RED, THE COLOUR OF SALVATION

(Message delivered by Dr Jeffrey Khoo at the True Life Church 10.30 am Service, Feb 13, 05)
Text: I Pet. 1:13-19

Red to the Chinese means happiness, prosperity, health, wealth, and good fortune. It is the colour of life, but of the physical and material life on earth. To us who are Christians, the colour red is also very meaningful, only richer and deeper, for it not only means the abundant life that we now experience here on earth, but also the fullness of eternal life we shall enjoy hereafter in heaven.

The Bible is full of the colour red, not the red words in the gospels as found in some Bibles, but the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. 1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

When we think of the blood of Christ, we should not think only of His death, but also of His life. Jesus saved us by living for us. The blood of Christ points to His life. In Leviticus 17:11, we are told that “the life of the flesh is in the blood … to make an atonement for your souls.” Christ lived on this earth for 33½ years, and throughout His life—from the time of His birth till the time of His death—He was working for our redemption.

God requires a man to be holy if he wants to live forever in heaven. Man must keep the Ten Commandments perfectly if he wants to see God (Matt 5:8). Jesus told the rich young ruler, “if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt 19:17). Man must be holy as God is holy (1 Pet 1:16).

But man is full of sin. No one is pure and guiltless. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Not only is man born in sin, he has also broken all the commandments of God. Every single human being stands condemned before a thrice holy God and deserves only judgement and condemnation in hell. Man cannot be saved at all by his own good works.

Man needs a Saviour, and God has provided such a Saviour in His only begotten Son—the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who is not only perfect God but also perfect Man has to earn the righteousness that is required for our entrance into heaven. So when Jesus was on earth, He kept the Ten Commandments perfectly for us. The Lord Himself said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law … I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt 5:17). Galatians 4:4 tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ was “made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”. The Lord Jesus Christ clothes us with the garment of His righteousness so that we might become the children of God.

But this was not all that the Lord had to do to save us from our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ must not only live for us, He must also die for us. His blood points not only to His life but also to His death. Death is sin’s penalty (Rom 6:23). As the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus must bear our sins on the cross, shedding His precious blood. For “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb 9:22). Truly, the Lord Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Jesus saved us by His life, and by His death, and by His life again when He rose from the dead. He died, was buried and on the third day rose again from the grave according to the Scriptures (1 Pet 1:21, 1 Cor 15:3-4). Hallelujah!What a Saviour!

God has a hong bao (red packet) for you, and it contains a most precious and infinite gift—the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son. Have your sins been forgiven? Do you have eternal life? Is Jesus Christ your Saviour? Jesus is telling you, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:24-26). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31). Do not delay, believe on Jesus and be saved today!

 

THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter X

John 10:22-30
Another Claim of Equality with the Father

In the encounter with the Jews after the healing of the paralytic of 38 years, Jesus’ claim to partnership with the Father in His work roused the Jews’ resentment. For they perceived that if such claims were true, then Jesus was claiming God to be His Father, “making Himself equal with God.”

In this chapter Jesus claims to give life everlasting to His sheep and guarantees life to be imperishable because He keeps it with His hand, and such security is reinforced by the Father’s hand. He claims again that the Father is working alongside Him. But our Lord goes further. He declares: “I and the Father are one”. This speaks not only of equality in power but equality in essence.

It is from such Scripture passages that the authors of the Westminster Confession and Catechisms frame their doctrine on the deity of Christ and His equality with the Father and the Spirit.

Q 11 of the Larger Catechism: How doth it appear that the Son and the Holy Ghost are God equal with the Father?

A. The Scriptures manifest that the Son and the Holy Ghost are God equal with the Father, ascribing unto them such names, attributes, works, and worship, as are proper to God only.

“I and my Father are one” refers refers to Christ’s attributes and essence being at one with the Father. This makes Him equal to God, which provoked a barrage of stones about to be discharged by the offended Jews. This made the Jews to accuse our Lord of blasphemy. Again they retorted in their hardened unbelief, “For a good work we stone thee not: but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”

There are many educated people today who can accept Jesus Christ as a prophet, even the Muslims. But they reject Him to be God’s Son, equal with God the Father. But remember an earlier warning, from our Lord, “For if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.” Do you kneel to Jesus Christ the Son of God, God of very God?

John 10:31- 38
Jesus Christ, the Master-Logician

The Jews took up stones to stone Jesus because they were angry that He being a man made himself God. Jesus stood His ground, unafraid, to defend His cause. He asked them a question from the Old Testament, the Bible of the Jews. Quoting Psalm 82:6 He said, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, Ye are gods’. If He called them gods (Elohim in Hebrew, the same word used for GOD) unto whom the word of God came, (and the Scripture cannot be broken), Say ye of Him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.”

What Jesus has quoted from the Jews own Scriptures gave them no leverage to answer. What Jesus challenged them was this: “Is it not written in your Law that those who have God’s Word (the judges of Israel) are called gods? If these who ruled over Israel were called gods, how can you say that I blaspheme when I tell you I am the Son of God, I whom the Father has set apart and sent into the world? Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.” If human judges were called gods in ancient Israel, Jesus the One whom God has sent from heaven to be the Saviour of mankind is worthy a thousand times more to be called Son of God. Can such logic be refuted?

The fact that the Jews had no answer and resorted to physical force speaks for itself. Jesus Christ, the Master-Logician!