To Believe in Jesus – Part 10

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 3:22-24

22དོན་དེ་དག་བྱུང་བའི་རྗེས༌སུ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་དང་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་དུ་ཕེབས༌ཤིང༌། ཡུལ་དེར་ལྷན་དུ་བཞུགས་པ་དང་ཁོང་གིས་མི་རྣམས་ལ་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཛད། 23ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་གྱིས་ཀྱང་སཱ་ལིམ་ཡུལ་དང་ཉེ་བའི་ཨེ་ནོན་ཞེས་པའི་གནས་སུ་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་བྱེད་བཞིན་ཡོད༌དེ། གནས་དེ་རུ་ཆུ་མང་པོ་ཡོད་པས་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱང་གནས་དེར་ཕྱིན་ནས་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་ལ་ཞུགས་སོ།། 24དེའི་དུས་སུ་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་ད་དུང་བཙོན་དུ་བཅུག་མེད༌པའོ།།

 

John 3:22-24

22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for John had not yet been put in prison).

 

Baptizing for those who believed what Jesus said.

Previous lessons we discussed the key problem of disbelief and disobedient against God’s will and how the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin in their institutional position rejected John the Baptist and rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Therefore they do not support and encourage baptism under John the Baptist although there were individuals who broke ranks from their religious orders and went ahead to get baptized.

So, for all those people who came to be baptized either by John the Baptist or Jesus, they did so believing what was spoken and taught by both John the Baptist and Jesus. They believed in the judgement of God to come and that all Man should repent of their sins and trust in God’s chosen Messiah for salvation.

John the Baptist’s baptism was a baptism to repentance and what was it that went against the doctrine and instructions of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin?

Did not the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin read from the same Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets? Were they not waiting for the Messiah as well?

The same problem with today’s institutional churches divided into multiple denominations. The question of how do these leaders and teachers interpret the Bible?

Let look at what John the Baptist said exposing the misleading teachings of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin –

 

མད་ཐཱ། 3:7-12

7འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་གྱིས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དང་སཱ་ཅུ་སེ་པ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཛད་པའི་གནས་ལ་ཡོང་བ་གཟིགས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་གིས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། དུག་སྦྲུལ་གྱི་རྒྱུད་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་མ་འོངས་པའི་ཐུགས་ཁྲོ་ལས་འབྲོ་བར་བསྟན༌ནམ། 8དེ་བས་ན་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་འགྱོད་བཤགས་དང་མཐུན་པའི་འབྲས་བུ་ལེགས་པོར་སྐྱེད༌ཅིག 9ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་སེམས་སུ་ཨབ་ར་ཧམ་ནི་ངེད་ཅག་གི་ཡབ་མེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་མ་སེམས༌ཤིག ངས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རྡོ་འདི་དག་ལས་ཨབ་ར་ཧམ་ལ་བུ་རྒྱུད་འབྱུང་བར་མཛད་ནུས༌སོ།། 10ད་ནི་སྟ་རེ་སྡོང་རྩར་བཞག་ཡོད༌དེ། ཤིང་སྡོང་གང་ལ་འབྲས་བུ་ལེགས་པོ་མི་སྨིན་པ་དེ་བཅད་ནས་མེའི་ནང་དུ་འཕེན་པར༌ངེས། 11ངས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཆུ་ཡིས་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་བྱེད༌ཅིང༌། དེ་ནི་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་འགྱོད་བཤགས་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཡིན༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་ལས་ཀྱང་མཐུ་སྟོབས་ཆེ་བ་ཞིག་ཕེབས་ཡོང་ངེས༌ཏེ། ང་ནི་ཁོང་གི་ལྷམ་འཁྱེར་མཁན་དུའང་མི་འོས༌སོ། །ཁོང་གིས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དང་མེས་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཛད་པར༌འགྱུར། 12ཁོང་གིས་ཕྱག་ཏུ་ཚེབ་བཟུང་ནས་རང་གི་གཡུལ་ཁ་གཙང་དག་ལེགས་པོར་མཛད་པ༌དང༌། གྲོ་བང་མཛོད་དུ་བསྡུ་བར༌འགྱུར། འོན་ཀྱང་ཕུབ་མ་དེ་དག་ཞི་བ་མེད་པའི་མེ་རུ་བསྲེག་པར་ངེས་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

 

Matthew 3:7-12

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

 

This presumption of salvation by race and bloodline is an age old problem not restricted to Jews and Christians but across world religions and pagan worship.

Such presumption of salvation by race and bloodline totally goes against what is written in scripture about God’s moral laws and the obligations to live out the righteousness of God.

The presumption of salvation by race and bloodline had given rise to corruption and abuse of position since Adam left the Garden of Eden.

Salvation by race and bloodline is a form of rebellious doctrine against God’s definition of sin as revealed in scripture.

 

What we should know about sin against God had been overturned by presumptions coded outside the will of God.

 

In previous post we discussed the challenges of gospel outreach in presenting human need for salvation due to sin. And how do we explain sin? What is sin?

God’s moral law is the most adequate teaching material for all Man to address any confusion about sin. Therefore those in persistent disagreement will eventually reject the moral law code of God revealed in scripture.

Sin is in the acts of Man’s behavior, speeches, and thoughts, in opposite and contradiction against God’s teachings.

So, therefore, whenever there is the attempt to re-interpret and re-define God’s teachings according to human thoughts there is the intention to marginalize our obligation to turn away from sin and sinful behavior. Means people finding excuses not to repent.

Does it seem obvious today we have so much confusion about sin? Because we have too many people’s opinions about sin which do not agree with the moral law code of God revealed in scripture.

The world religious groups, pagan worships, coupled with man-made code about morals and ethics, all of which to manipulate and redefine God’s law to please human expectations, have been causing endless confusion and therefore the whole world continues the path of sin instead of responding to Jesus’s call for repentance.

Christian interfaith movement is in danger of turning away from the moral law code of God revealed in scripture.

 

རོ་མཱ་པ། 7:7

དེས་ན་ངེད་ཅག་གིས་ཅི་ཞིག༌སྨྲའམ། བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ནི་སྡིག་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེ༌ན། གཏན་ནས་མིན༌ནོ།། འོན་ཀྱང་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་མེད་ན་ངས་སྡིག་པ་ནི་ཅི་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་མི་ཤེས། བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ལས་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ། འདོད་ཧམ་བཅང་མི་རུང་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་མིན༌ན། བདག་གིས་འདོད་ཧམ་ནི་ཅི་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་མི་ཤེས་སོ།།

 

Romans 7:7

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

 

What Paul had written to the Romans’ believers does not mean if a person who does not know the law can claim innocent. No! But the purpose and existence of the law as a form of code is to clear confusion about what is sin. Like for example in civic society we have penal code to clarify what is wrongful acts that warrant punishment.

Back to the incident where people where coming to John the Baptist and Jesus to be baptized, these were the people who accepted John the Baptist and Jesus’ interpretation about what is written in scripture.

Those who rejected Jesus and John the Baptist had swayed to the camp of those who re-define and re-interpret God’s moral law according to their man-made doctrines.

So we see a clear divide between John the Baptist and Jesus on one side and the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin together singing a different tune and causing confusion.

 

David Z