Can Justification by Faith Bring Us Who Still Often Sin Into the Heavenly Kingdom?(PART 2)
There are old prophecies in the Bible concerning the path to stop sinning and enter into God’s kingdom. Let’s take a look and see what the Bible says. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin to salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). “For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son. … And has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man” (John 5:22–27). “He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). 1 Peter 4:17 says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them through Your truth: Your word is truth.” We can see from these verses that when the Lord returns in the last days, He will become flesh again to express the truth and perform the work of judgment beginning with God’s house. With the truth, He will judge and purify all who come before Him once and for all, and He will purify these people of their sins and make them fit to enter the kingdom of God—this is the salvation in the last days God has prepared for us. Only by accepting God’s salvation in the last days and undergoing His judgment can we be forever saved and become purified by God.
In recent years, out of all the large online platforms, only The Church of Almighty God has consistently testified that the Lord Jesus has returned as the incarnate Almighty God. Almighty God has expressed all the truths that can enable us to attain salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven, and He is performing the work of judgment beginning with God’s house to purify and save us. This is the precise fulfillment of the prophecies quoted above which mention the Son of man coming to do the work of judgment and using the word of the last days to judge man. By reading Almighty God’s words, we learn how the Lord will perform the work of judgment that will enable us to attain salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven when He returns. Almighty God says, “In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, to expose the essence of man, and to dissect the words and deeds of man. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God, and so on. These words are all directed at the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, the words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan, and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth of which man is utterly bereft. Only methods such as these can be called judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God.” “By means of this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within his own self, and he will be able to change completely and become clean. Only in this way can man become worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as through refinement, man can purge away his corruption and be made pure.”
We can see from these words that the work of judgment Almighty God does to purify and save man in the last days is primarily achieved through expressing various aspects of the truth. In the last days, God will express truths aimed at our corrupt states and the ways in which we behave while we live in sin. Cutting straight to the heart of the matter, He exposes our corrupt substance and our God-opposing satanic natures, natures such as arrogance, conceitedness, selfishness, ignobility, crookedness, deceitfulness, our being sick of the truth, and our betraying God. By doing so, He allows us to understand all the sinful behaviors we manifest while under the control of our satanic natures, and to see that we are still capable of involuntarily resisting God, and that we are living out no semblance of a human being. At the same time, God will arrange all manner of situations to try and refine us, to deal with us and prune us. For example, when we are arrogant and conceited, when we cling to our own opinions and refuse to listen to anyone else’s suggestions, and even lose our tempers when other people don’t do what we want, God will inspire brothers and sisters to deal with us and prune us and to use God’s words to reveal our corruptions, so that we can understand such things as what will happen if we carry on that way, and so that we can reflect on and come to know ourselves. If we still don’t mend our ways, God will arrange some situations to block our path and to cause our spirits to become dark. At times like these, we come before God to pray and seek, and are then able to understand that we are living by our arrogant and conceited nature, that we are taking what we ourselves think to be the truth, and that we are making others obey and submit to us. We come to understand that this is the nature of the archangel, and that if we don’t change, we will certainly be eliminated by God. When we reach this understanding, we feel as though we are being refined deep within and we profoundly perceive that God’s disposition tolerates no offense. We then begin to prostrate ourselves on the ground, praying and repenting to God, feeling unworthy to live before God, hating ourselves, and resolving to forsake our corrupt dispositions. When we want to practice the truth and go in search of the path of change, God enlightens and illuminates us, He guides us to understand from His words what He requires, and He shows us the path of practice. He also enables us to understand that He arranges situations for us in order to purify and change us, and behind all this is God’s good will. This allows us to feel His dearness and loveliness, and we have more confidence to pursue the truth, pursue change in our dispositions, rid ourselves of corruption, live out a human likeness and comfort God’s heart. By undergoing many situations in which we fail and fall, in which we are pruned and dealt with, tested and refined, when we have read many of God’s words of judgment, and when we have understood much more about God’s requirements, our corrupt dispositions can then gradually be replaced by the truth, a God-fearing heart arises within us in our duties, and we begin to seek the principles of the truth. When we encounter issues, we are able to discuss them with brothers and sisters and we do not rush to make decisions with things we do not understand. Instead, we go before God to pray and seek many times, we do our best to do our duties in accordance with God’s will and requirements, and slowly, we begin to live out a human likeness. These are the effects achieved in us by God’s work of judgment in the last days. Although this way of working may be stern and may cause people distress, it can enable us to see our corrupt and despicable substance and appreciate God’s salvation and mercy. Our resolve to pursue the truth is thereby stimulated, and only by experiencing God’s work of judgment in this way will we be able to cast off our corrupt dispositions, live out a true human likeness, become people who truly revere and obey God, do God’s will, and attain God’s salvation once and for all. Such results cannot be achieved merely by relying on ourselves. Only by experiencing God’s work of judgment in the last days can we be cleansed and changed into people who do God’s will; this is the one and only path into the kingdom of heaven.
If we do not experience God’s work of judgment in the last days, then no matter how much we read the Bible, exercise self-restraint, suffer or pay a price, we will never be able to rid ourselves of our sins. We will remain the servants of sin, people who resist the Lord, and we will only end up being swept up in the disasters and punished by God. When that time comes, these prophecies in the Bible will be fulfilled: “Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him” (Revelation 1:7). “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). Someone who has waited for the Lord to come with clouds should be joyful, so why then will they mourn? It will be because during the period in which God becomes flesh in secret and performs His work of judgment, we cling to our various notions and imaginings and so refuse to accept the work of purification and salvation brought by Christ of the last days, and because some of us even blaspheme, condemn, and resist Christ of the last days. After God has made a group of overcomers, He will bring His secret work of purifying and saving man to a close and will appear openly to man. When that happens, all who refused to accept the work of judgment in the last days will have missed their chance for their sins to be cleansed away. Not only will they not become overcomers before the great tribulation, but they will be utterly filled with sin, they will be those who resist the Lord, and ultimately they will meet their end with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Just as Almighty God’s words say, “Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path by which man gains life, and it is the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by letters, and shackled by history will never be able to gain life nor gain the perpetual way of life. This is because all they have is turbid water which has been clung to for thousands of years instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell.”
Now that we are faced with the gospel of the Lord’s return, how should we approach it? The Lord says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). The Lord’s words tell us that only the poor in spirit will have the chance to enter the kingdom of heaven. When we hear that Almighty God has come to perform the work of judgment in the last days, therefore, we should seek and investigate it as much as we can and listen out for the bridegroom’s voice. I trust that as long as we are able to seek with an open heart, then God will lead us and guide us to greet the Lord’s return, and by doing this we will then have the opportunity to be made by God into people who do His will and who may enter the kingdom of heaven.
Source From: Find the Shepherd