There is only one Door to heaven and the Father, His son, Lord Jesus, the Saviour of mankind. Those who do not believe in Him, term all doors of all religions leading to God in heaven. Their faith is in the good works that they do and their behaviour with others, that opens the door to heaven for them. Sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross becomes of little or no value to them.
Why do we need a Redeemer? God created a just world, where man was given all dominion rights over everything and He created Eve to be man’s suitable helpmeet to assist him in managing it all. Since they were not supposed to know the difference between ‘good and evil’, they were to have a feeling of guilt for not completing a day’s planned task but not suffer from shame or fear of punishment. After sin entered their lives, both these feelings entered their souls and they hid from God out of fear of punishment. In a culture with guilt as the predominant factor, forgiveness and love are the basic guides for life. The sense of guilt leads a person to seek forgiveness and set things right.
In shame culture, one hides every wrong to avoid facing embarrassment and this itself would be the punishment. Every wrong is hidden and least corrective action takes place in such a family or a society. The failure to comply with instruction is hidden and not exposed and the person continues in disobedience. In the fear culture it is punishment for doing something wrong or for not doing it, that dominates. This fear is to escape pain from being caught and it leads one away from God. The establishment of set laws in a society is not the main cause of obedience but the fear of punishment and this in itself becomes the reason to follow laws.
The All-knowing God came looking for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to forgive them and set them back on the right path. The degeneration of society, after sin, was so fast that Cain killed his own brother Abel out of jealousy and anger (Genesis 4:8). The sin of mankind grieved God for ‘the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence’ (Genesis 6:11). God destroyed everything in the flood of Noah and only eight persons were saved along with all the species of animals and beasts. When even this also was not enough to control sin and man attempted to reach heaven with his own efforts, God confused their language and scattered them ‘over the face of all the earth’ (Genesis 11:7-8).
After getting the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, God gave His law to Moses, who led them out, on Mount Sinai to set up guidelines for mankind to live on the earth. The four purposes of the law are; first, for their own good; second, to reveal Himself to them; third, to set them apart in order to reveal Himself to others and finally, to reveal humanity’s need for a Saviour. God revealed His expectations from them, ‘what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul………. For your good’ (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). God intended to show them the way to live as a just society through living in God’s way. It was for this purpose of reconciling man to God that the procedure of animal sacrifice was instituted by God. Since sin lead to death, the sacrifice of an animal met that requirement. But this was not a permanent solution and pointed to the need of mankind for someone, without sin, to meet the requirement of the Law.
The good that human beings try to do can never compensate for the evil that we do in our lives. This becomes clear when we understand the exact definition of sin. Lord Jesus taught about adultery being sin and said, ‘whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart’ (Matthew 5:27-28). Equal to the commission of sin is even thinking about it. Sin is not only in the very act but also in visualisation of it. Apostle James has further clarified, ‘one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin’ (James 1:14-15).
Temptation is not sin but to turn sinful thoughts to sinful desires is further sin. Eve must have seen the tree of knowledge of good and evil before but after her temptation by the devil, she saw, ‘that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise’ (Genesis 3:6). The sin was to agree to the temptation and once we start planning sin is committed. This becomes clearer further when we understand that ‘to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin’ (James 4:17). With this understanding of sin, who can claim to enter heaven in his own right.
Jewish people are known to keep immaculate records and their genealogical records date back to hundreds of years. Their leaders kept a close watch over all activities of Lord Jesus to catch Him in committing some wrong.
After giving such a clear definition about sin, Lord Jesus could challenge the Jewish leaders, ‘Which of you convicts Me of sin? (John 8:46). Mankind required someone above sin to pay for their sins to free them from the clutches of sin and evil, through His death in our place. Since He was sinless and death is result of sin, He had to be resurrected back to life, for justice of God to prevail
Why do the Jews not believe in Lord Jesus as Messiah? The daily Shema prayer that the Jews recite three times a day is about one God. Moses had taught, ‘Hear (Shema), O Israel; The LORD our God, the LORD is one’ (Deuteronomy 6:4). Right from the beginning of the creation narrative, the Holy Spirit is mentioned repeatedly as the Spirit of God, which cannot be considered separate from God. Also, the Jewish mystics or Kabbalists interpret the creation process more clearly. As per them before God created anything, He contracted His glory to create an empty space, for nothing can be added to Him nor subtracted. In this space God released a beam of His glory which was used by Him to create everything in heaven or on earth.
The Jewish mystics interpretation of creation is much recent while Apostle John, himself a Jew, recognised Lord Jesus as ‘The Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God’ (John 1:1-4 & 9). In the creation process, all things were created by the spoken Word of God and since He emanated from God, it was part of God and God only. And then, He was identified as the Creator and life giver and ‘light of men’. Later He is seen as the ‘True Light which gives light to every man coming into the world’, where light is seen as the glory of each person.
The Jewish leaders interpreted the Law in their own way and made it into a total of 613 commands to be followed by everybody. Also, they ignored the prophecy by Prophet Isaiah about the sufferings of the Messiah (Issiah 53) to redeem His people from the clutches of sin and the devil. Thus, faith was converted into rituals, where following the customs became more important. The Jews believe that when the Messiah comes. He will establish His kingdom on earth and bring peace, which is the Second Coming of Lord Jesus to judge and condemn the sinners.
