August 5, 2018_Follow the Law of the Spirit

Personality that is ruled by the Holy Spirit

God is our Father. For humans, after they are born, they feed on their mothers’ milk while constantly gazing at the mothers’  faces. A mother’s breast milk is such a necessity that is indispensably required for safeguarding and upbringing the baby’s life..And the mother devotes her whole being to provide that for her baby, and the baby receives the mother’s love through it. What is more, the child begins to see his or her father’s face and feels a sense of the father’s dignity/authority. And from what they perceive of their fathers, children come to have the desire to take after their fathers. In this sense, humans differ from animals.

What,  is it about humans that make them superior to animals? Putting aside the fact that humans are spiritual beings, humans are still superior to the animals because humans have a personality. The personality refers to intelligence, emotions, and free will. Humans are able to acquire knowledge because they have intelligence, love other people because they have emotions, and choose what they want because they have a free will. Free will is particularly important amongst these three aspects of personality. God revealing Himself to the world is, in essence, God revealing His will, and thus we call it God’s will.

No one has ever seen God. Nevertheless, we know God because we came to know God’s will. How did we come to know God’s will? As Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me(Jn8: 38~39)”, it is because Jesus came to the earth and achieved the Father’s will. The Holy Spirit helps us not of His own will, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will (Rm 8:27).

Just as God has His own will, man also has free will, being a personality. Even though God wants to give man what is good, He doesn’t go beyond man’s free will. Though God says to man to believe, He does not ignore man’s free will and force him to believe. Rather He is encouraging man to have faith. Therefore, it is up to man whether he chooses to accept it or not. Those who choose to accept it can become children of God, but those who choose not to accept will become demons right after they die. Even though God wants man to choose life and blessing, God does not force us. God fully respects man’s free will (Deut30:19~20).

Man has personality, that is, intelligence, emotions, and free will. A person’s personality differs depending on how he manages these. The personality determines a person’s character and temperament, but what is most important is  whether one’s personality, character and temperament is controlled by the flesh or by the Holy Spirit.

Some people’s personality is filled with unrighteousness, evil, greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. Such sinful mind is hostile to God for it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so(Rm 8:7). On the other hand, those who belong to Jesus have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22). When one’s personality is transformed by the Holy Spirit, one’s character, temperament and nature are also changed.

Hence, whoever desires to live according to God’s will should receive the Holy Spirit. Everyone must be born again of the Holy Spirit to enter the kingdom of God, and likewise be born again of the Holy Spirit in order to be led by God (Jn 3:5-8).  One must not be satisfied that he or she is regularly attending church but surely receive the Holy Spirit.

New Commandment Given on Mount Tabor

Once, Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John up a high mountain. That mountain is known to be Mount Tabor which is the highest mountain that can be seen from Nazareth. Those disciples not only saw how Jesus’ face shone like the sun and His clothes became as white as the light but that He was talking with Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah are the representatives of the Law and the prophets which can be said to be the two main pillars that make up the Old Testament. The disciples were overjoyed that their teacher was standing side by side with such great men. However God made Moses and Elijah disappear and left only Jesus. This means that as Jesus came to the earth, the era of the Law and the prophets had ended (Matt.11:13).

God said of Jesus,“This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased” (Matt17:5). No one ever knew that Jesus was the Son of God He lived in Nazareth. As soon as Jesus was baptized and went up out of the water, God testified to Him saying, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased” (Matt3:17), and God testified of Jesus once again at Mount Tabor one more time.

In addition, God commanded the disciples saying, “Listen to Him!” (Matt 17:5). We need to realize that this is God’s commandment. How fearsome is the commandment? We have to think about how the almighty God gave up His own Son to die on the cross in order to save mankind that disobeyed His commandment.

God said to Adam, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen 2:17). This means that God prohibited man from distinguishing good and evil. What does it mean by discerning good and evil? It is about judgment. Judgment is God’s unique authority, and He has never handed that over to man. When people judge themselves or others by the Law or based on conscience, they are discerning good and evil. This is not something God is pleased with. Rather. It is exactly that which led man to destruction.

Even though God told Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam was eventually deceived by the devil and ate the fruit. It resulted in the death of the spirits of all mankind, and mankind was doomed to hell. Thankfully, Jesus came to the earth and was crucified to save man before being thrown into hell. Therefore the way to salvation was opened for man. In this way, we have to know how dreadful disobeying God’s commandment is that even the Son of God has to be crucified for it.

All man can be freed before the Law because Jesus was crucified. Now the commandment we have to keep is the new commandment God gave us at Mount Tabor. The commandment which says, “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” is far greater than the commandment God gave to Adam. When God said, “When you eat of the fruit, you will surely die”, He was prophesying that Jesus will die for Adam. But when God said, “Listen to him!” there is no prophecy that another will die in the place of the one that does not keep that command. Thus now we should listen to Jesus as God commanded, not Moses or Eiljah. There is no salvation for those don’t listen to Jesus, and those who are not saved will not be able to escape becoming demons and going to hell at the end.

