| Date Sermon Given | 1982-08-15 Morning, Afternoon |
|---|---|
| Bible | 1 Peter 1:20-22 |
| Attachment | PDF: English, Korean, Korean-English |
Our Salvation
20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.
"Our salvation and our Lord were foreknown before the foundation of the world" means that this salvation had begun before the world was founded. Also since all things were created for this salvation, the Lord's salvation and the Lord Himself existed prior to all other beings, and all beings were created through this salvation and the Lord of salvation, and they exist now for the Lord.
Now this salvation that had begun before the eternity has appeared to us. All beings in the spiritual world and the material world came to exist for this salvation which had begun before the eternity, and were created for this salvation.
In verse 20, "For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world." This means that before all beings came into existence this One was approved and confirmed as Savior of all beings.
Our mind is dark. We know that those which God created are immense, numerous and great, but we cannot comprehend and believe so much as to the greatness and grandeur of this salvation, in that all these beings came into being for the sake of this salvation, in that human life is being used for this salvation, and in that we are living being used in our individual positions and in our times toward the perfection of this salvation.
Not a stroke shall pass and be added nor subtracted from the word which God has declared even though heaven and earth may pass away. To discount the word of God is to deceive and destroy ourselves. We discount this word too much even though it should not be discounted in the least. So we must have a correct knowledge of all beings.
In these last days we regard science as great and greatly valuable. It is called the world, nation, society, or culture that what God made exist are moving on. Men think of those trivial things of the world worth measuring of the width, but what man knows is less than what man does not. The utmost salvation of God exceeds not only what man knows but also what man does not, and exceeds what man can personally experience and perceive; men ignore this.
Things visible and things invisible, things present and things to come, things in the spiritual world and things in the material world, all such things were created only to achieve the redemption of Christ, and are being preserved and used now; the one who is able to believe this exceedingly great truth, though he is a mere creature, has been inspired by the Creator to become widened and great.
A few days ago I was told what is happening in the United States. While there are stars four or five light years away from the earth, there are other stars several hundred light years away from the earth, which makes it impossible for man to reach them as man could not survive the time required in the journey. So they are speculating in freezing the living human body so that it would be restored to life several hundred years later in the stars far away from the earth. It is all a child's play. What is it good for? It is in human knowledge that the universe could be reached to the end with the speed of light, and this is out of ignorance; God created the vast universe and also He created the vaster and secret spiritual world.
Even though now God created all these for the sake of salvation, men would rather regard the created more highly, and though we regard the salvation highly, we are ignorant more of the existence of God as the source of salvation than of the salvation itself.
We should open wide our knowledge employing this word. The so-called twentieth-century culture is nothing but a billion-billionth of what God has made, which is what we judge this or that just like children babbling in sleep who are being fed full and brought up carefree. Admittedly beautiful, it is all of no profit and of no value.
We must broaden our heart, hope, all knowledge, views, judgement and appraisal through the redemption of the Lord and through the Inspirational truth. We must believe that everything exists for the sake of our salvation in Christ, that is, everything that is visible or invisible and with which this material universe is filled. Believing in this truth we will become an eternal master of all these, grabbing the universe inside our hand and making it a footstool for our feet. It is possible through faith.
Now we ought to approve the knowledge that God gave us, resulting in hoping for it as we approve, further resulting in dealing with it as we hope for it; this abides forever in the future in the universe and the spiritual world, and it exists forever. Let us not be narrow- minded. Let us broaden our minds.
Man has two ways to live. The one outside Christ has the way of death only, since he is already dead because of the original and actual sins. A young person has much strength of death, and an old person waiting for death today or tomorrow means that his strength of death has almost run out. Dying is complete when what barely remains is all exhausted.
Also the saints redeemed by Christ never come to decay or die. Now that every difficult problem has been settled, and since everything is formed through the Holy Spirit, the truth, and the redemption of pledge, it is the eternal life that is being accomplished, the eternal life without death forever.
We ought to believe this truth. "Do you really approve this fact and deal with one by one? Do you regard so? Do you regard so and deal with it so?" This is the way to acquire the eternity. Every affair in the world is a trace to follow to acquire the eternity.
We will see in the kingdom of heaven later and say, "What one worked in this way or that way in the transient world has now become an eternal thing"―this is the redemption in Christ that mankind does not know of. "But has appeared in these last times for the sake of you." That is, the redemption and Savior.
