To Believe in Jesus – Part 16

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:14

འོན་ཀྱང་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ངས་གནང་བའི་ཆུ་འཐུངས་ན་ནམ་ཡང་སྐོམ་པར་མི་འགྱུར། ངས་གནང་བའི་ཆུ་འདི་མི་སུ་ཞིག་གི་སེམས་སུ་ཆུ་མིག་འཕྱུར་བ་ལྟ་བུ་ཞིག་ཏུ་གྱུར་ཏེ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པར་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

 

John 4:14

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

 

We continue with Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well

Now Jesus revealed to the woman at the well the true path to eternal life.

The idea of eternal life is highlighted throughout the Gospel of John together with the phrases “believe” and “know” with regards to Jesus –

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 3:16

16དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལ་གཅེས་ཤིང་བྱམས༌ཏེ། ཁོང་གི་སྲས་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ནམ་ཡང་འཇིག་པ་མེད་ཅིང་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར། ཁོང་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྲས་གཅིག་པོའང་མི་ཀུན་ལ་གནང༌བའོ།།

 

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 17:3

དད་ལྡན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁྱེད་རང་ནི་བདེན་པའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁོ་ན་དང་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་མངགས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་གཉིས་ངོ་ཤེས་པ་ནི་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཡིན་ནོ།།

 

John 17:3

And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

 

Although the ideal of eternal life is not highlighted explicitly in Old Testament but there were multiples mentions of judgement after death and warnings to choose between life and death, and also the idea of resurrection from the dead had been revealed in Scriptures.

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 26:19

ཁྱེད་ལ་དབང་བའི་འདས་པོ་རྣམས་གསོན་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། དེ་དག་གི་བེམ་པོ་རྣམས་ཡར་ལངས་ངེས། ས་རྡུལ་ཁྲོད་དུ་སྡོད་མཁན་དག་སད་ནས་དགའ་འབོད་བྱེད་དེ། ཅི་ལ་ཞེ་ན། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཟིལ་ཆར་ནི་ཞོགས་པའི་ཟིལ་པ་ཇི་བཞིན་ས་གཞིའི་འདས་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེང་ལ་འབབ་ཅིང་། ས་གཞིར་ཚེ་ལས་འདས་པ་རྣམས་ཕྱིར་སྤྲོད་དུ་འཇུག་གོ །

 

Isaiah 26:19

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You, who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!

 

The prophet Isaiah was looking forward to the future of resurrection. And both Ezekiel and Daniel also wrote of resurrection from the dead.

So by the time of Jesus, and as what is recorded in the Gospel of John, we now can have a better understanding of this “eternal life” promised and offered by Jesus.

The conversation with the woman at the well clearly illustrated the dynamics of “to believe” and “to know” Jesus, His teachings, His way to eternal life.

 

The path to eternal life

 

Apparently from the records of John the issue of “to know” and “to believe” in Jesus is being highlighted as the true path to eternal life and this needed to be better understood from two opposite negative situation –

 

1. Ignorance
2. Misleading knowledge

 

Jesus during the course of His public ministry did warn of false prophets because there were many false prophets teaching and spreading misleading message about salvation and eternal life. And the even more problematic problems about false prophets are those people who actually believed what these false prophets say and follow them.

Very often people are caught in a confused situation, what is truth what is false.

That explains a lot why the Gospel recorded endless disputes and disagreements Jesus had with the Pharisees and others religious groups and it is in this background that John emphasized “to know” and “to believe” in Jesus as the true path to eternal life and Jesus Himself said so!

 

གསུང་མགུར། 36:9

ཁྱེད་དྲུང་སྲོག་གི་འབྱུང་གནས༌ཡོད། །ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་འོད་ནང་ངེད་འོད༌མཐོང༌།།

 

Psalm 36:9

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.

 

གསུང་མགུར། 119:105

ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ནི་མདུན་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མེ༌དང༌། །ང་ཡི་ལམ་གྱི་འོད་ཟེར་དེ་ཡང༌ཡིན།།

 

Psalm 119:105

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

 

Jesus said to the woman about “spring of water welling up to eternal life” – that is the assurance of God’s provision and guidance to eternal life.

There are Christian group that teaches this “spring of water welling up to eternal life” refers to the infilling of the Holy Spirit and we need to have better understanding what is the function of the Holy Spirit in us?

The assurance of God’s provision and guidance to eternal life through Jesus and as we wait for the return of the Messiah we needed the constant refreshing of our souls.

To be continue ..

