That Was Easy!…Or Was It? –Part 2
1. Realize that God loves you
God loves you and has a plan for your life
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
The statement, “God loves you and has a plan for your life” is a true statement. However, God’s love for every human being is not the same. This is evident when we look at John 10. Christ laid down His life for His sheep. Ephesians 5 tells us He gave His life for His church. Romans 9 tells us that He made some vessels for honorable use and some for dishonorable…some for glory and some for destruction.
Yes it is also true that God loves the world as John 3:16 says, and even the lost. There are Scriptures such as Psalm 5:5, that tell us God hates workers of iniquity. How can God love someone yet hate them at the same time? Scripture teaches it.
We must also address the context in which this is written. When we look at the entirety of the tract, we see that what is meant by this “God loves you and has a plan for your life”, that God loves us so much He is just waiting for us to pray and receive Him as our Savior. It’s as if He is just standing at the door of our heart and pleading with us to let us in. Imagine God, our creator, begging His creation to let him into their lives. Is this really what Scripture teaches?!…This is not the God of the Scriptures as we have already seen and will continue to see as we move through this.
God does have a plan for our lives. He is Sovereign, and all things were created by Him & for Him. As one preacher has put it, “there is not one maverick molecule in this universe” (I hope I’ve quoted correctly). As Jeremiah 10:23 says, I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.” All throughout Scripture we see His Sovereignty either directly or indirectly. He has created all things, and He has control over all things, including us.
2. The Bible says that all men are sinners
Our sins have separated us from God
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
God made man in his own image. He gave man the ability to choose right from wrong. We choose to sin. Our sins separate us from God.
The statement “that all men are sinners” and the verse, Romans 3:23 is accurate, as I said in my previous post. Our sins have separated us from God. It is also true that He did make us in his own image, and that He did give us the ability to choose right from wrong, and that we even choose to sin. All of them are true. So you ask, “What is the problem with this?” I’m so glad you asked!
Let’s use an illustration. Let’s take some verses and pull them out of context and away from their true meaning in order to fit our need to promote and defend the prosperity gospel. Malachi 3:10 – “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows” (New American Standard Bible). Deuteronomy 8:18 – “But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (New American Standard Bible). John 10: 10 – “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Now I’ve just given scriptural backing to uphold the idea of the prosperity gospel. We know that Scripture doesn’t teach this yet we’ve taken a few verses and brought them together to try and prove our point. But when we exegete Scripture correctly and we understand passages and verses in their context, and compare Scripture with Scripture, then we clearly understand that the prosperity gospel has no Scriptural foundation.
The way that these statements are put together give the idea that we’re all sinners and we’re not so bad in our sinful condition that we cannot choose to do good. I agree that many lost people do good things but Scripture doesn’t teach that we’re just “bent” toward sin as these statements give credence to. The foundation of what separates us from God is NOT our actions, our sins, but the very fact that we’re sinners. We’re not sinners b/c we sin, but we sin b/c we’re sinners.
We’re all born depraved. Scripture teaches that we’re all DEAD spiritually. We can do nothing but sin! Scripture teaches that unless we’re born again we cannot even see the kingdom of God, much less enter in. We are all wicked, and deserve Hell and it’s only by God’s Grace that He chooses any of us. We cannot, I repeat, we cannot come to God on our own. In our lost, sinful, dead, condition we cannot “place our faith in Jesus Christ as our own personal Savior.” Even the faith we have is a gift from Him! He must regenerate us first before we can ever make this decision to follow Him. He must make us alive, give us new life, take out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh.
3. God’s word also says that sin must be paid for
“For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23
Wages mean payment. The payment for our sin is death & hell, separation from God forever. If we continue in our sin, we shall die without Christ and be without God forever.
So this statement is correct, that God’s Word does in fact say that our sin must be paid for. And yes the word “wages” does in fact mean payment, and that payment is death & hell, and we will be separated from God. It is also correct to say that if we continue in our sin we will die without Christ and be without God forever. All of these statements are true in and of themselves however when put together, like the other points listed here, they give a faulty big picture. However, the whole reason we “continue in our sin” is b/c we’re sinners and have never been regenerated and repented and believed the Gospel. Our sin must be paid for and will be paid for. The question is “Who?”…Who will pay for our sin? Will we or will Christ? We must be regenerated, and if we’re regenerated by God, we will repent and believe the Gospel, being given faith to trust in Christ. If we don’t then we will pay for our sin in Hell. Our sin cannot be doubly paid for. If we say Christ died for the sins of every human being, then you’re saying He died for those who have died and gone to Hell, yet if they’ve died and gone to Hell and you say their sins were paid for by Christ, then they’re paying double for their sins, and Scripture does not teach that.
