***দুর্বল ছাত্র / ছাত্রীদের জন্য এই ফরমেট গুলো বেশ ফলপ্রসু হবে। HSC, Honour’s, Masters, BBA, MBA, BCS etc. **** Esay, Application, Letter, Paragraph, Summarizing, Re-arrange, WH-Question, Correction, English Grammer, Spoken, etc.
*** দুর্বল ছাত্র/ছাত্রীদের জন্য এই ফরমেটগুলো খুবই ফলপ্রসু হবে। ‍এই ফরমেটগুলো শুধু HSC , Degree , Honour's , Masters এর ছাত্র / ছাত্রীদের জন্য। *** বদিউজ্জামান ( রুবেল )***

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Errors and redirections

Oop! This Seems to be a broken page. Sorry for the trouble, you can do one of the below -   



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Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Poster writing Format

English Compulsory - Badiuzzaman ( Rube ) দুর্বল ছাত্র / ছাত্রীদের জন্য্ এই ফরমেট গুলো খুবই ফরপ্রসু হবে - http://englishcompulsory.blogspot.com/



1. Topic: Apply to poster any problem.

Prevent …(Topic)

1. (…Topic…) is very serious problem.
2. It destroys our (live/economy/students) life.
3. It is a social course.
4. It creates various problems.
5. We should be aware of (stopping/control) it.                



2. Topic: Apply to poster any disease.

Br aware of …(Topic)…

1. (…Topic…) is fatal disease.
2. It kills our valuable lives.
3. It is created by (HIV/Mesquites/Animals) various.
4.
5. We should be aware of to cheek it.




3. Topic: Apply to poster any day

Significance of ..(Topic)…

1.      (…Topic…) is a very remarkable day.
2.      It helps us to be united.
3.      It reminds us our nationality.
4.      We should not neglect this day.
5.      We should respect this day and should take necessary steps it observe it.





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Monday, January 11, 2016

Notice Writing - Format -2



(1).                       Notice ) writing (Different in one

Reference: 01/0l/2011                                                                                Date: ……..
Notice of show Cause
Dear X,
It is hereby notified that  …  wemq e¯‘ …. One thing you need to be sure that the office management goes on as per its articles of association and memorandum. So, try to be obedient to the official discipline.
Thankyou,
…… bvg …..Manager(Administration)
cÖwZôv‡bi bvg, wVKvb  |
N.B: By applying this method, you may answer any type of show cause.



2).
Reference: 01/0l/2011                                                                                Date: ……..
Notice of Announcement
It is notified for all the students/people ……of the dept. of English / city …………
That           Interested candidates are offered to contact with the authority for further information.
Mr. … bvg ….
…. cÖwZôv‡bi bvg, wVKvb  |
N.B: By applying this method, you may answer any type of Announcement notice.


(3.).
Reference: 01/0l/2011                                                                                Date: ……..
Notice of College/University for the students.
It is notified for information of all the students of the college that……….(Function/college/Classes) will be (arranged/closed/suspended) on the occasion of ……… In the college campus tomorrow. So all the students are hereby advised/told to attend the function/class to make it a success and meaningful.
..Mr.     ……..


N.B: By applying this method, you may answer any type of information Notice.


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Sunday, January 10, 2016

Notice Writing - Format -1

English Compulsory - Badiuzzaman ( Rube ) দুর্বল ছাত্র / ছাত্রীদের জন্য্ এই ফরমেট গুলো খুবই ফরপ্রসু হবে - http://englishcompulsory.blogspot.com/



Notice:
Simple Question: Suppose you are a manager of  X  Ltd company. The annual meeting will be held on  12/05/2011. Now make a notice for all the employers of your company.

                Ans:
X  Ltd company
Office of the (……..)
Notice
                            It is hereby notified for all the employees of  X  Ltd company that the annual meeting will held on 12/05/2011
                           
So all the employs are ordered to attend the meeting just in time.

The order of manager ,
X Ltd company.
(………………..)



Simple Question: Suppose you are a chairman of X department of Tongi Gove. College the midterm exam will be held on 12th December to 11th January. Notice for the student of X department to attend the midterm exam.
                        
                                   Ans:

Tongi Gove College
Office of the Chairman
X department
Notice

                          It is hereby notified to all the students of       X department of Tongi Gove College that the midterm exam will be held on 12th December.

                          So all the students of X department are (ordered/informed) to attend the midterm exam in time.

The ordered of chairman
(………………)



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Saturday, January 9, 2016

Resume / CV

Resume / CV of  (Name)



1.  Name                                  : R
2.  Father’s name                     : S
3.  Mother’s name                   : M
4.  Present address                  : Vill: …., P.O: …., P.S: ….. , Dist: …..
5.  Permanent address             : Vill: …., P.O: …., P.S: ….. , Dist: …..
6.  Nationality                         : Bangladeshi
7.  Religious                            : Islam
8.  Date of birth                      : 15 February 1988
9.  Contact number                 : 01915xxxxxx
10.  Marital status                     : Unmarried
11.  Educational qualification   :

Name of Degree
Year of passing
Board/University
Group
Result/ G.P.A
C.A.
2010
National University
Business studies
2nd Class
M.B.A.
2008
National University
Business studies
1st Class
Hon’s(B.B.S)
2006
National University
Business studies
1st Class
H.S.C
2000
Dhaka Board
Business management
369
S.S.C
1998
Dhaka Board
Science
3.44

12.  Computer skill                    : Microsoft word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft power point
13.  Language skill                     : Good proficiency writing, reading and speaking in Bangla
                                                      And English.
14. Other proficiency                 : Working as a clerk on of Bangladesh Bank.(from 2006 till
                                                      now.)

References                              : 1. Md. Raju Ahmmed
                                                      Directior sinha com. Ltd
                                                       Mob: 01915xxxxxx

                                                  2. Md. Faysal Alam
                                                      General Manager
                                                       Mob: 01915xxxxxx


More


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Friday, January 8, 2016

Any needs apply to application:

Any needs apply to application:


Date:  .. /../….
The (principle/chairman)
X College/village/Industries

Subject: An application for …. (Topic)…


Sir,
We beg respectfully to state that we are the (students/people) of your (college/village). You know (Topic) is very essential for our (student) life. But it is sorry to say that there is no availabity of it in our (locality/college). We have been suffering a lot of for want of it. So, we badly need of it.

             We therefore pray and hope that you would be kind enough to grant our prayer and oblige there by.

  

Your faithfully
The (student of your college/people of your village)
…………………
………………
………….



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Thursday, January 7, 2016

This application apply to any job

This application apply to any job


Date:
The Manager
G M Garments

Subject: An application for the post of a (General Manager)

Sir,
I have come to know from your advertisement published in “The Daily Star” on 20th December for the post of a (General Manager). I want to offer myself as a candidate for the post. My necessary things and educational qualification are given below:-

1.  Name                                  : R
2.  Father’s name                     : S
3.  Mother’s name                   : M
4.  Present address                  : Vill: …., P.O: …., P.S: ….. , Dist: …..
5.  Permanent address             : Vill: …., P.O: …., P.S: ….. , Dist: …..
6.  Nationality                         : Bangladeshi
7.  Religious                            : Islam
8.  Date of birth                      : 15 February 1988
9.  Contact number                 : 01915175788
10.  Marital status                     : Unmarried
11.  Educational qualification   :

Name of Degree
Year of passing
Board/University
Group
Result/ G.P.A
C.A.
2010
National University
Business studies
2nd Class
M.B.A.
2008
National University
Business studies
1st Class
Hon’s(B.B.S)
2006
National University
Business studies
1st Class
H.S.C
2000
Dhaka Board
Business management
369
S.S.C
1998
Dhaka Board
Science
3.44

12.  Computer skill                    : Microsoft word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft power point
13.  Language skill                     : Good proficiency writing, reading and speaking in Bangla
                                                      And English.
14. Other proficiency                 : Working as a clerk on of Bangladesh Bank

I would expected recall from you to prove my competionce.


Your faithfully

  ………………

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Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Any function apply to application

Any function apply to application


Date:
The (principle/chairman)
X College/village/Industries

Subject: An application for …. (Topic)…

Sir,
We beg respectfully to state that we are the (students/people/employees) of your (college/village/institution). The total number of (students/people/employees)+(Number) most of the (students/people/employees) are interested to arrange it. It is a part and parcel of (education/life). Our total preparation has already been completed. Now we want both economical and administrative support from you and we hope that you most join with us as a chief guest.

We therefore pray and hope that you would be kind enough to grant our prayer and oblige there by.



Your faithfully
The (student of your college/(employees/people) of your institution.
………………
………….


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Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Paragraph লেখার অভিনব কৌশল । Paragraph লিখনের 6 টি নিয়ম ।

Paragraph

Paragraph লেখার অভিনব কৌশল ।
মাত্র 6 টি Paragraph শিখে 300 Paragraph লেখা যায ।
S.S.C /  H.S.C / Degree / University  ভর্তি পরিক্ষাসহ যে কোন প্রতিযোগিতামুলক পরীক্ষায়  Paragraph একটি গুরুত্বপুর্ণ বিষয় । এখানে Paragraph লেখার একটি অভিনব কৌশল দেওয়া হলো । 
A Paragraph is a ---------of some sentence on a specific topic লিখনের সুবিধার জন্য্  Paragraph গুলোকে 6 টি ভাগে ভাগ করতে পারি ।

যেমন : (i) Problem, (ii) Science, (iii) Person, (iv) Computer, (v) Place , (vi) Incident 

(i) Problem যেমন : Flood problem, Arsenic problem etc.
(ii) Science যেমন : Computer, Television, Radio etc.
(iii) Person যেমন : A Teacher, A Tourist Guide. A reporter etc.
(iv) Computer যেমন : Midesty , Tolerance, Braves etc.
(v) Place যেমন : Fish Market, Village Fair, Tea-stall etc.
(vi) Incident যেমন : Your Memorable Day, Street Accident etc
(vii) Any kind of Fair যেমন : Book fair,Trade fair,Car fair, erc.
(viii) Any kind of celebration  যেমন : Celebration of Eid-ul-Fitre/Durga puja/Book fair etc.

একই শ্রেণীর বিভাগভুক্ত Paragraph গুলো একই নিয়মে লেখা সম্ভব । কেবল মাত্র  (NP)  স্থলে ঐ শ্রেনীর অন্তর্ভক্তটির নাম লিখতে হবে।  (NP) অর্থ  Name of the paragraph .

Paragraph লিখনের 6 টি নিয়ম নিম্নে দেওয়া হলো :-

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Monday, January 4, 2016

Abstract Idea

Abstract Idea


1. Introduction:  To make life useful and successful every man should have some extra-ordinary qualities. (Name of the essay) is one of them it is a quality that makes our life valuable and powerful. A person having such quality leads a happy and powerful. A person having such quality leads a happy and an orderly life. He/she seldom faces unacceptable obstacle in life. He / she are sure to prosper in life.

2. Its significance:  (Name of the essay) signifies moral sensibility. It flashes our human power and reflects our mind. Thus it enlightens our mental faculty by changing the mode of leading life in accordance with rules.

3. Necessary: (Name of the essay) is necessary in every sphere of our life. Every success in human life depends on it. Without this quality people become quarrelsome and create chaos. Thus society turns into a field of war. If we make a list of successful persons, we will find that their glorious success consists in (Name of the essay). We will also find that this extra-ordinary quality helps them to make their life fruitful and inspires them to do many things for the welfare of mankind. Therefore our civilization has been advanced so far.

4. Its Importance: The importance of (Name of the essay) cannot be described in word. It has great influence both in our life and society. But for it society becomes lifelessly, mankind becomes helpless and in this way people in society turn into useless. Everybody feels boredom. This is why; it is valued more than money or any other kind of wealth or property. No other kind of wealth which brings great reward for human life in all branches of life is impossible without education. No doubt, it is the greatest possession of life.

5. Its Influence: In spite of being mental faculty and invisible quality (Name of the essay) has a great influence on human life. To have peace in life every body has to abide by some rules. (Name of the essay) is such kind of regulations that influence much on humanity.

6. Conclusion: (Name of the essay) is a kind of virtue. It is seldom an inborn virtue. It has to be acquired through habit and diligence. But for it fame, progress or success is impossible. In short we can say, that we have to follow those who have gained their success by dint of (Name of the essay).


  1. Modesty
  2. Punctuality
  3. Obedience
  4. Well-behaviour
  5. Dutifulness
  6. Character
  7. Charity
  8. Patriotism
  9. Perseverance
  10. Value of time
  11. Politeness
  12. Courtesy
  13. Cleanliness
  14. Dignity of Labor
  15. Industry
  16. Self Reliance
  17. Education
  18. KindnessCo-ordination
  19. Faithfulness
  20. Early rising
  21. Labor
  22. Patience. 
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Sunday, January 3, 2016

About Various Problems in Bangladesh

About Various Problems in Bangladesh
Name of the essay (any problem)

1. Introduction: In our day to day life, we are experiencing new kinds of problems. Bangladesh is a small country with a huge population. This is why this developing country faces various kinds problems like food, traffic jam, dowry, acid thronging, terrorism, hurtle, load shedding, road accident, arsenic and so on .(Name of the essay) is causing much harm to Bangladesh.

2. Causes: There are many causes of (Name of the essay). Injustices, lack of civic sense, lack of religious mentality, lack of family ties are some of them. Besides, most of the people of our country are poor and illiterate. They live from hand to mouth. Thus they have no knowledge to judge what is right and wrong. Again our political condition is getting worse day by day. It is an obstacle for the welfare of the country. On the other hand, nature is also cruel on us. All these situation has turned our country into this position. Flood, cyclone, drought are very common for this country.

3 Effects: The effects of (Name of the essay) is very dangerous. It hampers our regular activities. It destroys out time .It also harmful for our life and property. Continuation of (Name of the essay) makes our life idle. In a ward it is a major threat form our existence.

4. Remedy: An off-quoted proverb is that prevention is better than cure. So it is high time to take necessary steps and preventive measures to get rid of (Name of the essay). By taking proper steps by the proper authority, a country can be furnished for the next generation.

5. Conclusion: For our survival, we need to add a strong voice to the people of the world for the help of our existence. To maintain peace and justice all kinds of people must come forward with co-operation.


Essay scope:
  1. Population problem in Bangladesh
  2. Arsenic problem in Bangladesh
  3. Unemployment problem
  4. Terrorism in Bangladesh

  5. Traffic Jam
  6. Natural Disasters in Bangladesh
  7. Influence of western civilization of Bangladesh society
  8. Dowry system
  9. Load shedding
  10. Smoking
  11. Price spiral
  12. Indiscriminate use of loud speakers
  13. Environment polluation
  14. Coping in the examination
  1. Acid Throwing
  2. The Harmful effect of the use and product of poly bags
  3. Food poisoning
  4. Child labour in Bangladesh
  5. Global warming
  6. The flood in Bangladesh
  7. Hartal / Strike
  8. Road Accident
  9. Corruption in Bangladesh
  10. Political Instability in Bangladesh
  11. Illiteracy
  12. Anarchy in Bangladesh
  13. Campus Violence
  14. Women and child trafficking
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Saturday, January 2, 2016

Any About Scientific

Any About Scientific

Name of the essay

1. Introduction: We love in an age of science. We can see the wonders of science around us. Science has made our life easy and comfortable. We can not think of our modern life without science. With the passage of time man had invented and discovered newer and newer wonders of science. {Television/Computer/Radio/Mobile/Fax/Internet/ (Name of the essay)} is one of them.

2. Communication: Science has linked up the distant parts of the world. Science has done wonders in the field of communication. They have brought the world closer to us. We can send news from one corner of the world to other within a moment. They have conquered space distance and time. (Name of the essay) is also a great media for communication.

3. Recreation: Science has discovered many wonders for our recreation. We can enjoy many things by means of (Name of the essay/science). Science has made invisible things visible to us. Now it has advanced with its there dimension activities. Digital sound system has made these recreational activities much enjoyable.

4. Educative value: (Name of the essay/science) has a great educative value. It teaches us many things. We hear and enjoy debates, lectures on various important topics, discussions on science and speeches through (Name of the essay). It has broken the wall between literate and illiterate.

5. Other points: (Name of the essay/science) has made the world small. It has conquered time and distance. People need not spend huge money to go abroad. They get familiar with the customs and traditions, fashions and dresses and culture of the people of different parts of the world through the (Name of the essay).Now it is at the reach of our hand.

6. Conclusion: Science is the greatest of all conquerors. It has made our life easy any comfortable by representing (Name of the essay)/ various kinds of wonders. It has established itself firmly in our hearts.


Essay scope:
  1. The wonders of modern science
  2. The blessing of modern science
  3. Science in everyday life
  4. Television 
  5. Computer
  6. Mobile phone
  7. Radio
  8. Internet
  9. Fax
  10. Telex
  11. Telephone
  12. Tape Recorder
  13. Cinema
  14. Electronics in Modern Life
  15. Wireless
  16. Telegram
  17. Light
  18. Fan
  19. Electric iron
  20. Penicillin
  21. X-ray
  22. E .C .G
  23. Radar
  24. Bus
  25. Train
  26. Launch
  27. Ship
  28. Steamer
  29. Airplane
  30. Nuclear weapon
  31. Space Craft
  32. Gramophone

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Friday, January 1, 2016

The Way to Eternal Life

CONTENTS
I. Introduction 7
II. The Value and Purpose of Our Life 11

1. God and Human Beings 11
2. We Have Intelligence 12
3. We Have Spirits 14
4. We Are Created in God's Image 17
5. God Loves Us 21
6. God Never Wants Our Spirits to Perish 25
7. We Have Spiritual Desires 27
8. We Shall See God outside Our Body 31
9. God Has Determined the Times of History 33
10. God's Purpose Will Be Realized within the Period 34
11. We Have Come to the World in Order to Receive Eternal Life 36
III. The Human Fall and the Consequent
Punishments 40
1. Jesus Came in Order to Find the Lost Sinners 40
2. The Meaning of a Sinner 46
3. We Are Essentially Children of Wrath 48
4. The Heart of Corruption 51
5. Human Life is Abominable and Filthy 53
6. Transformation Through God's Life and Power 55
7. Human Righteousness Is Not Acceptable to God 57
8. Human Righteousness Is like a Soiled Garment 60
9. We Are Thoroughly Fallen 61
10. God's Judgement Comes After Death 66
11. Sin Surely Reveals Itself 71
12. The Eternal Hell Is Entered after the Judgement 74
13. The People Condemned to Hell 77
14. The Condition of Salvation 85
IV. God's Love Revealed in the Gospel 88
1. Eternal Life is the Purpose of Studying the Bible 88
2. What is the Law? 96
3. The Law Brings Us to a Self-Discovery before God 98
4. Those Who Rely on Observing the Law Are under a Curse 104
5. The Law and The Grace 107
6. God's Righteousness and My Righteousness 111
7. The Road to Salvation 112
8. The Christ Came in Order to Take Away Our Sin 116
9. God's Justice and God's Love 124
10. The Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World 127
11. One Died for All 131
12. Jesus Purified Our Sin 133
13. Eternal Redemption and Complete Salvation 135
14. God No More Remembers Our Sin and Lawless Acts 143
15. Salvation Is the Gift of God 149
V. The Way of Cain and the Way of Abel 151
1. The Way to Eternity and the Way of Life 151
2. The Narrow Gate and the Wide Gate 152
3. Two Kinds of Sacrifices 154
4. Faith Is to Hear and Understand the Message 158
5. Prayer of a Pharisee and Prayer of a Tax Collector 163
6. The Passover Lamb 168
7. The Christ Is the High Priest for Us 172
8. Redemption Is for the Sake of God's Glory 175
VI. Liberation from the Condemnation of the Law 180

1.Accusers of Jesus 181
2.Our Life Is under Condemnation 183
3. The Law Makes Us Realize Our Sins 185
4. God Sees the Sins in Our Hearts 186
5. Jesus Has the Authority to Judge 190
6. Jesus Takes Charge of Our Sin 192
7. Liberation from the Condemnation of the Law 193
8. The Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World 197
9. Leave Your Life of Sin 198

