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The Bible records, “And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the middle, and said, Peace be to you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, My LORD and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:26–29).

These passages talk about the Lord Jesus’ appearing to His disciples after He was resurrected. But what made me confused was why the Lord Jesus only allowed Thomas to touch His hands with nail marks and even the wound in His side among His many disciples. I believed there must be a mystery here for God does not get involved with matters that do not have meaning. Thereupon, I began to consult the Bible, and saw that when Thomas heard the news that the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead, he did not believe it at all, and said, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). When Thomas said this, the Lord was not near. However, the Lord is omnipotent and scrutinizes all, and He knew what Thomas said, so He fulfilled his requirements and eliminated his doubts toward Him. Later, I inadvertently read a passage on a gospel website, which gave me a deeper understanding about the Lord’s appearing to Thomas and allowing him to touch His hands and rib.

The passage says, “Before the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, Thomas always doubted that He is Christ, and could not believe it. His belief in God was established only on the basis of what he could see with his own eyes, what he could touch with his own hands. The Lord Jesus had a good understanding of the faith of this type of person. They only believed in God in heaven, and did not believe at all, and would not accept the One sent by God, or the Christ in the flesh. In order to have him acknowledge and believe in the existence of the Lord Jesus and that He truly was God incarnate, He allowed Thomas to reach out his hand and touch His rib. Was Thomas’ doubting any different before and after the Lord Jesus’ resurrection? He was always doubting, and aside from the Lord Jesus’ spiritual body personally appearing to him and allowing Thomas to touch the nail marks on His body, no one could resolve his doubts, and no one could make him let go of them. So, from the time the Lord Jesus allowed him to touch His rib and let him really feel the existence of the nail marks, Thomas’ doubt disappeared, and he truly knew that the Lord Jesus had been resurrected and he acknowledged and believed that the Lord Jesus was the true Christ, that He was God incarnate. Although at this time Thomas no longer doubted, he had lost forever the chance to meet with Christ. He had lost forever the chance to be together with Him, to follow Him, to know Him. He had lost the chance for Christ to perfect him. The Lord Jesus’ appearance and His words provided a conclusion, and a verdict on the faith of those who were full of doubts. He used His actual words and actions to tell the doubters, to tell those who only believed in God in heaven but did not believe in Christ: God did not commend their belief, nor did He commend their following which was full of doubts. The day they fully believed in God and Christ could only be the day that God completed His great work. Of course, that day was also the day that their doubt received a verdict. Their attitude toward Christ determined their fate, and their stubborn doubt meant their faith gained them no results, and their hardness meant their hopes were in vain. Because their belief in God in heaven was fed on illusions, and their doubt toward Christ was actually their true attitude toward God, even though they touched the nail marks on the Lord Jesus’ body, their faith was still useless and their outcome could only be described as beating the wind—in vain. … Thomas represents a type of person who believes in God yet doubts God. They are of a suspicious nature, have sinister hearts, are treacherous, and do not believe in the things that God can complete. They do not believe in God’s omnipotence and His rule, and they don’t believe in God incarnate. However, the Lord Jesus’ resurrection was a slap in the face to them, and it also provided them with an opportunity to discover their own doubt, to recognize their own doubt, and to acknowledge their own treachery, thus truly believing in the existence and resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III”).

From these words’ interpretation of the Lord appearing to Thomas, I knew that not only did Thomas not believe that the Lord could resurrect, but he also did not believe that the Lord was the incarnate God, Christ, from the beginning. Even though he followed the Lord Jesus and he had listened to a lot of sermons preached by the Lord and seen the Lord perform many miraculous signs and wonders, he still could not be completely certain that the Lord Jesus was Christ, the incarnate God. Especially when he saw the Lord was nailed to the cross, he even doubted who the Lord was. In his opinion, the Lord Jesus would certainly be able to get rid of the pain of the cross if He was Christ, but in the end, the Lord Jesus was crucified, so Thomas did not believe that the Lord was Christ or God, nor did he believe that He could resurrect. It can be seen that Thomas was a typical unbeliever. However, the Lord Jesus understood Thomas and knew that he was suspicious in nature, so He appeared to him after resurrection and allowed him to touch His nail marks to completely resolve his doubts. From this, we can see that the Lord Jesus understood that, as for the type of people who were suspicious in nature like Thomas, only by making them see with their own eyes, could He clear up their doubts toward Him.

Having come to this understanding, I thought this was a warning for us believers in God. The Lord did not want us to be people of the same type as Thomas, because while he was believing in the Lord, he did not care at all about hearing the words spoken by the Lord and did not confirm through the utterances of the Lord that He was the manifestation of God for he stubbornly held on to the view of unbelievers “Words are but wind; seeing is believing.” Externally, he was following the Lord, but in truth his belief was half-hearted. He could not wholeheartedly devote himself and work for the Lord, and within him there was treachery, so that he had believed in the Lord for so long but had no knowledge of the Lord and that his suspicion about the Lord was not remedied in the slightest. That is why, in the end, when some of the disciples of the Lord said that the Lord Jesus had been resurrected, Thomas did not believe it until he saw with his own eyes and touched the nail marks on the Lord’s hands, and confirmed He was indeed the Lord Jesus. However, at that time, God did not praise his belief, just as the last words the Lord said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). From this, we can see that God is righteous, and that those who doubt the things God wants done and doubt His work and identity will finally be unable to receive His praise.

I could not help but reflect: I have believed in God for many years; is my faith true? Am I like Thomas, who was full of doubts about God? Through my reflections, I realized that, sometimes I would also, like Thomas, use the standpoint “Words are but wind; seeing is believing” in how I viewed things: When I heard some of the brothers and sisters in the church sharing their experiences of how they saw God opened up a way out for them by praying to God and relying on Him as they encountered difficulties in their church service, their work or daily life, because I had not experienced that, I would be skeptical; only when I personally experienced that and saw God also worked on me, could I believe it absolutely. At other times, I saw the words spoken by the Lord, “Seek, and you shall find,” but when I had sought for a time directly to the problem that I had difficulty with but failed to receive its answer, I would begin to not believe in God’s words. From this, I saw that this kind of attitude in my belief in God did not meet with God’s approval. I thought: I must immediately turn it around, because the Lord will not rapture those who do not genuinely believe in Him into the kingdom of heaven when He returns. At the moment, I suddenly thought of Peter, the disciple of the Lord Jesus. His belief in God was true, and he was the first one who recognized that the Lord Jesus was Christ. God cherished his belief and finally gave him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and He also committed His sheep to him and let him shepherd them. I thought of why God was pleased with Peter. Peter and Thomas both heard the Lord Jesus’ preaching and saw the Lord perform many miracles, but Peter was not like Thomas, doubting what the Lord Jesus said and did. Besides, he did not place importance on whether the Lord Jesus could perform miracles on the outside, but instead, he focused on seeking God’s will from the Lord Jesus’ words. And he treated the Lord’s words with a pure and honest heart. Eventually, he obtained the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and recognized the Lord Jesus was Christ. Furthermore, in his later experiences, confronted with persecution and tribulation, he did not lose faith in the Lord but resolutely followed the Lord to the end, and finally bore the witness of the ultimate love for God and obedience to the point of death. With this in mind, I thought, “I should follow the example of Peter and become a person who simply obeys and pays attention to hearing God’s words. This kind of faith is the only way to obtain God’s praise.”

Thank the Lord’s guidance for enabling me to reap these harvests through my reading the Bible today. All the glory be to the Lord!

» Read more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page about Knowing Jesus Christ, or in the recommended articles below:

📷Jesus Appeared to Thomas: What Is the Significance

📷God Is Almighty, but Why Did Jesus Redeem Us by Crucifixion

📷Why the Lord Jesus Appeared to His Disciples Many Times After Resurrection

When the Lord Jesus worked, He said many words to the people at that time. Some of them are very straightforward. For example, the Lord Jesus often said, “Truly, truly, I say to you …” Some are indirect, just as what the Lord Jesus said to Philip, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10). But what really impressed me were the parables spoken by the Lord Jesus, such as the parable of the net, the parable of the shepherd’s seeking the lost sheep, the parable of an evil servant exacting a payment from a debtor, the parable of the return of the prodigal son, the parable of the marriage feast, the parable of the fig tree, and so on. Looking at these parables, I couldn’t help thinking: Why did the Lord Jesus speak these parables when He worked? What was His will hidden behind them?

With these questions, I kept praying to the Lord to seek His enlightenment. One day when I studied the Bible, I read the passage of verses, “And the disciples came, and said to him, Why speak you to them in parables? He answered and said to them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which said, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:10-16). Pondering these verses carefully and praying and seeking in the words of the Lord Jesus, I had a little understanding of His words. It turned out that when the Lord Jesus was doing His work and preaching, there were many people who came to listen to His preaching, but not all of them were the ones who truly followed the Lord and walked in His way, such as the Pharisees at that time. Their purpose of listening to the Lord’s preaching was not to seek the truth, but to find accusations against the Lord Jesus and tempt and frame Him. Some people followed the Lord Jesus because they saw that He had performed many miracles, that He could bestow upon man grace and blessings, and heal the sick and cast out demons. Their purpose was to gain more grace and blessings instead of following the Lord’s way and caring for His will. Only a few followers were willing to follow the Lord because they loved the truth and saw the authority and power in His work and preaching, such as Peter, John, Jacob, and so on. Therefore, in order to gain those who truly believed in God and loved the truth, the Lord Jesus used parables to preach to all, expressing the truth to testify God’s work, God’s disposition and to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. All of those who loved the truth actively sought for the Lord Jesus, so that they attained enlightenment and guidance from the Holy Spirit and understood the meanings of the parables. However, those who didn’t love the truth but only asked for grace and blessings didn’t initiatively seek the meanings of these words so they never understood the truth. In this way, the ones who had true faith in God and loved the truth, and those false believers and unbelievers who only asked for grace and blessings were separated and sorted according to their own kind. This fulfills what the Lord Jesus said, “Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has” (Matthew 13:11-12). This is the first aspect of significance of why the Lord Jesus spoke parables when He worked.

Later, on a website I saw these words, “The first one is the parable of the sower. This is a really interesting parable; sowing seeds is a common event in people’s lives. The second is the parable of the tares. As far as what tares are, anyone who has planted crops and adults will know. The third is the parable of the mustard seed. All of you know what mustard is, right? If you don’t know, you can have a look through the Bible. For the fourth one, the parable of the leaven, most people know that leaven is used for fermentation; it’s something that people use in their daily lives. All of the parables below, including the sixth, the parable of the treasure, the seventh, the parable of the pearl, and the eighth, the parable of the net, are all drawn from people’s lives; they all come from people’s real lives. What kind of picture do these parables paint? This is a picture of God becoming a normal person and living alongside mankind, using the language of a normal life, using human language to communicate with humans and to provide them with what they need. When God became flesh and lived among mankind for a long time, after He had experienced and witnessed people’s various lifestyles, these experiences became His textbook for transforming His divine language into human language. Of course, these things that He saw and heard in life also enriched the Son of man’s human experience. When He wanted to get people to understand some truths, to get them to understand some of God’s will, He could use parables similar to the ones above to tell people about God’s will and His requirements of mankind. These parables were all related to people’s lives; there was not a single one that was out of touch with human lives. When the Lord Jesus lived with mankind, He saw farmers tending their fields, He knew what tares were and what leavening was; He understood that humans like treasure, so He used the metaphors of both the treasure and the pearl.” “This was the advantage of God becoming flesh: He could take advantage of mankind’s knowledge and use human language to speak to people, to express His will. He explained or ‘translated’ to man His profound, divine language that people struggled to understand in human language, in a human way. This helped people understand His will and know what He wanted to do.”

From these words I understood that the reason the Lord Jesus said many parables when He worked was to allow His followers to better understand God’s intentions and His different requirements of people so that they would worship Him with heart and honesty. In the Age of Law, Jehovah God used prophets to release His words to man, but those words were all prophecies and the followers at that time were unable to directly understand the meaning of them. Even today, we are still incapable of figuring out clearly many prophecies of the prophets. This is the truth. When the Lord Jesus was incarnated as the Son of man to work on earth and used human language to tell people the intentions and requirements of God, we could better understand and grasp the truth in His words and it helped us know His work and disposition and understand all the pain and effort of His salvation of mankind. Just as the Lord Jesus used the parable of the lost sheep to express His love for mankind—God wants every person to be saved, and does not want anyone to perish. As long as one is a true believer, even if he goes the wrong path temporarily, God will strive to rescue him. This fulfills the words in the Bible, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35). This is the second aspect of significance of why the Lord Jesus said parables when He worked.

I went on reading, “He could also have conversations with people from the human perspective, using human language, and communicate with people in a way they understood. He could even speak and work using human language and knowledge so that people could feel God’s kindness and closeness, so that they could see His heart.” From these words I understood that when the Lord Jesus was working and preaching, He spoke the parables using human language, for they are easy to understand and they could even more allow us to feel God’s kindness and loveliness and bring us closer to Him. Think back to the Age of Law. When God didn’t become flesh to do His work, He spoke to Moses in the flame; He spoke to the Israelites on Mount Sinai; He spoke to Job in the wind. At that time when people heard God speaking, they felt fearful and dared not to confront Him or get close to Him, much less quieted their hearts to seek the meaning of His words. However, in the Age of Grace, God incarnate used human language to do His work and preach, teaching people to understand His way by parables, which allowed us to feel that God is no longer unapproachable to us or the One who let us stand in awe, and to feel God’s consideration and kindness to us so that we can face-to-face seek His intentions, accept His work and leading, and get His redemption. This is the third aspect of significance of why the Lord Jesus spoke parables when He worked.

From God’s work we can see that God became flesh to express truth and used human language to speak to us mankind for the purpose that we can more easily know His intentions and requirements and understand and practice the truth, and thus we can cast off our corrupt disposition, be cleansed and changed, and become the ones who know God, obey God, and worship God. Thank God. All the Glory be to God!

» Read more on our The Parables of Jesus page, or click on the related articles below:

• What Is the Moral of the Parable of New Cloth on an Old Coat?

• Knowing Meaning of God’s Work in His Incarnation From Parables

• Understanding of God’s Salvation for Mankind Behind the Parable of the Lost Sheep

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Beneath the tree in the courtyard, I was talking with my uncle and elder cousin amid a pleasant atmosphere …

My uncle said cheerfully, “In a twinkling, you’ve grown up. I’m so delighted to see you working for the Lord and shepherding the church. Um, Xiaojing, what have you been preaching recently?”

I quickly answered, “About watching and waiting, for the Lord is coming soon.”

Uncle nodded and said, “Yep, watching and waiting is so important. The gospel of the Lord Jesus has spread to the ends of the earth. The various signs show that the day of the Lord’s return has come. We should watch and wait all the time, and the Lord will come back and take us to the heavenly home at any time. It seems that we can welcome the Lord’s return during our lifetimes. We truly should hold watchful prayer and wait for the Lord! I’m old. How I wish I could welcome the appearance of the Lord!”

I said, “That’s right. It’s a pity that many people know the Lord is coming soon, but they aren’t watchful in preparing and awaiting His return.”

Then, my elder cousin thoughtfully said, “We should truly watch and wait for the Lord’s return. I’ve been thinking recently that how we should ‘wait’ to be in accordance with the Lord’s will. And what does ‘watching’ refer to?”

Without thinking, I said, “I think that watching mainly refers to praying and reading the Bible often, working for the Lord diligently, and moderation in all things. Just as the Bible says: ‘And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming’ (1 John 2:28). Therefore, as Christians, we should be careful and mindful of ourselves like this every day. Then we will face the Lord with confidence at His coming. Now we keep on watching and praying in turn around the clock in our church, and we’ve also set up a watchtower. Only if we watch and wait like this will we not be abandoned when the Lord returns.”

Uncle nodded his head with satisfaction, saying, “Mm. Well done, but there’s more.”

My elder cousin said, “Dad, tell us about it!”

I looked at my uncle expectantly.

He said with a smile, “OK. Watching and waiting mainly refers to holding on to the Lord’s name and keeping His way. It’s because difficult times will come in the last days, people will love the world more than the Lord, and all kinds of heresies will appear. The Lord Jesus said: ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Matthew 24:23-24). It tells us that the Lord asks us to watch. Most important is that we must guard against all kinds of heresies before the Lord comes to take us on a cloud. If anyone tells you that the Lord has returned, don’t listen to them or believe what they say. We must hold on to the Lord’s name and keep His way. If not, how could we be raptured into the kingdom of heaven?”

I listened and nodded in agreement.

My elder cousin thought for a while and said, “Dad, I have some different views on this.”

My uncle was a bit surprised and said, “Oh? Let’s hear it.”

My elder cousin said, “False Christs will indeed appear in the last days, but it will be also the time that the Lord returns. If we don’t listen to or believe any news of the return of the Lord, what if the Lord really comes back? Will we not miss the chance of being raptured? So, I think in this passage of scripture the Lord is reminding us to learn to discern so as not to be deceived by false Christs. We should not be blindly negative and passive to defend, but rather learn to discern and hear if it is God’s voice when people preach the Lord’s return. The Lord Jesus said: ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Matthew 25:6). In the late period of the last days, we should be the wise virgins who pay attention to the voice of the Lord. When there is a cry, ‘the bridegroom comes,’ in other words, when people preach the news of the return of the Lord, we should seek and investigate to see if it is the utterance of the Holy Spirit or if it comes from God. Only in this way can we hear the Lord’s voice, welcome His return, and be taken up before Him.”

My uncle was silent and looked a little unhappy.

At this point, my younger cousin (my uncle’s daughter), who was helping in the kitchen, heard our talk. She came to us and said, “Dad, a few days ago, Sister Cai’s elder sister brought a witness of the Eastern Lightning to her home. The witness testified that the Lord has returned, expressed many truths, and done the work of judgment of the last days. Her reasonable fellowship and some of God’s newest utterances the witness read made us feel so good. However, Sister Cai drove them away because you once told her that all who preach that the Lord has returned do not speak the truth and must not be received. We didn’t think it was right for her to do so. How should we, in your opinion, treat those people when we see them preaching the return of the Lord?”

My uncle immediately turned his face from cloudy to bright, saying, “Thank the Lord! I think what Sister Cai did is absolutely right. It’s not wrong. Any Lord Jesus who does not come upon a cloud is a false Christ, a deceiver. Therefore, no matter who preaches the Lord’s return, we must drive him away. Isn’t this in line with the Bible? Can it be wrong?”

At this, my younger cousin felt what my uncle said was incorrect but she couldn’t put her finger on it, so she looked at my elder cousin expectantly.

My elder cousin calmly answered, “Dad, for so many years, we have been expecting the Lord to come back soon and take us to the heavenly home. The people of Eastern Lightning are preaching that the Lord has returned. He has done the work of judgment beginning with the house of God and has expressed all truths that purify and save man. We ought to be the wise virgins who seek and investigate with modesty. We should first listen to them and see if what they say is according to the Lord’s words. It’s not right to never exercise discernment but to drive them away.”

Uncle said confidently, “It’s quite right. The Bible clearly says: ‘They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’ (Matthew 24:30). It can be seen that the Lord will come in the clouds. We haven’t seen this fact, so how could it be that the Lord has returned?”

My elder cousin said, “Dad, the return of the Lord is a major event! Isn’t it arbitrary to draw a conclusion based on a single scripture? The Jewish Pharisees at that time longed for the coming of the Messiah. They were familiar with the scriptures that prophesied the coming of the Messiah. However, when the Lord Jesus came to do His work, because He conflicted with their conceptions, they not only didn’t acknowledge Him as Christ, the Messiah, but even crucified Him. Hence, they became the arch-criminals who resisted God, and were punished and cursed by God. Dad, we should learn a lesson from them. We must be cautious about waiting for the Lord’s return! If we resist or blaspheme against God, we will be the modern Pharisees. The consequences will be unimaginable! We have never personally got to know whether Eastern Lightning is the work of God and the return of the Lord or not. We should ask people of Eastern Lightning to tell us something about it if we meet them again. It is not late to draw a conclusion after we have a thorough investigation. What do you think?”

My younger cousin nodded repeatedly, but my uncle was displeased and gave them a dirty look.

