Lesson 1: Our Great Need for Christ

Hi, I'm Professor Timothy Moore and I get to be your instructor for Christian spirituality and this is unit one where we'll be talking about our great need for Christ. In the scripture, we're told that we need a savior. The biblical Greek word for savior is soter.

It means one who rescues, one who restores. And the Bible's very clear. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

every human being. But where did we get that capacity? Where did sin and rebellion and our need for a savior originate?

We're going to look at the biblical perspective. But first, I just want to share with you yesterday I was on a major news website and uh this is just a screenshot that I that I took from my computer and every headline is expressing some kind of brokenness, some kind of evil and darkness in the world. And I'm not going to read all of them, but um one of them there says, "An ISIS inspired suspect planned a suicide attack at a Taylor Swift concert.

Austrian authorities say this is world news. Um furious battles are underway and that's speaking about the Russia Ukraine war. " A Belgian publisher.

So the these are different countries. A Belgian publisher removes an opinion column that described an urge to stab every Jew over Gaza. And so it just goes on and on and on.

And there's so much crime in the headlines, so much war in the headlines, so much evil and darkness in the in the headlines. And so this course examines from a biblical perspective where that originated, how it perpetuated, and what the answer is for all of the the evil and the brokenness in the world. [snorts] And so we have to go all the way back um the Genesis.

The word Genesis means the beginning. And so we're going all the way back to Genesis and we're seeing after God created human beings. He made everything.

He made Adam, he made all of the animals, everything that grows on planet Earth. And then he created Eve and he he blessed them. The word blessing is baraka and it means to be completely fulfilled.

And so God blessed them and gave them everything that was necessary to be completely fulfilled. And yet in Genesis chapter three, we see a tempter arrive. And we see Eve get deceived by that tempter and Adam outright rebel against what God had told him.

And so let's read the scripture together. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1 says, "The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman.

" So this is a serpent, a beautiful serpent who talks. And so that definitely got the uh attention of Adam and Eve. And both of them are here, not just Eve.

And so the serpent asks the woman, "Did God really say that you must not eat the fruit of any of the trees of the garden? " And then the woman responds, "Of course, we may eat the fruit from the trees of the garden, it's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we're not allowed to eat. " And God said, God, she's saying that God said, "You must not eat or even touch it.

If you do, you will die. " So that's Genesis 3 1-3. There's a couple of variations.

Um the serpent says, "Did God really say? " And so the serpent wants to inject doubt. He wants to cause the woman and the man, Adam and Eve, to distrust God to um to question the goodness of God.

This God who blessed them and gave them everything they need needed to be completely fulfilled. The tempter, this serpent, wants to make them doubt that that God is actually holding something back from them. He's keeping something from them.

And then God just said, "Don't eat the fruit. " But Eve added to the words of God and said, he said, "Don't even touch it. " And so, the first thing that I want to deal with here is who is this serpent?

>> [snorts] >> where where did he come from? Well, I don't think he is uh just a snake in the garden. In fact, the rest of the scripture speaks [clears throat] of a particular fallen angel as that serpent.

Revelation 12:9 says, "This great dragon, the ancient what? serpent called the devil or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world was thrown down to the earth with all of his angels. We read in the rest of the scriptures that um that Satan himself who used to be an angel in heaven named Lucifer and Lucifer means the one who brings the light.

He was prideful in his heart. He was cast down. He was so beautiful and so mighty and glorious that a third of the angels followed him where?

To the earth. It says he was cast down to the earth and those angels became what we refer to as demons. And so the serpent in the garden was Satan himself.

Why did God allow that? Why did why did God even um allow Satan to enter the garden and tempt the the man and the woman that he created and he called them good? He called all of his creation good.

And yet here is this serpent. He's tempting them in the garden. Why would God allow this?

In moral philosophy or in particular Christian moral philosophy, we see God creating what's called a moral universe. They speak of a moral universe. The scripture also verifies this and we're going to see that a moral universe is one in which choices are made between good and evil with consequences that are either good or bad.

And so God created a moral universe. Uh we see evidence of that in passages like Jeremiah 18:12 that says the people replied don't waste your breath. Now who are they talking to?

This is Jeremiah. The prophet Jeremiah is um given an assignment by God to call the people of Israel to repentance to turn back to God. And when Jeremiah tries to give this message, their response to Jeremiah, the man of God, the prophet, is this.

Don't waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires. Jeremiah had told them that that they were doing that, that they were stubbornly following their own evil desires as a prophet of the Lord.

