The troubles of life impact our sense of
purpose.
 The
problem of finite
understanding, and how to know
the things that are important,
 The problem of suffering in this
world, and finding meaning in
personal sorrow.
 The
problem of death and the
uncertainties that go with not
seeing past the grave,
 The problem of personal fault,
and what that means for the
present and for the future.
Dr. Francis Schaeffer pointed out that only
three possibilities exist for the Ultimate
Beginning.
 Either the Ultimate Beginning was
complete-and-total nothingness.
 Or the Ultimate Beginning was
Impersonal.
 Or the Ultimate Beginning was Personal.
That covers all the bases. Each possibility
holds implications for us.
We can see that if the Ultimate Beginning
was an impersonal beginning, our finite
nature is very small indeed, and our lives
are ultimately meaningless.
 It is difficult to know anything with
certainty.
 Suffering in this case is also meaningless –
even though we know pain is important. In
this case, death is all there is.
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If the origin was a Personal beginning, we
have the hope for meaning wrapped up in
the purpose of God for our lives.
 We can know things with certainty
because God is trustworthy and cares to
communicate with us through His Word.
 We can find meaning in suffering, if God
gives it meaning.
 And we have help for personal fault.
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 The
downside for the impersonal
beginning is that it makes life
absurd, or meaningless.
 The downside for the Personal
Beginning is that we are
accountable to God for our faults,
and we are responsible to search
for truth about Him.
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We are not just awash at sea as far as
trying to know which option is correct.
God has given us evidence
 Within our hearts and
 In the Bible
 In history
 In archaeology
 In sociology
 In the evidence for the resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
If we think carefully about these
issues,
 We can see that the Bible explains how
God can be totally Good in
conjunction with the fallen world we
live in, and yet allow us to make real
choices and justly hold us accountable
for the ones we make.
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“To declare that the LORD is upright. He is
my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in
Him.”
Genesis 1-3 explains that God created us
good, even very good, and gave us real
choice. By choosing the opposite of His
good commands, people became the fallen
and fallible beings we are today.
Humanly speaking, justice and mercy
are incompatible.
 People can be just, but at the expense
of mercy.
 Or people can be merciful at the
expense of justice.
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 If
God is Completely Good, He is
both just and merciful, without
being “one at the expense of the
other.”
 God could not be “relatively good”
without being “relatively bad.”
 We
can see that extremely evil
people deserve punishment after
death, especially when they seem
to get away with evil in this life.
 Absolute justice cannot be “more
good” than God, so this implies
that God must justly punish evil.
The impersonal beginning option does
not allow for ultimate justice or mercy—
it makes even justice and mercy
temporary or capricious or meaningless.
Yet our souls cry out over these
matters when we see suffering in this
world.
We know that deliberate evil deserves
justice.
The thing that is more painful to
realize is that even relatively good
people deserve punishment for their
faults, in terms of perfect justice.
 God cannot be “relatively lenient” with
generally good people, and absolutely
just with evil-doers.
 There is no partiality with God—
Deuteronomy 10:17, Acts 10:34-35.
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Ecclesiastes is the book that tells us the limits of
human thinking without God’s communication.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-22 does a very human thing
when it talks about these things. It says that
eternity is in our hearts, yet nobody is perfect,
and God will judge us all. So we look at the
world and see that everybody dies, just like
animals. IF that’s all there is, everything is
futility.
The discomfort of thinking about absolute justice
makes us focus on only what we can see.
How can God be both completely just
and completely merciful?
 Only the Biblical answer is enough to
satisfy all the issues:
 Because God Himself made the
infinite atonement that satisfies the
requirements of justice, He can
remain just when He extends mercy.
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God with us—Immanuel– is infinite. His death
was enough to pay the price of Justice for
each of us at one time, Once For All.
The Trinity and the crucifixion are intricately
intertwined to meet the requirements of
justice. It was not suicide, which would be
wrong. It was an unjust execution that
embodied all the evil of power directed
against the helpless, yet Jesus was willing to
endure it for our sakes. It was not a matter of
God’s requiring someone who was innocent
to suffer for other people, but was Himself,
our righteous Judge, taking the punishment
for us.