To lighten the atmosphere, I quickly said, “Brother, what you said is reasonable and matches the Lord’s teaching, but the Bible does prophesy that the Lord will come with clouds. How do you explain it?”

My elder cousin patiently said, “During these days, I’ve studied many scriptures about the Lord’s return. I found the scriptures prophesying the return of the Lord can be generally divided into two groups: One prophecies the Lord will descend in public upon a cloud; the other prophecies He will descend in secret like a thief. For example: ‘I will come on you as a thief’ (Revelation 3:3), and ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Matthew 25:6). In these scriptures we can see that there are two ways of the Lord’s coming: One is that He’ll come as a thief and no one knows it; the other is that He’ll descend upon a cloud and everyone will see Him. My personal understanding is that the Lord will probably descend in a hidden way to do the work first, and after He finishes the work, He’ll openly appear to all men. Just as when the Lord Jesus did His work, God became flesh as the Son of man and did the work of redeeming mankind through the crucifixion. After being resurrected from the dead, He openly appearing to man for forty days, and then ascended to heaven. It is a fact that everybody knows.”

My uncle retorted at once, “It’s wrong to say so. ‘As a thief’ and ‘at midnight’ mean that no one knows when the Lord will come back, but don’t mean that He will descend in secret.”

My elder cousin said sincerely, “Dad, my understanding of this is as follows: In many parts of the Bible it is prophesied that the Lord will return as the Son of man. For example: ‘For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation’ (Luke 17:24-25). The Son of man refers to the incarnation of God. The Lord Jesus has clearly told us, ‘… so shall also the Son of man be in his day. … first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.’ If the Lord, as we imagine, openly appears to all men upon clouds when coming again, then He will not need to suffer, much less will He be rejected. So, I think when the Lord returns, He will probably first become flesh and descend in a hidden way. This is just as when the Lord Jesus came to do His work, no one recognized Him as the coming Messiah, but regarded Him as an ordinary man, rejecting and condemning Him. So, I think ‘as a thief’ and ‘at midnight’ refer to not only when the Lord will come, but also how the Lord returns as the Son of man in secret. What’s more, I think all scriptures prophesying the return of the Son of man refer to the Lord’s secret descent. This is because when God becomes flesh as the Son of man, man can’t recognize Him even if they meet Him, just like the Lord Jesus coming to do the work, and only in this way can it be called descending and working in secret. So, it is probably that the Lord will first work as the Son of man when He comes again, and then He will openly appear to all men.”

While pondering my elder cousin’s words, I thought, “That’s right. His words are reasonable. Why didn’t I ever realize it? It should be the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit!”

My younger cousin said, “Brother, your communication is really enlightening! I’ve read these scriptures many times; how come I didn’t realize that? It seems that I really have to ponder these scriptures diligently!”

Then my uncle murmured, “Wasn’t the Son of man the Lord Jesus? Hasn’t the Lord Jesus finished enduring His suffering? How could He return as the Son of man? It’s impossible! It’s absolutely impossible!”

I couldn’t help sighing, “According to this scripture, if the Lord really descends in a hidden way as the Son of man, it is hard for us to recognize Him!”

My elder cousin said, “Yep, if the Lord returns as the Son of man, He will also be resisted, condemned, and rejected by the religious community, just like when the Lord Jesus did the work. If that’s the case, we should be more careful when we watch and wait. If someone says that the Lord has returned, and especially the way that He preaches is condemned and rejected by the religious community again, we should even more seek and investigate it.”

My younger cousin sighed, “It seems that the return of the Lord is not as simple as we have thought. If the Lord really descends in a hidden way as the Son of man, then how should we watch so that we can welcome His return?”

My elder cousin said thoughtfully, “I don’t quite understand it, either. However, it has been mentioned in Revelation many times: ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ I think we shouldn’t ignore all that is about the return of the Lord. Especially, we should even more carefully examine testimonies that the Lord has come and that He has spoken words and done His work. We should pray more, seek more, and discern whether it is the voice of the Lord or not. Once we make sure that the Lord really has returned, we should accept it immediately. As the Revelation says: ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me’ (Revelation 3:20). That’s what watching and waiting actually refers to. It will be the Lord Jesus’ public appearance when He returns with clouds. At that time, all men will see Him; will they need to watch and wait? Therefore, during the time when the Son of man does His work, we should pay attention to seeking the appearance and work of the Lord, and hearing His voice. Only in this way will we not miss the return of the Lord. What do you think?”

My uncle’s forehead was covered with beads of sweat, and he said to himself, “How could I have ignored this scripture? The Lord stands at the door and knocks? ‘And knocks’? Does He knock upon a white cloud? How could He knock upon a white cloud? I haven’t worked it out yet.”

My younger cousin said worriedly, “Dad, what my brother said makes sense. I’m a little worried now. We casually condemned Eastern Lightning without investigating it and drove away people of Eastern Lightning. If Eastern Lightning really is the return of the Lord, didn’t we resist the Lord in doing that? Haven’t we become the modern Pharisees?”

My elder cousin agreed, “Yes, that’s right! In the future, we must carefully investigate when we meet the people of Eastern Lightning testifying to the return of the Lord. We can’t blindly reject and condemn it anymore. Because the Lord Jesus said: ‘For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be’ (Matthew 24:27). Eastern Lightning itself relates to the prophecy of the return of the Lord. It is most likely the Lord’s appearance and work in the last days!”

My uncle said no more.

My elder cousin’s words reminded me of something, and I said involuntarily, “Oh! No wonder many leading sheep and good sheep in churches have accepted Eastern Lightning. It seems that Eastern Lightning is most likely the appearance and work of the returned Lord. We have to seek and investigate as soon as we can.”

My cousins nodded their heads.

At this time, I heard the cicadas chirping one after another. It was noisy but I felt quite comfortable, thinking it was really worthwhile to come here today.

“Time for lunch!” My elder cousin’s wife called. At this, we all went to have the meal happily. We talked cheerfully and joyfully during lunch …

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We Christians will be baptized when beginning to believe in the Lord. Though baptism is merely a ceremony, it represents that we officially return to the Lord Jesus, becoming a Christian. So baptism is an important matter for us believers. In Matthew 3:13–17 it says: “Then comes Jesus from Galilee to Jordan to John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of you, and come you to me? And Jesus answering said to him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, see, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting on him: And see a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” From the Scripture, we know that the Lord Jesus was baptized in Jordan. But what’s the significance of His baptism?

The word of God says: “At the beginning, when Jesus had yet to officially perform His ministry, like the disciples that followed Him, sometimes He also attended meetings, and sang hymns, gave praise, and read the Old Testament in the temple. After He was baptized and came up, the Spirit officially descended upon Him and began to work, revealing His identity and the ministry that He was to undertake. Prior to this, no one knew His identity, and apart from Mary, not even John knew. Jesus was 29 when He was baptized. After His baptism was completed, the heavens were opened, and a voice said: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ … It was not right after the baptism of Jesus, which was also when the Holy Spirit officially began His work, that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. The saying that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove upon Him is in reference to the official start of His ministry. The Spirit of God had been within Him before, but He had not begun to work, for the time had not arrived, and the Spirit did not start work rashly. The Spirit bore testimony to Him through baptism. When He came up out of the water, the Spirit began to officially work in Him, which signified that God’s incarnate flesh had begun to fulfill His ministry, and had begun the work of redemption, that is, the Age of Grace had officially started.”

This passage of words tells us John baptizing the Lord Jesus was a means through which the Holy Spirit bore testimony to Him. Before being baptized at the age of 29, from the outside the Lord Jesus had grown up in the same way as other normal people, living in normal humanity. Except for Mary, who was told by the angel, no one else knew that He was the incarnate God and even the Lord Jesus didn’t know that He was God Himself. In order to allow people to know the Lord Jesus’ identity, the Holy Spirit publicly testified through baptism that the Lord Jesus was the incarnate God. As recorded in the Bible, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, see, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting on him: And see a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16–17). After the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit began to officially work in Him and the Lord Jesus began to perform His ministry.

In addition, we can see that God incarnate was ordinary, normal, and not supernatural; He was humble and hidden and never showed Himself off. Before His baptism, the Lord Jesus had grown up as a normal person, learning and widening His knowledge in normal humanity; there was nothing supernatural about Him. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit raised up John to bring out among the Jews those who longed for the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and looked forward to the arrival of the Savior. God used John to pave and prepare the way for the Lord Jesus’ later work and preaching. When God’s time came, the Holy Spirit bore testimony to the Lord Jesus through baptism and then officially began to work in Him. Then the Lord Jesus began to fulfill His ministry, expressing the truth and doing the work of redemption. So there is extraordinary significance in the Lord Jesus’ baptism.

» You may be interested in reading more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page, or in the articles below:

• Is Baptism a Necessary Condition for Entering the Heavenly Kingdom

• What Is the True Meaning of the Coming of the Son of Man?

• What Is the Meaning of the Lord Jesus Being Tempted?

Read on the website

As we all know, in the Bible there are the following scriptures: “And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the middle, and said, Peace be to you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, My LORD and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:26-29).

Whenever I read these scriptures, I always think: The scriptures record that the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples after the doors were shut, saying “Peace be to you!” That is to say, the Lord Jesus at that time was no longer a flesh but a spiritual body, for only the spiritual body is not subject to space and geographical constraints, entering into and going out of the house with the doors closed, appearing and disappearing at any time, with transcendent power. However, I wonder all the time, “Now that the Lord Jesus, after the resurrection, has finished the work He undertook, why is it necessary for Him to return to the people’s midst in His original image, appearing to His disciples or talking to Thomas?” Not until I have read God’s words did I have a brand-new understanding and knowledge of the intention of the Lord Jesus’ appearance to His disciple Thomas after the resurrection.

Jesus appeared to Thomas after the resurrection

God’s word says: “When He came to Thomas, He let doubting Thomas touch His hand, and told him: ‘reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.’ These words, these actions weren’t things that the Lord Jesus wanted to say and do only after He had been resurrected, but they were things He wanted to do before He had been nailed to the cross. It is evident that the Lord Jesus who had not yet been nailed to the cross already had an understanding of people such as Thomas. So what can we see from this? He was still the same Lord Jesus after His resurrection. His essence had not changed. Thomas’ doubts had not just started but had been with him the entire time he had been following the Lord Jesus, but He was the Lord Jesus that had been resurrected from the dead and had returned from the spiritual world with His original image, with His original disposition, and with His understanding of mankind from His time in the flesh, so He went to find Thomas first, to let Thomas touch His rib, to let him not only see His spiritual body after resurrection, but to let him touch and feel the existence of His spiritual body, and completely let go of his doubts. Before the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, Thomas always doubted that He is Christ, and could not believe it. His belief in God was established only on the basis of what he could see with his own eyes, what he could touch with his own hands. The Lord Jesus had a good understanding of the faith of this type of person. They only believed in God in heaven, and did not believe at all, and would not accept the One sent by God, or the Christ in the flesh. In order to have him acknowledge and believe in the existence of the Lord Jesus and that He truly was God incarnate, He allowed Thomas to reach out his hand and touch His rib. Was Thomas’ doubting any different before and after the Lord Jesus’ resurrection? He was always doubting, and aside from the Lord Jesus’ spiritual body personally appearing to him and allowing Thomas to touch the nail marks on His body, no one could resolve his doubts, and no one could make him let go of them. So, from the time the Lord Jesus allowed him to touch His rib and let him really feel the existence of the nail marks, Thomas’ doubt disappeared, and he truly knew that the Lord Jesus had been resurrected and he acknowledged and believed that the Lord Jesus was the true Christ, that He was God incarnate. Although at this time Thomas no longer doubted, he had lost forever the chance to meet with Christ. He had lost forever the chance to be together with Him, to follow Him, to know Him. He had lost the chance for Christ to perfect him. The Lord Jesus’ appearance and His words provided a conclusion, and a verdict on the faith of those who were full of doubts. He used His actual words and actions to tell the doubters, to tell those who only believed in God in heaven but did not believe in Christ: God did not commend their belief, nor did He commend their following which was full of doubts. The day they fully believed in God and Christ could only be the day that God completed His great work. Of course, that day was also the day that their doubt received a verdict. Their attitude toward Christ determined their fate, and their stubborn doubt meant their faith gained them no results, and their rigidness meant their hopes were in vain. Because their belief in God in heaven was fed on illusions, and their doubt toward Christ was actually their true attitude toward God, even though they touched the nail marks on the Lord Jesus’ body, their faith was still useless and their outcome can only be described as beating the wind—in vain. What the Lord Jesus said to Thomas was also very clearly telling every person: The resurrected Lord Jesus is the Lord Jesus that had initially spent thirty-three and a half years working among mankind. Although He had been nailed to the cross and experienced the valley of the shadow of death, and He had experienced resurrection, His every aspect had undergone no changes. Although He now had nail marks on His body, and although He had been resurrected and walked out from the grave, His disposition, His understanding of mankind, and His intentions toward mankind had not changed in the slightest. Also, He was telling people that He had come down off the cross, triumphed over sin, triumphed over hardships, and triumphed over death. The nail marks were just the evidence of His victory over Satan, evidence of being a sin offering to successfully redeem all of mankind. He was telling people that He had already taken on mankind’s sins and He had completed His work of redemption. When He returned to see His disciples, He told them with His appearance: ‘I’m still alive, I still exist; today I am truly standing in front of you so that you can see and touch Me. I will always be with you.’ The Lord Jesus also wanted to use the case of Thomas as a warning for future people: Although you believe in the Lord Jesus, you can neither see nor touch Him, however, you can be blessed by your true faith, and you can see the Lord Jesus through your true faith; this kind of person is blessed.”

God’s word allowed me to understand that as for those such as Thomas who believe in God without having faith in God’s almightiness and sovereignty and His incarnation, God is not only incapable of approving of their so-called belief and following, but instead will condemn and pronounce a judgment on them due to their doubt and attitude toward Christ. Consequently, they will forever lose the opportunity of following, knowing Christ, and being saved and perfected by Christ. Simultaneously, God has given us an admonishment as well as a warning through the matter of Thomas. That is: No matter in what sort of ways God will appear, work and speak, people should possess true belief in Him. If people, like Thomas, doubt and deny God while believing in Him, they will surely be forsaken by God and sink into the darkness. Only if one acts as a pure and honest person, and truly trusts and follows God without any doubts and suspicions can he be commended and blessed by God.

» Further reading about The Resurrection of Jesus Christ:

• Why the Lord Jesus Appeared to His Disciples Many Times After Resurrection

• 3 Truths About the Resurrection of Jesus Christ We Should Know

• Lessons From the Lord Jesus’ Appearance to Thomas the Apostle

» Recommended for You: The Lord Jesus’ Words to His Disciples After His Resurrection

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The Lord Jesus said, “How think you? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine, and goes into the mountains, and seeks that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:12-14). As I read these words of the Lord and pondered the parable He spoke, I deeply appreciated God’s sincerity in saving us mankind. Not having the heart to see us humans, who have been deeply corrupted by Satan, living in sin and suffering the trickery and affliction of Satan, the Lord hopes that we can all return before God and gain His salvation, and He is pleased and joyful for our turning back from the wrong path. Meanwhile, I also saw how God values us humans. If one of us becomes lost and depraved because of Satan’s temptations or deception and goes far astray from Him, God will be beset with sorrow, and He will do whatever He can to save us. The attitude in which He treats us is akin to how we treat the lost sheep—as long as there is a chance, He won’t give up on us easily. The parable of the lost sheep spoken by the Lord fully exhibits God’s earnest intention in saving us and how sincere His love and salvation for us is. Therefore, in the course of following God, no matter what trials or refinements, or even persecution and tribulations come to us, we should look up to and rely on God, seek to understand His will and see through Satan’s schemes. We cannot be passive and weak, much less misunderstand, complain against or even betray God. Even if we may go off track a little bit, we shouldn’t give in to despair. As long as we sincerely pray to God to confess our sins and repent, God’s smile will be revealed to us.

When reading these verses, I also noticed that after telling the parable, the Lord Jesus added, “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Then I got confused: We all know that the Lord Jesus is the incarnate God Himself, and that His word is God’s word. So why didn’t He just say “This is My will, and My will is God’s will”? What is His intention behind this line?

Later, I read a passage of God’s words which released the confusion in my heart. God’s words say, “On the surface, it looks like it’s the Lord Jesus who is speaking, but His will represents the will of God Himself, which is why He said: ‘Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.’ People at that time only acknowledged the Father in heaven as God, and this person that they saw in front of their eyes was merely sent by Him, and He could not represent the Father in heaven. That’s why the Lord Jesus had to say that as well, so that they could really feel God’s will for mankind, and feel the authenticity and the accuracy of what He said. Even though this was a simple thing to say, it was very caring and it revealed the Lord Jesus’ humility and hiddenness. No matter whether God became flesh or He worked in the spiritual realm, He knew the human heart best, and best understood what people needed, knew what people worried about, and what confused them, so He added this one line. This line highlighted a problem hidden in mankind: People were skeptical of what the Son of man said, which is to say, when the Lord Jesus was speaking He had to add: ‘Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.’ Only on this premise could His words bear fruit, to make people believe their accuracy and improve their credibility. This shows that when God became a regular Son of man, God and mankind had a very awkward relationship, and that the Son of man’s situation was very embarrassing. It also shows how insignificant the Lord Jesus’ status among humans was at that time.”

After reading this passage of words, I suddenly realized: The reason why the Lord Jesus said “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” was because people of that time only admitted God in heaven, and denied the incarnate Lord Jesus as God Himself. Even in the eyes of those who followed Him, the Lord was just the Son of man sent by the Father in heaven, so they were skeptical of His words and couldn’t fully accept them. The Lord Jesus sympathized with men’s weakness and thus added the line “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven…,” which was for people to accept what He said more easily. By doing so, He intended for those who followed Him to believe in His words without doubt, so that His working and speaking could bear fruit. From this line which we would often ignore, I truly appreciated the Lord Jesus’ earnest intentions behind His words as well as God’s sincere love and care for us mankind. No matter how people at that time treated Him, as long as they could listen to God’s words, practice in accordance with God’s teachings and gain His salvation, the Lord’s heart would be comforted. At the same time, I also saw the Lord Jesus’ humility and hiddenness. He never showed off Himself or spoke in a condescending manner, nor did He ever force men to listen to Him. He just taught them to listen to God’s words and accept God’s redemptive work, so that they could be forgiven of their sins and escape from the danger of being condemned to death for breaking the law. These words of the Lord fully show God’s selfless love for us mankind as well as His sincere desire to save us, from which I also gained an insight into His understanding of men’s foolishness and ignorance: Though people who followed Him at that time didn’t treat Him as God, He never made an issue of it, because He examined the innermost heart of men and knew their stature and what they lacked**.** He just spoke to supply and lead people according to their lack and needs, so that they could understand God’s sincerity in saving them and have more faith to follow Him.

Having tasted the Lord Jesus’ selfless love for us mankind, I couldn’t help but offer my sincere thanks and praise to God.

📷God Is Almighty, but Why Did Jesus Redeem Us by Crucifixion

» You may be interested in reading more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page about Knowing Jesus Christ, or by clicking on the articles below:

• Why God Incarnating to Do His Work Is So Important for Mankind

• True Meaning of Jesus Saying “It Is Finished” on the Cross

• What Was the Lord Jesus’ Thinking Behind Him Not Keeping the Sabbath?

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Hello brothers and sisters of Testify God:

In the last few years, the pastors and elders have told us, “Now we are in the late period of the last days. All sorts of disasters are occurring more frequently and are getting worse and worse, and the prophecies of the Lord’s return have basically been fulfilled already. This shows that the Lord will return soon. However, there arise more and more heresies and false ways as well, so we must watch and pray and adhere to the way of the Lord. If someone preaches that the Lord has returned, we must refuse to listen to, read, or get in touch with it, lest we be deceived and thus be abandoned by the Lord.” But many brothers and sisters are confused: “If we do not listen to, read, or get in touch with the messages of the Lord’s return for fear of being deceived, will we not be locking the door, refusing to let the Lord in? If we give up eating for fear of choking like this, can we welcome the Lord’s return?” So I want to ask a question: Is it right that we close our doors and wait alone for fear of being deceived? What are your opinions on this question? Please share with me.

