The Greatest Problem

Where Christianity differs?

A lot of religious traditions are

superficially similar but they are
fundamentally different except that all
of them tell you that "You can please
God if you do enough good things or if
you work off your Karma"

You can save yourself, in a sense.

Even atheists will tell you that if

enough resources, enough education
and good governmental system we
can achieve a sort of utopia.

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 All of them are saying that "You can
be the solution to your own problem…
that you can save “You"

Jesus said quite the opposite.

"We are the problem and therefore

we can't be the solution"

This is counter-cultural.

"We are sinners in need of a Savior"

We need someone who is not us, to

save us, from us.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes

away the sins of the world.

That's what the Cross is all about.

Jesus did something about the sin; not

just taught us about sin.

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 Introduction
Where the story began
Christians believe that God has put a
lot of himself into his creature; all its
beauty and interest has come out of
Him.
God made the world—that space and
time, heat and cold, and all the
colours and tastes, and all the animals
and vegetables, are things that God
created.
“God created man in His own image;
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them”
(Gen 1:27). Adam and Eve were good
(Gen 1:27); they had a ‘good’ human
nature that was created ‘in the image
of God’.

God blessed humans with an intellect,

giving them the ability to ask big
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questions, reason logically, and grasp
deep truths about their Creator.

God made them with emotions so

they could experience feelings such as
joy and empathy.

He also gave them a will to make

choices of eternal consequence.

Further, He gave them the ability to

communicate—to speak, gesture, and
sing. He also enabled them to make
long-term plans and to carry out those
plans with amazing creativity. Most
importantly, He entrusted them with
an eternal soul and spirit so they
might worship and enjoy their
relationship with Him forever.
Such capacities set mankind apart
from the animal kingdom.
God created humans (man and
woman) to enjoy His love. God “is
love” (1John 4:8).
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 But it happens one moment you have
a self at all, there is a possibility of
putting yourself first—wanting to be
the center—wanting to be God, in
fact. That was the sin of Satan: and
that was the sin he taught the human
race. What Satan put into the heads of
our remote ancestors was the idea
that they could ‘be like gods’— could
set up on their own as if they had
created themselves— be their own
masters—invent some sort of
happiness for themselves outside
God, apart from God. The long terrible
story - of man trying to find something
other than God which will make him
happy - leads to endless sadness and
despair.

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 What is the problem that happened?
A universe that contains much that is
obviously bad and apparently
meaningless, but containing creatures
like ourselves who know that it is bad
and meaningless. There are only two
views that face all the facts. One is the
Christian view that this is a good world
that has gone wrong, but still retains
the memory of what it ought to have
been. Many things have gone wrong
with the world but God insists to put
them right again.

Christianity believes this God created

good angels, but some went wrong
and turned into devils by their own
free will “cut down to the ground.”
(Isaiah 14:12)

Christianity agrees with Dualism that

this universe is at war. But it does not
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 think this is a war between
independent powers. It thinks it is a
civil war, a rebellion, and that we are
living in a part of the universe
occupied by the rebel.

God is definitely ‘good’ or ‘righteous’,

a God who takes sides, who loves love
and hates hatred, who wants us to
behave in one way and not in another.

He created things which had free will.

That means creatures which can go
either wrong or right. Some people
think they can imagine a creature
which was free but had no possibility
of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is
free to be good it is also free to be
bad. And free will is what has made
evil possible. Why, then, did God give
them free will? Because free will,
though it makes evil possible, is also
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the only thing that makes possible any
love or goodness or joy worth having.
A world of automata—of creatures
that worked like machines—would
hardly be worth creating. The
happiness which God designs for His
higher creatures is the happiness of
being freely, voluntarily united to Him
and to each other in an ecstasy of love
and delight compared with which the
most rapturous love between a man
and a woman on this earth is mere
milk and water. And for that they
must be free.

