Lesson 2: The Saving Encounter

“A saving encounter with God begins my relationship with him.”

To understand why repentance and forgiveness are necessary for a sinner to begin a relationship with the Holy God.

► What is the very beginning of any relationship?

Before people can have a relationship, they must meet. The very beginning of a relationship is a personal encounter.

What would the first encounter between God and a sinner be like? It would not be like two strangers meeting, greeting one another, and casually beginning to get acquainted. It would be more like your first meeting with someone whom you had already seriously wronged.

Imagine a man named Laurence who rents a house. While he lives there, he works on his motorcycle in the living room and ruins the carpet. He shoots arrows at targets drawn on the wall. He keeps his donkey in the house, and it kicks holes in the wall when it gets restless or hungry. Laurence has never personally met the owner of the house.

Then, sitting in a dentist’s waiting room one day, Laurence begins conversation with a stranger and likes him, but finds out that it is the owner of the house he is renting.

► What will have to happen before they can be friends?

What is necessary for reconciliation when someone has wronged someone else?

1. The wrongdoer must admit and repent. To repent means that he will not keep doing what is wrong against the other person.

2. The wronged one must be willing to forgive, even if it means that the wrongdoer cannot pay for his damage.

This story illustrates our wrong to God, though we have done far worse. The first time we meet God, there is already a problem because we have done wrong against him. That problem must be solved before a relationship can begin.

Now let’s look at the condition of the person separated from God and see what is necessary for him to become a friend of God.

The condition of the person separated from God is described in Ephesians 2:2-3:

In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

According to this verse, we all once lived under the control of fleshly desires, which would be to live a sinful lifestyle. We were among the sons of disobedience, who are directed by Satan. By nature, we lived in a way that made us enemies of God, children of wrath, with only a matter of time until we received the wrath of God that we deserved.

► But not every unsaved person seems to be that bad, right? Have you ever met someone who seemed like a good person, honest, kind, and responsible? Does it seem hard to think of a person like that as guilty and needing to repent?

There are some unconverted people whose lives do not seem to show wickedness. They may think that they are not sinners, but they have lived their own way instead of submitting to God. Is it a serious problem for a good person to live his own way?

Look at Isaiah 53:6.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

For a person to claim the right to choose his own way is to deny his Creator the right to direct him. This is the essence of sin. It is rebellion against the authority of God. It was the sin of Adam and Eve, the first people, when they were tempted to be their own gods, trying to be independent of God.

There is a type of person who quickly thinks that he is saved when he hears that salvation is received by faith. He hasn’t truly repented, because he didn’t see that he needed to. He never saw himself as a sinner deserving God’s judgment. Because he accepts the truth of Christianity and considers himself to be a good person, he considers himself a Christian; but he has had no transformation. He never submitted his own self will; instead, he merely accepted God as a part of his life and still lives mostly according to his own will. This is not the beginning of a saving relationship with God, according to the scriptural description.

A person may appear to be good; but if he is not serving God, he is breaking God’s first commandment: that we have no gods before him. This person does not live each day with concern for God’s commandments; instead, he sets his own goals and lives his own way. He knows about God, but has not glorified him as God—that is, he has not made him truly God of his life—therefore, he is without excuse (Romans 1:20-21).

The Bible describes the unconverted person as blind, in darkness, in slavery, driven by depraved desires, and even dead. His condition would be hopeless if God had not reached out with the help the sinner needs.

God has made the first steps toward bringing us to an encounter with him, so that our sin problem can be solved and our relationship with him can begin. He provided the sacrifice for our forgiveness and gives us the desire and ability to respond to his offer.

God is willing to forgive and to pay the cost of forgiveness. He demonstrated his willingness by providing the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Even with a sacrifice provided, a sinner would be hopeless without God’s grace working in his heart. God’s grace reaches into the heart of the sinner, convicting him of his sins and showing him that he is to blame for his separation from God. God’s grace not only shows him his guilt, but causes him to desire forgiveness and gives him the ability to respond to God.

► Would someone like to share how God brought him/her to a saving encounter with God?

Without grace, a sinner could not even come to God. Grace comes to every person before he begins to seek for God, even though he has not done anything to deserve it.

Remember Ephesians 2:2-3 ‒ what a hopeless description it gives? But, look at the two verses that come after that description.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved… (Ephesians 2:4-5).

If a person is not saved, it is not because he never had grace, but because he would not respond to the grace that he had.

A Christian is a person who has experienced a personal encounter with God. There may be a process as a person begins to understand the gospel and becomes willing to repent. But a person becomes a Christian in a moment of encounter with God. At that time, he responds to God’s grace by repenting of his sins and believing God’s promise to forgive him.

The repenting, believing sinner receives forgiveness and transforming grace. Salvation is compared to gaining sight, coming into the light, being redeemed from slavery, being released from evil desires, and being resurrected into life.

Acts 26:18 describes the change that the gospel makes in a sinner. Jesus sent Paul “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”

► Based on what we have learned in this lesson, what is a real Christian?

A real Christian has had an encounter with God when he repented of his sins (Luke 13:5), by faith received forgiveness (Ephesians 2:8), and committed to a life of obedience to God’s Word (1 John 3:6). This encounter begins his personal relationship with God (1 John 1:3).

If a person is not in this kind of relationship with God, he has been resisting the grace that God is offering him. He should repent of his sins and by faith receive God’s forgiveness and transforming grace.

► Some could briefly share their testimonies of saving encounters with God, making some “before and after” contrasts.

► Each person should ask himself, “Have I had an encounter with God when I repented and believed, beginning my relationship with God; or have I assumed myself to be a Christian for the wrong reason?”

► Someone who is not in relationship with God may want to share his sense of need so that the group can pray with him.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for reaching out to me when I was lost and separated from you. Thank you for providing the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross so that I could be forgiven.

Thank you for showing me my guilt, for giving me the desire to be forgiven, and for making me able to respond to you.

Thank you for the great changes you have made in my life. I want always to live in obedient love for you.

Amen

Read Ephesians 2. Reflect on the great intervention God made in our lives. Verses 1-3 describe our previous condition; verse 4 begins describing the change God made. Notice the references to relationship throughout the chapter, especially in verses 4, 6, 7, 14, and 19. Write a few paragraphs about what you see.