This presentation is part of a series, UNDERSTANDING THE GOSPEL – Discipleship 101, which has been designed to help us with our plans to make disciples for Christ.
What is a disciple? A believer who is following … and sharing … Christ?
What does “Gospel” mean? Good news
What is the Gospel? Essentially, God has solved the problem that Man had and could not solve.
NOTE: There are two views re: that solution:
1. Man’s problem can be solved.
2. Man’s problem has already been solved.
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH GOD’s PLAN?
PLEASE NOTE: The title could give the impression that something was wrong with the plan. Truth be told, however, there was nothing wrong with God’s Plan … The problem was with Man.
Hebrews 8:1-13 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the [a]sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins [b]and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The purpose for this lesson is to investigate what the Bible says about Man’s Problem.
However, before we look at Man’s Problem, let’s look at God’s Purpose.
RECAP of what we saw last week …
God made birds and bees … and flowers and trees … according to their kind.
BUT God made Man according to the God-kind … in the image of God.
To this end, God “breathed” into Man the breath of “hayyim” (lives, not life), which implies that God gave Man NOT only physical life, BUT a special kind of spiritual life, as well. (1 Corinthians 2)
So why did God make Man according to the God-kind, instead of according to his kind? And why give Man a spirit that was different from the spirit in animals? The answer, it seems, is that God wanted a RELATIONSHIP with Man that was different from His relationships with other creatures and created things in the universe.
To that end …
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- God gave Man dominion over everything on earth,
- God created Man with the potential to live forever,
- God created Man with the potential to become members of His Family (the family of God), NOT as gods (as God is God), BUT as children of God.
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So, God’s PURPOSE for Man was RELATIONSHIP, based on love and lasting forever.
However, as we look around, it is painfully obvious that something went wrong.
In this presentation, we want to look at what went wrong with God’s plan … as we understand it … according to the Bible.
What went wrong with God’s plan? What caused God’s PURPOSE for Man to be derailed?
Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
1. What did God tell the man would happen if he did not obey?
2. What would happen to the Man if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
3. What did God say would happen to the Man if he ate of the tree of life?
Genesis 3:1-6 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
4. What did the serpent tell the woman would happen if she did not obey?
5. Given that the woman knew what God had said, whom did the woman seem to believe?
- Did the woman die? It doesn’t seem so … because she was able to give the fruit to her husband.
- Did the man die? It doesn’t seem so … because he was able to produce children.
- So, did God lie when He said the Man would surely die?
- The serpent suggested that.
- Some Christians believe that “in the day that you eat” referred to the time of sealing his fate.
- Other Christians may have other explanations for why Adam did not die on the day that he ate.
- Still, there are other Christians that believe Adam did die on the day that he ate … He just did not die physically. To understand (and agree with) that argument, one needs to understand what happened when God “breathed” into Man so that Man could become a “living” soul.
- Genesis 2:7
- The “breath of life” = The breath of “chayyim”
- So… the “breath of life” is really the “breath of LIVES” … one physical and the other spiritual.
- IF what God said was true, THEN it means that though Eve and Adam did not die physically, they did die spiritually.
Genesis 3:22-24a Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” — 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man …
6. What happened to Adam as a result of his disobedience?
7. What happened to the rest of the world?
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned —
7. What happened to the rest of the world as a result of Adam’s disobedience?
8. Why did death spread to all men?
Ephesians 2:1-5 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
9. According to Ephesians 2:1, what did God do to the Ephesian Christians?
10. When did God do that, according to Ephesians 2:1-5?
11. Why did God have to do that?
Hebrews 8:7-8 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah —
So … what was Man’s Problem?
Many would say SIN and/or DEATH … and they’d be correct … but they’d not be 100% accurate …
Notice what Isaiah wrote …
Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
- Man’s real problem is not his sin, but his separation from God.
- Sin is what caused his problem, but separation is what led to his death (which is what resulted in his inability to solve his problem)
- QQQ … “Man is not a sinner because he sins … Man sins because he is a sinner.”
- Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
- Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
CONCLUSION
In our last lesson, we saw that God’s PURPOSE for creating Man (in His image) was RELATIONSHIP.
In this lesson, we tried to show that Man’s PROBLEM (which derailed God’s Purpose) was SEPARATION from God … caused by SIN and DEATH.
In our next lesson, we will investigate what the Bible says about God’s PROVISION. (Be warned: That lesson may require multiple sessions … so come prepared.)
CLOSING SONG
CLOSING PRAYER
Questions
1. What did God tell the man would happen if he did not obey?
2. What would happen to the Man if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
3. What did God say would happen to the Man if he ate of the tree of life?
4. What did the serpent tell the woman would happen if she did not obey?
5. Given that the woman knew what God had said, whom did the woman seem to believe?
6. What happened to Adam as a result of his disobedience?
7. What happened to the rest of the world?
8. Why did death spread to all men?
9. According to Ephesians 2:1, what did God do to the Ephesians?
10. Why did God have to do that?
11. When did God do that, according to Ephesians 2:1-5?
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