Life Dominion

 

Life Dominion

 Romans 5:12-19, First Sunday of Lent, February 26th, 2023

 Today, we have chosen one of the most difficult passages to understand in the Bible as our sermon text. It is Romans 5:12, the first verse of the passage.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

In summary, this verse can be broken down into four sentences. Sin (ἁμαρτία) entered the world through one man. Death (θάνατος) came as a result of sin. All people have sinned. All people have been subject to the destiny of death. The "one man" mentioned here is Adam, who disobeyed God's command in the Garden of Eden and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He fell for the temptation of wanting to be like God, refusing to acknowledge that he was a creature. As a result, he gained knowledge but moved farther away from God. This story is the origin of sin as depicted in the Old Testament.

The Fate of Adam

Paul says that the fate of Adam has become the fate of 'all' people. This refers to the universality of sin and death. It means that no one in this world is free from sin and death. People in this world would find it uncomfortable to see death, a biological phenomenon, as a result of sin according to the teachings of the Bible. Sin in the Bible does not only deal with human ethics and morality. It refers to the deeper corruption of the human soul. Sin is self-centeredness, self-pity, and self-love. Collectively, it can be called pride (hubris). Pride refers to the attitude of placing oneself at the center of life and trying to exalt oneself. It is a strong desire and ambition to complete one's own life. Since it is a desire for what is impossible, life is destroyed through it. What would happen if a frog kept jumping off a rock hill, thinking it should fly like a bird? For example, the reason why we risk our lives to earn money in a capitalist system is because we are convinced that having a lot of money guarantees a happy life. In reality, no one lives a happy life with wealth alone. Life is destroyed when we go 'all-in' on what cannot be done. The soul becomes sick and dies. This is the universal death of humanity that Paul speaks of in today's passage.

At the time when Paul wrote Romans, people living in the Roman Empire probably did not pay much attention to what Paul said. They might have refused or looked down on it. They would have said that Adam's sin was Adam's sin, they were themselves, and not to talk nonsense. Paul also knew their arguments, but he did not back down. He gave them very strong words. It is verse 14.

However, even those who did not commit sins like Adam, up until Moses, also experienced death, for Adam was a model of the one to come.

The phrase "up until Moses" is mentioned. After Moses, the Jews distinguished themselves as righteous or unrighteous according to the law. If they did not live according to the law, that is, as it is in today's situation law, they were sinners, and if they lived properly, they were righteous. However, Paul says something completely different. He says that there was sin even before the law. This means that the problem of human sin cannot be solved by laws, rules, and norms. We can confirm this in our daily lives as well. List the things that are recognized and respected in the world. They also help people in need, teach students diligently, treat patients, and strive to change the world. There are also respected pastors. The world becomes a little better with such people and such things. We must strive to live in that way as well. However, we cannot escape the power of sin through this way of life. Our inner selves are still hypocritical, self-centered, and proud. We cannot solve this problem through our efforts. Paul referred to this, saying that even those who did not commit sins like Adam also experience the dominion of sin and death.

Royal authority.

I am not trying to talk about the tragic fate of human existence, which is bound by sin and death, but rather the opposite. Look at Paul's expression, referring to Adam as the "type of him who was to come." In our Korean Bible, the word "example" is accompanied by a footnote, "typology" (τύπος), which means "type" or "figure" in English. Luther's Bible translates it as Bild (picture, symbol). Adam is not a historical figure, but a model that symbolizes Jesus Christ, the one who was to come. In Jesus Christ, who is the one who was to come, the opposite of what happened to Adam occurs. It is not sin and death, but righteousness and life. In verse 17, Paul says this. This verse explains what the gospel of Christianity is, connected to the fate of all humanity.

Therefore, just as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

The phrase "leads to justification and life" is used twice. It already appeared in verse 14, and is repeated twice in verse 21. In Greek, it is distinguished by past and present tense verbs, and the root is "basileia." When we refer to the kingdom of God (basileia tou theou), that kingdom is the royal authority. It is rule and governance. After Adam, it was a time when death ruled like a king, but now, through Jesus Christ, the time has come when life rules like a king. To summarize this expression, it becomes "the royal authority of life." I will read only that part from the new translation from the Bible.

