Part 2 - The Greatest Problem Defined: God's Holiness and Your Sin

1. There is a God.
He is the One True God.
God created us for His glory.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them," Genesis 1:1, 27.

There is a God. When you look at a building, what is implied but an architect. When you contemplate a painting, you consider not only the painting but personality of the painter. When you view creation, it is ten thousand times more relevant to understand the reality of the Creator. Moreover, humanity, itself, with its innate sense of justice, love, personality, and conscience cannot be accounted for by a blip in the universe, but by a wonderful Creator.

"For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is God!), who formed the earth and made it (He established it; He did not create it empty, He formed it to be inhabited!): 'I am the LORD, and there is no other...turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other," Isaiah 45:18, 22.

He is the One True God. God is the exclusive and Sovereign King of the universe. The universe and everything in it runs by His purpose, plan, and decree. In Him we live and move and have our being. The rules, commands, precepts, and law that He set are meant to be obeyed for our greatest joy because they bring us to Him. God holds exclusive rights to law-Giver and Savior. He holds exclusive rights as the Treasure of the universe. He alone satisfies the soul. All things move towards His glory.

"Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made," Isaiah 43:7.

God created us for His glory. By His glory, it is meant His greatest purpose and His moral perfection. God created you with a purpose, to have the greatest sort of fellowship with Him and knowledge of Him through a glad obedience to Him. By this, you would be most joyful in God, and God would be most honored by your joyful submission to Him.

2. Every individual has rebelled against the King of Glory.
To sin is to miss the mark or standard set by God - His glory!
All have sinned and fallen short of His glory; no one is good enough for heaven!
Therefore, God's wrath abides on you.

"No one is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:11-12, 23.

Every individual has rebelled against the King of Glory. God created us for His glory - to have an intimate relationship, communion, and knowledge of Him that would overflow our hearts with the greatest type of satisfaction - eternal life in Him. Despite all of the advantages that God gave to us in Eden, we representatively rebelled against God by disobeying His Word, His rule. The result of our sin was death - temporally and spiritually. Temporally, this is seen by the process of aging and dying. Spiritually, this is evidenced by our violent hatred of God. Your sin results in spiritual death - a separation from God and all that He is to you. Every person shakes their rebellious fist in the King's face, and sneers at His rule. We have all turned aside to walk in our own ways thinking them to be better, and have refused to listen to those whom God, in mercy, sends to us to warn us about judgment. Because of your personal sin, you are not right with God. You have no "right"eousness before Him. No one is "good" by God's standard. You see, being a sinner, and being lost, is a righteousness problem. God will judge the world in righteousness (Psalm 98:9).

To sin is to miss the mark or standard set by God - His glory! All have sinned and fallen short of His glory; no one is good enough for heaven.

At this point, you may want to test yourself to see whether you are good...enough!

But remember, God will judge you by His standard of good, and not the standard of human comparison. If I compare myself morally to the guy next door, perhaps I am a good guy, but maybe not. It would be relative. But God has given Law and it is absolute, and, therefore, not relative. And if you are now honest with yourself, your conscience will tell you the truth. We have already seen that we have all rebelled against God's purpose of glorifying and enjoying Him because of our personal sin of loving other created things, namely, ourselves. But if you are not yet convinced of this, the next aspect of God's glory may convict you of the truth. Are you ready?

I am referring to the 10 commandments.

Have you ever lied (9th commandment) before? Yes or No? If your answer is "yes", then what does that make you? Answer: A liar.

Have you ever stolen (8th commandment) anything, even something small, like cheating on a test - that would be stealing information? Yes or No? If your answer is "yes", then what does that make you? Answer: A thief. And if you answered, "No", you've already admitted that you are a liar, so forgive me if I don't believe you!

Have you ever looked on a person with lust (7th commandment and Matthew 5:27-30) in your heart? Yes or No? Jesus said that if you look at a woman (person) with lust in your heart, you have committed adultery with them in your heart. What does this make you? Answer: An adulterer.

