The gospel of Jesus Christ is very important. In fact, I would argue that it is the most important news in the universe. I think many Christians don't see the gospel for the beauty of what it is. People just think "Jesus died for me and I believe in Him so I'm covered." That simple explanation of the gospel doesn't bring it the justice it deserves. The word gospel is defined as "good news." And it's more than just good news, it's the best news! In the first chapter of Romans, verse 16, the apostle Paul writes: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." That verse sets up the premise for the rest of the book. In the book of Romans, Paul essentially walks us through the gospel multiple times over.
First of all, God is the creator, and he created us to be with him. However, our sins separate us from God. "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1:20-21). In the beginning, when Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were constantly with God, literally, and it was beautiful. God created them perfectly and they lived a perfect life. That is, until they ate from the one tree God told them not to eat from. From then on, they were separated from God. They were ashamed of what they had done, and they hid. God banished them from the garden and from then on, their lives (and ours) were far from perfect. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "There is none righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10). Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden and the ultimate punishment was given for their sin: they were now going to die. "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds, or anything similar. We see this theme all throughout the Old Testament. People everywhere would try to do things to atone for their sins, but nothing could do it. Perfectness is God's standard. In order to be with God, we have to be perfect. Obviously, this is not an attainable goal. God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites to show them that they could not live up to his standards; they had to rely on faith in him. However, many of them thought they could do things on their own and tried to impress God with good deeds. But "our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6) and there is nothing we can do to get rid of our sins.
BUT
"God demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). While we were still sinners! No matter what we do, what we have done, what we will do, He loves us! He loves us so much that he sent his only son down to die so that we might have life in Him. (John 3:16). Continuing Romans 6:23 from above: "For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. He was the perfect sacrifice. In order to pay the price for sin (death), it had to be somebody perfect. This meant that Jesus was the only way it could happen. And the best part is, He defeated death! He rose from the grave on the third day! "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you" (Romans 8:11). We are no longer chained by sin, we belong to Him. "You also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God" (Romans 7:4). This verse is not saying that we don't have to follow the law anymore; It is saying that, from now on, we should not focus on what we shouldn't be doing, but what we should be doing, and that is bearing fruit for God. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22). (I won't go into more detail on this, it is a topic for another time, but one of my favorite Bible passages is John chapter 15, look it up.) Everyone who trusts in Him and Him alone has eternal life. "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). And this is the good news of the gospel. Someday we will live with Him in heaven and it will be perfect, just as it was meant to be. Going all the way back to the beginning, God created us to be with him and it will be so.
I will leave you with this one truth today: "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13). There are no special religious rituals, no crazy practices. No matter who you are or what you've done, all you must do is call His name and confess that He is Lord and you will be saved.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Sincerity
What is sincerity? What does it really mean to be sincere? The dictionary defines it as "the quality of being free from pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy." In other words, sincerity is essentially unbiasedness (if that's even a word). In the third part of the excerpt, Confucius talks greatly of sincerity. However, I believe his definition of sincerity is more than the simple dictionary definition. It is more than just a synonym for genuineness. It carries connotations of righteousness, wisdom and heaven.
In the first part of the text, Confucius mentions a sort of axis or center. "Happiness, rage, grief, delight. To be unmoved by these emotions is to stand in the axis, in the center; being moved by these passions each in due degree constitutes being in harmony" (Page 101). What I think he is saying is that we need to be in tune with our emotions, positive and negative, so that we can be in harmony with the world. He says that the axis is the harmony that heaven and earth are built around. The axis is very hard to work toward. "The master man finds the center and does not waver; the mean man runs counter to the circulation about the invariable."
Confucius doesn't seem to talk much about what this "master man" is until later, when he says "the sincere man finds the axis without forcing himself to do so" (Page 167-169). In this way, sincerity is like righteousness or perfectness. In my mind, it seems like Confucius is describing a Christian without knowing it. When a person has the Holy Spirit, they will find it much easier to love. As Confucius teaches about the sincere man, I believe that the sincere man is someone who loves others as themselves. And when you love God above everything else, it is even easier to love others. That's what a sincere man is. People will notice that person and like that person and trust that person. It's hard not to like someone who loves other people as much as themselves. Through their love, they will be a light to the rest of the world.
In addition to love, sincerity is about trust. A person who knows their identity in the Lord will be much easier to trust. They won't go back on their word, especially since they have love. When you love someone, and they trust you, you won't want to hurt their feelings by going against what you said. You will want to be truthful. When you have the love and the truth of God, people will tend to trust you. You can be a light through trust.
While their teachings don't fit perfectly with Christianity, I think it is kind of cool that so many ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Confucius write about some very Christian ideas. To me, this is even further proof that God exists. Christianity technically didn't even exist at that point in time, so there is no way they could've gotten so many Christian ideas without the Lord guiding their thoughts. It is amazing how God can work through people.
