Thursday, September 11, 2008

Life without a purpose?

I feel that, if I could live a thousand lives, I would like to live them all for Christ, and I should even then feel that they were all too little a return for His great love to me.
C. H. Supurgeon

I believe many are living a life out there, whereby they themselves can't seem to figure out what is the purpose of living. Many claimed that they are here to have fun, some claimed that they are here because "accidents happen", while some may claimed that they have a mission on earth (i.e. to study, to earn a living, to get married etc)
What then is your purpose in life? Merely fun? Mission? Or should I say parents?
What is in the future, I do not know. Nevertheless, there's something that I can be sure of in everybody's life. Death.
Yes, many might said "CHOI" when I said the word "death" in front of them, but think of it this way, since death is so certain in life, why then are you ignoring it and not face it? How can you live a life with joy when death is so certain in life? Can death really be overcome? Well, of cause you can =) Let us then starts off by looking at what is death, should we?
What is death?

In the beginning,
when God created the earth and man, everything was perfect. Nevertheless, there was one commandment that God gave to His first man and woman (Adam & Eve), which is "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17).

Everything was perfect until one day when Eve was much persuaded by a serpent to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Subsequently, Adam also took it as Eve passed it to him. There it was, the fall of mankind. The first ever sin on earth, committed by our representative of human race. It is just like a cup of clear water being added with a drop of detergent. Though only one drop of detergent, the water became unclean. Therefore, before the fall, they are perfect however, after the fall they are sinful in nature. If left to the choice of pleasing God or pleasing self, they tend to follow the latter.

When Adam sinned against God, he was guilty before God. Due to the fact that he is the representative of human, thus, we are sinful in nature though we are not born yet. You might argue that we are not the descendant of Adam thus you are not guilty before God. Now, look into the bible and read carefully. In the beginning it is passed down the there's 7 days a week and on the seventh day, it is Sabbath. Now, tell me, are you not also in the same "time measurement"? You can try and change it to 8 days a week or modify it but your effort will be in vain as historically, people have tried that but failed. Due to the fact that we are all from the same ancestor, thus, the time measurement is the same throughout the century.

As we are the descendant of Adam, thus, we inherited his sinful nature when we are born to this earth. When we are left alone, we are likely to sin. We all grew up sinning against God in terms of speech, thoughts, and actions or even not doing what He wants us to do. As we are always breaking God's law, thus, we stand guilty and sinful before God.

Adam and Eve will need to face up with the truth that they will die physically due to their committed sin. Furthermore, they also died spiritually as the moment they sin against God, they were departed from God. They are driven away from God because they offended God (Gen 3:24). From the preceding, it is thus concluded that we too are then dead physically as well as spiritually as we are the descendant of Adam. Despite that, we are doubly guilty (besides inheriting Adam's sin) before God as we ourselves commit sin every single second on earth.

(Taken from: http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2006-11-16-review-happy-feet_x.htm)
A way out of death? Out of the bondage of sin?

Wanting to get out from the bondage of sin and death? Do you think you can? You can try but I can assure you that your effort is in vain.

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

You can never clean yourself because whatever good that you have, it can never patch up whatever you have done wrong in God's eyes. As claimed in Isaiah, all your so call righteous works are just like a filthy rags before Him, because we can never be righteous before Him.

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil." (Jeremiah 13:23)

Didn't that verse above just describe our status? How can we, sinners, do good? We can never ever do good nor be perfect before God. What can we do then since we can never be perfect and always fall short of His glory? That just mean that we are so condemned to hell isn't it?

God is a God of love and merciful (Psalm 86:5). Before you were to come and change yourself and realized that you can't, God already plan for you since the beginning.

Since the beginning, God the father, son and Holy Spirit, already made the agreement among each other to save a certain people. God planed the Son to come in perfect human being and yet never seems to be God. That person Jesus Christ is actually son of God and son of men. He’s divine as well as human. He has two natures in one person; he became the perfect mediator between God and man. He represents God before human and perfect human before God.

How He deal with the problem, our sin against God and our sinful nature? Jesus live a perfect life, he was arrested and put to death on the cross. Those days, crucifixion is the cruelest way to kill thieves. All those people were influenced to kill him. He rose again on the 3 day and ascended to heaven. However, he will come back to judge the world.

When Jesus dies, He became the perfect sacrifice for those chosen people. This shows that his sacrifice is accepted by God when He rose back from death. We rightly speaking were to undergo the punishment but Jesus undergoes that for us. It is not a normal death but a substitute for us. Therefore, Jesus paid the price of our sin on the cross so that we will not need to undergo that punishment.

When Jesus dies on the cross, He dies as a “sinner” because of us. When God looks at Christian, He sees no more on our sin as the sin are dealt with on the cross. The righteousness of God is given to us while our sin given to Him. Therefore we are not guilty before God.


In short, the blood of Christ cleanses us as He dies for us. Therefore, our sinful nature is taken away by Christ and His death. We will need to turn from our sin, repenting before God and trust in Him. A Christian will know that he is forgiven. Only those who repented and trust in Him will benefit from His death, else you are not a Christian.


What is repentance?
You realize that you are guilty against God, you are unable to come to God and unable to come before God. When you hear the gospel, you made up your mind and not to lose your life to your sinful nature and turn to God and trust in Him and depend on Him and Him alone to save you. You know He is the son of God and come in the form of a perfect human nature and crucify on the cross. Because of that, you wash clean and able to come to God and be saved.


How may I know that I am a true Christian and accepted by God?
You have a different life but not a perfect life. Nevertheless, there’s a transformation in out life because the Holy Spirit lives within you. It gives you the desires to seek Him, understanding and obeying His commands. If you walk carefully before God, the number of time you sin is minimal. Every time you sin, you are burden and wanted to come before God and seeking for forgiveness.


=Endz=

Yeap, long long post indeed, enjoy reading... ^.^ Hopefully, after reading this, you will find your purpose for life.

2 comments:

PilgrimBie said...

wow!
that's such a long long long post.. lolz. but i like reading it. =)

Shan Shang said...

Haha.. Sorry for the long post, I was actually trying to train myself in writing. Will keep it short and simple for the next few posts ^.^