To sum up, we cannot blame God or

refuse His existence because evil
exists as if we blame Him and refuse
Him because He gave us Free Will
which is all humanity is about.

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 God did not design creation to fight
against itself.

Before sin entered, man had dominion

over creation. All things were in
perfect submission to Adam and his
wife. Righteousness and peace filled
the earth. Then our first ancestor
went down the path of sin and death,
and with him went the whole defiled
and dying human race.

Of course God knew what would

happen if people used their freedom
the wrong way: apparently He
thought it worth the risk. If God thinks
this state of war in the universe a
price worth paying for free will—that
is, for making a live world in which
creatures can do real good or harm
and something of real importance can

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happen, instead of a toy world which
only moves when He pulls the strings.

The good news is that, from the

beginning, our Creator had a bold
rescue plan.

God planned to save His people and

renew them.

The New Covenant is based upon an

inner spiritual change within people
(salvation).

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is

a new creation; old things have passed
away; behold, all things have become
new. Now all things are of God, who
has reconciled us to Himself through
Jesus Christ, and has given us the
ministry of reconciliation" (2
Corinthians 5: 17 -18)

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 Chapter 1
Mercy and Justice
Incarnation & Salvation
Adam was created to live holy and
eternally by the grace given to Him
according to his will.

Like the man, the woman was made in

the image and likeness of God—
created to reflect the LORD’s
character and enjoy spiritual oneness
with Him forever. While the Creator
established definite order and
distinctive roles for the man and the
woman, He declared them equal in
value and importance.

From the beginning, the LORD God

intended for humans to live in close,
sweet fellowship with Himself. That is
why He gave Adam and Eve minds and
hearts (intellect and emotions) with
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 which to understand and love Him,
and freedom of choice (a will) with
which to decide whether or not to
trust Him and obey Him.
The element of choice was very
important since true love and loyalty
cannot be coerced.

When their will refused God's grace,

they lost grace and lost their eternal
life.

Corruption damaged our nature. It's

like a virus so we were all born by this
corrupted nature. Our spirit is sick.

Then God provided for Adam and Eve

clothing made of animal skins. To do
this, blood was shed. Imagine the
LORD selecting a couple of sheep or
other appropriate animals, sacrificing
them and then making “tunics of skin”
for Adam and Eve. God was teaching
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them vital lessons about the high cost
of sin, about His holy nature and
about how sinners can be made
acceptable to Him.

By providing this special clothing for

Adam and Eve, their Creator was
showing His grace to those who had
just revolted against Him. They did not
deserve God’s kindness, but that’s
what grace is: undeserved kindness.
Justice is receiving what we
deserve (= eternal punishment).
Mercy is not receiving what we
deserve (= no punishment).
Grace is receiving what we don’t
deserve (= covering).

God Himself performed the first blood

sacrifice.
Notice too that it was the LORD who
“clothed them” with the animal skins
He had provided. Adam and Eve had
tried to cover their sin and shame, but
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 their efforts did not satisfy God. He
alone had a solution for their sin and
shame. God wanted them to
understand this. He wants us to
understand this too.

Here is our double trouble:

• SIN: We are guilty sinners. God

alone can cleanse us from sin and
rescue us from everlasting
punishment.
• SHAME: We are spiritually naked.
God alone can clothe us with His
righteousness and give us eternal life
again.

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 What is sin?

The Scriptures define sin for us.

• “Sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4)

• “All unrighteousness is sin.”

(1 John 5:17)

• “To him who knows to do good and

does not do it, to him it is sin.”
(James 4:17)

• Sin is when someone choose to

exalt self and “turn…to his own
way” (Isaiah 53:6), instead of
exalting and following God’s way
“Everyone proud in heart is an
abomination to the LORD; though
they join forces, none will go
unpunished.” (Proverbs 16:5)

• Sin is to “fall short of the glory of

God.” (Romans 3:23)

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 “The glory of God” refers to God’s
absolute purity and perfection. To
“fall short” means to miss “the
bull’s eye” on “the target of
perfect righteousness.” Sin is
failure to live in complete
conformity to the holy nature and
flawless will of God.