Follow the Law of the Holy Spirit

We must have the spiritual experience that comes through the spiritual knowledge provided in the Bible. Jesus said, ”Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John7:38), and the scripture must surely come true. Even Jesus commanded His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. He also said, ”It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Holy Spirit will not come to you” (Jn 16:7), because the Holy Spirit only comes when He leaves and the Holy Spirit must come in order for people to receive the words of Jesus.

Our faith has to be God-centered. What is the most important concept in theocentric faith? It is that we should love the one God loves, and we should be pleased with the one God is pleased with. It was only of Jesus that God said, “This is My Son is whom I love!” He did not say that of Moses or Elijah.  Our faith is about loving Jesus whom God loves.

God also said of Jesus, “With Him I am well-pleased”. People are very happy when they make a lot of money. However, Jesus said that we should not worry about what we eat, drink, or wear but to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Matt6:31~33). What is God’s righteousness that we should seek? It is Jesus. We were originally without righteousness, but we have become righteous because Jesus came inside us, and by that we can call God, Father. Our joy therefore is in the name of Jesus.

Jesus is the name that God has inherited to the son. Hebrews1:4 says,“So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.” God has also inherited His name to us who are within His Son. Therefore we are able to please God only by the name of Jesus. We must not ignore the name of Jesus when we worship God; we cannot disregard the name of Jesus when we pray; and we must not disregard the name Jesus when we discharge our duties or serve in the church. God has made every knee to bow before the name of Jesus, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Php 2:10-11).

We must obey the law of the Holy Spirit. The Law of Moses is the law of death and curse, but the law of the Holy Spirit is the law of life. Roman8:1~2 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” It is very dangerous to drive for those who don’t know the traffic regulations, but those who do know can drive safely. Likewise, those who are controlled by the law of the Holy Spirit is filled with peace, comfort, power and grace. The Law of Moses and our conscience cannot save us. Now is the time to listen to the words of Jesus.

The ones who establish the Church are the Holy Spirit and the Word. If a man tries to directly establish a church himself, the righteousness of man becomes its standard. All those under the Law of Moses were condemned, and the conclusion was that there was no one righteous and that there was no one that was holy. We are all those that had died through the Law, and we had but to await eternal punishment. However, we have received grace by the love of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, which together, is righteousness. The appearing of the Church is only through the grace of Jesus Christ.

Where there is no grace, there is only a celebration of condemnation, doubt, and hatred. And the power who works behind all this is the accuser, the devil (Ephesians 2:2). However, through the grace of Jesus Christ we have received salvation from sins, and we have received freedom from the Law. In place of the Law of Moses, we are led by the Law of God’s love, that is, the Law of the Holy Spirit. The one who is led by the Law of the Holy Spirit, is the one who is free at once. And if He has set us free, then we are free at once.

Do not be deceived. These dividers who are ruining the church right now are those who are rejecting grace, that is, the love of God and the merit of Jesus Christ. Look! Those who do not believe in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ have only condemnation against others coming out of their mouths. These words belong to the spirit that speaks only lies.

The way that I overcame the world is by receiving the abundance of the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God. Therefore, even though the strong winds blow, and the great waves crash forward, making the small boat shake violently, the Lord will set up a pillar for us to lean on. The Lord himself will give us peace. The Lord’s peace is our faith. If the wind blows and you believe it, then you have no faith. If you look at the peace of Jesus Christ and you abide with Him, then you have faith. And that peace itself becomes your own faith. For my whole life I have performed the Semuon (‘He who see but does not speak’). It is difficult and disheartening, but it becomes great power which protects me.

Someone threatened me not to write another Pine-Bamboo-Rock Address (The Pastoral Address) on the Lord’s Day pamphlet. When each saint can meet with other saints every day, cannot the Senior Overseer, at least once a week, write an address by which he meets the saints? Why does that person threaten me not to write? This is the attempt to try and cut off the emotional bond between the Senior Overseer with his church members, and therefore, the attempt to erase Semuon completely. The sparrow chirps, and the worm wriggles. In the same way, this is how Semuon sings his chirp and this is how Semuon wriggles.

Who is trying to stop you from writing? Is it an angel of heaven? Or an authority on this earth? As long as,I, Semuon, am breathing, I will strive to tell the truth in the Pine-Bamboo-Rock Address. Because I am a human, I suffer pain, I get discouraged, I get anxious, and I also rejoice. I am grateful to express these things with what time I have left. Do not slander Semuon any longer. The Lord will come soon. And I, Semuon, will go before the Lord and seek comfort from him directly.

We must have the spiritual experience that comes through the spiritual knowledge provided in the Bible. Jesus said, ”Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John7:38), and the scripture must surely come true. Even Jesus commanded His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. He also said, ”It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Holy Spirit will not come to you” (Jn 16:7), because the Holy Spirit only comes when He leaves and the Holy Spirit must come in order for people to receive the words of Jesus.

Coming Soon

Outline translated by Sarah Lee
Letter translated by John Kim
Interpretations by Daniel Hong
Korean Summary by Ki-Taek Lee