God
“In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1)—words which are familiar to many but which, in their simplicity, hold a profound truth. God has always existed. The Bible calls him eternal, declaring that, “from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:1–4). God always existed because his existence is not dependent upon anyone or anything else. He is self-existent. This makes him categorically different to anything else in existence. Everything else is dependent upon God for existence (Colossians 1:16–17; 1 Corinthians 8:5–6) because he is the Creator of all (Genesis 1:1). This categorical separation between God and creation is part of what the Bible means when it calls God “holy” (Isaiah 6:3). The other part is God’s moral separation, meaning that he is completely without moral blemish or imperfection. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). God is good and does good (Psalm 119:68). God’s distinction as Creator and as the infinitely holy one means that he has authority over his creation (Psalm 24:1), including mankind, and that this authority brings with it demands that we obey and be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16; Matthew 5:48). For man to be holy means that he should reflect God’s character which is revealed in his law – the commands he gives to man – and obey that law perfectly (Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10; James 2:10).
Sin
The pinnacle of God’s creation is man – male and female – made in his image in order to represent him and to steward his creation (Genesis 1:26–27). The first man, Adam, and the first woman, his wife Eve, existed in perfect, joyful communion with God in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:7–25; 3:8). They reflected his character as image-bearers of God by being holy and obedient to him, and they enjoyed the blessings of pleasing God. This relationship between God and man was ruined when Adam and Even sinned and thereby became unholy and unrighteous (Genesis 3:1–19). This was devastating not only to them, but to all of humanity with them because Adam served as the head and the representative of all mankind which meant that when he sinned, all of mankind sinned in him and came under the curse of sin (Romans 5:12–21). This curse means that every man and woman is sinful from the earliest point of their existence—conception (Psalm 51:5; Proverbs 20:9). As sinners, we are all justly condemned by God for our rebellion—our unholiness and our disobedience. God’s holiness, especially his moral purity, means that he cannot allow anyone who is impure and unrighteous to go unpunished. In his perfect justice, he must respond with condemnation towards sinners.
Since we do not wish to acknowledge or accept the reality of our guilt from our sin, we try to deny that we are disobedient and unrighteous. Using a flawed measure of relative morality, we try to assuage our consciences which accuse us of sin and guilt (Romans 2:5–16) by pointing to others that we believe we are morally better than. But since these are not God’s standards, all such comparisons are worthless. Far from being a “good person,” the Bible says that, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10) and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10, 23). This means that you, too, are under the curse of sin – born a sinner, rebellious against God in every thought and deed, and under his just condemnation.
To be condemned by God means that God, like a judge with a criminal, has found you guilty of failing to be holy and obedient and therefore he is bound by his own holiness, righteousness, and justice to punish you for your sin. This punishment takes the form of death (Romans 6:23) which not only means that our physical bodies will die but that we will spend an eternity under God’s wrath in hell (Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:12–15). Since God is infinitely holy and infinitely valuable in his glory, all sin against him deserves an infinite punishment which is the only way justice can be upheld against such a crime. Therefore, the punishment and agonies of God’s wrath against you because of your sin will never end if you do not escape it through his grace in Christ (Mark 9:48; Matthew 25:41, 46; Revelation 14:10–11).
Many respond to their consciences which accuse them and to the Bible’s message of their guilt with efforts to save themselves. They have a desire to escape the wrath of God, but not to do so in the way that he has provided in his Son. In continued rebellion against him, they seek to establish their own righteousness (Luke 18:9–14) through a superficial obedience to his law (Matthew 23:25–28), or through an adherence to a law of their own (Matthew 15:7–9). Even if others are fooled, God recognises that these deeds are corrupted by a sinful desire to justify oneself apart from his appointed means and are therefore repulsive to him (Isaiah 64:6). You should be aware that there is no hope in good deeds to save, since salvation is not by works by the grace of God (Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8–9).
Christ
God has made a way for guilty sinners such as yourself to escape his wrath since his holiness means that he is not only just but also abundant in grace and mercy. In his compassion for his creatures and those made in his image, he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked and would rather have them turn from their ways and live (Ezekiel 18:23; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). The means of salvation that he has appointed is his very own Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16).