In fact, we can sit in church for many
years without ever hearing the
explanation, because many people
believe without ever putting the
puzzle together.
 Open
up the moral freedom to
offer mercy without constraining
justice.
 Romans 3:23-26 calls God “just
and the justifier of those who
have faith in Jesus,” because of
the payment for our sins Jesus
made for us.
Is it possible for God to give mercy to
someone who has never repented, and
still be just?
 A refusal to repent implies an
intention to repeat the fault.
 Extending mercy without repentance
is to be unjust to the innocent
bystanders.

 God’s
mercy is available through
the cross of Jesus.
 God’s mercy is accessed through
the door of repentance.
 Real
mercy, accessed through the
door of repentance,
◦ Brings the opportunity to have the
Holy Spirit come into one’s life.
 The
power of the Holy Spirit
within a life brings
transformation.
◦ The Holy Spirit will come into the
repentant heart if He is invited.
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Love
Joy
Peace
Patient endurance
Goodness
Kindness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control
◦ Galatians 5:22-25
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Without the Holy Spirit we have difficulty
demonstrating all these good things even in
the good times.
With the Holy Spirit in our lives, He can
create these good things within us even in
the bad times.
When He does, we have proof of His
presence and a demonstration to others
that He is REAL.
When we think of our lives and our faults,
we usually think of things we have done
that we are ashamed of, but repentance is
more than regretting those things.
 The first and greatest commandment is to
LOVE the LORD our God with all our hearts
and all our souls and all our minds and all
our strength. He is worthy of our love
because He is totally GOOD.

◦ We have to repent of breaking that
commandment.
We will allow Him to be King of our
lives.
 We will search for His goodness.
 We will honor His righteous demands.
 We will try to be in tune with His
purpose.

That means that we will confess
things to Him as sin whenever we
catch ourselves involved in them,
 Including things like despair or
unbelief.
 And we will ask for His help to
overcome them.
 We will ask for His perspective on the
issues of our lives.
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 We
will seek His presence daily in
His word.
 People know we love them if we
spend time with them.
 God knows we love Him if we
spend time with Him, trying to
understand His perspective.
There is a time of initial commitment
where a specific kind of prayer opens the
gate and begins the journey.
 It is a prayer of repentance and
acceptance.
 The repentance part lists the sins to God
that are heaviest on the conscience, and
ALSO tells God you are sorry for trying to
run your own life apart from Him.
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 If you feel like your life is in pieces, ask God to
pick up the pieces and re-make it into the best life
He has in mind.
Next you must accept the payment
Jesus Christ made for you at the cross,
and thank God for that and for the
power of eternal life He made
available through the resurrection.
 Next you need to ask the Holy Spirit to
come into your life to be in charge and
to make you into the person He wants
you to be.

Jesus promised that God the Father
will answer “yes” to any prayer
◦ That is in accordance with His will.
 He died to show you that this IS His
will for you, so of course He answers
“yes” to this kind of prayer.
 So of course you want to thank Him.
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We have a free CD-ROM with a study
course called TOOLKIT FOR BUILDING
FAITH#1, ULTIMATE ISSUES. It has a set of
power point presentations on a weekly
schedule, and a workbook/curriculum
guide that coordinates with those
presentations. It takes 13 weeks to
complete.
 It uses two books as textbooks, available
by order from a local bookstore or at
 CHRISTIANBOOK.COM.
If you would like a free copy of the
CD-ROM for your own personal study,
send a 6” X 9” LARGE self-addressed
stamped envelope (3 ounces postage)
to Mrs. Wilson, P. O. Box 1293,
Bastrop, Texas 78602. Please specify
Toolkit #1.
 If you would like to participate in a
class, please call the church for times
and locations.
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Mrs. Wilson
P. O. Box 1293
Bastrop, Texas 78602
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512-303-3221 Church Office
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Mrs. Wilson is doing an internship with the
Certified Apologetics Instructor program of the
North American Mission Board. She is available
to speak to groups or other churches upon
request at 512-303-3653.