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Frequently Asked Questions
How can man be right with God?One of the most frequently asked questions is: “How can mortal man or sinful man be right with a holy eternal God?” Many are asking this question but it may come packaged in different forms of the same question. The rich young ruler of Mark 10 kneeling before Jesus asked it in this way, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Inherent in the question is a fatal flaw, “What must I do…?” as opposed to giving focus on what God has done through Jesus Christ. The question may possibly be asked in one of the following ways as one ponders this philosophical, spiritual and theological dilemma: How can I get to heaven? How can I have my sins forgiven? How can I come into God’s presence? How can I be justified before a Holy God? What must I do to be saved? How can I avoid an eternity in Hell paying for my sins? All the strands of these questions are rooted in the same vine, ‘How can I get right with God?’ Someone has called this “The Ultimate Question” because the response to the answer to this question will determine a person’s eternal destiny. Let’s break up the question into two parts, ‘Who is man and who is God?’
Back to TopWho is man?1. Man is a sinner - The bible makes some clear statements about man and the heart of man. It says man is full of sin, Rom 3:10-12, ‘as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one." Rom 3:23, tells us, ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Isa 53:6, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” On this issue of man’s condition the Bible is straightforward. His ‘heart is deceitful and desperately wicked’. (Jer. 17:9) Out of his heart flows ‘… evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders… deeds of coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” (Matt. 15:19; Mark 7:21-23) Elsewhere the bible says that as time progresses man will get even worse, not better. “Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (2 Tim. 3:2-4) For another complete listing of the downward spiral one need only to turn to Romans 1 to find the judicial delivering of man over to a depraved mind by God when man’s evil actions condemn him in that state. All of these listings are violations of the revealed law of God which are given not only in His ten commands of ‘Thou shall not…” but also in the law that is written on man’s heart. Because of the written law and the law in the inner man, man’s conscience bears witness, and his thoughts alternately accuse or defend him telling him he is doing right or doing wrong. Man is a sinner and if any man denies that he is in the truest sense of the cliché “in denial” for the Bible says, “If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (I John 1:8) 2. Man cannot save himself or others – In that state that man finds himself he can neither save himself or others. The religious leaders of Jesus’ were correct when they said, “… who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7) So we need to come to a full understanding of just who God is.
Back to TopWho is God?Here are some of the answers that the Bible gives when giving us a picture of what God is like: 1. God is personal – God is not a ‘thing’, power of mere influence. We do not fashion God into an image of our liking but rather as the bible reveals Him and he is personal. He has a mind to think, a will to act and He feels in such a way to show us He is a personal living Being. Jer 10:10, “But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King.” 2. God is holy – His holiness stands out as His unique otherness to His creation. He is holy and we are sinful. The scriptures say in Hab. 1:13, {Thine} eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness {with favor.} The bible is full of declarations of His holiness: The psalmist writes in 5:4, ‘For Thou art not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with Thee.’ And then also in 11:4 he declares, ‘The Lord is in His holy temple.’ The prophet Isaiah captures the vision of the heavenly scene in Isa. 6:3 of the angels calling out to one another and declaring, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory." Rev 3:7 speaks of the Lord Jesus in the same line, "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:” Rev 4:8 describes another heavenly scene where the four living creatures representing all of God’s creation do not cease day and night to say, “Holy, holy, holy, {is} the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come." As a result of His holiness there is not the allowance of one sin that can come into His presence. The moment a rebellion occurred in heaven seeking to have a mutiny to the sovereign will of God, God subdued the devil and his angels and cast them out of His presence. Man was then drawn into that rebellion, but God remains holy and from His holiness reigns and His justice flows. 3. God is Just – His justice flows from the fact that He is consistent with all His other attributes. If He is holy and sin cannot be allowed in His presence then it follows that He must judge sin and is judgment is just. His justice is perfect and beyond any appeal or dispute. Listed below are a sample of the many verses that express His righteous judgment. Gen 18:25, "Far be it from Thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are {treated} alike. Far be it from Thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity. (Ps. 9:8) And the heavens declare His righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah. (Ps. 50:6), For judgment will again be righteous; and all the upright in heart will follow it. (Ps. 94:15) Before the LORD, for He is coming; for He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness. (Ps. 96:13) And the strength of the King loves justice; Thou hast established equity; Thou hast executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. (Ps. 99:4) Isa 11:4-5, But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist. Acts 17:31, “… because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." Rom 2:5, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…” His judgment will come as a shock to many because they are used to a court of appeals and stays of execution but God’s judgments are righteous altogether. Because God is holy no sin can come into His presence and thus sin must be punished. Man is sinful so God is utterly just in preparation to judge man and punish sin and yet there is one more attribute that allows the stay of execution. 