Jesus Christ, the Lord and the Saviour!

“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” – Isaiah 53:4-6 NIV

Do you understand the power of God’s love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness—especially to those of us who have sinned purposely? When we think about it, it does not make sense. I was kind of addicted to television because I know that I have disobeyed the Spirit of God few times. The most recent one that I remember quite well was that I started to have passion to play one of the Pokemon games. This is probably because I used to watch Pokemon cartoons while I was having meals often. After a while, I got extremely bored that I needed to download the Pokemon game, in order to play it. Thus, I downloaded that game and simply prayed about the burden of my theological mind-set that I was having. I felt that I was not disobeying the Spirit, even though I was playing the game. However, as soon as I heard one of my favourite worship songs, ‘Jesus At the Center’ by Darlene Zschech, I knew that my heart was not centred on Jesus Christ. Because of this, I had to deleted the Pokemon game, even though I know that I am going to regret this. The main reason for this is that I do not want to live according to my worldly passions and I do not want to create idols, instead of pursuing the gospel of Jesus Christ and living according to the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:16-17). This does not mean that we should not play any games at all but it is better to get rid of every worldly passions that they may become idols to us and replace the passion of Jesus Christ.

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

Simon Peter, the one of the disciples of Jesus, went back to his natural passion, which was being fisherman, after Jesus’ crucifixion.  Jesus Christ told Simon Peter and Andrew that they are going to be fish for people, which meant they are going to be missionaries and evangelists on the behalf of Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:18-20). Thus, Jesus reminded Peter to be an evangelist by asking how much did Peter loved Jesus. Jesus asked three times whether Peter loved Him or not because He probably wanted to get into Peter’s core of the heart and make Himself as centred on it, that Peter would not be able to deny Him ever again (John 21).

The world tempts us to deny Jesus Christ, especially when we are facing persecutions because of Him (John 15:18-25). 2 Corinthians 4:4 declares, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” However, how can we deny Jesus Christ again once we have committed and surrendered to Him (Mark 8:34-38) and became the children of God (John 1:12-13), since Jesus was crucified on the cross for our sins (Colossians 2:13-15) and God has given us eternal life through Him (Hebrews 2:14-15)? When Jesus was crucified on the cross, God tore the curtain that has separated Him and us so that we may live in the presence of the Lord forever. We do not have to sacrifice animals anymore to be our offerings as substitutes for our sins. We can now simply confess our sins and pray to God when we sin (1 John 1:5-2:2) and become the righteousness of God in Christ’s name forever (2 Corinthians 5:21).  The main reason for these is that God has loved all of us from the beginning of creation and adopted us as His own children (Ephesians 1:4-6). In addition, when God saw all things that He has made, including creating us to be His image He declared that it was very good (Genesis 1). Therefore, God is definitely waiting us to have relationship with Him by having faith in Jesus Christ, since Jesus is the perfect image and representation of God (Colossians 1:15-23; Hebrews 1:1-3). “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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18) Because of these reasons, I am beyond thankful. Do you?

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:1-17)