The Gospel of Jesus Christ

The Character of God

The Holiness of God

  • Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: Habakuk 1:13
  • But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:2

The Justice of God

  • For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright. Psalm 11:7
  • But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.. Isaiah 5:16
  • God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. Psalm 7:11 & 12

The Depravity & Condemnation of Man

  • For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:23
  • But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Isaiah 64:6
  • For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Galatians 3:10

 

 

The Great Dilemma

  • He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD. Proverbs 17:15
  • That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18:25 

God's Action

While maintaining His holiness and justice, the Bible also affirms that God is love, and that in love He has responded to the plight of man.

Motivated by Love

  • He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4:8-10

The Cross of Christ

  • For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans 3:23-26

The Resurrection

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

Man's Response

Repentance begins with a recognition and confession that what God says about us is true that we have sinned.

  • For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Psalm 51:3-4

A genuine recognition of our sinfulness and guilt will also lead to genuine sorrow, shame and even hatred for what we have done.

  • For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. Romans 7:15 

  • O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Romans 7:24

Apparent sincerity of confession alone is never definite evidence of genuine repentance. It must be accompanied by a turning away from sin.

  • Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Isaiah 1:16
  • And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Matthew 3:10

Faith Defined

  • Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
  • And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Romans 4:21

Faith Based on The Promises of God

  • 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. John 3:16 

  • Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved Acts 16:31

Example of a Believer

  • For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:3

The Basis of Genuine Assurance

  • True conversion: A true Christian is a new creation and will live a life that reflects God's radical work of re-creation in his/her life. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 

  • Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Matthew 7:16 

  • Assurance is based upon self-examination in the light of Scripture. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 2 Corinthians 13:5 

  • These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5:13

Test of Biblical Assurance

1 John 1:5-7 (Walking in the Light), 1 John 1:8-10 (Confession of Sin), 1 John 2:3-4 (Obedience), 1 John 2:9-11 (Love for the Brethren), 1 John 2:15-17 (Hatred for the World), 1 John 2:24-25 (Perseverance in Doctrine), 1 John 3:10 (Righteousness), 1 John 4:13 (Spirit's Testimony), Hebrews 12:5-8 (Discipline)