Let us go on now to explore man's predicament and his need for salvation. Having understood the fact that there is a God and that the Bible is the Word of God, we are faced with the reality that each one of us has broken the laws of God: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

We have established the fact that Jesus Christ is God. We believe He has made it possible for sinful man to have a relationship with a holy God. Although it seems clear that the Bible contains the only answer for man's sin and separation from God, some might think there are alternative views which are also plausible. Aren't there other ways to deal with sin and separation from God?

Some think that sincerity of belief is enough to deal with sin and separation from God. After I explained my convictions to a friend, he said, "You're right, but so am I. I just don't see things the same way you do. It seems to me that it doesn't matter so much what a man believes, so long as he is sincere in his belief."

Let's test that statement. One Sunday morning a neighbor says to his wife and family, "Let's go for a drive." Traveling north, they come to a railroad crossing. Sincerely believing there will be no train on a Sunday morning, he attempts to drive across without looking. He is killed instantly by an express train. His son receives a broken arm and his daughter is seriously injured. Did his sincere belief that all was clear save him? No, it did not.

I know a nurse who, on night duty, sincerely believed she held the right medicine in her hand, but she was wrong. In twenty minutes her patient was dead.

Of course we need sincerity, but we must sincerely believe truth, not error. In fact, sincerely believing error can destroy us.

The Bible leaves no room for doubt.

Some suggest that all a person needs to do to escape God's judgment and set things right is to sincerely change, to do better in the future, and to live down the past. Will this work?

Assume that the manager of a business goes to his accountant and finds that his company owes $500,000 to suppliers. He says, "Write letters to everyone we owe money to and tell them that we are not going to worry about the past. We have turned over new pages in the ledger. We promise to pay 100 cents on the dollar in all future business. In addition, from now on, we will live up to the highest standard of business integrity."

The accountant would think his employer had gone mad. Yet thousands of otherwise sensible people are trying to live a good life and make sincere changes. They offer to meet their obligations toward God for the future, but refuse to worry about the past.

It won't work with God, either. Ecclesiastes 3:15 says, "God will call the past to account." Even if we assume that we can somehow begin to live an absolutely perfect life, we are still sinners by birth.

God's righteousness demands that no past account will be considered settled until it has been paid in full and every claim of justice met. The murderer may cover his sin and live the life of a model citizen for ten years or more after his crime. But when he is found, man's law still holds him accountable. Though he has murdered no one for ten long years, it still judges him a murderer.

In God's sight the past and future are as open as the present. According to God's standard of holiness, we have all sinned. Sin must be brought out and dealt with. The Bible

says that Jesus Christ is the only way. Jesus Christ gave up His life, in place of ours, so that we can be free. He paid for our past sin, our present sin, and our future sin.

Couldn't He save us without dying? Man has broken God's law and the penalty is death - separation from God, in our life on earth and for eternity. How could Christ deliver us without paying the full penalty? You see, if Christ paid anything less than the full price, there would still be a price for us to pay. Because He died, the law we broke need not condemn us anymore.

An unfinished court case had to be extended another day. So that no outside influence could be brought to bear, the jury was sequestered overnight. The next morning when they arrived in court, the judge announced: "This case is dismissed; the prisoner has been called to a higher court." The accused had died in his cell during the night. Even today the law knows no greater penalty than to take a life.

The Lord Jesus Christ, my substitute, suffered the greatest penalty of the law on my account. He freed me absolutely from all the claims the law had against me.

Because of the greatness of Christ's sacrifice, some have suggested that if Christ died for all, then everyone must be saved. But God does not say that. He says there is salvation for all, but that not all are saved. Why? Because not all believe the testimony that God has given to us about His Son Jesus. "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).

Let me illustrate. Picture a bitterly cold winter. Many people are without jobs because of difficult economic times. Recognizing the situation, the city officials provide free meals for anyone in need. One day, as you walk down the street, a starving man approaches you and wants money to get food. Naturally you ask if he doesn't believe the notices posted all over the city - Free Food for Everyone!

"Yes," he says, "but nothing is FREE; there's always a catch. I'm not falling for it. I wasn't born yesterday!" You tell him that he will stay hungry if he doesn't personally accept the offer made.

Although the death of Christ provides salvation for all who come, only those who receive Christ as their sacrifice and trust in Him alone for salvation will receive the gift of salvation. Unless I receive Christ as my Savior, His death will not help me one bit.

In the same way a man could die of thirst beside a spring of water if he refused to drink.

Some may still question: How can the one life of Jesus be considered the substitute for the lives of so many? That's a fair question. Christ is God manifest in the flesh.

Jesus is the exact representation of God.

