In lesson number one we should have learned several things:

1.           That God spoke the words he wanted us to know to a select group of men, who in turn wrote those words down for us to read.

2.           That God and Jesus were both in the very beginning.

3.           That Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the Life and the only way for us to live with God is through the gift God gave – Jesus Christ.

4.           That sin separates mankind from God, which is a barrier that keeps mankind from having a relationship with Him.

5.           That what I deserve because of my sin is death.

We begin this lesson with Romans 6: 23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Wages are something we get for the effort expended. So, what we should get as a result of sin is death, according to the passage.  But we also see in the passage some kind of hope, i.e. eternal life.  This hope of eternal life with God is a gift – a FREE gift. That gift is, according to the passage, through Jesus Christ our Lord. One of the definitions for through is “went through the tunnel.” Not the best explanation, but we’ll use it anyway.

For a person to receive the gift of God, eternal life, he must go through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the tunnel to God. We find the expanded answer in other passages of Scripture; but first, we determined that sin was a barrier, a wall between God and Man, and that barrier had to be broken before man could have fellowship with God. Jesus Christ broke down the barrier of sin by becoming a sacrifice for it.

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

1 Corinthians 15: 3-4

God’s requirement to eradicate the sin barrier was to provide a sacrifice that would please Him.  Jesus offered Himself as that sacrifice. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead work to serve a living God.” Hebrews 9: 14 Jesus Christ willingly died on the cross. It was the shedding of His blood for man’s sin that pleased God.

“Why would a Father allow His son to die?” many ask. Because He was the only sacrifice that was good enough, and it was the means that foiled Satan’s plan to dominate mankind. “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” 1 Corinthians 2: 7-8

Man had to be justified for his sin. At one point in time, God allowed animals to be brought to the High Priest as a sacrifice for sin. But those sacrifices were never intended to eradicate sin; they were substitutes God allowed until Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice. Hebrews 10: 4 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin.”

All animal sacrifices were for remission of sin, not for the blotting out of sins. We can de diagnosed with cancer and after several treatments the doctor informs us we are in a state of remission. Yet, in several years that cancer may come back.  It was only temporarily in a state of remission. Animal sacrifices were brought annually to the High Priest for the remission of sins they had committed that previous year. But they *animal sacrifices) could never “take away sins.”

Christ, the ultimate sacrifice, satisfied God’s righteousness by dying on the cross and shedding His own blood for our sins. It was the only work that God would accept for eradicating sin.

So man is justified, in his sin, when he places his trust in the only work God accepts for salvation – THE WORK OF CHRIST. “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by THE FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Galatians 2: 16

(For a detailed discussion on The Faith of Christ, see the topic of the same name.)