Tag: God saves sinners

What the Bible States About Marriage

For those who do not know, an evangelical is one who holds to the essentials of the Christian faith. The first of those essentials is an adherence to the Bible as God’s inerrant, infallible and authoritative truth. The Bible is a revelation from God to man. It does not address every subject, but what it does reveal is absolutely true about God, history, science, mankind, spirituality and morals. 

God’s Word Defines Marriage

MarriageGod’s Word reveals marriage is a divine institution and not a human social construct. Marriage is a covenant relationship between a man and a woman and is intended to be for a lifetime. Marriage began with the first humans—male and female—at the beginning of time-space-history (Gen 1:26-28; 2:18-25). Concerning marriage, Moses wrote “a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). Jesus stated marriage began in the Garden of Eden and is between a man and a woman. Jesus said, “And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? [Gen 2:24] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” (Matt 19:4-6)

Two immediate observations come out of Jesus statement: 1) marriage is a divine institution that was given to mankind at the beginning of time-space-history and, 2) marriage is between one man and one woman. In Scripture, marriage is regarded as a holy institution. Marriage is illustrative of Yahweh’s relationship with Israel (Isa 54:5), and Christ’s relationship with the church (2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:22-33). To pervert the institution of marriage—by definition and practice—is an attack on the God who gave it. Any deviation from this biblical model of marriage is a sin.

What is the Christian Response Toward Those Who Disagree with the Bible?

The Christian response is to speak and act with dignity. We are to be clear in speaking God’s truth to people who are made in His image (fallen as they are). We are to point them to Christ that they might turn to Him for salvation and be born again to a new spiritual life (1 Pet 1:3, 23). We are to “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15), “with grace” (Col 4:6), and “with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3:15). Scripture tells us:

The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. (2 Tim 2:24-26). 

We know God is always present, working in the hearts of others (John 16:7-11), and will use us to speak truth and share Christ to those who will listen. We also realize most don’t want to hear God’s Word (John 3:19-20), and will not accept His message (Matt 7:13-14), so we leave them to God’s judgment (Matt 10:14-15; Rev 20:11-15). Whatever the response of others, our role is to know God’s will and to walk with Him.

Dr. Steven R. Cook

Related Articles:

  1. Essentials of the Christian Faith  
  2. The Gospel Explained
  3. Free Grace Salvation
  4. Living by Grace  
  5. Marriage Vows and Ceremonies  
  6. Making a Biblical Marriage  
  7. Choose a Christian Spouse  
  8. What Does it Mean to Be a Man?
  9. The Gospel Message  
  10. Atonement for Sins  
  11. I am a Sinner  
  12. God’s Mercy Toward Sinners  

I am a sinner

       I am a sinner.  If you don’t know that about me, then you don’t really know me.  I am a sinner by birth (Rom. 5:12-18; Ps. 51:5), by nature (Rom. 7:19-21; Eph. 2:3), and by choice (1 Kings 8:46; Rom. 3:9-18).  You are a sinner.  If you don’t know that about yourself, then you don’t really know yourself.  God loves sinners.  If you don’t know that about God, then you don’t really know God. 

I am a sinner. 

God loves sinners. 

God loves me.   

       How does God love me?  The Bible says, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).  This is Good News.  God sent His Son into the world to die in my place and bear the punishment for my sin that rightfully belonged to me.  Peter declares, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18a), and Paul says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).  Salvation is simple for us, because Christ paid for all our sins at the cross.  The apostle Paul states, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).  This is God’s grace.  We don’t deserve this.  We can never earn this.  All of us are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).  What good news!  Christ has born all our sin and given to us the gift of salvation!  And God did this for us while we were sinners, unlovely, and hostile toward Him (Rom. 5:6-10).  Paul says, “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” (Eph. 2:4-5).  That’s good news!

I am a sinner.

Christ died for sinners.

Christ died for me.

       God has made a way whereby sinners can come to Him through the cross of Christ and receive forgiveness of sins (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Eph. 1:7), eternal life (John 3:16; 10:28), and the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:17; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9).  John writes in his Gospel, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16).  To believe in Christ means we trust Him to save us.  We dare not look to ourselves or our human works in any way, but we rely on Him alone and His atoning work on the cross as sufficient to save us.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).  And Peter states, “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Act 4:12).  Salvation is simple for us, because Christ paid for all our sins at the cross and there is nothing more for us to pay.  This is God’s grace.  John writes that Jesus “is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).  Jesus death on the cross satisfied every righteous demand of God the father, and there’s nothing more we can pay.  Jesus paid it all.  It’s pure grace.

       There are some who may want to do good works to be saved, but good works can never save.  Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone.  There were some who came to Jesus and asked, ‘“What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent”’ (John 6:28-29).  Good works should follow salvation, but they are never the condition of it.  It is the will of God that we believe in Jesus for salvation.  Jesus declared, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life” (John 6:40).  And when the Philippian Jail asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).  He was met with the simple answer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).  Salvation is always by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  Paul declares, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9).  How are we saved?  It’s simple…“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). 

Dr. Steven R. Cook