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first and second

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God's work always begins with the first and ends with the second. The first is a model, and the second is the substance. Adam had Cain and Abel, but Cain, the eldest son, was abandoned and his younger brother Abel was chosen as the child of righteousness. Also, Abraham had two sons, but the eldest son, Ishmael, was abandoned and his younger brother Isaac was chosen as the promised child. And twins were conceived in the womb of Rebekah, Isaac's wife, but before they were even born, Esau, the eldest son, was abandoned and his younger brother Jacob was chosen.

If the law given to the people of Israel corresponds to the first, then the gospel corresponds to the second to fulfill the law. The first is that the Israelites followed Moses from Egypt to escape from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, passed through the Wilderness of Paran, and arrived at Mount Sinai to receive the Law. .

If the first act of the Israelites slaughtered cattle and sheep in the temple in Jerusalem and offered sacrifices to God, the second case was the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. That is why Jesus said that when he took his last breath, it was all finished. If the temple in Jerusalem is the first, then the body of Jesus is the second.

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).

In this principle, the Holy Spirit is the first because it serves as a 'spiritual law' for Christians today. And the 'spiritual son' who comes to fulfill the law of the Holy Spirit falls under the second category. If the chapel, the place of worship for Christians, is the first, then the second is the coming of Jesus as a Spirit and entering the hearts of Christians. If the visible 'tangible church' built in today's world corresponds to the first, the 'intangible church' built in the human heart through Christ falls under the second.

The reason God proceeds with history in this way is because Adam's transgression caused all human beings to live under sin. God always gives the first thing as a pattern for the purpose of convincing man of sin. But the people of God are unaware of this fact. If the Israelites had known God's providence, the Israelites would not have rejected Jesus. However, living without knowing this fact, everyone believes in the first thing that was given to them as a reality. As a result, the 'evil spirit' deceives humans and deceives them into believing that they have been given as models.

A good example is that the Pharisees did not believe in and rejected Jesus, who came as the fulfillment of the law, saying that they were justified by the law. Because the Pharisees did not believe in Jesus who came as the real thing, they continued to hold onto the temple in Jerusalem, which was only a model, and hang him there. Of course, before the real come, the model plays a very important role. However, after the coming of the substance, the model is no longer needed and is discarded.

The reason the author of Hebrews said, “If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for the second one” (Hebrews 8:7). It is written to give. Since all the Israelites were saying that they were satisfied with the first thing and were saved, how sad it must have been as brothers and sisters. The author of the book of Hebrews, who only came to know this fact through Jesus, is trying his best to show that his brothers and sisters are falling into wrong logic and going to destruction. He again paradoxically explains why the first must be abolished and why the second is necessary, saying, “The first thing was abolished so that the second might be established” (Hebrews 10:9).

In this way, God always gives the first thing as a model and finally the perfect thing in saving man from sin. Even more so, humans practice well before playing the main game, and then play the final match. The reason is that all human beings live in sin, so God must first give the law, and then finally give the perfect thing. He gave the law to the people of Israel first, and then the gospel last.

This principle not only applies to the people of Israel, but also applies to Christians today. Even though Christians do not know it well, the worship offered in the name of Jesus corresponds to the first thing the Bible says (the law) as a type of Christ to come. Christians are still sinners imprisoned under the law of the Holy Spirit. To solve this, God will soon send the second (spiritual son) to Christians as well. They can only be made perfect by believing in the spiritual Son who comes as the second.

Also, if you look closely at the Bible, you know that God's intentions are paired. The word mate here is referring to the model and the substance in mind. For example, the Old Testament and the New Testament become one, the Law and the Gospel become one, Isaac and Jesus become one, and Jacob and the spiritual Christ become one. The Old Testament is the first covenant, and the New Testament is the new covenant. Also, if the law is the first, then the gospel is the second, and if Isaac is a type of the first, then Jesus is the perfect second. And Jacob corresponds to the first one to come spiritually before the Gentiles, and the second is Christ who comes spiritually through man. The thing to keep in mind is that the first given is a model and the second is the substance.

However, like our proverb, “It is dark under the lamp,” you can see other people’s things well, but you can’t see your own things well. To put this literally, Christians today can see the law and gospel given to the people of Israel well, but the law and gospel given to them cannot be seen at all. It is said that they are spiritually blind and are living in darkness.

Before meeting Jesus, Paul was a Pharisee who persecuted those who believed in Jesus, but after meeting Jesus who came to Damascus, he completely changed and preached the gospel to the Gentiles with a very earnest heart. Among the words he wrote, there is a passage saying, “We know in part and prophesy in part; when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1 Corinthians 13:9-10). The above statement applies to the Gentiles, and if the gifts given by the Holy Spirit correspond to the first, then the above words that Paul wrote correspond to the second.

The sad fact is that Christians also believe in the things given as models as realities. They would have fully understood what God intended through the Jews, but when they applied it to them, they believed in the things that were given first as reality. If we believe the pattern as a reality, even if someone who has received the Spirit of Jesus comes and tells us this, Christians will not believe it. This is because an evil spirit has already deceived them and whispered that they were saved.

