The foundation of our evangelical faith

  

The foundation of our faith is laid by life, teaching, death on the cross, resurrection from death, and the ascendance of the lord to heaven to stand on the right side of the lord. Yet the complete identity of the lord and his relation with us cannot make sense without the teaching of Paul. That is why even Paul rightly claimed that the foundation of the faith in the lord is laid by him. This is true because the main foundation of the faith is laid by the lord but the main final stone needed to complete the foundation is laid by Paul.

The law of life is given by Moses and the Prophets, yet people find it hard to attain them. Some claim to have attained the law but nobody except the lord Jesus completely lived sinless life by law, prophets, and even by the perfect law of heaven given by the lord himself. Even Paul was not perfect to have a sinless life. Like the religious leaders of his age, Paul, however, did claim that he was without blame in terms of the law. This conclusion, however, is not from the eye of God but from the eye of religious leaders like Paul. The law was not attainable due to the influence of our flesh and the devil, and Paul was not Jesus to be perfect on attainment of laws and prophets.

The religious leaders of that age were choosing and picking laws to claim they were blameless in the law. Yet God knows better. Jesus did not witness to their perfection but outward pretense of holiness while being bloody graves of prophets and messengers of God. That is why Jesus not only challenges them on that they are not attaining the laws and prophets but also that they are not ready to accept the truth or the ultimate law of God as given by Jesus. The law was given by Moses but truth came with Jesus because Jesus is the truth.

 

Jesus perfected the Law of Moses, as the Law of Moses was modified (truth) of God, which is modified given the heart and mind of the Jewish people cannot live by the perfect law of heaven. So when people were failing in the easy law of Moses and the Prophets, Jesus came with the perfect law which is much harder to attain for the flesh, let alone a flesh influenced by the power of the devil. Jesus did live the perfect law, and he did preach the perfect law. He is not only the truth of God, but also he did live by the same perfect law. He was blameless and everything about Jesus is perfect and without a trace of sin. The problem is by law and truth, the only one who is worthy of salvation is Jesus. If the wheat did not die to rise as millions, Jesus is going to be left alone. 

  

The problem with God is that God is accountable to his words, and his words cannot be made void. In the time of Noah, the word of God made it clear that God would demand blood for blood. When God made a covenant with Noah, his family, and all creation of this world, a law was made by God that blood for blood is expected. It is not clear at that time but it means sin will be paid by equal punishment. Which means eye for eye, teeth for teeth, and life for life. It is the law of Moses before Moses. Why? Jesus said if you insult your brother, you kill him. That is why the animal sacrifice was even made before the Law of Moses and even before the covenant with Noah.

 

What Moses made clear is the detailed nature of the law, which is further perfected by Jesus as he teaches and lives the truth of God. Besides, God made it more clear that blood that is paid for sin is not human blood but animal blood. The idea was that the carrot and stick of God would make the people of God a Holy Nation. Though the law was not expected to work perfectly, as the coming of Jesus was planned even before the fall of Adam, and it is clear at some point the perfection of Jesus will be given to the world, the Jewish people did perform worse than what is expected.

 

Think you are helping your boy for school with your tutoring. Since your approach is a little bit involved and complex, let us assume you don’t expect it to produce the necessary fruit in a short period. Let us assume also that it will change him and prepare him for the next intervention which will produce better and more decisive fruit. At this point, you don’t expect perfection and brilliance, but you expect your boy to have reasonable results reflecting your investment. You are sure your training will change gear at some point to show the design of your work, yet still, you expect a good result in infancy. What if your boy turns out the worst of all the kids? What if your boy than being better in school just wants to run around with tugs of the school and end up with the worst school performance? Your heart is in his future, yet his eye is on the street. Jewish people were this kid, as they were the worst of all people as it is written.  

 

While having the almighty who is mightier than all, wiser than all, and all-knowing than all, they seek to run for quick fixes from idols around them. It is like a clue-less girl who drops out of school to be a prostitute, though her father is spending all his wealth on her education and better future. Not knowing what they are given, they are prostituted with idols around them. Since those idols can give nothing, they were thanking stones and wood for gifts which are given to them by their heavenly father.   

 

In practice, however, though they fail hard in following God, the coming of Jesus was planned before the creation of the world. The gear change, known as Jesus, was planned before the creation of the earth. Before the creation of Adam, let alone the occurrence of his sin, the coming of Jesus to teach us all truth, to save us by grace, and to give us the Holy Spirit was planned before the creation of the world. The long-run plan of God is not Eden or Garden of Eden for us, and happiness or Eden is not our final destination. To be children of God by grace, and to make us soldiers of the lord as other angels of the lord is the original plan of the lord. We are not made for happiness, no we are made to be soldiers in the army of the lord. This is so because what is given to us by Jesus is planned before the foundation of the earth is laid. It has nothing to do with sin but with the fact that everyone should be ruled by the lord of lords, and king of kings the lord Jesus Christ. I guess everyone includes us.    