In verse 21, "Who raised Him from the dead." That He died means the vicarious redemption and that He was raised means the redemption. Vicarious redemption means to save from all death, and redemption means to bring up the one who has been delivered, to make the one of life, peace, and perfection. "... raised Him from the dead" means vicarious redemption and redemption of life and death of Jesus.
"And gave Him glory." The task of working vicarious redemption seems from human knowledge to be the most accursed, most defeated among the defeated, and the silliest among the silly and foolish acts, but He cured the poison which had ruined all the creation, and prevailed.
"To sit down at the right hand of the Father" means to settle down everything, to cure everything, to repair everything, and to put in order and arrange everything, thus to become the eternal Mediator for the creation according to God's purpose. This is glory. What does glory mean? The one among the creation who was hurt through Him would not give glory to Him, but rather revile Him.
"... gave Him glory." The life of the Lord of 33 years and four months which He lived in the earth and worked as a creature though He is Creator, is what every creature, small and great, without single complaint and grumbling, could admire, give thanks, honor, and praise from the heart. This is referred to as "He was given glory." A life that one lives in the earth may call forth thanks and glory while the same life may cause complaints, grumbling, and hatred, but the steps which Jesus took attained glory only.
"Who through Him are believers in God." "Who through Him are believers." The way of this salvation which had been planned before long ages and which is exceedingly great, deep, long and high, and the way of this glorious salvation which all beings welcome, give thanks, and really wonder, are what Jesus first walked through, and then we were allowed to walk through.
The steps which we are taking are not of a worthless and temporary life in which filthy worldly things are desired, disputed, and scrambled. This is indeed out of ignorance with which the whole human history and all things are raging, as if they were enjoying themselves for their excellency and greatness in their own estimation. If they knew the truth of the salvation of Christ, there would be no world that would not tremble and melt before it, and that would not deplore their misery before it.
Since the world is dark and ignorant, and the evil spirit has made knowledge turned the other way around as, "What is dying is living, what is reproach is glory, and what is perishing is prospering," men are able to live relieved and noisy. Men would all perish if this were plainly straightened out. Being in darkness, however, will not last and the time of light is to come.
"Who through Him are believers in these steps ... so that your faith and hope are in God." "Who through Him are believers." The word is too great. "Who through Christ are believers. Who through Christ are believers in God." 'Believers in God' means that we are following God to become like Him. To believe means to go after, to follow, to learn, to follow the example of, and to take after.
We have followed scientists, literary men, politicians, heroic and excellent men, rich men, and so on. Such are what we hope for, we envy, and we regard as great and valuable. We head for it, desire it, and take after it one step and two steps, and we pronounce success when we have taken after a great scientist to become like him, and great success when we have envied a powerful man to become shoulder to shoulder with him. It is silly. Indeed it is not an object for us to hope for. It is not an object to depend on either.
Only God Is the Object of Our Hope
We do not know if the world will end today or tomorrow, and we record those eminent people in the world as history to read and praise later, but they all will come to an end to perish when Jesus comes with the cloud.
Only is it everlasting that we turn to the Perfect One, the Absolute One, the Eternal One, and the Self-existent One, that we take example of the One, and that we learn, take after, and become like the One. Only these are eternal.
Those who hope otherwise and who are so dark as to live enjoying themselves for their excellency in their own estimation must hear this gospel to repent. What is it good for him if he gains the whole world? Are all things his own if he is possessed of all things? No. There is a time when he is told to leave all and go, and then his body becomes rigid with his hands stretched out and he goes. He is to leave all behind and go.
Also what will it profit a man if he continues to take hold of all things? The Lord who rules all things commanded the rich man in purple and fine linen to change life, the world, and all reason, which he did not do. Though he thus had had everything in possession, he had not a drop of water available to himself nor proprietary right, now that the world and situation were changed.
Men are being thus deceived by the evil spirit; but it will never change in the least that we have taken after Him. The one who has learned Him, who has taken after Him, who has become like Him, who has belonged to Him, and who has become His possession according to the foundation of creation, these are all of eternal life.
Irrespective of human understanding or absurdity in a life long or short, raging in one's own way, all these are but to beat the air. To love another comes to nothing but to deceive as well as to be deceived, and to ruin to hurt, resulting in a bustling life in which what is not success is reckoned as success, what is not glory is reckoned as glory, and what is not one's own is reckoned as one's own. Being with a crooked view on ownership we are not able to possess right what is in our possession, glory, honor, authority, life, and so on.
Life is thus "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?" Not a bit! Not in the least. In this deceiving world the salvation of Christians means to take hold of this truth, to hope for it, and to belong to it to accomplish further truth; what do you think it is for?