It is even more certain that those who receive overflowing grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Note that "reigning in life" happens to those who have received the "gifts of grace and righteousness" through Jesus Christ. Paul already mentioned this in verse 15. There are two types of grace mentioned: one is from God, and the other is from Jesus Christ. Through these graces, people have received blessed gifts, and they have become "righteous" (verse 16) by obeying God's will through Jesus Christ. This means that, through God's grace given through Jesus Christ, we have obtained righteousness that leads to life (eternal life), not to death.

Thus, those who are deemed "righteous" will naturally have the power to reign in life. They will experience joy and hope in life instead of fear and despair of death. Therefore, Paul could say in verse 18 that "many people have received justification and thus reign in life." Is this possible? Can it be true that through Jesus Christ, all people are universally recognized as righteous and are freed from Adam's sin and attain righteousness? What is the basis for this claim, given who Jesus Christ is and what he has done?

Eon

It is important to understand that in Pauline theology, the world is divided into before and after the arrival of Jesus Christ. The perspective of dividing the world in this way comes from Gnostic philosophy. The world that Gnostic philosophy refers to is not the cosmos that Greek philosophy talks about, but rather the "eon" (world). There are old eons and new eons. The old eon is a world of sin, very violent and ruled by the wealthy and empires. When a new eon begins, the old eon comes to an end. The one who brings about this change is the Son of Man (Huios tou Anthropou), that is, the son of man. In today's passage, he is referred to as the "coming one." In the new world that Jesus Christ brings, sin and death no longer hold authority, and righteousness and life hold authority instead. The world is completely different. It is like a paradigm shift from two dimensions to three or four dimensions, from a plane to space, from Newtonian mechanics to Heisenberg's quantum mechanics, and from geocentric to heliocentric theories.

Some time ago, I read a book called The Hated Plants by John Cardiner. The subtitle of the book is "About flowers and grasses that have not yet found their use". The book talks about plants that are usually considered weeds. Weeds have always been around, but they were named by people as grasses that hinder crop growth. Weeds don't harm humans much, but they can be very harmful to crops, and humans try to remove them using tillage or herbicides. However, according to Cardiner, humans cannot completely get rid of weeds because they are constantly evolving in response to human behavior. This is similar to the current Corona 19 pandemic, which is a result of human actions.

The book's epilogue concludes that humans cannot defeat weeds, and it's time to let go of our arrogance about controlling nature. We should appreciate nature more and respect the adaptability of these extraordinary green creatures that continue to evolve in ways we may not fully understand. Reading this book has changed my thoughts about weeds, and I now see them from a new perspective. This is similar to falling in love and changing one's perspective on life. Only through this new perspective can we understand the "kingship of life" that Paul speaks of.

Paul was originally a Jewish legal expert who saw the world through the lens of Jewish law. However, everything changed after he encountered the resurrected Jesus. This event opened up a new world for him, much like the overwhelming feeling of relief one experiences upon discovering that someone who was thought to be terminally ill was actually misdiagnosed. Paul exclaimed that anyone who is in Christ becomes a new creation, with old things passing away and all things becoming new. Despite this, Jewish experts at the time ignored his experience. What's even stranger is that those who have not experienced these new changes cannot fully comprehend them. It's like hearing about the taste of an apple without ever having tried one.

On Monday, the 20th of last month, a member of the Daegu Seongseo Academy living in Seoul emailed me after hearing my sermon "Jesus is the Light" on Transfiguration Sunday. He had been searching for answers for 23 years, but had not found any until now. He wrote that he had finally understood the meaning of the Bible and the religious metaphor of the "light" mentioned in John 1:14. This experience has made the Bible appear new to him, and he has now had a completely different understanding of things before and after this experience.

Feeling hopeless

While some people may experience the kingship of life through Jesus Christ, others may feel like they haven't had such an experience. I have had a similar faith journey, so why do some people reach such experiences while others do not? Looking at the stars in the same winter night sky and feeling the same late-winter sunlight, some people feel the infinite mystery and joy of being alive, while others feel nothing. Even while worshiping together, one person may feel the peace of their soul, while another may remain as a mere spectator. That's why Paul states in today's text that "those who receive the overflowing grace and the gift of righteousness" enjoy the kingship of life, which is a gift from God.

