Classic Christianity Radio – (03-19-19) – Part 2
Bob George shares how mankind becomes a forgiven person and receives new life. Forgiveness does not give new life. New life brings life from the dead. Man’s most basic problem is that he is dead and in need of new life, God’s life. We are saved not through his death but through His life. His death is a part of salvation, to take away sin from the sight of God. For without sin being taken away, the cause of death, Jesus could not bring new life to man. Death is worse than sin. God cured death by dealing with the sin issue when He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Now that sin is taken away, never to be remembered again in the sight of God, what can Jesus now offer to mankind? New life in Him! By His resurrection from the dead, He offers the same life that was in Him to be placed in us, who have put our trust in Him. When you receive the life of Christ, you have the righteousness of Christ. We never had any righteousness of our own. We were cleansed at the cross of all unrighteousness so that we could be filled with Him and His righteousness.
Bob George explained the meaning of 1 John 1:8-9. The apostle John confronted the Gnostics, who claimed to be Christians but were not. The Gnostics did not believe that Jesus came in the flesh and did not recognize they even had sin. The Gnostics were lost. The truth is not in them and until they come to their senses, then what Christ accomplished for them cannot be theirs. If they recognize their condition of spiritual death, only then would they begin to see their need to come to Christ for new life. But as it is, they do not even recognize their sinful condition. Nor do they recognize who Jesus is, that He is God in the flesh, who paid an eternal sacrifice for sin, so that their sins have already been forgiven when he shed his blood on the cross. Nor do they understand that by Christ’s resurrection from the dead, now that sin is taken away, there is an offer of new life in Christ Jesus.
The need of all men is to repent of unbelief in God’s provision in Christ Jesus. There is nothing man can do – being spiritually dead, unrighteous already – to make themselves holy and acceptable to God. If someone recognizes their sinful condition, then they can come to Christ alone for life. In Him we have forgiveness, holiness and righteousness and new life.
Bob George continues now explaining how man receives new life. He explains God’s original creation that was lost through sin. He explains the nature of Adam, created with body, soul and spirit, with the Spirit of God indwelling him. Adam and Eve were created special, unlike all the animals God had made, with the ability to communicate with the living God. When Adam sinned one day in the garden of Eden, the Spirit of God left him. Not only that, on that day, when Adam sinned by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin entered the entire human race. So all men, beginning with Seth, inherited the nature of Adam in his sinful state, without the Spirit of God in him. So all men are born not in the image of God, but born spiritually dead. Bob explains more thoroughly what this spiritual death is. Man remains spiritually dead until he comes to believe in God’ provision of life through His son. What is needed for fallen man is for man to be recreated so that the Spirit of God is placed back into man. Bob explains this spiritual new birth, which is something man cannot do. God recreated man when man believes by faith. Having recognizing his state of spiritual death and coming to receive eternal life through God’s provision through His Son, man is recreated into the image of God, with God’s Spirit put back into him. Man must trust alone in the completed work of Jesus Christ for him. For only God can raise the dead and give new life to man. When man believes by faith then God gives him the right to become children of God.
Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Romans 4:24
but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Romans 5:17
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
In Him we have forgiveness and righteousness. So what else do we need? Life.
Romans 7:10
10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
Who thought the law was to bring life? God? No. Man thought law would bring life.
Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned
Death came to how many men? All!
Ephesians 2:1
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins
What were you in your transgressions and sins? Dead!
Colossians 2:13
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
How many sins did he forgive? All of it!
John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
He who believes in the Son has eternal life.
Has what? Life.
What kind of life? Eternal.
He has life and the quality of that life is eternal. Whoever rejects the Son will not see that life.
If you do not have life what are you? Dead.
Romans 6:23
The wages of sin is death.
Death does not come upon you. It remains on you. You remain dead because of your refusal to receive life.
Whoever rejects that life God’s wrath remains on him.
Can Buddha, Mohamed, religion, a priest, a pastor give you life? No!