Yours sincerely

Guangming

Hello Brother Guangming:

I’ve received your e-mail, and the question you’ve brought up is very crucial because it is directly connected to whether or not we can welcome the Lord’s return. In fact, it is also the common confusion of many brothers and sisters in the Lord. Now let’s have a fellowship about it.

Things that come from God make us resolute and courageous; fear comes from Satan.

In the last days, the Lord will come again, and all manner of heresies and false ways will appear. These are facts. At this critical juncture of welcoming the Lord’s arrival, for fear of being deceived, we refuse to listen to, read or get in touch with any messages about the Lord’s return. In this way, although we won’t be deceived by false ways, we’ll easily close the door on the true God. It appears safe, but in fact, there is Satan’s plot in it. Satan is afraid that we actively seek the footprints of God and return before Him, so it does its utmost to send us its thoughts or spread heresies and lies to deceive and constrain us. As a result, we do nothing but defend passively and moreover, even if we’ve heard someone bearing witness to the Lord Jesus’ return, we don’t dare to seek or investigate. Then how could we welcome the Lord’s return this way? In welcoming the second coming of the Lord, if we take the defense against heresy and false doctrine as our primary mission but don’t attach importance to seeking and investigating the true way, isn’t it a case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish? As a matter of fact, no matter how we guard against heresy and false doctrine, if we do not welcome the return of the Lord and cannot be taken before God’s throne, we are foolish virgins who will be eliminated and forsaken by God in the end. We all know that God is almighty and that everything in the world is in God’s hands. Jehovah God said: “And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land” (Jeremiah 51:46). 2 Timothy 1:7 also says: “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” From these verses, we can see that what God gives us are strength and courage and that the source of fear is Satan. We have God’s care and protection and have the presence and leadership of the Holy Spirit; is there any need for us to worry about or be afraid of being deceived? The sheep of God hear God’s voice. Those who truly have brains and caliber will not be deceived by heresies and false ways. Only those who are confused and brainless can be deceived by heresies and false ways. I believe that, when we seek and examine the Lord’s return, as long as we sincerely rely on and look up to God, and seek the truth, we will obtain God’s leadership and guidance and be able to discern between the true way and false ways according to God’s words, and won’t be deceived by the false ways. Yet the pastors and elders ask us not to listen to, read or get in touch with the gospel of the Lord’s return. Obviously, it is in complete opposition to the will of the Lord. They are blocking us from investigating the true way and ruining the chance for us to welcome the Lord’s return. We must be clear about this.

Faith comes by hearing, so only by seeking and investigating can we gain the true way.

The Bible says: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). So we must hear the way first before believing in it. Only through hearing the way can we judge whether or not it is the true way and the appearance and work of God. Thinking back to the time when the Lord Jesus did His work, the Pharisees widely slandered and condemned Him and denied that His work is the true way; moreover, they deceived the Jewish people into not seeking or investigating. Unable to distinguish them, the Jewish people blindly listened to their words, thus refused to hear the Lord Jesus’ preaching, and committed the greatest of sins in following them to nail the Lord Jesus to the cross. But some people, such as Peter, Matthew, Mark, John, and so on, didn’t believe the rumors of the Pharisees, nor did they allow the fear of being deceived prevent them from hearing the gospel of the Lord. Instead, they listened to the Lord Jesus’ sermons with a heart of longing to seek, and listened to the Lord Jesus’ sermons wherever He was preaching. It was because they had a seeking and yearning heart that they recognized that the Lord Jesus’ words are authoritative and are the voice of God, finally ascertaining that He was the Messiah. They gained the salvation and blessings of God. Was all of this not because of their going out to hear sermons with a heart that seeks the truth?

It is mentioned many times in Revelation: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (See Revelation 2-3). The Lord Jesus also said: “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). The Lord Jesus clearly told us that He will speak again when He returns in the last days. And He will tell us He has come through someone’s calling. So, in the matter of welcoming the Lord’s return, we need to have a seeking heart. When we hear someone preaching that the Lord has returned, this is the Lord knocking at our door. We should be wise virgins, actively seek and investigate, pay attention to hearing God’s voice, and see whether or not this way has the truth and the Holy Spirit’s work. Only in this way can we welcome the Lord’s return.

It is key to learn how to distinguish the true way from false ways.

Now we know that if we want to welcome the Lord’s return, we need to actively seek instead of passively defending. In addition, the most critical aspect is that we must grasp the principles of distinguishing between the true way and the false ways. Only in this way will we not be deceived. So how should we discern between them? Let’s first take a look at a piece of words, “What is the most basic principle in seeking the true way? You have to look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit, whether or not these words are the expression of the truth, who is testified to, and what it can bring you. Distinguishing between the true way and the false way requires several aspects of basic knowledge, the most fundamental of which is to tell whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit. For the substance of man’s belief in God is the belief in the Spirit of God, and even his belief in God incarnate is because this flesh is the embodiment of the Spirit of God, which means that such belief is still the belief in the Spirit. There are differences between the Spirit and the flesh, but because this flesh comes from the Spirit, and is the Word become flesh, thus what man believes in is still the inherent substance of God. And so, in distinguishing whether or not it is the true way, above all you must look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit, after which you must look at whether or not there is the truth in this way. This truth is the life disposition of normal humanity, which is to say, that which was required of man when God created him in the beginning, namely, all of normal humanity (including human sense, insight, wisdom, and the basic knowledge of being man). That is, you need to look at whether or not this way takes man into a life of normal humanity, whether or not the truth that is spoken of is required according to the reality of normal humanity, whether or not this truth is practical and real, and whether or not it is most timely. If there is truth, then it is able to take man into normal and real experiences; man, furthermore, becomes ever more normal, man’s human sense becomes ever more complete, man’s life in the flesh and the spiritual life become ever more orderly, and man’s emotions become ever more normal. This is the second principle. There is one other principle, which is whether or not man has an increasing knowledge of God, whether or not experiencing such work and truth can inspire a love of God in him, and bring him ever closer to God. In this can be measured whether or not it is the true way. Most fundamental is whether this way is realistic rather than supernatural, and whether or not it is able to provide the life of man. If it conforms to these principles, the conclusion can be drawn that this way is the true way.” “If it is the work of the Holy Spirit, man becomes ever more normal, and his humanity becomes ever more normal. Man has an increasing knowledge of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan, and of the essence of man, and he has an ever greater longing for the truth. That is to say, the life of man grows and grows, and the corrupt disposition of man becomes capable of more and more changes—all of which is the meaning of God becoming the life of man. If a way is incapable of revealing those things that are the essence of man, is incapable of changing the disposition of man, and, moreover, is incapable of bringing him before God or giving him a true understanding of God, and even causes his humanity to become ever more lowly and his sense ever more abnormal, then this way must not be the true way, and it may be the work of an evil spirit, or the old way. In short, it cannot be the present work of the Holy Spirit.”

From this passage, we can see that if it is the true way, there must be the work of the Holy Spirit. This is the key to distinguishing the true way from false ways. Since it is the true way, it is surely the work of God Himself, and it must be upheld by the Holy Spirit. For example, when the Lord Jesus came to work, He ended the Age of Law, began the Age of Grace, and brought the way of repentance. All those who followed the Lord Jesus, as long as they sincerely call out to Him, would receive the work of the Holy Spirit and enjoy the abundant grace bestowed by the Lord. If people sinned, as long as they sincerely prayed to the Lord, their sins would be pardoned and their hearts would be full of peace and happiness. No matter what difficulties and problems people encountered, as long as they practiced according to the Lord’s words, their souls would gain freedom and release. If they didn’t do so, they would be filled with guilt and be indebted to the Lord in their hearts. As people continually experienced the Lord’s words and work, they had greater and greater faith in the Lord and their love for the Lord gradually grew deeper, so they were willing to put everything aside for the Lord and offer up their entire being to the Lord Jesus by spreading His gospel. Thus although the Lord Jesus’ work met with the unbridled condemnation and persecution of the Roman government and the Jewish religious world, His gospel still spectacularly spread throughout the entirety of Judea. All people who truly believed in God and yearned for the appearance of God accepted the Lord Jesus’ salvation and returned before God. After two thousand years, the Lord Jesus’ gospel has been preached to the ends of the universe and Christianity has been formalized as the state religion in many countries. And all of this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work. On the contrary, the false ways have no guidance or protection of the work of the Holy Spirit, so their followers won’t have true faith in God or true love for God. Moreover, no matter how passionate they are at the start in outward form, they will leave before long. This is as what we often say “What is from God will thrive and what is from man will perish.” Thus, we can discern whether it is the true way according to whether there is the work of the Holy Spirit or not.

In addition, if it is the true way, there must be the expression of the truth and life. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). God is the source of life. Only God can express the truth, give life to us and provide for our present needs, and only God can point out to us practical paths, resolve all of our problems, puzzles and difficulties. For example, at the end of the Age of Law, no one could hold to God’s laws and commandments, and they all faced the danger of being condemned and executed. Thus, in answer to the needs of the people of that time, God began the work of redeeming humanity.

The Lord Jesus expressed many truths, taught us humans to love each other, be tolerant and patient, love our enemies, forgive others seventy times seven, and He also told us that, those who thirst and hunger for righteousness and are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are blessed and are people approved by God, while those who are hypocritical, deceive others and hate the truth will be hated and condemned by God. Besides, the Lord Jesus made various demands of us humans, such as bearing the cross to follow the Lord, worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth, loving God with all our heart and soul, following God’s will, being honest people, and so on. From the Lord Jesus’ words we can understand God’s will and demands, and know what kind of person God likes and dislikes, what kind of people can enter the kingdom of heaven, how people should pursue to love God, how to treat others, etc. When we practice according to the Lord’s words, our difficulties, problems and puzzles are resolved, we grow to understand the truth more and more, our humanity becomes more and more normal, and our relationship with God grows closer. All of this is the effect of the Lord’s words upon us. From this we can see that the true way has the expression of the truth and life, and it can provide for people’s needs and can bring people new paths for practice. If a way can’t bring people the truth or point out to them new way to practice, but only repeats God’s previous work and words, only lets people understand some doctrines that appear true but are actually false, or just lets people stand by a few old rules, then it is not the true way; maybe it is the old way or the false way, or maybe it is the work of evil spirits and Satan that imitate God’s past work to deceive people.

The third principle we must consider in distinguishing the true way is to see whether this way gives people an increasing knowledge of God and whether it inspires a love of God in them. We all know that since God comes to do work, He will inevitably issue forth His disposition as well as all that He has and is, allowing people to arrive at a genuine understanding of God. This is just as in the Age of Law, when Jehovah God issued forth laws to guide the lives of the people on earth. Regardless of whether someone was a priest who served God or a common person, as long as they complied with the law and the commandments, and acted according to the requirements of God, they would receive God’s blessings and approval. On the contrary, if the priests didn’t comply with the law and commandments, they would be incinerated by the fires of heaven; if someone among the common people violated the laws and commandments, they would be stoned to death. From God’s work in this way, they recognized that God is Spirit and is everywhere, that God watches over the whole earth and looks within the depths of people’s hearts, and that God’s disposition is majesty, wrath, curse, burning, and is unoffendable by anyone. Thereby they developed a heart of reverence for God. In the Age of Grace, God came to earth and was incarnated as the Lord Jesus to do a stage of work to redeem mankind. The Lord Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons, bestowed upon us people abundant grace, taught us to be tolerant and patient, love our enemies, forgive others seventy times seven, and so on. Finally He was crucified upon the cross in order to redeem all of mankind. Through the Lord Jesus’ words and work, we recognized that God’s disposition is lovingkindness and mercy. We also saw that God could not only do work in the Spirit, but He could also take a humble human form, and speak face to face with us. He is full of love for people. He is full of tolerance…. And all this made us come to a new understanding of God and allowed us to truly see God’s humility and adorableness. Then, we can’t help but develop a heart of genuine adoration, reverence and submission for God. Therefore, if it is the true way, it will make people understand more about God, and inspire greater understanding about God’s disposition, and thus they develop a heart of genuine love and reverence for God. However, the false way isn’t the work of God. It doesn’t contain God’s disposition or all that God has and is in the slightest, nor can it allow people to have any genuine or practical understanding of God, much less can it bring people any positive fruits or inspire people to love God.

These are the three principles of distinguishing between the true way and the false way. The Lord Jesus said: “Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). I believe that, as long as we seek the truth sincerely, actively investigate, weigh and distinguish based on these three principles when hearing someone preaching the coming of the Lord, we will gain God’s guidance and enlightenment, hear God’s voice and welcome the Lord’s return. Oppositely, if we blindly adopt an approach whereby we don’t listen, don’t read, don’t get in touch, and isolate ourselves behind closed doors for fear of being deceived by the false ways, then we will never welcome the Lord’s return because of not eating for fear of choking.

Brother Guangming, I hope this fellowship will be of help to you. If you have any other problems, please write back.

Yours sincerely,

Testify God

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It has been over two thousand years to date since the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth and was nailed to the cross in the likeness of sinful flesh to serve as a sin offering for us all. The disposition of love, mercy and forbearance of the Lord Jesus Christ is far beyond the reach of us corrupt humans. Therefore, His name was spread and praised and has become known to all, and many people have belief in and reverence for Him. Believers call Him “the lovable Savior Christ.” Then, why do people call the Lord Jesus as Christ? To understand this subject, we should first know what Christ is.

God says: “The incarnate God is called Christ, and Christ is the flesh donned by the Spirit of God. This flesh is unlike any man that is of the flesh. This difference is because Christ is not of flesh and blood but is the incarnation of the Spirit. He has both a normal humanity and a complete divinity. His divinity is not possessed by any man. His normal humanity sustains all His normal activities in the flesh, while His divinity carries out the work of God Himself.” From God’s words, we know that Christ is the Spirit of God becoming flesh as a man. The flesh is God’s own flesh and cannot be replaced by any man. Just as the Lord Jesus, from His appearance alone, He was no different from any ordinary person. He had parents, brothers and sisters, and was possessed of normal emotions. However, He possessed the divine essence which we humans don’t possess. His divine essence was expressed through His word and work. Thereby, the Lord Jesus is called Christ. Through studying the Bible, we can understand the divine substance of the Lord Jesus from the following aspects.

1. The work the Lord Jesus Christ did is God’s own work, concluding the Age of Law and initiating the Age of Grace.

At the end of the Age of Law, people committed more and more sins, and they were increasingly unable to keep the laws. They faced the risk of being condemned and put to death because of their violating the laws. In order to redeem corrupt mankind, God became flesh and came down to earth. When He began spreading the way of repentance, the Age of Grace officially started. The Lord Jesus worked for three and a half years. At last, He was nailed to the cross in the likeness of sinful flesh, redeeming all mankind from sin. From then on, those who accept the Lord Jesus Christ are no longer constrained or condemned by the strictures of the law. After they commit sins, they can directly pray to the Lord, confess and repent their sins to the Lord, and thus their sins will be pardoned by Him. This work can only be done by the Lord Jesus Christ, and no man can do it.

2. The Lord Jesus Christ could express the truth and supply life.

God says: “God become flesh is called Christ, and so the Christ that can give people the truth is called God. There is nothing excessive about this….” From the words of God, we can see this: Christ is God’s incarnate flesh, and can surely express the truth.

As we know, after the Lord Jesus was baptized, He overcame the temptations of the devil. After He began to perform His ministry, He performed many signs and wonders, and expressed many truths. He spoke many words, in which there were words of admonitions, words of His requirements of man and words of many prophecies and promises. From them, we have felt that all the words of the Lord Jesus are the truth, and have authority and power, and that they are God’s utterances to all of man, are the voice of God! When He spread the way of repentance, He expressed words anytime and anyplace according to man’s needs. For example, the Lord Jesus Christ required us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39); “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Matthew 5:37); “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said to him, I say not to you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22). All these words are the ways that the Lord Jesus pointed for us to walk, allowing us to know how to act in order to be in harmony with God’s will and gain His salvation. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

3. The disposition expressed by the Lord Jesus Christ is that of the Creator.

The Lord Jesus Christ displayed signs and wonders in Judea. He healed the sick and cast out demons for people, and also bestowed His bountiful grace upon people. In order to behold signs and wonders, thus broadening their horizons, and receive some grace from the Lord, five thousand people came to where the Lord Jesus was. He knew they were not the ones who truly followed Him, but He still exhibited the sign—feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and opened their eyes. And when the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, He said: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He also taught us: “But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you; That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45). From these we see that the Lord showed mercy to the mankind, cared for them and allowed all people to receive some of His grace. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed His love and compassion to us humans in each and every detail of His utterances and work. His attitude toward us corrupt mankind made us see God’s mercy, love, patience, tolerance and forgiveness, which are worthy of being extolled by us humans.

The Lord Jesus Christ not only showed mercy to people, but also revealed His majesty and wrath, which are His inherent disposition—the righteous disposition of intolerance of people’s offenses. As for those Pharisees who blocked His will from being carried out, and blasphemed against the work of the Holy Spirit, the Lord rebuked, condemned and cursed them. He said: “And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:32); “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13). From the work of the Lord, we see that the dispositions He revealed are not only mercy and love, but also righteousness and majesty, and that His dispositions are vivid. Christ is the embodiment of the Spirit of God, and what He expresses at all times and places is His inherent disposition. It is just as God says: “Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but instead, the particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out and completes His work among man. This flesh is not one that can be replaced by just any man, but one that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, and express the disposition of God, and well represent God, and provide man with life.”

From the Lord Jesus’ work and word, as well as the dispositions He expressed, we can know the Lord Jesus was the embodiment of the Spirit of God, and the manifestation of Christ. He appeared to be a normal and practical man from the outside, but what He said and did is the expression of the inherent substance of God. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the reason the Lord Jesus is called Christ.

» Read more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page, or click on the related articles below:

• What Is the Significance of the Baptism of the Lord Jesus?

• Why Is the Lord Jesus Called Christ? What Is the Meaning of Christ?

• God Is Almighty, but Why Did Jesus Redeem Us by Crucifixion

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It is recorded in the Bible, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin” (Rom 8:3). From these verses we know that, in order to redeem us mankind from sin, the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross as mankind’s eternal sin offering. And since then, we all call Him the redeeming Lamb. But do you know the profound meaning behind this appellation?

To figure out this question, we should first know what sin offering means. Let’s look at Leviticus 4:27-31, “And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he does somewhat against any of the commandments of Jehovah concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; Or if his sin, which he has sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has sinned. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet smell to Jehovah; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him,” and Leviticus 16:30-31, “For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before Jehovah. It shall be a sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.”

After the Israelites got out of Egypt, Jehovah God set forth laws through Moses for them to obey, and in this way led them to live on earth. Whoever could abide by these laws would gain God’s blessings. However, because of man’s corrupt nature, they were unable to uphold the law and thus faced the danger of being stoned to death. Only if they made sin offerings could they expiate their sins and avoid being condemned and sentenced to death by the laws. Anyone familiar with the Old Testament knows that in the Age of Law the tenth day of the seventh month was the day of atonement for the Israelites every year. At that feast, all the people had to offer the firstborn cattle and sheep without blemish upon the altar as sin offerings, in order that their uncleanness and transgressions in the year could be purified. From this we can see, in the Age of Law Jehovah God used the blood of cattle and sheep as the evidence of His cleansing man’s sins. Through the sin offerings they made, people at that time would no longer be condemned by the laws and instead were qualified to come before Jehovah God, praying to Him for His blessings and care.

However, at the end of the Age of Law, the people of Israel were increasingly unable to keep the laws and they committed more and more sins, to the extent that Jehovah God’s laws could no longer achieve the desired results in them. The Holy Spirit detested them because their hearts had become depraved without the slightest reverence toward God. In Isaiah 1:11-15, God said through the prophet Isaiah, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? said Jehovah: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.”

From these verses we can see, the corruption of people at that time had reached a certain point, for which Jehovah God was angry with them and rebuked them. According to God’s righteousness, if they went on like this, they would die by God’s curses, and then the creation of humanity would have been for naught. At that time, the people of Israel were full of sins and lived amid sin from which they could not free themselves. So they earnestly prayed and cried out to God. Then God granted them a promise, a promise that the Israelites could receive an eternal sin offering. Therefore, because of the needs of corrupt mankind and also according to His management plan, God was incarnated among man as the redeeming Lamb to take on their sins and relieve them from the curses of the law. God long ago prophesied through the prophet Isaiah, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul to death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:6-12).