That God became man to die vicariously for us, that the Creator was raised as a creature on our behalf, and that Christ the Builder, who is responsible for our completion and perfection through His works, completes and perfects us―all these are what has made us believe in God and hope for God.
We men are too dark, silly, young, and small a vessel so as to regard it as income, say, to acquire a building which is to be gone in the end, but we are blind to the truth that we will be heirs of the universe. This is not because the word of God is discounted and it is a lie, but because we are too false to approve it.
Yesterday I was asked by a man, "What if I, such as I am, settle my medical clinic and end up as a pastor serving a small church in the country?" I say that it is good understanding. I said to him succinctly to the effect that, "All things work together for good. It does not fulfil the ministry to do with eyes only nor to do with feet only either. It is enough for a child's eyes to work as much as a child's eyes can, and for powerful eyes to work as much as powerful eyes can. It is the most blessed way for oneself to be used for the betterment of the gospel."
Everybody, let us not discount the word of God. Not a stroke shall pass from the word of God even though heaven and earth pass away. Just believe as it is said in the Scripture, "This is barely worth." Just believe as it is said, "That is wrong even if all people in the world say that it is right." We will be saved from all curses and woes only after we repent the sin of discounting the word of God. The word of God is not to be discounted even a feather. It is what it is said to be.
Hope through Christ
"... gave Him glory." When Jesus walked this way in the earth, who would not have said that His steps were of curses? Who would not have said that He was silly? Who would not have said that He was a failure? But that is the way of life of authority that renders glory to the Lord of all and to all the creation, that satisfies the Lord of all, and that amazes the creation.
We "through Christ are believers in God," who provided us with this way to succeed in. "Who through Christ are believers." To believe means to hope for and to follow. In one word, to believe means to go after, to follow, to learn, to take after, to assimilate, and to be sanctified, and also means the course of becoming like Him.
To hope for the false creation to follow, as "I have followed this great man," however hard he may have followed him, is not as valuable as to follow God. Also his span of existence is short.
All laws will be condemned to be accursed when the single absolute law emerges. Nowadays, a man is reviled as a murderer in Japan while the same person is regarded as a patriot in Korea. There is no point in arguing about that. It is true that he is a murderer from their point of view, whereas he is a patriot from our point of view. What is something of this sort for them may be something of that sort for us.
All organizations, institutions, peoples, languages, and countries in the world are local and relative with each other so that they conflict and compete with each other now, but the final verdict is coming. The final decision is coming. In one word, everything will be burned up to be revealed clearly. Today, a traitor in this country may be a patriot in that country. Later when we come to see the unified country emerging, we will see and say that "This must perish and that must also perish." We will approve that everything but that of perfection is all to perish, and so it is written, "Those in hell praise that Jesus Christ is Lord."
To us who are going cherishing vain hope, "Who through Christ are believers in God"; Christ is responsible for working on us for perfect love, perfect intelligence, and perfect resemblance to all the attributes of God, resulting in the perfect likeness of God, and also for working on us through Jesus' works resulting in the perfect likeness of God.
Christ means God, and the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Christ initiated the work to make us perfectly take after the likeness of God through the works of Jesus as a capital, and we were made able to hope for God.
It is no use hoping for anyone but Him. Buddha once kept meditating until a conch crawled on his head, only to fail to reach the way of God. Why? It has been asserted in the Scripture that there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. It will not do to have a steadfast heart, a sincere heart, loyalty, and perseverance. Man with inherent limitations is limited anyway. Limited man remains limited even after millions of millions of refining. Finite man cannot receive in possession a thing from the infinite God.
The Spirit of Christ who is the infinite God assumed the responsibility for working on us so that we may resemble the likeness of the perfect, eternal, and infinite God. He qualified us with the surpassing salvation, to make us hope for taking after God, continuing to learn God, taking example of God, having knowledge in common with God, having the same power as that of God, and becoming perfectly the same as His likeness.
"Who through Christ are believers ... your faith and hope are in God." It has been decided that we are to take after, to learn, and to take example of God. Also God is the One whom we are to sanctify ourselves like, to assimilate ourselves to, and to transform ourselves like. Who will we be in the future? "I will be the one who will have been perfectly clothed with the likeness of God and thus who is like God." To be like God does not mean to be a God, though. We will be like God through the works of Christ.
