#throughjesusonly

[youngdisciples]

Our biggest battle is the battle against the sin of self-exaltation. In fact, Satan knows this very well because it is what he used to tempt Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, “You will become like God”. We usually want to be praised and exalted by others that is why we put our trusts and hopes in anything, especially money. Because of the want for self-exaltation, we tend to set up so many idols in our lives— the idols where we put our dependence on and our hopes to. 

However, nothing can beat the dependence we put in our money. When we see that we are earning so much or that we can buy anything, we already feel invincible and we are very dependent on it instead of being dependent on God. We spend our money on things that can make us happy and satisfied or save it in our bank accounts so we will feel secured and trust it more than we trust God. Money becomes like drugs to us, the more dosage we have, the more we become happy and satisfied but we will desire more and more dosage to be satisfied.

The reflection verse today talks about nothing is impossible with God but the whole context talks about the Rich Young Ruler who asked Jesus how to acquire eternal life. From the moment he asked how he can get eternal life, it was already a wrong one. That is also the reason why Jesus’ answers were very objective and about the 10 commandments. 

After hearing Jesus' answer, he confirmed that he did everything already but Jesus told him that he still lacks one thing and that is to sell all his possessions and give it to the poor and follow Jesus. After this answer, the Bible stated that the Rich Young Ruler felt very sad because he was too rich. Why do you think that Luke really wrote it like this?

This is because the Rich Young Ruler already knows what he will choose. Again, money is like drugs and people who tend to put their hope in it will not be able to give it up just like the Rich young ruler. He became very sad because he knows that he will never be able to stop worshipping his wealth. 

What he felt was too opposite with what we usually feel when we have money but it is what he felt because he knows exactly what he was choosing. He knows that instead of following Jesus and gaining eternal life, he will choose the earthly wealth. The rich young ruler is like us because we tend to put our hope into wrong things, instead of our God. 

When we have everything we wanted, we tend to steer away from the path God has chosen for us and become independent of Him and become dependent on these earthly things. We have set up so many idols and chose to worship them instead of directing our praises to God where everything all came from. When Jesus answered that it is very impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, He practically was saying that because of their wealth, they tend to think practical and thought that they can do everything on their own. 

The Bible said that we cannot serve two masters at the same time, so basically the rich man knows exactly his choice. He knows exactly which master he is going to serve. So Jesus wants to use this as an example for us and a reality-check. He wants us to understand that as long as we are worshipping our idols and cannot stop putting our hopes on these earthly things, we can never acquire eternal life. 

As long as our mindset is that we can acquire it through our good works, we can never have eternal life. So, going back to the story, after Jesus answered the question, the people who heard all of this questioned Him again about who can then enter the kingdom of heaven. This time, Jesus answered a very sweet answer and a very nice reminder!

Jesus told them that with God everything is possible. Somewhat, it is a very difficult answer to understand because reading it at first will really confuse you. However, these are the words that can really comfort us. When Jesus said that it is impossible for the rich young ruler to enter the kingdom of heaven and people also asked who can enter the kingdom because they knew that they can never do all what Jesus mentioned, it is very connected to the final answer of Jesus. Since it is impossible for men to enter the kingdom of heaven, nothing impossible to God. 

Therefore, with men’s strength and will alone, we can never enter and gain eternal life because even the rich man cannot let go of his idol and Jesus knows that everyone of us have our own idols. However, in God’s will and strength, we enter and acquire eternal life. It may be a repeating news for you, but always remember that we can only be saved through Jesus and we can never do anything for ourselves. 

We are saved through grace only, not because of our works or doing everything in the ten commandments because as Paul said in Galatians that breaking one of the commandments is guilty of breaking all of them. So, always remember that it will really be impossible for us to gain eternal life because we are always putting our hope into other things, so only through the sacrifice of Jesus we can be saved. 

We can gain eternal life through believing in Jesus Christ and as we truly believe in Him, we can be a new creation and with that we will be able to direct our praises, glory, thanksgiving, hopes to the living God who rightfully deserves it. 

So hopefully, we will not be like the rich young ruler who solely depends on his money and self but we should be a new creation having full dependence on Jesus who is pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

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[youngdisciples]

Only through Him!

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[youngdisciples]

Salvation is probably one of the topics in Christian life that has been so clear. This must be the first topic you and your Pastor talked about. This is also the most important lesson and facts that we need to know as we journey our Christian life. 

However, because of all the good things we are doing and we are so busy about all our ministries, we tend to forget this part. We must always be reminded that our salvation only comes from Jesus Christ because of His grace towards us. 

This verse must also be so famous because even young Christians memorize this but it is still nice if we will be reminded by this. In this verse, it revolves around the true and the way to our salvation. It is very important for us to remember that the everlasting life we will receive soon is coming from the grace of God. 

