Romans 1:28-32 The Breakdown of Human Society (#LetterToTheRomans)

As I observe the current world events and study the Word of God, especially Romans 1, I see the inevitable breakdown of human society. As we move further away from God, we move nearer to our self-destruction. More than ever, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (see Romans 1:18). The question is, WHY? And is there any hope amidst all of this?

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THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

 

Romans 1:18-20 Bad News: The Wrath of God (#LetterToTheRomans)

"The wrath of God." Many people, including Christians, are either confused or afraid or denying this truth in the Bible altogether. But I would like to submit: If you don't understand the wrath of God, then, you can't appreciate (or perhaps don't know) the gospel of God. Let's start with, what is the wrath of God? #ServeToLead #PreachTheWord #TheWrathOfGod

To watch previous short studies of #LetterToTheRomans CLICK HERE  http://bit.ly/LegasiRomans 

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THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

 

Don't Treat God's Wrath as Something Cute (Genesis 6:11-14, 17-18)

“As far as God was concerned, the Earth had become a sewer; there was violence everywhere. God took one look and saw how bad it was, everyone corrupt and corrupting—life itself corrupt to the core. God said to Noah, ‘It’s all over. It’s the end of the human race. The violence is everywhere; I’m making a clean sweep. Build yourself a ship from teakwood. Make rooms in it. Coat it with pitch inside and out… I’m going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction. But I’m going to establish a covenant with you: You’ll board the ship, and your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives will come on board with you.”
(Genesis 6:11-14, 17-18, The Message)

Many Sunday school tend to treat Noah’s flood as children’s story. Cute. The ark floats atop the rising waters, a smiling giraffe poking its head through the upper window hole. But the story of the Flood is a story of God’s wrath. Not a cute event, but a disastrous one.

God’s wrath is not an easy or pleasant thing to contemplate. But it expresses itself throughout the Bible – the New and Old Testament. God’s wrath is part of God’s love, not the opposite. In human level, if you love someone, you know how your anger burns against anything that would harm that person. “God’s wrath,” as my colleague once said, “Is reserved for that which seeks to destroy the people he loves.” Sin destroys lives, relationships, and happiness. The anger of God is the anger of surgeons who cut away cancers rather than see them consume their victims.

In Genesis 6, what I learned is this: God pours out His wrath by finally giving people what they want (if you read 2 Thessalonians 2:11, you won’t be too puzzled. See also people’s hard heartedness in John 12:37). The people of Noah’s time wanted to live beyond God’s grace, without God. So God finally lifted His retraining hand – the hand that restrained the floodwaters. In the end, the people got exactly what they wanted, and it was the end of them. Sad.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Young Men, Consider the Face of Jesus

“The light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ”
(2 Corinthians 4:6, NIV).

How expensive the face it! It mirrors the changing emotions of the soul. It is the index to character and personality. It reveals both weaknesses and strengths. It betrays sorrow or joy, hatred or love, cruelty or sympathy.

Our Lord’s face was entirely different from anything any artist has portrayed on canvas. It was absolutely unique because it reflected not only Himself but His Father – the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). But when sinful men saw the glory, they extinguished it.

The face of Jesus Christ revealed the holiness of God. “The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14). Our faces carry the lines of sin, but in Him is no sin. In His case, the transmission of the racial heritage was interrupted by the virgin birth. He knew sin only by seeing it in others and by suffering for it. His face reflected the purity of His heart.

It revealed the steadfastness of God. “He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). The Samaritans recognized the marks of resolution on His face, and how greatly He needed it. The road from Bethlehem to Golgotha was rock-strewn and steeply uphill. Many things could deter and deflect Him and weaken His resolve, but He steadfastly held His course.

The sympathy of God was etched on His face. “He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it” (Luke 19:41). What a concept – a weeping God! The glory of God was expressed in salty tears coursing down the face of the Son of Man! He envisaged the scene, still forty years distinct, when blood would flow like water in Jerusalem’s streets.

It manifested the wrath of God. “He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts” (Mark 3:5). The face of Christ blazed with holy anger! Does this seem incongruous? Is He not “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”? Scripture reveals that Jesus was capable of burning indignation, but it was the wrath of love. Grieved is a word that is used only of one who loves.

His face expressed the gladness of God. “His face shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:2). It was not sad and hopeless, but radiant. His injunction, “Do not look somber…” (Mathew 6:16), tacitly implied that His own face reflected the joy of God.

