2014.12.14_For It Is Written

Jesus is the Image of God

God is alive. We need to examine ourselves whether or not we have faith. How many people are there who find out they are terminally ill only too late because didn’t get regular check-ups? That could happen to a person’s spirit if he does not examine his own faith.  To say that God is alive is nothing like critiquing a piece of artwork as being “alive”. It is easy for people’s faith in God to be conceptual because God is not visible. However faith is very objective, historical and factual.

There are some animals that bear some physical resemblances to humans. And many people thus believe humans have evolved from apes. However the Bible testifies that man was created according to God’s image, in His likeness (Gen 1:26). Jesus Christ is God’s image (2 Cor 4:4). He did not come in the likeness of man, but rather man was created in His likeness. Through Jesus Christ who came to the world 2000 years ago, we have confirmed the fact that man was created according to the image of God and in His likeness. Jesus Christ born through Mary’s body was in no way different to us in form.

God has given man intellect. Therefore man is able to write and convey knowledge through it, and also read that and comprehend its message. Before sending Jesus Christ to the world, God manifest Himself to man through written records. People’s words can be written and documented. However what is written in the scripture is not just words, but the Word. That Word is “clothed with a robe dipped in blood” (Rev 19:13). Just as man has blood, God too possesses blood. For a spirit to have blood is something unheard of. Nevertheless God is the only spirit who possesses blood.  The One who came to the world and revealed this truth is Jesus Christ, the image of God. Man was destined to perish as a result of his sin, but he was saved because God showed His blood to the world and gave it to man to rely on its power.

People tend to trust their common sense and knowledge and deny this truth. But it is because of common sense and knowledge that people reject faith and ultimately end up in hell. When Simon confessed to Jesus, “Lord, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said, “On this rock I will build My church.” Then He gave him the name Peter meaning ‘rock’. Our faith is not a groundless conception but a true reality that is built firmly on the rock.

The Testimony of the Holy Spirit and Operation of Power

The Holy Spirit testifies of this truth. If anyone does not bury his old self through baptism and is not born again through the Holy Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). A faith life without the support of the Holy Spirit is very unstable. Nowadays, many people go to church for a while but later forsake their faith making excuses that they are busy with work or that they haven’t benefited much from believing. This is because they are not born again of the Holy Spirit. True faith is not affected no matter how hard-pressed it is by the world. And the help of the Holy Spirit makes such faith possible.

God sends ministering angels to those who are born again. The Bible refers to them as power (Acts 1:8). Angels are the ones sent to help those who will inherit salvation (Heb 1:14). When Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Spirit in Mark’s upper room, there was a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, and what appeared to be divided tongues as of fire sat upon each of them. The Holy Spirit Himself can neither be seen nor heard. What they had seen and heard at that time was the manifestation of the angels at work as the Holy Spirit came.

When the wind blows, tree branches are shaken but not the rock. In the same way, there are some who sense the activity of angels while some cannot. Nevertheless the angels are still at work. When Peter was imprisoned, he walked out the prison gates by the help of an angel. Lot and his family came out of Sodom and Gomorrah, following the angel that led them by their hand. When the Samaritans were besieged by the Aramean soldiers, the sound of the lepers’ footsteps was heard as that of reinforcement troops to the Arameans because of the working of the angels. We must not only acknowledge that we have ministering angels, but earnestly pray for more angels to be sent.

Praying for more angels to be sent is the same as asking for more power. Even when the disciples of Jesus were being persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, they prayed to have the boldness to speak the Lord’s word and power to stretch out their hands to heal the sick (Acts 4:28-31). We also need power. We must have power in serving the church and to become the witnesses of Jesus (Acts 1:8).

Many people today say that people do not accept their evangelism. Yet before they say such things, they must first ask for power. Our faith is not a conception but an undeniable reality.

Jesus Christ Who Fulfilled the Written Word

After Jesus received the Holy Spirit and went into the wilderness to be tempted, the Devil appeared before Him. When the Devil tempted Him saying, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread,” Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Although He could have confronted the Devil as the Son of God, He did not, and instead relied on the written word. The Devil set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” Even then, Jesus said, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” The Devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” And again Jesus said, “For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve’” (Matt 4:1-11).

