WHAT RABBIS WROTE ABOUT JESUS?

8)Capernaum failed to repent so it remained under Christ’s Judgement.

9)Noble man’s son was healed.

10)Jesus had His discourse regarding “the bread of life.”

11)The Synagogue of Capernaum was built by a Roman Centurion.

Then Jesus moved into the city of gold called Jerusalem. It reminds us the patriarch Abraham, when Lot, his nephew was taken as captive from Sodom by invading the neighbouring army he came to know that and rescued his nephew from that calamity. While returning home, Abraham met Melchezidec who was called king of Salem (Genesis 14:18) who remained there as the high priest of the Most High God (El EL yon).

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As a priest he served bread and wine to Abraham and in return Abraham gave tithes to Melchezidec from his income. So, as per the Biblical history giving tithes to God started with Abraham. Melchezidec built the city of Salem, which later became Jerusalem which means “the house of peace.”

Melchezidec maintained the sanctity of Jerusalem as the first high priest and it was continued by the second high priest Jesus Christ who came after about two thousand years. He was called the second high priest in the Bible after the order of Melchezidec the king of righteousness and Jesus will rule Jerusalem, one day after His second coming and establish His kingdom.

Apart from Salem and Jebus, Jerusalem has some other names like, house of peace, Holy City, city of David, city of God, mountain of the Lord, etc... There are some extraordinary things regarding Jerusalem. They are :

1)It is called the nerve centre of the whole world geographically.

2)It is called the salvation centre of the world spiritually.

3)It is called the story centre of the world prophetically.

4)It is called the glory centre of the world ultimately.

5)If we keep the beauty created by God in the whole world, in 10 parts, we

can find 9 parts of that beauty in Jerusalem alone.

6)If we think about the knowledge of the world given to human kind in 10

parts, we can find 9 parts of that knowledge in Jerusalem alone.

7)At that same time, if we put the suffering of the world in 10 parts, we can

see 9 parts of that suffering in the faces of Jews in Jerusalem.

and Medina.

9)The name Jerusalem is used about 600 times in the Old Testament alone.

This Jerusalem according to Biblical history had experienced many wars and destined to “Divine Design” to become the city of peace, to be ruled over by the king of righteousness like Melchezidec and after him the Messiah the king of Jews and Jesus Christ will rule it only with new establishment and the world peace can be achieved.

No body in the world can change the Jewish people from their land because they were God chosen people and it was a Promised Land given to their patriarch Abraham and to his descendants Israelites. Abraham wished to sacrifice his son Isaac on Moria Mountains, as he was asked by God to do so in order to test his faith. King David captured this Jerusalem through war with

The Everlasting Kingdom of God warlike people Jebusits and made it as his capital. Them his son Solomon built a permanent house (Temple) to God in Jerusalem. In three different times the king of Babylon came and destroyed the city and the Holy Temple. Then he took away not only the gold and silver from the temple, but also many people as captives.

From that foreign land (Babylon) some of the devoted Jews prayed to God. They said in absolute depression. “If we forget thee O Jerusalem, let our right hands forget their cunningness.” After about 70 years some devotes like Zerubbabel returned to Jerusalem and tried to rebuild the temple on the same foundations. The Temple was renovated again in spite of many changes and attacks on Jerusalem and the Temple, the curse on the Jews did not end. There is still some prophecy that when the Antichrist comes he too will desecrate the Temple by keeping his image. Finally there will be millennial Temple at Jerusalem with the second coming of Jesus Christ.

For about four hundred thirty long years, Israelites were in bondage in Egypt and finally came to their Promised Land under the leadership of prophet Moses and Joshua. Then in 721 BC the ten tribes of Northern Kingdom called Israelites were captured and taken as captives by the Assyrian. Then in 536 BC the remnant of both Assyrian and Babylonian captives returned to Jerusalem. Again within a short period the Romans attacked Jerusalem and the Temple and there was a total destruction of both. This attack forced many Jews to leave their country and scatter into many nations of the world.

And finally in nineteen forty eight almost after nineteen hundred years out of the ashes of Holocaust. God once again called His chosen people from different parts of the world to come back to their home land. Some of them could respond to the call of God, but they had to fight again six day war to recapture the holy land city Jerusalem in 1967.

