16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:16-18
The Son of God, Jesus Christ, came into the world to take away our sins.
With it He took upon Himself the punishment due sin, that is eternal
death. John the Baptist testified about the Son of God before His death.
29 The
next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
In 1 Peter 2:24, Peter confirmed John
the Baptist’s testimony after His death and resurrection.
24 He
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
Paul taught us solid theology in Romans
3:23-24:
23 for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and
are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus
Therefore Paul confirmed in Romans 8:1 a
message of relief for all who believe in Jesus:
There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The punishment for our sin is taken
away from us by God. It is no longer forced on us. Because it was
poured out on the Son of God 2000 years ago at the cross. Christ Jesus
was our substitute. By being our substitute, He atoned us all. He
bore all our sins, and so He alone bore the wrath of God for us. With
Christ’s sacrifice, we no longer are considered condemned. Death no longer
becomes our inheritance. Christ has attained for us eternal life.
When we believe in Jesus Christ immediately the merit of the Son of God is
imputed into us. So we are forever cleansed from our sin and thus
justified. In the cosmic court we are forever atoned from our
condemnation. God no longer sees us as criminals deserving death.
But God through Christ sees us as His saints, on whom He bestows eternal life
upon. This is God’s justice. It is done in truth. There is no
deception. There is no magic.
Now, it is important to understand the working of human heart when sin is
committed. When one commits sin the first time and he is conscious of it,
he is in a state of great disturbance. There is something that God plants
in every human heart in order to detect any misconduct. It is called
conscience. The disturbance mostly is caused by our conscience.
When a sin is committed, the conscience alarm system is triggered. It
rings so loud to purposefully disturb our center by accusing us of the cosmic
crime that we have committed. This disturbing accusation produces guilty
feeling in our heart. The disturbing accusation and the guilty feeling
work so powerfully together in order to weigh down our center like a massive
earthquake. This alarm system is blaring so hard that we can’t escape
it. There is no built-in turn-off button in the alarm system of our
conscience. This alarm will blare for a long time. Until some kind
of response is taken place. The proper response is admittance of the sin
and repentance. This twofold response will greatly reduce the blaring
alarm. What remains after is the low-dose guilty feeling. It’s the
after-effect of the massive earthquake. If we experience an earthquake,
we will be left with crumbling buildings, debris, destruction, and so on.
In the same way, after a massive earthquake in our conscience, we are left with
destruction. The earthquake is no more, but the after-effect of the
earthquake can still be seen and felt. In this case, the low dose guilty
feeling is the after-effect of us committing sin that triggers the conscience
alarm system. This low dose guilty feeling lingers on together with the
trauma of the massive earthquake to remind us of the ordeal. These two
represents the scar in our conscience. The memory of ordeal might erupt
later on if triggered by similar situation: the sin, or the guilt, or the
people involved, or the items, etc. The purpose is to discourage us from
ever committing the same sin again, and or from committing sin in general.
The admittance of sin and repentance work together as the antidote of the
conscience alarm system. The combination of the two is the proper healing
process for the wound in our conscience. It is important to note here
that this healing will not erase the guilty feeling. It removes the
punishment. When someone repents, he must believe that what he does is
sinful. He must believe that God dislikes sin. He must believe that
God welcomes those who repent – that is to return back to Him asking for
forgiveness and striving for a life that is desired by God. Now,
forgiveness can’t be given without a sacrifice is made. But no sinful
human may become the sacrifice. Nothing in the world may be given as
sacrifice. God’s justice demands that if man sins then man must be the
one to pay. If a sacrifice is needed to atone, then the sacrifice must
also be man. But the atonement can’t be someone who is also in need of
atonement. God’s justice also demands for the sacrifice to be of the same
value. One person for one person. The implication is then when a
man is in need to be forgiven, he can only be atoned by a sinless man. He
cannot be atoned by a cow, or a dove, or a goat, or an angel, or even a
God. But the whole world has fallen. No human living on earth is
sinless, not even one. Thus we run into problem. If God wants to
save 1 billion people, then 1 billion sinless man need to be sacrificed.
The sacrifice will be lost forever in the eternal death because they replace
the sinful man. The problem is if we can’t find even one sinless man, how
in the world will we find one billion? Besides, if we can find even one,
will that one person be willing to go to eternal death for the sake of the one
sinful man? This problem can’t be solved in this world. Only God
can solve this problem through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of
God. He is God Himself. His divine quality can atone for infinite
number of people. But God alone cannot atone for man. Because God’s
value is different than man. Man must be atoned by man. But Jesus
is not only God. He is also a man. Jesus is 100% God and 100%
man. And Jesus is sinless, from conception to the day He died, He never
commits any sin. Since He is man, He thus can atone for man. He may
be one man, but His divine quality covers not only one man. Besides,
Jesus is willing to die on our place. Because He loves us with eternal
love. In the whole wide world, from the beginning to end, there is not
going to be anyone like Him. He is unique. He is special.
