The Creed - I Believe In Christs Substitutionary Death Part 1

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker

of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only

Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose

again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the

right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy

catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;

the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen

The CreedI BELIEVE in CHRIST‘S SUBSTITUTIONARY

DEATHPart 1








―Of all the dispositions and teachings of thinkers and

ethicists, the one doctrine that I have no sufficient counter for is

Jesus on that Cross.‖- Gandhi

The Creed – I Believe in Christ‘s Substitutionary Death

Key Question…―Why Did Jesus Have to Die?‖

…and what did it accomplish?


First Step –Understand the Depravity of Man


John Wayne Gacy was put to death by lethal injection in the early morning hours of May 10, 1994 for the rape and murder of 33 young men

and boys, 29 of whom he buried in the crawl space beneath his own Chicago home between the years of 1972 and 1978. After his death, he was delivered into the hands of Dr. Helen Morrison to perform a very unique autopsy.

Dr. Morrison had previously interviewed Gacy, along with many other serial killers, in an

attempt to isolate personality traits that were common among such ruthless murderers. Now at the request of Gacy‘s family, Dr. Morrison was going to remove the brain of the notorious serial killer in hopes of discovering some sort of

physical abnormality that would provide answers for why Gacy destroyed so many

innocent lives.


"He is a serial killer when he is a fetus, even as soon as sperm

meets egg to create the genes of a new person‖

-Dr. Helen Morrison

• Determinism: human actions are caused by another, not by one‘s self.

• Indeterminism: human actions are not caused by anything.

• Self-Determinism: human actions are self-caused.


―The heart is more deceitful than all else And is

desperately sick; Who can understand it?‖- Jeremiah 17:9


―You cannot slander human

nature; it is worse than words can

paint it.‖ - Charles

Spurgeon The Creed – I Believe in Christ‘s Substitutionary Death

"Then God said, ―Let Us make man in Our image, according to

Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the

birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over

every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.‖ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and

female He created them.― (Genesis 1:26-27)

Man Created in God‘s Image


"When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he

became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.‖

(Genesis 5:3)

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother

conceived me.‖(Psalm 51:5)

Man Created in Man‘s Image


Depravity is a condition passed from sinful parents to their children

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.‖

(Genesis 6:5)

― The fool has said in his heart, ―There is no God.‖ They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The

Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside,

together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.‖

(Psalm 14:1-3)

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.‖(Psalm 51:5)

"Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.‖

(Ecclesiastes 7:20)


"―For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.‖

(Matthew 15:19)

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,‖(Romans 3:23)

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because

all sinned‖(Romans 5:12)

"If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.‖

(1 John 1:8) The Creed – I Believe in Christ‘s Substitutionary Death

―Whatever weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience,

obscures your sense of God, or takes away your relish for spiritual things, in

short – if anything increases the authorityand the power of the flesh over the Spirit, that to you becomes sin however good it is

in itself.‖- Suzanna Wesley on Sin


"If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the

doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial

questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain."(1 Timothy 6:3-5)


What is ―Depravity‖…?Diaphtheirō: ―To cause someone to become perverse or

depraved, as a type of moral destruction—‗to deprave, to pervert, to ruin, to cause the moral ruin of‖


―The Moment Lyle Reloaded‖―The moment in the course of the Menendez brothers' double murder when Lyle and Erik had emptied their shotguns into the bodies of their parents, but realized their mother was still alive, crawling around in the blood…. Mom was

alive and whimpering and, as Maury puts it, poor-little-rich-boy Lyle "went out of the

house and then came back in to blow away the mother‖ …"That was the crushing blow for the

whole abuse defense," he said. "That jolted audiences. There's been a backlash. Abuse

defenses are now looked at cynically, and audiences are falling back on the old beliefs in good and evil." They are, moreover, capable

of making subtle philosophic distinctions between modes of evil‖

- Ron Rosenbaum, Staring into the Heart of Darkness

"For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither

like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away."(Isaiah 64:6)


