God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26a)
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48).
The LORD spake unto Moses, saying, "Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy." (Leviticus 19:1-2).
"I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy." (Leviticus 11:44).
THE LAW(S) OF GOD
The law of God (given through Moses) can be divided into moral law, ceremonial law (which governs religious rituals and practices), and civil law, and is a shadow of the perfection and holiness of God (Hebrews 10:1-2)
- but the law of God can never make anyone perfect (Hebrews 10:1-2). The law teaches us that we are sinners who fall short of God's perfection. As Paul says,
"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." (Romans 7:7).
As the apostle John wrote,
"Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; indeed, sin is lawlessness. And you know that Jesus was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.' (1 John 3:4-5).
In the days of Moses, God made a covenant with Israel - a covenant which was based as much upon Israel's promise to obey the entire law of God, as it was upon God's promise to bless them if they obeyed, but also that they would be cursed if they disobeyed:
Moses took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, "All that the LORD has said will we do, and be obedient."
And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you concerning all these words." (Exodus 24:7-8).
God allowed enough time for Israel to repeatedly break their promise by breaking the law (not obeying it), before He said by the prophet Jeremiah:
"Behold, the days come", says the LORD, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, says the LORD:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
When Jesus was about to shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins, He said,
"For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matthew 26:28).
So Paul wrote,
"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3:24-25).
This sums up the reason for the entire Bible (as Jesus said to the religious leaders who were rejecting what He had been telling them):
"You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me, but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life." (John 5:39-40).
One of Jesus' disciples, Philip, found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
Nathanael replied, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip replied, "Come and see." (John 1:45-46).
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The law and the prophets - the entire Bible - is about Jesus, the Savior of the world who has been appointed the judge of the world by God the Father.
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Paul taught: "ALL humans have sinned and ALL humans fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23-24);
AND
"Just as it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one." (Romans 3:10);
AND
"The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23).
So there is a guilty verdict on all of humanity - but there is good news:
"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23).
Question: How is Christ's life [zoe] given to humans?
Answer: In the same way that the breath of life [zoe] was breathed into Adam, so that he became a living [zao] soul. Eternal life is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
Adam died because of sin - and the sin committed in the flesh is of the flesh, and had to be condemned in the flesh. In order to condemn sin in the flesh and to justify, forgive, and deliver all humanity from the guilt and consequence of the sin (death), our Creator, by (through) His Word (the Word of God), took on human flesh, becoming fully human and partaking in the creation while maintaining His Godhead.
Though He Himself was not the son of any man (being born of a virgin), and though He Himself had no sin, He took on human flesh and became both the Son of man representing Adam and all the descendants of Adam (all mankind), having become the second man (Adam was the first man, and we are all descended from him), and the latter Adam (the last Adam, 1 Corinthians 15:45 & 47).
"The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven." (1 Corinthians 15:47)
Jesus the Messiah bore the sin of the flesh (the sin of Adam and of the seed | descendants of Adam) in His own body (for us and for our sakes), and died - His body of flesh died (for us, and for our sakes). He rose again from the dead on the third day, because death could not hold Him. He alone could sacrifice His life for sin because He was without sin - no sin was found in Him or could be found in Him, because He is the Son of God:
"God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people's trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us we plead with you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God! For God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:19-21)
In order to do this for us He had to become one of us, and partake of flesh and blood (which we are) - so He came in the likeness of flesh that is sinful, but was without sin (Romans 8:3; Hebrews 4:15; Philippians 2:5-11).
He partook in the creation by taking on human flesh so that He could bear the sin of the creature (we are creature, part of God's creation). This is what the words the last Adam | the latter Adam and the Son of man express.
The sin of the flesh is in the flesh and had to be condemned in the flesh - and so it was condemned - in the flesh of Christ Jesus our Savior, who was without sin (Romans 8:3).
Jesus said, "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day." -- John 6:40.
So the apostle Paul taught:
"If Christ's Spirit is in you,
(1) Your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit (of Christ) is your (eternal) life [zoe] because of (Christ's) righteousness.
(2) Moreover, if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken [zōopoiéō] your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you." (Romans 8:10-11).
Imagine you're the Titanic, which has struck an Iceberg, causing a gaping hole. The hole represents your own sinful thoughts and desires, the lies you've told, and the amount of times you have broken one of the ten commandments, and any other sin you may have committed.
