To Believe in Jesus – Part 114
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 10:27-30
27ངའི་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ངའི་སྐད་ལ་ཉན་པ༌དང༌། ངས་ཀྱང་ལུག་དེ་དག་ངོ་ཤེས་ཏེ་ལུག་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང༌ངོ་།། 28ཡང་བདག་གིས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་སྩོལ༌བས། དེ་དག་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་སུས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ལག་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་མི་ནུས།
29བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱིས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་གནང་ཞིང་ཁོང་ཉིད་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཀྱང་བདག་གི་ཡབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་ནས་ལུག་དེ་རྣམས་འཕྲོག་པར་མི་ནུས། 30བདག་དང་ཡབ་ནི་ངོ་བོ་གཅིག་རང་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
John 10:27-30
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Continuing with Jesus’ conversation with a specific group of Jews whom He said were not His sheep because of their disbelief and refusal to trust and obey as they did not accept Jesus’ authority from the Father at that moment.
I think it was the same group who rejected the baptism of John the Baptist.
From here Jesus pointed out
- Relationship between His sheep and Him
- The promise of eternal life for His sheep
- The assurance of eternal life
- The power and authority of the Father to protect and preserve His sheep
- Jesus’ relationship with the Father
Obviously the first thing Jesus pointed out is
Trust and Obedience
The subject of trust and obedience is the core foundation of our faith in Christ.
Jesus talked about His sheep hearing His voice and follows Him, and that precisely address the issue of trust and obedience.
In our life as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we need a clear understanding by ourselves first and foremost how do we actually follow Jesus?
It is about believing what Jesus teaches and preaches, and acting upon what Jesus instructed us to do.
This is what it means to be His sheep – Jesus’ sheep – to believe Him, to trust Him, and to follow His teachings.
Furthermore this trust and obedience we have in Jesus will result in us being recognized and known by our Master and that He knows we are His sheep.
The second important thing Jesus pointed out is the promise of eternal life.
This subject of eternal life is in fact a very important and complex matter that both Jews and Gentiles believers have yet to have complete understanding of because this is something of a future for us. And the background issue about eternal life is death and the afterlife. Means to say when we deal with the subject of eternal life, in the back of our mind we are thinking about if this can be the better option for us as an individual and how can we be sure we can have it.
We need to recognize the fact that we do not know the reality of eternal life until we have it. We are hanging on to a future promise yet to be fulfilled.
So the whole idea of eternal life have been very difficult to comprehend because we are hanging on future promises, and the guarantee of that future promise for us in Christ seems to be in the death and resurrection of Jesus!
The Jews themselves who have the teachings of God delivered to them through Moses on Mount Sinai are also waiting on a future promise, but a different kind of future promise from what we expect in Jesus the Christ.
Apparently the only clear explicit record about this subject of eternal life is back in Genesis in the creation of Man when Adam and Eve had access to the Tree of Life before they sinned against the warnings of God and were forfeited of the access to the fruits of the Tree of Life which would had allowed them to live forever.
Because of Adam’s sin, all of humanity is condemned to death.
Scripture of old points to the coming Messiah and the restoration of Man to life with God. Perhaps this is one reason Jewish rabbinic teachings do advocate the future revelation of a permanent Messianic Age here on Earth. This is in contrast to Christian theological perspective of a definite thousand year of reign by the Messiah.