10. In the New Life 199
I. Introduction
In the preceding volume (The Way to God), we have seen in light of the Bible that God is the Creator of the universe and all things therein and the prime mover of the history. A good reading of the The Way to God must have enabled you to understand the Bible as the word of God.
Although there are a great diversity of religions and religious scriptures in the world, they all take the same basic stance that we receive blessing by doing good works (or through ascetic practices). This is also echoed in a Korean saying, 󰡒An earnest effort can move the heaven.󰡓 Unlike other scriptures, however, the Bible was not made by human hands, nor does it seek to teach doctrines or ethics of a specific religion. The Bible is the truth given by God, the Creator of the universe, and tells us the path towards salvation shown by God.
The words in the Bible have been fulfilled exactly as recorded throughout the history, and surely the future of the world will unfold as mentioned in the Bible as well. Because we know that the Bible and history have been in agreement so far, we can hardly doubt that the future events will come to pass as foretold in the Bible. Just as the universe follows God's law whether we know it or not, so does the history move according to the Bible.
The Bible, which contains the past and future of the human history, not only records the destiny of the humanity but also the eternal destiny of each one of us. The Bible strikes fear in our hearts because it is the truth revealing the living God and clear facts deeply concerned with our individual destiny. Is it wrong to feel fear, however? No, it is very natural to tremble while studying the Bible.
A lie of a false prophet need not be feared because it has never been tested or realized; however, the Bible, written through inspiration of the Spirit, must be feared because it has been tested and realized (Deu. 18:21, 22). Isaiah 66:2 says that God will take care of the one 󰡒who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my [God's] word.󰡓
He who scorns instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command is rewarded (Pro. 13:13).
Nobody will be happy when as a seriously ill patient he hears from a doctor that he will die unless he quickly receives a surgery. He will be greatly shocked. He will say, 󰡒Although I have seen many people dying out of sickness, I can't believe that I have such a serious sickness.󰡓 If the doctor keeps asserting his opinion, however, he will try to have another accurate diagnosis. If this diagnosis confirms his serious condition, he will have to make the hard decision. Will the sickness disappear just because he keeps saying, 󰡒I don't want to hear this. I don't need to think about this. I think I am healthy󰡓?
You can heal your illness only when you know that you are ill. There is a saying, 󰡒It is not the unhappiness but an ignorance of your unhappiness that truly makes you unhappy.󰡓 If you know that you are unhappy, then you can try to find happiness and will be able to find one. If you do not know about your unhappiness, however, you will never be able to escape from the plight.
We have serious problems with God and are under His judgement and condemnation. Hence, we must understand our destiny and solve all the problems through the Bible. The Bible tells us details about the human destiny and eternal destiny of 󰡒I󰡓 among the humanity. Whether we like it or not, it is God's word and God's decision.
Can we stop the rising sun by shouting, 󰡒stop󰡓? Will this scare the sun into a retreat? The sun rises irrespective of our wishes. Nor can we tie up the sun setting in the west. Likewise, we have no way of stopping our destiny from unfolding as determined by God and recorded in the Bible. Because we are born as human beings and living in God's plan and history, we have the responsibility of God's creature. Hence, rather than trying to run away from God, we should try to go back to Him.
Although parents may want to give children something good, if children go against the parents and run away from them, parents cannot give it to them. The reason why we perish is not the sin and evil things opposing God but our own betrayal of God's forgiving and saving love and our refusal to return to Him. Whoever returns to God can find all the solutions in God. God wants to give us eternal life and eternal hope. The problem is our own defiance of God. This is a greater sin.
We should return to and kneel down before God, who has created and rules over the universe, takes charge of our life and eternal destiny, and seeks to save our souls. And we must receive God's forgiveness and grace of salvation. For the plan and purpose of God's historical providence is to enable every individual in history to understand God, plant God's love and life in them, and make them God's children worthy of the eternal heavenly kingdom. Hence, a study of the Bible that does not aim at salvation of the soul can only be a purposeless work and betrayal of will of the Creator.
In a nutshell, the Bible is a set of words spoken about God's love. As there is a hymn verse that goes, 󰡒God's love for me is written in the Bible,󰡓 the most essential message of the Bible is 󰡒God is love.󰡓 (1 John 4:8) The message proclaims that God unconditionally loves all, even sinners. And it is Jesus who has manifested this love on earth.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16, 17).
When we sinned and became God's enemies, lost far away from God, He sent His only son to us as a propitiation, thereby showing His love for us.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).
In the present volume, The Way to Eternal Life, I would like to explain how we can attain eternal life by considering the miserable human destiny and God's love.
II. The Value and Purpose of Our Life
1. God and Human Beings
The fool says in his heart, 󰡒There is no God.󰡓 They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psa. 14:1 ~ 3).
We live in the world only for a short while, but as I look at people's lives, they all have very much work and many desires. I think, however, that at least once in our life, we need to ponder deeply about the value and purpose of our lives, and what we must attain and what is the most important for us. I am sure that our readers also have much work and a determined goal and are working hard towards it.
We have come to the world certainly in order to attain something. But it would not be just something visible, physical and practical such as things to serve the body, which only has a short life. Animals are satisfied when they have food, free and comfortable environment, their mates and conditions for reproduction. Since we have a spirit, which seeks what is spiritual and eternal, we can never be contented just with practical, material, and bodily things. God has given us a spirit and intelligence, which animals lack.
2. We Have Intelligence
But no one says, 󰡒Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches more to us than to the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?󰡓 (Job 35:10, 11)
When a train roars by, frogs and insects by the track will have no idea about how the train was produced, how it moves, and where it is going. With our intelligence, however, we can know not only this but even more. We know that the earth is floating in the space and running at an incredible speed of 108,000 kilometers per hour and that a galaxy contains one or two hundred billion stars, and moreover there are over a hundred billion such galaxies. Science is revealing more and more secrets of the universe.
Many people, however, neither ask about nor look for God, the source of the great and unique intelligence of ours.
For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything (Heb. 3:4).
If every house has its maker, and automobiles and airplanes their manufacturers, the earth, the sun, the stars and the entire sublime universe must have their Creator, and this is why we must know about God.
The fool says in his heart, 󰡒There is no God.󰡓 (Psa. 14:1)
Foolishness lies in having darkened reason and being unable to see things as they are. Fools reject the truth and accept the lie, and mistake a truth for a lie and a lie for a truth. Hence, they deny clear facts and insist on their absurd views.
The greatest of all the fools in the world are those who deny the existence of God. Who would believe you if you say that a house simply has appeared on its own? How did all the trees and flowers come into being? How about the birds in the sky, all kinds of fish in the water, and all kinds of animals? How could they have sprung into existence spontaneously without God?
This magnificent universe is alive and moves in strict order harmony. This is because the absolute Creator has designed and created it and is ruling over it with His wisdom and power. The Bible says that God is 󰡒sustaining all things by his powerful word,󰡓 (Heb. 1:3) and God's laws 󰡒endure to this day, for all things serve you [God].󰡓 (Psa. 119:91) All things absolutely obey God's power and word. God has given us the intellect in order that we may come to know about God.
Since we live in the world created by God, it is extremely important to know and have the right relationship with God.
Success in life can be determined by whether we make a good human relationship and maintain it well; hence, more important than making earnest individual efforts would be to make a good human relationship with sincere and able people. We may meet good and able people and live successful lives, or meet wrong people and end our lives in failure.
When relationship has such importance in this life, how much more important it is to form a good relationship with the eternal God? We cannot be too concerned about knowing God correctly because it is a matter of our eternal destiny.
Some people say, 󰡒What does it matter whether I know about God or not? Those believing in God may be living well, but so are those not believing in God.󰡓 Evil people and people ignorant of God may have a trouble-free life on earth. The Bible says, 󰡒He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.󰡓 (Mat. 5:45) This is why their lives may be trouble-free. They will have no problem eating food, breathing the air, and wearing clothes in the God's world, for God has made it available to all humanity.
The problem comes, however, after the end of our short life on earth. You may think, 󰡒What is there to be feared after death? Isn't death the end of everything?󰡓 There is the 󰡒eternal destiny󰡓 waiting for you after your death, however.
3. We Have Spirits
Unlike the other creatures, we have spirits. Plants just have life; since they are without the sense, they have no pain when they are cut. Animals have both life and senses, through which they can recognize their youngs and feel hunger and pain. Human beings, however, have 󰡒spirits.󰡓
A Chinese philosopher teaches, 󰡒Human beings are the most precious among all things in the heaven and earth.󰡓 Why does he say that human beings are the most precious? Some animals live for hundreds of years, while we do not even live for a hundred years. Birds in the sky and fish in the water seem to be more adorable, joyful, and free. Compared to this, how miserable we human beings are, who struggle, suffer, and travail! Moreover, how evil and base we human beings are!
Birds have no struggle over philosophy or ideal, and they can fly wherever they want to because they know no national borders. Wild animals also run freely through mountains.
If we only have the body, we are very much inferior to animals in many respects. To say that human beings are the most precious means that they have dignity, which is based on the spirit created for the plan and purpose of God. Without the spirit, we are little different from animals.
Communists strongly insist on the theory of evolution, saying, 󰡒Where is the spirit? Rather, didn't Human beings evolve from apes?󰡓 In a conversation with Chinese communist party members, I heard about the theory of evolution they had learned. I retorted, 󰡒If it is true that apes have evolved into human beings, shouldn't there be at least one ape somewhere in the world that is in the process of evolving into human beings?󰡓
The modern science has revealed that what was discovered and presented as a link between humans and apes is a fake. Now that the fallacy of the evolutionary theory has been shown, evolutionists are unable to make strong claims. They still hold on to the theory, however, in order to deny God the Creator.
Evolutionary theory is a theory of the devil, which denies God and spirit and makes us think, 󰡒What is so special about human beings? They are just like animals. I can just live and die like an animal,󰡓 thereby leading us to fall. Why did we fall and become evil, and why do we have to live in misery and in raging contradictions and lies? It is because our departure from God and consequent loss of human value and purpose is giving rise to all the sins. We must return to God, and start our lives again with God.
The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psa. 14:2, 3).
Although God looks around to find someone seeking God, the fall has deprived us of the ability to recognize God. Instead of animals evolving into human beings, human beings, created in the image of God, degenerated into animals. Look at the animals. Do they not always hold their noses and mouths down to the ground, constantly looking for food? Human beings, who are supposed to behold the above and have their ideals and hopes in the divine and eternal world of God, have fallen, having hope on the earth and only living for such hope. We have debased ourselves, and driven ourselves into falsity and misery.
Since we have left God and lost the intelligence through which to find God, we have become unable to find God on our own.
Wherever there are people, there are religions. Religion is a human striving to find God. It is said that there are eight million divinities in Japan. Japanese people worship all kinds of objects. When asked if they are gods, they say that of course they are not. When asked why, then, they serve them, they say in order to find god, who must be somewhere. They are looking for God in their own ways because they do not know about God.
We have a desire to find God. Despite such desire, however, since we have lost the ability to know God and are unable to reach Him through our own wisdom, He has shown us the way to come to Him.
God has given us the Bible as His revelation in order to inform us, living in the physical bodies, that He is the absolute Creator and to teach us about the plan and secret of God, purpose of creating us, His will towards us, His forgiveness of our sins, and the way to reach Him. Hence, we must learn the Bible and solve fundamental human issues through it.
4. We Are Created in God's Image
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, 󰡒Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.󰡓 (Gen. 1:27, 28)
God created the universe and so arranged everything that life can prosper. It says in the Genesis 1:2, 󰡒Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.󰡓 We have learned at school that at the beginning of the earth, there was a point in the process where the earth was a long-burning fireball, with the lava rising up and simmering. The Bible calls it 󰡒formless.󰡓 When it says, 󰡒the earth was formless and empty,󰡓 it calls 󰡒empty󰡓 the state of the earth where there was no life, not even a grass leaf or insect. It also says, 󰡒darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.󰡓 As the earth gradually cooled down, the fire went inside the earth, and the earth came to be surrounded by a thick layer of vapor and clouds. This is why the Bible says that God clothed the earth with clouds (Job 38:9). Vapor and clouds are all water. When water was surrounding the earth, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 󰡒Hovering over󰡓 means that God was embracing the earth as the hen broods on the eggs. Raw eggs only have the white and the yolk, and yet after twenty-one days of brooding, chickens come out of them; likewise, the Spirit of God was hovering over the earth in order to give life to it.
In order to make it possible for human beings to live on the earth, God brought forth light in the first day, and on the second day divided the waters above and below the firmament, with the latter becoming the ocean, and the former a transparent layer surrounding the earth. God made plants first and then animals. It was for animals that God created the plants, without which animals cannot survive. When you look at flowers, do they not boast of their beauty? Why did God create them? Without the one to behold their beauty, they will find themselves useless.
When a young lady goes out, she styles her hair, puts on cosmetics, wears earrings and necklace, and pretty dress and shoes. If, however, there were no one to behold and admire her, she would not take such pains to decorate herself. The savory fruits on the trees are asking us to eat them.
Are plants and also flowers made for themselves? Flowers are there because there are people to appreciate them, and fruits because there are creatures to eat them. How about rice? They also exist to serve our appetite. God created humans after creating according to their kinds the birds in the sky, fish in the water, and all the creeping animals in the land. This is because these creatures are made for us. In order for us to live, we need plants and animals. Suppose there are only plants and no animals. It would be quite boring if there were no cows, horses, dogs, pigs, birds, or fish. When God commissioned humans to dominate the birds in the sky, fish in the water, and all the moving creatures on the land, he meant that we could eat, use, or do whatever we wanted with them. It is because all of them are made for us.
Why did God create us? God created us for the sake of God. When the Bible says that we are created in His image, it is not referring to our physical shape. As it says, 󰡒God is spirit,󰡓 (John 4:24) to be made in God's image means to be made as spiritual beings. To be spiritual beings means that we are divine and immortal like God so that we can be glorified eternally with God. This is the purpose for which God has created us. In other words, God has created us for the sake of His plan and purpose.
The creation in God's image contains enormously important and profound secrets. Parents rejoice when they hear that their children resemble them. When they hear, 󰡒He looks just like his father, like an imprint,󰡓 they become very happy. You will run into big trouble if you say that the child looks like someone living next door. Parents never say that because they are ugly, their children should not resemble them but some handsome neighbor. When they hear about children's taking after them, they are filled with joy. Children are a part of the parents to inherit and continue parents' legacy and life. To the children, who resemble parents, parents want to give everything.
Although we may not be able to give our children everything we desire to, however, God can give us everything He wants to. Do you know why God created us in His image? It is in order to give us everything. It is so that we can live eternally like God, be glorified eternally with God, and receive everything from God. How foolish it would be if we, created in His image with such privileges, simply think that several decades of bodily life is all there is and live for the flesh only!
God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself... A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish (Psa. 49:15, 20).
Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish (Psa. 49:20 KJV).
To be 󰡒in honor󰡓 (KJV) is to be highly precious, and we have honor because we have spirits created in God's image. his spirits is created for the sake of God's plan and purpose. The message says that the one who fails to realize how noble his spirits is is 󰡒like the beasts that perish.󰡓 When we are created for eternal life with God and glory, says the Bible, and yet fail to realize this and simply live for the body, seeing nothing beyond it, we might just as well have been born as a beast.
It is because we have the spirits that the Chinese philosopher could proclaim, 󰡒Human beings are the most precious among all things in the heaven and earth,󰡓 as I mentioned earlier, and it is because of the spirits that there can be a saying, 󰡒Man is the lord of all creation.󰡓 The word 󰡒lord󰡓 here is translated into young jang in Korean, where 󰡒young()󰡓 means spirit, and 󰡒jang()󰡓 means long, adult or supervisor. Hence, this word means that we live long because of the spirit. We are the most precious of all creation because we have spirits in the image of God, which make us immortal.
Just as we can see our faces only through a mirror, so can we see who we are only by coming to know God. Ignorance of God leads to ignorance of our own value, and ignorance of our value leads to ignorance of our purpose of life and hopelessness. In hopelessness, we pursue almost anything to serve our selfish goals, saying, 󰡒What is so special about man? I live and die, and there is no more.󰡓
In Korea, once there was a group of youths in the early twenties called 󰡒Chijon Faction,󰡓 which indiscriminately committed homicides. When I saw them on TV, they were really young. They took random people on the street, killed them, cut them in pieces, and burned them. They built a burning facility and were even trying to buy machine guns to slaughter even more people. It even seemed that they had been born for murder. Initially, they hated the 󰡒Oranges󰡓 and 󰡒Yatas,󰡓 (playboy groups of Korea) and decided to butcher them. After all, they were all arrested. People thought that when they were scolded, 󰡒You murderers, did you think you could slay so many people and still be safe?󰡓 they would bow down their heads and say, 󰡒We are sorry, we deserve to die.󰡓 On the contrary, however, they held up their heads straight, and even shouted back their voices, saying, 󰡒How much longer can we live, fifty years? What does it matter whether we live fifty years more or die earlier?󰡓 That seems right. Since they were in the early twenties, they had fifty years before reaching seventy. It occurred to me that if physical death was the end of everything, they were right, and it did not really matter whether we lived here a few decades longer or retired from life a few decades earlier. Is death the end of everything, however? Definitely not. All the members of the Chijon Faction were executed.
Afterwards, there appeared something called 󰡒Mack Ga Faction.󰡓 The Korean word 󰡒mack ga󰡓 here means to live and die recklessly. Why do such impetuous people appear? Because they had lost sight of the true human value and made themselves evil through ignorance of the spirit, even such heinous crimes could not move them to shame and regret. If one loses sight of his own value, he thinks light of others' lives and destroys them indiscriminately as if killing flies. All sins sprout from being ignorant of the human value and dignity.
5. God Loves Us
O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow (Psa. 144:3, 4).
If we are to know who we are, and what our worth and purpose are, we musk ask God, our Creator. Human beings cannot solve fundamental human problems themselves. It is of no use to ask philosophers. Can a cow ask another cow what its prices are these days? Can a black pig ask a white pig how much it is going for? Neither cows nor pigs know their own prices. Their prices are determined by human beings. Since it is up to humans to eat them, use them, or do whatever with them, humans are free to raise or lower the animal prices.
How about the human worth, then? Can we fix the worth ourselves? As the saying goes, 󰡒There is no man above man, nor any man below man,󰡓 below us there are animals, and above us God. Hence, our worth is set by God. In order to know who on earth we are, we must ask God.
Sincerely ask God the following difficult questions: 󰡒God, why did you create us human beings? Why did you not make us more perfect, but so wretched that we are tormented by ourselves? Why did you create the world in such complexity? If you indeed exist, why do the immoral get ahead of the virtuous, and the good suffer injustice? Why is the truth being trampled upon, while contradiction and unrighteousness engulf the world like surging waves? Some people harbor grudges in their hearts for life and die undeserved death, what a contradiction!󰡓 God will answer these questions for you in the Bible.
In the book of Psalms, we meet a person sincerely asking these questions to God. Asked why the wicked are 󰡒always carefree, they increase in wealth,󰡓 God answers that He will 󰡒cast them down to ruin󰡓 after death (Psa. 73:12, 18). As Job says, 󰡒They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace,󰡓 (Job 21:13) (They spend their days in prosperity, and suddenly go down to Sheol, NASB) although they may have glamorous life in the world, they will be condemned to hell after death.
If we just look at the world, it is full of contradictions. This is what inspired Nietzsche to proclaim the death of God. He argued that to acknowledge the existence of God was to profane His name, for God could not have made such a wretched world. This sounds quite convincing. The Bible, however, has answer for this. When will be the time when good is repaid with good, and evil with evil? It will not be in this world. The several decades of human life on earth is but an instant in the eyes of God of eternity. Therefore, at the moment, He leaves alone the contradictions and injustice in the world because there will soon be eternal judgement upon all the good and evil.
The poet in the Psalm 144 asked, 󰡒What is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?󰡓 He also inquired why God loved us when we were so vile and insignificant. If you are a miserable person, and yet a noble one such as king loves you and bestows favors upon you, you will feel so out of place and say, 󰡒Who am I that you bless me with such generous favor?󰡓 In the eyes of God, the Creator of universe, humans are not even as important as insects or dusts. What would the Creator of the immense universe think when He sees you and me, living in a tiny corner of the small earth? Isaiah 40:15 says, 󰡒Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.󰡓 If nations are like water drops, people must be almost nothing at all.
Nevertheless, God loves us deeply, and the Bible says, 󰡒For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.󰡓(John 3:16) Since God loves each one of us, God gave His only Son and led him even to death in order to save our souls from destruction and guide us to eternal life. To love the world means to love the people in the world. Even if there were no one but me in the world, still Jesus surely would have come to save me. We should know that God loves one person and the entire mankind with equal love. We are unable to give equal love to one person and hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of people. Since we are imperfect, we cannot even memorize their names. God, however, sees no difference between loving one person and the six billion people around the globe. 󰡒He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name,󰡓 (Psa. 147:4) and even counts our hairs (Mat.10:30). In short, there is nothing about us God does not know.
Even before our birth God knew all about us. Since God knew that we were going to commit sin and go to hell, He sent His only son in order to deliver us from ruin and give us eternal life. God so arranged that those realizing and believing in God's grace would receive eternal life, and this is the love of God.
Parents love their children even before their birth. When a wife becomes pregnant, the couple start talking about the child: 󰡒Honey, how shall we name the child? Let's make it so and so if it's a boy, and so and so if a girl. Let's be well prepared with baby's clothes, wrapping blankets, and so on. Which school shall we choose for the baby, and how shall we raise it?󰡓 Parents also draw pictures about the future of the child. The fetus has no idea about who the parents are and how much they love it, and yet parents love it. Likewise, even when we were ignorant of God, He still loved us. No matter how grave our sin is, God's love is larger than our sin. It is for no other reason than that we have spirits created according to God's holy plan and purpose that God loves us so much. Parents love their own children albeit the children may be uglier and more troublesome than neighbors' children. If their lives are threatened by a sickness, parents are agonized. Even handicapped people receive love and sympathy from their parents. No matter how heavy the burden of our sin may be, God does not want our spirits to go to hell, for although He loathes sin, He loves us. It may seem that human life is vain, passing by like a shadow, and yet in such life there is the spirit, which is precious in God's eyes.
For I am honored in the eyes of the LORD... (Isa. 49:5)
It may be that I am nothing in my own eyes, and even less in others' eyes. God, however, finds me dear. Without understanding this, that God created us for our spirits and loves them so deeply, we make ourselves miserable and bestial, and perish.
Five-year-old Bok Nam in a small village is a slow boy with runny nose and a loser who gets beaten by other children and cries. When he goes home, however, he is the only son in a family that has had only one son for seven generations, a son that is as precious as a jewel and the sole heir of the family. Each one of us is like a jewel for God.
6. God Never Wants Our Spirits to Perish
For this is what the high and lofty One says - he who lives forever, whose name is holy: 󰡒I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me - the breath of man that I have created.󰡓 (Isa. 57:15, 16)
God, 󰡒the high and lofty One󰡓 (meaning He is the highest with none higher than Him) and 󰡒who lives forever, whose name is holy󰡓 has said that he lives 󰡒in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.󰡓 Although He dwells in the high and holy place, He sees the lowly humans, and stays with those who are contrite and humble. To be 󰡒contrite and lowly in spirit󰡓 means to realize being a sinner and desire to be forgiven by God after committing a sin. This is 󰡒to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.󰡓 However malicious a crime a child has committed, if the child sincerely begs for forgiveness, the parents would never put him to death. Although all the other people may think that the child more than deserves death, when asked about the child the parents will surely plead, 󰡒Please save him. Please save him. He is a deviant man, but he is my precious son.󰡓 Love transcends law. God saves unconditionally all the sinners who sincerely seek forgiveness and aspire to salvation. This is God's love.
At the time of Jesus, the worst criminals were nailed to the cross alive. Although Jesus was crucified innocent, the other two on the cross, murderous robbers, had committed a great deal of crimes. One robber challenged God and derided Jesus until death, saying, 󰡒If you are truly the Son of God and have saved many from death, why can't you save yourself? If you are God's Son, come down from the cross right now, and save me as well.󰡓 The other robber, however, rebuked him and said, 󰡒You and I deserve death for our crimes. But this man is innocent. Do you not fear God yet?󰡓 Seeing Jesus praying for sinners even while dying in pain on the cross, he came to believe that Jesus was God's Son and righteous man dying for the sake of sinners, whereupon he became struck with the fear of God and realization of his sin to hurl him down to hell. Thus, he seriously repented and entrusted his soul to Jesus at the moment of death, asking Jesus to have pity on him and remember him in his kingdom.
If I were Jesus, I would have said, 󰡒You want to go to the heavenly kingdom when you have killed and committed evil deeds for all your life?󰡓 and yet Jesus allowed the robber to accompany him to the paradise that day. Because Jesus said it, the robber surely went to the paradise. His salvation is at the same time our own salvation. We are saved unconditionally through God's grace. The merciful love of God saves any sinner as long as he truly desires salvation. This is why God dwells with the penitent and humble and saves their souls, created in God's image. As He says, 󰡒I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me - the breath of man that I have created,󰡓 He never wants the spirits He has created to perish.
When the first human ancestors committed sin in the Garden of Eden, God cursed the earth, and gave the woman the pain of child labor, and the man the toil of work. It is not because God hated human beings that He cursed the land and subjected them to the travails and death. The Bible says, 󰡒For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.󰡓 (Lam. 3:33) Parents scold and sometimes discipline children not out of hatred but in order to help them repent and change their ways and lay aside foolishness. Likewise, God has given us pain so that we can repent our sins and drop the attachment to the earth, cursed through sin. God cursed the land and subjected us to pain in order to help us realize the hopelessness of the earth and return to God, thereby embracing eternal hope. To say 󰡒I will not accuse forever󰡓 means that that God will not be angry with us forever. He had wrath for a short while and gave us pain and discipline, and yet this is not forever. God's will is to bring us to eternal life with Him.
7. We Have Spiritual Desires
My spirit, created in God's image for the sake of God's holy plan and purpose, is my true self. Some people regard their body as the only self, and do their utmost to take care of it, assiduously feeding and clothing it. They eat whatever is supposed to be good for health such as natural food, and take medicine even for slight sickness; they decorate their bodies, adorning their faces and even receiving cosmetic surgeries to remove wrinkles. They, however, have no idea about the existence of the spirit, and thus make no preparation for the spirit.
According to Jesus, when a rich man accumulated much wealth to last for many years and said to himself, 󰡒I have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry,󰡓 God said to him, 󰡒You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?󰡓 Jesus then says, 󰡒This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.󰡓 (Luke 12:19 ~ 21) Our spiritual needs are not met by material things.
As I mentioned at the beginning, animals are satisfied when there is food, comfortable environment, and mate to reproduce with. They have no needs beyond bodily drives.
Human beings, however, are never simply contented with fulfillment of physical conditions. One may say that a beautiful house, sumptuous food and clothes, and great cultural facilities will make a family happy, but will not bring them full happiness. For we have a spirit as well as the body, and thus spiritual needs in addition to bodily ones. Spiritual needs will not be met by material things. We come to commit all kinds of sins when we try to resolve our spiritual longing through the body and thereby get into excess.
As the Bible says, 󰡒May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,󰡓 (1 Th. 5:23) human beings have the body, the soul, and the spirit. The bodily desires are for food, sex, honor, etc. The soul refers to the emotional and mental activities, and desires of the soul are manifested through knowledge, love, noble thoughts, and so forth. The desire of the spirit is to find God, however. Hence, Romans 1:19 says, 󰡒Since what may be known about God is plain to them.󰡓 We have a desire to find God, while animals do not.
Also, among the desires of the spirit is the pursuit of goodness. As Romans 2:15 says, 󰡒Since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them,󰡓 when we commit a sin, our conscience accuses us. Our conscience says, 󰡒You wretched soul, you should not take others' possessions. You should not steal or do other evil deeds.󰡓 This is why the Bible says that conscience is law 󰡒written in their hearts.󰡓 (Rom. 2:15) Conscience pursues goodness.
Finally, the desires of the spirit include yearning for the eternity. 󰡒He has also set eternity in the hearts of men.󰡓 (Eccl. 3:11)) While the flesh seeks and is satisfied with what is visible, practical, and material, the spirit seeks what is eternal, complete, and divine. Since the spirit is created in God's image, it will not be satisfied until it becomes like God.
In the old China, when Xi Taihou(the Chinese Queen) was ruling the land for forty years, she made an artificial lake in Peking. The lake was so immense and boundless as to look like an ocean, and yet it was created in purely human hands. When there were no excavators or trucks, they dug out all the earth, erected a mountain, and built a magnificent palace on it.
The Forbidden City was a palace of Chinese emperors, and it has 9,999 rooms. They did not make it ten thousand because they thought it was only for God. Hence, I thought, 󰡒They had some conscience and at least knew that they were not God.󰡓
We will experience no fulfillment until we become like God. To be like God does not mean to become God himself, but to become able to live eternally like God. When we are saved, we will become like God, receiving glory with God and experiencing full contentment. It would not be just the rich man mentioned by Jesus that tries to serve his spiritual demands with bodily things, saying, 󰡒You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.󰡓 The people like him do not understand our spiritual desire.
If we give a candy to a child who has lost his mother and is crying, the sweetness of the candy may be able to silence the child for a while; momentarily, however, he will burst into tears again, crying out for the mother, and this time throwing away candies and toys. He will never be pacified until he finds himself back in the mother's embrace.
Since we have lost God, we have the desire to find God, and this spiritual thirst will never be quenched by anything that is of the world until death. This is why God said to him, 󰡒You fool.󰡓 Those who deny the existence of God and those who try to appease the spiritual longing by following the bodily drives are all absurd. God continued, 󰡒This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?󰡓 Although we may pile up riches as if we could live for tens of thousands of years, God can claim our spirits any time, even tonight.
As for the heads of states and people in high positions, after their retirements they will receive special treatments and have plenty of nice food and clothes for the rest of their lives. This should be enough to make them happy, and yet why do many of them try to amass enormous wealth as if they could use it for thousands of years and as if to inherit it to thousands of generations? Because people have a desire to become like God, they find no satisfaction no matter how much they have. If you have a building, you will then want to have another, and if you have two, you will then want to have ten. If you have a new car, you will next want to have a better model. And then you will start thinking that perhaps a private airplane may satisfy you completely. Even with all these things, however, you will still find yourself hungry.
8. We Shall See God outside Our Body
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh(1) I will see God... (Job 19:26)
I will see God outside my body (Korean Bible).
󰡒And after my skin has been destroyed...󰡓 When we die from old age, sickness, or accident, our hearts will stop, and our corpses start rotting. However beautiful or famous a person may have been in this life, death will return him to earth. When the body decays, what departs from the body? It is the spirit, rising from the body towards God.
And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7).
It is death that separates the body from the spirit. The body returns to dust after death. Since it is made out of earth, it goes back to earth (Gen. 3:19), while the spirit returns to God, from whom it came from. Even those who deny the existence of God will have to meet God very soon. The problem is that we must stand before God prepared.
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth (Pro. 27:1).
Even healthy and young people can meet a sudden death, not to mention sick and old people. Some people may live long, but none more than several decades. But death is not the end of everything, for thereafter we must go to God, receive judgement, and proceed to hell or heaven for eternity. My hands, feet, body, face, etc. are but my shells. Just as people live inside a building, so does the spirit dwell inside the earthen house (Job 4:19).
As in the verse, 󰡒And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in (outside) my flesh I will see God,󰡓 after death the spirit actually rises from the body and meets God.
I have met four people who have died and come back to life. Among them, a grandmother from Mokpo died and revived in two days, on the eve of the funeral. She told me in detail what had happened during her death. Another person was a fifty-seven-year-old man living in Panwol, a city near Su Won. Amid his sickness, his heart stopped, and he died, after which he saw his own dead body, said he. He said he saw his family members sitting and crying around his body, covered with a sheet, and it was real and not a dream.
I have also heard about someone who had served for forty years as a doctor in the Soviet Union and who had patients with an experience of reviving after death. The doctor's notes of their after-death stories have been on the newspapers. According to the stories, 󰡒it takes about five to fifteen minutes to move from life to death, during which people vividly experience the process of leaving the world. After the departure, they come to look down upon their own corpses.󰡓 American doctors also collected after- death stories, which talk about the 󰡒auto-scope,󰡓 whereby the dead people can see their own bodies and people around them so that they can tell who those people were after waking up from death. This is identical with what I heard. Furthermore, the SBS-TV's program I Want to Know This, which features people coming back from death, also gives same accounts. The other world surely exists, and many people have experienced it.
9. God Has Determined the Times of History
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:26 ~ 28).
When it says, 󰡒From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth,󰡓 it means that we are the descendants of one person, Adam. It is true that we are all descendants of Adam. Human beings and apes are not of the same lineage, so there is no ape with the same blood as ours. Human beings, however have the same blood, whether they are from Asia, Europe, Africa, or United States. If the blood types match, an African's or American's blood can be transfused into a Korean, and a Korean's blood into a European without any problem. Not even a drop of monkey's blood, however, can be inserted into the human blood vessels.
󰡒Determined the times...󰡓 To determine the times means that God set the beginning and end of history. As it says, 󰡒In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1),󰡓 and 󰡒I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away; and there was no longer any sea (Rev. 21:1),󰡓 God has decreed that the history come to an end when the time comes that is set by God instead of continuing endlessly. What do you think will happen to human history after a few hundred or few thousand years? Doubtlessly, the earth will have turned into a living hell.
O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end (Heb 1:10 ~12).
The earth is bound to perish according to this word. As we have examined in the first volume, The Way to God, we are living in the final age of history.
God has determined the times of history and the 󰡒the exact places where they should live.󰡓 In other words, God has decreed that we live within the earth during the ordained duration of history.
The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man (Psa. 115:16).
God has commanded us to conquer the earth while living on earth and not the heaven. No matter how far science develops, we cannot emigrate to the Moon, Mars, or Jupiter. For God does not allow us to conquer the heaven. When the time of God arrives, the history of the earth will come to a close. God has determined the bounds of human habitation so that 󰡒men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him󰡓 He does not abide far away from us.
10. God's Purpose Will Be Realized within the Period
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot... (Eccl. 3:1, 2)
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven... (KJV)
To determine the time of the earth is the same as there being a time for everything. To say, 󰡒There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity (purpose) under heaven󰡓 means that the purpose will be realized within the set period. Would there not be God's purpose during this period of history? History has a purpose, and so does the life of each of us. The purposes for which God has created our life and God leads the history are closely interconnected.
What is the purpose of history?
The human history exists in order to prepare the people to enter the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, when the gospel has been spread throughout the world, and the number of the people to enter the heavenly kingdom through salvation has been filled, the history will conclude. As a skylark builds a nest, lays eggs, hatches the youngs, and flies away with them, never to return, when God's purpose of history is realized, He will eliminate the earth because He has no more use for it. As a temporary building is demolished after the completion of the main building, the heaven and earth we see now will be removed like a temporary building once the people have become ready to proceed to the new heaven and earth.
Just as countless people have come and gone throughout the history, so will you and I. Then, what is the purpose of our existence in history? The purpose of human life converges with that of history. We do not live for sin, nor for suffering or some worldly pleasure. Our purpose is not determined by us, for it has already been by God. In short, our several decades of life on earth is for the sake of preparing ourselves to go before God by coming to know God, receiving salvation of the spirit, and living a life worthy of children of God. When the people of the heavenly kingdom have been prepared after the long history, God's purpose is fulfilled, and the history will close.
11. We Have Come to the World in Order to Receive Eternal Life
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Eccl. 3:11).
God has created everything beautifully according to different times; for instance, flowers blossom in the spring, and fruits such as melons and watermelons provide coolness in the summer. Summer fruits such as watermelon are low in calories, and their rich water content helps people, who sweat much in the summer. Because they go bad quickly, they must be eaten soon. Autumn fruits, on the other hand, are storable so that they can be kept for food through the winter. By the time we run out of them, God provides us with new fruits of the next year. This shows us the remarkable reason with which He has created the whole nature.
God, who has created everything beautifully according to seasons, has 󰡒set eternity in the hearts of men,󰡓 that is, endowed the human beings with a yearning for the eternity. When there is a yearning heart, there is bound to be the object of the yearning, just as when there is a thirst, there is water to quench it, and when there is hunger, there is food to satisfy it. When a baby is born, he looks for milk, although he has never learned that there is milk or how to suck milk; while giving him a desire to suck milk, God has also provided the mother's breasts for the baby to suck lying comfortably in her arms. Moreover, the temperature, nutrition, and taste of the breast milk are designed to fit the growing baby's needs exactly. This is revealed in a research showing that the nutrition content of breast milk changes over time as the baby grows, at the time of his birth, after one hundred days, and after ten months, for instance. This is another skillful work of God. When you enter the puberty, a desire for members of the other sex sprouts forth in your heart. A yearning heart is never without the object yearned for. When our hearts have a desire, there is bound to be an object that can fulfill that desire.
Why has God given us such a yearning for the eternity? It is because we possess a spirit, which never dies, and there are eternal world, eternal truth, and eternal God. God has created us in His image and instilled in us a desire to seek the eternity in order that He may give us that eternal, complete, and holy world, which is God's everlasting kingdom. Just as there is a song called, 󰡒I want to live with you forever,󰡓 we have a desire to live with God endlessly.
We are thirsting for eternal life.
Why have we come here to the world? We have come in order to attain eternal life. Why did Jesus come to the world? He came in order to open for us the way to the eternal God. This is why Jesus said, 󰡒I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.󰡓 (John 14:6) It is surely the Bible that teaches the way to eternal life.
The truth of the Bible leads to life. We have come in order to find that way, realize that truth, and attain that eternal life. We may lose or give up many things, but we should never lose the eternal life that Jesus seeks to give us.
After a short while, all of you and I will have left this world and find ourselves in an eternal abode.
The Bible says, 󰡒Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment...󰡓 (Heb. 9:27) Although the body returns to dust, the spirit ascends to God, receives His judgement, and moves on to an eternal place. The heaven is an eternal place, and so is the hell. However, in the heaven we live in everlasting glory with God, whereas in hell we suffer never-ending agony with devils. We are to go to one of the two places, between which light and darkness, life and death, truth and deception, and happiness and misery are perpetually divided. We must choose between going to the heaven by receiving the eternal life from Jesus and going to hell by losing the eternal life.
Where would you like to go? Where would you spend your eternity? You work so hard, strain yourselves, and make assiduous preparations for the sake of the several decades of your life in this world, and yet why are you so nonchalant about the eternity of your life?
Our short earthly life is but a process of preparing to advance to the eternal world. Just as there is tomorrow after today, so is there another world after this world. Today is the time to prepare for tomorrow. We are here to find the way to the eternal world, and those who have found it are surely blessed with true happiness.
III. The Human Fall and the Consequent Punishments
1. Jesus Came in Order to Find the Lost Sinners
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and 󰡒sinners󰡓 came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 󰡒Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?󰡓 On hearing this, Jesus said, 󰡒It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.󰡓 (Mat. 9:10 ~ 13).
At the time of Jesus, there were many Jews who were known for their devoted service to God. Priests, elders, and lawyers kept the sabbath meticulously, made strict tithing, fasted twice a week for God, and worked hard to save souls. They made long prayers and strove to live by the law. Even the most diligent religious practitioner today would find himself belittled by the religious fervor of the priests, lawyers, or Pharisees at that time. In contrast, there was another group of Jews who were considered 󰡒low life󰡓 in today's expression. Publicans, as running dogs of the Romans, collected groundless taxes, offering some to the Romans and keeping the rest for themselves, similar to some of those tax officials of today who take from the national treasure and stuff their own pockets. There were also prostitutes and sinners who mingled with the tax collectors, who could not have used the unjust money in a decent way. These sinners could not be in the company of the aforementioned people of dignity, for they took pride in their own holiness and disdained those sinners.
Jesus, however, went to sinners' homes and befriended them, eating and talking with them. This is how Jesus earned the devout people's accusation. They reasoned that if Jesus was from God, as he revived the dead, healed lepers, and opened blind eyes, he should be with them, and even more so if Jesus was intent upon initiating a political movement to revive Israel. To their disappointment, however, Jesus was indifferent towards political matters and simply mingled with sinners. This is why they complained to disciples of Jesus why their teacher was eating with the tax collectors and sinners.
When he heard this, Jesus replied, 󰡒It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.󰡓 Does a doctor need to visit a healthy person? Doctors are for sick people. Jesus is a doctor of spiritual disease rather than physical. Spiritual illness means sin.
Sickness weakens and pains people, eventually bringing them to death. Many people die from illness. Sin, on the other hand, separates us from God, makes us fall, and eventually brings us to the hell. To say that Jesus came to save the sinners means that he came to extirpate sin.
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin (1 John 3:5).
Jesus said, 󰡒For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners󰡓 because the priests, lawyers, elders, Pharisees, and scribes thought that they were earnestly serving God and therefore righteous. They may have been righteous in others' eyes as well, but definitely not in God's view. Because they were self-righteous, Jesus did not associate with them. Jesus befriended those who knew of themselves as sinners.
When Jesus was teaching God's word, elders questioned with what authority he taught, whereupon Jesus answered, 󰡒The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.󰡓 (Mat 21:31) Since the tax collectors and prostitutes had nothing righteous to show, but only sins, they could easily recognize their being sinners, which made their salvation that much easier. You have to be a sinner to be saved from your hell-bound fate.
How wonderful it will be if there is a doctor who can cure all the sicknesses! If there is a doctor who can heal the so-called incurable illnesses such as cancer and AIDS, all the patients will rush to see him. They will have to. Jesus is a doctor of the spirit, who can save any sinner.
Why did the Jewish religious leaders reject Jesus, when he can save any sinner?
Born as members of the chosen, they earnestly observed the sabbath, offered tithing, piously worshipped in the temple, fasted for God, and did alms. They were admired by the people as sacred religious dignitaries. They were already assured of their own righteousness. Hence, they did not feel the need for salvation, and adamantly refused to admit that they were miserable sinners fated to eternal hell after death. This is why they oppressed Jesus.
We can see from the Bible that while the religious leaders persecuted Jesus and failed to receive salvation, grave sinners such as tax collectors and prostitutes were saved. This is ironical, and yet true.
The Bible relates that a murderer and robber crucified besides Jesus was saved (Luke 23:39 ~ 43). Cross was a means to publicly execute serious and vicious criminals in the Roman colonial period.
When Jesus was nailed to the cross, two robbers were crucified with him to his right and left. One robber derided and berated Jesus until the moment of death: 󰡒Jesus, when you claim yourself to be the Son of God, and have raised the dead and healed lepers, why are you getting killed on the cross like a dumb? If you are God's Son, jump off the cross right now, and try to save me as well.󰡓
The other robber must have committed all the horrible crimes just the same way throughout his whole life, and heard about Jesus. He saw that while people around Jesus including the robber on the other side were, finger-pointing, spitting at, and ridiculing Jesus, Jesus did not fight back or curse them. He also saw Jesus praying, 󰡒Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.󰡓 (Luke 23:34) Such experience must have convinced him that Jesus was the Son of God.
When the first robber was laughing and cursing at Jesus, the other robber rebuked him: 󰡒Don't you fear God... since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.󰡓 Then he said, 󰡒Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.󰡓 (Luke 23:40 ~ 42)
Before death one robber had faith in God and fear of God. He realized that Jesus was the savior sent by God, who was praying for sinners and able to save them all. He desired to entrust his spirit to Jesus at the closing of his life, that is, in front of the gate of the hell. This naturally produced his plead: 󰡒Jesus, please remember me when you arrive at your kingdom. Your grace can save me.󰡓
Did Jesus say, 󰡒No. You have been committing vicious crimes all your life, and you still desire an admission to the heavenly kingdom? It is too late for you󰡓? No. Jesus did not even utter a word of blame. Instead, he said, 󰡒today you will be with me in paradise.󰡓 (Luke 23:43)
We can have no doubt that the murderer and robber received salvation because Jesus does not speak lies. It is amazing that a robber with heavy sin, who neither had had time to do good deeds nor served God, directly received a promise of salvation from Jesus. Upon the death of Jesus, he ascended directly to the paradise with Jesus.
No sin is too heavy for salvation. Everyone will receive the same salvation from Jesus as the robber did. It is only human opinion what kind of sinners we are, but the power of salvation lies with God, the Creator of heaven and earth. It is important to know that the giver of salvation is not the sinners themselves but God. Redemption is entirely God's business.
Some people say, 󰡒I have such an atrocious sin that I am not free to believe in Jesus. I will start going to church after I stop doing bad things, discontinue drinking and gambling, and change my hearts.󰡓 This is like saying, 󰡒I cannot take a shower because I have too much dirt. I will wash it off with tap water first.󰡓 There is no one so seriously sinful that Jesus cannot save him.
What we must do before attaining salvation is to deeply feel the need for salvation. We simply have to feel its need sincerely and desire it. This is all we have to do, just as all that a drowning person can and must do is to say, 󰡒Help me.󰡓
When somebody is drowning, the rescuer takes whatever measures to bring him out of the water irrespective of the rescuee's wishes. God's way of salvation, however, is different.
God saves only those who cry out for help in realization of their own powerlessness, and not those who refuse to be saved. This is the difference between God and humans.
And whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life (Rev. 22:17).
Why, then, do people reject salvation? It is because they are ignorant of the fact that they have a destiny to perish before God.
Ask people around you going to the church, 󰡒Are you saved?,󰡓 or 󰡒Are you born again?,󰡓 and listen to what they have to say.
There is a verse in a hymn, 󰡒How shall I answer the question whether I am saved, when my sins are still not forgiven.󰡓 When you are asked whether you are saved, how will you answer the question? Not knowing about your own rebirth is a proof that you are not born again. This is a sure reasoning. The saved ones know that they are saved. For salvation is not something vague. The saved ones know that they will ascend to God any time their lives end.
Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son (1 John 5:10).
Salvation and rebirth appear frequently in the hymns. For instance: 󰡒I rely on Jesus my savior and received my salvation. I received comfort and eternal life all from my Jesus,󰡓 󰡒I took Jesus as my savior and was born again through the blood and Holy Spirit; then, my soul enjoys the heavenly glory while on earth.󰡓 These lines are living testimonies of saved Christians. Hymns were composed as the saved ones expressed their hearts in poems and put melodies to them. When people whose hearts are dry try to sing these hymns, they will find no connection to what they sing, for the song will not match what is in their hearts at all. Our readers also must be clear about this.
Why have you not yet attained salvation when you have been going to church for decades? I have to point out two important things. First, you have never even once deeply and seriously reflected upon the fact you are bound to hell after death. Have you ever pondered upon your destiny towards hell?
Second, you have never even once listened to the word that surely leads to salvation. You simply go to church as a habit, thinking, 󰡒To believe is simply to go to church and diligently attend to duties of faith. I will go to the heavenly kingdom if God takes me, and won't if He doesn't. But wouldn't He take me because I am working so hard?󰡓 Faith, however, is not like this.
Comparing the religious people and tax collectors and prostitutes, who are representative of sinners, I have explained that salvation requires our being sinners. I think there are two most difficult kinds of people to save: The first kind either give up, believing that they have too much sin, and therefore God will not accept them, or they are nonchalant, thinking that they can just live freely and die whether it may be heavenly kingdom or hell that is waiting for them.
Still another difficult group, however, is sincere Christians who are born and educated in Christianity and diligently attend church services and who, without being born again, believe themselves to be God's chosen. Having received baptism, and acquiring positions of deacon or elder or other high ranks, they receive praise and respect from people for their good faith. They have a tremendous obstacle against salvation because they are self-righteous. Salvation demands that we become sinners. This is the qualification for salvation.
2. The Meaning of a Sinner
Then, what does it mean to be a sinner? You will not be happy when someone asks you if you are a sinner. You will think, 󰡒I have been relatively good. I didn't commit any major sin, nor did I kill, cheat, or fornicate.󰡓 To be a sinner, however, does not refer to how much sin you have committed.
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (Psa. 51:5).
We are sinners already from inside the womb. It does not mean having a sinful mother. The Bible teaches that every one of us is a sinner already at birth. The above verse declares that I was in sin 󰡒at birth󰡓 and from the time of conception.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin...(Rom. 5:12)
Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men... (Rom. 5:18)
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners... (Rom. 5:19)
The 󰡒one man󰡓 refers to Adam. God has installed the first ancestor Adam as the representative of the mankind. We can say that Adam contained the seed of the entire mankind. The word 󰡒Adam󰡓 means human being. The disobedience of the one person Adam has severed the eternal relationship between God and us and degraded us as sinners. The law of God, which determines life and death, has been breached, and in Adam we have been demoted as sinners before God.
Adam betrayed God's love by accepting Satan's lie rather than God's truth. Because of one man's disobedience, all the people born through Adam have become sinners even before birth regardless of their intentions or actions. Adam became a sinner by committing sin, and his descendants simply because they hail from Adam. One man Adam's deed has determined the fate of the entire mankind.
Through Adam's iniquities, the entire mankind in Adam have transgressed, through Adam's expulsion from God, the entire mankind have become expelled, and through Adam's curse, the entire mankind have come under doom. Therefore, to be a sinner means to be a descendant of Adam or seed of sin.
As the family name of my ancestors determine my family name, spiritually we have Sin as our family name. The descendants of Adam are Mr. or Mrs. Sin because of him. This has endowed us with inclination for sin.
Hence, the word sinner represents our spiritual status and means that we are descendants of the fallen Adam and a bad tree.
We yield bad fruits because we have been abased into bad trees and commit sin because we are descendants of the fallen Adam, that is, sinners.
Children, especially new borns, all look like angels having nothing to do with sin. Some people say that we are born innocent and become sinful as we see, hear, and learn about evil things while growing up. This is promulgated in the Mencius' theory of good human nature. In short, they say that children are born innocent, and yet become corrupted by the environment.
Then, how about bringing infants to no man's island immediately after their birth and raising them there? Will they become saints because they will be free from evil influences? They must, if the theory is correct. They, however, will go in the opposite direction and become like beasts.
Even tigers and lions are calm after birth. Baby tigers and lions will play joyfully with puppies. A tiger called Ho Soon at the Kwang Ju Park had three babies, out of whom one had to suck a dog's breast because Ho Soon did not have enough milk.
A picture of the baby tiger sucking a dog's breasts appeared on newspapers. So baby tigers will suck dog's milk and play with puppies. Will a tiger, however, keep calm and mingle comfortably with dogs throughout its growth? Youngs do not show the nature of ferocious beast; after a short while, however, the tiger will devour the dogs.
Likewise, when little, human beings may seem innocent, and yet they contain within themselves inclination for sin, which will drive them into sin throughout their lives. They are filled with the propensities to all kinds of sin such as greed, jealousy, lasciviousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, etc. They just do not show at early ages; however, sin will raise its ugly head little by little over the process of growth.
3. We Are Essentially Children of Wrath
Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies (Psa. 58:3).
It is the same with the wicked as with sinners. The wicked have left God far away already at the womb. They prefer going sideways to straight, evil to goodness, what is dirty to what is clean, and speaking vicious words to kind words. From birth, they take a stray route instead of the main path. As a crab, which walks sideways, still scolds its young for going sideways, we are born to go astray.
Indeed, we loathe doing good things when we know of their goodness, while indulging into evil things when we know of their evil. This is because we are in the grips of inclinations for sin.
Children's sins grow together with them. When they start having teeth, what do they do with them first? If milk does not come out smoothly from mother's breasts, they bite the nipples. Augustine is known to have repented even for the sin of biting his mother's nipples. As they become able to take their own food, they try to eat everything and even take from others. Although they have not been taught greed, they try to grab everything.
Furthermore, when they start recognizing their aunts and uncles, they try to detect their moods. They start seeing who likes and who dislikes them, and having jealousy. They have never learned how to be jealous, and yet these feelings naturally erupt in their hearts.
They start telling lies as they become able to speak. You can see this when you raise children. You try hard to raise them good and clean in vain. How shrewd they are in telling lies! They have never been taught how to tell lies; they flow out from within.
As they receive formal education, their misdemeanor becomes sophisticated. Higher education produces smart criminals, and overseas studies and modern disciplines help them perform high-level crimes, although those who have grown up under educated parents and learned ethics, religion, etc. might control themselves better and know how to maintain dignity.
They know that committing sin undermines their own reputation and character, and have learned and know well about punishments, which helps them discipline themselves better than less educated people. They manage and suppress their feelings fairly well, although some unruly inclinations may crack out through the barrier of repression.
On the other hand, in some people born in adverse circumstances with no opportunity for proper education, their sin runs a full course. Uneducated souls succumb to the irresistible temptation of sin into committing heinous crimes.
Then, what is the difference between the uneducated people committing outrageous crimes and well-educated people? Their insides are the same, and just their external appearances differ. For instance, when we paint windows red, yellow, and blue, their differences will be seen from outside, and yet they only have one light from inside. Sin appears differently in different people, and yet these appearances have the same inner root.
What does God see? Before the appearances, He sees our hearts first. Whether we manage or fail to suppress the sin inside us, God does not consider us clean because He sees our inner core.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).
All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD (Pro. 16:2).
Proverbs 26:24, 25 says, 󰡒A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart.󰡓 As in this verse, people have seven abominations although they embellish their speeches and make them plausible. Some have described the seven abominations in terms of seven animals, that is, a peacock, goat, swine, snake, leopard, frog, and turtle.
A heart like peacock refers to arrogance, boasting, and pride; a heart like goat stubbornness and lasciviousness; a heart like swine greed and fondness for filth; a heart like snake wickedness and cunning, and lies as a snake has forked tongues and says two different things with one mouth; a heart like leopard impulse for murder; a heart like frog propensity for back talk, slander, and contempt; and a turtle opportunism.
We all have such tendencies and inclinations. Those who control these vices well are called people of character, and yet their core is the same as any other. There is no difference between a prostitute and a nun except that the former has her sin exposed, while the latter has her sin covered with religious veil. Since God sees our hearts, no one can appear before Him clean.
4. The Heart of Corruption
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 󰡒I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.󰡓 (Jer. 17:9).
Human heart is much more deceitful and depraved than all things. As in the verse, 󰡒who can know it,󰡓 we do not know even ourselves how dirty our hearts are. Hearing this, some people may opine thus: 󰡒People are said to be bad, but I am not so bad myself. Those who cheat, steal, fornicate, or murder must be hopeless scoundrels, but I am not so because I don't do those things.󰡓 Those who think light of their own sinfulness, however, may commit even worse crimes when the right circumstances arise.
Murders are not pre-determined. Everyone has an inclination to kill. Whether out of revenge, anger, survival need, or self-defense, we have the capacity to do anything according to the situation. If there is a laser gun that can hit a target in the eye hundreds of meters away without leaving any trace or evidence, and furthermore if killers are not punished by law, not so many people will be able to stay alive.
A few years ago there was a murder case in Pusan where a woman was chopped into pieces. The offender of the crime was put in the Taegu Prison. A believer happened to cause a traffic accident and share the prison cell with the offender. You must suppose that such an offender has a sinister and terrifying look, and yet he looked gentle, making it impossible to imagine him as being able to commit such a heinous homicide, according to the believer. This shows that anybody can murder, fornicate, or steal; when we have the proclivities, we will manifest them when the right circumstances arise.
The other day, I was riding a crowded local train, and saw paddlers moving up and down the aisle. Sitting near me was a seemingly respectable woman, in a graceful Korean dress and even white bosons (Korean socks) and calmly looking down. A paddler, however, stepped on her foot by mistake, leaving a big black imprint on her white boson, whereupon she went ballistic and cursed at him, saying, 󰡒You bastard, where are your eyes?󰡓 My heart almost stopped to witness such a ferocious outburst of anger from a woman who had seemed to be so tender and noble. It was her inner core that exploded upon being touched.
󰡒I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind.󰡓 Since God searches the heart, examines the mind, and weighs our motives (Pro. 16:2), who can dare to claim himself clean before God?
God knows that our hearts are steeped in wickedness: 󰡒This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.󰡓 (Eccl. 9:3) Since God knows it all, He rewards 󰡒a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.󰡓
Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one (Job 14:4)!
What is clean cannot come out of what is unclean. What is clean comes out of what is clean. As it says, 󰡒Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?󰡓 (Mat. 7:16) a bad tree cannot produce good fruits. When our hearts are so seriously vile, and we are born sinners worse than all things, how can anything good come from us?
Jesus said to Israelites, 󰡒You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks,󰡓 (Mat. 12:34) and 󰡒But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.󰡓 (Mat. 15:18, 19) When we fail to suppress the evil filling our hearts, it generates fruits of sin. That is, what is in our hearts are expressed in our actions. Proverbs lists the tools of sin as follows:
There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers (Pro. 6:16 ~ 19).
As in this verse, how many evil deeds we perform through our hearts, eyes, mouths, hands, and feet! After realizing the depth of his sin, a writer in Psalter says, 󰡒For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.󰡓 (Psa. 40:12)
5. Human Life is Abominable and Filthy
What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman, that he could be righteous? If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water! (Job 15:14 ~ 16)
Let us compare the blue sky and the human heart filled with sin. If the sky is not clean in God's eyes, how much less will we be able to claim ourselves clean before God, as we are detestable and corrupt and drink 󰡒iniquity like water󰡓?
All the religions of the world teach good deeds. They teach that accumulating good conducts will earn us blessing and bring us to the paradise. The Bible, however, does not teach good deeds, although, of course, it does not teach evil deeds, either.
Then, what does the Bible speak about? While not telling us not to do good acts, it affirms that we do not have the power to practice goodness in the true sense. It proclaims that we are unable to be good in the true sense because nothing good can spring from the fallen and corrupt hearts we are born with.
We can be compared to a bad tree. You will never tell a bad tree to bear good fruits. Rather than teaching good deeds first, the Bible declares that judged from God's standard we are unable to practice goodness.
Some people may object and say, 󰡒people don't just commit sin; they sometimes perform good actions.󰡓 A human action may look good in human sight, but the problem is that this is only from human viewpoint and not God's. When we put together the Chinese characters in (), which means human being, and wee (), which means action, we get a word wee (), which means falsity. This means that human actions of goodness are false goodness. It is a kind of goodness and yet mixed with sin. We cannot stand before God in this condition. Then what can we do?
We must first receive salvation. We must receive salvation amid our sin and be grafted unto God's life. Instead of investing our efforts into bad trees to harvest good fruits, fertilizing and watering them, we should graft them unto a good tree. Then, they will yield good fruits. When we become saved and born again, we become forgiven before God and grafted unto God's life.
6. Transformation Through God's Life and Power
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2Cor. 5:17)
To be in Christ means that I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. When we are thus united with the Christ, that is, when the life of Christ comes to us, he creates us as new persons. Hence, the above passage says, 󰡒he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!󰡓 We must become new persons in order to be able to live a new life. We must receive God's life in order to be able to truly obey God's word. There are many who try to 󰡒live a Christian life󰡓 before they become one, and many who try to observe God's word before they receive God's life. They, however, will end up being hypocrites.
We must receive God's life in order to be able to keep God's word. When you are inundated with sinful desires, just because you make efforts on your own power, suppressing these desires and promising yourself only to do good deeds, it does not mean that you live a Christian life. When God's life enters you, however, God establishes you as a new person, whereupon you move farther and farther away from sin, and a desire to obey God's word effortlessly springs forth in you. Then, you have the power to obey God's word.
It is natural that a good tree bears good fruits. Does a good tree make some special efforts to bring good fruits, shaking its branches to and fro, for instance? No, it simply and naturally bears good fruits. Likewise, when we receive God's life, we become naturally empowered with an ardent desire to obey God's word. Some readers may have difficulty understanding this, but this is true. Of course, I am not saying that when we become saved, we immediately turn around and becomes holy like angels; however, once we are saved, and God's life starts in us, we will move gradually towards holiness. A good tree also needs time to grow before bearing good fruits.
To say that faith grows after salvation means that our hearts start to change from that time on. God's life transforms our hearts and thoughts. It changes our characters, and this manifests itself in our actions. This is a life of faith.
Some people go to church for decades, and there pray and promise themselves to live by God's word, and yet outside the church they commit sins, tell lies, become greedy, and perform other evil deeds. Back in the church, they repent, make another determination to live by God's word, and struggle not to repeat sinful conducts, but again outside the church they commit another sin. They do evil things outside the church, and sing holy hymns inside the church. Their religious life is tragically caught in this vicious circle. If such a life continues, it will destroy their conscience, not to mention bringing no true transformation of life. What is the reason for such dilemma?
Is it because they do not pray enough, have weak will, or have not made enough donations? Or is it because they still have not gone to the church long enough? Even going to church for the entire life will not solve the problem, however, as long as the power of God is missing in them, which brings about a true transformation of the heart and life. Only those who have become a new creation in Jesus can enter 󰡒a new heaven and a new earth󰡓 (Rev. 21:1). God saves those human beings who only deserve to go to hell and infuses them with life and new power. God desires that they keep God's word in the life newly gained. For no will, efforts, determination, or training on our part will make possible the life of faith wherein we abide by God's word but a rebirth and receiving of a new life.
7. Human Righteousness Is Not Acceptable to God
If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men (Job 35:7, 8).
Although we may be righteous, what can we offer God, and what can God gain from us? Although we may perform a good action from our standard, will God accept it, when we are born amid sin with a heart filthier than all things and drink iniquities like water?
If a child gives a cake to his mother right after fumbling with clay, would the mother be delighted? No, she would rather say, 󰡒Thank you, but it is too dirty to eat. Why don't you give it to a dog?󰡓 A dog would of course welcome it, and even follow the child around for more, but the mother cannot. To say, 󰡒your righteousness only the sons of men󰡓 means that our goodness will look respectable only in the sight of sinners like us and not in God's sight.
It is a serious error to think that we can please God when we simply make earnest efforts of goodness. What will God receive from fallen sinners, whatever they do? People worry about making donations when they go to church. The Bible says, however, that donation, tithing, etc. are to be done after the salvation. What qualification do we have to offer anything to God, when we are destined to hell in case we die tonight, and what will God receive from such sinners?
To Simon, who thought that he could buy God's gift with money, Peter said, 󰡒May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.󰡓 (Acts 8:20, 21) One may boast of his huge wealth, and yet the redemption of human life is too precious to buy, that is, no material can redeem a human spirit (Psa. 49:6 ~ 8). As God says, 󰡒Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me,󰡓 (Job 41:11) there is none who can give God without first receiving from Him. When we receive the gift of salvation from God, out of gratitude we act and make offerings to God, and this God receives.
Salvation transforms sinners fated to hell into children of God, and imbues them with hope of the heavenly kingdom. To think of the immense grace we have received from God, we cannot repay him even by dying a hundred times. It is after our salvation, out of the overflowing joy and gratitude and with voluntary heart, that we make donations and live for the Christ. What would be the problem with making material donations for the sake of the gospel, when we can even live and die for the Christ?
Before paying tuition to Seoul National University (the most prestigious university in Korea), you have to be its student first. It is the same with faith. We must be born again with God's life before we become qualified and able to do everything for God's glory and through God's power.
It is the same with prayer. There are people who pray all night without even being born again; such prayer will not even go beyond the church ceiling. There is only one prayer we must make before attaining rebirth: 󰡒Please save me. Please help me realize the truth.󰡓 No other prayers have any meaning at this point.
Does a drowning person say, 󰡒Please employ me,󰡓 󰡒Give me some lunch money,󰡓 or 󰡒Buy me a cold medicine󰡓? He must shout, 󰡒Help me, help me,󰡓 so he can be pulled out of the water. Likewise, the sinners doomed to hell must first scream for rescue and then become actually delivered. As in the verse, 󰡒Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well,󰡓 (3 John 1:2) the first issue is the spirit, and the issue of prosperity and health comes next. People, however, lead a blind religious life while neglecting the destiny of their spirits.
Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands (Isa. 59:6).
󰡒Their cobwebs are useless for clothing...󰡓 As mentioned in the preceding verse, the 󰡒cobwebs󰡓 are made of spider's thread (Isa. 59:5), and also symbolizes the actions people perform in order to cover their iniquities. Just as we cannot weave proper clothes out of spider's thread, so never can we cover the shame of our conscience with our good deeds and zeal.
For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities (Isa. 59:12).
󰡒For our offenses are many in your sight...󰡓 How much sin we must commit during our life! We normally forget them, but if we can remember all our sin, which is more than our hairs (Psa. 40:12), we will not be able to bear the agony. Since 󰡒our sins testify against us,󰡓 the sin separates us far away from God.
Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isa. 59:1, 2).
It is not that God's hands are too short to reach us, nor are His ears too dull to hear us. Since sin is separating us far away from God, we are God's enemies, and God will not hear us whatever we ask until we become cleansed of our sin.
8. Human Righteousness Is like a Soiled Garment
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away (Isa. 64:6).
This verse affirms that we are all unclean people or sinners.
󰡒All our righteous acts are like filthy rags...󰡓 We know that sin is filthy, but not that even human righteousness is dirty before God. The Bible affirms that human righteousness is just as dirty as sin in God's sight. Human acts of goodness and righteousness are filthy rags in God's eyes. We cannot cover our shame with filth rags.
Within us there is fallen heart, shame of conscience, guilt, etc, and we think that doing good actions will free us from them. This is useless, however, because it is like a dirty person's trying to cover his dirt with a stinking rag. Our righteousness is like a soiled garment and thus cannot be used to cover us before God.
󰡒We all shrivel up like a leaf...󰡓 Genesis 3 narrates that Adam and Eve after eating the fruit in disobedience of God's word discovered the shame of their nakedness and made skirts out of fig leaves.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Gen. 3:7).
Although there were only two individuals, Adam and Eve made clothes for themselves. The first clothes human being made were manufactured neither for covering human nakedness against animals nor for protecting against cold. They made their clothes in order to cover their shame.
When the day was cool, God called Adam and Eve, and they hid themselves from God in the trees of the garden. When God asked their whereabouts, Adam answered, 󰡒I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.󰡓 (Gen. 3:8 ~ 10)
At that time, however, Adam and Eve were wearing fig-leaf clothes; then why did he say that he was naked? What does this signify?
It was in the day that they ate the fruit and made the fig-leaf skirts. During the course of the day, however, the sun dried up the leaves, and their movements shook and stretched the clumsy skirts and ruined them, making them almost naked. All our good acts and hard endeavors are like trying to cover our shame with a fig-leaf skirt. The fact that the fig-leaf skirt failed to serve as a proper clothes means that none of our ethical and religious strivings and acts of righteousness is enough to cover the shame of our sin.
󰡒We all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.󰡓 Because we are unable to cover our sin with our good deeds and earnest endeavors, our iniquities drives us to hell like the wind. No one can escape from this destiny.
9. We Are Thoroughly Fallen
What shall we conclude then? Are we any better ? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin (Rom. 3:9).
Jews are the people chosen by God, the Israelites. The Bible declares that both Jews and Gentiles are alike in being under sin. This is a public declaration of their being sinners.
As it is written: 󰡒There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.󰡓 (Rom. 3:10 ~ 12)
When God looks upon the world, there is none righteous, and all are sinners. As it says, 󰡒For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God,󰡓 (Rom. 3:23) we are born sinners and have actually committed sin. A righteous person means someone who not only practices goodness but also stays away from committing evil. We, however, are sometimes good and sometimes evil, sometimes love and sometimes hate, and sometimes help and sometimes hurt others. We cannot call somebody righteous who practices good and evil together. A mixture of good and evil is evil, and thus the one who behaves sometimes good and sometimes evil is a sinner. This is why it says, 󰡒There is no one righteous, not even one.󰡓 This is why the writer of the Ecclesiastics declares, 󰡒There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.󰡓 (Eccl. 7:20)
󰡒There is no one that does good, not even one.󰡓 This says that there is no one who does good to the extent of reaching complete goodness in God's sight or meeting God's standard of goodness. Human goodness is a false goodness. The falsity and pretense lies in making up good actions from a heart that is turned away from goodness. This is what God hates the most.
Jesus did not tell the tax collectors and prostitutes, saying, 󰡒Woe unto you, tax collectors and prostitutes,󰡓 but berated religious leaders, saying, 󰡒Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!󰡓 (Mat. 23:25)
Hypocrites are those who pretend to be good and put up good appearances. Although they show facade of piety and righteousness, their inner core has a glut of arrogance, greed, false goodness, lasciviousness, and lies. One is a hypocrite when his heart teems with all sorts of foul things although outwardly he seems to be God-serving, righteous, and pious. His heart is like a 󰡒whitewashed tomb󰡓, whose outside is clean and white but inside is full of rotten corpses and foul odor. 󰡒You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.󰡓 No matter how clean a cup may be, if the content is dirty, nobody will want to drink it. Likewise, God cannot take hypocrisy.
󰡒Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.󰡓 Our spirit must be washed first before our hearts and lives become clean. Hence, when we are dirty, we should admit our being dirty, and present ourselves to God as we truly are. When we have sin, we should appear before God exactly as sinners. Then, the Christ will remove our sin, cure our fallen and wicked heart, and make us holy.
When Jesus was on earth, he raised the dead and healed lepers. Likewise, Jesus has the power to save our dead souls and purify and transform our fallen hearts. Gamblers, swindlers, gangs, playboys, and all other people drowning in iniquities will become new human beings once they become awakened in the gospel. As in the verse 󰡒the old has gone, the new has come!󰡓 I have witnessed Jesus' guidance of the saved towards new life. Jesus establishes the redeemed as holy children of God, holy people, and new human beings, thereby leading them to the heavenly kingdom. 󰡒And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.󰡓 (1 Cor. 6:11)
Since God can solve any problem of sin, we should never hide our sin, and candidly acknowledge it. It is in order to correct us that the Bible exposes our sin as it is. Furthermore, it is to clothe us with God's righteousness that Jesus strips us, to build us as true souls that he demolishes us, and to plant us in eternal blessing that he uproots us. Therefore, each of us must first acknowledge before God that we are wretched sinners.
Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes (Rom 3:13 ~ 18).
In making graves, the Israelites dug caves in the rocks, and kept dead bodies of their ancestors there, closing the cave entrance with a rock. When open, the rotting smell of corpses would leak out from the cave. Hence, the expression, 󰡒their throats are open graves󰡓 means that whenever they open their mouth, obscenities, slanders, and other abominable speeches come out like foul odor.
People tend to enjoy damaging stories, shameful tales, and scandals more than edifying words and virtuous stories. Whenever open, their mouths throw out pungent smell like open graves. 󰡒Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips...󰡓 The poison coming out of human mouth can be more deadly than that from vipers.
Some famous man said on the TV that when we are enraged, cursing and shouting, our mouths become filled with poison. The bubbles coming out a furious mouth can even kill a cow when injected, said he. This is how scary human poison is.
A while ago I heard a story about a happening in the countryside. There was a severe drought, so severe that the crop field cracked up like turtle's back. In such times, people would get into fights trying to bring even ditch waters to their own fields as much as possible. People would not even recognize their own brothers or close neighbors. When someone turned a water channel towards his field, next morning he would find the channel diverted to another's field.
Hence, a fight broke out between the owners of two adjacent fields. One owner shouted, 󰡒You bastard, I will sickle you down.󰡓 It was just a verbal onslaught, and yet the other owner fell dead. This is quite a strange tale, but a real story. People can shoot invisible poison. Someone can even throw down an animal with a yell, which delivers an invisible impact. The bloodthirstiness of one farm owner struck the other with a fatal poison.
󰡒Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.󰡓 People kill and are killed by others even when their survival is not at stake. People are fonder of taking life than giving it. 󰡒Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know...󰡓 On the road of ruin and misery, they choose self-destruction. They run along the road of destruction without being aware of the road of peace God prepared for them.
Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace (Isa. 59:7, 8).
󰡒There is no fear of God before their eyes.󰡓 They boldly challenge God, saying, 󰡒Where is God?󰡓 In the movie, The Bible...In the beginning, we see a scene where during the building of the Tower of Babel, a person called Nimrod shoot arrows into the sky, shouting that he would kill God. This is a human challenge against God. We commit sin audaciously without fearing God.
We are born as sinners. In fact, the entire life of a sinner is a sin. We are not sinners because we commit sin; rather, we commit sin because we are sinners. Just as a bad tree yields faulty fruits because it is a bad tree, so we commit sin because we are sinners. After such wicked life, we pass on to the other world some day.
10. God's Judgement Comes After Death
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment... (Heb. 9:27)
That is right. Death is not the end of everything, for there is a judgement. 󰡒The dust (body) returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.󰡓 (Eccl. 12:7) We are to stand before God for judgement.
For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: 󰡒'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'󰡓 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God (Rom. 14:10 ~ 12).
When we stand before God's judgment seat, every knee will bow down, and every tongue confess to God. There, we do not need prosecutors because we will be directly confessing our own transgressions to God.
At that time, we cannot say, 󰡒I have not done such things then,󰡓 for how can we make such denials when our entire life will be clearly shown like a movie? Through this we will even be able to see things we have forgotten entirely and the state of heart we considered sinful. We will have a panoramic view of what the secret camera of life has filmed all throughout our life. God has installed the conscience in us, a device that is more sophisticated than any machinery.
As Romans 2:15 says, 󰡒their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them,󰡓 our wrongdoings are filmed in our conscience. You know that when a tape recorder is recording, a red light flickers. The light flickers according to the strength of the voice being recorded, signifying that the recording is in process. We can also videotape visual images.
Our trespasses are recorded in our conscience in toto. This is not a metaphor but an actual fact. Proverb says, 󰡒The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being.󰡓 (Prov. 20:27) (The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. - KJV) The conscience belongs to the spirit. The conscience is different from the heart. Heart, thought, mind, etc. belong to the soul, while the conscience is in the domain of the spirit. People have different hearts, and yet the same conscience.
The conscience in the spirit is looking into our inner being as a lamp of God. Just as a radar detects an enemy plane, so the conscience vibrates when a wickedness surfaces. Sin shatters the peace of the conscience, and provokes blame. I have read a book that relates that an atheist was converted into a theist while studying the conscience. He discovered that people become agonized and afraid after committing sin although there may be no one accusing them, from which he concluded, 󰡒The conscience is God's supreme command. To experience it is to see the divine presence.󰡓
On a summer night with full Moon, a father and a son went up the mountain to see the Moon and saw watermelons by the trail. Father wanted to eat one, and told his son, 󰡒Son, keep watch. I will go and get a watermelon.󰡓 When the son said it was others', the father said, 󰡒It's OK to eat just one. Just keep watch for me.󰡓 When the father was approaching a watermelon, the son screamed, 󰡒Father, someone is watching.󰡓 When the father asked in dismay, 󰡒Who?󰡓 the son said, 󰡒God is. It is as though the Moon were saying, 'you thieves.' So I am terrified.󰡓
Next, a newspaper article. A young man, having starved for two days, snatched a woman's handbag and took money from it. As soon as he took care of his hunger with the money, however, he turned himself in at a police station. He did the snatching out of hunger, and yet started feeling guilty when his stomach became full. The conscience fears God even when we are not aware of it.
󰡒They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.󰡓 Law points out sin, and the conscience is the law inscribed in the heart.
󰡒This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ...󰡓 (Rom. 2:16) When we stand before God's judgment seat, we will confess with our own mouth all our sins recorded in the conscience. It will be like playing a tape recorder to hear the testimony of a witness.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb. 4:13).
These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face (Psa. 50:21).
This verse means that it is a mistake to think that God turns blind eyes to our sin like some of our fellow human beings just because He keeps silent about it. God says that He will rebuke and accuse us at the time of judgement. All our iniquities will be revealed to God and holy angels, even including those known to me alone, those known only to two, and those committed long time past.
If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand (Psa. 130:30)?
Will we be able to bear the judgment? We will scream, 󰡒Please let this end.󰡓 Unable to head for the heavenly kingdom even when we are allowed to, we will just walk into hell on our own.
In this world, justice is not always served at judicial courts. Therefore, some with severe crimes are able to avoid punishments, while some with minor offences receive heavy sentences. Corruption exists even in places where public justice is implemented. 󰡒And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment - wickedness was there, in the place of justice - wickedness was there.󰡓 (Eccl. 3:16) The world is full of contradiction and injustice.
The Bible says, however, 󰡒God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.󰡓 (Eccl. 3:17) Before God's judgment seat, there is no injustice like what we see in the world. Earlier, we had a Bible verse saying that there is none righteous. Then who is 󰡒the righteous󰡓 mentioned in the above verse? The spiritual status of the reborn is the righteous. Instead of the judgment that sends one to hell, the reborn will be judged as to how they have lived from the day of their rebirth onward. For people live different lives although they receive the same salvation.
Salvation will invariably bring us to the heavenly kingdom, and yet we will receive different rewards from God. Reward refers to glory. Among the attendants of a king, for instance, some serve him closely, and some at a distance, and some share the king's glory together, while some only live on the fringes of the glory. Likewise, we will receive different degrees of glory when we go near God. The Bible explains this in detail. Therefore, after attaining salvation, the saved should live correctly for the sake of God's glory instead of lying content with their salvation. For they will be judged with regard to their earthly lives.
The wicked, that is, those not reborn, will all be judged and proceed to hell. Those whose entire life has been sinful, on the one hand, and those who have gone to church and tried to live a good life for the whole life and yet have not been saved, on the other, will all be sent to hell alike. In hell, although all the spirits live eternally in the pond of fire and sulfur and under great pain together with the devil, different spirits will have different degrees of pain. This is natural because in hell the amount of torment is determined by the seriousness of the sin committed. Hence, if you are not going to be saved, you should at least try to keep your sin to minimum.
Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment (Eccl. 11:9).
I am sure many of our readers are young. Everybody has youth in their lives, and even after they become old, their hearts are still young. For even grandmothers approaching death like to dance and sing, 󰡒Let's be merry and have fun, for you can't once you are old.󰡓 At any rate, enjoy your life if you will, and do whatever you please.
But what can a person do when he lives as he wishes? What is being enjoyed when we talk about enjoying the world? In a close look, everything is sinful pleasure. If your life follows your passion, which is more perverted than that of animals, what will you do other than sinful deeds? The said joy is none other than the thrill and pleasure of committing sin.
People think that money brings happiness. But what do they use the money for? Mostly for committing sin. They sin while earning money, and again while using it. In short, the earthly life is nothing more than suffering and sinning. They never stop committing sin with eyes of lust and greed.
God leaves them alone, whether they go straight or sideways, disobey their parents, fornicate, murder, steal, or commit suicide. God does not try to stop them.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts... Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Rom. 1:26, 28 ~ 32).
People are bold in practicing evil because God does not intervene. They, however, will have no way of escaping the judgment thereupon once they stand before God's judgment seat. They are free when practicing wickedness, and yet bound when being judged.
11. Sin Surely Reveals Itself
You may be sure that your sin will find you out (Num. 32:23).
Some offenders think that they have committed a perfect crime. Someone committed a homicide, buried the victim in his courtyard, and planted a tree on top of it. Who could have found it out? Such stories often decorate newspaper pages. After such a secretive concealment of the criminal act, it was strangely discovered, and the offender had to perform a site reproduction of the crime.
There is another story. Someone murdered a young woman, carried her in a car trunk, and buried her in the deep mountain. No one else knew about this. Strangely, however, after a few years this was discovered.
There are many 󰡒perfect crimes󰡓 that are later exposed under broad daylight. True, some of them may go concealed permanently. Will they, however, stay hidden even from God? 󰡒Your sin will find you out.󰡓 Every sin surely reveals itself.
The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden. (1 Tim. 5:24, 25)
I heard another horrible story. A poor woman was married to a rich man. These days, the husbands' families often complain about insufficient bridal contribution, and this must have been the case also for the couple in the story. The husband family's repeated maltreatment and contempt planted grudges in the wife. Her heart turned vicious as she thought that such a treatment was due to her poor family background.
One day, when her husband returned from a business trip, she prepared a sumptuous meal as if to give him a special treatment. In fact, the food had sleeping drug, and the husband fell into a deep sleep after the meal. Then she closed the gate tight, drew the curtain, and took out a large nail and hammer. She brushed aside his hair, and banged the nail into his vertex. The husband died silently, as he took the nail while in a deep sleep. Not even a drop of blood came out. When she covered the nail with his hair, there was not even a mark.
The house fell into a big commotion at the notice of the sudden death, with the wife wailing in a loud voice. Asked what had happened, she made up a story, 󰡒I don't know. He came back from the trip, had a nice meal, and died during sleep.󰡓 Then the people thought that he had a sudden death and consoled her. They had a funeral and made a large grave for the deceased.
The wife sold his inheritance, went to a remote and unknown place, married a man of her choice, and lived happily together. As if nothing had happened, she was living in peace and comfort with nice family and children.
After a while, however, there started a city planning and development project around the area of the graveyard. The city office sent notices to families concerned to move the graves in the area. One grave, however, was left untouched, and office employees dug into the grave in order to move the corpse, whereupon they discovered a skeleton with a nail in the skull. Out of suspicion, they checked his identification, and found out that he had been a man of great wealth in the town and died a sudden death without a clear cause.
Later on, a detective came to knock on the wife's door amid her happy family life. She came out with two children. The detective asked for her in her name, but she, having already changed names, said in a composed manner that such a person was not there. Then the detective took out a large nail, black with rust, asking, 󰡒Do you recognize this?󰡓 whereupon she fainted with a sharp shriek. She had to be arrested in handcuffs.
Why did she swoon at the sight of the nail? The nail was not only in the husband's skull, but also in her conscience. Although she never told anyone about this, the nail could never be removed. 󰡒You may be sure that your sin will find you out.󰡓 That is right. Sin will surely seek out the sinner. When sin is exposed before God, who will be able to escape the judgement?
His eyes are on the ways of men; he sees their every step. There is no dark place, no deep shadow, where evildoers can hide (Job 34:21, 22).
12. The Eternal Hell Is Entered after the Judgement
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11 ~ 15).