This makes Him the only one that can atone people. Peter testified boldly
before the Sanhedrin:
8 Then
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and
elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good
deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let
it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the
dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This
Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the
cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one
else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must
be saved.” (Acts 4:8-12)
Only through Jesus Christ, forgiveness
can be given by God to anyone who believes and repents. God’s justice is
satisfied only in Christ Jesus. The path of repentance heals the wounded
soul.
This path of repentance is in accordance with the proper re-equilibrium process
of human conscience. As we are created in the image of God, we have
innate the sense of justice. When sin is committed, immediately our
conscience that follows the pattern of the image of God screams for judgment
and punishment. Only death may be proportionate as the punishment of
sin. As long as death is not the punishment, and thus God’s justice is
not satisfied, the conscience will never find equilibrium. It will
forever be in the state of disequilibrium. Now, human construct always
seeks equilibrium. If one can’t find the proper equilibrium, then he will
start flirting with the second rate equilibrium, or third rate, and so on, as
long as it is better than the disequilibrium. The new normal might be
improper equilibrium. When improper equilibrium is adopted, some part of
the humanity must be compromised. The imago dei is then deconstructed
even more. It has been deconstructed by the Fall. Over time more
deconstructions takes place.
Now, we might ask, why
is small sin still to be punished by death? In our societal structure
death penalty is only given to those with horrible sins, like premeditated
murder for example. But for petty theft, commonly court won’t order
capital punishment for it. However, in the court of heaven, any sin is
sin, and sin is always punishable by death. This is because sin is an
offense to God who is the Creator and King of all. When David sinned and he
repented, he acknowledged in Psalm 51:4:
4 Against
you, you only, have I sinned
and done
what is evil in your sight,
so that you
may be justified in your words
and
blameless in your judgment.
Offending God is punishable by death
for eternity. This is because the quality of God is eternal. Offending
Him even once is offending Him for eternity. For God is not bound by
space and time. Even for sin that is committed in the world that is
limited by space and time. Death alone is proportionate as the punishment
of any sin, big or small, in the court of God.
The conscience that is constructed following the pattern of the image of God
knows this. Therefore when sin is committed, it pressures itself so
hard. People all over the ages scramble to find equilibrium. But
without the proper atonement in Christ, proper equilibrium is not
attainable. So they compensate. Some people found religion or
belief that inflicts heavy pain as punishment when sin is committed. The
infliction of heavy pain as punishment for sin is to satisfy the fierce
accusation by the conscience. For them the accusation of the conscience
is like the voice of God. It won’t go away unless satisfied or some kind
of alteration is forced to the conscience itself. If no alteration is to
be done to the conscience, then it must be satisfied. For example, in
some old religions or beliefs, when someone steals and is caught, his
punishment would be the hand that steals is to be cut. Some religious
leaders keep their life “holy” by inflicting heavy and painful punishment on
themselves in order to appease the raging conscience. Even some religious
leaders in Christianity would do the same. Martin Luther for example is
well known of punishing himself so severely every day for his sin, be it his
thought, words, or action. But even the most severe punishment inflicted
to our physical body can’t appease the demand of God’s justice. Judas
felt remorse after his conscience knocked him off for handing over an innocent
man, his own teacher Jesus Christ, to greedy and evil people. His great
disequilibrium threw him off balance. It’s too much for his conscience to
handle. The pressure was very heavy. The guilty feeling and the
alarm system blaring fiercely pushed him to the edge. Until he couldn’t
take it anymore. He had to make amend. But he couldn’t believe in
Jesus. His belief system was hampered by the reality that Jesus was
seemingly powerless in the hands of evil people. He could only think that
he handed over the wrong man. For him, his sin can only be met justly by giving
away his own life. So Judas hanged himself. But even his hanging
himself could not satisfy God’s justice. But all was too late. His
death could not be reversed. If he waited two more days, things might be
a bit different. Unlike Peter, Judas did not believe. Unlike Judas,
Peter believed and thus he waited for the resurrection that Jesus said would
take place.
Now, not all people would opt for the route that compensates the death
punishment with inflicting physical or mental pain to the self. Some
people prefer to avoid pain. And so another route is taken. This
new route is the route that would silence the alarm system. If not
completely silencing it, at least turning down the volume significantly.