Let's look at people from other religions as a good example! Buddhists and Muslims believe that Buddha or Muhammad gives eternal life. Because the dead spirits that rule them keep whispering to them that Shakyamuni or Muhammad will give them eternal life. We refer to this case as belief by belief. So they say that if you want to believe in other religions, you have to get rid of human stereotypes. However, as long as the dead spirit does not leave the human mind, human stereotypes will never disappear.

Likewise, dead spirits exist in the hearts of Christians today. Christians may know that the Holy Spirit exists in their hearts because they believe in Jesus and have received the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit does not come into our hearts, but into our souls. In human hearts, Jesus, who ascended to heaven, must come as a spirit. However, since the hearts of Christians are full of sin, the spirit of the dead is taking over the role of the human master instead of Jesus. When Christians believe that they have only received the spiritual law (the Holy Spirit) and believe that they are saved, the dead spirit deceives humans and works the temptation to believe that the things given as Christ's types are real, deceiving them that they have been saved. For Christians today, this is a stereotype.

It is because of the same principle that Jesus slandered the Pharisees as 'children of vipers (Matthew 3:7, 12:34, 23:33, Luke 3:7)'. At that time, the dead spirit that controlled the hearts of the Pharisees thoroughly prevented them from believing in Jesus, saying that they were justified by the law. In the end, the Pharisees could not believe in Jesus because a dead spirit was whispering in their hearts, and they fell into the abyss of destruction. The evil spirit that was controlling the Pharisees at that time was involved in killing Jesus as a heretic monster.

At the time of Jesus, the Jews knew only the Jerusalem temple and the Law, which served as their support, as their supreme law. As a new day dawns, a new temple called Jesus and the One who will give new commandments has come, but they do not gather in front of the new temple. They gathered only to the humble Jerusalem temple.  

In the old days, God gave the temple in Jerusalem and the law so that the people of Israel would come to the temple to perform sacrifices and to keep the law, so that they could come before God. However, God did not allow them to stay in the temple in Jerusalem any longer, because they broke the law and did not like to go to the temple and offer sacrifices without genuine love for God. 

The abandonment of the Jerusalem temple means that a new era has arrived. It is the characteristic of God that one never visits the temple once abandoned. In other words, it means that the people of Israel must never go through the Jerusalem temple and the Law again in order to meet God. Jesus came to deal with that. Ironically, however, the people of Israel, who had to come to meet God, did not come before Jesus, but instead sought only the abandoned Jerusalem Temple. This is human folly. The reason why the Jews at that time did not know that Jesus was the new temple sent by God was because they did not know how to see themselves because they lived their faith in their own righteousness.

What is the reality of today's Christians who see this through the Bible? Being a Christian doesn't change anything. Today, when Christians look at the Jews at that time, everyone calls them “stupid people”, but Jews at that time also ridiculed those who perished when their ancestors made calves in the wilderness and worshiped idols and destroyed them and Noah's flood.

But they would not have thought that they would be ridiculed by Christians today. If so, wouldn't future generations laugh at Christians today because they believed in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit? People who even received the Holy Spirit would be ridiculed for doing stupid things. The reason is because it is foolish to not believe in the Son sent by God and cling to the decaying church building, even though you can realize that you are some kind of sinner if you look into your heart with the Holy Spirit.  

What makes Christians even more frustrated is that they saw and felt the life in the wilderness from Noah's flood, the Israelites' exodus from Egypt to the land of Canaan, and the conflict between Jesus and the Jews through the Bible. Still, it is foolish to say that they do not even know how to look at their plight, and that they only go to church to die, knowing that because they have received the Holy Spirit, going to church is all they need.

If God is willing to abandon the temple in Jerusalem because of the fall of the people of Israel, even if it is a church built with the blood of Jesus, if it is a chapel that does not show God's love, he will boldly abandon it. If Christians do not have true love for Jesus, they simply live with their lips, call on the name of Jesus, follow the essence of Jesus, and become the light of the world, rather than become the light of the world, if it is a chapel that brings only darkness, then Jesus would not be able to stay in such a place any longer. 

Like the people of Israel, it is God's will that Christians will abolish the hand-built chapels and meet humans only through another channel, the Son of God. However, Christians who did not realize this will find only the chapel just like the Jews at the time, clinging to the law. The Bible teaches us that it is human folly.

In fact, when the Israelites lived under the law, they did not know what the gospel was. This is because they had never been exposed to the gospel at least until Jesus came. There is nowhere in the Old Testament where the gospel is specifically explained. But the Old Testament continues to speak of the coming Christ. However, the people of Israel at that time had no idea what the Messiah would do in detail when he came. That is why, even though Jesus actually came before them, they did not believe in Jesus because they called him a friend of sinners or a heretic monster. The reason they have no choice but to think that way is that no matter how much they are chosen by God, they too must be sinners living under the law. Therefore, people who live under sin cannot know the deep will of God, and this is why these evils occur.

For the people of Israel, the Old Testament is the first word. And through the coming of Jesus, the Old Testament was completed through the New Testament. However, to Christians today, the New Testament is the word given as a model of the spiritual Christ who will come before the Gentiles. Therefore, in the future, the spiritual Christ will come before the Gentiles to complete the words of the New Testament. This is the spiritual gospel that applies to Christians. And these words of the coming of the spiritual Christ will be the guidebook that will lead Christians to salvation.

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