The 󰡒great white throne󰡓 refers to God's judgment seat. As it says that God sat on the throne, and 󰡒Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them,󰡓 the place in question here is not this world but the domain of God. 󰡒I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne...󰡓 Regardless of their statures, the dead are all standing before God. We should understand that the dead are revived to stand before God. 󰡒[Before the throne,] books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life... If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.󰡓 (Rev. 20:12 ~ 15)
It says that the books were opened. This is the same as earthly criminal courts have lawsuit documents and books such as criminal records and criminal laws prescribing the crimes and punishments. There, sentences are made according to the criminal acts and pursuant to the laws. Similarly, at the judgment seat there will be records of sin for each one of us and the law as the basis of the sentence. This law is the word. Therefore, Jesus said, 󰡒There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.󰡓 (John 12:48)
The word judges, that is, the law judges. The Bible contains both the words of salvation and of judgment. Everyone will have to be either saved or condemned as recorded in the Scripture.
󰡒The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.󰡓 As it said earlier, 󰡒But know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment,󰡓 (Eccl. 11:9) our verse now says, 󰡒Each person was judged according to what he had done󰡓 and 󰡒were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.󰡓
Physical death is called the first death. But this is not what is fearsome. How trouble-free it will be if this were the end of everything? The reason why Jesus said of Judas Iscariot, 󰡒It would be better for him if he had not been born󰡓 (Mat. 26:24) is that if not born, he would not have had to go to hell. The first death is bodily death, and the second death means combining the revived body and the spirit, judging them together, and sending them to hell. 󰡒Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.󰡓 (Mat. 10:28)
󰡒If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.󰡓 No one who is not born again will have his name in the book of life when he stands before the judgment seat. Some think that having their names on the baptism list is identical with having them in the book of life, but this is nothing but a misunderstanding. The Bible only says that those whose names are not found in the book of life will be hurled into the lake of fire.
The so-called 󰡒Jehovah's Witness󰡓 and 󰡒Seventh-Day Adventists󰡓 claim that there is no hell. Their argument is that God of love could never have created hell. The Bible, however, clearly states that hell exists. Moreover, it is Jesus that spoke most about hell. He says that hell is a place 󰡒where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. Everyone will be salted with fire.󰡓 (Mark 9:48, 49)
You might have seen that when a mudfish is put in a basin and becomes sprayed with salt, it wiggles to and fro in pain, turns red, and dies. The Bible is saying that the condemned must receive a similar torture for the rest of eternity. The Bible mentions 󰡒hell, where the fire never goes out,󰡓 (Mark 9:43) and 󰡒fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.󰡓 (Mat. 13:42) It also says that they will be tortured day and night for eternity.
The Bible has more to say about hell than about heavenly kingdom. We talk about God of love, and hell, which is a place of eternal torment, does not seem to square with the love of God. The reason why hell is mentioned more frequently is simple, however: everyone ends up in hell unless they are saved, and thus the warning to flee from hell precedes any explanation for the heavenly kingdom.
It is true that God is love, and no sinner is unforgivable for God. Towards those who betray God's love until the end, however, His love turns into wrath. For these people there is only ruthless and acute retribution of hell. There is no more forgiveness.
Hell is a place where there is not even a thread of love. Originally, God created hell in order to punish the fallen devil and angels. Jesus called hell 󰡒eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.󰡓 (Mat. 25:41) The hell is a place of the fiery lake with burning sulfur.
Many people say that hell is not real to them because they have not experienced it. Some people think light of God's warning, saying, 󰡒Am I the only one going to hell? Many others are coming with me.󰡓 Some even joke about it, saying, 󰡒It will be nice and warm there.󰡓 But we are not totally without means to test the severity of the affliction and intensity of the heat in hell. For instance, put your finger to a burning coal or flames of a gas range for a minute, and it will give you a slight taste of hell.
Do you know how dreadful hell is? The gospel of Luke conveys Jesus' remark about hell. According to him, a rich man died and went down to the Hades, where he begged, 󰡒Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.󰡓 (Luke 16:24) How tormented he must have been in the fire that he begged to be cooled in the tongue with a finger? What is said in Luke 16 is not a metaphor but a real fact.
13. The People Condemned to Hell
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death (Rev. 21:8).
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone...(KJV)
sIn this verse, the Bible tells us what kind of people will go to the hell, a place of fiery lake of burning sulfur. The first on the list is the cowardly (fearful). What are they cowardly about? They are afraid of God. It may sound strange, but those who do not believe in God do not fear God, either. Those who do believe and go to church and yet are not born again, however, fear God.
When people go to church for a while, learning the Bible and hearing about God, most of them believe that God is alive. It is because as Romans 1:19 says, 󰡒What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them,󰡓 we have a mind to come to know God.
What is the fundamental difference between human beings and animals? It is that humans have the spirit.
Monkeys look and act similar to humans. The other day, I saw on TV a monkey getting dressed, sleeping in the bed, smoking a cigarette in the morning, and watching TV. It used a flush toilet, and went to work in outdoor garments. Working as a bartender, it served cocktails on the rock and lighted customers' cigarettes. It acted exactly like human beings. Moreover, there is a band composed of monkeys. I saw them blow trumpets and play drums in the picture. Some monkeys can drive a car, and some in an American farm drive a tractor.
No matter how much they are trained, however, monkeys can never pray. There is no monkey in the world that prays. Have you ever heard about a monkey offering a sacrifice or worshipping something? Why are they unable to pray, when they can perform feats that are much more challenging? It is because they have no religiosity. I heard that when monkeys sit by humans at a meal table, they will never follow people to a prayer, no matter how much people try to teach the monkeys. It is because monkeys have no spirit. Animals have no spirits. They neither have a desire nor a need to find God.
We have a spirit, created in God's image, however, and the spirit seeks God. Regardless of the level of civilization, people in all places and ages have been seeking and worshipping an absolute being even without being taught. People have bowed down to the sun in the morning and moon at night, thinking that they might be gods. On the stormy sea, they bowed down to the sea, and in drought, they went up to the mountains and offered a rain sacrifice.
Everyone has a desire to find God, though to different degrees. Hence, when they are taught about God, most of them at least believe in His existence. There are many who believe that God exists without going to church. I have met such people many times. Also, some people pray to God without going to church, and some keep meal prayers without believing in Jesus.
In the hearts of those who believe in the existence of God and the spirit and yet are not born again, there dwells dread. They feel a blockage in the heart when they close their eyes for prayer at church. God is the judge and they are the sinners. How terrifying it must be for them to stand before the judge! They feel stifled because of their iniquities, and yet they feel even more so when they close their eyes for prayer. They pray in tears, 󰡒What can I do? What can this sinner do?󰡓 and yet no difference is made, although they may feel fresh at the time of prayer.
Because the believers wail till late every night and every morning in the church, I heard that land price goes down when a church is built in the land. How can the neighbors live when people cry all the time next door? I also heard some people even say, 󰡒Because these followers of Jesus are crying so much, Jesus must be really dead.󰡓 They are really unwise.
Some people say that they cry because they have received God's grace. Is it true that their tears are due to gratitude for grace? They may be in some cases, but not in most of the cases. What is the grace they claim to have received? Rather, they cry out of frustration and agony. If some one were to cry at his father's door, shouting, 󰡒father, father,󰡓 would the father appreciate this?
If you look from below at the faces of those who pray like this, they look like a rag wrung and squeezed. I am not talking about other people; this is what I was like in the past. Before receiving salvation, and while I was serving as an evangelist in a countryside church, I had once knelt down on the hard floor in the dark and early morning and offered that kind of prayer, so long a prayer as to get a hardened skin on the feet. I prayed, saying, 󰡒I will crawl on my knees to the heaven.󰡓 I even had wrinkles on the face at young age because I contorted my face so much during the prayer. I sometimes went up to the high mountain and prayed in tears by the rock, not so much out of gratitude for the grace as out of frustration.
We can easily see the existence of God. James 2:19 says, 󰡒You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe thatand shudder.󰡓 Even demons believe that God is one. They shudder, however, because while knowing about there being one God, they also know about their going to hell. When two demon-possessed men met Jesus, they yelled aloud, 󰡒What do you want with us, Son of God,󰡓 and then, 󰡒Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?󰡓 (Mat. 8:29) Although the Jewish religious leaders did not recognize Jesus, these two men saw that Jesus was the Son of God.
During the mission activities of Paul, a girl with a fortune-telling spirit followed Paul and his company and shouted, 󰡒These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved,󰡓 and she continued this for many days (Acts 16:17). How accurately she knew it! Demons know it better. Those who know about God and yet have not received salvation fear God. Even demons have this kind of faith.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).
The complete love of God expels any fear of punishment. Just as turning on a light in the darkness removes darkness, so when God's love fills our hearts, fear vanishes. If someone comes to know about the existence of God and his being a sinner subject to the judgment of hell, he cannot but fear God. Some people even ruin their sleep out of terror after becoming aware of this. As if they could see the hell already, they even get up in the middle of sleep and tremble.
One day, I had a religious gathering in a farming village of the province of Chon Buk. In the middle of my speech about sin and judgment, I was surprised to see a woman suddenly standing up around the middle of the audience and starting to walk forward. She prostrated herself before the podium and started wailing aloud. Then other people started crying aloud, and I had to stop the sermon for a long while. On that day I preached the gospel, and many people received salvation.
Later on, I asked her why she stood up during the sermon. She said that it was because she had felt so suffocated as if the fire of hell had been burning in front of her. How can you be anything but afraid once you come to learn about the hellish punishment? The fear will ebb away only when you listen to the gospel and realize God's love. The complete love of God will drive out the terrors of sin, death, and judegment.
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Rom. 5:5)
When we realize God's grace from listening to the gospel, God pours out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The love of God, which I used to hear only in words, actually fills me up and expels fear. Even a sinner like me becomes saved - my hope for the heavenly kingdom does not end in disappointment. 󰡒After the savior's love filled my heart, the Holy Spirit dwells in me, and after the Lord defeated my fear, my hope lies in the heaven.󰡓 (hymn)
When the Holy Spirit of the Christ blossoms God's love in my heart, the fears of sin, death, judgment and hell will disappear, and the hope that even a sinner like me can go to the heavenly kingdom becomes more certain. This is the proof of coming of the Holy Spirit.
Some people say that the Holy Spirit is received through an experience of fire. They say that during prayer their bodies became hot, and fire shot through their sides, or they saw a vision of the cross. These mysterious experiences and others such as speaking in tongues and prayer healing, however, have nothing to do with salvation. It is odd that people rely on abnormal more than normal things and on strange experiences more than the Bible. The Holy Spirit does not come through any bodily experience but to our spirits as a spirit.
When the Holy Spirit comes, it helps us realize God's love. All the problems will be resolved the minute we are able to believe in God's love through the conscience. 󰡒The one who fears is not made perfect in love.󰡓 The one in whose heart dread of God's judgment lingers has not yet fully realized God's love. 󰡒The cowardly (fearful)󰡓 refers to those who believe and yet are not born again.
Next, 󰡒the unbelieving󰡓 literally refers to those who do not believe. Not believing in God at all is a condition of judgment.
Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (John 3:18).
Furthermore, 󰡒the vile󰡓 and 󰡒the murderers󰡓 cannot avoid the judgment of hell. Some people think of others' lives as those of insects and commit abominable acts. We frequent hear people say, 󰡒Those brutes should go to hell,󰡓 and of course, they will be rushed to hell.
Is there none among you who has performed despicable acts? Is it true that everyone who says, 󰡒I have not committed any murder,󰡓 really has never murdered? Not so. How many people these days kill human lives even without guilty conscience? In Korea alone, over 1.5 million fetuses are being slaughtered each year in the good name of family planning. When mothers are so loving towards their children, how can they kill the unborn babies so mercilessly? Is someone not a child, and his life not a human life just because he is not yet born?
A few years ago, during the presidency of Reagan, a film was made available to the public that had been taken on an abortion procedure by the presidential commission. An ultrasound monitor showed details and even the beating heart of a fifteen-week-old fetus. All the important parts had been already formed. When an abortion device was inserted, the fetus instinctively shrank from the device. When the device forcefully grabbed the fetus twisting to and fro, it opened the mouth and screamed.
The title of the film was 󰡒A Silent Scream,󰡓 which was introduced in Korea with the same title. Watching the film, Reagan saw the screaming fetus and judged that abortion was a murder. Had the fetus been able to speak, it would have begged, 󰡒Mother, save me. Please don't kill me.󰡓
The fetus was brutally slaughtered by the machine, under the collusion of the mother and doctor. Its head was crushed and sucked into the inhaler. The pieces of the fetus were sorted and put in the container. A gynecologist watching the scene said that he had performed many abortions, and abortion was a homicide. He then vowed never to perform abortion again. The same film had another abortion on an older fetus.
After watching this, Reagan became determined against abortion and started a campaign to stop it. Still, however, abortion is permitted in the United States now, and this is very regrettable. Fathers also say, 󰡒drop the baby!󰡓 Everyone is a murder in the plot. Wait and see. They may be able to avoid the retribution here, but not in front of God's judgment seat.
Also, although one may not have been involved in physical killing, it also constitutes a manslaughter to hate someone to the extent of wanting to murder him or to defame others' character. This is to kill with the heart. Those who murder people, created in God's image for the sake of God's glory, will be quickly ushered to hell.
󰡒The sexually immoral,󰡓 that is, those who fornicate cannot flee from the torment of hell. God considers sexual immorality a grave sin. The old cities Sodom and Gomorrah were cities of lust, even with rampant homosexuality. Hence, God annihilated the cities with fire as a warning for the future. 󰡒In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.󰡓 (Jude 1:7) The tragedy of Sodom and Gomorrah foreshadowed God's judgment of the world to come. If there is a sin that necessitates God's judgment of the world, it is the sexual iniquities.
In ancient Italy, there was a city called Pompeii, which is recorded in history for being a city of lechery. One day, the volcano of Vesuvius erupted and covered the entire city with ashes. It was God's judgment upon the city, teeming with fornication and sexual perversion.
I have been to that place, too. Under the ashes, the walls and other structures were preserved fossilized. There were lustful wall paintings. I also saw the well-preserved fossils of people who had died crouching and of a pregnant woman. I even heard that there had been co-ed public baths that could hold hundreds of people, which shows the degree of their depravity. God swept away the city of raging sin.
How is the situation of today? It is no less serious than those of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Pompeii. There is a survey finding that over seventy percent of the husbands have an experience of extra-marital affair. Under the slogans of age of open sex, age of free sex, and age of sexual indulgence, people say, 󰡒What is problem with sex?󰡓 The Bible, however, says, 󰡒You shall not murder󰡓 and 󰡒You shall not commit adultery,󰡓 listing adultery as the next heaviest sin after murder.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body (1 Cor. 6:18).
Sexual immorality corrupts and destroys our personality. All the sexual intercourses except for those engaged in by married men and women are a fornication, and those who fornicate are bound hellward.
These days, inns and hotels are crowded day and night, and they extend business hours. A housewife who had sold her body under the pretext of earning her son's tuition was arrested and shocked the public. Sexual immorality is so severe as to melt the bone marrow. Furthermore, most of what we see and hear in our surroundings encourage sexual misdemeanors.
󰡒Those who practice magic arts,󰡓 that is, fortunetellers and shamans and those who are trustful and fond of them are all subject to judgment. 󰡒The idolaters󰡓 are those who serve something other than God or those who believe in God but love other things more than they do God.
󰡒All liars󰡓 will also have to plunge into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. It is said that all lies originate from the devil. The Bible says that devil is the father of falsity. How about you? Are you not telling lies as easily as eating cakes? Is there anyone among you who falls under none of the sins mentioned?
Everyone must have a sin forgotten after being committed long time ago, a sin deeply buried in the heart, or a secret sin supposed to be known to none. These sins, however, are known to the conscience and to God. They will be judged for these sins. It is unavoidable. What will you do?
14. The Condition of Salvation
Salvation requires that we admit our being sinners before God. I have been born as a sinner, have committed many sinful acts in the world, and will face death someday. I may have a sudden and unexpected death through an accident or incurable disease. At any rate, we will all die after several decades. Our death will not be the end, however, for afterwards there will be judgment waiting for us, which will sentence us to the second death in the fiery lake. This is the fate of sinners. We must acknowledge this if we desire to be saved.
To receive salvation means to be delivered from such a fate. Everyone must be saved before death, for upon death the judgement is pronounced upon them. In order to receive salvation, we must acknowledge this fact and desperately desire to be saved. God saves all those who have a deep thirst for salvation. This is God's will and promise. Dear readers, if you can believe through the Bible that God exists, and God's judgement is waiting for you after death, please pray. Please pray to God desperately and from the depth of your heart. Pray, 󰡒God, please save me. Open my eyes for the truth of the gospel. Please help me and have pity on me.󰡓
When the robber crucified with Jesus repented, he offered but a simple prayer, 󰡒Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.󰡓 (Luke 23:42) Jesus, however, accepted his sincere and desperate heart. If we seek the grace of Jesus only, he will accept our hearts. For he never despises a wounded soul. Try to pray sincerely and eagerly to receive salvation. God saves those who truly aspire to salvation.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psa. 34:18).
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psa. 51:17).
Some people protest, however, saying, 󰡒I have been going to church for decades and yet have not been saved. Now, do I hear that salvation can come only after a few days of learning the Bible? This is a baloney.󰡓 This is based on a misunderstanding of God's power and salvation. The giver of salvation is God, and the power of salvation belongs to God. It is for simple reason that people reckon whether sinners can be saved and how long it takes to attain salvation: they reason from their own human viewpoint rather than from God's.
They do not understand that I do not save myself but am saved by God. This is God's business conducted through the work of Jesus. Once we are ready for salvation, we do not need to wait even for a few days. How long did it take for Jesus to save dead people? It happened instantly. Likewise, would God need a long time to save us?
It is we who take much time. We need to go through a process of preparation for salvation. There are a few things we must know If we are to be rescued from the destiny of hell: We must know that God exists, the Bible is God's word, there is eternal world, there is God's judgement and heaven and hell, and we are under the destiny of hell.
Through the Bible, we can confirm that God is alive, who has created and is governing the universe and leads the human history. From this, we come to believe that the Bible is God's word, and we have spirits, created in God's image. Further, we come to realize that we have drifted apart from God and are condemned to judgment because of our trespasses.
The first purpose of learning the Bible is to awaken an eagerness for salvation in our hearts by learning these things. Learning the Bible is an effort to turn our hearts back to God amid our life of alienation from Him. Just as a radio catches the right channel when it hits on the right frequency, so will our hearts be aroused with God's love and Holy Spirit once it turns back unto God's direction. We only need to have an eagerness for salvation. To those who are truly thirsting after salvation, the Holy Spirit will stretch out a helping hand.
IV. God's Love Revealed in
the Gospel
So far, you have come along a fairly long spiritual journey. As I promised at the outset, if you continue on this path without giving up on the way, you will have found a way to salvation by the time you are finished with this book. I am grateful to God for His grace of helping you continue up to this point after starting with the first volume, The Way to God. Again, I am grateful to Jesus as I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit will save all those who passionately long for God's word and eagerly desire salvation.
Through the Bible, we have gained an understanding about God and His plan and secret and about who we are before God. We have further realized that the Bible reveals our individual as well as the human destiny. We have also learned that history manifests God's plan to save our souls, and He has shown us the way to salvation and the truth to believe. Therefore, what each of us must do at this point is to accept the word of truth, which leads to salvation.
1. Eternal Life is the Purpose of Studying the Bible
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me... (John 5:39)
As Jesus explains, the ultimate purpose of studying the Bible is the salvation of our souls. We need salvation in order to attain eternal life, and we need eternal life in order that we participate in God's glory and in His plan and purpose. God has spoken through the Bible about the way of human salvation, and we receive salvation through this word. Receiving salvation, being reborn, possessing eternal life, and having the right relationship with God all mean the same.
When Jesus says, 󰡒You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life,󰡓 he means that it is right to study the Bible closely for the sake of salvation. The purpose of studying the Bible is to attain eternal life, and this means that only through the Bible can we enter into the right relationship with God.
Here, 󰡒the Scripture󰡓 at the time of Jesus meant the Old Testament because the New Testament had not been written. The Old Testament contains God's promise to send Jesus, and the New Testament Jesus' work of redemption, the grace allowed to those who believe in it, and Jesus' promise to come again in the last days.
󰡒These are the Scriptures that testify about me...󰡓 The foremost purpose of the entire books of the Scripture is to tell us about Jesus. The Bible is the book of instruction for salvation through Jesus. Therefore, no matter how much knowledge we gain from the Bible, our study of the Bible is without purpose unless we unearth therefrom the truth of salvation.
Many people who are supposed to have a great deal of knowledge of the Bible still have no idea about their salvation and rebirth. This is because they have not yet penetrated into the core of the Bible. In fact, before we are reborn, we cannot fully realize the message of the Bible. The Scripture is said a source of spiritual food. Food is needed only by living beings. Since the Bible is a spiritual food, rather than a set of ethical codes or moral injunctions, it becomes relevant to us only after our spirits come to life through salvation. Only after then, will the words of the Scripture start touching our heart and mind.
We receive salvation through the word. As it says in the Colossians 1:16, 󰡒All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth,󰡓 to be saved is to realize God's grace by listening to the gospel, and the moment of such realization is the day of salvation.
What is the gospel? Among the messages of the Scripture, there are the special words that concern the salvation of our spirits. In Acts 10, God sends an angel to Cornelius and tells him to send for 󰡒a man named Simon who is called Peter󰡓 so that he can convey the word to bring his whole household to salvation. Peter visits the house of Cornelius and his word saves his entire family. As exemplified here, the word leading to salvation is called the gospel. When we realize such word, we will attain eternal life.
We will have one day in our life when we listen to the gospel and understand the grace of God. The verse in the hymn, 󰡒Is it not a day of joy, a day when we first received the word of the Lord?󰡓 means the same. 󰡒The day when we first received the word of the Lord󰡓 does not refer to the day when we first went to the church and heard a biblical message. While some realize the gospel after decades of life of faith, some do fortunately only after a short church life. On the other hand, there are even some who fail to hear the saving word even after a lifelong church attendance.
󰡒A day I embraced the way of the Lord, is this not a day of joy? This day, my vile body turned into a new body of rebirth.󰡓 (hymn) A saved person certainly has a day of awakening to the gospel, or the day of rebirth.
As it says, 󰡒He (God) chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created,󰡓 (James 1:18) God gives birth to His children through the word of truth. The moment we become touched by the gospel, our spirits are saved and born again, thereby becoming children of God. This is God's begetting us through the word of truth. As it says, 󰡒For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God... And this is the word that was preached to you,󰡓 (1 Pet. 1:23, 25) the 󰡒imperishable seed󰡓 for the born again is the gospel, that is, the living and enduring word of God. 󰡒Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.󰡓 (1 Cor. 4:15) (For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.- KJV)
In Luke 8, Jesus explains a secret of God's kingdom through a parable of a seed-sowing farmer: 󰡒A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.󰡓
Then, Jesus deciphers it by saying, 󰡒The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.󰡓 (Luke 8:11, 12) Some people hear the word without taking it to the heart, eventually forgetting all about it. Jesus explains that just as a bird ate up the seeds thrown on the road and left unsown, if we hear the word without clearly grasping it, the devil comes and takes it away from us. Like the path, rock, and thorns, the heart where God's word is not planted has no life of God and no relationship with salvation. 󰡒But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it.󰡓 (Mat. 13:23) Salvation lies in understanding the word. The word is a seed that plants God's life in our hearts.
A seed has no unique shape, and almost looks like nothing when it is found here and there. When it is planted under the fertile ground, however, it can give rise to a magnificent tree. Although it is nothing but a little grain by itself, once planted it grows to produce flowers and fruits. The biblical messages and the speeches of the biblical transmitters are planted in the heart of those prepared. The good soil is the heart of the prepared souls.
No ground is fertile from the beginning. Every ground of the heart is hard like a road, hides sin like a stony field, and teems with greed like the brambles. Just as we reclaim a barren ground by removing thorns, picking out stones, and plowing the soil, when we learn the Bible, the message softens our hearts so that the word can take roots, grow, and produce fruits there. God uplifts our hearts so that they become eager for the word and sincere for salvation.
When the word of salvation enters the prepared heart, life begins to sprout. Just as the seed sprouts under the right temperature and humidity, the life of the word takes roots and grows in the prepared heart. The message of the gospel mysteriously brings about understanding. It is truly mysterious that the word plants God's life in the heart.
Inaudible electric waves are passing by our ears all the time. When a radio is turned to the right frequency, however, it can catch them and make them audible and even recordable. Likewise, when we are eagerly turned towards God, and comprehend the word of salvation, the word becomes recorded in the spirit. 󰡒I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.󰡓 (Heb. 10:16)
The message written in our heart and mind is eternally preserved. This is called understanding, a point where God's life begins. This is how God saves us, a deeply mysterious process.
When asked, 󰡒Are you saved?󰡓 many people say, 󰡒How can you know that? You will find out after you die.󰡓 Such people are certainly not saved, however. Salvation, or rebirth, is an event of spiritual birth and a clear experience. Every event has its time and space. If an event is without time and space of occurrence it can only be a chimera.
Some people say that they are saved, and yet try to slur over the matter when asked, 󰡒How were you saved?󰡓 Or some of them say, 󰡒I am saved because I believe in the Christ, and I believe because I am saved.󰡓 When asked, 󰡒When did you start believing?󰡓 they answer, 󰡒From birth,󰡓 or 󰡒I am saved because I have been baptized.󰡓
Still some people say, 󰡒I have seen a vision of the cross during my prayer. My body became hot during then,󰡓 or 󰡒I had a queer miracle. My illness is gone.󰡓 There are all kinds of such stories. These miracles may indicate the power of God or devil. Furthermore, even if the healing was God's work, by itself it has nothing to do with salvation.
Salvation occurs always through a realization of the word of truth in the Bible. Unless the content of salvation conforms to the biblical message, that salvation is a misunderstanding and falsity. I have seen many times that the faith of those who claim to be saved does not actually point to true salvation when checked against the word. The problem becomes more serious when someone who is not saved thinks that he is.
These days there are a plenty of counterfeit money, false checks, and fake cards that are very similar to the real things. When the forgery or alteration is discovered, big commotion is aroused. Often people try to use fake passports or visa and end up getting arrested at the immigration office. We may be able to cheat people, but never God; hence, we must be complete and thorough. We should realize and believe in the way of salvation through the Bible exactly as God has prepared it.
As I mentioned earlier, God's work of salvation proceeds unconditionally on the basis of God's power, love, and grace. Therefore, the first thing we must do for salvation is to deeply feel the need of salvation. As a promise is realized only when both parties keep faith, God's promise in the Bible requires that we first perform our part of the duty. Because the Old and New Testaments are God's promise of salvation through Jesus, we must prepare our hearts if we are to meet God.
If, for instance, one makes a promise to meet someone at a certain place and time to give something to him, the parties to the promise must show up at the set time and place in order for the promise to produce a result.
God always keeps his side of the promise, and the problem is that we do not keep our side of it. The Bible says that in order to save the sinners, God has sacrificed His only Son and waits in such a way that 󰡒with the Lord a day is like a thousand years.󰡓 (2 Pet. 3:8) It also says that God wants everybody to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). We fail to receive the gift of salvation, however, because we refuse to.
After hearing the same word of salvation, some are moved to awakening, and some do not. Whether one understands is not a matter of how smart he is; rather, it is a matter of heart and conscience. God sees how passionately we seek God's grace, and plants the gospel truth only in the earnest seekers.
Since Jesus came to find the sinners, he visits only those who know of themselves as sinners. Jesus saves only those who know of their being sinners and desire to be saved. Those who are confident of their own righteousness and devotion to God will fail to attain salvation. Such people will reject Jesus. Therefore, for the sake of salvation we must first acknowledge our being sinners. We have learned that we are transgressors from birth and born with fallen hearts, and the totality of our life is a transgression.
We have also noted that the word sinner signifies being a descendant of Adam rather than how much vice we have practiced. It signifies that we are disconnected and lost from God and under the divine judgment, and our spirits have died. This is the first thing we realize through the Bible.
We turn our backs against God, and follow the fallen bodily drives and drink iniquities like water. This is the shape we are in. No matter how righteously we live, we only live in human rather than divine righteousness. Our fate is to commit sin throughout the whole life and die and become judged before God.
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God... (Job 19:26)
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil (Eccl. 12:14).
The minute our hearts stop, our body starts decaying, and our spirit rises from the body and meets God. The reborn spirits will enter the heavenly kingdom, whereas those sinful spirits not reborn will be judged and sent to hell, a place of fire and burning sulfur, never to come out from there. Therefore, we must first acknowledge our destiny, whereby we are born in sin, commit sin throughout the whole life, some day die, and go to hell after the judgement.
Then, how can our souls be delivered from the fate of the eternal condemnation? What we must be clear about is that there is no way whatsoever that we can be released on our own from the destiny of judgement and destruction.
Although some people think that their tears, fasting, and other forms of bodily mortification may move God to forgive them, and yet forgiveness is not earned by such things. As the hymn 343 says, 󰡒Tears do not help. Even a heap of tears do not remove our fears or wash our sin. So tears do not help,󰡓 no matter how much we cry, not even an iota of sin will be erased from us. Just because a criminal under death sentence cries many days and begs the judge to spare his life, will the judge set him free?
Can we be purified of our trespasses by practicing good manners and performing many good deeds for others? Unfortunately, no righteousness of ours is of any help at all. 󰡒Good works do not help. Even good words, intentions or deeds do not bring us rebirth. So good works do not help.󰡓 (Hymn) Even good endeavors, or sincere and kind words, intentions, or deeds cannot help us be born again. Rebirth is not something to be worked for.
Some revivalists teach, 󰡒You should shed many tears. Do you think you will receive grace without shedding even a drop of tears? Also, you must work hard in order to enter the heavenly kingdom.󰡓 But nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are saved through tears.
How about endurance? Will our sins be forgiven if we go to church for tens of years, overcoming all the hurdles, rain or shine, and regardless of other people's accusation? 󰡒Endurance doesn't help. How can a sinner drowning in ugly sin live? So endurance doesn't help.󰡓 (Hymn) As the hymn says, even endurance is ineffectual. We should understand that whatever we do, we cannot save ourselves.
󰡒Faith will help. Believe in Jesus and rely on his work, and when you go to him, you will receive eternal life.󰡓 (Hymn) It says that faith will help, while tears, good works, or endurance do not. Having faith does not refer to any actions we perform. If salvation is possible through an action, then why would we need faith in addition?
The misunderstanding starts when we think that faith is something we do with religious zeal. Believers have brought confusion to the meaning of faith and action. They teach that going to church and diligently performing good actions are a part of having faith. While teaching faith on the one hand, they teach that hard work of goodness brings blessing. This brings fundamental confusion as to whether action constitutes faith, or faith leads to action. This is the beginning of the problem.
2. What is the Law?
sIn order to comprehend what faith is, we should first understand that there is nothing we can do for the sake of the salvation of our soul. In order to help the Israelites understand this first, God told them about His existence and gave them the law. The most representative of the law is the Ten Commandments.
John 1:17 says, 󰡒For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.󰡓 Romans 7:12 also says, 󰡒So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.󰡓 Since the law reveals the holiness and goodness of God, it is in itself holy, righteous, and good. The law commands people to live a holy and good life. One who can keep the commandments can be called holy, righteous, and good.
I started going to church when I was a middle school freshman. Whenever I went to church on Sundays, we recited the Ten Commandments with the pastor and were told to observe them. Believing that I must keep them to enter the heavenly kingdom, I made earnest efforts to keep them; later, however, when I read Matthews 5, I came to a conclusion that it is humanly impossible to keep the law.
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 󰡒Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.󰡓 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 󰡒Raca,󰡓 is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell (Mat. 5:21, 22).
Jesus says that although one may refrain from murder, even anger will subject him to judgment, and calling others 󰡒Raca󰡓 (an expression of contempt and ridicule, meaning 󰡒brainless󰡓) or fool will throw him into the hell fire. The Bible also says that hatred constitutes murder (1 John 3:15), for the basis of murder is hatred.
God reckons from the root, which is formed before actions. In other words, people confirm murder by looking at its concrete results, whereas God scrutinizes our hearts, and if we harbor a thought of murder, God sees it as murder even before it is acted upon.
󰡒You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery,' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.󰡓 (Mat. 5:27) This verse also says that even without an actual action, when one harbors lust in the heart has already fornicated.
Moreover, Jesus says, 󰡒If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well,󰡓 (Mat. 5:39, 40) and 󰡒Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...󰡓 (Mat. 5:44)
The law can be summarized as: 󰡒Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,󰡓 and 󰡒Love your neighbor as yourself.󰡓 (Mark 12:30, 31) Would it be possible, however, for the sinners, born selfish and possessing Adam's character, to love God with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind, and all their strength and love their neighbor as themselves? Those who fail to love their neighbors as themselves have violated all the laws regarding human beings, and those who fail to love God with all their heart and soul have breached all the commandments regarding God.
What, then, is the purpose of God's giving the law? Many people answer this by saying, 󰡒Of course, so that we may practice them.󰡓 The Bible, however, says that no one can keep the law; hence, the law is not given for actual keeping. The law has been given so that we can realize that we are unable to reach God's standard by ourselves, for those born with an inclination for sin are never able to keep the law.
We are comparable to a bad oak. Born as transgressors and endowed with viciousness, we are immersed in sin. To say to us, 󰡒be holy, good, and righteous󰡓 is like saying to a bad oak, 󰡒bring grapes,󰡓 or 󰡒bring tangerines and apples.󰡓 Is this a possible demand?
3. The Law Brings Us to a Self-Discovery before God
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out (Rom. 7:18).
What we come to realize clearly through the Bible is that in God's view there is nothing good in us and only the heart that is 󰡒deceitful above all things and beyond cure.󰡓 (Jer. 17:9)
Like the apostle Paul, who made the above remark, we should clearly understand that 󰡒nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.󰡓 Since there is nothing good in us, we cannot but exclaim, 󰡒I have desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.󰡓 Although we know that we should be good and even strive hard to put the knowledge into practice, we have no power to do so.
People practice vice even when they know that it is bad. Why? It is because they have the evil root. Do bad trees bear faulty fruits because they want to? Bad trees have the nature to yield spoiled fruits; therefore, they cannot bear fresh and delicious fruits even if they want to. Would God, then, expect to see from us sinners fruits of goodness?
When God gave the law to the people, He knew very well that they would not be able to obey it. He did not expect even one person to be able to keep the law. Even Moses smote a human being to death. Who else kept the law?
Then, why did God give us the law that we could not even abide by? The purpose lies in somewhere else.
Even after going to church for tens of years, people still do not know this and say, 󰡒He gave it to us so we may keep it. We are to follow the law.󰡓 When asked, 󰡒Then, have you been able to follow it?󰡓 they ask back, 󰡒You must at least try to; otherwise, shall we violate it at will?󰡓 Have you been able to keep it yourself? You will soon reach a conclusion that it is an impossible task. It is admirable to strive to live a good life under the law, and yet such an effort has nothing whatsoever to do with being justified before God.
Let us imagine a situation where you stop and talk to a passerby: 󰡒Sir, excuse me.󰡓 󰡒What is the matter?󰡓 󰡒Please do not kill. I am on a moral campaign.󰡓 Then, would he say, 󰡒Right. It is in the Ten Commandments. Thank you,󰡓 or go mad, saying, 󰡒What? Do I look like a killer? Do I look like a member of those bloody gangs?󰡓
Also, if you say to someone, 󰡒Please do not steal,󰡓 he will be enraged, saying, 󰡒Do I look like a thief? Have you seen me steal?󰡓 although some may be dismayed and say in the heart, 󰡒How does this guy know I have robbed?󰡓 To say, 󰡒Do not steal󰡓 implies, 󰡒You look like a thief, and you are likely to steal.󰡓
Further, if you say to someone, 󰡒Sir, do not covet your neighbor's wife,󰡓 he will not leave you in peace, although he may wonder in the heart, 󰡒How does this scoundrel know that I like the woman?󰡓 Worse, if you say to a lady passing by, 󰡒Lady, excuse me. Please do not fornicate,󰡓 she will probably break your leg. This is a bad insult.
People humble themselves and listen to the commandment because it is God's message. Had it come out of a human mouth, it would have created a great trouble. To say, 󰡒Do not kill󰡓 implies that we look like killers, and to say, 󰡒Do not steal󰡓 implies that we look like thieves. To say, 󰡒Do not covet󰡓 is to ask, 󰡒You are coveting, aren't you?󰡓 to say, 󰡒Do not lie󰡓 is to ask, 󰡒You are lying, arent' you?󰡓 and to say, 󰡒Do not lust after your neighbor's wife󰡓 is to ask, 󰡒You are lusting after her, aren't you?󰡓
The verse, 󰡒It [the law] was added because of transgressions󰡓 (Gal. 3:19) means that because we do not see our own evil-doing, God gave the law as an addition in order to make it clear to us. Since the law was added because of the breach of the law, learning the law enables us more clearly perceive our sin. Without a code to define what a sin is, there would be no basis for punishing an offender, nor would we know that we have sinned after committing one. There is sin because there is the law.
We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers-and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine (1 Tim. 1:9, 10).
Good people do not need the law, for the holy, the righteous, and the good have no sin. As this verse says, the law is set forth for the sinful and not for the righteous.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin (Rom. 3:19 ~ 20).
󰡒Death (which is the judgment upon the sin according to the law) came to all men, because all sinned.󰡓 (Rom. 5:12) Because all the sinners are under the law, the law speaks to all those under the law. The law renders speechless all the transgressors under the law.
Some people raise their voice even after doing evil, saying, 󰡒What have I done wrong?󰡓 Ignorance of the law makes you bold. After you encounter the law, however, you become speechless. This means that you stop claiming to be sinless.
You cannot drive recklessly and say, 󰡒Why do you bother me, when I am just doing what I want with my own car? What does it matter to me whether there is a green light or red?󰡓 because there is traffic law. If you violate the traffic law, you will be penalized whether you knew it or not. You'd better stop under the red light and not turn left where it is prohibited. You cannot protest against being arrested after breaking the traffic law.
In a prison, two in-laws met. How ashamed they must have been! One asked the other, 󰡒How did you come here?󰡓 and the other answered, 󰡒Because of something very unfair.󰡓 They continued: 󰡒What was the offence, anyway?󰡓 󰡒Something small. I picked up a string in someone else's yard.󰡓 󰡒Picking up a string puts you behind the bars?󰡓 󰡒Well, I then realized that a cow was tied up at the end of it.󰡓 He is a cow thief, but he says that he knows nothing about the cow. He just picked up the string, and the cow followed along unfortunately, according to him.
Then the other in-law asked the one who had been questioning: 󰡒By the way, how did you end up here?󰡓 󰡒I am also fairly innocent, but suffered injustice.󰡓 󰡒But what really happened?󰡓 󰡒I wore a big jacket to a supermarket, put stuffs into my pockets, and walked out. I just forgot to say, 'This is on credit.' That's all.󰡓 He is a shoplifter. Would the law agree with them? Would the judge record that he simply forgot to mention 󰡒on credit󰡓? One is a cow thief, and the other shoplifter. They will not be able to insist on their innocence before the law. They will have to shut their mouths and prepare themselves for the punishment.
The law silences all the claims of innocence and enables the people of the whole world see their existence under God's judgment. 󰡒Through the law we become conscious of sin.󰡓 (Rom. 3:20)
When you go to a hospital, they first make a diagnosis before giving you a medicine. A medical intervention comes after an exact diagnosis is made. Likewise, the law is in charge of giving us a spiritual diagnosis and telling us why we need salvation before God heals our spirits. When we study the law, we become able to see our wickedness and our being under God's judgment, and aroused with a desire to receive salvation.
Suppose that you go to a hospital and doctor asks you about your condition, and you say, 󰡒Where would I be sick? I am fine. Nothing is wrong with me.󰡓 Then, the doctor can only say, 󰡒Why did you come here, then? Out from my office󰡓? You know what you should say instead: 󰡒Well, I feel strange here. Please check it out for me.󰡓
After the diagnosis, you will get a certain result. The doctor may say, 󰡒It's good that you had an early check-up. You have incipient cancer, and a surgery can take care of it.󰡓 Then, you will have to say, 󰡒So! I will take your advice. When shall I get the surgery?󰡓 If you understand, and know that you have a sickness, you will follow the doctor's direction, agreeing to have a certain part of your body cut off, or lie on the bed for an operation. You do this because you know that it is necessary for your healing. If you keep insisting, 󰡒Don't give me that. What do you mean, I am sick? I am just fine,󰡓 the doctor cannot help you. This, then, is what the law does-giving us a diagnosis that we can understand.
A little child comes back from playing outside with his face stained black. When the mother sees this, she says, 󰡒Son, your face is dirty. Go and wash your face.󰡓 If the child defies her without seeing his face, however, saying, 󰡒I have nothing on the face. Why are you bothering me?󰡓 what would be the best way to prevail on him? Tell him to see his face on the mirror, and he will immediately realize that the face needs a wash.
The law works like a mirror. It shows us how sinful we are in the presence of God. By seeing our own shape against the standard of God's holiness, righteousness, and goodness, we come to realize how false, wicked, and miserable we are. We see the filth of our iniquities with the law, and we are purified of them with Jesus. For the mirror only reflects our dirt, and do not wash it.
Likewise, the law only helps us perceive our sin, without being able to resolve the problem of sin. The law can neither make us good nor obedient to God's word. The law only enables us to comprehend sin and the consequent judgment. The remark, 󰡒Through the law we become conscious of sin󰡓 reveals the purpose of the law-for us to come face to face with our wickedness so that we may proceed to Jesus to be purified.
So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith (Gal. 3:24).
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith (KJV).
Here, the law is said to be a 󰡒schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.󰡓 (KJV) The schoolmaster means an elementary-level teacher in charge of educating small children. He prepares them with the basics so that they can move on to assume the real study. Likewise, the law helps us realize our sin, and leads us to the Christ, who can cleanse it.
To say that the law leads to the Christ, however, does not mean that we can go to him by keeping the law; rather, it means that we simply realize our sin before the law, and become clean in the presence of Jesus. The role of the law is to help us understand sin and judgment so that we can proceed to Jesus in faith and be called righteous by him. Regardless of such teaching of the Bible, however, people construe the law as that which is to be kept and strive to live by it all their lives, thereby misunderstanding God's intention.
4. Those Who Rely on Observing the Law Are under a Curse
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: 󰡒Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.󰡓 (Gal. 3:10)
󰡒All who rely on observing the law󰡓 refers to those who attempt to reach God by keeping the law as the standard of God's righteousness. We cannot call such people bad when there are many who indulge in wickedness lifelong and many who do not even believe in God. They are surely good people from the human standpoint. It may seem odd, then, to say that such people are under a curse instead of under blessing.
Rather, would it not be correct to say that those who strive to follow the law will be blessed? Of course, you will be blessed if you always practice all that is prescribed in the law. It is out of question that if you can carry out perfectly, you will receive blessing and go to the heavenly kingdom. We, born with sinful nature and soaked in the sin of the world, however, are never able to carry out all the injunctions of the law.
It is humanly impossible to fulfill the commandments exactly and at all times; hence, the curse. It is sin to violate the law. As the Scripture says, 󰡒For the wages of sin is death,󰡓 (Rom. 6:23) the sin of violating the law is paid for with death. This is the curse imposed upon those who attempt to receive God's justification through the practice of the law.
The reason for the curse upon such people is clear. If they can keep the law in toto, they will be blameless. The problem, however, is that they cannot. They cannot just keep some of the law and not others. If they are to obey the law, they must 󰡒continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.󰡓
The verse, 󰡒For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it󰡓 (James 2:10) declares the same principle. Suppose that someone is holding on to a chain of ten rings to the heavenly kingdom and he will fall into hell should the chain break. Suppose that the ten rings represent the Ten Commandments. How many rings must break for the chain to snap? The chain will fail equally whether just one or all ten rings break. A cattle or pot is equally useless whether it has only one or as many as ten holds in the bottom.
How many of the Ten Commandments do you have to violate before going to hell? It says, 󰡒the wage of sin is death.󰡓 Then what is the price of a great sin? It is death. What is the price of a minor sin? It is also death. That is, it is to receive judgment and be thrown into the fiery lake after death. Although you may not have actually performed any evil action, even simply being angry or saying 󰡒Raca󰡓 to others will send you to hell. Those who have lust in the heart have already fornicated. Then, who can be said to be observant of the law? We have cursed with our mouth, hated with our heart, and acted out our lust for sin. We have already thoroughly disobeyed the law in our hearts, words, and actions. For this reason, those who seek to gain righteousness through the law are under a curse.
There are many good swimmers, but is there anyone who can swim from the port of Pusan (Korea) to the United States? Suppose that about a hundred people start swimming to the United States, thinking that they would rather do this than going through complicated paper works and paying for an expensive plane ticket. If any of them can make it, he will be a hero, let alone save money; if they fail, however, they will die. How many of the 100 will make it? They will all die. How about if a ten thousand people try? It will be the same. Then, how about if the entire mankind try? Of course, they will all die. This is an impossible project from the outset. It is not cowardice or foolishness to fear what must be feared. Rather, it is foolishness not to know it. It is wisdom not to start something that is impossible. To warn against misunderstanding, I am not saying that keeping the law is utterly useless; rather, I am simply talking about the law as the condition of salvation.
Those who try to go to God by practicing the goodness of the law are even more foolish than those who try to swim from Korea to the United States. As it says, 󰡒All who rely on observing the law are under a curse,󰡓 they will all go to hell after all the struggles for goodness.
Therefore, we should abandon the notion that God wills our salvation through the law. No matter how many merits of goodness I have accumulated, and how empty it may feel to realize that they are ineffectual in opening the heaven's door, I have to shake off what must be shaken off. I do not have to feel frustrated that my accomplishments and concepts are being brought to nothing.
Sometimes, even a business that has sucked in a lot of capital may turn out to be hopeless. Even after becoming aware of this, however, some people still try to push it through because they are tormented by what they have already put in, thereby losing everything they have after all. I have read a book, Jewish Sales Skills. It says that when Jews start a business, which does not go well, they will try again. If it shows no hope even after about three trials, however, they will boldly put an end to it, no matter how much money has been poured in, and say, 󰡒I feel relieved.󰡓
Among Koreans, however, there are many who continue recklessly even after a few failures and end up putting in everything they own. In gambling, someone who keeps losing small amounts often bets a huge sum in order to take back at once what he has lost. Why? He only thinks about what he has put in so far.
A wheat flour dealer bought a large amount of flour. Then flour price tumbled, and he came to a point of bankruptcy. Thinking that it would be better to disappear than going bankrupt and bringing disgrace to his family, he bought a rope in order to hang himself. When he tied the rope to a crossbeam and put his neck to the loop, he heard a radio news saying that the flour price had soared, whereupon he stopped the suicide and earned big money by selling the flour.
Would it make sense at all, however, if he had gone ahead with the suicide out of reluctance to waste the rope? Who would do that kind of silly thing? We would throw away that string with no hesitation, no matter how much money we may have paid for it out of tight budget.
Although we might have been reliant on the law for attaining God's recognition, we should promptly give it up once we see that it is useless. We can grasp what God gives us only when we release what we have a handful of. Losing it does not mean letting go of the rope to the heavenly kingdom but switching to God's rope of grace.
Even after this explanation, however, there might still be people who repeat, 󰡒But the laws must be kept, as far as we can,󰡓 holding on to the pride in their accomplishments of decades of church life. These people are like those who say, swimming to the United States, 󰡒Now that I am already here, I should swim further as far as I can.󰡓 If they go too far, however, they will go down, unable to return.
5. The Law and The Grace
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing (Gal. 2:21)!
If we could become righteous through the law, Jesus did not have to come to the world or die on the cross, that is, he died in vain. Jesus received punishment on our behalf because the law cannot earn us righteousness. 󰡒Clearly no one is justified before God by the law because, 'The righteous will live by faith.' The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, 'The man who does these things will live by them.'󰡓 (Gal. 3:11, 12) Grace decrees, 󰡒Believe, and thou shalt live,󰡓 and the law, 󰡒Act, and thou shalt live.󰡓 Hence, the law and grace are the opposites. And yet many people bring confusion to their faith by not being able to distinguish between them.
You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace (Gal. 5:4).
Who are the ones 󰡒trying to be justified by law󰡓? They are those who earnestly try to practice a faith. Those who do not have a faith would not try to practice the law, still less try to be justified by it. The Scripture, however, says that those who rely on the law 󰡒have been alienated from Christ󰡓 and 󰡒fallen away from grace󰡓 rather than saying that they will receive a great award.
The Scripture says, 󰡒all our righteous acts are like filthy rags,󰡓 (Isa. 64:6) and 󰡒they cannot cover themselves (their shame) with what they make.󰡓 (Isa. 59:6) This is a declaration that our endeavors to become righteous is like a dirty person's wearing a soiled garment in God's sight, and thus our righteousness cannot hide our shame. The garment is like a worn-out clothes of a leper contaminated with all kinds of germs from him. We will not be able to stand before God in such a rag.
The devil whispers to unbelievers thus: 󰡒Hey, do not listen to anything said about God, spirit, heaven or hell. Those are fabrications of idle people. Who could have created the universe? It existed from times immemorial. The Sun, Moon, and stars came forth spontaneously. So did the earth, after which it got on the track of rotation. Amoebas evolved into insects, and insects to fish and birds. This is also how animals, apes, and human beings appeared.󰡓
The falsity continues: 󰡒What is so special about human beings? They are a product of evolution, and this is why they are called a higher animal. They only represent a bit of progress from animals. What do you mean, spirit? Show me if it exists. So you can just live and die basically like animals, by the law of nature and survival of the fittest. And death will put everything to rest; it will be the end of it all. So you do not have to live in such a narrowness and worry. Enjoy your life.󰡓
Those who succumb to such a deception pursue pleasure without being aware of their being cheated. Since they have no hope in what is eternal, they eat and drink just for the body. Singing, 󰡒Drink, and drink, and dance and dance, through the night, till the morning,󰡓 they drink, vomit, and space out. The devil does not allow a spare time for them to think about such matters as concerns God and spirit. It drives us wild and dizzy until the moment of our arrival at the hell.
Then, what would the devil say to believers of Jesus? Would it say, 󰡒Will you believe in Jesus? OK, then believe in him and go to heaven, bye-bye󰡓? To those who desire faith, devil does not tell them not to believe; rather it says, 󰡒believe hard.󰡓 This is because it has a second weapon called religion. It says, 󰡒Go to church, and believe hard, if you will. Join the early morning prayer, keep the Sundays, serve in the church, and offer donations. Build many churches, and appoint many pastors and deaconesses. Beautify your choir and offer solemn ceremony.󰡓 For the devil is not intimidated by such things.
However, the devil will counsel them, 󰡒Do not try to be saved. Do not be concerned with being reborn. You do not have to know such things now, for you will find out as time passes. What is special about faith? Doesn't it simply mean going to church and working hard for goodness? This will be enough to earn you the heavenly reward.󰡓 And if a pastor praises such people, saying that they deserve a great heavenly reward, they even show condescending modesty, saying, 󰡒I am hardly worthy of it,󰡓 while agreeing to it wholeheartedly in their mind.
They are on a plane ride without being aware that it is piloted by the devil and bound to hell. Will God praise them just because their pastors do? While we boast of our cleverness about worldly affairs, we are in the dark about the spiritual affairs.
When buying something, people go to different stores to check the prices. They go to the cheapest place and try to make bargains even there. Even after buying it with such a fuss, if they still find out that the price could have been cheaper, they become outraged. They try hard and show their utmost wits to avoid deception as regards things of the world, and yet embrace devil's lie as regards faith in Jesus. It is not a serious problem to be cheated a little about other things and incur some material loss, but we should never be cheated with respect to faith.
Our readers should not entirely trust words of their pastors, revivalists, or theologians. Whoever the speaker, believe only when his messages conform to the Bible. Of what worth are human words, when the heaven and hell are not affairs of the world? There is no truth other than the Bible, which is God's word. Rather than believing something because others do, we should believe it after checking whether it is supported by the Bible.
There are many people who are dismayed when told, 󰡒You must be saved and born again.󰡓 Although Jesus teaches, 󰡒No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again,󰡓 (John 3:3) they are still offended when they hear that they must be reborn to go to heaven. This is really strange. When they hear such things, a wise response would be: 󰡒Ah, that's right. I must be born again. How can this happen? I have no confidence about salvation, although I desire it. What shall I do?󰡓 Instead, however, these people react by saying, 󰡒Are you the only one saved? What kind of salvation do you have, that you are so arrogant? Plus, it is none of your business whether other people are saved or not.󰡓 There is something wrong when they are so repelled by the talk of salvation.
6. God's Righteousness and My Righteousness
For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness (Rom. 10:2, 3).
What happens when someone is zealous for God, and yet his zeal is not based on knowledge? He will try to establish his own righteousness without knowing God's, thereby failing to obey God's righteousness. Serving God diligently, and zealously going to church and practicing the law belong to my righteousness. We cannot reach God through my zeal and righteousness.
What is God's righteousness? God has made all the preparation through which we can go to God and have the right relationship with God. This work of preparation is God's righteousness. We come to God through God's righteousness. As in the hymn, 󰡒When I ascend to the desired heavenly kingdom and see God, I will stand before him relying on the righteousness of the Lord the savior,󰡓 we can stand before God not upon our own righteousness but upon that of the Christ. We fail to obey God's righteousness while trying to establish our own without comprehending what God's righteousness is.
There are many who go to hell even after serving God assiduously. This might seem strange-to be eager for God and go to hell. But this is true. To realize this fact is very important for our salvation, for only after the realization can we understand what salvation is. Now it should be certain that we cannot avoid the judgment and destruction and go near God through our own righteousness, zeal, efforts to keep the law, or any other merits. Otherwise, I must keep talking about this until you realize.
The hymn said that tears, good works, and endurance are all ineffectual. We are sinners who can do nothing but die like someone who fell into deep water without knowing how to swim. He will die a hundred percent unless someone comes to rescue him-he has no other way. Likewise, we will live if God rescues us unconditionally from our hell-bound fate, and if not, we can only perish. Only God can save us, and if He does save us, we can only receive it without offering anything in return.
7. The Road to Salvation
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst (1 Tim. 1:15).
The apostle Paul, who authored fourteen books of the New Testament including the 1 Timothy, had been a leader in executing followers of Jesus. This is why he says that he is the worst of the sinners. At the same time, he says this as an indication that all other sinners can be saved. The Christ came to the world in order to 󰡒save sinners󰡓 and 󰡒give his life as a ransom for many.󰡓 (Mat. 20:28)
Jesus came to 󰡒save sinners󰡓 like a rescuer of a drowning victim. Then who are the sinners? They are those bound hellward, who are in fact every one of us. Therefore to say that Jesus came to save sinners is to say that he came to save me.
Although there were no one but me in the world, Jesus would still have come to save me. As the Bible says, 󰡒For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,󰡓 God sent Jesus for each one of us.
Therefore, when Jesus came to save sinners, this was for me. Because I am under the destiny to be born in sin, live in sin, and live in hell after death, Jesus came to release me from that destiny.
What should a drowning person do when someone comes to a rescue? He should stay still to make the rescue work easy. When someone falls into water, he holds fast to whatever is within reach, and in desperation he can generate an enormous force. If a rescuer is caught in his grips, both will die. So I heard that lifesavers do not touch the victim when he is pawing and splashing to get out of the water until he becomes too tired to struggle.
Inexperienced people will urge the lifesaver to hurry, but he will say, 󰡒It's OK for him to swallow some water. Let's wait.󰡓 When the victim becomes exhausted, then the lifesaver can pull him out just by dragging his hair. I even heard that if the victim struggles too much, then he gets hit out of his consciousness.
The same applies to how Jesus saves sinners. Although Jesus wants to save them, they are pawing and slashing hard to establish their own righteousness; they 󰡒work hard, strive, and serve loyally,󰡓 so much so that Jesus leaves them alone until they run out of their strength. 󰡒Until I fall down exhausted, carrying my heavy load alone,󰡓 (hymn) Jesus simply watches me. So when the rescuer comes, the drowning victim will be wisest simply to stay still and relaxed.
To have faith means to rely on, entrust myself to, and make request upon the object of faith. It is to relax all my strength and entrust myself completely to him. It is up to him whether he drags my hair or pushes me out. If he is a capable lifesaver, I will live, and otherwise I will die. My life depends on him. Therefore, I should let him completely take over. What happens next is the business of Jesus, and all I have to do is simply to watch his performance.
The Israelites came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses. After a while, they saw the Red Sea blocking their way, while the Egyptian army was chasing after them. Then the people complained to Moses, 󰡒Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?󰡓 (Exo. 14:11) Moses answered, 󰡒Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today...The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.󰡓 (Exo. 14:13, 14)
When Moses held up his staff and spread his hand toward the sea according to God's direction, the sea split and a path appeared. The Israelites safely passed through the passage between the waters. God moved back the pillar of cloud and kept the Egyptian army in darkness so they could not chase the Israelites any further. After their crossing was completed, God sent waters back upon the Egyptian army, then crossing the sea on the dry path, and drowned them all. The Israelites watched God's work of salvation while staying still. We can also watch God's work of salvation for sinners.
Jesus came to save sinners, did the work, and departed. When the Scripture says that God so loved the world as to give His only Son (John 3:16), the world here does not only mean the people of Jesus' time but all the people to come until the end of the world. For God treats people equally regardless of time. Jesus came to the world and departed. Then, did Jesus complete his work of salvation or not? Of course, he did.
If Jesus finished his work, then why is it that there are still people not saved? It is because people do not know about his work. They do not know what Jesus has done for the sake of their sin. As the hymn said, 󰡒Tears do not help,󰡓 󰡒Good works do not help,󰡓 and 󰡒Endurance doesn't help,󰡓 we cannot do it ourselves; as the hymn continued, however, 󰡒Faith will help. Believe in Jesus and rely on his work, and when you go to him, you will receive eternal life,󰡓 we simply have to believe.
The work Jesus has done is the grace given to us by God. Jesus completed the work of salvation. To have faith in Jesus means to believe in the work he did. To rely on his work is to rest upon what he accomplished. We will receive eternal life only by relying on the work of Jesus and going to him. People believe in Jesus and yet fail to attain salvation because they do not believe in his work while believing in him.
When asked, 󰡒Do you believe in Jesus?󰡓 some people answer, 󰡒Yes, I am a deaconess.󰡓 When asked, 󰡒Are you confident about your going to heaven?󰡓 they try to be humble and say, 󰡒Well, I am not worthy. I believe, but my faith falls short.󰡓 They are saying that they are not sure because they do not have enough faith. Does this mean that the work of Jesus is not good enough to send them to heaven, or that their merits are still short? This means after all that their own merits are not enough.
They say, 󰡒Others attend early morning prayers, but I am too lazy to do so. I sometimes skip Sunday service because I have to keep my store open. I am too stingy to make tithing. I am unable to live by the Bible, either. Sometimes, I even tell lies. So I do believe, but my faith is short.󰡓 In short, they are not confident about their eternal destination because their faith is not strong enough. This, however, is not humility.
To say, 󰡒not enough󰡓 means there being something rather than nothing, though not in the amount that will merit the heaven. Is that something faith? Although they call it faith, its essence is work. Talks of sufficiency and deficiency only apply when reckoning with work. Hence, not having enough faith can only mean not having accumulated enough merit through their own work.
Of course, our merits fall short. We need a hundred points to go to heavenly kingdom, and yet how many points do you have? 󰡒I only have fifteen. I raised it to thirty through early morning prayers, vigils, singing hymns, and making donations in the last spring revival, and then lost about twenty points while selling ice in the summer. Again, in the autumn revival, I repented deeply and gained thirty-five points, and then lost twenty points or so while selling sweet potatoes in the winter. I am surely unworthy.󰡓 Of course, we are lacking, to the extent of going to hell.
In light of the Bible, how many points have we scored so far for heavenly admission? Zero. Then, how many for hell? One hundred. We have a perfect score to go to hell. So we do not need more wrongdoings for admission to hell.
Sometimes we are good and feel as if heaven is beckoning us, and sometimes we turn evil and feel as if we are summoned by hell. This is to trust our own self in reality while trusting Jesus in words, for the one who turns good or evil is we. We are relying on what we have done rather than what Jesus has done.
To believe in his work is to believe in what Jesus has done in order to pay for my sin. It is entirely irrelevant how serious a sinner I am, how much sin I have committed, or how well I have practiced the law before God. Since I am a transgressor, the key is what Jesus has done to liberate me. Our being able to see the work he did is God's grace for us. Salvation comes through this realization. What, then, has Jesus done in order to save us?
8. The Christ Came in Order to Take Away Our Sin
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin (1 John 3:5).
Jesus came to this world in order to remove our sin. Coming to save sinners is to come to remove their sins. Because we are judged and sent to hell because of sin, Jesus has to root out our sin if he is to save us.
Then, how can he remove our sin? Just with God's boundless love? Not so. This would ruin God's justice. Sin must be paid for. Until then, sin cannot be resolved.
Can a criminal under death sentence be released from execution by making a sincere and serious plea? How about if he says that he will perform many good actions and pay for his crime? It will not work. As his crime and punishment has been determined by the law, if the criminal is to live, there has to be a law of substitution, according to which someone else can take the punishment on his behalf.
In principle, the punishment must be suffered by the one who committed the crime, for only this way, will justice be served. Hence, the sentence has been announced, and the offender has no way to avoid it. He is to die. However, if human beings, created in God's image for the sake of divine glory, go to hell through sin, God's justice may be served, and yet God's love will crumble, and His plan of creation fail. God's justice does not allow any exception to the rule that sin be paid for. On the other hand, God's love cannot bear to see a sinner being punished. Therefore, God has promulgated a law that serves both justice and love. This is the law of substitution, whereby the payment for the sin is made vicariously. A criminal sentenced to death can keep his life if someone else can die in his place. From such a consideration, God has established the law of substitution.
For instance, suppose that someone failed his business and filed for bankruptcy for a debt worth around one billion won. He has to go to prison because he cannot repay it. What must be done if he is to be set free? If some rich relatives or acquaintances of his can pay it on his behalf, he will be released. Likewise, the law of substitution says that death, which is the price of sin payable to God, can be suffered by someone else. The one who dies in substitution will do away with all liabilities. Since the 󰡒wage of sin is death,󰡓 there is no other way to resolve it than through death.
I heard that such a law has been used in the past. Suppose that someone who has a friend sentenced to death comes to a judge and says, 󰡒Sir, please let me die in his place. His family has no way to make their living once he dies. I am single, and I am deeply indebted to him. I want to repay the debt of love owed to him by dying in his place. Please allow me.󰡓 If the judge approves his vicarious death, then the sentenced criminal will not have to die. The judge can say, 󰡒A friend of this criminal has offered his life for execution on behalf of the criminal. So he is now free.󰡓 This release is fair. The law God has prepared for us allows vicarious death. This way, God establishes his justice and fulfills his love at the same time.
If Jesus, who came to 󰡒save sinners,󰡓 is to 󰡒take away our sin,󰡓 obviously he must be free of sin. A sinner cannot take over the sin of another, just as one inmate sentenced to execution cannot die in place of another such inmate and set the latter free. Hence, the one to die for our (sinner's) sake has to be innocent.
To say that a righteous person dies and pays for another's sin implies that forgiveness of sin requires a payment of life. Sacrifice of life is death and bloodshed.
Just as it has been God's law ever since Genesis that the price of sin is death (󰡒you will surely die󰡓), it is God's law that 󰡒without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (of sin).󰡓 (Heb. 9:22) By saying, 󰡒For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life,󰡓 Leviticus 17:11 explains that blood is life. In other words, when a living being sheds blood and dies, this blood pays for the sin. Today, scholars also say that life of the body, whether of human beings or animals, resides in the blood.
The Israelites in the Old Testament Age sacrificed animals as a sin offering in order to expiate their sins of violating the law. For this many lambs, goats, and calves were slaughtered. They killed a clean animal without defect, sprinkled its blood over the alter of atonement, and prayed to God, thereby making atonement for their sins.
They laid the burden of human sin upon these animals and killed them-sins of idol worship, murder, disobeying parents, adultery, theft, and so forth. They could be forgiven by sprinkling their blood and praying to God. Such a sacrifice was a part of the law imposed upon Israelites. Can human sin be washed away through animal's death, however?
The sacrifice of sin offering did not have true effect. An animal cannot die in place of human beings, nor can animal blood wash away human sin. 󰡒It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.󰡓 (Heb. 10:4) If animal blood is unable to wipe out human sin, then why did God command them to make the sacrifice?
Although it was not a true sacrifice, it was a ceremony performed under the promise that a real sacrifice would be made in the future. The Bible says, 󰡒The gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings-external regulations applying until the time of the new order,󰡓 (Heb 9:9, 10) and, 󰡒The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming...󰡓 (Heb. 10:1)
We can find an example of this in business. When a dealer buys goods to sell, he normally issues bills of debt in lieu of the cash payment because the dealer must sell these goods before having the money to pay. The bill says that the money will be paid at a certain time. A bill is not cash, and yet it is a promise that will work like cash when the time comes.
Of course, a bill may be dishonored because it is a human arrangement. The bill issuer may go bankrupt or deliberately engage in a bill fraud. In that case, the bill turns into garbage, and the trust of the bill bearer breaks down. This is an unusual case, however, and normally a bill is money of the promise that will be fulfilled on the due date. Moreover, because of the trust, it works like cash even at present. The bill bearer may cash it through a bill discount or use it to make a payment. This is possible because the promised money will be paid when the bill is due.
Likewise, the animal sacrifice was not a true sacrifice, but worked because it was God's promise. It had been God's promise that worked like a bill until the true sacrifice was offered by Jesus.
If we are to be absolved of our sin, a person must die in our place. Since the descendants of Adam are all sinners, however, some righteous person outside the fallen lineage must offer his life. So God prepared a sinless person outside the lineage of Adam. This is Jesus Christ. 󰡒But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin󰡓
700 years before the coming of Jesus, God promised through the prophet Isaiah, 󰡒Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.󰡓 (Isa. 7:14) The one born from a virgin was also the 󰡒offspring󰡓 of the woman promised by God before the fall of Adam and Eve. Since the descendants of Adam are all sinners, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin's womb in order to be born as a sinless human being. God borrowed the virgin Mary's womb for ten months and called him sinless because he was not a descendant of Adam.
Many people ridicule this by saying, 󰡒What a baloney! How can a baby be conceived without a man?󰡓 For they cannot comprehend the immaculate conception from their own experiences. But God can make it happen. Is God unable to cause a virgin conceive a baby?
God created the universe and life from nothing. We do not even fully understand the information contained in one of the seventy trillion cells making up the human body. Did I put in that information, or my parents? If we stop thinking from human viewpoint and consider God's standpoint, what is impossible becomes simply possible.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:6).
Ever since Adam, everyone has been a sheep lost from God. Just as a lost sheep becomes powerless and wonders around aimlessly, we, lost from God, have been wondering around on the road to ruin. We have followed the greed of the fallen body, but God has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all, a sin that we have been committing through a reckless life away from God.
What we should take note in the above verse is that it is God who loaded our sins upon Jesus. This did not happen because of our desperate plea, 󰡒Lord, please atone for our sin. Because of such and such sins, we will all perish unless you help,󰡓 nor because we confessed all our evil-doings and begged for forgiveness. Would our sins disappear just because we make a confession, when not a tiny iota of it can be taken away even by a full exertion of human religiosity?
Some revivalists say that we must confess our sins in order for Jesus to carry them away. When no work can help, however, of what use is confession, and is there anyone capable of confessing all his vice? Sins are committed knowingly, unknowingly, in action, and in heart. Even failing to do good constitutes sin. Can we remember even one-hundredth, or one-thousandth of them? No one can ever confess all his sin.
Even before we confess our sin, however, God knows all about us. Even before their birth, God knew about the birth of all the people. He also knew that they would be born as sinners, commit such and such sins, and go to hell because of these sins. Since God transcends time, he knows all these things.
The omniscient God has had Jesus bear our sin in transcendence of time, that is, even the sins of the future as well as those committed so far. 󰡒The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.󰡓
If God has laid our iniquity on Jesus, then who is to suffer the retribution of sin? Of course, Jesus is. God should certainly impose the judgment upon Jesus, and he ought to take it voluntarily.
Let us say that someone has failed his business and incurred a debt of a half million dollars. Since he has no way of paying even the interest, not to mention the principal, he is tormented every day. Concluding that there is no way out, he decides to commit suicide. Somebody finds out about this, however, and offers to pay his debt. He says to the creditor, 󰡒I will pay the half million dollars, and please write a receipt in his name󰡓 and clears the debt.
Then, the debtor has no more liability. It is the payer of the debt that is subject to whatever setback may ensue, and the debtor has been liberated from its burden. Likewise, since God commissioned Jesus to take over our sin, the judgment was transferred to Jesus from us. For God decided to receive the payment for our sin from Jesus.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isa. 53:5).
The crown of thorns on Jesus' head scratched his face, and the whip slashed his entire body. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, and he was pierced on the side, pouring out blood and water. The Bible says that his stabbing wounds were on account of our iniquities and defects. My sin stabbed and wounded Jesus, and my sin killed him.
God laid our sin upon Jesus and struck him with the whip of judgment. We are the ones who deserve the whip, and yet Jesus took it on our behalf, and his taking the whip has healed us. In other words, because he took over the judgment that originally belongs to us, we have become released from the liability of judgement.
At that time, under the rule of the Roman Empire, there was a capital punishment that nailed the criminal to the cross alive. When an offender was sentenced to an execution by cross, on the eve of execution soldiers stripped him naked, tied him to a pillar, and whipped him. Two soldiers struck in turn with a leather whip that had a horn or metal at the end, and it tore apart the offender's skin. Sometimes weak people died out of pain during the whipping.
Jesus took that whip. God struck Jesus with the whip of judgment that originally belongs to us sinners. His stabbing wounds were on account of our sin, and this has set us free from the judgment. This prophecy through Isaiah had been given 700 years before the coming of Jesus, and he came to fulfill that prophecy.
Now, there is something we should stop and think about. Some people say, 󰡒If God wants to save us, why can he not simply go ahead, for God has the power to do everything He wills, and there would be no one to oppose or criticize Him anyway? Why does He not say 'I will save you' with His absolute authority? Why does He have to go through such an ordeal to erase our sin, making His only Son carry the burden and leading him to death with whip and the cross? Why does he not cancel our sin unconditionally?󰡓
True, God is omnipotent, and He has created and governs all things with word. I, however, have discovered one amazing thing in the Bible: there is something even the omnipotent God cannot accomplish with word alone.
As far as salvation of sinners is concerned, God cannot achieve it simply with word. This God cannot do at discretion. Otherwise, would He have had to sacrifice His only Son? What if God could forgive our sin just with His word?
Then, God's justice and furthermore dignity and honor would be seriously undermined, for not only will God have infringed His own law, but also tolerated sin. The law has authority only when it is strictly enforced; if used according to convenience, it may as well not exist at all. If some powerful person applies the law at his own discretion, this would be another form of violence. From the standpoint of the weak, who would say that the law is just?
9. God's Justice and God's Love
The Bible reveals two important attributes of God. One is justice, as in the verse, 󰡒LORD is a God of justice,󰡓 (Isa. 30:18) and the other
is love, as it says, 󰡒God is love.󰡓 (1 John 4:16) God has two attributes, which are justice and love.
God's justice has manifested itself through the law, and the law expresses God's justice. Love, on the other hand, appears as grace. Although every one of us is doomed to perish as a transgressor before God's justice, that is, the law, any transgressor can be forgiven and saved through God's love. The justice and love are each complete in itself.
If God were only just and not loving, nobody would receive salvation, and all of us would be put to judgement and eternal doom. On the other hand, if God were only loving and not just, He would be able to save us without condition. Of course, Jesus would not have had to offer his life on the cross. Since God's justice and love complete each other, however, one cannot be ignored for the sake of the other. Rather, they must work together in harmony.
If God of justice judged and decimated the mankind, where would God of love be? This would only destroy God's love. On the other hand, if God of love tolerated and forgave sinners unconditionally, salvation may be accomplished, and yet God's justice would become completely violated. Then, there would arise a contradiction within God's nature, which is inadmissible. Justice and love must be realized together.
For instance, suppose that someone is taken to the court after committing a crime, and he happens to be a son of the presiding judge. The audience watches with acute concern how the trial will proceed. The judge starts questioning the accused: 󰡒What is your name?󰡓 󰡒I am so and so.󰡓 Then the judge realizes that it is his son. If the defendant says, 󰡒Father, it's me. Please forgive me,󰡓 and the judge says, 󰡒OK, my son, I will take care of it,󰡓 then will this be a fair trial?
If the judge were to remit his punishment, saying, 󰡒You are free because you are my son,󰡓 would the audience accept it, perhaps out of sympathy, and say, 󰡒It is unfair but understandable because blood is thicker than the law󰡓? No. They will immediately rise up in riot, shouting, 󰡒Kick out that judge. We cannot entrust him with the law.󰡓 Powerless people may follow the law, and yet justice is already shattered.
The judge and the accused are related under justice, while the father and the son are related in love. The latter relationship means nothing in the court, however, for they are facing each other as the law, rather than the blood, defines who they are. What matters is what punishment is pronounced against the offence. Even if the son says, 󰡒Father, it's me,󰡓 the judge will have to turn a clod face and advance the trial: 󰡒The defendant shall keep silent and only answer the question. What is your name?󰡓
󰡒Yes, sir. My name is so and so.󰡓 󰡒Have you committed the crime you are accused of?󰡓 If the defendant acknowledges it, or there is a clear evidence, the judge will pronounce the appropriate sentence according to the law. Suppose the judge says, 󰡒Pursuant to the so and so Paragraph and Article of the so and so Criminal Act, the defendant is sentenced to so and so imprisonment or fine.󰡓 Then, the audience will cheer the trial and respect the judge as a man of justice.
The son thus went to the prison. Because he could not afford to pay the fine, he had to live in prison for so many years. The justice had been served. Then the judge visited the criminal, this time as his father. The father asked the son, 󰡒You wretched soul, what have you done?󰡓 The son repented and answered him, 󰡒Father, I am sorry. I am really sorry. Please forgive me. I will never do this again.󰡓
Then the father said, 󰡒It's OK. You are my son, anyway. I will try to get the money for the fine.󰡓 He gathered up all the money and even sold his house, and paid the fine on behalf of the son. Thus, the son was released; the father's sacrificial efforts liberated him. This way, father's love has been realized. This is how justice and love are both fulfilled as each of them should be.
I will provide another example - an incident that is said to be real. A king announced a strict law over the entire country, declaring that any transgressor thereof would lose both of their eyes. Unfortunately, however, the one who broke the law first was the prince. He was then brought to the king in chain. The king decreed, 󰡒Take out his eyes as prescribed in the law.󰡓 King's officers prostrated themselves and begged the king, however, saying, 󰡒Your majesty, he is the only prince to inherit the kingdom. Please pardon him.󰡓 But the king insisted, 󰡒It is impossible. The law cannot be compromised, even for the prince. Take out his eyes, now.󰡓
The officers then tied up the prince and took out one of his eyes. As they moved on to the second eye, the king exclaimed, 󰡒Stop. Spare the other eye, and take one of mine instead.󰡓 The father did not want to see his son go blind. But who would dare to touch the king's eyes? The officers prostrated again and said, 󰡒Your majesty, it is impossible.󰡓 Then the king took out one of his own eyes himself with a gimlet. The officers could not say, 󰡒It is impossible󰡓 when the king was doing it himself.
It was justice to take out the eye in accordance with the law, while it was love for the king to take out his own eye, although it would have been a complete love had the king offered both of his eyes. Once declared, the law is absolute even for its promulgator. Even now, the law applies equally both to the legislators and judicial officers. God is a just legislator and judge. Collapse of God's justice would mean the loss of His authority and honor.
The justice of God says, 󰡒The wage of sin is death,󰡓 while His love says, 󰡒Someone can die in your place.󰡓 It is love for a righteous person to die for a sinner. Hence, the crucifixion of Jesus means a complete fulfillment of both justice and love of God. It is justice that sin must be paid for by death, and it is love that God's only Son has died for our sin. The cross represents a simultaneous realization of God's justice and God's love.
10. The Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 󰡒Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!󰡓 (John 1:29)
As John the Baptist said, 󰡒Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!󰡓 Jesus came to the world in order to fulfill the promise of the Old Testament. 󰡒Look at the lamb of God, carrying the sin of the world!󰡓 (Hymn)
󰡒Look!󰡓 To believe is to see. When we see Jesus through the Bible, he is a lamb of atonement prepared by God and upon whom God has laid the iniquity of the world. 󰡒The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.󰡓 The lamb of God died on the cross with the sin of the world. In order to fulfill God's will to save sinners, Jesus was slaughtered as a lamb.
When Jesus was carrying the burden of sin, did it include the sins of you and me? Of course, it did. Whether I know this or not, that is how God arranged it. Whether I acknowledge or believe it or not, Jesus took upon himself my sin, for the burden he carried included the sins of the entire mankind. 󰡒When I came to Jesus in sorrow and toil, Jesus took over my burden. His love became a joy in my heart. He took over my sin. He took over my sin.󰡓 (Hymn)
I came to Jesus with a turbulent heart, but when listened to him, I saw that he had already carried my sin away as well as sins of all of us. This holy person became a lump of sin, and where did he go with that sin? He carried the cross and went to Golgotha, the field of execution, in order to take the punishment. For the sin could not be expiated without a penalty of death.
As I explained earlier, Jesus was subjected to all kinds of abuse and contempt the previous night, and on the day of execution he personally carried the cross and was taken to the execution field. Because of the torture of the previous night and the heavy cross and merciless whips of the Roman soldiers on the way, he stumbled over and over while walking up the hill of Golgotha. His face was covered with blood exuding from the wounds of the crown of thorns.
I remember how painful thorns can be. When I was traveling through Israel, the tourist bus driver stopped the bus and pointed to a bramble. Its thorns looked like that of a hardy-orange, but much sharper. Some of our company went out and broke off a thorn. While I was also trying to break one off, a finger of mine got stung and bled immediately. They made a crown out of such terrifying thorns and put it upon Jesus, and the thorns were driven home into his head. Why was a crown of thorns put on his head?
Genesis narrates that through the fall of Adam and Eve, the ground was cursed to produce thorns and thistles (Gen. 3:17, 18). Therefore, by wearing the crown of thorns, Jesus wore on his head the curse of sin incurred by human beings. As Isaiah says that human thoughts are always evil (Isa. 59:7), the sin committed by human brain placed the crown of thorns upon Jesus.
On the hill of Golgotha, Jesus was nailed in the hands and feet to the cross he had carried. He was raised high between the heaven and earth and between God and the people. 󰡒The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all,󰡓 and Jesus took the punishment voluntarily. He took the cup of death for the sake of God's glory, his own glory, and the glory of the heavenly kingdom to be given to us.
The large nails pierced his holy hands because of the sins of our hands, the nail penetrated his feet because of the sins of our feet, the spear pierced his chest because of the sins of our hearts, and the whip struck, and the cross lifted his body because of the sin of our bodies. In short, our iniquities brought him to death.
He was crucified at nine in the morning and breathed his last at three in the afternoon; for six hours, he suffered extreme pain and insult. He seems to have died a bit early because of the torture he had received the previous night. With the final word, 󰡒It is finished,󰡓 (John 19:30) he dropped his head and breathed his last.
When a Roman soldier stabbed his side with a spear from underneath, his heart was punctured, and the remaining blood and water gushed out. 󰡒At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.󰡓 (Mat. 27:51) The Bible relates that this terrified a Roman centurion into saying, 󰡒Surely he was the Son of God!󰡓 (Mat. 27:54) If I had been there, what would I have said?
Two thieves were crucified next to Jesus, while Jesus was placed in the middle because he was considered the heaviest offender. His face under the crown of thorns was being washed with blood. Blood was streaming from his hands and feet, torn by the nails and bodily weight, from wounds of the whip, and from the chest pierced by the spear. The ground below the cross was a puddle of blood.
Had you been there to watch the scene, you must have thought, 󰡒Ah, truly miserable. What kind of crime had he committed that he had to die like this? What was the crime?󰡓 won't you? Did Jesus have a crime? The Bible says, 󰡒In him is no sin.󰡓 He is the one who has said, 󰡒Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?󰡓 (John 8:46) Then why did he have to die such a gruesome death? Whose sin did he atone for? For the sin of the sinful, that is, for my sin.
The miserable shape of Jesus on the cross is my own shape; that is how wretched I am as a sinner before God. So I do not have to try hard to see how wretched a sinner I am because I can just bring up the image of Jesus on the cross. His image is my own image under punishment; this is how frightening my curse of sin is before God. Although I am the one who must suffer such a dreadful curse and punishment, God imposed it upon Jesus instead of me. All the curse and judgment belonging to us was taken over by Jesus.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:7, 8).
󰡒He was crucified with all my sin. Why? What a grace! His love is boundless.󰡓 (Hymn) The death of Jesus for sinners like me fulfilled God's love to save us. The cross completely fulfilled both justice and love of God.
11. One Died for All
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2 Cor. 5:14).
Here, the 󰡒one,󰡓 of course, means Jesus. If Jesus died for all, then does this include you and me? God has included us. 󰡒He (Jesus Christ) is the atoning sacrifice (propitiation - KJV) for our sins, and not only for ours (Christians) but also for the sins of the whole world.󰡓 (1 John 2:2)
The one person Jesus died for all. The holy one, and not an ordinary person, received punishment on our behalf. This is the love of the Christ for us. When there is someone who has died for us, is it right that we go on without knowing him? If the one person Jesus died for all, and therefore all died, then did we die or not before God? We are all sinners deserving death, and when Jesus died, we died with him. God made a law that allows a righteous person to expiate others' sins, and offered Jesus for the sake of the substitution.
On the way to the execution field, Jesus did not complain about the injustice; instead, he declared, 󰡒No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.󰡓 (John 10:18) In other words, he did not die from injustice but voluntarily in order to remit our sins in accordance with the law. And through his death, we have been judged and died as sinners before God.
Some people may say, 󰡒How can one person die for all?󰡓 So let us reflect on this. Through how many people's sins have we become sinners? Through the one person Adam, the first human ancestor. Through his sin, Adam first became a transgressor before God, and then the entire descendants of his. As we learned earlier that 󰡒sin entered the world through one man,󰡓 󰡒the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men.󰡓 (Rom. 5:18) In consequence, we are all sinners in Adam from the very birth.
God chose Adam as the representative of the mankind. As a result, Adam's becoming a sinner rendered the entire mankind sinners, and Adam's being expelled drove away the entire mankind from God. In short, One person's destiny determined the destiny of all. Just as we were not born by choice, we have become sinners not by choice but by the sinful lineage, and commit sin not by choice but by being a sinner.
Therefore, it would be unjust if, under such circumstances, we were to be judged and sentenced to hell with no assistance. In that case, we might even wage a demonstration in hell, saying, 󰡒God, this is not fair!󰡓 or 󰡒Go away, God.󰡓 So God prepared a measure to eliminate the unfairness.
The measure was sending one representative like Adam, and this was Jesus. 1 Cor 15 refers to Adam as 󰡒first man Adam,󰡓 and 󰡒Adam󰡓 means a human being. It then calls Jesus 󰡒last Adam.󰡓 Just as the first Adam represents the mankind, so does Jesus, the last Adam. Adam is the representative who sinned, and Jesus is the representative who has made amends for the sin. This is why it says, 󰡒one died for all, and therefore all died.󰡓 Just as God included all the mankind in Adam when we became sinners, God placed the sin of all the mankind in Jesus, who is an Adam, and put him under judgment.
Without even knowing, we have become sinners in Adam, and again unknowingly our sins were resolved in Jesus. This was God's arrangement, and for whatever reason God did this, we do not have to argue about it. At any rate, whereas we had been born sinners and living sinful lives in Adam, our sins have been expiated in Jesus. Adam's destiny was over at this point, and this is why Jesus is called the last Adam. All the sins of Adam and the consequent penalties have been cancelled at the cross of Jesus.
When Jesus was punished on our behalf by the suffering of the cross, are we subject to punishment or not? We should be exempt from the punishment. When Jesus took care of our retribution by death, if we still suffered another penalty, then what good would be his blood? Did Jesus die meaninglessly? No. By means of his blood, God has made our punishment or hell unnecessary. This is explained in the Bible as the measure God has taken in order to save us.
12. Jesus Purified Our Sin
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (Heb. 1:3).
The utterance of Jesus at the final moment of death, 󰡒It is finished,󰡓 means completion, accomplishment, or paying off; it meant that Jesus completed the payment for the sin and thereby the work of saving sinners. Jesus, 󰡒after he had provided purification for sins,󰡓 resurrected and ascended to the heaven and 󰡒sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven󰡓 Jesus shed his blood in order to make the substitution for our sin, and rose from the dead and ascended to the heaven in order to have us believe in our complete absolution. As we pay tax and get a receipt as a payment certificate, the resurrection is a certificate of the expiation of our sin.
The resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples. Showing his hands and feet, he blessed them, saying, 󰡒Peace be with you.󰡓 (Luke 24:36) By this he meant that they could rest in peace because their sins had been pardoned by God. Suppose that someone went into a heavy debt without any means to repay it, and another person appears and says to him, 󰡒I have paid off your debt. Look at this receipt and the seal.󰡓 If this is certain, then the debtor will be able to rest in peace. Notwithstanding the remark, 󰡒'There is no peace,' says my God, 'for the wicked,'󰡓 (Isa. 57:21) Jesus has liberated us from the retribution of sin and brought us peace by finishing the work of redemption.