4. God is love – One of the clearest presentations of the love of God is found in I John 4 and it must be read in its total context: I Jn 4:8-19, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son {to be} the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son {to be} the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.” Let’s summarize again, God is a personal being and He wants to have a relationship with man. He is holy which separates us from God for man is sinful. Out of His holiness comes the simple truth that God cannot allow sin into His presence and sin found anywhere in His creation must be punished. Man is sinful therefore must face the consequences of offending a holy God whose judgments are righteous and true altogether. That is the dilemma of the ages that sinful man cannot be right with a holy God unless there is a divine plan that satisfies His justice and holiness. His love which is eternal and surpasses our understanding has devised a plan where God’s justice is satisfied and He can at the same time justify the guilty sinner. Remember, man cannot justify himself although he might make attempts to do so. The bible says a number of things about God’s love: 1. He demonstrates that love when Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Rom 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” 2. It is a love that when we receive it we cannot be separated - Rom 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” 3. It is a love that is all encompassing to those who believe John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” 4. It is a love that is called great because in it is the power to take a dead person and make them alive spiritually. Eph 2:4-5, But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 5. It is a love that causes Jesus, the eternal God to leave the glory of Heaven and come into this world to save sinners 1 Tim 1:15-16, It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost {of all.} And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. 6. It is a love that surpasses knowledge and causes us to be filled up with the fullness of God. Eph 3:17-19, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; {and} that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.
So the love of God determines a plan to save sinful man from an eternal hell and separation from His presence. The Old Testament character Job who underwent intense suffering in a catastrophic trial was asked this question by one of his friends, Job 25:4, "How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman? The dilemma to this question is solved by an infinitely wise God who in His sovereignty, wisdom, power and love can justify a guilty sinner and still remain just and holy. The answer is given in Rom 3:21-28 But now apart from the Law {the} righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even {the} righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. {This was} to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, {I say,} of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Did you get the answer here in big and bold letters? It is wrapped up in the word, ‘propitiation’. One bible Dictionary defines this word in the following manner, PROPITIATION [pro PISH ih a shun]-- the atoning death of Jesus on the cross, through which He paid the penalty demanded by God because of man's sin, thus setting mankind free from sin and death. The word comes from an old English word, propitiate, which means "to appease." Thus, propitiation expresses the idea that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for sin which a holy God demanded of man the sinner. Although Jesus was free of sin, He took all our sins upon Himself and redeemed us from the penalty of death which our sins demanded. (from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary) (Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers) God in His wisdom established that there could be a sinbearer, His own son, Jesus to pay for our sin so that we might not experience the wrath of God, the punishment of a holy God against sin. The love of God sent Jesus into this world to be subjected to the hands of sinful men and be cruelly beaten and then ultimately placed upon a cross to be crucified. The power of God raised Jesus from the dead and received Him back into His glory where He now lives to make intercession for us before the Father. As long as He lives we have our sins forgiven. The truth is that Jesus eternally exists as our advocate. How does this gift of God, the gift of eternal life and forgiveness of sins become ours? It becomes ours when we by faith repent of sin and turn from our sin which is an act of God’s grace and we embrace Him as Lord and Savior. You can do this by a simple prayer that might indicate the desire of your heart to be right with God. Lord Jesus, I know that your word tells me that I am sinner and have fallen short of God’s glory. I believe that Jesus died for my sin of unbelief and rebellion and violation of the law of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead the third day. I now ask that Jesus would come into my life and that I would be forgiven and stand righteous before God based on the sacrifice of His Son who took my sin. I ask you know to save me. Thank you for doing so and thank you for the new life you have put within me. Please help me to grow as a follower of Jesus and send someone to me or me to someone who can help guide me in my new life. In Jesus name Amen.
Back to TopWhat is a Bible Fellowship Church? Bible Fellowship Churches were formerly known as
Mennonite Brethren in Christ churches, and, as you can tell from our name, we
have strong Mennonite roots. Our most recent name change occurred in the 1950's
when our leaders desired to communicate through our name two important
distinctives of our identity; our commitment to Biblical authority in preaching
and teaching and our desire to share the love of Christ within our churches. Would you like to know more about our denomination? Back to TopHow do I contact Faith Bible Fellowship Church?We welcome your inquiries, whether by phone, letter, or Email
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