God sent his Son, who existed eternally with God, never being created, and who shared the same divine essence as God the Father (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 2:9 ;John 1:1–3; 1 Corinthians 8:6), to be born of a virgin (Matthew 1:20–23). He was preserved from the curse of sin so that he was perfectly holy and righteous when he was conceived and continues to be so forever. This Son, Jesus Christ, came with the purpose of saving his people from their sin and the wrath of God (Matthew 1:21; John 1:29; Luke 5:32; Acts 4:12).
In order for Christ to save sinners such as us, he needed to satisfy the wrath of God against our sin and to provide us with the righteousness that we lack because of our sin. In other words, he not only needed to pay the penalty of our sin (1 Peter 2:24) but he needed to live a perfect life so that his obedience and righteousness could become ours (Philippians 3:9; Romans 10:3–4) since God’s standard demands not just an absence of guilt but the presence of righteousness (Matthew 5:48). The Bible calls Jesus the “second Adam,” because in the same way that Adam represented all of humanity and through his sin all became sinners, so Christ represented all who would be saved through him and through his righteousness he makes them righteous too (Romans 5:19). Where Adam failed as a representative, Christ succeeded and therefore our hope of salvation is found in him.
Christ demonstrated God’s love for sinners such as yourself by dying as a perfectly innocent man in the place of absolutely guilty sinners on the cross (Romans 5:8). When Christ died on the cross, God placed the sins of his people on his Son so that he bore the wrath of God that was justly aimed at their guilt from sin (Isaiah 53:4–6; Mark 10:4). In so doing, there was a great exchange whereby the guilt of sin was transferred from the sinner to Christ who paid its penalty under the wrath of God on the cross, and the righteousness of Christ’s perfect life was transferred to his people so that God views them as perfectly righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). Since Christ was righteous in his death and since he is the Son of God, he could not be held by death (John 10:17–18; Acts 2:24) and God raised him up from the dead. His resurrection gives us the assurance that his sacrifice for sin was accepted (Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4) and that we too will be raised from the dead to eternal life if we repent and put our faith in him (1 Corinthians 15:20–22). Christ rose from the dead in victory, triumphing over his enemies and decisively accomplishing the forgiveness of sins or all who are his (Colossians 2:13–15).
You
All of this is relevant to you since you have been made in God’s image and are therefore made to glorify him (Isaiah 43:6–7) by your obedience and holiness. You too were conceived into the curse of sin and are corrupted in your mind and heart because of it. Because of your sin and unrighteousness, the wrath of God hangs over you like an executioner’s sword (Romans 1:18). Though in the past you have denied these truths and even suppressed the truth of God in your mind and heart (Romans 1:18–20), he will hold you accountable for your failure to worship him as God and obey his law because the reality of his existence is plain to see in his creation. Furthermore, he has given you a conscience which is aware of your responsibility to be holy and righteous, and it has warned you of your sin and rebellion against God (Romans 2:15).
However, the good news is that God has already shown you immeasurable kindness in giving you life and delaying his wrath in order to give you an opportunity to repent and find forgiveness and salvation in Christ (Romans 2:4). He is calling you today to repentance and faith in his Son, Jesus Christ since “there is salvation in no one else” (Acts 4:12). Nevertheless, do not harden your heart in further rebellion for this truth will stand in witness against you in the day of judgement if you reject it. Besides that, “you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). You do not know whether you will receive another opportunity to find grace and mercy if
you reject this one!
God promises salvation to those who repent and believe. That means that you should turn from your wicked ways (Isaiah 55:7) and place your trust in Christ for the righteousness that he obtained on your behalf through his life, death, and resurrection (Ephesians 2:8; Titus 3:5). “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Therefore, if you confess Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9; Acts 17:30), you will be granted eternal life in his name. What is eternal life? “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is the promise of sins forgiven, and complete redemption so that you will have God as your treasure and the joy of knowing him for all eternity.