The sons of God (これは男性と女性の両方に当てはまります) walk in the light and are witnesses of Jesus Christ, the living Word and Son of the living God. They are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and they are justified by the blood of Jesus Christ and live in the truth. Because they know the Truth and live in the truth, they speak the truth of God, whereby they are witnesses of Jesus Christ and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the gospel of peace. They make Jesus Christ known to the people, so that the people are given the ability to repent and be saved. In this blog post, the third element of God’s armor is discussed, which is ‘the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace’. What does it mean to have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace?
True witnesses of Jesus Christ deliver souls
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace (エペソ人への手紙 6:13-15)
Atrue witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies (ことわざ 14:25)
The sons of God belong to the Kingdom of God and represent the Kingdom of God on earth. They belong to Jesus Christ and are true witnesses of Jesus Christ; the living Word.
The Word reigns in their lives and they walk in obedience to His will, whereby they walk in love. By walking after His will in 彼の戒め, they show that they love Him above all with all their heart, 心, 魂, and strength.
By the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in them, they reprove the world of sin and call the people, who belong to the world and the ruler of the world, which is the devil, to repentance (ジョン 16:7-11)
The sons of God walk in the truth and preach the Truth, the Way, and the Life; イエス・キリスト, so that many, who live in darkness have the ability to be delivered from the power of sin and death, by faith in Jesus Christ and regeneration in Him and be reconciled with the Father and become a son of God.
それは問題ではありません, how the person lives at that moment and/or what the person has done in the past.
Every person is born as a sinner and every person has been given the ability to be cleansed and purified by faith and by the blood of Jesus Christ of his or her sins and iniquities and to be delivered from the past and become 新しい創造物 in Jesus Christ
The gospel of peace must be preached among the people. Because if Christians keep their mouths and don’t speak the truth of God, but talk along with the world and behave like chameleons, who are wishy-washy’s and please everyone and speak the words of the world, how do souls get saved? (こちらもお読みください: ‘If Christians stay silent, who shall set the captives of darkness free?)
How can you be a witness if you walk in darkness?
A wicked messenger falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health (ことわざ 13:17)
How can you save souls if you belong to the world and live like the world in darkness? What kind of message do you preach? What should sinners repent from and be saved from, if you do the same works as they do and live the same life as those, who don’t know God and are sinners? (こちらもお読みください: ‘クリスチャンが世と同じように生きるなら, what should the world repent off?)
Does the gospel of Jesus Christ, which must be preached contain that Jesus loves you despite the works you do and that you may stay the way you are and live the way you want to live?
Doesn’t it matter how you live, even if you do things that go against the will of God, because you are covered by the blood and no longer live under the law but under grace and therefore, it’s not your work and what you do but His work and what He has done?
That’s odd, since this message is nowhere to be found in the Bible.
This message is not written in the Old Covenant nor in the New Covenant. Therefore there is something wrong.
Or the message in the Bible, which was preached was not the message that should be preached or the message, which is preached nowadays by many Christians is not the message, that should be preached.
Since the Bible is God’s Word and is the Truth and speaks the truth, we can conclude, that the message, which is preached in this age is not the message after God’s will and therefore is a false message, which is not based on the truth of God’s Word.
Because this message doesn’t bring healing (of the spiritual state of mankind through justification in Christ and reconciliation with God) through repentance and the removal of sin, and doesn’t cause holy lives, but ensures that people keep persevering in sin and live as enemies of God after the flesh and because of that they shall eventually inherit eternal death.
God doesn’t want anyone to perish
God doesn’t want the people to persevere in sin and live like the world as His enemies and perish. But God wants the people to repent of their evil works as a sinner and don’t be sons of the devil, who belong to the world and do the will of the devil.
God doesn’t want anyone to perish but to be saved. God wants everyone to become sons of God, who have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ and have been set apart from the world and belong to the Kingdom of God and live after the Spirit after the will of God; the will of Jesus Christ; 言葉.
Only when you repent and become born again in Christ and live out of Him after the Spirit, you shall be saved and be justified and be the light of the world. Just like Jesus, Who was the Light in the world (こちらもお読みください: ‘Once saved, always saved「).
The message of repentance is the message Jesus preached
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! (イザヤ書 52:7)
Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! (Nahum 1:15)
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, 悔い改めなさい: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (マシュー 4:17)
Jesus was righteous and walked in righteousness and the truth of God, whereby Jesus was the Light of the world.
Everywhere Jesus came, the Light came and the Light exposed the works of darkness and testified to the people, that their works were evil. Jesus called those, who belonged to God’s carnal people, but walked in darkness, to repentance.
Jesus didn’t approve of sin, not even after His death and resurrection. But Jesus confronted the people with the truth of God and called the sinners (those who persevered in sins) to repentance (マシュー 9:13, マーク 2:17, ルーク 5:32).
Jesus belonged to the Kingdom of God and was a faithful Witness of God and represented, preached, and brought the Kingdom of God to God’s people.
That was the life of Jesus and the message of the Kingdom, that Jesus preached. Because the message of the Kingdom calls people to repentance and to live holy lives and brings peace between man and God.