Sounds logical, isn’t it? This method requires tinkering with the program
of the conscience itself. Meaning that it must redesign the conscience
with a different format. The pattern of imago dei will always lead to the
loud alarm system and accusation. So it must be replaced with something
softer, something more subtle. Psychology is the tool to reformat the
conscience. First, what must be tinkered is the cause of all the
problem. The main cause is sin itself. When the name “sin” is used,
the whole set of religious concept, philosophy, and theology must be
adopted. One can’t just accept the word “sin” without involving the
explanation of God, of the world created by God, of God’s character, of the
fall of humanity, of the need to appease the divine judgment, and so on.
The world view is like the operating system to run the program of the
conscience alarm system. But replacing the entire world view is not an
easy task. It can’t be done right away. It takes a long time to
replace the entire world view that one has adopted since birth. Now,
there should be a starting point for the change. And for this case “sin”
is the starting point. It is the one causing the disequilibrium. It
is the one that causes so much trouble. We know that when sin is committed
automatically the conscience points its finger vehemently at the self and
rightfully demands justice. Punishment must be provided in order to
satisfy the justice system and keep the alarm system quiet. Now, if the
concept that is commonly applied to sin is changed, then the response of the
conscience would take a different course. Above we have learned that
David had acknowledged and declared rightly the essence of sinning that it is
done by the self against God Almighty. But what if whatever is called
“sin” is actually not sin as declared by the Scripture, but it is just a
mistake. Linguistically “sin” is weighty. It carries with it a
religious meaning. But “mistake” is a common word that does not need
religious meaning. Mistake is something common in this sinful world that
some people even consider it necessary for growth. All people make
mistakes. When the word “mistake” is used, no religious sanction is
necessarily to be evoked. The imagination of the conscience is different
when the word and meaning assigned to a certain action is different.
Mistake can only be a social meaning, or psychological meaning, or
judicial meaning, or even accidental meaning, and not necessarily a religious
meaning. Thus the change from “sin” to “mistake” quickly eliminates the
entire package of heavenly justice system, and consequently eliminates God as
well.
This subtle change is a paradigm shift. Its hidden purpose is to lighten
the load. From any angle, sin cannot be lightened within the religious
framework. But when the action that is called sin is seen with a
different framework, using a different setting, applied in a different
background, then it triggers something different in the conscience. If
the action is no longer called sin, but just mistake, then there is nothing so
serious cosmically or spiritually that needs to be appeased. It is just
mistake, and mistake is necessary for growth, so when someone makes mistake, it
is not something that should be condemned. It is not something worth
fierce accusation. The conscience does not need to sound the deafening
alarm. It is just a mistake. One might feel guilty still, that’s a
normal mechanism, but it no longer wears down the person. Mistake can
always be amended without death penalty imposed. Mistake can always be
amended without any sacrifice offered to God. One just needs to fix the
mistake. The most common route is through doing good, through improving
the action, to make it better. With such reduction, gradually the
conscience learns to keep quiet. It is just a mistake after all. It
is not sin. No death penalty is demanded from mistake. No need to
deal with God. No need to appear before the heavenly court. And so
the conscience is silence when mistake is made. Even the guilty feeling
is reduced to the point that it is something fixable through common
actions. No dramatic atonement is needed. No condemnation in hell
to be feared. Thus, plan is made systematically in order to fix the
mistake. No faith in the Son of God is required. No repentance is
necessary. All one needs is improvement. Thus self-improvement
becomes very popular. Self-help corner becomes best seller in
bookstores. Counseling session becomes the antidote for the guilty
feeling resulted from mistake committed. Believing in Jesus is not the
answer anymore. Repenting from the old way of life is not the necessary
action to take. This route is on high demand at this day and age.
With this route, no pain is to be inflicted. With this route no humbling
of self is required. This very popular route works like painkiller.
It drugs the conscience. It deceives it so it won’t sound the alarm.
The last route is through intentional killing of the conscience. This
route requires a very high dose of deception poured into the conscience.
Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:1-2:
1Now
the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith
by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through
the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared
Seared conscience is very
disturbing. It means that the conscience no longer functions. When
flesh is given seared iron, the flesh dies. The flesh is burned.
Burned flesh lost its sensitivity. Burned flesh won’t feel a thing.
When touched, the burning flesh won’t feel. Seared conscience also lost
its sensitivity. When sin is committed, the conscience rages. The
first time one commits sin, the alarm sounds the loudest. The loud sound
naturally draws attention. So the self is forced to pay attention to the
seriousness of the action. Immediate proper action is to be done in order
to appease the rage. If the proper action is not taken, the alarm will
continue to sound so loudly in our soul. It will disturb our soul
tremendously. It drives us crazy. If the proper route is not the
preferred choice, then one will attempt different routes. If the person
does not wish to take the other two alternative routes, then this third route
is the last choice. That is to silence the conscience forcefully.