Allowing sin to reside in His presence

is more nauseating to God than a
rotting pig carcass in your house
would be to you. A single sin is as
unacceptable to God as a single drop
of poison in my tea would be to me.
Why are we unable to tolerate a
putrid carcass in our house or a drop
of poison in our tea?
Such things go against our nature.
Sin goes against God’s nature.

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So, the result of a sin is eternal death
(separation from God; the source of
life, like a broken branch from a living
tree) because:

1. The holy nature (which God granted

us) is now corrupted.

2. God is just and the debt is

unlimited.

Two basic principles:

1. BLOOD GIVES LIFE

God said: “The life of the flesh is in
the blood.” Modern science affirms
what the Scriptures have declared
for thousands of years: a creature’s
life is in its blood. Healthy blood
transports all the elements
necessary to sustain life and to
cleanse away impurities. The blood
is precious; without it, humans and
animals alike die.
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2. SIN DEMANDS DEATH
God also said: “It is the blood that
makes atonement for the soul.”
The word atonement comes from
the Hebrew word kaphar which
means to cover, cancel, cleanse,
forgive and reconcile. It was only
through the poured out blood that
sinners could be cleansed and
reconciled to their righteous
Creator. Since the penalty for sin is
death, God was saying He would
accept the blood (forfeited life) of
an acceptable sacrifice as a
covering for man’s sin.

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 The question is:
How could sin’s contamination be
removed and how could perfect purity
be restored? Is there a satisfying
answer to the prophet Job’s question,
“How can a man be righteous before
God?” (Job 9:2)

The main intent of this blood-for-sin

provision was to demonstrate God’s
righteous wrath against sin until such
time as He promised Savior arrived.
The Messiah’s purpose would be to
fulfill the true meaning of the law of
the sacrifice.

In God’s estimation, the life of one

human is worth more than all the
animals in the entire world. Animals
were not created in the image of God.
Animals do not have eternal souls.
Consequently, animal blood could

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only symbolize what was necessary to
cancel man’s debt of sin.

The Scripture reveals what the

Righteous Judge has done to be both
“just and the justifier” of condemned
sinners like Adam and Eve, and like
you and me (Romans 3:26). Do you
know what He has done to offer you
mercy while upholding justice?
The answer is up ahead and thank
God, there is a way.

1. Who can fix a nature other than its

creator?

Only God can fix it by renewing it.

We need our creator to renew our

nature.

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2. Who can pay an unlimited debt &
take such a great punishment to
satisfy God's justice?

We cannot satisfy God’s justice and

pay our debts.

Our sins are unlimited

Debt (punishment) is unlimited

We need a savior to pay our debts

(redeem us) & take our
punishment.

Savior must be unlimited

Only God is unlimited

But God never dies

So He took our flesh that dies =

Incarnation

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 In other words, redemption and
salvation require unlimited
propitiation sufficient for the
forgiveness of the unlimited sins of all
people through all ages. These sins
were also committed against an
unlimited God and therefore require
unlimited atonement.

“He has delivered us from the power

of darkness and translated us into the
kingdom of the Son of His love, in
whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is
the image of the invisible God” (Col
1:13-14).

“For all have sinned, and come short

of the glory of God; Being justified
freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus”
(Romans 3:23,24 KJV)
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When Holy Scripture speaks about the
forgiveness of sins through the blood
of Christ, it attributes this to the
Divine Logos who is the Image of the
invisible God.

"For God so loved the world, that he

gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."
(John 3:16 KJV)

Or incarnated God has two united

natures in one new nature; his divinity
is united with his humanity.

His humanity flesh died to take

our punishment.

In other words, He dies (by flesh) to

pay our debts.

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 His divinity never dies and that's
how He rose up from death.