Spiritual Death

―And you were dead in your trespasses and

sins,‖(Ephesians 2:1)

Depravity‘s Effects


Physical Death

―Therefore, just as through one man sin

entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men,

because all sinned‖(Romans 5:12)

Eternal Death

"Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second

death, the lake of fire. "And if anyone‘s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of

fire.‖(Revelation 20:14-15)

"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;

concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment,

because the ruler of this world has been judged."(John 16:8-11)


Two Witnesses to Sin – Holy Spirit

"For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to

themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts

alternately accusing or else defending them,"(Romans 2:14-15)

" But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and

doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,"

(1 Timothy 4:1-2)


Two Witnesses to Sin – Conscience

Can Natural Mankind Recognize Their Depravity?


A man came to a preacher and said ‗You talk about how heavy sin is, but preacher, I don‘t feel a thing.‘ The preacher thought

for a minute and then asked, ‗If we put 400lbs of weight on a corpse, do you think

he‘d feel it‘?


―It is a public scandal that gives offense, it is no sin to sin in secret.‖

- French Dramatist Moliner


―In every society, no matter what its cultural underpinnings, there is

a code of ‗oughtness‘‖ - Ravi Zacharias


Pelagius (c. 354 -420) taught that human beings are born innocent, just as Adam was

created. They inherit no sin from Adam, but sin like Adam. Only

our sins are imputed to us.

His views were condemned by Council of Carthage (416-418)

and opposed by Augustine.

Brief History of the Depravity Doctrine


From the Fourth Century, Augustinian thought stressed

the doctrine of the depravity of man and the nature of evil as a

privation of the good that God originally created.

This influence continued all the way up to the period of the reformation (1400-1500‘s)



Martin Luther defended the doctrine of depravity during the

Reformation period against one chief rival – Erasmus – and

his Christian humanism teaching that began to elevate the nature of man beyond his

depraved state. Luther and the reformers were successful

against Erasmus.



Jacob Arminius (1560-1609), one of the reformers, taught that all people are born depraved and

cannot on their own power obey God. Humans are born with a bent toward sin and cannot avoid physical

death. One‘s own sin ratifies Adam‘s sin, but Adam‘s sin is not imputed to us. We are in Adam

potentially or seminally. The image of God is effaced in man.



Moderate Calvinism teaches that we inherit a judicial guilt from Adam and

we are legally connected to him; Adam‘s sin is imputed to us. All

humans apart from salvation suffer spiritual death and will face physical and eternal death. But in order for

God‘s grace to overcome depravity, there must be a cooperation between

the free will of man and God. The image of God is effaced in man, but

he can respond to God.



Strong Calvinism teaches that we inherit a judicial guilt from Adam and

we are legally connected to him; Adam‘s sin is imputed to us. All

humans apart from salvation suffer spiritual death and will face physical

and eternal death. Man cannot cooperate with God; rather God delivers ‗irresistible grace‘ against

man‘s will and saves him. The image of God is erased in man – he cannot

respond to God on his own.



"―Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and

you were unwilling."(Matthew 23:37)

"―You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as

your fathers did."(Acts 7:51)

―Where there is no freedom of choice, there can be neither sin nor righteousness‖, A. W. Tozer,

The Freedom of the Will in That Incredible Christian.


A Quick Critique of Strong Calvinism

Pleiganism Arminianism Moderate Calvinism

Strong Calvinism

State at birth Innocent Totally depraved(conscience corrupted)

Totally depraved(conscience corrupted)

Totally depraved(conscience destroyed)

Ability Can obey God

Cooperate with God

Cooperate with God

Cannot cooperate with God

Guilt None Potential Judicial/actual Judicial/actual

―In Adam‖ Not at all Potentially Legally/naturally Legally/naturally

Inherited from Adam

Bad example

Propensity to sin;necessity to die

Propensity to sin; necessity to die

Necessity to sin; necessity to die

What is imputed

One‘s own sin

One‘s own sin One‘s own sin and Adam‘s sin

One‘s own sin and Adam‘s sin

Spiritual image of God

Retained Effaced Effaced Erased

Effect of grace

None Sufficient for all Irresistible on the willing

Irresistible on the unwilling


The Renaissance (―rebirth‖ or ―revival‖) of the 14th – 17th

centuries elevated man to the center of reality instead of God. A century later, the

Enlightenment arrived and it pushed mankind‘s reason and

man himself to full center stage. Gone was the thought of

depravity. Modernity stressed reason and ruled out revelation.



