God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. God granted man every thing He created, so that he might live on it; he could eat, drink, put on, use and enjoy it. Man aught not to pay back evil for God's good. As long as anyone lives on earth, he ought only to thank God.

Unfortunately and un-righteously however man lost the thankfulness for God's grace but went against the Father; he took what the Father had forbidden to eat, the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of Eden. As the result of his sinful deed, man himself fell down into the eternal destruction; he turned aside from God's love, was cursed, became the existence condemned to illness, misery pains and troubles; he was destined to everlasting punishment of hell in the end.

This was caused by the devil and its wicked work to seduce man into forgetting God's mercy, to separate man who really needed God's grace in order to live just from the Father who really wanted to give grace to him. The devil shifted man from the place of God's favor to the place of eternal punishment of hell. So don't fail to remember that the devil is the evident opponent against man.

God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ who would deliver man from the death; He shared in our humanity so that by His death He might destroy the one who holds the power of death and save the Father's children with flesh and blood cursed under the wicked work of the devil. (Hebrew 2:14,15)

Jesus Christ is our Savior. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. (1John 3:8-10) " Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45) Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: " Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death on a cross! " (Philippians 2:5-8)

As spoken in the words above, the Son of God indeed came to this world just in order to give His life as a ransom for people, delivering humans from the death; He came only to free man from the eternal destruction of the devil.

What a great grace of God we saw? That the very omniscient and omnipotent who holds the power of life and death with Himself just served mankind; He practiced His love for humans who were just simple creation, rescued us from the death, instead putting Himself on the cross of supreme hardship with His body torn and bled and humbled to the point of death.
How then could we depart from the Lord? How could we fall down from that favor of God who threw His own life for us, into the evil power of the devil seeking men to devour? How could we depart from that absolute love of Jesus Christ who cares with His almighty power for whoever wants to be within His love? Remember that we are indeed in the world where the evil spirits rampage to knock down anybody away from God's grace.

In this world those who have power rule over others who are without power; those who have knowledge govern others who are without knowledge; those who have money control others who are without money; and those with ability manage others without ability. Those who rule over, govern, control and manage seek for the more power, the more knowledge, the more money, the more ability; they follow after things only to be perished, just the worldly desires of the flesh. They use what they have for their own bodily sake, but not for their own spiritual sake. Earthly things seek after the more earthly things, exercise power only for selfish benefits, wield influence for worldly riches and honors. How pitiable for a man to be blind to the fact that he is to die even with all these things.

From in the middle of the way toward the endless death, God wanted to save humans; He put the work of the devil on the flame of everlasting destruction. God gave with His almighty power the eternal life to us. And with His omniscient knowledge He made us be aware that we were to die under the curse of sins and the works of the wicked devil; let us believe in Jesus Christ, be redeemed from the everlasting death, live eternally in the eternal kingdom of heaven. God gives man what he eat, drink, put on, uses and lives on from His absolute source of wealth. He created heavens and earth and everything in it. Also with His glorious riches God gave life, an everlasting life in the kingdom of heaven to those who might be perishing away; He promised that whenever we pray, we should be given from His wealth. Also with His almighty power, God healed our disease, drove out from us the wicked spirits, kept us under His kind wings.

What else except the wicked work of the devil is it for humans to forget that grace of God? Jesus Christ cast the whole Himself upon the earth only to serve and redeem us; He surely deserves all our praise, thanks and glory. How to represent what God did and does in His great love for man then? For the life on earth God prepared everything for us to live on; and for the life in the time of soul He gave us all His own life. Without God's grace, nobody on earth could live in body and spirit.

In order to undertake our illness and curse, Jesus Christ came to us in humanity through the Holy Spirit; He lived a life in this world only to love men, to search for the lost sheep. " But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to His own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6) " God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

Let's take a time to hear the Lord crying out," I was pierced for your transgression, crushed for your iniquities; for your sins are forgiven for good, be free from them. I took punishment on my own body instead of you, so be free from that but recover peace with God. I was deeply wounded to take on the pains of the disease of your body, so be sound and well." Also He is crying out, " You are just like the disciples who fled from the spot of my troubles but I took your sins, bled and died in that harsh and cruel pain. I already took away all the reasons of your death with my own body, so you should live forever."

How can we ever thank Him for such a grace? My beloved ones in the Lord, let's be truly thankful for this favor. Let's confess in full our thanks to the Lord for His faithful work to save us. Let's be successful in the Holy Spirit in thanksgiving, praising and glorifying God the Lord and His only begotten son Jesus Christ forever and ever. (Amen) Translated by Haangju Lee.

위 글은 교회신문 <51호> 기사입니다.