What We Must Remember for the Restoration of Our Christian Faith

What We Must Remember
for the Restoration of Our Christian Faith

 

In order for us to have true Christian faith required by God according to the teachings in the Bible, I have three things that we must remember in our Christian life. These things are actually interconnected to one another, but it may be good to think about them separately for better understanding. What I am going to say can be summarized into one idea: “Be Christ-centered.” To be a true Christian, we should not be self-centered but be Christ-centered. Nevertheless, it is not easy to understand and practice “being Christ-centered.” My discussions are about how I can be Christ-centered and, as a result, be a true believer in Jesus Christ our Lord. The three things are as follows:

     1) God gave us not salvation but a savior.

     2) What matters is not how I live in Jesus but how Jesus lives in me.

     3) God’s concern is not boundary but heart.

 

First, God gave us not salvation but a savior.

 

Key verses: John 6:38,39

 

We must remember that God gave us Jesus as the Savior. Of course, God gives us ‘salvation,’ but only through the Savior. Salvation is only in Jesus Christ. only the Savior can tell us what salvation is, how the salvation happens, and what the salvation results in. only the Savior has the power, the wisdom, and the love to save us. Thus, if we want salvation, we should go to Jesus, listen to him, and follow him in faith and obedience.

 

Living with many troubles and problems, people want salvation. But most of us, even Christians, seek salvation apart from Jesus the Savior. Even if we go to Jesus with our issues, we often regard Jesus not as the Savior but as a helper. That is, we define what salvation is and even how it may be achieved, and then expect Jesus to be an assistant. This creates a serious problem both when the issue is resolved and when the issue is not resolved. If the issue is resolved, we leave Jesus because we do not need a savior any longer, and if the issue is not resolved, we leave Jesus in order to look for different saviors.

 

In Luke 17, ten lepers met Jesus and they cried aloud, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Then, Jesus healed all of them but only one of them, who was a Samaritan, came back to Jesus to praise God and thank Jesus. Jesus asked the man, “Were not all then cleansed? Where are the other nine?” The other nine were also cleansed from their leprosy, and therefore, they were saved from the disease, but with this ‘salvation,’ they left the Savior and Jesus regretted their disappearance. There is another story in the Bible that people left the Savior in order to seek their own salvation. In John 6, people came to Jesus, expecting that the Lord would feed them again with bread as he did through the miracle of five loaves and two fish the previous day. But Jesus, instead of giving them bread, taught them not to work for food that spoils but for food that endures to eternal life, and introduced himself as ‘the true bread that gives life.’ Hearing this, many of the followers were disappointed. They did not accept Jesus as ‘the living bread’ that God the Father gave to them, and left him in order to find another bread-giver in the world.

 

If we read the Bible carefully, we can find that Jesus’ ministry was not for giving salvation to people but for revealing himself as their Savior. Good examples are the seven “I am” statements in John: the Bread of Life (6:35); the Light of the World (8:12); the Gate for the Sheep (10:7); the Good Shepherd (10:11); the Resurrection and the Life (11:25); the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6); and the Vine (15:5). All these words spotlight Jesus as the Savior of people from various aspects and in different ways.

 

When Jesus was revealed as the Savior, people should have welcomed him with great joy. The more Jesus was revealed, however, the more people opposed him. Why did they do so? It was because they wanted salvation in their own way. This is the case also in the Old Testaments. God sent Moses to the Israelites under slavery in Egypt so that he, as their shepherd, would lead them out of Egypt and to the land God promised to give to them. But in the journey to the Promised Land, the people turned against Moses and tried to kill him many times because they did not like the way Moses led them. The people wanted good food and an easy highway, but Moses led them out of Egypt where water was overflowing, soil was fertile, and food was abundant, and brought them into the wilderness where the road was rough and food and water were scarce. To them, Moses was not a savior but a destroyer who would hurt their lives.

 

God gave us a savior, not salvation. This means that we, rather than seeking salvation, must obey and follow the savior, and this is the only way to salvation whether we like it or not. A few days before Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, he went up on a high mountain along with his disciples Peter, John, and James. There, Jesus was transfigured into a glorious image, and to the disciples God the Father said from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” Though short, this word tells us what salvation is, who the savior is, and how we are saved. True salvation is entering into a loving and pleasing relationship with God, and this happens only through listening to Jesus the Savior.

