THE GOSPEL
INTRODUCTION
There are many philosophies and religions in the world today. This causes people to be confused as to what the truth actually is. This pamphlet was written to declare to you the truth as revealed by God and recorded in the pages of the Bible. The Bible is no ordinary book. It was written by men as they were “moved on by God’s Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Therefore, all of its words are inspired and directed by God and given to man so that men could know the truth. What you are about to read is the truth as declared in the pages of the Bible. Read it carefully for how you respond to this truth will determine where you will spend ETERNITY.
GOD’S PLAN TO GIVE YOU ETERNAL LIFE
Every human being in the world is going to exist somewhere for eternity. Death is not the end of a person’s life. The Bible teaches man is not simply a physical being like other animals. Man is unique. Man is a “spirit being” and that “spirit being” is housed in a physical body. When a person dies, their spirit departs their body and goes somewhere else to exist for a period of time. Somewhere in the future, mysteriously and supernaturally, the bodies of every human being will be raised from the dead and the spirits of all men will be reunited with their bodies. At that time, every man will be judged by God and spend ETERNITY in one of TWO places. Let that sink in for a moment. You and I are going to spend ETERNITY somewhere.
The Bible teaches, there are only two possibilities for our eternal existence. You and I will either spend eternity in God’s Kingdom where we will experience fulness of joy forever, or we will spend eternity in a Lake of Fire.
The good news (The word “gospel” actually means “good news”) is, God wants every human being to be Saved from the Lake of Fire (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9) and He wants all men to live forever in His Kingdom (Luke 12:32). The bad news is, even though God wants all men to be Saved and to be a part of his Kingdom, he makes it clear, most will end up in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15; Matthew 7:13-14).
How can that be? How can most people end up in an eternal Lake of Fire when their Creator wants them to be Saved? To answer that question, we must examine God and His interaction with mankind.
THE NATURE OF THE TRUE GOD
For eternity, only one being existed. That being is God. This ONE God is infinitely complicated making his nature impossible for finite man to comprehend. However, God has revealed certain aspects of his character to mankind in nature and in the pages of the Bible.
One of the complicated aspects of God’s nature is that God is ONE being, but he exists as three persons. You and I are single beings and each of us is a single person. For example, your name may be John Smith. John Smith is ONE human and ONE person. However, God is different. God is ONE being, but he is three persons. He has existed eternally as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and these three are ONE being. This is nearly, if not completely impossible, for us to comprehend. We see this plurality and yet oneness in the first chapter of the Bible. In Genesis 1:26-27 God says,“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him…” It seems clear, the plural pronouns “US” and “OUR” referred to a single being – GOD.
Before our universe existed, before matter and energy existed, God existed. He is eternal (Psalm 90:2). He is the only eternal being or thing. Our universe, filled with matter and energy, is not eternal. It is a creation and all that is in it is temporal. Instead of something existing eternally, there is someone who has existed eternally and who will exist eternally. This eternal being is God and he created all things.
The Bible teaches us this eternal God is all powerful (Revelation 19:6). He is all knowing (Psalm 147:5). He exists everywhere all at the same time (Psalm 139:7-10; Acts 17:28) and yet He can manifest His presence in a single place at a single moment if he chooses to do so.
This is the God who created us, and he is perfect. He is holy. His character is absolutely pure.
The Bible also tells us our Creator is the personification of love. This loving nature causes God to be kind, merciful, and to do good. However, it also causes him to be just. He executes justice for those who have been wronged because he loves those who have been treated in a hurtful manner.
THE REASON FOR THE CREATION OF HUMANS
Somewhere in the distant past, this eternal, omnipotent God of love created our universe. In fact, everything, everywhere exists because God created it (Revelation 4:11; John 1:3). When God created the universe, he had already decided to create a unique being we call humans. Mankind was unique because though God created many creatures, mankind was the only one God created in his own image (Genesis 1:26-27). He created the first man from the dust of the earth and then breathed into that man the breath of life, or the spirit of life, and man became a living soul - a spiritual being.
When God created man, he did so for a wonderful reason. He created us to be an object of his affection. Love always looks for objects of affection. God wanted to share what he had created with man, and for man to spend eternity with him in absolute joy. Though God wanted to share everything with man, there was one thing God would not give men. He would not give men his position as ruler of the universe. He is the Creator, and he alone has the right to rule what he has created.