Now, here's the final question: Why do we sometimes not receive the gift and grace to enjoy the kingship of life? Let me give you an example from one of Jesus' parables to help you find the answer. The younger son received his inheritance from his father and went to a faraway land, squandering it all before returning home as a beggar. The father threw a banquet for his son, but the older son couldn't understand his father's actions. He was trapped in his own world, unable to comprehend his father's unconditional love and acceptance without judgment. That is the core reason why some people don't receive grace. Instead of asking why grace doesn't come to them, they should ask whether they are ready to receive it. They lack the earnestness of the psalmist who cried out, "How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" (Psalm 13:1). If one doesn't have earnestness towards God, it means they don't want grace, and therefore, the responsibility for not receiving grace ultimately rests with them.

I am currently writing a meditation article called "Rereading the Book of Revelation at the Age of 70" on the website of the Daegu Bible Academy. In Revelation 3:14, there is a letter addressed to the church in Laodicea. The reason for their rebuke, "You are neither cold nor hot," is that the believers in that church were bound by the notion that they lacked nothing because they were rich. They were satisfied with their decent living and did not long for God's grace. Just as a person who is not thirsty cannot drink sweet water, they cannot enjoy the kingship of life because they do not long for grace.

Dear fellow believers, I want you to experience the kingship of life in Jesus Christ that Paul proclaims today in a very practical and abundant way, even if you are lacking in other areas of life. When you do, you will experience a level of spiritual freedom, peace, and fullness that you have never experienced before.

The ultimate meaning of a bowl of cold water

 The ultimate meaning of a bowl of cold water

Matthew 10:40 to 11:01, the Holy Spirit descended after the fourth week , 2020 years 6 Mon 28 days

 

 

Matthew 10 focuses on the story of the trials the disciples face . Stories that appear sporadically in other synoptic gospels appear in a bundle in Matthew 10 . The names of twelve disciples are listed in verses 2-4 . After that, it is said that the disciples should live as nomadic evangelists until v. 15 . In verses 16-23 the story of the persecution that the disciples must face follows , and in verses 24-33 there is an admonition not to be afraid of the world's powerful . In verses 34-39 , there is a paradoxical sentence stating that he came to bring a sword, not peace, and that those who lose their lives for the sake of the gospel will gain their lives . At the end, the text of today's sermon, Matthew 10:40-11:1, appears .

Last 11:01 clause does leave a brief report about the whole situation, mainly Village 10: 40-42 , try to focus on the section . What do you think of when you treat a text like this ? Nothing is tricky to understand . Overall, it is read that because people who live as disciples of Jesus are rewarded, it means that we must live rightly like disciples in order to receive the reward . It is a story that we all know . The conclusion has already come out . But I'm going to take you to the deeper world of this text . I look forward to myself .

 

1) The story in front of today's text sounds horrible overall . Jesus disciples must face all kinds of difficulties . According to verse 10:14 , the disciples are favored by people . So when the disciples see Jesus , " Send the amount come to the center and the same " (16 sections ) He says . Verse 17 says that the disciples will be brought to the Inquisition at the Judaic Sanhedrin , and v . 18 says that they will be taken to the Roman governor . This story of persecution and suffering continues to verse 39 , the previous verse of today's sermon . These persecutions and sufferings were revealed in the early Christian history in the late first century when Matthew was written . Many disciples and Christians danghaetgo the hardships , finally Suspended until martyrdom . Until the end of the 1st and 2nd centuries of European historyAnd, for quite some time since then , the church has been treated as an unwelcome group . With this historical background, read verse 40 again .

 

Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me .

 

Was this word accepted by the disciples ? Two premises are required . First , the disciples must recognize that Jesus and their destiny are the same . Without such awareness, the phrase “ He who accepts you welcomes me ” is meaningless . Second , the disciples must see through the fact that Jesus is sent from God . This is an insight into the fact that God was with Jesus' teaching and destiny . That is, the ultimate life experience through Jesus . Given these two facts, the disciples can even accept the surprising fact that they are participating in the work of God . Based on the trials of the disciples, verse 40 can be expressed as follows . Those who reject the disciples of Jesus is to reject Jesus , the people who reject Jesus is to reject the one who sent him .If the disciples were fully aware of and believed in this fact, they would have survived their situation of being excluded . Disciples here refer not only to the twelve, but to all of us who have accepted the gospel of Jesus and entered the church community .