[Edited, modified and modernized from Consider Him (1976) by J. Oswald Sanders]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

God’s Anger is Always Answered by His Grace and Mercy (Genesis 9:12-16)

“[God] said. ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth’”

(Genesis 9:12-16, NIV).

In the Old Testament (no less than the New Testament), God’s anger is always answered by His grace. The global destruction of the Flood was followed immediately by the promise of hope and mercy. “Never again,” God promised, would He send the kind of flood that Noah and his family had just lived through. And the sign of that promise was a bow in the sky – a rainbow.

FES staffs like to see rainbow. Rainbow is like a giant bow in the sky. It is worth noticing that the bow is aimed to shoot its arrows up toward heaven, not down toward earth. The bow is not against humankind that say: “Behave yourselves or the arrow of God’s wrath are going to shoot at you again.” No, this bow is positioned to shoot at the heart of God. It is as if God is saying: “I promise, cross My heart.” In this covenant, God puts Himself on the hook.

Most of the covenants in the Bible are two-sided, in which God’s people agree to hold up their end of the bargain. But this covenant – between God and the earth – is all about God. God’s anger is always answered by His grace and mercy.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

God's Wrath Poured Out on Those Who Want to Have It Their Way (Genesis 6:11-18)

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood… I am going to bring floodwater on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you’”

(Genesis 6:11-14; 17-18, NIV).

I observed that we tend to treat Noah’s flood as a children’s story. The ark floats steadily atop the rising waters, a smiling giraffe poking its head through the window, and Noah smiled as if everything was fun to watch. But the story of the Flood is a story of God’s wrath.

God’s wrath is not an easy or pleasant thing to contemplate. But it expresses itself throughout the Bible in the Old Testament as well as the New. God’s wrath is another aspect of God’s love. To use the lesser example: If you love anyone deeply, you already know how your anger burns against anything that would harm that person. God’s wrath – His righteous-anger (not like ours’) – aims for that which seeks to destroy the people He loves. Sin destroys lives, relationships, and happiness. The anger of God is like the anger of surgeon who cut away cancers rather than seek to harm their victims.

God pours out His wrath by finally giving people what they want. The people of Noah’s time wanted to live without God. So God removed His loving hand from their lives and floodwaters poured out. In the end, the people got exactly what they wanted – and it was the end of them.

What’s hope for us today? Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “[God] demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” (Romans 5:8-9). Don’t have it your way; wants God’s way - enter the ark of God. 

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Letters to Annie: Make the Decision to Abstain from Sex Before Married

Young girls, wait; Young boys, self-control.

Dear Annie,

            I miss you. And I love you even more today. It’s funny how I end up loving you with all my heart now. In my past relationships, I’ve been a jerk and made lots of mistakes that I will never ever repeat it again in the future. To tell you the truth, if the Holy Spirit doesn’t touched my heart and if my God-given conscience about sex outside marriage doesn’t stopped my youthful passion when I was young boy many years ago, I might cause a girl pregnant. Or two. I was that bad. Only God can save someone like me. God’s grace alone. I hope you still love me…

            The decision to have sex before I get married – or the decision to abstain from it – is a choice that will most certainly impact the rest of my life. To do or not to do. I know you knew about this too. That decision, Annie, will play an important role in the way we see ourselves, and the way we view relationships with each other. And if we not reminding ourselves and stand firm in God’s Word, our decision to have sex before married might result in an unexpected “surprise” pregnancy. Let’s not contribute to the statistics.

            Annie, as for me personally, I’ve face many temptations. The decision to consciously abstain from sex before married was a very important and hard decision for me. It was a great struggle for me as I’m not always ‘godly’ all the time. Even if I’m good with conducts, my thoughts were sinful. So I looked to God for help. Only He can gives me wisdom to make a decision that might just change the direction of my life. “Happy is the person who finds wisdom,” proclaimed the wise man, “the one who gets understanding” (Proverbs 3:13). As J.I. Packer writes, “The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness, peace, humility, and love. And, the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God.”

So I say, I will not have sex until I’m married! I must trust the inner voice of my conscience. I should be obedient to the teaching of God’s Word. I respect God, myself and you. You’re precious to me Annie. You’re my love one as much as you’re God’s special daughter. I write this to you because I want you to know my stand (and I trust we have the same conviction about no sex outside marriage) and because, if in the future I behave improper in regard to sexual boundaries, you may remind me of my commitment. And if necessary, slap my face hard, very hard so that I can be reminded of God’s wrath against those who disobey Him.

