No, He doesn't!
God shows His love to a thousand generations of those love Him and keep His commandments. And He does that by sending His only Son to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins so that we need not die as a consequence of them.
But that is just a very short summary for the whole "plan of salvation" that God has been (and still is) working out in the world. We call that story the Apostles' Creed, and we remind ourselves of that story every week in worship.
That's what we're going to look at now. Here are the words of the Creed that we use:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
God shows His love to a thousand generations of those love Him and keep His commandments. And He does that by sending His only Son to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins so that we need not die as a consequence of them.
But that is just a very short summary for the whole "plan of salvation" that God has been (and still is) working out in the world. We call that story the Apostles' Creed, and we remind ourselves of that story every week in worship.
That's what we're going to look at now. Here are the words of the Creed that we use:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
But why do we need to be saved from sin (and its consequences)? Because we cannot save ourselves!
ReplyDeleteThink about it! From the moment you sin, you are "at odds" with God, the Author and Source of life. And from that moment, you will die. That is what you deserve and there is nothing YOU can do to change it. After all, you can never take away a sin. For example: Once you've struck your neighbor (i.e. breaking the 5th commandment), you can't take it back, no matter how many nice things you do to your neighbor to "make up for it." The sin is already out there, and you deserve to die because of it. So unless someone saves you from that fate, that is what will happen.
You might ask: "If everything you've said about God is true, then who could possibly save you from God?" And that would be a great question! But the answer is also great: God Himself must save us!
But God doesn't just do a 180, reversing His own created order and His justice just so He doesn't have to punish sin. No. God says of Himself that He is just and so sin must be punished and sinners must die. But how can we have it both ways? How can sin and sinners (that's us) be punished and be saved from that punishment at the same time? That's the story of the Apostles' Creed!