MAN AND FREE WILL
God did not want man to serve him like a robot only doing what he is programmed to do. Instead, he wanted mankind to recognize him as their Creator and be grateful for what he offered them. He wanted people to love him and to choose to serve him. To accomplish this, God would have to give man “free will.” Only if man had “free will” could man truly love God in return. If man was programmed to serve him and to worship him, man could only simulate love. They could not actually love God unless they had the freedom to choose to love him.
Here was the problem. If God created man with free will, there was the possibility humans would choose unwisely. There was a possibility they would choose to rebel against him and even choose to harm their fellow human beings. In fact, because God knows all things, he knew men would choose to rebel and even harm their fellow man. When man did that, God would be compelled to punish them because God is just and loving. He will not, he cannot, overlook it when someone harms another. He will not “acquit the wicked” or “clear the guilty” (Nahum 1:3; Exodus 34:7).
Some may say, “Should God have created man when he knew many would choose not to love and serve him? Should God have created man knowing most men would rebel and harm their fellow man? Should God have created man even though He knew most would end up in a Lake of Fire forever?” You may not think he should have done so. However, God is sovereign, and God chose not to withhold the eternal blessings of his kingdom from those who would choose to serve him just because others would choose to reject his offer and rebel. He desired fellowship with those who would choose to love him even if it meant God must endure those who chose to hate and despise him (Romans 9:22-23). In fact, those who chose to live rebelliously and to harm others would prove themselves unworthy of everlasting life and deserving of everlasting punishment and destruction.
THE ETERNAL, MYSTERIOUS PLAN TO SAVE MANKIND
The first book in the Bible (Genesis) describes God’s creation of the first human. Everything about the creation of man may seem fanciful, however, everything God did when he created man, served a purpose. The Bible says God started by creating a single, solitary man. Later, he would take a rib from that first man and with it, he fashioned a woman. The Bible is very clear. All of humanity came from ONE man. Even though people might say, “Mankind came from a man and a woman” the truth is, they only came from that first man for even the first woman came from the first man. There was a reason God did it that way. We will explain his reason a little later.
God then took that first man and woman and placed them in a garden paradise he had created on the earth. He then gave man a commandment. “You can eat any of the fruit from any of the trees EXCEPT one. He called that tree, the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” If you eat that fruit, you will SURELY die.” You may wonder, “Why did God put that tree there if God did not want them to eat of it?” The answer is “Free Will.” How could man actually have “Free Will” if man did not have a choice. This tree, and this one commandment, gave man a choice. Man could CHOOSE to obey God or man could CHOOSE to disobey God. Unfortunately, that first man chose to disobey God. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in direct violation of the commandment of God. When Adam sinned, humanity changed. Man became a mortal creature with no power to consistently control his carnal desires. Man became a creature with a sinful nature or disposition. As they procreated, man passed on their mortality and sinfulness to all their offspring and inevitably, their offspring all committed acts of sin because they were carnal and sinful creatures. One man’s disobedient act brought sinfulness and death upon the whole of humanity (Romans 5:12).
Why would God allow this one man’s act to affect all future generations? Here is at least part of the answer. If God allowed ONE man’s act of disobedience to affect all of mankind for evil, God could be just to allow ONE man’s act of obedience to affect all men for good. If ONE man’s act of disobedience could make all men unrighteous, ONE man’s act of obedience could make all men righteous.
Given free will, men were going to eventually make the wrong choice. When they did, God would be forced to punish them for their acts of disobedience. Each act of disobedience would need to be punished individually. However, if God allowed one man’s unrighteous act to make all men sinful, then God could be just, or fair, if he made one man’s act of obedience be sufficient punishment for all men. If one man’s sin could make all men sinful, one man’s death could pay the price for the sins of all men (Romans 5:15). Adam sinned. He made all men sinful, therefore all sin. Because all men sin, all men die and face the judgment of God.
After Adam’s sin, God set his plan in motion to provide a means of salvation for all men. At a time appointed by God, he would send a “Second Adam,” to act as a second representative. This “Second Adam” would then die for all the sins of all men. This “Second Adam” would be God the Son. He would come into the world in human form to die as a substitute for guilty men.