Apart from out side problems Jerusalem had its own internal troubles, because the city was divided into four parts as, Jews quarters, Muslim quarters, Christian quarters and Armenian quarters. Actually there was no internal peace in the city of peace and added to that the people became restless with outside terrorism. The internal conflict most probably between the Jews and Muslims regarding the ownership of mount Moria where Abraham planned to sacrifice his son. This struggle finally turned to be spiritual one which could not be solved so far successfully. The Jews are anticipating that only the return of the

The Everlasting Kingdom of God Messiah would solve the problem when he comes. The media also misled the public like a lamb is led to the slaughter house. And also some pressure from the neighbouring nations for their political ends made this nation restless.

Really speaking the son of God loved the city of peace very much. He felt agony even cried by prophesising from the Mount of Olives that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed in future. Jesus said these words and died in 30 AD. The Temple and the city destroyed in 70 AD. Biblical history says that the Roman authorities had taken to Rome even the Menorah which was made of solid gold. Jesus wished to draw the attention of every body particularly the citizens of Jerusalem toward Himself. Then He wanted to rule over them as Messiah, but the Jewish people had no faith in Him that He was the Messiah.

Jesus tried His best to change the stone heated and ungrateful Israel but in vain. So, He said He would never think of them unless they say “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:29). Finally Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for the sake of the whole world out side walls of the city of peace. He came to this world only to die. He climbed on to the cross by keeping all sins, of the world on his shoulders near the place of crucification there is one most beautiful garden, which was once a grape garden as history says. It has become a favourite place to the believers of the world today and we can see stone cut empty tomb. God of heaven was fully satisfied with His son’s crucifixion for the sins of humanity His death, and His resurrection on the third day from the grave.

Jesus asked all the believers to take up the cross and follow him one day. Why He said so because He wanted to make them understand, how difficult it would be to carry the cross on their shoulders. Perhaps He wanted to separate the true believers who should say “this is the cross I must bear.” So, that this act would remind the people the purpose of His death burial and resurrection. Now a days men are walking in all the places of Israel where Jesus walked and feeling themselves sanctified.

People can follow Jesus Christ often visited spots on the Mount of Olives or stand where Jesus stood outside the tomb of Lazarus or walk in via-dolorosa (the way of sorrow) in Jerusalem and so on. Men can walk literally where Jesus walked with honest feelings with high emotions and with faithful thoughts. People must accept and honour His gracious invitation to take up the cross and follow Him and trust in Him for His sacrifice for their salvation.

The Everlasting Kingdom of God CHAPTER -11

WHAT RABBIS WROTE ABOUT JESUS?

We can easily understand the impression of the Jews about Jesus Christ as long as He was on the earth. He was fully engaged Himself with teaching preaching, doing miracles to create good impression and hope upon the poor and innocent people as Messiah and also healing the sick. This life of Christ is completely pictured in the four Gospels. It is also described in them how unnecessarily the Jews developed prejudices against Jesus Christ for His abnormal intelligence because He was filled with the Holy Spirit always but the Jews never accepted Him either as Messiah or the son of God or the king of Jews. The same prejudice against Him continued till He was crucified and died. So the Gospels are the basis for the full account of Jesus and His ministry and at the same time the hatred of Jews towards Him. But the common people did not have complete faith in His messianic claims and His ministry. The truth can be seen through the statements that the common people heard Him gladly (Mark 12:37) and many of the people believed in Him. At the same time some notable exceptions like Nicodemus and Joseph Arimathaea, the religious leaders of Pharisees and Sadducees vehemently rejected Jesus totally. This complete picture of the acceptance of the common people on one hand and complete rejection of some religious fanatics on the other were clearly illustrated and projected by (St. John 7:46-49). He gave a clear picture in the following lines.

The officials answered “Never a man spake like this man.” To this statement the Pharisees answered “Are ye rulers also deceived?” have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him?” But those people who knoweth not the law are cursed. The book of “Acts” and early church inform us with all details that there were many Jewish believes in the centuries after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However the official Jewish religious leadership continued their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. What did the rabbis think about Nazarene who had actually offered them the kingdom of not of this world. And what memories of Jesus they must have had regarding his ministry and how they could transmit their memories about Him to their students or to the next generations. In this context I am trying to provide this article in a considerable and condensed manner the picture of Jesus Christ that is composed in the rabbinical literature during the first few centuries following the climatic events of in 30 AD.

