TODAY’S VERSE:

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

As we continue to learn about justification in prep school, we asked the question- If God loves all of us so much, why doesn’t He just welcome everyone into Heaven, despite what we believe? Well, God is perfect and His home (Heaven) will not be defiled (made imperfect) with sin.

Psalm 18:30 As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD's word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.

Revelation 21:27 Nothing impure will ever enter it (Heaven), nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

In the Garden of Eden, God gave a command:

Genesis 2:16-17 The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

As I am sure you remember, Adam and Eve disobeyed, became imperfect, and were kicked out of the Garden.

Genesis 3:23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.


God has perfect integrity. Do you know what that is? Integrity is defined as:
- The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
- A sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition
- The state of being whole, entire, or undiminished

When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, something was broken- their relationship with God. God, in His integrity, is perfect and whole. We are imperfect and our sin has resulted in a broken relationship with Him.

What did God do?

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

When a person repents and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, they become born and again and saved, a part of that salvation is justification. Do you remember what that word means?

Justification is the action of declaring or making righteous in the sight of God. In the Adventure Bible we use for prep school, this is how it was defined- “The forgiveness of sins and the gift of righteousness. When God forgives our sins, He says that we are not guilty anymore. Not only are we not guilty, but God also says that we are righteous. Because we are forgiven, we are right with God, and we can go to Heaven.”

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 5:6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

Once you have been justified, declared righteous, you are no longer impure and may now have a relationship with the Lord, and then live with Him, for all of eternity! Because of His integrity, this is the same for ALL people. He does not play favorites or make exceptions. How nice to know that God has perfect integrity and does not operate like the world does!