The Old Testament is God's promise to forgive our sin, and the New Testament the certificate of its extirpation. Jesus stamped on the promise with his blood, and with the Holy Spirit put his seal in the hearts of those who accept it. Without expiating our iniquity, Jesus would not have been able to rise from the dead; hence, his resurrection is a proof of the forgiveness of our sin and God's acceptance of the sacrifice of atonement.
After his ascendance Jesus is alive as a witness for us before God. He testifies to the expiation of our sin, saying, 󰡒God, look at this blood. I have shed it and died for the sake of this individual,󰡓 whereupon God says, 󰡒It is good.󰡓 What is the Bible? It is another receipt given to us that records the fact of atonement.
There is a hymn line: 󰡒I have received many proofs for faith in Jesus.󰡓 Then what are these proofs? 󰡒These are the Scriptures that testify about me...󰡓 (John 5:39) The Bible, which bears witness to the works of Jesus, is a receipt God has given us, and when we come to believe in Jesus, we receive it as a proof.
󰡒The blood of my Lord is so pure. The Lord has purified my sin and beckons me.󰡓 (Hymn 186) Which is right, the Lord will purify or has purified my sin? The Lord 󰡒has purified󰡓 my sin. Is he beckoning me in order to purify my sin or because he has purified all my sin? He is asking us to believe that he has cleansed our sin.
Our sins are not removed because of our faith, however. For what merit does faith have? Before our having faith, God was already paid by Jesus the price of our sin, which cleared all our debts of sin. Jesus is asking us to believe this. 󰡒The blood that purified me contains much love.󰡓 (Hymn) 󰡒Jesus purified me; his blood cleansed me whiter than the snow.󰡓 (Hymn)
As the Scripture says, 󰡒Do not call anything impure that God has made clean,󰡓 (Acts 10:15) can we call ourselves 󰡒impure󰡓 when Jesus has purified us with his blood? Whether we believe it or not, this is a fact already realized by God.
13. Eternal Redemption and Complete Salvation
Christ... went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:11,12).
The Israelites in the Old Testament Age offered a sacrifice of atonement with lambs, goats, or calves. This, as we considered earlier, is like issuing a bill of debt. They believed in Jesus by beholding him from afar. But we cannot keep receiving just bills. Just as the bill must be turned in for cash when it is due, Jesus as the substance of sacrifice had to come in place of the goats and calves.
Hence, Jesus came and completed at once the eternal sacrifice of atonement with his own precious blood like a lamb without blemish, rather than with animal bloods. Jesus achieved eternal redemption that is effective in transcendence of time, from the beginning to the end of human history, and 󰡒entered the Most Holy Place once for all.󰡓
Redemption means that Jesus has atoned for our sin, through which we have been forgiven of our sin before God. 󰡒I sing hymns in great peace because I am redeemed through the blood of Jesus the lamb. Oh, redemption. Jesus has redeemed me.󰡓 (Hymn 189) Jesus has made the substitution for us, and there is no more amends to be made for our sin. In other words, God has so arranged that we no more have to fear God because of our sin.
The blood of Jesus has purified the sins of all the people to come after him until the end of the human history, not to mention those of the people before Jesus. Through Jesus, God has absolved the entire mankind, from Adam to the last person to be born; in short, Jesus has achieved eternal atonement.
The biblical meaning of eternity is twofold: one simply refers to a long time or history, and the other infinity, which continues without beginning or end. We have time distinctions, talking about a few thousand years before and a few thousand years after. God, however, does not have such a thing. In the heavenly kingdom there will be no clocks of calendars; there, we will enter the eternity with God.
God is eternal. The eternal God started human history. We can say that human history is a result of carving out and unfolding a fringe of the world of eternity, which is like a circle. The history thus started will some day come to an end, and eternity will resume. Hence, the history including the lives of you and me is nothing but an intermission between eternities. From God's point of view, the time of Adam's birth and time of the world's end are but one. Time is long only from human point of view, and even a long time is but an instant for God.
The eternal atonement is possible from such a viewpoint of God's. By offering 󰡒for all time one sacrifice for sins,󰡓 Jesus has made us 󰡒perfect forever󰡓 (Heb. 10:12, 14) because all our sins have been forgiven by God eternally and completely. This is effective in all ages and for all human beings, and for an individual, over his past, present, and future.
It is out of question that God has removed all our sins, committed from birth until now. The people of the Old Testament Age believed that their sins would be forgiven, and we believe that ours have already been. We, however, may commit sins again as we live on because our living bodies may err or transgress. Although we may vow never to slip again, we may still repeat our evil ways regardless of our determination. So what happens to our misdeeds in the future? God has forgiven them as well.
Whose teaching is this? It would be a serious problem if you say, 󰡒It is pastor Lee's teaching󰡓 because this is explained by God in the Bible. The Bible is testifying to this, and God takes responsibility for what the Bible says. God's word that Jesus has obtained 󰡒eternal redemption󰡓 never changes, nor does God's promise. Because it is eternal atonement, our forgiveness also has eternal validity. God has absolved us of the sins of the past, present, and future. 󰡒What I can say for eternity is that it is only through the blood of Jesus. Also our purification is only through his blood.󰡓 (Hymn)
After preaching for two years, I realized that I still had not been born again. I was deeply tormented by the thought that I would go to hell after death. Although I had heard over and over again and also preached that Jesus had died for us, my eyes had been still closed to the gospel.
I was quite grateful for Jesus to have offered his life, but I could not rest in peace. I even had a thought, 󰡒Wait. Jesus died almost 2,000 years ago, and his blood dried up. Then what does this have to do with me now?󰡓 although I did not express it in words. This made me feel that the death of Jesus was one thing, and my agony was another. In short, I could never understand what the death of Jesus meant for me. I kept wondering, 󰡒What does Jesus, who died almost 2,000 years ago, have to do with me?󰡓 This may sound strange, but I believed and yet could not believe. Jesus died, and yet I was still suffering on the other side. Can you understand this predicament?
We go to church, professing a faith in Jesus, but we still feel stifled and troubled in the heart because of our trespass. We keep shedding tears of repentance in the church, asking, 󰡒Lord, what shall I do?󰡓 We believe, and yet we cannot believe. What is the reason for this? It is that we have not clearly realized what effect the blood of Jesus has on us.
Amid this confusion, at 8 p.m., on October 30, 1962, the verse, 󰡒He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption󰡓 fell on my ears and struck me to the bone. That night, I saw the verse for the first time. Although I had read the New Testament for about fifty times and Old Testament thirty times just during my seminary years, still that night was the first time I had ever seen that special verse. As there is a saying that beans are stuck in the eyes, I had not been able to see it because of the blockage in my eyes. We do not see the Bible just because we have eyes, but only when God opens our eyes with spiritual wisdom.
Hearing the word that 󰡒he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption󰡓 and he is still living as my guarantor, I exclaimed, 󰡒That's right! Now I am well.󰡓 That night, I truly believed for the first time the word that my sin had been eternally erased. 󰡒The cross, the cross. When I beheld it for the first time, it removed the great affliction in my heart.󰡓 (Hymn) That night, I saw the cross of Jesus for the first time, and became rid of the torment of sin in my heart. 󰡒I believed today, and my eyes opened; my joy is eternal.󰡓 (Hymn) How delighted I was! Jesus made an eternal atonement for my sin! I pinched myself to see if it was a dream or real. 󰡒Ah, this is real!󰡓
For a criminal sentenced to execution, death is imminent. When his inmate number is called, it may his last day. If the call, however, is for special amnesty, he will keep his life. In our society, some prisoners are released through a special presidential pardon. If their pardon is a real one, the inmates will jump with joy. They will want to dance around on the way out of the prison gate.
That night, I was so happy that I was not even aware that what I was experiencing was salvation or rebirth. I was certain about one thing, however: my sin had been eternally removed. I sang and sang the hymn 189, which goes, 󰡒I sing, shattering the doubts filling my mind and in a deep peace, for I am forgiven through the blood of the lamb. Oh, the atoning grace! Jesus has atoned for my sin.󰡓 Of course, I had sung it before. During revivals, I clapped hard and sang it 󰡒with doubts filling my mind and in a deep frustration.󰡓 It had been a song outwardly, but a lamentation inwardly.
Whereas I had sung it with doubts filling my mind and in a deep frustration, now I was singing it, shattering the doubts filling my mind and in a deep peace. The third verse goes, 󰡒I surely believe I am forgiven through the blood of the lamb,󰡓 and the second verse, 󰡒Not through such perishables as gold or silver, but through the blood of the lamb of holy God.󰡓 I sang and sang, and still wanted to sing again. I knew that I could not go to hell any more because I had no sin, which associated me with hell, and I could only go to the heavenly kingdom. How grateful, how grateful I was!
I understood later that this was salvation and rebirth. It has been thirty-six years since that experience, but the joy is still fresh every day. There is no greater wonder in the entire Bible. What can be more amazing than the fact that God's only Son gave himself to the cross, shed blood, and eternally atoned for our sins? What can be added to the blood?
Some people object, 󰡒Although Jesus atoned for us, this is not enough to qualify us for the heavenly kingdom. We need to understand something more.󰡓 And some insist that despite the atonement of Jesus, we must complete our salvation with good deeds. Is this true? Do we have to add something to Jesus' blood in order to complete the salvation? What can we add to his work? Can we dare to add anything from us to the merit of his blood?
The blood of Jesus released us from sin and uplifted us as children of God. Although I am not worthy, I rely on his blood to be able to pray to and go to God. His blood is enough from the beginning to the end, not only for freeing us from the destiny to hell but also for bringing us to the heavenly kingdom.
It is not in order to add any support for our heavenward journey but out of boundless joy and gratitude that after our salvation we strive to obey God and live and even die for Jesus. There is truly no other reason than the joy and gratitude. Anyone who insists that we need to add something to the blood of Jesus is sure to be a liar.
Salvation cannot be achieved except through eternal atonement. In other words, if only the sins of the past are atoned for and not those to be committed in the future, salvation cannot materialize. For without an expiation of the future sins, what if I stumble again after being absolved? Since 󰡒the wage of sin is death,󰡓 new sins will nullify all the atonement made so far. So if the atonement is only for the sins up to the present, we will have to die immediately after the atonement lest we slip into wickedness again and lose the ticket to heaven.
If this is inadmissible, then Jesus will have to die over and over again in order to take care of our failures after salvation. Concerning this, the Scripture says, 󰡒Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.󰡓 (Heb. 9:25, 26)
If the blood of Jesus were unable to make an eternal atonement, Jesus would have to die repeatedly just as they slaughtered the lambs continuously in the Old Testament Time. Jesus, however, offered himself as the sacrifice of atonement once and for all, putting it into effect for the eternity. Jesus appeared at the end of the world in order to remove sin eternally by dying once, and this has concluded the judgement. The cross put an end to the sins of the Old and New Testament people. It is finished at once for eternity, and this is the eternal atonement.
󰡒And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.󰡓 (Heb. 10:10) God willed to pardon us through the death of Jesus, and following this will, Jesus sacrificed his own body and made us holy. To be holy means to be sinless.
Through computers, we can see criminal records of offenders. They hang around shamelessly, but if their records show on their faces, would they be able to do so? What if someone's criminal records are erased through some special policy, and the computers shows a clean record for him, however? Then how joyful he must be! Likewise, God has removed our records of sin kept with God.
If we commit a crime, although it may be a human affair, it is brought to God. Because this constitutes a violation of God's law, God must forgive them, and human forgiveness will have no meaning. If we are to be forgiven, our sin must be completely removed before God. To say that we are made holy does not mean that our hearts and lives have become holy; in other words, it does not mean that sin is removed from us, but removed before God. Have you attained holiness? You can put yourself in the phrase, 󰡒We are made holy,󰡓 and say, 󰡒I am made holy.󰡓 God has purified my sin that is recorded with God.
Again, the reason why we fail to reach salvation despite our faith in the death of Jesus is that we do not believe in eternal sacrifice and atonement-because we believe in the blood only partially. Only eternal atonement can bring eternal forgiveness, and only eternal atonement can bring eternal salvation. The gospel is complete. You can substitute your name for the 󰡒so and so󰡓 in the following statement: 󰡒Only for the sake of the sin of so and so, did Jesus Christ offer one eternal sacrifice and sit on the right hand of God.󰡓 God will not find fault with the statement.
When asked, 󰡒Whom did Jesus die for?󰡓 some people say, 󰡒for the sake of the sin of the whole world.󰡓 When asked the same question again, they answer, 󰡒For the sins of all people.󰡓 When asked the same question once more, they say, 󰡒For us.󰡓 Now, when asked, 󰡒How about your own sin?󰡓 they answer, 󰡒I am deeply troubled for my sin.󰡓 They know the world, all people, and we, and yet forget about their own self. While they are focused on themselves in grabbing things of the world, they omit themselves in talking about salvation.
󰡒My sin is forgiven. My sin is forgiven. Through the blood shed by the Lord, My sin is forgiven.󰡓 (Hymn) Faith believes that the substitution performed by Jesus has atoned for my sin along with that of the world. Faith makes one-to-one connection between me and Jesus. I will take an example. At night, all the houses were lighted up except for one. The owner of this house called the energy company and asked, 󰡒Why aren't you sending electricity just to our house? It is dark here.󰡓 The company replied, 󰡒It cannot be. Electricity goes to all houses.󰡓 The conversation continued: 󰡒No. We didn't get it here. Please send it quickly.󰡓 󰡒Did you turn on the switch?󰡓 󰡒What is switch?󰡓 󰡒Turn on the switch, please.󰡓
Later on, the house owner called the company again: 󰡒Hello. I climbed up the pole, shaking the cables and banging on the pole, and yet no light comes on.󰡓 󰡒Don't you know what a switch is? It is a little thing sticking out by the door. Flip that on.󰡓 󰡒OK.󰡓 He turned on the switch, and the light came on. 󰡒Wow!󰡓 Why was it so difficult to turn on the switch? When was the electricity invented, power plants built, and electric cables connected to every house? He simply had to flip the switch.
Having faith is just as easy as turning on the switch because it is to believe what has been all accomplished. Faith is making an individual connection to what God has already achieved. It believes that not only has God forgiven the sin of the world but also my own sin.
14. God No More Remembers Our Sins and Lawless Acts
Then he adds: 󰡒Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.󰡓 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin (Heb. 10:17, 18).
The Bible says that Jesus has made a complete payment for sin. Then, where is it that my sin is removed? Is it in my heart or in God's heart? Does sin disappear from the heart of the forgiver or the forgiven? It is in the heart of the forgiver that sin disappears. For instance, let us say that I hit a boy very hard for almost no reason. I will forget it quickly, although I may regret a little for having been so harsh. But this is like a sin to the boy because he did not deserve it.
The boy will be living with a grudge and every time he sees me, he will think, 󰡒You beat me for nothing. Wait and see. When you get old and I become a man, I will get back to you.󰡓 In this case, where does the sin reside? Not with me, but in the heart of the boy, and it will not disappear until the boy forgives me in the heart. Just as sin disappears from the boy's heart through his forgiveness, so must our sin be removed from God's heart, who is the forgiver.
What is the reason why God does not remember 󰡒their sins and lawless acts󰡓? It is because 󰡒these have been forgiven,󰡓 that is, God has forgiven our sins and lawless acts through the blood of Jesus. This is a matter already completed. This is why it says that 󰡒there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.󰡓 Sin and lawlessness do not vanish without a sacrifice of the righteous, and God has received all His due from Jesus. Therefore, there is no further need for a sacrifice of atonement.
Despite this explanation, there are still people who say, 󰡒OK, the Bible may say so, but I want to see if the sin is really removed.󰡓 After looking into themselves, they say, 󰡒Well, I have the same filth inside.󰡓 They will find nothing within their hearts, however. The Bible says, 󰡒He who trusts in himself is a fool...󰡓 (Pro. 28:26) Why do they look into their hearts? Rather, we should believe in God's heart. Do you see God's heart? This message of the Bible is God's heart. Look. Does His heart not say that He no more remembers your transgression?
Suppose that I have wronged someone. This suffocates me, and every time I see him, I become anxiously struck by the thought, 󰡒What will he think of me? He may put me into prison for that.󰡓 So finally I decide to visit him and confess, 󰡒Sir, I have betrayed you a few years ago. Please forgive me. I am here because I have been so agonized.󰡓 Then he says, 󰡒What are you talking about? I have forgiven and forgotten it long time ago.󰡓
󰡒Really? Is this true?󰡓 󰡒Surely, it is.󰡓 󰡒Thank you, thank you.󰡓 Then do I have to worry any further about the wrongdoing? If he has forgiven it and taken it out of his mind, then it is resolved. In this case, if someone comes and threatens me, saying, 󰡒You have wronged him. I will tell him to get even with you, or give me some money,󰡓 will this frighten me? What can scare me when I am already forgiven by him? I would say, 󰡒Go ahead, tell him.󰡓 But upon hearing him, the forgiver would say, 󰡒You scoundrel, I have forgiven him, and it is all resolved. Why are you making trouble with it? Go away.󰡓
The devil drives us into sin and accuses us, 󰡒I will tell God about it. God will not accept a wretch like you. You are not eligible for the heavenly kingdom.󰡓 But a believer of the word can say in confidence, 󰡒You devil! God has said that He no longer remembers my sin. The supreme judge has acquitted me, not because He overlooked my offence but its penalty has been paid pursuant to the law. So don't fuss around.󰡓 God did not lie when He said, 󰡒I will remember no more.󰡓
What is faith? Was my sin not forgiven when Jesus, the only Son of God, laid down his life for a sinner like me? Of course, it was. No matter how large my sin is, the accomplishment of Jesus is even larger, and so is God's love. Jesus' blood is more than enough to expiate my sin for eternity. God said that 󰡒she [Israel] has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.󰡓 If the debt was one billion won, two billion was paid, and if the debt was ten billion won, twenty billion. In other words, our sins have been amply paid for. Since God says that He will no more remember my sin, faith says, 󰡒Yes. Your word is truth. Thank you so much.󰡓
Even after listening to all the message of the Bible, some people still wonder, 󰡒But I heard that something hot comes to you when you believe. Is there not something hot?󰡓 Does the Bible say that we are saved by believing and receiving something hot, however? Or do we need a hot experience to be able to believe something? Suppose that a son has made some mistake for his father, and begs for his forgiveness. The father forgives him, and yet the son says, 󰡒Although you say you will forgive me, I am still missing something hot.󰡓 Then the father will have to slap him in the face, saying, 󰡒I will make you hot. Now, I forgive you.󰡓
Why do we need something hot in addition to forgiveness? These days, people tend to rely on strange things. The Bible is God's word and even God himself. 󰡒Although my eyes see no proof, and my ears hear no sound, when I stand firm upon God's word, giving up my emotions, the incomplete salvation will become complete, and what I hold will be held by the lord.󰡓 (Hymn) That is right. When we stand upon the word, without relying on emotions, the incomplete salvation becomes complete. 󰡒I believe, standing firm on God's word that Jesus has redeemed me from sin.󰡓 (Hymn) Where do we stand firm and believe? On God's word. We simply have to believe the word of the Scripture. This is faith.
Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17).
We just have to believe the word as it is. When the Bible says that God has forgiven our sins, then He indeed has. Just because someone says, 󰡒Jesus has not atoned for my sin,󰡓 is his sin not forgiven? Yes it is. When the Bible declares that his sin is forgiven through the crucifixion of Jesus, his sin indeed is, no matter how he responds to it. When God says that He will no more remember the sin, then He indeed will not, and when He says that he has absolved us eternally, then He indeed has.
Are you still not assured even with God's word? Those who still do not believe this think of Jesus' blood as ditch water. Those who challenge, 󰡒How can his blood expiate my sin?󰡓 think of God's word as a total lie. While they recognize the graveness of their sin, they fail to understand the immensity of the achievement of Jesus and God's love. The blood of Jesus is more than enough to atone for our sins for eternity. To reject this love is the greatest sin a human being can commit.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace (Eph. 1:7)
In the Christ, in accordance with the riches of God's grace, that is, the grace God gives without limit, and through the blood of Jesus, we have attained redemption, which is the forgiveness of sins. It does not say that we will receive it in the future; God has redeemed us already through the blood of Jesus.
If you are asked at night, 󰡒Is this night or day?󰡓 or 󰡒Do you believe that it is night?󰡓 you will surely answer, 󰡒It is night,󰡓 or 󰡒Yes I do.󰡓 If you are asked further, 󰡒Is it really night? Do you really believe that it is night? Why do you believe it so strongly?󰡓 you will answer, 󰡒Because it is night, my friend.󰡓 Even if the questioner persists, 󰡒It's quite bright, though, so can we not just believe that it is the day?󰡓 you will still give the same answer. It is night not because you believe so but because it is really the night. It is because of the clear fact that it is night.
Our faith is also based on the realized fact. As the night does not become the day just because someone insists on it, our faith is not something to be forced. We firmly believe in the forgiveness of sin because it is a fact. It is a fact that Jesus came to the world, was crucified and resurrected, and ascended heavenward while many people watched him. The Bible explains the fact.
God has absolved us through his blood. Our sins are forgiven because the atonement is a fact, and not because of our faith or for other reasons. And because the forgiveness is a fact, we believe the fact as it is. To say that not everything is forgiven is to deny the fact. We have been redeemed, or forgiven, through the blood of Jesus.
Some people may find this unbelievable because it is such an incredible fact. If someone gives you for free a lump of gold of the size of the Bible, would you believe it? You will probably say, 󰡒Please don't joke around.󰡓 People seem to feel similarly about salvation. After attending days of Bible lectures or reading faith literature, they believe that salvation is very difficult to attain; upon encountering the gospel, however, they hear that salvation is easily available. They then walk away from faith saying, 󰡒after speaking so seriously about salvation, is it this simple after all? I thought it was almost like picking up a star from the sky, and now I feel so empty.󰡓
Salvation is easy for us, but do you know how difficult it is for God? As I explained earlier, although God created the universe with his word, He could not achieve the human salvation with his word. For this, He had to send His only Son to the earth and lead him to death on the cross. When God paid such an incredible price after having planned it for a few thousand years, can you say that it was easy? The receiver of the gift of salvation can simply receive it, and yet it was prepared through the sacrifice, torment, and death of the only Son of God.
It is easy for the users to turn on electricity, but we should consider how much effort, time, and money had been spent before the electricity became easily available for us. The invention of electricity, building of the power plants, bringing electricity to the consumers all involved no simple procedures. Likewise, believing is simple because it is not doing or creating something but simply accepting something that is ready-made.
15. Salvation Is the Gift of God
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8,9).
Earlier, we have learned that 󰡒in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.󰡓 Forgiveness of sins is the same as salvation. Whether you believe it or not, your sin has been paid for. However, this becomes yours only if you believe it. If you believe that God has forgiven your sin, you will be forgiven. This is salvation, and this is how God saves us.
I have explained that it is purely through God's grace that we are saved through faith; hence, this is God's gift to us and not something we have obtained ourselves. You must have received gifts. When you receive them, do you pay for them or are they free? When you receive expensive gifts, do you have to pay at least a little bit because you are so grateful and also feel sorry for the giver? No. If you did, then it would only hurt the giver's feelings. However expensive the present may be, its giver has paid for it, and the receiver can simply take it for free.
Salvation is God's gift. God has paid an expensive price for it, a price that is too high for any human beings. In order to save me, God has sent His only Son and led him to the cross, and through his blood I have been saved. To believe this is to receive the gift from God. A gift is something that is simply received, after which it becomes mine. Without receiving it, however, it will not become mine.
For instance, suppose I give a watch to someone for a present, but he declines it. I can offer it again, but if he keeps refusing to accept it, I will have to take it back. He may regret this later, but it will be too late then. It is a good manner to receive a gift with gratitude when it is offered with sincere heart. If the recipient keeps rejecting it, how offended will the giver be?
Faith accepts the gift of God. When God offers us forgiveness of our sins, that is, salvation, faith receives it with gratitude. To receive is obedience, and not to receive disobedience. To receive the gift of forgiveness leads to salvation, and not to receive it to destruction. We do not go to hell because of the heaviness of our sin, but through rejecting the rich grace of God.
The gift of forgiveness is 󰡒not by works󰡓 but from God; therefore no one can boast of it. I was destined to hell, no matter what would do, and yet I am saved through God's grace. 󰡒My life-long pride is only the cross󰡓. (Hymn) I live my life for the sake of the Christ in joy and gratitude for the grace. In the next chapter, I would like to examine salvation in more detail from another perspective.
V. The Way of Cain and
the Way of Abel
Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, 󰡒With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.󰡓 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, 󰡒Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.󰡓 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, 󰡒Let's go out to the field.󰡓 And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, 󰡒Where is your brother Abel?󰡓 󰡒I don't know,󰡓 he replied. 󰡒Am I my brother's keeper?󰡓 The LORD said, 󰡒What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.󰡓 Cain said to the LORD, 󰡒My punishment is more than I can bear.󰡓 (Gen. 4:1 ~ 13)
1. The Way to Eternity and the Way of Life
Genesis 1 describes how God created the heaven and earth, plants, animals, and human beings. Genesis 2 narrates God's giving of the commandment to the first human beings in the Garden of Eden, and Genesis 3 the first sin committed as they broke the commandment. Genesis 4 then talks about how human beings can be restored back to God after committing the sin, that is, the way of salvation. Hence, if we are to title the first few chapters of Genesis, chapter 1 can be titled the order of creation, chapter 2 the beginning of the law, chapter 3 human sin and the consequent pronouncement of curse, and chapter 4 the first gospel.
After the fall of Adam and Eve, Abel was the first one who was saved through God's grace, formed the right relationship with God, and found the way to eternal life.
Adam and Eve had their children outside the Garden of Eden. Among them, Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God, but God received Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's. In today's terms, between two people equally going to church, praying, and believing in God, God accepted one and not the other.
Many people know that those without faith in Jesus are judged by God and sent to hell, but not so many seem to know that there are many even among the believers who are to be judged and expelled from God.
You must be well aware that the Israelites rejected Jesus, although they were born as chosen people, learned the law as soon as they started to speak, and fervently served God through such practices as reciting the Scripture, offering tithing, fasting, and praying. You may think that this was a foolishness practiced only by the Jews long time ago and is irrelevant to the present, but it is not so. Even today, there are many among the ardent practitioners of faith who are condemned to the inferno.
2. The Narrow Gate and the Wide Gate
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Mat. 7:13, 14).
The narrow and the wide gates do not refer to the distinction between believers and unbelievers; rather, it warns us by pointing out that among the faithful there are two kinds of people. Some believe and go to heaven, while some believe and go to hell. 󰡒There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.󰡓 (Pro. 14:12) There are many roads that look right in human view but are wrong in God's sight.
Churchgoers say, 󰡒I believe in both God and Jesus, so I will go to the heavenly kingdom.󰡓 Jesus, however, said, 󰡒Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'󰡓 (Mat. 7:21 ~ 23) Those who say, 󰡒Lord, Lord󰡓 are the believers, and to do the will of God is to believe in His Son Jesus Christ and attain eternal life (John 6:40). No one can enter the heavenly kingdom through his own righteousness. Somebody asked Jesus, 󰡒Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?󰡓 and he said, 󰡒Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.󰡓 (Luke 13:24) By this he meant that among those who seek to enter the heaven, there are more who will fail than succeed. What would be the reason for this, and how can we find it out? This is a very serious and important problem. We should examine whether we belong to the group of believers to ascend heavenward or to the other, hell-bound group.
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Cor. 13:5)
As this verse says, we should examine in light of God's word whether my faith is one that God acknowledges. We do not become Christians by going to church but only by having the 󰡒Spirit of Christ󰡓 as it says, 󰡒And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.󰡓 We should have a faith such that 󰡒the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children (Rom. 8:16)-that is, a faith testified to by the Holy Spirit. Although I may be praised and respected for my faith in the church, without having Jesus in me I am deserted by God.
3. Two Kinds of Sacrifices
He replied, 󰡒Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.󰡓 (Mat. 15:13,14)
Those who take pride in their baptism, church positions, and faith without having God's seed and the new life through the Christ will be plucked out by God. Do you know today how many people are blind in Christianity and how many people have turned blind by following the latter?
Why do you think that God received Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's? Some theologians argue that God predestines the people from whom He receives a sacrifice and the people from whom He does not. Genesis 4, however, is not setting forth a theory of predestination. If we do want to talk about predestination, we can say that rather than God predestines an individual in such and such a way, his destiny falls into either group as a result of his choice.
Cain was the elder brother and Abel the younger brother. The elder's sacrifice God did not accept, and yet the younger's God did. Abraham, the founder of the people of Israel, had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, and Ishmael, the elder son, did not receive God's promise, while Isaac, the younger son, received it. Moreover, Isaac had Esau and Jacob as twins, and Esau, the earlier born, lost God's blessing to Jacob, the later born. Then, what is the meaning of this pattern-failure of the first born and promise of the second born? The question for us is not whether we are first born or second born.
The first Adam in the Garden of Eden failed, but Jesus the second Adam accomplished God's will. The question is whether we as an individual are in the first Adam or the second Adam. To be in the first Adam signifies an individual's destiny wherein he stays not reborn under sin, death, and God's wrath and judgement from the very birth. No matter how hard they may pray to and work for God, they in fact have nothing to do with Him. We can gain God's blessing and eternal life only when we are in Jesus the second Adam.
With his death on the cross, he put an end to the fate of Adam, and with his resurrection, he became the second Adam and a new representative (1Cor. 15). The first Adam was a sinner, and the second Adam a righteous person.
We are born sinful in Adam at physical birth, and born righteous in Jesus at spiritual rebirth; just as we have become sinners in the one person Adam, so we become righteous in the one person Jesus. Through our spiritual rebirth, we move from Adam to Jesus, and from death to life. To those who abide in Jesus Christ, all of God's blessings are promised. So the story of Cain and Abel demonstrates these two moments of life rather than a divine choice for or against an individual with respect to his eternal destiny. For salvation is determined by the responsibility of each individual.
Many people misunderstand the sacrifice of Cain and Abel. When I was little and going to a Sunday school, I heard my teacher saying, 󰡒Folks, Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God, Abel devotedly, and Cain carelessly. So God accepted Abel's sacrifice only. Hence, we should worship God with all our heart and zeal.󰡓 And I believed it.
When I learned the Bible later, however, I realized that the teacher's view was incorrect. What is at issue is not whether we are devoted and zealous for God. When it comes to zealousness, I think Cain worked much harder than Abel. He could not have offered a careless sacrifice because it was the first sacrifice for establishing the right relationship with God. In eagerness for God, Cain must have toiled to prepare the cream of his crops for the offering. Abel, on the other hand, simply slaughtered a lamb from his flock, an effort that must have been much lighter than Cain's.
When I was pastoring a countryside church for the first time, people would bring the finest of their harvests in the time of Thanksgiving-the largest pumpkins, thickest radishes, best-looking cabbages, and so forth. They brought to God whatever was the best, the best-looking and best-colored, piled them up before the pulpit, and sang praises to God: 󰡒Give thanks. Give thanks. Give thanks to God, offering the best to Him.󰡓 They were indeed very rich and charming offerings, and Cain's offering must have been the same. He must have made special efforts in order to bring the finest of his yields.
Abel, on the other hand, offered a lamb. Animal youngs are cute only when alive, and turn ugly when dead. God accepted the ugly offering, with streaming blood, loose intestines and blood smell. I think I would have preferred Cain's offering. Some people may say, 󰡒It was because God liked meat than plants.󰡓 In Psalms 50, however, God asks whether He would be delighted by offerings of sheep or cow when all the animals are His. This, then, contains a secret.
Genesis 4 does not give a clear answer to the question why God only accepted Abel's sacrifice. The answer, however, is found in Hebrews:
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead (Heb. 11:4).
Now, do you see the reason for God's favoring Abel's sacrifice? The answer is found in the word, 󰡒by faith.󰡓 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain, and was commended as a 󰡒righteous man.󰡓 This means that God said to him, 󰡒You are righteous.󰡓 God accepted him as a person with no record of sin but only of righteousness. This is salvation. Whereas Abel sacrificed 󰡒by faith,󰡓 Cain lacked that faith. What, then, is faith?
Many people have incorrect or vague understanding of faith. Some equate going to church with faith, and some regard religious fervor as diligent faith. The term 󰡒faith,󰡓 however, cannot be qualified by such a word as 󰡒diligent.󰡓 For is it right to say, 󰡒I believe diligently that I am a Korean citizen,󰡓 or 󰡒I believe diligently that this plane is going to the United States󰡓 while on the plane? There is no such a thing as diligent faith in the Bible. Rather, there are even people who work intensely all their lives without having even a thread of faith.
The faith involved in Abel's sacrifice is the same as the faith when we talk about believing in Jesus. Faith is not merely to acknowledge a fact, but to trust and to entrust ourselves. It is neither knowing nor doing something. The faith acceptable to God is to rely on and entrust ourselves to God after understanding His heart and will and realizing how He has prepared the path whereby we can reach Him. Where, then, did Abel acquire such faith?
4. Faith Is to Hear and Understand the Message
Romans 10:17 says, 󰡒Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.󰡓 The Scripture, which is a message about God, tells us about the heart of God, what God desires and wills, and how we sinners can go before God. God has spoken to us about the way to God, and planned and prepared the way to salvation. Faith understands this through the word.
Abel must have had chances to hear from God, and Adam and Eve must have told their children often about the Garden of Eden: 󰡒How nice it would be had you been born in the garden! In the garden there were no travails or any curses like here; it was just full of joy and happiness. We were talking with God daily and lived in bliss.󰡓 The children then must have asked why the parents became so miserable now.
Adam probably said to them: 󰡒Well, one day, your mother was tempted by a serpent to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and then pressed me to eat it also. Being a sympathetic man, I took the fruit. Then, do you know what happened? I started to feel what I had not before-I felt ashamed of my nakedness. It did not matter before, but now we started to see our nakedness and started to fear God. So we made skirts out of fig leaves, and it was the first clothes ever made. But during the day, the sun dried up the leaves and just a few of our getting up and down ruined the skirts. By the night, only stalks were hanging, and it was just as good as not wearing them.󰡓
Adam went on: 󰡒All of a sudden, God called us, 'Adam, Adam.' Terrified, we hid ourselves in the forest. But God kept calling us, and I had to confess, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.' Then God scolded me, saying, 'Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?' I tried to put the blame on your mother, saying, 'The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then God rebuked her, saying, 'What is this you have done?' He said to her, 'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.' And to me he said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 󰡒You must not eat of it,󰡓 cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food, and to dust you will return.' After this our couple got expelled from the garden, and curse and travails started in the land from that time.󰡓
Adam's tales continued: 󰡒Before our expulsion, God brought two animals. While we were still hiding in the forest out of shame, God slaughtered them, and they died with a shriek and gushing blood. That was the first time we had witnessed death; how surprised we were! Then, God skinned them and made clothes out of the skin from His own design, and you see, this is the clothes.󰡓
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Gen. 3:21).
The leather clothes Adam and Eve wore were the first clothes God made. Why, then, did God make the garments for them instead of casting them out naked? Good leather clothes are expensive, and how much more fascinating their clothes must have been when they were made in God's hands?
God's making clothes for them meant that although God was driving them out because of their sin, He promised to prepare a measure in the future whereby human sins could be covered. He promised that after people fully experienced the consequence of their disobedience, He would cover their sins by sending Jesus Christ and leading him to death for the substitution. Redemption means to cover or conceal. God promised to cover our sins with the blood of Jesus, although, of course, Adam and Eve could not have realized the deep meaning of the clothes.
During the story Abel must have realized something. 󰡒Ah, that's it.󰡓 In our common expression, 󰡒He got the idea.󰡓 Although we may hear the word, it would be of no use if we end with simply saying, 󰡒It was a nice talk.󰡓 󰡒For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.󰡓 (Heb. 4:2)
It is because the hearer fails to combine what he hears with faith that he does not grasp the word. Just as a bowel turned upside down cannot contain even a drop of rain, no matter how much of it falls, so the ears without faith fail to take the word into heart. Even if we may pick up a big diamond, we may give it away or lose it without regret unless we know its value. Hence, it is important to understand the value of what we receive.
After hearing Adam, Cain and Abel probably had a discussion: 󰡒Our parents lost communication with God and were expelled from the garden through disobedience. But is there any way we can be reconciled back to God? Right, let each of us offer a sacrifice to Him.󰡓 So the two brothers decided on the sacrifice, and Cain gathered fruits of the soil, while Abel slaughtered a lamb.
When Abel was offering the sacrifice, must he not have prayed: 󰡒Lord, I cannot dare to pray to you because of the offenses of my parents. When they were too ashamed to stand before You after their fall, You clothed them with animal skins in order to cover their shame. I know that the innocent animals shed their blood in order to cover their sin. Likewise, I have also slaughtered and bled a lamb for the sake of forgiveness of my sin. Lord, behold this blood, and cover my sin as well and accept me.󰡓
A sinner cannot go before God with sin still residing in him. Even an iota of sin in me will set me as an enemy of God. Since sin is remitted only with price, forgiveness of sin requires a shedding of blood or sacrifice of life; since 󰡒the wage of sin is death,󰡓 (Rom. 6:23) and 󰡒without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,󰡓 (Heb. 9:22) there is no other way of atonement than through blood.
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life (Lev. 17:11).
Only death through shedding of blood can atone for sin, and Abel understood this. During the story of his parents, Abel hit upon the principle of redemption as God's method of human salvation. This is why he slaughtered and offered a lamb as the carrier of his sin. Through the faith in this truth, Abel was justified before God.
Abel sought forgiveness, relying on the blood of the lamb, and God accepted the faith with joy. As a sign of God's favor upon the Abel's sacrifice of atonement, God sent fire from the sky and consumed the offering. The assurance, 󰡒Abel, you are now righteous, and your sin forgiven. I have now saved you󰡓 meant his salvation.
How glad Abel must have been! 󰡒Thank you, Lord, for receiving my sacrifice and accepting me.󰡓 Abel now had a spiritual and living communication with God. Abel then must have asked his brother, 󰡒Cain, I am all done, and how about you?󰡓 Cain probably answered, 󰡒I am still in the process,󰡓 and continued to pray intensely, saying, 󰡒Lord, please answer me, please.󰡓 But there was no news, although before, when he had seen Abel's simple offering, he had been so proud of his own offering and looked down upon Abel's.
Cain thought that since his offering was superior and much better looking, and had been prepared with sweat and zeal, God would welcome it with joy. When this expectation was shattered, however, he started to complain against God: 󰡒How can this be? God accepts my brother's poor offering, and yet He turns deaf ears to my earnest prayer. How can this be?󰡓 Abel could have added fuel to his frustration, saying, 󰡒It's too bad for you. It went well for me, but too bad for you.󰡓 This must have stirred up thoughts of murder and anger against God in Cain's heart. Genesis narrates that 󰡒Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.󰡓 Then God rebuked him, saying, 󰡒Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?󰡓
󰡒While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.󰡓 In other words, Cain became the first murderer. With regard to this, the Scripture admonishes, 󰡒Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.󰡓 (1 John 3:12) The evil one is Satan; after splitting God and the humans and causing their expulsion by tempting Eve, now Satan incited their son to kill his own brother. This was a work of the devil.
As Jude 1:11 says, 󰡒Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain...,󰡓 how many people are like Cain? Even after decades of church life, they are still in the dark about salvation and rebirth, and even with a devoted service to God and efforts to improve their faith, they are still frustrated and uncertain about their own salvation; if these people hear that someone who had been evil and staying outside the church until only a few days ago understood the gospel and were saved, or born again, they will never be able to digest it. Moreover, they will become offended and even hateful when they hear that a lifelong membership with the church is useless without salvation, and they must be born again.
What did such hatred lead to? Jesus says that the one who hates murders, and we often see an escalating hatred consummated in murder. The devil, who worked through the Jewish religious dignitaries to murder Jesus and his disciples, infuses jealousy in the hearts of the worshippers who are not reborn, and inclines them to persecute the believers. Jesus spoke about this when he said, 󰡒Anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.󰡓 (John 16:2) If they are given an authority over the fate of the believers, they may even attempt to decimate Christians.
There are simple religionists with the name of believer, and Christians, who have been awakened to the truth of salvation. Religionists exert their passion to earn an admission to the heaven, whereas born-again Christians live their lives as a return for God's grace with a full assurance of their heavenly entry. It is common throughout the ages that the one without God's promise persecutes the one with God's promise. For instance, Cain killed Abel, Ishmael beat Isaac, and Esau, after losing the blessing by voluntarily selling his birthright to Jacob, tried kill Jacob. 󰡒At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.󰡓 (Gal. 4:29) Hence, rather than thinking of it as odd, we should understand that this is in accordance with the Scripture.
5. Prayer of a Pharisee and Prayer of a Tax Collector
Luke 18:9 ~ 14 tells us about a Pharisee and a tax collector, who form a sharp contrast.
Although we may think of the Pharisees as vicious killers of Jesus, they were admirable people in keeping religious duties. Even the most diligent worshippers today will find themselves lagging behind the Pharisees. Fasting twice a week, making strict tithing, refraining from such deeds as extortion, injustice, and fornication in accordance with their prayer, they intensely strove to live by the law, and lived a holy and righteous life. They made long prayers and eagerly engaged in charitable activities as well.
On the contrary, tax collectors exacted unfair taxes from their own brethren, keeping some of it and offering the rest to the government. Hence, we can say that prostitute and tax collector were like a pronoun for sinners. Although the tax collector in the story had much sin, he seems to have been desirous of salvation from sin.
A Pharisee and a tax collector pray in the temple. The Pharisee prays with his hands raised, looking up to the heaven. His posture is solemn and graceful. He goes to the front of the temple, spreads his hands, lists his acts of righteousness as I mentioned earlier, and thanks God for his righteous life and not being like that tax collector.
What he uttered in the prayer was not incorrect. Compared with the sinful tax collector, the Pharisee was much more righteous in anyone's assessment. Anyone seeing the two pray would have nodded in approval. But the Pharisee was ignorant of one thing: despite all his endeavors to live a more righteous and law-abiding and better life than others, this cannot be accepted by God as righteousness.
Jesus says, 󰡒Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.󰡓 (Mat. 5:20) What kind of righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law? The Pharisees thought that murder only consists in the act of killing, but Jesus says that even harboring hatred constitutes murder, and feeling lust counts as fornication. In other words, the higher righteousness decrees that we be blameless in heart not to mention in action.
Such righteousness, then, is humanly impossible, for it demands that we surpass the Pharisees and the teachers of the law in heart as well as in action. Therefore, Matthews 5:20 in fact implies that human beings are unable to attain such righteousness. The righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law may look admirable in human eyes, but it is like 󰡒filthy rags󰡓 in God's sight (Isa. 64:6). Anyone trying to stand before God in such a rag, which cannot conceal shame and disgrace at all, is like a Pharisee.
Now, how about the tax collector? 󰡒But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'󰡓 (Luke 18:13) Standing afar off, and beating his breast with his face down, he prays, 󰡒God, have mercy on me, a sinner.󰡓 Whatever misdeed he performed in plundering the weak, his sins are too many to count. The tax collector deplores, calling himself a heap of sin.
God, however, justified the tax collector, and this seems utterly incomprehensible. How did the sinful tax collector become justified before God, whereas the self-righteous Pharisee was not?
We should first understand what the righteousness means when we talk about being justified or being called righteous before God. God does not justify us because we perform righteous deeds; rather, justification issues from God's grace through faith. God justifies us for free when we clearly recognize our being sinners and go to God, relying on God's mercy. God justifies us when we confess our iniquities as the tax collector did and go to God, completely depending on His decision and grace for our forgiveness and life, and this is God's righteousness.
I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels (Isa. 61:10).
When Adam and Eve confessed their nakedness, God clothed them. That clothes was God's righteousness. When Adam said, 󰡒I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid,󰡓 God bled animals and made a garment of skin for him. Likewise, when we discover ourselves as wretched sinners, confessing our wickedness to God and seeking His mercy, He will answer us, 󰡒I have died for your sin and redeemed you with My blood. Rest in peace, for I have justified you.󰡓 God's righteousness consists in clothing us for free with the 󰡒garment of salvation󰡓 to cover our sins. By God's righteousness, we can go to God.
The tax collector relied on the mercy of God, who had pity on him, whereas the Pharisee relied on his own righteousness and work. Like the Pharisee, Cain came to God with what he had prepared with sweat and zeal. This makes sense from a human standpoint-the thought that we have to do something in order to be worthy of God.
There is one thing we should know, however. Can the yields of the cursed soil gained through the sweats of the doomed human beings please God, other than being needed by such human beings? Would God accept what He has cursed? 󰡒If you are righteous... what does he receive from your hand?... your righteousness only the sons of men.󰡓 (Job 35:7, 8) No matter how hard a cursed person tries, he can only produce cursed results. This point Cain did not understand. Cain represents those who rely on their own works, and so does the Pharisee.
Like the tax collector, on the other hand, Abel relied on God's sympathy, forgiveness, and mercy. Rather than his own work, he depended on God's grace. He knew that if God showed mercy, he would live, and otherwise he could only die. No matter how grave one's sin may be, God's mercy does not come with condition. God could not take Cain's offering, however, because there was no sacrificial offering, which is blood, but only his work. Because there was only his work, there was no room for God's sympathy, mercy, and grace to enter.
God has prepared a way whereby sinners can come before God, and this is the blood of the Christ. Without the blood, our sins cannot be forgiven. Without the forgiveness of sins, there is no salvation, and we cannot come before God. Without forgiveness, we can only be condemned. And for the sake of the forgiveness, the price must be paid with death.
Before the liberation of the Israelites from the 400 years of Egyptian slavery, God struck down the eldest sons of the Egyptians. Why did He kill the eldest sons? The eldest son is the heir, and the eldest son of Egypt signified the heir of the world. God did not create human beings in order to bring bliss and hope to the earth. There is no hope or happiness in the earth, and thus it is not a place for us to be attached to. What God wants to give us is the eternal new heaven and earth and eternal life, and yet we have abased ourselves into beasts. As such, we seek only what we can sense, that is, worldly and physical things, and this is the sin for which we will be judged before God.
We may think that we go to hell by doing something radically evil, but those who pursue only earthly things and seek worldly happiness, although they may not be seriously evil, are already violating God's providence and purpose of creating us. For instance, if a father prepares something precious to give to his son, and yet the son refuses it and goes around begging for his daily necessities, this is a great betrayal of the father and serious offence. It is a sin deserving destruction for the human beings, created in God's image to attain eternal life and glory, to debase themselves into beasts. The Scripture says, 󰡒A man who has riches (who is in honor - KJV) without understanding is like the beasts that perish.󰡓 (Psa. 49:20)
6. The Passover Lamb
In the night when God struck down the firstborns of Egypt, God instructed the Israelites to slaughter their lambs and put their blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses, according to Exodus 12. In the past, Korean people cooked bean pastes in the winter solstices, and sprinkled the paste here and there in order to cast out demons, and this might have originated from the Israelites' putting lamb blood on the doorframes. God told them to put the blood this way and stay still in the houses. That night, every Egyptian household went into mourning because all their eldest sons, from the king's son to slaves' sons, turned cold.
Israelites, on the other hand, put the blood outside the house and safely enjoyed the lamb meat inside. They spent the night of the judgment eating lamb meat with clothes, shoes, and canes, and in exuberance of leaving the loathsome land of Egypt the next day. Meanwhile, their Egyptian neighbors were sending screams, and the entire land of Egypt was covered with the wailing for the firstborns. A majority of households had eldest sons, but why were the Israelites spared? It was because of the blood on the doorframes. Although there could have been people who did not feel safe even with the blood, all those who followed God's instruction escaped the calamity. For God never lies.
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt (Exo. 12:13).
It was God's promise when he said: 󰡒When I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you...󰡓 No matter what they thought, the households that had put the blood escaped the judgement of death, while those who had not were struck. It was God who saw the blood and who sent the judgement. God's word gave them security and assurance, and averted the plague for them. It was because their lambs died and shed blood in place of their eldest sons. God looks for blood.
The Bible refers to Jesus as a Passover lamb: 󰡒Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.󰡓 (1 Cor. 5:7) As the word literally means to 󰡒pass over,󰡓 the Jewish Passover commemorates the passing of God's judgment over the Israelite households because of the lambs slaughtered in place of their elder sons. The Bible, then, means that just as the lamb was slaughtered in place of the Israelite firstborns, Jesus became a Passover lamb by dying in order to liquidate the curse and judgement to be inflicted upon the mankind.
In the night before his death, Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, 󰡒My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.󰡓 (Mat. 26:39) Jesus was facing a cup of judgement, which contained the curse of all human sin. If Jesus was to accomplish God's will according to the purpose of his advent, he had to drink the cup. Just as in the traditional Korea they gave a bowl of deadly poison to a major traitor, so Jesus had a cup filled with the curse of human sin. Jesus knew very well what this cup of punishment meant, and because he had a physical body like us, he could not have been indifferent to pain. Had Jesus refused to take the cup, then we would have to drink it and fall into hell.
Saying, 󰡒My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done,󰡓 (Mat. 26:42) however, Jesus obeyed God. God's will was that Jesus drink the cup and die so that we can be spared the judgment. Just as the death of the lamb kept the Israelite firstborns alive, through the death of Jesus God's judgment passed over us. What does God look for? Neither our sin, nor our good deeds. He sees the blood of Jesus, as He said, 󰡒When I see the blood, I will pass over you.󰡓 The lambs slaughtered in the Passover symbolized Jesus.
The Old Testament people had a day once a year when they sought before God a forgiveness of their sins of the past one year, and this was called the Day of Atonement. On this day, they slaughtered two goats and drew lots, according to which one goat was made to carry the sin and thrown away in the desert, where it was bound to be devoured by wild beasts or starve to death. Looking at this scapegoat being sent away to the desert, the Israelites thought that the innocent goat was carrying away their sins. The other goat also carried the sin, and was slaughtered on the square bronze altar and presented as an offering of atonement (Lev. 16:8 ~ 10, 18 ~ 22). Then, with the blood of the goat, they made a sin offering in the Most Holy Place.
The Israelites had the tabernacle, where they made the sin offering as well as other worships and sacrifices. God dictated to Moses the pattern of the tabernacle. As shown in the picture, right after the entrance there is a bronze altar (alter of burnt offering), where they made burnt offerings by slaughtering animals. After the basin comes a tent looking like a provisional structure and contains the Holy Place before the curtain and the Most Holy Place behind the curtain.
The goat's blood was poured out to the ground except the amount the high priest took with him to the Most Holy Place through the Holy Place. Inside the Holy Place, there were a table of showbread, seven lampstands, and a golden altar of incense. The Most Holy Place behind the curtain had the ark of the Testimony, which contained the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments, Manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. Above the ark of the Testimony, there was the atonement cover (whose Hebrew word is 󰡒Kapar󰡓, which means 󰡒to cover󰡓), over which they sprinkled the blood and sought the forgiveness of sin. The atonement cover was also called, 󰡒seat of grace,󰡓 which means a place where grace is given. The seat was made in such a way that two angels looked down from there.
As for the Most Holy Place, where sins are forgiven by God, the high priest entered there once a year with the blood, and sprinkled the blood seven times over the atonement cover on top of the ark of the Testimony and prayed to God. This was like receiving the final stamp on the sin offering with the blood of the goat that died on the altar of burnt offering for the sake of the sins of the Israelites. Meanwhile, the people were fasting all day and praying outside the tabernacle. The high priest wore on his neck the breastpiece of decision, which contained the names of the twelve tribes, and his robe had gold bells around its hem. If the high priest entered the Most Holy Place without the blood, he would die.
The fact that the high priest was alive in the Most Holy Place, where God was present, sprinkling the blood and praying, meant that God accepted the sin offering. The sins committed after this sin offering was to be atoned for on the Day of Atonement next year.
The sin offering, made once a year, was a symbol of Jesus' substitution for the human sin through crucifixion. The scapegoat, carrying the sins of the Israelites, symbolized Jesus, who, according to John the Baptist, was 󰡒the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.󰡓 (John 1:29) Although the scapegoat took away one year's sin of Israelites, however, Jesus took away the sins of the entire mankind for eternity and once and for all. The square shape of the altar indicated the entire world in all four directions, and the goat slaughtered on the altar symbolized Jesus, who was to die on the cross.
The high priest, who poured out the blood and then carried some of it in the bowl to the Most Holy Place, symbolized Jesus in resurrection and heavenly ascension. After Jesus 󰡒had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.󰡓 (Heb. 1:3) 󰡒He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.󰡓 (Heb. 9:12) The high priest's annual offering in the Most Holy Place as 󰡒copies of the heavenly things󰡓 (Heb. 9:23) used goats, but the Scripture says, 󰡒heavenly things themselves [shall be purified] with better sacrifices than these,󰡓 (Heb. 9:23) which means that the true sacrifice to be received by God should be made with the blood of Jesus Christ, a lamb without blemish.
7. The Christ Is the High Priest for Us
󰡒For Christ (after his death and resurrection) entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.󰡓 (Heb. 9:24) After making the sacrifice for the humanity, Jesus appeared before God. Instead of following the method of the high priest of the Old Testament Age, which required death every year, Jesus 󰡒has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.󰡓 (Heb. 9:26)
Even now, he is praying for our sake, sprinkling the blood before God. The gospel says that Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended, and is now praying for us. The gospel says that he has atoned for my sin as well.
Had Jesus not made the substitution, he would not have resurrected. The living Jesus is still 󰡒ceaselessly pleading with the Lord to forgive my sin before the holy throne.󰡓 (Hymn) To say that he is praying for our sin means that he is guaranteeing the completion of the payment for the sin. He prays, 󰡒Behold, Father! I have died for them. I have died for the sins of Mr. Chung, Mr. Park, and such and such a person. Look at this blood,󰡓 and God says, 󰡒It is done.󰡓 The Bible is guaranteeing this for us.
Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them (Heb. 7:24, 25).
Through whom do we go to God? Through Jesus. To go through Jesus means to rely on the work of Jesus, in which he emancipated us from sin by dying in our place and resurrecting. Do we rely on our own work? No. 󰡒Although I am unworthy, God will receive me as I rely on Jesus...󰡓 󰡒I go with empty hands and hold on to the cross.󰡓 (Hymn) Although I have no righteousness, I proceed as a miserable sinner with empty hands, only waiting for his help.
Faith relies on his work. If I go to God, relying on my own zeal, devotion, and righteous acts, I will be cursed and die. So I go only by depending on the work of Jesus. The Christ, who has died for us and resurrected, is living before God.
Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high (Job 16:19).
Suppose that I have become indebted to someone for about one billion won. In such economic crises as now, such a thing can happen quite commonly through business failure. I am struggling day and night because the interest is increasing like a snowball, and yet I have no ability to repay even a fraction of the debt. Nor can I run away or commit suicide. Someone generous and rich who knows me well, however, comes along and says, 󰡒Alas, he can't go on struggling like this over the debt. He may even die out of the worries. I should pay his debt,󰡓 and clears his debt including the interest.
Suppose, however, that after clearing my debt, the benefactor dies in a traffic accident on the way to visit me with the good news. Do I still worry about the debt? Of course, I do because I have no idea about the payment. The debt has been removed, and yet the witness is not present. I cannot but continue in the torment because there is no witness or proof. Even if the creditor finds out about this and demands another debt payment from me, I will have no way to stop him.
Had Jesus not been resurrected, we would have no way of knowing whether he died for our sin or simply through some unjust conspiracy. I even heard that a grandfather, when asked, 󰡒Why did Jesus die?󰡓 said, 󰡒Probably because of his own sin.󰡓 He cannot help saying this because he does not know that Jesus died for him. The resurrection of Jesus is a guarantee of God's having received his sacrifice and forgiven our sins.
What if the benefactor is alive and well and comes to me and says, 󰡒Now, your debt have been all erased, and here is the receipt󰡓? No matter how wicked the creditor may be, he will not be able to come to me and demand another payment. Likewise, Jesus, who made amends for our sins, is living as our witness, and the receipt is here-the Bible. The Old Testament was a promise that our sin would be forgiven, and the New Testament a confirmation that our sin has been forgiven through Jesus, for Jesus has put his stamp upon the Bible. 󰡒I have many proofs for believing in Jesus.󰡓 (Hymn) This proof is the Bible. As it says, 󰡒I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth,󰡓 he will come back to us.
8. Redemption Is for the Sake of God's Glory
There is one thing we should know in relation to God's forgiveness of our sin through Jesus.
I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more (Isa. 43:25).
For whose sake does God say that He blots out our sin? For His own sake. It is for His own glory that God liquidates our sin through the death of His only Son and saves us. This is not to say that He has no regard for human beings, but this is a matter to be considered later.
If human beings, created in God's image for His glory, all go to hell, God will become someone who has failed. If children go astray or die, then the parents suffer in their hearts as well as the children themselves. So parents give their utmost to the children for their own sake as well as for the sake of the children, and children's success brings honor to the parents. Likewise, our suffering in hell does not glorify God; our salvation, then, is for the sake of God's glory. Therefore, for His glory, I myself must be saved first. God blots out and forgets our transgressions for the sake of His own glory.
A prodigal son lost from the father afflicts and saddens the father's heart, and his return is wholeheartedly welcomed by the father. Because God saves us for His own glory, the salvation is very surely complete and certain. When I buy a watch, I make sure of my ownership by making the payment because it is for me that I buy it. Also, when in case of a fire parents desperately try to rescue their own children, it is for their own sake as well as for the children. Likewise, God's salvation has to be thorough because He does it for His own sake as well as for us. This is why He said, 󰡒I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.󰡓 It is not salvation if I feel beckoned by the heaven when tilting a bit towards goodness and summoned by hell when tilting a bit towards evil. Rather, salvation is carried out by God 100% completely and thoroughly.
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you (Isa. 44:22).
There was a thick cloud of sin between God and us. Although sin is committed by people, it is placed before God because the law violated by it is God's law. To blot out is to erase off. God is not asking us to return in order to be forgiven but because we are forgiven. We believe the fact of forgiveness, and to believe is to return.
Many people, however, return to the church but not quite as far as to God. Although they pray in the church and profess faith in God, they still hold on to their sin and keep asking for forgiveness. They always carry the consciousness of sin, and thus tremble with fear, although God has already forgiven them.
Let us say that a son stole ten million won from his father. The parents will be outraged, but if the son does not come back, and a few years pass by, will they be agonized over the money or over the son? As time passes by, the parents' love for the son will melt away their grudges about his wrongdoing like snow in the spring. They will perhaps put an advertisement on the newspaper with a heart that says, 󰡒You bad boy, just come back and show me you are alive󰡓: 󰡒***, I have pardoned you completely, and please come back with peace. Your mother got sick because you did not come back.󰡓 Do we not see such advertisements often? If the son does come back, will the father accept him or not?
God's love is greater than any parents'. God's love, which says, 󰡒Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!󰡓 (Isa. 49:15) is more than enough to forgive our iniquities. God is asking us to come back because we are completely forgiven. To this effect He has put an advertisement in The Isaiah Daily, for can we not consider the Scripture God's newspaper? He calls everyone back, speaking to them in all the languages of the world.
When the prodigal son of the Bible returned to the father, father welcomed him: 󰡒But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'󰡓 (Luke 15:22 ~ 24) Does the son not represent us, and the father God? To put the best robe on him means clothing us with the garment of salvation through Jesus so that God no more sees our transgressions. The ring on the finger is a sign of promise that says, 󰡒You are my son,󰡓 and by putting sandals on the feet, God says to us, 󰡒Never leave Me again.󰡓 Slaughtering the innocent fattened calf for the son indicates the death of the innocent Jesus in order to bring back a sinner like me to join God's delight. To say that the son was 󰡒dead and is alive again󰡓 and 󰡒lost and is found󰡓 means that whereas I had been spiritually lost and dead away from God, I became living and found by coming back to God. To return to God means to believe in the forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Jesus and show gratitude, for when we believe this fact, God will accept us. Apart from the grace, we cannot go to God or attain salvation; hence, we should rely on the work of Jesus alone.
If the son sees the father's advertisement, and yet only thinks about his sin and refuses to return, which is more grave, the sin he committed already or the sin of not returning? It is much greater offense not to return. If the son refuses to return despite the forgiveness, he will become a child eternally lost.
Did God absolve only those who believe in the work of Jesus? No. He absolved even those who do not believe. 󰡒He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.󰡓 (1 John 2:2) Hence, there is no one who goes to hell on account of his sin. Does this mean, however, that no one will go to hell at all? No. A new sin has appeared in hell-sin of not accepting this fact and not believing in God's love. There is no way that the sin of not believing in the work of Jesus and refusing to return to God can be remitted.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (John 3:18).
We can be spared the judgment by believing our forgiveness through Jesus' blood, for Jesus has already suffered it. He says, however, that those who do not believe stand condemned already because of the sin of unbelief. The condemnation means that they are sentenced to death, which will be executed after death. 󰡒Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.󰡓 (John 3:36)
The sin of not believing in the profound grace provided through the sacrifice of God's only Son will be eternally unforgivable, and God's wrath and judgment will descend upon the unbelievers.
However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 󰡒Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.󰡓 (Rom. 4:5 ~ 8)
David expressed by beholding from afar how immense the bliss of those forgiven without work is. Their happiness is eternal and glorious blessing of God and true happiness, which cannot be compared with anything in the world.
󰡒I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.󰡓 (John 5:24)
󰡒Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you...󰡓 (1 Pet. 1:3, 4) Hallelujah.
VI. Liberation from the
Condemnation of the Law
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, 󰡒Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?󰡓 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 󰡒If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.󰡓 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, 󰡒Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?󰡓 󰡒No one, sir,󰡓 she said. 󰡒Then neither do I condemn you,󰡓 Jesus declared. 󰡒Go now and leave your life of sin.󰡓 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 󰡒I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life󰡓 (John 8:1 ~ 12).
John 8 explains well about what the law is, what the work of Jesus is, and how the people emancipated from the condemnation of the law should lead their life.
Then each went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him... (John 7:53 ~ 8:1, 2)
When Jesus was working in Israel, he frequently slept in the Mount of Olives under night dew. The fact that 󰡒each went to his own home,󰡓 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives means that he did not turn to anyone for a shelter.
After sleeping in the Mount of Olives, Jesus returned to the temple of Jerusalem in the morning to teach the people who came to him. Then, a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery in that early morning was brought to Jesus. The man involved could have run away or have been taken to another place, and only the woman was brought to Jesus.
1. Accusers of Jesus
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought that woman to Jesus and asked him, 󰡒Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?󰡓 Deuteronomy 22:22 says that if a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man and the woman shall be beaten to death in public, in accordance with which the Israelites stoned such people to death.
Since the Law of Moses already commands them to kill her, they could have taken her to a judge and then killed her following the verdict, but they took her to Jesus instead. According to the Bible, this was because 󰡒They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him (Jesus).󰡓
The Israelites highly valued the Law of Moses and strove to abide by it. They, however, had to keep the Roman law because Israel was under the Roman Empire at that time. Roman officials ruled over Jerusalem, and the governor dispatched from Rome had the judicial power over them. The Roman law gave the judicial authority only to the Roman governor to the exclusion of the Israelites.
We can also find such a situation in John 18. The Jews took Jesus to the Governor Pilate to accuse him, saying, 󰡒We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king,󰡓 (Luke 23:2) and asked him to execute Jesus for treason against the Roman Empire. But Pilate was certain that Jesus was innocent, and the people were lying. Moreover, he also knew that 󰡒it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.󰡓 (Mat. 27: 18) So Pilate said, 󰡒Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.󰡓 Then, the Jews objected, 󰡒But we have no right to execute anyone...󰡓 (John 18:31)
Therefore, if Jesus had said to them, 󰡒Stone the adulterer,󰡓 she surely would have been killed instantly and brutally by the crowd, bloodthirsty like starved lions, and Jesus would have been charged with instigation of murder, facing a trial as a criminal. Had he said, 󰡒Do not stone her,󰡓 however, then he would have stood a religious trial by Jewish religious authorities for defying the Law of Moses.
Telling to kill her was against the Roman law, and yet telling them not to was against the Law of Moses; to find grounds for accusing Jesus, the Jewish leaders tried to put him in a situation where he could not make any choice. Their real intention was not to kill the adulterer but to entrap Jesus.
How odd it is! When that long-awaited Messiah finally came to the land of Israel, the chosen people and, what is more, the religious leaders esteemed for their devotion to God persistently slandered Jesus and made schemes in order to kill him. They took the adulterer to Jesus, thinking that they had a good chance to ensnare Jesus.
Since the Jewish religious leaders did not fornicate physically, they must have thought that they were not guilty of adultery. That is why they condemned her and intended to kill her. That woman must have been shaking with the fear of the flying stones and impending death.
2. Our Life Is under Condemnation
Jesus did not say anything to them. He just bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. That was the first time for him to write something in front of the people. Most of them must have looked down to see what he was writing, and the shouting must have quieted down. Then, what did Jesus write on the ground? We could ask him, 󰡒Jesus, what did you write at that time?󰡓 when we meet him some day. We will be able to obtain the right answer then, of course, but how about using our imagination now?
In the Bible we read about a writing that God Himself made with His finger. As in Exodus 31:18, it is the Ten Commandments, which God inscribed on the stone. Since Jesus was God who came down on earth in the shape of a man, we can understand Jesus' writing on the ground in the same context as the Ten Commandments. In other words, he must have written the seventh commandment: 󰡒Thou shalt not commit adultery.󰡓 As Jesus knew those bent on stoning the adulterer were just as corrupt in heart as she, he must have written the seventh commandment to make them aware of their own sins.
Adultery is having a sexual relationship with someone one is not married to. The New Testament also sternly warns against this sin: 󰡒All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.󰡓 (1Cor. 6:18) That woman had to die because she had broken the promise with God and committed adultery.
In Jesus' eyes, however, not only she but also the religious leaders surrounding her were all fornicators, for he said, 󰡒You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.󰡓 (Mat 5:27, 28) People condemn someone only by his visible acts, but God, who surveys our inner core, decrees that even just a lustful look constitutes sin of lechery. So, who can dare to claim purity before God?
What is more fundamentally sinful than harboring lust or acting upon it is spiritual fornication, however.
In the Garden of Eden, by accepting Satan's lie human beings betrayed God's love, with which God created them and gave them everything. That was the first fornication. God told the Israelites that no physical adultery of man could be worse than spiritual fornication, deploring that although He was their husband, they deserted Him and served other gods.
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4).
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).
Hence, the New Testament teaches that loving the world more than God and becoming friends with the world all constitute adultery.
After writing on the ground, Jesus got up and said, 󰡒If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.󰡓 It was very appropriate to say that the sinless should throw the stone first. Since a sinner cannot condemn a sinner or execute a sentence, Jesus said a person without sin should do it. However, who in the world is without sin? The Bible has already declared this, saying, 󰡒There is not a righteous man on earth...󰡓 (Eccl. 7:20) and 󰡒There is no one who does good, not even one.󰡓 (Rom. 3:11, 12)
Not only the adulterous woman and the Jewish leaders but also those who turn their back to God are all sinners who cannot avoid the judgement and destruction before God. 󰡒All have sinned already...󰡓 (Rom. 3:23) and like criminals under a death sentence waiting for execution, they are sinners doomed to fall into the lake of fire, which is the second death.
3. The Law Makes Us Realize Our Sins
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God (Rom. 3:19).
The law enables us see how filthy, wicked, and dishonest we are in the eyes of God who is holy, good, and righteous. If we see ourselves against the law of God, who is the standard of justice and judgement, we will then find our sin and close our mouth that says, 󰡒I am blameless.󰡓
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin (Rom. 3:20).
The law enables us realize our sin and pronounces the verdict to a sinner. In the phrase, 󰡒For the letter kills,󰡓 (2Cor. 3:6) 󰡒the letter󰡓 indicates the law 󰡒that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone...󰡓 (2Cor. 3:7) It condemns us for our sin and brings us to death. The verse 󰡒The wage of sin is death󰡓 is the curse of the law.
In front of God's law, who can boldly say, 󰡒I am without sin,󰡓 or 󰡒I have abided by the law󰡓?
By saying, 󰡒If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,󰡓 Jesus pointed out the fact that they also were sinners like her. When Jesus said, 󰡒Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye,󰡓 (Mat. 7:3, 5) he meant to question us if we can condemn other people or punish them while concealing the plank in our own eyes. Jesus pointed out the wickedness of the deceitful and arrogant religious leaders with this one word, intended to make them aware of their own iniquities.
Their hidden agenda was to satisfy themselves by stoning the adulterous woman to death and to entrap Jesus in the charge of instigating murder. In other words, they schemed to bring the Messiah to the court, unaware at all that they themselves were the sinners to be brought to the court of God. Such is the heart of untruthful religious people. So, it is very true to say that a corrupted religious person is more vicious than unbelievers.
4. God Sees the Sins in Our Hearts
󰡒He... said to them, 'If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.' Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.󰡓 Again, we are curious what Jesus wrote at the second time. There is no way to know it, but we can always imagine. If his first writing was 󰡒Thou shalt not commit adultery,󰡓 I think his second one might have been 󰡒You have heard... 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart,󰡓 which we considered earlier.
The people must have looked down at what Jesus wrote on the ground. Jesus' point that anyone harboring lust has already fornicated threw light upon the sins in their hearts, and they finally began to realize their sin. They came to see that they were patent sinners in front of God and had already committed adultery at least in their hearts. This happened as Jesus pointed out their trespasses, which led them away from God as His enemies, respecting Him only with tongues.
󰡒At this, those who heard began to go away...󰡓 The people felt pangs of their conscience. Had Jesus only said, 󰡒If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,󰡓 they would have hesitated to go away, but his admonishment that they were no better than her appealed to their conscience. Conscience is a good thing God endowed us with; though our hearts are fallen, our conscience is good.
Conscience seeks God, and fears Him and His judgement. When a man commits a sin, his conscience will file suit against him. 󰡒The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being󰡓 (Prov. 20:27). God searches our hearts through the spirit He has planted in us, and the spirit accuses us before God for our offenses. Our conscience knows how terrifying the judgment of God is although our hearts may not.
The people, in a wild rage as if to kill the adulterer immediately while ignoring their own sins, began to see their wickedness, and their conscience started to impinge upon them. Then, they helplessly dropped the stones about to fly upon Jesus' order to kill her. One after another the stones hit the ground with sound, and the people gradually left the temple. The Bible says, 󰡒Those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first...󰡓 Then, why did the older ones go away first?
What do we experience in our long life? If there are two common kinds of experience in life, one is an experience of hardship, and the other committing sins. The older one is, the more hardship he has experienced, and the more misdeeds he has performed; hence, the older ones tend to feel more guilty than the younger ones. Staring from the guilt-ridden older ones, all left that place including the younger ones.
Jesus did not need to talk about their sin directly. He is wiser than Solomon. Jesus is the very one to reveal our sins and judge us in the end.
After angry crowd disappeared, Jesus straightened up. Seeing no one was left but the woman, Jesus asked, 󰡒Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?󰡓 Then, the woman gathered herself and looked around. 󰡒No one, sir,󰡓 she said.
5. Jesus Has the Authority to Judge
Who is without sin? Only Jesus is. He is not a descendant of sinful Adam, born through the Holy Spirit; he is an incarnation in human form of holy God, who existed as the Word. 󰡒But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.󰡓 (1John 3:5) 󰡒He committed no sin.󰡓 (1Pet. 2:22) 󰡒Jesus the Son of God... was without sin.󰡓 (Heb. 4:14) Jesus himself also said, 󰡒Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?󰡓 (John 8:46)
Jesus is indeed a completely righteous man and the only one without sin. So, if a sinless person was allowed to strike her, only Jesus could do so, not only because he is sinless and righteous but also he has the exclusive authority to judge. Jesus said, 󰡒The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son󰡓 (John 5:22) and 󰡒He has given him the authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.󰡓 (John 5:27)
As a righteous man, Jesus can judge a sinner and only he can die for sinners because only a righteous person is entitled to die in place of a sinner. And only Jesus has the exclusive authority to forgive a sinner and erase his sin. In sum, Jesus has the right to judge, to forgive sins, and to save a sinner. 󰡒You may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . .󰡓 (Mark 2:10) Now, this Jesus was standing face to face with the sinful woman. She could die or live by one word of Jesus because he has the right to condemn or to absolve.
6. Jesus Takes Charge of Our Sin
󰡒'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared.󰡓 Since the accusers of the adulterer were all gone, only Jesus could condemn her. But he said, 󰡒Then neither do I condemn you.󰡓
Then, did he mean that he would slur over her sin? No. Since God is a righteous judge, He does not connive at any sin.
To God, sin means nothing other than death, and this is the justice of holy God. If God overlooked iniquities, He could not be called just, and Jesus would become a destroyer of God's justice on earth. The Law of Moses commanded the Israelites to stone the adulterers as the order of God; therefore, letting go of the woman would constitute a violation of the Mosaic Law. Would Jesus have done it?
Jesus' word neither connived at her sin, nor violated the Law. For there was a deep meaning behind the word, 󰡒Neither do I condemn you󰡓: It meant 󰡒I will be condemned instead of you and take charge of the payment of your sin.󰡓 In other words, Jesus said it on the premise that he would take the responsibility for her sin.
God allowed an atonement offering to pay for sin on behalf of the sinner, and Jesus came in order to be offered to God as the atonement offering. The Bible says, 󰡒But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin󰡓 (1John 3:5). As in the verse, 󰡒Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,󰡓 (Heb. 9:22) the price of sin is a sacrifice of life, and only the death of the righteous can serve as an atonement offering acceptable to God. Jesus declared to perform substitution, that is, pay for our sin, by taking charge of our sins and laying down his life as a substitution offering.
The word 󰡒Neither do I condemn you󰡓 was Jesus' promise to be condemned and judged in her place in order to forgive her sin, for only Jesus had the authority to judge, make substitution, and forgive her sin. Who is this woman, caught in the act of adultery? As each and every one of us is a transgressor of the law to be judged by God, the woman is none other than we ourselves.
How do you feel when you discern yourself against the Ten Commitments? Have you properly obeyed even one of them? The law labels us as sinners. The woman was fortunate to have been taken to Jesus instead of to other judges. God did not give the law in order to condemn, judge or destroy us, but in order to lead us to Jesus by making us realize our being sinners doomed to destruction before God.
In fact, when the Jewish religious leaders brought the adulterous woman to Jesus, this was in accordance with God's will. For the law exists in order to condemn us and take us to Jesus the righteous judge, who did not come to condemn us for our sin.
7. Liberation from the Condemnation of the Law
Clearly no one is justified before God by the law... (Gal. 3:11)
Through the law we become conscious of sin (Rom. 3:20).
So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ... (Gal. 3:24)
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ... (KJV)
A schoolmaster gives children the most basic education and guides them to the next level at the end of the basic course. Likewise, the law is a guide that makes us realize our sin and then leads us to the Christ. After helping us know about the judgement first, the law brings us to the grace of God.
The role of a mirror is not to cleanse our dirt, but to let us know about our dirt, and if we see our dirtiness on the mirror, we will go and wash our face. Thus, the proper duty of a mirror is to show us our stains and arouse in us a desire to wash it off. A medical test revealing our having a sickness arouses a desire in us to cure the sickness and see a doctor. The law unveils our sins, through which we go to Jesus as sinners.
Jesus came to save sinners, in order to call us back to him and justify us through faith in him. Faith takes to the heart the fact that Jesus suffered the curse and judgement, which originally belonged to me, and I became purified before God thanks to his sacrifice. Therefore, the law discloses our sin, and guides us to Jesus for salvation. Whereas we are sinners condemned by the law of God, and Jesus is the judge, the same Jesus has paid for our sin on our behalf.
In Genesis 25 there is a story that Esau, the first son of Isaac, came back from hunting one day and sold his birthright to his younger brother, Jacob, for a bowl of stew, submitting to his hunger. And Jacob was blessed by Isaac in Genesis 27.
Isaac, who did not have long to live, asked Esau to hunt and make a savory dish for him with an intention to pray God to grant the blessing of the first son to his favorite son Esau.
Rebekah, however, out of desire that her second son be blessed, told Jacob to bring to Isaac a savory lamb dish she was going to prepare. But Jacob was apprehensive because Esau was a hairy man, and he had a smooth skin, and if Isaac felt Jacob, he would discover the deception and curse rather than bless Jacob. Nevertheless, Rebekah encouraged Jacob to move on with no fear, saying, 󰡒My son, let the curse fall on me.󰡓 (Gen. 27:13) Out of love, Rebekah decided that she would take the curse in order for him to receive the blessing.
Likewise, Jesus decided to bear the curse, which should have befallen us, to grant us the blessing of the kingdom of heaven. 󰡒Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...󰡓 (Gal. 3:13) Jesus' crucifixion was the condemnation he received on behalf of us, sinners cursed and doomed to death by breaching the law. So, as he said, 󰡒Neither do I condemn you,󰡓 Jesus took the burden of our sin, and changed our destiny so that we are spared the condemnation.
Until now, we have discussed that Jesus came not to condemn but to be condemned in place of sinners in order to save those who believe in this fact. 󰡒Whoever believes in him is not condemned󰡓 (John 3:18) because Jesus took the condemnation in our place according to the principle of substitution. In our place, he bore the punishment of pain and curse, which belonged to us.
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man (Rom. 8:3).
The sinless Jesus came in the likeness of sinful man and took upon himself all human sins. God laid on him all the sins of the mankind, who became sinners in Adam, and judged him. This was to fulfill the promise God had made through the prophet Isaiah 600 years before Jesus: 󰡒LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.󰡓 (Isa. 53:6) As in the word, 󰡒He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities,󰡓 (Isa. 53:5) our iniquities killed Jesus, and the cross of Jesus put an end to our judgement. As Jesus said right before his death, 󰡒It is finished,󰡓 (John 19:30) all our sins were paid for in toto at that moment.
God laid on Jesus our iniquities 󰡒so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.󰡓 (2Cor. 5:14) In order to make us sinless and righteous, God exchanged our curse for the righteousness of Jesus; by taking our death sentence and giving us his righteousness in return, Jesus gave us life.
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2Cor. 5:14).
As the transgression of the one man Adam had made everyone sinners in him, the death of one righteous man Jesus in their place resolved the debt of their sin. The holy only Son of God died for a sinner like me. 󰡒I cannot forget Jesus' amazing love to die for me, who was destined to die󰡓 (Hymn). If Jesus had not made a substitution for our sin, only everlasting curse and downfall would be our lot.
When the Israelites lived in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, they received many laws from God. Other than the Ten Commandments, usually called 󰡒the law,󰡓 they had civil laws regulating the relations between people, ritual laws prescribing the way towards God through the sin offering, and so on. Whereas 󰡒the law󰡓 condemned, the ritual laws prescribed the rituals through which they could be forgiven by God. The ritual laws are well explained in Exodus and Leviticus.
When they sacrificed to God, they were to choose the firstborns of their flock, and God allowed them to substitute a lamb for a donkey (Exodus 13:12,13). Offering an animal means to slaughter it and dedicate it as a sacrifice. Instead of a donkey, which had to be killed, an innocent lamb was sacrificed. Without killing the lamb, they had to break the donkey's neck. Thanks to the lamb, the donkey could be spared. This foreshadowed that Jesus, the Lamb of God, would lay down his life in place of us, the filthy sinners. Without his death, God would have to break our necks and fling us to the hell.
Leviticus 16 tells us about the rules and regulations for the Day of Atonement. The Israelites made a sin offering once a year on a national level in order to make atonement for the people as a whole. Aaron, the high priest, took two flawless goats and laid his hands on one of them to burden it with all the wrongdoings and unrighteousness of the people.
All the sins of the Israelites such as defiling God's name through idol worship, disobeying patents, murder, fornication, stealing, lying, and so forth were transferred to the goat. Then, this scapegoat was cast out to the wilderness where no people dwelt and where it was bound to starve to death or become devoured by a wild beast. As they watched the goat being sent away to such a wilderness, the Israelites must have comforted themselves, saying that the faultless goat was carrying their sins away instead of them. The other goat was slaughtered on the altar after being loaded with sin, again in place of the people. This ritual was performed once a year.
This did not mean that our sins were purified by the blood of a bull or a lamb, but that Jesus, who was like a lamb without a blemish, would be brought to the cross carrying our sins. Jesus was quiet like a lamb being taken to a butcher. He did not make any excuse, nor did he have any reason to do so. Jesus himself said, 󰡒The Son of Man came... to give his life as a ransom for many,󰡓 (Mat. 20:28) and, 󰡒No one takes my life. I desert it myself.󰡓 Since Jesus voluntarily took the condemnation in place of the sinners, he was whipped, dragged with the cross on his back, and crucified. That was God's will. 󰡒Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!󰡓 (John 1:29)
8. The Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World
Jesus, the Lamb of God, died with the sin of the world. The entire human sin was imputed to Jesus, and the judgement against that sin was executed on the cross. Jesus took away the sins of you and me this way. Whether you know this fact or not, and whether you believe it or not, it was accomplished by God. The judgement of Jesus covered all the sins of you and me. The Bible says, 󰡒For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous...󰡓 (1Pet. 3:18)
We should know and accept it as a fact that there is someone who died in place of each of us, who could only perish before God. Jesus' accomplishment is much larger than our sin. The holy blood of Jesus is more than enough to pay for the sin of the whole world. Jesus let out that holy and precious blood even to the last drop in order to lead us to God. We must accept Jesus, who loved us this much, into our hearts.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood (Rev. 1:5).
Jesus' blood has freed us from sin and judgement. If there were no hell or punishment against sin, Jesus would have had no reason to die. As we are treacherous sinners doomed to hell, Jesus died for us in order to emancipate us from hell and guide us to the kingdom of God.
󰡒Neither do I condemn you.󰡓 When Jesus, who is none other than the highest judge, released that sinner, who can condemn her again? By the same token, who can condemn us when Jesus himself acquitted us by his own blood and furthermore guaranteed it through the Bible?
󰡒Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.󰡓 (Rom. 8:33 ~ 35,37)
9. Leave Your Life of Sin
󰡒Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.󰡓
Although Jesus paid for our sin and saved us, it does not mean that we have a license to commit sins. When some people hear that they will be spared the judgment and attain eternal life if only they believe the eternal absolution of Jesus, they turn sarcastic and say, 󰡒Then, is it okay to practice wickedness once we are saved? Can we indulge ourselves in evil at will?󰡓 How can a person who believes in the remission of his sin and his salvation through Jesus' blood and who possesses eternal life and hope commit sins again at will? Do you think such a person can commit sins on purpose?
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Rom. 6:1)
Although we may make mistakes because of our weakness, there would be no one who says that we can transgress on purpose as Jesus has forgiven us permanently. When my sin killed Jesus, would I transgress more because that was not enough? By no means! God did not save us so that we keep our impurity or live in sin, but that we participate in His holiness.
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life (1Th. 4:3~7).
While we live in the world, we could inadvertently err owing to the stubborn inclinations of our body. The prodigal son of Luke 15, who came back to his father after an indulgent life, may still make mistakes while living with the father; likewise, after a long life in separation from God, we cannot become immediately perfect just because he came back to God. However, since we are the ones to take part in the glory of God before long, we should always keep our hearts and life pure, sacred and upright. As it says, 󰡒A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet,󰡓 (John 13:10) the saved souls should cleanse themselves with the word every day as they wash themselves with water, and live their remaining lives for the glory of God.
10. In the New Life
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 󰡒I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life󰡓 (John 8:12).
As Jesus is the light of the world, whoever follows him will never walk in darkness, but will attain and live in the light of life.
The woman caught in adultery and brought to Jesus was under the dominion of darkness, sin, and death before receiving the forgiveness. Like her, we were being dragged to hell, 󰡒sitting in darkness and the deepest gloom,󰡓 and as 󰡒prisoners suffering in iron chains.󰡓 (Psa. 107:10) God broke the chains on those who cried out to Him in agony.
󰡒Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.󰡓 (Psa. 107:13,14)
As the Bible says, 󰡒For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,󰡓 (Col. 1:13) we have been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son of everlasting light. We thereupon walk in the light. 󰡒For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light - for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.󰡓 (Eph. 5:8,9) Even though we used to live under the power of darkness and control of Satan, we should now live as children of the light because we are in Jesus, who is the light.
If Jesus is the sun, we are the moon. Jesus is a luminous body, and we are its reflectors. We are reflective rays of the light of Jesus. The moon changes its shapes through full, half, and crescent moons. But if we entrust our whole life to Jesus, we will be a full moon to fully reflect the light of Jesus unto the world. The people who entrust only half or just a little of their life to Jesus will be able to brighten the world only as a half or a crescent moon. We are Christians, commissioned to illuminate the world through the light of Jesus. That is why God commands us to behave as children of light. Listen to Paul's admonition: 󰡒So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.󰡓 (1Th. 5:6 ~ 8) As God says, we should declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light (1Pet. 2:9).
After being forgiven by Jesus, the woman would not have committed such a sin or lived in darkness again. Since then, she must have lived her remaining life in the words of Jesus. A truly saved person would dedicate the rest of his life to Jesus.
I thank the Lord for having enabled you to read this book until the end, and pray that all the holy grace of God in this book be fulfilled in your heart with the help of the Holy Spirit. I hope your reading takes you beyond the level of intellectual understanding and works as a power to get eternal life and transform your remaining life. 󰡒And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.󰡓 (1Th. 2:13) If you read this book again with a humble and prayerful heart, I am certain that you will receive more abundant grace.
I would like ask you to be sure to read the third volume, The Way to Glory, offered as a guidance for the life of the saved Christians.

