Gospel Message: Anathema Against the Cross

Key verse(s)/quote(s):

“The philosopher puts his glass to his eye, looks at the cross, and then says, “I cannot see anything so very wonderful in it,  —  even with this splendid glass of mine, which more than can be seen by that poor, humble peasant; I do not care about such a system of religion as that; any simpleton can understand the cross.” So he passes by, and merely sneers at it.” - C.H. Spurgeon

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” - 1 Corinthians 1:18

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” - Romans 3:23

Overview:

A few months ago, I was given the utmost of pleasures by being asked to preach my first ever “official” gospel message  –  it was also the first time I preached a message from the pulpit at my home church. We held an evening event for which we had established a theme of “It starts and ends at the cross”. It was an oddly nerve-wracking endeavor to prepare this message as I felt a weight from hosting such a lofty privilege as to handle a most poignant message carrying such extreme importance. Although there is an element of the Gospel in much if not all that I preach, it was different having a singular mandate to make the case for Christ and Christianity clear.

Please feel free to flip through the slides below or listen to the audio or simply watch …

Define the nature of sin and discuss its consequences both temporally and eternally.

Question:

Define the nature of sin and discuss its consequences both temporally and eternally.

Answer:

When evaluating sin we must understand it in the context of our humanity. John 8:44 says “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

We can understand that by nature we are objects of God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:3) and this is so because our father is the devil until God adopts us into His family (Ephesians 1:5). We also understand that since the origin of sin is the devil and our identity is initially found in him we must strive to examine the characteristics of Satan. In the above passage (John 8:44), we can clearly see that the natural implications of our hereditary makeup in the devil is to carry out his desire and inherit his other traits (sin). With this understanding of the origins of sin we can then posit the contrary premise that if our God is our Father than we must “carry out [His] desire” and this would be the opposite of sin. Thus, sin is doing something that is contrary to God our Father’s will  –  in effect aligned to Satan’s desire/will.

Additionally, as we would inherit the traits of the devil (once our father) we would then inherit …

Please discuss both the original and current nature of humanity.

Question: 

Please discuss both the original and current nature of humanity.

Answer:

In order to understand the original and current nature of humanity, we must venture right to the beginning of our creation. In Genesis 1:26-30, we see the creation account where God decides to create man in His image and provides for them everything that is needed. Interestingly, in Genesis 1:31 we see God’s proclamation that “it was very good”. This is not just a simple classification but an escalated declaration of God’s assessment of His created works. If we look to just prior to the account of man’s creation in Genesis 1:25, we see that preceding our creation God has declared his works “good” not “very good”. Something special had occurred and that was the entry of man a unique element of His creation that shared in His image (more information on what this means in this post on being made in the image of God).

Original state:
Man’s nature contained an intrinsic resemblance of God’s divine nature. Both male and female were made with God’s hands and thus no lack of equality is present. Some even have cleverly presented that woman was created after man as God’s final creation act and thus in verse 31 declares it all “very good”. At this time free will was given to man and a command was given to not eat of the tree.

The fall:
Interestingly, Eve makes a mistake even when confronted by Satan saying that God said not to …

Discuss the meaning of being “saved by grace”.

Question:

Discuss the meaning of being “saved by grace” in Ephesians 2:8-9.

Answer:

Before we can begin to talk about what it means to be “saved by grace” we must understand that which presupposes this need  –  that is the condition in which we find ourselves  –  dead and under God’s wrath. It only takes a cursory reading of Romans to see how Paul begins with God’s nature and then speaks of His wrath presenting an accurate context with which we must understand our reality. God is sovereign and righteous and His wrath is upon us (Romans 1:17-18). Furthermore, we see the state of all humanity clearly expressed as we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12).

Once again, in Ephesians, we see Paul start with the cold hard fact that we are “dead in [our] transgressions and sins”. We also see in verse 2 that we had once followed the ways of the world and the “ruler of the kingdom of the air”, which is especially harsh wording as that is the opposition to God on both a spiritual and physical level (note: opposition doesn’t imply God can’t do away with Satan if God wished it). We are called to always be heavenly focused on God’s will and not to be caught up in the world  –  remember we are in the world not of the world. And the spiritual charge is that the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” is Satan himself and we once followed …