 

2) Section 41 is an additional explanation of section 40 . Who accept the prophet will receive a prophet of the award , who will receive a righteous man will receive a righteous man has the . It means that those who accept Jesus' disciples receive the corresponding reward . It must have come to the Jews with a very special meaning . To them, the prophets and the righteous were those who would sit in the highest places in the kingdom of heaven . There are two practical meanings of the text . One is that the dark world is brightened even a little by the prophets and the righteous , and the other is that people are comforted by the fact that the prophets and the righteous exist . So the Jews , as we do today , appreciated and took the prophets and the righteous with high regard, even if they did not live like the prophets and the righteous . Fortunately, there were those who received this so that the prophets and the righteous were able to take on their roles .It is correct to say that they will receive a decent reward because they participate in the lives of the prophets and the righteous indirectly . We want to live that way too .

The life of the prophet and the righteous as this verse 41 refers to is " seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness ." Called ( Matthew 6:33) correspond to Jesus' words . A prophet is a person who receives trust from God and tells the Word to people . The word of God they convey is the kingdom of God . The righteous are those who seek justice and justice . Justice and justice are the most obvious features of God's rule . Jesus disciples are those who are called to the lives of prophets and righteous people . When people reject their disciples, they reject the prophets and the righteous . Conversely, when they accept their disciples, they have accepted the kingdom of God and His righteousness . So they won't lose the prize . If the disciples knew this, they would have been able to withstand their situation of being excluded . If you don't know enough about it, you will be lamented .What standard of life are we living by now ?

 

3) The words of verses 40 and 41 would have given the disciples and early Christians great strength . They learned that their gospel ministry belongs to the kingdom of God . Verse 42 explains that more directly .

 

And whoever gives even a bowl of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, I tell you the truth, he will never lose his reward .

 

Here the little ones refer to the disciples . It means that anyone who knows this and offers them even a bowl of cold water will not lose the prize . The disciples are literally little ones . They were not sitting in a position to be treated in the world . They are people who really have nothing to offer . There is no power , no money . There were no people who supported them . Only things that are uncomfortable to live await them . During the days of Matthew's Gospel, Christians began to be expelled from synagogues . To be expelled from the synagogue not only means that Judaism and delinquency are lost, but also that there is no institutional safeguard against persecution by the Roman Empire . There was no sign of resolving this situation anywhere . It is a stuffy reality . People are usually frustrated when they fall into this situation . Figuratively speaking , here are 10Suppose there is a young man who has been preparing for a job for years but has not been able to find a decent job . Your self-confidence will disappear and you will live with an empty heart . Repeatedly doing this can lead to depression .

According to the text, giving a bowl of cold water to insignificant disciples wins . In verse 41 , there is also an expression of receiving a prize . Luther did not say that he was awarded a prize, but translated as receiving a reward . Other English Bibles have also been translated as reward, meaning reward , not prize . A reward or reward, or similar, but reward is a word that emphasizes the price worthy of it . Awards can be done with honor , reward is going very practical . For example, receiving honors from the school, but can be done only with publicly traded , compensation to employees in the most significant achievements in the insurance companies are the same as those raised under reasonable money there . To be rewarded means to be sure of God's approval . So Jesus in this passage , " I tell you the truth, " he said represented . Greek “ Amen Lego WhiminIt is a translation of " . In the Gospels to highlight ' Amen ' it is used . In some sentences, ' Amen ' is repeated twice .

A small ruler and a bowl of cold water are words that communicate . Both are small things the world does not pay attention to . Words with similar meanings appear before them . That is the sparrow in Matthew 10:29 . Sparrow is one of two gees ' Aww come Sari " I was sold on that . Small chairs , water bowl , no one concerned with the two sparrows . But the body is related to these little things God's work , he says coming up the reward of God . Is that really so ? Do you nod to this word ? You may be nodded, but you really don't want to live as a small one , or live under a bowl of cold water or two sparrows .

 

4) Yes . I think it is difficult to live according to the words of Jesus unless the ultimate world to which these words are pointed is in hand . Small design student , cold water in a bowl of little things , and ' amen ' if you do not know the depth of God's tangled compensation can not but responded with life, you hear a hollow word .