And the people said, "We will continue to stubbornly follow our own evil desires. " And so, there's obviously a choice. God is giving them a choice.

He's calling them to good. He's calling them to light. He's calling them into truth.

He's calling them into love and they stubbornly refuse. And so the same thing happens in the garden. The choice is given and there is a fall.

Um before we talk about that, I I have a thought about um a moral philosophy course that I took with a professor named Dr Doug Blunt. And in that course, Dr Blunt gave us a hypothetical situation. He said, "What if God created two universes?

" And he was he was addressing this problem of evil. Why there's a tempter in the garden, why there's evil on planet Earth. If there's a good God, a powerful God, why does evil exist?

And this doesn't answer the question completely, but it's very helpful. He said, 'What if there was a universe A and a universe B? And in universe A, someone offers you a million dollars to kill someone, to commit a heinous crime, and you flatly refuse.

You say, "There's no way I would ever do that. " and you refuse the money and you refuse to commit the crime. That's universe A.

In universe B, this person comes to you and offers you the money and you take it and you commit that crime. And the question that Dr Blunt posed to the class was, which universe is the perfect universe? the one where you refused the money and didn't do the crime or the one where you took the money and did the crime.

And about half the class said universe A would be the perfect universe. But it's really kind of a trick question because in both universes, universe A and Universe B, someone is evil enough, someone is dark enough to offer you money to kill someone. And so a moral universe is one in which good exist and evil exist and choices exist to do what is right or what is wrong and and the consequences are either good or bad.

And so if this is true, if God created a moral universe, and I believe that he did, and I believe the scriptures bear that out, then a tempter is necessary. Someone who promotes that darkness, that evil is necessary. God didn't create us to be automatons, robots.

He created us in his image with the power and valition to make choices and those choices have consequences. And so we see the consequence of the choice in the garden and it's referred to as the fall, the fall of humanity in the garden. 1 John 2:16 says, "This world offers only a craving.

" When it's talking about the world here, it's talking about the fallen world system. Since we fell in the garden, there is a way that the world functions apart from God. And that's what this is talking about.

The world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything that we see and pride in our achievements and our possessions. The older translations say the world only offers the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. These are not from the father, the scripture says, but they are from the world.

And this world is fading away. The way the world currently exists is not its permanent state. Jesus Christ will return to this earth and he will make all things new.

Verse 17, this world is fading away along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. That's the promise of God.

And so this shift from the fall to the promise happens in the garden. So God doesn't leave them without hope. Even in that garden rebellion, God brings hope in the midst of the consequences.

And so in Genesis 3:15, God says to the serpent, to Satan, I will put enmity, that means opposition, striving between you, the serpent, and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He so we know the seed that is being spoken about here is a male child. He shall bruise your head and you will bruise his heel.

And so what does this mean? I think we need to look at the words that are used here in the original language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.

The New Testament in coin or common Greek. And so we're going to look at some Hebrew words here in Genesis 3:15 in this promise. The first thing that I want us to look at is the Hebrew word zera.

When it says of the woman that that her seed will crush the head of the serpent, but the serpent seed will bruise the heel of the the the child that is born, the person that is born to the woman. The word zerah in Hebrew is the word for seed. And when the Old Testament was translated into Greek, Old Testament was Hebrew, but it was translated into Greek and that translation was called the Septuagent.

And in the Septuagent translation, Zerah is translated sperma. and sperma refers to and zera refers to uh the reproductive fluid that only a man a male produces. Never in the word of God, never in in literature that we've been able to find is the word zerah used of a woman except in Genesis 3:15.

The seed of the woman is a phrase meaning a child will be born without a man. And so a woman will have a child without a man. And this refers to a virgin birth.

The other word that's used uh bruise is the Hebrew word shuf and it can mean to crush or to grind. And so when it says he the child virginborn will bruise shuff the [snorts] head of the serpent. It is saying that he will crush or grind the head of the serpent.

It is a fatal blow to the serpent. And so all of this together in one verse in the Garden of Eden, God is communicating the great hope that we have, the great savior that is coming, the one who will rescue us from our rebellion, our sin, and our shame, and restore our relationship with God forever. He's saying a virgin-born son will crush the head of the serpent Satan.

Theologians call this the proto evangelium. Proto is the Greek word for first. And evangelium is gospel or good news.

And so Genesis 3:15 is the first time that God communicates that a virginborn son will undo the work of the devil on planet Earth. And uh it's reiterated in Hebrews 2:14 which says in as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood he himself this is Jesus likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil. Amen.