Jesus defeated the temptation of the Devil by relying on the word that was written. Here the written word is referring to the Old Testament. Even when Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me,” He was speaking of the Old Testament. When the people in Berea heard Paul’s preaching and searched the Scriptures to find out if they were true, it was the Old Testament they read (Acts 17:11-12). The New Testament was not yet available at that time.

There are some who mistakenly think that the Old Testament has been abolished. However it is the Law that was abolished not the Old Testament itself. The Old Testament can be considered as the foundation of faith. For example, when a postman is delivering a postcard to someone, he also has many other mails to deliver in his bag. In the same way, although the Old Testament contains many different stories, what God wants to give through them is the prophecy concerning Jesus Christ. According to a certain scholar, there are approximately 32,500 prophecies about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.

There are prophecies concerning Jesus in various parts of the Old Testament such as, how the Saviour will come into the world through Abraham’s household, be born from the tribe of Judah, come as King through the line of David,  be born from the body of a virgin, be betrayed by His disciple for thirty silver coins. The reason Jesus even said, “I thirst!” before He breathed His last on the cross was to fulfil the prophecy written in the Old Testament (John 19:28). The Bereans heard about Jesus through Paul and read the Scriptures to find out whether the life of Jesus coincided with the many prophecies of the Old Testament. In result, they came to have faith after discovering that the Saviour prophesied about in the Old Testament was really Jesus.

The written words of the Old Testament and Jesus’ life coincide perfectly. Hence if one has believed in Jesus, it means he came to know the Old Testament. The New Testament was written after Jesus ascended into Heaven. It testifies that Jesus Christ is the One who has fulfilled the prophecies written in the Old Testament. So even if a person has never seen Jesus, it would be no different to having seen Him if he has read the New Testament. In other words, the prophecies of the Old Testament, the life of Jesus, and the testimony of the New Testament coincide precisely. To say this differently, the working of God the Father written in the Old Testament, the works of the Son represented by the life of Jesus, and the working of the Holy Spirit that followed after Jesus’ ascension are all in agreement.

Match Yourself to the Word to Overcome the Devil’s Temptation

Though Jesus is the Son of God, He did not confront the Devil with His authority but rely on the word that is written. The three things by which the Devil tempted Jesus are at the centre of all the countless temptations man is facing. And in order to overcome this, there are some things we must do.

Firstly, we need to go beyond the issues of making a living. The reason people do not properly observe the Lord’s Day or tithe is ultimately because they are concerned about how to maintain a livelihood. The Devil says to first deal with that matter before having faith. This is even becoming a great challenge for ministers. It is terrible that some consider their ministry as a means of livelihood. A person in a ministry needs to be filled with the joy of living as a witness of Jesus. He must be determined to first live by the Word rather than desire to make bread out of stones (John 6:63).

Secondly, we must not fall into temptation. When the Israelites returned from 70 years of captivity in Babylon, they pondered over why they were suffering and unable to display God’s glory as God’s people. Upon studying the Law, they discovered three reasons. They realized that they had not observed the holy day which God had commanded their forefathers. They also found that they had been robbing God of tithes for a long time. And finally they realized that they had been ignoring the name of God. The Israelites deeply repented of these things and began rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem.

Thirdly, we must only worship God and give Him all the glory. The motivation for ministers to lead their ministry should not be mixed with the desire to boast of their own abilities. There are too many cases where churches take out loans to build worship sanctuaries, but end up putting it up for auction because they cannot handle it. Not everything is achieved by just saying, “I believe! I have faith!” and pushing ahead with a plan. Whatever it is, the first and foremost aim has to be to worship God and give Him glory.

Christians must struggle to match their lives with the words written in the Bible. In other words, believers have to take after the Bible. To do so, we must honour the words written in the Bible. The prophecies of the Old Testament, the life of Jesus and the testimonies of the New Testament are in perfect accord. If we have been united with Jesus Christ, now we must match our lives to the testimonies in the Bible.