(Because to the targeting nature of the next few blogs, the first two paragraphs will be a copy of those in Pt. 1. The new material will begin in the third paragraph for the next few weeks.)
Good Morning, Unbelievers (and faithful Readers): Welcome! Let me introduce myself: My name is Dan. You might not know me, but I know you. “How do you know me”, you might be wondering? Because I was an unbeliever myself for most of my life. I was a very proud Atheist; I was an intellectual. In fact, I even had the title, Professor, to prove it. Therefore, I could not possibly accept that trivial drivel the church is selling. I mean, “Come on…smart people like me and you can’t fall for gibberish that makes no rational sense.” That was my excuse. What is your excuse? You don’t believe in God, or you believe in god, but not Jesus? You don’t believe in organized religion, or you’ve been scared by organized religion? You don’t believe there is only one way to an after-life; you don’t believe in heaven or hell; you don’t believe the Bible can be true; you’ve seen church leaders that you once followed fall from their pedestals; you know hypocrites who claim to be Christians, but who continue to live as heathens; you see no way you could have fun if you’re expected to follow all of those confining “dos” and “don’ts”, or… you believe you are a “good person”, in fact, better than most, and you know that God, because He is a good God, will welcome you into heaven. Those are many of the classic reasons for remaining an unbeliever. I get that! The truth is, all of those thoughts were stumbling blocks for me as I continued to live in bondage to my arrogance.
So, you may be asking yourself, “What is Dan’s deal? Why does he care about what I believe, or what happens to me? My honest answer to that question is this: There was certainly a time when I could not have cared less about you, your belief or your destiny. But during that period of my life, I was totally consumed with “me”, my agenda and my career. As smart as I thought I was, in reality…I was totally ignorant of The Truth. I had a lot of knowledge and common sense, but I was ignorant of what I now know to be THE TRUTH. (I want to be perfectly clear here; I am not referring to worldly truth, worldly philosophy, or situational truth. I am referring to God’s Word (or God’s Truth, which is collected and codified in the Holy Bible). Today, it breaks my heart to know that people will perish just because they do not know THE TRUTH. I want to do everything possible to give unbelievers the same opportunity I had for redemption. I hope you will take five minutes to read each of these blogs. If you have questions, or criticisms, please respond to me at drpresgr@gmail.com. What have you got to lose?
(The new material for this lesson starts here). Today I will introduce the very essence of Christianity: The Gospel of Grace. I will begin this opening section with the definition of terms. I want to be absolutely sure that what I am speaking about is clear. “Gospel”, broadly speaking, refers to the whole of Scripture; it is God’s Word; it is His TRUTH. But when you add the term “Grace”, it narrows the definition; it means what God did through Jesus Christ to restore the original “God/Man (“Man” meaning Mankind) relationship.
Let’s review for a moment. God created Man in His image. Both Adam and Eve were spiritually connected to God. They were placed in the Garden of Eden (Paradise), where God provided for all of their needs. It was perfect, both physically and spiritually, until Eve, and then Adam, became disobedient to God’s directions. This is referred to as “The Fall”, and at that moment, the original spiritual connection between God and Man was severed. From that point forward, Man had to deal with the dilemma of Sin (living separated from God) through his own best effort. God gave Man from Creation until “just the right time” before He implemented His plan that was in place even before the world was created. (Ephesians 1:3-14 explains this whole scenario.) So, the obvious question here should be: “What was “just the right time?”
Romans 5:6 is the grade card on Man’s best effort at overcoming the dilemma of Sin. “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time, and died for us sinners.” So, what was “just the right time”? When we proved ourselves to be “utterly helpless”. Wow! Utterly helpless is quite an inditement. Notice that God didn’t wait for us to clean-up our act before He implemented His plan, most often referred to as the “Gift of Grace” (meaning, we weren’t deserving of this Gift, and we certainly didn’t earn it.) No indeed! He gave us this gift while we were still sinners (Apostle Paul also referred to us as God’s enemies.; we lived to please ourselves, and not Him!
The Gospel of Grace (or the Gift of Grace) was/is God’s plan to reconcile the world to Himself through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Under the Old Covenant, the blood of sacrificial animals was used to cover people’s sins. (Notice this blood only covered their sins; it did not forgive their sins.) Every year – on the Day of Atonement – the Israelites would go to the Temple to participate in this purification ceremony, because blood was the proof of sacrifice, and sacrificial blood was required for the covering of Sin. This system was the forerunner of the New Covenant, but this “new way” was always God’s plan for sacrifice, forgiveness and salvation.
John the Baptist revealed Jesus’ identity as He approached the Jordan River for His baptism. John announced to the multitude, “There He is! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29) God sent His only Son, Jesus, into the world to be the final sacrifice for the sins of Mankind. “Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world, but to save the world.” (John 3:17) Therefore, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the blood He shed on the cross paid the penalty for all of our sins, past, present and future. God said of us, “I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 10:17)
So, you may be asking yourself, “Why would God do this?” The answer is simple: God created us not only for a here and now relationship, but for an eternal relationship. Unfortunately, we proved we were incapable of overcoming the malaise of sin through our own best effort. Therefore, when we got to the point of being “utterly helpless”, God implemented His plan to save us from ourselves. We were undeniably stained with Sin, therefore we could not qualify to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God sacrificed His only begotten Son, Jesus, so His blood would wash away the sins of all who would accept Him as their Lord and Savior. How is that for unconditional, unending and unfailing LOVE from God, our Father, toward His prodigal children?
What It Means to Be “In Christ”: When we accept God’s Gift of Grace, we are immediately grafted into His family. We are now “In Christ”, and Christ is in us. (More on that subject a bit later) And because we are in God’s family, we are heirs to many spiritual blessings from God’s vast treasure trove of blessings: our sins were/are immediately forgiven, past present and future; we inherit (it’s a gift) eternal life; we inherit the indwelling Holy Spirit. (This will be the topic of the next section.) We are now worthy and acceptable in His eyes, not because of anything we did, but because of what Jesus did on our behalf. We are now Saints (followers of Jesus Christ) and no longer sinners, and we are now heirs to all the promises in the Bible, and there are hundreds of them. Being “in Christ” IS our new identity. Apostle Paul describes our new identity this way: “We are now God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can NOW do the good things He planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10) Prior to being in Christ, our focus was on pleasuring and exalting ourselves. But now we can choose to honor Him by becoming the people He created us to be. We are a new creation; at this point we have everything we need for living a life that is happy, joyous and free!
Next week’s topic will be, “The Power of the Holy Spirit.” Being in Christ secures our eternal destiny because our sins are forgiven. Now we qualify for eternal life. (We are told in Revelation that no one stained with sin will be allowed to enter the Kingdom; only those who’s names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.) But what about those of us who are still living in this fallen and perverse world? How are we supposed to make it? The good news is…God has a plan for us too. See you next week.
Ok, Believers…It’s time to partner in this endeavor. Please feel free to copy these blogs and share them with unbelievers. All are on line and can be copied. Please hand them (or send them) out in order (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3) etc. I believe the impact will be strongest if done in order. May God Bless You abundantly, as we further His Kingdom together.
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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