Title: Sinners go to heaven first.
Contents
If there is a greatest hope for the Jews who lived under the law, performing all kinds of ceremonies, it is for all of them to enter heaven. This is just as the purpose of their escape from Egypt was for the ancestors of Israel to escape from Egypt, cross the Red Sea, go through the wilderness of Paran, and settle safely in the land of Canaan.
Also, since the people of the generation before Noah were the beginning of human history, their greatest goal was for the sons of God to live a long life on the earth, but the sons of God were not satisfied with this and they married and blended with the daughters of men, resulting in corruption on earth As a result of this, evil spread on the earth, and when God became angry and destroyed everything on the earth with a flood, only Noah's family, who were righteous at the time, barely survived. For them, the ark that Noah built is their refuge.
Of course, just as the process of corruption is slightly different in each age, the means of salvation are also slightly different. However, you can always see that God's giving of the first is a process to give the better that comes next.
The Jews endured all kinds of difficulties until their ancestors escaped from Egypt and settled in the land of Canaan, and paid a huge price every time they disobeyed the Word. Also, the first generation died in the wilderness because of their disobedience, and the second generation barely survived in Canaan. If they had settled on the earth, but realized even a little that their settlement in the land of Canaan was by no means an eternal rest for them, they should have known why the Messiah would come at that point, and what he would demand of them. It would have been right to have made a conventional guess.
But when they suddenly met the Messiah without any knowledge of that fact, they found that all they wanted of the Messiah was that it be well on earth, and that the Messiah asked of them only sinners. The difference was different, yet so different.
The author of Hebrews, who did not see such a fact, records the lives of his ancestors in detail in Chapters 3-4, detailing why his ancestors had to die in the wilderness, and what and how the dead did so.
Also, Moses was a great figure leading the people of Israel at the time, but he was only a servant compared to Christ. After Moses, Joshua became the leader of Israel and led the second generation to settle in the land of Canaan and give the land to each tribe of Israel. It was distributed and distributed, but that too is not eternal rest, but merely a model.
For humans, eternal rest does not mean that we can eat well and live well on earth, but that only the rest we get through believing in Jesus Christ is true rest. In other words, living with Christ is eternal rest without dying forever. If the Jews at the time of Jesus had realized this fact a little, they would not have been so reckless and arguing with Jesus in every case.
Looking at the actions of those who believe in themselves as righteous, in today's text, it is impossible to create the feeling that they are choosing only what to die before God. “God! I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, and not like this publican. And I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of my income.” Of course, from the perspective of the Pharisees at that time, it was the best form of life of faith to keep the law, but from the point of view of the Lord, who knows everything about human beings, it is pathetic considering what they do.
Those who fell from the faith because they failed to keep the law properly and were rejected by God said, “I am a sinner,” and pleaded with them to spare them. It is truly amazing. This is what believers do when they do not realize themselves.
Even in the midst of such circumstances, those who feel they are sinners say, “The tax collector could not stand at a distance and dare not lift up his eyes to look up to heaven, but beat his breast and say, “God! have pity on me! I am a sinner.”
Now, this will be the same for Christians today who are called the spiritual Israelites. If Christians today pay a little attention to the Exodus of the Israelites and what the Jews did wrong that they were abandoned by God, and what the Jews pursued, they eventually rejected the Lord of Heaven and went to destruction. , and today's Christians can also vaguely know what will happen to them in the future and be able to replace them. Comparing Christians today with the Jews of Jesus' day, there is no difference at all.
At that time, the Jews lived a life of faith in the flesh under the law. Even so, today's Christians are spiritual people who have received the Holy Spirit. But the spiritual people are imitating all the deeds that the Jews took in the flesh.
If the Jews realize that they all went to destruction because they did not believe in Christ despite their physical zeal, Christians today must lead a life of faith that realizes their own heart as if they were spiritual people. But that is not the case at all. Everyone knew that they could only claim holiness in the flesh like the Jews, but they didn't care about their own hearts at all. In the end, even Christians do not realize their sins, so it is very rare that they believe in the Son whom the Lord has sent.
Even though the kingdom of heaven is unfolding right in front of you, if you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven because you have been living your life of faith until now, not realizing your sins, and confessing that you are a sinner in front of the gates of heaven, then there will be no such injustice. As we can see in today's text, the Pharisees in Jesus' day are such people.
But this is what most of today's Christians will be like. And even for the judgment that would be received if they did not believe in the Son of God, the Jews suffered physical death, but when the spiritual people did not believe in the Spiritual Son, the suffering they suffered because they had to suffer forever. They will all suffer indescribably.
One way to know this is because when you see what is unfolding before you, you can see what is behind you. Looking at the process of the fall and salvation of each generation, we should prepare in advance for the process of fall and salvation that will come to us in the future so that we do not fall behind because we fail to confess our sins in front of the gates of heaven.