According to God's Will

 

According to God's Will

 

1 Corinthians 1:1 "Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus according to God's will (dia thelematos), and Sosthenes our brother..."

"Dia thelematos" (διὰ θελήματος) means "through the will of God." The meaning of the word "through" is to communicate. The word "apostle" means one who communicates with God. This applies not only to Paul but also to Sosthenes. If there is a saint today who communicates with the will of God, he becomes an apostle.

God's will is to bring the sinners in the world to repentance and make them His people through the Son. Therefore, He predestined Christ, and God Himself became the Son, came into the world in human form, died on the cross, and resurrected. The reason God Himself became the Son was to save sinners through the Son. Salvation cannot be accomplished without Jesus Christ, the Son. Therefore, those who are saved through the Son become those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ and become saints.

Jesus was in the form of God but did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, as Philippians 2:6 states, "He, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped."

Why must Jesus be the Son of God, rather than God? First, it is because God is revealed through His Son Jesus, and because God cannot be known without Jesus Christ. God is the God whom Jesus Christ calls Father. Therefore, believers also call God Father in Jesus Christ. If a believer calls Jesus Christ God, they are already seeking another God.

Second, because Jesus is the Son of God, He can save those who enter into Christ. This is because God desires to make repentant sinners into His children through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Therefore, when sinners repent and enter into Christ, God acknowledges that they have been united with Christ and have walked the exact same path that Jesus walked.

First, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Matthew 3:13-15: “At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John objected, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?’ Jesus answered, ‘Allow it now, for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.’ And John consented.”

Although Jesus did not need to be baptized, it was a measure for the sake of the disciples and saints, and for all those who receive baptism from the person God has commissioned. And after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him.

Matthew 3:16-17 states, "When Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended like a dove upon him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.'" Today, believers also enter the water in this way, the body of sin dies (the death on the cross), and by coming out of the water, they receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born again.

Then, Jesus was tempted by Satan, led by the Holy Spirit. Matthew 4:1 states, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." The temptation is a test of legalism, humanism, and Gnosticism. Today, believers also face temptation by Satan after being baptized, just as Jesus did. God sees the faith of the saints.

And the saint dies with Jesus on the cross and rises with Him. Romans 6:3-5: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? So we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will also be united with Him in a resurrection like His."

Resurrection is not the revival of the dead body, but the revival of the dead spirit. In Romans 8:10, it says, "And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness."

Just as Jesus ascended, the saints have also ascended in Christ. Ephesians 2:6 states, "And raised them up together and seated them together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Heaven is referred to as 'ton ouranon,' signifying the Kingdom of God within the heart. A new temple is being built within the hearts of the saints. This is expressed as a new heaven and a new earth, and the presence of Jesus in this new temple is precisely the restoration of the image of God.

God's will is precisely for the Kingdom of God (Heaven) to be established within the hearts of the saints, and for them to become those in whom the image of God is restored, so that the Father, the Son, and the saints become one in the Holy Spirit.

John 17:21-23 "Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one, just as we are one. I am in them and You are in Me, that they may be made perfect and become one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and that You loved them as You loved Me."

“That they may be made perfect and become one” means that the Father, the Son, and the disciple become one, and just as the Father and the Son become one, they also become one, and become the Kingdom of God.

Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." While God (Elohim) is in the plural, "to create" (bara) is singular. The doctrine explains the use of the plural by introducing the Triune God.

There is an instance in the Bible where it is used in the singular form: Eloah. In Deuteronomy 32:15, it says, "But Jeshurun ​​was fat and kicked with his feet. You were fat, puffy, and radiant; and you forsaken God who made you and despised the Rock who saved you."

The reason God created the heavens and the earth was because of the fallen angel. Therefore, it expresses that God predestined Christ before the foundation of the world and created the world through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the phrase "heaven and earth" translated as "heaven and earth," the heaven is Shamayim; although שָּׁמַ֖יִם (Shamayim) grammatically indicates the plural, just like Elohim, it refers to the heavens, not the heavens themselves. Why does it indicate the plural? Shamayim is used to express the Kingdom of God, the visible sky in the air, and the heaven within the human heart.

Just as Christ, though originally the substance of God, spiritually became the Son of God and a man with a flesh, the Kingdom of God is expressed in the same way. It becomes the visible heaven within the world and the Kingdom of God within the heart of the first man.