When man shuns God’s word, he passes up his only hope for knowing what sin is and how it affects him both now and for all eternity.
In establishing His covenant with Israel, God promised them He would have respect unto them, make them fruitful, and multiply them.
In a very basic sense, the word hope means desire, yet the true meaning is not nearly as weak as the world presents. The word hope in scripture is associated with the word expectation (Proverbs 10:28; Proverbs 11:7). Hope is not simply some type of wishful thinking; it is something that someone trusts in dearly (Jeremiah 17:7). This type of hope is not something visible to the naked eye of man (Romans 8:24), but it is believed and held firm by faith (Hebrews 11:1). All men live their lives based upon hope; however, not all hope is the same. One man’s hope might be that there is no life after death. Another might place his hope solely upon the payment for sin provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Learning that God is the creator in the person of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:16) should serve as one of the earliest of life’s lessons. Some people have used this truth of God as creator to suggest that He is accountable for their lustful desires, yet nothing could be further from the truth. Believers should continue to believe and proclaim that God created each person on purpose and for a purpose. Unfortunately, many people try to point to God as a prime excuse for the sin within their own hearts and lives. They point to some failure, sin, or lifestyle and say, “God made me this way.” God does make some people short and others tall. He makes some with blue eyes and some with green. He makes some male and some female. God made each individual with certain traits, yet the truth of who and what we are flows from the choices we have made, good and bad. One commonality amongst all of God’s creation concerns the need for the soul’s salvation. Instead of trying so hard to question God’s wisdom, believers should rather choose to serve Him to the best of their God-given abilities.
God made you! He either made you a male or a female (Genesis 1:27; Matthew 19:4). As such, He expects each of us to act, look, and live like what He made us in every way. Ever more frequently, the world and the Devil have blurred the lines of distinction between male and female. One of the most grievous outcomes of the blurring of distinctions between male and female has resulted in the public’s acceptance of the sin which led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God condemned it then and condemns it no less today. The Lord wants men and women to be distinct and look differently in every possible way. As such, He created the genders with obvious physical differences. He even admonished each gender to bear clear and distinct differences in length of hair (1 Corinthians 11:14-15) and commanded them to maintain obvious distinctions in apparel (Deuteronomy 22:5). In other words, focus upon looking like what God created you to be.
The believer’s relationship with God is twofold consisting of a positional relationship and one of practice. Positionally, the believer enjoys Christ’s imputed righteousness (Romans 4:6-8). In this position, the believer has been forgiven of all trespasses (past, present, and future) (Colossians 2:13). John confirmed this truth as he wrote to believers saying that their sins were already forgiven (1 John 2:12). Because of God's complete forgiveness, sins can never and will never affect a man’s position in Christ. However, man must also consider his practice (his daily walk before the Lord).The sins that cannot harm a man’s position in Christ can adversely hinder his fellowship with the Lord. Though all our sins are forgiven, we still should daily confess our sins to the Lord in order to keep our fellowship right (1 John 1:9).
Honest scientists are increasingly learning truths once deemed unimaginable by those who did not know the scriptures. Some of these truths concern the inner workings of man's mind and body. These relatively recent discoveries reveal that the body emits signals exposing truths intended by men to remain concealed. Sometimes the individual even lies attempting to conceal the facts further. For this reason, people began studying body language in hopes of determining if an individual's movements reveal otherwise hidden truths. Yet, the Bible has included these secrets long before man's scientific discoveries. In fact, the main character found in the oldest book of the Bible understood these principles. Job claimed that the truthfulness of his statements could be seen by simply looking at him. People have long assumed that the conscience is responsible for body language and the scriptures support this claim. Romans 9:1 confirms this truth as Paul stated, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.” The Bible repeatedly shows that the conscience reveals the truth even when man intentionally tries to hide it, lie, or deceive.
The Christian life is a life of continual blessings, though it also contains many experiences in life's difficulties. The believer is blessed by God’s provisions in the past and offered hope through God’s promised future provisions. Psalm 68:19 proclaims that the Lord “daily loadeth us with benefits.” These benefits include both spiritual and physical blessings of salvation, answered prayers, good health, and family. However, David specifically described the blessedness of a man imputed righteousness apart from his works. Our passage records his words as he proclaimed, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven.” Though forgiven of past, present, and future sin, man's capacity for sinning remains unabated within his natural body. Every faithful Bible student knows never to minimize forgiveness of one's sin as one of the greatest blessings of all!
The subject of forgiveness would fill volumes yet never exhaust the depths of its meaning. The study for the next two weeks will provide the reader with a deeper understanding and greater appreciation concerning the necessity for faith in the Christian life. We embark on this study by offering a basic meaning for the word forgiveness. Three scripture passages reveal the association of forgiveness to covering (Psalm 32:1; Psalm 85:2; Romans 4:7). The first passage further reveals that the covering of sin is directly connected to forgiving of transgression. The second two verses connect the covering of sin to the forgiving of iniquity. With these truths in mind, the act of forgiving someone involves the act of cancelling the penalty for wrongdoing. As the wrongdoing is forgiven, whether it be sin, transgression, or iniquity, the offense is covered as it is forgiven. This covering does not suggest placing a covering over the wrongdoing to hide it, but the act of taking care of its penalty.
