Title Before and After /John 3:3
Contents
Before and After /John 3:3
If you watch TV programs these days, it is fashionable to visit an old house and repair the interior. Also, if you write a postcard or a letter well, you may be lucky enough to redecorate the interior. Among them, MBC has a program that visits poor families and cleans them up every Sunday evening. As the program progresses, the first thing to do is to show the things that were old in the past. Regardless of the pride of the person who lived in the past, it shows the extremely dirty, unorganized and cluttered appearance without editing (?). It's like a cluttered look before remodeling, as if researching and sending out how to make it more messy and dirty on TV.
However, when I show the image after the construction is completed, I see a change that I can't even imagine. Those who see the appearance of the house after the change are overflowing with emotion and shed tears, sometimes with their mouths open and surprised to the point of being unable to speak. Viewers are also envious of the changed appearance, making them think, 'We should fix it like that too'. It shows every corner of the house in detail, including the master bedroom, study room, kitchen, bathroom, utility room, hallway, and toilet. However, when showing the appearance after the change, the appearance before the change must be shown once more, and then the appearance after the change is displayed with a caption or comment saying ‘I have changed like this’.
The same goes for monthly magazines. It's not just the house. Select readers and take pictures of them before and after makeup. The same goes for plastic surgery advertisements. By arranging the images before and after surgery side by side, it attracts people's attention and enhances the advertising effect. In this way, it is fashionable to change people and change houses to the extent that it is called a boom in the world. When many people compare outward appearances with ‘before’ and ‘after’, we Christians should compare ‘before’ and ‘after’ not only in appearance but also in our beliefs.
Let us remember what we looked like before and after we believed in Jesus. Let's compare how it looks when viewed side by side We believe in Jesus, but in our lives, are we not living a life in which our faith is not born again? If our faith has not changed to the extent that people are surprised and open mouths due to being born again, it should be a time to examine and change our own faith. Let's redecorate the interior so that our dirty minds are clean and organized. Let's show that we've changed so much that people don't even notice it by becoming prettier than before. Let's take a look at what life is like after being born again.
Today's text is a snippet from the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a brotherhood of about 6,000 men named “Caribra.” In order to join this Brotherhood, he had to make an oath in front of three witnesses to keep all the items of the law throughout his life. For the Jews, the law is the most sacred thing in the world. However, Jesus, who made a revolutionary declaration against the law, saying, “I said this to the old man, but I say this to you” (Matthew 6:21-48), had no choice but to be a pretense in the eyes of the Pharisees. It was an exceptional case for that time that such a Pharisee, rich man, and one of the Sanhedrin members, Nicodemus, came in the middle of the night to have an honest conversation with Jesus.
When Jesus said, “A man must be born again,” Nicodemus did not understand what he meant. The word “again” as understood by Nicodemus is translated from the Greek word “anoden”. “Anoden” means “from above, from the beginning, again from scratch”. It is difficult to express the meaning of these three meanings in one word. We express all these meanings as ‘rebirth, rebirth’. Being born again means fundamentally a new birth. Therefore, in the experience of Nicodemus, being born again is impossible, so he asked the question with a foolish but wise and clever modern way of thinking: “Can you go back into your mother’s womb and be born again?” (John 3:4). .
Like Nicodemus then, we who live today think of being reborn from the experiences of our lives. While we wish to change ourselves, we are facing a difficult problem that we do not know how to change, wanting to change the before and after for sure. Let's look at the things we need to change in order for our lives to become faith later and to be born again before God.
1. Static change
Some say Christianity is a religion of experience. It can be said that faith without the experience of static change is not changed in the true sense. It is a fact that no one can deny the thrill and fervor of salvation while receiving Christ and accepting Christ as Savior.
John Wesley himself expressed his change as “my heart warmed while listening to the word of the Lord”, and the two disciples on the way to Emmaus also confessed, “Weren’t our hearts burning when he taught us the Bible? are doing When Handel's oratorio 'Messiah' was played, the 44th Hallelujah was sung, so that the king could hardly sit and listen to it, his heart was so hot and moved that he was so moved. He didn't know what to do, so he got up on the spot, and when the hallelujah was played, it all happened as an example. When a person's heart is touched and heated, it can only be expressed outwardly. Unexpressed emotion is a lie, and it is only a form that comes from unavoidable face.
