Living and Dying in Joy by Vonk Cornelis

Author:Vonk, Cornelis [Vonk, Cornelis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: My Book
Published: 2013-12-27T16:00:00+00:00

It is universally known how the glorious light of the gospel of the forgiveness of sins was almost extinguished in the medieval church, and how deep the darkness was that surrounded Christianity. The Bible virtually became a closed book. People no longer knew Christ as the Savior sent by the Father in mercy to save sinners, but rather as the future judge of the whole world, who would cast not only all pagans into perdition but also Christians who had a shortage of good works. That was why Luther discontinued studying with the Faculty of the Arts in Erfurt and became a monk, in order to become perfect. He became sick as a result. An elderly monastic brother consoled him with the Apostles’ Creed, which contains the words “I believe … the forgiveness of sins.”

Immediately after the first sin of our first parents, our heavenly Father promised to send a Savior. Of course God is righteous, but he treated Moses like a friend (Exod. 33:11). He made himself known to Moses as “The Lord , the Lord , a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exod. 34:6–7). The church of the old dispensation confessed,

O Lord our God, you answered them;

you were a forgiving God to them,

but an avenger of their wrongdoings (Ps. 99:8) .

Read especially Daniel 9:4–5, 19: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. . . . O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. . . .” Read Psalm 103:12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” Already in the Old Testament God forgave many people their sins, including David, so that he composed Psalm 32, which begins this way: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” But the full light of God’s compassion shone when he honored his covenant with the patriarchs and sent his Son to atone for the sins of the whole world (Titus 2:11; 3:4–7). First God gave his Son and made peace with the world on the basis of Christ’s satisfaction (2 Cor. 5:18–19).

How tragic, then, that the Christian church lost this treasure through neglect. How fortunate that in the period of the great reformation of the church the light dawned once again. As Christ said once, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). He himself taught us to pray the

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