first attempt

So this is my maiden attempt at writing seriously in this blog.

The reason for the delay is mainly because I have too high an expectation of myself writing a perfect entry like a pastor delivering his/her sermons. Too unrealistic to be true. Furthermore, I am not a good writer, I do not have a brain that can properly organize thoughts like a PC. Eventually,I decided to give myself more time to grow. To start small, and pray that God will lead me in improving my writing skills.

I've been listening to Pdt. Yohan Candawasa lectures about the doctrine of salvation (SOTERIA). It is truly eye-opening for me, to learn deeply the concepts of God's salvation.

Basically, SOTERIA is about being saved from the our deviation and put back into His mighty plan. There are two consequences of salvation :
1. Negative (FROM) - saved from sins (our deviation)
2. Positive (FOR) - saved such that we can live a holy life (in His mighty plan)

It is then dangerous to think only in the negative aspect, that Jesus died on the cross MERELY to save us from sins. To be more clear about this, an example about a fire that happened inside a building is provided. To escape from the fire, people will have to use the emergency exit. However once they go THROUGH the exit, free from the fire, the emergency exit will have no further use for them. So is Jesus useless after we've accepted Him as Our Saviour? Is that the extent of His power? NO!

Not only are we cleansed from our sins, we are also freed from sins (kuasa dosa). We are no more slaves to sins. As seen in Rome 6:6-7
"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin."

I've been always thinking of Jesus' death ONLY to pay my sins. I've never thought about it freeing me from sins, from the power of evil. That is probably why I kept falling into making the same mistakes over and over again. That is probably why I kept repenting and acknowledging my sins but soon I was far from God again. I've seen my own brother now, so far from God. Imagine 4 years ago, he was telling my grandpa about Jesus, he was telling my mom he wanted to be a priest. Where is that now? I've seen friends I used to go church with, not living wholly as a Christian. Yes, Sunday is going-to-church day but the rest of the days are mine. I can do anything to it according to my will. If people continue to abuse God, to abuse Jesus as a tool to clean them from their sins, they will never attain the true salvation because they have never understood the true meaning of salvation.

God's grace is too great for my mind to understand. God's grace gave me FAITH in Him. I once was lost, I once abandoned Him but God's grace found me. God's grace let the spiritually dead me live again. God's grace lead me into new friendships, into a new community, a Christian fellowship that taught me more than any community I've ever been in. It was His Grace that led me into this level of understanding of salvation. Now I know that I truly have that salvation. Why? of course, the Holy Spirit working inside me tells me so and also because now I have a different view of sins. We should not be saddened and scared by the punishment due to our sins, but instead we should be scared of the sin itself. We are just like a child who occasionally does something wrong and is given punishment by his parents. The child will usually stop doing wrong merely because the punishment he received before was harsh, and the memory of it is too excruciating for him to repeat the same wrongdoings. But he has never understood why his action is wrong. This is dangerous, isn't it?
It is thus important not to understand salvation only by "THROUGH Jesus", but also by "IN Jesus". Saved through Him from our sins and then live in Him free from the power of evil.

Yes, I agree that I have not understood salvation as a whole, well who can? God's way is incomprehensible by man, and all we can do is to sought to understand something that is supernaturally wonderful.

I think I'll stop here first. I dare not write any longer lest I get my hopes too high up and cancel the post again. There are just TOO MUCH information I wish I can write but I guess I'll just leave it to the next post. Be patient, pat !