Rooted and Built Up in Him

SALVATION Chapter 1

There are few certainties in life. But one certainty we all face is the certainty of death. The Bible tells us that “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). This verse warns us that not only will each one of us die, but we will each stand before a holy Judge. God will judge us according to His righteous standard – not ours. We will either pass or fail. There is nothing in between. In Matthew 25, Jesus describes this time of judgment:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…and these (the people on His left, the “goats”) will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’” (Matt. 25:31-34, 46)

1. What two eternal destinies are described in these verses?

2. Each of us will spend eternity in one of these eternal destinies. “Have you come to a place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today you would go to heaven, or is that something you would say you’re still working on?”

3. “Suppose that you were to die today and stand before God and He were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven?’ What would you say?”

The overall theme of the Bible is how we, as humans, can gain eternal life. The purpose of this chapter is to examine what the Bible says about the subject of our eternal destiny and how we can be sure we are going to heaven when we die.

4. According to the following verse, of what can we be absolutely sure? “These things I have written to you…that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13)

Read the following verses and prayerfully consider what God is saying to you through His Word.

GOD IS HOLY

Throughout the Bible we are told that God is holy. To be holy means to be separated from sin. In other words, He is morally perfect. As a perfect Being, God cannot have an imperfect standard.

5. What does this verse say God requires of us? “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

But perfection is a standard that we cannot attain! Therefore, we will never deserve or earn a place in heaven by our own efforts. We, on our own, will always fall short of God’s standard for heaven.

Our inability to earn or deserve heaven is because…

MAN IS SINFUL

The Bible tells us that we are the polar opposite of God. He is sinless; we are sinful. • “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) • “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Let’s take a test to ascertain just how sinful we are: • Have you ever disobeyed your parents? _____ • Have you ever told a little white lie or half truth? _____ • Have you been jealous or envious for something you don’t have? ¬¬¬¬_____ • Have you ever used God’s name lightly or in vain? _____

If we are honest with ourselves, we would admit to doing all of these. According to the Bible, then, we are disobedient, lying, covetous blasphemers! And we have examined only four of God’s Ten Commandments! (Ex. 20:1-17)

6. How does the following verse describe our relationship with God before we were saved? “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death...” (Colossians 1:21-22)

7. Despite our sinfulness, how do we often view ourselves according to the following verse? “Most men will proclaim each his own goodness.” (Proverbs 20:6)

We view ourselves as “good” because we make the evaluation by comparing our behavior with that of other sinners. As a result, we do not end up looking too bad. But God’s evaluation of us is based on His perfect standard. Therefore God’s description of us as wicked, sinful enemies is very different from our description of ourselves as good people!

8. What is the meaning of the word death in these verses? • “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) • “Sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:15b)

This word “death” speaks not only of physical death, but also of spiritual death and separation from God for all eternity. In other words, we deserve hell. This is a tragic situation in which we find ourselves and, without intervention from God, we would all end up in hell. Not only have we missed God’s standard for heaven because of our sin, we have actually earned eternal punishment.

But if God loves us, why can He not just overlook our sin? That is because…

GOD IS JUST

God’s justice is one of His least understood attributes. Our English Bibles use the terms “justice” and “righteousness” interchangeably. Both terms speak of the fact that God is absolutely right in all He does.

9. How does this verse describe our incredible God? “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)

Because God is absolutely just, He must punish sin. For the sake of illustration, let’s say you commit three relatively small sins a day (you would be doing very well!). But if God gives you 70 years on earth, you would meet your Maker with more than 70,000 violations of His holy law on your record! To put that into perspective, would it be reasonable for you to stand before federal court with 70,000 violations of the federal law on your record and expect to walk free? No! Then why would you expect a heavenly Judge, who is infinitely more just than a human judge, to overlook your violations against His law? That would render God an unjust judge. Simply put, God must punish sin. And that punishment is death and eternal separation from God.

Man’s sin constitutes the bad news. Now for the good news… and Biblical Counseling Professor, Virginia Beach Theological Seminary