5.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• God is just.
  - He will give to every person what he (or she) deserves.
• God cannot ignore sin.
• God made a covenant with Adam (and with us).
• If Adam (and we) broke the covenant, there would be a punishment: death.
• The Bible tells us about three kinds of death:
  - Death in the body
  - Spiritual death
  - Hell
• We have broken God’s covenant and therefore deserve death.
• God is also merciful. That is why there is salvation for us.

5.2 Psalm 94:8-11←⤒🔗

^94:8 Take notice of this, you ignorant people. You fools, when will you ever understand?

^94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear? Does the one who forms the human eye not see?

^94:10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish? He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!

^94:11 The Lord knows that peoples’ thoughts are morally bankrupt.

© NET Bible

5.3 God is just←⤒🔗

In Lessons 2–4 we saw that all people are guilty before God. Our hearts are sinful. We have all broken God’s law.

But by God’s grace that is not where the story of the Bible ends. In Lesson 1 we saw that the story of the Bible has three big parts:

Part 1: Sin
Part 2: Salvation
Part 3: New Life

We are almost ready to think about Part 2: Salvation. But before we get there, we must firstly understand something about God. We must understand that God is just. 

It is difficult for us to understand what “just” (or “justice”) means. Everywhere in this world we see injustice. Think of the rulers and the powerful people in this world. So many of them are unjust. They accept bribes. They allow corruption. They cover up the truth.

Even rulers who try to be just, cannot always do justice. They cannot know the whole truth about every situation. In this world many evil things stay secret. Many criminals are never punished. People do not get what they deserve.

But God is very different from the rulers of this world. He knows everything. He is perfectly just. He cannot be fooled or bribed. In the end he will give to every person what he (or she) deserves.

Psalm 94 says that people who think that God does not see and does not hear, are fools (verse 8). God is the one who made ears and eyes. How can he be deaf or blind (verse 9)? He even knows what is going on in our minds (verse 11)!

5.4 God cannot ignore sin←⤒🔗

There are many evil rulers in history. These evil rulers killed thousands of people. They became rich by stealing other people’s land and money. They did only what they wanted. They thought that God is deaf and blind. Maybe your own country suffered under such a person? 

Imagine if God would say to these evil rulers, “Do not worry. I don’t really care what you did. You are welcome in heaven.” What would you think about God? You would say that he is unjust. You would say he is not a good God.

But God is not like that. God “disciplines the nations” (verse 10 of our passage). Sooner or later he brings evil people to a fall. And a day is coming when he will judge the living and the dead.

On that day God will not only judge the evil rulers of our world. He will judge every person who has ever lived. He will judge us by his own law. Remember that God’s law says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” And, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:37, 39).

All of us have broken God’s law. It is not only the evil rulers of this world who are guilty. All of us stand guilty before God. And God is just. He cannot ignore sin. He will not say to anyone, “Do not worry. I don’t really care what you did.”

5.5 God’s covenant with us←⤒🔗

To understand why our sin is so serious to God, we must understand that God made a covenant with us when he created Adam. A covenant is a relationship that is built on promises.

In a covenant each person has a responsibility. In God’s covenant with Adam, God promised something and he commanded Adam to do something. God promised to bless Adam and to care for him in every way (Genesis 1:28–2:2). He commanded Adam to trust and obey him (Genesis 2:16–17).

Remember that we were all part of Adam. The covenant that God made with Adam is also a covenant that God made with us. God promised to bless us and take care of us. He commanded us to trust and obey him. We had to obey his law that says, “Love God and love each other.” God made us very good, so that we could obey his law (Lesson 4).

When Adam ate from the forbidden tree, he broke God’s covenant. He loved himself above God. He trusted Satan instead of God.

After this happened, Adam and Eve tried to hide from God (Genesis 3:8). Maybe they hoped that God would forget about his covenant. Or that God would ignore their sin.

But God is just. He does what he says. He keeps his word. And he knows everything. He knew that Adam and Eve ate from that tree. He also knows everything we do.

We may think that our sins are small. But God looks into our hearts. He sees the darkness in our hearts. It is not only Adam who broke God’s covenant. All of us have broken it.

5.6 The punishment for sin is death←⤒🔗

In every covenant there is a punishment that will be given when the covenant is broken. God warned Adam, “when you eat from it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17). If Adam obeyed God, he (and we) would live forever. But if he did not obey God, then he (and we) would die.

What does it mean to die? The Bible tells us about three kinds of death:

Death in the body←↰⤒🔗

This is the death that we can see. When Adam and Eve sinned, God’s creation became full of sickness and weakness (Genesis 3:17–18). It became difficult for us to survive in this world. And sooner or later, all of us die and become dust again (Genesis 3:19).

Spiritual death←↰⤒🔗

There is also spiritual death, even if we cannot see it. When Adam and Eve sinned, God sent them out of the Garden of Eden. They would not see God or live with him again. That is spiritual death: to be away from God.

Hell←↰⤒🔗

When a person goes to hell, he suffers spiritual death forever. He is completely separated from God and God’s love forever. In the Bible, hell is also called “the second death” (Revelation 2:11).

Hell is the final, most terrible death. God is right to send sinners to hell. When we sin, we are saying to God, “I don’t want you in my life!” In hell that is exactly what we get. In hell God’s love is not part of our lives anymore. Only darkness is left.

Thank God that this is not where the story of the Bible ends. God is just. But he is also merciful. In the rest of this Bible study, you will learn about the mercy that God has shown us in Jesus Christ. Because of God’s mercy, there is salvation!