I love you…

I love you…

I love you…

I can wait…

                                                            May God’s strength empowered us,

Richard

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus Became a Curse for Us. Jesus Chose the Nails.

Through the eyes of Scripture we see what others missed but what Jesus saw. Jesus “cancelled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away the record with its rules and nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14, NCV).

Between His hand and the wood there was a list. A long list. A list of our mistakes: our lusts and lies and greedy moments and prodigal years. A list of our sins. Dangling from the Cross is an itemized catalog of your sins. The bad decisions from last year. The bad attitudes from last week. There, in broad daylight for all of heaven to see, is a list of your mistakes.

God… penned a list of our faults. The list God has made, however, cannot be read. The words can’t be deciphered. The mistakes are covered. The sins are hidden. Those at the top are hidden by His hand; those down the list are covered by His blood…

This is why He refused to close his fist. He saw the list! What kept Him from resisting? This warrant, the tabulation of your failures. He knew the price of those sins was death. He knew the source of those sins was you, and since He couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without you, He chose the nails.

The hand squeezing the handle was not a Roman infantryman. The force behind the hammer was not an angry mob. The verdict behind the death was not decided by jealous Jews. Jesus himself chose the nails.

[From He Chose the Nails by Max Lucado]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

So You Often Quote Him? Augustine of Hippo on the Divine Election

“Has the potter no right over the clay,
to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?”
(Romans 9:21, ESV)

Augustine here argues that all humanity are contaminated by sin, with the result that salvation is a human impossibility. In his grace, God chose to save some from this “mass of perdition.” [A doctrine that I’m still struggling with and of course this (and many other statements by Augustine) contributed to The Augustine & the Pelagian Controversy]. Note the appeal below to the analogy of the potter and the clay (Romans 9:21), which becomes a frequent element in Augustinian and Reformed discussions of election and predestination. He said,

“There are lump of perdition (massa perditionis) out of Adam to which only punishment was due; from this same lump, vessels were made which are destined for honour. For the potter has authority over the same lump of clay (Romans 9:21). What lump? The lump that had already perished, and whose just damnation was already assured. So be thankful that you have escaped! You have escaped the death certainly due to you, and found life, which was not due to you. The potter has authority over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honour and another for contempt. But, you say, why has He made me to honour and another to contempt? What shall I answer? Will you listen to Augustine, if you will not listen to the Apostle [Paul] when he says, ‘O man, who art you who argues with God’? (Romans 11:33). Two little children are born. If you ask what is due to them, the answer is that they both belong to the lump of perdition. But why does its mother carry the one to grace, while the other is suffocated by its mother in her sleep? Will you tell me what was deserved by the one whom its sleeping mother suffocated? Both have deserved nothing good; but the potter has authority over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel for honour, and the other for contempt.”

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

References:

1) Sermo 26, xii, 13; in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, 38.177A-B.

2) The Christian Theology Reader, edited by Alister E. McGrath (Oxford UK: Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 1995), p.217 

Jesus, God's Fullest Mercy Revealed

“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me’”

(Jonah 1:2, NKJV)

God is a forgiving God. As I read this small Book of Jonah, I’m amazed by a clear picture of a firm but forgiving God. It starts with God ordered Jonah to preach in Nineveh, a foreign town filled with the unusual immorality associated with major cities of Assyrian Empire. “But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD” (1:3). Jonah ran away from God (How funny is that!). Yet Jonah’s disobedience in heading in the opposite direction didn’t result in his death or the end of his service. God’s mercy was upon him.

In fact, God used Jonah to convert the sailors on his escape ship, even when he rebelling and sinning. Before they throw Jonah into the sea, the sailors prayed, “We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You” (Jonah 1:14). And God used Jonah to reach Ninevites even though he hoped that they would be destroyed. “Then God saw their [Ninevites’] works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it” (Jonah 3:10). God’s mercy was upon the sailors and the people of Nineveh.

Of course, Jonah did experience God’s anger – in the form of a storm, being swallowed by a big fish, and suffering intense heat – but these were also signs of God’s mercy because God used them to show Jonah that he had a second, a third, fourth… and so on chances to him. From our human perspective, there can be few people who deserved God’s mercy less than Jonah, the sailors and the Ninevites. Yet God forgave them all.