In order to do this, one must fight the conscience off. The way to fight
off the conscience is through repeating the sin over and over again and bracing
oneself through the alarm system of the conscience. This way the
conscience is overloaded. If the person continued to commit the same sin
over and over again while ignoring the alarm, at a certain point, the
conscience will stop working. Its sound will diminish. The new
normal is achieved, in which the state of disequilibrium becomes the person’s
equilibrium. Once the person is used to the state of disequilibrium, he
would gradually think that it is okay. This is forcing the conscience to
no longer work according to the original pattern. It is the process of
shutting down the conscience by force. A heavy dose of deception is
injected to the vein of conscience when one says that it is okay to commit sin
and repeat the same sin over and over.
This third route is a scary path. This route dramatically alters the
person. If the conscience is dead, then the person has no moral compass
anymore. He can do anything morally wrong without any sense of
accountability toward the Judge of all the earth. This kind of person is
wild. No guilt, no sense, no more morality, all is permissible.
All three alternative routes lead to the deception of taking away the
punishment from our imagination. Our mind is tricked into thinking that
there is no eternal punishment awaits us in the end. The guilty feeling
might still remain, but the eternal punishment is completely concealed.
The fear of judgment is eliminated. When eternal punishment is thrown
out, the conscience lost its power. It eventually dies. Then the
entire paradigm will shift. The focus is no longer to the One True God
who created the universe and demanded justice executed properly. The
focus is now on how we may feel good within our own self, even when committing
sin. The most effective way to kill the eternal punishment is to kill the
Judge. So the endeavor inevitably will seek ways to eliminate God.
This results in atheism. This results in the “God is Dead”
philosophy. Even Immanuel Kant acknowledged that the existence of God is
necessary in order for ethics to work in our world. He did not use any argument
from the Scripture. He simply realized this truth from the natural moral
order of the world. Yet the wild sinners would not acknowledge it.
Paul said about this one time in Romans 1:18-23:
18 For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For
what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation
of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For
although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him,
but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and
birds and animals and creeping things.
They intentionally fight the conscience
and suppress it. They are without excuse. But they continue to do
so because they want to be God. They want to do whatever they want.
The only way they can do it is by eliminating God. God is their
obstacle. A massive one. This is what John Calvin called total
depravity. Nothing in us desires God. We know we need God.
But we don’t want Him. Because God ruins our fun. Sinful humans
want fun in sin. If God is here, humans can’t have fun in sin. If
God is here, all fun in sin is punishable by eternal death. Sinful humans
do not wish eternal death. They want to have fun in sin without
hell. This can only be fully achieved by eliminating God.
It is important to remember that whatever it is man do, God will remain
forever. His judgment stands. His moral order will continually be
executed. Sin will be punished by death. Atonement is only in
Christ Jesus. Without faith in Christ none can be saved. Man may
deceive themselves, but in the end they will face reality that God will meet
them in the end time to demand their account. Man may fight God or even
try to eliminate God, but in the end, it is inevitable that they will die while
God lives forever. Even when they think and believe that God is dead, God
is actually still alive and well. They only deceive their own mind.
They only lie to themselves. Their doom goes deeper. I pray that
all who seek equilibrium because their world is disturbed by their committing
sin will resort to the Scripture and come to Jesus in order to believe Him and
repent. Do not take the punishment by inflicting pain on yourself
thinking that it would replace the eternal punishment. Do not drug your
conscience by deceiving it into thinking that the sin you commit is just
mistake. Do not kill your conscience by repeating your sin over and over
again. But admit your sin and repent. Admit your sin before Christ,
believe His salvation, and repent into the life that He provides. Only
through Christ your punishment is lifted. Christ paid it in full through
His sacrifice on the cross. All the other three alternative routes merely
deceive you into thinking that the punishment is no more. You are living
a lie if you think that your punishment is gone without necessarily believing
in Christ. It stays. The three alternatives only keep the guilty
feeling and the alarm system in your conscience quiet, but your punishment in
hell remains. The proper route takes away your eternal punishment even
though your guilty feeling might still remain in low dose. Paul is saved
for eternity, but he remembers the sin he committed. Paul still had some
kind of guilty feeling. This can be found in his own testimony:
8 Last
of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For
I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church
of God. 10 But
by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On
the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the
grace of God that is with me. (1
Corinthians 15:8-10)
But his guilty feeling no longer
condemned him. His guilty feeling reminded him of the grace of God.
His guilty feeling reminded him vividly the great sin he committed. Paul
would not do it again. But he worked harder because of God’s great grace
for him. Let this example be also for us who has received God’s grace in
abundance through Christ Jesus. May we work harder for the glory of God
driven by the grace of God in us. Amen.
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