 

We may say, “Of course, I know and believe Jesus as the Savior.” But when we call Jesus the Savior, often it is rather a nominal and religious title. In fact, we do not know where we are and why we need a savior so desperately. In The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, a man named Christian, the main character of the story, sees his own miseries as well as the dreadful fate of his city, which is called the City of Destruction. Then he flees from the city and sets out his pilgrimage for salvation. However, most of the people in the city believe that the man Christian is crazy and they are normal and in peace. This is also true today. Even Christian people think that they are well in general, though having a few problems for which they may need some help of ‘the Savior.’ But that is not true. Apart from the Savior, we are in sheer darkness, emptiness, and chaos. The only destiny of us, even the greatest among us, is God’s fearful judgment and eternal condemnation. Thus, our hope is only in the Savior. He is the only and perfect string that connects us in hell to heaven.

 

Even if we accept Jesus as my Savior, we may keep seeking ‘salvation’ through him. But in fact, Jesus himself is the salvation. Salvation is ‘in Jesus,’ not ‘something out of him.’ Speaking more precisely, we should give up salvation in order to follow the Savior. Jesus had a number of disciples who followed him. Although they were following Jesus, however, they were seeking something else. In Matthew 19:27, Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, screams, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Peter wanted something greater in return for the loss that he had suffered for following Jesus. only after many days, Peter finds that Jesus himself is the Treasure, and ‘sticking to the Treasure’ is salvation. This is very clear in Jesus’ calling of Peter. The first word Jesus gave to Peter was “Come. Follow me” (Matthew 4:19), and the last word was also “Follow me” (John 21:19). This suggests that our life journey in this world is not seeking salvation but following the Savior our Lord Jesus Christ even if it leads us through ‘the valley of the shadow of death.’ To tell the truth, it is impossible to follow Jesus as long as we seek salvation in this world. Whatever and however we suffer, we must follow the Savior and stick to him. God gave us not salvation but the Savior in order to lead us into the true eternal salvation in heaven.

 

In Jesus our Savior, salvation is ‘God’s promise’ and ‘our hope.’ In other words, salvation is a blessing that we, who are in Jesus, will receive in the future. Although this promise and hope is what is to come true later, it is no less than what has already happened. It is because Jesus is an unfailing faithful and mighty savior. In John 6:38,39, Jesus says, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” Believing in this word of Jesus, let us stay in Christ and follow him who is our Savior, and wait for his salvation in hope!

 

Second, what matters is not how I live in Jesus but how Jesus lives in me.

 

Key verse: Galatians 2:20

 

People, not to mention Christians, are always interested in how they are and how they live. We want to live a good life though the meaning of a good life may vary among people. We spend a lot of time and resources in order to improve ourselves in terms of personality, integrity, relationship, wisdom, appearance, and so on. Probably this is also the meaning of most of religions. Religions provide good guidance to discipline and shape the believers for a better life. However, this is not the main focus of the Christian religion. The focus of Christianity is not how I live but how Jesus lives in me.

 

Jesus has many names, and one of them is ‘Immanuel,’ which means “God with us.” Jesus became flesh in order to be like us and one of us. We call this ‘incarnation.’ After completing his mission on earth, Jesus went to back to Father in heaven, but this is not the end of Jesus’ being with us. Going further, true Immanuel happened when the Holy Spirit came upon us. The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9), and when the Spirit dwells in us, we are truly united with Jesus in spirit. In fact, this is the main purpose of Jesus’ incarnation. He broke his body into pieces and shed his blood so that these Elements became eatable, digestible, and absorbable into the individual cells of our spiritual body, and this is what the Spirit does in us.

 

We often hear the golden sayings “Be yourself!” and “Listen to your heart!” These sayings are quite encouraging and challenging. As soon as we try to “be myself,” however, we realize the fact that I am not living alone. I am surrounded by many others the relationships with whom are very critical to my life. We can almost say that they are ‘in me.’ In me, they keep telling me and influencing my thoughts, words, and deeds until I am not myself anymore. I don’t know how to distinguish the voice of my heart from others’. Even if I have such a strong desire to ‘be myself,’ it is almost impossible because my life is nothing but a collection of relationships. In this sense, the sayings “Be yourself” and “Listen to your heart” are not so ‘golden’ as they sound. However, there is a way of “being yourself.” What is it? It is having Jesus in me. Jesus knows who and what I am. Jesus knows where I am now. Jesus knows where I am from and where I am going. These are extremely important truths about me, and these truths about me can be found in my relationship with God the Father. I can be true myself only before God because I am what God says I am. And this happens when Jesus lives in me. When Jesus lives in me I can be myself, and only when Jesus rules me I can hear the voice of my heart.