Throughout the Bible, God’s mercy is directed towards his children, the Jews. But in the Book of Jonah, God is clearly revealed as also the God of non-Jews, of the Gentiles (us!). God is interested in a crew of pagan sailors and He even forgives “more than one hundred and twenty thousand” (4:11) of Israel’s greatest enemies. He gave many chances to Jonah. See! God’s forgiveness is not restricted to the Jews only but to all people who asking for forgiveness and acknowledge their sins toward Him. Now, God even show greater mercy toward us through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of all mankind. In Jesus, God’s great mercy revealed to the fullest.

The Scripture says: “[Whoever] believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:15-17, NKJV). Mercy! Mercy! Mercy! Thank you LORD!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

John Wycliffe on How to Life Live

Reading John Wycliffe (1330-1384) biography is a very inspiring and up lifting for me. He was a philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, reformer, university teacher at Oxford in England and most known by all as – an English-Bible translator. Below is a lengthy quote from his sermon How to Life Live:

“First, when you rise, or fully awake, think upon the goodness of your God: how because of His own goodness, and not for any need, He made all things out of nothing, both angels and men, and all other creature.

Your second thought should be on the great suffering and willing death that Christ endured for mankind. When no man might make payment for the guilt of Adam and Eve, and many others, neither could any angel make payment, the Christ from His endless love, suffered such great passion and painful death, that no creature could suffer so much.

Think thirdly how God has saved you from death and other mischief, and suffered many thousands to be lost the previous night, some in water, and some in fire, and some by sudden death – and some to be damned without end. And for this goodness and mercy thank God with all your heart. And pray that He will give you grace to spend in that day, and evermore, all the powers of thy soul, thy mind, understanding, reason, and will, as well as all the powers of your body, strength, beauty, and five senses, in His service and worship. Pray too that He will empower you to do nothing against His commandments; but in willing performance of His works of mercy, and in giving a good example of holy life, both in word and deed to all men about you.

Next, be sure that you are well occupied, with no idle time, because of the danger of temptation. Take meat and drink in moderation, not too costly, and be not too particular about them. But such as God sends you with health, take it in such amounts that you will be fresh in mind and understanding to serve God. And always thank Him for such gifts. Besides this, be sure that you do right and fairly to all men, thy superiors, equals, and subjects or servants, and stir them all to love truth, and mercy, and true peace, and love.

Also, most of all fear God and His wrath, love God and His Law, and His worship; and ask not principally for worldly reward. In your heart desire the bliss of heaven, in the mercy of God, and a holy life; and think much of the dreadful doom of pains of hell, or order to keep you from sin.

            At the end of the day think where you have offended God, and how much and how often, and therefore be sorrowful, and amend your actions while you may. And think how many God has allowed to perish that day, in many ways, and to be damned everlastingly, and how graciously He has saved you, not for thy deserving, but for His own mercy and goodness, and therefore thank Him with all your heart. And pray for Him for grace that you may dwell and end in His true and holy service and real love, and teach other men to do the same.

            If you are a priest and especially one having the charge of souls, live a holy life, surpassing other men in holy prayer, desire, and thinking, in holy speaking, counselling, and true teaching. And may God’s commands, His gospel, and virtues, be ever in your mouth, despite sin, and seek to draw me from it, and may your deeds be so rightful that no man shall blame them with reason, but may your open deeds be a true book to all people and unlearned men, to serve God and do His commands thereby. For an example of a good life, one that is open and lasting, stirs men more than true preaching by word only. And waste not your goods in great feasts of rich men, but live a humble life, of poor men’s alms and goods, both in meat and drink and clothes. The remainder give truly to poor men that have not their own, and may not labour for feebleness or sickness, and thus, you shall be a true priest both to God and man.

If you are a lord, ensure that you live a rightful life in your own person, both in respect to God and man, keeping the commands of God, doing the works of mercy, ruling well your five senses, and doing reason, and equity, and good conscience to all men.

            In the second place, govern well your wife, children, and household attendants, in God’s Law, and allow no sin among them, neither in word nor in deed, that they may be examples of holiness and righteousness to all others. For you shall be condemned for their evil life and their evil example unless you amend those as much as you are able.