“If we continue in sin…” This statement is implying some sort of moral reform. It is true if we do continue in our sin we will die and go to Hell but it’s not our actions that send us to Hell, it is the fact that we’re sinners. Like I said before, we’re not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we’re sinners. The whole point we continue in our sin is because we were never believers to begin with. When you place an emphasis on the actions, it turns into legalism. If I’ve acknowledged these things, and prayed the prayer to accept Jesus as Savior, and IF I turn from the sins I have been doing then I’m good. I’m saved and going to Heaven.
The whole reason we won’t continue in our sin as Christians, is because our sins have been paid for. We’ve been regenerated by Christ, and we’ve repented and believed the Gospel, having been given faith to trust in Christ.
4. The good news is that Christ paid for our sins
All our sins were laid on Christ on the cross. He paid our sin debt for us. The Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, and He arose from the dead. He is alive forevermore.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
Only a true Christian can say that Christ paid for his sins. We cannot tell a lost man, that Jesus Christ paid for his sins because we do not know that. All the sins of every human being were NOT, and I repeat NOT laid upon Christ on the Cross. Nowhere in Scripture do we see this. In this point we must remain at the Cross and stay there. What did Christ accomplish on the Cross? Did He accomplish paying for sins or just pay for the opportunity for us to come to Him? If we say that Jesus Christ paid for the sins of every single human being, then what about those who have died and gone to Hell? Did Jesus Christ pay for their sins? We cannot honestly look at Scripture and say that Christ died for every man, and it’s up to man to decide…as if Jesus’ blood has to be applied, as some put it. Nowhere in Scripture is this idea given. Christ died for His sheep, He gave His life for His church. He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world. Romans 8:28-31 clearly tells us this along w/ Ephesians 1. I know we see it all throughout Scripture. Let’s look at Paul in Acts 9 & then in Galatians 1. We see very clearly that he, in and of himself did not choose Christ but rather Christ chose him. Scripture tells us that Christ paid our ransom. If he paid our ransom, there is not a chance in this world that those he paid the ransom for will end up in Hell. I am going to stop there for now b/c I could go on.
Let’s then look at the verse used here. Romans 5:8 if looked at in its context will clearly show it’s spoken to believers and not to both believers & unbelievers. The verse says that, “…God commendeth his love toward us…” Paul is writing to the Roman believers and telling them that while we were still sinners, Christ died for them! Think about the implications of that statement! He is saying that while we were still sinners, Christ paid for our sins, died for us on the Cross! …On the Cross…no doubt way before many of them had been born, I’m sure, or way before many of them had the chance to reach that so called, mythical “age of accountability.”
The heart of the matter is that Christ has His elect, His sheep, His church, whatever term you want to use, they’re all good. He gave His life for them. He did not die for those in Hell. Jesus didn’t teach this and neither is it taught anywhere in Scripture.
5. We must personally pray & receive Christ by Faith as our Savior
The Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13
Again this verse is completely taken out of context. It is not written to unbelievers! It is written to the believers in Rome. If we understand it within it’s context we see that as Christians, if we call on the name of the Lord, we will have reassurance, it will give confirmation that we are indeed saved. We must read on to verse 14, that says, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?…” Salvation occurs in the heart before it ever crosses the lips! Also, Matthew 12:34, “…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” The change happens in our hearts before it’s ever voiced from out of the lips. The heart of stone is removed, the heart of flesh put in, and we speak and proclaim it by crying out to the Lord! Let’s look at one more. 2 Corinthians 4:13 says, “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we speak,” We again see that belief happens before the mouth speaks about it.
Nowhere in the context of Romans 9-11, or anywhere else in the bible do we see this idea that “we MUST personally pray & receive Christ by Faith as Savior.” Even the faith that we have to believe in Him is a gift from Him, and the only way we can be given this is if we’ve been given the gift of repentance first. Paul didn’t follow these steps listed in this tract when he came to faith. We don’t see it in Acts 9 where we read of his conversion. To give another example, we also don’t see it w/ the Philippian jailer in Acts 16 & we certainly don’t see it in any of Christ’s teachings.
As I close with this post, probably my longest post on record, I am reminded to remind those reading this that as we study Scripture we must continue to exegete correctly and keep Scripture in it’s context. We must always remain at the Cross, and deviate no where else. The whole reason for our very existence is for God’s Glory. This study is by no means exhaustive and I pray that as you read, it encourages you to dive into Scripture even deeper. Please don’t take my word for it, but study Scripture for yourself, so that you may be always ready to give an answer. The 3rd Part to this will follow shortly.
Soli deo Gloria!
