Author: Rev. Lek Aik Wee

One of the two criminals that hung on the cross with Jesus Christ at the execution ground of the Jews outside Jerusalem called Calvary, confessed with his mouth and believed with his heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. He was gloriously saved in the last moments of his physical life.

Jesus Christ is Lord to all mankind. There is no distinction between the Jew and the Gentile. God’s plan was to bringing the riches of His blessing to all mankind through the nation of Israel. More specifically, through Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah. The blessing of God’s salvation will go forth from the Jews to all the nations of the world.

Thank God for the gospel. Salvation would become impossible if we have to keep the law to be saved. The sinful nature in man renders it impossible for him to keep the law as summarized in the Ten Commandments. But salvation comes by faith in the truth that God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Faith in the heart and confession of the mouth is God’s way of saving a soul destined for judgment in hell fire.

God provided His Laws by which Israel is to live. The people of Israel are not to imbibe the ways of Egypt nor the ways of the inhabitants of Canaan. Israel has a God-ordained mission to be a witness of God to the nations of the world. Her work was to bring forth her foremost Son, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. All the Laws given by God to Israel pointed them to faith in the salvific work of Jesus Christ. Israel stumbled when she rejected her Messiah, Jesus. Both His death and resurrection is prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures. Worship and the sacrificial system in both the Tabernacle when they came out of Egypt and in the Temple in Jerusalem pointed to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins.

Can a man with a sinful nature be reconciled to a holy God? The answer is, no! What then is the way out? God provided the solution through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. This is the development of biblical history and thought. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, by a miraculous virgin conception, the sinless Son of God, to live a perfect life, keeping all the law on our behalf in His lifetime to win righteousness on our behalf. He is crucified on the cross to bear our sins, shed His blood to wash away our sins and died as our Substitute for the penalty of sin. Three days later, He rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death.

True holiness and true love begin with a transformed heart. A person is transformed from within to something new. A new nature where inner holiness and love are present in the heart. From the beginning, the Bible tells us that man is made in God’s image. What does that image of God look like? It comes in the regeneration when one is born again, the image of God is restored. When one’s sin is washed clean and forgiven by the merits of Christ’s death on the cross. And His resurrection from the dead breathes new life, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to the soul.