Questions - Tuesday

During the first service on Sunday, Ken made a reference to a passage in Isaiah while he was answering the question "Where is Heaven?" That passage is Isaiah 14:13, which the NASB translates more literally than the NIV "I will ascend to heaven... in the recesses of the north." 

If you missed the first service, Ken answered the question by saying that primarily, heaven is the place where God dwells. The Bible doesn't give us GPS coordinates or a location, but generally refers to it as "up." In 2 Corinthian 12, Paul referred to the place where God dwells as the "third heaven" (the "first heaven" refers to the place where birds fly, and the "second heaven" is the place where the stars, moon and sun spend their time).  When Jesus ascended into heaven, He went up (Acts 1:9). 

Isaiah 14:13 might indicate that when you look up into the sky, heaven is in the direction of the north. However, that idea is purely the speculation of some theologians based on one verse. The Bible doesn't emphasize where heaven is so much as it emphasizes how to get there, which is by trusting Christ alone as Savior. 

Here are some other questions from Sunday's service:

If God created everything, why did He create sin? Why did He create imperfect beings that would require Jesus' death to save them? 

The logic of this argument goes like this: God created everything. Sin and evil is something. So, God must have created sin and evil. However, sin is not a "thing," per say, but the absence of good (Think of a hole - a hole is not a "thing." It is the absence of a thing). God is not the Creator of evil (1 John 1:5; 1 Corinthians 14:33), but He is the Creator of a world that included the potential for evil. It is us who make evil a reality. 

So, why did God create a world with the potential for evil? Why does He allow evil to exist? He doesn't tell us explicitly, but He does give us some clues. Throughout the Scriptures, God makes it clear that He is in the Self-revealing business. Truly, the most loving thing a perfect God could do is to reveal His perfections to others who can appreciate them. And yet, we could not understand the depths of God's love if His love was not contrasted with hate. We could not begin to enjoy His grace if rejection was not a possibility. We could not understand forgiveness or the depths of Christ's sacrifice if sin was only hypothetical. 

Ultimately, we are assured that God's plan is completely perfect and that even the awful things of the world will make good sense in the future (Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 13:12). Meanwhile, rather than worrying about the evil "out there," the Bible challenges us to deal with the evil "in here" - in our own hearts, by trusting Christ as Savior. 

Ken Boa and Larry Moody have a great discussion of this topic in chapter 7 of their book "I'm Glad You Asked." You might want to check it out if you want more information. 

How do you know you're saved? Is it possible for someone to lose their salvation? 

John answered the first part of this question for us in 1 John 5:11-13. We know we are saved because our salvation depends on God, not on us. God promised eternal life to those who trust Jesus Christ as their Savior, and God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). So, if you are wondering whether or not you are saved, the question to ask is: Have I trusted that Jesus Christ paid the price for my sin on the cross, rose from the dead, and gives me eternal life simply by trusting Him (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9)? If you have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, you can know with absolute certainty that you are saved. 

When you trust Jesus Christ as Savior, He gives you (present tense) "everlasting life" (John 3:16; John 11:25-26). For "everlasting life" to be "everlasting" life, it cannot be lost. Otherwise, it would just be just "life until you lose it." You did not do anything to earn salvation, and cannot do anything to lose it either. Salvation is dependent on God's faithfulness, not ours, and Jesus is clear: no one (not even ourselves) can snatch us out of the Father's hand (John 10:28-29). 

Why do we have to trust Jesus Christ as Savior? Wouldn't His sacrifice be enough to cover our inaction? 

Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is absolutely enough to pay for our inaction, but there is a difference between the payment for sin, and the forgiveness of sin. I could go to the bank this afternoon and make sufficient payment to pay-off your home mortgage, but if you chose to reject my payment on your behalf, the bank would not forgive your debt.  Similarly, all sin of all time has been sufficiently paid for by Jesus Christ (1 John 2:2; 1 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 2:9), though many people do not experience the benefits of that payment because they choose to reject it (John 3:18). No one would be foolish enough to reject the payment-in-full of our home mortgage. How much more foolish would we be to reject Christ's payment-in-full of our sin debt? 

Why did Christ have to be a perfect Lamb (sinless)? 

If Jesus had been imperfect,  He would have owed God separation from Him - the same debt we owe God (Romans 6:23). As a result, He couldn't have paid our penalty. My bank will not allow me to make a payment on your mortgage if I am in default on my mortgage. The payment for sins demanded a substitute who did not owe the penalty Himself. Jesus had to be sinless. 

Why did God wait so long to send Jesus? Why not send Him right after Adam and Eve sinned?

From Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to David to Isaiah to Jesus, God was demonstrating to man that man could not earn salvation through good works. The Mosaic Law (See Exodus 20 through Deuteronomy) essentially proved to man that only God's grace could provide salvation. During that time, God was proving His wisdom to angelic creatures (Ephesians 3:10-11) through what Jesus accomplished on the cross.  In fact, this is precisely the point Paul makes in Galatians 4:1-7. Jesus came at just the perfect time.

Can Muslims go to heaven, or is Christianity the only way to heaven?

Actually, according to Him,  Jesus is the only way to heaven (John 14:6). No religious system, Islam or Christianity, grants a person entrance into heaven. Forgiveness is not found in a religious system, but in a Person. Although many Muslims are sweet, loving, God-fearing people (in the truest sense of the phrase), they are sinners just like you and I. Therefore, they owe God the same penalty that anyone else does: death (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Unfortunately, the Islamic faith does not provide a Savior - just a series of works that a faithful person will do in hopes that Allah will accept them into Paradise. The very best Muslim is in the same boat as the very worst Muslim when they stand before a Perfect God: less than perfect. Without accepting the forgiveness that is only found through Jesus Christ, a Muslim will have to pay the penalty (death) himself. 

Why is it that when you are living right in God's eyes, bad things still happen?

We still live in a world that, as a whole, stands against God. In fact, Satan has temporary authority within the world to work in and through people who stand opposed to God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:12). Because the world is allied with the enemy, the battle we face is real. Sometimes we face the unintended consequences of sin perpetrated by the world. Other times we are the target of those who are allied with the enemy (2 Timothy 3:12). Remember, Jesus promised if they hated Him they will hate you for being identified with Him (Luke 21:17), but that their persecution is not the end of the story (Matthew 5:11-12). 

What do you do if [the five friends you're praying for] are already Christians but don't live the Christian life?

Paul dealt with a similar situation throughout most of his ministry. In 1 Thessalonians 5:14 to "warn those who are idle" (the people who aren't doing anything), "encourage the timid" (the people who are scared to do something), "help the weak" (the people who can't do something), and to "be patient with all." We should work hard to encourage our friends to do better just like Paul did in his letters, but also to be patient with them.  If they are believers, we can be confident that God is at work in their lives (Philippians 1:6; 2:13). 

We would also encourage you to find 5 friends who don't know Jesus, and begin praying for them as well. It is important to pray for each other as believers, but also to ask God to give us opportunities to share the Gospel with our friends who desperately need to hear it. 

We've got more answers queued up for tomorrow, so be sure to check back then for answers to questions like: 

- If Christ hadn't died, what would have happened? Would God just have destroyed man?

- What did Jesus experience during the 3 days in the grave? Why is it considered 3 days when [Friday to Sunday] is only 48 hours?

- How do modern Jews deal with the issue of sin? 

- Does God need us? If not, why did He create us? 

Questions - Monday

We anticipated a great response to the chance to interact with yesterday's sermon, but even still it was exciting to read some of your questions as they began to roll in during both services. We received many more questions than we could answer in each service, or even in one blog entry. So, we will take a few questions at a time and spread them throughout the week. It is our goal to answer all the questions, so keep checking back all week. 

Some of the questions we received were concerning the same topic, but were worded differently. Both Ken and I thoroughly enjoy answering questions, but not so much that we want to answer the same question three different times! So, the question that will appear on the blog is usually the first one we received.  

And away we go...

I know Jesus forgives me, but how do I forgive myself? 

Most of us struggle from time to time with some form of guilt over something in our past, and one of the true struggles of the Christian life is seeing ourselves the way God sees us.  It is clear from Scripture that if we have trusted Christ, God does forgive us fully and completely (Hebrews 8:12; 2 Corinthians 5:19).  I think a lot of Christians wrongly believe that beating ourselves up over our sin demonstrates a stronger connection to God. Actually, holding sin against ourselves longer than God does demonstrates a lack of faith that Jesus' cross is enough to pay our debt. If you're struggling in this area, you might spend some time reading Ephesians 1 and 2, praying that God would allow you to see yourself the way He sees you: "once far away... brought near through the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).  

Why did Jesus have to be resurrected? How do we know He really was resurrected?

Stay tuned on Easter Sunday for a more complete answer to this question.  But briefly, 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 indicates that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, our faith and preaching is useless (v. 14), the apostles who said they saw Him alive are liars (v. 15), and our sins have not been paid for (v. 17). 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 also adds that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, He is not the Conquering King over mankind's greatest enemy: death. Also, Jesus had to rise from the dead in order to fulfill Old Testament prophecies like Psalm 16:10 which pointed to a resurrected Messiah. 