We should always remember that we didn’t deserve this salvation; we didn’t do anything to deserve this and that we can never acquire this by our efforts. Instead, we can only receive this through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a gift for all of us—  a gift we never deserve. 

It is not by our works, it can never be acquired through our good works because as Isaiah says, our works are all filthy rags in the eyes of God. We are all sinful by nature and even if we think that our good works are good, we can never be good. So if we consider that we can be saved because we have helped so many people, or we donated so much money for the poor, think again!

These are all just trivial because we are all sinners. However, God has provided us salvation through His Son Jesus Christ because of His love and mercy and this is what we call grace. His grace is sufficient. Yet, we still need to be watchful because God is a Holy God and He hates sins. It doesn’t mean that we are saved, we can continue sinning. We must always remember that if you truly believe that you are saved, it will manifest in your life. 

Being saved is not only the title, it is being able to understand what it means and there should be a big change in your life— from darkness to light for light cannot be associated with darkness and darkness cannot associate with light.

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[youngdisciples]

One of the famous camp songs in history is taken from this verse. Yet, most of the people who knew the song did not even know which part of the Bible it was taken from. Also, most people who sing it don't even understand the meaning of it. Now, as we reflect on our verse today, we have to understand the context behind it. With this verse, we have two types of people being shown in here. 

However, we must understand that in this early chapter of Romans, Paul wrote about how sinful human beings are and that the enmity between man and God is real and deep. From chapters one to four, Paul pointed out that we are really incapable of winning our salvation. Perfecting the law is impossible for us. We can never perfect it for breaking one of it is the same as breaking all of it. Now, God is gracious and merciful and nothing is impossible with Him, so He personally perfected these commandments for us so that whoever who believes in Him will be included in His victory and will be able to have eternal life with Him. 

So now, there are two types of people shown in this verse. First, Paul directly wrote this for people who are already Christians. Meaning that the transition from darkness to light has been completed. When he wrote “we”, he was referring to the Christians who already believed and followed Jesus Christ. The moment that we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our faith has been placed in Him and that by His grace we are saved. We are then justified through faith because of His grace. When we say ‘justified’ it means that our crimes have been dismissed already. We are already made right with God. 

If we are already made right with God, thus the restoration of a broken relationship comes after. How come there is a broken relationship? — There was a broken relationship because when we go back to the story of the first fall of man in Genesis 3, we can see how our close relationship with God has been broken. Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they still had the chance and the opportunity to walk with God. The Bible said that they walked with God that means they literally walked with God on their side in the garden of Eden. Now, as they disobeyed God, they have distorted and destroyed the close bond between them and God. They even hid away from God. So, that one mistake has opened the gates of opportunities for sin to enter the world and to hold us captive for all the years in our lives and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Hence, as our broken relationship with God does not stop Him from loving us, He sent His Son to die on the cross for us and for our salvation. Since Jesus Christ has already been sacrificed and that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16), we are then now justified with God and our broken relationship has been restored. After our broken relationship has been restored, we will then have peace with God. This peace doesn’t mean no more anxieties or no more urges to sin or no more pain but this peace means that the ongoing war between man and God because of sin has ended. It means that God has accepted us into His holy family but this is only possible if we believe in Christ’s death and resurrection. The peace that we will have is the serenity in the midst of mental problems, financial problems, health problems and spiritual battles for we know that God will always there to help us out. 

Now, the second type is the people who still don't believe or know Christ. Paul has shown through this verse that those people who still don’t know Christ don’t have this privilege. They are still not justified and they are still going to receive eternal condemnation because of all the sins they made. The enmity between them and God is still present for God hates sins. So, as they continue to sin, they are putting themselves on the list of those who will be suffering in hell. However, Paul wrote this for the believers as the assurance that we are already justified and have peace with God but this is also an encouragement and reminder for those people who are still doubting to believe and receive Jesus. 

God wants to show everyone who still has not accepted His salvation that once they will receive Jesus in their life, they will be justified through faith because He is gracious. No amounts of good works will be able to make us justified because it is only through faith. Therefore, God wants us to understand that He wants to make peace with us (not that He is in need of us but because we are in need of Him) and we can only have this peace through Jesus Christ our Savior who stands as an advocate between us and the Father. 

Therefore, let us encourage one another to continue in the faith and to continue to offer our lives as living sacrifices to God. Since we have peace with God already, we can then say that we can do everything for God will strengthen us (Philippians 4:13). Let us always remember that we are already justified and that we will not receive any condemnation. May we always become people who are deserving of this Gospel and let us live our lives pleasing to God’s eyes, still only through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

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[youngdisciples]

Our salvation is a gift from God.

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[youngdisciples]

When all things seem impossible, always remember that God has your back and nothing is impossible with Him.

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Everything is possible in God and if we truly believe it, we can do it!

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