The Talmud:- “This Talmud is considered to be the most prominent sources that gave scope for discovering the beliefs of the Jewish people in the early

The Everlasting Kingdom of God centuries of the common era”, which is Abbreviated as C.E. the time after Christ known as “Anno Domini” which means the year of our Lord and this is abbreviated as A.D. Then the word Talmud literally means “Learning.” It is the name of a very big library consisting of the documents of about 63 noted individual writers or tract acts. This enormous collection of literature covers a wide range of subject as diverse as Biblical law medicine agriculture and philosophy. So to say it is the embodiment of “Oral law”, a compilation of Jewish religious traditions developed during some centuries and handed down orally from generation to generation.

And this Talmud is introduced to the public as two important parts. The first one is called “Mishma.” It was written in Hebrew language around 200 AD. The second one is called “Jermara.” It was written in aromatic language around 400 AD in Palestine and then in Babylonia in 500 AD. It is believed that Jermara is closely related to the earlier Mishma as in the same way as the Bible commentary is related to the Bible text. This wonderful collection of literature was sometimes referred to and complimented as a sea of Talmud (Yon hatal mud). This literature requires anybody’s lifetime continuous and careful study. Many attempts have been made in different stages to summarize the Talmud teachings in the accessible “Topics” because of the style followed by the rabbis as it appeared to be typical to the common leaders to comprehend. Many pages have been scribbled of what was said about the life of Jesus Christ and Christianity in Talmud and “Michrash” by Travers and Herford Pick in 1913. Another Hebrew Christian document is “The Jews and Jesus Christ” by Jacob Jocz which was first published in 1949.

Various authors tried their best to collect the matter through the Talmud tractats. And they indicated from those pieces of scattered ones some useful information to the public about the opinion of rabbis regarding Jesus in the following manner. In this context a particular quotation could be found only in the complete English translation of the Babylonian Talmud called the “Sancino Talmud” published in Sancino press in Great Britain. As found in that work the real name of Jesus occurred occasionally in the rabbinical literature naturally in the form of “Yeshu or yeshu hanotsri” which means Jesus the Nazarene. Sometimes He is referred to as Yeshu Ben Pantera or “Benstada” and in most of the occasions he is mentioned as a certain man or that man. Even if we give a curse reading to the statements made by rabbis with half knowledge about the life history of Jesus Christ in their writings. We can easily come to a conclusion that the rabbis authors did not know even the ABC about Jesus Christ or they

The Everlasting Kingdom of God did not understand what the Gospels speak about Him. They also did not realize the fact that half knowledge of anything is always dangerous.

Between the statements made by the rabbis authors about Jesus and the actual facts mentioned in the Gospels by their writers who wrote them with divine spirit there is a gulf of difference and no coherence. They did not have even basic knowledge about the life of Jesus Christ but depicted about Him only false allegations. This half knowledge prompted them to give such statements which are not true but only to become unpopular among the popular leaders. The intention of these false allegations is only to degrade His image not only among the believers but also among the gentiles. The main reason for understanding in such away was due to the fact those rabbis continued their statements to ignored people through oral traditions. The real problem with such oral traditions is that if they are continued per centuries in course of time the original matter would be twisted and different and even unbelievable versions may come into existence. Such is the trouble with oral tradition but unfortunately their oral traditions continued for 2 to 5 centuries.

And in the case of Jesus Christ the same thing happened because of the oral tradition. Added to that this system was not kept in black and white. The oral method gives us the idea that the rabbis twisted the events written in the Gospels intentionally and produced the contradictory opinion about the life of Jesus Christ. The real motive behind the rabbis effort to present the distorted matter was to make Jesus Christ unfavorable light to humanity. The rabbis must have taken this step because of the ill treatment given to Jews by Christians during the third and the fourth centuries or it must be literary device planned to discourage Jews from considering Jesus as the viable alternative to faith. Whatever might be the motive behind all this there is no point in giving false and unbelievable picture about such a divine man and His wonderful deeds in this world. There is no indication of any type the modern scholars or at least trying to understand Jesus correctly whether they were Jews or gentiles who have believed in the statements as historical facts described in the Gospels. Apart from that most of the modern Jews are reluctant to the Talmud and so they are not usually biased by the statements. Therefore they have their individual ideas and impressions about Jesus. The people who are influenced by such erroneous comments are those who live in the protective cocoon of the Yeshiva world.