It has never been attempted, in the field of systematic theology in Christianity in the world today, to say without hesitation that we will become like God; they cannot say this. "You are to be holy, perfect, and pure as your heavenly Father is perfect"―this passage has been interpreted by great theologians as following: "As it is thus impossible for man, he was unable to be what God commanded him to be. So he is doomed to condemnation no matter how much he may have worked on other things. Human being has not sufficiently practiced God's laws." They understood that the passage stands to condemn rather than to hope that man will actually be as it is written.
Everybody! Still, we will be like God. We will be sons exactly the same as God. But we will remain the creature forever, not to become a Creator. In fact, we as the creature are to be clothed with the likeness of God. Today, though we are unable to accomplish this exceedingly great work, we can have help to be perfectly clothed in the likeness of God, with the power of Christ perfecting the sanctification and the redemption of grace.
"Who ... are believers ... so that your faith and hope are in God." We must believe for sure this word. 'So that your faith is in God' means that He is our hope and goal. That is referred to as faith. That our hope is in God means that we have our hope in God who will accomplish the exceedingly great work for us, knowing that creature's zeal, solidarity, or cooperation will not prevail. We have confidence in His hands. We believe in his power. We believe in His immutable covenant. We believe that everything is done through Him.
However strong the evil spirit and wickedness may be, Jesus redeemed us for this hope. We have hope in God that we will overwhelmingly overcome the wickedness, however cleverly it may tempt us, through Him who assumes responsibility for us and redeems us.
"So that your ... hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart." "You have in obedience to the truth purified your souls." To purify soul means to purify the mind and the body; in other word, to purify the flesh.
It is today when we are to purify the flesh. What does it mean to purify the flesh? It means to cleanse our body and mind. To cleanse our body and mind is to restore the first likeness which was made according to the likeness of God. It means to purge our body and mind of deceit and to equip ourselves completely. Today is when we are to purify our spirit.
Our mind may be defined as that which our thought, emotion, nerves, and memory are all put together as a whole. Scientists may well be surprised as they are working on human body. What man seems to know completely today is to be amended tomorrow owing to new things and findings. Today is when we must reconstruct and transform these inexpressible and innumerous elements of the mind and the body, in accordance with the purpose of the Creator, His will, His disposition, and His attributes.
"Since you have ... purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart."
"Since you have ... purified your souls." Theological seminaries in the world have not yet been able to define soul. There have not been unified definitions on soul, and spirit, and mind. Many say, "Mind is man's soul," and the others say, "Conscience is soul, and mind is what is in the body." Thus the knowledges on soul, spirit, mind, and body have not yet been unified. We know for sure that the truth is one, and what is right is one only. These crooked things have occupied the world to make it unsettled, hesitating, and staggering, preventing us from going the right way, and such is the last days. Blessed is he who hears and understands.
"Since you have ... purified your souls." It is time for us to purify without limit our thought, nerves, emotion, desire, judgement, knowledge, and intelligence. Now that the mind and the body have been purified to become like God to move and stop according to the will of God, "For a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart." I emphasized on love through the Book of Malachi at the last Daegu retreat camp. The utmost wrath of God has been stored for having men confused and lost about love.
'For a sincere love of the brethren,' or 'unfeigned love of the brethren' (KJV). What does this mean? To love brethren is to take brethren off of sin. Love is to become passive to God moving and stopping according to the will of God. Love is to join with God to become one. There is no other love but this.
We can exercise this without limit. "Whoever gives a cup of cold water to drink, he shall not lose his reward. To the extent that you did to one of the least, you did it to Me." "Now that you, who have the glorious promise and the covenant of rewards, have come to acquire the knowledge and intelligence to love brethren without deceit, fervently love one another! Love one another to the full!"
Everybody! Deceitful lives of all humans gathered together are not worthy to be compared with a day's life of a righteous person, and we live in such a world. This is the world. We are thus being deceived. We regard them great since these are visible to us, but they are only to be burned that are done apart from the word of God even though they are great and many.
Therefore let us not discount the word of God. 'Fervently love.' To love in a wrong way will be punished, but now we know how to love to the full extent without deceit. The Rewarder who says "Whoever gives a cup of cold water to drink, he shall not lose his reward," is waiting for us. How much valuable will it be to love brethren fervently without ceasing day and night?
A while ago one told me that he was under too much pressure to carry out the office of Sunday School teacher for middle school students. I said to him, "The amount of pressure arising from the concern for Sunday School pupils, that you feel day by day whenever you realize that you have to carry out the ministry, may be negligible, but you would be surprised if you could see that every single pressure were all added, say, for a year to amount to a huge sum. You could live free and unbound without pressure concerning the human salvation for a day or, soon, a year, only to find that when we come and see there the little freedom will have come to naught. The amount of burdensome pains that you take day by day devoting yourself completely to the truth and love will be accumulated, and you will be surprised. Do not take your steps of blessing in vain, and accomplish it faithfully."
