Sin And Salvation Series

March 17, 2013

Morning Worship

Text: Romans 3:21-24

Subject: Sin and Salvation

Title: What We Believe Part 4 – Sin and Salvation

We continue our series “What We Believe” today. We started the series out with the very foundation of whom we are. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I believe this is God's Word…

I believe it is for me…

I accept it as mine…

And I appropriate it to my life today…

Have you ever had anyone tell you that you look like one of your parents or another relative? I think that when people say that they mean it as a compliment – not always! Many family members will look like one another. The girls in Charlotte’s family have a strong resemblance. Who is it in your family that you resemble? Each of you could name someone. Also, we often tend to take on some of the characteristics of family members – some good and some not so good. It’s all part of your inheritance handed down to you from those who came before you.

I have never known my biological father. I don’t know anything about him except where he lives, or lived. I’ve done an Internet search for him and have found two people by that name – one died in 1995; the other is still alive in Oklahoma. My point is this – from a natural standpoint I do not know what tendencies may have been handed down to me. I can’t say what physical traits I have received. I don’t know what personality traits I might have inherited. But I do know this – there are things that have been passed to me by my bloodline.

Turn to Romans 3.

I want to show you that each of us have been in the same boat that I just shared about my own life. Every one of us has had things handed down from our ancestors that we are still responsible for dealing with. I am talking about a sin nature that has been passed down to you throughout all generations from your father Adam.

23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…

This is a good place to start. Every one of us has failed to meet the standards that God has set for us – that we be like God.

Turn over to Genesis 1. In the beginning God created… He created the heavens and the earth. He created the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets. He created the atmosphere… he created the land and the seas and the fish and the birds and the insects and the land animals great and small… then in verse 26 and 27 God did something really special, 26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Now there is a great theological discussion to be had here that we won’t go into much. We know that we are a tripartite being – body, soul and spirit… If Adam and Eve were created in God’s image then which of these areas is it referring to?

1. Body? The bible says that God is Spirit… Yes, but the bible also tells us that Jesus, the Son, the second Person of the trinity, became man. We also see in the Old Testament how “the angel of the Lord” came to earth in bodily form. This is a pre-incarnate visitation of the Son to earth. Has Jesus always had a physical body? I don’t know for certain, but if we are a three - part person, then shouldn’t we think that man’s physical body is somehow created in God’s image?

2. Soul – this is the non – physical part of your natural man… your thoughts, your emotions, your personality, your creativity… again, the first man was created to in God’s image to think like God, to act like God, to be creative like God… Apart from Jesus, Adam was likely the smartest man that ever walked the face of the earth, because for a time he thought and acted just like God did.

3. Spirit – This is probably the one area where we can come into the most agreement. Since God is Spirit and since it tells us in Genesis 2 and verse 7, the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being, then we see that Adam’s spirit-man was created to be like God – eternal and pure and holy and righteous and every other attribute that you can think of Adam was meant to be.