In last week’s post, I presented evidence from the Bible to show that Jesus is both fully God and fully human. In that, it was shown that Jesus is the Creator.
But why is it important that Jesus created the world? Think of it like playing with a young child who’s making up a game to play. The child makes the rules, and you do your best to follow along with them! In the case of our world, Jesus created it, so Jesus sets the rules. Lucky for us, Jesus tells us what the rules are. Unlike the made-up game of a young child, we don’t have to guess. It’s all laid out plainly in the Bible.
In Genesis 2:15-17, God gives mankind the first rules: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’”
That’s pretty self-explanatory, right? Eat this; don’t eat that or you’ll die. That sounds pretty simple too, right? You can eat from probably hundreds of different trees, just not that one over there. But what did the first man and woman do? They ate from the one tree that they were forbidden to eat from. Humankind chose to break the one simple rule that God gave them. You can read the full story of this in Genesis 3.
Because of this original ‘breaking of the rule’ (also known as sin), you and I and every human being who has ever or will ever live is also living in sin. We broke the rule of the One who created our world. Based on that fact alone, we only deserve death.
But, since God is omniscient, He knew that His creation would break His rule. Because He is a loving God, He gives us a way out! That’s where Jesus comes in.
Many years after the original sin of the first people on earth, Jesus came to earth, born as a baby of a woman. As discussed last week, this means that Jesus is both fully God and fully human. To be an appropriate substitution for our punishment (death), Jesus needed to be one of us - a human being. He needed to die a human death. But, in order to rise again, He needed to be God. That is why it’s so important to recognize Jesus as both God and human, so He could be a perfect sacrifice for each one of us, so we no longer deserve death. Jesus is the only one who has ever existed that could accomplish this.
Why does Jesus matter? Jesus is the only way we have hope against death. He is the forgiveness for our mistakes. He is the reason we can have eternal life after our life on this earth.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17:“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”
3 comments:
So all the people born between Adam and Jesus, including all the people in the Old Testament, are condemned to eternal damnation because they did not have the opportunity to be "saved" by Jesus?
Ted,
That is an excellent question and one that many people struggle with. I believe the answer to it is found in Hebrews 11. The entire chapter is made up of those who endured hardships BY FAITH, beginning with Abel. As you may know, Abel was in the first family and was the younger brother of Cain. You can read all the wonderful things said about these people in Hebrews 11, and then cross-reference them with the corresponding Scriptures in the Old Testament that talk about their lives. I would key in on Hebrews 11:13. It says: "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance". Essentially, Ted, this means that those in the Old Testament who were "saved" as you put it had LIVED by the same faith that we do. The only difference was that their faith was FORWARD in that they trusted in the promised Messiah who would be coming. We have the advantage because our faith is BACKWARD, as we believe in the One who already came and will come again.
Since Hebrews 11:13 begins with Abel, it doesn't account for Adam and Eve. We can't know whether they were saved, but I believe we do know they were given the opportunity. In the midst of the curse in Genesis 3, God told the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel" (v. 15). I believe this was God saying that ultimately sin will be defeated by One who is born of woman, and Adam and Eve were not immediately destroyed as would've been their penalty for sinning against a holy God.
So you see, God gave Old Testament figures the same opportunity to be saved as he has given us. It's the same faith, all revolving around the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Ted, Logan gave a real good place to start exploring the answer to that question. Every person who is saved is saved by looking towards and depending upon the Savior. Paul tells us that Jesus was crucified before the foundations of the world. What does that mean? It means that even before there was sin, Jesus' death had already accounted for all the sin that would take place. Not every person in the Old Testament was saved, but every person who looked forward and waited for the Savior to come, was saved. John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus, was an Old Testament prophet who even though he saw Jesus, he did not live long enough to see the cross. He looked forward to the day of redemption and he was saved. Many others too were saved because of their faith. They believed God at his word and they acted on that word as though it was true, even if they didn't see it at the time.
Great question, Ted.
Post a Comment