Compared to the great power of the world, the disciples of Jesus, who belong to the little one, are actually very specially great ones . They are the ones who have done something special so that God's reward must be followed with a bowl of cold water provided to them . It is on a different level from the world . The world is judged primarily by what it sees outside . The larger and more objects you can handle, the more competent you are . About two months ago, there was the 21st general election , electing 300 members of the National Assembly from our country . There were many people who set out to become lawmakers . Thousands of people have voted to become lawmakers by counting each party's primary . Competition was fierce . The discretion given to lawmakers is enormous . Each legislator receives the human and material discretion from the state to destiny of a small business . After becoming a member of Congress, they compete again for higher positions .Other jobs work in a similar way .

This worldly way does not work for God's work, which is the essence of life . The small can be the big . The big one is rather the little one . Jesus said this many times . “ Whoever humbles himself like this little child is great in heaven ” ( Matthew 18:4). Those who are like children are the little ones in today's text, a bowl of cold water, and a sparrow . It is difficult to see such a statement as a defeatist's self-rationalization . The disciples were small from the viewpoint of the Jewish authorities or the Roman Empire at the time, but they were never small because they were called by Jesus, the Son of God, to preach the kingdom of God . Their lives were the greatest than anyone else because they were focused on the kingdom of God .

In this regard, the following facts are important . On a fundamental level, everyone is as small as a bowl of cold water . Even if there are slight differences in human lifespans, they are all just moments in time throughout the universe . This is the term for measuring acorns . I don't think Daegu Samteo Church is smaller than any other church in Seoul with hundreds of thousands of members . This is because large and small have no meaning in the dimension of the kingdom of God . I don't think America is stronger than poor North Korea . This is because in the long history of mankind, all are just acorns . The Roman Empire, the most powerful in the world for hundreds of years, is now without a trace . It is important who leans on the kingdom of God because it is so small that neither individual nor country can display business cards . The disciples were such people . They were so special that even a bowl of cold water served to them could be rewarded .

 

5) The last sentence of verse 42 of today's text is " That person will never lose the prize ." It is . I can imagine how great this word would have been to the disciples who lived in the Jewish tradition . They believed that when the time in this world is over, God's time begins . The world is " old eon ' and , in the future world to come is ' New eon " was . A world dominated by empire and violence cannot achieve true peace and rest in any way . They believed that eternal peace will be a reality because God directly rules the world to come . If you can be sure that God will not lose your reward in a world under which God will directly rule, your disciples will be able to withstand the situation as if it were a pardon . There are often parables about this in the Gospels .The church is like a bride waiting for Jesus, the bridegroom, to come . When the bridegroom comes, he tells us to be a wise virgin who prepares oil so that he can light a lamp ( Matthew 25:1-13). How can we endure life in this world today without this hope and excitement . The passage that describes God's complete hope for a new world in the most naked literary way is from Paul's 1 Thessalonians 4:13 or less . There Paul said that at Jesus' Second Coming, those who survived would be lifted up into the air . It's a very poetic and true description .

Some people might think that the reward you get right now is not the reward you get after you die . In the future, you will be rewarded in heaven, so you are told that you have to endure the difficulties you are facing now . Look carefully . To say that you will be receiving a prize in the future also implies that you have already received it here . This is important . Paul, II Corinthians 5:17 and said in verse . “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, and the old has passed away, and behold, the new has become .” People looking bored out that the reward of God is given to the life of the disciples ' already ' will be found also in fact it received the reward here . Because in his life ' already ' everything is new . The disciples were those who discovered in Jesus a new life that corresponds to the kingdom of God . We are the ones who want to join this rank of faith .

To those who ask me if you live the way you preached , I cannot answer aloud . You can answer by listening to a parable in a small voice . From October last year, I drink a glass of water every morning with my eyes open . The water is ice in the Alps ( by courier ) came , drink the feeling came from, or Baikal Lake . At that moment, I am filled with life . Jesus Christ is the cold ( living ) water from God . By drinking him I am filled with life . To be full means that you no longer need to make up for the life of God . It ' already ' a reward given to me by God .Not only have I been promised a reward, but I have already received it, so I am trying to live a life faithful to a bowl of cold water .