How we answer life’s questions has a great deal to do with what our lives will be like!
The Bible is filled with questions…… and ANSWERS!
It has the answers to life yet too many don’t go to the Bible for the answers.
Some of the questions few find in the Bible:
Question: At the Fall…
A question asked by Satan:
Genesis 3:1 “ Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God made. And he said to the woman “Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (by asking this, he is undermining the word of God. The serpent (Satan) is trying to get her to the rethink what God clearly said.)
They (Adam and Eve) had the wrong answer.
Because of their wrong answer:
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
Not all men commit all sins and man’s sins are at different levels of severity but…We are ALL sinners.
Genesis 3:9 “The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where art thou?”
God knew. God didn’t ask because he didn’t know where Adam was- but asked to say…We used to be close (now a distance created by sin.)
Genesis 3:10: So Adam said “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and hid myself.
…that too was new- Adam was fearful. A fear was created.
With wrongdoing, we also have a conscience (we sense wrong)…and that is because there are consequences.
Later in the Bible, Isaac asked…
Genesis 22:7 Isaac spoke to his father (Abraham) and asked, ……!”…Where is the lamb for a burnt offering? “
Abraham didn’t question God.
Abraham answered…Genesis 22:8 "My son, God will provide for Himself a lamb for burnt offering."
John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”
New Testament Lamb = Jesus
We are not redeemed with silver and gold. We are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
If we don’t know the Lamb of God personally – we are still under the judgment state- we don’t have the closeness. We should be afraid. Hell is real!
To get freed from the judgment we must accept the Lamb of God.
When God asks a question- it is important!
Read Psalm 22: 1-8. The question asked in this passage is in
Vs. 1 (cry) My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Answer (vs. 3) … because you are holy.
Why? 2 Corinthians 5:21 He hath made Him to be sin for us- a perfect lamb (holy)
As the sacrificed lamb- he took on ALL the filth of our sin!
The wrath of God- for all sin- fell on the perfect man to bear it FOR us!
He knew no sin- yet bore ALL ours.
Question: How can man be righteous (just) before God? (Job 9:2)
How can man get back to the original closeness? The Word of God (The Bible) has the answers. God has made it possible that sinners can be made right in His sight.
BY FAITH!
Romans 3:28: “Therefore we conclude that man I justified by faith apart from te deeds of the law.”
Romans: 5:1: “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Galatians 3:11: “But no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”
Philippians 3:9-10: “be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed by His death.
We can NOT work ourselves back into right standing by our works! - it’s ONLY by our faith in the Lord Jesus!
Believers are in the sight of God (made “right” with God)
Grace is a gift- you can’t EARN it! You can’t pay God for it! You must just believe and receive it!
Question: (asked by jailer- desperate man facing death) What must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30) Was in stocks and chains (and they fell off)
Paul and Silas in answering DIDN’T give a long list to him of what he needed to do! …like Do the best you can. Be good. Save the earth. That would be a FALSE answer. (Yet some will give this answer)
Do? Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
Answer: Acts 16:31: “So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Summary: John 3:16
Thank you C. That was a great presentation of truth. I love the passage in Acts Chapter 16. I love the fact that Paul and Silas could have left after God caused an earthquake to loose their chains and open the doors to the prison, yet I wonder if they stayed beccause they knew custom meant that the jailor would loose his life if his prisoners escaped and they knew he didn't yet have eternal life because he had not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They showed such Christ likeness by caring for his life instead of their own. How happy that jailor must have been to see them! I wonder if their songs of praise during their time of being bound there set the stage. Scripture does not say yet we know that Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Even though the jailor could not see their God at that time he could see their joy in their trial and then he saw their compassion as they stayed! Not only did he believe but his whole household! How great is that!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post thanks for sharing Jesus with us :-)
Mrs. G.