How Serious is Sin?

In the previous lessons we have been looking at why God saved mankind.  God intended for man to glorify Him throughout creation by bearing His image and by enjoying communion with Him.  This exalted position was established in the Covenant of Life (also known as the Covenant of Works) that God made with Adam.  Adam possessed true knowledge, original holiness, and righteousness relative to God Himself and to creation.  Adam would have gone on to an even more intimate communion with God had he passed his probation of temptation in the Garden of Eden by speaking God’s word to his wife and to the serpent and by expelling the serpent to maintain the sanctity of the Garden.  Adam, however, failed in his role as God’s original Prophet, Priest and King thereby plunging himself and his posterity into a state of corruption that affected all humanity.  Adam’s sin was not simply transgression against God’s laws, nor just falling short of what God intended for man.  Rather, it was—and still is—personal rebellion against and a direct affront to God Himself.  For this reason, God utterly hates sin and is right to judge it.

We looked at these things because there is a persistent tendency for people—even Christians—to denigrate the pre-Fall high status of man, deny the seriousness of sin, and dismiss the idea of God as judge.  Such tendencies eviscerate the Gospel.  At the same time, this background sets the stage for why salvation is necessary.  Indeed, God has not given up on having communion with His people.  God’s work of salvation was thus needed to restore His people in terms of their position before Him and to renew His image in them. 

Handouts and Notes for Lecture 3

Handout for Lecture 4

What is the Goal of Our Salvation?

In the previous lesson we saw that the Bible talks about salvation in broader terms than simply “Jesus dying on the cross” or “God forgiving our sins,” as important as those things are.  This panorama of salvation is laid out in the twin notions of the ordo salutis (order of salvation) and historia salutis (history of salvation).  We also talked about ways in which we can get the Gospel wrong in terms of mischaracterization, truncation, and addition.  Getting the Gospel wrong is a serious thing, as we were reminded by the Apostle Paul’s warning in Galatians 1:6-9.  In this lesson, we look at God’s purpose for man, which sets the basis for why God extended salvation to mankind after Adam fell.  Keeping this end goal in mind will help us understand salvation coherently. The goal of human life is bound up with the Covenant of Life God made with Adam—and through him, with his posterity—at creation.  This covenant established that man’s purpose was to bring glory to God by bearing God’s image and enjoying communion with Him.  This high stature accentuates the seriousness of the Fall; the covenantal relationship also explains why God would move to save man in what would be codified in the Covenant of Grace.

Handout and Notes for Lesson 2

Handout for Lesson 3

Why Do We Need to Study Salvation If We Are Already a Christian?

This fall I am teaching a course entitled, The Covenant and Salvation, and will post read ahead information, study questions, and notes here. I have described the course to folks as looking at the “full scope of salvation.” As (Reformed) Christians, I think we need to rediscover the fact that what God has done, is doing, and will do in our salvation is more than just “Jesus died on the cross for my sins.” I certainly do not want to take anything away from what Christ did on the cross, but having been a Christian for more than forty years now, I find that most Christians really do not get much beyond that. The Apostle Paul, however, told the Corinthians, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (1 Cor. 15:13-14). That is a pretty definitive statement. Yet the common tendency among most Protestants toward almost exclusive focus on the cross could theoretically still be true even if Christ were still in the grave–and that most certainly is not the case. Such an exclusive focus also begs the question as how things like the resurrection or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost relate to the cross. I think for many people it is not exactly clear how all this (and more) ties together.

So, giving a broader perspective is my primary reason for teaching this course, but there is another reason as well and that is because I think we tend to take the Gospel for granted, especially if we have been a Christian for any notable length of time. A mindset can start creeping in of, “Okay, I’ve accepted Christ as Savior; now what?” Too often, we can start looking for something else to add to the Gospel to make it “relevant” to our day and age. The Gospel, though, does not need anything added to it to be relevant. If anything, the Gospel is a radical antithesis to the surrounding culture and that is becoming more apparent as the vestiges of a Christian culture seep away. We should not take the Gospel for granted. For many family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, they do not feel there is anything they need to be saved from, except possibly their own finitude. If we tell them that they need to “get saved” or “to have a personal relationship with Jesus” they are quite likely to respond with, “Huh? Why?” Understanding the different facets involved in our salvation will better equip us to address different misperceptions or misunderstandings that people may have about the Gospel, and therefore be better witnesses for Christ. God willing, it will also help us to treasure the Gospel more ourselves.

Handouts for Lesson 1:

Handout for Lesson 2