To Believe in Jesus

To Believe in Jesus – Part 22

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 22

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:25-26

25ཡང་བུད་མེད་ན༌རེ། ངས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་སྟེ་ཁི་རིའི་སི་ཐོ་ཟེར་བ་དེ་ཕེབས་ངེས་པ་ཤེས༌ལ། ཁོང་ཉིད་ཕེབས་ནས་ངེད་རྣམས་ལ་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་གསུང་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌ལ། 26སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་གླེང་བཞིན་པའི་མི་དེ་ནི་ང་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 4:25-26

25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

 

Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well had reached a definite conclusion that Jesus explicitly revealed His identity that He is the Messiah she and her fellow Samaritans were waiting for!

We know from what John wrote that the Samaritans believed what Jesus said and received Him gladly. Here is a good example of believing in Jesus.

What happen here was a sharp contrast to the same contextual conversation about who is the Messiah between Jesus and the Jews in John 10 –

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:23-25

23སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཆོད་ཁང་ནས་སོ་ལོ་མོན་ཞེས་པའི་ཁྱམས་རར་ཞབས་ཀྱིས་བཅགས་ཤིང་། 24ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་གི་མཐའ་བསྐོར་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་གི་བར་དུ་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་ཐེ་ཚོམ་སྐྱེས་སུ་འཇུག༌གམ། ཁྱེད་རང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ན་ངེད་ཅག་ལ་གསལ་པོར་གསུང་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 25དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་གིས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་སྨྲས་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཡིད་མ་ཆེས། བདག་གིས་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་མཚན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་མཛད་པའི་ལས་དེ་དག་གིས་ང་རང་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱེད༌པ་ཡིན།

John 10:23-25

23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,

 

Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah were in the majority and those who believed had to keep low profile for fear of verbal assault, condemned as traitors of their Jewish identity, and being ostracized from the synagogue.

There was that collective systematic and organized public rejection of Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God among the Jews in the days of the Gospels.

 

What was the rejection about?

 

Remember the repeated theme through the Gospel of John – believe in Jesus – this was happening in the circumstance of systematic rejection of Jesus as Messiah chosen of God and serve to encourage those who believe.

Back in the opening message of the Gospel of John the author warned about an ongoing social-political predicament facing their Jewish identity –

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:9-13

9གཟི་འོད་དེ་ཉིད་འོད་ཟེར་དངོས་མ༌སྟེ།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་ཡོངས་སུ་འཕྲོས་ནས་མི་ཀུན༌གསལ།།

10དེ་ཡང་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་བཞུགས༌ཤིང༌།།

ཁོང་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་བསྐྲུན་ན༌ཡང༌།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཤེས་མ༌གྱུར།།

11ཁོང་ནི་རང་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕེབས་ན༌ཡང༌།།

རང་ཡུལ་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ལ་བསུ་བ༌མེད།།

12ཁོང་ཉིད་བསུ་ཞིང་ཁོང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ནི།།

དད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་བུ་ཕྲུག་ལ༎

འགྱུར་བར་མཛད་པའི་དབང་ཡང་ཁོང་གིས༌གནང༌།།

13དད་ལྡན་སྐྱེ་བོ་སོ་སོ་དེ་རྣམས༌ནི།།

མི་ཡི་ཁྲག་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ལ།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་ཆགས་དབང་གིས་མ་སྐྱེས༌ཤིང༌།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་མོས་བཞིན་དུ་སྐྱེས་པའང༌མིན།།

དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ལགས།།

John 1:9-13

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

The children of Israel had the privilege of receiving the Torah and the writings of the Prophets that revealed to them the coming Messiah and of God’s ultimate redemption for His chosen.

For a long time there has been ongoing debate about who are God’s chosen? And both Jesus and John the Baptist confronted the Jews about their misleading doctrine of Jewish Entitlement that assumed redemption based on race and nationality.

We can read from factual records in the Gospels, when Jesus extended God’s salvation and redemption to Gentiles, non-Jews, and those who were ostracized from the Jewish synagogue it trigged heated aggressive objection from the Sanhedrin to the extend they plotted to kill Jesus.

The Gospel of John’s message to believe in Jesus not only addresses God’s provision of salvation through Jesus but also of judgement through rejection of God’s moral laws revealed through Moses.

 

To believe in Jesus is to believe in both the judgement and salvation of God.

 

God has the authority to judge and He also provided the option for forgiveness and redemption based on His grace and mercy but within the condition of obedience to His words and teachings. Therefore God have the ultimate power and authority over life and death.

Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God revealed the ultimate redemption of God from sin and death offered to people of all race and nationality based on the same condition of trust and obedience to God’s teachings and moral standard.

To believe in Jesus is to obey God call to trust and obey His path of redemption.

To be continue

David Z