How to Know God

We owe our life and earthly existence to God our Creator. He is the Supreme Being, the original source of all things, and He is the rightful owner and Sovereign King over everything in the cosmos.

• In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
• For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16)
• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

On the sixth day, God formed the pinnacle of His creation, Mankind. God gave man dominion over the earth, and man’s purpose was to glorify God and obey Him. The Bible teaches that Adam was created in the Image of God (Gen. 1:26) with true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Gen. 1:31; Ecc. 7:29; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).

Adam’s nature was intrinsically good, and he had the spiritual and ethical ability to perfectly obey anything that God required of him. However, man made the decision to disobey God in the Garden of Eden by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:16-17).

As a result, Adam fell from his original righteousness, lost his communion with God, was cast out of paradise, became dead in sin, and defiled in all parts of his soul and body.

The Bible also teaches that Adam’s sin not only had negative spiritual consequences for him but also for the whole human race (i.e., everyone descending from Adam by ordinary generation). The teaching that mankind is guilty of sin in Adam and corrupted in nature because of Adam’s sin is commonly referred to as original sin. God’s Word says that the guilt of Adam’s sin is imputed to all men. (To impute Adam’s sin means that God reckons it to, or lays it to one’s account.) Because of Adam’s sin spiritual and physical death passed to all men. All men naturally born of Adam’s seed come into this world spiritually dead, with an innate hatred and hostility toward God, with a depraved soul that loves sin and cannot cease from it, and with ethical pollution that extends to every aspect of his nature.

• …through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)
• For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
• No one is righteous, no, not one. no one understands, no one seeks after God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. (Romans 3:10-12)
• And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

The Bible declares that God is holy. This means that God is the absolute standard of moral perfection. God is blameless and upright in all of His ways, He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. His judgments are holy, His works are holy, and all of His ways are holy.

No one in this world can measure up to the perfect standards of a holy God because everyone in the world has sinned and therefore rebelled against the holiness of God. All men are condemned using the same measuring stick of divine perfection, and it only takes one sin against God’s holy law for us to be thrown into the furnace of His holy justice.

This is man’s peril, guilty of sin before a holy God, awaiting a day that is looming along the horizon in which God will judge the thoughts and intentions of men. This final day of judgment is inescapable, fixed, and absolute. It is a dreadful day in which God’s full fury and wrath against sin will be displayed. No longer will there be a day of grace. No longer will there be an opportunity for forgiveness. On this day every sin throughout the history of the world will be judged by God. Nothing will be hidden, no sin will be overlooked, and there will be nowhere to hide. All the sins from the time of Adam to the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign will meet God’s perfect holy judgment.

• … it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)
• …when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)
• Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15)

Although it may be difficult to comprehend an eternal punishment in Hell for a life of temporary sin, that doesn’t make it any less of a reality. All of humanity lacks the perfect holy righteousness that is required to settle the eternal price that our sin-debt requires. Nevertheless, God did not leave us without hope…

In His love towards His creation, God stepped into time, took on flesh as a man, and came to earth to dwell among us as Jesus Christ. In order to satisfy God’s wrath, the Savior had to be a perfect, sinless, human sacrifice for sin that would meet the holy righteous demands of God against sin.

Jesus lived the perfect life that we failed to live, thereby fulfilling all of the righteous requirements of God’s perfect holy law. At the end of Christ’s life, He was crucified upon the cross and bore the sins of men in His body. Christ’s death served as a substitutionary atonement to God in our place, a propitiation for our sin. This is known as the great exchange – the worst of you has been laid upon Him, the best of Him has been laid upon you. God punishes Jesus for our sin and turns around and treats us as though we’ve lived Christ’s life. That’s the doctrine of substitution, that’s the Gospel and what you get is complete forgiveness.

Who is Jesus: Jesus existed before the foundation of the world, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. With the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Son created all things (Colossians 1:16), sustains all things (Hebrews 1:3), and makes all things new (Revelation 21:5). Truly God (John 10:30), He became truly man (1 Timothy 2:5), two natures in one person. He was born of the Virgin Mary and lived a perfect, sinless life among us (2 Corinthians 5:21). He was crucified, died, and was buried. He rose on the third day, ascended to heaven, and will come again in glory and judgment (John 5:22). For us, He kept the law (Galatians 4:4-5), atoned for sin (1 John 2:2), and satisfied God’s wrath (Isaiah 53:10). He took our filthy rags and gave us His righteous robe (Revelation 7:9). He is our Prophet, Priest, and King, building His church, interceding for us, and reigning over all things. Jesus Christ is Lord, and we are called to praise His holy Name forever.

• “And 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.” (Acts 4:12)
• and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
• For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; (1 Peter 3:18)
• But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:10)

Salvation is a free gift from God that Mankind did nothing to warrant in and of himself. We receive this free gift of salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus and His substitutionary work on the cross. Our responsibility is to place our trust in Christ and take God at His Word that Jesus accomplished all that is necessary for us to be restored to a right relationship with God.

True saving faith looks away from good works, away from church membership, and away from religious activity. It focuses exclusively on the finished work of Christ on the cross. It rests upon Christ and Christ alone for justification and eternal life. Genuine saving faith believes that Christ is who He says He is, that He will do what He has promised to do, and then puts itself into the hands of the One who has been appointed to save, that He may save you.

Illustration of Faith: We believe in a physician when we put our case into that physician’s hands and trust him to cure us. We believe in a lawyer when we leave our case in his hands and trust him to plead for us. We believe in Jesus Christ when we take Him to be our Savior when we put our helpless case into His hands and trust Him to do what we cannot do for ourselves – save us from our sin.

So, ask yourself, do you believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Are you trusting in the finished work of Christ alone to save you from your sin? Are you ready and willing to commit your life to follow Jesus as Lord?

• 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)

• 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. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

• Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
• If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:9-13)

So, friend, as you go out from us today, we appeal to you as though Christ is appealing through us: Please, sincerely consider these things in your heart. There are real eternal consequences for where you put your hope and trust before you step into eternity. You alone must take the time to call out to God, honestly and sincerely, and seek Him personally for salvation from your own sin.

If you have any further questions or want to commit to following Jesus as Lord in your life through a discipleship relationship with a fellow believer, please call us at (314) 295-7002, or email us at office@legacybuilders.faith. We hope to speak with you soon.