            In the third place, govern well your tenants, and maintain them in right and reason, and be merciful to them in their tents. And chastise in good manner they that are rebels against God’s commands and virtuous life, more than for rebellion against your own cause. Otherwise you love your own cause more than God’s, and yourself more than God Almighty, and you will then be a traitor to God. Love, reward, praise, and cherish the true and virtuous of life more than if you sought only your own profit.

And reverence and maintain truly, according to your skill and might, God’s Law and true preachers of it, and God’s servants, in rest and peace. You do wrong against God if you maintain the Antichrist’s disciples in their errors against Christ’s life and teaching, and help to slander and pursue true men that teach Christ’s gospel and His life.

            If you are a labourer, live in meekness, and truly and willingly do your labour, that your lord or master, if he be a heathen man, by your meekness, willing and true service, may not have a grudge against you, nor slander your God, nor your Christian profession, but rather be stirred to come to Christianity.

And serve not Christian lords with grudging, not only in their presence, but truly and willingly, and in absence. Not only for worldly dread, or worldly reward, but for dread of God and conscience, and for reward in heaven. For God, who has put you in such service, knows what state is best for you, and will reward you more than all earthly lords may, if you truly and willingly obey Him.

            And in all things beware of grudging against God and the trials sent by Him, in great labour, long or great sickness, and other adversities. And beware of wrath, of cursing, of speaking evil of man or beast, keeping patience, meekness, and love, both to God and man. Thus, each man in the three states ought to live, to save himself, and to help others. And thus should good life, rest, peace, and love be among Christian men, and they be saved, and heathen men soon converted, and God magnified greatly.”

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Martin Luther's Discovery of the "Righteousness of God"

My favourite speech (quote) from Martin Luther

In the passage below, originally written in 1545, the year before his death, Luther reflects on his early life, and particularly a major theological difficulty which he experienced as a young man. What was “Good News” about the proclamation of the righteousness of God? For Luther, this could only mean the condemnation of sinners, himself included. Luther here relates how, after wrestling with the meaning of Romans 1:17, he finally came to understand the “righteousness of God (iustitia Dei)” in a different way, thus opening the door of his theological reformation. He writes,

“Meanwhile in that year [1519], I had returned to interpreting the Psalter again, confident that I was better equipped after I had expounded in the schools the letters of St. Paul to the Romans and the Galatians, and the letter to the Hebrews. I had certainly been overcome with a great desire to understand St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, but what had hindered me thus far was not any ‘coldness of the blood’ so much as that on phrase in the first chapter: ‘The righteousness of God is revealed in it.’ For I had hated the phrase ‘the righteousness of God’ which, according to the use and custom of all the doctors (I think what he means are the theologians), I had been taught to understand philosophically, in the sense of the formal or active righteousness (as they termed it), by which God is righteous, and punishes unrighteous sinners.

Although I lived an irreproachable life as a monk, I felt that I was a sinner with an uneasy conscience before God; nor was I able to believe that I had pleased him with my satisfaction. I did not love (in fact, I hated) that righteous God who punished sinners, if not with silent blasphemy, then certainly with great murmuring. I was angry with God, saying ‘As if it were not enough that miserable sinners should be eternally damned through original sin, with all kinds of misfortunes laid upon them by the Old Testament law, and yet God adds sorrow upon sorrow through the gospel, and even brings wrath and righteousness to bear through it!’ Thus I drove myself mad, with a desperate disturbed conscience, persistently pounding upon Paul in this passage, thirsting most ardently to know what he meant.

At last, God being merciful, as I meditated day and night on he connection of the words ‘the righteousness of God is revealed in it, as it is written: the righteous shall live by faith,’ I began to understand that ‘righteousness of God’ as that by which the righteous lives by the gift of God, namely by faith, and this sentence, ‘the righteousness of God is revealed,’ to refer to a passive righteousness, by which the merciful God justified us by faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous lives by faith.’ This immediately made me feel as though I had been born again, and as though I had entered through open gates into paradise itself. From that moment, the whole face of Scripture appeared to me in a different light. Afterwards, I ran through the Scriptures, as from memory, and found the same analogy in other phrases such as the ‘work of God’ (that which God works with us), the ‘power of God’ (by which makes us strong), the ‘wisdom of God’ (by which he makes us wise), the ‘strength of God’, the ‘salvation of God’ and the ‘glory of God.’

