Title: To die is to live!
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: Matthew 16:21-28
Title: To die is to live!
Human beings have only one life. Therefore, there is no one who does not value his life. In order to preserve that life, humans make every effort to live. But even a life lived like that will one day die. Seen this way, in the end, humans live to die.
Is there no way for humans to live forever without dying? There is no way in the world. No matter how advanced science is and how good medicine is, there is no way for humans to live forever without dying. But here the Bible shows how man can live forever without dying. It is death to sin and being born again in Christ.
But even there, you must die at least once. Only then can you be reborn. To be born again in Christ, you must first learn to die. The key to being able to forsake yourself is how well you realize your sin problem. Those who cannot forsake themselves are those who do not realize the problem of their sins. In the end, whether you can abandon yourself or not is what determines whether you live forever or die.
“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit!” These words were spoken by Jesus in reference to his own death, but we must take into account the meaning of these words. Jesus died to atone for the original sin of mankind, but we must die because of our self-crime.
We, who were born as descendants of Adam, must die at least once because of the daily sins we commit. However, depending on whether that death will die in Christ or outside Christ, it is divided into heaven and hell. Needless to say, those who die in Christ will be reborn in Christ, but those who die outside Christ will die forever because their sins are not forgiven.
If you think that you are in Christ unconditionally just because you call God your Father in the present earth, you are mistaken. The people of Israel went to the temple and offered all kinds of sacrifices before God for about 2,000 years. They called God their father and lived their lives, but they did not believe in the Son God sent and they could not solve their sin problem and went to destruction.
Christians today are very mistaken if they think that they are in Christ just because they believed in Jesus, whom the Jews did not believe in. Jesus, who came in the flesh, came to save His people who lived under the law. In other words, the blood that Jesus shed while dying on the cross is for all people living on the earth, and anyone who calls on the name of Jesus can receive the forgiveness of Adam's original sin, a precious gift of grace.
However, just because human beings have been forgiven of their original sins does not completely solve the problem of sin. Jews who lived under the law must believe in Jesus who came in the flesh to be forgiven of their sins, and Christians who lived under the Holy Spirit must believe in the Son of God who comes spiritually to receive forgiveness of their sins. Because it is a crime he committed, he must honestly confess his sin in front of the son who comes personally and receive forgiveness.
There is a difference between dying in the world and dying in Christ. To die in the world means to die at the end of one's lifespan, or to die from an accident or disease. But to die in Christ is to die for one's own sins.
Let's explain the process of dying, confessing one's sins in front of Christ. Confession does not mean that sin is gone. As long as there is a body, sin exists. So how do humans die? The moment a man confesses his sin before Christ, he is already dead. To confess his sins before Christ means to be freed from Satan's control over him. Therefore, the Lord grants him mercy and brings him back to life.
Those who are reborn by the Lord's mercy live only according to the instructions of Christ from that time on. Even those who are in Christ can commit suicide in the world because they are in the flesh. But even if those who are in Christ commit sins, there is no fear of wrongdoing because Christ pays for them. This is the difference between those who are in Christ and those who are outside Christ, even if they live the same life of faith.
This is where Christians today are mistaken. Everyone has mistaken the Holy Spirit for the Spirit of Christ and believes that they are all in Christ. That is why they think that they will all go to heaven after death because Jesus will pay for their sins even if they live and die.
However, what Christians should not be mistaken is the fact that he has not yet sent a personal Son of God to Christians. He didn't send his son, so how do they all believe that they are in Christ? This is because the Holy Spirit is mistaken for the Spirit of Christ.
And if all Christians were truly in Christ, Christ would stand out as less than a dirty human being. How are those who have Christ in their hearts so eager to succeed in the world without showing any traces of Christ? The Lord is the one who said that in this world there is no place to lay your head. From this alone, it becomes clear that the Christians today are only sinners under the law of the Holy Spirit, and not yet in Christ.
In order to be born again in Christ, Christians who have broken the law of the Holy Spirit and are still imprisoned under sin, they must confess all their sins before the coming Lord and receive mercy from the Lord. This is the way we live forever in Christ. “Whoever wants to die will live, and whoever wants to live will die.”