To prepare man for the substitutionary act of the “Second Adam,” God instituted a system which required men to offer animal sacrifices to atone for their sins. If you wanted a pardon from God for your sinful actions, you were required to kill an innocent animal upon an altar erected to serve the Lord. Throughout many centuries, people offered these sacrifices to God. However, these animal sacrifices were only symbolic. They had no power to bring man a pardon for their sins. They only served to prepare the people for the coming of the “Second Adam” who would die for the sins of the world. The multitude of sacrificed animals only served to teach one principle. There could be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of the blood of an innocent substitute (Hebrews 9:22). For centuries, God engraved this principle of substitution into the minds of men through these animal sacrifices. Then, the time came for the coming of the “Second Adam” to die for the sins of man.
Galatians 4:4-5
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
The guilty could not die for the guilty. The guilty would have to die for their own crimes. The sacrifice for man’s sins would have to be a human who was not guilty of sin. How could there be a human without sin when all men inherited sinfulness from their fathers? God’s plan was to send “God the Son” into the world in a unique way. God the Spirit would form a child within the womb of a virgin (Luke 1:35). The fetus within the womb, housed “God the Son” (Luke 1:35). The virgin chosen for this purpose was named Mary. She birthed a child into the world who was actually God with us (Matthew 1:23). God the Son became flesh and dwelt among us. He grew to adulthood. He then went about to teach men the right ways of God. He confirmed his identity with many signs, wonders, and miracles. He healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, and performed miracles which defied the physical laws of the universe.
When the time came, he allowed himself to be arrested. He was led through a mockery of a trial where he was condemned to death. They took him to a hill on the outskirts of the city of Jerusalem and nailed him to wooden beams in the form of a cross. They then lifted his dying body up and suspended it with nails between heaven and earth. A few hours later, he died. No one took his life from him. He came to lay it down for the sins of man and he did exactly that. One man, the “Second Adam” gave his life to pay the price for all the sins of man.
After his death, men removed his body from the cross and laid it into a tomb which was simply a small cave carved into the side of a rocky hill. They then rolled a large stone to cover the cave’s opening. As evidence to who he was and what he had done, he rose from the dead three days after he died. After spending time with several of his followers over the course of many days, the Son of God ascended back to Heaven as his closest disciples watched.
Before he left, he commissioned his followers to go to every human being in the world and declare who he was and what he had done to pay the price for man’s sinful acts (Mark 16:16).
THE CONDITIONS TO RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE IN GOD’S KINGDOM
Just because Jesus died for the sins of the entire world, does not mean the entire world will be pardoned, saved from judgment, and receive eternal life in God’s Kingdom. God set conditions one must meet in order to receive the pardon Jesus gave his life to provide. In order to be “Saved” from God’s judgment and wrath, and to receive eternal life in God’s Kingdom, a person must hear and believe in Jesus and what he did on the cross. Therefore, the followers of Christ were sent to tell others what Jesus has done and what God is offering. When a person hears this gospel, they must choose to believe it in order to be saved. Everyone has the capability to believe, for God gave every person a measure of faith (Romans 12:3). If a person chooses not to believe in Jesus and his sacrifice, they cannot be Saved (Mark 16:16).
To truly believe the story of Jesus’ sacrifice will produce a predictable response. It will produce fear. If one does not fear, they do not believe or they are unimaginably foolish. If you truly believe in the judgment to come and the fact you have violated God’s laws, how could you not fear? True belief will also produce regret for the sins which harmed others, offended God, and made the death of Jesus necessary. Faith, regret, and repentance are intertwined. True faith produces true regret. True regret produces repentance or the decision to turn from a life of rebellion to a life of submission to God. Faith and regret motivate a person to approach God for a pardon through Jesus’ sacrifice (2 Corinthians 7:10). If one does not regret their sins, they either do not believe or they are irretrievably wicked.
You may say, “How can God determine Salvation based upon hearing about Jesus’ sacrifice and BELIEVING? The answer is, God is the Creator! He is sovereign! He can set whatever conditions he chooses. I could take time to explain some of the reasons we know about, but that doesn’t really make a difference. It is God’s plan and God’s sacrifice; therefore, he sets the condition, and that condition is faith (1 Corinthians 1:21) witnessed by true regret, which is witnessed by repentance (Acts 3:19; Acts 17:30).
Those who truly believe, repent of their sins, and accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord, will be pardoned for their sins, receive eternal life, be considered a citizen of God’s Kingdom, and they will be adopted into God’s family forever.
WHAT MUST A PERSON DO TO BE SAVED FROM HELL AND RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE IN GOD’S ETERNAL KINGDOM?
