Welcome

[00:00:03] Hey there, this is Thomas. Welcome back to the Gospel course. In our last lesson, we learned what the gospel is. It's the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and today we learn why it really matters. Much like other things, we need to first hear some bad news that makes us accept and want the good news.

[00:00:25] It's kind of like going to the doctor. If you go to the doctor and you don't know that anything is wrong with you, you're not really ready to receive any medicine or any treatment. But if you receive a diagnosis that says there is something wrong, and we have a treatment that can cure or fix it, then you are way more interested in the cure than if you had not been previously diagnosed.

Spiritual Diagnosis

[00:00:47] So today, we're gonna do a spiritual diagnosis to understand why the gospel matters. We're gonna be looking at Romans chapter five, and here in Romans five, we're gonna discover the source of everything that went wrong in our life and in our world, and how the gospel fixes that. So we're gonna be introduced to this word that we saw last time called sin, It's an archery term, as if an arrow went where it was not supposed to go. And we, we use this word of morality, that we've all done things that we know we shouldn't do, either from our conscience or from some standard in our life. We've all done things we shouldn't. The Bible says that this has a source.

Adam and The Fall

[00:01:32] There's a place where all of this began. So let's look at where it came from. Sin came from the first man. That's right, we're going all the way back to Adam and Eve. See, God created the world and he created human beings. He did so in perfection. And so we don't get to blame him for everything that is wrong in the world.

[00:01:54] We'll find that human beings made some of their own decisions. So the first man, the Bible says in Romans 5 and verse 12, " As by one man sin entered into the world." And this man, his name is Adam. In verse 14 of the same chapter, it calls this Adam's transgression. There's something that he did that he was not supposed to do that has affected everything else.

[00:02:23] We see in Genesis 2:16 that he was told y- you could eat of all of the things in the garden. God created a perfect planet for man to enjoy, but there was a particular thing he said not to do. And if you go into Genesis chapter 3, you see that there was a tree that was good for food. They did eat, and they

Sin Brings Death

[00:02:47] Something happened. Well, we're gonna get into that. But it, it goes on to say that it, it brought with it death. So sin brings with it death. Verse 12 of Romans chapter 5, "And death by sin." Now, this is where all human beings are gonna discover our roots. Everything dies. Every living thing dies. And what happened to Adam in his day, Genesis 2 tells us, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."

[00:03:22] So Adam was created to live forever, but so far it's not like he's living very long. The New Testament tells us in another place, in Adam, all die. He is ultimately the one that is responsible for the sin of the world. This sin, it says in Genesis 3, was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and to make one wise.

[00:03:49] So sin always produces death, even if it doesn't seem like it. We all know what this is like. Whenever we're tempted, we're drawn away, we stay up too late, we make a choice we shouldn't, and then there's an outcome. And in that moment of temptation, we are processing, is it worth it? And sometimes we are tricked.

[00:04:11] We think it's worth it, and we come to find out later it will not be worth it. There's a famous saying that says, " Sin will take you farther than you wanna go, keep you longer than you wanna stay, and cost you more than you wanna pay." This sin, though, wasn't just with Adam and his fault.

Sin Nature Inherited

[00:04:35] The Bible says it was passed down to you. In Romans 5:12, "So death passed upon all men." You see, because of Adam's decision in the garden, he passed down this thing, not just from him, but all of the people that would come after him. There was a change made in his body that passed down to everyone. So in, in Genesis 1 and 2, chapters one and two, we see creation.

[00:05:03] In Genesis chapter 3, we see the fall. And then in Genesis chapter 5, we see history begin to go after Adam. And in Genesis 5, we're reminded in verse 1, "In the likeness of God made He him," that God made Adam in His image. But as Adam had fallen and reproduced, Genesis chapter 5 and verse 3 says that, " He begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth."

[00:05:33] So Adam passed down not God's image necessarily, but his own image, his own sinful tendencies to all succeeding generations. So you have a sin nature, and it's partially not even your fault. Did you know that? But this really gives us so much clarity as to why things are messed up in the world. You see, in the Bible, man is not intrinsically good.

The Law Reveals Sin

[00:06:03] Man is intrinsically bad and needs to be saved, needs to be changed. But let's talk a little bit about what sin really is. Verse 13 says, " Until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law." So we're reminded here that the law is what reveals to us what sin is.

[00:06:30] You see, our standard of morality is defined by God, not by the world or our feelings. Many times, though, whenever we ask somebody what is right and what is wrong, it is based upon their subculture or their preference or their feeling or a thing that they like or want. It's not based upon an objective standard.

[00:06:54] But in the Bible, we're given the law, essentially the whole Old Testament, a bunch of rules and things we're supposed to do and not do. But if we just summarize them, we went simply to, like, the Ten Commandments. We would see some basic ones like not to steal, not to kill, not to lie, and we would all say those are really good ideas But if we're being honest with ourselves, we've done some of these things.

[00:07:21] We have stolen, we have lied, we have not honored our parents. The very first of all the Ten Commandments is not to have any other gods before the one true God, and we have all done that at times, failed to worship God. So what we learn about the law is

[00:07:39] the law is not for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. What it does is points out our need that we are sinful people, and we need to be reconciled to God. Galatians 3 says that, " The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." So just like the doctor illustration that I said in the beginning, we don't need the cure until we understand the diagnosis.

[00:08:05] The diagnosis is that we've all sinned, and that God is holy. But the cure will come in the person of Jesus.

[00:08:13] I know you're still not convinced.

No Excuses for Sin

[00:08:16] So let me help you. Let's ask, what have I done? I mean, what have I really done? I'm, I'm not Adam. In verse 14 in Romans 5, it says, " Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." A similitude is a likeness, a resemblance. So maybe you did not do exactly what Adam did.

[00:08:43] But the Bible says "All have sinned." You still have missed the mark. You still have the diagnosis. Isaiah 53, "All we like sheep have gone astray." We've all done things that we know we shouldn't. So we all have to face our own wrongdoings with no excuses. There may be things in our life that we can blame on other people.

Grace and the Free Gift

[00:09:13] But at the end of the day, our choice to sin was our own. We're all personally responsible for the ways that we have done things that are wrong. But we have a solution. Let's look at the solution. Verse number fifteen, we see these words like free gift, and the grace of God, and the gift by grace.

[00:09:41] And man, praise the Lord, there is good news and the bad news, that God made a way for you to have all of your sin taken away. You see, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians fifteen, " As in Adam all die." That's where we've been learning about the sin. But it goes on to say, "Even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

[00:10:06] You see, Adam really blew it big time and passed it down to everybody else. But when Jesus came, "He's called the last Adam. He was made a quickening spirit. He gives life. He gives eternal life to those that would believe. In fact, the Bible makes it so simple, " For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

[00:10:37] You see, for us to receive the solution, it's not one that we will ever earn. We will never, ever deserve it. We are sinners, and Jesus made a way for us. This is the free gift. And if you will receive Him today, you will have all of your sin taken away.

Next Lesson

[00:11:02] I hope that you believe that today, and I hope that you'll continue to follow along in our gospel course where we're gonna learn things like, why would God want to save me in the first place? Can I really know that I'm saved? Am I really saved forever? Please continue, and we'll see you in the next video