There are some young men who studied nothing but only Talmud and who have never been exposed to the fundamental principles of Jesus or at least

The Everlasting Kingdom of God the main purpose of His coming to this world as Messiah or the historical facts about Him. They never thought of reading the New Testament to know the real facts about Jesus. It is unfortunate and we have to pity those people who thought that the knowledge of Jesus comes only through the erroneous remarks in the Talmud. This is another reason why we are burdened and diligent to get the truth out of those people who dwell in the darkness of misinformation and bias. In addition to all these references about the life history of Jesus Christ some old Jewish sources were already in existence with more elaborate and fantastic accounts of Jesus’ life. It has become an important subject for more discussion among the people since the Middle Ages. As per the study of some of the renowned scholars “Toledot Yeshu” (which means history of Jesus) is located its origin to the fifth century AD. In this particular period the life of Jesus Christ was shown with some features of the traditions of Talmudic references. But those references were with more elaborate and less restrained in their comments. The main purpose of these scattered comments in both “Talmud and Toledot” were to replace completely the Gospel stories with their own false accounts as cock and bull stories from the birth of Jesus of all the events that happened from the time of His birth till the inhuman crucifixion and death. They had another evil intention that is to replace the book of the Acts of the apostles who always mentioned Peter and Paul in an unfavorable light. It happened so to mention some of the events of the Nazarene church history during first few centuries after writing the book of Acts.

In the Hebrew and Yeddish versions the Toledot Yeshu has had the wild circulation and influence primarily in the Eastern European Jewish commentaries. This written document served as the most popular recorded hand book and also the only authentic sources left to the Jewish people to know something about Jesus Christ. Jacob Jocz wrote from his own experience prior to his first accepting Jesus as his personal savior for his salvation since then he developed good faith in Jesus Christ. This Toledot Yeshu handbook has to be read with good relish especially on Christmas eve and even now the (1940s) Jewish school boys in countries like Poland are given the evening free to enjoy the story on the Night of Natal (nativity). The less number of Talmudic references and the hateful accounts offered by Toledot Yeshu remained for centuries as two important sources upon which the Jewish people to draw their information about the details of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He spent three and half years in hectic ministry of teaching, preaching and healing the sick.

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Though some of them were disagreed in what He said about eternal life salvation etc. still all of them were with one voice in accusing Him and pointed out His birth was shameful and His death cruel. They also pointed out His healing the sick was nothing but magical and sorcery. Why all these accusations motivated against Him was only to make Jewish people to develop hatred against Him and His divine thinking by keeping away themselves from any Christian influence. They tried all means to defame Him and they could become successful in many instances. Recently an Israeli American who is called American citizen happened to speak with a friend of mine here in USA. In his formal conversation with him he spoke about untruth assessment about Jesus. He said he was taught all those things mentioned about Jesus in “Yeshiva” when he was a young boy then my friend who knew something about the information that Yeshiva contained reminded the Israelite that all those stories were nothing but manipulated ones with bias and personal hatred towards Him and so they should not be taken into account as reliable and authentic.

But the Israelite boldly confessed by saying those stories he studied as a young boy are undoubtedly correct and the stories from the Gospels about Jesus’ life and other details as He was a Messiah, the son of God and the king of Jews, All this is absolutely wrong. Inspite of such differences the modern Jewish men and the scholars recognized those incorrect documents were composed only with prejudice and inaccuracy. In addition to that the average Jewish person today in the west is not at all interested to know in detail many of legends and traditions of early period. Let us not bother much about the mental setup of early Jewish people or the scholars regarding their assessment of Jesus Christ in different periods. It is said the “Orthodox camp of Judaism” was however isolated from reasonable scholarship. They are afraid of even to touch the New Testament. To say frankly even the so called priests of Judaism did not believe in the distorted pictures of Jesus printed in those documents. This present situation and the mental setup of Jewish people are posing wonderful challenge to all the concerned believers to understand. The Israelites should look into the correct information about Jesus and His precious life. So somehow or other we must try to provide to those unbelieving Jews and Gentiles the true message of our Lord Jesus Christ and Messiah who have been under false impression about Him who have been mislead by their own bias and who were fed by such false information.Let us try our level best to mold them to understand the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ that remained hidden all those days by some selfish people with ulterior motive, so that they can quench their thirsty souls either by reading The Everlasting Kingdom of GodCHAPTER -12