So the subject of eternal life is not easy to comprehend and I think the apostle Paul had left us a better perspective of eternal life and about our promises and hope in Jesus the Christ –
ཀོ་རིན་ཐུ་པ་དང་པོ། 15:50-58
50སྤུན་ཟླ༌རྣམས། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲ་བར་བྱ༌སྟེ། ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ཕུང་བོར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད༌ལ། ངེས་པར་འཇིག་སྲིད་པ་ལ་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པ་དེའང་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད། 51ལྟོས༌དང༌། ད་ལྟ་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་གསང་བའི་དོན་ཞིག་སྨྲ་བར༌བྱ། བདག་ཅག་ཐམས་ཅད་འཆི་བར་འགྱུར་བ་མིན༌ཏེ། 52མཇུག་མཐའི་དུང་སྒྲ་གྲགས་པའི་དུས༌སུ། སྐད་ཅིག་མའམ་མིག་རྡེབ་དབང་ཙམ་ལ་བདག་ཅག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ལུས་པོ་འགྱུར་ངེས༌སོ།། དུང་སྒྲ་དེ་གྲགས་པ་དང་། འདས་པོ་རྣམས་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་ཅིང་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པར་མི་འགྱུར༌ཏེ། བདག་ཅག་གི་ལུས་པོའང་འགྱུར་ངེས་ཡིན། 53འཇིག་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལུས་པོ་འདི་ཡིས་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པ་གྱོན་དགོས་ཤིང༌། འཆི་བར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལུས་པོ་འདི་ཡིས་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་པ་གྱོན་དགོས་སོ།། 54ཡང་འཇིག་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལུས་པོ་འདི་ཡིས་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པ་གྱོན་པ་དང་། འཆི་བར་འགྱུར་བའི་ལུས་པོ་འདི་ཡིས་ནམ་ཡང་འཆི་བ་མེད་པ་གྱོན་པའི་ཚེ། གསུང་རབ་ཀྱི་མདོ་ལས་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།
རྒྱལ་ཁས་འཆི་བ་ལ་ནི་ཁྱུར་མིད༌བཏང༌།།
ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་འགྲུབ་པར་འགྱུར༌རོ།། 55ཡང་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།
ཀྱེ་མ་འཆི་བ་ཁྱོད་ལ་རྒྱལ་ཁ་ཡོད་སྲིད་དམ།།
ཀྱི་ཧུད་འཆི་བ་ཁྱོད་ལ་དུག་མདུང་ཡོད་སྲིད་དམ།།
ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 56འཆི་བའི་དུག་མདུང་ནི་སྡིག་པ་ཡིན༌ལ། སྡིག་པའི་དབང་ཤུགས་ནི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ཡིན། 57འོན༌ཀྱང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་བདག་ཅག་གི་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་བརྒྱུད༌ནས། བདག་ཅག་རྒྱལ་བར་མཛད་པས་ཁོང་ལ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ༌ཞུའོ།།
58དེའི༌ཕྱིར། བདག་གི་སྙིང་ཉེ་བའི་སྤུན་ཟླ༌རྣམས། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ངེས་པར་འགྱུར་མེད་བརྟན་པོར་སྡོད་པར༌གྱིས། གཙོ་བོའི་ནང་དུ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ངལ་བའི་ལས་ནི་དོན་མེད་དུ་མི་འགྱུར་བ་ཤེས་པ་བཞིན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་གཙོ་བོའི་ལས་དོན་འབད་པས་སྒྲུབས་ཤིག །
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and schooled under Gamaliel the Elder, before he switched camp to follow Jesus. Therefore Jews, even till today, regarded Paul as a heretic because he believed and preached Jesus as the Messiah chosen of God.
The background of Paul meant he was an expert in rabbinic teachings and understood Hebrew traditions in scripture interpretations and he knew what kind of disagreements his fellow Jews had with Jesus especially about the kingdom of God.
Therefore Paul warned them, and us,
སྤུན་ཟླ༌རྣམས། བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲ་བར་བྱ༌སྟེ། ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ཕུང་བོར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད༌ལ། ངེས་པར་འཇིག་སྲིད་པ་ལ་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པ་དེའང་འཐོབ་མི་སྲིད།
“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable”
In summary Paul explained the importance of our resurrection to inherit eternal life.
Please take note of Paul’s discourse in 1 Corinthians 15 about resurrection, the point of contention was not about Jesus’ resurrection but there were those who claimed to be believers and followers of Christ they believed in the resurrection of Christ which cannot be denied and they questions their own resurrection.
In other words there were believers who think and believe the resurrection of Jesus is an isolated incident for Jesus and nothing to do with them as individual!
Back to the message in John 10, Jesus talked about promise of eternal life for His sheep, and we must not missed out the connection between Jesus’ promise of eternal and our future resurrection in Christ.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 