To share something I learnt from CF bible study

Hi all, since I have a bit of time here, just wanna share with you what I have learnt.

There was this question in the bible study, says: Read 1 John 5:4
John's usage of the past participle tense, "has overcome" indicates both a past and a continuous action. What are the implications of this 'observation'?

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith.

So let us just spend a few mins think about it....

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In the verse it says that it is our faith which has overcome the world - our faith in Jesus Christ.
So I share my point of view that Jesus overcame the world on the cross and as we have faith in Him, we will continuously overcome the world.

Then there was this CF part-time worker who joined in our discussion asked me. What did Jesus overcome?

So I answered, "Hmm.... death? The sins?"

Then he asked, "Is that all he overcame?"

Hmm, wellzz.... I was thinking, "I don't know..."

And he started sharing:
When Jesus started His ministry, the first thing that He declared was not that He will defeat the Satan, the death, the sin! In Matt 4:17, Jesus said," Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And to the Jews, when they were under the authority of Romans Empire, it meant that this person was declaring that there was another kingdom that was coming to replace Romans empire! And they would infer that Jesus, was declaring Himself to be the King of the kingdom.

In fact, we read in the bible that Jesus is referred as the King of kings, the Lord of Lords!

And His purpose of coming to this earth was to reconcile us, or rather, the world to God!

Let us look at what is the significant of the cross and why Jesus was sent to die on the cross.

During that time, there was capital punishment but being crucified on the cross had a greater impact. If a person were to be a murderer and be sentenced to death, his could just die with his head be chopped off but not dying on the cross. So what did dying on the cross mean? During that time only a certain group of people were sentenced to die on the cross. People, who in our current context, like terrorists, serial killers, serial rapists, those who create social unrest. So those who created social unrest to the Romans empire were crucified!

Then how was Jesus creating social unrest? At that time, there were a few people also claimed to be a new king, a Messiah, who was prophesied in the scripture, but why JESUS was to be crucified? This was because He offended the Pharisees greatly. Look at John 2:19, He told the Jews that He will destroy the temple and in three days, He will raise it up! This greatly offended the Pharisees, for the temple has its political, social and economic significance to the society. As a result, they decided to punish Jesus with the worst punishment.

Jesus did not choose to use His power and the help from God to make the Romans empire collapse but chose to die on the cross. So what is the message sent? During that time, the Jews thought that as long as they were the Jews, the God's people, they will be safe. And they thought some people like the Gentiles, the Samaritans, the tax collectors, the leprosies etc were sinful people. The Jews just did not like them, so they seperated themselves from those people. But when Jesus started His ministry, he had no problem associating with those "unworthy" people. Here is the wonderful message from His action: He came, not to seperate Himself from the world (like what the Jews had done), but to reconcile the world back to God!

So this is partly what Jesus overcame on the cross! Through His ministry and His work on the cross and what He commanded, He was asking us to reconcile the world back to God! So this is the continuous action that we as Christians should have: not to be a seperator from the world, even though we do not conform ourselves to the worldly views and norms, but to bring the world back to God before the second coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ!

Friends, maybe we can start thinking about how to bring the world back to God? Through being a blessing to everyone beside us? Through sharing to them the gospel? Through being someone, who are not like the 'worldly' people and whom these people will turn to, will trust in times of need?

Wow, I was and am marvelled by what the CF worker has shared... Hope you are blessed from this too!

Note: "worldly" people, in 1 John context, we can refer to 1 John 2:15-17.