IMPORTANCE OF HOLINESS

“The destined end of man is not happiness nor health but holiness”. One of the aims of God is the production of saints. He is not an eternal blessing machine for man. He did not come to save man out of pity. He came to save man because He created him to be holy. It is clearly said that one can achieve holiness only through painful and righteous process. Some scholars were of the opinion that even with great effort one could not achieve this holiness but God gives it. Holiness is God’s gift. If a man and a woman wished to possess that holiness through some means it is no doubt ridiculous and we should weep rather than laugh at such attempts.

Jesus was born sinless. He lived sinless life. He lived only 33 and a half years with spotless character and He did not experience old age. When the Bible tells about the holiness of God two points will come to our minds primarily. His separateness and difference between Him and other human beings. We can conceive or know He is infinitely greater and more powerful besides being qualitatively utterly dissimilar from us and from the universe. He is the creator and we are made in His image. There is a chasm of endless deep between what He is and what we are. So God says “I am what I am and there is nothing with which I can be compared”. The second point is the mortality concern which is bound up with qualitative difference which is clubbed with ethical beauty and moral perfection. God’s holiness is not merely total separation from uncleanliness but also goodness beyond our capacity to comprehend. Even the heavens are unclean in His sight. God wants to share with us the same goodness and beauty. He wants us to be like Him. He wants to give us the quality of life. He wants to redeem us and use us for His service and He likes us to take part in His moral perfection.

Once we became Christians God would like to do more for us by pardoning our sins. He is the judge of the living and dead. He redeemed us with His blood on the cross and made us walk in His light by holding our hand. The process by which He called us righteous in the same way our peace was restored with Him which is called justification “Therefore since we are justified by our faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Roams 5:1). God did much more to justify and sanctify us. He is not satisfied simply by declaring our righteousness but He wished to share with us His holiness. God did two things to us and when He was sanctified by the operation of the Holy Spirit God set us apart for His own use. He wanted to maintain good works a

The Everlasting Kingdom of God deliberate refrain from sin and to perform active Christian duties and responsibilities as the main issue.

All the theologians argued that only human efforts are not enough and the power for living must come from God alone. And all the scholars are under the impression that the basis for sanctification is God’s intervention in the incarnation, death, resurrection and ascensim of His son Jesus Christ and the help is mediated by the holy spirit who has brought the believers union with our savior Jesus Christ. We should not be confused or feel difficulty if any incident makes us surprise. The New Testament itself in the first place seems to express different points of view “Workout your own salvation with fear and trembling apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians clearly expressing an active view of true Christian life. Yet with no pause he goes on for God is good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13).

A Christian should be passive in the hands of God who actively works within Him. And God makes man not only to do what He wants but also makes decisions within the man to do His will. We must have to work because God is always working within us. The New Testament constantly presents both active and passive approaches to holiness without any sense of contradiction. We had to realize in this context that we are dealing with one of the mysteries of the scripture that is the mystery of the interaction between our will and the will of God. The glorious work of God is in progress within us. He wanted to process us for divine use and with the help of Holy Spirit, God wished to make us holy people. The outcome of transformation is “Do not be confirmed to this world but be transformed”. (Romans 12:2) but this transformation is not a overnight process. It may take even our lifetime but continuous progress in holiness is assured. The sanctification progress would also continue in us once we become Christians and God has set us apart for His Sacred service.

The Holy Spirit is eager for the process of fitting us to continue. Some understand this holiness as the work of God which any Christian can contribute anything to our efforts to strive after holiness must be unveiling. So to say “In my flesh there may not be any goodness remains as my contribution – therefore I trust in God and rest in His goodness. I do not want to struggle anymore to control my temper but allow my Jesus to handle my temper.” There are two opinions regarding holiness which are called active views and passive views with which a Christian has to fight and to pray. Some leaders of the active schools stress more on what they called the means of grace. Yielding may be

The Everlasting Kingdom of God good but not exclude watching praying and meditation on the scriptures have fellowship with the other believers and in this wonderful task we and God are involved.

