In our last lesson we saw that God offers us peace through Jesus Christ. But how exactly does this work? Why did Jesus have to die for us? And what did that mean for the entire human race? These questions and others will be explored in these next few lessons.

Note: The word “life” in this text is in the plural form in the original Hebrew Bible. God breathed into man “the breath of lives.” This is because God created all men in that one man. That man was called Adam, which means mankind. According to the Bible, the whole of mankind is linked together by a common life and is considered a unit. The human race, to which we all belong, is the multiplication of Adam’s one life. (See Acts 17:26)

Note: God created Adam and Eve with a free will. This tree was symbolic of the freedom God gave them. They were free to separate from Him at any time. And when they did separate from God, the Source of all life, there was much weeping in heaven for God knew the suffering, pain, devastation and death that would now be their fate.

Note: When Adam sinned, he actually separated himself from God. And when he did this...his entire nature changed and became corrupted. Since we were still “in him” when he sinned...our natures through heredity changed as well.

Note: Sin is a condition or a nature that we all inherit from birth. It is something we are born with because of Adam’s Fall. Therefore, we can do nothing to escape it, in and of ourselves. However, this is not our fault and God does not blame us for being born sinners.

Note: We are born separated from God. But although we may be sinners from birth God has given us the choice to escape this problem through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Note: We are by nature self-centered. We can’t help it! Let’s say I mow the next door lady’s lawn each week. Everyone would think that I was a “good” person but God looks at our heart. I could be doing this for several different reasons. I could be doing it because I enjoy being praised by others. I could be doing it because there is something I want from her and want to be in a good position to ask her for it. I could be in a bad family situation and need to get my ‘strokes’ somewhere. I might even be doing it because I heard that she’s got quite a bit of money and one foot in the grave. We often don’t realize why we’re doing it! It’s hidden deep in our heart or subconscious.

Note: Because our hearts are deceitful, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are good; that we can save ourselves with God through our own good works. A good example of us being deceived by our own sinful hearts is Peter. Peter promised Jesus that he would rather die then betray Him and he really believed that of himself. He was very sincere. But when the test came he denied his Lord three times. (See Mark 14:27-31)

Note: The problem with most of us is that we do not realize how sinful we are. We really have no understanding of our true condition. The problem is that we often compare ourselves with others to see how well we’re doing. Let’s say three of us were shooting arrows at a target in the sky. One may go up 75 ft. The other may go up only 8 ft and finally the third shot it up 150 ft. We’d say that #3 was the real winner but what if the target...was the sun! Would it really matter how far our arrows went up. We all fall miserably short of God’s supreme standard.

Note: We are not sinful because we sin. We sin because we are sinners by nature. It’s what we produce. An apple tree produces apples because it is an apple tree. We commit sins because we are sinful. It comes out of a natural tendency that we are all born with. Only God can take care of this for us.

Note: The only reason that God’s word tells us that we are sinners is to show us our need of a Savior. Once we recognize our total sinfulness the gospel becomes the best good news we have ever heard.

Conclusion: God is not in the business of trying to see how many people He can keep out of heaven. Instead, because of His great love, He is doing everything a God of love can do to make it possible for each one to be there.

His solution for our sin problem was Jesus’ death on the cross. In our next lesson we shall examine just what happened at the cross. Why did He have to die? What did He do for the entire world that we don’t know and how does that affect me personally?