Review of Previous Lessons

During this study we have been looking at things the way God sees them. In 1 Samuel 16:7 the Bible says, ‘Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.’ Many people are preparing for eternity by basically ignoring it, thinking that somehow, when they die and stand before God, they will be able to talk their way into Heaven. But the Bible says we will be judged according to the truth of the Word of God. In preparation for that judgment, God has already given us the Old Testament law to show us what God values as righteousness, holiness, and godliness. He has given us 613 laws in all, but there are ten of them which most people are familiar with, which in essence sum up the Old Testament law. We know them as the Ten Commandments.

As we looked at the Ten Commandments, we concluded that there is no way that an honest man, understanding what God says, can say, ‘I’m not guilty.’ Every one of us is guilty of breaking God’s law. We are guilty of having told a lie many times in our lives, having stolen something at sometime or another in our lives, blasphemed God over and over again in our lives. The Bible tells us that when we stand before God, if we have offended in one point of the law, just one sin in all our lives, as far as God is concerned, we are guilty of breaking it all.

Then we saw how the Bible says God sees two different kinds of men. The first group is those who have no relationship with Him, violators of His law, who have never found forgiveness from God. The second group is those who have a relationship with God, those who have violated His law also, but have been forgiven by God. Those with a relationship do not get a relationship by what they do. It is not according to our works of righteousness, or good deeds  we do, because God says those are nothing more than filthy rags in His sight. Our only hope is the mercy of God.

In the last lesson we talked about what God has done to provide for a change of location: from no relationship to a relationship with God. God has provided for that change to take place by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He died as our Substitute. He died in our place. He took our punishment that we might be forgiven by God. He paid for the sins of the whole world when He died on the cross.

But even though it is true that Jesus died for all, all do not have a relationship with God. The Bible makes that abundantly clear. In this fourth and final lesson, we want to look at what we must do to make the work of Christ personal. We will see how a person takes what Jesus Christ has done on the cross and receives it as his own, thereby receiving pardon and forgiveness of sin from God.