Let us not be silly. Let us not be deceived. "For a sincere love of the brethren fervently love one another from the heart." 'Fervently love.' It is accomplished in this gospel which men of today disregard, to have close fellowship with God who is Lord of all things and King of kings, to receive Him, to be associated with Him, to serve Him, and to abide and to move with Him. If men knew this truth, those who are great and proud in their own estimation would grab all, leaving nothing available for us.
Everybody, do not be deceived. Do not be deceived. "For a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart ... All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you." Do not discount.
We must turn back! We must turn back! We must be changed completely. Who knows if the visible world which we love to rage in would end this very moment? Is there anything that we can say assuredly, "This is secure, this will not waver!" or "This will last a day"? Do not be silly! Youth can guarantee nothing, and health can guarantee nothing either. Do not harden your hearts. You must not harden your hearts today.
1982-08-15 Afternoon Our Salvation (Continued) 1 Peter 1:22-25
22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you.
We are living in the world with our own standards to look to. We have standards, e.g. a standard person to hope for, and a standard occasion to accomplish, and we are living to strive to win our standards.
Everybody's Own Standards
However, while it is undoubtedly true for those outside Christ, it is also true for believers in Jesus to be highly likely to have standards set wrong, to go crooked. Some standardize on a powerful figure to become like him, and some set standards on knowledge, their areas of activity, honor, or thought, to direct themselves hard to become like the goals.
No one lives without standards. Being keen on the standards, from when they enter elementary school until they die, people all set their own standards and strive to achieve them.
What are all standards? Though so many kinds in number, standards can be grouped into two. One is that which men set, a big or small thing chosen from the creation, and they work hard to become like that. The other is that which men set, the true God, the Absolute and Perfect, and they strive to become like Him.
The Christian Who Has Forgotten God as His Standard
It is natural for those who have received the redemption of Jesus to adopt God as their model and example, yet in fact many Christians choose vanities as their model and example. People look all alike while living in the world, but some have lived life to attain to God whereas others have lived to achieve a person, affair, or material things and the like.
We are exempt from the judgment of God but not from the Last Judgment of Christ. Under death because of the original and actual sins, the mankind adopts the creation as their standard and example through their lusts, resulting in complete destruction, but Jesus gave us a living hope through His Incarnation, redemption and resurrection. He gave us this exceedingly magnificent hope that we may adopt the perfect, eternal and immutable God as our example and model to run for Him, to grow up to Him, to learn Him, and to be transformed.
We make much of trivial things which are to cease and under a curse, but we disregard this magnificent salvation. We have not yet repented, being under the influence of the original and actual sins so that our knowledge, judgment and appraisal have not become normalized but still in death; we have become wretched enough to judge what is good as bad, what is to live as to die, what is to die as to live, what is valuable as worthless, and what is worthless as valuable. We have become exactly the opposite of the normal.
God's gospel of love has come to man who is miserable, but who is there to be blessed to prepare himself, having received this gospel truly as gospel? "When I come, will I find faith?" means that "when I come, will I find one who will truly adopt this great Lord of all things as model, to desire and work hard to take after Him and become like Him?" Indeed, such a one is rare to find.
Even if one is positioned in a right denomination to work this out, he will be deceived by one way or the other, that either he will go to extremes if he ever tries to work it out, or he will live a dead man, being a Christian in name only and having hope externally only according to flesh. Everybody is said to be living, but the number of those who are living and growing up is very small.
Exceedingly Magnificent Hope
Thus God has given us the exceedingly magnificent hope that we can choose God as our example and model to become and grow like Him. This hope is not what we ourselves took, rather it was given to us through the redemption of Christ. Christ is the divine nature of Jesus, and the Holy Sprit is the name of the Spirit of Christ.
It has become possible for us to adopt the likeness of God as our example to accomplish the work of becoming like Him through the works of Jesus' death and resurrection and through the Sprit of Christ who assumed the responsibility of completion of the vicarious redemption, that is, the grace of Jesus' works and God's power; otherwise it would be out of the question for us even to imagine or dream of the hope.
There are many religions besides Christianity, but no prominent figures have ever been able to grasp this line however hard they may have tried. No one but the Christian lives to hope for the likeness of God.
