The Bloody Truth

It has been a hectic Easter weekend for me. 3 sermons plus 1 online sermon. 2 bible studies cum discussion. and 1 church wedding. I have a number of things to share with u but i shall not jump the gun..

first, I think I should summarise what I wanted to say in the last post. I am sorry for being so long-winded. anyway, here's the summary: according to the bible, there is one god. God had sent his son down to this world about 2006 years ago to do certain things and say certain things that revealed God to us. those deeds and words were recorded in the bible and we are able to know God today through the bible. and the bible is God's word.

I didn't believe in all those right away so I don't expect you to accept those as gospel truth.. but lets assume first that those things are true, that there is a god and he has spoken to us through the bible..

that will allow me to explain the events of Good Friday and its significance. I have deliberately left out something so fundamental and central to Christianity thus far and that something or someone is Jesus Christ. without Jesus Christ, there is no Christianity.. and the things he did and said are central to Christianity and form the basis for the Christian faith.

on Good Friday some 2040 years ago, Jesus Christ was nailed to death on the cross. even my secondary 1 cousin has heard of it and so has everyone of u who are reading this. and the whole crucifixion has been so vividly depicted in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.. when I watched the film, I was still a non-Christian. but I was already investigating the faith so it had extra significance for me then.. behind the blood and the gore, what does all these mean for me? what has it got to do with me?

I had already read then that Jesus died on the cross because of our sins. this is also one of the most important points of Christianity. and possibly the hardest to fully understand and accept. Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I thought of that statement for many months. in the beginning, it was utter disbelief. it just did not make sense. I thought it was some idea conjured up by Christians. that was my idea of religion then, that they were all made up by man..

but as I started to attend Just Looking and church services, I realised that the Christians really believed that it happened. it was a historical event that really took place. and they took it really seriously. I was amazed but at the same time bewildered. I cannot believe that the people there, some of them lawyers, teachers, doctors, undergraduates, can believe in something like that. that this person called Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross and because of this act, it wipes off all our past wrongdoing and we are saved.. it was ridiculous and absurd to me then..

but even before I get further, do u think u have done anything wrong? for myself, it was not hard for me to accept that I have sinned. maybe not the word sin then. but I can readily accept that I am not a good person. I have done many wrong things in the past. including things like cheating in a common test.. telling lies to my parents.. watching and surfing pornography.. and many more. and yup, u can never judge a book by its cover and I believe each of us has his/her own darkest secrets.. and u know what, it is not as if we do not know what is right or what is wrong. we know that it is wrong to cheat and lie and surf porn.. our conscience tells us that they are wrong. even the most cold-blooded murderer knows that it is wrong to kill.. yet in a moment of impulse or caught in this self-perpetuating cycle of denial and wrongdoing, we continue to do wrong.. of course, it is easy to condemn the rapists and the serial murderers who made it to the frontpages but the only difference between our wrongdoings and theirs is that theirs are punishable by law and ours aren't or ours are still under cover and haven't yet been caught. and interestingly, I realise that there are times I deperately want to do what is right but end up giving in to my temptations and doing the opposite. do u feel at times u can't help it when u utter a vulgarity, talk bad about someone or hate someone? do u feel that as u grow older, u start to rationalise things and start to accept your wrongdoings?

and I suggest to u that that is the essence of sin, that we know what is right and yet persist in doing wrong. and at the heart of sin is the rejection of God and a stubborn disobedience to his laws and commands. we want to do things our way.. we do things to gratify our desires.. we do things to please ourselves. we don't want God in our lives to dictate what we should do. we even choose not to believe in God..

and the result of all these is punishment and death. why? because God cannot stand our rebellion and wrongdoings.. he cannot turn a blind eye to our sin.. he is not a "bochup" god. the best way i can put it is this. God is like a human father who loves his son dearly. yet his son did all sorts of things that upset him.. his son rejected his father's authority over him and even refused to recognise him. as a result, the father punished his son and disowned him.. he can no longer go back to his home..

yet God, out of his love, gave us a lifeline.. which we have done nothing to deserve. this lifeline is his son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God who came in human form. He was perfect and without sin. yet he sacrificed his life for all our sins. so that because of his sacrifice, God can now accept us and forgive us if we put our trust in Jesus Christ.. and we know that God had accepted this sacrifice because Jesus Christ was resurrected on the third day. if he had remained dead like all mankind, it would have meant that the sacrifice was futile and insufficient.

to put it back into the analogy, despite the father's anger, he still loved his son. one day his son was caught for drug trafficking and was sentenced to death. at this point, the judge took off his robe and wig and pronounced this son not guilty. instead, the judge walked over and took his son's place and would be the one who would be sent to the gallows. the son finally realised his father's love for him.

as much as this analogy is imperfect, the bible sums it up "For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son to die on the cross for our sins, that whoever believes in him would never perish but have everlasting life."

and that is the bloody truth I have for u.. again this is one big chunk of info which I emphasise again I am not forcing u to believe in. I am just trying to explain the Christian faith here.. if u think it's rubbish, I will urge u to think why it is rubbish and what evidence do u have to support that it is rubbish.. and I will give my two cents worth in my next post about why it is not rubbish. but I guess most people will play the goody-two-shoe and say, "well, I respect your religion but I have the right to believe in anything." and I have to say this must be the most effective statement in response to everything I have said. I say man have sinned. you say: that's what u say or what ur bible says, I am entitled to my own beliefs. I say those who don't believe will be punished. you say: I don't buy your crap and you guys are bloody arrogant for insisting that your bible is superior to everything else on earth.

you see, I am trying to reason with you here. we believe in what we believe because of the bible. your defence is based on human emotion and gut feel. I feel that there is no God. I feel that there are many Gods. I feel that God loves me. I feel that God allows me to do this.. if there is no one God, then there is no right and there is no wrong. our world teaches us to believe in diversity, multi-truths and relativity. versus absolute Christianity. if absolute Christianity is to be right, then it better has some strong proof and basis for its claims. then again, u can always say that Christianity is absolutely right and the others are absolutely right as well.

I shall attempt to explain why the bible, and thus Christianity, is true in my next post.. and I would rather at the end of it all, u take either one of these 2 stands: Christianity is right vs Christianity is wrong..