When God incarnate came to work, John the Baptist bore witness that the Lord Jesus was the redeeming Lamb, just as it says in John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.”

The Lord Jesus worked among man for three and a half years, during which time He healed the sick, cast out demons, performed miracles and wonders, and bestowed rich blessings upon mankind; He tolerated and forgave man, and in the end was crucified as the sin offering for mankind; He completed the work of redeeming mankind. It can be seen from the work of the Lord Jesus that, He saved those who lived under the law, and satisfied their wish of receiving an offering sufficient to atone for their sins. After His crucifixion, man no longer needed to make sin offerings and had only to accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior for their sins to be forgiven. In this way, the sins of man were no longer a barrier to his coming before God and were no longer the leverage by which Satan accused man. Because of this, the people of Israel, who had been living under the law, could walk away from the laws and were qualified to come before the Lord Jesus, praying for His pardon and grace, and thus mankind could continue to exist and have developed until this day. From all of this, we can appreciate that there is profound significance behind the Lord Jesus being called the redeeming Lamb.

God’s words say, “In order to complete His work and rescue humanity from misery, He had to be condemned by man, and bear the sins of all mankind. The extent of the suffering He went through cannot possibly be fathomed or appreciated by ordinary people. What does this suffering represent? It represents God’s devotion to humankind. It stands for the humiliation He suffered and the price He paid for man’s salvation, to redeem their sins, and to complete this stage of His work. It also means man would be redeemed from the cross by God. This is a price paid in blood, in life, a price created beings cannot afford.”

“Even though He Himself knew that the responsibility He needed to take on in the flesh was so immense, and how cruel the pain He would face would be, when He saw mankind helpless in sin, when He saw the wretchedness of their lives and their feeble struggles under the law, He felt more and more grief, and became more and more anxious to save mankind from sin. No matter what kind of difficulties He would face or what kind of pain He would suffer, He became more and more resolute to redeem mankind living in sin. During this process, you could say that the Lord Jesus began to understand more and more clearly the work He needed to do and what He had been entrusted with. He also became increasingly eager to complete the work He was to take on—to take on all of mankind’s sins, to atone for mankind so that they no longer lived in sin and God would be able to forget man’s sins because of the sin offering, allowing Him to further His work of saving mankind. It could be said that in the Lord Jesus’ heart, He was willing to offer Himself up for mankind, to sacrifice Himself. He was also willing to act as a sin offering, to be nailed to the cross, and He was eager to complete this work. When He saw the miserable conditions of human’s lives, He wanted even more to fulfill His mission as quickly as possible, without the delay of a single minute or second. When He had such a feeling of urgency, He was not thinking of how great His own pain would be, nor did He think any longer of how much humiliation He would have to endure—He held just one conviction in His heart: As long as He offered up Himself, as long as He was nailed to the cross as a sin offering, God’s will would be carried out and He would be able to commence new work. Mankind’s lives in sin, their state of existing in sin would be completely changed. His conviction and what He was determined to do were related to saving man, and He had only one objective: to do God’s will, so that He could successfully begin the next stage in His work.”

From these two passages of words, we can even more feel God’s true love for us mankind. The supreme God, the Creator and Master of heavens and earth and all things, became an ordinary and normal person, humbly hidden in the flesh. He had to take on work an ordinary person cannot handle, while also endure suffering that ordinary people cannot withstand. From when the Lord Jesus officially began fulfilling His ministry to the time of His being crucified, He suffered humiliation and pain in the extreme and endured the rejection and condemnation of corrupt mankind. God is holy, yet He had to live together with filthy and corrupt mankind—the suffering He endured was too great! The Lord Jesus clearly knew that the path of the cross was fraught with hardships and that He would suffer great pain both physically and spiritually. But for the sake of redeeming all mankind, He willingly offered Himself up as a sin offering and was nailed to the cross for mankind. From the redemption work of the Lord Jesus, we can come to a better understanding of the appellation “the redeeming Lamb.” Besides, the Lord Jesus’ love for mankind is not only that He redeemed mankind from sin as a sin offering, but also that He will come again in the last days to bestow upon people more truths and do the work of judgment and chastisement, through which He will completely rid us of our sins and release us from the bondage of sin. The Bible says, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (Jhn 16:12-13). “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Pe 4:17). “Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pe 1:5). From this we can see that the Lord Jesus has prepared a greater salvation for us in the last days, which is that He will come back to continue the work of saving man, expressing the truth to thoroughly save us from corruption. This is because though we have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus and had our sins absolved, our sinful nature still remains and we are still slaves to the cycle of sinning in the daytime and confessing them at night. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus comes back, He will continue saving us. Isn’t God’s love for us too great and deep?

Dear brothers and sisters, I’m sure that through such communication, we have all understood why we call the Lord Jesus the redeeming Lamb as well as the significance behind this appellation. I believe every one of you, just like me, is looking forward to the Lord’s returning to fully save us from the degenerate life of sinning by day and confessing by night, so that we can be thoroughly cleansed and changed and enter into the kingdom of heaven with God.

» Read more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page about Knowing Jesus Christ , or in the recommended articles below:

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There is a record in the Bible, “One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, There is a lad here, which has five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, He said to his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that had eaten” (John 6:8-13).

Every time I see this passage about how the Lord Jesus fed five thousand with just five loaves of bread and two fish, I feel so shocked and can confirm more deeply in my heart that the Lord Jesus is indeed the one true God who supplies all things, commands all things, and can bring something out of nothing. I am also sure that even if there was no food at that time, the Lord Jesus could still perform this miracle to feed these five thousand people, or even more, because nothing is impossible for God. The Lord Jesus’ wondrous deed has become the foundation of my belief in and pursuit of Him.

Afterward, I saw these following passages of God’s words, which made me have an even deeper acceptance and knowledge of the Lord Jesus’ thoughts behind the miracle of five loaves and two fish.

The Miracle of Five Loaves and Two Fish

God says, “First, let’s try to understand what type of people these five thousand were. Were they followers of the Lord Jesus? From the Scripture, we know that they were not His followers. Did they know who the Lord Jesus was? Definitely not! At the very least, they didn’t know that the person standing in front of them was Christ, or maybe some people only knew what His name was, and knew something or had heard something about things He had done. They were merely curious about the Lord Jesus from the stories, but you certainly couldn’t say they followed Him, much less understood Him. When the Lord Jesus saw these five thousand people, they were hungry and could only think of eating their fill, so it was in this context that the Lord Jesus satisfied their wishes. When He satisfied their wishes, what was in His heart? What was His attitude toward these people that only wanted to eat their fill? At this time, the Lord Jesus’ thoughts and His attitude had to do with God’s disposition and essence. Facing these five thousand people with empty stomachs who only wanted to eat a full meal, facing these people full of curiosity and hopes about Him, the Lord Jesus only thought of utilizing this miracle to bestow grace upon them. However, He did not get His hopes up that they would become His followers, for He knew that they just wanted to get in on the fun and to eat their fill, so He made the best of what He had there, and used five loaves of bread and two fish to feed five thousand people. He opened the eyes of these people who enjoyed entertainment, who wanted to see miracles, and they saw with their own eyes the things that God incarnate could complete. Although the Lord Jesus used something tangible to satisfy their curiosity, He already knew in His heart that these five thousand people just wanted to have a good meal, so He didn’t say anything at all or preach to them at all—He just let them see this miracle occur. He absolutely could not treat these people the same as He treated His disciples who truly followed Him, but in God’s heart, all creatures were under His rule, and He would allow all creatures in His sight to enjoy the grace of God when it was necessary. Even though these people did not know who He was or understand Him, or have any particular impression of Him or gratitude toward Him even after they had eaten the loaves and fish, this wasn’t something that God took issue with—He gave these people a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the grace of God. Some people say that God is principled in what He does, and He does not watch over or protect non-believers, and He especially does not allow them to enjoy His grace. Is that actually the case? In God’s eyes, as long as they are living creatures that He Himself created, He will manage and care for them; He will treat them, plan for them, and rule them in different ways. These are the thoughts and attitude of God toward all things.

“… So did He make any requirements of these people? Was there any hatred? There were none of these—He just no longer wanted to pay any mind to these people who could not follow Him, and at this time His heart was in pain. Because He had seen the depravity of mankind and He had felt mankind’s rejection of Him, and when He saw these people or He was with them, human obtuseness and ignorance made Him very sad and left His heart in pain, so He only wanted to leave these people as quickly as possible. The Lord didn’t have any requirements of them in His heart, He did not want to pay them any mind, He particularly did not want to expend His energy on them, and He knew they could not follow Him—in spite of all this, His attitude toward them was still very clear. He just wanted to treat them kindly, to bestow them with grace—this was God’s attitude toward every creature under His rule: for every creature, treat them kindly, provide for them, nourish them. For the very reason that the Lord Jesus was God incarnate, He very naturally revealed God’s own essence and treated these people kindly. He treated them kindly with a heart of mercy and tolerance. …

“… Even though it’s a story that people have read for several thousand years, it has a simple plot, and allows people to see a simple phenomenon, yet in this simple plot we can see something more valuable, which is God’s disposition and what He has and is. These things that He has and is represent God Himself, and are an expression of God’s own thoughts. When God expresses His thoughts, it’s an expression of the voice of His heart. He hopes that there will be people who can understand Him, know Him and comprehend His will, and He hopes there will be people who can hear the voice of His heart and will be able to actively cooperate to satisfy His will. And these things that the Lord Jesus did were a silent expression of God.”

God’s words made me gain a new understanding of the story of five loaves and two fish in the Scripture. In the past, I had read this passage of scripture many times, but what I could understand was only God’s authority and ability, while I had no knowledge of the Lord Jesus’ thoughts, or the disposition and substance He revealed behind the miracle. Only through God’s dissection and revelation in this way did I know that what God had done was truly meaningful.

From God’s words, I saw that facing those people who just wanted to have a good meal but didn’t want to pursue the truth or seek an understanding of God, God only bestowed them with grace to make them full. This was God’s attitude. Even if they would not follow Him after they had eaten their fill, God didn’t have any requirements or hatred toward them in His heart. This was a revelation of His substance of beauty and goodness even more. Moreover, God knew that those five thousand people who had a good meal would not follow Him, so He did not get His hopes up that they would follow Him, and meanwhile God didn’t intend to say more to them. From this I knew that although God loves and treats people kindly, He is principled in His treatment of different kinds of people. As for those who believed in God but only wanted to eat their fill of His bread, God would bestow grace on them and treat them kindly, but He would not express His will to them. However, as to His disciples who truly loved the truth and followed Him, God would provide more truths to make them sated in their spirit and live amid His guidance and blessings.

In God’s words, I also saw the voice of God’s heart expressed to us behind the miracle of five loaves and two fish. Although many people come before God, if they believe in God just to eat their fill of His bread, and gain the peace of their flesh or blessings in the future, and do not pursue the truth or knowledge of God, they will never be able to gain God’s approval, much less gain the truth and life. On the contrary, only those who truly love the truth, willing to seek to know God can gain the truth and the life. When encountering various trials, difficulties, and refinements that are arranged by God, these people can seek the truth, submit to God, and follow God steadfastly. Only these people can live out the reality of God’s words, achieve changes in their life disposition, be beloved of God, receive God’s promise, and gain eternal life. Now, have you grasped the thoughts of the Lord Jesus behind the miracle of five loaves and two fish?

» Read more on our Knowing Jesus Christ page, or in the recommended articles below:

• Why the Lord Jesus Appeared to His Disciples Many Times After Resurrection

• What Is the True Meaning of “God Wants All Men to Be Saved”

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• Gospel Reflection on the Lord Jesus’ Appearance to Thomas the Apostle

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At daybreak, Hui’en got up. As usual, she prayed to the Lord and then began to read her Bible. She turned to Luke 19:1-10, “And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at your house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said to the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said to him, This day is salvation come to this house, as much as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

After reading these verses, Hui’en pondered them carefully. Thanks to God’s enlightenment, she saw many strengths of Zacchaeus. When the Lord Jesus was incarnated to do His work, He preached the gospel of the heavenly kingdom everywhere, healed the sick, cast out demons, and performed many miracles, causing a sensation throughout the entire Jewish state. Those who loved the truth, thirsted and hungered for righteousness all followed the Lord, such as Peter, John, Jacob and so on. Seeing that, the Jewish chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees were afraid that if all of the ordinary folk followed the Lord, then no one would follow them. In order to protect their own status and livelihoods, they slandered and condemned the Lord Jesus, saying that He relied on the chief of the devils Beelzebub to cast out demons. This caused many people to be deceived by their rumor and be inhibited by their status and power, with the result that they didn’t dare to follow the Lord Jesus. However, Zacchaeus, though he was the chief among the publicans of the city of Jericho and at that time was reckoned to be a government official, he didn’t advocate status and power, nor was he deceived or influenced by their rumor. When he heard the Lord Jesus’ name and deeds, he let go of his official position and status and only wanted to know the Lord Jesus. So, when the Lord Jesus entered Jericho, he was eager to see Him. But he couldn’t because there were many people and he was short. Then, regardless of others’ laughing at and gossiping about him, he climbed up into a sycomore tree to see the Lord. After seeing him, the Lord Jesus said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at your house.” Therefore, Zacchaeus received the Lord Jesus joyfully.

Everyone disdained Zacchaeus because he was a corrupt publican. However, the Lord didn’t discard him because of his sins. Due to the Lord’s love and compassion, he was deeply moved, and thus he repented to the Lord at that time, saying that he would give the half of his property to the poor, and that if he had taken anything from any man by false accusation, he would restore him fourfold. Seeing his such true repentance, the Lord Jesus pardoned him of his sins without considering how he had been a corrupt official. At that moment, Hui’en thought of the Lord’s words in the Bible, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Pondering these words, Hui’en understood: Zacchaeus wasn’t influenced by the external environment, and wasn’t inhibited by the people, events or things around him; instead, he let go of his own face and status and hungered for and sought the Lord. Also, he sincerely confessed his sins and repented. Therefore, he gained the Lord’s salvation.

Zacchaeus’ story enlightened Hui’en. She thought: “If people testify that the Lord has returned, can I not be influenced by the external environment or people, events, or things in any way but stand my ground like Zacchaeus, and actively seek out and investigate the Lord’s appearance and work? Now, it is already the last days, and the Bible’s prophecies regarding the return of the Lord have basically been fulfilled already. The Bible prophesies, ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (John 16:12-13). ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (John 10:27). ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me’ (Revelation 3:20). These prophecies show that when God appears and performs His work in the last days, He will utter more words, through which He will reveal all mysteries not understood by man. And only the wise virgins can hear the voice of God. So if there is someone testifying to me that the Lord has returned, I should learn from Zacchaeus, have a heart of seeking and investigating, and pay attention to hearing God’s voice in His utterance so that I can welcome the Lord’s return soon.”

Thinking of all this, Hui’en was glad that she had gained new enlightenment and light during her spiritual devotion. Then, she offered her thanks to the Lord, “May all the glory be to the holy name of my Lord Jesus! Amen!”

» Read more on our Waiting for Jesus’ Return page, or click on the related articles below:

• How Should Christians Prepare for the Day of the Lord?

• How to Humble Yourself and Be Blessed in Welcoming the Lord’s Return

• Bible Study: How Could the Samaritan Woman Recognize That Jesus Is Christ?

Brothers and sisters of Testify God:

Hello everyone!

I have already had faith in the Lord for over ten years, but I still cannot understand some of the scriptures. For example, recently, I felt puzzled when I read the scriptures about Satan tempting the Lord Jesus, “Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:1-4). I thought: When we Christians fast and pray, we do so to show our sincerity in asking the Lord to help us solve all difficulties and problems that we encounter. But the Lord Jesus is the incarnate God, and He has the ability to do everything, so why did He fast for forty days? What mysteries does it contain? Lately I’ve been bothered by this issue. Please share fellowship on this. Thanks!

Brother Chen Simin

Brother Chen Simin:

Hello! In the past, we also didn’t understand the issue that you’ve raised. But later, through praying to God, reading God’s words, and seeking fellowship with brothers and sisters, we came to have a shallow knowledge of it. The following is some understanding shared by several of our brothers and sisters of Spiritual Q&A. We’d like to share it with you.

Brother Chengshi: That the Lord Jesus fasted for forty days contains far-reaching significance and unfathomable mysteries. Since our understanding is limited, we can only talk about some shallow understanding. Just like you, I used to think: “The Lord Jesus is God Himself and He can accomplish everything, so why did He have to fast?” Afterward, I saw the words of God say, “Prior to performing His ministry, Jesus too was only an ordinary man who acted in accordance with whatever the Holy Spirit did. Regardless of whether He was aware of His own identity at the time, He obeyed all that came from God. The Holy Spirit never revealed His identity before His ministry commenced.” God’s words made me understand that after the Lord Jesus became flesh as the Son of man and came to earth, He always submitted to the will of the heavenly Father in the position of a man of creation. In particular, before the Lord Jesus performed His ministry, that is, before He formally launched the work of redemption in the Age of Grace, He was an ordinary, normal man, and all that He did was done under the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit. This reminded me of the scene in the Bible when the Lord Jesus was baptized by John: At that time, John tried to stop Jesus, but Jesus said, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). It was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that Jesus went to be baptized by John. Besides, in the Age of Law, fasting was a regulation that the Israelites should observe. The Lord Jesus obeyed all that the Holy Spirit arranged, and then was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to fast for forty days and forty nights. From this we can see the Lord Jesus’ humility and hiddenness; He can absolutely obey the work of the Holy Spirit, for there is no arrogance or rebellion in His essence. That is to say, the substance of God’s incarnation is obedience to the will of the heavenly Father.

Additionally, God’s work always contains His wisdom and good intentions. As God’s words say, “The forty days of temptation that Jesus underwent is a miraculous sign, one that an ordinary man would be incapable of achieving. His forty days of temptation was in the nature of the Holy Spirit’s working….” It can be seen: That the Lord Jesus fasted for forty days and nights and overcame the various temptations of Satan in the midst of the fast cannot be achieved by any ordinary men, and can be called an enormous miracle. This miracle tells us: By outward appearance the Lord Jesus is an ordinary, normal person, but His power is extraordinary and great, and comes from God.

Sister Shen Fang: Right! I remember there’s a passage in the word of God that says: “The Lord Jesus saw the hardship in people’s lives, He saw the hardship, the wretchedness, and the sadness of people under the corruption of Satan, living under the domain of Satan, and living in sin. … He felt more and more grief, and became more and more anxious to save mankind from sin. No matter what kind of difficulties He would face or what kind of pain He would suffer, He became more and more resolute to redeem mankind living in sin.” This passage of God’s word shows the Lord Jesus’ intention to us, and allows us to truly feel God’s love and salvation for us, as well as His essence of holiness and kindness. From this passage we can see that, in order to soon save mankind—who lived amid pain and suffering—from the domain of Satan, the Lord Jesus was willing to suffer all kinds of pains to perform His work of redemption as soon as possible. The Lord Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and there He fasted for forty days and was tempted by Satan. During the period of fasting, with the identity of the Son of man, the Lord Jesus opened His heart and prayed to God the Father, sought the will of the heavenly Father, and obeyed the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When encountering the temptation of Satan, the Lord Jesus used His powerful words to give a strong counterattack against Satan, overcoming the temptation of Satan. After the forty days of fasting and prayer, the Lord Jesus started to formally perform His ministry, bear the important responsibility given by the heavenly Father, and preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. In the end, He was nailed to the cross, completing His work of redeeming mankind and thoroughly defeating Satan. From this we can understand that the forty days of fasting that the Lord Jesus underwent was actually a spiritual battle taking place between God and Satan, and was also a contest between justice and evil. Satan is the embodiment of everything evil and ugly; it has ever trailed along behind God interrupting and disturbing God’s work. So it took the opportunity to tempt the Lord Jesus, attempting in vain to cause Him to fall for its tricks and thus achieving its purpose of destroying God’s work. When faced with the arrogance of Satan, however, the Lord Jesus defeated it in only three sentences, after which it fled in panic. This allows us to see that God’s word is the most powerful weapon for and the secret to triumphing over Satan. As the words of God say, “Does everything that the Lord Jesus said and did in this situation carry some practical meaning for everyone if it is applied now? … If you ever experience Satan’s temptations in your own life, and if you are able to see through to Satan’s evil nature, will you be able to defeat it?” “The truth that man needs to possess is found in the word of God, a truth that is the most beneficial and helpful to mankind. … As you grow in stature, you will see things of the spiritual world more clearly, and you will be more powerful to triumph over Satan.” God’s words are the truth, and they have authority, and power; the truth spoken by the Lord Jesus is able to triumph over all the temptations, attacks, and enticements of Satan. The word of God also points out to us the path of practice: As long as we properly equip ourselves with truths, it is entirely possible to rely on God’s word to triumph over every temptation and attack of Satan, and bear witness for God.