Now, I'd like for us to talk about the narrative gospel. The narrative gospel is the four parts of the gospel expressed in literally every chapter of the Bible. >> All right?

In order to understand the Bible, you have to understand what theologians describe as the narrative gospel of hope. The word gospel means good news. Hope is a joyful and confident expectation of something that is sure and certain.

That's not the way the Bible you I mean the world uses the word hope. That's that's the Bible word for hope. I reign.

It means a joyful and confident expectation of something that is sure and certain. Okay? And in order to understand literally every verse of the Bible, and I could flip that around and say, you cannot understand the Bible if you don't understand the four parts of the narrative gospel of hope.

It's impossible because every verse in the Bible is the narrative gospel of hope. And it's one of four things. Are you ready for them?

Okay. Something about God. Everybody say magnificence.

>> Magnificence. Something about us. Everybody say rebellion.

>> Rebellion. >> Something about grace. Everybody say redemption.

>> Redemption. >> And something about hope. Everybody say restoration.

>> Restoration. >> Every verse. Every verse.

So two weeks ago we started in the Garden of Eden, right? And God creates everything out of nothing. He just breathes uh the exnahilo out of nothing.

Galaxies form. He holds them together by the word of his power. Everybody say magnificence.

You see how that works? And then Genesis chapter 2 is the blessing of God on human beings, on Adam and Eve. And that word blessing or it's a Hebrew word barack or better.

And and it means to to have the deepest possible fulfillment. Bettera means the deepest possible fulfillment. So God blessed them and Adam and Eve were living in the deepest possible fulfillment until Lucifer, Satan, came in the form of a beautiful serpent who could talk and that got their attention in Genesis chapter 3.

Right? And so he made Adam and Eve question the goodness of God. Like God's intentions towards you are not perfect.

They're not good. He wants to limit you. I want you to be limitless.

I want you to be your own God. And so they fell. That's the rebellion.

And yet in the rebellion in Genesis 3:15, God makes this promise to the woman. To the woman. Some guy in here needs to hear that.

The promise is made to the woman. [laughter] I saw somebody do this to the husband. Salvation is coming through the woman.

He says in your seed zerah, that's the Hebrew word for seed. Women don't have seed. The Old Testament was translated into Greek.

It was called the Septuagent. The word is sperm. Sperma.

Women don't have that. So for God to say, "Your seed will crush the skull of the serpent. Your seed, Eve, he," the Bible uses the pronoun, he will crush the head of the serpent.

And so that's grace that gets inserted into this rebellion. And God says, "I you're always going to have a way out. " Somebody ought to say, "Hallelujah.

You're always going to have a way out because of my grace. Zerah. But what happens in Genesis 3 through 11 is the expansion of secularism, which is seeking blessing better ka in four areas that have nothing to do with God.

You're seeking your deepest fulfillment in four areas that have nothing to do with God. And so the first thing, first area was, let's put that up on the screen, seeking deepest fulfillment in possessions. The second area was seeking deepest fulfillment in substances and sensuality.

The third part was seeking deepest fulfillment bara in relationships. The fourth area better seeking deepest fulfillment in achievement. They tried to build a tower to the heavens.

Okay? I know we don't do this today, right? >> Like there's nobody seeking the deepest fulfillment apart from God in these four areas today.

That is secularism. And what happened in the secularism expressed from Genesis chapter 3 to the flood of Noah Noah's day [snorts] is an everinccreasing increase of brokenness and an ever decreasing experience of hope. And I like to express it as something about God and the key word is magnificence.

Something about us and the key word is rebellion. Something about grace and the key word is salvation. And something about hope and the key word is restoration.

And if you think about it, you see all of those elements in Genesis 1 through3 because God creates out of nothing. He breathes and galaxies form. He holds all things together by the word of his power.

And that is magnificence. And then as we examined earlier in Genesis chapter 3, after God created everything good and he blessed the man and the woman, they doubted when the tempter came on the scene and they rebelled. Adam rebelled against what he knew God had said.

and they fell. And as the representatives of all human beings, a curse comes upon creation. A curse comes upon the earth and there is now a tendency for every person to sin.

We are born with the sin nature. And yet God in Genesis 3:15 gives that promise, that promise of grace, that promise of salvation. The virgin born child will crush the head of the serpent.

And there's a hope of restoration through him. And so when we take that to the New Testament, I'd like for us to focus on Romans chapter 3, which says, "There is none righteous, know not one. There's none who understands, none who seek after God.

" Now, isn't that overstatement? Someone might ask is surely there's some good people somewhere not according to scripture. The scripture says that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and our nature is to sin and re rebel against God.