We have come to possess this exceedingly great hope through the redemption of Jesus. Christ is the name of God who has assumed the responsibility for completion of our love and intelligence to realize the likeness of God perfectly. For us who have received the works of Jesus, there is a remaining hope through Jesus that we will take this great hope to obey the truth to purify our souls.
To Purify the Soul
To purify the soul means to cleanse the mind and the body. When it comes to human mind, we have only a simple view about it, but our mind consists of a thousand, or ten thousands, or billions of elements. Human mind consists of enormously large number of elements which are equipped, perfect, and numerous beyond human imagination. The body also consists of a large number of elements.
With scientific advance researchers of human body also study psychology, and new discoveries which are being made along will surprise everybody. Body tissues, configurations and energetics are all complex and fine beyond our imagination. However brilliant the twentieth-century science may be, it has been unable to invent a billionth portion of the human body function. Far from it.
It is still more impossible to purify the soul however hard man tries and endeavors. However, with Christ's help through the redemptive works of Jesus we can accomplish a few simple kinds of mysterious obedience in our reality to proceed to purify our souls.
It is possible for our mind to become like the likeness of God, and also for our body to become functioning like the likeness of God so that we will be sanctified to conform to the perfect, omniscient, and omnipotent intelligence of God. Being a creature we can become like God. It is definitely possible. People discount this fact because they think that it is too magnificent a work to achieve, but it is not so.
The Scripture said that all exist for the sake of the salvation of Christ―God's becoming human, the redemption through the cross, the creation of all beings in the spiritual and material worlds, the preservation, and the providence; just as it is written, "All things are from God and for Him and through Him and to Him." It is said that all things are according to the will of God and the will of the Lord. 'According to the will of the Lord' means that they exist perfectly fit for the redemption. The Scripture clearly says that all things exist according to the will of the Lord and for His sake.
Now that we have been given this exceedingly magnificent hope, 'you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls'―this means the salvation of ourselves. We ourselves obey the truth to make our mind and body purified. This means that whatever ought not to be inside the mind and the body will be eliminated, and whatever ought to be inside the mind and the body will be present, whatever is too much will be decreased, and whatever is too little will be increased.
That everything is clean means that everything is clean from the standpoint of the likeness of God. 'You have ... purified your souls' means that we will become of perfect character like the likeness and the attributes of God.
Brotherly Love
What is good for thus to be purified? There is something to achieve. "For a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart."
Everybody! Our lives, the lives of all the creation, and God's life―all lives are only of love, nothing else. God's life is of love only, and our lives and all creatures' lives are of love only. 'Love only' means construction only. Construction only and no destruction. Construction only. What does 'construction only' mean? Construction means a movement of love to make a creature that was created by the only Self-existent God become just like Him. This movement is the love movement. Love movement is to make one like the only eternal and self-existent God. When the movement becomes visible outside, it can be called the remission movement, the justification movement, the propitiation movement, and the sanctification movement.
What is the love movement? Or what is love? The creatures, which were created by the perfect and Self-existent One, were not perfect when they were created. Love is a movement to make those creatures that were created come near the Self-existent and perfect Creator, to make those resemble the One, to make those conform to the One, and to make those become exactly like the only and Self-existent One by correcting and improving what is contradictory and opposite to the One.
It can be put differently as eternal life. "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Love can be worked out only through Him. Love can be worked out to make the creation truly happy, joyful and perfect.
Everybody! 'For a sincere love of the brethren,' people have had this biblical passage emptied of its essence inside, leaving the shell only. 'For a sincere love of the brethren,' the love in this passage has come to be interpreted as the love of completely fallen human nature―the love of lusts, the love of a company, and the love of flesh and blood; humans are playing perishing love only to perish. We received the word for discerning the kinds of love in the first session of last Daegu retreat camp.
Sincere Love of the Brethren
"Sincere," this means that we have become able to carry out the love without error, or the right love without error. This means further that in the presence of God in any contact with a creature we have been commissioned to correct, treat, and cure the creature of what is perverted and different from God, so as to make it conform to God rightly.
Men will love, for instance, their only son to make him blessed while they are living and even after they die. If we analyze this love, we will find that their entire love is all poison to kill. Poison only. Our words, actions, and thoughts in loving, say, our only son begotten late in life contain nothing but to kill him, without adulteration. Such perverse is human.