Let us try to understand one thing wisely that is without the spirit of God within us our efforts are futile because from our sinful heart no good thing can come out. Gods love on us is unconditional. He redeemed and sanctified us with His pure and perfect love. He likes to make use of us for His service. So if we agree to that point God is everything to us then let us yield to Him and behave according to His will. Here yielding to Him means bowing to Him as our king and once it is done let us march forward with His armor and with His miraculous strength by declaring war on all satanic elements. Then let us consider the importance of holiness on the human beings. In the (1 Peter 1:15-16) it is said just as who called you holy so be holy in all you do for it is written “Be holy because I am holy”. Therefore let us try with all our efforts to be holy. As it is written without holiness no one will see the Lord. But the historic Christian teaching on holiness is almost forgotten. We have to feel sorry for that because it is most important to the glory of God and the good of souls. Once upon a time all Christians had great emphasis on God’s call to holiness and also he spoke how to achieve that. In particular, some of the evangelical Protestants offered continuously different types of information regarding what God required of us.

The puritans had their own opinion about this subject. They insisted our life and relationship must become “Holiness to the Lord”. John Wesley taught to the world that God had raised up “Methodism” to spread spiritual holiness throughout the land. Along with him some other teachers commented in favor of “Holiness revival” which touched all Evangelical Christendom between the mid 19th and mid 20th centuries. But things are different today. We are listening to sermons reading books, able to write books and even commenting and communicating on the Bible. We are behaving like Christians. We never imagine as once the high way of holiness is opened for the believers than the preachers and other people would come to know that. Then with authority and confidence they would speak about God and His holiness.

Holy in Hebrew and Greek languages means “Separated and the self apart for God”. If we apply that to people it is said God’s holy one’s or assimilation, devotion in this context. He is living the life of service to God where as assimilation in the sense of imitating confirming and becoming like the

The Everlasting Kingdom of God God one serves. Actually holiness starts inside our body with a right purpose. Any holy person’s motivation is passions, desires, longing, aspiration, goal and drive to praise in order to please God. God’s works begin with praise, worship, honoring, and exalting of God as the temper of one’s whole life. The Pharisees during the time of Jesus committed many mistakes. They felt proud of themselves by feeling they were very holy till Jesus exposed them to the public what they were in practical life. As true Christians we must formulate the Gospel to others our evangelism to ourselves as born again believers. We are called to live by it. We must keep having stress on faith and come to Christ we have to trust His promises. We must achieve in what God was doing with our lives and hoping for citizenship in heaven. We touch very lightly on repentance by bending one’s own conscience to God’s moral law confessing and for seeking one’s sins making restitution for past wrong things grieving before God for the dishonor one’s is sins and forming a game plan for holy living.

It is formed through history the past Christian culture did not give any importance to moral values only some persons in the society thought about morality or immorality basing on the work they did. Christians of western countries seemed to have argued upon especially where sex and shackles are concerned. A certain group of Christians argued whether repentance is necessary. Some people as Biblical option and to confirm that Gospel is also called faith a call to repentance. Many people must have heard variety of sermons especially on repentance as a vital lifelong discipline. Whatever we plan to preach the Gospel we must make a point to stress more on repentance and holiness through which repentance is expressed as a spiritual necessity. So we should not ignore the importance of holiness under all conditions in our preaching because God tells about the value of holiness in all scriptures in the law, in the Gospels, in the words of the prophets, in the wisdom writing of great authors, in the Epistles in the history books the judgment of the past and the book of revelation. All the above said sources stress more on the necessity of holiness for a true Christian.

