The Second Advent of the Messiah and the Salvation of Mankind

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)

 

God is love and goodness. He dreamed about the world of love, and created the world of goodness. He hopes a harmonious world where the children of goodness love each other. He prayed that all men have "the image of God" (Gen. 1:27) and become united with Him (John 14:20). He planned to establish heavenly kingdom filled with love and joy only in which everything in heaven and the earth makes harmony. However,,,, By losing God due to the fall, man lost God's ideal of creation and made an ugly world of pain where people hate and fight each other. Thus God as our Parent sent Jesus to the earth and tried another creation . Jesus came in order to establish a world of love and goodness by presenting the road of salvation to the fallen man.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (I John 1:8). If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us (I John 1:10)

 

God sent His only begotten son, Jesus, and had him suffer the road of crucifixion for us. People believe that the crucifixion was predestinated and unavoidable, and that is where God and Jesus' greatness lies. However, the Bible still tells that we are sinners.

We were born with the original sin as is shown in Romans 7:23:But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind. And we are imperfect: Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48)

 

Then why are we still in the realm of sin and why is the Kingdom of Heaven not yet realized on the earth now that the entire human beings were delivered through the redemption by the cross? Any why would Jesus who said it was finished (John 19:30) told that he will come again in Acts 1:11? (Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. Will it not mean that there remains something that Jesus has to accomplish by coming again?

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Principle of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)

He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him (Isaiah 53:3)

 

 

There are king of pain and king of glory prophesies in the Bible. Why would God have made two prophecies? It is because God cannot fulfill His will by Himself. Neither can Jesus. Only at the place where God, Jesus, and men are united is the Heavenly Kingdom possible.

Besides, as God is love, He cannot force people. He waits until they realized by themselves and fulfill their responsibility. God made two prophecies at the same time since the Jews could either believe in and follow God with their responsibility, or disbelieve and reject Him. God meant that they realize by themselves and believe and follow Him faced with the two prophecies.

You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your father not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just Ones, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it (Acts 7:51-53)

 

Disciples grieved over their teacher's death at the cross. They were very mortified and resented and cursed at the ignorance and the disbelief of the Jewish who offered Jesus to the cross. The disciples' heart is handed down even to today's Christians.

Had the crucifixion been a natural result of God's predestination, there would have been no reason for the disciples to decry it, though it may have been inevitable for them to grieve over his death. Accordingly, we can assume that the path of the crucifixion was unjust and undue.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:31-33)

 

God began His plan for the salvation of human beings from the time of human ancestors' fall. For 4000 years since the fall of Adam and Eve, God educated the Jewish people through the prophets, and sent John the Baptist to set straight the Lord's road before the birth of Jesus. Concerning the birth of John the Baptist, all the Jews knew that the angel appeared to testify to his conception. All of these were meant to have the Jews believe Jesus.

But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, if your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John." (Luke 1:13)

Could all the providence of God who prepared for that long period of time solely to send the Messiah on the earth have been meant to kill Jesus?

The landowner of the vineyard sent his son so that "They will respect him," not to have him killed. (Matt. 21:33-43)

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent (John 6:29)

 

To believe Jesus Christ whom God sent as His only begotten son, that is God's work.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Matt 23:37)

 

Jesus' painful and mortifying heart heart toward the ceaseless disbelief of the Jews is well expressed in the Bible.

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life (John 5:39-40)

 

The contradictory attitude of the Jews at that time made God, Jesus, and today's us sad, but would that attitude be confined only to the the Jews?

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him (John 1:11).

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 10:38)

 

Jesus performed many miracles and signs to give belief to the Jewish people. However, they condemned him as being possessed by Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24)

"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matt 27:46).

The road of the cross is not God's grace. It is the product that the ignorance and disbelief of the Jews brought forth, and it is the dark road at which even God turned away (Matt. 27:45).

O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me (Matt. 26:39).

None of the rulers of this age knew; for they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (I Cor. 2:8).