Because He is God, the life of Christ which He gave is an infinite life. That infinite life is able to meet the needs of any number of finite lives. Get a sheet of paper. Write down all the big numbers you can think of - one million, billions, or more. Now add them up. You now have a very large number. Multiply that number by 10 or a million or whatever number you like. Use as many sheets of paper as you want. When you're finished, you still have a finite number, a number that has bounds. It is a number that has beginning and end. No matter how large it may be, it is still a finite number.

No man has ever been able to make the infinite by adding finite things together. The infinite life of Christ given for sinners is more than sufficient to save all who receive Him as the One who died for them.

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned" (John 5:24).

Another question many people ask is, "If God created man for Himself and He is all-powerful, why didn't He make man incapable of sinning?"

In many ways that question is like asking why God doesn't draw a crooked straight line or a round square. Man is created with the power of intelligent choice. So the question really is, "Why didn't God make man with the power of intelligent choice and yet without the power of intelligent choice?"

Suppose I put my children under hypnosis, robbing them of intelligent choice. Now I give them a command: "Sit on those chairs until I tell you to get off." They would sit on the chairs until I changed the command. Now I give the command: "Come kiss me good night." Unfeeling arms would go around my neck and unresponsive lips would be pressed to mine. I would have a prompt and perfect obedience to my every command, but would I find satisfaction in it? Of course not!

All of us want our children to obey us because they choose to obey. Because they have the choice, they can disobey. God doesn't want puppets who jump in a given direc- tion according to whatever wire is pulled. He doesn't want robots in the form of men, people who function mechanically like the planets that whirl through space.

God finds satisfaction in nothing less than the spontaneous love of our hearts. But it is obvious that the ability to choose enables us to defy and dishonor Him.

Sin is the result of our own choice. God neither tempts nor is tempted by evil.

Still another misconception asks, "With all that God has created in the vastness of our universe, why should He care about me? Why should He send Christ to die in my place?" It is true that even our own solar system is pretty phenomenal. Neptune is thirty times as far away from the sun as our earth. It takes 164 of our years to make one of Neptune's. Beyond Neptune are suns with planets revolving around them just as our solar system revolves around our sun.

Others have asked the same question, even the writer of the Psalms: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" (Psalm 8:3-4).

A young astronomer concluded that God could not care about man. "Man," he said, " is less than a grain of sand in comparison to the great vast universe." In his thirst for knowledge, this young man began to work with a microscope during the day, since the stars were best studied at night. Suddenly new worlds were opened, worlds as wonderful as those above. He began to see that the God who could attend to such minute detail as making a drop of ditch water throb with miniature life was sure to be interested in man, the highest form of His creation.

God's love and concern extend to even the smallest aspects of His creation.

You may be thinking: Can it really be that simple? Does simply believing solve the problem of my sin and separation from God, removing my guilt? Please understand, you are never asked to fully grasp the mystery. I cannot, nor can any man in this life. Just rejoice in its fact.

Electricity remains a mystery. I can read and discover many of the laws that govern it, but it still remains a mystery. Do you worry about the mystery of electricity as you make use of it? Won't you let these facts, facts that you have seen for yourself, influence you?

Yes, it is a simple act of believing. It's a mistake to think that faith is opposed to reason; reason is dependent on faith. Without knowledge, reason is impossible, and knowledge is largely a matter of faith. Faith and reason go hand in hand, but faith goes on when reason can go no further.

For instance, I believe that strychnine, in a large enough dose, will kill a man. I have never seen the experiment performed. Yet I believe the written testimony of others. I wouldn't take a dose of strychnine for a million dollars.

Most of what we know is a matter of faith in human testimony, written or spoken. We have not verified it through personal witness. We have freely accepted the testimony of other men on other subjects. Why not accept the testimony of God Himself and literally thousands of men and women who have found His Word to be true - those who have believed in His name and found life, eternal life, just as He promises?

CONSIDER Faith is an absolute requirement.

That reveals the wisdom and the wonder of God's plan of salvation for sinful people. In a word, it is salvation by substitution.

REASON • Sincerity is important as long as we sincerely believe truth. Sincerely believing an error can destroy us.

• Changing my behavior for the future never corrects the past.

• God created us with the ability to make choices.

RESPOND Take a few more minutes to think and respond.

1. Temptation is a very real issue in our lives. Re-read:

a. Does temptation steal us away unknowingly?

b. When does temptation begin?

2. "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" (Psalm 8:3-4).

a. The first passage asks a question and implies an answer. What is the question and the implied answer?

b. The second passage states an answer, using an example. What is the question and the answer?

3. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him"

a. What is the reward of faith?

b. How does that benefit us?

4. God has made provision to deal with our sin and separation from Him. We must choose. This verse presents the options:

What are the options?