Where do you belong and which side are your tendency?

[瑤翰 김요한]

Where do you belong and which side are your tendency? (Romans 5:12-14)

The words that entertain people with lectures and talk shows by monks and priests that are now popular on YouTube are about how to live.

However, servants of the Lord who are faithful to the Bible only preach the word day and night about what kind of relationship we have with God, how to approach God, and what we can gain, so even christians do not like it.

So, if the sermon is good at the level of a gag about how to live happily, it is a good sermon, and it is the level of christianity that says that you have received grace.

However, the Bible says that Christians who are reconciled to God in Christ and who can hope for and rejoice in His glory can rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and be able to give thanks in everything. (1 Thessalonians 5:16)

On this earth, the two worlds, the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God, coexist.

A new heaven and a new earth have already been made through Christ.

You shouldn't be deceived by saying that if you follow himself while saying about Shincheonji(a new heaven and earth), you will go up to Mount Zion later.

Although we live in a barren land of thorns and thistles, the joys of Eden have been restored to the land of my heart in Christ.

In the future, if we cast off our physical body, we will be completely restored and enter the eternal kingdom. That is our salvation.

This is God's salvation that continues from Romans 3:21.

Again, in verses 1 through 11 of chapter 5, both the beginning and the end of our salvation are described.

Q. Why is Adam the type of Christ to come?

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;  and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12)

A. Because Adam is the representative of sin and Christ is the representative of righteousness.

From Romans 5:12, it explains how we have changed our belonging in Christ.

If you misinterpret Romans, you become a false teacher who locks believers in their place as sinners and urges them to be zealous.

This is the responsibility of those who teach.

You have to take it very seriously.

In the eyes of God, human behavior is no different from each other.

It's just the difference between a person who poops and a person who pees.

However, the point is who is the subject of the person's action, whether he is a sinner or a righteous person.

The story in Romans 5 is about who is my master.

If he are Adam, you are still in sin; if he are Christ, you have been delivered into righteousness.

Whether a human being does this or that, it is 50 steps and 100 steps.

However, the question of who my master is is extremely important.

'Who rules over me?' This is the crossroads between righteousness and sin, and is the boundary line of faith.

It doesn't matter if I'm good or bad.

Who is my subject? That is the turning point of salvation.

It doesn't matter what happened to me.

'What happened' is only that what is in the person is revealed and expressed in his life.

We became slaves of death in Adam and were all held captive to sin.

However, through Christ's death and resurrection, he has redeemed all of us under death and brought us into the Lord.

This is salvation.

This is exactly what Romans 5 wants to say about Adam and Christ in symmetry.

Salvation means that my identity is determined by Christ.

Even if children commit sins, their parents should forgive them and raise them while forgiving them so that they are healthy.

If you scold your child as soon as mistakes appear, if you say 'Do this or that', you will end up becoming a strange child.

You will become a quick-witted child.

Therefore, we must not allow sin to penetrate inside, but rather to expose it outside.

Even when you raise your children, you must expose their sins to the outside so that they grow up in a healthy way.

In fact, the level of our human behavior is nothing in the eyes of God.

After Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden, everything was wrong, good or bad.

Therefore, the most important thing in salvation is belonging.

If you belong to Christ, you are on God's side, and if you  belong to Adam, you are God's enemy. Those who do not believe are unbelievers.

That is why those who do not receive Christ are called antichrists.

We have a habit of viewing people as good and evil.

A more clever person would look at person from the point of view of likes or dislikes or advantaged and disadvantaged, right?

If these people are in the church, the church is full of market thinking.

Seeing people as the target of your own understanding is wrong with your eyes.

Again, salvation is belonging.

Sinners are a matter of nature, not appearance.

Outward appearances can deceive others enough with lies and acting.

No matter what action he takes now, if that person properly receives Jesus Christ, he is righteous.

It's just that his actions are wrong.

The righteous becomes clear in his sense of belonging.

Even if the behavior is not immediately corrected, the heart becomes a tendency to be drawn to God because the Lord is his Lord.

Behavior is eventually corrected.

That is salvation. He can't help but change his own behavior afterward.

So salvation requires changing the owner first.

Many North Korean defectors are now living in South Korea.

The first thing they did was to change their nationality to South Korea.

Likewise, the first thing sinners do when they come to Christ is to change their affiliation and their head.

Now, you must first know that you have been born again, that the owner has changed, and that the land has changed into a new land.

Then, of course, heaven  also changes.

And then we start to pray the Lord's Prayer, 'Our Father in heaven'.

As heaven and earth change, it automatically becomes the prayer of those who belong to heaven.