And and it actually teaches um us, scripture teaches us in Philippians chapter 2 that it is God who works in us to will and do his good pleasure. The word will is thema. It's our wishes, our desires.

And the word do is in ergo where we get the word energy. And so if a human being has a desire to do something good and if we have the energy to actually take action and do that good thing, it's evidence not that we are good but that there is a good God giving us good desires and giving us the energy to carry that out. And so apart from God's good work in us, there's none righteous.

No, not one. There's none who understand. There are none who seek after God.

God has to do that. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable.

And there is none. There is none who does good. No, not one.

This is the teaching of scripture. And so a magnificent God creates all of this. He makes us in his image and we all have the tendency.

We're born with that nature. And apart from his good work in our lives, there's none righteous. Know not one.

And this is God's response. This is the redemption. This is the grace.

In the same chapter in verse 23 it says everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God's glorious standard. And then verse 24 starts with two little words on which hinges all the hope in all the Bible.

Everything about us having hope and looking forward with joyful expectation to what God is going to do in the future hinges on these two words but God. We are fallen. We are sinners.

No one seeks after God unless God puts that desire in their hearts. But God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight. And he did this through Jesus Christ when he freed us from the penalty of our sins.

Hallelujah. But God through his grace. Mercy is not getting what we deserve.

Grace is getting more more than we could ever deserve. And the Bible teaches that we will be trophies of God's grace. Someday in heaven, those who entrust their lives to Jesus Christ will be trophies of God's divine grace.

Okay, let's talk about what the Bible teaches concerning responding to Christ. In John 1:10, it says, "He," speaking of Jesus, "came into the very world that he created, but the world didn't recognize him. " It's a very significant verse speaking of um the triunity of God.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We know that God created and in verse 10 it says Christ created, Jesus created and he came into the world that he created and the world didn't recognize him. But verse 11 says he came to his own people and even they rejected him.

His own people were the people of Israel. The promises of God concerning the Messiah, concerning the Savior were all given to the people of Israel for the entire world. We're going to see that in the next unit in the covenant with Abraham that the one promise to come through Abraham would bless all nations.

And here's the key verse about receiving Jesus in John chapter 1. It's verse 12. It says, "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

" And so, becoming a child of God, experiencing salvation is not something that happens automatically. It's something that we have to take action on. We have to believe.

We have to accept him. And when we do, he gives us the right to become children of God. And it says we are reborn, verse 13, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

Another verse or passage about responding to Christ that's very critical is Romans 10 10 through13. It says, "It is by believing in your heart that you're made right with God. And it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

" As the scriptures tell us, anyone who trusts him in him will never be disgraced. Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord who gives generously to all who call upon him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Again, to be saved, sotas means to be rescued. And what are we rescued from?

We're rescued from the effects, the eternal damning effects of our sin and shame. and not only to be rescued but to be restored. So we are restored to a relationship, an eternal relationship with God and all the blessings um connected to that relationship with God.

There are immediate benefits to being um saved. There are immediate benefits to entrusting your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment we say yes to him, the moment we believe and entrust ourselves to him, believing what he accomplished for us in that very moment, three things happen and it initiates something else as well.

But the three things that immediately happen, the Bible teaches we are forgiven of our sins. Ephesians 1:7 says, "In him, in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. " The moment we receive Christ, the Bible teaches that God casts our sins as far as the east is from the west.

Another passage says he drops our sins in the sea of forgetfulness and remembers them no more. In in Bible times, uh there were there there was no scuba gear. There uh were no submarines.

If you took something out and you dropped it in the sea, it was gone forever. And so to say God takes our sin and drops it in the depths of the sea simply means he will never retrieve it. God will never bring our sins back up and condemn us with those sins.

Only Satan does that. Satan. The name Satan means accuser.

And so if we are feeling guilt and shame and condemnation about the past as a believer, as someone who's experienced salvation, trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not God doing it. Our sin does not stand between us and the Lord any longer. It is gone as far as the Lord is concerned.

Second Corinthians 5:21 says that the father um took Jesus who knew no sin and made him the sacrifice for our sin so that we might be made the very righteousness of God in Christ in him. And so our sins are paid for. Jesus said, "It is finished.

" And that's the word to telly that has two meanings. It means um it means it is finished or paid in full. The debt for our sins has been paid.

So the moment we receive Jesus, we get forgiveness of our sins. The second thing that we get is eternal life. John 3:16 says, "This is how God loved the world.

