Title: Jesus Pays the Hour
“When you are on the road with the person who is accusing you, make peace quickly. Worry that the person who sues you will hand you over to the judge and the judge will hand you over to the official and put you in prison. Without this, I will by no means come out of it until I have paid it all back” (Matthew 5:25,26).
Jesus commanded that anyone who accusers must pay back everything, even if it is not even a penny. The hori is the smallest Roman currency unit called kodrantes, equivalent to 1/64 of a denarius, the daily wage of a worker. The will of Jesus is, in a word, if you owe something, ask the complainant to forgive him quickly and pay all the damages to an agreement. The reason is that if you do not reconcile to save money, you will be imprisoned, and then you will not be able to come out until you have paid off your hori, so it is much more financially damaging.
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is sometimes viewed as a New Testament proverb, and there is a tendency to think of it only as a moral commandment that believers must practice in real life. It's not like that. It's a story about heaven from start to finish. It is about how children of heaven, freed from the power of sin and Satan, must or can stand before the world and people. As a result, it is the same in terms of how to live a good and holy life, but if you already know God and live according to His will, then of course you should live that way.
It is easy to understand that living well does not mean that you can enjoy the blessings, but that living that way is a blessing that believers enjoy. Now that I am a believer, I am more faithful than an unbeliever, and it does not simply mean that I should pay back even the slightest amount of money. If you thoroughly understand the meaning of becoming a believer and firmly stand in that position, you will be willing to pay back even the slightest bit.
Repaying money and reaching a settlement in a lawsuit is simply a civil action. Civil affairs are practically not considered a sin in the world. It is said that money is the enemy and it is not the people's fault. There is no way that anyone borrows with the intention of taking money from the beginning. In most cases, they borrowed money and worked hard, but were unable to repay the money due to force majeure, such as inexperienced management or a sudden recession. If the intention is to steal money from the beginning, something lies and trickery is mobilized, and it becomes a criminal offense for fraud.
In the text, Jesus told us to completely cleanse even the splendor of civil society, which is not considered a great sin among people. If that is the case, it means that you have to pay for the rest, even the Hori of Hori. If we add the criminal sins of adultery, murder, assault, false evidence, fraud, and moral sinful lies, envy, jealousy, anger, curses, etc., even the slightest things pertaining to hori, will humans be able to repay them? For example, if we include the case of inadvertently inflicting indelible wounds on a person close to us with passing words, can a human being be able to cleanse themselves of all sins?
That's not the end. What about religious and spiritual sins? What about the sin of denying and turning away from God, the living Creator, and even cursing and swearing? I wouldn't be so sorry if I just remained an atheist or agnostic, but if I was completely engrossed in Satan's religion and condemned and cursed Christianity, would I be able to stand before God properly? No matter how much you try, you are a sinner who will die on the spot. Shouldn't we just look at His mercy, saying, "Please do as you please?"
It is impossible for a human being to pay off all civil, criminal, moral, religious, and spiritual sins without leaving a trace. Jesus came and he had to die. If we want to wash away our sins with just a few inches left, it is possible even for humans themselves. All you have to do is cultivate diligently and accumulate good deeds as taught by your human master. However, if you want to repay even Hori, the only way is for God to take care of it. Furthermore, it means that if God had endured it, that sin was completely paid for. If God Himself died, would there be any dross left?
God cannot coexist with sin. If anything dirty and ugly remains, it is immediately burned in the presence of God and disappears in an instant. In other words, if God is willing to bear that sin, he can burn it all away in the blink of an eye at any time. In other words, Jesus did not have to die to take away our sins.
Nevertheless, the reason why Jesus had to die is that all human beings have no choice but to die just by standing before God. If we treat sin and sinners as the same, there is no way to save sinners forever. Sin must be completely eliminated and sinful humans must be rescued. The cross was not a simple punishment for sin, but it was the grace that paid the penalty for sin and saved the sinner.
Therefore, as a believer who has been saved by participating in the death and resurrection of the cross, no more sin should remain. I am not asking believers to be 100% perfectly holy in their lifetime. No one can do that. This is because we are not as free to fellowship and walk with Him if even the slightest amount of sin remains or occurs in us. Will it interfere with the transmission of the grace and power that you have prepared to pour out on believers?
There are two extremes among believers when it comes to sin. They believe that they cannot even stand before God if they do not pay back even Hori, and they try to pay for their sins on their own no matter what. In the direction in which man is moving toward God, he is building a barrier again. On the other hand, Jesus did not even blink an eye for a small sin because Jesus paid for it. You are blocking the path of blessing from God's side toward believers.
Because Jesus paid the price for our sins, there is no more guilt left for us. Furthermore, the barrier that stood between man and God was completely removed because God Himself first paid the price for that sin. Now, all that is left of the believer is to come boldly to the throne at any time and at any time. So, the only thing a believer should be concerned with is whether he proceeds with a light and joyful heart or with a heavy and crushed heart.
Even if you don't know it once or twice, it can quickly become a thick iron wall if you keep accumulating it. Satan always tries to build a strong camp within us whenever there is a gap, and the starting point is always wise. There is absolutely no way for the division to use heavy equipment to install iron walls from the beginning. Before wounds and sins become bitter roots, you must first and urgently communicate with God. After that, there is only the work that God Himself will give us.
5/30/2006