1 Corinthians 15:5-6 offers the most convincing proof of the resurrection: 511 eyewitness accounts. When Paul wrote, many of those people were still alive (v. 6), and could have been questioned. Yet history never records a single defector among all those people. Additionally, the Romans and the Jewish leaders had a vested interest in squashing Christianity before it got off the ground. If the resurrection did not happen, all they had to do was produce a body, and Christianity would have gone by the wayside as quickly as it began.  

For more information on the proof of the resurrection, check out the appendix to chapter 4 of "I'm Glad You Asked," by Ken Boa and Larry Moody. 

Does God punish believers for their sin even if they ask for forgiveness?

God does not punish believers for their sin, period. Jesus Christ received the satisfactory punishment for our sin (1 John 2:2; 1 Peter 2:24). We often face the consequences of sin (both our sins and the sins of others), and endure godly discipline from time to time (Hebrews 12:7-11), but that discipline is never punishment for sin, or done out of God's wrath. Godly discipline is corrective so that we can be trained to do the right thing, because God loves us and wants us to live in the freedom of the holiness He enjoys (Hebrews 12:10-11).

Since Jesus did not NEED to suffer for anything, do we NEED to suffer for anything? 

Jesus did not need to suffer in the sense that He did not deserve to suffer the consequences or penalty of our sin.  He was perfect, but suffered the consequences of our sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). We, on the other hand, have all sinned (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:10). We certainly deserve to suffer for our sin, but we do not need to suffer for our sin, because Christ has suffered for us. 

With that said, Jesus promised that suffering would come to people who are identified with Him, because the fallen world system in which we live hates Jesus (John 15:19-21; Matthew 24:9). When we are identified with Jesus through faith in Him as our Savior we no longer deserve to suffer, but we still do. When that happens, Jesus reminds us we are joining a long line of people who looked to Him before us (Matthew 5:10), and that our suffering will not be in vain (Matthew 5:11-12)

How does the Catholic view of the cross differ? 

The Roman Catholic view of the cross is based on the philosophy and theology of Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas (12th and 13th century theologians, respectively). Roman Catholics believe the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as foundational to a system of what they call the "sacraments." These include baptism, confession, eucharist (communion), penance, unction (last rites), orders (clergy), and matrimony. The Roman Catholic view is that a person receives merited grace through those sacraments. 

Evangelicals believe that the term merited grace is an oxymoron. Grace is by definition unmerited. We believe that because of Christ's death on the cross, God gives unmerited favor (grace) to those who trust His Son (Ephesians 2:8-10).  

If we are no longer obligated to sin (after our redemption), could we live a sinless life?

Some great Christians from the past have attempted to make this argument (John Wesley, for example), but we believe sinlessness on this side of eternity is impossible. The book of 1 John was written to believers, and John makes the case very early that although Jesus Christ has purified us from sin in a positional sense (1 John 1:7), we still sin in the practical sense (1 John 1:8-9). 

As a believer we can rest assured that our sins have been paid for (1 Peter 3:18),  we have been freed from the slave market of sin (1 Peter 1:18-19; Romans 6:22), and we have the Holy Spirit living inside us Who can help us in our struggle against sin (Romans 8:9-10; 1 Corinthians 3:16). Prior to trusting Christ, we lived as God's enemies (Romans 5:10; James 4:4). As God's enemies, we couldn't do anything but sin. Now, although we will not reach perfection on this side of eternity, we have the ability to grow in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18), and walk worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1). 

So how close can we get to perfection? If you're like me, closer than we were yesterday... 

Questions?

This morning you had the opportunity to interact with the sermon by raising your own questions in real time. Ken was able to answer a couple of the questions at the end of the message in each service, but because of the great response he was not able to answer them all. 

Be sure to check back all week. We received some great questions, and Ken and I (Chris) will be working hard to answer all of them over the next few days. Thanks for participating in a great Sunday. 

Welcome!

As we prepare for the Easter season, our sermon series "Living Hope" will address questions about Jesus' impact on our own spiritual destiny. Of course, as is often true in questions about theology, addressing questions brings up other questions. 

This Sunday (March 29th), you will have the opportunity to interact with the sermon in real-time by using your cell phone to text message questions about the message. We will answer as many questions as we can during the service on Sunday morning, but anticipate not being able to cover them all. 

Beginning Monday (March 30th), we will use this blog to answer the questions we aren't able to get to in the service. If you use an RSS feeder, make sure you add this blog to your list. See you then.