You've tried to stop up the hole with goodness, decency, or maybe by obedience to the ten commandments, but all this is mixed with your sin. The patch is not holding, because God is 100% just, and a judge who is 100% just, has to punish all sin.
Jesus said, "No one has ascended up to Heaven except He who came down from Heaven, the Son of man who is in Heaven. But even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life";
AND
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him." (John 3:13-16).
So when Paul wrote, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?", he immediately answered his own question:
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. " (Romans 7:24-25a).
Paul could say this because just as Paul also wrote,
"For He has made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin, to be sin for us,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
2 Corinthians 5:21.
The prophet Isaiah wrote:
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
Isaiah 53:6.
Jesus said,
"I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.";
AND
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me." (John 10:11; 14:6);
AND
"I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12);
AND
As the author to the Hebrews and all the authors of the New Testament also testify,
"God, who at many times and in many ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the ages, who being the shining splendor of His glory, and the express image of His essence, and upholding all things by the word of His power, having made purification of our sins, He sat down on the right of the Majesty on high." -- Hebrews 1:1-3
WE ARE SAVED BY FAITH
WE ARE SAVED BY CHRIST THROUGH OUR FAITH IN HIM
LIVING BY FAITH IN CHRIST
Romans 3:23-25
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat, accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed."
Titus 3:7
"That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs (turned into and become heirs) according to the hope of eternal life."
Faith simply means believing. We are justified by His grace and by His blood, through faith (believing):
"For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith." -- 1 John 5:4.
"Our faith in Christ overcomes the world" is not saying that our faith itself is what saves us or justifies us. We cannot be saved or justified by our faith. What is our faith in? In our faith? In ourselves?
"He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." -- John 3:18-19.
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God sent His Son for our salvation,
not a boat like the Ark that was built by Noah.
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John 3:17-18
"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God."
The only way to God the Father is through Jesus Christ:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6).
The only way to come through Jesus Christ is through faith in Jesus Christ.
"For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" -- John 5:4-5.
Righteousness can only come through faith in Jesus Christ
Hebrews 11:7
"By faith Noah, having been warned by God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
THE WILL OF GOD FOR BELIEVERS
The Bible teaches that salvation in Christ is free, and obtained through faith in Him and believing that He sacrificed His life for us, bearing our sins in His own body on the cross.
Nothing we can do, nothing other than the blood of Christ and the empty tomb will ever prove that we belong to Christ and are saved by Him, if we believe in Him. There is nothing more that we can add to the redemption price Christ paid.
However, in John 15:8 Jesus said, "Herein is my Father glorified, that all of you bear much fruit; so shall all of you be my disciples";
In Galatians 5:22-23 Paul wrote, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, wilful restrain: against such there is no law.”
In 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, and 7-8 Paul also tells us that "it is God's will that those who believe in Jesus become set apart unto God, keeping away from sexual immorality, that each one knows how to possess his own body in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.”
“Consequently”, Paul writes, “the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you."
Besides this, in John 15:12 Jesus said, "This is my commandment, That all of you love one another, as I have loved you."
In Romans 13:8-10 Paul wrote, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.
For this: Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love works no ill to his neighbor: Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
In Galatians 5:14 Paul tells us: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbour as yourself”.
In 1 John 3:17-18, John wrote, "Whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him? My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
In James 2:15-18, James wrote, "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and if one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them those things which are needful to the body, what good is it? Even so, if it does not have works, faith is dead, being by itself. But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
In Matthew 25:37-40 Jesus said this about the time of His return: "Then the righteous shall answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, and fed You? Or thirsty, and gave You drink? When did we see You a stranger, and took You in? Or naked, and clothed You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and came to You?
And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you have done it to Me."
In James 2:1-4, James wrote, "My brothers, do not have the faith of our Lord Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there comes a gold-fingered man in fancy clothing into your assembly, and if there also comes in a poor man in shabby clothing, and if you have respect to him who has the fancy clothing and say to him, You sit here in a good place, and say to the poor, You stand there, or sit here under my footstool; Did you not make a difference among yourselves and became judges with evil thoughts?"
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Though we cannot add anything to pay for our salvation, Peter taught in 2 Peter 1:5-8 that human effort is, nevertheless, able to add the following virtues to our faith in Christ:
"Excellence, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection; and unselfish love."
Peter says that we should add these to our faith in Christ because "if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately."
In John 15:5-6, Jesus tells us that without Him we cannot produce any of this fruit, saying, "I am the vine, all of you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me all of you can do nothing.
"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
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