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 15

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:11-14

11ཡང་བུད་མེད་ན༌རེ། ཇོ་བོ་ལགས། ཁྲོན་པ་འདི་གཏིང་ཟབ་ཅིང་ཁྱེད་ལ་ཆུ་བཅུ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོ་བྱད་ཀྱང་མེད་པས་ཚེ་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཆུ་དེ་གང་ནས་ལེན༌ནམ། 12ངེད་ཅག་གི་མེས་པོ་ཡ་ཀོབ་ཀྱིས་ཁྲོན་པ་འདི་ངེད་རྣམས་ལ་གནང༌ཞིང༌། ཁོང་དང་རང་གི་བུ་རྣམས་དང་གཞན་ཡང་ཕྱུགས་ཟོག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁྲོན་པའི་ཆུ་འདི་འཐུངས་པ་ཡིན། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱེད་ནི་ཡ་ཀོབ་ལས་ཀྱང་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 13ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཆུ་འདི་འཐུང་བ་རྣམས་སླར་ཡང་སྐོམ་པར་འགྱུར༌མོད། 14འོན་ཀྱང་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ངས་གནང་བའི་ཆུ་འཐུངས་ན་ནམ་ཡང་སྐོམ་པར་མི་འགྱུར། ངས་གནང་བའི་ཆུ་འདི་མི་སུ་ཞིག་གི་སེམས་སུ་ཆུ་མིག་འཕྱུར་བ་ལྟ་བུ་ཞིག་ཏུ་གྱུར་ཏེ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པར་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

 

John 4:11-14

11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

 

John recorded the woman’s response to Jesus “are you greater than our father Jacob?“

The woman identifies with her ancestry, as a decedent of Jacob, part of Israel. But being Samaritan rejected by the Jewish court the Sanhedrin as rightful decedents of Jacob and to partake of proper worship in Jerusalem. So for the Samaritan who wanted to come Jerusalem to worship would be turned away.

 

Jesus came to redeem and restore those who are rejected due to man-made religious policies and here we see the fundamental dynamic of “believe in Jesus” to receive salvation and redemption.

 

There are people waiting for the Messiah but they have difficulties identifying the real Messiah, so Jesus came and revealed Himself to the Samaritan woman.

The Pharisees and the Sanhedrin had their ruling about who should be the Messiah and obviously Jesus was not one of their candidate therefore they were targeting Jesus to put Him down.

It was here in the Gospel of John 4 that Jesus gave a clear explanation to the Samaritan woman what does He mean by living water –

 

13ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཆུ་འདི་འཐུང་བ་རྣམས་སླར་ཡང་སྐོམ་པར་འགྱུར༌མོད། 14འོན་ཀྱང་སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ངས་གནང་བའི་ཆུ་འཐུངས་ན་ནམ་ཡང་སྐོམ་པར་མི་འགྱུར། ངས་གནང་བའི་ཆུ་འདི་མི་སུ་ཞིག་གི་སེམས་སུ་ཆུ་མིག་འཕྱུར་བ་ལྟ་བུ་ཞིག་ཏུ་གྱུར་ཏེ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་པར་བྱེད་ཅེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

 

The direct reference to eternal life is a clear indication to redemption and salvation the Samaritans had been searching and waiting for with regards to the coming Messiah.

Although the Samaritans had their version of the Pentateuch but they knew the writings of Moses and they knew God Almighty who have the ultimate power over life and death and to gift of eternal life rested in the Messiah chosen of God.

Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 is to be considered a major event in the history of human redemption.

The Apostle Paul provided a clear explanation about Jesus’ redemption work

 

ཀོ་རིན་ཐུ་པ་གཉིས་པ། 5:16-21

16དེའི༌ཕྱིར། བདག་ཅག་གིས་ད་ནས་བཟུང་མིའི་ཕྱི་ཡི་རྣམ་པར་མི༌བལྟའོ།། དེ་སྔོན་ཕྱིའི་རྣམ་པར་བལྟས་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ངོས་བཟུང་མྱོང་ཡང་ད་ལྟ་དེ་ལྟར་ངོས་མི་འཛིན་པས། 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 5:16-21

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 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.

 

That estrangement of relationship between Jews and Samaritans and on a broader perspective between Jews and Gentiles and on an even larger scale between God and Man, only Jesus who is the appointed Messiah chosen of God can heal the divide and brings about complete restoration.

 

To be continue ..

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 14

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:5-10

5སཱ་མར་ཡ་ཡུལ་གྱི་སི་གར་གྲོང་རྡལ་དུ་སླེབས་པ༌དང༌། གྲོང་རྡལ་དེ་སྔོན་ཆད་ཡ་ཀོབ་ཀྱིས་རང་གི་བུ་ཡོ་སེབ་ལ་གནང་བའི་ས་ཆ་དེ་དང་ཐག་ཉེ༌ཞིང༌། 6དེ་རུ་ཡ་ཀོབ་ཀྱི་ཁྲོན་པའང༌ཡོད། དེའི་ཚེ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའང་སྐུ་ངལ་ནས་ཁྲོན་པ་དེའི་འགྲམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པ༌དང༌། དུས་དེ་ནི་ཉིན་གུང་ཙམ་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

