Title: Restoration of Faith by Justification by Faith
Restoration of faith justified by faith
[Galatians 2:16]
Kim Song-ja's sister
Today's society is said to be an age of chaos in values or an age of spiritual, physical, and environmental crisis. There is a standard that can be applied to any society, but when that standard is shaken, what everyone thinks is right and what is right, and what is judged to be wrong by anyone can be justified and recognized as right over the years, confusion in our values comes. This is thought to be the result of the frustration of our nation for a long time.
In the Joseon Dynasty, which is a closed and rigid social class society, the Japanese colonial era, the U.S. military government after liberation, 4.19, 5.16, and the Gwangju Democratization Movement, we have suffered countless hardships, and various Western cultures that have not been able to solve by ourselves and have come along with the changes of the times. Regardless of our will, I think it is because we have formed and confused our society's values.
When these painful wounds inherited from ancestors are not healed justly and the perpetrator rather becomes a vested interest or a social leader, the victims and the general public are very frustrated and confused about how to live a truly human life. It means losing. The fact that the society has a chaos of values means the decline of religion. Because the meaning of life is what religion bears.
Let me give you an easy example of a values confusion.
Since when, Korean churches have taught that success and being rich are God's blessings, and no matter what the process is, if you succeed, all your previous faults are forgiven and you are recognized as a righteous member of good faith. After Adam's Good and Evil and the events of the human society, people came to recognize people, and the crystallization of it is that people who have done good deeds are recognized as righteous.
However, a society or community that is recognized as a good deed is still a fairly mature society. Our society today is a little more superficial. It does not drag the issue of justification there. The standards recognized in our society and community today are in matters of wealth and social status. If you succeed in this problem, you will be recognized, and if you fail, you will be a loser and a failure in life. There is no social climate that condemns the process of success as bad.
A capable person has authority in his own power, and many people bow their heads in front of his reproductive ability. So, people become loyal to the success ideology in order to make a lot of money or get a career in one way or another. Of course, I am sure that the basic spirit of Saegil Community is absolutely not the case. This is not to say that it is just good to hear. This is because the early founding members 22 years ago deeply understand the anguish and pain of those who had no choice but to separate from the modern church under the name of “Saegil”. I think that those who first realized that they had no choice but to make a decision while looking at the church becoming assimilated with the world.
This is probably because our society and the church do not see material things as evil, but because the Christian view of salvation, which values life in this world, fits well with the world view of our people. So, the church is overflowing with members, and I think we should think about whether we should be really thankful that there are almost the largest churches in the world that have grown quickly in our country. But it is clear that God's justice does not consist in success, wealth, and power. Christianity is positive about the world because a good God created a beautiful world. However, although the world is a beautiful place, it is also a place overflowing with sin because of the deep sinful nature of human beings. That is why the world is so inconsistent with property relations, and it is also a place where violence and domination abound.
Augustine also saw the standard of goodness as the motive for such an act.
No matter how good the results were, if the process or motivation was bad, it was not viewed as good.
The Christian transcendence (filled with the Holy Spirit) is not to turn your back on the world, but to overcome the world and wrestle with the world. It is about taking an interest in the world and participating in it so that God's will can be done on this earth. In the end, Christians' participation without transcendence is imitating the world, and if the principle of success is following the world's way, then they have imitated the world, not conquered the world. If the Korean church is full and overflowing with such members, it can be seen that it has nothing to do with church growth and the growth of the gospel. That is why the church community must ask whether success is really worthy of the truth and the gospel.
As in the text, Paul proclaimed the spiritual revolution called “righteousness” and taught that Jewish Christians at that time had to obey the Halena Law to be saved. He even said that he would be cursed if he did, and made it his main attack. Justification by faith is what God approves, and justification by works of success is what the world does.
It is that the church should not justify such acts and justify them as righteous people by collecting money in unjust ways in front of countless Gods, such as land speculation, apartment speculation, stock price manipulation, and prostitution, and using that money to buy power.
In a community justified by power and success, there is no room for true faith, lonely by faith.
If the frustration caused by this confusion of values continues for a long time, it will lead to a crisis, and people will be confused about “good is good” rather than “right is good”.
Of course, there are many people around us who work hard and work in a just way to gain wealth, to obtain a position, to spend money righteously, and to live like a Christian in that position. However, as there are more people who do not, it seems that the role of the church is urgently needed.
As Christians, we have a line to keep. True faith can only be achieved when God clearly distinguishes and keeps the boundary between the freedom to eat all the fruits of the Garden of Eden and the boundary not to eat the fruit of good and evil in the center of the garden. That is why Jesus seems to have said “the narrow way”.
I believe that believing in Jesus well and being a necessary person in society are not separate. Because faith is heard in the field of life. It is important to believe in Jesus and go to heaven, but social justice can be established through the practice of faith so that God's will can be done in this world.
The fact that Christianity with a theology close to fundamentalism came into Korea and spread can be said to have made it known only about the expansion of the kingdom of God through its own revival without being indifferent to political and economic liberation. Just as corporations exist to increase profits, and churches exist to grow, just as all possessions of material things beyond survival are justified by God’s blessings, it is a way to satisfy human greed by transforming Christian spirituality into materialistic spirituality. that has been developed. The number of members and the size of the church are all material things, and materialism that confirms that they are alive through such things must compete with others, and can be seen as containing the will to power by size or number without considering the other person personally. Jesus said that there is no place to lay our heads on this earth, but we have so much, but we are waiting for an opportunity to rise higher in order to have more.
Not long ago, I was reading Douglas Ramis's book, “If economic growth doesn't work, will we not be prosperous?” The author who argues that only 0% economic growth can save the current crisis, contrary to the reality that shouts from all sides to save the economy Reading the article made me think in connection with the words of “Habakkuk 3:17,” which is the spirituality that Christians need to find.
“Though the fig tree bear no fruit and the vines no fruit, though the olive trees produce no crops and the fields produce no crops, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God who saved me.” It is just that there is nothing in these words. They have nothing, but they are satisfied with Jehovah alone, and moreover, they rejoice.
I think that this kind of true faith is the faith we need to restore in this age.
Jesus, the goal of our life and the value of our life, I am not based on the atonement theory that Paul speaks of here, that Christ died for us and saved us once and for all, but an incompetent and foolish God who was crucified without power. I would like to introduce and close.
It was because I deeply realized why God had to hang on the cross like an incompetent and foolish person. If we talk only about Almighty God without clear understanding of the Trinity of one God, we will see the Korean Church as monotheism without a Trinity, very patriarchal, authoritarian, and demanding unconditional obedience. Behind the powerful grace of forgiving my sins, we must not lose sight of the Lord who gave up the omnipotence of God and became passive because of hope for humanity.
Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Sacred Community
I believe that the community to be cared for has an important role to play in these turbulent times and in these times of crisis. In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
In a world where the whole world returns to economic logic and excessive consumption is structurally encouraged, the role of our community is to prepare a space for non-ownership, and to properly inform the souls who are tired of the competition for ownership so that they can come to the church to find rest and obtain fundamental life. Because it does not come from possession, I hope that you and I will be able to show off the worldly side. *