 

I can give a number of verses in the Bible showing that what matters is not how I live in Jesus but how Jesus lives in me. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Philippians 1:20,21 also says, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Another verse is Colossians 1:27, which says, “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” All these verses tell that Jesus lives and is exalted in me and this is how I become truly rich. Figuratively speaking, my life as a Christian is growing Jesus in me like a farmer growing a seed in the field. Jesus, as a seed, was planted in me as the soil. As in Jesus’ Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20), whether soil is good or bad does not depend on itself but on how the seed planted in the soil grows and produces crop. In the same way, how I am does not depend on myself but how Jesus lives in me. Man is soil or clay at best. Therefore St. Paul says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2Corinthians 4:7).

 

A Christian life without Jesus in him is like a husband without wife or a wife without husband. Without wife, a man cannot be a husband, not to mention a good husband. He may be able to pretend to be a husband but his being of a husband is a fake. In the same way, a Christian life without Jesus living in him is entirely a fake even if he may look the most devoted believer outwardly. We call this ‘hypocrisy.’ on the contrary, if I have Jesus living in me, I can live a genuine Christian life even if I do not struggle much for that. It is because Jesus in me overwhelms me with his power and love. If my life is not from, through, and to Jesus, who is the Way and the Truth and the Life, it is as good as dead. When Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6),” he means that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life “to man.” This means that, apart from Jesus, man is severed from the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When Jesus is not living in him, the person is like a branch cut from the tree. For a branch, every good thing comes from the tree and “only from the tree.” In this sense, what and how a branch is determined wholly by its union with the tree. Likewise, what and how I am is determined wholly by my union with Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

 

Then what does it mean that Jesus lives in me? How does Jesus live in me? It is not so difficult to understand if we think about somebody with whom we fell in love. “Jesus living in me” can be explained by two keywords ‘love’ and ‘word.’ That is, Jesus lives in me by his word (command) and his love to us. In John 15, Jesus told his disciples, “Remain in me,” and more specifically he added: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (v. 7); and “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love” (9). Going further, Jesus says, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love,” (10) and he adds, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (12). Jesus’ word is the command of love. Jesus the Son and God the Father become one through their love to each other, and this divine love has been extended to us so that we are also cemented to this Holy Communion through the love. In God, love is the only medium that achieves perfect union, and of course, that between Jesus and his disciples. Jesus lives in me when we remain in his love and obey his command of love.

 

Love means ‘union.’ Love relationship implies attraction, attachment, and bonding. Whether Christians or not, we love and desire people and things. However, love relationship with God is totally different from that among people. Human love is grabbing, holding, and possessing. But a love relationship with God is being grabbed, being held, and being possessed. In a human love relationship, I hold somebody or something out of my desire. But in a love relationship with God, I am grabbed and held by God in his love. This is a very strange and almost unknown situation to us who have experienced only human love. With God, I am being loved and the love is perfect but there is nothing for me to hold. I am just being held by the perfect love. In this relationship, what I should do is not holding something but fully trusting the one who loves and holds me, and entrusting myself to his hands. And for this, I should open my hands and release what I am holding. We are not familiar with this relationship. Out of desire or fear, our hands are always holding somebody or something in the world. But instead of holding somebody or something, we should be held by God’s love. Can we trust one who is dead and entrust myself to his hand? Absolutely not! only when Jesus lives in me, I know I am grabbed by his love and I can trust him and entrust my life to his hand. The more Jesus lives in me, the more we are set free from our attachment to the world. When we are held tightly by Jesus’ hands, we can release our hold of the world, and can serve the world with our free hands.

