wORD of His Grace

Have you ever wondered what will happen to you when you die? Will you simply go into oblivion and cease to exist? Will you experience eternal bliss in heaven? Or will you suffer unimaginable anguish forever in hell?

          Most people have wondered about these questions, and great thinkers have tried to discover the answers. But frankly, no one can know the answers unless they are given or revealed to him. And the only One who can reveal them is God. He has determined the answers from eternity.

          While the Creation makes known that there is a God, the Bible is God’s complete and only revelation to man in this age concerning those things necessary for glorifying God in worship and for man’s salvation and faith. Although He used many people to write it, it is all the Word of God. The Bible reveals what will happen to you when you die. But it also reveals some other things you should understand first.

You Are a Sinner, and So Is Everybody Else

The Bible reveals that you are a sinner. Here’s how we can know this.

          The first chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, tells us that God created everything, including man. The second chapter gives us more detail about the man, Adam, and his wife, Eve. It tells us that God placed Adam in a garden called Eden. It also tells us God told Adam he could eat of the fruit from any tree in the garden except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This command of God was His law for Adam. If Adam disobeyed God’s law, he would die.

          Chapter three tells us that a serpent (really Satan, the devil, see Revelation 12:9) tricked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit; she gave it to Adam, and—knowing that he was disobeying God—Adam ate it.

          The Bible, in 1 John 3:4, tells us, “Sin is the transgression of the law.” By breaking or transgressing God’s law for him, Adam sinned. And by sinning, he earned death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23a). Before Adam sinned, there was no death. But by sinning, he brought the death sentence upon himself. He would eventually die. More than that, when he sinned, he died spiritually. Spiritual life is a relationship with God, but spiritual death separates us from Him.

          You are a sinner because the Bible says, “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Adam’s sin, because he was the father and representative of the entire human race, counts as your sin (Romans 5:18), so that you were a sinner even before you were born (Psalm 51:5).

          Adam’s sin has also corrupted the nature of all his descendents, so that we are continually committing our own sins. The prophet Jeremiah was inspired to write, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9).

          Since you have inherited a depraved nature that causes you to continually sin, you are by nature a sinner. You naturally disobey God, breaking His laws, such as the Ten Commandments: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). A few verses earlier, we read, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10–12).

          If there is nothing you can do to please God, if you are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), what will happen to you when you die? Without some sort of intervention, you will remain separated from God for eternity. Although spiritually dead, you will be conscious and will suffer torment. On the Day of Judgment, your name will not be “found written in the book of life,” and you will be “cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15) where you will be tormented forever (Revelation 14:10–11; Matthew 25:30, 41).

Your Need

Obviously, if you cannot do anything about this awful situation yourself, then you need help. You need to be rescued or saved from your sins and their penalty of eternal damnation.

          Make no mistake about it. God is a just God, and justice demands that lawbreaking, or sin, be punished. God will not simply forgive your sins without making sure that His law is satisfied.

        Before the foundation of the world, God provided a perfect plan to save His people while maintaining His justice. In His love and mercy, God would save His people through His Son. He would have His Son born into the world as a man—Jesus Christ, live a sinless life, and then be sacrificed to pay the penalty for the sins of all who will believe on Jesus Christ as their only Savior.

Jesus Christ, Our Savior

Remember: We are all hopeless sinners who can do no good works that will save us. But God “hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

          The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians living in the city of Corinth, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

        The above is a brief account of the Gospel, or good news, of what God did through Jesus Christ to save His people. Before Jesus was born, an angel announced to Joseph, “And [Mary] shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus means, “Jehovah [the Lord] is salvation.”

          But how could Jesus pay the penalty for our sins? He could do this because He is “the Christ [the anointed of God], the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). In fact, writing of Jesus, the apostle John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). Jesus Christ is God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

          Jesus is God in both Person and nature. To save us, He added a human nature to His God nature (Philippians 2:6 –8). Being born into this world, He lived a sinless life (1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5), took on Himself our sins and God’s just wrath for those sins (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13), and was crucified on a cross (Matthew 27:35; 1 Corinthians 2:2), dying in our place (1 Peter 3:18). By doing this, He satisfied the penalty of the law and God’s righteous anger toward us because of our sins (Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 2:24). He was able to satisfy God’s wrath (Romans 5:9). Not only that, He also took away our sins (1 John 1:7).

          Because Jesus was God (yet with a human nature) and had no sins of His own, He was able to bear our sins on the cross and pay the death penalty for them. On the third day after his death, He rose from the grave, proving that our sins are gone and that we are justified before God (Romans 4:25).

        By living a sinless life, Jesus also did something else. His sinless life is applied to, or imputed to, all His people. Just as Adam’s sin is imputed to the entire human race, so Jesus Christ’s sinlessness is imputed to His people, the elect of God, the church, those who believe that Jesus alone is their Savior. Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” So then, because of Jesus Christ’s death, we receive a “not guilty” verdict before God’s throne, and because of His sinless life, we are declared “righteous.”

But how does Jesus’ death and sinlessness come to be applied to you? You must believe that Jesus Christ alone is your Savior. But since believing this is a good work, and you are a sinner, how can you do this good work of believing?