 CONTENTS
I. Introduction 7
II. The Value and Purpose of Our Life 11

1. God and Human Beings 11
2. We Have Intelligence 12
3. We Have Spirits 14
4. We Are Created in God's Image 17
5. God Loves Us 21
6. God Never Wants Our Spirits to Perish 25
7. We Have Spiritual Desires 27
8. We Shall See God outside Our Body 31
9. God Has Determined the Times of History 33
10. God's Purpose Will Be Realized within the Period 34
11. We Have Come to the World in Order to Receive Eternal Life 36
III. The Human Fall and the Consequent
Punishments 40
1. Jesus Came in Order to Find the Lost Sinners 40
2. The Meaning of a Sinner 46
3. We Are Essentially Children of Wrath 48
4. The Heart of Corruption 51
5. Human Life is Abominable and Filthy 53
6. Transformation Through God's Life and Power 55
7. Human Righteousness Is Not Acceptable to God 57
8. Human Righteousness Is like a Soiled Garment 60
9. We Are Thoroughly Fallen 61
10. God's Judgement Comes After Death 66
11. Sin Surely Reveals Itself 71
12. The Eternal Hell Is Entered after the Judgement 74
13. The People Condemned to Hell 77
14. The Condition of Salvation 85
IV. God's Love Revealed in the Gospel 88
1. Eternal Life is the Purpose of Studying the Bible 88
2. What is the Law? 96
3. The Law Brings Us to a Self-Discovery before God 98
4. Those Who Rely on Observing the Law Are under a Curse 104
5. The Law and The Grace 107
6. God's Righteousness and My Righteousness 111
7. The Road to Salvation 112
8. The Christ Came in Order to Take Away Our Sin 116
9. God's Justice and God's Love 124
10. The Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World 127
11. One Died for All 131
12. Jesus Purified Our Sin 133
13. Eternal Redemption and Complete Salvation 135
14. God No More Remembers Our Sin and Lawless Acts 143
15. Salvation Is the Gift of God 149
V. The Way of Cain and the Way of Abel 151
1. The Way to Eternity and the Way of Life 151
2. The Narrow Gate and the Wide Gate 152
3. Two Kinds of Sacrifices 154
4. Faith Is to Hear and Understand the Message 158
5. Prayer of a Pharisee and Prayer of a Tax Collector 163
6. The Passover Lamb 168
7. The Christ Is the High Priest for Us 172
8. Redemption Is for the Sake of God's Glory 175
VI. Liberation from the Condemnation of the Law 180

1.Accusers of Jesus 181
2.Our Life Is under Condemnation 183
3. The Law Makes Us Realize Our Sins 185
4. God Sees the Sins in Our Hearts 186
5. Jesus Has the Authority to Judge 190
6. Jesus Takes Charge of Our Sin 192
7. Liberation from the Condemnation of the Law 193
8. The Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World 197
9. Leave Your Life of Sin 198

