Series on "The Message of the Cross" - (25)
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July 09, 2007 |
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 Eternal Life (2): No Eternal Life without Eating of the Flesh and Drinking of the Blood of the Son of Man (2)
"So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves … For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink'" (John 6:53-55).
In order to sustain life of the flesh, an individual must both consume food and remain hydrated. Water allows the digestion and absorption of nutrients as well as the discharge of unnecessary wastes and poisonous matters from within the body.
In our lives in Christ, our knowledge of Jesus Christ's being the Savior of mankind and the existence of heaven and hell does not give us salvation; eternal life is gained only when we eat of the flesh and drink of the blood of the Son of Man.
For that reason Jesus told us in John 6:53, "[U]nless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves," and that eternal life is possible only by eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Son of Man.
How can we eat of the flesh and drink of the blood of the Son of Man? Continuing from the last issue, let us delve deeper into that subject.
1.Our Heart Becomes Filled with the Truth when We Make Bread of the Flesh of the Son of Man, which is God's Word
Just as we need to consume food and drink water in order to sustain our life, eating of the flesh of the Son of Man and thus making bread of it requires us to also drink of the blood of the Son of Man. In other words, we must not only build our knowledge of God by diligently hearing and reading of His Word, we must also make bread of the Word so that it will be engraved in our heart.
What, then, is the difference between "making bread of God's Word in the heart" and "building and storing His Word as knowledge"? Any information or input stored in the brain can be forgotten, and just because we "know" the truth does not necessarily guarantee that we will act and live our lives according to the truth.
In reciting the Bible, we must not only memorize the verses with our lips but also make an effort to meditate on them. For instance, if we profess to have made bread of God's Word in Matthew 5:44 – "[L]ove your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" – we must be able to put into practice in our lives.
When an enemy does evil and persecutes us, according to God's Word we will be able to love him and even pray for him. If we kept God's command only in our head as mere knowledge, our hearts would be troubled and we might even come to hate others, leading us to pay back evil with evil. Yet, if we made bread of this particular commandment of God, love and mercy would exude from within us.
To the extent we make bread of the flesh of the Son of Man, darkened hearts smeared with untruths will gradually transform into pure and clean hearts. As much as we make bread of love and gentleness, we will be rid of hatred and temper and when we continuously make bread of humility, we will be rid of arrogance.
2.Eating of the Flesh of the Son of Man Must Go Side by Side with Drinking of the Blood of the Son of Man
Our making bread of God's Word requires not only the understanding of Scriptures in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but also the receipt of God's grace and strength through fervent prayer. Also necessary at this stage is the effort of each individual to properly believe in the Word and put it into practice. This is the act of drinking of the blood of the Son of Man.
Therefore, "drinking of the Blood of the Son of Man" refers to putting to practice in believing of God's Word. No matter how much time and energy an individual may invest in diligently hearing God's Word, in meditating on it, and in fervently praying, all will have been in vain if he does not put into practice what he has heard, meditated, and prayed.
God's Word can be divided into four categories. They are "Keep's," "Throw away's," "Do's," and "Do not's, and we are to keep and obey each one of them as is. With no deeds of obedience, we will not experience God's works and without firsthand experiences of God's works, we will not be able to go beyond the faith that is mere knowledge.
As James 2:22 tells us, "You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected," only when we show God the deeds of faith will the faith as knowledge be transformed into spiritual faith. Even if one's faith is as small as a mustard seed at first, when he keeps showing God deeds of his faith, God will allow that individual to experience His grace and power and work to nurture his faith into a great faith.
Before the founding of Manmin, I had an opportunity by which I could come to possess great faith when I showed God my deeds of faith on account of my three small daughters.
During one of their school vacations, I went to a prayer center and came home to find my oldest daughter, who at the time was in grade school, in bed with boils from head to toe. With each movement she made, the skin would split and start bleeding. My second daughter had collided with a truck and her face was swollen and her lips in tatters. My youngest daughter had collided with some high school student and suffered concussion.
In the eyes of ordinary people, taking them to a hospital was the only right thing to do. Yet, as I possessed faith in the almighty God the Healer, instead of taking my children to a hospital I knelt down in prayer on their behalf. Looking back to see whether or not my family members had at all forsaken any of God's commandments and trusting in His healing, I fasted and prayed through the night. Needless to say, God did His part according to my faith.
My oldest daughter was cleansed from the boils overnight while my second daughter was healed without any scars within a week. We even heard that her school teacher had told her, "When I saw you not going to the hospital in the most desperate of times, and then becoming completely healed within a matter of a few days, I have also come to believe in the living God." My youngest daughter also regained her consciousness in two days' time.
On the one hand, when we trust in God's Word and put it into practice every moment of our lives, we will attain "to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13) and wholly make bread of God's Word in our heart.
On the other hand, if we do not put into practice God's commandments even when we have a faith the size of a mustard seed after receiving the Holy Spirit, we will not be able to have spiritual experiences or our hearts transformed regardless of the length of our lives in Christ. Recognizing that in the worst case, we may even be robbed of our faith and altogether driven away from faith, I urge each of you to perfect your faith by drinking the blood of the Son of Man.
3.Faith Without Deeds is Dead
God has promised us that when we live by His Word, we will be blessed in this life as well as the next. Moreover, when we trust only in God in every moment of our lives by faith, He has promised us that He would resolve any problems in our lives.
If one trusted in such promises of God, that individual's faith would surely be accompanied by corresponding deeds. Suppose someone promised you treasure worth millions of dollars placed in Washington, D.C., if you walked there all the way from New York City, covering some 331 kilometers (about 206 miles) on foot. If you really wanted the treasure and if the person who informed you of it is more or less trustworthy, you would walk from New York to Washington.
For that reason, the second half of James 2:26 reminds us that "faith without works is dead." Many people profess with their lips, "I believe in the almighty God" but because they are unable to wholly believe, they cannot show the kind of faith that is accompanied by deeds. Just as we find in God's Word, only the spiritual faith accompanied by deeds can give us salvation and God's blessings and answers to our prayers.
Some people cite Romans 10:13, which tells us, "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED," argue that even the people living in sin can be saved, and attempt to justify their sinful ways. Yet, this particular verse symbolizes the limitless love of God who has saved sinners through Jesus Christ and must not be used to justify evildoers.
As God's Word always is and must be paired, we must look at each verse in the Bible in the context and only the interpretation of the Scriptures in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit will yield accurate understanding. As Romans 10:9-10 tell us, "[I]f you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation," Romans 10:13 actually means that only the confessions from the lips of those who have arrived at righteousness will result in salvation.
What, then, does the Bible mean when it tells us, "[W]ith the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness"? We read in Romans 2:13, "[F]or it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified." In other words, when we truly believe from our heart God's Word that we hear, we will live according to His Word and that will make us "justified," which in turn will allow us to "[result] in righteousness."
Brothers and sisters in Christ, by diligently eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Son of Man, may each of you please God with the kind of faith that is accompanied by deeds and have every affair of your life prosper, in the name of our Lord I bless!
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