Today, sin is out and the sinner has become a patient to be secularly treated. Abraham Maslow, the

famous American psychologist, said, ―As far as I know we just don't have

any intrinsic instincts for evil.‖ Echoing his statement is Carl

Rogers who, along with Maslow is credited with being the founder of

the humanist approach to psychology, said, ―I do not find

that…evil is inherent in human nature‖



―The usual moral distinctions between good and bad are simply drowned in a maudlin emotion in which we feel more sympathy for the murderer than for the

murdered, for the adulterer than for the betrayed, and in which we have actually begun to believe that the real guilty party, the one who somehow

caused it all, is the victim, and not the perpetrator of the crime.‖ – Robert Fitch


―For several decades, we psychologists looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus, and

acclaimed our liberation from it as epoch-making. But at length we have discovered that to be free from sin is also to have the

excuse of being sick, rather than being sinful. [We are in] danger of becoming lost. This danger is, I believe, betokened by the widespread interest in existentialism, which we are presently

witnessing. In becoming amoral, ethically neutral, and free, we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of

selfhood and identity, and with neurotics themselves find ourselves asking, "Who am I? What is my deepest destiny?―

- Hobart Mowrer onetime President of the American Psychological Society


Gross takes his reader back to 1941 when the Nazis rolled into the town of Jedwabne where Poles and Jews had been peacefully living side by side for many years. Once the Germans arrived, the Poles asked the simple question ―Is it permitted to kill the

Jews?‖ Summarizing parts of Gross‘s book in a 2001 Newsweek article, George Will states, ―A

head was hacked off and kicked around. To escape the killers, women fled to a pond and drowned their

babies, then themselves. But most were burned alive in a barn while the town was searched for the

surviving sick and children. A witness: ‗As for the little children, they roped a few together by their legs

and carried them on their backs, then put them on pitchforks and threw them onto smoldering coals.‘‖ Will ends his article by answering the question that

was on everyone‘s mind: ―So, again: Why in Jedwabne did neighbors murder their neighbors? Because it was permitted. Because they could.‖


―I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience and morality … we will train young people

before whom the world will tremble. I want young people capable of violence –

imperious, relentless, and cruel.‖- Adolf Hitler


―Looking at the world at no distant date, what an endless number of lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized

races throughout the world.‖ - Charles Darwin

"as it is written, ―There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good,

There is not even one.‖ ―Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,‖ ―The poison

of asps is under their lips‖; ―Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness‖; ―Their feet are swift to shed

blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known.‖ ―There is no

fear of God before their eyes.‖"(Romans 3:10-18)


We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners

Depravity does not mean that man is as bad as he can be … Rather it means that man is as bad off as he

can be.


"I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness."

(John 12:46)

What is the Solution?


Solves the Problem of PenaltyThe Creed – I Believe in Christ‘s Substitutionary Death

The Cross

Solves the Problem of Spiritual/Eternal Death


The New Birth

"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His

life."(Romans 5:10)


Problem Number One Solved

Problems Two and Three Solved

―For certainly, Christ is much more powerful to save

than Adam was to ruin‖ - John Calvin


What were the results of Dr. Helen Morrison‘s examination of the brain of John Wayne Gacy?

Simply that he had a normal male brain.

No defects.

No abnormalities.

No excuses.









The CreedI BELIEVE in CHRIST‘S SUBSTITUTIONARY

DEATHPart 1