10. In the New Life 199
I. Introduction
In the preceding volume (The Way to God), we have seen in light of the Bible that God is the Creator of the universe and all things therein and the prime mover of the history. A good reading of the The Way to God must have enabled you to understand the Bible as the word of God.
Although there are a great diversity of religions and religious scriptures in the world, they all take the same basic stance that we receive blessing by doing good works (or through ascetic practices). This is also echoed in a Korean saying, 󰡒An earnest effort can move the heaven.󰡓 Unlike other scriptures, however, the Bible was not made by human hands, nor does it seek to teach doctrines or ethics of a specific religion. The Bible is the truth given by God, the Creator of the universe, and tells us the path towards salvation shown by God.
The words in the Bible have been fulfilled exactly as recorded throughout the history, and surely the future of the world will unfold as mentioned in the Bible as well. Because we know that the Bible and history have been in agreement so far, we can hardly doubt that the future events will come to pass as foretold in the Bible. Just as the universe follows God's law whether we know it or not, so does the history move according to the Bible.
The Bible, which contains the past and future of the human history, not only records the destiny of the humanity but also the eternal destiny of each one of us. The Bible strikes fear in our hearts because it is the truth revealing the living God and clear facts deeply concerned with our individual destiny. Is it wrong to feel fear, however? No, it is very natural to tremble while studying the Bible.
A lie of a false prophet need not be feared because it has never been tested or realized; however, the Bible, written through inspiration of the Spirit, must be feared because it has been tested and realized (Deu. 18:21, 22). Isaiah 66:2 says that God will take care of the one 󰡒who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my [God's] word.󰡓
He who scorns instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command is rewarded (Pro. 13:13).
Nobody will be happy when as a seriously ill patient he hears from a doctor that he will die unless he quickly receives a surgery. He will be greatly shocked. He will say, 󰡒Although I have seen many people dying out of sickness, I can't believe that I have such a serious sickness.󰡓 If the doctor keeps asserting his opinion, however, he will try to have another accurate diagnosis. If this diagnosis confirms his serious condition, he will have to make the hard decision. Will the sickness disappear just because he keeps saying, 󰡒I don't want to hear this. I don't need to think about this. I think I am healthy󰡓?
You can heal your illness only when you know that you are ill. There is a saying, 󰡒It is not the unhappiness but an ignorance of your unhappiness that truly makes you unhappy.󰡓 If you know that you are unhappy, then you can try to find happiness and will be able to find one. If you do not know about your unhappiness, however, you will never be able to escape from the plight.
We have serious problems with God and are under His judgement and condemnation. Hence, we must understand our destiny and solve all the problems through the Bible. The Bible tells us details about the human destiny and eternal destiny of 󰡒I󰡓 among the humanity. Whether we like it or not, it is God's word and God's decision.
Can we stop the rising sun by shouting, 󰡒stop󰡓? Will this scare the sun into a retreat? The sun rises irrespective of our wishes. Nor can we tie up the sun setting in the west. Likewise, we have no way of stopping our destiny from unfolding as determined by God and recorded in the Bible. Because we are born as human beings and living in God's plan and history, we have the responsibility of God's creature. Hence, rather than trying to run away from God, we should try to go back to Him.
Although parents may want to give children something good, if children go against the parents and run away from them, parents cannot give it to them. The reason why we perish is not the sin and evil things opposing God but our own betrayal of God's forgiving and saving love and our refusal to return to Him. Whoever returns to God can find all the solutions in God. God wants to give us eternal life and eternal hope. The problem is our own defiance of God. This is a greater sin.
We should return to and kneel down before God, who has created and rules over the universe, takes charge of our life and eternal destiny, and seeks to save our souls. And we must receive God's forgiveness and grace of salvation. For the plan and purpose of God's historical providence is to enable every individual in history to understand God, plant God's love and life in them, and make them God's children worthy of the eternal heavenly kingdom. Hence, a study of the Bible that does not aim at salvation of the soul can only be a purposeless work and betrayal of will of the Creator.
In a nutshell, the Bible is a set of words spoken about God's love. As there is a hymn verse that goes, 󰡒God's love for me is written in the Bible,󰡓 the most essential message of the Bible is 󰡒God is love.󰡓 (1 John 4:8) The message proclaims that God unconditionally loves all, even sinners. And it is Jesus who has manifested this love on earth.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16, 17).
When we sinned and became God's enemies, lost far away from God, He sent His only son to us as a propitiation, thereby showing His love for us.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).
In the present volume, The Way to Eternal Life, I would like to explain how we can attain eternal life by considering the miserable human destiny and God's love.
II. The Value and Purpose of Our Life
1. God and Human Beings
The fool says in his heart, 󰡒There is no God.󰡓 They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psa. 14:1 ~ 3).
We live in the world only for a short while, but as I look at people's lives, they all have very much work and many desires. I think, however, that at least once in our life, we need to ponder deeply about the value and purpose of our lives, and what we must attain and what is the most important for us. I am sure that our readers also have much work and a determined goal and are working hard towards it.
We have come to the world certainly in order to attain something. But it would not be just something visible, physical and practical such as things to serve the body, which only has a short life. Animals are satisfied when they have food, free and comfortable environment, their mates and conditions for reproduction. Since we have a spirit, which seeks what is spiritual and eternal, we can never be contented just with practical, material, and bodily things. God has given us a spirit and intelligence, which animals lack.
2. We Have Intelligence
But no one says, 󰡒Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches more to us than to the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?󰡓 (Job 35:10, 11)
When a train roars by, frogs and insects by the track will have no idea about how the train was produced, how it moves, and where it is going. With our intelligence, however, we can know not only this but even more. We know that the earth is floating in the space and running at an incredible speed of 108,000 kilometers per hour and that a galaxy contains one or two hundred billion stars, and moreover there are over a hundred billion such galaxies. Science is revealing more and more secrets of the universe.
Many people, however, neither ask about nor look for God, the source of the great and unique intelligence of ours.
For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything (Heb. 3:4).
If every house has its maker, and automobiles and airplanes their manufacturers, the earth, the sun, the stars and the entire sublime universe must have their Creator, and this is why we must know about God.
The fool says in his heart, 󰡒There is no God.󰡓 (Psa. 14:1)
Foolishness lies in having darkened reason and being unable to see things as they are. Fools reject the truth and accept the lie, and mistake a truth for a lie and a lie for a truth. Hence, they deny clear facts and insist on their absurd views.
The greatest of all the fools in the world are those who deny the existence of God. Who would believe you if you say that a house simply has appeared on its own? How did all the trees and flowers come into being? How about the birds in the sky, all kinds of fish in the water, and all kinds of animals? How could they have sprung into existence spontaneously without God?
This magnificent universe is alive and moves in strict order harmony. This is because the absolute Creator has designed and created it and is ruling over it with His wisdom and power. The Bible says that God is 󰡒sustaining all things by his powerful word,󰡓 (Heb. 1:3) and God's laws 󰡒endure to this day, for all things serve you [God].󰡓 (Psa. 119:91) All things absolutely obey God's power and word. God has given us the intellect in order that we may come to know about God.
Since we live in the world created by God, it is extremely important to know and have the right relationship with God.
Success in life can be determined by whether we make a good human relationship and maintain it well; hence, more important than making earnest individual efforts would be to make a good human relationship with sincere and able people. We may meet good and able people and live successful lives, or meet wrong people and end our lives in failure.
When relationship has such importance in this life, how much more important it is to form a good relationship with the eternal God? We cannot be too concerned about knowing God correctly because it is a matter of our eternal destiny.
Some people say, 󰡒What does it matter whether I know about God or not? Those believing in God may be living well, but so are those not believing in God.󰡓 Evil people and people ignorant of God may have a trouble-free life on earth. The Bible says, 󰡒He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.󰡓 (Mat. 5:45) This is why their lives may be trouble-free. They will have no problem eating food, breathing the air, and wearing clothes in the God's world, for God has made it available to all humanity.
The problem comes, however, after the end of our short life on earth. You may think, 󰡒What is there to be feared after death? Isn't death the end of everything?󰡓 There is the 󰡒eternal destiny󰡓 waiting for you after your death, however.
3. We Have Spirits
Unlike the other creatures, we have spirits. Plants just have life; since they are without the sense, they have no pain when they are cut. Animals have both life and senses, through which they can recognize their youngs and feel hunger and pain. Human beings, however, have 󰡒spirits.󰡓
A Chinese philosopher teaches, 󰡒Human beings are the most precious among all things in the heaven and earth.󰡓 Why does he say that human beings are the most precious? Some animals live for hundreds of years, while we do not even live for a hundred years. Birds in the sky and fish in the water seem to be more adorable, joyful, and free. Compared to this, how miserable we human beings are, who struggle, suffer, and travail! Moreover, how evil and base we human beings are!
Birds have no struggle over philosophy or ideal, and they can fly wherever they want to because they know no national borders. Wild animals also run freely through mountains.
If we only have the body, we are very much inferior to animals in many respects. To say that human beings are the most precious means that they have dignity, which is based on the spirit created for the plan and purpose of God. Without the spirit, we are little different from animals.
Communists strongly insist on the theory of evolution, saying, 󰡒Where is the spirit? Rather, didn't Human beings evolve from apes?󰡓 In a conversation with Chinese communist party members, I heard about the theory of evolution they had learned. I retorted, 󰡒If it is true that apes have evolved into human beings, shouldn't there be at least one ape somewhere in the world that is in the process of evolving into human beings?󰡓
The modern science has revealed that what was discovered and presented as a link between humans and apes is a fake. Now that the fallacy of the evolutionary theory has been shown, evolutionists are unable to make strong claims. They still hold on to the theory, however, in order to deny God the Creator.
Evolutionary theory is a theory of the devil, which denies God and spirit and makes us think, 󰡒What is so special about human beings? They are just like animals. I can just live and die like an animal,󰡓 thereby leading us to fall. Why did we fall and become evil, and why do we have to live in misery and in raging contradictions and lies? It is because our departure from God and consequent loss of human value and purpose is giving rise to all the sins. We must return to God, and start our lives again with God.
The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psa. 14:2, 3).
Although God looks around to find someone seeking God, the fall has deprived us of the ability to recognize God. Instead of animals evolving into human beings, human beings, created in the image of God, degenerated into animals. Look at the animals. Do they not always hold their noses and mouths down to the ground, constantly looking for food? Human beings, who are supposed to behold the above and have their ideals and hopes in the divine and eternal world of God, have fallen, having hope on the earth and only living for such hope. We have debased ourselves, and driven ourselves into falsity and misery.
Since we have left God and lost the intelligence through which to find God, we have become unable to find God on our own.
Wherever there are people, there are religions. Religion is a human striving to find God. It is said that there are eight million divinities in Japan. Japanese people worship all kinds of objects. When asked if they are gods, they say that of course they are not. When asked why, then, they serve them, they say in order to find god, who must be somewhere. They are looking for God in their own ways because they do not know about God.
We have a desire to find God. Despite such desire, however, since we have lost the ability to know God and are unable to reach Him through our own wisdom, He has shown us the way to come to Him.
God has given us the Bible as His revelation in order to inform us, living in the physical bodies, that He is the absolute Creator and to teach us about the plan and secret of God, purpose of creating us, His will towards us, His forgiveness of our sins, and the way to reach Him. Hence, we must learn the Bible and solve fundamental human issues through it.
4. We Are Created in God's Image
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, 󰡒Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.󰡓 (Gen. 1:27, 28)
God created the universe and so arranged everything that life can prosper. It says in the Genesis 1:2, 󰡒Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.󰡓 We have learned at school that at the beginning of the earth, there was a point in the process where the earth was a long-burning fireball, with the lava rising up and simmering. The Bible calls it 󰡒formless.󰡓 When it says, 󰡒the earth was formless and empty,󰡓 it calls 󰡒empty󰡓 the state of the earth where there was no life, not even a grass leaf or insect. It also says, 󰡒darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.󰡓 As the earth gradually cooled down, the fire went inside the earth, and the earth came to be surrounded by a thick layer of vapor and clouds. This is why the Bible says that God clothed the earth with clouds (Job 38:9). Vapor and clouds are all water. When water was surrounding the earth, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 󰡒Hovering over󰡓 means that God was embracing the earth as the hen broods on the eggs. Raw eggs only have the white and the yolk, and yet after twenty-one days of brooding, chickens come out of them; likewise, the Spirit of God was hovering over the earth in order to give life to it.
In order to make it possible for human beings to live on the earth, God brought forth light in the first day, and on the second day divided the waters above and below the firmament, with the latter becoming the ocean, and the former a transparent layer surrounding the earth. God made plants first and then animals. It was for animals that God created the plants, without which animals cannot survive. When you look at flowers, do they not boast of their beauty? Why did God create them? Without the one to behold their beauty, they will find themselves useless.
When a young lady goes out, she styles her hair, puts on cosmetics, wears earrings and necklace, and pretty dress and shoes. If, however, there were no one to behold and admire her, she would not take such pains to decorate herself. The savory fruits on the trees are asking us to eat them.
Are plants and also flowers made for themselves? Flowers are there because there are people to appreciate them, and fruits because there are creatures to eat them. How about rice? They also exist to serve our appetite. God created humans after creating according to their kinds the birds in the sky, fish in the water, and all the creeping animals in the land. This is because these creatures are made for us. In order for us to live, we need plants and animals. Suppose there are only plants and no animals. It would be quite boring if there were no cows, horses, dogs, pigs, birds, or fish. When God commissioned humans to dominate the birds in the sky, fish in the water, and all the moving creatures on the land, he meant that we could eat, use, or do whatever we wanted with them. It is because all of them are made for us.
Why did God create us? God created us for the sake of God. When the Bible says that we are created in His image, it is not referring to our physical shape. As it says, 󰡒God is spirit,󰡓 (John 4:24) to be made in God's image means to be made as spiritual beings. To be spiritual beings means that we are divine and immortal like God so that we can be glorified eternally with God. This is the purpose for which God has created us. In other words, God has created us for the sake of His plan and purpose.
The creation in God's image contains enormously important and profound secrets. Parents rejoice when they hear that their children resemble them. When they hear, 󰡒He looks just like his father, like an imprint,󰡓 they become very happy. You will run into big trouble if you say that the child looks like someone living next door. Parents never say that because they are ugly, their children should not resemble them but some handsome neighbor. When they hear about children's taking after them, they are filled with joy. Children are a part of the parents to inherit and continue parents' legacy and life. To the children, who resemble parents, parents want to give everything.
Although we may not be able to give our children everything we desire to, however, God can give us everything He wants to. Do you know why God created us in His image? It is in order to give us everything. It is so that we can live eternally like God, be glorified eternally with God, and receive everything from God. How foolish it would be if we, created in His image with such privileges, simply think that several decades of bodily life is all there is and live for the flesh only!
God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself... A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish (Psa. 49:15, 20).
Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish (Psa. 49:20 KJV).
To be 󰡒in honor󰡓 (KJV) is to be highly precious, and we have honor because we have spirits created in God's image. his spirits is created for the sake of God's plan and purpose. The message says that the one who fails to realize how noble his spirits is is 󰡒like the beasts that perish.󰡓 When we are created for eternal life with God and glory, says the Bible, and yet fail to realize this and simply live for the body, seeing nothing beyond it, we might just as well have been born as a beast.
It is because we have the spirits that the Chinese philosopher could proclaim, 󰡒Human beings are the most precious among all things in the heaven and earth,󰡓 as I mentioned earlier, and it is because of the spirits that there can be a saying, 󰡒Man is the lord of all creation.󰡓 The word 󰡒lord󰡓 here is translated into young jang in Korean, where 󰡒young()󰡓 means spirit, and 󰡒jang()󰡓 means long, adult or supervisor. Hence, this word means that we live long because of the spirit. We are the most precious of all creation because we have spirits in the image of God, which make us immortal.
Just as we can see our faces only through a mirror, so can we see who we are only by coming to know God. Ignorance of God leads to ignorance of our own value, and ignorance of our value leads to ignorance of our purpose of life and hopelessness. In hopelessness, we pursue almost anything to serve our selfish goals, saying, 󰡒What is so special about man? I live and die, and there is no more.󰡓
In Korea, once there was a group of youths in the early twenties called 󰡒Chijon Faction,󰡓 which indiscriminately committed homicides. When I saw them on TV, they were really young. They took random people on the street, killed them, cut them in pieces, and burned them. They built a burning facility and were even trying to buy machine guns to slaughter even more people. It even seemed that they had been born for murder. Initially, they hated the 󰡒Oranges󰡓 and 󰡒Yatas,󰡓 (playboy groups of Korea) and decided to butcher them. After all, they were all arrested. People thought that when they were scolded, 󰡒You murderers, did you think you could slay so many people and still be safe?󰡓 they would bow down their heads and say, 󰡒We are sorry, we deserve to die.󰡓 On the contrary, however, they held up their heads straight, and even shouted back their voices, saying, 󰡒How much longer can we live, fifty years? What does it matter whether we live fifty years more or die earlier?󰡓 That seems right. Since they were in the early twenties, they had fifty years before reaching seventy. It occurred to me that if physical death was the end of everything, they were right, and it did not really matter whether we lived here a few decades longer or retired from life a few decades earlier. Is death the end of everything, however? Definitely not. All the members of the Chijon Faction were executed.
Afterwards, there appeared something called 󰡒Mack Ga Faction.󰡓 The Korean word 󰡒mack ga󰡓 here means to live and die recklessly. Why do such impetuous people appear? Because they had lost sight of the true human value and made themselves evil through ignorance of the spirit, even such heinous crimes could not move them to shame and regret. If one loses sight of his own value, he thinks light of others' lives and destroys them indiscriminately as if killing flies. All sins sprout from being ignorant of the human value and dignity.
5. God Loves Us
O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow (Psa. 144:3, 4).
If we are to know who we are, and what our worth and purpose are, we musk ask God, our Creator. Human beings cannot solve fundamental human problems themselves. It is of no use to ask philosophers. Can a cow ask another cow what its prices are these days? Can a black pig ask a white pig how much it is going for? Neither cows nor pigs know their own prices. Their prices are determined by human beings. Since it is up to humans to eat them, use them, or do whatever with them, humans are free to raise or lower the animal prices.
How about the human worth, then? Can we fix the worth ourselves? As the saying goes, 󰡒There is no man above man, nor any man below man,󰡓 below us there are animals, and above us God. Hence, our worth is set by God. In order to know who on earth we are, we must ask God.
Sincerely ask God the following difficult questions: 󰡒God, why did you create us human beings? Why did you not make us more perfect, but so wretched that we are tormented by ourselves? Why did you create the world in such complexity? If you indeed exist, why do the immoral get ahead of the virtuous, and the good suffer injustice? Why is the truth being trampled upon, while contradiction and unrighteousness engulf the world like surging waves? Some people harbor grudges in their hearts for life and die undeserved death, what a contradiction!󰡓 God will answer these questions for you in the Bible.
In the book of Psalms, we meet a person sincerely asking these questions to God. Asked why the wicked are 󰡒always carefree, they increase in wealth,󰡓 God answers that He will 󰡒cast them down to ruin󰡓 after death (Psa. 73:12, 18). As Job says, 󰡒They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace,󰡓 (Job 21:13) (They spend their days in prosperity, and suddenly go down to Sheol, NASB) although they may have glamorous life in the world, they will be condemned to hell after death.
If we just look at the world, it is full of contradictions. This is what inspired Nietzsche to proclaim the death of God. He argued that to acknowledge the existence of God was to profane His name, for God could not have made such a wretched world. This sounds quite convincing. The Bible, however, has answer for this. When will be the time when good is repaid with good, and evil with evil? It will not be in this world. The several decades of human life on earth is but an instant in the eyes of God of eternity. Therefore, at the moment, He leaves alone the contradictions and injustice in the world because there will soon be eternal judgement upon all the good and evil.
The poet in the Psalm 144 asked, 󰡒What is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?󰡓 He also inquired why God loved us when we were so vile and insignificant. If you are a miserable person, and yet a noble one such as king loves you and bestows favors upon you, you will feel so out of place and say, 󰡒Who am I that you bless me with such generous favor?󰡓 In the eyes of God, the Creator of universe, humans are not even as important as insects or dusts. What would the Creator of the immense universe think when He sees you and me, living in a tiny corner of the small earth? Isaiah 40:15 says, 󰡒Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.󰡓 If nations are like water drops, people must be almost nothing at all.
Nevertheless, God loves us deeply, and the Bible says, 󰡒For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.󰡓(John 3:16) Since God loves each one of us, God gave His only Son and led him even to death in order to save our souls from destruction and guide us to eternal life. To love the world means to love the people in the world. Even if there were no one but me in the world, still Jesus surely would have come to save me. We should know that God loves one person and the entire mankind with equal love. We are unable to give equal love to one person and hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of people. Since we are imperfect, we cannot even memorize their names. God, however, sees no difference between loving one person and the six billion people around the globe. 󰡒He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name,󰡓 (Psa. 147:4) and even counts our hairs (Mat.10:30). In short, there is nothing about us God does not know.
Even before our birth God knew all about us. Since God knew that we were going to commit sin and go to hell, He sent His only son in order to deliver us from ruin and give us eternal life. God so arranged that those realizing and believing in God's grace would receive eternal life, and this is the love of God.
Parents love their children even before their birth. When a wife becomes pregnant, the couple start talking about the child: 󰡒Honey, how shall we name the child? Let's make it so and so if it's a boy, and so and so if a girl. Let's be well prepared with baby's clothes, wrapping blankets, and so on. Which school shall we choose for the baby, and how shall we raise it?󰡓 Parents also draw pictures about the future of the child. The fetus has no idea about who the parents are and how much they love it, and yet parents love it. Likewise, even when we were ignorant of God, He still loved us. No matter how grave our sin is, God's love is larger than our sin. It is for no other reason than that we have spirits created according to God's holy plan and purpose that God loves us so much. Parents love their own children albeit the children may be uglier and more troublesome than neighbors' children. If their lives are threatened by a sickness, parents are agonized. Even handicapped people receive love and sympathy from their parents. No matter how heavy the burden of our sin may be, God does not want our spirits to go to hell, for although He loathes sin, He loves us. It may seem that human life is vain, passing by like a shadow, and yet in such life there is the spirit, which is precious in God's eyes.
For I am honored in the eyes of the LORD... (Isa. 49:5)
It may be that I am nothing in my own eyes, and even less in others' eyes. God, however, finds me dear. Without understanding this, that God created us for our spirits and loves them so deeply, we make ourselves miserable and bestial, and perish.
Five-year-old Bok Nam in a small village is a slow boy with runny nose and a loser who gets beaten by other children and cries. When he goes home, however, he is the only son in a family that has had only one son for seven generations, a son that is as precious as a jewel and the sole heir of the family. Each one of us is like a jewel for God.
6. God Never Wants Our Spirits to Perish
For this is what the high and lofty One says - he who lives forever, whose name is holy: 󰡒I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me - the breath of man that I have created.󰡓 (Isa. 57:15, 16)
God, 󰡒the high and lofty One󰡓 (meaning He is the highest with none higher than Him) and 󰡒who lives forever, whose name is holy󰡓 has said that he lives 󰡒in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.󰡓 Although He dwells in the high and holy place, He sees the lowly humans, and stays with those who are contrite and humble. To be 󰡒contrite and lowly in spirit󰡓 means to realize being a sinner and desire to be forgiven by God after committing a sin. This is 󰡒to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.󰡓 However malicious a crime a child has committed, if the child sincerely begs for forgiveness, the parents would never put him to death. Although all the other people may think that the child more than deserves death, when asked about the child the parents will surely plead, 󰡒Please save him. Please save him. He is a deviant man, but he is my precious son.󰡓 Love transcends law. God saves unconditionally all the sinners who sincerely seek forgiveness and aspire to salvation. This is God's love.
At the time of Jesus, the worst criminals were nailed to the cross alive. Although Jesus was crucified innocent, the other two on the cross, murderous robbers, had committed a great deal of crimes. One robber challenged God and derided Jesus until death, saying, 󰡒If you are truly the Son of God and have saved many from death, why can't you save yourself? If you are God's Son, come down from the cross right now, and save me as well.󰡓 The other robber, however, rebuked him and said, 󰡒You and I deserve death for our crimes. But this man is innocent. Do you not fear God yet?󰡓 Seeing Jesus praying for sinners even while dying in pain on the cross, he came to believe that Jesus was God's Son and righteous man dying for the sake of sinners, whereupon he became struck with the fear of God and realization of his sin to hurl him down to hell. Thus, he seriously repented and entrusted his soul to Jesus at the moment of death, asking Jesus to have pity on him and remember him in his kingdom.
If I were Jesus, I would have said, 󰡒You want to go to the heavenly kingdom when you have killed and committed evil deeds for all your life?󰡓 and yet Jesus allowed the robber to accompany him to the paradise that day. Because Jesus said it, the robber surely went to the paradise. His salvation is at the same time our own salvation. We are saved unconditionally through God's grace. The merciful love of God saves any sinner as long as he truly desires salvation. This is why God dwells with the penitent and humble and saves their souls, created in God's image. As He says, 󰡒I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me - the breath of man that I have created,󰡓 He never wants the spirits He has created to perish.
When the first human ancestors committed sin in the Garden of Eden, God cursed the earth, and gave the woman the pain of child labor, and the man the toil of work. It is not because God hated human beings that He cursed the land and subjected them to the travails and death. The Bible says, 󰡒For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.󰡓 (Lam. 3:33) Parents scold and sometimes discipline children not out of hatred but in order to help them repent and change their ways and lay aside foolishness. Likewise, God has given us pain so that we can repent our sins and drop the attachment to the earth, cursed through sin. God cursed the land and subjected us to pain in order to help us realize the hopelessness of the earth and return to God, thereby embracing eternal hope. To say 󰡒I will not accuse forever󰡓 means that that God will not be angry with us forever. He had wrath for a short while and gave us pain and discipline, and yet this is not forever. God's will is to bring us to eternal life with Him.
7. We Have Spiritual Desires
My spirit, created in God's image for the sake of God's holy plan and purpose, is my true self. Some people regard their body as the only self, and do their utmost to take care of it, assiduously feeding and clothing it. They eat whatever is supposed to be good for health such as natural food, and take medicine even for slight sickness; they decorate their bodies, adorning their faces and even receiving cosmetic surgeries to remove wrinkles. They, however, have no idea about the existence of the spirit, and thus make no preparation for the spirit.
According to Jesus, when a rich man accumulated much wealth to last for many years and said to himself, 󰡒I have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry,󰡓 God said to him, 󰡒You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?󰡓 Jesus then says, 󰡒This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.󰡓 (Luke 12:19 ~ 21) Our spiritual needs are not met by material things.
As I mentioned at the beginning, animals are satisfied when there is food, comfortable environment, and mate to reproduce with. They have no needs beyond bodily drives.
Human beings, however, are never simply contented with fulfillment of physical conditions. One may say that a beautiful house, sumptuous food and clothes, and great cultural facilities will make a family happy, but will not bring them full happiness. For we have a spirit as well as the body, and thus spiritual needs in addition to bodily ones. Spiritual needs will not be met by material things. We come to commit all kinds of sins when we try to resolve our spiritual longing through the body and thereby get into excess.
As the Bible says, 󰡒May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,󰡓 (1 Th. 5:23) human beings have the body, the soul, and the spirit. The bodily desires are for food, sex, honor, etc. The soul refers to the emotional and mental activities, and desires of the soul are manifested through knowledge, love, noble thoughts, and so forth. The desire of the spirit is to find God, however. Hence, Romans 1:19 says, 󰡒Since what may be known about God is plain to them.󰡓 We have a desire to find God, while animals do not.
Also, among the desires of the spirit is the pursuit of goodness. As Romans 2:15 says, 󰡒Since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them,󰡓 when we commit a sin, our conscience accuses us. Our conscience says, 󰡒You wretched soul, you should not take others' possessions. You should not steal or do other evil deeds.󰡓 This is why the Bible says that conscience is law 󰡒written in their hearts.󰡓 (Rom. 2:15) Conscience pursues goodness.
Finally, the desires of the spirit include yearning for the eternity. 󰡒He has also set eternity in the hearts of men.󰡓 (Eccl. 3:11)) While the flesh seeks and is satisfied with what is visible, practical, and material, the spirit seeks what is eternal, complete, and divine. Since the spirit is created in God's image, it will not be satisfied until it becomes like God.
In the old China, when Xi Taihou(the Chinese Queen) was ruling the land for forty years, she made an artificial lake in Peking. The lake was so immense and boundless as to look like an ocean, and yet it was created in purely human hands. When there were no excavators or trucks, they dug out all the earth, erected a mountain, and built a magnificent palace on it.
The Forbidden City was a palace of Chinese emperors, and it has 9,999 rooms. They did not make it ten thousand because they thought it was only for God. Hence, I thought, 󰡒They had some conscience and at least knew that they were not God.󰡓
We will experience no fulfillment until we become like God. To be like God does not mean to become God himself, but to become able to live eternally like God. When we are saved, we will become like God, receiving glory with God and experiencing full contentment. It would not be just the rich man mentioned by Jesus that tries to serve his spiritual demands with bodily things, saying, 󰡒You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.󰡓 The people like him do not understand our spiritual desire.
If we give a candy to a child who has lost his mother and is crying, the sweetness of the candy may be able to silence the child for a while; momentarily, however, he will burst into tears again, crying out for the mother, and this time throwing away candies and toys. He will never be pacified until he finds himself back in the mother's embrace.
Since we have lost God, we have the desire to find God, and this spiritual thirst will never be quenched by anything that is of the world until death. This is why God said to him, 󰡒You fool.󰡓 Those who deny the existence of God and those who try to appease the spiritual longing by following the bodily drives are all absurd. God continued, 󰡒This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?󰡓 Although we may pile up riches as if we could live for tens of thousands of years, God can claim our spirits any time, even tonight.
As for the heads of states and people in high positions, after their retirements they will receive special treatments and have plenty of nice food and clothes for the rest of their lives. This should be enough to make them happy, and yet why do many of them try to amass enormous wealth as if they could use it for thousands of years and as if to inherit it to thousands of generations? Because people have a desire to become like God, they find no satisfaction no matter how much they have. If you have a building, you will then want to have another, and if you have two, you will then want to have ten. If you have a new car, you will next want to have a better model. And then you will start thinking that perhaps a private airplane may satisfy you completely. Even with all these things, however, you will still find yourself hungry.
8. We Shall See God outside Our Body
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh(1) I will see God... (Job 19:26)
I will see God outside my body (Korean Bible).
󰡒And after my skin has been destroyed...󰡓 When we die from old age, sickness, or accident, our hearts will stop, and our corpses start rotting. However beautiful or famous a person may have been in this life, death will return him to earth. When the body decays, what departs from the body? It is the spirit, rising from the body towards God.
And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7).
It is death that separates the body from the spirit. The body returns to dust after death. Since it is made out of earth, it goes back to earth (Gen. 3:19), while the spirit returns to God, from whom it came from. Even those who deny the existence of God will have to meet God very soon. The problem is that we must stand before God prepared.
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth (Pro. 27:1).
Even healthy and young people can meet a sudden death, not to mention sick and old people. Some people may live long, but none more than several decades. But death is not the end of everything, for thereafter we must go to God, receive judgement, and proceed to hell or heaven for eternity. My hands, feet, body, face, etc. are but my shells. Just as people live inside a building, so does the spirit dwell inside the earthen house (Job 4:19).
As in the verse, 󰡒And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in (outside) my flesh I will see God,󰡓 after death the spirit actually rises from the body and meets God.
I have met four people who have died and come back to life. Among them, a grandmother from Mokpo died and revived in two days, on the eve of the funeral. She told me in detail what had happened during her death. Another person was a fifty-seven-year-old man living in Panwol, a city near Su Won. Amid his sickness, his heart stopped, and he died, after which he saw his own dead body, said he. He said he saw his family members sitting and crying around his body, covered with a sheet, and it was real and not a dream.
I have also heard about someone who had served for forty years as a doctor in the Soviet Union and who had patients with an experience of reviving after death. The doctor's notes of their after-death stories have been on the newspapers. According to the stories, 󰡒it takes about five to fifteen minutes to move from life to death, during which people vividly experience the process of leaving the world. After the departure, they come to look down upon their own corpses.󰡓 American doctors also collected after- death stories, which talk about the 󰡒auto-scope,󰡓 whereby the dead people can see their own bodies and people around them so that they can tell who those people were after waking up from death. This is identical with what I heard. Furthermore, the SBS-TV's program I Want to Know This, which features people coming back from death, also gives same accounts. The other world surely exists, and many people have experienced it.
9. God Has Determined the Times of History
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:26 ~ 28).
When it says, 󰡒From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth,󰡓 it means that we are the descendants of one person, Adam. It is true that we are all descendants of Adam. Human beings and apes are not of the same lineage, so there is no ape with the same blood as ours. Human beings, however have the same blood, whether they are from Asia, Europe, Africa, or United States. If the blood types match, an African's or American's blood can be transfused into a Korean, and a Korean's blood into a European without any problem. Not even a drop of monkey's blood, however, can be inserted into the human blood vessels.
󰡒Determined the times...󰡓 To determine the times means that God set the beginning and end of history. As it says, 󰡒In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1),󰡓 and 󰡒I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away; and there was no longer any sea (Rev. 21:1),󰡓 God has decreed that the history come to an end when the time comes that is set by God instead of continuing endlessly. What do you think will happen to human history after a few hundred or few thousand years? Doubtlessly, the earth will have turned into a living hell.
O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end (Heb 1:10 ~12).
The earth is bound to perish according to this word. As we have examined in the first volume, The Way to God, we are living in the final age of history.
God has determined the times of history and the 󰡒the exact places where they should live.󰡓 In other words, God has decreed that we live within the earth during the ordained duration of history.
The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man (Psa. 115:16).
God has commanded us to conquer the earth while living on earth and not the heaven. No matter how far science develops, we cannot emigrate to the Moon, Mars, or Jupiter. For God does not allow us to conquer the heaven. When the time of God arrives, the history of the earth will come to a close. God has determined the bounds of human habitation so that 󰡒men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him󰡓 He does not abide far away from us.
10. God's Purpose Will Be Realized within the Period
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot... (Eccl. 3:1, 2)
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven... (KJV)
To determine the time of the earth is the same as there being a time for everything. To say, 󰡒There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity (purpose) under heaven󰡓 means that the purpose will be realized within the set period. Would there not be God's purpose during this period of history? History has a purpose, and so does the life of each of us. The purposes for which God has created our life and God leads the history are closely interconnected.
What is the purpose of history?
The human history exists in order to prepare the people to enter the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, when the gospel has been spread throughout the world, and the number of the people to enter the heavenly kingdom through salvation has been filled, the history will conclude. As a skylark builds a nest, lays eggs, hatches the youngs, and flies away with them, never to return, when God's purpose of history is realized, He will eliminate the earth because He has no more use for it. As a temporary building is demolished after the completion of the main building, the heaven and earth we see now will be removed like a temporary building once the people have become ready to proceed to the new heaven and earth.
Just as countless people have come and gone throughout the history, so will you and I. Then, what is the purpose of our existence in history? The purpose of human life converges with that of history. We do not live for sin, nor for suffering or some worldly pleasure. Our purpose is not determined by us, for it has already been by God. In short, our several decades of life on earth is for the sake of preparing ourselves to go before God by coming to know God, receiving salvation of the spirit, and living a life worthy of children of God. When the people of the heavenly kingdom have been prepared after the long history, God's purpose is fulfilled, and the history will close.
11. We Have Come to the World in Order to Receive Eternal Life
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Eccl. 3:11).
God has created everything beautifully according to different times; for instance, flowers blossom in the spring, and fruits such as melons and watermelons provide coolness in the summer. Summer fruits such as watermelon are low in calories, and their rich water content helps people, who sweat much in the summer. Because they go bad quickly, they must be eaten soon. Autumn fruits, on the other hand, are storable so that they can be kept for food through the winter. By the time we run out of them, God provides us with new fruits of the next year. This shows us the remarkable reason with which He has created the whole nature.
God, who has created everything beautifully according to seasons, has 󰡒set eternity in the hearts of men,󰡓 that is, endowed the human beings with a yearning for the eternity. When there is a yearning heart, there is bound to be the object of the yearning, just as when there is a thirst, there is water to quench it, and when there is hunger, there is food to satisfy it. When a baby is born, he looks for milk, although he has never learned that there is milk or how to suck milk; while giving him a desire to suck milk, God has also provided the mother's breasts for the baby to suck lying comfortably in her arms. Moreover, the temperature, nutrition, and taste of the breast milk are designed to fit the growing baby's needs exactly. This is revealed in a research showing that the nutrition content of breast milk changes over time as the baby grows, at the time of his birth, after one hundred days, and after ten months, for instance. This is another skillful work of God. When you enter the puberty, a desire for members of the other sex sprouts forth in your heart. A yearning heart is never without the object yearned for. When our hearts have a desire, there is bound to be an object that can fulfill that desire.
Why has God given us such a yearning for the eternity? It is because we possess a spirit, which never dies, and there are eternal world, eternal truth, and eternal God. God has created us in His image and instilled in us a desire to seek the eternity in order that He may give us that eternal, complete, and holy world, which is God's everlasting kingdom. Just as there is a song called, 󰡒I want to live with you forever,󰡓 we have a desire to live with God endlessly.
We are thirsting for eternal life.
Why have we come here to the world? We have come in order to attain eternal life. Why did Jesus come to the world? He came in order to open for us the way to the eternal God. This is why Jesus said, 󰡒I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.󰡓 (John 14:6) It is surely the Bible that teaches the way to eternal life.
The truth of the Bible leads to life. We have come in order to find that way, realize that truth, and attain that eternal life. We may lose or give up many things, but we should never lose the eternal life that Jesus seeks to give us.
After a short while, all of you and I will have left this world and find ourselves in an eternal abode.
The Bible says, 󰡒Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment...󰡓 (Heb. 9:27) Although the body returns to dust, the spirit ascends to God, receives His judgement, and moves on to an eternal place. The heaven is an eternal place, and so is the hell. However, in the heaven we live in everlasting glory with God, whereas in hell we suffer never-ending agony with devils. We are to go to one of the two places, between which light and darkness, life and death, truth and deception, and happiness and misery are perpetually divided. We must choose between going to the heaven by receiving the eternal life from Jesus and going to hell by losing the eternal life.
Where would you like to go? Where would you spend your eternity? You work so hard, strain yourselves, and make assiduous preparations for the sake of the several decades of your life in this world, and yet why are you so nonchalant about the eternity of your life?
Our short earthly life is but a process of preparing to advance to the eternal world. Just as there is tomorrow after today, so is there another world after this world. Today is the time to prepare for tomorrow. We are here to find the way to the eternal world, and those who have found it are surely blessed with true happiness.
III. The Human Fall and the Consequent Punishments
1. Jesus Came in Order to Find the Lost Sinners
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and 󰡒sinners󰡓 came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 󰡒Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?󰡓 On hearing this, Jesus said, 󰡒It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.󰡓 (Mat. 9:10 ~ 13).
At the time of Jesus, there were many Jews who were known for their devoted service to God. Priests, elders, and lawyers kept the sabbath meticulously, made strict tithing, fasted twice a week for God, and worked hard to save souls. They made long prayers and strove to live by the law. Even the most diligent religious practitioner today would find himself belittled by the religious fervor of the priests, lawyers, or Pharisees at that time. In contrast, there was another group of Jews who were considered 󰡒low life󰡓 in today's expression. Publicans, as running dogs of the Romans, collected groundless taxes, offering some to the Romans and keeping the rest for themselves, similar to some of those tax officials of today who take from the national treasure and stuff their own pockets. There were also prostitutes and sinners who mingled with the tax collectors, who could not have used the unjust money in a decent way. These sinners could not be in the company of the aforementioned people of dignity, for they took pride in their own holiness and disdained those sinners.
Jesus, however, went to sinners' homes and befriended them, eating and talking with them. This is how Jesus earned the devout people's accusation. They reasoned that if Jesus was from God, as he revived the dead, healed lepers, and opened blind eyes, he should be with them, and even more so if Jesus was intent upon initiating a political movement to revive Israel. To their disappointment, however, Jesus was indifferent towards political matters and simply mingled with sinners. This is why they complained to disciples of Jesus why their teacher was eating with the tax collectors and sinners.
When he heard this, Jesus replied, 󰡒It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.󰡓 Does a doctor need to visit a healthy person? Doctors are for sick people. Jesus is a doctor of spiritual disease rather than physical. Spiritual illness means sin.
Sickness weakens and pains people, eventually bringing them to death. Many people die from illness. Sin, on the other hand, separates us from God, makes us fall, and eventually brings us to the hell. To say that Jesus came to save the sinners means that he came to extirpate sin.
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin (1 John 3:5).
Jesus said, 󰡒For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners󰡓 because the priests, lawyers, elders, Pharisees, and scribes thought that they were earnestly serving God and therefore righteous. They may have been righteous in others' eyes as well, but definitely not in God's view. Because they were self-righteous, Jesus did not associate with them. Jesus befriended those who knew of themselves as sinners.
When Jesus was teaching God's word, elders questioned with what authority he taught, whereupon Jesus answered, 󰡒The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.󰡓 (Mat 21:31) Since the tax collectors and prostitutes had nothing righteous to show, but only sins, they could easily recognize their being sinners, which made their salvation that much easier. You have to be a sinner to be saved from your hell-bound fate.
How wonderful it will be if there is a doctor who can cure all the sicknesses! If there is a doctor who can heal the so-called incurable illnesses such as cancer and AIDS, all the patients will rush to see him. They will have to. Jesus is a doctor of the spirit, who can save any sinner.
Why did the Jewish religious leaders reject Jesus, when he can save any sinner?
Born as members of the chosen, they earnestly observed the sabbath, offered tithing, piously worshipped in the temple, fasted for God, and did alms. They were admired by the people as sacred religious dignitaries. They were already assured of their own righteousness. Hence, they did not feel the need for salvation, and adamantly refused to admit that they were miserable sinners fated to eternal hell after death. This is why they oppressed Jesus.
We can see from the Bible that while the religious leaders persecuted Jesus and failed to receive salvation, grave sinners such as tax collectors and prostitutes were saved. This is ironical, and yet true.
The Bible relates that a murderer and robber crucified besides Jesus was saved (Luke 23:39 ~ 43). Cross was a means to publicly execute serious and vicious criminals in the Roman colonial period.
When Jesus was nailed to the cross, two robbers were crucified with him to his right and left. One robber derided and berated Jesus until the moment of death: 󰡒Jesus, when you claim yourself to be the Son of God, and have raised the dead and healed lepers, why are you getting killed on the cross like a dumb? If you are God's Son, jump off the cross right now, and try to save me as well.󰡓
The other robber must have committed all the horrible crimes just the same way throughout his whole life, and heard about Jesus. He saw that while people around Jesus including the robber on the other side were, finger-pointing, spitting at, and ridiculing Jesus, Jesus did not fight back or curse them. He also saw Jesus praying, 󰡒Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.󰡓 (Luke 23:34) Such experience must have convinced him that Jesus was the Son of God.
When the first robber was laughing and cursing at Jesus, the other robber rebuked him: 󰡒Don't you fear God... since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.󰡓 Then he said, 󰡒Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.󰡓 (Luke 23:40 ~ 42)
Before death one robber had faith in God and fear of God. He realized that Jesus was the savior sent by God, who was praying for sinners and able to save them all. He desired to entrust his spirit to Jesus at the closing of his life, that is, in front of the gate of the hell. This naturally produced his plead: 󰡒Jesus, please remember me when you arrive at your kingdom. Your grace can save me.󰡓
Did Jesus say, 󰡒No. You have been committing vicious crimes all your life, and you still desire an admission to the heavenly kingdom? It is too late for you󰡓? No. Jesus did not even utter a word of blame. Instead, he said, 󰡒today you will be with me in paradise.󰡓 (Luke 23:43)
We can have no doubt that the murderer and robber received salvation because Jesus does not speak lies. It is amazing that a robber with heavy sin, who neither had had time to do good deeds nor served God, directly received a promise of salvation from Jesus. Upon the death of Jesus, he ascended directly to the paradise with Jesus.
No sin is too heavy for salvation. Everyone will receive the same salvation from Jesus as the robber did. It is only human opinion what kind of sinners we are, but the power of salvation lies with God, the Creator of heaven and earth. It is important to know that the giver of salvation is not the sinners themselves but God. Redemption is entirely God's business.
Some people say, 󰡒I have such an atrocious sin that I am not free to believe in Jesus. I will start going to church after I stop doing bad things, discontinue drinking and gambling, and change my hearts.󰡓 This is like saying, 󰡒I cannot take a shower because I have too much dirt. I will wash it off with tap water first.󰡓 There is no one so seriously sinful that Jesus cannot save him.
What we must do before attaining salvation is to deeply feel the need for salvation. We simply have to feel its need sincerely and desire it. This is all we have to do, just as all that a drowning person can and must do is to say, 󰡒Help me.󰡓
When somebody is drowning, the rescuer takes whatever measures to bring him out of the water irrespective of the rescuee's wishes. God's way of salvation, however, is different.
God saves only those who cry out for help in realization of their own powerlessness, and not those who refuse to be saved. This is the difference between God and humans.
And whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life (Rev. 22:17).
Why, then, do people reject salvation? It is because they are ignorant of the fact that they have a destiny to perish before God.
Ask people around you going to the church, 󰡒Are you saved?,󰡓 or 󰡒Are you born again?,󰡓 and listen to what they have to say.
There is a verse in a hymn, 󰡒How shall I answer the question whether I am saved, when my sins are still not forgiven.󰡓 When you are asked whether you are saved, how will you answer the question? Not knowing about your own rebirth is a proof that you are not born again. This is a sure reasoning. The saved ones know that they are saved. For salvation is not something vague. The saved ones know that they will ascend to God any time their lives end.
Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son (1 John 5:10).
Salvation and rebirth appear frequently in the hymns. For instance: 󰡒I rely on Jesus my savior and received my salvation. I received comfort and eternal life all from my Jesus,󰡓 󰡒I took Jesus as my savior and was born again through the blood and Holy Spirit; then, my soul enjoys the heavenly glory while on earth.󰡓 These lines are living testimonies of saved Christians. Hymns were composed as the saved ones expressed their hearts in poems and put melodies to them. When people whose hearts are dry try to sing these hymns, they will find no connection to what they sing, for the song will not match what is in their hearts at all. Our readers also must be clear about this.
Why have you not yet attained salvation when you have been going to church for decades? I have to point out two important things. First, you have never even once deeply and seriously reflected upon the fact you are bound to hell after death. Have you ever pondered upon your destiny towards hell?
Second, you have never even once listened to the word that surely leads to salvation. You simply go to church as a habit, thinking, 󰡒To believe is simply to go to church and diligently attend to duties of faith. I will go to the heavenly kingdom if God takes me, and won't if He doesn't. But wouldn't He take me because I am working so hard?󰡓 Faith, however, is not like this.
Comparing the religious people and tax collectors and prostitutes, who are representative of sinners, I have explained that salvation requires our being sinners. I think there are two most difficult kinds of people to save: The first kind either give up, believing that they have too much sin, and therefore God will not accept them, or they are nonchalant, thinking that they can just live freely and die whether it may be heavenly kingdom or hell that is waiting for them.
Still another difficult group, however, is sincere Christians who are born and educated in Christianity and diligently attend church services and who, without being born again, believe themselves to be God's chosen. Having received baptism, and acquiring positions of deacon or elder or other high ranks, they receive praise and respect from people for their good faith. They have a tremendous obstacle against salvation because they are self-righteous. Salvation demands that we become sinners. This is the qualification for salvation.
2. The Meaning of a Sinner
Then, what does it mean to be a sinner? You will not be happy when someone asks you if you are a sinner. You will think, 󰡒I have been relatively good. I didn't commit any major sin, nor did I kill, cheat, or fornicate.󰡓 To be a sinner, however, does not refer to how much sin you have committed.
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (Psa. 51:5).
We are sinners already from inside the womb. It does not mean having a sinful mother. The Bible teaches that every one of us is a sinner already at birth. The above verse declares that I was in sin 󰡒at birth󰡓 and from the time of conception.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin...(Rom. 5:12)
Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men... (Rom. 5:18)
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners... (Rom. 5:19)
The 󰡒one man󰡓 refers to Adam. God has installed the first ancestor Adam as the representative of the mankind. We can say that Adam contained the seed of the entire mankind. The word 󰡒Adam󰡓 means human being. The disobedience of the one person Adam has severed the eternal relationship between God and us and degraded us as sinners. The law of God, which determines life and death, has been breached, and in Adam we have been demoted as sinners before God.
Adam betrayed God's love by accepting Satan's lie rather than God's truth. Because of one man's disobedience, all the people born through Adam have become sinners even before birth regardless of their intentions or actions. Adam became a sinner by committing sin, and his descendants simply because they hail from Adam. One man Adam's deed has determined the fate of the entire mankind.
Through Adam's iniquities, the entire mankind in Adam have transgressed, through Adam's expulsion from God, the entire mankind have become expelled, and through Adam's curse, the entire mankind have come under doom. Therefore, to be a sinner means to be a descendant of Adam or seed of sin.
As the family name of my ancestors determine my family name, spiritually we have Sin as our family name. The descendants of Adam are Mr. or Mrs. Sin because of him. This has endowed us with inclination for sin.
Hence, the word sinner represents our spiritual status and means that we are descendants of the fallen Adam and a bad tree.
We yield bad fruits because we have been abased into bad trees and commit sin because we are descendants of the fallen Adam, that is, sinners.
Children, especially new borns, all look like angels having nothing to do with sin. Some people say that we are born innocent and become sinful as we see, hear, and learn about evil things while growing up. This is promulgated in the Mencius' theory of good human nature. In short, they say that children are born innocent, and yet become corrupted by the environment.
Then, how about bringing infants to no man's island immediately after their birth and raising them there? Will they become saints because they will be free from evil influences? They must, if the theory is correct. They, however, will go in the opposite direction and become like beasts.
Even tigers and lions are calm after birth. Baby tigers and lions will play joyfully with puppies. A tiger called Ho Soon at the Kwang Ju Park had three babies, out of whom one had to suck a dog's breast because Ho Soon did not have enough milk.
A picture of the baby tiger sucking a dog's breasts appeared on newspapers. So baby tigers will suck dog's milk and play with puppies. Will a tiger, however, keep calm and mingle comfortably with dogs throughout its growth? Youngs do not show the nature of ferocious beast; after a short while, however, the tiger will devour the dogs.
Likewise, when little, human beings may seem innocent, and yet they contain within themselves inclination for sin, which will drive them into sin throughout their lives. They are filled with the propensities to all kinds of sin such as greed, jealousy, lasciviousness, arrogance, hypocrisy, etc. They just do not show at early ages; however, sin will raise its ugly head little by little over the process of growth.
3. We Are Essentially Children of Wrath
Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies (Psa. 58:3).
It is the same with the wicked as with sinners. The wicked have left God far away already at the womb. They prefer going sideways to straight, evil to goodness, what is dirty to what is clean, and speaking vicious words to kind words. From birth, they take a stray route instead of the main path. As a crab, which walks sideways, still scolds its young for going sideways, we are born to go astray.
Indeed, we loathe doing good things when we know of their goodness, while indulging into evil things when we know of their evil. This is because we are in the grips of inclinations for sin.
Children's sins grow together with them. When they start having teeth, what do they do with them first? If milk does not come out smoothly from mother's breasts, they bite the nipples. Augustine is known to have repented even for the sin of biting his mother's nipples. As they become able to take their own food, they try to eat everything and even take from others. Although they have not been taught greed, they try to grab everything.
Furthermore, when they start recognizing their aunts and uncles, they try to detect their moods. They start seeing who likes and who dislikes them, and having jealousy. They have never learned how to be jealous, and yet these feelings naturally erupt in their hearts.
They start telling lies as they become able to speak. You can see this when you raise children. You try hard to raise them good and clean in vain. How shrewd they are in telling lies! They have never been taught how to tell lies; they flow out from within.
As they receive formal education, their misdemeanor becomes sophisticated. Higher education produces smart criminals, and overseas studies and modern disciplines help them perform high-level crimes, although those who have grown up under educated parents and learned ethics, religion, etc. might control themselves better and know how to maintain dignity.
They know that committing sin undermines their own reputation and character, and have learned and know well about punishments, which helps them discipline themselves better than less educated people. They manage and suppress their feelings fairly well, although some unruly inclinations may crack out through the barrier of repression.
On the other hand, in some people born in adverse circumstances with no opportunity for proper education, their sin runs a full course. Uneducated souls succumb to the irresistible temptation of sin into committing heinous crimes.
Then, what is the difference between the uneducated people committing outrageous crimes and well-educated people? Their insides are the same, and just their external appearances differ. For instance, when we paint windows red, yellow, and blue, their differences will be seen from outside, and yet they only have one light from inside. Sin appears differently in different people, and yet these appearances have the same inner root.
What does God see? Before the appearances, He sees our hearts first. Whether we manage or fail to suppress the sin inside us, God does not consider us clean because He sees our inner core.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).
All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD (Pro. 16:2).
Proverbs 26:24, 25 says, 󰡒A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart.󰡓 As in this verse, people have seven abominations although they embellish their speeches and make them plausible. Some have described the seven abominations in terms of seven animals, that is, a peacock, goat, swine, snake, leopard, frog, and turtle.
A heart like peacock refers to arrogance, boasting, and pride; a heart like goat stubbornness and lasciviousness; a heart like swine greed and fondness for filth; a heart like snake wickedness and cunning, and lies as a snake has forked tongues and says two different things with one mouth; a heart like leopard impulse for murder; a heart like frog propensity for back talk, slander, and contempt; and a turtle opportunism.
We all have such tendencies and inclinations. Those who control these vices well are called people of character, and yet their core is the same as any other. There is no difference between a prostitute and a nun except that the former has her sin exposed, while the latter has her sin covered with religious veil. Since God sees our hearts, no one can appear before Him clean.
4. The Heart of Corruption
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 󰡒I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.󰡓 (Jer. 17:9).
Human heart is much more deceitful and depraved than all things. As in the verse, 󰡒who can know it,󰡓 we do not know even ourselves how dirty our hearts are. Hearing this, some people may opine thus: 󰡒People are said to be bad, but I am not so bad myself. Those who cheat, steal, fornicate, or murder must be hopeless scoundrels, but I am not so because I don't do those things.󰡓 Those who think light of their own sinfulness, however, may commit even worse crimes when the right circumstances arise.
Murders are not pre-determined. Everyone has an inclination to kill. Whether out of revenge, anger, survival need, or self-defense, we have the capacity to do anything according to the situation. If there is a laser gun that can hit a target in the eye hundreds of meters away without leaving any trace or evidence, and furthermore if killers are not punished by law, not so many people will be able to stay alive.
A few years ago there was a murder case in Pusan where a woman was chopped into pieces. The offender of the crime was put in the Taegu Prison. A believer happened to cause a traffic accident and share the prison cell with the offender. You must suppose that such an offender has a sinister and terrifying look, and yet he looked gentle, making it impossible to imagine him as being able to commit such a heinous homicide, according to the believer. This shows that anybody can murder, fornicate, or steal; when we have the proclivities, we will manifest them when the right circumstances arise.
The other day, I was riding a crowded local train, and saw paddlers moving up and down the aisle. Sitting near me was a seemingly respectable woman, in a graceful Korean dress and even white bosons (Korean socks) and calmly looking down. A paddler, however, stepped on her foot by mistake, leaving a big black imprint on her white boson, whereupon she went ballistic and cursed at him, saying, 󰡒You bastard, where are your eyes?󰡓 My heart almost stopped to witness such a ferocious outburst of anger from a woman who had seemed to be so tender and noble. It was her inner core that exploded upon being touched.
󰡒I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind.󰡓 Since God searches the heart, examines the mind, and weighs our motives (Pro. 16:2), who can dare to claim himself clean before God?
God knows that our hearts are steeped in wickedness: 󰡒This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.󰡓 (Eccl. 9:3) Since God knows it all, He rewards 󰡒a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.󰡓
Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one (Job 14:4)!
What is clean cannot come out of what is unclean. What is clean comes out of what is clean. As it says, 󰡒Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?󰡓 (Mat. 7:16) a bad tree cannot produce good fruits. When our hearts are so seriously vile, and we are born sinners worse than all things, how can anything good come from us?
Jesus said to Israelites, 󰡒You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks,󰡓 (Mat. 12:34) and 󰡒But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.󰡓 (Mat. 15:18, 19) When we fail to suppress the evil filling our hearts, it generates fruits of sin. That is, what is in our hearts are expressed in our actions. Proverbs lists the tools of sin as follows:
There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers (Pro. 6:16 ~ 19).
As in this verse, how many evil deeds we perform through our hearts, eyes, mouths, hands, and feet! After realizing the depth of his sin, a writer in Psalter says, 󰡒For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.󰡓 (Psa. 40:12)
5. Human Life is Abominable and Filthy
What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman, that he could be righteous? If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water! (Job 15:14 ~ 16)
Let us compare the blue sky and the human heart filled with sin. If the sky is not clean in God's eyes, how much less will we be able to claim ourselves clean before God, as we are detestable and corrupt and drink 󰡒iniquity like water󰡓?
All the religions of the world teach good deeds. They teach that accumulating good conducts will earn us blessing and bring us to the paradise. The Bible, however, does not teach good deeds, although, of course, it does not teach evil deeds, either.
Then, what does the Bible speak about? While not telling us not to do good acts, it affirms that we do not have the power to practice goodness in the true sense. It proclaims that we are unable to be good in the true sense because nothing good can spring from the fallen and corrupt hearts we are born with.
We can be compared to a bad tree. You will never tell a bad tree to bear good fruits. Rather than teaching good deeds first, the Bible declares that judged from God's standard we are unable to practice goodness.
Some people may object and say, 󰡒people don't just commit sin; they sometimes perform good actions.󰡓 A human action may look good in human sight, but the problem is that this is only from human viewpoint and not God's. When we put together the Chinese characters in (), which means human being, and wee (), which means action, we get a word wee (), which means falsity. This means that human actions of goodness are false goodness. It is a kind of goodness and yet mixed with sin. We cannot stand before God in this condition. Then what can we do?
We must first receive salvation. We must receive salvation amid our sin and be grafted unto God's life. Instead of investing our efforts into bad trees to harvest good fruits, fertilizing and watering them, we should graft them unto a good tree. Then, they will yield good fruits. When we become saved and born again, we become forgiven before God and grafted unto God's life.
6. Transformation Through God's Life and Power
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2Cor. 5:17)
To be in Christ means that I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. When we are thus united with the Christ, that is, when the life of Christ comes to us, he creates us as new persons. Hence, the above passage says, 󰡒he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!󰡓 We must become new persons in order to be able to live a new life. We must receive God's life in order to be able to truly obey God's word. There are many who try to 󰡒live a Christian life󰡓 before they become one, and many who try to observe God's word before they receive God's life. They, however, will end up being hypocrites.
We must receive God's life in order to be able to keep God's word. When you are inundated with sinful desires, just because you make efforts on your own power, suppressing these desires and promising yourself only to do good deeds, it does not mean that you live a Christian life. When God's life enters you, however, God establishes you as a new person, whereupon you move farther and farther away from sin, and a desire to obey God's word effortlessly springs forth in you. Then, you have the power to obey God's word.
It is natural that a good tree bears good fruits. Does a good tree make some special efforts to bring good fruits, shaking its branches to and fro, for instance? No, it simply and naturally bears good fruits. Likewise, when we receive God's life, we become naturally empowered with an ardent desire to obey God's word. Some readers may have difficulty understanding this, but this is true. Of course, I am not saying that when we become saved, we immediately turn around and becomes holy like angels; however, once we are saved, and God's life starts in us, we will move gradually towards holiness. A good tree also needs time to grow before bearing good fruits.
To say that faith grows after salvation means that our hearts start to change from that time on. God's life transforms our hearts and thoughts. It changes our characters, and this manifests itself in our actions. This is a life of faith.
Some people go to church for decades, and there pray and promise themselves to live by God's word, and yet outside the church they commit sins, tell lies, become greedy, and perform other evil deeds. Back in the church, they repent, make another determination to live by God's word, and struggle not to repeat sinful conducts, but again outside the church they commit another sin. They do evil things outside the church, and sing holy hymns inside the church. Their religious life is tragically caught in this vicious circle. If such a life continues, it will destroy their conscience, not to mention bringing no true transformation of life. What is the reason for such dilemma?
Is it because they do not pray enough, have weak will, or have not made enough donations? Or is it because they still have not gone to the church long enough? Even going to church for the entire life will not solve the problem, however, as long as the power of God is missing in them, which brings about a true transformation of the heart and life. Only those who have become a new creation in Jesus can enter 󰡒a new heaven and a new earth󰡓 (Rev. 21:1). God saves those human beings who only deserve to go to hell and infuses them with life and new power. God desires that they keep God's word in the life newly gained. For no will, efforts, determination, or training on our part will make possible the life of faith wherein we abide by God's word but a rebirth and receiving of a new life.
7. Human Righteousness Is Not Acceptable to God
If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men (Job 35:7, 8).
Although we may be righteous, what can we offer God, and what can God gain from us? Although we may perform a good action from our standard, will God accept it, when we are born amid sin with a heart filthier than all things and drink iniquities like water?
If a child gives a cake to his mother right after fumbling with clay, would the mother be delighted? No, she would rather say, 󰡒Thank you, but it is too dirty to eat. Why don't you give it to a dog?󰡓 A dog would of course welcome it, and even follow the child around for more, but the mother cannot. To say, 󰡒your righteousness only the sons of men󰡓 means that our goodness will look respectable only in the sight of sinners like us and not in God's sight.
It is a serious error to think that we can please God when we simply make earnest efforts of goodness. What will God receive from fallen sinners, whatever they do? People worry about making donations when they go to church. The Bible says, however, that donation, tithing, etc. are to be done after the salvation. What qualification do we have to offer anything to God, when we are destined to hell in case we die tonight, and what will God receive from such sinners?
To Simon, who thought that he could buy God's gift with money, Peter said, 󰡒May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.󰡓 (Acts 8:20, 21) One may boast of his huge wealth, and yet the redemption of human life is too precious to buy, that is, no material can redeem a human spirit (Psa. 49:6 ~ 8). As God says, 󰡒Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me,󰡓 (Job 41:11) there is none who can give God without first receiving from Him. When we receive the gift of salvation from God, out of gratitude we act and make offerings to God, and this God receives.
Salvation transforms sinners fated to hell into children of God, and imbues them with hope of the heavenly kingdom. To think of the immense grace we have received from God, we cannot repay him even by dying a hundred times. It is after our salvation, out of the overflowing joy and gratitude and with voluntary heart, that we make donations and live for the Christ. What would be the problem with making material donations for the sake of the gospel, when we can even live and die for the Christ?
Before paying tuition to Seoul National University (the most prestigious university in Korea), you have to be its student first. It is the same with faith. We must be born again with God's life before we become qualified and able to do everything for God's glory and through God's power.
It is the same with prayer. There are people who pray all night without even being born again; such prayer will not even go beyond the church ceiling. There is only one prayer we must make before attaining rebirth: 󰡒Please save me. Please help me realize the truth.󰡓 No other prayers have any meaning at this point.
Does a drowning person say, 󰡒Please employ me,󰡓 󰡒Give me some lunch money,󰡓 or 󰡒Buy me a cold medicine󰡓? He must shout, 󰡒Help me, help me,󰡓 so he can be pulled out of the water. Likewise, the sinners doomed to hell must first scream for rescue and then become actually delivered. As in the verse, 󰡒Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well,󰡓 (3 John 1:2) the first issue is the spirit, and the issue of prosperity and health comes next. People, however, lead a blind religious life while neglecting the destiny of their spirits.
Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands (Isa. 59:6).
󰡒Their cobwebs are useless for clothing...󰡓 As mentioned in the preceding verse, the 󰡒cobwebs󰡓 are made of spider's thread (Isa. 59:5), and also symbolizes the actions people perform in order to cover their iniquities. Just as we cannot weave proper clothes out of spider's thread, so never can we cover the shame of our conscience with our good deeds and zeal.
For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities (Isa. 59:12).
󰡒For our offenses are many in your sight...󰡓 How much sin we must commit during our life! We normally forget them, but if we can remember all our sin, which is more than our hairs (Psa. 40:12), we will not be able to bear the agony. Since 󰡒our sins testify against us,󰡓 the sin separates us far away from God.
Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isa. 59:1, 2).
It is not that God's hands are too short to reach us, nor are His ears too dull to hear us. Since sin is separating us far away from God, we are God's enemies, and God will not hear us whatever we ask until we become cleansed of our sin.
8. Human Righteousness Is like a Soiled Garment
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away (Isa. 64:6).
This verse affirms that we are all unclean people or sinners.
󰡒All our righteous acts are like filthy rags...󰡓 We know that sin is filthy, but not that even human righteousness is dirty before God. The Bible affirms that human righteousness is just as dirty as sin in God's sight. Human acts of goodness and righteousness are filthy rags in God's eyes. We cannot cover our shame with filth rags.
Within us there is fallen heart, shame of conscience, guilt, etc, and we think that doing good actions will free us from them. This is useless, however, because it is like a dirty person's trying to cover his dirt with a stinking rag. Our righteousness is like a soiled garment and thus cannot be used to cover us before God.
󰡒We all shrivel up like a leaf...󰡓 Genesis 3 narrates that Adam and Eve after eating the fruit in disobedience of God's word discovered the shame of their nakedness and made skirts out of fig leaves.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Gen. 3:7).
Although there were only two individuals, Adam and Eve made clothes for themselves. The first clothes human being made were manufactured neither for covering human nakedness against animals nor for protecting against cold. They made their clothes in order to cover their shame.
When the day was cool, God called Adam and Eve, and they hid themselves from God in the trees of the garden. When God asked their whereabouts, Adam answered, 󰡒I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.󰡓 (Gen. 3:8 ~ 10)
At that time, however, Adam and Eve were wearing fig-leaf clothes; then why did he say that he was naked? What does this signify?
It was in the day that they ate the fruit and made the fig-leaf skirts. During the course of the day, however, the sun dried up the leaves, and their movements shook and stretched the clumsy skirts and ruined them, making them almost naked. All our good acts and hard endeavors are like trying to cover our shame with a fig-leaf skirt. The fact that the fig-leaf skirt failed to serve as a proper clothes means that none of our ethical and religious strivings and acts of righteousness is enough to cover the shame of our sin.
󰡒We all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.󰡓 Because we are unable to cover our sin with our good deeds and earnest endeavors, our iniquities drives us to hell like the wind. No one can escape from this destiny.
9. We Are Thoroughly Fallen
What shall we conclude then? Are we any better ? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin (Rom. 3:9).
Jews are the people chosen by God, the Israelites. The Bible declares that both Jews and Gentiles are alike in being under sin. This is a public declaration of their being sinners.
As it is written: 󰡒There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.󰡓 (Rom. 3:10 ~ 12)
When God looks upon the world, there is none righteous, and all are sinners. As it says, 󰡒For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God,󰡓 (Rom. 3:23) we are born sinners and have actually committed sin. A righteous person means someone who not only practices goodness but also stays away from committing evil. We, however, are sometimes good and sometimes evil, sometimes love and sometimes hate, and sometimes help and sometimes hurt others. We cannot call somebody righteous who practices good and evil together. A mixture of good and evil is evil, and thus the one who behaves sometimes good and sometimes evil is a sinner. This is why it says, 󰡒There is no one righteous, not even one.󰡓 This is why the writer of the Ecclesiastics declares, 󰡒There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.󰡓 (Eccl. 7:20)
󰡒There is no one that does good, not even one.󰡓 This says that there is no one who does good to the extent of reaching complete goodness in God's sight or meeting God's standard of goodness. Human goodness is a false goodness. The falsity and pretense lies in making up good actions from a heart that is turned away from goodness. This is what God hates the most.
Jesus did not tell the tax collectors and prostitutes, saying, 󰡒Woe unto you, tax collectors and prostitutes,󰡓 but berated religious leaders, saying, 󰡒Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!󰡓 (Mat. 23:25)
Hypocrites are those who pretend to be good and put up good appearances. Although they show facade of piety and righteousness, their inner core has a glut of arrogance, greed, false goodness, lasciviousness, and lies. One is a hypocrite when his heart teems with all sorts of foul things although outwardly he seems to be God-serving, righteous, and pious. His heart is like a 󰡒whitewashed tomb󰡓, whose outside is clean and white but inside is full of rotten corpses and foul odor. 󰡒You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.󰡓 No matter how clean a cup may be, if the content is dirty, nobody will want to drink it. Likewise, God cannot take hypocrisy.
󰡒Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.󰡓 Our spirit must be washed first before our hearts and lives become clean. Hence, when we are dirty, we should admit our being dirty, and present ourselves to God as we truly are. When we have sin, we should appear before God exactly as sinners. Then, the Christ will remove our sin, cure our fallen and wicked heart, and make us holy.
When Jesus was on earth, he raised the dead and healed lepers. Likewise, Jesus has the power to save our dead souls and purify and transform our fallen hearts. Gamblers, swindlers, gangs, playboys, and all other people drowning in iniquities will become new human beings once they become awakened in the gospel. As in the verse 󰡒the old has gone, the new has come!󰡓 I have witnessed Jesus' guidance of the saved towards new life. Jesus establishes the redeemed as holy children of God, holy people, and new human beings, thereby leading them to the heavenly kingdom. 󰡒And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.󰡓 (1 Cor. 6:11)
Since God can solve any problem of sin, we should never hide our sin, and candidly acknowledge it. It is in order to correct us that the Bible exposes our sin as it is. Furthermore, it is to clothe us with God's righteousness that Jesus strips us, to build us as true souls that he demolishes us, and to plant us in eternal blessing that he uproots us. Therefore, each of us must first acknowledge before God that we are wretched sinners.
Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes (Rom 3:13 ~ 18).
In making graves, the Israelites dug caves in the rocks, and kept dead bodies of their ancestors there, closing the cave entrance with a rock. When open, the rotting smell of corpses would leak out from the cave. Hence, the expression, 󰡒their throats are open graves󰡓 means that whenever they open their mouth, obscenities, slanders, and other abominable speeches come out like foul odor.
People tend to enjoy damaging stories, shameful tales, and scandals more than edifying words and virtuous stories. Whenever open, their mouths throw out pungent smell like open graves. 󰡒Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips...󰡓 The poison coming out of human mouth can be more deadly than that from vipers.
Some famous man said on the TV that when we are enraged, cursing and shouting, our mouths become filled with poison. The bubbles coming out a furious mouth can even kill a cow when injected, said he. This is how scary human poison is.
A while ago I heard a story about a happening in the countryside. There was a severe drought, so severe that the crop field cracked up like turtle's back. In such times, people would get into fights trying to bring even ditch waters to their own fields as much as possible. People would not even recognize their own brothers or close neighbors. When someone turned a water channel towards his field, next morning he would find the channel diverted to another's field.
Hence, a fight broke out between the owners of two adjacent fields. One owner shouted, 󰡒You bastard, I will sickle you down.󰡓 It was just a verbal onslaught, and yet the other owner fell dead. This is quite a strange tale, but a real story. People can shoot invisible poison. Someone can even throw down an animal with a yell, which delivers an invisible impact. The bloodthirstiness of one farm owner struck the other with a fatal poison.
󰡒Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.󰡓 People kill and are killed by others even when their survival is not at stake. People are fonder of taking life than giving it. 󰡒Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know...󰡓 On the road of ruin and misery, they choose self-destruction. They run along the road of destruction without being aware of the road of peace God prepared for them.
Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace (Isa. 59:7, 8).
󰡒There is no fear of God before their eyes.󰡓 They boldly challenge God, saying, 󰡒Where is God?󰡓 In the movie, The Bible...In the beginning, we see a scene where during the building of the Tower of Babel, a person called Nimrod shoot arrows into the sky, shouting that he would kill God. This is a human challenge against God. We commit sin audaciously without fearing God.
We are born as sinners. In fact, the entire life of a sinner is a sin. We are not sinners because we commit sin; rather, we commit sin because we are sinners. Just as a bad tree yields faulty fruits because it is a bad tree, so we commit sin because we are sinners. After such wicked life, we pass on to the other world some day.
10. God's Judgement Comes After Death
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment... (Heb. 9:27)
That is right. Death is not the end of everything, for there is a judgement. 󰡒The dust (body) returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.󰡓 (Eccl. 12:7) We are to stand before God for judgement.
For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: 󰡒'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'󰡓 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God (Rom. 14:10 ~ 12).
When we stand before God's judgment seat, every knee will bow down, and every tongue confess to God. There, we do not need prosecutors because we will be directly confessing our own transgressions to God.
At that time, we cannot say, 󰡒I have not done such things then,󰡓 for how can we make such denials when our entire life will be clearly shown like a movie? Through this we will even be able to see things we have forgotten entirely and the state of heart we considered sinful. We will have a panoramic view of what the secret camera of life has filmed all throughout our life. God has installed the conscience in us, a device that is more sophisticated than any machinery.
As Romans 2:15 says, 󰡒their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them,󰡓 our wrongdoings are filmed in our conscience. You know that when a tape recorder is recording, a red light flickers. The light flickers according to the strength of the voice being recorded, signifying that the recording is in process. We can also videotape visual images.
Our trespasses are recorded in our conscience in toto. This is not a metaphor but an actual fact. Proverb says, 󰡒The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being.󰡓 (Prov. 20:27) (The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. - KJV) The conscience belongs to the spirit. The conscience is different from the heart. Heart, thought, mind, etc. belong to the soul, while the conscience is in the domain of the spirit. People have different hearts, and yet the same conscience.
The conscience in the spirit is looking into our inner being as a lamp of God. Just as a radar detects an enemy plane, so the conscience vibrates when a wickedness surfaces. Sin shatters the peace of the conscience, and provokes blame. I have read a book that relates that an atheist was converted into a theist while studying the conscience. He discovered that people become agonized and afraid after committing sin although there may be no one accusing them, from which he concluded, 󰡒The conscience is God's supreme command. To experience it is to see the divine presence.󰡓
On a summer night with full Moon, a father and a son went up the mountain to see the Moon and saw watermelons by the trail. Father wanted to eat one, and told his son, 󰡒Son, keep watch. I will go and get a watermelon.󰡓 When the son said it was others', the father said, 󰡒It's OK to eat just one. Just keep watch for me.󰡓 When the father was approaching a watermelon, the son screamed, 󰡒Father, someone is watching.󰡓 When the father asked in dismay, 󰡒Who?󰡓 the son said, 󰡒God is. It is as though the Moon were saying, 'you thieves.' So I am terrified.󰡓
Next, a newspaper article. A young man, having starved for two days, snatched a woman's handbag and took money from it. As soon as he took care of his hunger with the money, however, he turned himself in at a police station. He did the snatching out of hunger, and yet started feeling guilty when his stomach became full. The conscience fears God even when we are not aware of it.
󰡒They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.󰡓 Law points out sin, and the conscience is the law inscribed in the heart.
󰡒This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ...󰡓 (Rom. 2:16) When we stand before God's judgment seat, we will confess with our own mouth all our sins recorded in the conscience. It will be like playing a tape recorder to hear the testimony of a witness.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb. 4:13).
These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face (Psa. 50:21).
This verse means that it is a mistake to think that God turns blind eyes to our sin like some of our fellow human beings just because He keeps silent about it. God says that He will rebuke and accuse us at the time of judgement. All our iniquities will be revealed to God and holy angels, even including those known to me alone, those known only to two, and those committed long time past.
If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand (Psa. 130:30)?
Will we be able to bear the judgment? We will scream, 󰡒Please let this end.󰡓 Unable to head for the heavenly kingdom even when we are allowed to, we will just walk into hell on our own.
In this world, justice is not always served at judicial courts. Therefore, some with severe crimes are able to avoid punishments, while some with minor offences receive heavy sentences. Corruption exists even in places where public justice is implemented. 󰡒And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment - wickedness was there, in the place of justice - wickedness was there.󰡓 (Eccl. 3:16) The world is full of contradiction and injustice.
The Bible says, however, 󰡒God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.󰡓 (Eccl. 3:17) Before God's judgment seat, there is no injustice like what we see in the world. Earlier, we had a Bible verse saying that there is none righteous. Then who is 󰡒the righteous󰡓 mentioned in the above verse? The spiritual status of the reborn is the righteous. Instead of the judgment that sends one to hell, the reborn will be judged as to how they have lived from the day of their rebirth onward. For people live different lives although they receive the same salvation.
Salvation will invariably bring us to the heavenly kingdom, and yet we will receive different rewards from God. Reward refers to glory. Among the attendants of a king, for instance, some serve him closely, and some at a distance, and some share the king's glory together, while some only live on the fringes of the glory. Likewise, we will receive different degrees of glory when we go near God. The Bible explains this in detail. Therefore, after attaining salvation, the saved should live correctly for the sake of God's glory instead of lying content with their salvation. For they will be judged with regard to their earthly lives.
The wicked, that is, those not reborn, will all be judged and proceed to hell. Those whose entire life has been sinful, on the one hand, and those who have gone to church and tried to live a good life for the whole life and yet have not been saved, on the other, will all be sent to hell alike. In hell, although all the spirits live eternally in the pond of fire and sulfur and under great pain together with the devil, different spirits will have different degrees of pain. This is natural because in hell the amount of torment is determined by the seriousness of the sin committed. Hence, if you are not going to be saved, you should at least try to keep your sin to minimum.
Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment (Eccl. 11:9).
I am sure many of our readers are young. Everybody has youth in their lives, and even after they become old, their hearts are still young. For even grandmothers approaching death like to dance and sing, 󰡒Let's be merry and have fun, for you can't once you are old.󰡓 At any rate, enjoy your life if you will, and do whatever you please.
But what can a person do when he lives as he wishes? What is being enjoyed when we talk about enjoying the world? In a close look, everything is sinful pleasure. If your life follows your passion, which is more perverted than that of animals, what will you do other than sinful deeds? The said joy is none other than the thrill and pleasure of committing sin.
People think that money brings happiness. But what do they use the money for? Mostly for committing sin. They sin while earning money, and again while using it. In short, the earthly life is nothing more than suffering and sinning. They never stop committing sin with eyes of lust and greed.
God leaves them alone, whether they go straight or sideways, disobey their parents, fornicate, murder, steal, or commit suicide. God does not try to stop them.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts... Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Rom. 1:26, 28 ~ 32).
People are bold in practicing evil because God does not intervene. They, however, will have no way of escaping the judgment thereupon once they stand before God's judgment seat. They are free when practicing wickedness, and yet bound when being judged.
11. Sin Surely Reveals Itself
You may be sure that your sin will find you out (Num. 32:23).
Some offenders think that they have committed a perfect crime. Someone committed a homicide, buried the victim in his courtyard, and planted a tree on top of it. Who could have found it out? Such stories often decorate newspaper pages. After such a secretive concealment of the criminal act, it was strangely discovered, and the offender had to perform a site reproduction of the crime.
There is another story. Someone murdered a young woman, carried her in a car trunk, and buried her in the deep mountain. No one else knew about this. Strangely, however, after a few years this was discovered.
There are many 󰡒perfect crimes󰡓 that are later exposed under broad daylight. True, some of them may go concealed permanently. Will they, however, stay hidden even from God? 󰡒Your sin will find you out.󰡓 Every sin surely reveals itself.
The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not cannot be hidden. (1 Tim. 5:24, 25)
I heard another horrible story. A poor woman was married to a rich man. These days, the husbands' families often complain about insufficient bridal contribution, and this must have been the case also for the couple in the story. The husband family's repeated maltreatment and contempt planted grudges in the wife. Her heart turned vicious as she thought that such a treatment was due to her poor family background.
One day, when her husband returned from a business trip, she prepared a sumptuous meal as if to give him a special treatment. In fact, the food had sleeping drug, and the husband fell into a deep sleep after the meal. Then she closed the gate tight, drew the curtain, and took out a large nail and hammer. She brushed aside his hair, and banged the nail into his vertex. The husband died silently, as he took the nail while in a deep sleep. Not even a drop of blood came out. When she covered the nail with his hair, there was not even a mark.
The house fell into a big commotion at the notice of the sudden death, with the wife wailing in a loud voice. Asked what had happened, she made up a story, 󰡒I don't know. He came back from the trip, had a nice meal, and died during sleep.󰡓 Then the people thought that he had a sudden death and consoled her. They had a funeral and made a large grave for the deceased.
The wife sold his inheritance, went to a remote and unknown place, married a man of her choice, and lived happily together. As if nothing had happened, she was living in peace and comfort with nice family and children.
After a while, however, there started a city planning and development project around the area of the graveyard. The city office sent notices to families concerned to move the graves in the area. One grave, however, was left untouched, and office employees dug into the grave in order to move the corpse, whereupon they discovered a skeleton with a nail in the skull. Out of suspicion, they checked his identification, and found out that he had been a man of great wealth in the town and died a sudden death without a clear cause.
Later on, a detective came to knock on the wife's door amid her happy family life. She came out with two children. The detective asked for her in her name, but she, having already changed names, said in a composed manner that such a person was not there. Then the detective took out a large nail, black with rust, asking, 󰡒Do you recognize this?󰡓 whereupon she fainted with a sharp shriek. She had to be arrested in handcuffs.
Why did she swoon at the sight of the nail? The nail was not only in the husband's skull, but also in her conscience. Although she never told anyone about this, the nail could never be removed. 󰡒You may be sure that your sin will find you out.󰡓 That is right. Sin will surely seek out the sinner. When sin is exposed before God, who will be able to escape the judgement?
His eyes are on the ways of men; he sees their every step. There is no dark place, no deep shadow, where evildoers can hide (Job 34:21, 22).
12. The Eternal Hell Is Entered after the Judgement
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11 ~ 15).
The 󰡒great white throne󰡓 refers to God's judgment seat. As it says that God sat on the throne, and 󰡒Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them,󰡓 the place in question here is not this world but the domain of God. 󰡒I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne...󰡓 Regardless of their statures, the dead are all standing before God. We should understand that the dead are revived to stand before God. 󰡒[Before the throne,] books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life... If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.󰡓 (Rev. 20:12 ~ 15)