To receive the gifts I mentioned to you, you must hear and listen to the gospel as I have just shared. You must then act by making the decision to turn from your life of rebellion to a life of submission to God (Repentance). This decision must lead you to pray, profess to God your faith in Jesus and his sacrifice, and ask God for a pardon through Jesus Christ. When you pray, you must believe God has done what he has promised to do. He has forgiven your sins, given you everlasting life, accepted you as a citizen in God’s Kingdom, and adopted you as his child.
The decision to accept God’s offer means you have accepted the rule of God. You have agreed to be a part of God’s Kingdom where God rules. The truly repentant will agree to live as Christ has commanded.
If you repent and believe on Jesus Christ, God will respond by placing his Holy Spirit within you and renewing your inner, spirit man. This will make you into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). It will give you a righteous disposition which will also drive you to live righteously. This infusion of the Holy Spirit into your spirit is called being “Born Again.” Every true believer is “Born Again” by God’s Spirit. This is the mark you belong to God, and it is witnessed by your righteous disposition.
THE ETERNAL FUTURE OF THE BELIEVER
If you believe unto repentance, you will be one of those who will live forever in God’s Kingdom. Even if you die, your body will one day be resurrected and rejoined with your spirit and be transformed into a celestial being with immortality.
One day, Jesus will return to this earth. He will gather out of the earth all those who have rejected Christ and chosen to live a life of rebellion. He will then cast them into a Lake of Fire (Matthew 13:41-42). While all impenitent sinners will be cast into an eternal Lake of Fire, the repentant believers in Jesus Christ will enter into God’s Kingdom to live together with God in fulness of joy forever (Matthew 25:34)!
CONCLUSION
Everyone will spend eternity in one of two places. Where you spend eternity depends entirely on whether you hear and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus is the only way to be saved from the Lake of Fire and to spend eternity in God’s Kingdom. Do you believe what I have just shared with you? If you are going to be Saved, you must repent and boldly confess Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
God loves you and wants you to be Saved. He has provided the means for you to be Saved by sending His Son to die for your sins. He now requires you to believe what he has done, repent of your sins, and profess your faith in Jesus Christ. The choice is yours! Your choice to believe or not believe, to repent or not repent, will determine your eternal destination.
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live…” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
There are many philosophies and religions in the world today. This causes people to be confused as to what the truth actually is. This pamphlet was written to declare to you the truth as revealed by God and recorded in the pages of the Bible. The Bible is no ordinary book. It was written by men as they were “moved on by God’s Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Therefore, all of its words are inspired and directed by God and given to man so that men could know the truth. What you are about to read is the truth as declared in the pages of the Bible. Read it carefully for how you respond to this truth will determine where you will spend ETERNITY.
GOD’S PLAN TO GIVE YOU ETERNAL LIFE
Every human being in the world is going to exist somewhere for eternity. Death is not the end of a person’s life. The Bible teaches man is not simply a physical being like other animals. Man is unique. Man is a “spirit being” and that “spirit being” is housed in a physical body. When a person dies, their spirit departs their body and goes somewhere else to exist for a period of time. Somewhere in the future, mysteriously and supernaturally, the bodies of every human being will be raised from the dead and the spirits of all men will be reunited with their bodies. At that time, every man will be judged by God and spend ETERNITY in one of TWO places. Let that sink in for a moment. You and I are going to spend ETERNITY somewhere.
The Bible teaches, there are only two possibilities for our eternal existence. You and I will either spend eternity in God’s Kingdom where we will experience fulness of joy forever, or we will spend eternity in a Lake of Fire.
The good news (The word “gospel” actually means “good news”) is, God wants every human being to be Saved from the Lake of Fire (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9) and He wants all men to live forever in His Kingdom (Luke 12:32). The bad news is, even though God wants all men to be Saved and to be a part of his Kingdom, he makes it clear, most will end up in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15; Matthew 7:13-14).
How can that be? How can most people end up in an eternal Lake of Fire when their Creator wants them to be Saved? To answer that question, we must examine God and His interaction with mankind.
THE NATURE OF THE TRUE GOD
For eternity, only one being existed. That being is God. This ONE God is infinitely complicated making his nature impossible for finite man to comprehend. However, God has revealed certain aspects of his character to mankind in nature and in the pages of the Bible.
