Basic Christianity
Week One
Introduction
Importance of doctrine.
1. Everyone needs answers to the “big” questions of life.
2. The kind of life we live is affected by what we believe (John 10:10).
3. We have a built-in need for our lives to be vitally connected to reality.
Doctrine lays out what we could call the Christian world view.
How we arrive at doctrine.
Doctrine systematizes what the Bible teaches.
Who Am I? Christian View of Human Nature
Then God said, „Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness‟ . .
.And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them (Genesis 1:26,27).
A non-biblical option briefly considered
For further reading:
Philip Johnson, Darwin on Trial
Michael Behe, Darwin‟s Black Box
Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
Human dignity
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What is man, that you take thought of him? And the son of man, that you care
for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with
glory and majesty! Psalm 8:4,5.
What does it mean to be in the “image of God?”
Gen. 1:27. Benevolent rulership.
Gen. 2:15. Creative accomplishment.
Gen. 2:16,17. Free will.
Genuine freedom entails the possibility of making significant
moral choices.
Gen. 2:18. Social.
Gen. 2:19,20. Intellectual.
Gen. 1:28, 2:24. Sexual.
Gen. 2:25. Open.
So this is how God designed humans “in his image” to be. Yet, we know from
our own experience that it‟s not that way now. There is another side to human
nature.
Human depravity
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The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can
understand it? Jeremiah 17:9.
Human dignity, but not humanism
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, „From any tree of the garden you
may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die‟ Genesis 2:16,17.
Genesis 3:1-6. The Fall
Consequences of the fall.
Gen. 3:7. Psychological alienation.
Gen. 3:8,9. Theological alienation.
Colossians 2:14. The Certificate of Debt.
Gen. 3:12. Social alienation.
Gen. 17,18. Ecological alienation
Gen. 3:19. Death.
We maintain the image of God, but in all of the areas, a pervasive element of
distortion remains.
Under God‟s Judgment
For the wages of sin is death. . .Romans 6:23
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Sliding scales?
Some sinners are worthy of God‟s judgment, but others aren‟t.
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
What really are God‟s moral requirements? (James 2:10).
Matthew 22:36-40.
A loving God won‟t judge?
1. Those who haven‟t heard the gospel?
2 Samuel 12:23.
Romans 1:18-23; 2:14-1618; Luke 18:9ff. Natural
revelation
We are responsible for responding in faith to what God has
revealed to us (Gen. 15:6).
So why evangelize?
2. Eternal punishment for finite sins.
1 Tim. 2:3,4.
Heb. 9:27.
What would be the appropriate sentence?
3. What if God does not judge?
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God‟s Solution
But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son. . .Galatians 4:4
In the Old Testament:
Genesis 3:15. Seed of woman
Genesis 3:22. Expelled from the garden.
Genesis 12:3. God will bless the world through Abraham
Sacrificial system: A picture of what God will do through Christ.
Lev. 17:11. Substitutionary Atonement
Lev. 16:1-3. Day of Atonement
Isaiah 53. The suffering servant
Fulfillment in Christ:
Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to
abolish, but to fulfill Matthew 5:17.
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Jesus‟ teaching about his death (Mk. 8:31; 9:31; 10:32-34)
John 1:29; Hebrews 10:12. Christ is the fulfillment of sacrificial
system.
Because Christ is eternal and sinless, he could substitute for all
people.
Saving Faith
But to as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of
God, even to those who believe in His name. John 1:12.
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Salvation is offered by God as a gift. That‟s what grace means.
Faith means agreeing with God about our need for forgiveness and the
adequacy of his provision in Christ.
This means acknowledging that we in no way earn God‟s
acceptance. See Ephesians 2:8,9.
Faith means making a conscious decision to trust Christ‟s death on our
behalf.
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