To Believe in Jesus – Part 7
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 3:9-15
9ཡང་ནེ་ཀོ་དེམ་ན༌རེ། དེས་ན་དོན་འདི་རྣམས་ཇི་ལྟར་འབྱུང་སྲིད་དམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ལ། 10ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ནི་ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་མི་རིགས་ཀྱི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཡིན་ཡང་དོན་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་མི་ཤེས༌སམ། 11བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཅི་ཤེས་པ་སྨྲས་ཤིང་དངོས་སུ་མཐོང་བ་དེར་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས་པ༌ཡིན། འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ངེད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བདེན་དཔང་ཁས་མི་ལེན༌པ་རེད། 12བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ས་གཞིའི་སྟེང་གི་དོན་རྣམས་བཤད་པར་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ཡིད་མི་ཆེས༌ན། ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ཀྱི་དོན་རྣམས་སྨྲས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ཇི་ལྟར་ཡིད་ཆེས་པར་འགྱུར༌རམ། 13དེ་ཡང་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ནས་ཕེབས་པའི་མིའི་བུ་ལས༌གཞན། སུ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་འཕགས་མ་མྱོང༌། 14སྔོན་ཆད་མོ་ཤེ་ཡིས་དབེན་སྟོང་ཡུལ་ནས་སྦྲུལ་ཞིག་གྱེན་དུ་བསྒྲེངས་པ༌ལྟར། མིའི་བུ་ཡང་གྱེན་དུ་བསྒྲེང་བར་འགྱུར་དགོས༌ཏེ། 15མིའི་བུ་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་ཕྱིར༌ཡིན།
John 3:9-15
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Continuing from previous lesson where Jesus repeated His message to Nicodemus “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”. And Jesus’ reference to “water“, “wind“, and “Spirit“, Nicodemus who was a ruler of the Jews would had knew the connection to what was written in Exodus 14 and Ezekiel 37.
སྡེབ་ཐོན 14 (Exodus 14) – Moses led the children to cross the Red Sea. We today understood that with strong connection to John the Baptist water baptism. To die to our acts of disobedience to God’s words, repent of our sins, live the new life God have given us through Jesus! But the Pharisees, Sadducee, and the Sanhedrin, rejected John the Baptist water baptism, and rejected obedience to God’s will.
ཨི་ཛི་ཀི་ཨེལ 37 (Ezekiel 37) – What happen to those dry bones do speaks of God’s power to restore and revive, and the Pharisees did understood Ezekiel’s message to means God’s power of resurrection! But the Sadducee rejected any belief of resurrection, and that means to reject the power of God!
Surprisingly Nicodemus responded “How can these things be?”
What was it that Nicodemus could not understand?
How could a person be born again?
Nicodemus being a member of the Sanhedrin, the possibility of him struggling between two opposing view of the Pharisees and Sadducee were there. In those days the Sanhedrin had obvious bipartisan disagreement first and foremost and there were more different opinions involved from other smaller groups invited into the council.
At that time of Nicodemus meeting with Jesus, the whole nation had known of the public ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus. And there were already incidents where Jesus raised the dead –
ལོ་ཀུ 7:11-17 (Luke 7:11-17) – Widow’s Son at Nain
ལོ་ཀུ 8:49-56 (Luke 8:49-56) – Jairus’ Daughter
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 11:1-44 (John 11:1-44) – Lazarus was raised from the dead. This incident may have happened after Nicodemus meeting with Jesus but there were already known incidents of Jesus raising the dead.
Nicodemus should had known about Elijah and Elisha raising the dead –
རྒྱལ་རབས་དང་པོ། 17:17-24 (1 King 17:17-24) – Widow of Zarephath’s Son
རྒྱལ་རབས་གཉིས་པ། 4:18-37 (2 Kings 4:18-37) – Shunammite’s Son
And finally Jesus used the incident where Moses “lifted up the serpent in the wilderness” to address what was it that was hindering Nicodemus understanding God’s power to enable a person to be born again.
Disbelieve and disobedience to act upon the will of God.
The Incident of Moses lifting up the serpent can be found in གྲངས་ཀ 21:4-9 (Numbers 21:4–9).
Back then the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness were expressing their disbelief in God’s salvation through their bitter antagonizing speeches against God and Moses.
So God in His anger and wrath released venomous snakes among them and many were bitten and died. But those who survived and were suffering cried out to Moses for help!
And why would God instructed Moses to raise a bronze serpent instead of letting them experience instant miraculous healing?
The bronze serpent symbolized their sin and the judgement of God which befell them. The very act of those who survived gazing towards the raised serpent meant to look to God for mercy while in full public acknowledgment of their sins against God’s, in particular their sins of disbelieve against God power to save and to bring them into the Promised Land.
Means to say, they were to learn to exercise their faith in God, to repent of their sins of disbelieve and disobedience against God’s word. And so as they acted in faith to confess their sins of disobedience and repent of their sins in public they did have their healing.
The raised serpent was also prophetic of Jesus dying on the cross on behalf of our sins. And Jesus’ death on the cross had become symbolic worldwide of how we should look to Jesus in faith to seek salvation and deliverance from our sins and judgement.
ཀོ་རིན་ཐུ་པ་གཉིས་པ། 5:17-21
17སུ་ཞིག་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ནང་དུ་ཡོད༌ན། མི་དེ་ནི་གསར་དུ་བསྐྲུན་པའི་མི་ཡིན༌ལ། འདས་དོན་ཚང་མ་མེད་པར་གྱུར་ཅིང་། ལྟོས་དང་། གསར་པ་དེ་བྱུང་འདུག་གོ། 18དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང་བ༌སྟེ། ཁོང་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་བདག་ཅག་ཁོང་དང་འདུམ་པར་མཛད་པ༌དང༌། མི་རྣམས་ཁོང་དང་འདུམ་པར་མཛད་པའི་ལས་འགན་ཡང་བདག་ཅག་ལ་གནང༌བ་ཡིན། 19དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ནང་དུ་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་མི་རྣམས་ཁོང་ཉིད་དང་འདུམ་པར་མཛད༌ཅིང༌། ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཉེས་སྐྱོན་ཁོ་རྣམས་ལ་མི་འགེལ༌བར། འདུམ་པར་མཛད་པའི་བཀའ་ཡང་བདག་ཅག་ལ་བཅོལ་བ་ཡིན། 20དེ་བས་ངེད་ཅག་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་སྐུ་ཚབ་པ་ཡིན༌ལ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ངེད་ཅག་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་བསྐུལ་བ༌བཞིན། ངེད་ཅག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ཚབ་བྱས་ནས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་དང་འདུམ་པར༌ཞུའོ།། 21བདག་ཅག་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་ནང་ནས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་མི་རྣམ་དག་ཏུ་འགྱུར་བའི༌ཕྱིར། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་སྡིག་པ་མེད་པ་དེ་ཉིད་བདག་ཅག་གི་ཚབ་ཏུ་སྡིག་པར་མཛད༌དོ།།
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Paul explained “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin”
Jesus is sinless yet He was crucified in sin for us!
As we acted in faith to believe in God’s salvation through Jesus, and repent of our sins, we also receive healing for our relationship with God and a new born-again life in Christ being empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The power of God to save and redeem have been displayed since the times of old and there were those who choose not to believe and therefore Nicodemus’ struggle with disbelieve had been a long standing problem.
To be continue ….
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 