Sijo Chemmannur
Member
"I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Matthew 9:13
Imagine the pastor who speaks about 'Judgement and sin' last Sunday in our church, going to the house of a notorious murderer and having dinner with his family? Won't it be the end of that pastor's missionary life at our church? The current outlook of our society is very much judgmental, irrespective of culture. The stigma and the unwritten regulations of our society always pulls us into the epicenter of comfort circle. Often we experience the conflict between the Christian deeds and the stringent laws of the society. When the society considers predicament, Christ challenges to proceed doing the deeds out of our comfort zones. It can be considered as the tangential force which allow us to go out of the circled and swallowed up black holes of our psychological stigmas.
Jesus Christ did something what the pastor has done. He calls the tax collectors (whom they considered notorious as terrorists) by name, calls them to follow him, go to their homes with or without invitations, eating with them and being happy with them. "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" (Luke 5:30), the pharisees and the teachers of the law complained about Christ. The answer Christ gave had it all. "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick".
It is interesting to note that Jesus Christ considered 'sin' as 'sick'. For a parent, sickness of their children is so disheartening. We do all the things to make sure that our sons and daughters come out of the sickness with all the modern medications and precautions. We also do vaccinations to be protected against some deadly pathogens. It is the urge of our father in heaven to protect us from sickness (sin) and brought to the fullness of life. He indeed gave Jesus Christ as a vaccine, the all in one uni-antidote to all our sickness. The only thing we have to do is to take a shot and get immunized. Jesus Christ invites us to live in Him and produce much fruit (John 15:5).
'For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God' (Ephesians 2:8). There are two subjects in the sentence. 'We' and 'God'. There are two verbs too. 'Grace', which is a gift of God and 'faith'. One consequence, that is the 'salvation'. We have to believe in God through faith and God will provide grace as a gift and mediate our salvation. Thus, faith in Jesus Christ makes it a special key for opening the gifts of God, through grace and salvation. The verse also nullifies the gains of our deeds. This concept is novel to the Jews and to the people of other religion. It is not our deeds which makes us righteous, but our faith in the Lord and savior Jesus Christ. It can be compared to the overflowing of a well. A well can be overflowed with water from inside and outside. If you put water into a well, it is so hard to make if full and overflown. But, if there is plentiful of water underground, it will fill and overflowed sporadically. Christ want us not to be overflowed with artifact of deeds, but be plentiful in His grace an overflown to give the light to others. An out-pour of God's Love to others.
Imagine the pastor who speaks about 'Judgement and sin' last Sunday in our church, going to the house of a notorious murderer and having dinner with his family? Won't it be the end of that pastor's missionary life at our church? The current outlook of our society is very much judgmental, irrespective of culture. The stigma and the unwritten regulations of our society always pulls us into the epicenter of comfort circle. Often we experience the conflict between the Christian deeds and the stringent laws of the society. When the society considers predicament, Christ challenges to proceed doing the deeds out of our comfort zones. It can be considered as the tangential force which allow us to go out of the circled and swallowed up black holes of our psychological stigmas.
Jesus Christ did something what the pastor has done. He calls the tax collectors (whom they considered notorious as terrorists) by name, calls them to follow him, go to their homes with or without invitations, eating with them and being happy with them. "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" (Luke 5:30), the pharisees and the teachers of the law complained about Christ. The answer Christ gave had it all. "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick".
It is interesting to note that Jesus Christ considered 'sin' as 'sick'. For a parent, sickness of their children is so disheartening. We do all the things to make sure that our sons and daughters come out of the sickness with all the modern medications and precautions. We also do vaccinations to be protected against some deadly pathogens. It is the urge of our father in heaven to protect us from sickness (sin) and brought to the fullness of life. He indeed gave Jesus Christ as a vaccine, the all in one uni-antidote to all our sickness. The only thing we have to do is to take a shot and get immunized. Jesus Christ invites us to live in Him and produce much fruit (John 15:5).
'For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God' (Ephesians 2:8). There are two subjects in the sentence. 'We' and 'God'. There are two verbs too. 'Grace', which is a gift of God and 'faith'. One consequence, that is the 'salvation'. We have to believe in God through faith and God will provide grace as a gift and mediate our salvation. Thus, faith in Jesus Christ makes it a special key for opening the gifts of God, through grace and salvation. The verse also nullifies the gains of our deeds. This concept is novel to the Jews and to the people of other religion. It is not our deeds which makes us righteous, but our faith in the Lord and savior Jesus Christ. It can be compared to the overflowing of a well. A well can be overflowed with water from inside and outside. If you put water into a well, it is so hard to make if full and overflown. But, if there is plentiful of water underground, it will fill and overflowed sporadically. Christ want us not to be overflowed with artifact of deeds, but be plentiful in His grace an overflown to give the light to others. An out-pour of God's Love to others.
Love you Brother!