Lesson 1: Salvation - CREATION OF MAN
Genesis 1:1 - 25 God creates the world – it is all good, perfect, and beautiful.
Genesis 1:26 -28 Man created.
Why did God create mankind?
God created mankind to fellowship with Him, and to be the recipient of all His love and bountiful provision.
God wants to love you!
vs 26 Let us – “Elohim” Hb term – 3 parts making up a single being.
The Bible clearly teaches us that the Godhead consists of three distinct entities – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, yet they are at the same time all one.
Illustration – water can be found in three major forms i.e.:
1. Ice
2. Steam
3. Liquid
· Each of these three substances has a different form and can perform different tasks, yet all three are made of the same substance and are equal.
God creates mankind in His image – exactly like Him – Hebrew “a speaking spirit.”
Adam & Eve:
· Were perfect in every way.
· Enjoyed perfect and unbroken fellowship with God.
· Able to boldly and confidently approach God.
· Lived without shame and fear, fully alive and whole in every way.
· Were given dominion and authority over the earth i.e. the natural, physical realm.
· Were given free wills giving them the right to make choices.
· God’s blessing (the power to prosper) was upon them.
There was no sin or consequences of sin i.e.
· No death, lack, sickness, pain, conflict, torment, loss, etc.
Genesis 2:7 Reveals more details re the creation of man.
God formed man’s body out of the dust – no life yet.
God breathes into man.
Man becomes a living, speaking eternal spirit.
THREE PART NATURE OF MAN
Human beings (like God) are tripartite i.e. 3 part beings. This simply means that we consist of three distinct “parts”, although all three appear as one on the surface:
Man is a spirit.
Man has a soul.
Man lives in a body.
Q – “Have ever seen me”? Yes? The truth is the “real “me no person has ever seen.
· Illustration: BODY = House, earth suit i.e. what we reside in, what we need to operate in this earth i.e. don’t see anyone without a body staying on the earth.
· The real us our inner man or my spirit you cannot see with your eyes.
· Like God we are spirit beings, created originally to live eternally with Him forever.
· To be created in His image = we have the same “DNA” as our heavenly Father.
· God is a “speaking spirit” who has a soul (i.e. mind, will & emotions) & resided in a physical body and took on human form as a man when Jesus was born into the world.
· You are not your mind.
· You are not your body.
A. Spirit = contact the spiritual realm
B. Soul = contact the intellectual realm
C. Body = contact the physical realm
The SOUL:
Mind = the “thinker” – deals with reasoning and intellect.
Emotions = the “feeler” – deals with feelings.
Will = the “chooser” – deals with choices and decision making.
CONFESSION:
I am a spirit.
I have a soul.
I live in a body.
As living spirits, we contact God via our spirits by faith and not via our souls or bodies.
FALL MAN
Gen 2: 15-17 “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
· God only gave Adam one commandment - not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
· KNOWLEDGE = to know by experience.
· God was not trying to hold something back from Adam i.e. “keep him in the dark.”
NB - God did not want Adam to experience evil.
SIN/SPIRITUAL DEATH
Gen 3: 6 Adam and Eve chose to wilfully disobey God.
· They listened to the lies of Satan.
· They sinned.
· As a result of this sin the curse or consequences of sin tainted the whole of creation. After this humanity was also marred with sin.
· To ensure that mankind was not destroyed God had to withdraw His presence from Adam and Eve.
· You will surely die – still alive? – Hb “and dying you will die.”
· At this point they were separated from God which is spiritual death – 1st.
· Later they experienced physical death – 2nd.
· Ill – fish out of water, plant out of soil, man out of love = death.
RESULT OF THE FALL
Mankind was then trapped in sin, unable to experience intimate fellowship God, and cut off from His blessing.
The curse entered creation, bringing chaos, sickness, lack, oppression, and every other offspring of evil.
Q – What is SIN?
Sin is everything which opposes God, which opposes love for God is love. It is also any thought, word, action, or decision which contradicts the law of God (the Bible).