7-8སྐབས༌དེར། ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་གྲོང་རྡལ་དེ་ལ་ཁ་ཟས་ཉོ་རུ་སོང་ངོ༌།། དེ་ནས་སཱ་མར་ཡ་ཡུལ་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ཅིག་ཆུ་ལེན་དུ་ཡོང་བ༌དང༌། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་བུད་མེད་དེ་ལ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ལ་འཐུང་ཆུ་ཉུང་ཙམ་སྟེར་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 9སཱ་མར་ཡ་ཡུལ་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་པས་སཱ་མར་ཡ་ཡུལ་གྱི་བུད་མེད་བདག་ལྟ་བུ་ལས་ཆུ་སློང་ངམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། དེ་ནི་མ་གཞི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སཱ་མར་ཡ་པ་རྣམས་དང་འབྲེལ་འདྲིས་མི་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 10ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་གནང་སྦྱིན་དང་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཆུ་གནང་བར་མཛོད་ཅེས་ཟེར་མཁན་དེ་སུ་ཡིན་པ་ཤེས༌ན། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་མི་དེ་བསྟེན་ཅིང་ཁོས་ཀྱང་སྔ་མོ་ནས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཚེ་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཆུ་གནང་ངེས་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།

 

John 4:5-10

5 So he (Jesus) came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

 

Living Water

 

Continuing on Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well, the first mention of “living water” in the Gospel of John, and here we see another chapter of Jesus’ redemption ministry at work.

Jesus deliberately used the phrase “living water“ in His conversation and presented this “living water” as what the woman should ask for.

 

How would she perceive this offer of “living water”?

 

Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well, John recorded the first mention of “living water” and later in John chapter 7 “living water“ is mentioned second time in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles.

The idea of “living water” had been presented since times of old when prophets of God called for repentance and to return to His ways and teachings.

 

ཡེ་རེམ་ཡཱ། 2:13

13ཅི་ལ་ཞེ་ན། བདག་གི་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྤྱོད་ངན་གཉིས་སྤྱད་དེ། ཚེ་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཆུ་མིག་ཡིན་པ་ང་རང་བསྐྱུར་ནས་རང་གི་དོན་དུ་ཆུ་དོང་བརྐོས་པ་དང་། ཆུ་དོང་དེ་ནི་ཞིག་རལ་དུ་སོང་ནས་ཆུ་མི་འཚོག་པའི་ཆུ་དོང་ཞིག་ཡིན་ནོ། །

 

Jeremiah 2:13

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

 

In the records of the prophet Jeremiah, God presented Himself as “the fountain of living waters“ and what would that means to the nation of Israel when this message was delivered?

 

God who provided Redemption

 

Throughout the many messages from various prophets of old calling for Israel’s repentance there was that repeated reminder of how God delivered them from Egypt the house of bondage.

The same redemption as what we Christian today know as salvation and the bondage in Egypt what we could understand representing slavery to sin and death and no hope of eternal life.

So the message of Jeremiah 2:13 accused Israel of forsaking their redemption by rejecting their God who is “the fountain of living waters“! Means to say they were going back to sin and bondage, moving backward to the path of darkness and forsaking their hope of eternal life with God.

Jeremiah’s warning to the people of Israel was to turn them back to seek real redemption in God and to ensure their future eternal life with God.

Likewise Jesus’s offer of “living water” to the woman at the well is the offer of real redemption and salvation and hope of eternal life!

 

God the Source of Life and Full Blessing

 

God being “the fountain of living waters” also indicate being the source of life and full blessing of daily living.

For the people in the days of Jeremiah they should had understood the message reminding them it was God who protected them from their enemies and provided them bountiful harvest of the land that fed them and their families for good. But instead of being thankful to God who provided, they turn to idolatries, pagan worship, mixed religions, and eventually forgetting about God who delivered their forefathers from Egypt.

Jeremiah’s warning was issued in the backdrop of the Israelites practicing mixed religions with a stubborn attitude that eventually lead to their nation’s doom.

In the days of Jeremiah there were records of the people continuing worship at the Temple but at the same time participating in pagan worships!  As the confusion and corruption carried on and became saturated throughout the land it came a point the children of Israel look to God as a stranger! No longer recognizing or even heard of this God who delivered their forefathers from Egypt the house of bondage. And so as they continued to ignore God’s warning through Jeremiah they eventually lost total defense against enemies forces and suffered such sever famine they committed horrifying acts of cannibalism for survival as recorded in Lamentations.

Jeremiah’s Lamentations recorded Israel’s darkest history.

The Jews were subjected to various foreign rules till Jesus came to show them the way to true eternal redemption. And the way back to God is to first recognize their God (Jehovah) being “the fountain of living waters” and to reject other forms of false gods.

So back in the Gospel of John, Jesus was offering the woman at the well not only redemption from sin and death but also to partake in the source of life, eternal life, and the full blessing of God.

 

The Samaritans Believed in Jesus!

 

Previous lesson we discussed about the ongoing estrangement of relationship between Jews and Samaritans, and the construction of Mount Gerizim temple, plus the Samaritans having their own version of the Pentateuch, all these had swayed their perspective of redemption until this encounter with Jesus!

Here we see Jesus acting in kindness and compassion, in reaching out to the Samaritans, to show them the truth, to bring them back to proper relationship with God.

The Gospel of John recorded the amazing fact of these Samaritans believing in Jesus so much so that perhaps Jesus’ disciples who were Jews were in dis-belief!

The Samaritans who believed in Jesus had become a classic case study of receiving redemption and eternal life!

To be continue ..

 

David Z