As a matter of fact, holiness is the goal of our redemption. Christ died on the cross for our justification. We are justified and we are sanctified and finally made holy. Holiness is the object of our creation. We are born again so that we may grow up with the believers of Jesus Christ. Holiness is the real health of a person. So anything other than holiness in the character of a person is nothing but ugliness and deformity. It is like the malfunctioning of the individual and the crippled condition of the soul. The meaning of righteousness is holy, integrity and uprightness. It is the breast plate for the armor of God that Christians are

The Everlasting Kingdom of God advised to wear that in order to counter the devils attacks. Holiness also gives creditability to witness holy ways and means. It will enhance our testimony but worldly ways undermine our image. You are the light of the world let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds (Good works) and praise the Father in heaven about whom you told them and whose power they now see in your living. Therefore if we want to be successful in our evangelism we must cultivate holiness of life. Finally, holiness is the substance of which happiness is derived. Those who pursue holiness through the grace of God happiness of spirit will come to them automatically unasked. “I delight in your commands because I love them — they are the joy of my heart.” (Psalms 119:47). After reading this I am confident of every Christian who will understand the importance and value of holiness in his or in her life.

Abiding in Christ is the real source of holiness. “Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the wine so neither can you unless you abide in Me I am the wine you are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him he bears much fruit – for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5). Proper understanding of fundamental principles of the Bible is essential part of Christians in the evangelical churches which show their maturity.” So maturity of mind Biblically is Christ like character. If we know all the principles of the Bible and no character we are nothing but hypocrites. If we want to live Christian life without Christ in us it bears no fruit because without Christ we can do nothing, but only with the grace of our Lord we can live true Christian life.

It is said progressive sanctification is a supernatural work. It is a victory over sin and death through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. It is God’s victory but not our greatness. It is only God who can redeem us from the power of sin keeps us free from the past life and makes us a new creation in Christ. To be a Christian does not mean we have more powers in ourselves. We are inwardly connected to the source of power that is able to overcome the lives of sin and death which is the law of the spirit of life in Jesus Christ. There are some advantages of abiding in Christ. The Christian life can attain progress through living in union with Christ through faith. This wonderful thought is expressed in the Bible in many ways.

1)“As you therefore have received Jesus Christ the Lord so walk in Him having

been firmly routed and now being built up in Him and established in your

faith first as you are instructed.” (Colossians 26:7).

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

2)“I no longer live for Christ lives in me. The life l live in the body I live by

faith in the son of God.” (Galatians 2:10).

3)“Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power”. (Ephesians 6:10)

4)“We grow by holding fast to the head which is Christ.” (Colossians 2:19).

5)“Cloth yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how

to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (Romans 13:14).

6)“Whatever you do whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the

Lord Jesus.”(Colossians 3:17).

As we understand the above passages all our life strength and our activities as believers are connected to Jesus Christ. They have to come out of our being in union with Christ. This naked truth could not be made dear than it is in Jesus statement about the necessity abide in Him. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the wine so neither can you unless you abide in Me —— for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15: 4-5). The word “Abide” is from Greek translation. It also means “Remain or continue” but in the Gospel of John in the context of a relationship with Christ it denotes more than a static relationship. In our relationship with Christ is seen in the relationship between the father and Jesus Christ even as we abide in Christ He in us so do the son and the father abide in each other. The outcome of Christ abiding in His father is that everything He says or does manifests the character of the father.

We have the same type of relationship with Christ just as Christ has with the father we abide in Christ and obey Him as He abide in us. According to scripture abiding in Christ involves two important things. The first one is we nourish ourselves through faith in all that Christ is to us. The second point is we follow Him in obedience to His commandments to speak the truth we are back to the simple concept of trust and obey. We must receive Christ by faith. Abiding in Christ means first we must receive His life and then apply that to our life through faith. In a vivid statement it is called depending appropriation and assimilation. Jesus said “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.” (John 6:56). Jesus said He abided in His father. It means He lived in complete obedience to Him in the same way we too must abide in Christ and live in obedience to our father’s commands having in union with Christ is necessary for our spiritual growth and in holiness. Our nourishment from Christ precedes our ability to obey is seen in Jesus’ command to love one another. But it is not possible to show this love unless we are obeying in God’s love. We love Him because He first loved us.

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

It is useless of trying to love others unless we first nourish ourselves by receiving God’s love afresh. As we receive Gods love we have to respond that love by obeying His commandments. Christ said “If you love me you will obey what I command.” Holiness indicates our perfect life. In Romans it is said “For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14). God seemed to have sprinkled His grace upon the earth to trust His children and the Bible has suitable answer for every problem of sin . There is hope for everyone of us so that we can walk in obedience to God’s word and live a life of holiness. In fact God expects every believer to live a holy life and holiness is not only expected from us but also it is the promised birth right of every Christian believer.