 

Faith is nothing but our response to the love and power of Jesus, our Lord and the living and loving God. Without Jesus living in me, there cannot be true faith in me. As much as Jesus’ love is whole, our faith should also be whole. This faith grows in proportion to the fullness of Jesus in me. There is a testimony of John the Baptist as to Jesus. “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). It is the way of life that Jesus lives in me fully and I yield my life to him completely, that is to say, I surrender myself to his will. Then, we will get clear answers to the question “How should I live?” Furthermore, we will gain strength to live such a life. Because the one who lives is not me but Jesus the Lord living in me. I pray that our souls may be blessed with this amazing grace of God, Jesus in me.

 

Third, God’s concern is not boundary but heart.

 

Key verse: Mark 14:36

 

Christians may have this question: “Can I go to heaven?” This is a just and crucial question. In the Bible as well, there was a man who came to Jesus with this question. In Luke 18:18, a certain ruler came to Jesus and asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was a ‘good man’ who had kept all the commandments – ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’ Nevertheless, he was not sure if he would inherit eternal life. Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor …… then follow me.” Although this man boasted of his goodness in keeping all the commandments, however, he could not obey Jesus’ word. The Bible explains why: “When he heard this, he became very sad because he was a man of great wealth.” Here, we can see what is ‘boundary’ and what is ‘heart.’

 

By ‘boundary,’ I mean the line that divides between right and wrong, between good and evil, between yes and no. Thus, boundary is the limit that should not be crossed. It may take the form of law or commandment, the violation of which is followed by punishment. Boundary is a high-tension area where the risk of violation and the fear of punishment are hanging around. This young man was good in keeping the boundary. He boasted of his lawful life, saying “All these I have kept since I was a boy.” Then, Jesus changed the issue from boundary to heart. “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor …… then follow me.” Jesus said, “You lacked one thing,” but in fact, it was ‘every thing.’ It was about ‘heart.’ Jesus knew that his heart was fully occupied by his money. Jesus challenged him so that he may fill his heart not with money but with love to his neighbors and love to God. The man could not obey Jesus’ word. This disclosed his inner heart covered with his law-keeping religion.

 

In Jesus’ time, the Jews were the most religious people in the world. They observed Moses’ Law and elders’ traditions. They worshipped at the Temple in Jerusalem. They circumcised their children, and by doing so, insisted on the identity of Abraham’s descendants and God’s chosen people. With all these religious superiorities, they distinguished themselves from ‘the Gentiles.’ They surrounded themselves with a high and strong concrete wall, which was the boundary. They boasted of being inside the boundary, and condemned ‘the Gentiles and sinners’ as outsiders. But Jesus came to them and pointed out their heart problem by quoting Prophet Isaiah’s word, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8). Speaking an exceptionally long admonition (Matthew 23), Jesus rebuked them sternly for their hypocrisy, and this is part of it: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:25-28).

 

We may think that we have many problems. When we read the Bible carefully from God’s point of view, however, we have just one intractable problem from the beginning and up to now. It is our stubborn heart. That’s all. And all different kinds of problems arise from this one problem. From the beginning and up to now, God has been wrestling with our stubborn heart. Our heart problem is very serious and, at the same time, it is very delusive because it is invisible. Thus, God, on wresting with our heart problem, looks sometimes like struggling with a ghost. Jeremiah 17:9,10 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” We have a problem, which is in our core but we do not know, we don’t want to know, and we don’t want to solve. Jesus came to us, first of all, in order to convict us of our sin, which is our deceitful heart. In Jesus’ view, our heart is the source of all uncleanness. Jesus said, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean’” and he added, “For out of heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:18,19).

 

The heart problem makes us unclean but is delusive because it is invisible. Thus, with this grave problem, we live in peace as if we don’t have any problem. We are concerned more about visible things, which are boundaries or appearances. But with Jesus, this doesn’t work. It is because Jesus sees our heart, and is never deceived by our appearance. In the Gospels, we often see ｅxpressions such as “Jesus knew their thoughts,” “Jesus saw their faith“ and “Jesus knew their evil intent.” These show that Jesus is always looking at our heart and even the deepest thought cannot be hidden from his eyes. Then, we know how we can live by heart. It is living before Jesus, and being conscious of his eyes. Martin Buber calls God ‘Eternal Thou’ and ‘Absolute Person.’ Whether we accept or not, each of us is in a relationship with this God and this relationship is absolute and eternal. There are only two absolute beings: I and Eternal Thou (God). All the others are relative beings. Because they are ‘relative you,’ our relationships with them are also relative and temporary. They come and go, meet and part, are gained and lost. But ‘Eternal Thou’ is always present here with ‘I,’ and acts on the inmost person of ‘I’ which is true ‘I.’ Therefore, when I wake up to God, I become ‘Eternal I’ to the ‘Eternal Thou’ and enter into the eternal relationship with Him. This is what Jesus does through his word. Hebrews 4:12,13 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