In the first part of the text, Confucius mentions a sort of axis or center. "Happiness, rage, grief, delight. To be unmoved by these emotions is to stand in the axis, in the center; being moved by these passions each in due degree constitutes being in harmony" (Page 101). What I think he is saying is that we need to be in tune with our emotions, positive and negative, so that we can be in harmony with the world. He says that the axis is the harmony that heaven and earth are built around. The axis is very hard to work toward. "The master man finds the center and does not waver; the mean man runs counter to the circulation about the invariable."
Confucius doesn't seem to talk much about what this "master man" is until later, when he says "the sincere man finds the axis without forcing himself to do so" (Page 167-169). In this way, sincerity is like righteousness or perfectness. In my mind, it seems like Confucius is describing a Christian without knowing it. When a person has the Holy Spirit, they will find it much easier to love. As Confucius teaches about the sincere man, I believe that the sincere man is someone who loves others as themselves. And when you love God above everything else, it is even easier to love others. That's what a sincere man is. People will notice that person and like that person and trust that person. It's hard not to like someone who loves other people as much as themselves. Through their love, they will be a light to the rest of the world.
In addition to love, sincerity is about trust. A person who knows their identity in the Lord will be much easier to trust. They won't go back on their word, especially since they have love. When you love someone, and they trust you, you won't want to hurt their feelings by going against what you said. You will want to be truthful. When you have the love and the truth of God, people will tend to trust you. You can be a light through trust.
While their teachings don't fit perfectly with Christianity, I think it is kind of cool that so many ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Confucius write about some very Christian ideas. To me, this is even further proof that God exists. Christianity technically didn't even exist at that point in time, so there is no way they could've gotten so many Christian ideas without the Lord guiding their thoughts. It is amazing how God can work through people.
Monday, October 3, 2016
Joy and Happiness
What is happiness? According to the dictionary, it is the feeling of pleasure or contentment. Happiness is a main concept in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. However, because Aristotle originally wrote in Greek, happiness is not necessarily an exact translation. The word in the Greek language that Aristotle used was eudaimonia. The closest translation is happiness, but the Greek word also carries the meaning of success and fulfillment. "'To live well' or 'to do well' is the same as 'to be happy'" (Aristotle 5). In the Greek culture, that was mostly the case. Everybody wanted to be successful, own land, and have lots of money. Their lives were closely tied to the city-state in which they were living. There wasn't as much of a division between private life and public life, as there is in 21st century America. Because of this, happiness was more of a public affair rather than a private one. Eudaimonia was tied to how well other people saw you were living. In other words, happiness is a feeling based on circumstances.
Joy is much different. Joy is an attitude that defines circumstances. Many people equate happiness and joy in the wrong way. They think happiness leads to joy, or they say things like "happiness is temporary, joy is forever." However, those comparisons are not accurate. Joy leads to happiness in that being joyful can turn a bad situation into a good one and make you happy. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote about three unalienable rights: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I think Aristotle was writing about the pursuit of happiness as well. Not just happiness, but the active pursuit of it. He uses the Greek word energeia, or energy to describe happiness as an action rather than a state. In this way, Aristotle is kind of describing joy. Joy in the sense that you work for your happiness. This definition of joy is not quite accurate. Again, joy is an attitude. It doesn't take work to happy. If you are joyful about everything, you will be happy.
As you can tell, I very much disagree with a lot of Aristotle's writings. Probably the part I disagree with most is when he writes "Again, we conceive happiness to be the most desirable of all things... It appears then that happiness is something final and self-sufficient, being the end of all action" (Aristotle 14-15). In this he is saying that the goal for everything we do is for the final goal of happiness (pursuit of happiness). While this may be true enough for many people, I believe that our top goal should be to pursue a relationship with our Savior. When we do that, joy and happiness will be the result.
Joy is much different. Joy is an attitude that defines circumstances. Many people equate happiness and joy in the wrong way. They think happiness leads to joy, or they say things like "happiness is temporary, joy is forever." However, those comparisons are not accurate. Joy leads to happiness in that being joyful can turn a bad situation into a good one and make you happy. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote about three unalienable rights: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I think Aristotle was writing about the pursuit of happiness as well. Not just happiness, but the active pursuit of it. He uses the Greek word energeia, or energy to describe happiness as an action rather than a state. In this way, Aristotle is kind of describing joy. Joy in the sense that you work for your happiness. This definition of joy is not quite accurate. Again, joy is an attitude. It doesn't take work to happy. If you are joyful about everything, you will be happy.
As you can tell, I very much disagree with a lot of Aristotle's writings. Probably the part I disagree with most is when he writes "Again, we conceive happiness to be the most desirable of all things... It appears then that happiness is something final and self-sufficient, being the end of all action" (Aristotle 14-15). In this he is saying that the goal for everything we do is for the final goal of happiness (pursuit of happiness). While this may be true enough for many people, I believe that our top goal should be to pursue a relationship with our Savior. When we do that, joy and happiness will be the result.
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