Hi Guys,
Before reading this, make sure that you had read the first part in order to make sure that we are on the same page of the matter. If you haven't read Part 2, click here .
Enjoy Reading =)
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Key Points:
1.
The main problem of man is sin.
2.
To Sin means to disobey God.
3.
Because of sin, men were eternally separated from God and
the ones perfect creations are now being perverted with shame, selfishness,
hardships and poverty.
4.
Satan’s tactics is to instill doubt to the Word of God and
the Love and Righteousness of God.
5.
The root cause of sin is ignorance to the Truth.
6.
God’s solution is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ – the
Word who became flesh.
7.
God’s Gospel of Righteousness centers on Jesus crucifixion,
burial and resurrection to which we place our hope and faith today.
8.
Jesus’s way is to show us the real standing and condition
of our life before God.
9.
The only way to the Cross is Repentance.
Why Christ was Born? - Not Just
a Christmas but a Thanksgiving Story
As we
celebrate the season of Christmas, all of the whole world are all looking
forward for exchange gifts, Christmas Parties, Christmas Bonus and long
holidays. However, it is very rare for us to remember the real meaning of
Christmas in God’s perspective and the great story of redemption behind, which
is the real essence of this season. What we know is that we are just
celebrating and commemorating the birth of Christ.
But have
we ever ask why really Christ was born?
Well,
there is a very interesting truth behind that which can be found in Matthew 1:
20But after he had considered this, an angel
of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not
be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is
from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him
the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Meaning to
say, Jesus was born in order to save us, not from hell nor from Satan, but from
our Sins – this same sin is what separates us from God.
Jesus is
the Word of God and is God. He was with God from the very beginning. Without
Him, nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that life was the
light to all people who are in darkness. And the Bible says that this same Word became flesh
(in the person of Jesus) and we behold His glory as that of the only begotten
of the Father, full of Grace and Truth (John 1).
What is
this truth? The truth here is that we are sinners and that no one is righteous
before God. Not even one (Romans 3:10). For all have sinned and fall short from
the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And the Bible is clear that the wages of our
sin is death (when we say death, we now know that it is not only physical death
but an eternal separation from God). However, this does not end there, because
the free gift of God is eternal life through the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus
came to bridge the gap between us and God that sin made. How?
Jesus’ Way
Jesus came
to preach us the Gospel of God’s Righteousness that will lead people to
Repentance as what the prophet Jeremiah says in the Book of Jeremiah Chapter 23
: 5“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up for David a
righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in
the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This
is the name by which he will be called: The
LORD Our Righteous Savior.
What is
this Gospel of Righteousness? Simply put, the Righteousness of God simply means
that whatever sin we commit deserves a punishment because God is a just and
righteous God and His love for us is equivalent to His justice, and the moral
law is His law. However, God did not want His children to suffer wrath. Thus
so, God, in His righteousness did not remove the verdict of death on our sins,
but in His faithfulness provides us a way out (Isaiah 16:5), and the same way
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, (when Israel sinned against
God in the wilderness) even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: (John 3:14;
Numbers 21)
That
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:15-16)
In what
way does Jesus accomplished this thing? Remember the story of the Samaritan
Woman who gave Jesus water to drink in John 4? After meeting Jesus the woman went back to the town and said
to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this
be the Messiah?”
That is
Jesus’s way in bringing us back to the Father. He will first show us the real
condition of our life and its real standing before God, the same way He
revealed to the Samaritan woman the real condition of her life before God. This
same revelation is what will lead us to true repentance. In fact, the very
first public word of Jesus is “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near.
(Matthew 4:17).”
Now, the
question is what would be our response? If we choose to believe Jesus as our
Lord and Saviour, accepting that we are also sinners is a must, for Jesus came
for that very same reason. Repentance will also come next. This three, believing,
accepting and repenting are all package deal.
Accepting
that we are sinners is also same as accepting the fact that the life we are
living is not fitted to the life that God wants us to live and we are now making
a decision to completely leave that life, which now lead us to the Way of the
Cross.
The Way of The Cross
Why the
Cross? Well, the answer is simply because this is where Christ died in order to
save us. When the right time finally comes, He was crucified, died, and was
buried. He is completely without sin but He became sin for us, as the most holy
and perfect sacrifice. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God.(2 Corinthians 5:21)
The good
news is, He never stayed as dead. In fact, He rose again the third day (1
Corinthians 15:1-4), and the power of the resurrection of Christ is what gives
us hope and faith today that one day we will also be raised up with Him, only
if we believe and accept Jesus and repent completely from our past sins and
continue walking our life with God for the rest of our lives afterwards.
Undergoing
the way of the Cross is same as in Galatians 2:20, For I am crucified with
Christ. It is not I who lives but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in
the body, I live by faith to the Son of God, wo loves me and gave Himself for
me.
Repentance
is a 180 degree turning around from sin and looking unto Jesus as the author
and perfecter of our faith.
Hebrews 12
explains it this way :
12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us
throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let
us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
12:2 Let
us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God.
12:3
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not
grow weary and lose heart.
12:4 In
your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
your blood.
12:5 And
you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart
when he rebukes you,
12:6
because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he
accepts as a son."
12:7
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not
disciplined by his father?
12:8 If
you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are
illegitimate children and not true sons.
12:9
Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected
them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and
live!
12:10 Our
fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God
disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
12:11 No
discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it
produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained
by it.
12:12
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
12:13
"Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be
disabled, but rather healed.
12:14 Make
every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no
one will see the Lord.
12:15 See
to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to
cause trouble and defile many.
Meaning,
completely surrendering is accepting first that we are sinners, then repent.
When the Word of God says repent, that is throwing every single sin that easily
entangles our lives and hinders us from coming to God. After that, submit to
the Lord's discipline (discipling) for the Lord is clear that those whom He
loves, He rebukes and discipline until such time that the righteousness of God
has become mature in us and is now became our lives . You see, if people see
the holiness of God through you, we give them a hope to have also a share in
this life that we have - the life of Christ in us. If people do not see the
holiness and righteousness of God among us, the Word is clear, without
holiness, no one will see the Lord.
To be
crucify with Christ means surrendering our life bits by bits until such time
that the fullness of Christ will now be complete into our lives.
What will
happen afterwards is for all of us to find out because it would now be our
individual journey with the Lord.
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