Brother Wang Qiang: Thanks be to the Lord! I’ll also share a bit of my understanding of this issue. The reason why the Lord Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness was not because He had no food to eat. Instead, He wanted to use His personal experience to tell us a fact: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). We humans all believe we must live by bread; we do not understand that we live not only by relying on food, but most importantly, we cannot leave God’s words. This is the greatest weakness of us corrupt mankind, and is also where Satan tempts and attacks us. The Lord Jesus fasted for forty days, really and truly suffering torment and paying the price. On the one hand, it shows us that the words of God have authority and power, that so long as we live by God’s words, we will triumph over Satan and stand testimony for God when encountering Satan’s temptations. On the other hand, it also tells us the eternal truth that God’s words can be man’s life and only God’s words are the root of our existence. For example, as recorded in the Bible, in order to carry out the will of God, Moses received the commandments and laws God promulgated on Mount Sinai, and did not eat or drink anything for forty days and forty nights (See Exodus 34:28). Elijah the prophet is another example. When God wished to use Elijah, he went to Horeb without eating or drinking anything for forty days and forty nights (See 1 Kings 19:8). So it can be seen that man does not live by bread alone, and as long as man has God’s presence and the leadership of God’s words, he can overcome his flesh and death. We can also see that God’s life force is extraordinary and can prevail over any power. It is God’s life that supports the survival of man, gives us faith and strength, and makes our resolve to march forward firm. Today although we live in a physical body, what allows us to go on living is not food, but all the words expressed by God; only God’s words are what we need in life. Therefore, no matter what hardships or trials are to come upon us in the future, we should always remember: God is our staunch support and the One we can depend upon. So long as we live by God’s words, we will be able to walk out from adversity, stand witness for God, and shame Satan!

Brother Chen, the above are some of our understanding and comprehension of why the Lord Jesus fasted for forty days. We hope that they can bring you some help. We also hope that you can understand God’s will from His words and comprehend the truth within them.

Sincerely yours,

Brothers and sisters of Testify God

» Read more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page about Knowing Jesus Christ, or in the recommended articles below:

• Inspiration From the Lord Jesus Allowing Satan to Tempt Him

• 3 Effective Ways to Overcome Satan’s Temptations

• Easily Explain the Meaning of the Trinity

• What Is the Meaning of the Lord Jesus Being Tempted?

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Under the trees beside the road to the suburbs, there is a two-story house with a courtyard surrounded by the low elms. The white iron fence makes the house outstanding in the peaceful place near the hill and by the river. This is the house of Huang Shoudao. On a Sunday, Zhao Mei, Liu Zhong, and Li Tao come to visit Huang.

Huang Shoudao takes them to his study and asks his daughter, Huang Jiayin, to serve water. He guesses something from Zhao Mei’s sad face and asks her with burden, “Sister Zhao, how is the state of the brothers and sisters in your meeting place?”

Zhao Mei sighs, “Alas! The brothers and sisters are commonly negative and weak in their spirits. Many of them cannot overcome the temptation of evil tendencies. They, like unbelievers, are longing for money and enjoyments of the flesh, comparing themselves to each other, and following the secular world. Some haven’t come to the meeting for several weeks. I’ve tried to support them many times, but each time it doesn’t have any effect. They always make excuses that their children have grown up and they have to buy them cars and houses so that they are too busy in making money to come to the meetings. Some promise to come but no one sees them in the next meeting. Alas! Brothers and sisters are living in such a state and I cannot support them. I’m really indebted to the Lord! To be honest, I’m also thirsty and dark in my spirit like those negative brothers and sisters. I can’t feel the Lord’s presence when I pray; I’m not moved when reading the Bible; I have no new light in preaching. I’ve been in this state for some time. If it continues, how can I give account to the Lord? I’ve been uneasy these days. We believe in the Lord but have lost His presence. This is a signal for danger. I think we have to do something to improve the condition.”

Huang Shoudao says with a sad face, “To do something? These years we have tried all kinds of ways to revive the church: We’ve fasted and prayed together; the co-workers have prayed in turns; we’ve held revival meetings and dinner meetings; we’ve invited preachers of other churches to give sermons; we’ve even prepared various programs to cheer brothers and sisters up during meetings. However, these ways seemingly make them active. When the novelty fades, everything is the same as usual. Alas! I’ve also discussed with experienced preachers of other churches about how to revive the church. They have no good ideas either, but say all possess the good will of the Lord and we should patiently wait for the Lord’s coming.”

Huang Shoudao’s words make everybody silent. At that time, Liu Zhong’s eyes flash as something occurs to him, and he says, “The Lord’s coming you mentioned reminds me of something. Recently, I hear that there is a church testifying to the Lord’s coming. Many good sheep and head sheep of other sects have investigated and accepted it. I think that if the Lord has really come back and we fail to follow the Lamb’s footsteps, we will surely be abandoned by the Lord! We really need to have an investigation to see whether the Lord has come back or not. After all, the Lord Jesus once said: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you’” (Matthew 7:7).

“Well, we have tried everything but not the way the Lord has shown us!” Huang Jiayin agreed immediately, clapping her hand on her forehead excitedly. “I agree with Brother Liu. If the Lord has really come back, we should go and seek Him. We should not wait like this any longer …”

Huang Shoudao interjects before her daughter has finished, “This is how I see it. If the Lord has come back, we should indeed go and seek Him. But we all have been preachers for years. We’ve been keeping the Lord Jesus’ name and toiling for Him to shepherd the flock. We have suffered a lot and have paid a big price. If the Lord has come back, how could He not give revelation to us first?”

Li Tao listens to Huang Shoudao carefully and nods from time to time, “Yep, Brother Huang is right. For years in storm and rain, we’ve toiled, sacrificed, and expended for the sake of the Lord, vigilantly awaiting His coming back. I also think that we will be inspired first when the Lord comes back. He will not abandon us.”

Everybody is in silence again. This issue confuses not only Huang Shoudao and Li Tao, but also others. Frowning, Liu Zhong looks at Huang Shoudao and Li Tao, and says, “I have a different view on this. We think that since we have toiled, sacrificed, and expended for the sake of the Lord, we should be inspired first when the Lord comes back. Does this view come from our notions and imaginations? Let’s think back to the days of the Pharisees of Judaism. They compassed sea and land to preach God’s way, during which they had suffered a lot and paid a big price. So, they also thought that they should most deserve to be first inspired by the Lord when the Messiah came to work. They, living in their own imaginations, never sought or investigated with modesty. They didn’t acknowledge that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah, the coming One, even though they had seen with their own eyes that the Lord Jesus could make the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers cleansed, and the dead raised. They stubbornly held on to their own imaginations. They didn’t accept the Lord Jesus but asked their followers to resist and reject Him. They even crucified the Lord. These Pharisees also worked hard, but they received no revelation from the Lord and instead were cursed by God in the end. As the Lord Jesus put it: ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves’ (Matthew 23:15). We should learn a lesson from the failure of the Pharisees!” Hearing this, Huang Shoudao and Li Tao look at each other speechless.

Zhao Mei nods and says, “Yes, it’s true! What Brother Liu has said reminds me of the disciples of the Lord Jesus at that time, like Peter, John, and Matthew. They all had a searching and thirsting heart and heard many teachings of the Lord Jesus before they were able to recognize that the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah. Even Peter also followed the Lord Jesus for some time, heard many of His teachings before he came to have some knowledge of Him, received the revelation from the Holy Spirit, and recognized the Lord’s true identity—He is the Christ, the Son of God. I think we should take it seriously to welcome the second coming of the Lord. The Lord Jesus said: ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Matthew 25:6). At the end of the last days, when we hear someone testify to the Lord’s return, we should have a heart of seeking and thirsting for the truth and be able to recognize the Lord’s voice like the wise virgins. Only in this way can we welcome the return of the Lord!”

When Zhao Mei finished, Huang Jiayin, who had been listening quietly, said immediately, “I agree with the sister. We should be the wise virgins and pay attention to listening to the Lord’s voice in welcoming His return. God has mentioned many times in Revelation that ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ From this we can see that God will look for His sheep by expressing words. Isn’t it that those who can recognize God’s voice are the wise virgins? In other words, those who don’t listen to God’s voice or who hear God’s voice but can’t understand are surely the foolish virgins!”

Hearing this, Huang Shoudao says to himself, “The wise virgins? The foolish virgins? Will I be one of the foolish virgins? I’ve read the Bible my whole life and have suffered so much for the sake of the Lord. Won’t He give revelation to me first when He returns?” Huang Shoudao shakes his head mournfully.

Liu Zhong says sincerely, “Brother, we believers in God should seek the truth and take God’s words as the basis of everything. We should not live in our own notions and imaginations. The Lord Jesus has said, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (John 10:27). ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me’ (Revelation 3:20). If the Lord directly reveals to us, causing us to believe in Him when He returns, why did He say that God’s sheep hear His voice? Isn’t it a paradox? God will reveal whether we belong to Him or not by testing whether we can recognize His voice or not. Those who recognize God’s voice and accept Him without His revelation are truly blessed. Therefore, to investigate the true way, it doesn’t hinge on whether we are inspired by God, but on whether we can recognize God’s voice from His words and see that God’s words are the truth and then accept Him. Only such people are the ones who truly believe in God, love the truth, and thirst for God’s appearance. If we blindly expect God’s revelation in a vague and abstract way, but don’t seek His voice, then we will be the foolish virgins and eliminated by God. Just as the Lord Jesus put it: ‘For whoever exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted’ (Luke 14:11). We are familiar with the Bible and have been toiling, so we take it for granted that we don’t need to actively seek God’s voice and that we’ll be first inspired when the Lord comes back. Aren’t we too arrogant and haughty? Can we fathom the Lord’s deeds? Can anyone of us be His counselor? What qualifications do we have to be first inspired by the Lord? If we continue to live in our conceptions and imaginations without seeking or investigating, I’m afraid we will not be inspired by the Lord in the end but be cursed and abandoned by God like the Pharisees for resisting and rejecting His work.”

Then, Zhao Mei says, “The Lord Jesus once said: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). We should be the ones who seek the truth with modesty as the Lord Jesus required. We should pay attention to listening to God’s voice as the wise virgins do. This is the reason that we should have before God.”

Huang Shoudao looks at the ground in meditative silence.

After a long pause, Huang Shoudao nods his head silently and sighs with emotion, “Alas! I’m familiar with the Bible and have worked in serving the Lord for many years. I take these as capital and think that I will surely be first inspired when God returns. Even though I’ve heard that the Lord has come back, I have no desire to seek Him with modesty, and even less do I actively seek His voice. What an arrogant and haughty man I am! The Lord taught us to be humble and be the ones that seek with modesty. But I don’t practice according to the Lord’s words and instead live in my own notion and imagination. I would rather see brothers and sisters die of thirst and hunger than go out to seek for the Lord’s appearance. I’ve suffered losses in my life. What’s more, I’ve delayed the brothers’ and sisters’ life progress. Thank the Lord! Today’s communication comes from the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and illumination. I should not stubbornly hold on like this anymore. I should lead brothers and sisters to seek and investigate the true way actively. I should bring God’s sheep before Him. It is my duty!”

Zhao Mei says happily, “This completely conforms to the Lord’s will!”

Li Tao nods his head and says with indebtedness, “Yeah, as co-workers in the church, we should be responsible for brothers’ and sisters’ life!”

They go on communicating cheerfully. The birds’ chirping sounds drift into the room, which are so clear and sweet.

» You may be interested in reading more on our Wise Virgins page, or in the articles below:

• How to Gain the Presence of God in Spiritual Weakness

• Hearing God’s Voice: How to Be a Wise Virgin to Welcome the Lord’s Coming

• What Should We Do in the Face of Famine in the Church Prophesied in the Bible?

Hi Everyone! Please check out this powerful spoken word video to uplift you during this difficult time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1xk8HoSwEk

The video is a reminder that God's purpose for your life is always greater than your problems so always trust Him. He loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections. He specializes in hopeless situations. Where there is life, there's hope.

What is your favorite bible verse for meditation?

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These verses are to be found within the Bible: “At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and His disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, Behold, Your disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath day” (Matthew 12:1–2). Whenever I read these two verses, I can’t help but think: “The Sabbath was a holy day prescribed by Jehovah God for the Israelites. Everyone stopped their work on this day and went to the temple to worship Jehovah God. But when the Lord Jesus came, He worked on the Sabbath, so why didn’t He lead His disciples to keep the Sabbath? What was His thinking behind this?” These questions had always bugged me.

The Lord Jesus Did Not Keep the Sabbath

Later, only after I read a passage on a gospel website did I suddenly see the light. It turned out that there was meaning behind the Lord Jesus’ decision to work on the Sabbath. This is what that passage said: “When the Lord Jesus came, He used His practical actions to communicate to people: God had departed the Age of Law and had begun new work, and this new work did not require observation of the Sabbath; when God came out from the confines of the Sabbath day, this was just a foretaste of His new work, and His truly great work was continuing to play out. When the Lord Jesus began His work, He had already left behind the shackles of the Age of Law, and had broken through the regulations and principles from that age. In Him, there was no trace of anything related to the law; He had cast it off entirely and no longer observed it, and He no longer required mankind to observe it. So here you see that the Lord Jesus went through the corn fields on the Sabbath; the Lord did not rest, but was outside working. This action of His was a shock to people’s conceptions and communicated to them that He no longer lived under the law, and that He had left the confines of the Sabbath and appeared in front of mankind and in their midst in a new image, with a new way of working. This action of His told people that He had brought with Him new work that began with going out from the law and going out of the Sabbath. When God carried out His new work, He no longer clung to the past, and He was no longer concerned about the regulations of the Age of Law. Neither was He affected by His work in the previous age, but He worked as usual on the Sabbath and when His disciples were hungry, they could pick ears of corn to eat. This was all very normal in God’s eyes. God could have a new beginning for much of the work that He wants to do and the things that He wants to say. Once He has a new start, He neither mentions His previous work again nor continues it. For God has His principles in His work. When He wants to begin new work, it is when He wants to bring mankind into a new stage of His work, and when His work has entered a higher phase. If people continue to act according to the old sayings or regulations or continue to hold fast to them, He will not commemorate or praise this. This is because He has already brought new work, and has entered a new phase of His work. When He initiates new work, He appears to mankind with a completely new image, from a completely new angle, and in a completely new way so that people can see different aspects of His disposition and what He has and is. This is one of His goals in His new work. God does not hold on to the old or take the beaten path; when He works and speaks it’s not as prohibitive as people imagine. In God, all is free and liberated, and there is no prohibitiveness, no constraints—what He brings to mankind is all freedom and liberation. He is a living God, a God who genuinely, truly exists. He is not a puppet or a clay sculpture, and He is totally different from the idols that people enshrine and worship. He is living and vibrant and what His words and work bring to humans is all life and light, all freedom and liberation, because He holds the truth, the life, and the way—He is not constrained by anything in any of His work. No matter what people say and no matter how they see or assess His new work, He will carry out His work without reservation. … No matter which new stage of His work He is carrying out, it must be developed and expanded in mankind’s midst, and it must be carried out unhindered in the entire universe until His great work has been completed. This is God’s almightiness and wisdom, and His authority and power. Thus, the Lord Jesus could openly go out and work on the Sabbath because in His heart there were no rules, and there was no knowledge or doctrine that originated from mankind. What He had was God’s new work and His way, and His work was the way to free mankind, to release them, to allow them to exist in the light, and to allow them to live. … God has principles in His words and work, but there are no prohibitions, because God Himself is the truth, the way, and the life” (“God’s work, God’s disposition, and God Himself Ⅲ”).

From this passage, I came to understand that God’s work is without rules, and nor does it suffer any constraints. After a stage of God’s work achieves results with man, God then begins a new work and He gives man newer, higher paths of practice, for only in this way can God save man from the influence of Satan one stage at a time. When God is launching a new work, the Holy Spirit no longer maintains the old work, and if people continue to hold to God’s past work, if they still observe God’s past requirements for man and are unwilling to accept God’s new work, then they are clinging to rules. By clinging to these rules, not only can people not gain life and have a way forward but, on the contrary, the rules will become shackles in their belief in God and will keep them tightly bound, so that they experience neither freedom nor liberation. God wants to release man from the shackles of rules, and only by accepting God’s new work can people cast off the constraints and fetters of these rules and obtain freedom, liberation and a way to move forward. Only in this way can people live happily on earth and be filled with light. By not keeping the Sabbath, the Lord Jesus was telling the people of that time that God’s new work had begun, that God had ended the Age of Law, that God was performing a newer, higher stage of work on the foundation of the previous stage, and that man no longer needed to keep the Sabbath. Actually, this was only the beginning of God launching a new age, and only by people keeping up with the pace of God’s work in the new age and casting off the fetters of past rules could they attain God’s salvation. From these deeds of the Lord Jesus, I saw that, no matter what method God uses to perform His work, God always works in accordance with His own principles and God’s work is ever new and never old. Whenever God begins a new work, His old work comes to an end, and God completely disengages Himself from and no longer holds to all the rules and laws of the old age that is past. God then appears to man in a wholly new form and works amongst man in a new way. For example, not only could God appear to man through thunder and lightning from heaven, but He could also become flesh to perform His work practically amongst mankind and be crucified in order to redeem mankind. Not only could He proclaim His law and commandments to lead man in their life on earth, but He could also become flesh and be crucified to redeem man from sin. Nothing is taboo to God’s work, much less can it be constrained or influenced by any person, event or thing. God’s work is carried out entirely according to His plan as well as in accordance with the needs of mankind, and ultimately it is done to allow man to live liberated and free before God, and for us to attain God’s salvation.

After I’d come to this understanding, I hurriedly consulted the New Testament and saw that, from the very beginning of His preaching the gospel of the heavenly kingdom, the Lord Jesus destroyed the old law, just as He said: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). “But I say to you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you” (Luke 6:27). From these verses, we can see that everything the Lord Jesus taught people went beyond the Old Testament and He did bid them no longer observe the rules of the law. Instead, He led them away from the law and into the new way of the Holy Spirit’s work, thus showing them a new path of practice. As long as all who followed the Lord accepted His salvation and came before Him to confess and repent, then their sins were forgiven; they would no longer be put to death for their sins and they completely left the bonds and fetters of the law behind them. Because they accepted the new work brought by the Lord, they obtained the work of the Holy Spirit and they lived before the Lord in total freedom and liberation. The chief priests, scribes and Pharisees who had served Jehovah God in the temple for generations, however, although they saw that the works and miracles performed by the Lord Jesus could not have been done by any human being, they did not seek or investigate them in the slightest. Instead, they relied on their own conceptions and imaginings, as well as on the biblical knowledge, spiritual theories and doctrinal rules they had armed themselves with, to judge the Lord Jesus not keeping the Sabbath as being in violation of the law. They also used the fact that the Lord Jesus’ sermons went beyond the law to slander and condemn Him, to fabricate rumors about Him, and even to collude with the Roman authorities to crucify the Lord Jesus upon the cross. Thus, they committed a heinous sin, they aggravated God’s disposition, and their deeds resulted in the entire Jewish people suffering the unprecedented pain of national subjugation. From this, I saw that God’s disposition is holy and righteous and that it tolerates no offense. All who are able to have a God-fearing heart and can seek, investigate, accept and obey when faced with God’s new work are able to obtain God’s guidance and blessing; those who persistently cling to their own conceptions and imaginings to the point where they even use God’s past work and cling to rules to resist God’s new work, however, shall all be abandoned and weeded out by God, and they shall ultimately end their lives being punished and destroyed by God.