 

It looks somewhat easy to keep the boundaries. At least, we have clear guidelines such as “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder” and “Do not steal.” But how can we live by heart? How is it different from keeping the law? I would like to share what I read from The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament by Edmund Clowney. The author explained ‘what devotion is’ using a story in the Bible. It was when David was in his stronghold, confronting a band of Philistines encamped at Bethlehem, which was David’s hometown. Then David longed for water from the well in his hometown, and said to himself, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!” Knowing the king’s wish, three of David’s warriors broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well, and carried it back to David. David refused to drink the water and, instead, he poured it before the Lord, saying “Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this! Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?” (2Samuel 23:13-17) The three warriors ran the risk of their lives to please their king, not as ordered but spontaneously out of their heart. They didn’t have to do that. Surely the stronghold also had a well to draw water. It was just king’s wish, not his command. Moreover, taking the risk of life merely for a cup of water was too much. Still to satisfy the king’s wish, they crossed the line, the Philistine line and the line between life and death.

 

The story that Jesus healed 10 lepers in Luke 17:11-19 also has the same implication. In response to their loud crying, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Jesus said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And on the way, the lepers found that they were cleansed from the incurable disease. Then, one of the lepers came back to Jesus, praising God in a loud voice, and throwing himself at Jesus’ feet and thanking him. Greeting him, Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Jesus’ questioning sounds somewhat unreasonable. He didn’t say them to come back and thank him. He only said them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” But from Jesus’ questions, we can see that the Lord wished it earnestly, and only this Samaritan leper pleased Jesus as he obeyed what Jesus wished, not what Jesus ordered. The other nine lepers might have done what Jesus commanded to them. They kept the boundary drawn by the law (Levites 14:2), but they failed to reach true devotion to the Lord’s will, namely, what the Lord wished.

 

People may think that the boundary is the ending point, saying, “All right, I have done what I should do.” But this is a great misunderstanding. The boundary is only the starting point of devotion, heart, and true love. Edmund Clowney, the above-mentioned author, says that true devotion is spontaneous and it rejoices in surprise. Jesus had an untold wish in his heart, and this wish was heard and complied with heartedly by the Samaritan leper. Simply saying, heart met heart. God’s will is served willingly. This is the most fundamental principle of all teachings in the Bible. And this is the reason that God chose David, the youngest, rather than one of his handsome older brothers. David was called ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). He lived not by keeping the law, but by obeying God’s will.

 

Of course, it is Jesus who is the archetypal model of this truth. As Jesus was sinless, he didn’t have to go through the suffering of crucifixion. But he prayed, “Abba Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” What was the Father’s will? It was forgiving and saving all the sinners through the ransom sacrifice of His Son. Complying with this will, Jesus suffered outside the city gate (Hebrews 13:12). Who are there outside the city gate? They are sinners, Gentiles, lepers, and all kinds of ‘unclean’ people who are not worthy to enter the gate into the Holy City. Then, Jesus went out to be with them, not for he was one of them but for he loved and was to save them even until dying for them. According to the law, Jesus, the only righteous, could stay inside the city gate and even ascend the throne. But out of his merciful heart, he willingly went out and suffered as a condemned sinner. Jesus served the Father’s will to the full, not at the risk of life but at the cost of life.

 

Keeping the law or the boundary is not counted. God counts when our deep heart serves God’s hidden will. This is an invisible realm. This is a realm beyond the boundary. This is a realm ruled by love. This is a realm of intimate personal relationship between father and child, and between ‘You and I.’ It is really surprising that God so eagerly and heartedly wants to have this relationship with me even until sacrificing His Son and sending His Spirit. Now with this heart-to-heart relationship, we don’t have to ask, “Am I saved?” or “Do I go to heaven?” because we know we are already in heaven and in the House of Our Father. May the love of God wake up our heart so that we also love Him and serve His will by heart!