From the 1st book of the Old Testament to the last book of the New Testament, there is one consistent theme, and that is God and man experienced an alienation - a barrier, that cannot be remove and God says He already removed it.
Every error ever taught regarding man's relationship with God has historically begun with an improper understanding of sin and its devastating effect on man. There is no use talking about who Jesus was or why He came by the water and the Spirit until we first understand the nature of the barrier that exist between man and his God.
The Fourfold Barrier
We can condense into 4 categories the blocks we have erected one on top of the other in the barricade that separates man from God. This wall is so inpenetrable that all the religions, philosophies, idealisms, good works and ingenuity of man can't pull it down.
1. God's Holy Character
There is not a person who ever lived who could stack his life up against the holy character of God. Man's failure to measure up has incurred the just sentencing of God, the death penalty. Romans 1:18-(For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness). The justice of God burned in wrath against man for outraging God's holiness, God's love equally yearn to find a way to justly forgive him and bring him back into fellowship with Himself.
2 A Debt of Sin
Man owes God perfect obedience to His holy law as summarized in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. By his failure to live out to this standard of perfection, man has become an offence to the very character of God, and the eternal court of justice has pronounced the death sentence upon man. This debt of sin has become another piece of the barrier that separated God and man. The good news of the Gospel of the water and Spirit is that God so loved the world that, at infinite cost to Himself, He provided a means of removing man's debt of sin and of dealing with the nature of sin in man.
3. Slavery to Satan
The sellout of Adam to Satan is how the world got into the mess it is in today. With Satan as the legal ruler of this planet, it became one great big slave market and everyone born into it of Adam's seed is born a slave of Satan. This was clearly taught by Jesus and His disciples. The apostle John wrote, "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" 1 John 5:19b. The great defender of the faith, Paul, called Satan "the god of this world" and said he had blinded the minds of the unbelieving from seeing the light of the Gospel. 2 Corinthian 4:4. In Ephesians 2:1-4, Paul spoke of Satan as "the prince of the power of the air" and called him "the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience."
Satan knows how to masquerade as an "angle of light" his heart is black and evil, full of hate and bitter revenge against God and man. Until man finds this out, he will continue to be under slavery to Satan
4. Spiritual death
Adam and Eve had no idea how utterly disasterous it would be to be spiritually death in relationship to their wonderful Creator. Likewise, they didn't comprehend the horror of eventually being cut off from each other and their loves one by physically death. Finally, they fail completely to realize the implications of eternal death, that condition of separation from God for eternity. Although all three aspects of this death sentence impose upon them went into effect immediately, only one was instantly evident to man himself. He knew that something irrepable had happened to his rapport to God. That something was SPIRITUAL DEATH
Jesus gave us eternal redemption. There is no one in this world who cannot be redeemed if anyone believes in Jesus as his/her Saviour. He redeemed us all. We should all know and believe in the secret of salvation. Jesus took all our sins with His baptism and has borne the judgement for our sins by dying on the cross. He then rose from the dead to secure our justification of faith in the Righteousness of God. We should believe in the salvation of the water and the Spirit, the eternal redemption that has the power to remove all the barriers that has beset us. We must believe this beautiful Gospel that has already made us sinless and righteous in the Spirit
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