It says that the books were opened. This is the same as earthly criminal courts have lawsuit documents and books such as criminal records and criminal laws prescribing the crimes and punishments. There, sentences are made according to the criminal acts and pursuant to the laws. Similarly, at the judgment seat there will be records of sin for each one of us and the law as the basis of the sentence. This law is the word. Therefore, Jesus said, 󰡒There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.󰡓 (John 12:48)
The word judges, that is, the law judges. The Bible contains both the words of salvation and of judgment. Everyone will have to be either saved or condemned as recorded in the Scripture.
󰡒The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.󰡓 As it said earlier, 󰡒But know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment,󰡓 (Eccl. 11:9) our verse now says, 󰡒Each person was judged according to what he had done󰡓 and 󰡒were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.󰡓
Physical death is called the first death. But this is not what is fearsome. How trouble-free it will be if this were the end of everything? The reason why Jesus said of Judas Iscariot, 󰡒It would be better for him if he had not been born󰡓 (Mat. 26:24) is that if not born, he would not have had to go to hell. The first death is bodily death, and the second death means combining the revived body and the spirit, judging them together, and sending them to hell. 󰡒Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.󰡓 (Mat. 10:28)
󰡒If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.󰡓 No one who is not born again will have his name in the book of life when he stands before the judgment seat. Some think that having their names on the baptism list is identical with having them in the book of life, but this is nothing but a misunderstanding. The Bible only says that those whose names are not found in the book of life will be hurled into the lake of fire.
The so-called 󰡒Jehovah's Witness󰡓 and 󰡒Seventh-Day Adventists󰡓 claim that there is no hell. Their argument is that God of love could never have created hell. The Bible, however, clearly states that hell exists. Moreover, it is Jesus that spoke most about hell. He says that hell is a place 󰡒where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. Everyone will be salted with fire.󰡓 (Mark 9:48, 49)
You might have seen that when a mudfish is put in a basin and becomes sprayed with salt, it wiggles to and fro in pain, turns red, and dies. The Bible is saying that the condemned must receive a similar torture for the rest of eternity. The Bible mentions 󰡒hell, where the fire never goes out,󰡓 (Mark 9:43) and 󰡒fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.󰡓 (Mat. 13:42) It also says that they will be tortured day and night for eternity.
The Bible has more to say about hell than about heavenly kingdom. We talk about God of love, and hell, which is a place of eternal torment, does not seem to square with the love of God. The reason why hell is mentioned more frequently is simple, however: everyone ends up in hell unless they are saved, and thus the warning to flee from hell precedes any explanation for the heavenly kingdom.
It is true that God is love, and no sinner is unforgivable for God. Towards those who betray God's love until the end, however, His love turns into wrath. For these people there is only ruthless and acute retribution of hell. There is no more forgiveness.
Hell is a place where there is not even a thread of love. Originally, God created hell in order to punish the fallen devil and angels. Jesus called hell 󰡒eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.󰡓 (Mat. 25:41) The hell is a place of the fiery lake with burning sulfur.
Many people say that hell is not real to them because they have not experienced it. Some people think light of God's warning, saying, 󰡒Am I the only one going to hell? Many others are coming with me.󰡓 Some even joke about it, saying, 󰡒It will be nice and warm there.󰡓 But we are not totally without means to test the severity of the affliction and intensity of the heat in hell. For instance, put your finger to a burning coal or flames of a gas range for a minute, and it will give you a slight taste of hell.
Do you know how dreadful hell is? The gospel of Luke conveys Jesus' remark about hell. According to him, a rich man died and went down to the Hades, where he begged, 󰡒Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.󰡓 (Luke 16:24) How tormented he must have been in the fire that he begged to be cooled in the tongue with a finger? What is said in Luke 16 is not a metaphor but a real fact.
13. The People Condemned to Hell
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death (Rev. 21:8).
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone...(KJV)
sIn this verse, the Bible tells us what kind of people will go to the hell, a place of fiery lake of burning sulfur. The first on the list is the cowardly (fearful). What are they cowardly about? They are afraid of God. It may sound strange, but those who do not believe in God do not fear God, either. Those who do believe and go to church and yet are not born again, however, fear God.
When people go to church for a while, learning the Bible and hearing about God, most of them believe that God is alive. It is because as Romans 1:19 says, 󰡒What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them,󰡓 we have a mind to come to know God.
What is the fundamental difference between human beings and animals? It is that humans have the spirit.
Monkeys look and act similar to humans. The other day, I saw on TV a monkey getting dressed, sleeping in the bed, smoking a cigarette in the morning, and watching TV. It used a flush toilet, and went to work in outdoor garments. Working as a bartender, it served cocktails on the rock and lighted customers' cigarettes. It acted exactly like human beings. Moreover, there is a band composed of monkeys. I saw them blow trumpets and play drums in the picture. Some monkeys can drive a car, and some in an American farm drive a tractor.
No matter how much they are trained, however, monkeys can never pray. There is no monkey in the world that prays. Have you ever heard about a monkey offering a sacrifice or worshipping something? Why are they unable to pray, when they can perform feats that are much more challenging? It is because they have no religiosity. I heard that when monkeys sit by humans at a meal table, they will never follow people to a prayer, no matter how much people try to teach the monkeys. It is because monkeys have no spirit. Animals have no spirits. They neither have a desire nor a need to find God.
We have a spirit, created in God's image, however, and the spirit seeks God. Regardless of the level of civilization, people in all places and ages have been seeking and worshipping an absolute being even without being taught. People have bowed down to the sun in the morning and moon at night, thinking that they might be gods. On the stormy sea, they bowed down to the sea, and in drought, they went up to the mountains and offered a rain sacrifice.
Everyone has a desire to find God, though to different degrees. Hence, when they are taught about God, most of them at least believe in His existence. There are many who believe that God exists without going to church. I have met such people many times. Also, some people pray to God without going to church, and some keep meal prayers without believing in Jesus.
In the hearts of those who believe in the existence of God and the spirit and yet are not born again, there dwells dread. They feel a blockage in the heart when they close their eyes for prayer at church. God is the judge and they are the sinners. How terrifying it must be for them to stand before the judge! They feel stifled because of their iniquities, and yet they feel even more so when they close their eyes for prayer. They pray in tears, 󰡒What can I do? What can this sinner do?󰡓 and yet no difference is made, although they may feel fresh at the time of prayer.
Because the believers wail till late every night and every morning in the church, I heard that land price goes down when a church is built in the land. How can the neighbors live when people cry all the time next door? I also heard some people even say, 󰡒Because these followers of Jesus are crying so much, Jesus must be really dead.󰡓 They are really unwise.
Some people say that they cry because they have received God's grace. Is it true that their tears are due to gratitude for grace? They may be in some cases, but not in most of the cases. What is the grace they claim to have received? Rather, they cry out of frustration and agony. If some one were to cry at his father's door, shouting, 󰡒father, father,󰡓 would the father appreciate this?
If you look from below at the faces of those who pray like this, they look like a rag wrung and squeezed. I am not talking about other people; this is what I was like in the past. Before receiving salvation, and while I was serving as an evangelist in a countryside church, I had once knelt down on the hard floor in the dark and early morning and offered that kind of prayer, so long a prayer as to get a hardened skin on the feet. I prayed, saying, 󰡒I will crawl on my knees to the heaven.󰡓 I even had wrinkles on the face at young age because I contorted my face so much during the prayer. I sometimes went up to the high mountain and prayed in tears by the rock, not so much out of gratitude for the grace as out of frustration.
We can easily see the existence of God. James 2:19 says, 󰡒You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe thatand shudder.󰡓 Even demons believe that God is one. They shudder, however, because while knowing about there being one God, they also know about their going to hell. When two demon-possessed men met Jesus, they yelled aloud, 󰡒What do you want with us, Son of God,󰡓 and then, 󰡒Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?󰡓 (Mat. 8:29) Although the Jewish religious leaders did not recognize Jesus, these two men saw that Jesus was the Son of God.
During the mission activities of Paul, a girl with a fortune-telling spirit followed Paul and his company and shouted, 󰡒These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved,󰡓 and she continued this for many days (Acts 16:17). How accurately she knew it! Demons know it better. Those who know about God and yet have not received salvation fear God. Even demons have this kind of faith.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).
The complete love of God expels any fear of punishment. Just as turning on a light in the darkness removes darkness, so when God's love fills our hearts, fear vanishes. If someone comes to know about the existence of God and his being a sinner subject to the judgment of hell, he cannot but fear God. Some people even ruin their sleep out of terror after becoming aware of this. As if they could see the hell already, they even get up in the middle of sleep and tremble.
One day, I had a religious gathering in a farming village of the province of Chon Buk. In the middle of my speech about sin and judgment, I was surprised to see a woman suddenly standing up around the middle of the audience and starting to walk forward. She prostrated herself before the podium and started wailing aloud. Then other people started crying aloud, and I had to stop the sermon for a long while. On that day I preached the gospel, and many people received salvation.
Later on, I asked her why she stood up during the sermon. She said that it was because she had felt so suffocated as if the fire of hell had been burning in front of her. How can you be anything but afraid once you come to learn about the hellish punishment? The fear will ebb away only when you listen to the gospel and realize God's love. The complete love of God will drive out the terrors of sin, death, and judegment.
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Rom. 5:5)
When we realize God's grace from listening to the gospel, God pours out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The love of God, which I used to hear only in words, actually fills me up and expels fear. Even a sinner like me becomes saved - my hope for the heavenly kingdom does not end in disappointment. 󰡒After the savior's love filled my heart, the Holy Spirit dwells in me, and after the Lord defeated my fear, my hope lies in the heaven.󰡓 (hymn)
When the Holy Spirit of the Christ blossoms God's love in my heart, the fears of sin, death, judgment and hell will disappear, and the hope that even a sinner like me can go to the heavenly kingdom becomes more certain. This is the proof of coming of the Holy Spirit.
Some people say that the Holy Spirit is received through an experience of fire. They say that during prayer their bodies became hot, and fire shot through their sides, or they saw a vision of the cross. These mysterious experiences and others such as speaking in tongues and prayer healing, however, have nothing to do with salvation. It is odd that people rely on abnormal more than normal things and on strange experiences more than the Bible. The Holy Spirit does not come through any bodily experience but to our spirits as a spirit.
When the Holy Spirit comes, it helps us realize God's love. All the problems will be resolved the minute we are able to believe in God's love through the conscience. 󰡒The one who fears is not made perfect in love.󰡓 The one in whose heart dread of God's judgment lingers has not yet fully realized God's love. 󰡒The cowardly (fearful)󰡓 refers to those who believe and yet are not born again.
Next, 󰡒the unbelieving󰡓 literally refers to those who do not believe. Not believing in God at all is a condition of judgment.
Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (John 3:18).
Furthermore, 󰡒the vile󰡓 and 󰡒the murderers󰡓 cannot avoid the judgment of hell. Some people think of others' lives as those of insects and commit abominable acts. We frequent hear people say, 󰡒Those brutes should go to hell,󰡓 and of course, they will be rushed to hell.
Is there none among you who has performed despicable acts? Is it true that everyone who says, 󰡒I have not committed any murder,󰡓 really has never murdered? Not so. How many people these days kill human lives even without guilty conscience? In Korea alone, over 1.5 million fetuses are being slaughtered each year in the good name of family planning. When mothers are so loving towards their children, how can they kill the unborn babies so mercilessly? Is someone not a child, and his life not a human life just because he is not yet born?
A few years ago, during the presidency of Reagan, a film was made available to the public that had been taken on an abortion procedure by the presidential commission. An ultrasound monitor showed details and even the beating heart of a fifteen-week-old fetus. All the important parts had been already formed. When an abortion device was inserted, the fetus instinctively shrank from the device. When the device forcefully grabbed the fetus twisting to and fro, it opened the mouth and screamed.
The title of the film was 󰡒A Silent Scream,󰡓 which was introduced in Korea with the same title. Watching the film, Reagan saw the screaming fetus and judged that abortion was a murder. Had the fetus been able to speak, it would have begged, 󰡒Mother, save me. Please don't kill me.󰡓
The fetus was brutally slaughtered by the machine, under the collusion of the mother and doctor. Its head was crushed and sucked into the inhaler. The pieces of the fetus were sorted and put in the container. A gynecologist watching the scene said that he had performed many abortions, and abortion was a homicide. He then vowed never to perform abortion again. The same film had another abortion on an older fetus.
After watching this, Reagan became determined against abortion and started a campaign to stop it. Still, however, abortion is permitted in the United States now, and this is very regrettable. Fathers also say, 󰡒drop the baby!󰡓 Everyone is a murder in the plot. Wait and see. They may be able to avoid the retribution here, but not in front of God's judgment seat.
Also, although one may not have been involved in physical killing, it also constitutes a manslaughter to hate someone to the extent of wanting to murder him or to defame others' character. This is to kill with the heart. Those who murder people, created in God's image for the sake of God's glory, will be quickly ushered to hell.
󰡒The sexually immoral,󰡓 that is, those who fornicate cannot flee from the torment of hell. God considers sexual immorality a grave sin. The old cities Sodom and Gomorrah were cities of lust, even with rampant homosexuality. Hence, God annihilated the cities with fire as a warning for the future. 󰡒In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.󰡓 (Jude 1:7) The tragedy of Sodom and Gomorrah foreshadowed God's judgment of the world to come. If there is a sin that necessitates God's judgment of the world, it is the sexual iniquities.
In ancient Italy, there was a city called Pompeii, which is recorded in history for being a city of lechery. One day, the volcano of Vesuvius erupted and covered the entire city with ashes. It was God's judgment upon the city, teeming with fornication and sexual perversion.
I have been to that place, too. Under the ashes, the walls and other structures were preserved fossilized. There were lustful wall paintings. I also saw the well-preserved fossils of people who had died crouching and of a pregnant woman. I even heard that there had been co-ed public baths that could hold hundreds of people, which shows the degree of their depravity. God swept away the city of raging sin.
How is the situation of today? It is no less serious than those of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Pompeii. There is a survey finding that over seventy percent of the husbands have an experience of extra-marital affair. Under the slogans of age of open sex, age of free sex, and age of sexual indulgence, people say, 󰡒What is problem with sex?󰡓 The Bible, however, says, 󰡒You shall not murder󰡓 and 󰡒You shall not commit adultery,󰡓 listing adultery as the next heaviest sin after murder.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body (1 Cor. 6:18).
Sexual immorality corrupts and destroys our personality. All the sexual intercourses except for those engaged in by married men and women are a fornication, and those who fornicate are bound hellward.
These days, inns and hotels are crowded day and night, and they extend business hours. A housewife who had sold her body under the pretext of earning her son's tuition was arrested and shocked the public. Sexual immorality is so severe as to melt the bone marrow. Furthermore, most of what we see and hear in our surroundings encourage sexual misdemeanors.
󰡒Those who practice magic arts,󰡓 that is, fortunetellers and shamans and those who are trustful and fond of them are all subject to judgment. 󰡒The idolaters󰡓 are those who serve something other than God or those who believe in God but love other things more than they do God.
󰡒All liars󰡓 will also have to plunge into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. It is said that all lies originate from the devil. The Bible says that devil is the father of falsity. How about you? Are you not telling lies as easily as eating cakes? Is there anyone among you who falls under none of the sins mentioned?
Everyone must have a sin forgotten after being committed long time ago, a sin deeply buried in the heart, or a secret sin supposed to be known to none. These sins, however, are known to the conscience and to God. They will be judged for these sins. It is unavoidable. What will you do?
14. The Condition of Salvation
Salvation requires that we admit our being sinners before God. I have been born as a sinner, have committed many sinful acts in the world, and will face death someday. I may have a sudden and unexpected death through an accident or incurable disease. At any rate, we will all die after several decades. Our death will not be the end, however, for afterwards there will be judgment waiting for us, which will sentence us to the second death in the fiery lake. This is the fate of sinners. We must acknowledge this if we desire to be saved.
To receive salvation means to be delivered from such a fate. Everyone must be saved before death, for upon death the judgement is pronounced upon them. In order to receive salvation, we must acknowledge this fact and desperately desire to be saved. God saves all those who have a deep thirst for salvation. This is God's will and promise. Dear readers, if you can believe through the Bible that God exists, and God's judgement is waiting for you after death, please pray. Please pray to God desperately and from the depth of your heart. Pray, 󰡒God, please save me. Open my eyes for the truth of the gospel. Please help me and have pity on me.󰡓
When the robber crucified with Jesus repented, he offered but a simple prayer, 󰡒Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.󰡓 (Luke 23:42) Jesus, however, accepted his sincere and desperate heart. If we seek the grace of Jesus only, he will accept our hearts. For he never despises a wounded soul. Try to pray sincerely and eagerly to receive salvation. God saves those who truly aspire to salvation.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psa. 34:18).
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psa. 51:17).
Some people protest, however, saying, 󰡒I have been going to church for decades and yet have not been saved. Now, do I hear that salvation can come only after a few days of learning the Bible? This is a baloney.󰡓 This is based on a misunderstanding of God's power and salvation. The giver of salvation is God, and the power of salvation belongs to God. It is for simple reason that people reckon whether sinners can be saved and how long it takes to attain salvation: they reason from their own human viewpoint rather than from God's.
They do not understand that I do not save myself but am saved by God. This is God's business conducted through the work of Jesus. Once we are ready for salvation, we do not need to wait even for a few days. How long did it take for Jesus to save dead people? It happened instantly. Likewise, would God need a long time to save us?
It is we who take much time. We need to go through a process of preparation for salvation. There are a few things we must know If we are to be rescued from the destiny of hell: We must know that God exists, the Bible is God's word, there is eternal world, there is God's judgement and heaven and hell, and we are under the destiny of hell.
Through the Bible, we can confirm that God is alive, who has created and is governing the universe and leads the human history. From this, we come to believe that the Bible is God's word, and we have spirits, created in God's image. Further, we come to realize that we have drifted apart from God and are condemned to judgment because of our trespasses.
The first purpose of learning the Bible is to awaken an eagerness for salvation in our hearts by learning these things. Learning the Bible is an effort to turn our hearts back to God amid our life of alienation from Him. Just as a radio catches the right channel when it hits on the right frequency, so will our hearts be aroused with God's love and Holy Spirit once it turns back unto God's direction. We only need to have an eagerness for salvation. To those who are truly thirsting after salvation, the Holy Spirit will stretch out a helping hand.
IV. God's Love Revealed in
the Gospel
So far, you have come along a fairly long spiritual journey. As I promised at the outset, if you continue on this path without giving up on the way, you will have found a way to salvation by the time you are finished with this book. I am grateful to God for His grace of helping you continue up to this point after starting with the first volume, The Way to God. Again, I am grateful to Jesus as I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit will save all those who passionately long for God's word and eagerly desire salvation.
Through the Bible, we have gained an understanding about God and His plan and secret and about who we are before God. We have further realized that the Bible reveals our individual as well as the human destiny. We have also learned that history manifests God's plan to save our souls, and He has shown us the way to salvation and the truth to believe. Therefore, what each of us must do at this point is to accept the word of truth, which leads to salvation.
1. Eternal Life is the Purpose of Studying the Bible
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me... (John 5:39)
As Jesus explains, the ultimate purpose of studying the Bible is the salvation of our souls. We need salvation in order to attain eternal life, and we need eternal life in order that we participate in God's glory and in His plan and purpose. God has spoken through the Bible about the way of human salvation, and we receive salvation through this word. Receiving salvation, being reborn, possessing eternal life, and having the right relationship with God all mean the same.
When Jesus says, 󰡒You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life,󰡓 he means that it is right to study the Bible closely for the sake of salvation. The purpose of studying the Bible is to attain eternal life, and this means that only through the Bible can we enter into the right relationship with God.
Here, 󰡒the Scripture󰡓 at the time of Jesus meant the Old Testament because the New Testament had not been written. The Old Testament contains God's promise to send Jesus, and the New Testament Jesus' work of redemption, the grace allowed to those who believe in it, and Jesus' promise to come again in the last days.
󰡒These are the Scriptures that testify about me...󰡓 The foremost purpose of the entire books of the Scripture is to tell us about Jesus. The Bible is the book of instruction for salvation through Jesus. Therefore, no matter how much knowledge we gain from the Bible, our study of the Bible is without purpose unless we unearth therefrom the truth of salvation.
Many people who are supposed to have a great deal of knowledge of the Bible still have no idea about their salvation and rebirth. This is because they have not yet penetrated into the core of the Bible. In fact, before we are reborn, we cannot fully realize the message of the Bible. The Scripture is said a source of spiritual food. Food is needed only by living beings. Since the Bible is a spiritual food, rather than a set of ethical codes or moral injunctions, it becomes relevant to us only after our spirits come to life through salvation. Only after then, will the words of the Scripture start touching our heart and mind.
We receive salvation through the word. As it says in the Colossians 1:16, 󰡒All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth,󰡓 to be saved is to realize God's grace by listening to the gospel, and the moment of such realization is the day of salvation.
What is the gospel? Among the messages of the Scripture, there are the special words that concern the salvation of our spirits. In Acts 10, God sends an angel to Cornelius and tells him to send for 󰡒a man named Simon who is called Peter󰡓 so that he can convey the word to bring his whole household to salvation. Peter visits the house of Cornelius and his word saves his entire family. As exemplified here, the word leading to salvation is called the gospel. When we realize such word, we will attain eternal life.
We will have one day in our life when we listen to the gospel and understand the grace of God. The verse in the hymn, 󰡒Is it not a day of joy, a day when we first received the word of the Lord?󰡓 means the same. 󰡒The day when we first received the word of the Lord󰡓 does not refer to the day when we first went to the church and heard a biblical message. While some realize the gospel after decades of life of faith, some do fortunately only after a short church life. On the other hand, there are even some who fail to hear the saving word even after a lifelong church attendance.
󰡒A day I embraced the way of the Lord, is this not a day of joy? This day, my vile body turned into a new body of rebirth.󰡓 (hymn) A saved person certainly has a day of awakening to the gospel, or the day of rebirth.
As it says, 󰡒He (God) chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created,󰡓 (James 1:18) God gives birth to His children through the word of truth. The moment we become touched by the gospel, our spirits are saved and born again, thereby becoming children of God. This is God's begetting us through the word of truth. As it says, 󰡒For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God... And this is the word that was preached to you,󰡓 (1 Pet. 1:23, 25) the 󰡒imperishable seed󰡓 for the born again is the gospel, that is, the living and enduring word of God. 󰡒Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.󰡓 (1 Cor. 4:15) (For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.- KJV)
In Luke 8, Jesus explains a secret of God's kingdom through a parable of a seed-sowing farmer: 󰡒A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.󰡓
Then, Jesus deciphers it by saying, 󰡒The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.󰡓 (Luke 8:11, 12) Some people hear the word without taking it to the heart, eventually forgetting all about it. Jesus explains that just as a bird ate up the seeds thrown on the road and left unsown, if we hear the word without clearly grasping it, the devil comes and takes it away from us. Like the path, rock, and thorns, the heart where God's word is not planted has no life of God and no relationship with salvation. 󰡒But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it.󰡓 (Mat. 13:23) Salvation lies in understanding the word. The word is a seed that plants God's life in our hearts.
A seed has no unique shape, and almost looks like nothing when it is found here and there. When it is planted under the fertile ground, however, it can give rise to a magnificent tree. Although it is nothing but a little grain by itself, once planted it grows to produce flowers and fruits. The biblical messages and the speeches of the biblical transmitters are planted in the heart of those prepared. The good soil is the heart of the prepared souls.
No ground is fertile from the beginning. Every ground of the heart is hard like a road, hides sin like a stony field, and teems with greed like the brambles. Just as we reclaim a barren ground by removing thorns, picking out stones, and plowing the soil, when we learn the Bible, the message softens our hearts so that the word can take roots, grow, and produce fruits there. God uplifts our hearts so that they become eager for the word and sincere for salvation.
When the word of salvation enters the prepared heart, life begins to sprout. Just as the seed sprouts under the right temperature and humidity, the life of the word takes roots and grows in the prepared heart. The message of the gospel mysteriously brings about understanding. It is truly mysterious that the word plants God's life in the heart.
Inaudible electric waves are passing by our ears all the time. When a radio is turned to the right frequency, however, it can catch them and make them audible and even recordable. Likewise, when we are eagerly turned towards God, and comprehend the word of salvation, the word becomes recorded in the spirit. 󰡒I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.󰡓 (Heb. 10:16)
The message written in our heart and mind is eternally preserved. This is called understanding, a point where God's life begins. This is how God saves us, a deeply mysterious process.
When asked, 󰡒Are you saved?󰡓 many people say, 󰡒How can you know that? You will find out after you die.󰡓 Such people are certainly not saved, however. Salvation, or rebirth, is an event of spiritual birth and a clear experience. Every event has its time and space. If an event is without time and space of occurrence it can only be a chimera.
Some people say that they are saved, and yet try to slur over the matter when asked, 󰡒How were you saved?󰡓 Or some of them say, 󰡒I am saved because I believe in the Christ, and I believe because I am saved.󰡓 When asked, 󰡒When did you start believing?󰡓 they answer, 󰡒From birth,󰡓 or 󰡒I am saved because I have been baptized.󰡓
Still some people say, 󰡒I have seen a vision of the cross during my prayer. My body became hot during then,󰡓 or 󰡒I had a queer miracle. My illness is gone.󰡓 There are all kinds of such stories. These miracles may indicate the power of God or devil. Furthermore, even if the healing was God's work, by itself it has nothing to do with salvation.
Salvation occurs always through a realization of the word of truth in the Bible. Unless the content of salvation conforms to the biblical message, that salvation is a misunderstanding and falsity. I have seen many times that the faith of those who claim to be saved does not actually point to true salvation when checked against the word. The problem becomes more serious when someone who is not saved thinks that he is.
These days there are a plenty of counterfeit money, false checks, and fake cards that are very similar to the real things. When the forgery or alteration is discovered, big commotion is aroused. Often people try to use fake passports or visa and end up getting arrested at the immigration office. We may be able to cheat people, but never God; hence, we must be complete and thorough. We should realize and believe in the way of salvation through the Bible exactly as God has prepared it.
As I mentioned earlier, God's work of salvation proceeds unconditionally on the basis of God's power, love, and grace. Therefore, the first thing we must do for salvation is to deeply feel the need of salvation. As a promise is realized only when both parties keep faith, God's promise in the Bible requires that we first perform our part of the duty. Because the Old and New Testaments are God's promise of salvation through Jesus, we must prepare our hearts if we are to meet God.
If, for instance, one makes a promise to meet someone at a certain place and time to give something to him, the parties to the promise must show up at the set time and place in order for the promise to produce a result.
God always keeps his side of the promise, and the problem is that we do not keep our side of it. The Bible says that in order to save the sinners, God has sacrificed His only Son and waits in such a way that 󰡒with the Lord a day is like a thousand years.󰡓 (2 Pet. 3:8) It also says that God wants everybody to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). We fail to receive the gift of salvation, however, because we refuse to.
After hearing the same word of salvation, some are moved to awakening, and some do not. Whether one understands is not a matter of how smart he is; rather, it is a matter of heart and conscience. God sees how passionately we seek God's grace, and plants the gospel truth only in the earnest seekers.
Since Jesus came to find the sinners, he visits only those who know of themselves as sinners. Jesus saves only those who know of their being sinners and desire to be saved. Those who are confident of their own righteousness and devotion to God will fail to attain salvation. Such people will reject Jesus. Therefore, for the sake of salvation we must first acknowledge our being sinners. We have learned that we are transgressors from birth and born with fallen hearts, and the totality of our life is a transgression.
We have also noted that the word sinner signifies being a descendant of Adam rather than how much vice we have practiced. It signifies that we are disconnected and lost from God and under the divine judgment, and our spirits have died. This is the first thing we realize through the Bible.
We turn our backs against God, and follow the fallen bodily drives and drink iniquities like water. This is the shape we are in. No matter how righteously we live, we only live in human rather than divine righteousness. Our fate is to commit sin throughout the whole life and die and become judged before God.
And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God... (Job 19:26)
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil (Eccl. 12:14).
The minute our hearts stop, our body starts decaying, and our spirit rises from the body and meets God. The reborn spirits will enter the heavenly kingdom, whereas those sinful spirits not reborn will be judged and sent to hell, a place of fire and burning sulfur, never to come out from there. Therefore, we must first acknowledge our destiny, whereby we are born in sin, commit sin throughout the whole life, some day die, and go to hell after the judgement.
Then, how can our souls be delivered from the fate of the eternal condemnation? What we must be clear about is that there is no way whatsoever that we can be released on our own from the destiny of judgement and destruction.
Although some people think that their tears, fasting, and other forms of bodily mortification may move God to forgive them, and yet forgiveness is not earned by such things. As the hymn 343 says, 󰡒Tears do not help. Even a heap of tears do not remove our fears or wash our sin. So tears do not help,󰡓 no matter how much we cry, not even an iota of sin will be erased from us. Just because a criminal under death sentence cries many days and begs the judge to spare his life, will the judge set him free?
Can we be purified of our trespasses by practicing good manners and performing many good deeds for others? Unfortunately, no righteousness of ours is of any help at all. 󰡒Good works do not help. Even good words, intentions or deeds do not bring us rebirth. So good works do not help.󰡓 (Hymn) Even good endeavors, or sincere and kind words, intentions, or deeds cannot help us be born again. Rebirth is not something to be worked for.
Some revivalists teach, 󰡒You should shed many tears. Do you think you will receive grace without shedding even a drop of tears? Also, you must work hard in order to enter the heavenly kingdom.󰡓 But nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are saved through tears.
How about endurance? Will our sins be forgiven if we go to church for tens of years, overcoming all the hurdles, rain or shine, and regardless of other people's accusation? 󰡒Endurance doesn't help. How can a sinner drowning in ugly sin live? So endurance doesn't help.󰡓 (Hymn) As the hymn says, even endurance is ineffectual. We should understand that whatever we do, we cannot save ourselves.
󰡒Faith will help. Believe in Jesus and rely on his work, and when you go to him, you will receive eternal life.󰡓 (Hymn) It says that faith will help, while tears, good works, or endurance do not. Having faith does not refer to any actions we perform. If salvation is possible through an action, then why would we need faith in addition?
The misunderstanding starts when we think that faith is something we do with religious zeal. Believers have brought confusion to the meaning of faith and action. They teach that going to church and diligently performing good actions are a part of having faith. While teaching faith on the one hand, they teach that hard work of goodness brings blessing. This brings fundamental confusion as to whether action constitutes faith, or faith leads to action. This is the beginning of the problem.
2. What is the Law?
sIn order to comprehend what faith is, we should first understand that there is nothing we can do for the sake of the salvation of our soul. In order to help the Israelites understand this first, God told them about His existence and gave them the law. The most representative of the law is the Ten Commandments.
John 1:17 says, 󰡒For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.󰡓 Romans 7:12 also says, 󰡒So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.󰡓 Since the law reveals the holiness and goodness of God, it is in itself holy, righteous, and good. The law commands people to live a holy and good life. One who can keep the commandments can be called holy, righteous, and good.
I started going to church when I was a middle school freshman. Whenever I went to church on Sundays, we recited the Ten Commandments with the pastor and were told to observe them. Believing that I must keep them to enter the heavenly kingdom, I made earnest efforts to keep them; later, however, when I read Matthews 5, I came to a conclusion that it is humanly impossible to keep the law.
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 󰡒Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.󰡓 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 󰡒Raca,󰡓 is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell (Mat. 5:21, 22).
Jesus says that although one may refrain from murder, even anger will subject him to judgment, and calling others 󰡒Raca󰡓 (an expression of contempt and ridicule, meaning 󰡒brainless󰡓) or fool will throw him into the hell fire. The Bible also says that hatred constitutes murder (1 John 3:15), for the basis of murder is hatred.
God reckons from the root, which is formed before actions. In other words, people confirm murder by looking at its concrete results, whereas God scrutinizes our hearts, and if we harbor a thought of murder, God sees it as murder even before it is acted upon.
󰡒You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery,' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.󰡓 (Mat. 5:27) This verse also says that even without an actual action, when one harbors lust in the heart has already fornicated.
Moreover, Jesus says, 󰡒If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well,󰡓 (Mat. 5:39, 40) and 󰡒Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...󰡓 (Mat. 5:44)
The law can be summarized as: 󰡒Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,󰡓 and 󰡒Love your neighbor as yourself.󰡓 (Mark 12:30, 31) Would it be possible, however, for the sinners, born selfish and possessing Adam's character, to love God with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind, and all their strength and love their neighbor as themselves? Those who fail to love their neighbors as themselves have violated all the laws regarding human beings, and those who fail to love God with all their heart and soul have breached all the commandments regarding God.
What, then, is the purpose of God's giving the law? Many people answer this by saying, 󰡒Of course, so that we may practice them.󰡓 The Bible, however, says that no one can keep the law; hence, the law is not given for actual keeping. The law has been given so that we can realize that we are unable to reach God's standard by ourselves, for those born with an inclination for sin are never able to keep the law.
We are comparable to a bad oak. Born as transgressors and endowed with viciousness, we are immersed in sin. To say to us, 󰡒be holy, good, and righteous󰡓 is like saying to a bad oak, 󰡒bring grapes,󰡓 or 󰡒bring tangerines and apples.󰡓 Is this a possible demand?
3. The Law Brings Us to a Self-Discovery before God
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out (Rom. 7:18).
What we come to realize clearly through the Bible is that in God's view there is nothing good in us and only the heart that is 󰡒deceitful above all things and beyond cure.󰡓 (Jer. 17:9)
Like the apostle Paul, who made the above remark, we should clearly understand that 󰡒nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.󰡓 Since there is nothing good in us, we cannot but exclaim, 󰡒I have desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.󰡓 Although we know that we should be good and even strive hard to put the knowledge into practice, we have no power to do so.
People practice vice even when they know that it is bad. Why? It is because they have the evil root. Do bad trees bear faulty fruits because they want to? Bad trees have the nature to yield spoiled fruits; therefore, they cannot bear fresh and delicious fruits even if they want to. Would God, then, expect to see from us sinners fruits of goodness?
When God gave the law to the people, He knew very well that they would not be able to obey it. He did not expect even one person to be able to keep the law. Even Moses smote a human being to death. Who else kept the law?
Then, why did God give us the law that we could not even abide by? The purpose lies in somewhere else.
Even after going to church for tens of years, people still do not know this and say, 󰡒He gave it to us so we may keep it. We are to follow the law.󰡓 When asked, 󰡒Then, have you been able to follow it?󰡓 they ask back, 󰡒You must at least try to; otherwise, shall we violate it at will?󰡓 Have you been able to keep it yourself? You will soon reach a conclusion that it is an impossible task. It is admirable to strive to live a good life under the law, and yet such an effort has nothing whatsoever to do with being justified before God.
Let us imagine a situation where you stop and talk to a passerby: 󰡒Sir, excuse me.󰡓 󰡒What is the matter?󰡓 󰡒Please do not kill. I am on a moral campaign.󰡓 Then, would he say, 󰡒Right. It is in the Ten Commandments. Thank you,󰡓 or go mad, saying, 󰡒What? Do I look like a killer? Do I look like a member of those bloody gangs?󰡓
Also, if you say to someone, 󰡒Please do not steal,󰡓 he will be enraged, saying, 󰡒Do I look like a thief? Have you seen me steal?󰡓 although some may be dismayed and say in the heart, 󰡒How does this guy know I have robbed?󰡓 To say, 󰡒Do not steal󰡓 implies, 󰡒You look like a thief, and you are likely to steal.󰡓
Further, if you say to someone, 󰡒Sir, do not covet your neighbor's wife,󰡓 he will not leave you in peace, although he may wonder in the heart, 󰡒How does this scoundrel know that I like the woman?󰡓 Worse, if you say to a lady passing by, 󰡒Lady, excuse me. Please do not fornicate,󰡓 she will probably break your leg. This is a bad insult.
People humble themselves and listen to the commandment because it is God's message. Had it come out of a human mouth, it would have created a great trouble. To say, 󰡒Do not kill󰡓 implies that we look like killers, and to say, 󰡒Do not steal󰡓 implies that we look like thieves. To say, 󰡒Do not covet󰡓 is to ask, 󰡒You are coveting, aren't you?󰡓 to say, 󰡒Do not lie󰡓 is to ask, 󰡒You are lying, arent' you?󰡓 and to say, 󰡒Do not lust after your neighbor's wife󰡓 is to ask, 󰡒You are lusting after her, aren't you?󰡓
The verse, 󰡒It [the law] was added because of transgressions󰡓 (Gal. 3:19) means that because we do not see our own evil-doing, God gave the law as an addition in order to make it clear to us. Since the law was added because of the breach of the law, learning the law enables us more clearly perceive our sin. Without a code to define what a sin is, there would be no basis for punishing an offender, nor would we know that we have sinned after committing one. There is sin because there is the law.
We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers-and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine (1 Tim. 1:9, 10).
Good people do not need the law, for the holy, the righteous, and the good have no sin. As this verse says, the law is set forth for the sinful and not for the righteous.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin (Rom. 3:19 ~ 20).
󰡒Death (which is the judgment upon the sin according to the law) came to all men, because all sinned.󰡓 (Rom. 5:12) Because all the sinners are under the law, the law speaks to all those under the law. The law renders speechless all the transgressors under the law.
Some people raise their voice even after doing evil, saying, 󰡒What have I done wrong?󰡓 Ignorance of the law makes you bold. After you encounter the law, however, you become speechless. This means that you stop claiming to be sinless.
You cannot drive recklessly and say, 󰡒Why do you bother me, when I am just doing what I want with my own car? What does it matter to me whether there is a green light or red?󰡓 because there is traffic law. If you violate the traffic law, you will be penalized whether you knew it or not. You'd better stop under the red light and not turn left where it is prohibited. You cannot protest against being arrested after breaking the traffic law.
In a prison, two in-laws met. How ashamed they must have been! One asked the other, 󰡒How did you come here?󰡓 and the other answered, 󰡒Because of something very unfair.󰡓 They continued: 󰡒What was the offence, anyway?󰡓 󰡒Something small. I picked up a string in someone else's yard.󰡓 󰡒Picking up a string puts you behind the bars?󰡓 󰡒Well, I then realized that a cow was tied up at the end of it.󰡓 He is a cow thief, but he says that he knows nothing about the cow. He just picked up the string, and the cow followed along unfortunately, according to him.
Then the other in-law asked the one who had been questioning: 󰡒By the way, how did you end up here?󰡓 󰡒I am also fairly innocent, but suffered injustice.󰡓 󰡒But what really happened?󰡓 󰡒I wore a big jacket to a supermarket, put stuffs into my pockets, and walked out. I just forgot to say, 'This is on credit.' That's all.󰡓 He is a shoplifter. Would the law agree with them? Would the judge record that he simply forgot to mention 󰡒on credit󰡓? One is a cow thief, and the other shoplifter. They will not be able to insist on their innocence before the law. They will have to shut their mouths and prepare themselves for the punishment.
The law silences all the claims of innocence and enables the people of the whole world see their existence under God's judgment. 󰡒Through the law we become conscious of sin.󰡓 (Rom. 3:20)
When you go to a hospital, they first make a diagnosis before giving you a medicine. A medical intervention comes after an exact diagnosis is made. Likewise, the law is in charge of giving us a spiritual diagnosis and telling us why we need salvation before God heals our spirits. When we study the law, we become able to see our wickedness and our being under God's judgment, and aroused with a desire to receive salvation.
Suppose that you go to a hospital and doctor asks you about your condition, and you say, 󰡒Where would I be sick? I am fine. Nothing is wrong with me.󰡓 Then, the doctor can only say, 󰡒Why did you come here, then? Out from my office󰡓? You know what you should say instead: 󰡒Well, I feel strange here. Please check it out for me.󰡓
After the diagnosis, you will get a certain result. The doctor may say, 󰡒It's good that you had an early check-up. You have incipient cancer, and a surgery can take care of it.󰡓 Then, you will have to say, 󰡒So! I will take your advice. When shall I get the surgery?󰡓 If you understand, and know that you have a sickness, you will follow the doctor's direction, agreeing to have a certain part of your body cut off, or lie on the bed for an operation. You do this because you know that it is necessary for your healing. If you keep insisting, 󰡒Don't give me that. What do you mean, I am sick? I am just fine,󰡓 the doctor cannot help you. This, then, is what the law does-giving us a diagnosis that we can understand.
A little child comes back from playing outside with his face stained black. When the mother sees this, she says, 󰡒Son, your face is dirty. Go and wash your face.󰡓 If the child defies her without seeing his face, however, saying, 󰡒I have nothing on the face. Why are you bothering me?󰡓 what would be the best way to prevail on him? Tell him to see his face on the mirror, and he will immediately realize that the face needs a wash.
The law works like a mirror. It shows us how sinful we are in the presence of God. By seeing our own shape against the standard of God's holiness, righteousness, and goodness, we come to realize how false, wicked, and miserable we are. We see the filth of our iniquities with the law, and we are purified of them with Jesus. For the mirror only reflects our dirt, and do not wash it.
Likewise, the law only helps us perceive our sin, without being able to resolve the problem of sin. The law can neither make us good nor obedient to God's word. The law only enables us to comprehend sin and the consequent judgment. The remark, 󰡒Through the law we become conscious of sin󰡓 reveals the purpose of the law-for us to come face to face with our wickedness so that we may proceed to Jesus to be purified.
So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith (Gal. 3:24).
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith (KJV).
Here, the law is said to be a 󰡒schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.󰡓 (KJV) The schoolmaster means an elementary-level teacher in charge of educating small children. He prepares them with the basics so that they can move on to assume the real study. Likewise, the law helps us realize our sin, and leads us to the Christ, who can cleanse it.
To say that the law leads to the Christ, however, does not mean that we can go to him by keeping the law; rather, it means that we simply realize our sin before the law, and become clean in the presence of Jesus. The role of the law is to help us understand sin and judgment so that we can proceed to Jesus in faith and be called righteous by him. Regardless of such teaching of the Bible, however, people construe the law as that which is to be kept and strive to live by it all their lives, thereby misunderstanding God's intention.
4. Those Who Rely on Observing the Law Are under a Curse
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: 󰡒Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.󰡓 (Gal. 3:10)
󰡒All who rely on observing the law󰡓 refers to those who attempt to reach God by keeping the law as the standard of God's righteousness. We cannot call such people bad when there are many who indulge in wickedness lifelong and many who do not even believe in God. They are surely good people from the human standpoint. It may seem odd, then, to say that such people are under a curse instead of under blessing.
Rather, would it not be correct to say that those who strive to follow the law will be blessed? Of course, you will be blessed if you always practice all that is prescribed in the law. It is out of question that if you can carry out perfectly, you will receive blessing and go to the heavenly kingdom. We, born with sinful nature and soaked in the sin of the world, however, are never able to carry out all the injunctions of the law.
It is humanly impossible to fulfill the commandments exactly and at all times; hence, the curse. It is sin to violate the law. As the Scripture says, 󰡒For the wages of sin is death,󰡓 (Rom. 6:23) the sin of violating the law is paid for with death. This is the curse imposed upon those who attempt to receive God's justification through the practice of the law.
The reason for the curse upon such people is clear. If they can keep the law in toto, they will be blameless. The problem, however, is that they cannot. They cannot just keep some of the law and not others. If they are to obey the law, they must 󰡒continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.󰡓
The verse, 󰡒For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it󰡓 (James 2:10) declares the same principle. Suppose that someone is holding on to a chain of ten rings to the heavenly kingdom and he will fall into hell should the chain break. Suppose that the ten rings represent the Ten Commandments. How many rings must break for the chain to snap? The chain will fail equally whether just one or all ten rings break. A cattle or pot is equally useless whether it has only one or as many as ten holds in the bottom.
How many of the Ten Commandments do you have to violate before going to hell? It says, 󰡒the wage of sin is death.󰡓 Then what is the price of a great sin? It is death. What is the price of a minor sin? It is also death. That is, it is to receive judgment and be thrown into the fiery lake after death. Although you may not have actually performed any evil action, even simply being angry or saying 󰡒Raca󰡓 to others will send you to hell. Those who have lust in the heart have already fornicated. Then, who can be said to be observant of the law? We have cursed with our mouth, hated with our heart, and acted out our lust for sin. We have already thoroughly disobeyed the law in our hearts, words, and actions. For this reason, those who seek to gain righteousness through the law are under a curse.
There are many good swimmers, but is there anyone who can swim from the port of Pusan (Korea) to the United States? Suppose that about a hundred people start swimming to the United States, thinking that they would rather do this than going through complicated paper works and paying for an expensive plane ticket. If any of them can make it, he will be a hero, let alone save money; if they fail, however, they will die. How many of the 100 will make it? They will all die. How about if a ten thousand people try? It will be the same. Then, how about if the entire mankind try? Of course, they will all die. This is an impossible project from the outset. It is not cowardice or foolishness to fear what must be feared. Rather, it is foolishness not to know it. It is wisdom not to start something that is impossible. To warn against misunderstanding, I am not saying that keeping the law is utterly useless; rather, I am simply talking about the law as the condition of salvation.
Those who try to go to God by practicing the goodness of the law are even more foolish than those who try to swim from Korea to the United States. As it says, 󰡒All who rely on observing the law are under a curse,󰡓 they will all go to hell after all the struggles for goodness.
Therefore, we should abandon the notion that God wills our salvation through the law. No matter how many merits of goodness I have accumulated, and how empty it may feel to realize that they are ineffectual in opening the heaven's door, I have to shake off what must be shaken off. I do not have to feel frustrated that my accomplishments and concepts are being brought to nothing.
Sometimes, even a business that has sucked in a lot of capital may turn out to be hopeless. Even after becoming aware of this, however, some people still try to push it through because they are tormented by what they have already put in, thereby losing everything they have after all. I have read a book, Jewish Sales Skills. It says that when Jews start a business, which does not go well, they will try again. If it shows no hope even after about three trials, however, they will boldly put an end to it, no matter how much money has been poured in, and say, 󰡒I feel relieved.󰡓
Among Koreans, however, there are many who continue recklessly even after a few failures and end up putting in everything they own. In gambling, someone who keeps losing small amounts often bets a huge sum in order to take back at once what he has lost. Why? He only thinks about what he has put in so far.
A wheat flour dealer bought a large amount of flour. Then flour price tumbled, and he came to a point of bankruptcy. Thinking that it would be better to disappear than going bankrupt and bringing disgrace to his family, he bought a rope in order to hang himself. When he tied the rope to a crossbeam and put his neck to the loop, he heard a radio news saying that the flour price had soared, whereupon he stopped the suicide and earned big money by selling the flour.
Would it make sense at all, however, if he had gone ahead with the suicide out of reluctance to waste the rope? Who would do that kind of silly thing? We would throw away that string with no hesitation, no matter how much money we may have paid for it out of tight budget.
Although we might have been reliant on the law for attaining God's recognition, we should promptly give it up once we see that it is useless. We can grasp what God gives us only when we release what we have a handful of. Losing it does not mean letting go of the rope to the heavenly kingdom but switching to God's rope of grace.
Even after this explanation, however, there might still be people who repeat, 󰡒But the laws must be kept, as far as we can,󰡓 holding on to the pride in their accomplishments of decades of church life. These people are like those who say, swimming to the United States, 󰡒Now that I am already here, I should swim further as far as I can.󰡓 If they go too far, however, they will go down, unable to return.
5. The Law and The Grace
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing (Gal. 2:21)!
If we could become righteous through the law, Jesus did not have to come to the world or die on the cross, that is, he died in vain. Jesus received punishment on our behalf because the law cannot earn us righteousness. 󰡒Clearly no one is justified before God by the law because, 'The righteous will live by faith.' The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, 'The man who does these things will live by them.'󰡓 (Gal. 3:11, 12) Grace decrees, 󰡒Believe, and thou shalt live,󰡓 and the law, 󰡒Act, and thou shalt live.󰡓 Hence, the law and grace are the opposites. And yet many people bring confusion to their faith by not being able to distinguish between them.
You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace (Gal. 5:4).
Who are the ones 󰡒trying to be justified by law󰡓? They are those who earnestly try to practice a faith. Those who do not have a faith would not try to practice the law, still less try to be justified by it. The Scripture, however, says that those who rely on the law 󰡒have been alienated from Christ󰡓 and 󰡒fallen away from grace󰡓 rather than saying that they will receive a great award.
The Scripture says, 󰡒all our righteous acts are like filthy rags,󰡓 (Isa. 64:6) and 󰡒they cannot cover themselves (their shame) with what they make.󰡓 (Isa. 59:6) This is a declaration that our endeavors to become righteous is like a dirty person's wearing a soiled garment in God's sight, and thus our righteousness cannot hide our shame. The garment is like a worn-out clothes of a leper contaminated with all kinds of germs from him. We will not be able to stand before God in such a rag.
The devil whispers to unbelievers thus: 󰡒Hey, do not listen to anything said about God, spirit, heaven or hell. Those are fabrications of idle people. Who could have created the universe? It existed from times immemorial. The Sun, Moon, and stars came forth spontaneously. So did the earth, after which it got on the track of rotation. Amoebas evolved into insects, and insects to fish and birds. This is also how animals, apes, and human beings appeared.󰡓
The falsity continues: 󰡒What is so special about human beings? They are a product of evolution, and this is why they are called a higher animal. They only represent a bit of progress from animals. What do you mean, spirit? Show me if it exists. So you can just live and die basically like animals, by the law of nature and survival of the fittest. And death will put everything to rest; it will be the end of it all. So you do not have to live in such a narrowness and worry. Enjoy your life.󰡓
Those who succumb to such a deception pursue pleasure without being aware of their being cheated. Since they have no hope in what is eternal, they eat and drink just for the body. Singing, 󰡒Drink, and drink, and dance and dance, through the night, till the morning,󰡓 they drink, vomit, and space out. The devil does not allow a spare time for them to think about such matters as concerns God and spirit. It drives us wild and dizzy until the moment of our arrival at the hell.
Then, what would the devil say to believers of Jesus? Would it say, 󰡒Will you believe in Jesus? OK, then believe in him and go to heaven, bye-bye󰡓? To those who desire faith, devil does not tell them not to believe; rather it says, 󰡒believe hard.󰡓 This is because it has a second weapon called religion. It says, 󰡒Go to church, and believe hard, if you will. Join the early morning prayer, keep the Sundays, serve in the church, and offer donations. Build many churches, and appoint many pastors and deaconesses. Beautify your choir and offer solemn ceremony.󰡓 For the devil is not intimidated by such things.
However, the devil will counsel them, 󰡒Do not try to be saved. Do not be concerned with being reborn. You do not have to know such things now, for you will find out as time passes. What is special about faith? Doesn't it simply mean going to church and working hard for goodness? This will be enough to earn you the heavenly reward.󰡓 And if a pastor praises such people, saying that they deserve a great heavenly reward, they even show condescending modesty, saying, 󰡒I am hardly worthy of it,󰡓 while agreeing to it wholeheartedly in their mind.
They are on a plane ride without being aware that it is piloted by the devil and bound to hell. Will God praise them just because their pastors do? While we boast of our cleverness about worldly affairs, we are in the dark about the spiritual affairs.
When buying something, people go to different stores to check the prices. They go to the cheapest place and try to make bargains even there. Even after buying it with such a fuss, if they still find out that the price could have been cheaper, they become outraged. They try hard and show their utmost wits to avoid deception as regards things of the world, and yet embrace devil's lie as regards faith in Jesus. It is not a serious problem to be cheated a little about other things and incur some material loss, but we should never be cheated with respect to faith.
Our readers should not entirely trust words of their pastors, revivalists, or theologians. Whoever the speaker, believe only when his messages conform to the Bible. Of what worth are human words, when the heaven and hell are not affairs of the world? There is no truth other than the Bible, which is God's word. Rather than believing something because others do, we should believe it after checking whether it is supported by the Bible.
There are many people who are dismayed when told, 󰡒You must be saved and born again.󰡓 Although Jesus teaches, 󰡒No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again,󰡓 (John 3:3) they are still offended when they hear that they must be reborn to go to heaven. This is really strange. When they hear such things, a wise response would be: 󰡒Ah, that's right. I must be born again. How can this happen? I have no confidence about salvation, although I desire it. What shall I do?󰡓 Instead, however, these people react by saying, 󰡒Are you the only one saved? What kind of salvation do you have, that you are so arrogant? Plus, it is none of your business whether other people are saved or not.󰡓 There is something wrong when they are so repelled by the talk of salvation.
6. God's Righteousness and My Righteousness
For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness (Rom. 10:2, 3).
What happens when someone is zealous for God, and yet his zeal is not based on knowledge? He will try to establish his own righteousness without knowing God's, thereby failing to obey God's righteousness. Serving God diligently, and zealously going to church and practicing the law belong to my righteousness. We cannot reach God through my zeal and righteousness.
What is God's righteousness? God has made all the preparation through which we can go to God and have the right relationship with God. This work of preparation is God's righteousness. We come to God through God's righteousness. As in the hymn, 󰡒When I ascend to the desired heavenly kingdom and see God, I will stand before him relying on the righteousness of the Lord the savior,󰡓 we can stand before God not upon our own righteousness but upon that of the Christ. We fail to obey God's righteousness while trying to establish our own without comprehending what God's righteousness is.
There are many who go to hell even after serving God assiduously. This might seem strange-to be eager for God and go to hell. But this is true. To realize this fact is very important for our salvation, for only after the realization can we understand what salvation is. Now it should be certain that we cannot avoid the judgment and destruction and go near God through our own righteousness, zeal, efforts to keep the law, or any other merits. Otherwise, I must keep talking about this until you realize.
The hymn said that tears, good works, and endurance are all ineffectual. We are sinners who can do nothing but die like someone who fell into deep water without knowing how to swim. He will die a hundred percent unless someone comes to rescue him-he has no other way. Likewise, we will live if God rescues us unconditionally from our hell-bound fate, and if not, we can only perish. Only God can save us, and if He does save us, we can only receive it without offering anything in return.
7. The Road to Salvation
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst (1 Tim. 1:15).
The apostle Paul, who authored fourteen books of the New Testament including the 1 Timothy, had been a leader in executing followers of Jesus. This is why he says that he is the worst of the sinners. At the same time, he says this as an indication that all other sinners can be saved. The Christ came to the world in order to 󰡒save sinners󰡓 and 󰡒give his life as a ransom for many.󰡓 (Mat. 20:28)
Jesus came to 󰡒save sinners󰡓 like a rescuer of a drowning victim. Then who are the sinners? They are those bound hellward, who are in fact every one of us. Therefore to say that Jesus came to save sinners is to say that he came to save me.
Although there were no one but me in the world, Jesus would still have come to save me. As the Bible says, 󰡒For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,󰡓 God sent Jesus for each one of us.
Therefore, when Jesus came to save sinners, this was for me. Because I am under the destiny to be born in sin, live in sin, and live in hell after death, Jesus came to release me from that destiny.
What should a drowning person do when someone comes to a rescue? He should stay still to make the rescue work easy. When someone falls into water, he holds fast to whatever is within reach, and in desperation he can generate an enormous force. If a rescuer is caught in his grips, both will die. So I heard that lifesavers do not touch the victim when he is pawing and splashing to get out of the water until he becomes too tired to struggle.
Inexperienced people will urge the lifesaver to hurry, but he will say, 󰡒It's OK for him to swallow some water. Let's wait.󰡓 When the victim becomes exhausted, then the lifesaver can pull him out just by dragging his hair. I even heard that if the victim struggles too much, then he gets hit out of his consciousness.
The same applies to how Jesus saves sinners. Although Jesus wants to save them, they are pawing and slashing hard to establish their own righteousness; they 󰡒work hard, strive, and serve loyally,󰡓 so much so that Jesus leaves them alone until they run out of their strength. 󰡒Until I fall down exhausted, carrying my heavy load alone,󰡓 (hymn) Jesus simply watches me. So when the rescuer comes, the drowning victim will be wisest simply to stay still and relaxed.
To have faith means to rely on, entrust myself to, and make request upon the object of faith. It is to relax all my strength and entrust myself completely to him. It is up to him whether he drags my hair or pushes me out. If he is a capable lifesaver, I will live, and otherwise I will die. My life depends on him. Therefore, I should let him completely take over. What happens next is the business of Jesus, and all I have to do is simply to watch his performance.
The Israelites came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses. After a while, they saw the Red Sea blocking their way, while the Egyptian army was chasing after them. Then the people complained to Moses, 󰡒Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?󰡓 (Exo. 14:11) Moses answered, 󰡒Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today...The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.󰡓 (Exo. 14:13, 14)
When Moses held up his staff and spread his hand toward the sea according to God's direction, the sea split and a path appeared. The Israelites safely passed through the passage between the waters. God moved back the pillar of cloud and kept the Egyptian army in darkness so they could not chase the Israelites any further. After their crossing was completed, God sent waters back upon the Egyptian army, then crossing the sea on the dry path, and drowned them all. The Israelites watched God's work of salvation while staying still. We can also watch God's work of salvation for sinners.
Jesus came to save sinners, did the work, and departed. When the Scripture says that God so loved the world as to give His only Son (John 3:16), the world here does not only mean the people of Jesus' time but all the people to come until the end of the world. For God treats people equally regardless of time. Jesus came to the world and departed. Then, did Jesus complete his work of salvation or not? Of course, he did.
If Jesus finished his work, then why is it that there are still people not saved? It is because people do not know about his work. They do not know what Jesus has done for the sake of their sin. As the hymn said, 󰡒Tears do not help,󰡓 󰡒Good works do not help,󰡓 and 󰡒Endurance doesn't help,󰡓 we cannot do it ourselves; as the hymn continued, however, 󰡒Faith will help. Believe in Jesus and rely on his work, and when you go to him, you will receive eternal life,󰡓 we simply have to believe.
The work Jesus has done is the grace given to us by God. Jesus completed the work of salvation. To have faith in Jesus means to believe in the work he did. To rely on his work is to rest upon what he accomplished. We will receive eternal life only by relying on the work of Jesus and going to him. People believe in Jesus and yet fail to attain salvation because they do not believe in his work while believing in him.
When asked, 󰡒Do you believe in Jesus?󰡓 some people answer, 󰡒Yes, I am a deaconess.󰡓 When asked, 󰡒Are you confident about your going to heaven?󰡓 they try to be humble and say, 󰡒Well, I am not worthy. I believe, but my faith falls short.󰡓 They are saying that they are not sure because they do not have enough faith. Does this mean that the work of Jesus is not good enough to send them to heaven, or that their merits are still short? This means after all that their own merits are not enough.
They say, 󰡒Others attend early morning prayers, but I am too lazy to do so. I sometimes skip Sunday service because I have to keep my store open. I am too stingy to make tithing. I am unable to live by the Bible, either. Sometimes, I even tell lies. So I do believe, but my faith is short.󰡓 In short, they are not confident about their eternal destination because their faith is not strong enough. This, however, is not humility.
To say, 󰡒not enough󰡓 means there being something rather than nothing, though not in the amount that will merit the heaven. Is that something faith? Although they call it faith, its essence is work. Talks of sufficiency and deficiency only apply when reckoning with work. Hence, not having enough faith can only mean not having accumulated enough merit through their own work.
Of course, our merits fall short. We need a hundred points to go to heavenly kingdom, and yet how many points do you have? 󰡒I only have fifteen. I raised it to thirty through early morning prayers, vigils, singing hymns, and making donations in the last spring revival, and then lost about twenty points while selling ice in the summer. Again, in the autumn revival, I repented deeply and gained thirty-five points, and then lost twenty points or so while selling sweet potatoes in the winter. I am surely unworthy.󰡓 Of course, we are lacking, to the extent of going to hell.
In light of the Bible, how many points have we scored so far for heavenly admission? Zero. Then, how many for hell? One hundred. We have a perfect score to go to hell. So we do not need more wrongdoings for admission to hell.
Sometimes we are good and feel as if heaven is beckoning us, and sometimes we turn evil and feel as if we are summoned by hell. This is to trust our own self in reality while trusting Jesus in words, for the one who turns good or evil is we. We are relying on what we have done rather than what Jesus has done.
To believe in his work is to believe in what Jesus has done in order to pay for my sin. It is entirely irrelevant how serious a sinner I am, how much sin I have committed, or how well I have practiced the law before God. Since I am a transgressor, the key is what Jesus has done to liberate me. Our being able to see the work he did is God's grace for us. Salvation comes through this realization. What, then, has Jesus done in order to save us?
8. The Christ Came in Order to Take Away Our Sin
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin (1 John 3:5).
Jesus came to this world in order to remove our sin. Coming to save sinners is to come to remove their sins. Because we are judged and sent to hell because of sin, Jesus has to root out our sin if he is to save us.
Then, how can he remove our sin? Just with God's boundless love? Not so. This would ruin God's justice. Sin must be paid for. Until then, sin cannot be resolved.
Can a criminal under death sentence be released from execution by making a sincere and serious plea? How about if he says that he will perform many good actions and pay for his crime? It will not work. As his crime and punishment has been determined by the law, if the criminal is to live, there has to be a law of substitution, according to which someone else can take the punishment on his behalf.
In principle, the punishment must be suffered by the one who committed the crime, for only this way, will justice be served. Hence, the sentence has been announced, and the offender has no way to avoid it. He is to die. However, if human beings, created in God's image for the sake of divine glory, go to hell through sin, God's justice may be served, and yet God's love will crumble, and His plan of creation fail. God's justice does not allow any exception to the rule that sin be paid for. On the other hand, God's love cannot bear to see a sinner being punished. Therefore, God has promulgated a law that serves both justice and love. This is the law of substitution, whereby the payment for the sin is made vicariously. A criminal sentenced to death can keep his life if someone else can die in his place. From such a consideration, God has established the law of substitution.
For instance, suppose that someone failed his business and filed for bankruptcy for a debt worth around one billion won. He has to go to prison because he cannot repay it. What must be done if he is to be set free? If some rich relatives or acquaintances of his can pay it on his behalf, he will be released. Likewise, the law of substitution says that death, which is the price of sin payable to God, can be suffered by someone else. The one who dies in substitution will do away with all liabilities. Since the 󰡒wage of sin is death,󰡓 there is no other way to resolve it than through death.
I heard that such a law has been used in the past. Suppose that someone who has a friend sentenced to death comes to a judge and says, 󰡒Sir, please let me die in his place. His family has no way to make their living once he dies. I am single, and I am deeply indebted to him. I want to repay the debt of love owed to him by dying in his place. Please allow me.󰡓 If the judge approves his vicarious death, then the sentenced criminal will not have to die. The judge can say, 󰡒A friend of this criminal has offered his life for execution on behalf of the criminal. So he is now free.󰡓 This release is fair. The law God has prepared for us allows vicarious death. This way, God establishes his justice and fulfills his love at the same time.
If Jesus, who came to 󰡒save sinners,󰡓 is to 󰡒take away our sin,󰡓 obviously he must be free of sin. A sinner cannot take over the sin of another, just as one inmate sentenced to execution cannot die in place of another such inmate and set the latter free. Hence, the one to die for our (sinner's) sake has to be innocent.
To say that a righteous person dies and pays for another's sin implies that forgiveness of sin requires a payment of life. Sacrifice of life is death and bloodshed.
Just as it has been God's law ever since Genesis that the price of sin is death (󰡒you will surely die󰡓), it is God's law that 󰡒without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (of sin).󰡓 (Heb. 9:22) By saying, 󰡒For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life,󰡓 Leviticus 17:11 explains that blood is life. In other words, when a living being sheds blood and dies, this blood pays for the sin. Today, scholars also say that life of the body, whether of human beings or animals, resides in the blood.
The Israelites in the Old Testament Age sacrificed animals as a sin offering in order to expiate their sins of violating the law. For this many lambs, goats, and calves were slaughtered. They killed a clean animal without defect, sprinkled its blood over the alter of atonement, and prayed to God, thereby making atonement for their sins.
They laid the burden of human sin upon these animals and killed them-sins of idol worship, murder, disobeying parents, adultery, theft, and so forth. They could be forgiven by sprinkling their blood and praying to God. Such a sacrifice was a part of the law imposed upon Israelites. Can human sin be washed away through animal's death, however?
The sacrifice of sin offering did not have true effect. An animal cannot die in place of human beings, nor can animal blood wash away human sin. 󰡒It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.󰡓 (Heb. 10:4) If animal blood is unable to wipe out human sin, then why did God command them to make the sacrifice?
Although it was not a true sacrifice, it was a ceremony performed under the promise that a real sacrifice would be made in the future. The Bible says, 󰡒The gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings-external regulations applying until the time of the new order,󰡓 (Heb 9:9, 10) and, 󰡒The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming...󰡓 (Heb. 10:1)
We can find an example of this in business. When a dealer buys goods to sell, he normally issues bills of debt in lieu of the cash payment because the dealer must sell these goods before having the money to pay. The bill says that the money will be paid at a certain time. A bill is not cash, and yet it is a promise that will work like cash when the time comes.
Of course, a bill may be dishonored because it is a human arrangement. The bill issuer may go bankrupt or deliberately engage in a bill fraud. In that case, the bill turns into garbage, and the trust of the bill bearer breaks down. This is an unusual case, however, and normally a bill is money of the promise that will be fulfilled on the due date. Moreover, because of the trust, it works like cash even at present. The bill bearer may cash it through a bill discount or use it to make a payment. This is possible because the promised money will be paid when the bill is due.
Likewise, the animal sacrifice was not a true sacrifice, but worked because it was God's promise. It had been God's promise that worked like a bill until the true sacrifice was offered by Jesus.
If we are to be absolved of our sin, a person must die in our place. Since the descendants of Adam are all sinners, however, some righteous person outside the fallen lineage must offer his life. So God prepared a sinless person outside the lineage of Adam. This is Jesus Christ. 󰡒But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin󰡓
700 years before the coming of Jesus, God promised through the prophet Isaiah, 󰡒Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.󰡓 (Isa. 7:14) The one born from a virgin was also the 󰡒offspring󰡓 of the woman promised by God before the fall of Adam and Eve. Since the descendants of Adam are all sinners, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin's womb in order to be born as a sinless human being. God borrowed the virgin Mary's womb for ten months and called him sinless because he was not a descendant of Adam.
Many people ridicule this by saying, 󰡒What a baloney! How can a baby be conceived without a man?󰡓 For they cannot comprehend the immaculate conception from their own experiences. But God can make it happen. Is God unable to cause a virgin conceive a baby?
God created the universe and life from nothing. We do not even fully understand the information contained in one of the seventy trillion cells making up the human body. Did I put in that information, or my parents? If we stop thinking from human viewpoint and consider God's standpoint, what is impossible becomes simply possible.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:6).
Ever since Adam, everyone has been a sheep lost from God. Just as a lost sheep becomes powerless and wonders around aimlessly, we, lost from God, have been wondering around on the road to ruin. We have followed the greed of the fallen body, but God has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all, a sin that we have been committing through a reckless life away from God.
What we should take note in the above verse is that it is God who loaded our sins upon Jesus. This did not happen because of our desperate plea, 󰡒Lord, please atone for our sin. Because of such and such sins, we will all perish unless you help,󰡓 nor because we confessed all our evil-doings and begged for forgiveness. Would our sins disappear just because we make a confession, when not a tiny iota of it can be taken away even by a full exertion of human religiosity?
Some revivalists say that we must confess our sins in order for Jesus to carry them away. When no work can help, however, of what use is confession, and is there anyone capable of confessing all his vice? Sins are committed knowingly, unknowingly, in action, and in heart. Even failing to do good constitutes sin. Can we remember even one-hundredth, or one-thousandth of them? No one can ever confess all his sin.
Even before we confess our sin, however, God knows all about us. Even before their birth, God knew about the birth of all the people. He also knew that they would be born as sinners, commit such and such sins, and go to hell because of these sins. Since God transcends time, he knows all these things.
The omniscient God has had Jesus bear our sin in transcendence of time, that is, even the sins of the future as well as those committed so far. 󰡒The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.󰡓
If God has laid our iniquity on Jesus, then who is to suffer the retribution of sin? Of course, Jesus is. God should certainly impose the judgment upon Jesus, and he ought to take it voluntarily.
Let us say that someone has failed his business and incurred a debt of a half million dollars. Since he has no way of paying even the interest, not to mention the principal, he is tormented every day. Concluding that there is no way out, he decides to commit suicide. Somebody finds out about this, however, and offers to pay his debt. He says to the creditor, 󰡒I will pay the half million dollars, and please write a receipt in his name󰡓 and clears the debt.
Then, the debtor has no more liability. It is the payer of the debt that is subject to whatever setback may ensue, and the debtor has been liberated from its burden. Likewise, since God commissioned Jesus to take over our sin, the judgment was transferred to Jesus from us. For God decided to receive the payment for our sin from Jesus.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isa. 53:5).
The crown of thorns on Jesus' head scratched his face, and the whip slashed his entire body. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, and he was pierced on the side, pouring out blood and water. The Bible says that his stabbing wounds were on account of our iniquities and defects. My sin stabbed and wounded Jesus, and my sin killed him.
God laid our sin upon Jesus and struck him with the whip of judgment. We are the ones who deserve the whip, and yet Jesus took it on our behalf, and his taking the whip has healed us. In other words, because he took over the judgment that originally belongs to us, we have become released from the liability of judgement.
At that time, under the rule of the Roman Empire, there was a capital punishment that nailed the criminal to the cross alive. When an offender was sentenced to an execution by cross, on the eve of execution soldiers stripped him naked, tied him to a pillar, and whipped him. Two soldiers struck in turn with a leather whip that had a horn or metal at the end, and it tore apart the offender's skin. Sometimes weak people died out of pain during the whipping.
Jesus took that whip. God struck Jesus with the whip of judgment that originally belongs to us sinners. His stabbing wounds were on account of our sin, and this has set us free from the judgment. This prophecy through Isaiah had been given 700 years before the coming of Jesus, and he came to fulfill that prophecy.
Now, there is something we should stop and think about. Some people say, 󰡒If God wants to save us, why can he not simply go ahead, for God has the power to do everything He wills, and there would be no one to oppose or criticize Him anyway? Why does He not say 'I will save you' with His absolute authority? Why does He have to go through such an ordeal to erase our sin, making His only Son carry the burden and leading him to death with whip and the cross? Why does he not cancel our sin unconditionally?󰡓
True, God is omnipotent, and He has created and governs all things with word. I, however, have discovered one amazing thing in the Bible: there is something even the omnipotent God cannot accomplish with word alone.
As far as salvation of sinners is concerned, God cannot achieve it simply with word. This God cannot do at discretion. Otherwise, would He have had to sacrifice His only Son? What if God could forgive our sin just with His word?
Then, God's justice and furthermore dignity and honor would be seriously undermined, for not only will God have infringed His own law, but also tolerated sin. The law has authority only when it is strictly enforced; if used according to convenience, it may as well not exist at all. If some powerful person applies the law at his own discretion, this would be another form of violence. From the standpoint of the weak, who would say that the law is just?
9. God's Justice and God's Love
The Bible reveals two important attributes of God. One is justice, as in the verse, 󰡒LORD is a God of justice,󰡓 (Isa. 30:18) and the other
is love, as it says, 󰡒God is love.󰡓 (1 John 4:16) God has two attributes, which are justice and love.
God's justice has manifested itself through the law, and the law expresses God's justice. Love, on the other hand, appears as grace. Although every one of us is doomed to perish as a transgressor before God's justice, that is, the law, any transgressor can be forgiven and saved through God's love. The justice and love are each complete in itself.
If God were only just and not loving, nobody would receive salvation, and all of us would be put to judgement and eternal doom. On the other hand, if God were only loving and not just, He would be able to save us without condition. Of course, Jesus would not have had to offer his life on the cross. Since God's justice and love complete each other, however, one cannot be ignored for the sake of the other. Rather, they must work together in harmony.
If God of justice judged and decimated the mankind, where would God of love be? This would only destroy God's love. On the other hand, if God of love tolerated and forgave sinners unconditionally, salvation may be accomplished, and yet God's justice would become completely violated. Then, there would arise a contradiction within God's nature, which is inadmissible. Justice and love must be realized together.
For instance, suppose that someone is taken to the court after committing a crime, and he happens to be a son of the presiding judge. The audience watches with acute concern how the trial will proceed. The judge starts questioning the accused: 󰡒What is your name?󰡓 󰡒I am so and so.󰡓 Then the judge realizes that it is his son. If the defendant says, 󰡒Father, it's me. Please forgive me,󰡓 and the judge says, 󰡒OK, my son, I will take care of it,󰡓 then will this be a fair trial?
If the judge were to remit his punishment, saying, 󰡒You are free because you are my son,󰡓 would the audience accept it, perhaps out of sympathy, and say, 󰡒It is unfair but understandable because blood is thicker than the law󰡓? No. They will immediately rise up in riot, shouting, 󰡒Kick out that judge. We cannot entrust him with the law.󰡓 Powerless people may follow the law, and yet justice is already shattered.
The judge and the accused are related under justice, while the father and the son are related in love. The latter relationship means nothing in the court, however, for they are facing each other as the law, rather than the blood, defines who they are. What matters is what punishment is pronounced against the offence. Even if the son says, 󰡒Father, it's me,󰡓 the judge will have to turn a clod face and advance the trial: 󰡒The defendant shall keep silent and only answer the question. What is your name?󰡓
󰡒Yes, sir. My name is so and so.󰡓 󰡒Have you committed the crime you are accused of?󰡓 If the defendant acknowledges it, or there is a clear evidence, the judge will pronounce the appropriate sentence according to the law. Suppose the judge says, 󰡒Pursuant to the so and so Paragraph and Article of the so and so Criminal Act, the defendant is sentenced to so and so imprisonment or fine.󰡓 Then, the audience will cheer the trial and respect the judge as a man of justice.
The son thus went to the prison. Because he could not afford to pay the fine, he had to live in prison for so many years. The justice had been served. Then the judge visited the criminal, this time as his father. The father asked the son, 󰡒You wretched soul, what have you done?󰡓 The son repented and answered him, 󰡒Father, I am sorry. I am really sorry. Please forgive me. I will never do this again.󰡓
Then the father said, 󰡒It's OK. You are my son, anyway. I will try to get the money for the fine.󰡓 He gathered up all the money and even sold his house, and paid the fine on behalf of the son. Thus, the son was released; the father's sacrificial efforts liberated him. This way, father's love has been realized. This is how justice and love are both fulfilled as each of them should be.
I will provide another example - an incident that is said to be real. A king announced a strict law over the entire country, declaring that any transgressor thereof would lose both of their eyes. Unfortunately, however, the one who broke the law first was the prince. He was then brought to the king in chain. The king decreed, 󰡒Take out his eyes as prescribed in the law.󰡓 King's officers prostrated themselves and begged the king, however, saying, 󰡒Your majesty, he is the only prince to inherit the kingdom. Please pardon him.󰡓 But the king insisted, 󰡒It is impossible. The law cannot be compromised, even for the prince. Take out his eyes, now.󰡓
The officers then tied up the prince and took out one of his eyes. As they moved on to the second eye, the king exclaimed, 󰡒Stop. Spare the other eye, and take one of mine instead.󰡓 The father did not want to see his son go blind. But who would dare to touch the king's eyes? The officers prostrated again and said, 󰡒Your majesty, it is impossible.󰡓 Then the king took out one of his own eyes himself with a gimlet. The officers could not say, 󰡒It is impossible󰡓 when the king was doing it himself.
It was justice to take out the eye in accordance with the law, while it was love for the king to take out his own eye, although it would have been a complete love had the king offered both of his eyes. Once declared, the law is absolute even for its promulgator. Even now, the law applies equally both to the legislators and judicial officers. God is a just legislator and judge. Collapse of God's justice would mean the loss of His authority and honor.
The justice of God says, 󰡒The wage of sin is death,󰡓 while His love says, 󰡒Someone can die in your place.󰡓 It is love for a righteous person to die for a sinner. Hence, the crucifixion of Jesus means a complete fulfillment of both justice and love of God. It is justice that sin must be paid for by death, and it is love that God's only Son has died for our sin. The cross represents a simultaneous realization of God's justice and God's love.
10. The Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 󰡒Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!󰡓 (John 1:29)
As John the Baptist said, 󰡒Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!󰡓 Jesus came to the world in order to fulfill the promise of the Old Testament. 󰡒Look at the lamb of God, carrying the sin of the world!󰡓 (Hymn)
󰡒Look!󰡓 To believe is to see. When we see Jesus through the Bible, he is a lamb of atonement prepared by God and upon whom God has laid the iniquity of the world. 󰡒The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.󰡓 The lamb of God died on the cross with the sin of the world. In order to fulfill God's will to save sinners, Jesus was slaughtered as a lamb.
When Jesus was carrying the burden of sin, did it include the sins of you and me? Of course, it did. Whether I know this or not, that is how God arranged it. Whether I acknowledge or believe it or not, Jesus took upon himself my sin, for the burden he carried included the sins of the entire mankind. 󰡒When I came to Jesus in sorrow and toil, Jesus took over my burden. His love became a joy in my heart. He took over my sin. He took over my sin.󰡓 (Hymn)
I came to Jesus with a turbulent heart, but when listened to him, I saw that he had already carried my sin away as well as sins of all of us. This holy person became a lump of sin, and where did he go with that sin? He carried the cross and went to Golgotha, the field of execution, in order to take the punishment. For the sin could not be expiated without a penalty of death.
As I explained earlier, Jesus was subjected to all kinds of abuse and contempt the previous night, and on the day of execution he personally carried the cross and was taken to the execution field. Because of the torture of the previous night and the heavy cross and merciless whips of the Roman soldiers on the way, he stumbled over and over while walking up the hill of Golgotha. His face was covered with blood exuding from the wounds of the crown of thorns.
I remember how painful thorns can be. When I was traveling through Israel, the tourist bus driver stopped the bus and pointed to a bramble. Its thorns looked like that of a hardy-orange, but much sharper. Some of our company went out and broke off a thorn. While I was also trying to break one off, a finger of mine got stung and bled immediately. They made a crown out of such terrifying thorns and put it upon Jesus, and the thorns were driven home into his head. Why was a crown of thorns put on his head?
Genesis narrates that through the fall of Adam and Eve, the ground was cursed to produce thorns and thistles (Gen. 3:17, 18). Therefore, by wearing the crown of thorns, Jesus wore on his head the curse of sin incurred by human beings. As Isaiah says that human thoughts are always evil (Isa. 59:7), the sin committed by human brain placed the crown of thorns upon Jesus.
On the hill of Golgotha, Jesus was nailed in the hands and feet to the cross he had carried. He was raised high between the heaven and earth and between God and the people. 󰡒The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all,󰡓 and Jesus took the punishment voluntarily. He took the cup of death for the sake of God's glory, his own glory, and the glory of the heavenly kingdom to be given to us.
The large nails pierced his holy hands because of the sins of our hands, the nail penetrated his feet because of the sins of our feet, the spear pierced his chest because of the sins of our hearts, and the whip struck, and the cross lifted his body because of the sin of our bodies. In short, our iniquities brought him to death.
He was crucified at nine in the morning and breathed his last at three in the afternoon; for six hours, he suffered extreme pain and insult. He seems to have died a bit early because of the torture he had received the previous night. With the final word, 󰡒It is finished,󰡓 (John 19:30) he dropped his head and breathed his last.
When a Roman soldier stabbed his side with a spear from underneath, his heart was punctured, and the remaining blood and water gushed out. 󰡒At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.󰡓 (Mat. 27:51) The Bible relates that this terrified a Roman centurion into saying, 󰡒Surely he was the Son of God!󰡓 (Mat. 27:54) If I had been there, what would I have said?
Two thieves were crucified next to Jesus, while Jesus was placed in the middle because he was considered the heaviest offender. His face under the crown of thorns was being washed with blood. Blood was streaming from his hands and feet, torn by the nails and bodily weight, from wounds of the whip, and from the chest pierced by the spear. The ground below the cross was a puddle of blood.
Had you been there to watch the scene, you must have thought, 󰡒Ah, truly miserable. What kind of crime had he committed that he had to die like this? What was the crime?󰡓 won't you? Did Jesus have a crime? The Bible says, 󰡒In him is no sin.󰡓 He is the one who has said, 󰡒Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?󰡓 (John 8:46) Then why did he have to die such a gruesome death? Whose sin did he atone for? For the sin of the sinful, that is, for my sin.
The miserable shape of Jesus on the cross is my own shape; that is how wretched I am as a sinner before God. So I do not have to try hard to see how wretched a sinner I am because I can just bring up the image of Jesus on the cross. His image is my own image under punishment; this is how frightening my curse of sin is before God. Although I am the one who must suffer such a dreadful curse and punishment, God imposed it upon Jesus instead of me. All the curse and judgment belonging to us was taken over by Jesus.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:7, 8).
󰡒He was crucified with all my sin. Why? What a grace! His love is boundless.󰡓 (Hymn) The death of Jesus for sinners like me fulfilled God's love to save us. The cross completely fulfilled both justice and love of God.
11. One Died for All
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2 Cor. 5:14).
Here, the 󰡒one,󰡓 of course, means Jesus. If Jesus died for all, then does this include you and me? God has included us. 󰡒He (Jesus Christ) is the atoning sacrifice (propitiation - KJV) for our sins, and not only for ours (Christians) but also for the sins of the whole world.󰡓 (1 John 2:2)
The one person Jesus died for all. The holy one, and not an ordinary person, received punishment on our behalf. This is the love of the Christ for us. When there is someone who has died for us, is it right that we go on without knowing him? If the one person Jesus died for all, and therefore all died, then did we die or not before God? We are all sinners deserving death, and when Jesus died, we died with him. God made a law that allows a righteous person to expiate others' sins, and offered Jesus for the sake of the substitution.
On the way to the execution field, Jesus did not complain about the injustice; instead, he declared, 󰡒No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.󰡓 (John 10:18) In other words, he did not die from injustice but voluntarily in order to remit our sins in accordance with the law. And through his death, we have been judged and died as sinners before God.
Some people may say, 󰡒How can one person die for all?󰡓 So let us reflect on this. Through how many people's sins have we become sinners? Through the one person Adam, the first human ancestor. Through his sin, Adam first became a transgressor before God, and then the entire descendants of his. As we learned earlier that 󰡒sin entered the world through one man,󰡓 󰡒the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men.󰡓 (Rom. 5:18) In consequence, we are all sinners in Adam from the very birth.
God chose Adam as the representative of the mankind. As a result, Adam's becoming a sinner rendered the entire mankind sinners, and Adam's being expelled drove away the entire mankind from God. In short, One person's destiny determined the destiny of all. Just as we were not born by choice, we have become sinners not by choice but by the sinful lineage, and commit sin not by choice but by being a sinner.
Therefore, it would be unjust if, under such circumstances, we were to be judged and sentenced to hell with no assistance. In that case, we might even wage a demonstration in hell, saying, 󰡒God, this is not fair!󰡓 or 󰡒Go away, God.󰡓 So God prepared a measure to eliminate the unfairness.
The measure was sending one representative like Adam, and this was Jesus. 1 Cor 15 refers to Adam as 󰡒first man Adam,󰡓 and 󰡒Adam󰡓 means a human being. It then calls Jesus 󰡒last Adam.󰡓 Just as the first Adam represents the mankind, so does Jesus, the last Adam. Adam is the representative who sinned, and Jesus is the representative who has made amends for the sin. This is why it says, 󰡒one died for all, and therefore all died.󰡓 Just as God included all the mankind in Adam when we became sinners, God placed the sin of all the mankind in Jesus, who is an Adam, and put him under judgment.
Without even knowing, we have become sinners in Adam, and again unknowingly our sins were resolved in Jesus. This was God's arrangement, and for whatever reason God did this, we do not have to argue about it. At any rate, whereas we had been born sinners and living sinful lives in Adam, our sins have been expiated in Jesus. Adam's destiny was over at this point, and this is why Jesus is called the last Adam. All the sins of Adam and the consequent penalties have been cancelled at the cross of Jesus.
When Jesus was punished on our behalf by the suffering of the cross, are we subject to punishment or not? We should be exempt from the punishment. When Jesus took care of our retribution by death, if we still suffered another penalty, then what good would be his blood? Did Jesus die meaninglessly? No. By means of his blood, God has made our punishment or hell unnecessary. This is explained in the Bible as the measure God has taken in order to save us.
12. Jesus Purified Our Sin
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (Heb. 1:3).
The utterance of Jesus at the final moment of death, 󰡒It is finished,󰡓 means completion, accomplishment, or paying off; it meant that Jesus completed the payment for the sin and thereby the work of saving sinners. Jesus, 󰡒after he had provided purification for sins,󰡓 resurrected and ascended to the heaven and 󰡒sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven󰡓 Jesus shed his blood in order to make the substitution for our sin, and rose from the dead and ascended to the heaven in order to have us believe in our complete absolution. As we pay tax and get a receipt as a payment certificate, the resurrection is a certificate of the expiation of our sin.
The resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples. Showing his hands and feet, he blessed them, saying, 󰡒Peace be with you.󰡓 (Luke 24:36) By this he meant that they could rest in peace because their sins had been pardoned by God. Suppose that someone went into a heavy debt without any means to repay it, and another person appears and says to him, 󰡒I have paid off your debt. Look at this receipt and the seal.󰡓 If this is certain, then the debtor will be able to rest in peace. Notwithstanding the remark, 󰡒'There is no peace,' says my God, 'for the wicked,'󰡓 (Isa. 57:21) Jesus has liberated us from the retribution of sin and brought us peace by finishing the work of redemption.
