In the beginning, God created all things - the heavens, the earth and mankind (Genesis 1&2).  God called all of His creation “good” (Genesis 1:25).    In today’s world, good is viewed as a step below excellent and above okay.   However, when God said, “good,” it meant that all of creation met God’s standard - which is perfection.  There was no defect in any of His creation.  It was all perfect.

 

On the sixth day, God said, “Let us create man in our own image,’ (Genesis 1:26-27) and so he created Adam and then Eve was formed from Adam’s rib as his helper and mate (Gen. 2: 18-24).   Mankind was also created perfect and had perfect fellowship with God.    There was no sorrow.  There was no pain.  There was no death, hatred or disease.  However, things did not remain that way.  God gave Adam and Eve one restriction.  They were not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 3:2-3).   

 

The one the Bible calls “our enemy”, Satan, (1 Peter 5: 8-9) entered into the garden in the form of one of the animals with which Adam and Eve would have been familiar (Gen. 3:1).  He deceived them into sinning against God by disobeying God's command.  

 

The result of Adam’s disobedience was that death, misery and sin entered into the world.   The same death and sorrow that we still experience to this day.

 

But, the important thing to realize is that sin also affected all of Adam and his wife's offspring.  Therefore, all of us have been born into sin. (Romans 3:23 ) That is why no one needed to teach you to steal from other children or to hit them or lie about them. You did these things from your own little selfish and sinful heart.  In fact in Ephesians 2 says that all of us were born living for the passions of our flesh and the desires of our bodies.

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Is it okay to go on living this way?

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 1 Corinthians 6:9 tells us that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God and Romans 6 says that the wages of sin is death. 

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This is all very bad news.  For you know in your heart that you have disobeyed God and gone your own way.  You have lied; you have hated; you have stolen; you have coveted what belongs to another.  In fact, God has noted that if you have had hatred in your heart towards another you are guilty of murder and if you have lusted in your heart you are guilty of adultery.   You are deservingly under God’s wrath and curse.

 

BUT!  Thanks be to God for His gracious mercy, things do not have to end here.  

 

Romans 6:23 tells us that while the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life.  Romans 10:9 says that if anyone will confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, they will be saved.  

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That person will be born again – 

 

John 3:3 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

 

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

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That person will receive Christ’s righteousness – 

 

 2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  

 

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.  

 

Colossians 1:21-22 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

 

 

That person will receive the Holy Spirit -  

 

Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

 

Ephesians 1:13-14  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

 

 

That person will receive eternal life – 

 

1 John 5:11-12  And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

 

John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

 

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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It is our sincere hope and prayer that through this message you have been drawn by God's Holy Spirit to understand your sin and your need for reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.   If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.   If you've been helped by this, we would like to hear from you as well.

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God bless,

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The Session of Redeemer