Also, animal sacrifice and the yearly festivals during different times of the year fuelled Jerusalem’s economy. At the dedication of the Temple, King Solomon and the ‘people offered sacrifices before the LORD’, and Solomon offered 22,000 bulls and 1,20,000 sheep (2 Chronicles 7:4-5). This was the normal custom during yearly festivals when about 1,20,000 animals were sacrificed. The sacrificial animals were raised in the Bethlehem area and most of the business was owned by the High Priest and the Jewish leaders, members of the Sanhedrin.
The Jewish rich and the leaders were part of their 70-member supreme council, called Sanhedrin, and the Chief Priest controlled this council. Listening to the Word from Lord Jesus various people reacted in faith (John 7:40-53). First, many people called Him, ‘the Prophet’ about whom Moses had prophesied (Deuteronomy 18:18) while others called Him, ‘The Christ, the Anointed One’. They were silenced with the prophecy of Messiah being born in Bethlehem and not from Galilee, without enquiring into His background fully. The Temple guard officers also reported back to the Chief Priests and the Pharisees saying, ‘No man ever spoke like this Man’. Nicodemus, who had visited the Lord at night (John 3:2) also questioned, ‘Does our Law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? Like all others, he was also silenced by the others, who sided with the Chief Priests out of fear of losing their position.
When Lazarus was raised back to life, after being dead for four days, the point raised in envy against the Saviour Lord was, ‘What shall we do? For this Man works many signs? If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation’ (John 11:47-48). The Chief Priest and the others were supposed to guide the others in understanding the Scriptures and lead them in obedience to the Word of God. Because of various prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah, the people were eagerly waiting for His coming and some did come up claiming to be one. The Sanhedrin investigated all such claims and found them false. The Jewish leaders’ concern was more about their own position than providing religious leadership to the people.
The Roman soldiers were witness to the appearance of angels at the tomb, rolling away of the stone, the empty tomb and Mary Magdalene seeing and talking to the Risen Lord. When they reported this to the Jewish leaders, they were given a large sum of money to say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept’. A Roman soldier would suffer death for this but even Pontius Pilate took no action for the same Jewish who had got the tomb sealed, did not complain.
A High Priest was for life and only those from Aaron’s lineage could be appointed. The Romans started appointing the High Priest and as per legend a large amount of money was paid to get appointed and changes were frequent. The desire of the High Priest, then, was his own financial wellbeing. All these reasons were coloured with a religious tinge to reject Lord Jesus as the Messiah.
Redemption to mankind was given through the sacrifice of Lord Jesus on the cross. Since the Temple had become more important than God to the Jews, Lord Jesus’ prophecy of its destruction was fulfilled within thirty years of His resurrection in AD 70. Just because the Jews or many others even today do not believe in the Messiah, the truth does not change and become a lie. Everyone has to stand before the Judgement seat one day and give account of his/her life. The one who rejects Him as his Saviour does so at his own risk
Proof of Lord Jesus being the Messiah – Every believer undergoes change in his life and that is the biggest proof. The disciples travelled all over the world for the sake of the Gospel, suffered difficulties and even death. No one would suffer, even death, for a lie. Apostle Thomas was killed by a spear in Chennai and his memorial stands there. Apostle Paul left his great future as a Pharisee, membership of the Sanhedrin and other privileges to suffer stoning, abuse and death. The Jews accused Lord Jesus of blasphemy but could not answer His statement, ‘If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him’ (John 10:37-38).
Jewish belief is that a soul remains near its dead body for three days and re-enter the body, if permitted by God and after that there is no chance. Lazarus was raised to life after three days and giving of life is only in the hands of God. The widow’s son in Nain and Jairus’s daughter were also raised to life by the Lord.
The prophecy about the virgin birth was fulfilled and Immanuel, God with us, came and dwelt with us (Isaiah 7:14). Mary was the only person on earth who could testify to this and she loved her Son. She came looking for Him, for the Pharisees and Sadducees were after Him (Matthew 12:46). The Jewish leader’s main charge against Lord Jesus was about His claim to be the Son of God. When they took Him from Gethsemane Park, on the next day, Mary could have told them about His earthly father, if there was one and saved His life. From the time that He started His ministry, He never addressed her as His mother but as any other woman for then He was her Saviour more than her Son. Even on the cross, when He charged Apostle John to care for her, she was told, ‘Woman, behold your son’ (John 19:26). Nobody who died, ever came back to life, that too after three days and ascended into heaven as seen by many, present on the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:9).
In the Gospel of John there is mention of Lord Jesus performing ‘many signs in the presence of His disciples’ but that only ‘these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ’ (John 20:30-31). Over the past more than two thousand years, His disciples have been performing various signs in His name, thus certifying the working of His power through them. The one who does not want to believe are the ones ‘whose minds the god of this age has blinded’ (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Many people turn a blind eye to the truth of Lord Jesus being God and Saviour, for fear of others’ reactions. Nobody will die for us and face sufferings in the hell-fires and our decision today will decide and seal our fate till eternity. Anyone who is still thinking, is risking his future and there may not be another chance.