The Old Testament is God's promise to forgive our sin, and the New Testament the certificate of its extirpation. Jesus stamped on the promise with his blood, and with the Holy Spirit put his seal in the hearts of those who accept it. Without expiating our iniquity, Jesus would not have been able to rise from the dead; hence, his resurrection is a proof of the forgiveness of our sin and God's acceptance of the sacrifice of atonement.
After his ascendance Jesus is alive as a witness for us before God. He testifies to the expiation of our sin, saying, 󰡒God, look at this blood. I have shed it and died for the sake of this individual,󰡓 whereupon God says, 󰡒It is good.󰡓 What is the Bible? It is another receipt given to us that records the fact of atonement.
There is a hymn line: 󰡒I have received many proofs for faith in Jesus.󰡓 Then what are these proofs? 󰡒These are the Scriptures that testify about me...󰡓 (John 5:39) The Bible, which bears witness to the works of Jesus, is a receipt God has given us, and when we come to believe in Jesus, we receive it as a proof.
󰡒The blood of my Lord is so pure. The Lord has purified my sin and beckons me.󰡓 (Hymn 186) Which is right, the Lord will purify or has purified my sin? The Lord 󰡒has purified󰡓 my sin. Is he beckoning me in order to purify my sin or because he has purified all my sin? He is asking us to believe that he has cleansed our sin.
Our sins are not removed because of our faith, however. For what merit does faith have? Before our having faith, God was already paid by Jesus the price of our sin, which cleared all our debts of sin. Jesus is asking us to believe this. 󰡒The blood that purified me contains much love.󰡓 (Hymn) 󰡒Jesus purified me; his blood cleansed me whiter than the snow.󰡓 (Hymn)
As the Scripture says, 󰡒Do not call anything impure that God has made clean,󰡓 (Acts 10:15) can we call ourselves 󰡒impure󰡓 when Jesus has purified us with his blood? Whether we believe it or not, this is a fact already realized by God.
13. Eternal Redemption and Complete Salvation
Christ... went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:11,12).
The Israelites in the Old Testament Age offered a sacrifice of atonement with lambs, goats, or calves. This, as we considered earlier, is like issuing a bill of debt. They believed in Jesus by beholding him from afar. But we cannot keep receiving just bills. Just as the bill must be turned in for cash when it is due, Jesus as the substance of sacrifice had to come in place of the goats and calves.
Hence, Jesus came and completed at once the eternal sacrifice of atonement with his own precious blood like a lamb without blemish, rather than with animal bloods. Jesus achieved eternal redemption that is effective in transcendence of time, from the beginning to the end of human history, and 󰡒entered the Most Holy Place once for all.󰡓
Redemption means that Jesus has atoned for our sin, through which we have been forgiven of our sin before God. 󰡒I sing hymns in great peace because I am redeemed through the blood of Jesus the lamb. Oh, redemption. Jesus has redeemed me.󰡓 (Hymn 189) Jesus has made the substitution for us, and there is no more amends to be made for our sin. In other words, God has so arranged that we no more have to fear God because of our sin.
The blood of Jesus has purified the sins of all the people to come after him until the end of the human history, not to mention those of the people before Jesus. Through Jesus, God has absolved the entire mankind, from Adam to the last person to be born; in short, Jesus has achieved eternal atonement.
The biblical meaning of eternity is twofold: one simply refers to a long time or history, and the other infinity, which continues without beginning or end. We have time distinctions, talking about a few thousand years before and a few thousand years after. God, however, does not have such a thing. In the heavenly kingdom there will be no clocks of calendars; there, we will enter the eternity with God.
God is eternal. The eternal God started human history. We can say that human history is a result of carving out and unfolding a fringe of the world of eternity, which is like a circle. The history thus started will some day come to an end, and eternity will resume. Hence, the history including the lives of you and me is nothing but an intermission between eternities. From God's point of view, the time of Adam's birth and time of the world's end are but one. Time is long only from human point of view, and even a long time is but an instant for God.
The eternal atonement is possible from such a viewpoint of God's. By offering 󰡒for all time one sacrifice for sins,󰡓 Jesus has made us 󰡒perfect forever󰡓 (Heb. 10:12, 14) because all our sins have been forgiven by God eternally and completely. This is effective in all ages and for all human beings, and for an individual, over his past, present, and future.
It is out of question that God has removed all our sins, committed from birth until now. The people of the Old Testament Age believed that their sins would be forgiven, and we believe that ours have already been. We, however, may commit sins again as we live on because our living bodies may err or transgress. Although we may vow never to slip again, we may still repeat our evil ways regardless of our determination. So what happens to our misdeeds in the future? God has forgiven them as well.
Whose teaching is this? It would be a serious problem if you say, 󰡒It is pastor Lee's teaching󰡓 because this is explained by God in the Bible. The Bible is testifying to this, and God takes responsibility for what the Bible says. God's word that Jesus has obtained 󰡒eternal redemption󰡓 never changes, nor does God's promise. Because it is eternal atonement, our forgiveness also has eternal validity. God has absolved us of the sins of the past, present, and future. 󰡒What I can say for eternity is that it is only through the blood of Jesus. Also our purification is only through his blood.󰡓 (Hymn)
After preaching for two years, I realized that I still had not been born again. I was deeply tormented by the thought that I would go to hell after death. Although I had heard over and over again and also preached that Jesus had died for us, my eyes had been still closed to the gospel.
I was quite grateful for Jesus to have offered his life, but I could not rest in peace. I even had a thought, 󰡒Wait. Jesus died almost 2,000 years ago, and his blood dried up. Then what does this have to do with me now?󰡓 although I did not express it in words. This made me feel that the death of Jesus was one thing, and my agony was another. In short, I could never understand what the death of Jesus meant for me. I kept wondering, 󰡒What does Jesus, who died almost 2,000 years ago, have to do with me?󰡓 This may sound strange, but I believed and yet could not believe. Jesus died, and yet I was still suffering on the other side. Can you understand this predicament?
We go to church, professing a faith in Jesus, but we still feel stifled and troubled in the heart because of our trespass. We keep shedding tears of repentance in the church, asking, 󰡒Lord, what shall I do?󰡓 We believe, and yet we cannot believe. What is the reason for this? It is that we have not clearly realized what effect the blood of Jesus has on us.
Amid this confusion, at 8 p.m., on October 30, 1962, the verse, 󰡒He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption󰡓 fell on my ears and struck me to the bone. That night, I saw the verse for the first time. Although I had read the New Testament for about fifty times and Old Testament thirty times just during my seminary years, still that night was the first time I had ever seen that special verse. As there is a saying that beans are stuck in the eyes, I had not been able to see it because of the blockage in my eyes. We do not see the Bible just because we have eyes, but only when God opens our eyes with spiritual wisdom.
Hearing the word that 󰡒he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption󰡓 and he is still living as my guarantor, I exclaimed, 󰡒That's right! Now I am well.󰡓 That night, I truly believed for the first time the word that my sin had been eternally erased. 󰡒The cross, the cross. When I beheld it for the first time, it removed the great affliction in my heart.󰡓 (Hymn) That night, I saw the cross of Jesus for the first time, and became rid of the torment of sin in my heart. 󰡒I believed today, and my eyes opened; my joy is eternal.󰡓 (Hymn) How delighted I was! Jesus made an eternal atonement for my sin! I pinched myself to see if it was a dream or real. 󰡒Ah, this is real!󰡓
For a criminal sentenced to execution, death is imminent. When his inmate number is called, it may his last day. If the call, however, is for special amnesty, he will keep his life. In our society, some prisoners are released through a special presidential pardon. If their pardon is a real one, the inmates will jump with joy. They will want to dance around on the way out of the prison gate.
That night, I was so happy that I was not even aware that what I was experiencing was salvation or rebirth. I was certain about one thing, however: my sin had been eternally removed. I sang and sang the hymn 189, which goes, 󰡒I sing, shattering the doubts filling my mind and in a deep peace, for I am forgiven through the blood of the lamb. Oh, the atoning grace! Jesus has atoned for my sin.󰡓 Of course, I had sung it before. During revivals, I clapped hard and sang it 󰡒with doubts filling my mind and in a deep frustration.󰡓 It had been a song outwardly, but a lamentation inwardly.
Whereas I had sung it with doubts filling my mind and in a deep frustration, now I was singing it, shattering the doubts filling my mind and in a deep peace. The third verse goes, 󰡒I surely believe I am forgiven through the blood of the lamb,󰡓 and the second verse, 󰡒Not through such perishables as gold or silver, but through the blood of the lamb of holy God.󰡓 I sang and sang, and still wanted to sing again. I knew that I could not go to hell any more because I had no sin, which associated me with hell, and I could only go to the heavenly kingdom. How grateful, how grateful I was!
I understood later that this was salvation and rebirth. It has been thirty-six years since that experience, but the joy is still fresh every day. There is no greater wonder in the entire Bible. What can be more amazing than the fact that God's only Son gave himself to the cross, shed blood, and eternally atoned for our sins? What can be added to the blood?
Some people object, 󰡒Although Jesus atoned for us, this is not enough to qualify us for the heavenly kingdom. We need to understand something more.󰡓 And some insist that despite the atonement of Jesus, we must complete our salvation with good deeds. Is this true? Do we have to add something to Jesus' blood in order to complete the salvation? What can we add to his work? Can we dare to add anything from us to the merit of his blood?
The blood of Jesus released us from sin and uplifted us as children of God. Although I am not worthy, I rely on his blood to be able to pray to and go to God. His blood is enough from the beginning to the end, not only for freeing us from the destiny to hell but also for bringing us to the heavenly kingdom.
It is not in order to add any support for our heavenward journey but out of boundless joy and gratitude that after our salvation we strive to obey God and live and even die for Jesus. There is truly no other reason than the joy and gratitude. Anyone who insists that we need to add something to the blood of Jesus is sure to be a liar.
Salvation cannot be achieved except through eternal atonement. In other words, if only the sins of the past are atoned for and not those to be committed in the future, salvation cannot materialize. For without an expiation of the future sins, what if I stumble again after being absolved? Since 󰡒the wage of sin is death,󰡓 new sins will nullify all the atonement made so far. So if the atonement is only for the sins up to the present, we will have to die immediately after the atonement lest we slip into wickedness again and lose the ticket to heaven.
If this is inadmissible, then Jesus will have to die over and over again in order to take care of our failures after salvation. Concerning this, the Scripture says, 󰡒Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.󰡓 (Heb. 9:25, 26)
If the blood of Jesus were unable to make an eternal atonement, Jesus would have to die repeatedly just as they slaughtered the lambs continuously in the Old Testament Time. Jesus, however, offered himself as the sacrifice of atonement once and for all, putting it into effect for the eternity. Jesus appeared at the end of the world in order to remove sin eternally by dying once, and this has concluded the judgement. The cross put an end to the sins of the Old and New Testament people. It is finished at once for eternity, and this is the eternal atonement.
󰡒And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.󰡓 (Heb. 10:10) God willed to pardon us through the death of Jesus, and following this will, Jesus sacrificed his own body and made us holy. To be holy means to be sinless.
Through computers, we can see criminal records of offenders. They hang around shamelessly, but if their records show on their faces, would they be able to do so? What if someone's criminal records are erased through some special policy, and the computers shows a clean record for him, however? Then how joyful he must be! Likewise, God has removed our records of sin kept with God.
If we commit a crime, although it may be a human affair, it is brought to God. Because this constitutes a violation of God's law, God must forgive them, and human forgiveness will have no meaning. If we are to be forgiven, our sin must be completely removed before God. To say that we are made holy does not mean that our hearts and lives have become holy; in other words, it does not mean that sin is removed from us, but removed before God. Have you attained holiness? You can put yourself in the phrase, 󰡒We are made holy,󰡓 and say, 󰡒I am made holy.󰡓 God has purified my sin that is recorded with God.
Again, the reason why we fail to reach salvation despite our faith in the death of Jesus is that we do not believe in eternal sacrifice and atonement-because we believe in the blood only partially. Only eternal atonement can bring eternal forgiveness, and only eternal atonement can bring eternal salvation. The gospel is complete. You can substitute your name for the 󰡒so and so󰡓 in the following statement: 󰡒Only for the sake of the sin of so and so, did Jesus Christ offer one eternal sacrifice and sit on the right hand of God.󰡓 God will not find fault with the statement.
When asked, 󰡒Whom did Jesus die for?󰡓 some people say, 󰡒for the sake of the sin of the whole world.󰡓 When asked the same question again, they answer, 󰡒For the sins of all people.󰡓 When asked the same question once more, they say, 󰡒For us.󰡓 Now, when asked, 󰡒How about your own sin?󰡓 they answer, 󰡒I am deeply troubled for my sin.󰡓 They know the world, all people, and we, and yet forget about their own self. While they are focused on themselves in grabbing things of the world, they omit themselves in talking about salvation.
󰡒My sin is forgiven. My sin is forgiven. Through the blood shed by the Lord, My sin is forgiven.󰡓 (Hymn) Faith believes that the substitution performed by Jesus has atoned for my sin along with that of the world. Faith makes one-to-one connection between me and Jesus. I will take an example. At night, all the houses were lighted up except for one. The owner of this house called the energy company and asked, 󰡒Why aren't you sending electricity just to our house? It is dark here.󰡓 The company replied, 󰡒It cannot be. Electricity goes to all houses.󰡓 The conversation continued: 󰡒No. We didn't get it here. Please send it quickly.󰡓 󰡒Did you turn on the switch?󰡓 󰡒What is switch?󰡓 󰡒Turn on the switch, please.󰡓
Later on, the house owner called the company again: 󰡒Hello. I climbed up the pole, shaking the cables and banging on the pole, and yet no light comes on.󰡓 󰡒Don't you know what a switch is? It is a little thing sticking out by the door. Flip that on.󰡓 󰡒OK.󰡓 He turned on the switch, and the light came on. 󰡒Wow!󰡓 Why was it so difficult to turn on the switch? When was the electricity invented, power plants built, and electric cables connected to every house? He simply had to flip the switch.
Having faith is just as easy as turning on the switch because it is to believe what has been all accomplished. Faith is making an individual connection to what God has already achieved. It believes that not only has God forgiven the sin of the world but also my own sin.
14. God No More Remembers Our Sins and Lawless Acts
Then he adds: 󰡒Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.󰡓 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin (Heb. 10:17, 18).
The Bible says that Jesus has made a complete payment for sin. Then, where is it that my sin is removed? Is it in my heart or in God's heart? Does sin disappear from the heart of the forgiver or the forgiven? It is in the heart of the forgiver that sin disappears. For instance, let us say that I hit a boy very hard for almost no reason. I will forget it quickly, although I may regret a little for having been so harsh. But this is like a sin to the boy because he did not deserve it.
The boy will be living with a grudge and every time he sees me, he will think, 󰡒You beat me for nothing. Wait and see. When you get old and I become a man, I will get back to you.󰡓 In this case, where does the sin reside? Not with me, but in the heart of the boy, and it will not disappear until the boy forgives me in the heart. Just as sin disappears from the boy's heart through his forgiveness, so must our sin be removed from God's heart, who is the forgiver.
What is the reason why God does not remember 󰡒their sins and lawless acts󰡓? It is because 󰡒these have been forgiven,󰡓 that is, God has forgiven our sins and lawless acts through the blood of Jesus. This is a matter already completed. This is why it says that 󰡒there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.󰡓 Sin and lawlessness do not vanish without a sacrifice of the righteous, and God has received all His due from Jesus. Therefore, there is no further need for a sacrifice of atonement.
Despite this explanation, there are still people who say, 󰡒OK, the Bible may say so, but I want to see if the sin is really removed.󰡓 After looking into themselves, they say, 󰡒Well, I have the same filth inside.󰡓 They will find nothing within their hearts, however. The Bible says, 󰡒He who trusts in himself is a fool...󰡓 (Pro. 28:26) Why do they look into their hearts? Rather, we should believe in God's heart. Do you see God's heart? This message of the Bible is God's heart. Look. Does His heart not say that He no more remembers your transgression?
Suppose that I have wronged someone. This suffocates me, and every time I see him, I become anxiously struck by the thought, 󰡒What will he think of me? He may put me into prison for that.󰡓 So finally I decide to visit him and confess, 󰡒Sir, I have betrayed you a few years ago. Please forgive me. I am here because I have been so agonized.󰡓 Then he says, 󰡒What are you talking about? I have forgiven and forgotten it long time ago.󰡓
󰡒Really? Is this true?󰡓 󰡒Surely, it is.󰡓 󰡒Thank you, thank you.󰡓 Then do I have to worry any further about the wrongdoing? If he has forgiven it and taken it out of his mind, then it is resolved. In this case, if someone comes and threatens me, saying, 󰡒You have wronged him. I will tell him to get even with you, or give me some money,󰡓 will this frighten me? What can scare me when I am already forgiven by him? I would say, 󰡒Go ahead, tell him.󰡓 But upon hearing him, the forgiver would say, 󰡒You scoundrel, I have forgiven him, and it is all resolved. Why are you making trouble with it? Go away.󰡓
The devil drives us into sin and accuses us, 󰡒I will tell God about it. God will not accept a wretch like you. You are not eligible for the heavenly kingdom.󰡓 But a believer of the word can say in confidence, 󰡒You devil! God has said that He no longer remembers my sin. The supreme judge has acquitted me, not because He overlooked my offence but its penalty has been paid pursuant to the law. So don't fuss around.󰡓 God did not lie when He said, 󰡒I will remember no more.󰡓
What is faith? Was my sin not forgiven when Jesus, the only Son of God, laid down his life for a sinner like me? Of course, it was. No matter how large my sin is, the accomplishment of Jesus is even larger, and so is God's love. Jesus' blood is more than enough to expiate my sin for eternity. God said that 󰡒she [Israel] has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.󰡓 If the debt was one billion won, two billion was paid, and if the debt was ten billion won, twenty billion. In other words, our sins have been amply paid for. Since God says that He will no more remember my sin, faith says, 󰡒Yes. Your word is truth. Thank you so much.󰡓
Even after listening to all the message of the Bible, some people still wonder, 󰡒But I heard that something hot comes to you when you believe. Is there not something hot?󰡓 Does the Bible say that we are saved by believing and receiving something hot, however? Or do we need a hot experience to be able to believe something? Suppose that a son has made some mistake for his father, and begs for his forgiveness. The father forgives him, and yet the son says, 󰡒Although you say you will forgive me, I am still missing something hot.󰡓 Then the father will have to slap him in the face, saying, 󰡒I will make you hot. Now, I forgive you.󰡓
Why do we need something hot in addition to forgiveness? These days, people tend to rely on strange things. The Bible is God's word and even God himself. 󰡒Although my eyes see no proof, and my ears hear no sound, when I stand firm upon God's word, giving up my emotions, the incomplete salvation will become complete, and what I hold will be held by the lord.󰡓 (Hymn) That is right. When we stand upon the word, without relying on emotions, the incomplete salvation becomes complete. 󰡒I believe, standing firm on God's word that Jesus has redeemed me from sin.󰡓 (Hymn) Where do we stand firm and believe? On God's word. We simply have to believe the word of the Scripture. This is faith.
Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17).
We just have to believe the word as it is. When the Bible says that God has forgiven our sins, then He indeed has. Just because someone says, 󰡒Jesus has not atoned for my sin,󰡓 is his sin not forgiven? Yes it is. When the Bible declares that his sin is forgiven through the crucifixion of Jesus, his sin indeed is, no matter how he responds to it. When God says that He will no more remember the sin, then He indeed will not, and when He says that he has absolved us eternally, then He indeed has.
Are you still not assured even with God's word? Those who still do not believe this think of Jesus' blood as ditch water. Those who challenge, 󰡒How can his blood expiate my sin?󰡓 think of God's word as a total lie. While they recognize the graveness of their sin, they fail to understand the immensity of the achievement of Jesus and God's love. The blood of Jesus is more than enough to atone for our sins for eternity. To reject this love is the greatest sin a human being can commit.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace (Eph. 1:7)
In the Christ, in accordance with the riches of God's grace, that is, the grace God gives without limit, and through the blood of Jesus, we have attained redemption, which is the forgiveness of sins. It does not say that we will receive it in the future; God has redeemed us already through the blood of Jesus.
If you are asked at night, 󰡒Is this night or day?󰡓 or 󰡒Do you believe that it is night?󰡓 you will surely answer, 󰡒It is night,󰡓 or 󰡒Yes I do.󰡓 If you are asked further, 󰡒Is it really night? Do you really believe that it is night? Why do you believe it so strongly?󰡓 you will answer, 󰡒Because it is night, my friend.󰡓 Even if the questioner persists, 󰡒It's quite bright, though, so can we not just believe that it is the day?󰡓 you will still give the same answer. It is night not because you believe so but because it is really the night. It is because of the clear fact that it is night.
Our faith is also based on the realized fact. As the night does not become the day just because someone insists on it, our faith is not something to be forced. We firmly believe in the forgiveness of sin because it is a fact. It is a fact that Jesus came to the world, was crucified and resurrected, and ascended heavenward while many people watched him. The Bible explains the fact.
God has absolved us through his blood. Our sins are forgiven because the atonement is a fact, and not because of our faith or for other reasons. And because the forgiveness is a fact, we believe the fact as it is. To say that not everything is forgiven is to deny the fact. We have been redeemed, or forgiven, through the blood of Jesus.
Some people may find this unbelievable because it is such an incredible fact. If someone gives you for free a lump of gold of the size of the Bible, would you believe it? You will probably say, 󰡒Please don't joke around.󰡓 People seem to feel similarly about salvation. After attending days of Bible lectures or reading faith literature, they believe that salvation is very difficult to attain; upon encountering the gospel, however, they hear that salvation is easily available. They then walk away from faith saying, 󰡒after speaking so seriously about salvation, is it this simple after all? I thought it was almost like picking up a star from the sky, and now I feel so empty.󰡓
Salvation is easy for us, but do you know how difficult it is for God? As I explained earlier, although God created the universe with his word, He could not achieve the human salvation with his word. For this, He had to send His only Son to the earth and lead him to death on the cross. When God paid such an incredible price after having planned it for a few thousand years, can you say that it was easy? The receiver of the gift of salvation can simply receive it, and yet it was prepared through the sacrifice, torment, and death of the only Son of God.
It is easy for the users to turn on electricity, but we should consider how much effort, time, and money had been spent before the electricity became easily available for us. The invention of electricity, building of the power plants, bringing electricity to the consumers all involved no simple procedures. Likewise, believing is simple because it is not doing or creating something but simply accepting something that is ready-made.
15. Salvation Is the Gift of God
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph. 2:8,9).
Earlier, we have learned that 󰡒in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.󰡓 Forgiveness of sins is the same as salvation. Whether you believe it or not, your sin has been paid for. However, this becomes yours only if you believe it. If you believe that God has forgiven your sin, you will be forgiven. This is salvation, and this is how God saves us.
I have explained that it is purely through God's grace that we are saved through faith; hence, this is God's gift to us and not something we have obtained ourselves. You must have received gifts. When you receive them, do you pay for them or are they free? When you receive expensive gifts, do you have to pay at least a little bit because you are so grateful and also feel sorry for the giver? No. If you did, then it would only hurt the giver's feelings. However expensive the present may be, its giver has paid for it, and the receiver can simply take it for free.
Salvation is God's gift. God has paid an expensive price for it, a price that is too high for any human beings. In order to save me, God has sent His only Son and led him to the cross, and through his blood I have been saved. To believe this is to receive the gift from God. A gift is something that is simply received, after which it becomes mine. Without receiving it, however, it will not become mine.
For instance, suppose I give a watch to someone for a present, but he declines it. I can offer it again, but if he keeps refusing to accept it, I will have to take it back. He may regret this later, but it will be too late then. It is a good manner to receive a gift with gratitude when it is offered with sincere heart. If the recipient keeps rejecting it, how offended will the giver be?
Faith accepts the gift of God. When God offers us forgiveness of our sins, that is, salvation, faith receives it with gratitude. To receive is obedience, and not to receive disobedience. To receive the gift of forgiveness leads to salvation, and not to receive it to destruction. We do not go to hell because of the heaviness of our sin, but through rejecting the rich grace of God.
The gift of forgiveness is 󰡒not by works󰡓 but from God; therefore no one can boast of it. I was destined to hell, no matter what would do, and yet I am saved through God's grace. 󰡒My life-long pride is only the cross󰡓. (Hymn) I live my life for the sake of the Christ in joy and gratitude for the grace. In the next chapter, I would like to examine salvation in more detail from another perspective.
V. The Way of Cain and
the Way of Abel
Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, 󰡒With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.󰡓 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, 󰡒Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.󰡓 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, 󰡒Let's go out to the field.󰡓 And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, 󰡒Where is your brother Abel?󰡓 󰡒I don't know,󰡓 he replied. 󰡒Am I my brother's keeper?󰡓 The LORD said, 󰡒What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.󰡓 Cain said to the LORD, 󰡒My punishment is more than I can bear.󰡓 (Gen. 4:1 ~ 13)
1. The Way to Eternity and the Way of Life
Genesis 1 describes how God created the heaven and earth, plants, animals, and human beings. Genesis 2 narrates God's giving of the commandment to the first human beings in the Garden of Eden, and Genesis 3 the first sin committed as they broke the commandment. Genesis 4 then talks about how human beings can be restored back to God after committing the sin, that is, the way of salvation. Hence, if we are to title the first few chapters of Genesis, chapter 1 can be titled the order of creation, chapter 2 the beginning of the law, chapter 3 human sin and the consequent pronouncement of curse, and chapter 4 the first gospel.
After the fall of Adam and Eve, Abel was the first one who was saved through God's grace, formed the right relationship with God, and found the way to eternal life.
Adam and Eve had their children outside the Garden of Eden. Among them, Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God, but God received Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's. In today's terms, between two people equally going to church, praying, and believing in God, God accepted one and not the other.
Many people know that those without faith in Jesus are judged by God and sent to hell, but not so many seem to know that there are many even among the believers who are to be judged and expelled from God.
You must be well aware that the Israelites rejected Jesus, although they were born as chosen people, learned the law as soon as they started to speak, and fervently served God through such practices as reciting the Scripture, offering tithing, fasting, and praying. You may think that this was a foolishness practiced only by the Jews long time ago and is irrelevant to the present, but it is not so. Even today, there are many among the ardent practitioners of faith who are condemned to the inferno.
2. The Narrow Gate and the Wide Gate
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Mat. 7:13, 14).
The narrow and the wide gates do not refer to the distinction between believers and unbelievers; rather, it warns us by pointing out that among the faithful there are two kinds of people. Some believe and go to heaven, while some believe and go to hell. 󰡒There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.󰡓 (Pro. 14:12) There are many roads that look right in human view but are wrong in God's sight.
Churchgoers say, 󰡒I believe in both God and Jesus, so I will go to the heavenly kingdom.󰡓 Jesus, however, said, 󰡒Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'󰡓 (Mat. 7:21 ~ 23) Those who say, 󰡒Lord, Lord󰡓 are the believers, and to do the will of God is to believe in His Son Jesus Christ and attain eternal life (John 6:40). No one can enter the heavenly kingdom through his own righteousness. Somebody asked Jesus, 󰡒Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?󰡓 and he said, 󰡒Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.󰡓 (Luke 13:24) By this he meant that among those who seek to enter the heaven, there are more who will fail than succeed. What would be the reason for this, and how can we find it out? This is a very serious and important problem. We should examine whether we belong to the group of believers to ascend heavenward or to the other, hell-bound group.
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Cor. 13:5)
As this verse says, we should examine in light of God's word whether my faith is one that God acknowledges. We do not become Christians by going to church but only by having the 󰡒Spirit of Christ󰡓 as it says, 󰡒And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.󰡓 We should have a faith such that 󰡒the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children (Rom. 8:16)-that is, a faith testified to by the Holy Spirit. Although I may be praised and respected for my faith in the church, without having Jesus in me I am deserted by God.
3. Two Kinds of Sacrifices
He replied, 󰡒Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.󰡓 (Mat. 15:13,14)
Those who take pride in their baptism, church positions, and faith without having God's seed and the new life through the Christ will be plucked out by God. Do you know today how many people are blind in Christianity and how many people have turned blind by following the latter?
Why do you think that God received Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's? Some theologians argue that God predestines the people from whom He receives a sacrifice and the people from whom He does not. Genesis 4, however, is not setting forth a theory of predestination. If we do want to talk about predestination, we can say that rather than God predestines an individual in such and such a way, his destiny falls into either group as a result of his choice.
Cain was the elder brother and Abel the younger brother. The elder's sacrifice God did not accept, and yet the younger's God did. Abraham, the founder of the people of Israel, had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, and Ishmael, the elder son, did not receive God's promise, while Isaac, the younger son, received it. Moreover, Isaac had Esau and Jacob as twins, and Esau, the earlier born, lost God's blessing to Jacob, the later born. Then, what is the meaning of this pattern-failure of the first born and promise of the second born? The question for us is not whether we are first born or second born.
The first Adam in the Garden of Eden failed, but Jesus the second Adam accomplished God's will. The question is whether we as an individual are in the first Adam or the second Adam. To be in the first Adam signifies an individual's destiny wherein he stays not reborn under sin, death, and God's wrath and judgement from the very birth. No matter how hard they may pray to and work for God, they in fact have nothing to do with Him. We can gain God's blessing and eternal life only when we are in Jesus the second Adam.
With his death on the cross, he put an end to the fate of Adam, and with his resurrection, he became the second Adam and a new representative (1Cor. 15). The first Adam was a sinner, and the second Adam a righteous person.
We are born sinful in Adam at physical birth, and born righteous in Jesus at spiritual rebirth; just as we have become sinners in the one person Adam, so we become righteous in the one person Jesus. Through our spiritual rebirth, we move from Adam to Jesus, and from death to life. To those who abide in Jesus Christ, all of God's blessings are promised. So the story of Cain and Abel demonstrates these two moments of life rather than a divine choice for or against an individual with respect to his eternal destiny. For salvation is determined by the responsibility of each individual.
Many people misunderstand the sacrifice of Cain and Abel. When I was little and going to a Sunday school, I heard my teacher saying, 󰡒Folks, Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God, Abel devotedly, and Cain carelessly. So God accepted Abel's sacrifice only. Hence, we should worship God with all our heart and zeal.󰡓 And I believed it.
When I learned the Bible later, however, I realized that the teacher's view was incorrect. What is at issue is not whether we are devoted and zealous for God. When it comes to zealousness, I think Cain worked much harder than Abel. He could not have offered a careless sacrifice because it was the first sacrifice for establishing the right relationship with God. In eagerness for God, Cain must have toiled to prepare the cream of his crops for the offering. Abel, on the other hand, simply slaughtered a lamb from his flock, an effort that must have been much lighter than Cain's.
When I was pastoring a countryside church for the first time, people would bring the finest of their harvests in the time of Thanksgiving-the largest pumpkins, thickest radishes, best-looking cabbages, and so forth. They brought to God whatever was the best, the best-looking and best-colored, piled them up before the pulpit, and sang praises to God: 󰡒Give thanks. Give thanks. Give thanks to God, offering the best to Him.󰡓 They were indeed very rich and charming offerings, and Cain's offering must have been the same. He must have made special efforts in order to bring the finest of his yields.
Abel, on the other hand, offered a lamb. Animal youngs are cute only when alive, and turn ugly when dead. God accepted the ugly offering, with streaming blood, loose intestines and blood smell. I think I would have preferred Cain's offering. Some people may say, 󰡒It was because God liked meat than plants.󰡓 In Psalms 50, however, God asks whether He would be delighted by offerings of sheep or cow when all the animals are His. This, then, contains a secret.
Genesis 4 does not give a clear answer to the question why God only accepted Abel's sacrifice. The answer, however, is found in Hebrews:
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead (Heb. 11:4).
Now, do you see the reason for God's favoring Abel's sacrifice? The answer is found in the word, 󰡒by faith.󰡓 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain, and was commended as a 󰡒righteous man.󰡓 This means that God said to him, 󰡒You are righteous.󰡓 God accepted him as a person with no record of sin but only of righteousness. This is salvation. Whereas Abel sacrificed 󰡒by faith,󰡓 Cain lacked that faith. What, then, is faith?
Many people have incorrect or vague understanding of faith. Some equate going to church with faith, and some regard religious fervor as diligent faith. The term 󰡒faith,󰡓 however, cannot be qualified by such a word as 󰡒diligent.󰡓 For is it right to say, 󰡒I believe diligently that I am a Korean citizen,󰡓 or 󰡒I believe diligently that this plane is going to the United States󰡓 while on the plane? There is no such a thing as diligent faith in the Bible. Rather, there are even people who work intensely all their lives without having even a thread of faith.
The faith involved in Abel's sacrifice is the same as the faith when we talk about believing in Jesus. Faith is not merely to acknowledge a fact, but to trust and to entrust ourselves. It is neither knowing nor doing something. The faith acceptable to God is to rely on and entrust ourselves to God after understanding His heart and will and realizing how He has prepared the path whereby we can reach Him. Where, then, did Abel acquire such faith?
4. Faith Is to Hear and Understand the Message
Romans 10:17 says, 󰡒Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.󰡓 The Scripture, which is a message about God, tells us about the heart of God, what God desires and wills, and how we sinners can go before God. God has spoken to us about the way to God, and planned and prepared the way to salvation. Faith understands this through the word.
Abel must have had chances to hear from God, and Adam and Eve must have told their children often about the Garden of Eden: 󰡒How nice it would be had you been born in the garden! In the garden there were no travails or any curses like here; it was just full of joy and happiness. We were talking with God daily and lived in bliss.󰡓 The children then must have asked why the parents became so miserable now.
Adam probably said to them: 󰡒Well, one day, your mother was tempted by a serpent to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and then pressed me to eat it also. Being a sympathetic man, I took the fruit. Then, do you know what happened? I started to feel what I had not before-I felt ashamed of my nakedness. It did not matter before, but now we started to see our nakedness and started to fear God. So we made skirts out of fig leaves, and it was the first clothes ever made. But during the day, the sun dried up the leaves and just a few of our getting up and down ruined the skirts. By the night, only stalks were hanging, and it was just as good as not wearing them.󰡓
Adam went on: 󰡒All of a sudden, God called us, 'Adam, Adam.' Terrified, we hid ourselves in the forest. But God kept calling us, and I had to confess, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.' Then God scolded me, saying, 'Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?' I tried to put the blame on your mother, saying, 'The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then God rebuked her, saying, 'What is this you have done?' He said to her, 'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.' And to me he said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 󰡒You must not eat of it,󰡓 cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food, and to dust you will return.' After this our couple got expelled from the garden, and curse and travails started in the land from that time.󰡓
Adam's tales continued: 󰡒Before our expulsion, God brought two animals. While we were still hiding in the forest out of shame, God slaughtered them, and they died with a shriek and gushing blood. That was the first time we had witnessed death; how surprised we were! Then, God skinned them and made clothes out of the skin from His own design, and you see, this is the clothes.󰡓
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Gen. 3:21).
The leather clothes Adam and Eve wore were the first clothes God made. Why, then, did God make the garments for them instead of casting them out naked? Good leather clothes are expensive, and how much more fascinating their clothes must have been when they were made in God's hands?
God's making clothes for them meant that although God was driving them out because of their sin, He promised to prepare a measure in the future whereby human sins could be covered. He promised that after people fully experienced the consequence of their disobedience, He would cover their sins by sending Jesus Christ and leading him to death for the substitution. Redemption means to cover or conceal. God promised to cover our sins with the blood of Jesus, although, of course, Adam and Eve could not have realized the deep meaning of the clothes.
During the story Abel must have realized something. 󰡒Ah, that's it.󰡓 In our common expression, 󰡒He got the idea.󰡓 Although we may hear the word, it would be of no use if we end with simply saying, 󰡒It was a nice talk.󰡓 󰡒For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.󰡓 (Heb. 4:2)
It is because the hearer fails to combine what he hears with faith that he does not grasp the word. Just as a bowel turned upside down cannot contain even a drop of rain, no matter how much of it falls, so the ears without faith fail to take the word into heart. Even if we may pick up a big diamond, we may give it away or lose it without regret unless we know its value. Hence, it is important to understand the value of what we receive.
After hearing Adam, Cain and Abel probably had a discussion: 󰡒Our parents lost communication with God and were expelled from the garden through disobedience. But is there any way we can be reconciled back to God? Right, let each of us offer a sacrifice to Him.󰡓 So the two brothers decided on the sacrifice, and Cain gathered fruits of the soil, while Abel slaughtered a lamb.
When Abel was offering the sacrifice, must he not have prayed: 󰡒Lord, I cannot dare to pray to you because of the offenses of my parents. When they were too ashamed to stand before You after their fall, You clothed them with animal skins in order to cover their shame. I know that the innocent animals shed their blood in order to cover their sin. Likewise, I have also slaughtered and bled a lamb for the sake of forgiveness of my sin. Lord, behold this blood, and cover my sin as well and accept me.󰡓
A sinner cannot go before God with sin still residing in him. Even an iota of sin in me will set me as an enemy of God. Since sin is remitted only with price, forgiveness of sin requires a shedding of blood or sacrifice of life; since 󰡒the wage of sin is death,󰡓 (Rom. 6:23) and 󰡒without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,󰡓 (Heb. 9:22) there is no other way of atonement than through blood.
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life (Lev. 17:11).
Only death through shedding of blood can atone for sin, and Abel understood this. During the story of his parents, Abel hit upon the principle of redemption as God's method of human salvation. This is why he slaughtered and offered a lamb as the carrier of his sin. Through the faith in this truth, Abel was justified before God.
Abel sought forgiveness, relying on the blood of the lamb, and God accepted the faith with joy. As a sign of God's favor upon the Abel's sacrifice of atonement, God sent fire from the sky and consumed the offering. The assurance, 󰡒Abel, you are now righteous, and your sin forgiven. I have now saved you󰡓 meant his salvation.
How glad Abel must have been! 󰡒Thank you, Lord, for receiving my sacrifice and accepting me.󰡓 Abel now had a spiritual and living communication with God. Abel then must have asked his brother, 󰡒Cain, I am all done, and how about you?󰡓 Cain probably answered, 󰡒I am still in the process,󰡓 and continued to pray intensely, saying, 󰡒Lord, please answer me, please.󰡓 But there was no news, although before, when he had seen Abel's simple offering, he had been so proud of his own offering and looked down upon Abel's.
Cain thought that since his offering was superior and much better looking, and had been prepared with sweat and zeal, God would welcome it with joy. When this expectation was shattered, however, he started to complain against God: 󰡒How can this be? God accepts my brother's poor offering, and yet He turns deaf ears to my earnest prayer. How can this be?󰡓 Abel could have added fuel to his frustration, saying, 󰡒It's too bad for you. It went well for me, but too bad for you.󰡓 This must have stirred up thoughts of murder and anger against God in Cain's heart. Genesis narrates that 󰡒Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.󰡓 Then God rebuked him, saying, 󰡒Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?󰡓
󰡒While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.󰡓 In other words, Cain became the first murderer. With regard to this, the Scripture admonishes, 󰡒Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.󰡓 (1 John 3:12) The evil one is Satan; after splitting God and the humans and causing their expulsion by tempting Eve, now Satan incited their son to kill his own brother. This was a work of the devil.
As Jude 1:11 says, 󰡒Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain...,󰡓 how many people are like Cain? Even after decades of church life, they are still in the dark about salvation and rebirth, and even with a devoted service to God and efforts to improve their faith, they are still frustrated and uncertain about their own salvation; if these people hear that someone who had been evil and staying outside the church until only a few days ago understood the gospel and were saved, or born again, they will never be able to digest it. Moreover, they will become offended and even hateful when they hear that a lifelong membership with the church is useless without salvation, and they must be born again.
What did such hatred lead to? Jesus says that the one who hates murders, and we often see an escalating hatred consummated in murder. The devil, who worked through the Jewish religious dignitaries to murder Jesus and his disciples, infuses jealousy in the hearts of the worshippers who are not reborn, and inclines them to persecute the believers. Jesus spoke about this when he said, 󰡒Anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.󰡓 (John 16:2) If they are given an authority over the fate of the believers, they may even attempt to decimate Christians.
There are simple religionists with the name of believer, and Christians, who have been awakened to the truth of salvation. Religionists exert their passion to earn an admission to the heaven, whereas born-again Christians live their lives as a return for God's grace with a full assurance of their heavenly entry. It is common throughout the ages that the one without God's promise persecutes the one with God's promise. For instance, Cain killed Abel, Ishmael beat Isaac, and Esau, after losing the blessing by voluntarily selling his birthright to Jacob, tried kill Jacob. 󰡒At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.󰡓 (Gal. 4:29) Hence, rather than thinking of it as odd, we should understand that this is in accordance with the Scripture.
5. Prayer of a Pharisee and Prayer of a Tax Collector
Luke 18:9 ~ 14 tells us about a Pharisee and a tax collector, who form a sharp contrast.
Although we may think of the Pharisees as vicious killers of Jesus, they were admirable people in keeping religious duties. Even the most diligent worshippers today will find themselves lagging behind the Pharisees. Fasting twice a week, making strict tithing, refraining from such deeds as extortion, injustice, and fornication in accordance with their prayer, they intensely strove to live by the law, and lived a holy and righteous life. They made long prayers and eagerly engaged in charitable activities as well.
On the contrary, tax collectors exacted unfair taxes from their own brethren, keeping some of it and offering the rest to the government. Hence, we can say that prostitute and tax collector were like a pronoun for sinners. Although the tax collector in the story had much sin, he seems to have been desirous of salvation from sin.
A Pharisee and a tax collector pray in the temple. The Pharisee prays with his hands raised, looking up to the heaven. His posture is solemn and graceful. He goes to the front of the temple, spreads his hands, lists his acts of righteousness as I mentioned earlier, and thanks God for his righteous life and not being like that tax collector.
What he uttered in the prayer was not incorrect. Compared with the sinful tax collector, the Pharisee was much more righteous in anyone's assessment. Anyone seeing the two pray would have nodded in approval. But the Pharisee was ignorant of one thing: despite all his endeavors to live a more righteous and law-abiding and better life than others, this cannot be accepted by God as righteousness.
Jesus says, 󰡒Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.󰡓 (Mat. 5:20) What kind of righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law? The Pharisees thought that murder only consists in the act of killing, but Jesus says that even harboring hatred constitutes murder, and feeling lust counts as fornication. In other words, the higher righteousness decrees that we be blameless in heart not to mention in action.
Such righteousness, then, is humanly impossible, for it demands that we surpass the Pharisees and the teachers of the law in heart as well as in action. Therefore, Matthews 5:20 in fact implies that human beings are unable to attain such righteousness. The righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law may look admirable in human eyes, but it is like 󰡒filthy rags󰡓 in God's sight (Isa. 64:6). Anyone trying to stand before God in such a rag, which cannot conceal shame and disgrace at all, is like a Pharisee.
Now, how about the tax collector? 󰡒But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'󰡓 (Luke 18:13) Standing afar off, and beating his breast with his face down, he prays, 󰡒God, have mercy on me, a sinner.󰡓 Whatever misdeed he performed in plundering the weak, his sins are too many to count. The tax collector deplores, calling himself a heap of sin.
God, however, justified the tax collector, and this seems utterly incomprehensible. How did the sinful tax collector become justified before God, whereas the self-righteous Pharisee was not?
We should first understand what the righteousness means when we talk about being justified or being called righteous before God. God does not justify us because we perform righteous deeds; rather, justification issues from God's grace through faith. God justifies us for free when we clearly recognize our being sinners and go to God, relying on God's mercy. God justifies us when we confess our iniquities as the tax collector did and go to God, completely depending on His decision and grace for our forgiveness and life, and this is God's righteousness.
I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels (Isa. 61:10).
When Adam and Eve confessed their nakedness, God clothed them. That clothes was God's righteousness. When Adam said, 󰡒I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid,󰡓 God bled animals and made a garment of skin for him. Likewise, when we discover ourselves as wretched sinners, confessing our wickedness to God and seeking His mercy, He will answer us, 󰡒I have died for your sin and redeemed you with My blood. Rest in peace, for I have justified you.󰡓 God's righteousness consists in clothing us for free with the 󰡒garment of salvation󰡓 to cover our sins. By God's righteousness, we can go to God.
The tax collector relied on the mercy of God, who had pity on him, whereas the Pharisee relied on his own righteousness and work. Like the Pharisee, Cain came to God with what he had prepared with sweat and zeal. This makes sense from a human standpoint-the thought that we have to do something in order to be worthy of God.
There is one thing we should know, however. Can the yields of the cursed soil gained through the sweats of the doomed human beings please God, other than being needed by such human beings? Would God accept what He has cursed? 󰡒If you are righteous... what does he receive from your hand?... your righteousness only the sons of men.󰡓 (Job 35:7, 8) No matter how hard a cursed person tries, he can only produce cursed results. This point Cain did not understand. Cain represents those who rely on their own works, and so does the Pharisee.
Like the tax collector, on the other hand, Abel relied on God's sympathy, forgiveness, and mercy. Rather than his own work, he depended on God's grace. He knew that if God showed mercy, he would live, and otherwise he could only die. No matter how grave one's sin may be, God's mercy does not come with condition. God could not take Cain's offering, however, because there was no sacrificial offering, which is blood, but only his work. Because there was only his work, there was no room for God's sympathy, mercy, and grace to enter.
God has prepared a way whereby sinners can come before God, and this is the blood of the Christ. Without the blood, our sins cannot be forgiven. Without the forgiveness of sins, there is no salvation, and we cannot come before God. Without forgiveness, we can only be condemned. And for the sake of the forgiveness, the price must be paid with death.
Before the liberation of the Israelites from the 400 years of Egyptian slavery, God struck down the eldest sons of the Egyptians. Why did He kill the eldest sons? The eldest son is the heir, and the eldest son of Egypt signified the heir of the world. God did not create human beings in order to bring bliss and hope to the earth. There is no hope or happiness in the earth, and thus it is not a place for us to be attached to. What God wants to give us is the eternal new heaven and earth and eternal life, and yet we have abased ourselves into beasts. As such, we seek only what we can sense, that is, worldly and physical things, and this is the sin for which we will be judged before God.
We may think that we go to hell by doing something radically evil, but those who pursue only earthly things and seek worldly happiness, although they may not be seriously evil, are already violating God's providence and purpose of creating us. For instance, if a father prepares something precious to give to his son, and yet the son refuses it and goes around begging for his daily necessities, this is a great betrayal of the father and serious offence. It is a sin deserving destruction for the human beings, created in God's image to attain eternal life and glory, to debase themselves into beasts. The Scripture says, 󰡒A man who has riches (who is in honor - KJV) without understanding is like the beasts that perish.󰡓 (Psa. 49:20)
6. The Passover Lamb
In the night when God struck down the firstborns of Egypt, God instructed the Israelites to slaughter their lambs and put their blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses, according to Exodus 12. In the past, Korean people cooked bean pastes in the winter solstices, and sprinkled the paste here and there in order to cast out demons, and this might have originated from the Israelites' putting lamb blood on the doorframes. God told them to put the blood this way and stay still in the houses. That night, every Egyptian household went into mourning because all their eldest sons, from the king's son to slaves' sons, turned cold.
Israelites, on the other hand, put the blood outside the house and safely enjoyed the lamb meat inside. They spent the night of the judgment eating lamb meat with clothes, shoes, and canes, and in exuberance of leaving the loathsome land of Egypt the next day. Meanwhile, their Egyptian neighbors were sending screams, and the entire land of Egypt was covered with the wailing for the firstborns. A majority of households had eldest sons, but why were the Israelites spared? It was because of the blood on the doorframes. Although there could have been people who did not feel safe even with the blood, all those who followed God's instruction escaped the calamity. For God never lies.
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt (Exo. 12:13).
It was God's promise when he said: 󰡒When I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you...󰡓 No matter what they thought, the households that had put the blood escaped the judgement of death, while those who had not were struck. It was God who saw the blood and who sent the judgement. God's word gave them security and assurance, and averted the plague for them. It was because their lambs died and shed blood in place of their eldest sons. God looks for blood.
The Bible refers to Jesus as a Passover lamb: 󰡒Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.󰡓 (1 Cor. 5:7) As the word literally means to 󰡒pass over,󰡓 the Jewish Passover commemorates the passing of God's judgment over the Israelite households because of the lambs slaughtered in place of their elder sons. The Bible, then, means that just as the lamb was slaughtered in place of the Israelite firstborns, Jesus became a Passover lamb by dying in order to liquidate the curse and judgement to be inflicted upon the mankind.
In the night before his death, Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, 󰡒My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.󰡓 (Mat. 26:39) Jesus was facing a cup of judgement, which contained the curse of all human sin. If Jesus was to accomplish God's will according to the purpose of his advent, he had to drink the cup. Just as in the traditional Korea they gave a bowl of deadly poison to a major traitor, so Jesus had a cup filled with the curse of human sin. Jesus knew very well what this cup of punishment meant, and because he had a physical body like us, he could not have been indifferent to pain. Had Jesus refused to take the cup, then we would have to drink it and fall into hell.
Saying, 󰡒My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done,󰡓 (Mat. 26:42) however, Jesus obeyed God. God's will was that Jesus drink the cup and die so that we can be spared the judgment. Just as the death of the lamb kept the Israelite firstborns alive, through the death of Jesus God's judgment passed over us. What does God look for? Neither our sin, nor our good deeds. He sees the blood of Jesus, as He said, 󰡒When I see the blood, I will pass over you.󰡓 The lambs slaughtered in the Passover symbolized Jesus.
The Old Testament people had a day once a year when they sought before God a forgiveness of their sins of the past one year, and this was called the Day of Atonement. On this day, they slaughtered two goats and drew lots, according to which one goat was made to carry the sin and thrown away in the desert, where it was bound to be devoured by wild beasts or starve to death. Looking at this scapegoat being sent away to the desert, the Israelites thought that the innocent goat was carrying away their sins. The other goat also carried the sin, and was slaughtered on the square bronze altar and presented as an offering of atonement (Lev. 16:8 ~ 10, 18 ~ 22). Then, with the blood of the goat, they made a sin offering in the Most Holy Place.
The Israelites had the tabernacle, where they made the sin offering as well as other worships and sacrifices. God dictated to Moses the pattern of the tabernacle. As shown in the picture, right after the entrance there is a bronze altar (alter of burnt offering), where they made burnt offerings by slaughtering animals. After the basin comes a tent looking like a provisional structure and contains the Holy Place before the curtain and the Most Holy Place behind the curtain.
The goat's blood was poured out to the ground except the amount the high priest took with him to the Most Holy Place through the Holy Place. Inside the Holy Place, there were a table of showbread, seven lampstands, and a golden altar of incense. The Most Holy Place behind the curtain had the ark of the Testimony, which contained the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments, Manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. Above the ark of the Testimony, there was the atonement cover (whose Hebrew word is 󰡒Kapar󰡓, which means 󰡒to cover󰡓), over which they sprinkled the blood and sought the forgiveness of sin. The atonement cover was also called, 󰡒seat of grace,󰡓 which means a place where grace is given. The seat was made in such a way that two angels looked down from there.
As for the Most Holy Place, where sins are forgiven by God, the high priest entered there once a year with the blood, and sprinkled the blood seven times over the atonement cover on top of the ark of the Testimony and prayed to God. This was like receiving the final stamp on the sin offering with the blood of the goat that died on the altar of burnt offering for the sake of the sins of the Israelites. Meanwhile, the people were fasting all day and praying outside the tabernacle. The high priest wore on his neck the breastpiece of decision, which contained the names of the twelve tribes, and his robe had gold bells around its hem. If the high priest entered the Most Holy Place without the blood, he would die.
The fact that the high priest was alive in the Most Holy Place, where God was present, sprinkling the blood and praying, meant that God accepted the sin offering. The sins committed after this sin offering was to be atoned for on the Day of Atonement next year.
The sin offering, made once a year, was a symbol of Jesus' substitution for the human sin through crucifixion. The scapegoat, carrying the sins of the Israelites, symbolized Jesus, who, according to John the Baptist, was 󰡒the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.󰡓 (John 1:29) Although the scapegoat took away one year's sin of Israelites, however, Jesus took away the sins of the entire mankind for eternity and once and for all. The square shape of the altar indicated the entire world in all four directions, and the goat slaughtered on the altar symbolized Jesus, who was to die on the cross.
The high priest, who poured out the blood and then carried some of it in the bowl to the Most Holy Place, symbolized Jesus in resurrection and heavenly ascension. After Jesus 󰡒had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.󰡓 (Heb. 1:3) 󰡒He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.󰡓 (Heb. 9:12) The high priest's annual offering in the Most Holy Place as 󰡒copies of the heavenly things󰡓 (Heb. 9:23) used goats, but the Scripture says, 󰡒heavenly things themselves [shall be purified] with better sacrifices than these,󰡓 (Heb. 9:23) which means that the true sacrifice to be received by God should be made with the blood of Jesus Christ, a lamb without blemish.
7. The Christ Is the High Priest for Us
󰡒For Christ (after his death and resurrection) entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.󰡓 (Heb. 9:24) After making the sacrifice for the humanity, Jesus appeared before God. Instead of following the method of the high priest of the Old Testament Age, which required death every year, Jesus 󰡒has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.󰡓 (Heb. 9:26)
Even now, he is praying for our sake, sprinkling the blood before God. The gospel says that Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended, and is now praying for us. The gospel says that he has atoned for my sin as well.
Had Jesus not made the substitution, he would not have resurrected. The living Jesus is still 󰡒ceaselessly pleading with the Lord to forgive my sin before the holy throne.󰡓 (Hymn) To say that he is praying for our sin means that he is guaranteeing the completion of the payment for the sin. He prays, 󰡒Behold, Father! I have died for them. I have died for the sins of Mr. Chung, Mr. Park, and such and such a person. Look at this blood,󰡓 and God says, 󰡒It is done.󰡓 The Bible is guaranteeing this for us.
Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them (Heb. 7:24, 25).
Through whom do we go to God? Through Jesus. To go through Jesus means to rely on the work of Jesus, in which he emancipated us from sin by dying in our place and resurrecting. Do we rely on our own work? No. 󰡒Although I am unworthy, God will receive me as I rely on Jesus...󰡓 󰡒I go with empty hands and hold on to the cross.󰡓 (Hymn) Although I have no righteousness, I proceed as a miserable sinner with empty hands, only waiting for his help.
Faith relies on his work. If I go to God, relying on my own zeal, devotion, and righteous acts, I will be cursed and die. So I go only by depending on the work of Jesus. The Christ, who has died for us and resurrected, is living before God.
Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high (Job 16:19).
Suppose that I have become indebted to someone for about one billion won. In such economic crises as now, such a thing can happen quite commonly through business failure. I am struggling day and night because the interest is increasing like a snowball, and yet I have no ability to repay even a fraction of the debt. Nor can I run away or commit suicide. Someone generous and rich who knows me well, however, comes along and says, 󰡒Alas, he can't go on struggling like this over the debt. He may even die out of the worries. I should pay his debt,󰡓 and clears his debt including the interest.
Suppose, however, that after clearing my debt, the benefactor dies in a traffic accident on the way to visit me with the good news. Do I still worry about the debt? Of course, I do because I have no idea about the payment. The debt has been removed, and yet the witness is not present. I cannot but continue in the torment because there is no witness or proof. Even if the creditor finds out about this and demands another debt payment from me, I will have no way to stop him.
Had Jesus not been resurrected, we would have no way of knowing whether he died for our sin or simply through some unjust conspiracy. I even heard that a grandfather, when asked, 󰡒Why did Jesus die?󰡓 said, 󰡒Probably because of his own sin.󰡓 He cannot help saying this because he does not know that Jesus died for him. The resurrection of Jesus is a guarantee of God's having received his sacrifice and forgiven our sins.
What if the benefactor is alive and well and comes to me and says, 󰡒Now, your debt have been all erased, and here is the receipt󰡓? No matter how wicked the creditor may be, he will not be able to come to me and demand another payment. Likewise, Jesus, who made amends for our sins, is living as our witness, and the receipt is here-the Bible. The Old Testament was a promise that our sin would be forgiven, and the New Testament a confirmation that our sin has been forgiven through Jesus, for Jesus has put his stamp upon the Bible. 󰡒I have many proofs for believing in Jesus.󰡓 (Hymn) This proof is the Bible. As it says, 󰡒I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth,󰡓 he will come back to us.
8. Redemption Is for the Sake of God's Glory
There is one thing we should know in relation to God's forgiveness of our sin through Jesus.
I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more (Isa. 43:25).
For whose sake does God say that He blots out our sin? For His own sake. It is for His own glory that God liquidates our sin through the death of His only Son and saves us. This is not to say that He has no regard for human beings, but this is a matter to be considered later.
If human beings, created in God's image for His glory, all go to hell, God will become someone who has failed. If children go astray or die, then the parents suffer in their hearts as well as the children themselves. So parents give their utmost to the children for their own sake as well as for the sake of the children, and children's success brings honor to the parents. Likewise, our suffering in hell does not glorify God; our salvation, then, is for the sake of God's glory. Therefore, for His glory, I myself must be saved first. God blots out and forgets our transgressions for the sake of His own glory.
A prodigal son lost from the father afflicts and saddens the father's heart, and his return is wholeheartedly welcomed by the father. Because God saves us for His own glory, the salvation is very surely complete and certain. When I buy a watch, I make sure of my ownership by making the payment because it is for me that I buy it. Also, when in case of a fire parents desperately try to rescue their own children, it is for their own sake as well as for the children. Likewise, God's salvation has to be thorough because He does it for His own sake as well as for us. This is why He said, 󰡒I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.󰡓 It is not salvation if I feel beckoned by the heaven when tilting a bit towards goodness and summoned by hell when tilting a bit towards evil. Rather, salvation is carried out by God 100% completely and thoroughly.
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you (Isa. 44:22).
There was a thick cloud of sin between God and us. Although sin is committed by people, it is placed before God because the law violated by it is God's law. To blot out is to erase off. God is not asking us to return in order to be forgiven but because we are forgiven. We believe the fact of forgiveness, and to believe is to return.
Many people, however, return to the church but not quite as far as to God. Although they pray in the church and profess faith in God, they still hold on to their sin and keep asking for forgiveness. They always carry the consciousness of sin, and thus tremble with fear, although God has already forgiven them.
Let us say that a son stole ten million won from his father. The parents will be outraged, but if the son does not come back, and a few years pass by, will they be agonized over the money or over the son? As time passes by, the parents' love for the son will melt away their grudges about his wrongdoing like snow in the spring. They will perhaps put an advertisement on the newspaper with a heart that says, 󰡒You bad boy, just come back and show me you are alive󰡓: 󰡒***, I have pardoned you completely, and please come back with peace. Your mother got sick because you did not come back.󰡓 Do we not see such advertisements often? If the son does come back, will the father accept him or not?
God's love is greater than any parents'. God's love, which says, 󰡒Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!󰡓 (Isa. 49:15) is more than enough to forgive our iniquities. God is asking us to come back because we are completely forgiven. To this effect He has put an advertisement in The Isaiah Daily, for can we not consider the Scripture God's newspaper? He calls everyone back, speaking to them in all the languages of the world.
When the prodigal son of the Bible returned to the father, father welcomed him: 󰡒But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'󰡓 (Luke 15:22 ~ 24) Does the son not represent us, and the father God? To put the best robe on him means clothing us with the garment of salvation through Jesus so that God no more sees our transgressions. The ring on the finger is a sign of promise that says, 󰡒You are my son,󰡓 and by putting sandals on the feet, God says to us, 󰡒Never leave Me again.󰡓 Slaughtering the innocent fattened calf for the son indicates the death of the innocent Jesus in order to bring back a sinner like me to join God's delight. To say that the son was 󰡒dead and is alive again󰡓 and 󰡒lost and is found󰡓 means that whereas I had been spiritually lost and dead away from God, I became living and found by coming back to God. To return to God means to believe in the forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Jesus and show gratitude, for when we believe this fact, God will accept us. Apart from the grace, we cannot go to God or attain salvation; hence, we should rely on the work of Jesus alone.
If the son sees the father's advertisement, and yet only thinks about his sin and refuses to return, which is more grave, the sin he committed already or the sin of not returning? It is much greater offense not to return. If the son refuses to return despite the forgiveness, he will become a child eternally lost.
Did God absolve only those who believe in the work of Jesus? No. He absolved even those who do not believe. 󰡒He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.󰡓 (1 John 2:2) Hence, there is no one who goes to hell on account of his sin. Does this mean, however, that no one will go to hell at all? No. A new sin has appeared in hell-sin of not accepting this fact and not believing in God's love. There is no way that the sin of not believing in the work of Jesus and refusing to return to God can be remitted.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (John 3:18).
We can be spared the judgment by believing our forgiveness through Jesus' blood, for Jesus has already suffered it. He says, however, that those who do not believe stand condemned already because of the sin of unbelief. The condemnation means that they are sentenced to death, which will be executed after death. 󰡒Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.󰡓 (John 3:36)
The sin of not believing in the profound grace provided through the sacrifice of God's only Son will be eternally unforgivable, and God's wrath and judgment will descend upon the unbelievers.
However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 󰡒Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.󰡓 (Rom. 4:5 ~ 8)
David expressed by beholding from afar how immense the bliss of those forgiven without work is. Their happiness is eternal and glorious blessing of God and true happiness, which cannot be compared with anything in the world.
󰡒I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.󰡓 (John 5:24)
󰡒Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you...󰡓 (1 Pet. 1:3, 4) Hallelujah.
VI. Liberation from the
Condemnation of the Law
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, 󰡒Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?󰡓 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 󰡒If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.󰡓 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, 󰡒Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?󰡓 󰡒No one, sir,󰡓 she said. 󰡒Then neither do I condemn you,󰡓 Jesus declared. 󰡒Go now and leave your life of sin.󰡓 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 󰡒I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life󰡓 (John 8:1 ~ 12).
John 8 explains well about what the law is, what the work of Jesus is, and how the people emancipated from the condemnation of the law should lead their life.
Then each went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him... (John 7:53 ~ 8:1, 2)
When Jesus was working in Israel, he frequently slept in the Mount of Olives under night dew. The fact that 󰡒each went to his own home,󰡓 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives means that he did not turn to anyone for a shelter.
After sleeping in the Mount of Olives, Jesus returned to the temple of Jerusalem in the morning to teach the people who came to him. Then, a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery in that early morning was brought to Jesus. The man involved could have run away or have been taken to another place, and only the woman was brought to Jesus.
1. Accusers of Jesus
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought that woman to Jesus and asked him, 󰡒Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?󰡓 Deuteronomy 22:22 says that if a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man and the woman shall be beaten to death in public, in accordance with which the Israelites stoned such people to death.
Since the Law of Moses already commands them to kill her, they could have taken her to a judge and then killed her following the verdict, but they took her to Jesus instead. According to the Bible, this was because 󰡒They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him (Jesus).󰡓
The Israelites highly valued the Law of Moses and strove to abide by it. They, however, had to keep the Roman law because Israel was under the Roman Empire at that time. Roman officials ruled over Jerusalem, and the governor dispatched from Rome had the judicial power over them. The Roman law gave the judicial authority only to the Roman governor to the exclusion of the Israelites.
We can also find such a situation in John 18. The Jews took Jesus to the Governor Pilate to accuse him, saying, 󰡒We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king,󰡓 (Luke 23:2) and asked him to execute Jesus for treason against the Roman Empire. But Pilate was certain that Jesus was innocent, and the people were lying. Moreover, he also knew that 󰡒it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.󰡓 (Mat. 27: 18) So Pilate said, 󰡒Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.󰡓 Then, the Jews objected, 󰡒But we have no right to execute anyone...󰡓 (John 18:31)
Therefore, if Jesus had said to them, 󰡒Stone the adulterer,󰡓 she surely would have been killed instantly and brutally by the crowd, bloodthirsty like starved lions, and Jesus would have been charged with instigation of murder, facing a trial as a criminal. Had he said, 󰡒Do not stone her,󰡓 however, then he would have stood a religious trial by Jewish religious authorities for defying the Law of Moses.
Telling to kill her was against the Roman law, and yet telling them not to was against the Law of Moses; to find grounds for accusing Jesus, the Jewish leaders tried to put him in a situation where he could not make any choice. Their real intention was not to kill the adulterer but to entrap Jesus.
How odd it is! When that long-awaited Messiah finally came to the land of Israel, the chosen people and, what is more, the religious leaders esteemed for their devotion to God persistently slandered Jesus and made schemes in order to kill him. They took the adulterer to Jesus, thinking that they had a good chance to ensnare Jesus.
Since the Jewish religious leaders did not fornicate physically, they must have thought that they were not guilty of adultery. That is why they condemned her and intended to kill her. That woman must have been shaking with the fear of the flying stones and impending death.
2. Our Life Is under Condemnation
Jesus did not say anything to them. He just bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. That was the first time for him to write something in front of the people. Most of them must have looked down to see what he was writing, and the shouting must have quieted down. Then, what did Jesus write on the ground? We could ask him, 󰡒Jesus, what did you write at that time?󰡓 when we meet him some day. We will be able to obtain the right answer then, of course, but how about using our imagination now?
In the Bible we read about a writing that God Himself made with His finger. As in Exodus 31:18, it is the Ten Commandments, which God inscribed on the stone. Since Jesus was God who came down on earth in the shape of a man, we can understand Jesus' writing on the ground in the same context as the Ten Commandments. In other words, he must have written the seventh commandment: 󰡒Thou shalt not commit adultery.󰡓 As Jesus knew those bent on stoning the adulterer were just as corrupt in heart as she, he must have written the seventh commandment to make them aware of their own sins.
Adultery is having a sexual relationship with someone one is not married to. The New Testament also sternly warns against this sin: 󰡒All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.󰡓 (1Cor. 6:18) That woman had to die because she had broken the promise with God and committed adultery.
In Jesus' eyes, however, not only she but also the religious leaders surrounding her were all fornicators, for he said, 󰡒You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.󰡓 (Mat 5:27, 28) People condemn someone only by his visible acts, but God, who surveys our inner core, decrees that even just a lustful look constitutes sin of lechery. So, who can dare to claim purity before God?
What is more fundamentally sinful than harboring lust or acting upon it is spiritual fornication, however.
In the Garden of Eden, by accepting Satan's lie human beings betrayed God's love, with which God created them and gave them everything. That was the first fornication. God told the Israelites that no physical adultery of man could be worse than spiritual fornication, deploring that although He was their husband, they deserted Him and served other gods.
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4).
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).
Hence, the New Testament teaches that loving the world more than God and becoming friends with the world all constitute adultery.
After writing on the ground, Jesus got up and said, 󰡒If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.󰡓 It was very appropriate to say that the sinless should throw the stone first. Since a sinner cannot condemn a sinner or execute a sentence, Jesus said a person without sin should do it. However, who in the world is without sin? The Bible has already declared this, saying, 󰡒There is not a righteous man on earth...󰡓 (Eccl. 7:20) and 󰡒There is no one who does good, not even one.󰡓 (Rom. 3:11, 12)
Not only the adulterous woman and the Jewish leaders but also those who turn their back to God are all sinners who cannot avoid the judgement and destruction before God. 󰡒All have sinned already...󰡓 (Rom. 3:23) and like criminals under a death sentence waiting for execution, they are sinners doomed to fall into the lake of fire, which is the second death.
3. The Law Makes Us Realize Our Sins
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God (Rom. 3:19).
The law enables us see how filthy, wicked, and dishonest we are in the eyes of God who is holy, good, and righteous. If we see ourselves against the law of God, who is the standard of justice and judgement, we will then find our sin and close our mouth that says, 󰡒I am blameless.󰡓
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin (Rom. 3:20).
The law enables us realize our sin and pronounces the verdict to a sinner. In the phrase, 󰡒For the letter kills,󰡓 (2Cor. 3:6) 󰡒the letter󰡓 indicates the law 󰡒that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone...󰡓 (2Cor. 3:7) It condemns us for our sin and brings us to death. The verse 󰡒The wage of sin is death󰡓 is the curse of the law.
In front of God's law, who can boldly say, 󰡒I am without sin,󰡓 or 󰡒I have abided by the law󰡓?
By saying, 󰡒If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,󰡓 Jesus pointed out the fact that they also were sinners like her. When Jesus said, 󰡒Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye,󰡓 (Mat. 7:3, 5) he meant to question us if we can condemn other people or punish them while concealing the plank in our own eyes. Jesus pointed out the wickedness of the deceitful and arrogant religious leaders with this one word, intended to make them aware of their own iniquities.
Their hidden agenda was to satisfy themselves by stoning the adulterous woman to death and to entrap Jesus in the charge of instigating murder. In other words, they schemed to bring the Messiah to the court, unaware at all that they themselves were the sinners to be brought to the court of God. Such is the heart of untruthful religious people. So, it is very true to say that a corrupted religious person is more vicious than unbelievers.
4. God Sees the Sins in Our Hearts
󰡒He... said to them, 'If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.' Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.󰡓 Again, we are curious what Jesus wrote at the second time. There is no way to know it, but we can always imagine. If his first writing was 󰡒Thou shalt not commit adultery,󰡓 I think his second one might have been 󰡒You have heard... 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart,󰡓 which we considered earlier.
The people must have looked down at what Jesus wrote on the ground. Jesus' point that anyone harboring lust has already fornicated threw light upon the sins in their hearts, and they finally began to realize their sin. They came to see that they were patent sinners in front of God and had already committed adultery at least in their hearts. This happened as Jesus pointed out their trespasses, which led them away from God as His enemies, respecting Him only with tongues.
󰡒At this, those who heard began to go away...󰡓 The people felt pangs of their conscience. Had Jesus only said, 󰡒If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,󰡓 they would have hesitated to go away, but his admonishment that they were no better than her appealed to their conscience. Conscience is a good thing God endowed us with; though our hearts are fallen, our conscience is good.
Conscience seeks God, and fears Him and His judgement. When a man commits a sin, his conscience will file suit against him. 󰡒The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being󰡓 (Prov. 20:27). God searches our hearts through the spirit He has planted in us, and the spirit accuses us before God for our offenses. Our conscience knows how terrifying the judgment of God is although our hearts may not.
The people, in a wild rage as if to kill the adulterer immediately while ignoring their own sins, began to see their wickedness, and their conscience started to impinge upon them. Then, they helplessly dropped the stones about to fly upon Jesus' order to kill her. One after another the stones hit the ground with sound, and the people gradually left the temple. The Bible says, 󰡒Those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first...󰡓 Then, why did the older ones go away first?
What do we experience in our long life? If there are two common kinds of experience in life, one is an experience of hardship, and the other committing sins. The older one is, the more hardship he has experienced, and the more misdeeds he has performed; hence, the older ones tend to feel more guilty than the younger ones. Staring from the guilt-ridden older ones, all left that place including the younger ones.
Jesus did not need to talk about their sin directly. He is wiser than Solomon. Jesus is the very one to reveal our sins and judge us in the end.
After angry crowd disappeared, Jesus straightened up. Seeing no one was left but the woman, Jesus asked, 󰡒Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?󰡓 Then, the woman gathered herself and looked around. 󰡒No one, sir,󰡓 she said.
5. Jesus Has the Authority to Judge
Who is without sin? Only Jesus is. He is not a descendant of sinful Adam, born through the Holy Spirit; he is an incarnation in human form of holy God, who existed as the Word. 󰡒But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.󰡓 (1John 3:5) 󰡒He committed no sin.󰡓 (1Pet. 2:22) 󰡒Jesus the Son of God... was without sin.󰡓 (Heb. 4:14) Jesus himself also said, 󰡒Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?󰡓 (John 8:46)
Jesus is indeed a completely righteous man and the only one without sin. So, if a sinless person was allowed to strike her, only Jesus could do so, not only because he is sinless and righteous but also he has the exclusive authority to judge. Jesus said, 󰡒The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son󰡓 (John 5:22) and 󰡒He has given him the authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.󰡓 (John 5:27)
As a righteous man, Jesus can judge a sinner and only he can die for sinners because only a righteous person is entitled to die in place of a sinner. And only Jesus has the exclusive authority to forgive a sinner and erase his sin. In sum, Jesus has the right to judge, to forgive sins, and to save a sinner. 󰡒You may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . .󰡓 (Mark 2:10) Now, this Jesus was standing face to face with the sinful woman. She could die or live by one word of Jesus because he has the right to condemn or to absolve.
6. Jesus Takes Charge of Our Sin
󰡒'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared.󰡓 Since the accusers of the adulterer were all gone, only Jesus could condemn her. But he said, 󰡒Then neither do I condemn you.󰡓
Then, did he mean that he would slur over her sin? No. Since God is a righteous judge, He does not connive at any sin.
To God, sin means nothing other than death, and this is the justice of holy God. If God overlooked iniquities, He could not be called just, and Jesus would become a destroyer of God's justice on earth. The Law of Moses commanded the Israelites to stone the adulterers as the order of God; therefore, letting go of the woman would constitute a violation of the Mosaic Law. Would Jesus have done it?
Jesus' word neither connived at her sin, nor violated the Law. For there was a deep meaning behind the word, 󰡒Neither do I condemn you󰡓: It meant 󰡒I will be condemned instead of you and take charge of the payment of your sin.󰡓 In other words, Jesus said it on the premise that he would take the responsibility for her sin.
God allowed an atonement offering to pay for sin on behalf of the sinner, and Jesus came in order to be offered to God as the atonement offering. The Bible says, 󰡒But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin󰡓 (1John 3:5). As in the verse, 󰡒Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,󰡓 (Heb. 9:22) the price of sin is a sacrifice of life, and only the death of the righteous can serve as an atonement offering acceptable to God. Jesus declared to perform substitution, that is, pay for our sin, by taking charge of our sins and laying down his life as a substitution offering.
The word 󰡒Neither do I condemn you󰡓 was Jesus' promise to be condemned and judged in her place in order to forgive her sin, for only Jesus had the authority to judge, make substitution, and forgive her sin. Who is this woman, caught in the act of adultery? As each and every one of us is a transgressor of the law to be judged by God, the woman is none other than we ourselves.
How do you feel when you discern yourself against the Ten Commitments? Have you properly obeyed even one of them? The law labels us as sinners. The woman was fortunate to have been taken to Jesus instead of to other judges. God did not give the law in order to condemn, judge or destroy us, but in order to lead us to Jesus by making us realize our being sinners doomed to destruction before God.
In fact, when the Jewish religious leaders brought the adulterous woman to Jesus, this was in accordance with God's will. For the law exists in order to condemn us and take us to Jesus the righteous judge, who did not come to condemn us for our sin.
7. Liberation from the Condemnation of the Law
Clearly no one is justified before God by the law... (Gal. 3:11)
Through the law we become conscious of sin (Rom. 3:20).
So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ... (Gal. 3:24)
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ... (KJV)
A schoolmaster gives children the most basic education and guides them to the next level at the end of the basic course. Likewise, the law is a guide that makes us realize our sin and then leads us to the Christ. After helping us know about the judgement first, the law brings us to the grace of God.
The role of a mirror is not to cleanse our dirt, but to let us know about our dirt, and if we see our dirtiness on the mirror, we will go and wash our face. Thus, the proper duty of a mirror is to show us our stains and arouse in us a desire to wash it off. A medical test revealing our having a sickness arouses a desire in us to cure the sickness and see a doctor. The law unveils our sins, through which we go to Jesus as sinners.
Jesus came to save sinners, in order to call us back to him and justify us through faith in him. Faith takes to the heart the fact that Jesus suffered the curse and judgement, which originally belonged to me, and I became purified before God thanks to his sacrifice. Therefore, the law discloses our sin, and guides us to Jesus for salvation. Whereas we are sinners condemned by the law of God, and Jesus is the judge, the same Jesus has paid for our sin on our behalf.
In Genesis 25 there is a story that Esau, the first son of Isaac, came back from hunting one day and sold his birthright to his younger brother, Jacob, for a bowl of stew, submitting to his hunger. And Jacob was blessed by Isaac in Genesis 27.
Isaac, who did not have long to live, asked Esau to hunt and make a savory dish for him with an intention to pray God to grant the blessing of the first son to his favorite son Esau.
Rebekah, however, out of desire that her second son be blessed, told Jacob to bring to Isaac a savory lamb dish she was going to prepare. But Jacob was apprehensive because Esau was a hairy man, and he had a smooth skin, and if Isaac felt Jacob, he would discover the deception and curse rather than bless Jacob. Nevertheless, Rebekah encouraged Jacob to move on with no fear, saying, 󰡒My son, let the curse fall on me.󰡓 (Gen. 27:13) Out of love, Rebekah decided that she would take the curse in order for him to receive the blessing.
Likewise, Jesus decided to bear the curse, which should have befallen us, to grant us the blessing of the kingdom of heaven. 󰡒Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...󰡓 (Gal. 3:13) Jesus' crucifixion was the condemnation he received on behalf of us, sinners cursed and doomed to death by breaching the law. So, as he said, 󰡒Neither do I condemn you,󰡓 Jesus took the burden of our sin, and changed our destiny so that we are spared the condemnation.
Until now, we have discussed that Jesus came not to condemn but to be condemned in place of sinners in order to save those who believe in this fact. 󰡒Whoever believes in him is not condemned󰡓 (John 3:18) because Jesus took the condemnation in our place according to the principle of substitution. In our place, he bore the punishment of pain and curse, which belonged to us.
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man (Rom. 8:3).
The sinless Jesus came in the likeness of sinful man and took upon himself all human sins. God laid on him all the sins of the mankind, who became sinners in Adam, and judged him. This was to fulfill the promise God had made through the prophet Isaiah 600 years before Jesus: 󰡒LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.󰡓 (Isa. 53:6) As in the word, 󰡒He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities,󰡓 (Isa. 53:5) our iniquities killed Jesus, and the cross of Jesus put an end to our judgement. As Jesus said right before his death, 󰡒It is finished,󰡓 (John 19:30) all our sins were paid for in toto at that moment.
God laid on Jesus our iniquities 󰡒so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.󰡓 (2Cor. 5:14) In order to make us sinless and righteous, God exchanged our curse for the righteousness of Jesus; by taking our death sentence and giving us his righteousness in return, Jesus gave us life.
For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2Cor. 5:14).
As the transgression of the one man Adam had made everyone sinners in him, the death of one righteous man Jesus in their place resolved the debt of their sin. The holy only Son of God died for a sinner like me. 󰡒I cannot forget Jesus' amazing love to die for me, who was destined to die󰡓 (Hymn). If Jesus had not made a substitution for our sin, only everlasting curse and downfall would be our lot.
When the Israelites lived in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, they received many laws from God. Other than the Ten Commandments, usually called 󰡒the law,󰡓 they had civil laws regulating the relations between people, ritual laws prescribing the way towards God through the sin offering, and so on. Whereas 󰡒the law󰡓 condemned, the ritual laws prescribed the rituals through which they could be forgiven by God. The ritual laws are well explained in Exodus and Leviticus.
When they sacrificed to God, they were to choose the firstborns of their flock, and God allowed them to substitute a lamb for a donkey (Exodus 13:12,13). Offering an animal means to slaughter it and dedicate it as a sacrifice. Instead of a donkey, which had to be killed, an innocent lamb was sacrificed. Without killing the lamb, they had to break the donkey's neck. Thanks to the lamb, the donkey could be spared. This foreshadowed that Jesus, the Lamb of God, would lay down his life in place of us, the filthy sinners. Without his death, God would have to break our necks and fling us to the hell.
Leviticus 16 tells us about the rules and regulations for the Day of Atonement. The Israelites made a sin offering once a year on a national level in order to make atonement for the people as a whole. Aaron, the high priest, took two flawless goats and laid his hands on one of them to burden it with all the wrongdoings and unrighteousness of the people.
All the sins of the Israelites such as defiling God's name through idol worship, disobeying patents, murder, fornication, stealing, lying, and so forth were transferred to the goat. Then, this scapegoat was cast out to the wilderness where no people dwelt and where it was bound to starve to death or become devoured by a wild beast. As they watched the goat being sent away to such a wilderness, the Israelites must have comforted themselves, saying that the faultless goat was carrying their sins away instead of them. The other goat was slaughtered on the altar after being loaded with sin, again in place of the people. This ritual was performed once a year.
This did not mean that our sins were purified by the blood of a bull or a lamb, but that Jesus, who was like a lamb without a blemish, would be brought to the cross carrying our sins. Jesus was quiet like a lamb being taken to a butcher. He did not make any excuse, nor did he have any reason to do so. Jesus himself said, 󰡒The Son of Man came... to give his life as a ransom for many,󰡓 (Mat. 20:28) and, 󰡒No one takes my life. I desert it myself.󰡓 Since Jesus voluntarily took the condemnation in place of the sinners, he was whipped, dragged with the cross on his back, and crucified. That was God's will. 󰡒Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!󰡓 (John 1:29)
8. The Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World
Jesus, the Lamb of God, died with the sin of the world. The entire human sin was imputed to Jesus, and the judgement against that sin was executed on the cross. Jesus took away the sins of you and me this way. Whether you know this fact or not, and whether you believe it or not, it was accomplished by God. The judgement of Jesus covered all the sins of you and me. The Bible says, 󰡒For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous...󰡓 (1Pet. 3:18)
We should know and accept it as a fact that there is someone who died in place of each of us, who could only perish before God. Jesus' accomplishment is much larger than our sin. The holy blood of Jesus is more than enough to pay for the sin of the whole world. Jesus let out that holy and precious blood even to the last drop in order to lead us to God. We must accept Jesus, who loved us this much, into our hearts.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood (Rev. 1:5).
Jesus' blood has freed us from sin and judgement. If there were no hell or punishment against sin, Jesus would have had no reason to die. As we are treacherous sinners doomed to hell, Jesus died for us in order to emancipate us from hell and guide us to the kingdom of God.
󰡒Neither do I condemn you.󰡓 When Jesus, who is none other than the highest judge, released that sinner, who can condemn her again? By the same token, who can condemn us when Jesus himself acquitted us by his own blood and furthermore guaranteed it through the Bible?
󰡒Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.󰡓 (Rom. 8:33 ~ 35,37)
9. Leave Your Life of Sin
󰡒Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.󰡓
Although Jesus paid for our sin and saved us, it does not mean that we have a license to commit sins. When some people hear that they will be spared the judgment and attain eternal life if only they believe the eternal absolution of Jesus, they turn sarcastic and say, 󰡒Then, is it okay to practice wickedness once we are saved? Can we indulge ourselves in evil at will?󰡓 How can a person who believes in the remission of his sin and his salvation through Jesus' blood and who possesses eternal life and hope commit sins again at will? Do you think such a person can commit sins on purpose?
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Rom. 6:1)
Although we may make mistakes because of our weakness, there would be no one who says that we can transgress on purpose as Jesus has forgiven us permanently. When my sin killed Jesus, would I transgress more because that was not enough? By no means! God did not save us so that we keep our impurity or live in sin, but that we participate in His holiness.
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life (1Th. 4:3~7).
While we live in the world, we could inadvertently err owing to the stubborn inclinations of our body. The prodigal son of Luke 15, who came back to his father after an indulgent life, may still make mistakes while living with the father; likewise, after a long life in separation from God, we cannot become immediately perfect just because he came back to God. However, since we are the ones to take part in the glory of God before long, we should always keep our hearts and life pure, sacred and upright. As it says, 󰡒A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet,󰡓 (John 13:10) the saved souls should cleanse themselves with the word every day as they wash themselves with water, and live their remaining lives for the glory of God.
10. In the New Life
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 󰡒I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life󰡓 (John 8:12).
As Jesus is the light of the world, whoever follows him will never walk in darkness, but will attain and live in the light of life.
The woman caught in adultery and brought to Jesus was under the dominion of darkness, sin, and death before receiving the forgiveness. Like her, we were being dragged to hell, 󰡒sitting in darkness and the deepest gloom,󰡓 and as 󰡒prisoners suffering in iron chains.󰡓 (Psa. 107:10) God broke the chains on those who cried out to Him in agony.
󰡒Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.󰡓 (Psa. 107:13,14)
As the Bible says, 󰡒For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,󰡓 (Col. 1:13) we have been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son of everlasting light. We thereupon walk in the light. 󰡒For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light - for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.󰡓 (Eph. 5:8,9) Even though we used to live under the power of darkness and control of Satan, we should now live as children of the light because we are in Jesus, who is the light.
If Jesus is the sun, we are the moon. Jesus is a luminous body, and we are its reflectors. We are reflective rays of the light of Jesus. The moon changes its shapes through full, half, and crescent moons. But if we entrust our whole life to Jesus, we will be a full moon to fully reflect the light of Jesus unto the world. The people who entrust only half or just a little of their life to Jesus will be able to brighten the world only as a half or a crescent moon. We are Christians, commissioned to illuminate the world through the light of Jesus. That is why God commands us to behave as children of light. Listen to Paul's admonition: 󰡒So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.󰡓 (1Th. 5:6 ~ 8) As God says, we should declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light (1Pet. 2:9).
After being forgiven by Jesus, the woman would not have committed such a sin or lived in darkness again. Since then, she must have lived her remaining life in the words of Jesus. A truly saved person would dedicate the rest of his life to Jesus.
I thank the Lord for having enabled you to read this book until the end, and pray that all the holy grace of God in this book be fulfilled in your heart with the help of the Holy Spirit. I hope your reading takes you beyond the level of intellectual understanding and works as a power to get eternal life and transform your remaining life. 󰡒And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.󰡓 (1Th. 2:13) If you read this book again with a humble and prayerful heart, I am certain that you will receive more abundant grace.
I would like ask you to be sure to read the third volume, The Way to Glory, offered as a guidance for the life of the saved Christians.


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