Questions #1 How are our sins forgiven through Jesus? Jesus said if you forgive others others God will forgive you so God was already forgiving people before Jesus died.
Question #2 Also aren’t we all God’s Children?
Question #3 John 6:65 Jesus says no one can come to me unless the father enables him. What does that mean to you?
Answer: Well first of all these are very common questions and I am going to try answer them all in one letter. So Here WE GO!
To answer the first question we have to understand two things, Man’s fallen nature and Old Testament Sacrifice. We will start with the present nature of the human spirit. We all know that as you age through life there is going to be an end of all to your bodies. (scripture about spirit renewed day by day) They are decaying day by day. One day there is not going to be any life whatsoever in your flesh. But the human spirit is eternal. That means it will always exist. You may be wondering why is it important to know Jesus if your spirit will always exist. Reason why is because Jesus is the key factor of “WHERE” your spirit will exist. (Lazors drops water on tongue) I don’t want to live a black and white life with no gray area’s in everything I do but in this case there is no in between. Two locations your spirit has a place to dwell. Bad news first, one place your spirit may dwell for eternity is in hell (not a brimstone preacher, but I don’t comprise the scriptures either). Torment for eternity, a place that was created for the fallen angels, but now also for those who don’t trust in Jesus. Now for the Good News, the second place for your spirit to dwell is in a BRAND NEW(if you like comics books movies then you will like this. Lol) awesome spiritual body in Heaven. This is scriptural, and I will post the scripture for you. This body is indestructible, can’t be broken and doesn’t decay. God has only given us a little knowledge about this but made it O’ so clear. Thank you God for you coming blessing!
Ok still haven’t answered the full question so I will continue. Lets look at Genesis for a bit to find out more about the human spirit. You know the story, and if you read some of my other letters this is going to be a bit of a repeat. All the way back to Adam is where we are going with this one. Most of you are Americans and most of you have heard the story sooooo many times and you might be thinking why it’s even relevant. Here We GO! First of all, it was God the Father who created the Earth and Heaven and everything that was in them. He also created man in his image. The first man Adam, and first woman Eve. Took Eve right out of the poor little mans side. So these two humans were the first of many. They walked among the earth, and God gave them dominion in all the earth. They were Earth’s rulers. With all this God only gave them one command. He gave them all kinds of tree’s to eat from but one tree was off limits. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil (bad tree, lol). Lets look at the Scripture.
Genesis 2:17(NASB) but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the “DAY” that you eat from it you will “SURELY DIE”.” (emphasis by me)
Notice what I highlighted, DAY, and SURELY DIE. You know the story Adam and Eve ate. Then there eyes were open and we know Adam lived another 900 years. God doesn’t lie. Never has and never will. Everything He says is truth. According to the scriptures He is the Spirit of Truth. Adam died that same day. So did Eve. There bodies continued on and so did there spirits but they weren’t the same. They were separated from their Creator for eternity. That is what spiritual death is. There spirit no longer possessed LIFE eternal. But instead lost a part of God that day. Without that missing part you and me will not be able to have life after death. After our bodies fully give out on us, we are stuck with eternity whether you like it or not. If your spirit stays in the state that Adams was after he sinned, which God the Father called Death, then you will not see Eternal LIFE. But the Good news is that Jesus is Eternal Life (scripture). He is the Way to the Father, He is the Truth and the LIFE.
So now we are ready to get started. How are our sins taken away by Jesus? Well here is the deal, from the very beginning sacrifices had to be sacrificed all through the scriptures to remove the sin. But it was continually done. Certain times of the month, certain holy days, sacrifices were sacrificed for the sins of the people. Once a year there was a Passover Lamb the was for the Passing over of death. The only problem with this lamb during the Passover is that it wasn’t perfect, if it were then there would have been no more need for sacrifice at ALL. There would have been no reason to have the Jewish priesthood anymore. But we know the sacrifice continued from month to month and year to year, and on holy days.
Both New Testament and Old Testament speaks about the Lamb that takes away the sins of the World. Jesus is the Lamb of God According to Scripture. You see these animals couldn’t really be in place of our sins. There blood was pleasing to God for a short while but God was demanding peace between man and Himself. God wanted to draw men closer. God needed a perfect lamb without spots or blemish to be the perfect sacrifice for mankind’s sins. The only candidate for the job was Jesus Christ himself. God spoke in every book of the bible about this Lamb, about this Messiah, about His Son and our Lord. Jesus himself spoke of this sacrifice that would be made. John the Baptist declared this of Him.
John 1:29 (NKJ) The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God that Takes away the sin of the world! This is He (Jesus) of whom I said, After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me. I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I come baptizing with water.” And John bore witness, saying “I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He(God the Father) who sent Me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ “And I have seen and testified that this is the SON OF GOD.”
He is worthy. He is perfect. A sinless man according to scriptures and according to the Spirit of God. He is the Lamb that is to take away the SIN of the world. You noticed that when I typed the previous scripture I underlined sin. Notice that sin has no (s) behind it, but instead indicates that this is sin in general, ALL SIN. No need for several different sacrifices. Just one perfect one. Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This topic has so many different angles that we could go and could go much further into the scripture I am going to stop right there and if you have any questions post a comment. But just remember when Jesus died He was the perfect Lamb.
To Answer the second part of the first question. Jesus said if you forgive others others God will forgive you so God was already forgiving people before Jesus died. Well this is true God was already forgiving people before Jesus died. But if you remember in the previous paragraphs about the sacrifices, they were for the forgiveness of the men’s sins. The problem was is that God thought it was evil for a man to come to him with a sacrifice and ask Him to forgive the him even though they had not forgiven those who had wronged them. This context comes from the book of John as well. John was speaking to a bunch of Jewish people who practiced the tradition of sacrificing animals for there sins. Jesus was profoundly stating that even sacrifice alone could never take away your sin, cause you have hatred in your heart for another person. The sacrifices were conditional. You can’t trick God. God requires purity of heart and humility. You couldn’t just come to God with a sacrifice and yet are not even sorry for the person you wronged. God wanted them to have faith in Him, to truly Fear Him. When they brought sacrifices it was supposed to be with repentance. If you truly loved your brother and you would have forgiven him as well. Unfortunately that wasn’t always the case. Man formed religion and it became more a duty than a worship. They brought there sacrifices cause they were raised to do it. Some of them wasn’t sorry about anything. This wasn’t faith which brings us to the next question.
To Be Continued::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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