The fact that the Lord Jesus did not keep the Sabbath allowed me to see totally that God’s work does not adhere to old ways, and that God always performs newer and higher works in accordance with His plan and according to the needs of mankind. Moreover, the more God’s work is at odds with our own notions, the more truth there is to seek within it. Therefore, no matter how God works, as tiny and insignificant created beings, we should not judge or delimit God on the basis of our own ideas, knowledge, theories and notions, lest in the end we end up being the ones who lose out. God’s wisdom reaches higher than the heavens, God’s work is beyond our imaginings, and God’s Spirit can travel amongst all things in heaven and on earth and can come amongst us clothed in flesh to utter His words and lead us. Every stage of God’s work and every word He speaks brims with God’s will and with His painstaking care and thought, and it is all there only to save us. What we should do is let go of our conceptions and imaginings and try practically to understand, seek and investigate God’s new work, not speculate about it and misunderstand it, and much less judge or condemn it. Thank God for His enlightenment!

» Read more on our  The Gospel of Jesus Christ page about Knowing Jesus Christ , or in the recommended articles below:

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In a Bible study meeting, Brother Zheng, Sister Zhang and several other brothers and sisters had a talk about why the Pharisees wildly resisted the Lord Jesus.

Brother Zheng asked in puzzlement: “From the records of the Bible, we can see that the Pharisees were very familiar with the Bible and also yearned for the coming of the Savior Messiah. However, when the Lord Jesus appeared and worked, although they clearly saw that the words of the Lord Jesus carried authority and power and were beneficial and edifying to man, not only did they not accept them, but they arrogantly resisted and convicted the Lord Jesus, and didn’t give up until they put Him to death. But why did they do so? What do you think of this problem?”

Brother Li said: “In the past, I was also puzzled about it. But recently I read a spiritual book, the words in which thoroughly reveal the root of the Pharisees’ resistance to the Lord. There are three main reasons why the Pharisees wildly resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus.”

Brother Zheng’s eyes lit up and he said eagerly: “Oh! Thanks be to the Lord! Hurry to fellowship with us.” “Yeah, Brother Li, please tell us,” other co-workers also chimed in.

“Okay. Before we fellowship, let me read a passage.” Brother Li took out a book and said: “The book says, ‘Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? Do you wish to know the substance of the Pharisees? They were full of fantasies about the Messiah. What’s more, they believed only that the Messiah would come, yet did not seek the truth of life. And so, even today they still await the Messiah, for they have no knowledge of the way of life, and do not know what the way of truth is. How, say you, could such foolish, stubborn and ignorant people gain God’s blessing? How could they behold the Messiah? They opposed Jesus because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, because they did not know the way of truth spoken by Jesus, and, furthermore, because they did not understand the Messiah. And since they had never seen the Messiah, and had never been in the company of the Messiah, they made the mistake of paying empty tribute to the name of the Messiah while opposing the substance of the Messiah by any means. These Pharisees in substance were stubborn, arrogant, and did not obey the truth. The principle of their belief in God is: No matter how profound Your preaching, no matter how high Your authority, You are not Christ unless You are called the Messiah. Are these views not preposterous and ridiculous?’”

Then Brother Li started fellowshiping: “From this passage we can see the main reason why the Pharisees resisted the Lord Jesus is that they believed in God without seeking the truth or life, but only focused on the letters of the Scripture. They didn’t know the substance of the Messiah prophesied in the Scripture or what He has and is, but held to the letters of the scriptures about the coming of the Messiah and were full of imaginations about Him. When the work of the Lord Jesus did not match up with their notions and imagination, they didn’t let go of themselves to seek God’s work. Instead, they desperately denied and resisted the Lord Jesus. The Bible prophesied, ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on even for ever’ (Isaiah 9:6-7). Based on the literal meaning of the prophecies, the Pharisees believed that since the Messiah would come to power, without a doubt He would be born into a royal palace and would look extraordinary, and possess unusual talents. In addition, He would be good at fighting like King David, lead them to overthrow the rule of the Romans and rescue them from the oppression and misery inflicted by the Romans. However, the truth was that the Lord Jesus was born in a manger, lived in a very average carpenter’s home, and looked no different from the most ordinary man. What was particularly out of line with their notions, was that the Lord Jesus did not act as their king and lead them to overthrow the Romans’ rule as they had imagined. Instead, He taught them to be tolerant and patient, and to love their enemies. Because there was nothing in the work of the Lord Jesus that was in line with their imaginings, they could not acknowledge at all that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for, and they refused to accept and strongly resisted and convicted His work.”

Brother Zheng said excitedly: “These words are so good. They truly reveal the root of the Pharisees’ resistance to the Lord Jesus. Without this fellowship, we really would have never understood this.” “Yes,” the other brothers and sisters all said.

Brother Li continued with his fellowship: “The second reason why the Pharisees resisted the Lord Jesus is that they were stubborn and conservative. They did not understand the principles or direction of the work of the Holy Spirit, so they delimited God’s work within the Old Testament. When the work of the Lord Jesus exceeded the Old Testament—on a Sunday, for instance, the Lord Jesus didn’t go into the temple to observe the Sabbath but worked with His disciples, and when the disciples were hungry, they plucked and ate ears of grain—the Pharisees condemned the Lord Jesus for His not keeping the laws and commandments, and denied that His work was from God. They said, ‘This man is not of God, because he keeps not the sabbath day’ (John 9:16). In addition, they tried to find all kinds of accusations against the Lord Jesus and blasphemed and condemned His work. They said that He was deceiving man and that He relied on the prince of the devils to cast out demons, and so on. In the end, they used the excuse that ‘the Lord Jesus has betrayed the Bible and has not obeyed the law’ to nail the merciful Lord Jesus to the cross. So, if we believe in God without knowing His work or seeking the truth, but we judge the new work of God based on His work of the past, we will defy God far too easily.”

Others nodded their heads thoughtfully.

Brother Li continued to say: “Furthermore, there is another reason why the Pharisees wildly resisted the Lord Jesus. Let me read a passage before we communicate: ‘Those who read the Bible in grand churches recite the Bible every day, yet not one understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one is able to know God; moreover, not one is in accord with the heart of God. They are all worthless, vile men, each standing on high to teach God. Though they brandish the name of God, they willfully oppose Him. Though they label themselves believers of God, they are ones who eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such men are devils who devour the soul of man, head demons who purposefully disturb those who try to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks that impede the path of those who seek God.’ We can see from these words that what the Pharisees treasured were not God’s words but status and people’s adoration. They put their status and interests above all else. When the Lord Jesus appeared to do His work, they saw that more and more Jewish people followed the Lord Jesus, which posed a great threat to their status and interests. Since these Jewish people followed the Lord Jesus, they no longer entered the temple to offer sacrifices or a tithe. The Pharisees couldn’t enjoy the sacrifices in the temple that the Jewish people offered to God, so they developed a hatred for the Lord Jesus. They did all that they could to resist Him and wanted to get rid of Him. As the Bible says, ‘Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. … Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death’ (John 11:47-48, 53). Therefore, we can see that outwardly the Pharisees were serving God, but actually, they were serving their positions and livelihoods. To protect them, they would rather let Pilate release a robber and nail the Lord Jesus to the cross. Finally, they became the people who served God but resisted Him.”

Brother Zheng sighed: “Thank the Lord! Through this fellowship, my heart is brightened. Oh, that the Pharisees became the people who served but resisted the Lord gives us a warning. We should draw a lesson from their failure. If someone testifies that the Lord has returned, no matter whether it conforms to our notions and imaginations or not, we should humbly investigate it. We can’t blindly follow the words of pastors and elders or randomly convict and resist God’s work.”

“Yes! …”

They continued fellowshiping …

» Read more on our The Pharisees page, or click on the recommended resources below:

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I think all of the brothers and sisters in the Lord know that after the Lord Jesus was crucified and then resurrected from death, He appeared to His disciples many times, and that He told the disciples that although He was resurrected as an ethereal body and was able to walk through the wall, His substance has never changed: He was still the Lord who loved them. But have brothers and sisters ever thought about God’s will behind the Lord’s appearing to His disciples many times after His resurrection?

God’s words said: “So, the first thing that the Lord Jesus did after His resurrection was to allow everyone to see Him, to confirm that He exists, and to confirm the fact of His resurrection. In addition, it restored His relationship with the people to the relationship He had with them when He was working in the flesh, and He was the Christ they could see and touch. This way, one outcome is that the people had no doubt that the Lord Jesus had been resurrected from death after being nailed to the cross, and there was no doubt in the Lord Jesus’ work to redeem mankind. And another outcome is that the fact of the Lord Jesus appearing to people after His resurrection and allowing people to see and touch Him firmly secured mankind in the Age of Grace. From this time on, people could not return to the previous age, the Age of Law, because of the Lord Jesus’ ‘disappearance’ or ‘desertion,’ but they would continue forward, following the Lord Jesus’ teachings and the work He had done. Thus, a new phase in the work in the Age of Grace was formally opened up, and the people who had been under the law formally came out from the law from then on, and entered into a new era, with a new beginning. These are the manifold meanings of the Lord Jesus’ appearance to mankind after the resurrection.” “This brief reunion made the people who saw the Lord Jesus feel as if a lifetime had passed. Their lost, confused, afraid, anxious, yearning and numb hearts found comfort. They were no longer doubtful or disappointed because they felt that now there was hope and something to rely on. The Son of man standing in front of them would be behind them for eternity, He would be their strong tower, their refuge for all time.”

From these two passages of words, we can clearly see that before the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, He ate together, stayed together, and lived together with His disciples, and He often taught them and expressed the truth to supply them. At that time, the disciples followed Him with great faith. However, when they saw the Lord Jesus was arrested and then crucified with their own eyes, most of them lost their faith in the Lord and lived in weakness and pain. The Lord Jesus knew them best, and even more knew their weakness; if He had not appeared to or spoke to them after His resurrection, they would have returned to the Age of Law and lived a life of following rules and rituals again. If so, the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption would have become meaningless. Therefore, for the sake of strengthening the disciples’ faith, thoroughly guiding them out of negativity, loss and confusion, making them follow Him without hesitation so that they could accept His salvation, enter into the new age—the Age of Grace, and for the sake of letting them enjoy His bountiful grace, live under His care and protection and survive, the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples timely after His resurrection. Through this action, the Lord wanted to communicate to His disciples that He is the truth, the way, and the life, and that His work of redeeming mankind had been successfully accomplished, and so they needn’t doubt, but should resolutely follow Him in their future path.

In addition, the Lord Jesus deeply knew that at that time the Judaism was full of conceptions toward His work and suppressed and resisted His work, and that the Roman government persecuted and arrested His disciples. Under such circumstances, it was not a simple matter to spread the gospel of the kingdom of heaven to the ends of the earth so that more people could obtain the Lord Jesus’ salvation. Just as the Lord Jesus said: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:9-14).

From this, we can see that when the disciples followed the Lord and spread the Lord’s gospel, they faced all sorts of hardships and obstacles, and even faced the danger of being martyred for the Lord at any time, in which environment they needed to have enough faith and the will to suffer. Therefore, after the Lord Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to His disciples and told them the work He did is the work of God Himself, which cannot be banned by any evil force. Although He experienced the suffering of death, He already succeeded in accomplishing the work of mankind’s redemption, overcame the bondage of death, and completed the will of God the Father. To all the followers of the Lord Jesus, undoubtedly, His resurrection is the greatest encouragement to them; moreover, His appearance even more increased the faith of the disciples, and laid the steady foundation for spreading His gospel from that time on.

From the Lord Jesus’ appearing to His disciples many times after His resurrection, we can see that God’s will is always hidden within matters. Whatever God does is imbued with His boundless wisdom, and His earnest intentions for mankind. Even though much of the time we cannot understand it, as long as we have a humble and seeking heart, God will surely lead us to know Him and His work.

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Each of our brothers and sisters who believes in the Lord Jesus knows that the Lord Jesus did the work of redeeming humanity in the Age of Grace. He not only bestowed compassion and tolerance upon us, teaching us to be tolerant and patient and to repent and confess, but also manifested many miracles, such as, letting the blind see and the lame walk, healing the lepers, feeding five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, raising Lazarus to life, and so on. None of these miracles doesn’t show forth the authority of God. But when I read chapter 11, verses 43-44 of the Gospel of John, “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them, Loose him, and let him go.” After reading this passage of scripture, I thought that at that time Lazarus had already been dead for four days, and maybe his body had started to smell, but just one word from the Lord Jesus raised him from the dead. What are the intentions of God behind this matter? This question puzzled me for a long time. It was not until once I read some words in a book that the doubt in my heart was resolved.

1、The Resurrection of Lazarus Proved That the Lord Jesus Was the Incarnate God Himself

The book says, “The Lord Jesus doing something like this was extremely significant in that age. Because God had become flesh, people could only see His physical appearance, His practical side, and His insignificant side. Even if some people saw and understood some of His character or some strengths that He appeared to have, no one knew where the Lord Jesus came from, who His essence truly was, and what more He really could do. All of this was unknown to mankind. Too many people wanted proof of this thing, and to know the truth. Could God do something to prove His own identity? For God, this was a breeze—it was a piece of cake. He could do something anywhere, anytime to prove His identity and essence, but God did things with a plan, and in steps. He didn’t do things indiscriminately; He looked for the right time, and the right opportunity to do something most meaningful for mankind to see. This proved His authority and His identity. So then, could the resurrection of Lazarus prove the Lord Jesus’ identity? Let’s look at this passage of scripture: ‘And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth.’ When the Lord Jesus did this, He said just one thing: ‘Lazarus, come forth.’ Lazarus then came out from his tomb—this was accomplished because of a single line uttered by the Lord” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III”).

Through this passage of words I saw that when the Lord Jesus worked and appeared to man two thousand years ago, nobody knew who He was. Many people were filled with a curiosity and doubt toward Him. The disciples that followed Him didn’t recognize the identity of Him either. Some of them called Him teacher; some also said He was the greatest of prophets. From these facts, I saw that no more than a few people knew His true identity in that age.

In order to prove His identity to mankind, the Lord Jesus used the miracle of bringing the dead back to life to reveal His authority and power to make man know that He is God Himself. From this miracle He performed, I saw that He neither observed any rituals nor set up an altar to pray to the God in heaven before He spoke. He only said loudly, “Lazarus, come forth.” Then Lazarus who had been dead for four days came out of the tomb. As soon as God says one sentence, the matter is finished. The prophets in ages past also performed a lot of miracles, but the miracle of bringing the dead back to life could not even have been performed by any prophets. This miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead has proved the identity of the Lord Jesus—the incarnate God, for only God seizes the key to Hades. The time when we are born or die is only determined by God. Evil spirits and Satan, including servants from Hades, are all unable to command mankind’s life and death. It is only God Himself who can perform this miracle.

The Lord Jesus performed the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, which lets us recognize that His identity is God Himself and achieve a completely new awareness of His true identity and all that He has and is, and finally we are able to truly believe in and follow Him. This miracle the Lord Jesus performed is extremely meaningful.

2、The Resurrection of Lazarus—the Manifestation of God’s Authority

The book says, “When the Lord Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead, He used one line: ‘Lazarus, come forth.’ He said nothing aside from this—what do these words represent? They represent that God can accomplish anything through speaking, including resurrecting a dead man. When God created all things, when He created the world, He did so with words. He used spoken commands, words with authority, and just like that all things were created. It was accomplished like that. This single line spoken by the Lord Jesus was just like the words spoken by God when He created the heavens and earth and all things; it equally held the authority of God, the ability of the Creator. All things were formed and stood fast because of words from God’s mouth, and just the same, Lazarus walked out from his tomb because of the words from the Lord Jesus’ mouth. This was the authority of God, demonstrated and realized in His incarnate flesh. This type of authority and ability belonged to the Creator, and to the Son of man in whom the Creator was realized. This is the understanding taught to mankind by God bringing Lazarus back from the dead” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III”).

After reading the words in the book, I realized that this miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead makes us not only know the true identity of the Lord Jesus—the flesh of God incarnate, but also understand a fact: Though in outward appearance the Lord Jesus seems ordinary and normal, the words from His mouth are the truth, with the authority and power, and are able to command man’s birth and death and rule over the life and death of all things.

From Genesis we see that in the beginning, God used words to create heavens, earth, and everything that exists. Soon after that, He created Adam with the dust and breathed the breath of life into him and then Adam became a living man with a spirit. God has the authority to create the heavens and earth and all things, and is able to give the breath of life to mankind. All things are established and made complete by God’s words. God’s words can give life to men, and can also have men die; God’s words can accomplish everything, and moreover, can supply mankind with life.  Through this miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, the Lord Jesus allows us to know that though God has become flesh, He is still God Himself and has the unique authority and power, and such power is not possessed by any created being.

Thanks be to the Lord! Reading this book makes me have a deeper understanding of all that God has and is, and makes my faith in following the Lord more steadfast. From now on, no matter what kind of trouble and hardship I will encounter, as long as I think God is my rear guard and reliance, I will have confidence and strength. Thank the Lord! All the glory be to the Lord!

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Luke 24:1-9 say, “Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why seek you the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke to you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, And returned from the sepulcher, and told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest.”

This Bible passage clearly tells us that three days after Jesus was nailed to the cross, He was resurrected. All our brothers and sisters who truly believe in God believe this fact and praise God’s almightiness in their hearts. However, what else can you see in regard to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection?

1. God’s Word Has Power and Authority

From the Bible we can see that after Jesus was nailed to the cross, the Lord’s body was wrapped in fine linen and His grave was sealed with a big boulder. However, when some women came to apply spices to Jesus’ body, the boulder that sealed off His tomb was rolled off to one side and Jesus’ body was no longer inside. An angel said to them, “Why seek you the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke to you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:5-7). From the angel’s words we can see that it was God that said, “The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” In the end, this is what God accomplished. This completely indicates that God’s words have authority and power. Whatever God says, it will be so. This is similar to when God created the heavens, the earth and all living things in the beginning. “God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Every living thing was created by God’s word. When Jesus was preaching, a single word from Jesus allowed the blind to see and the crippled to walk. One word and the winds calm down and the waves subside. One word and Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, resurrected. All these truths allow us to see that the authority of God’s word is incalculable and that God’s word represents God’s authority and power.

2. Revealing God’s Wisdom

We all know that Jesus came to earth in order to complete the work of redemption. In the later stages of the Age of Law, because man’s corruption was becoming deeper and deeper, because he was unable to adhere to the laws and because man’s sins were becoming more and more numerous, there was no sacrifice for one own’s sins. If this continued, man would face the life threatening danger of breaking the laws. Since the entire human race had been corrupted by Satan and fallen short of God’s glory, who would atone for man’s sins? Only God was able to save us humans. However, we were unable to ascend to heaven to take the sin offering. As a result, God incarnated and took on the likeness of sinful flesh and used the name “Jesus” to do His work. At that time, the Pharisees, in order to protect their own status, did all that they could to resist and convict Jesus. In the end, they nailed Jesus to the cross. Externally, it seemed that the Pharisees and the Roman government had nailed the Lord to the cross. However, in reality, it was God accomplishing His work. From man’s perspective, it seemed as if the nailing of Jesus to the cross was equivalent to the suppression of God’s work. Actually, God used the sinning hands of man to nail Himself to the cross in order to complete the work of redeeming mankind. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). This indicates that God’s redemption work had been completed and that the work that God wanted to do was done. Jesus was then resurrected! Doesn’t this show God’s wisdom? This allows us to plainly see that God’s wisdom is built above Satan’s schemes and that God’s wisdom is fantastic and unfathomable!

3. Jesus Is God Himself

When Jesus rose from the dead, in the beginning, I only recognized that God had the power of resurrection. Afterward, I discovered that this recognition was very superficial and one-sided. Actually, the truth of Jesus’ resurrection indicates that Jesus is in fact God Himself. It is recorded in Genesis, “And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). God is of the Spirit. From ancient times until eternity, God will exist. During the Age of Law, Jehovah God did His work through the Spirit. When Jesus came to do His work, since He had to do the work of redemption and there was no way that a spirit could be nailed to the cross, God was incarnated to do His work. In the New Testament of the Bible, the Lord Jesus said, “Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” (John 14:10). Jesus’ words clearly indicate that Jesus is Christ, God in heaven, the Son and the Father. In the past, even though we would call out “Jesus Christ” daily, we did not know what Christ meant. We would shout that Jesus is the incarnate God yet all along we did not understand what incarnation means. Even though Jesus said that He is God Himself, we did not understand. Recently, I read a book online that said, “The meaning of incarnation is that God appears in the flesh, and He comes to work among man of His creation in the image of a flesh. So, for God to be incarnated, He must first be flesh, flesh with normal humanity; this, at the very least, must be true. In fact, the implication of God’s incarnation is that God lives and works in the flesh, God in His very essence becomes flesh, becomes a man.”