It is not the case my God is better than your God. Or my religion is better than your religion. Or that I am just being dogmatic in my belief. This is the most practical issue for receiving life. You are born dead and in need of life. A dead man cannot produce life. The issue is about where I am going to get new life? God is looking at His creation who died spiritually and is in need of new life. So God set a plan in motion to bring life back to man. It is not dogma. It is not being narrow-minded. It is total practicality.
Death remains on us until we receive new life.
John 3:18
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
What does that mean to be condemned already? That mean you are still under the death penalty, the penalty that say the wages of sin is death.
How come? Sin was already taken away so that is not because of sins.
So what is the problem? You have not believed in God’s provision for life in His Son.
God created man with body, soul, and spirit. The word of God is sharper than a two edged sword.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The soul and spirit are two separate things and they can be divided by the word of God. We are born into the world with a body, which is obvious. We are also born into this world with a soul given to us by mom and dad. The soul is the mind, thinker, feeler, and willer. A dog has those. A dog has a mind, has feelings and has a will. Unlike the Animals though, God gave man a human spirit that was to be indwelt with his Holy Spirit. A human spirit that was to be indwelt by His Holy Spirit separates mankind from the animal kingdom. So what happened to man? What happened to God’s original creation?
Genesis 2:16-17
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 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.”
God had told Adam that on the day he should eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he will surely die. Did Adam die bodily that day? No. Did he die soulishly that day? No. He died spiritually. What is death? The absence of life. What is darkness? The absence of light. The condition of the world is dark. Sun comes up, dispels the darkness, and it becomes light. When the sun goes down, the world returns to its natural condition. The condition of the world is not light. It is dark. When death occurred, what does that mean? It meant the life of God, designed by God to indwell man’s spirit, left him. He left his human spirit dead to what vacated it. What vacated the human spirit? The Spirit of God. Is that man’s spirit dead? No, if it was, he would be an animal.
Some people teach that the human spirit is so dead that he cannot even receive the Lord. That is what people teach concerning what is called election, a different concept than what is taught from the scriptures. They say, “God chooses who he likes and who he doesn’t. He happened to choose Paul so you would not even have enough sense to walk by faith so He has to give it to you.” That human spirit, if it was dead, would be like a dog. If that what is meant by being dead, then you would be left with nothing but a soul and a body like an animal. So that human spirit is alive to the world but it is dead to what vacated it, who is God. Instead of the human spirit being the source of teaching the soul, the human spirit receives it’s input from the soul. Therefore, we become our own God.
So what happened to Adam on the day he fell? He fell from the life of God living in him, leaving him dead spiritually. We are taught that all of us born in the image of God, that we are all God’s children. Is that true? No. It says in Genesis 5 that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. But when Adam and Eve had Seth, Seth was born in image of Adam.
Genesis 5:1-3
1 When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth
Adam and Eve were created by the hand of God, a creation like nothing that has ever been done before. Man was created in the image Of God. He was created alive bodily, soulishly and spiritually and created with the Spirit of God in him. When Adam fell, you and I were not created by God. We were born of Adam. We were born in a natural way. That is what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus in John 3.
John 3:1-8
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Unless a man is born of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. A man is born of water, a natural birth, so that the flesh gives birth to flesh. But a man must also be born again spiritually. The Spirit gives birth to spirit. You must be born again, not by the will of your father and mother, but born again by the will of the Father.
When you and I are born again, what does God call that? A new creation. When you and I are born again you are now recreated again in the image of God.
John 4:24
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
When you are born again, you are now a new creation. Who did that? Mom and dad? No, they had nothing to do with that. God recreated me. God recreated me by putting His Spirit back in me. He recreated me into the image that I had lost, and that is the image of God. So you and I are not born in the image of God. We were born in the image of mom and dad, who were born from their mom and dad, going all the way back to Adam. We had to be recreated in the image of God. Every born again Christian is recreated in the image of God. We are born in this world dead spiritually. That is what spiritual birth is about.
Galatians 6:15
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
So what is man’s condition under the grace of God?
Jesus said this when he was walking on the earth.
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Why do we need life? We are dead.
John 1:4
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus also said this to the Pharisees, religious leaders who trusted in their own righteousness and failed to come to Christ for life.
John 5:39
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,
