Weekly Devotional 8-27-17 The Holiness of God Prevents
In a weekly Bible study of Luke’s Gospel, a study in which I am a member, a statement was read from the curriculum of the class. It states, “The message of Luke’s Gospel is that the salvation provided by Jesus is broad enough to include all people.” One of the class members asked, “What about those who have never heard the Gospel, will they not be saved?” The answer of course is difficult since there are many directions from which the answer must come. The message of the Gospel is broad enough to provide salvation to all who hear it. That is, to all people who respond to it in faith. Those who reject it will be lost. But, as asked by the questioner, how about those who have never heard the Gospel, peoples of ages gone by when the Gospel of Jesus Christ had not yet been known? How about those in lands where the Gospel has never been preached? Has God not provided salvation for them?
The short answer is that persons are not lost because they have not heard the Gospel, be it in ages past, or in present times. They are lost because sin has separated them from God. When sin entered the world through Adam (who was man’s federal head), and because God is Holy, He separated himself from man. We read from Genesis 2:15-17; “15Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” No stronger word could have been used by God to express to Adam, and to mankind, the seriousness of disobedience, of sinning against Him. As physical death separates a dead person from all that is living, so spiritual death separated Adam and all his offspring from God, and God from them. The apostle Paul was inspired to write these words to the Romans. “12Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned– 13(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come” (Romans 5:12-15). So, all persons are separated from God because of sin. As God separated Himself from Adam because He is holy, God separated Himself from Adam’s offspring, which includes all persons for this same reason. God is Holy (righteous) and cannot allow sinful (unrighteous) man into His presence.
Thanks be to God! He restored Adam by shedding the blood of an innocent animal and He took the skin of that animal as a covering for Adam. The blood of that animal of course did not satisfy God’s wrath against the sin of Adam (of man). It was representative of the blood Jesus would shed as total satisfaction against God’s wrath. (See Hebrews 10:1-10).
The problem that man has is that man does not understand or appreciate God’s holiness, His righteousness. Man can only evaluate those attributes by his own standards. Standards that are subjected to his fallen nature. Man can, and does, tolerate many things that are harmful and abusive (the fruits of sin), but because of who He is, God cannot tolerate them. Could God allow murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, unbelievers in Him, or the abominable into Heaven (see Revelation 21:3-8) and still be Holy? No. His holiness will not allow these things or those that commit them. God therefore does not condemn persons because they have not heard the Gospel, but because all are sinners and have sinned. Go to whatever society of man one will, and you will find that there is a disobedience to established law, primitive or sophisticated. This attests to man’s fallen nature. When God created man, He gave him a conscience, a moral compass. When man violates the direction of that conscience it is sin. Therefore, there are no innocent persons (See Psalm 14:1,3; and Romans 3:10-12).
However, we should always remember Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, and His message to us; “16For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:16-21).
Because God loves man, He sacrificed Jesus to save man. He has commissioned his followers, which includes you and me, to take the Gospel to all of humanity (See Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).
Are you concerned enough to prepare yourself, or prepare others, to carry out this commission? An important question for sure.
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Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man
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