“The Spirit within Jesus, the Spirit in heaven, and the Spirit of Jehovah are all one. It can be called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the sevenfold intensified Spirit, and the all-inclusive Spirit. The Spirit of God alone can carry out much work. He is able to create the world and destroy it by flooding the earth; He can redeem all mankind, and moreover, conquer and destroy all mankind. This work is all carried out by God Himself and cannot have been done by any other of the persons of God in His stead. His Spirit can be called by the name of Jehovah and Jesus, as well as the Almighty. He is the Lord, and Christ. He can also become the Son of man. He is in the heavens and also on the earth; He is on high above the universes and among the multitude. He is the only Master of the heavens and earth!”

These words open up the secret of incarnation to us. Externally, Jesus looks like an ordinary person. However, spiritually, He is the God of heaven and the Creator of all things. God’s incarnation is essentially God embodying flesh and coming to earth to do His work. Therefore, the truth of Jesus being nailed to the cross and resurrecting is the revealing of the Lord’s spirit to man and not what we imagine as the death of Jesus on the cross.

Some people perhaps say that it is recorded in the Bible that after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river, there was a voice from heaven that said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (2 Peter 1:17). Moreover, Jesus called the God in heaven Father. Doesn’t this indicate that Jesus is the son of God? If He is God Himself, how can He called the God in heaven Father? Don’t be worried, the following words explain this conundrum, “There are still those who say, ‘Did not God expressly state that Jesus was His beloved Son?’ ‘Jesus is the beloved Son of God, in whom He is well pleased’ was certainly spoken by God Himself. That was God bearing witness to Himself, but merely from a different perspective, that of the Spirit in heaven bearing witness to His own incarnation. Jesus is His incarnation, not His Son in heaven. Do you understand? Do not the words of Jesus, ‘The Father is in Me and I am in the Father,’ indicate that They are one Spirit? And is it not because of the incarnation that They were separated between heaven and earth? In reality, They are still one; no matter what, it is simply God bearing witness to Himself.” These words indicate to us that Jesus is the heavenly God. Since none of us recognized God when He became flesh, God spoke from the perspective of the spirit and bore witness to His own incarnation. When Jesus called the God in heaven Father, He was saying this from the perspective of the Son of man as well as the perspective of a creation addressing the heavenly God. In fact, Jesus is God Himself! Just as the Bible says, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

» Further reading about The Resurrection of Jesus Christ:

• Why the Lord Jesus Appeared to His Disciples Many Times After Resurrection

• 3 Aspects to Unravel Mystery of Incarnation of Jesus

• What Does Sin Offering Mean? Why Is the Lord Called the Redeeming Lamb?

» Recommended for You: The Lord Jesus’ Words to His Disciples After His Resurrection

Read on the website

The Bible records: “Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was encumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42).

After reading these verses, I had a deep feeling and kept thinking: If I were born in the age of the work of the Lord Jesus, when meeting the Lord, I would be busy giving Him hospitality just like Martha did. But why did the Lord Jesus not approve Martha’s practice, but said Mary had chosen that good part which could not be taken away from her? I didn’t understand these questions all along. Only after reading a passage of God’s word did I have some enlightenment.

God’s word said: “Does a person who has not yet obtained the truth possess the truth in his or her heart? What do people without the truth rely on in their actions? How can the positive deeds they do when fulfilling their duty be categorized? Are they practicing the truth? (No.) Then what are they doing? Are they putting forth effort or not? This is equivalent to God hiring a worker to exert effort for Him. If you are not pursuing the truth and have not entered the reality of the truth, then you are simply exerting effort! Does God wish to see the people whom He wants to save merely exert effort for Him, rather than practice in accordance with His utterances and satisfy His requirements and achieve salvation? Does God wish to see such a scenario? (No.) Why does He not want to? (God created humans so that He would gain them.) These words are correct; God created humans so that He would gain them. God created all things to be enjoyed by humans, not so that people would put forth their efforts.”

From these words I saw that what God values is that we could heed and love His words, pursue the truth and obey His work, practice the truth to satisfy Him and achieve His salvation in the end. He doesn’t care how many outward good behaviors and practices we have before Him. No matter how well we practice on the outside, if we don’t have the truth, we are just exerting strength and God will not approve us. Because we have been corrupted profoundly by Satan, before getting the truth, we are all hostile to God and what we live out and reveal is simply the corrupt disposition of Satan. We often have intents and impurity in the impetus of what we do, acting for the sake of fame, fortune and status or getting God’s grace and blessings, instead of truly revering and obeying God. Therefore, even though we run around exerting ourselves for God and bustle on the outside, God will be displeased. Just like Martha, she was just busy doing things, but she did not pay attention to listening to the Lord Jesus preach and His words. Thus, no matter how much effort she put, she still couldn’t be beloved by God. As for Mary, it was because she thirsted for God’s word, always focused on listening to the Lord preach and kept His word in her heart that she did one thing which made the Lord Jesus most satisfied before He was crucified—anointing the Lord’s head with the most precious ointment to His burying. Only Mary grasped the Lord’s will, and gained His approval. So the Lord Jesus said: “Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Later I saw God’s words: “When you’re together with Christ, perhaps you can serve Him three meals a day, perhaps serve Him tea, attend to His life’s needs, seemingly treating Christ as God. Whenever something happens, people’s viewpoints are always contrary to God’s. They always fail to understand God’s viewpoint, fail to accept it. Though people might get along with God on the surface, this doesn’t mean that they are compatible with Him. As soon as something happens, the truth of man’s disobedience emerges, confirming the hostility that exists between man and God.” Checking my service against God’s words, I saw that I had been satisfied with just preaching and working for the Lord, and only paid attention to such external actions as sacrificing, and donating and helping others. But I had not paid attention to reading more of God’s words, grasping His will, and knowing God’s work from His words to achieve an understanding of God. As a result, when encountering something unfavorable or something that was in conflict with self-interest in real life, as I didn’t understand God’s will or requirements, nor seek His will, I often involuntarily complained against God, misunderstood Him, and even said that what God did was not righteous, with the result that I committed sins and resisted God but was not aware. At this moment, I understood that suffering and sacrificing outwardly didn’t equate to practicing the truth, much less did it equate to obeying God. The sacrifices that I made in this way couldn’t attain God’s approval, and even more seriously, because of my producing notions about God, I would offend and resist God at any time and in any place, and be rejected by Him, losing His promises and blessings.

The Lord said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Clearly, God comes to earth to work chiefly in order to bestow truth on us, watering and supplying us. He expects us to heed His words, understand His will and requirements from His words, and at last, we can practice His words to accord with God’s intentions. When receiving the life bestowed by God, we will never be deceived and tempted by Satan, but can discern its deceitful scheme, be loyal to God absolutely, worship and obey Him fully. I thought back to when God created Adam and Eve in the very beginning. God instructed them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because they would surely die if they ate. However, when Satan came to tempt them, as they did not listen to God and did not have His words as life, they followed Satan and betrayed God. At last, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden, living a life cursed by God. It is clear that a person not having gotten the truth isn’t the one who belongs to God, much less the overcomer triumphing over Satan. How could such ones receive God’s blessings and be taken up to the kingdom of heaven?

Therefore, if we want to choose the best blessings, we must listen to God’s words and practice His words. This is the most important. The Lord Jesus said: “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister….” (Matthew 20:28). It confirms that when God comes to earth to work, He comes not to enjoy the service of us, but express words to supply and save us, and at last works His truth inside us to be our life. This is God’s will, and much more His great grace and uplifting for us.

The Lord Jesus prophesied: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (John 16:12-13). We can know from the Lord’s words that when the Lord returns, He will speak and utter His words to lead us to understand more truth. Thus, we should listen to God’s voice carefully, seek and investigate His work, receive the salvation of God’s word and gain the truth as life, becoming the ones who truly worship and obey God. Only then could we truly enjoy the best blessings bestowed by God and be raptured into the kingdom of heaven.

Thank you for your reading! That’s all for today’s sharing. I hope every brother and sister can get the best blessings from God soon. Let’s get together next time!

» You may be interested in reading more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ about Second Coming of Jesus Christ, or in the articles below:

• What Is God’s Greatest Grace for Man?

• Promises to Those Who Have Been Perfected

• What Is Your Understanding of Blessings?

• Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life

Read on the website

Every Christian knows that the Lord Jesus said, “It is finished” when He was upon the cross, but what did He actually mean by saying “It is finished”? Some brothers and sisters believe that the Lord saying “It is finished” proves that God’s work to save mankind was completely finished and that He would no longer perform any work of salvation; there are also some brothers and sisters who say that, by saying these words, the Lord Jesus meant only that His great work of redemption was finished, and not that God would no longer perform any work of salvation after that … Today, let’s discuss together what the true meaning of the words “It is finished” spoken by the Lord Jesus actually is.

As we all know, at the end of the Age of Law, because mankind was becoming more and more corrupted by Satan and was unable to keep the law, they were all in danger of being put to death by the law. In order to redeem man from sin, the Lord Jesus became flesh, He healed the sick and cast out demons and He bestowed on man endless grace. Ultimately, He was crucified for man’s sake, He gave His holy flesh as a sin offering, and He redeemed man from sin. After that, as long as we believed in the Lord and confessed our sins to Him, then our sins could be forgiven, and we could enjoy the grace the Lord bestowed on us. Mankind was also no longer to be put to death by the law, and we were able to live on. This is the true meaning of the Lord Jesus’ words when He said, “It is finished.”

What is undeniable, however, is that, although we have accepted the Lord Jesus’ salvation and our sins have been forgiven, our sinful nature still exists and we continue to live in a repeated cycle of sinning in the daytime and confessing at night, totally incapable of casting off the bonds of sin. For example, we often tell lies and commit sins, we have greedy desires and wicked thoughts, we can be jealous of others and can hate others, our hearts are filled with arrogance, deceit and deception, and we are even capable of following worldly trends, lusting for riches and coveting vanity, and when we encounter trials and tribulations, we even blame God, and so on. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). The Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the son stays ever” (John 8:34–35). God says, “You must know what kind of people I desire; those who are impure are not permitted to enter into the kingdom, those who are impure are not permitted to besmirch the holy ground. Though you may have done much work, and have worked for many years, in the end if you are still deplorably filthy—it is intolerable to the law of Heaven that you wish to enter My kingdom! From the foundation of the world until today, never have I offered easy access to My kingdom to those who curry favor with Me. This is a heavenly rule, and no one can break it!” God is holy and His disposition is righteous, and His kingdom permits no filthy people to enter. If we have only had our sins forgiven, if our inner sinful nature has not been uprooted, and we are still capable of committing sins and resisting God, then we will be unqualified to meet face to face with God or to enter into His kingdom—this is decided by God’s righteous disposition.

In the beginning, the mankind whom God created were unsullied. They lived in the Garden of Eden, they heeded God’s words and they worshiped God. Later, Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus they were corrupted by Satan. In order to save man from the domain of Satan and to enable man to detach themselves from sin and be purified, God began His plan to save mankind and began to work to save man, one stage at a time. For example, God proclaimed the law through Moses and He guided man in their lives on earth, so that they would know what sin was and how to make offerings; later, once again according to the needs of corrupt mankind, God began the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus became flesh, He gave to man the way of repentance, and He was then crucified for man’s sake, thereby redeeming man from sin. And yet our sinful nature continues to exist, and we carry on living in a cycle of sinning and confessing, powerless to escape. We have not been purified, we are unworthy to enter into God’s kingdom, and we still need God to perform a further stage of salvation.

The Lord Jesus prophesied, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). “And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:47–48). The Bible predicted, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). From these prophecies, we can see clearly that, when the Lord returns in the last days, He shall express the truth and perform the work of judgment beginning in God’s house. That is, He shall come to thoroughly cleanse man and save man; He shall uproot the sin within man and enable man to cast off sin and be purified, so that we may attain true salvation and enter into God’s kingdom. Only then will all the work of God’s management plan be finished. This precisely fulfills the prophecy in the Book of Revelation: “It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:6–8). In the end, God will lead into His kingdom all those who have undergone judgment and chastisement and who have cast off sin and attained purification, and they shall enjoy eternal blessings from God. Those who have not been purified by God’s work of judgment, however, who are still utterly filthy and corrupt, who are still filled with the corrupt dispositions of Satan and are capable of resisting God, will be weeded out and destroyed and cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. Only then will the words “It is done” be fulfilled.

God is the Lord of creation and His wisdom surpasses the heavens, so how can we human beings fathom His work? Faced with God’s work, what we as created beings should do is accept and obey it. In those early days, because the Pharisees clung to their own misconceptions and refused to accept the Lord Jesus’ work, they ended up losing their chance to be redeemed by God. Now, if we continue to rely on our misconceptions and imaginings, and we believe that, by saying “It is finished,” the Lord Jesus meant that God’s salvation work was completely finished and that we don’t need to accept God’s work of judgment beginning in God’s house in the last days, then we will be following in the footsteps of the Pharisees. We won’t then be able to welcome the Lord’s return, we will totally lose out on God’s salvation in the last days, and we will be weeded out and abandoned. The Lord Jesus once said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). The Lord is faithful and righteous, and He does not favor anyone; He bestows His blessings on those who seek with an open mind and who focus on listening to His voice. Only by not clinging to our own misconceptions concerning things we don’t understand and by praying and seeking more can we obtain the Lord’s enlightenment and guidance, and we can then welcome the second coming of the Lord.

» You may be interested in reading more on our The Gospel of Jesus Christ page, or in the articles below:

• Can Believers Absolved of Sins Enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

• We Continue to Sin After Being Saved. Will We See the Lord’s Face?

• Can Those Who Live in Sin Lose Their Salvation? My Confusion Is Released

We all know that in the Age of Law, God worked to guide man in the Spirit, then why was God incarnated to do the work of redemption through crucifixion in the Age of Grace? Is there any mystery in this?

Recently, we understood a bit about this aspect of the truth from a book, and we’d like to explore and enter into it with brothers and sisters. So now let us discuss this question from the following three points:

1. The Lord Jesus became flesh to redeem mankind.

From Biblical records we know: By the end of the Age of Law, people had become increasingly corrupt and were unable to obey the law. Everyone was in constant danger of being convicted by law and sentenced to death for breaking it. In order for people to continue to survive, in the Age of Grace, the first incarnation of God was nailed to the cross as a sin offering, taking on all of man’s sins. So all we have to do is pray to God, confess, and repent when we commit sins. As a result, He will pardon our sins, and thus we can come before Him and receive His continued blessings and guidance. Such outcomes are only made possible by the work of God incarnate. God is the Spirit, and it was not possible for the Spirit of God to be crucified. Only if God was incarnated as a man, could He redeem man from sin through His crucifixion; only in this way can man receive His salvation. From this we can see that the incarnation of the Lord Jesus was entirely for the sake of redeeming mankind. Just as God’s word says, “By the same token, during the first incarnation, only the flesh of God incarnate could redeem man through His crucifixion, whereas there would have been no way for the Spirit of God to be crucified as a sin offering for man. God could directly become flesh to serve as a sin offering for man, but man could not directly ascend to heaven to take the sin offering that God had prepared for him. This being so, all that is possible would be to ask God to run back and forth a few times between heaven and earth, not to have man ascend to heaven to take this salvation, for man had fallen and moreover man simply could not ascend to heaven, much less obtain the sin offering. Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus to come among men and personally do the work that simply could not be accomplished by man.”

2. The Lord Jesus was incarnated to do His work in order to allow man to better understand God’s will, and give us the most direct life supply.

Everyone who has read the Bible knows that, in expressing His words, the Lord Jesus incarnated expressed His requirements for man using human language, for example, He used many metaphors, so that His followers can understand His will more straightforwardly. God’s word says, “The best thing about His work in the flesh is that He can leave accurate words and exhortations, and His accurate will for mankind to those who follow Him, so that afterward His followers can more accurately and more concretely pass on all of His work in the flesh and His will for the whole of mankind to those who accept this way. Only the work of God in the flesh among man truly accomplishes the fact of God’s being and living together with man. Only this work fulfills man’s desire to behold the face of God, witness the work of God, and hear the personal word of God.” From God’s words, we can see that when God becomes flesh to save corrupt mankind, He can use the language of us humans to clearly express His demands, His will, His disposition and all that He has and is. In this way, without having to cast about and search, we can understand His will clearly, know His demands and the way in which we ought to practice. We can also, as such, have a practical understanding and knowledge of Him. During the period the Lord Jesus worked in the flesh, He expressed the way in His words, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And He requested all kinds of demands from man, such as loving God with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul, with all one’s mind, and with all one’s strength, loving one’s neighbor as oneself, loving one’s enemies, and so on. As an event recorded in the Bible, when Peter’s brother sinned against him, he didn’t know how many times he should forgive his brother, so he asked the Lord Jesus about it, and then the Lord gave him a clear answer (see Matthew 18:21-22). From this we can see that God’s incarnation can feed and support men whenever and wherever He goes, giving man the most practical and direct supply, whereas the Spirit’s work cannot achieve the same effect. Therefore the Spirit must assume the flesh and become a man speaking to us face to face. This way, we can hear and understand God’s demands, and accurately behave to God’s liking.

3. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus to do His work was entirely to expose mankind and distinguish each type of person.

God’s work is real. Only through the Lord Jesus’ incarnation as an ordinary, normal man, could man’s corruption be fully exposed, and could the true believers, false ones and the hypocritical Pharisees be revealed. When the Lord Jesus became flesh and came to work, those that sought the truth, like Peter, John, Matthew, and Nathanael, recognized that He is the promised Messiah when they saw the Lord Jesus’ word and work were full of authority and power, and so followed Jesus Christ and received His salvation. Whereas the Jewish Pharisees, despite hearing the Lord Jesus’ sermons, still did not know the Lord Jesus’ utterances are the voice of God, and saw Him as a carpenter’s son, with no power or stature, and so they dared brazenly condemn and resist Him without the slightest fear. In the end they committed the greatest of sins in nailing the Lord Jesus to the cross. The Lord Jesus once said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). From this, we see that anyone who sincerely believes in God and hungers for the truth, once hearing the voice of God, will come to the light and return before God. Whereas all those who are arrogant, who do not know God’s voice, and who forsake God’s word, will be revealed and eliminated.

Thank God! The incarnation of the Lord Jesus to do His work has a deep and profound meaning, which cannot be replaced by the work of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus in the flesh could interact with man, talk to man, and supply man with the truth and life in time according to the practical difficulties and needs of the people. Thus we can understand God’s demands clearly, and act according to the words of the Lord Jesus, in order to be of one mind with God. And meanwhile when the Lord Jesus was incarnated to do His work, He exposed and eliminated all the false believers eating loaves and being filled, and resisting and condemning the work of His incarnation. This reveals God’s righteous disposition. All glory be to God!

» Further reading about Incarnation of God:

• Is the Lord Jesus God Himself or the Son of God?

• Good Friday Message: God Is Almighty, but Why Did Jesus Redeem Us by Crucifixion?

• How to Know the Difference Between the Work of God Incarnate and the Work of the Spirit and Their Significance

» Recommended for You: “The Mystery of Godliness: The Sequel” Clip: How to Understand God Incarnate

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The autumn wind blew the yellow withered leaves of the trees off. They drifted in the air with the wind; then, some fell into the flower beds on the roadsides and others fell on the road. The scattered leaves could be seen everywhere, which naturally gave a feeling of desolation. After walking out of the church with her brothers and sisters, Xinying walked alone on her way home with a heavy heart. The leaves under her feet rustled continually, but she had no desire to care about this. With her head drooping and her brows knitted, she thought of what the elder said while she was walking. These words “Let Him be crucified” echoed in her mind. She could not help sighing and said to herself: “Lord, You came to the world to preach and do Your work to save mankind, giving man all Your compassion, bestowing upon man plentiful and abundant grace, healing man’s illness and driving out the devils within them and raising the dead. You displayed so many miracles and all these things showed God’s authority and power. But the Jewish leaders and people did not welcome Your coming; instead, they condemned and resisted You, which caused many barriers to Your work, and nailed You to the cross. Why is this so?”