Before the Lord, “Lord! Peter, who knelt before Christ, saying, “Leave me, for I am a sinner”, Moses who took off his shoes in the flames of a bush, and their sublime appearance, we can find the static change of man who met God. We must have this kind of confession of faith, the tears that constantly flow when we meet Christ, and the emotional scream that comes out of our hearts when we hear his words. This kind of moving of the heart signifies a new birth that can be transformed into faith and a static change.
2. Moral change
Just as a static change is a form of personality change, a volitional change accompanied by a volitional decision and a moral change are the most important changes for Christians. Although it is a special Korean situation, sometimes alcohol and tobacco are always the cause of problems for Christians. It is a situation in Korea to have the perception that if you believe in Jesus, accept Jesus, and go to church, you should not drink or smoke. However, strictly speaking, alcohol and tobacco have absolutely nothing to do with human salvation, and furthermore, it is a fact that cannot be defined as a human sin. Just because he drank alcohol, it cannot be said that he committed the sin of falling into hell before God, and he cannot be condemned that he had lost salvation just because he smoked.
But here is a problem we must remember. Although the word moral cannot be defined precisely, it is a fact that morality is formed in the realm of customs, traditions, and culture of the people of a country. Then, even if alcohol and tobacco have nothing to do with our salvation or the problem of sin, if it is a sacred heritage of the traditions, customs, and church culture of the Korean church, we cannot ignore the prohibition of drinking and smoking as wrong. If you have met Christ and have had a static experience, you will be asked to make a moral and volitional decision and change. If you think it is morally unfair, you need to make a willful decision to quit on the spot. Alcohol and tobacco, as well as bad actions and thoughts as Christians can ruin our transformation. If I'm not alone It is wrong to think that it is okay to be honest in my heart.
Our appearance may disappoint others and hide the glory of God. Whether we eat or drink, it is the Christian's job to do for the glory of God. If we obscure the glory of God by our immoral actions, we are still living the old faith. If we later have faith and are in Christ, our moral change is inevitable. The Apostle Paul also told us:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
3. Social change
Sometimes we come across a misconception that faith and reason seem to contradict each other. Because faith is blind and reason seems rational. But faith and reason do not contradict each other, but complement and complement each other. There is no doubt that the Christian change is a supernatural change that cannot be predicted by human reason. But it's never irrational. The Bible tells us to serve the Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul. Mind, will, and devotion mean the will, intellect, and sensibility of human beings, all of which are total. The static, the volitional, and the intellectual must not be biased toward any one. If you insist on only the static, you will become a nihilist, and if you insist on only the will, you will fall into ethics. If any one of them is separated, the balance will be disturbed and it will be impossible to adapt to this society.
What is the human personality structure? tablet. is composed of three parts. When there is a change of static, intellectual, moral, and volitional change, the Christian's role can stand upright in this society. We cannot live apart from this society. It is important for humans to meet Christ and bring about personal change, but when we are separated from the society in which we live, that change loses its value. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.” If you are confident that you have kept these words, you are no different from Nicodemus in today's text. But Jesus commands us to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Our later faith must not end only between ourselves and God. Because of our transformation, our regeneration, we must manifest Christ's power in this society. Christ must be revealed in the relationship between you and me on this earth, between the church and the community, and between Christianity and society. In the history of Christianity, many Christians did not stop at changing themselves. It also influenced social change. If the historian of regeneration and the change of Christianity were limited to personal change, Jesus would have been there with the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration and would never have come down from the mountain. Jesus wants to change this society through our transformation. The Lord has said to us that we are the light and salt of this world. Regeneration of Christianity demands social change together. Our former image, standing in the midst of change, must be transformed into a later image.
Let our spiritual change be seen as a beautiful Christian's later faith. Let our future beliefs plant in our homes, in our churches, in our societies, in our country, and in this world a changed image from what it was before.