 

Now the question is that if the Law of Moses is hard to attain if prophets are hard to follow, and even if we cannot follow the simple law of “don’t eat from that”, how can perfection lived by Jesus be possible to us? Here is where Paul added the most important revelation of God that salvation is by grace. If you believe that Jesus is raised from the dead in your heart, and you proclaim that Jesus is lord by your mouth, you will be saved without any holy work by the grace of God. God will make you holy and saint by faith without work.  

 

Does this mean the law is made void and sin is ok? No! First, the law is perfected by Jesus, who teaches us the truthful law of God; then all people Jewish and the world are condemned as sinners and unworthy, Jesus being the only one worthy of salvation by work; and then after for all sin of people from past, present, and the future is paid by the blood of the most expensive being to be sacrificed, God himself died for us. For all sins of all generations, which are from present, past, and future, the judgment is made that they are sinful and blood is paid for all sins of all people from all time. In this process, the law is made void by paying the penalty of sin for all those who are sinners not only by known laws of prophets and Moses but also by unknown laws of heaven which are revealed by Jesus. In this way, the law is removed, and grace is used to grant salvation, holiness, and eternal life to all those who have faith in the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The law is not made void by avoidance but by applying it, as the penalty of the law for sin is paid in full, and more. If all are judged as sinful, and the penalty is paid for all past, future, and present sins of people, the law is made void by application of the law. When the law cries sin, the blood of Jesus will cry louder saying it is paid in advance. Now holiness and sainthood are given to all who believe in the lord, by the lord. If the lord is not ashamed to call you a saint, it is ok to call your friends in faith saints. Why? Because the book, the good book, the bible says so.   

 

Yet does this mean sin is ok? No! The law is removed because it failed to remove sin and grace is replaced to kill sin. Grace is for holiness and sinless life. What Jesus did is wash our sins to grant us holiness. Ones we are made holy by the blood of the lord and God is not ashamed to call us his saints, we are worthy enough to be the temple of the lord. We are worthy enough for the Holy Spirit, which raises the lord from death, to live inside us and to connect us with the Lord Jesus, who is in heaven and alive.

 

By law our body is dead and its death is proclaimed by water baptism, which is a sign of washing away of our sinful body as was the case in the time of Noah. Now our spirit is alive and connected back with the lord, and the connection which is lost in the time of Adam is re-established. We can sin if we are disobedient and allow our flesh and also the devil to lead us. But if we obey God, God will program us from the inside to modify our behavior into his image. In theory, we are supposed to die with water baptism and to rise in spirit with the baptism of the spirit. In practice, however, this is a slow spiritual growth process. The only thing I can say is it is not the will of God that we should be transformed into perfection known as Jesus, just like that. But if we follow the will of the Holy Spirit in obedience, as our faith is the faith of obedience to God than to sin or the devil, we will be transformed in step-by-step fashion into holiness and perfection, which is preached and lived by the lord.

 

The law says, do this or die; Jesus says has faith in me, and I will teach you to be more perfect than the law. This is the wisdom of God revealed on the cross. We don’t worship the wood of the cross, but we honor the work of the cross. We honor the fact that God showed his nature by loving the unlovable us and died for us to save us from us and the devil. That is the work of the cross that we honor, not the wood. The wood is the burden of sin, devil, and flesh that we have to carry for salvation following the lead of the lord, and we don’t honor that. We honor the work of the cross, not the cross itself. If there is a cross in our assemblies, it is a sign of work of the cross not the wood burden on our neck.

 

We can see the fact that if Jesus did not die for us, he would be left alone as nobody is worthy of heaven by law and truth. The wisdom of God which is shown by Jesus is that God, who loved us, humble himself not only to die for us but also to beg us day and night so we can make peace with him. The Holy and almighty God died for us. Then he has to beg us day and night, while we hunt his disciples, for peace with us. If we accept him as lord, then the lord has to work day and night to train us toward his perfection. God can destroy us in hellfire and enjoy his heaven with his Angels. If you tested the kind of joy that the touch of the Holy Spirit gives you, though for some reason that I don’t understand it did not last long in you, you will be surprised why God needs anyone to be joyful. His life is joyful and peaceful by default, yet he is working day and night in humility, after he died for us on the cross, to give us this joy and peace of mind for free. Though everlasting peace and happiness are his nature and he has no need for us because he enjoys the joy of having us as children, he has to die for us, he has to beg us day in and day out, and then he has to carry us so we can be trained to his perfection. I am sure no father of us can go this far, but God did and is doing that every day. This is love, and this is why we say God is love.