In other words, His dead flesh rose

again by His divinity to give new
nature to our flesh; rising again with
glory.

A new nature is given to us (again

from God Himself); a flesh that will
rise again after death to live eternally
with God in His Kingdom.

That’s how through salvation, our

corrupted nature is renewed again.

Not only because, Jesus Christ,

our God, taught us how to live a
holy life through his life among
us and teachings. But through
His sacrifice for us.

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This is why salvation is necessary and
redemption is the only way.

Salvation is deliverance from eternal

death and possession of eternal life.
First of all, eternal life is a gift that
God gives. Jesus himself said "If you
knew the gift of God" (John 4:10). Also
see "the gift of God is eternal life"
(Romans 6:23).

Our Lord Jesus Christ has defeated

Satan, giving us the gift of salvation,
and the gift of the Holy Spirit that will
guide us through the road of eternal
life, "Whom the Lord Jesus promised
the believers that He will abide with
them forever" (John 14:16 and John
16:13) and "He will teach you all
things, and bring to your
remembrance all things that I said to
you" (John 14:26).
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 How is this new nature and life
transferred to us?

1. Believing; Eternal Life exists in the

person of Jesus Christ Himself who
is living on the inside of us.
"Examine yourselves as to whether
you are in the faith. Test yourselves.
Do you not know yourselves, that
Jesus Christ is in you?--unless
indeed you are disqualified"
(2 Corinthians 13:5).

You don't start your eternal life

when you die. Eternal life starts the
moment that an individual gets
baptized and receive the Holy Spirit
through the Holy Myron because it
is at that time that Christ begins to
live in you. (John 1:12, Revelation
3:20).

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2. Baptism; being totally immersed
(covered) in holy water to be re-
born spiritually believing that the
same God who used mud to create
us in the beginning, will use this
water to renew our flesh (re-born
again spiritually by His Holy Spirit).

Baptism is dying with Christ and

rising with Him, the baptized
individual is then anointed with
the holy Myron Oil which
contains remnants of the spices
that had touched the body of
Christ at His burial. This heavenly
seal of our souls consecrates us
to Christ forever. Having put off
the old man, we put on Christ
and the Holy Spirit dwells in us
and is sealed upon us.

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3. Holy Communion and Union with
our Savior so that God sees His
Holiness and image in us again as
well as debt payment (= Savior
blood).

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 Chapter 3
Can we work it out on our
own?
Is it possible to attain salvation in
other worldviews?

According to our Bible and the Jewish

Torah, our salvation was planned. God
promised His people with a savior and
there a lot of prophecies through
hundreds of years in the Old
Testament about this savior.

That's why Christians worship God as

their Father and Savior to whom they
are grateful and loving.

“But as many as received Him, to them

He gave the right to become children

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 of God, to those who believe in His
name” (John 1:12).

Unfortunately, there are still some

people in other worldviews worship
God to attain his favor to escape from
hell and fear as a slave. Others live in
doubt of their afterlife destiny.

The world questions and casts doubt

on why would the Almighty God do
such a thing when He has other
means. He created the world with His
Word; why suffer and die in this
manner?

It is neither God’s intention nor desire

that the majority of the people do not
reach eternal life. Through the ages
we have seen many characters whose
lives were completely altered e.g. St.

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 Paul the apostle, St. Augustine, and
many more.

But this doesn’t mean that His justice

will not be aligned with His mercy.
And both are satisfied by Jesus’ death
on cross for you and me.

God's mercy is very important

because we sin intentionally and non-
intentionally.

In some worldviews who believe in

God and eternal life, there is kind of
heavenly scale (like in Islam) or
Nirvana status; upon which people will
be valued.

Accordingly, good deeds must

overweigh bad deeds.

However, most of them believe that

human beings act sinfully.

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 The questions are:

How can you know the weighs of

deeds and if your good deeds are
enough to overweigh the bad ones?