In a world like this, it will be extremely difficult to understand truly this passage, 'For a sincere love of the brethren.' It is too much discounted. 'For a sincere love of the brethren.' God is treating and operating on and rebuilding the creature which He wants. God is making better and perfect what He first created, and He continues making perfect subsequently and secondarily what He first created. This is the work which God is doing. It has already been taking six thousand years to make what had been made in six days perfect, right, and true to the likeness of God. But it is yet to be completed after six thousand years. Now, we have become qualified to do this work which God wants, or to do this glorious work rightly and not perversely.
Fervently Love One Another from the Heart
"Fervently love one another from the heart."―"Work hard on this construction toward one another." "Fervently love."―"Work hard on this construction." To construct means to be a co-worker of God and to go together with God. God says about the merit of this work as this: "I will not forget to reward whoever troubles himself to offer a cup of cold water on behalf of this love movement, and to invest even a cup of cold water for a fervent love and for a sincere love. I will not forget to reward him."
The eternal Lord, the Sovereign, and the King of kings, He said that what is invested in this love movement will not fail to obtain its reward when He evaluates every human life on the judgment seat of Christ. This is shocking. It is stunning in that we do not know about this.
Satan in any way covers and hides this so as to make man only see the things to be corrupted and only do the things that are already dead and to be dead. Satan makes parents who love their children only kill their children. Satan has made men destroy themselves in every way, and the reason that they destroy themselves is odd: because they love themselves, and this is what the evil spirit has turned upside down.
Man sets creatures that are to be destroyed as his standards and he himself is destroyed as the creatures are destroyed, and he proclaims that he has succeeded. This is shocking, mankind!
Mankind! awake!
Mankind! awake!
It is shocking. They will know only after they have died.
Men set destruction as their standard to endeavor to realize day and night. Whenever they think that their standard is obtained one after another, the destruction is in fact being made and increasing. Satan turns it over completely and oppositely, saying to men, "Your success is becoming greater, your authority is becoming greater, your glory is becoming greater," exactly opposite of what is happening.
In this world of destruction men must set God the perfect One as the model to follow as the archetype. We are like an artificial flower which is being made like a real flower and He is like the real flower, and we are an ectype to the prototype, God. We have come to understand what is impossible for us to apprehend through the vicarious redemption of Jesus Christ, even this exceedingly glorious work, and we have come to be able to carry out the work. Then, "Fervently purify your soul! In obedience purify your soul!"
Secular knowledge is not always pernicious, and it can be beneficial when attained right. How many pieces of human mental functions have the twentieth-century psychologists discovered? Thousands or tens of thousands? How are they organized, how are they operated, and how are they now functioning?
"Purify promptly all these in accordance with His likeness adopting the perfect One as model. Get rid of what ought not to be and furnish what ought to be." 'You have ... purified your souls.' What have we purified our souls for? 'For a sincere love of the brethren.' Now you are to carry out the construction which will incur no regret eternally.
'For a sincere love of the brethren.' What does this mean? "Even though you have built a prominent world or contributed enormously to the twentieth-century culture, which is a good example of construction, it will have a day of termination. It will have a day of condemnation to return to naught. Now as a human being you obtained a way to endeavor the right construction for which you will never regret eternally, and you have acquired the means and ability to accomplish it; then, fervently love. Fervently carry out this love. Fervently carry out this love."
'Fervently carry out the love' means "to correct your life as you live on. Fervently correct it. Fervently correct what is perverse. Join your life with God as you move and stop along with God. Not only strive to join your work with the Absolute One but also carry out fast the construction to conform your character to His nature. Invest your riches unsparingly, invest your body, youth, health, and life to carry out the construction."
What is the construction good for? "To the extent that you did to the least, you did it to Me. Whoever gives a cup of cold water to drink, I shall never forget to reward him." There is a reward for the construction. There is a reward in the eternal kingdom in which the spiritual world and material world are united in Christ.
There is a reward, promotion, welcome, approval, and value of that kingdom. Today we are making the value of that kingdom. Today we are making the situation of that kingdom. Today we are striving in advance to avoid reproaches in that kingdom. Today we are making the welcome of that kingdom of that day.
This will be all an insane saying to those who have no faith and who do not acknowledge God. An insane word and a lie. Still, not a stroke of this word shall pass away though heaven and earth pass away. Let us not be silly.
"Fervently do this." It is written that we have been born again of water and the Spirit, and inside we have been born again of the life of God. We need to know this correctly. We are born again of the living of God. We are born again of the enduring word of God.
We must know about regeneration correctly. We are born again of the being of God, and we are born again of the connection to the being of God. This regeneration cannot be altered unless He ceases to exist.
'Enduring word' does not mean simply that what was once said abides forever. The will of God comes out at this moment and again the next moment, and it continues to come out eternally forevermore. We have been born of that will, and thus the will that keeps coming out is our activities. Our activities.
