What Does The Bible Say About God’s Plan?
Five Crucial Truths to Summarize Our Need and God’s Provision
1. GOD CREATED US FOR HIS GLORY
Isaiah 43:6-7 “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.”• We are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) so that we would reflect His image in the world. We exist for the glory of God.
2. MAN FAILED TO GLORIFY GOD BY CHOOSING TO DISOBEY HIM
Genesis 3:6-7 “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”Romans 5:12, 14a “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all have sinned. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam…”
Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
• Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden plunged the entire human race into a state of sinfulness.
• No one, who is able to make moral choices, has completely obeyed God. Everyone has violated at least several of God’s commandments.
3. THE PUNISHMENT FOR SIN IS ETERNAL CONDEMNATION
Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death.”1 Thessalonians 1:9 “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power.”
• Having held the glory of God in contempt through ingratitude and distrust and disobedience, we are sentenced to be excluded from the enjoyment of the glory of God forever and ever in the eternal misery of hell.
• Some think everlasting punishment in hell is too large of a punishment for the crime. That shows they do not understand the holiness and justice of God – God cannot violate His own character by allowing sin to go unpunished!!!
• Hell is…
o A place of torment
Matthew 18:9 “It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”
Jesus often warned that there would be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30).
o Everlasting
Matthew 25:41, 46 “Then he will say to those on His left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Revelation 14:11 “And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night.”
2 kinds of religion – Do vs. Done (Jesus versus Works)
4. JESUS CHRIST CAME INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS
I Timothy 1:15 “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”Romans 4:25 “Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
• Over against the terrifying news that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of His glory by pouring out eternal wrath on our sin, there is the wonderful news of the gospel.
• The good news (gospel) is that God himself has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of His justice without condemning the whole human race.
• The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God – the death of the Son of God.
• The death of Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God by which the love of God saves sinners from the wrath of God, and all the while upholds and demonstrates the righteousness of God.
o 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
o Romans 8:3 “God (sent) His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man.”
o John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
o I Peter 3:18 “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
• If the most terrifying news in the world is that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that He is bound by His own righteous character to preserve the worth of His glory by pouring out His wrath on our sin, then the best news in all the world (the Gospel) is that God has decreed a way of salvation which also upholds the worth of His glory. He has given His Son to die for sinners and to conquer their death by His own resurrection.
5. TURN FROM YOUR SIN AND TRUST THE SAVIOR
Acts 3:19 “Repent, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.”Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
Acts 20:21 “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”
• Not everyone is saved from God’s wrath just because Christ died for sinners. There is a condition we must meet in order to be saved. The condition is repentance of our sins (a turning from them), and trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness and eternal life.
• Conversion is really two things: repentance (turning from sin and unbelief) and faith (trusting in Christ alone for salvation). They are really two sides of the same coin.
Romans 10:9-10
* Adapted from John Piper’s book Desiring God (chapter 2)
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Matthew 13:44