You can never be sure and God is not

unjust to leave you with such great
unknown scale.

How can we be such sinful and be

able to meet the Heavenly scale
standards?

It is illogic that our sinful nature can

ever deserve such Holy Heavenly life
with our limited good deeds only.

For Example, according to the

Buddhist worldview, all beings
accumulate karma based on their
actions, and karma dictates their life
circumstances. When a person dies,

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 the karma accumulated in that
lifetime (and all previous lives)
determines his or her lot in the next
life.

Buddhists believe karma keeps one

trapped in an endless cycle of death
and rebirth (samsara), and the only
way out is through enlightenment. To
become enlightened, one has to
eliminate desire. Buddha taught that
desire is the root of suffering.

Moreover, What about the deep void

you feel in your life? The emptiness
that only God can fill? We are His
creation, made in His image. He
intends for us to have a relationship
with Him and, when we are without
Him, we feel empty and alone.
Meditations and teachings could not
fill this emptiness in your life. For in
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 Buddhism, there is no sovereign,
loving Creator.

You cannot find the true

enlightenment without a personal
relationship with my Creator.

Even earning mercy (like in Islam) is

contradictory in some sense because
mercy is that what you don't deserve
but earning it means that you do
deserve it.

Even if we earned God's mercy by

some good deeds, how will we pay
our debts for the bad deeds to satisfy
God' justice as well?

Or will those only with bad deeds -

overweighing the good ones - pay the
debt because God will not be merciful
with them?!

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 In such way, we divided God. He will
be just with some people and merciful
with others.

But this is impossible; God is merciful

and just at the same time and with all
people. He will judge us all in the
same way. For example: In the same
way, we cannot accept a merciful
judge to let a killer go because one
day he did a great thing (even if that
thing was saving someone from
death).

Now then, if the “good-works-

outweighing-bad-works” system is
never used in man’s earthly
courtrooms, would such an unfair
system be used in God’s heavenly
courtroom?

We cannot accept this about God.

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We cannot earn mercy because mercy
is receiving what we don't deserve but
earning it means that we do deserve
it.

So mercy is totally something granted

by God because He is merciful and not
because of our limited good deeds.

In Christianity, our good deeds are

sign of our live faith, gratefulness and
how we try to keep to God's Holy
image in us.

We will all be judged with God's

justice and mercy.

Sin is an offense against God, King

David said, “Against You, You only,
have I sinned and done evil in Your
sight” (Ps 51:4).

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Sin is, therefore, considered unlimited
because it is committed against the
unlimited God. Consequently, any sin
requires unlimited atonement.

Justice will be satisfied when our bad

deeds are judged and sentenced.

The ransom must be paid to the Divine

Justice. The Old Testament sacrifices
were symbols of the sacrifice of the
cross. These sacrifices were not
offered to the devil but were offered to
God. Hence, holy fire came down from
heaven and consumed them (1 Kg
18:38), and it is written that God
“smelled a soothing aroma” (Gen
8:21) after the sacrifice of our father
Noah. Since sin is committed against
God (Ps 51:4) then the price of this sin
should be paid to God Himself.

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Jesus on cross = satisfied God’s justice
and poured mercy on us.

Our Lord said, “The Son of Man did not

come to be served, but to serve, and to
give His life a ransom for many” (Mk
10:45)

“Thank God, there is a way to God.

It's only way but there is a way He

prepared for us to satisfy His justice
and His mercy.

"That God was in Christ reconciling the

world to Himself, not imputing their
trespasses to them, and has
committed to us the word of
reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5: 19)

"For He made Him who knew no sin to

be sin for us, that we might become

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 the righteousness of God in Him" (2
Corinthians 5: 21)

To sum up:

David wrote:
“I will sing of mercy and justice; to
You, O LORD, I will sing praises.”
(Psalm 101:1)
David, who had committed some
heinous sins, knew that he did not
deserve God’s mercy. By definition,
mercy is undeserved.