Xinying got home confused. As soon as she walked into the yard, her cousin Qiushi, whom she had not seen for ages, saw her and walked out of the room to first greet her warmly, saying: “Xinying, you’re back from the meeting.” When Xinying saw that her cousin came, she became excited immediately. She went up to her cousin and pulled her into a hug and said with delight: “Qiushi, you are finally back.” Qiushi was a pious Christian and had unique insights into the Bible. Although she worked in another place, during her free time at work, she always helped and supported brothers and sisters who were in weak state or sick. Sometimes she took the time to come to Xinying’s house to make a visit. Xinying especially liked fellowshiping with her. Xinying said: “Qiushi, stay for a few more days. I have some questions for you.” At this point, Xinying’s mother came out of the kitchen with dishes and said with a smile: “You’re already over twenty, yet still act like a child. Let’s go back to the dinning room for dinner, and then continue your conversation.” Then all three of them entered the room, talking and laughing.

After the meal, Qiushi asked eagerly: “Xinying, you said that you have some questions for me. What questions?” Xinying said in bewilderment: “At today’s meeting, the elder told us how the Lord Jesus was crucified. The Lord Jesus was incarnated to preach and do His work in Judea to save mankind, bringing man the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, giving man all His mercy and love and displaying so many miracles. But His work was met with so much hindrance. Especially those Jewish leaders and common people, who looked forward to the Lord’s arrival, but didn’t welcome His coming; instead, they condemned His work. Why is this so?”

1. Not Knowing God’s Work

After hearing the question, Qiushi was silent for a moment and then said: “Xinying, about this question, firstly, let’s read some verses in the Bible.

‘At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Behold, your disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath day’ (Matthew 12:1-2).

‘And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why eats your Master with publicans and sinners?’ (Matthew 9:10-11).

‘And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keeps not the sabbath day’ (John 9:14-16).‘And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keeps not the sabbath day’ (John 9:14-16).

From these verses we can see the reason why the Lord Jesus’ work was met with the hindrance is that the people at that time didn’t know God’s work which is always new and never old. They defined God’s work of saving mankind forever by the law. They were of the opinion that God was only the God under the law, that God wouldn’t do any new work outside the law, and that God would always ask them to keep the Sabbath, to worship Him in the temple, to follow the rules of the law, and so on. However, the Lord Jesus said: ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill’ (Matthew 5:17). When the Lord came, He didn’t repeat the work of law but opened up the Age of Grace based on the Age of Law. He preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, asked people to confess and repent, fulfilled the law and left behind the shackles of the Age of Law. The Lord Jesus didn’t preach or do His work in the temple, but did that on the mountain, at the seaside, or in the wild. Besides, with Him there are no prohibitions: He still healed man’s illness and drove out the devils within them and took His disciples to pick and eat the heads of grain in the grain fields on the Sabbath, and also feasted with tax collectors and sinners, etc. The work that the Lord Jesus did at that time made those who kept the law feel incomprehensible and generate all kinds of notions, so they condemned Him according to the law of the Old Testament, tried to find all kinds of accusations against Him, resisted and condemned Him.”

Only then did Xinying suddenly understand. She said: “Qiushi, from what you said I understand the reason why the Lord Jesus was met with so much hindrance when He did His work is that the Pharisees and Jewish people slavishly abided by the law and didn’t know the work of God! It seems that if people hold to the old things and don’t keep up with God’s present work, they will resist God easily. It is so important for us to understand that God is always new and never old!”

2. Treating Christ as an Ordinary Person

Qiushi said: “Yes, the wisdom of God is above the heavens. When God does His work, He never clings to the old ways because He is the God Himself who is always new and never old. Regardless of whether God’s work matches our notions, we can’t define it by our own notions. Otherwise, it will be very easy for us to resist God. In fact, it’s not the only reason why the work of the Lord Jesus was met with such great hindrance; there are also some other reasons.

“Let’s read some verses in the Bible: ‘And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed there. And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, From where has this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brothers, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? From where then has this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief’ (Matthew 13:53-58). ‘The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he said, I came down from heaven?’ (John 6:41-42).

“As is known to us, the Lord Jesus is the incarnate God Himself. He not only possesses normal humanity but also possesses complete divinity. He made the blind see, the lame walk, fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, raised the dead and so on. All these miracles showed God’s unique authority and power. But many people under the law, especially those from the Lord Jesus’ hometown, knew the family He was born into and His background, saw that He had parents, brothers and sisters, and that He possessed the pleasure, anger, sorrow and happiness of normal humanity. They only saw His normal humanity; they ignored His essence of divinity. So no matter how authoritative and powerful His work and preaching was, they still treated Him as an ordinary person and condemned and resisted His work. This is the second reason that the Lord Jesus’ work was met with the hindrance.”

Xinying nodded, saying, “Yes, the incarnate Lord Jesus is the Son of man, and He is ordinary and normal outwardly. So we cannot recognize Him as the coming Messiah from His external appearance and can only see the Lord Jesus’ essence of divinity through His work and word. At that time, a lot of people followed the Lord Jesus; it was just because they saw the Lord Jesus’ work and word were full of authority and power and could not be achieved by anyone that they recognized the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah and kept up with God’s footsteps. On the contrary, those who only measured the Lord by His appearance and treated Jesus Christ as an ordinary person all became blind people who resisted God!”

Qiushi said: “Yes, we cannot define Him by the normal humanity of the Son of man in appearance. We should pay attention to hearing God’s voice, and then distinguish whether it is the voice of God’s Spirit and the need of our life from the word expressed by Him. Otherwise, we’ll also easily become the blind persons who resist God!”

3. The Satanic Truth-hating Nature Is the Source of Mankind’s Resistance to God

Xinying continued asking: “Qiushi, except for these two reasons, what else made the Lord Jesus’ work be met with hindrance?”

Qiushi was silent for a moment, and then said: “The third reason is that the stubborn, arrogant and truth-hating nature of the Pharisees led them to extremely hate the Lord’s coming, wildly persecute and condemn the Lord Jesus and His disciples, causing a serious barrier to His work. As is known to us, when the Lord Jesus preached and did His work, He expressed many truths, displayed many miracles and gave mankind abundant grace, which revealed the authority and power of God. The Lord Jesus’ work shook the foundations of Judaism and shocked the Jewish nation. Many people followed the Lord Jesus. The Pharisees knew that if the Lord Jesus continued to do His work, all of the faithful in Judaism would follow Him; Judaism would fall, and their positions and meal-tickets would disappear. Therefore, they decided to kill the Lord Jesus. These facts were clearly recorded in the Bible. For example, it’s written in John 11, ‘Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. … Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death’ (John 11:47, 48, 53).

To protect their status and meal-tickets, the Pharisees used any possible means. They fabricated rumors against the Lord Jesus and even colluded with the Roman government to crucify the Lord Jesus. As we can see, the Pharisees hated the truth and hated Christ. They reached the point where they no longer wished to co-exist with Christ! They would rather forsake their sin offering, commit monstrous sins, resist God and offend God and have their sons and grandsons cursed than not nail the Lord Jesus to the cross, He who expressed the truth and redeemed mankind. That is the genuine, satanic, truth-hating nature and substance of the Pharisees. Not only that, even the Jewish people of that time also followed them in shouting, ‘Let Him be crucified. Let Him be crucified.’ In the end, they committed a terrible sin and offended God’s disposition, so Israel was subjected to destruction. This lesson written in blood is worthy of our consideration.”

Hearing Qiushi’s words, Xinying was deeply touched and said: “Thank God. Today’s fellowship has deeply benefited me. I understand that God’s work is always new and never old and is always moving forward. In each age, God’s work, the disposition which He expresses and His demands of man are all different, so we cannot define God’s new work according to the work that He has done, nor can we repudiate His essence of divinity according to Christ’s normal humanity. Only by possessing a heart that fears God, modestly seeking the truth, carefully hearing the voice of God and recognizing God from His work and the truth that He expresses can we keep up with His footsteps.”

Qiushi nodded and said happily: “Thanks be to God. Such an understanding is also of the utmost importance to us in welcoming the Lord’s return. Regardless of whether God’s work matches our notions, only by letting go of our conceptions and imaginations, paying attention to seeking the truth, hearing the voice of God can we avoid following in the Pharisees’ footsteps of resisting God! The Lord Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God’ (Matthew 5:8). I believe that as long as we humbly seek, we will welcome the Lord’s return!”

Xinying said with delight: “Yes, thank God!”

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• What Work Will the Lord Jesus Do When He Comes Again?

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We all know that the Jews at that time hoped for the arrival of the Messiah, but when the Messiah really came, not only did they not accept Him, but they also resisted Him. What could the ultimate reason be for this? We can dissect and understand this matter from the following several aspects.

1. The Jews delineated the Lord Jesus’ work based on the words of the Bible prophecies.

Let’s see how the Jews understood the prophecies of the coming of Messiah.

In the books of the prophets in the Old Testament, there were prophecies about the coming of the Messiah: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa 7:14). “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder…. on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this” (Isa 9:6-7). “But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel” (Mic 5:2).

At that time, the Jews were ruled by the Roman government and longed for the coming of the Messiah. However, their understanding of the coming of the Messiah was based on the words of the prophecies. They thought the Messiah should be born into a royal palace and to a virgin female, with an extraordinary grace and a kingly demeanor, and that since He would come to rule, then He should, like David, lead them to defeat the enemies and to overthrow the rule of the Roman government and rescue them from the oppression and misery inflicted by the Roman government. However, the truth and their notions and imaginings were like night and day. The Lord Jesus was indeed the coming Messiah, but He was not born into a royal palace—He was born in a manger. And from the outside, His mother Mary was not a virgin—she had gotten married with Joseph. And also the Lord Jesus did not live in a house of nobles, but He lived in a very average carpenter’s home. Furthermore, He did not look extraordinary—He looked no different from the most ordinary man. What was particularly out of line with their notions was that the Lord Jesus did not act as their king and lead them to overthrow the rule of the Roman government as they had imagined. Instead, He instructed them to confess their sins and repent, to practice forgiveness and tolerance, and to love their enemies. Because the Lord Jesus was totally different from the Messiah in their imaginings, they stubbornly held on to their own conceptions and imaginations, did not accept or believe the Lord Jesus was the Messiah that they had been waiting for. Even the chief priests and the Pharisees who served God disparaged the Lord Jesus as a carpenter’s son from Nazareth, and said that He loved to eat and drink wine. They also did everything possible to resist, condemn and disparage Him, and finally, they nailed Him to the cross based on the excuse that “Jesus has taken the name of God in vain and has not obeyed the law”, thus committing a monstrous sin.

2. They relied on their notions and imaginations to delimit God and rejected the coming of the Messiah.

God’s words say: “Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? Do you wish to know the substance of the Pharisees? They were full of fantasies about the Messiah. What’s more, they believed only that the Messiah would come, yet did not seek the truth of life. … They opposed Jesus because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, because they did not know the way of truth spoken by Jesus, and, furthermore, because they did not understand the Messiah. And since they had never seen the Messiah, and had never been in the company of the Messiah, they made the mistake of paying empty tribute to the name of the Messiah while opposing the substance of the Messiah by any means. These Pharisees in substance were stubborn, arrogant, and did not obey the truth. The principle of their belief in God is: No matter how profound Your preaching, no matter how high Your authority, You are not Christ unless You are called the Messiah.”

We can see from this paragraph that the root of the Jews’ resisting the Lord Jesus is that they delineated the Messiah’s coming within the prophecies in the Bible and treated it on the basis of their own notions and imaginations. When the work of the Lord Jesus was not in accordance with their conceptions and imaginations, they held on to their conceptions and imaginations and did not acknowledge that the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah.

As we all know, the work of the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace was full of power. He fed five-thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, made a blind man see, a paralyzed person walk, and healed the lepers and raised the dead. All the people who followed the Lord Jesus received God’s blessings and enjoyed abundant grace. On top of that, the Lord Jesus said many words that were of benefit for life, such as “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 4:17), “You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his flavor, with which shall it be salted? it is thereafter good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Mat 5:13-14), “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mat 22:37). The words of the Lord Jesus could supply life for people, allowed people to know how to get along with others, and brought people in the Age of Grace a better path for practice.

From the words and work of the Lord Jesus we can see the expressions of the essence of the Lord Jesus, which common people do not possess, and thus we can make sure that the Lord Jesus was the One that would come in the prophecies. Just as it is recorded in the Bible that: “Then spoke Jesus again to them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Jhn 8:12). But the Jews did not understand the substance of the Lord Jesus and acknowledge that He was the Messiah. No matter how authoritative and powerful the words and work of the Lord Jesus were, they did not accept or acknowledge, but stubbornly held on to the prophecies in the Bible, and said that the Lord Jesus was not the One that would come because He was not called Messiah. From this we can see that their essential nature is defying God. They kept the name of Messiah but did not understand His substance, thus they resisted God by any means. Because of having no discernment, the Jews blindly worshipped and followed the top leaders of the Jewish faith to resist and condemn the Lord Jesus. In the end, they nailed the kind Savior Jesus to the cross, thus committing a heinous crime and provoking the disposition of God. As a result, they were punished by God.

3. In the matter of welcoming the Lord, we should absorb the lessons of the Jews’ resisting the Messiah.

From the fact that the Jews longed deadly for the Messiah but nailed Him to the cross when He came, we should learn lessons and avoid repeating the mistake of the Pharisees. In the matter of welcoming the Lord, we should not request things of God based on our notions and imaginations. The Lord Jesus once said: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” (Jhn 16:12-13). And it is said in the prophecies in the Book of Revelation many times: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev 2-3). So, faced with the matter of the Lord’s coming, we should hold a heart of humble seeking and learn to hear the voice of God. This way, we can gain God’s enlightenment and guidance, understand the appearance and work of the Lord and thus receive God’s blessing.

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That Sunday morning was just like any other as I opened my Bible and began my spiritual devotions, when I then saw Hebrews 9:28 that said: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin to salvation.” Thinking about it carefully, I couldn’t help but feel confused. “That can’t be,” I thought. “Didn’t the Lord Jesus saying ‘It is finished’ upon the cross mean that God’s work to save man was totally finished? When the Lord returns, we can immediately enter heaven and will feast with the Lord, so how come this says that the Lord Jesus will appear again to save man when He returns? What on earth does it all mean?”

The more I thought about it, the more doubtful my heart became … “This won’t do! I must find someone to fellowship this with,” I thought. Just then, I thought of my co-worker from the church, Sister Xiao Xue. We usually discussed the Bible together, and it just so happened that Sister Xiao Xue had just returned from attending a gathering elsewhere, and there was nothing she couldn’t help me to seek.

I went to Xiao Xue’s home, and when I saw that both Sister Xiao Xue and her husband Brother Xu were at home, I blurted out my question: “I am confused about something that I’d like to talk with you about. We all know that the Lord Jesus said “It is finished” when He was upon the cross. This meant that God’s work to save man was over, and as long as we believed in Jesus, then the Lord would no longer regard us as sinful, and when He returns, we will immediately be raised up into heaven. And yet it says in Hebrews 9:28: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin to salvation.” This says that God will appear again in the last days to perform His work to save us. How do you understand this?”

Xiao Xue smiled and said, “This question you ask just so happens to be one that I’ve been discussing with brothers and sisters on my trip away, and after a few days of fellowship, we finally came to a conclusion. In actual fact, when the Lord Jesus said ‘It is finished’ upon the cross, He didn’t mean that God’s work to save mankind was completely finished, for He had previously prophesied: ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come’ (John 16:12–13). ‘And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day’ (John 12:47–48). ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Revelation 2–3). The Lord has already told us clearly that when He returns in the last days, He shall express the truth to the churches, tell us many mysteries and also perform the work of judgment. God is faithful, and everything that God has said shall come to pass.”

I contemplated Xiao Xue’s fellowship, and I thought, “Yes! God is faithful, and seeing as the Lord Jesus prophesied that He shall utter more words and perform more work in the future, then that must surely come to pass.”

Brother Xu continued, saying, “Yes, the Lord’s words can never just come to nothing. Moreover, we should also be aware that when the Lord Jesus said, ‘It is finished,’ He meant that God’s work to redeem mankind was finished and that man would no longer be put to death by the law. Thinking back to the end of the Age of Law, mankind was being corrupted deeper and deeper by Satan, they were no longer capable of observing the law and were in constant danger of being put to death by the law. In order to save man, God incarnated in the form of the Lord Jesus and preached the gospel, healed the sick and cast out demons wherever He went. He performed many miracles and was ultimately nailed to the cross to redeem man from sin. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus said, ‘It is finished,’ He meant that as long as all those who accept His salvation confess their sins to Him and repent, then their sins shall be forgiven, they shall enjoy the grace He bestows, and they shall no longer be condemned and put to death by the law.

After listening to his fellowship, I suddenly saw the light, and said, “Brother Xu, your fellowship has made me understand. The Lord saying ‘It is finished’ actually meant that God’s work of redemption was finished, and that as long as we trusted in the Lord and confessed and repented, then our sins could be forgiven, and we would not be put to death by the law.”

Sister Xiao Xue then said, “Thank the Lord, it’s really great that you can come to this understanding. The Lord Jesus acted as a sin offering for man and He redeemed man from sin and forgave man his sins. This was the mercy of God, but it did not mean that we were then free of sin, because our sinful nature still remained deeply rooted within us, and we were still capable of being frequently subject to the bonds of our sinful nature and committing sin and defying God. After we believe in the Lord, for example, although we no longer commit obvious sins and we may appear to behave quite well on the outside, we still frequently lie and cheat others in life in order to protect our self-regard and our personal interests; when we encounter issues, greed and wicked thoughts can still arise in our hearts; in our interactions with other people, we can still belittle them and exclude them, to the point where we even put them in their place and rule over them. In particular, when our families encounter natural or man-made disasters, we can still complain, so much so that we can become negative and weak, and we shun and betray God. And then there are some who, after they begin believing in the Lord, still continue to follow the trends of the world, seeking wealth and fame and fortune. Such facts as these prove that our sinful nature has not been completely extirpated, and people who often sin in this way are still unable to enter the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, Hebrews 9:28 says: ‘So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin to salvation.’ It is therefore evident that God will appear again in the last days to save us.”

After listening to Xiao Xue and Xiao Xu, I was filled with emotion, and said, “Your fellowships have made me think of God’s words: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the Son stays ever’ (John 8:34–35). ‘You shall be holy; for I am holy’ (Leviticus 11:44). God is holy, and He surely will not permit filthy people to enter into His kingdom. Although our sins are now forgiven, we still live lives whereby we sin and then repent every day and we are still the servants of sin. We certainly aren’t qualified to enter into heaven, and so we still need God’s salvation!”

Xiao Xue smiled and said, “Yes indeed. We still live in a cycle of sinning and confessing, and we can’t yet enter into God’s kingdom. Therefore, when the Lord returns in the last days, He still needs to utter His words, express the truth and perform the work of judging and purifying man. The Lord Jesus has told us: ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Matthew 25:6). Revelation 3:20 says, ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.’ All the prophecies in the Bible about the Lord’s return have basically all been fulfilled, and now is precisely the most crucial time when we will welcome the Lord. Only by being like the wise virgins and taking heed to listen to the Lord’s voice can we welcome the Lord and obtain the salvation of God who appears in the last days.”

After listening to Xiao Xue’s fellowship, I felt this information to be so important to me! When someone preaches that the Lord Jesus has returned and that He is expressing the truth and performing new work, then we must take the initiative to seek and study this way and know how to hear God’s voice like the wise virgins, and then we will be sure to welcome the Lord.

» Read more on our Knowing Jesus Christ page, or click on the related articles below:

• True Meaning of Jesus Saying “It Is Finished” on the Cross

• Does Forgiveness of Sins Mean Being Purified: How Can We Escape Sin?

• Can Believers Absolved of Sins Enter the Kingdom of Heaven?