"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path". Ps 119:105

 "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD"

Reading: Isaiah 53

What is wrong with the world?

This is a question that many people whether Christian or not, ask. If we look honestly around us at the world we must acknowledge that there is certainly something wrong with the world we live in. Constantly the media present us with news of crime and violence. We hear reports of wars and the threat of wars, violence in society, disease, famine and injustice, the list could go on. These things are global in extent. Many governments are not concerned for the happiness of those they rule over, others do care and try to make changes, but in the end for whatever reason man fails to make significant changes. Mankind is unable to overcome the problems that face him, much of which is a direct result of his own character and nature.

These events happen all the time. We get used to them and take them for granted. But, if these things affect us directly or if we stop to think about how they affect others, the question is bound to arise, "why?"

When God first created the world, he pronounced everything to be 'good'. God created all for his pleasure and provided a perfect place for mankind to live in. God certainly intended something better than the world of trouble and uncertainty we live in today. The world we know came into existence because of man's disobedience to the law of God. Despite mankind's original disobedience and sin, God still intends this earth shall be filled with His glory, he does not intend it to continue this way forever. He will intervene.

The Beginning Of The Trouble

In the beginning, when God made the first man, Adam, He taught him His ways. He also gave Adam a simple law, and, just as a father expects obedience from his children, so God expected obedience from Adam. God said:

"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17).

Adam disobeyed God. The punishment for that disobedience was death, in other words Adam was given a limited life span. The mortal nature that Adam was given is prone to desires which lead to disobedience of God's commands. In Romans 5:12 we read:

"...as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

So Adam sinned, and because he was a sinner, he died. Notice that God did NOT promise Adam and Eve that they would go to heaven when they died. That would have been a reward. They were sentenced to death - this was a punishment, not a reward.

It Happens To Us, Too

We also sin and die. When you read the chapter in Isaiah, you will notice the words of verse 6, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way."

The prophet Jeremiah tells us the same thing, but in different words, he writes:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9).

When we read these things in the Bible and honestly examine our lives against the word of God, we have to admit that they are true, just as the apostle Paul did when he said:

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18).

We all have to agree with Paul - somehow we never manage to do what is right, indeed many people do not even want to know their Creator, let alone try to obey his word.

What Is The Remedy?

Before he sinned, Adam lived in harmony with God, but now that harmony was broken. Adam was a sinner, and could no longer have fellowship with his Creator. Because we inherit the same nature as Adam, we are also prone to sin. From our birth we are in Adam's family and inherit the effects of Adam's sin. We are dying creatures from our beginning and then make things worse by adding our own sins.

What a hopeless state! Men can do nothing to save themselves.

Saved By God's Grace

God, because of His mercy and love, did not leave men to die in their sins. He provided a means of salvation, a way in which they could come to Him and have life. But a way by which His justice and integrity are upheld. We read in John 3:16:

"God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life".

The apostle Paul says:

"By grace are ye saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8).

God has provided all that we need for salvation, extending his grace and mercy toward us, willing to forgive us for Christ's sake. He has done His part. He has given us Jesus. He has opened up the way. But we must also play our part and respond to His goodness in the way God expects us to, otherwise we will not be forgiven.

The way is 'through faith'. When the Bible talks of 'having faith' it simply means believing and trusting. If we do not believe God's Word, it simply is not possible for us to share in His grace:

"Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).

Jesus And The Cross

Jesus did not disobey his Father, though as Paul writes [Heb 4] he was tempted in all the ways that we are - "yet without sin." Jesus always did those things that pleased God and yet he was crucified! God did not save him from this terrible death, as the verse already quoted from Isaiah 53 goes on to say:

"The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."

The Bible teaches us plainly that through the death of Jesus on the cross, in obedience to his Father's will, we may have our sins forgiven, and have a hope of life.

There is something very wonderful about the love of God in giving His only Son and the loving obedience of Jesus to his Father's will. By believing in him, we can have life. This is something that we cannot think about too often. It is something that Bible students will come back to, again and again, through their searching of the Bible, because it is at the heart of the Christian's hope. God has shown His love for us by making salvation possible. Jesus also has shown his love for those who are his disciples as he said:

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". John 15:13

To which family do you belong?