The correct definition of regeneration has not yet been established in the systematic theology in the worldwide Christianity. We must grasp it clearly. It has been only said that we are regenerated of water and the Spirit. Regeneration is connected to the God's being alive. The will of God preceeding out continuously of Him eternally forevermore, that is the work of God. We are born again of the work of God and we are connected to the work of God. Therefore, God's work is operated through us eternally. It is indeed a word hard to hear and understand.
All Flesh Is Like Grass
Therefore, do not be silly. "All flesh is like grass." This means of course that young body soon shrinks with age, but that is not all. There is a greater meaning to that. All the cultures that the twentieth-century takes pride in are likened to be the vitality of grass and the flower of grass.
The origin of all in the twentieth century that have been produced in the last six thousand years, the first four thousand years of human works with the additional two thousand years, is itself like the flower of grass―"All the flesh is like grass." What has been producing the twentieth-century culture will wither like grass! It will wither!
"All its value is like the flower of grass." Its value will suddenly fade away reducing to naught. What all the people in the world say that this is worthy―we should know that that is grass. We should know that it is grass. We should know that its value is just like the flower of grass. It will vanish definitely. It will vanish clearly. No value of existence. They only lead man astray temporarily and do not have real value. Therefore, it was said to be 'worldly fables fit only for old women.'
"All flesh is like grass." What has come out of human being is like grass. We must know that what they say, "Judging from sociality and historicity for six thousand years, this is perfect enough to last forever," is grass. We must know that it is doomed to wither and vanish. It will quickly wither!
Even though all say that something is great in value and authority, it is all like a flower. Appearing in short time with its beautiful glory, brilliance, and authority, it may have all the countries in the world lean toward itself, but it is a flower. Soon it will wither and vanish. We must evaluate and judge according to this one word of God, and pass judgment on it to dwell on it no more.
We must hope in this one thing, to follow Him who is not to vanish, to resemble Him, to learn Him, and to become like Him, and we must submit to a word after another to perfect ourselves in conformity to God.
Summary
"You have in obedience ... purified your souls." How have our souls been purified in obedience? If human mind obeys the mind of God, God acts actively and man will follow passively and become like God. Human wisdom, thought, and ability become the same as those of God. Connected to the Perfect One and caused to act by Him, we will be just like Him. Exactly like Him. Being a creature, we are of the same as God in some respects.
'A sincere love of the brethren.' Have all the creation cleansed and perfected so that God will say, "You have done well to this thing or this person. I am satisfied. Well done." This person acts as if he were an enemy to you because he does not know well, but he will later bow his head to marvel and to thank you forever. This is the glory that the Lord has clothed us with and this is the glorious work of love.
What is the work of love? We should not be ignorant of this. We cannot receive this way with a desire of flesh inside us. It cannot enter into us. There is no way to enter into us.
'Fervently love.' All flesh that you indulge in is like grass. Whatever is originated in man is grass, be it history, science, power, literature, or arts. It is like grass. It is to wither soon and to be seen no more. Its glory is like the flower of grass. It is said, "The grass withers, and the flower falls off, and its beauty vanishes, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you." Let us not be silly.
"All Flesh Is Like Grass." 'All flesh' means whatever is originated from the human mind and body to be produced and thus exists, and it is said to be like grass. Whatever is originated from the human mind and body to be produced and thus exists is said to be like grass. It means that anthropocentricism is like grass. Everybody! It means that anthropocentricism is like grass. 'All its glory like the flower of grass' means that its value―what all people say that it is invaluable and honorable―is like the flower of grass. Do not be misled by the flower. It will soon fall off.
"Buy from Me eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see, wide and all, the flower both blossoming now and withering then. Open your eyes that transcend time and space to see all things and live." Let us not be silly.
To believe in Jesus never means to be deceived. That you have lived according to the gospel will never be regrettable. Rather, it will be regrettable otherwise. One is the most blessed who believes to practice according to this word without discount since no stroke in the word is false.
'A sincere love of the brethren.' Now there is a way for us to be truly praised forever by the creation if we only desire. At the same time, we can also go a way so as to receive grievances and complaints against us forever.
Let us bear this deeply in mind and repent. We must stand up. Do not discount. This is not a vain saying only. This word will not pass away even though heaven and earth pass away. Not a stroke of the word will be added or deleted. It is the word, not what I am saying of my own will. It is the word of God. No addition or deletion. It is just as it is written here.