 

Countless martyrs have died gladly even they were subject to become the prey for lions or be hanged upside down in the cross. If Jesus' crucifixion had been the will of God and the only way to save men, he also would have died with happiness and glory. He might have offered the prayer of gratitude and joy. We have to know that the serious prayer that Jesus offered at the Gethsemane soaked with sweat and tears was not an individual prayer for himself, but a prayer for God and human beings. Here, we can feel the grieved heart of parents who have to send a beloved son to an execution ground. We can see the sorrow of God who has no way to do in front of men's disbelief. However, toward the death of Jesus at the cross, Christianity has been so far teaching that it was Jesus' voluntary choice according to God's will. Thus, it emphasizes the grace of salvation through the blood by the cross only, and is overlooking the bitter heart of God and Jesus.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of is life; and man became a living being (Gen. 2:7)

 

Man is made up of mind and body. Therefore, there are spiritual fall and physical fall, and salvation also has to be done both spiritually and physically. Jesus' coming to the earth was for accomplishing both spiritual and physical salvation. However, as the Jews who did not believe Jesus delivered him to the cross, his physical body got Satan's attack. Although the foundation of the spiritual salvation was established by the victorious resurrection of Jesus who obeyed God till the time of death, the physical salvation remains to be made by the Second Advent.

With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin (Romans 7:25)

 

Consequently, even the Apostle Peter who lead a very faith life comes to feel Satan who is coming in through body. Through the redemption by the cross, human salvation came to be limited only to those who believe. Mankind is subject to inherit the original sin that is committed through body, and the warring between mind and body within an individual keeps going on (Rom. 7:23). So, the Messiah who will come again must accomplish both spiritual and physical salvation.

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. (Matt. 16:21-23)

 

Jesus made all his effort but he knew that the situation was irreversible. However, Peter, not knowing Jesus' mind, tried to prevent even the spiritual salvation by the cross, which made Jesus more sad.

It is finished! (John 19:30)

 

After the third desperate prayers at Gethsemane (Matt. 26:39-45), Jesus decided the road of the cross, which was the second best way. The word, "It is finished" means that he accomplished the spiritual salvation by the cross.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)

 

Many people are keeping their faith, looking forward to that of the Messiah's coming. The above verse was the word of grief and pain, anticipating the ignorance of men who may push Jesus to the road of death for failing to recognize the Messiah.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (Malachi 4:5)

And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. (Matt. 11:14)

And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." (John 1:21)

 

Elijah was living during the King Ahap(?)'s reign of Israel. He is a great prophet who defeated alien god and showed the glory of God by gaining victory over Baal (?) at Mt. Galme(?). However, as he ascended to heaven on a chariot of fire without fulfilling his mission, the Bible is saying that has to come before the Messiah comes (Mal. 4:5). The Israelite who knew that Elijah should come first were waiting for him to come.

At that time, a young man claimed himself to be the Messiah and said, "... if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come" (Matt. 11:14)

 

This young man is the very Jesus, but John denied his being Elijah (John 1:21)

For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. (Matt. 12:8)

He who has seen Me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

 

Who would the Israelites be more likely to believe, Jesus or John the Baptist? Let us find out through the Bible how the Jewish people thought about Jesus and John the Baptist.

The Jews saw Jesus who embraced Pharisees, tax collectors and prostitutes -those that most people shun- with love as a man who "destroys the Law" (Matt. 5:17) and as being attached to "Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons" (Matt. 12:24)

And John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. (John 3:4)

Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not. (Luke 3:15)

And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, "His name is John." And they all marveled... (Luke 1:63-66)

 

In the meantime, John the Baptist was the son of a priest named Zacharias (Luke 1:5). There were miracles and signs even before his birth (Luke 1:22) and John was born among the attention of the whole Jewish people (Luke 1:65). Since he led a brilliant life in faith and discipline in the wilderness (Matt 3:1-4), people even wondered whether he were the Messiah (John 1:20).