By His words and deed, Jesus brought the peace and life of God, where there were discord and chaos and the results of the 悪魔の仕業 were visible in the lives of people. Jesus preached the gospel of peace and brought the light in places, where darkness reigned (こちらもお読みください: ‘What kind of peace did Jesus bring on earth?』).
The message of repentance, which the true witnesses of Jesus Christ preached
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; 私が去るのはあなたにとって都合の良いことです: もし私が去らなければ, 慰め者はあなたのところに来ない; でももし私が出発したら, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, そして正義の, そして判断の: Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (ジョン 16:7-11)
Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, 見よ, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high (ルーク 24:46-49)
When the disciples of Jesus Christ received the other Comforter; the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they didn’t stay in the upper room to enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit and be ‘spiritually drunk’. The disciples didn’t act weird and didn’t fall on the ground and begin to shake and laugh uncontrollably and behave like animals. いいえ, that didn’t happen!
When they received the Holy Spirit they spoke in other tongues and went outside and preached the good news of the coming of the Messiah; Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. And so they preached the gospel of peace to the house of Israel.
Despite the fact, that the disciples were mocked and ridiculed, they did what Jesus had commanded them to do.
Did they preach to the house of Israel that they could live the way they wanted to live and that they were saved, because they were God’s people through natural birth?
いいえ, they called the Jews, who had come to Jerusalem from all places around the world, to celebrate the feast of firstlings (the feast of weeks), to repentance.
Through the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the disciples were clothed with power, and in the Name of Jesus Christ; 彼の権威において, they preached in boldness the message of repentance, just like their Lord and Master; イエス・キリスト.
The gospel of peace produces life
The message Peter preached wasn’t a soft message, but a hard message. しかし, this hard message brought the people to repentance and saved them. Because by hearing the confronting words of Peter, three thousand Jews were touched in their heart and came to a sense of sin and repented and gave their lives to Jesus Christ and were saved from the perverse generation of fallen man and reconciled with the Father.
Through faith in Jesus Christ and regeneration in Him (baptism in water and the 聖霊によるバプテスマ) they were redeemed from the power of death and became sons of God, who also became witnesses of Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit preached Jesus Christ and His Kingdom among the people, whereby they were the light that shown in darkness.
The sons of God have their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace
When you are born again and have received the Holy Spirit, you are clothed with Christ and your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Your feet are not shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace once in a while, for example when you go outside on the street to evangelize.
いいえ, if you are clothed with Jesus Christ and have become a witness of Jesus Christ, your feet are always shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Just like your loins are always girt about with truth and you always have on the breastplate of righteousness (こちらもお読みください: ‘The loins girt about with truth‘ そして ‘Having on the breastplate of righteousness「)
Unfortunately not many have always shod their feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace and behave like undercover Christians in their daily lives at school, at their job, in their family, among friends and/or acquaintances or in other places, where they put their feet. They keep their mouth shut about the truth of God and instead they speak the words of the world.
Their feet are only shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace when it suits them.
“もし誰かが私を追って来るなら, 彼に自分自身を否定させてください, そして彼の十字架を背負ってください, そして私に従ってください”
それからイエスは弟子たちに言われた, もし誰かが私を追って来るなら, 彼に自分自身を否定させてください, そして彼の十字架を背負ってください, そして私に従ってください (マシュー 16:24)
But as a son of God and true witness of Jesus Christ, your feet should always be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which brings peace between man and God. しかし, this is only possible, when you have died to yourself.
Because the gospel of peace is a hard message, that goes against the gospel of the world and is not always appreciated by everyone.
But it is important and necessary that you preach the truth of God, 結果にもかかわらず.
Because without preaching the truth of the Word, many people shall keep walking in the lies of the devil and live in the bondage of darkness and be lost.
Therefore open your mouth and dare to take a stand for Jesus Christ.
Dare to be a true witness of Jesus Christ in this world and preach Him among the people, by preaching the truth of God, His redemptive work, and to call the people, who walk in darkness, to repentance, so that many shall be saved and be redeemed from the death.
The sons of God shall reject the lies of the world and speak the truth of God
Don’t be led by your flesh and the words of the world, but be led by the Holy Spirit and the words of God. Don’t speak any more lies and don’t say that it doesn’t matter if someone lives in sin and that Jesus loves the person despite his or her perseverance in sin and that the person is saved. Because that is only part of the truth and not the whole truth and therefore a lie.
If that would be the truth, then Jesus’ sacrifice wouldn’t have to die and become a Substitute for fallen man, because the blood of animals would be sufficient (こちらもお読みください: ‘The difference between the sacrifice of animals and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ「).
And if it doesn’t matter how someone lives, then the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ would not have called the people to repentance and Jesus would not have confronted the seven churches in the Book of Revelation with their works, which were not according to His will and would not have called them to repentance (こちらもお読みください: ‘悔い改めへの呼びかけ「).
イエスは言いました。, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (マーク 8:38)
Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven (マシュー 10:32-33).
「地の塩となれ」’