One of the complicated aspects of God’s nature is that God is ONE being, but he exists as three persons. You and I are single beings and each of us is a single person. For example, your name may be John Smith. John Smith is ONE human and ONE person. However, God is different. God is ONE being, but he is three persons. He has existed eternally as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and these three are ONE being. This is nearly, if not completely impossible, for us to comprehend. We see this plurality and yet oneness in the first chapter of the Bible. In Genesis 1:26-27 God says,“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him…” It seems clear, the plural pronouns “US” and “OUR” referred to a single being – GOD.
Before our universe existed, before matter and energy existed, God existed. He is eternal (Psalm 90:2). He is the only eternal being or thing. Our universe, filled with matter and energy, is not eternal. It is a creation and all that is in it is temporal. Instead of something existing eternally, there is someone who has existed eternally and who will exist eternally. This eternal being is God and he created all things.
The Bible teaches us this eternal God is all powerful (Revelation 19:6). He is all knowing (Psalm 147:5). He exists everywhere all at the same time (Psalm 139:7-10; Acts 17:28) and yet He can manifest His presence in a single place at a single moment if he chooses to do so.
This is the God who created us, and he is perfect. He is holy. His character is absolutely pure.
The Bible also tells us our Creator is the personification of love. This loving nature causes God to be kind, merciful, and to do good. However, it also causes him to be just. He executes justice for those who have been wronged because he loves those who have been treated in a hurtful manner.
THE REASON FOR THE CREATION OF HUMANS
Somewhere in the distant past, this eternal, omnipotent God of love created our universe. In fact, everything, everywhere exists because God created it (Revelation 4:11; John 1:3). When God created the universe, he had already decided to create a unique being we call humans. Mankind was unique because though God created many creatures, mankind was the only one God created in his own image (Genesis 1:26-27). He created the first man from the dust of the earth and then breathed into that man the breath of life, or the spirit of life, and man became a living soul - a spiritual being.
When God created man, he did so for a wonderful reason. He created us to be an object of his affection. Love always looks for objects of affection. God wanted to share what he had created with man, and for man to spend eternity with him in absolute joy. Though God wanted to share everything with man, there was one thing God would not give men. He would not give men his position as ruler of the universe. He is the Creator, and he alone has the right to rule what he has created.
MAN AND FREE WILL
God did not want man to serve him like a robot only doing what he is programmed to do. Instead, he wanted mankind to recognize him as their Creator and be grateful for what he offered them. He wanted people to love him and to choose to serve him. To accomplish this, God would have to give man “free will.” Only if man had “free will” could man truly love God in return. If man was programmed to serve him and to worship him, man could only simulate love. They could not actually love God unless they had the freedom to choose to love him.
Here was the problem. If God created man with free will, there was the possibility humans would choose unwisely. There was a possibility they would choose to rebel against him and even choose to harm their fellow human beings. In fact, because God knows all things, he knew men would choose to rebel and even harm their fellow man. When man did that, God would be compelled to punish them because God is just and loving. He will not, he cannot, overlook it when someone harms another. He will not “acquit the wicked” or “clear the guilty” (Nahum 1:3; Exodus 34:7).
Some may say, “Should God have created man when he knew many would choose not to love and serve him? Should God have created man knowing most men would rebel and harm their fellow man? Should God have created man even though He knew most would end up in a Lake of Fire forever?” You may not think he should have done so. However, God is sovereign, and God chose not to withhold the eternal blessings of his kingdom from those who would choose to serve him just because others would choose to reject his offer and rebel. He desired fellowship with those who would choose to love him even if it meant God must endure those who chose to hate and despise him (Romans 9:22-23). In fact, those who chose to live rebelliously and to harm others would prove themselves unworthy of everlasting life and deserving of everlasting punishment and destruction.
THE ETERNAL, MYSTERIOUS PLAN TO SAVE MANKIND
The first book in the Bible (Genesis) describes God’s creation of the first human. Everything about the creation of man may seem fanciful, however, everything God did when he created man, served a purpose. The Bible says God started by creating a single, solitary man. Later, he would take a rib from that first man and with it, he fashioned a woman. The Bible is very clear. All of humanity came from ONE man. Even though people might say, “Mankind came from a man and a woman” the truth is, they only came from that first man for even the first woman came from the first man. There was a reason God did it that way. We will explain his reason a little later.
