EUSEBEIA BIBLE CHURCH PREP SCHOOL LESSON
November & December 2011
“WHAT EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW”
Part Eight
Romans 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."
In Romans 1:17 we see that the Apostle Paul uses the Doctrine of Righteousness when he stages his argument for why both justification of man and condemnation (punishment) of man are fair and just.
What this means is that Jesus proves that God is fair in all of His actions towards mankind. In order for us to understand what God has done for us, we must understand GOD and His standards of perfect righteousness.
Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the LORD.
We have learned that to “justify” means to declare someone righteous/free from sin. In God’s eyes this righteousness must be perfect. The only perfect righteousness that exists is God’s. So, we must be given that righteousness to meet God’s standards. And we are given this righteousness when we believe in Jesus Christ. This is always done by GRACE!! We do not earn it or deserve it!
We have learned that God designed this perfect plan to satisfy HIS desire to have fellowship with us. He had to honor our free will and, also, not go against His perfect justice. This was not easy kids! It took a perfect genius to design this plan. The more you learn about it, the simpler it gets but the more amazed you will be!
We learned that there is only ONE sin that is not forgiven! That is the sin of “not believing in Jesus Christ as Savior.” It is this one sin that stops the Perfect Righteousness of God from entering that person and, therefore, prevents God from having fellowship with them.
Remember our big words? Do you? Let’s do a quick review:
REDEMPTION - a payment for sin meeting the demands of the offended righteousness of God against sin. Jesus Christ is the payment (remember our coupon story)
JUSTIFICATION - To justify means to declare righteous/free from sin. We believe in Jesus Christ who paid the price for all of our sins. We are then justified and God is free to bless us and have fellowship with us.
RECONCILIATION - to change from a state of hostility to a state of peace, to change from enmity/being enemies to friendship.(Remember our meeting place diagrams). God reconciled us TO Him!
PROPITIATION: This means that God is totally satisfied with the entire work of Christ. He has accepted His sacrifice as payment for all sins!
EXPIATION: Refers to the payment for an offense. TLJC propitiated the wrath of God by becoming the expiation for our sins.
Remember we learned that the Old Testament Sacrifices were a “visual or teaching aide” regarding the cross to come?
Let’s look at the ARK again, shall we?
This represented a “temporary meeting place” for Israel. It was a shadow of the new meeting place that would be established on the basis of Christ’s work on the cross.
Materials of the Ark
Once a year, God’s people would take a day for the “Day of Atonement”. The high priest would take a perfect lamb without a spot, kill it (YUCK!) and sprinkle it’s blood on the Mercy Seat. God then looks at the blood of this perfect lamb and is “satisfied” with the payment for the sins of the people. Does this sound familiar to you? Jesus, The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world..” Do you remember the word for when God is “satisfied with the offering”? It is propitiation.
Remember what was in the Ark?
God’s temporary satisfaction with the animal sacrifices on this altar provided a suitable “temporary” meeting place where His wrath was removed and He could fellowship with His people. All of this is a “SHADOW” of the cross, the ultimate new meeting place.
This process was done once a year. The high priest, who represented the people, would offer the perfect lamb on behalf of the people of Israel. The integrity of God looks at the perfect offering and is satisfied. This was called the Day of Atonement. This became the most important day because it represented the day the ULTIMATE Lamb of God would be sacrificed on the cross.
I John 2:2 He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only but those of the whole world.
There is a Geek statement that is interesting in this verse, “AUTOS ESTIN”. This means that Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. It is in the indicative mood, which is a very strong statement of FACT! So, Jesus Christ is the propitiation (suitable sacrifice) for ALL SIN!! Once again, the only sin that is not paid for is the sin of not believing in Jesus Christ as Savior.
When it says the WHOLE WORLD it means THE WHOLE WORLD! Both believers’ and unbelievers’ sins are paid for. Again, UNBELIEF is the only thing that makes a person spend all eternity apart from God.
The Lord Jesus Christ NEVER became a sinner. He only took the judgment for all SINS as our substitute! He was perfect throughout the entire process! In the Latin there are two phrases that describe Jesus Christ as the unique God/Man. He was Non Posse Peccare, not able to sin. This means that His God nature could NOT sin. This also means that in the eternal state, in Heaven, man will be godly and not be able to sin. Then, the second phrase is Posse Non Peccare, able not to sin! This refers to Christ’s Humanity only. NO other human can say this about themselves. His human flesh was tempted in every way and, yet, He chose to never sin!! WOW!!!
II Corinthians 5:21 – He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
In the eternal sate we will possess the Righteousness of God, which is different than Adam’s righteousness in the Garden. We will not be able to sin as we will have God’s Righteousness forever.
God’s love is the great motivating factor behind His Plan. Grace is the divine policy to express His love towards us. You see kids, without grace it would all be over! We can’t get involved in this plan in any way or it becomes IMPERFECT. A perfect plan demands that a perfect person design it and a perfect person execute it. If we get in the middle, being imperfect, the plan becomes imperfect. Did you get that?
The payment for our sins (expiation) was done by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ satisfied the wrath of God (propitiation) by becoming the payment for ALL sins for ALL mankind!
Ephesians 2:13-15 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the trigger to unleashing the entire plan of God for fellowship with you!
Romans 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
_________________________________________________________________________
Pastor Ed Collins / April 3, 2011 lesson / www.eusebeia.org
© 2009 Eusebeia Bible Church