Dear Friends,
Once my neighbor, Bro. Alam, invited one Wali sahib, and few
other people who knew Koran, at his residence to hold discussion with me about
certain issues on which the Moslem and the Christian views differ from each
other.
After we were introduced to one another, the discussion
started. It began with my asking the elderly Wali sahib about what Islam said
about Isa (Jesus). He said that he was one of the prophets. I asked him about
the purpose for which God sent him into the world. Wali sahib said that it was
to present the world with the Book of love. I asked him, “Do you have that book
of love?” He explained that the book of love didn’t literally mean a book but a
message of love. I asked him what was that message of love? “To love one
another,” he said. I asked him why God saw the need to send Isa with this book
since this message was already preached by countless people before Him. Was
there anything unique about this message of love that Isa brought into this
world? He said, “No.” Here, he stressed the specificity of the mission, not the
message.
Clearly, he didn’t know anything about that message of love
that God sent Jesus with into the world. There were many other issues that we
discussed on that day. I propose to deal one by one with them through different
blogs. Just now I would like to talk to you about that message of love that
Jesus had to convey to the world. It is exactly this:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) should not perish but have
everlasting life.” – John 3:16
The reason why we would have perished had God not shown His
love in this way is exactly this:
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” – 1
John 4:10
We were sinners. In other words, we were against God. The
very meaning of sin is to disobey God. To disobey God is surely not the
expression of love and honor. It is dishonoring God to commit sin. We have all
committed this sin. We disobey God one way or the other.
But God is Holy and Just forever…That, exactly, was the
reason why our sins brought about separation between God and us. God can never,
never compromise with justice and righteousness. In order to compromise with
justice and righteousness, He has to change Himself – the thing that He cannot
do; simply because He is God and not human like us. This is the point that God
stressed in Malachi 3:6:
“For I am the Lord, I do not change;
Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” – Malachi
3:6
Now, here is a question: If God cannot change, it means that
our condition is hopeless! Because we are sinners, and we deserve punishment,
and the punishment for sin is nothing less than death. It is written in Romans
6:23:
“For the wages of sin is death…”
It is we humans who view sin as big or small; God sees it
for what it is, that is, rebellion against Him. People who rebel against God,
rebel against all that is good. Remember, God is good and the source of all
that is good.
Therefore, the Just God, when He sits on His judgment seat,
is bound to mete out death penalty to the entire human race. That would have
destroyed all of them…Then, why God says in Malachi 3 that because He does not
change the sons of Jacob are not consumed? The fact that He does not change
should have rather destroyed them all…destroyed us all!
If we are to use human logic, in spite of the fact that God
loved us, His sense of justice should sacrifice His love for the sake of Divine
justice, isn’t it? This is because if He forgives a sinner, it means a sinner will
not receive the just punishment that he deserves for his sins. And if God is to
punish a sinner, it simply means that the sinner is not going to receive grace
from Him.
Well, it is absolutely interesting the way Divine wisdom has
solution for each and every situation. It found out a way that would exact
Divine justice without sacrificing His love for the mankind. God decided that
He would put the punishment of our sins on Jesus (His Son) so that we don’t
have to die for our sins.
In order to put upon Him our punishment, it was must for Him
to take on a flesh-and-blood existence. Again, many people may not understand
why God the Son should take on a flesh-and-blood existence in order to bear the
punishment for our sins. Therefore, it is relevant for me to answer this
question from the Book of Romans. It is written in Romans, Chapter 7, that sin
dwells in our body which is made up of flesh and blood. Whenever we want to be
good or to do good, this sin becomes active and fights against our will and
forces us to do what is evil. Therefore, we want to do good, but we end up
doing what is bad.
In other words, we naturally do what we don’t want to do!
And we don’t do what we want to do! St. Paul makes it amply clear when he says
that this situation is there because there is one law working in our
flesh-and-blood and another in our spirit. The law that works in our flesh-and-blood
is the law of sin.
In other words, when we commit sin, it is not we who commit
sin but the sin that dwells in our body. Sin works itself out with our body.
Therefore, it was important for God to destroy the body that was exposed to all
sorts of sinful passions and replace it with a glorified body that wouldn’t
be exposed to sinful passions. Because the glorified body is not exposed to
sinful passions, Sin cannot dwell in it and live through it.
The destruction of the body in which Sin made its
abode was to take place on the cross. The body of Jesus represented the body
of the entire mankind.
So, Jesus (God the Son) did take flesh-and-blood
existence and took birth through Mother Mary (Mariam) into this world. He took
upon Himself the punishment for our sins on the cross; He shed His holy and
precious blood on the cross to atone for our sins; and He died in our place. He
was buried in the grave but rose to life on the third day and lived on earth
for 40 days in the midst of His followers, proving in many ways that He was the
same Jesus who died on the cross. Now, the thing that remained for Him to do in
order to fulfill the divine plan for the fallen humanity was to ascend to
Heaven to His Father. So He did right before the eyes of His followers.
It was necessary for Him to ascend to His Father because if
He would go to the Father, He would be able to send the Holy Spirit on earth.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. The coming of the Holy Spirit was a very
important event because it marked a new phase in the plan of God.
In this phase, the Spirit of God helps the humanity to
develop in the spiritual realm to which we were introduced when we received
salvation of our spirit. For this purpose, the Spirit of God both dwells with
us and within us. He imparts to us the knowledge of God and this knowledge
brings about the necessary changes in our personality. The task of the Holy
Spirit is to prepare us in such a way that we are ready for the final phase of
the salvation that started with our spiritual salvation. This final phase
includes Jesus’ appearance in the sky and the believers in Jesus seeing Him
face to face. This appearance of Jesus in the sky concerns the event that is
called THE RAPTURE. At due time, we shall talk about it. For now, we shall
limit ourselves to the topic we are dealing with.
Something unimaginable happens at this time. When the
believers see Jesus face to face, in that very instant they undergo change in
the twinkling of an eye and they are transformed into the image of Jesus. They
acquire ‘glorified body’, which is called the salvation of the body in the
Bible.
With the salvation of the body, the process of salvation is
concluded. They pass onto the divine plane from the human. Now they are in the
possession of a divine nature that cannot be assailed by sin and death. This is
because this nature is not sinful. It is righteous. And, it is immortal. Now
the believers are ready to accompany Jesus to Heaven and be able to live in the
presence of God for eternity.
In biblical terminology, with the salvation of the body, we
pass from human dimension into the divine! And we shall be granted the status
of ‘adopted’ children of God – adopted because actually we were not part of the
family of God but out of His grace He included us into His family so that we
may have share in all that is His.
Just consider what it means to be the sons and daughters of
God! It means just as the children of men and women are bound to be men and
women, the children of God are bound to be gods! This difference between God
and gods must be understood. It is an altogether different topic for which this
short blog does not provide enough room. I will certainly deal with it in a
different blog. What I would like to underline here is the fact that we shall
be in Heaven with God forever.
Therein lies God’s happiness – and also ours. In that state
He would be able to give us all the blessings that He intends to give us. When
we will talk about the nature of our existence in the presence of God in
Heaven, we shall also discuss what He wants to bless us with. If anyone has any
question to ask about this blog, please feel free to get in touch.
My email ID is: bertrand.hatia@mysaviourmylight.org