How about anger? Have you ever been angry with anyone in your heart? Yes or No. Anger, Jesus said, is the fountain out of which murder (6th commandment and Matthew 5:21-26) springs. What does this make you according to God's standard? Answer: A murderer.

How are you doing so far? This is just 4 out of 10. To save time and space, the Bible teaches that if you have broken even one of the commandments of God, you have broken all of them, like a link in an eternal chain (James 2:10). More than that, you have sinned against God's holy and perfect character.

The Bible also teaches that liars and murderers, thieves and adulterers will NOT inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). But these are those commandments that deal with your sins against other people in general. We have not begun to deal with using God's name as a cuss word or in a way that does not exalt Him, or our love of idol's, while we cast the God of the universe aside.

The point is this: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, not of other equally sinful humans. God is the Judge of the universe, and God is the standard of moral accountability, and when it comes to God, all fall woefully short of God's purpose and God's Law. We all have a righteousness problem.

I want to thank you for being patient to this point, and I hope you will continue to move forward, because the greatest news in the universe is still to come, but first, the most important questions in the universe:

1. If God were to judge you according to His standard, would you be innocent or guilty? Answer honestly.

2. If you are guilty, would God's decision towards you be eternity in heaven or eternity in hell? Consider this honestly.

Allow me to address some key issues with you before moving to the third question:

a) You might say, "God is a loving God and would never send anyone to an eternal hell." While it is true that "God is love", it is equally true that "God is holy"; and these attributes of God do not contend with one another but they agree with and support one another. God loves people; He just loves Himself more than anything else in the universe because if He didn't He would be an idolator like us. This greatest love for Himself upholds the attribute of His holiness - because of His holiness, God will not allow one sin from one sinner into His eternal glory.

b) You might say, "God is forgiving". This also is true, and we will get to how God offers His forgiveness in a little bit, but for now, imagine yourself in a human courtroom, being judged for murder and saying to the judge, "well, judge, I think you are a really nice person and was hoping you would let me go." The judge will say, "well, thank you...but you are still going to prison."

c) You might say, "well, this is your opinion." To which I would paraphrase C.S. Lewis, "An insane man in a padded room, banging his head up against the wall, shouting, 'there is no sun, there is no sun, there is no sun' does not change the fact that there is a sun."

d) You might say, "well, are you not judging me and condemning me." To which I would answer, "No, and no." Understand that what I write, I write with great love, not with great judgment. And, I do not have to condemn you because you condemn yourself. I recently shared the Gospel with a lost friend of mine and she said to me, "I am surprised that you didn't condemn me," to which I replied, "I don't have to." Jesus said "whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:18) By your sin, you condemn yourself before God.

e) You might say, "well, God will perhaps be lenient if I promise to be a better person." This does not change the fact that by your own admission, you are a liar or a thief or a murderer or an idolator. If you murder someone at the age of 15 and never do it again and you live until you are 100, at 100 you are still a murderer. You cannot subtract sin by promising to be good. You cannot subtract your love of self by promising to improve your "self". The Law of God is about "perfection, not approximation." (Calvin)

I would be glad to dialogue with you about others, but for now:

"Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on Him," John 3:36.

3. If at this point, you see that you are guilty of sin against God and that God would be just to sentence you to an eternal hell, the most important and immediate question for you to ask is "how can I be saved from God's wrath?"

Do not think to excuse yourself from death by the claim of your age - "I am young and death will not find me so soon", or your health - "I am in good health and death will wait patiently", or your status - "I have enough money to make me immortal", or your ability - "I will discover a way around death". And do not think to excuse yourself from God's wrath against your sin affair! Jonathan Edwards made the point that a nation can wage war against another nation and come out victorious, a country against a tyrant, but no human can win against or fend off the Almighty's holiness of judgment. When God's judgment of wrath comes against the sin of sinners, sinners lose for eternity!

Because God's holiness demands an eternal punishment for even one sin (an eternal offense because of the eternal nature of Him whom it offended), the GREATEST PROBLEM IN THE UNIVERSE IS PUT IN THIS QUESTION: HOW CAN I BE SAVED FROM GOD'S HOLINESS WHEN I AM A SINNER?