This assurance of being born again is very important.

First, through the gospel of Christ, you must definitely change your belonging.

If the beginning of the life of faith is wrong, the later is very difficult.

The greatest sin of a preacher is to read the word of God and speak for self-centered.

It's as scary as changing road signs.

That is why it is wrong to remain silent even after seeing the wrong preaching of the Word.

When a doctor performs an operation, even a small mistake causes a stir. Because it is a matter of life.

But the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own means, and my people love it good. It is a wonderful and horrible, says Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 5:30-31)

When we discuss faith with people, we should never talk about their actions.

Philosophy is  hot in sermons these days.

Aphorisms and lessons that people need come out regularly in sermons.

A philosopher is living over 100 years old, and he has an idea that, in my view, has not yet moved on to theology.

He is still living because God is merciful and patient. God is giving him time to be saved.

One representative of sinners is Adam. 

Sin is not an act, but a person's tendency.

Sin in man is not revealed as sin until it is put into action.

So, sin in the bible refers to the tendency in a person.

Sin is the tendency to turn away from God and to leave God. like Adam.

Death is the result of the work of sin. When sin is full-grown, it brings forth death. (James 1:15)

But why is it said that Adam and not Eve sinned?

Eve was not a person of promise who received the word. So it says that Adam sinned.

The concept of sin is a tendency toward it.

And death continues to radiate the element of death to us.

“Fornication, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, envy, anger, strife, dissensions, sects, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” (Galatians 5:19-21)

They are all fruits of the flesh. This is the element of death .

If you continue doing this, you will enter the lake of fire.

People under sin always have carnal thoughts, and their thoughts are always dirty.

After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in Eden, their eyes were opened.

Then shame is revealed, followed by the fear of God.

So he passes his problems on to others.

There are many elements of death like this in the church.

Criticizing others, arguing, pinching, twisting... These are all elements of death.

Death is a factor that kills oneself and also kills others.

But life is the power to bless others.

It is the ability to save lives.

What does it mean to know the truth?

Doesn't it mean that I know how to live and how to save others?

To save others and to live oneself is the person of truth.

Therefore, just as God saves us, we must also save others.

What belongs to the glory of God is, in the eyes of any created human being, this is not an ordinary thing.

Everyone is meant to feel that it is the light of God.

We must taste and know how great God's glory is.

The light of God's glory that shines not only on Paul on the road to Damascus, but also on our hearts is not a joke.

If we have seen that glory, we cannot say anything in front of him.

We have to learn reverence in the Holy Spirit and humbly worship and praise.

For humans to sin means that death reigns, and because humans are slaves to death, they have the concept of the flesh.

The spiritual state can be called a concept or a way of thinking. Do I have the concept of the Holy Spirit or the concept of evil spirits? This is the crossroads between whether I belong to sin or righteousness.

So living according to the flesh in an extremely human way is devilish.

Q. Was there sin before the law? Is it from the law?

“For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” (Romans 5:13)

A. Sin began with Adam before the law.

Sin is a concept that each individual has.

But the law is common,

Even before the law, sin was in the world. But there was no name for the sin.

It was just a concept, 'this was sin'.

If sin was brought in by the law, the law must solve that sin.

However, because there was sin before the law, it is called a righteousness other than the law.

“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” (Romans 5:14)

Death reigned. It refers to the terrifying power of death.

Death has the power to reign.

Adam's sin was in the concept of all human beings, even if they were not the ones who sinned like Adam.

In fact, faith is a change of concept like this.

"Am I light or dark?"

Examine yourself to see if you have the concept of light or the concept of darkness.

However, it is not just about saying that I am light or darkness. If I am in the light, I must become a child of the light who shines with the light.

Therefore, do not blame the division of light and dark.

We must first know who belongs to the day and who belongs to the night.

And we must make those who belong to the night into those who belong to the day.

This is a work for salvation, and there are servants of the Lord to do this work.

‘The figure of the one to come’ means that he is the one who will definitely come and is the Symmetry of Adam.

Adam and Christ are symmetrical representatives of sin and righteousness.

Therefore, it is a question of whether I now live with the concept of Adam or have the concept of Christ, and the one side and the other side are like two sides of a different coin.

So, connect it with the preceding statement.

Salvation is belonging, and this is what we need to clearly clarify in Romans 5: 'Whether the being who rules me is Adam or Christ, darkness or light, death or life, sin or righteousness'.

Always check where you belong, and check your tendency that wherther you are leaning to spirit or flesh, God or the world.

Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.

Translated by  Nancy Chung

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