Let us remember the statement of apostle Paul in this context “Sin shall not be our master.” For the present generation the very concept of holiness may appear “Archaic” and they look at it in different angles. Yet holiness is very much a spiritual idea. The word holiness we can find in the Bible about 600 times in different forms. The entire book of Leviticus is devoted to the subject and the idea of holiness is woven elsewhere throughout fabric of scripture. Anyway God reminds us time and again to be holy. The idea of how one can be holy has suffered from many false notions. It is openly prohibited in certain area like drinking, smoking and dancing and the list of prohibitions differ from place to place and from a group of people. If we permit this kind of approach to holiness we are in danger of becoming like Pharisees who had their self righteous attitude. For some people holiness means a particular type of dress and mannerisms. For another type of people holiness means an unattainable perfection. But in real sense to be holy means to be blameless in morality. It has to be separated from sin and therefore consecrated to God. The best way of understanding the concept of holiness is perhaps to note how the writers of the New Testament used that word. In the (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7) Apostle Paul used the word in contrast to the life of immorality and impurity. Peter used this word in contrast to living according to evil desires.

So to live a holy life is to live in conformity to the moral precept of the Bible and in contrast to the sinful ways of life of the world. If holiness is basic need of Christian life then let us try to experience the same in our day to day life. In such case the church of Christ need not more confirmed to the people around it and then the God. Our first and foremost problem is our attitude towards the sin which is more self controlled than God controlled. That means we are more concerned about our victory than our sins which grieve the heart

The Everlasting Kingdom of God of the Lord. We should not accept failures in our struggle against sin because we are success oriented. God wants us to walk in obedience only but never in victory. Obedience is oriented towards God. Whereas victory is oriented towards self. If we concentrate on living obedient and holy life we will certainly experience the joy of victory over sin.

The next problem is we have misunderstood the saying “Living by faith” that is no effort on holiness is required on our part. We can even suggest only effort on our part of the faith. We must face the fact we have the responsibility of our walk in holiness. Our other problem is we do not consider certain sins seriously. People may categorize some sins tolerable and some intolerable. It is said holiness is everyday business. When godliness produced in us from the life that is deep within us then that godliness is real and everlasting and genuine essence of the Lord. When we think of holiness great saints like George Muller and Giants of Faith like Mother Teresa would come to our minds. Holiness is not a private preservation or property of any elite, corps, martyres, mysteries or even Nobel prize winners.

Holiness is everyday business of all Christians. It remains with us whenever we take any decision about anything or whatever we do in our regular life. It remains with us of all times and on all occasions. Holiness is simply obeying God and sharing His love even though it appears to be inconvenient to us. If we think about heroism it is an extraordinary feat of the flesh whereas holiness is an ordinary act of the spirit. Heroism may bring individual glory but holiness always gives glory to God. The Ten Commandments from which all the other commandments came later had their origin about 3500 years ago. When God engraved them on blue tablets and gave them to Moses on Mount Sinai. And we have been following them even today. After that the life of Jesus Christ provided holiness in the flesh and Jesus in His self denial is unqualified obedience to His father will and fullness of the Holy Spirit in His daily life are the best examples for us. As Mother Teresa pointed out “Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves –on God’s grace and on our will to be holy.” In this context let us study the problematic saying of Paul to the church of Rome on one hand he says we are dead to sin and in the next verse he exalts us not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.

The statement of Paul appears to be quite contradictory. According to him man need not turn away from sin which is already dead. We are dead to sin because Christ died for our sin still as we live day by day this sin remains in

The Everlasting Kingdom of God reality. Though God gave us the will to be holy, the daily fight requires our continuous effort. The truth is holy living demands constant examination of our abilities and notions. Since it is not simply what wrong we do to our neighbor by cheating him or by abusing ourselves whether it is a sin or all sins are a root cause of rebellion or offense to God. A noted scholar called it cosmic treason “The outcome of all this is we must understand one thing that is what we have to do to please God is important but not what God can do for us. In our life personal problems may come and go but they are not our issue or object. A true Christian’s maturity holiness and sanctification are the most requisite qualifications for a true believer. CHAPTER -13

The Everlasting Kingdom of God

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