 

This is why faith, the true faith, is not a religious routine but life with God. God is not something that is with some self-proclaiming leader of the faith, God is knocking on your door and if you open your heart will come to live inside of you so he can transform you to his perfection and grant you eternal salvation. If you are lucky, you will feel a joyful feeling when you have the touch of the Holy Spirit, and then after your life will be transformed in step-by-step fashion into the image of the lord. This is life with the lord where your relationship is personal, and you can see its fruit in your life. This is not another human religion organized for social life and good ethics. Our faith is life with God, where the faithful have a personal relationship with God, as it is written and is happening in our lives.

 

Yet, as there is God there is also Devil. As God has an army, the devil also has his tugs. All spirits are not the Holy Spirit, and all those who claim to be God are not God. That is why you need to have the proper foundation to have full knowledge of God. Your elementary and high school teachers are not the limit of your life, but they are important stepping stones on your ascendency to higher learning, and they are important building blocks in the furtherance of your career. As higher learning and professional life needs the guidance and help of elementary and high school teachers, how higher than them you can reach over time, you cannot grow in faith without a basic foundation of faith to know the difference between good from evil, God from Devil, Jesus from human imperfection and human religion.  

 

That is why the bible and guidance of those who come before you are critical so you can be built on a proper foundation. They are not Jesus and believe me they do get it wrong sometimes, as your school teacher makes mistakes. But before you can ascend to the higher light of the lord, first you need to stand on their shoulder. Before you can correct and teach them, if lord wills it, first you need to learn from them. God was working with them and that work is for you and your friends but not only for themselves. Even if you are the next Paul, you need to benefit from what they learn from God. Even Paul did not become Paul just like that, there were years of learning that preceded it. Before Paul knew to correct Peter, Paul was learning from Peter and students of Peter from around the world.    

 

First, they have to teach you the foundation and basics of faith as they know it. As Paul said it right: we work on what we know, while stretching further to know better. They are not perfect does not mean they don’t know enough. There is a lot they can teach you that can help you know good from evil, God from the devil, and Jesus from what is manmade. It is hoped they are a servant who serves you in humility and kindness while enforcing discipline when necessary as any good father does, but even if they harsh to you and they are judgmental to you, be humble and learn from them. If you want a future with God, you need to be humble not only to good teachers but also to evil teachers. The fact that they mistreat you is a sign that you have a better future with God if you are humble enough. So learn the foundation, the basics, and detailed knowledge of the bible in humility. As it is written pride precedes fall and humility precedes ascendency. Their pride is for fall and your humility is for ascendancy. So you need to pray for them because God who has a better plan for you will listen to you, not to them. If God can change them by your prayer, it is good for you, good for them, and joyful to God. This is your emotional and behavioral training. Your knowledge without the right behavior, attitude, manner, emotion, and character is a useless waste of resources. See them and how ugly they are. Now do you have any doubt that you have to be better if you are going to have any future with God? Dear, you are also the next elementary school teacher for the next generation.

 

As the lord carries our sins and loves us unconditionally, he expects us to carry the sins of our brothers and sisters and we have to love them unconditionally. Assembly of the lord is not a human rights office. If your brother has a problem, you must carry it for him. If he is a very angry person, you have to be a tolerant person. There is no I in faith, but us. You don’t think, work, or plan for you, as there is no you in faith, but us. Perfection is love, and perfect law is expressed by love. What is love is love shown by God toward us. How is this possible? It is possible because God is inside you molding you to his perfection if you are obedient enough to follow his will.

 

As I can see it, this is the main foundation of our faith. Before I end this post, however, there is a very important message that most people misunderstand about faith that needs correction. When you are in front of the judgment chair of the lord, God is going to ask you how is your life on earth not how was the life of others on earth. It is ok to point out the major sins and failures of others for correction in love for love, but that will not make you holy in the eye of God. First, you have to build your holiness, and then after you can help others develop their holiness with love-based correction, to build them in the love of God. If you live a sinful life in this world and you simply point your dirty fingers at the work of others who are failing, dear you need deliberation service for your own sake. Build your holiness first, no matter what others are, then you can have a good eye to help them. If the wood is in your eye, you cannot see the dust in the eye of your brother right to remove it. That is why change starts with you. Nobody has a better claim on faith than you. If they are wrong, therefore, be right. The failures of others cannot be an excuse to live a failed life while complaining about the failures of others.