Many are called but few are chosen

[瑤翰 김요한]

Many are called, but few are chosen

“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw  there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he said to him, Friend, how came you in here not having wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king  to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:11-14)

The five requirements for salvation in Matthew 22 are essential choices for salvation.

If not, we will fall into the group of people who are saying, Woe to you!

The first step is choice.

The choice means putting on the robe, that is, putting on Christ through baptism, which is union with Christ as one who died and were raised again with the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:27).

He takes off the leather clothes that were given to Adam and Eve and puts on the clothes of righteousness, holiness, and glory through Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, we are qualified to participate in the wedding feast of heaven and eat and drink.

Therefore, faith is the most important foundation for putting on Christ by first obeying the grace of the atonement of the cross and receiving forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit as gifts.

The choice that believes in the heart and confesses with the mouth that we were buried with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and were dead to sin and alive to God in Christ is absolutely necessary.

Or, like the Jews, they have the temple and the law, but they do not know the reality, and they do not have eyes like the ancestors of faith who see the Christ who suffered and the Christ who gained glory after suffering, so they ended up crucifying Jesus Christ and killing him.

Jesus Christ is the only way of repentance that follows from sin and death to the kingdom of righteousness and life, but if you erase Jesus Christ, there is no way in the world to repent.

That is the state of those who cannot repent again in Hebrews 6 and 10.

They are the main characters of the second death who were driven out of Eden and became slaves to sin and death, and if left alone, they will go into the lake of fire. The only way to return to God is the Lord Jesus Christ, but if you crucify him or make the message of the cross seem trivial, the only result will be burning in the fire.

God’s providence to save the remnant of the Jews remains (Romans 11:25), so God watches them build the temple.

The temple has nothing to do with our salvation. 

We just watch the end-time phenomena unfold and examine ourselves.

If a Christian thinks that the Jewish temple that will be built in the future is related to his or her own salvation, then he or she would have a Jewish-level faith that does not know that his or her body is a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells.

Those who are called by God now seek signs like the Jews (1 Corinthians 1:22)

In fact, all people are called through signs.

Then, while listening to the Word, they come to know the grace that God has given them, and finally, because Christ is in them, they develop into faith of eternal life.

When people belonging to a certain group came to visit me, I told them that even the leader of your church was called by God like the Jews or those who see signs or visions.

However, because they did not hear the message of the cross of Christ, I told them that if they died now, they would go to the lake of fire.

This is because they all say that they believe in Jesus after seeing signs and have knowledge of Jesus, but do not know Christ.

Signs are God's calling when we are under the law, that is, in sin and death.

It is a powerful signal to hear the word of God, realize the message of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, receive forgiveness of sins through repentance and baptism, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, become one bread, one spirit, and one body with Christ, and put on the garment of righteousness that comes to God.

If you do not hear the voice of the Lord and follow his death and being raised, you will not follow him to the place where he gives eternal life (John 10:28), but will remain in that place where sin and death are, and you will become one who is not chosen, and you will be cast out into the outer darkness, gnashing your teeth and weeping bitterly.

It is because you have been deceived by the words of men. 

It is that important not to be deceived by the words of men.

The testimony of God is that we believe that we have eternal life because the Son is in us.

Therefore, not believing that the Son, Christ, is in us is making God, who gave the Son, a liar (1 John 5:9-12).

If we do not believe that the Son is life and the bread of life in us, we are only seeking perishable food (John 6:27).

Therefore, although the church in Corinth is the church of God and is in Christ Jesus, they are still fleshly and drink only milk, so they have the possibility of participating in holiness through God's discipline, but they receive a strong warning from Paul that if they do not have faith that Christ is in them, they will be rejected (2 Corinthians 13:5).

They will be cast out into outer darkness and will weep and gnash their teeth.

To put it simply, the Jews who have been called by God, the leaders of pseudo-religious groups who claim to have had miraculous experiences, and some believers who still believe only in Jesus and cling to signs, their current score is the lake of fire.

Just as when you are called by the nation and enter the training camp but are not yet accepted as a full-time soldier, you are no different from being neither a civilian nor a soldier.

However, the Jews still have a period of God’s providence to save the remnant, and those who have been called by God have the possibility of being chosen by hearing the word and learning the message of Christ’s cross, but because they are now in the place of sin and death, they are not sheep that have entered pen yet but sheep that are placed outside pen in the current eval‎uation.

These people are like fortune tellers who know the fate of others but do not know themselves, curing other people’s illnesses while their own bodies become a mess.

That is because they do not enter and exit through the door of the sheep, Christ, and do not obtain the pasture of life.

They do not know the principle.

That is why the choice of being called and dying with Christ and being resurrected, putting on Christ, eating and drinking Christ, and boldly approaching God is important.

Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.

Translated by  Nancy Chung

COME AND SEE WORLD MISSION