To Believe in Jesus – Part 45
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 5:24
24ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་ཞིང་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན༌ན། མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཐོབ་ཡོད་པ༌དང༌། ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། མི་དེ་རྣམས་འཆི་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་ནས་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།
John 5:24
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
In previous post I discussed the connection between what Jesus said and Malachi’s message. The main point about being a Son of God and addressing God as Father is about obedience that pleases God the Father.
With regards to the covenant relationship between God and the nation of Israel the condition of obedience have long been a well-established factor if Israel will continue to be blessed by God and if they as a nation will be allowed to stay in the Promised Land.
The dispersion of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians and the eventual deportation of the kingdom of Judah to Babylon was clearly noted in history due to the persistent disobedience of the nation of Israel. But not every single Jews rebelled against God, there were few who remain faithful and they did suffered to a certain extend the disaster that befall the nation and for these few who persevere in faith God promise to restore.
The prophet Jeremiah was among those few who remained faithful. And his writing in Lamentations reflected the darkest moment of Israel’s history whereby Israel national leadership’s persistent disobedience to God’s words sealed their judgement. Nevertheless within the writings of this very sad message the hope that a remnant who persevere in faithfulness and obedience will receive the grace and forgiveness of God for future restoration but the same condition for obedience remains.
Now in John 5 with the appearance of Jesus whom God had chosen to be the Messiah to redeem Man from sin and death, there is included in the salvation plan of God for all Man to restore the children of Israel together with Gentiles to fellowship with God but with the same condition of obedience.
It is a well-established fact that the salvation plan of God for Man is open to all people regardless of race and nationalities but the same condition of obedience applies. Therefore when Jesus started His public ministry He proclaimed “The kingdom of God is at hand, repent”.
In Acts 10 the incident when Jesus sent Peter to preach to the non-Jews community, Peter fulfilled his duty with the same message and call for repentance and obedience to God’s words and teachings.
The ultimate blessing and restoration for all mankind by Jesus the Messiah involve the gift of eternal life and therefore Jesus said here in John 5
ཡང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་དག་པར་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་ཞིང་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ལ་དད་པ་བྱས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན༌ན། མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་ཐོབ་ཡོད་པ༌དང༌། ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་། མི་དེ་རྣམས་འཆི་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་ནས་ཚེ་སྲོག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།
whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Jesus emphasized “hears my word and believes him who sent“
Apparently those Jews who were hearing Jesus and got angry knew what He said exposed their disobedience against God’s teachings. They knew Jesus was referring to God the Father who sent Him to preach repentance. They knew they own history and they were well aware God will send them prophets and teachers to expose their sins.
For these groups of Jews who rejected Jesus, what they learn about God had been corrupted, twisted, misinterpreted by their synagogue leaders and teachers whom Jesus confronted on many occasions. Therefore the constant struggle in their mind to believe Jesus or not, and this issue about believing in Jesus is being highlighted throughout the gospel of John.
To believe in Jesus and to act in obedience to His teachings bears witness to our living faith in Christ the hope of our salvation and the future expectations of eternal life.
What we believe in Jesus we do.
We practice our faith in obeying what Jesus teaches in hope and expectations of our future eternal life in the kingdom of God, amen.
So here in John 5 Jesus highlighted the importance of believe, trust and obedience.
What Jesus had spoken in John 5 was before His resurrection. Even His disciples were struggling and questions if this Jesus they had been following was really the Messiah chosen of God. They had the testimony of John the Baptist, they saw those works and miracles of Jesus, and they had the writings of the prophets, but they were still struggling with their faith.
The death, burial, and eventual resurrection of Jesus from the dead became the infallible evident of God having chosen Jesus to be the Messiah.
Today we have the benefit of hindsight, we know it was after Jesus’ resurrection that He appears to His disciples who had been faithful and persevere, and spoke to them about 40 days in His resurrected body about the kingdom of God, and His disciples’ faith were strengthened.
Likewise we need to find strength and confidence in the resurrection of Christ!
In John 5 when Jesus confronted those Jews who oppose Him, he did so with the intention to turn them to the truth and that they may find true salvation in God.
What Jesus said in John 5 reflected very well what John had previously written in John 3:16
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 3:16-21
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།། 17དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རང་གི་སྲས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་མངགས་པ་ནི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་མི་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱོབ་པར་མཛད་པ་ལས་ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མངགས་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 18དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པར་མི་འགྱུར༌ཡང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་སྲས་གཅིག་པོའི་མིང་ལ་དད་པ་མི་བྱེད་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དད་པ་མ་བྱས་པས་ཉེས་ཆད་བཅད་ཟིན༌པ་ཡིན། 19ཉེས་ཆད་གཅོད་པ་ནི་འདི་ལྟ༌སྟེ། གཟི་འོད་དེ་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་ཕེབས་ནའང་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ངན༌པས། དེ་རྣམས་གཟི་འོད་ལ་མི་དགའ་བར་མུན་ནག་ལ་ཞེན་ཅིང་ཆགས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌ཡིན། 20ངན་པ་སྤྱོད་མཁན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་རང་གི་སྤྱོད་པ་ངན་པ་དེ་ཕྱིར་མངོན་པར་དོགས༌ནས། གཟི་འོད་ལ་སྡང་ཞིང་གཟི་འོད་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུའང་མི་ཡོང༌། 21འོན༌ཀྱང༌། བདེན་དོན་ཉམས་ལེན་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་རང་གིས་བྱེད་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཕྱིར་མངོན་པའི་ཆེད༌དུ། གཟི་འོད་ཀྱི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང་བ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
John 3:16-21
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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
We believe in Jesus and we practice our faith in Christ to be living witness for the hope of our salvation in Christ and our future blessing of eternal life in the kingdom of God.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 