God then took that first man and woman and placed them in a garden paradise he had created on the earth. He then gave man a commandment. “You can eat any of the fruit from any of the trees EXCEPT one. He called that tree, the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” If you eat that fruit, you will SURELY die.” You may wonder, “Why did God put that tree there if God did not want them to eat of it?” The answer is “Free Will.” How could man actually have “Free Will” if man did not have a choice. This tree, and this one commandment, gave man a choice. Man could CHOOSE to obey God or man could CHOOSE to disobey God. Unfortunately, that first man chose to disobey God. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in direct violation of the commandment of God. When Adam sinned, humanity changed. Man became a mortal creature with no power to consistently control his carnal desires. Man became a creature with a sinful nature or disposition. As they procreated, man passed on their mortality and sinfulness to all their offspring and inevitably, their offspring all committed acts of sin because they were carnal and sinful creatures. One man’s disobedient act brought sinfulness and death upon the whole of humanity (Romans 5:12).
Why would God allow this one man’s act to affect all future generations? Here is at least part of the answer. If God allowed ONE man’s act of disobedience to affect all of mankind for evil, God could be just to allow ONE man’s act of obedience to affect all men for good. If ONE man’s act of disobedience could make all men unrighteous, ONE man’s act of obedience could make all men righteous.
Given free will, men were going to eventually make the wrong choice. When they did, God would be forced to punish them for their acts of disobedience. Each act of disobedience would need to be punished individually. However, if God allowed one man’s unrighteous act to make all men sinful, then God could be just, or fair, if he made one man’s act of obedience be sufficient punishment for all men. If one man’s sin could make all men sinful, one man’s death could pay the price for the sins of all men (Romans 5:15). Adam sinned. He made all men sinful, therefore all sin. Because all men sin, all men die and face the judgment of God.
After Adam’s sin, God set his plan in motion to provide a means of salvation for all men. At a time appointed by God, he would send a “Second Adam,” to act as a second representative. This “Second Adam” would then die for all the sins of all men. This “Second Adam” would be God the Son. He would come into the world in human form to die as a substitute for guilty men.
To prepare man for the substitutionary act of the “Second Adam,” God instituted a system which required men to offer animal sacrifices to atone for their sins. If you wanted a pardon from God for your sinful actions, you were required to kill an innocent animal upon an altar erected to serve the Lord. Throughout many centuries, people offered these sacrifices to God. However, these animal sacrifices were only symbolic. They had no power to bring man a pardon for their sins. They only served to prepare the people for the coming of the “Second Adam” who would die for the sins of the world. The multitude of sacrificed animals only served to teach one principle. There could be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of the blood of an innocent substitute (Hebrews 9:22). For centuries, God engraved this principle of substitution into the minds of men through these animal sacrifices. Then, the time came for the coming of the “Second Adam” to die for the sins of man.
Galatians 4:4-5
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
The guilty could not die for the guilty. The guilty would have to die for their own crimes. The sacrifice for man’s sins would have to be a human who was not guilty of sin. How could there be a human without sin when all men inherited sinfulness from their fathers? God’s plan was to send “God the Son” into the world in a unique way. God the Spirit would form a child within the womb of a virgin (Luke 1:35). The fetus within the womb, housed “God the Son” (Luke 1:35). The virgin chosen for this purpose was named Mary. She birthed a child into the world who was actually God with us (Matthew 1:23). God the Son became flesh and dwelt among us. He grew to adulthood. He then went about to teach men the right ways of God. He confirmed his identity with many signs, wonders, and miracles. He healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, and performed miracles which defied the physical laws of the universe.
When the time came, he allowed himself to be arrested. He was led through a mockery of a trial where he was condemned to death. They took him to a hill on the outskirts of the city of Jerusalem and nailed him to wooden beams in the form of a cross. They then lifted his dying body up and suspended it with nails between heaven and earth. A few hours later, he died. No one took his life from him. He came to lay it down for the sins of man and he did exactly that. One man, the “Second Adam” gave his life to pay the price for all the sins of man.
After his death, men removed his body from the cross and laid it into a tomb which was simply a small cave carved into the side of a rocky hill. They then rolled a large stone to cover the cave’s opening. As evidence to who he was and what he had done, he rose from the dead three days after he died. After spending time with several of his followers over the course of many days, the Son of God ascended back to Heaven as his closest disciples watched.
Before he left, he commissioned his followers to go to every human being in the world and declare who he was and what he had done to pay the price for man’s sinful acts (Mark 16:16).