Sin produces shame, guilt, fear, anger, and many other destructive emotions in the lives of people and causes dysfunctional relationships.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
As a result of the fall in the Garden of Eden all men and women are born as sinners (possess a sin/depraved nature) and are destined for hell (eternal separation from God).
They are unable to do anything in their own power or ability to change this condition.
They are slaves to sin and as a result slaves to Satan, who controls them whether they recognize this fact or not.
As a result of sin, a gulf now existed between God and man.
In order to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness (one consequence of their sin) God sacrificed an animal to provide a covering for them.
The shedding of blood is directly linked with a cleansing from sin for the Bible says, without the shedding of blood there is no remission (or release) from sin – Heb 9:22.
What occurred in the Garden of Eden did not take God by surprise. Before Adam and Eve sinned God in His wisdom and great love had already provided a solution.
John 3:16 For God so loved and dearly prized the world (loved you) that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish or be lost but have everlasting life.
PLAN OF REDEMPTION i.e. the rescue mission!
Jesus was born the son of a virgin.
As a result, the seed of man that came directly from Adam was not in him.
He came as the Lamb of God, the perfect substitute for mankind.
He was 100% man and 100% God.
He was able to fully represent both God and man.
When Jesus died on the cross He perfectly bridged the gulf between God and man.
Jesus lived a completely sinless life.
He did not possess the nature of sin He was the perfect sacrifice, taking the sin of mankind upon himself.
When Jesus died on the cross, He did not die for His own sin, but for the sin of the whole human race – past, present, and future (Heb 2:9)
Jesus suffered and the penalty of sin that we should have paid. He took our place and went to hell for us (Matt 12:40, Acts 2:25-27).
Jesus came to purchase our freedom and pay the price for our salvation. This process is called REDMEPTION = the process of paying a price to buy back that which has been sold.
2 Cor 5:21 “Jesus was made sin He who knew no sin so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
· Jesus took all our sin and guilt so that we in return could receive forgiveness, cleansing and His righteousness.
· Jesus died and went to hell but three days later rose from the dead.
· Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection delivered us from sin, sickness, poverty, death, and every other evil offshoot of the curse and restored our relationship with God.
SALVATION – NEW BIRTH
The good news is that God did not leave mankind trapped in sin, but provided a deliverer to provide an alternative eternal destiny and restore that which was broken.
· No human being however wicked or depraved is without hope for salvation or without a saviour.
· Jesus died for all, and all can be saved from hell if they choose to receive the gift of salvation.
· It is God’s will and desire that all people would be saved from an eternal destiny without him, without love.
When we are born again, we are able to be reconciled to God our Heavenly Father and return to relationship and fellowship with Him.
Salvation is a gift.
This gift cannot be earned through good deeds or by simply being “good.”
It is simply received in childlike faith.
Ephesians 2: 8 “For by grace we are saved through faith not by works it is a gift from God”.
It is simply a matter of faith (acting out on what you believe according to God’s Word concerning salvation).
Acts 2:21 “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:9-10 “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
What does it mean to be “born again”?
2 Cor 5:17 When you were born again you became a new creation:.
Your spirit was re born and became alive once more.
The separation from God caused by sin is removed.
You reconnected with God and the life that flows from Him.
You are no longer by nature a sinner.
You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.
You now can choose not to sin and are no longer a slave to sin.
You still have the capacity to sin, but it does not have to dominate you any longer.
God by the power of His Spirit who lives in you can now begin to transform and restore your life.
This change is instant and permanent, occurring in our spirit which is made alive and completely recreated.
Although our spirits are reborn and recreated our souls (mind/will/emotions) and bodies are yet to be transformed.
Illustration = when a person is born again their hair, weight, etc remains the same but wrong thinking/habits etc need to be changed.
Once we do believe and receive the gift of salvation we can now live in relationship with Him and be assured that His love for us will never fail.
John 10:10 Jesus came to give you fullness of life – spirit, soul, social, physical, and financial
Jeremiah 29: 11 God has a great plan for your life!