Foundations:
The Essentials of Our Faith
Based on Hebrews 6.1-3, this Bible study explores and explains the topics described by the Biblical author as “elementary” and “foundational.” These topics are just as fundamental to our faith today as they were in the first century.
Creation: A Review
Many are familiar with the creation story. I’d like to highlight that God wanted to be in relationship with His crowning achievement, mankind. We see this in chapter 3 of Genesis, where God is walking in the garden, during the time of the evening breeze, looking for Adam and Eve.
God was literally walking around looking for His people. He wanted to be in relationship with His creation, but sin got in the way and ruined our relationship with the Father. Because God cannot abide sin, mankind was banished from the garden, and more importantly, banished from personal relationship with God.
But that wasn’t the extent of sins effect on mankind. We are told that God knit us together in our mother’s womb in Psalm 139, it turns out sin got in the way of that perfect creation and stained and ruined it.
The result is that I am not the person God intended when He knit me together. The ruinous effect of sin on my flesh means I was born with defects. Physical defects, sure, but also spiritual defects, emotional defects, relational defects. Sin has infected all of us. We were made for relationship with the Father, and without that natural relationship, mankind is left wanting.
How wanting? The self-help industry is expected to surpass $14 billion in 2024, we desire improvement, we want to be better than we are. Why? Because mankind desires perfection. It is part of our DNA and is evidenced by who we champion. We honor those who are highly competent, the skilled athletes, genius intelligence, socially adept, the beautiful. We love perfection, we crave perfection. Why, you ask? Because we were made to be perfect.
Payment of a Debt
After our expulsion from Eden, the Father knew that we were unable to meet His perfect standard, He knew we would need a Savior, and He had a plan.
That that plan was realized with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus, who was guilty of no sin, died a sinner’s death, His death resulted in something like credit on the books. It means that He can use the debt He paid through death as a substitution for your debt of death as He chooses. We call this “substitutionary atonement.”
How do we become a recipient or beneficiary of this substitution? We get it by asking Jesus to forgive us our sins and to be Lord of our lives. Once you’ve accepted Christ, you began the walk back to becoming who it is God intended you to be when He created you in your mother’s womb. That walk we call sanctification.