Saved by Grace

You can do this work of believing because of God’s grace. God’s saving us even though we don’t deserve it is grace. And part of what He does for us by grace is to give us the gift of faith, or believing: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

          This Scripture passage tells us that we are saved by grace, not our works, and that grace comes through faith. This does not make faith a work we must perform in order to be saved, because the Scripture also says that the faith we need to be saved is a gift from God.

        If you believe that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice has completely paid for your sins, then you believe this because God has worked a miracle in your mind—He has given you the gift of faith.

        Along with and inseparable to faith is the gift of repentance—the change of mind from sinful unbelief and rebellion toward God to a recognition of your sinfulness, belief of the Gospel, and submission toward God (Job 42:6; Acts 20:21; 11:18).

          The miracle in your mind by which you have faith and repentance is called regeneration or being born again. It is a renewal of your mind and is caused by God acting through the Holy Spirit. Whereas before being born again you were spiritually dead, after regeneration you are spiritually alive. When you were spiritually dead, you could do no good works, including the good work of believing in Jesus Christ alone as your Savior. When you are born again, you (really God working in you) can do good works. You begin your good works by believing the Gospel about what Jesus Christ has done for His people.

Of the Jews of His day who did not accept His message because they were not born again, Jesus declared, “For this people’s heart [mind] is waxed gross [become dull], and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15). Jesus was speaking of the spiritual blindness of the people because they were spiritually dead. If you will read John 12:37–40, you will see that Jesus clearly taught that this spiritual blindness comes from God, “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart.” Jesus also said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). When God regenerates our minds, we can perceive the things of the kingdom of God and believe.

          Therefore, if you believe the Gospel message you have just been reading—if you believe that you are a helpless and miserable sinner in need of saving and that Jesus Christ alone is your Savior—then you have been born again and you are demonstrating the inward gifts of repentance and faith. So, you are born again—you have new spiritual life, you have repentance and faith, and God has outwardly declared you legally justified, or “not guilty” and“righteous.”

Nevertheless, despite your legal standing before God, you are still a sinner. Justification does not change you inwardly, and, while regeneration works inwardly to give you new spiritual life, it does not make you not a sinner. Therefore, you don’t deserve to be saved, but, because of what Jesus has done, God saves you anyway. And God will continue to save you in an inner work called sanctification.

The Christian Life

Sanctification means to make holy or to set apart for holy use. Justification removes the penalty of sin from us. But it is through the inner work of sanctification that God saves us from the power of sin and begins to make us holy. How does God do this? Concerning His followers, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth” (John 17:17). When we read God’s Word, the Bible, or hear it rightly preached, God’s thoughts begin to become our thoughts. We are nourished spiritually. As Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

          Other means through which God sanctifies us are baptism and the Lord’s Supper (when they are accompanied by the preaching of the Word), and prayer. All of these things, in fact, fall into the general category of good works. While good works don’t save us, they show our salvation and act in our sanctification.

Immediately after explaining that we are not saved by works, but by grace, Paul writes, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). God’s commands for our good works can be summarized as, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37, 39). If you want more specifics, do the good work of reading the Bible.

The good works you perform show that God is working in you: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). And you can take comfort in the fact that God will never abandon the work He has begun in you: “I thank God for every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:3–6). Once we are saved, we cannot lose our salvation. After all, our salvation is God’s work and He can’t fail.

          Don’t ever let anyone tell you that God will turn from you or that you can lose your salvation because of sin. He may chastise you as a father chastens his child in love (Hebrews 12:6), but He will never leave you or remove His salvation from you: “For I am persuaded,” wrote Paul, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).

You will never become completely holy or sinless in this life. That remains for another work of God, called glorification, when Jesus, returning from heaven, will “change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Philippians 3:21), and, “when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:54–58). Whatever happens, hold on to these words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5), and “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

Scriptures

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. —Revelation 12:9— back

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. —Genesis 2:17—back

For the wages of sin is death….—Romans 6:23a— back

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.—Romans 5:18—back

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.—Psalm 51:5—back

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.—Revelation 14:10–11— back

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth…. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.—Matthew 25:30, 41— back

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was make in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.—Philippians 2:6–8— back

Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.—1 Peter 2:22— back

And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins: and in him is no sin.—1 John 3:5—back

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.—2 Corinthians 5:21— back

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.—Galatians 3:13—back

And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.—Matthew 27:35—back

For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.—1 Corinthians 2:2— back

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.—1 Peter 3:18—back

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.—Matthew 20:28— back

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.—Ephesians 5:2—back

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.—Hebrews 9:28— back

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.—1 Peter 2:24— back

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.—Romans 5:9—back

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.—1 John 1:7— back

Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.—Romans 4:25—back

Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.—Job 42:6— back

Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.—Acts 20:21— back

When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.—Acts 11:18—back

But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.—John 12:37–40—back

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.—Hebrews 12:6—back

GLOSSARY

Trinity: There is one living and true God. Yet, there are three Persons in this one divine being or Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are the same in substance, equal in power and glory. Back

Justification: The process of being legally declared righteous and without guilt. Justification is a legal act that is outside of us; it does not change us inwardly. Back