Bible Lesson 2
Bible lessons should begin in square one, so to speak, because not all of us understand the same. So let’s begin to hear the Word of the Lord! I will be reading some scripture and then expounding and bringing that scripture into context. Let’s share the word of God from Romans chapter three, and then relate it to the entire Bible. Romans chapter three and verse twenty-three. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Now, who is it that are sinners? Who is it that have fallen short of the glory of God? Who is it that needs to be saved? If we read and understand that verse of scripture, we have to know that everyone who has ever been born on this earth has need of a savior, with the exception of Jesus Christ, who came through the womb of a virgin and thus was not affected with Adam’s sin. There may be those who have been good people, ethical people, and sweet people; but they need to be saved, their sin debt had to be paid by the blood of Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross as the only sacrifice for sin. The blood of Christ was what was required for us to be saved. It satisfied the wrath of God against the sins of those who come to God through his son Jesus Christ
Every one of us that is alive today, or will be alive at sometime in the future, or were alive before our time, have to be born again by the supernatural quickening of the HOLY SPIRIT. We were born dead Spiritually, and we remain dead in trespass and sin until God decides in his sovereign grace to grant us mercy which we could never deserve, and God brings us back to the place where we can see our need of repentance and our great and desperate need of the blood of his son Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul was writing to the saints who were faithful in Jesus Christ there in the epistle to the Ephesians, in chapter one and verse one, and he said in chapter two and verse one, that they had been dead in trespass and sin: before God quickened them they had been just as we were or are, until we are born again by that sovereign miracle of God that we read in Ephesians 2.10, where we learn that if we have been truly saved, we are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.”
We are not saved because we deserve salvation, rather we deserve death and hell, as we find in Romans chapter 6 verse twenty-three. There in that verse God inspired the writer of Romans to invite for us, “the wages of sin is death, But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We have seen now in this teaching from the Bible, that all are sinners, and that all sinners deserve their wages, which is death and separation from God in hell however, God inspired the writer to put a “but” in that verse! so now, we understand that God said, ” you deserve hell; however, I have a gift for you instead”.
Have you ever given anyone a gift or received a gift from anyone? Did the person that you gave a gift to, have any claim on that gift, prior to your giving it to them? Could you have demanded the gift back from the person you gave it to? I think we can all agree that a gift is something that is freely given and is never demanded to be returned. We can never make demands on our sovereign God in anyway.
We are saved by grace through faith, and grace and faith are both gifts from God. Ephesians 2: 8-9, What are the conditions that God has placed on any one receiving the gift of life in his Son Jesus Christ? Most everyone knows the scripture that answers that question; and it is John 3:16. Where God demands belief or faith in the person and work of his son Jesus Christ.
Have I made this clear? In hope you have understood; because in future lessons we will begin to build on these simple statements that we have dealt with here. In hope you can remember the points of this lesson. First we are all born headed to hell fire for eternity, we cannot save ourselves, but we don’t have to; because God has given his son on the cross to satisfy his wrath against our sin, we can never deserve God’s grace and mercy, therefore we have nothing to boast about, if we are saved.
God has done it all in the process of salvation, God recreated us “in Christ” and the life we are living, we live by the faith of him who loved us and gave himself for us.” Examine yourself and your life. Do you think that God has saved you? Can you look back to a time when you felt that you had a newness of life?
If you died tonight would you have the newness of life’, if you died tonight would you go to heaven or hell…it has to be one way or the other, heaven or hell… now let me warn you, if you belong to a church, you “may” be a Christian or you may just be a church-member. I pray that each of you will stop and consider the opportunity that God has placed before you. Make sure of your Salvation! If there is a question, God will not hold it against you if you fall before him and ask him for assurance.
Until next time,
may God bless and keep you
This is Bro. Bob