To Believe in Jesus – Part 56

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:39-47

39ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གསུང་རབ་ལས་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཡོད་པར་བསམས་ཤིང་ནན་གྱིས་བརྟགས༌ནའང༌། གསུང་རབ་དེ་ལས་བདག་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས་ཡོད། 40འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བདག་གི་གམ་དུ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་ཆེད་དུའང་ཡོང་མི་འདོད༌དོ།།

41དེ་ཡང་བདག་ནི་མི་རྣམས་ལས་བཀུར་སྟི་འཐོབ་མི་འདོད་དོ།། 42འོན་ཀྱང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བྱམས་པ་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་སེམས་ནང་དུ་མེད་པ་བདག་གིས་ཤེས། 43བདག་ནི་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་མཚན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཡོང་ནའང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་ལ་བསུ་བ་མི་བྱེད་ཅིང་། གལ་ཏེ་མི་གཞན་ཞིག་རང་གི་མིང་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཡོང་ན་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བསུ་བ་བྱེད༌པ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 44ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཕན་ཚུན་ལ་བཀུར་སྟི་བྱེད་པ༌ལས། དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ནས་བྱུང་བའི་བསྟོད་བསྔགས་དེ་ལའང་མི་དགའ༌ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ཇི་ལྟར་བདག་ལ་དད་པ་བྱའམ། 45འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ངས་རང་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་དྲུང་ནས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྐྱོན་བརྗོད་པར་ངེས་ཞེས་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་མ་སེམས༌ཤིག ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཉེས་སྐྱོན་བརྗོད་མཁན་ནི་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རེ་ལྟོས་བྱས་པའི་མོ་ཤེ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 46གལ་ཏེ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་མོ་ཤེ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཡོད་ན་བདག་ལའང་ཡིད་ཆེས་ཡོད་དགོས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་གིས་བདག་གི་སྐོར་ཡི་གེར་བཀོད་ཡོད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 47འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་མོ་ཤེའི་མདོ་རྣམས་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་མེད་ན་བདག་གིས་སྨྲས་པའི་གཏམ་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་ཡིད་ཆེས་སམ་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

John 5:39-47

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

 

What Jesus said here about scripture need not be taken in a negative approach because we do need to study scripture to know the truth about God’s redemption for Man, how God will save us from sin and death through the Messiah (Jesus Christ) and to provide for us the gift of eternal life.

Continuing from previous post where we discussed about the key issue of trust and obedience, what Jesus said here to those Jews who were opposing Him could be better understood in our modern language

 

To Practice What We Learn

 

The contentions between these Jews and Jesus were still in the context of Jesus’ identity and His authority from God the Father, how they interpreted scriptures, and how they think they should approach God. It was very obvious from their arguments and disagreements, Jesus did not agree with how they had been taught to worship and serve God.

Although Jesus did not made public announcement He is the Messiah chosen of God and given authority over life and death, but there were obvious signs pointing to it!

We discussed about John the Baptist’s witness and testimony which these Jewish folks knew and some accepted because they went to be baptized of John.

Majority of the Jewish folks who had gathered around Jerusalem to participate in any of the three major Feast of the Lord would had known of the prophet Malachi’s prophesy about the coming Messiah. They were looking forward to the day when the Messiah will appear and they had their expectation of a full restoration of Israel as a nation being free from foreign rule.

Where did they get that idea the coming Messiah will liberate Israel from Roman rule? They had been taught by the Pharisees and approved by the Sanhedrin!

Looking back to history, from the time of Jeremiah when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, that land had been subjected to Gentiles rulers even till the time of Jesus. After Babylon, Persian took over, next came the Greeks, and then the Romans.

During the time of Nehemiah when a minority group of Jews who had been exiled to Babylon return to Jerusalem they had been looking forward to the full restoration of Israel as a nation free from foreign rule and having their own king reinstated.

During the time of John the Baptist and Jesus, Israel still had no king of their own but they were looking forward to it. Herod wanted to fill that position but not accepted!

With regards to the position and function of the Messiah, whatever the synagogue leaderships had been teaching to these Jewish folks, there was the expectation the timing of the appearing of the Messiah should coincide with the full restoration of Israel.

And right here in John 5:39-47, this conversation between Jesus and those Jews who disagree with Him exposed their problem of knowing scripture but refusing to believe in Him being sent of God!

 

So why were they rejecting Jesus?

 

The short brief answer is – Jesus was not the Messiah they wanted!

They know they needed God to save them but they wanted salvation according to their method and based on how they interpreted scripture!

Jesus was teaching and preaching repentance while they were expecting a Messiah to get rid of the Romans and free Israel from foreign rule!

Notice how the author John recorded Jesus’ emphasis on “eternal life” in this conversation with the Jews

 

39ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གསུང་རབ་ལས་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཡོད་པར་བསམས་ཤིང་ནན་གྱིས་བརྟགས༌ནའང༌། གསུང་རབ་དེ་ལས་བདག་ལ་བདེན་དཔང་བྱས་ཡོད། 40འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བདག་གི་གམ་དུ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་ཆེད་དུའང་ཡོང་མི་འདོད༌དོ།།

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

 

Throughout the Gospel of John this subject of eternal life is being highlighted often and along with the emphasis to believe in Jesus.

 

When we think of Jesus we think of eternal life, it is impossible to separate the name Jesus from the subject of eternal life!

 

What Jesus had been preaching and teachings exposed our human sins and our need for a savior, and as according to what Jesus advocated – repentance and to live in obedience to His teachings so that we may have hope of eternal life and to be delivered from sin and death completely when we receive the full reward of eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Let’s look at what Paul teaches about our salvation in Christ based on faith and the grace of God

 

ཐེ་ཏུ། 2:11-14

11ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། མི་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱོབ་པར་མཛད་པའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ནི་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བྱུང༌སྟེ། 12བདག་ཅག་གིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་དད་གུས་མི་བྱེད་པའི་སེམས་དང་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་འདོད་ཆགས་སྤོང་བར་བྱེད་པ༌དང༌། བསྐལ་པ་འདིར་བག་ཡོད་པ་དང་གཞུང་དྲང༌བ། དད་གུས་ངང་འཚོ་བ་རོལ་བ་དང་། 13བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་སྟེ་བདག་ཅག་གི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་གཟི་བརྗིད་ངང་ནས་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་ཕེབས་ཡོང་བའི་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ལྡན་པའི་རེ་བར་སྒུག༌པའི་ཕྱིར་ཡིན། 14བདག་ཅག་ཉེས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ནས་བླུ་བ༌དང༌། ཁོང་ཉིད་ལ་དབང་བའི་མི་སྡེ་ལས་བཟང་པོར་བརྩོན་པ་ཞིག་གཙང་མར་མཛད་པའི་ཆེད་དུ། ཁོང་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཀྱང་བློས་བཏང་བའོ།།

Titus 2:11-14

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

 

So therefore it has become obvious those who were opposing Jesus were rejecting His call for repentance from sinful lives.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z