Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

We have talked about being lost and what that means. We have talked of God’s provision for sin. We have talked about faith and grace. If you yearn for the love of God and this relationship you have been missing, if you have that hunger, then eat the bread of life.

Obviously you cannot literally eat, but you can spiritually eat. Opening up your broken heart and asking Jesus to come in by His Spirit to fill the emptiness, that longing for relationship and committing to this covenant contract is done by God by His Spirit.

John 3:5-8 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

At this time I must introduce another word not yet used, trust. Up until the time of your choice in accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and asking Him into your heart, the Holy Spirit has been an external force. Like the wind you have a sense of His presence but it was external. The internal Spirit, becoming born again in the Spirit is a whole different matter and in the beginning you will just have to trust He is there until you become adjusted to this new life in Christ.

Romans 3:23-27 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

I am going to skip many lessons in order to tie together for you God’s provision for sin in Genesis 3 and His eternal view to show His answer for justice for all mankind. Propitiation is not just a substitute, it is God’s acceptable substitute, once again through faith, in the sacrifice provided by God. The use of Paul’s phrasing “sins that are past” means God has dealt with sin at the Cross of Christ, putting an end to the penalty for sin from His point of view. (POV)

Many will scream at me for this, but people do not go to hell for their sins. God has dealt with sin once and for all. People will go to hell for not accepting God’s free will offering of the sacrifice of His Son on that Cross. It matters not what sin or sins have been committed, how many, how horrendous, how few, or even if you are self-righteous in your goodness without Christ.

You are either covered by the blood of Christ or you are not. If you are covered, all God sees is His Son’s sacrifice. If not all sees is your guilt in His death. It is just that plain and simple.