Justice is receiving the punishment we

deserve.
Mercy is not receiving the punishment
we deserve.
The reason David could sing praises to
God was that he knew the LORD had
devised a way to show mercy to
undeserving sinners without setting

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 aside justice. That is why David sang
“of mercy and justice.”
Forgiveness of sin is not a simple
matter for God. He never pardons a
sinner apart from the satisfaction that
the sinner’s transgressions have been
sufficiently judged and punished.
God’s mercy never negates God’s
justice. He never says, “I love you, so I
won’t judge your sin.” Nor does He
say, “Since you have sinned, I don’t
love you.” God loves sinners, but must
quarantine and punish their sin.
If this is what God is like, how can He
possibly extend mercy to guilty
sinners?
If we are the problem, we can't be the
solution. We need someone - who is
not us - to save us from our problem.
This is Jesus Christ taking all sin of the
world and bears it for us.

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 Conclusion:
God gave man freedom to choose
whether or not to love, praise, and
obey his Creator. True love cannot be
forced or preprogrammed. Love
involves a person’s mind, heart, and
will. While it is true that God is the
Sovereign King over His universe, it is
also true that He holds man
responsible for making weighty
choices of eternal impact.

Absolute justice must be satisfied.

God cannot simply overlook sin. A
penalty must be paid for it, either by
the persons themselves or by
someone else for them, which enables
them to go to heaven.

So unless someone capable of paying

the debt of sin owed to God does so,

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God is obligated to express his wrath,
not his mercy, upon them. Lacking the
crucifixion, there is no way to explain
how God can be merciful when he is
also just.

Anyone who suggests that God can

show mercy apart from upholding
justice is ignoring the nature of God
and the law of sin and death.

God’s mercy and justice are always in

perfect balance.

“I will sing of mercy and justice; to

You, O LORD, I will sing praises.”
(Psalm 101:1)

We have gone through the plan of

salvation: (1) the person is a sinner
(Rom. 3:23), (2) sin will be judged
(Rom. 6:23), (3) Jesus has paid the
price for that sin (Rom. 5:8)
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 Jesus is the only way.

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth,

and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me” (Jn 14:6).

And we must be careful to believe

what God’s Word says about Jesus:
“Nor is there salvation in any other,
for there is no other name under
heaven given among men by which we
must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

God is omniscient, all knowing. He

knew that Adam and Eve would sin
but He demonstrated His incredible
love for us (Romans 5:8) by giving us
what we needed more than anything,
what we don't deserve, and what we
couldn't obtain on our own. God
wanted it to be an invaluable gift

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(Ephesians 2:8-9), not something that
we could earn.

He would also provide it at great

sacrifice to Himself. "Greater love has
no one than this, that he lay down his
life for his friends" (John 15:13). God
also wanted to initiate this love
relationship "He first loved us" (1 John
4:19), and He wanted it to be
expressed back to Him through the
agency of faith and good works.
Finally, and most importantly, God's
only provision for our condition is
through the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ.

Apart from entering into a personal

relationship with your Creator, your
life will be incomplete and
unsatisfying. No amount of earthly
possessions, pleasure, prestige,
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 people, or prayers can fill the void in
your soul. Only the LORD can occupy
the empty room in your heart that He
designed for Himself.

“He satisfies the longing soul, and fills

the hungry soul with goodness.”
(Psalm 107:9)

Grief, pain, and death were not

around at the beginning of God’s
story, nor will they be around at the
end. One day sin and its curse will be
abolished.
“God will wipe away every tear from
their eyes; there shall be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There
shall be no more pain, for the former
things have passed away…
And there shall be no more curse.”
(Revelation 21:4; 22:3)

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Justice is receiving what we deserve (=
eternal punishment).
Mercy is not receiving what we
deserve (= no punishment).
Grace is receiving what we don’t
deserve (= covering).

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