God calls us. Why would anyone would choose eternal separation from God over eternal glory with God, particularly when the only requirement for the latter is to place one’s faith in Jesus Christ? The answer brings us back to Adam and Eve’s first need after they sinned, and our first need as their spiritual children, who come into this world spiritually dead. When Adam and Eve sinned they lost fellowship with God and hid from Him. They needed Him to seek them out and draw them back. Because of their new fallen nature and dead spirits they would have never…
God has come to our rescue. Consider the significance of the condition in which we come into this world, not only bearing Adam’s guilt but also spiritually dead and with a sin nature. We’re not only unable to relate to God spiritually, but also, because of our sin nature, reject God and constantly seek after evil. Like Adam and Eve, our natural inclination is to hide from God and go our own way, relying on ourselves. Our focus is on ourselves, and we are driven by greed, lust, pride, and selfishness. Since we come into the world in the same…
God Rescued Adam and Eve God could have left them in that state of spiritual death, and would have remained perfectly righteous and just if He had done so. He owed them nothing. He had created them as marvelous creatures in His own image and placed them over all the earth and every living thing upon it. He’d given them the opportunity to live forever, united with Him in perfect spiritual fellowship. And, he’d given them only one command: He forbade them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They had rebelled and violated that…
The importance of lies to Satan can’t be overstated. It’s not just a method he uses to build his kingdom but a reflection of a core defect in his nature: He is incapable of telling the truth. Jesus was speaking to some Jews in Jerusalem who were seeking to kill him. He told them that they couldn’t accept His word because they were like their father, Satan: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is…
Satan desires a Kingdom like God’s kingdom The Bible speaks of God’s kingdom in two senses. The first is His absolute sovereignty over all creation, every being and every thing that has ever existed and will ever exist. The second is more narrow, referring to the distinction between those who are and those who are not His people. In that sense the Old Testament particularly focuses on the nation of Israel under King David. David ruled Israel roughly a thousand years before Jesus was born. Through Nathan, a prophet and advisor to David, God told David that his kingdom would…