He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. " It's we we receive the guarantee that when this life is over, our existence will continue in the presence of God, in the majesty of God, in the blessing of God. Jesus gave that assurance also in John chapter 14.

He said, "Don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. And I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be.

Also, the promise of the word of God is that Christ prepares a home in heaven for those who believe in him, for those who trust in what he accomplished for us on the cross and through his resurrection to pay the price for our sins. The third thing that we receive automatically when we pray to receive Christ is a genuine possibility of abundant life. Now John 10:10 says the thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

And that thief there Jesus uh lets us know in the context of that passage the thief is Satan. So, Satan comes to steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus says, "My purpose is to give you a rich and satisfying life.

" Older translations say, "I've come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. " That word translated abundant life literally means a rich and satisfying life. So Jesus came so that we might have that.

And also in John chapter 15, Jesus said, "I came that you may have joy and that your joy may be full. " And so responding to Christ in faith automatically brings us forgiveness for our sins. It brings us the hope of eternal life, the real hope of eternal life.

And I'm speaking um of the word hope in the biblical sense. Um the word hope in uh modern vernacular uh doesn't mean what it means in the Bible. We actually use the word hope today to express doubt or uncertainty.

So if someone says uh are you going to do this or that or is this going to happen? We might say I don't know. I hope so.

And so saying hope that way expresses doubt. But the biblical word for hope which is elpeda. Elpeda means a joyful and confident expectation.

And so we have the hope of eternal life. meaning uh not meaning that we doubt or that it may or may not happen but in the sense of elpida we have a joyful and confident expectation of eternal life with God and then this possibility of abundant life it is within our grasp and that abundant life is possible because we're brought into relationship with God here, not just in the hereafter, not just in eternity. We're brought into relation go in relationship with God in the here and now.

And that is called our devotional life with God. And when we respond to Christ and live out our devotional life with God, we can experience abundant life, rich and satisfying life, life that is full of joy. Zephaniah 3:17 is an expression of what happens when we're living out our relationship with God.

When we're getting in God's presence, Zephaniah was a prophet and he is writing to the people of Judah. The Israel um as a nation, an entire nation, the people of God were divided into a northern kingdom at that time and a southern kingdom. The northern kingdom was called Israel.

The southern kingdom was called Judah. And the capital of Judah was Jerusalem. And the Assyrians had taken over.

And they were ruling that region. And instead of being faithful to the Godmost high, faithful to a God to whom they were accountable, the people of Judah decided that they would go after the gods of the Assyrians. And they built what was called high places all over the land where they would go and they would worship trinket gods, idols.

Idols that they could put in their pockets, idols that they could put on their mantels where they lived. Idols that they could control, gods that they could control. And really all that that was saying is we want to be gods and we will make our own gods that we can put in our pockets and control.

We want the Assyrian gods because those gods will bless our plans and we don't want to be accountable to God most high. And because of that God told Zephaniah judgment was coming to Judah. However, they could make the decision.

Remember, we talked about a moral universe that God created. God gave them a decision that they could make in Zephaniah 3. And that decision is that they could repent.

They could turn from all of this and draw near to God. And if they would draw near to God, God would draw near to them. And he says the these are the blessings of coming into my presence.

Verse 17, Zephaniah 3, the Lord your God is living among you. That means you will know that you're in the presence of God. You will feel your God with you.

And that he is a mighty savior. You'll know in your heart that God is mighty and he is the one who rescues you. It says he will take delight in you will with gladness with his love.

He will calm all your fears and he will rejoice over you with joyful songs. Can you imagine people having this perspective of God, receiving Christ as savior, living in a devotional relationship with God where they're spending time in God's word and in prayer daily, and therefore receiving abundant life, laying hold of this abundant life that's made possible through Jesus Christ and feeling about God. This way, God is with me.

He is my mighty savior. He takes delight in me with gladness. With his love, he calms my fears.

And he rejoices over me with joyful songs. That's our great need. Our great need is to come out of the world, come out of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

come into a relationship with God through the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ and then walk with God, drawing near to God every day so that we can experience these four beautiful things described in Zephaniah 3:17. And if we do that, we have that relationship with God, the Bible says that is abundant life. Another way that it's expressed is Galatians 5:22 and 23 as the fruit of God's Holy Spirit.

Abundant life is love and joy, peace, and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And and nothing can touch that because that's something that is inside you. The spirit of God is inside you when you receive Christ as your savior.

That's our great need. That's how the Lord Jesus Christ meets that great need in our lives. And then we can walk out that relationship with God into an abundant and joyful life.