THE CONDITIONS TO RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE IN GOD’S KINGDOM
Just because Jesus died for the sins of the entire world, does not mean the entire world will be pardoned, saved from judgment, and receive eternal life in God’s Kingdom. God set conditions one must meet in order to receive the pardon Jesus gave his life to provide. In order to be “Saved” from God’s judgment and wrath, and to receive eternal life in God’s Kingdom, a person must hear and believe in Jesus and what he did on the cross. Therefore, the followers of Christ were sent to tell others what Jesus has done and what God is offering. When a person hears this gospel, they must choose to believe it in order to be saved. Everyone has the capability to believe, for God gave every person a measure of faith (Romans 12:3). If a person chooses not to believe in Jesus and his sacrifice, they cannot be Saved (Mark 16:16).
To truly believe the story of Jesus’ sacrifice will produce a predictable response. It will produce fear. If one does not fear, they do not believe or they are unimaginably foolish. If you truly believe in the judgment to come and the fact you have violated God’s laws, how could you not fear? True belief will also produce regret for the sins which harmed others, offended God, and made the death of Jesus necessary. Faith, regret, and repentance are intertwined. True faith produces true regret. True regret produces repentance or the decision to turn from a life of rebellion to a life of submission to God. Faith and regret motivate a person to approach God for a pardon through Jesus’ sacrifice (2 Corinthians 7:10). If one does not regret their sins, they either do not believe or they are irretrievably wicked.
You may say, “How can God determine Salvation based upon hearing about Jesus’ sacrifice and BELIEVING? The answer is, God is the Creator! He is sovereign! He can set whatever conditions he chooses. I could take time to explain some of the reasons we know about, but that doesn’t really make a difference. It is God’s plan and God’s sacrifice; therefore, he sets the condition, and that condition is faith (1 Corinthians 1:21) witnessed by true regret, which is witnessed by repentance (Acts 3:19; Acts 17:30).
Those who truly believe, repent of their sins, and accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord, will be pardoned for their sins, receive eternal life, be considered a citizen of God’s Kingdom, and they will be adopted into God’s family forever.
WHAT MUST A PERSON DO TO BE SAVED FROM HELL AND RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE IN GOD’S ETERNAL KINGDOM?
To receive the gifts I mentioned to you, you must hear and listen to the gospel as I have just shared. You must then act by making the decision to turn from your life of rebellion to a life of submission to God (Repentance). This decision must lead you to pray, profess to God your faith in Jesus and his sacrifice, and ask God for a pardon through Jesus Christ. When you pray, you must believe God has done what he has promised to do. He has forgiven your sins, given you everlasting life, accepted you as a citizen in God’s Kingdom, and adopted you as his child.
The decision to accept God’s offer means you have accepted the rule of God. You have agreed to be a part of God’s Kingdom where God rules. The truly repentant will agree to live as Christ has commanded.
If you repent and believe on Jesus Christ, God will respond by placing his Holy Spirit within you and renewing your inner, spirit man. This will make you into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). It will give you a righteous disposition which will also drive you to live righteously. This infusion of the Holy Spirit into your spirit is called being “Born Again.” Every true believer is “Born Again” by God’s Spirit. This is the mark you belong to God, and it is witnessed by your righteous disposition.
THE ETERNAL FUTURE OF THE BELIEVER
If you believe unto repentance, you will be one of those who will live forever in God’s Kingdom. Even if you die, your body will one day be resurrected and rejoined with your spirit and be transformed into a celestial being with immortality.
One day, Jesus will return to this earth. He will gather out of the earth all those who have rejected Christ and chosen to live a life of rebellion. He will then cast them into a Lake of Fire (Matthew 13:41-42). While all impenitent sinners will be cast into an eternal Lake of Fire, the repentant believers in Jesus Christ will enter into God’s Kingdom to live together with God in fulness of joy forever (Matthew 25:34)!
CONCLUSION
Everyone will spend eternity in one of two places. Where you spend eternity depends entirely on whether you hear and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus is the only way to be saved from the Lake of Fire and to spend eternity in God’s Kingdom. Do you believe what I have just shared with you? If you are going to be Saved, you must repent and boldly confess Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
God loves you and wants you to be Saved. He has provided the means for you to be Saved by sending His Son to die for your sins. He now requires you to believe what he has done, repent of your sins, and profess your faith in Jesus Christ. The choice is yours! Your choice to believe or not believe, to repent or not repent, will determine your eternal destination.
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live…” (Deuteronomy 30:19)