Magyar Egyház, 1965 (44. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1965-02-01 / 2. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 13 DEZSŐ TROMBITÁS SALVATION BY FAITH i. When God created man in his own image, He gave him the one-paragraph-law of the Garden of Eden: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Man was not created as a mechanism, a push-button-system. The image of God meant that he had power to fulfill God’s law, and he had the right to make his own decision, to choose. He refused to obey the law. The Bible calls this rebellion of Adam sin. God drove out the man from the garden of Eden and man lost the personal contact with God. But he got another chance to obey, the ten commandments. The consequence of breaking the law was declared to him again: “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all people shall say, Amen.” (Deutoronomy 27:26). The basic nature of law is this: “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). The ten commandments were given to man to make a new start for regaining his citizenship in the kingdom of God. But the law was severe. According to Jesus’s comment, every commandment has a deeper meaning than it occurs in its verbal appearance. For instance: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27,28». Or: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” (I. John 39:15). The paradoxical fact is obvious! There is a demand to keep the whole law but no man can fulfill it. The law represented God himself; consequently, breaking it, man has to be punished. This is a dead-end-street. You must keep all the words of the ten commandments but you are unable to do it. You will regain the old citizenship of the garden of Eden if you do the impossible. But you can’t. We conclude that man has no way out, he has the burden of being cursed twice. The law revealed to man that he can not build up his right relation with God, he can not be saved by his deeds through the law. And “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), shall we say, eternal death, damnation. n. We have to realize that God isn’t a Creator only but He is a King and a Judge, too, and He is bound to His own divine law. He must punish the rebellion against His majesty. He must call to account the man because of his sin. But “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son . . . God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16,17). The grace of God is this: God, the Father, allowed His Son to be a man and standing before God, this Judge, and to be punished for the violation of His law. The trial of Jesus and his crucifixion was not a justice mord. It was a legal case of his own free will. Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was made flesh, and becam a man. The Father sent him and he wanted to be sent. It is very important to realize that this Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, and he identified himself with man. He who had no sin and was obedient to his Father, identified Himself with the disobedience and the rebellion of man. “God so loved the world,” means that He loved me, a sinner and a rebel. Jesus Christ loved me so much that He died in the sinner’s place and took the penalty for sin that was justly due the sinner. What happened on the cross? God, who made man in his own image, made His Son appear in the image of sinful man. Jesus accepted my sins as his own, and said: these are my sins. The substitution and identification was not symbolic. The man on the cross was you and me. The trial was your trial. The verdict and execution happened to you. When Jesus gave up his ghost, the Case of The Man was closed. Christianity starts when somebody looking up to the cross says: Jesus died for my sins, my case is closed, I am free, being justified by his blood and saved from the wrath of God through him (Romans 5:9). The salvation, that is to say, the right relation with God is a gift. I didn’t do anything for my salvation; I can’t do anything for it. It happened. It is ready made for my profit. My privilege is to accept it and to be thankful for it. By faith. Faith means accepting the fact that my case is closed, my sins are cleansed away. III. It is quite obvious that nobody can die for the same guilt twice. After a fair trial it is impossible. And the cross was a fair trial because God was the Judge. Consequently the file department of heaven keeps ready a citizenship certificate for every man on earth. You have the right to ask for it. You are a potential citizen in God’s Kingdom. But you have to take it, to grasp it with your two hands. A citizenship without having it, without reading your name on it, is nothing. It is only a fancy, a fata morgana. It will be a reality after saying: Thank you Jesus, you made it for me. It sounds silly. Would salvation be so simple? For me, yes. But for God it meant the loss of His Son, For Christ, it meant leaving His heavenly Kingdom, to undertake my existence, my sin; it meant being executed, and cursed. It is written; “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). I have no debt toward God, the King, the Judge. Everything is paid. I am clear. “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?” (Romans 6:15). Our debt was paid by Jesus, it is true. But, the debt is still there. We owe Jesus. With what? With our sins and our life, because he paid for our sins by giving his life. “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). Since Good Friday man is judged by Jesus Christ. I have to give an account of my sins, my life to him. He is my Lord. “Redeemer” means that he paid for me; he owns me. IV. Christianity as a practice is simple. Our Lord is our friend. He gave us his name as a name card toward God. “Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” (John 15:16). Whatsoever means whatsoever. In his name we have unlimited possibilities. Try it!