And now, where I had once hated the phrase ‘the righteousness of God,’ so much I began to love and extol it as the sweetest of words, so that this passage in Paul became the very gate of paradise to me. Afterwards, I read Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, where I found that he too, beyond my expectation, interpreted ‘the righteousness of God’ in the same way – as that which God bestows upon us, when he justifies us. And although this is expressed somewhat imperfectly, and he does not explain everything about imputation clearly, it was nevertheless pleasing to find that he taught that the ‘righteousness of God’ is that, by which we are justified.”

[Source: Preface to the Latin Works (1545); D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, vol. 54 (Weimar: Bohlau, 1938), 185.12-186.21]

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Sebab #10: Yesus Mati... Supaya Kita Beroleh Hidup yang Kekal Apabila Kita Percaya Kepada-Nya (10/10)

Datang kepada Yesus

Kenapa Yesus perlu menderita dan mati?

Saya percaya bahawa ini ialah satu soalan yang sangat penting sekali pada abad ke-21.

Di sini ada sepuluh jawapan daripada Firman Allah.

Sebab #10: Supaya Kita Beroleh Hidup yang Kekal

Apabila Kita Percaya Kepada-Nya

Yesus berkata dengan jelas bahawa sesiapa yang tidak percaya atau menolak pemberian hidup yang kekal akan dibinasakan selamanya di neraka. “Barangsiapa tidak percaya, ia telah berada di bawah hukuman, sebab ia tidak percaya dalam nama Anak Tunggal Allah... ia tidak akan melihat hidup, melainkan murka Allah tetap ada di atasnya” (Yohanes 3:18, 36, TB).

Tetapi bagi sesiapa yang percaya kepada Kristus, yang terbaik pasti disediakan kepada mereka. “Apa yang belum pernah dilihat atau didengar, atau terlintas dalam fikiran manusia, itulah yang disediakan oleh Allah untuk orang yang mengasihi Dia” (1 Korintus 2:9, BM). Kita akan melihat kemulian Tuhan yang sebenar. “Inilah hidup yang kekal itu, yaitu bahwa mereka mengenal Engkau, satu-satunya Allah yang benar, dan mengenal Yesus Kristus yang telah Engkau utus” (Yohanes 17:3, TB). Amin!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

*Dipetik dari risalah kecil '10 Reasons Jesus Came to Die' oleh John Piper (Wheaton: Good News Publishers) 

Sebab #3: Yesus Mati... Untuk Mendamaikan Murka Allah (3/10)

Murka Allah keatas dosa Sodom (Kejadian 19)

Kenapa Yesus perlu menderita dan mati?

Saya percaya bahawa ini ialah satu soalan yang sangat penting sekali pada abad ke-21.

Di sini ada sepuluh jawapan daripada Firman Allah.

Sebab #3: Untuk Mendamaikan Murka Allah

Hukum Taurat menuntut: “Kasihilah TUHAN, Allah kamu dengan segenap hati: Tunjukkanlah kasih itu dalam cara hidup dan perbuatan kamu” (Ulangan 6:5, BM). Tetapi kita semua lebih mengasihi benda atau perkara lain. Itulah dosa – tidak mengasihi dan menghormati Tuhan “segenap hati” dengan lebih menyukai benda atau perkara lain, dan bertindak untuk terus mengasihi semuanya, kecuali Tuhan.

Tahap keseriusan dosa bergantung kepada kebesaran dan kemuliaan seseorang yang dicelakan itu. Oleh kerana dosa kita ialah terhadap Tuhan Allah Semesta: “upah dosa [kita] ialah maut” (Roma 6:23, TB). Tidak menghukum dosa adalah tindakkan yang tidak adil (Allah itu adil!). Oleh itu, Tuhan Allah mengutus Anak tunggal-Nya, Yesus Kristus, untuk mengalami hukuman dosa yang sepatutnya dialami oleh kita kepada Diri-Nya Sendiri. “Allah telah mengasihi kita dan telah mengutus Anak-Nya sebagai pendamaian” – daripada murka Allah – “bagi dosa-dosa kita” (1 Yohanes 4:10, TB).

Kemudian, Tuhan secara terbuka berkenan dengan tindakkan Kristus yang mengorbankan diri-Nya mati di kayu salib bagi dosa kita dengan membangkitkan Dia semula daripada maut – yang menyatakan bahawa penderitaan dan kematian Yesus tidaklah sia-sia malah berjaya mencapai matlamatnya!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

*Dipetik dari risalah kecil '10 Reasons Jesus Came to Die' oleh John Piper (Wheaton: Good News Publishers)