 3:19) Later on he and other Jews thanked God that the Gentiles had been granted "the repentance that leads to life." (Acts 11:18)

Perhaps the easiest way to grasp the Biblical concept of repentance is to compare two passages of scripture, one from the New Testament and one from the Old Testament. You see Jesus tells us that the "men of Ninevah"...repented at the preaching of Jonah." (Matt.12:41) Jonah was an Old Testament prophet, and when we look at the book of Jonah we see just what this repentance involved:

"So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then the word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, 'Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water.

But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God; yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?' Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it." (Jonah 3:5-10)

Yes, God does take sin seriously! He does not suggest but rather demands that those who come to Him turn away from sin. Repent or perish - these are our only options. Saving faith always involves repentance.

2) Confession of Christ

Given the centrality of Christ to our salvation, we are not surprised to learn that repentant believers in the first century were asked to publicly confess the name of Christ when coming to Him for salvation. Paul wrote:

"that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation." (Rom. 10:9-10)

In the Old Testament Israel had confessed: "The Lord our God is one Lord." (Deut. 6:4) By means of resurrection from the dead, the Lordship of Jesus had been made abundantly clear (Rom. 6:9; 1 Cor.15) and the confession was enlarged to include the Lord Jesus. Likely it is this confession which Paul has in mind when he tells Timothy: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (1 Tim 6:12) Jesus was "declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead." (Rom. 1:4) Let's not be ashamed to confess Him as Lord with our lips. Saving faith leads to confession of Christ as Lord.

3) Baptism

From many New Testament examples of conversion it is clear that it is at the point of baptism that the repentant believer is freed from the bondage of sin and numbered among the "saved." Now the word "baptize" ("baptizo"- Greek) means "to dip, plunge or immerse," and even though the word is taken over from the Greek language rather than translated in many English Bibles, its meaning is abundantly clear nevertheless: "Therefore we have been buried with Him (i.e. Christ) through baptism into death..." (Rom 6:4)

Baptism then takes the form of a burial, a burial in water, which is why John was baptizing where there was "much water". (Jn. 3:23) In Acts chapter 8 where Philip baptized the Ethiopian ..."they both went down into the water" (Acts 8:38) an unnecessary action if baptism simply involved pouring or sprinkling, practices which evolved in the post-apostolic period.

Now since baptism is "...for the forgiveness of ...sins" (Acts 2:38) and is therefore the point at which men receive salvation, it is no surprise to learn that repentant believers in the first century were immersed without delay. Saul of Tarsus (later called "Paul," the apostle) was urged by Ananias: "And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on His name." (Acts 22:16) Paul's sins were washed away at baptism. In Acts 16 we read about a Philippian jailor and his household who were baptized immediately they came to believe in Jesus despite the fact that it was the middle of the night. (Acts 16:33) In Acts 2 a crowd of repentant, believing Jews who had been "pierced to the heart" (v. 37) by Peter's sermon were still urged by Peter: "Be saved from this perverse generation!" (v. 40) Salvation was still in the future for these Jews. The record continues in v. 41: "So then, those who had received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls."

Baptism then is the response of faith to the "word" about Jesus, and the New Testament describes the baptized believer as "rejoicing" (Acts 8:39; c/f 16:34) in the salvation provided by God through His Son. He is free from sin! He is a child of God! All spiritual blessings are his! "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Cor. 9:15)

Conclusion

In Christ, the God who could not simply overlook sin, provides a way of escape for sinful men at terrible cost to Himself. God's Son died a criminal's death with spittle upon His face and with the taunts of His tormentors ringing in His ears. Jesus died slowly, painfully and He died for you and me. We cannot earn salvation, but we can accept it upon God's terms, and provide evidence of our discipleship to Christ by bearing "much fruit". (Jn.15:8) God's grace demands it and man's eternal destiny depends on it. Home|Contents