One way to consider salvation is to think of families. Adam was the head of the family of Man and from him, and his wife Eve, all of us are descended. Adam sinned and brought death to the human race; so all men die. The Lord Jesus Christ established a new family. He could only do this by breaking the hold of sin. The death of Jesus, rather than of any other man was required to take away sin, something that could only be done by a perfectly sinless man. As we read Romans 5:19 "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will be made righteous". God provided a saviour, reversing the sentence of death for disobedience, but at the same time justifying God's condemnation of death for disobedience, by the sacrifice of the nature that had sinned.

The Bible teaches that Christ died because he was of our nature, Jesus had free will and chose to lay down his life willingly in obedience to his Father. Because Adam disobeyed (sinned) he was condemned to die, in other words he became mortal. We are of his nature and sooner or later we all die, as Paul wrote Romans chapter 6 "The wages of sin is death". So we die:

1. because we are the same nature as Adam

2. because of our own sin.

However Jesus although exactly of the same nature as Adam and mortal, did not sin and so did not deserve to die. For this reason although the law of sin and death said he had to die, he did not deserve to and so God could justly raise him to life again. [ Romans 6:9; Acts 2:24] Jesus willingly laid down his life both for himself: because we read "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God"; and secondly as a perfect representative of man. If we believe and have faith in him, God is willing to count our faith as righteousness

So now there are two families - Adam's family and Christ's family. We are all born into Adam's family and if we do nothing about it and die in Adam's family we will perish for ever. We have to act! We can join, as it were, the family of Jesus and we do so by learning about Jesus and the purpose of God and then be baptized. Baptism in symbol represents dying to our old way of life and rising to a new life again in Jesus. So we die to the family of Adam and rise again into the family of Christ. [Romans 6]

Please read Romans 5:12,18-21 and you will see how the Apostle Paul uses this idea of families. Considering the great love God has shown to us, surely we should show our gratefulness to God and the Lord Jesus for making it possible that we can escape from the family of Adam. How?

Believing in him

We have already seen that, if we are to please God, we must believe in what He has done for us through the death of Jesus. John 3:16 tells us: "Whosoever believeth in him (Jesus) should not perish, but have everlasting life. "

However it is not simply enough that we only need to say, "I believe in Jesus" and we shall be saved from sin and death. It may appear so at first, but stop and think about it. If we really believe anything, we act upon it. If our child is sick, and we believe the doctor can help him, we do not just say, "I believe in the doctor", and let the child go on suffering. Of course we do not! We send for a doctor and we act upon whatever he says. Why do we? Well normally because we trust his professional judgement and experience.

This principle is no different than believing in Jesus. If we really believe, we will find out what he wants us to do and then do it, to the best of our powers and abilities. Obedience God begins by being baptized by full immersion in water, as He commanded.

Only if we do this, can we hope to be among those who 'will not perish, but have everlasting life'.

The gift of everlasting life

The gift of life in His kingdom is what God offers to those who believe His word, then strive to obey Him. Such men and women pray every day, "Thy kingdom come".

When Jesus returns, he will set up the Kingdom of God. He will sit on David's throne in Jerusalem, reigning over the whole world. Then those men and women who have waited for him, trying to live as God wanted them to, will be given the greatest of all gifts - immortal life.

They will live for ever and help the Lord Jesus in his task of ruling the world. Then they will sing the words we read in Revelation:"...thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Revelation 5:9,10).

Summary

• All the troubles that are in the world arise because of man's sinful nature, inherited from Adam and Eve.

• Because of sin we all die, thus death is a punishment.

• The gospel, the good news, is that God has provided a way for men and women to be saved from the effect of sin.

• We cannot save ourselves, however hard we try. We are saved by God's grace, salvation is a gift.

• The way of salvation is through the Lord Jesus Christ, made possible his sacrifice.

• Our part is to believe - trust - have faith.

• Those who show real faith will respond by being baptized, then strive to obey and follow the Lord Jesus.

• God promises that those who believe and follow the Lord Jesus will live forever in His Kingdom on the earth, with Jesus as their King.

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