Magyar Egyház, 1956 (35. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1956-06-01 / 6-7. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 13 ENGLISH SECTION JESUS CHRIST AS OUR HIGH PRIEST (continued) No one could hope that God would forgive his sins, resurrect him from the dead and give him a blessed eternal life in heaven if Jesus Christ had not suffered, died, risen and ascended into heaven; in other words, if He had not accomplised his high priestly work. In our last article we got acquainted with the sufferings, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ as truly happened events of history. Now we would like to understand how Jesus secured the forgiveness of our sins, our resurrection and our going into heaven through his high priestly work. First of all, we should remind ourselves of the perfect justice and righteousness of God. He cannot tolerate sin and cannot leave it unpunished. We are sinners, breaking the holy laws of God, every day. According to the perfect justice of God, we all deserve death and eternal damnation in hell, as proper punishment for our sins. However, God is not only just and righteous, He is also a merciful loving Father, who wants to save us from death and damnation. Thus, while the perfect justice of God demands death and damnation upon our heads, at the same time, His infinite mercy and love wants to forgive us, to raise us from the dead and give us a blessed eternal life in heaven. Of course, the justice of God must be satisfied, the penalty of our sins: death and damnation must be paid. But if we ourselves should pay this penalty then we would not have any hope to go to heaven ever, for damnation in hell is eternal, there is no way to go to heaven from hell. God, in His marvelous wisdom, had found the way to satisfy His own justice and also to forgive our sins, to resurrect us from the dead and receive us into heaven. How did God do this? He sent His only begotten Son into this world to become a perfect, holy and sinless Man. Then, He put all the sins of mankind upon His beloved Son and made Him pay the penalty: death and the torments of hell. We are the guilty ones, yet Jesus Christ, the innocent, suffered and died for our sins. In this way our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God in our behalf. The result of this gracious act of Jesus is our justification. It means that God now forgives all our sins, accepts us as his beloved children, handles us as if we never committed any sin, although we will not be free of sins till the very moment of our death. Although Jesus actually died and suffered the torments of hell in our behalf, but over Him, as the Son of God, these could not obtain final victory. God resurrected His Son from the dead and took Him up into the eternal glory of heaven. Now if God manifested His love toward his eternal Son by raising Him from the dead and taking Him up into heaven, He will do the same to us, because we became his beloved children, too. He will also resurrect us and make us share the heavenly glory together with His Son. We have to mention yet that Jesus Christ as our High Priest is still doing his work in heaven in our behalf. He is constantly praying and making intercession for us before the Father. What we wrote about Jesus Christ as our High Priest, on the basis of the Holy Bible, was not written to comfort and give a false hope to stubborn wicked, intentionally sinning men. We should warn these men that there is no forgiveness of sins nor blessed eternal life in heaven for those who enjoy their wickedness and have no desire for a better, purer earthly life. Their resurrection will not mean a happy arrival in heaven, but eternal condemnation to hell. In our future articles, we shall point out the great responsibilities and duties which rest upon our own shoulders in order to obtain the forgiveness of our sins and our eternal heavenly life. Stephen Kovács.---------------•---------------CHURCH FUND RAISING New York, N.Y., June 8 — Twenty-five years ago many churches depended for their budgets largely upon the success of women’s committees’ strawberry festivals and the efforts of hard-working, but generally inexperienced laymen in ringing doorbells and passing the collection plates. Today, churches in a growing number of communities are learning they don’t have to rely on these hit or miss methods to meet their financial responsibilities. Their answer — the United Church Canvass — a cooperative venture in which the Protestant churches of a community combine their efforts to teach their laymen the most up-to-date techniques of church fund raising. Translated by the individual local church into the Every Member Canvass, the program last year was successful in helping U.S. churches of all denominations raise their budgets by sums ranging from 25 per cent to 100 per cent over previous income. Of these, some 2500 churches participating for the first time upped their incomes by fifty per cent or better. To explain the fundamentals of this cooperative fund raising plan the National Council of Churches, national sponsor of the program, convened a meeting of some 60 stewardship leaders of 14 major U.S. and Canadian denominations and of 11 state and local councils of churches, June 11-15, at Lake Geneva, Wise. The occasion will be the first interdenominational Every Member Canvass director’s workshop. It will be sponsored by the National Council’s Department of Stewardship and Benevolence.
