The Bible says, "How beautiful are the footsteps of those who report the gospel and preach good faith."
2000 years ago, when the apostle Paul's name was Saul, he was a Jewish Pharisee who was eager to persecute Christians. In his eyes, Christians were a group of heretics, and he did not hesitate to take their lives. , Just to end the gospel about Jesus Christ. What is surprising is that not long after Saul was on his way into Damascus to arrest Christians, he encountered Jesus Christ personally appeared to him, so that he completely repented and changed his name to Paul. Important apostle of the extinct gospel.
This kind of 360-degree flip is quite incredible. Today, when we open the Bible and read the more than ten letters that Paul himself wrote to the church in the process of preaching the gospel and building the church, we can easily read many of Paul’s heartfelt wishes and God’s Through his teaching to the early church. In the text of these letters, a full-featured and emotional Paul appeared on the paper. Often, Paul would mention the course of repentance and return to the Lord to illustrate the mercy of Christ to him.
However, the most direct "third party" record of Paul's life is still in the writings of Dr. Luke, and it is recorded in the "Acts" written by Luke (Luke is the New Testament "Gospel of Luke" and "Apostle Author of Acts). This film, called "Paul, Apostle of Christ" (literally translated as "Paul, the Apostle of Christ"), selects the last part of Paul's life for performance.
At that time, it was during the reign of the famous Roman tyrant Nero in history. Nero set a fire in Rome and blamed the Christians, with the intention of beheading the Christians at that time. At this time, the apostle Paul As the "culprit" designated by the authorities, he is waiting to be executed in a Roman prison. The Greek doctor Luke risked his life to visit the "extreme felon" in prison. The plot of the persecution of the early Roman church in the film is not found in the Bible itself, but it is recorded in history books. The plot of Luke’s visit to Paul is also a reasonable inference based on the content of the Bible—it is believed that Luke himself did not personally follow Jesus, so the "Gospel of Luke" and "Acts of the Apostles" written by him are Written by a comprehensive interview with the Virgin Mary and the Apostle Paul who were still alive during the same period.
At the end of "Acts" written by Luke, there is a bright moment: Paul put on chains, was detained to Rome, and preached the gospel in Rome. The period of history presented in the film is just after Luke's brushwork—the early Christianity was first persecuted by Judaism, and then severely mutilated in Rome. As shown in the film: many Christians were thrown into the Colosseum to feed the lions, hung on the pillars on both sides of the streets of Rome, and lit as torches. At the end of the film, the apostle Paul was beheaded. Not only the apostle Paul, but also other apostles who personally followed Jesus Christ according to the historical records of the church were all killed for the sake of the gospel of Jesus, and even martyred as far as India. When we believe in Christ, we continue to encounter people around us who believe in Jesus are being persecuted and tortured. This fact not only poses a challenge to the Christians in the film, but it also challenges faith to us who watch the film. When the Roman authorities defined the Christian church as the sinners who harmed Rome, how did the Christians in the movie deal with the challenge?
Jesus Christ once said, "I sent you like sheep into a pack of wolves; therefore, you must be as smart as snakes, and as good as doves. (Matthew 10:16)" What is like a dove? Being like a dove is tame and harmless. When Christians are faced with injustice and persecution, they may have two ways to deal with it: either fight to fight, fight back in anger, and implement the Old Testament view of justice of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (as today (Islamic believers do that); or, there is another choice—as Jesus Christ reflected in his unjust judgment and crucifixion: He was oppressed and did not speak when he was suffering. . (Or that he was oppressed but humbled and did not speak) He was led to the slaughter like a lamb, and silent as a sheep under the hands of the shearer, so he did not speak (Isaiah 53:7).
What was the choice of the apostle Paul? In the film, when a group of disturbed Christians chose violent confrontation and went to a Roman prison to kill the jailer, and tried to open the prison door to rescue Paul, Paul refused. The apostle Paul chose to face unrighteousness following the example of Jesus’ Christian guidance, as he himself declared in the New Testament epistles, “You must imitate me as I imitate Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)", but so , Can really prove: Christianity is harmless to the world. This is the true nature of the gospel of Christ, the true image of the life Christians receive from God.
In the Hebrews of the New Testament, there is a passage explaining why Christ was able to endure humiliation and torture, “Because of the joy that was placed before him, he despised the humiliation, endured the suffering of the cross, and sat on God. The right side of the throne. (Hebrews 12:2)" And this should be why Paul could go beyond his immediate environment and choose to obey. There is even a plot designed in the film: Dr. Luke was thrown into jail for visiting Paul, waiting to be sent to the Colosseum to feed the lions the next morning. In the prison, Dr. Luke talks to other Christians in the same prison. Say, "Don't be afraid, as long as we meet the Lord Jesus who redeemed us all at once."-It is the transcendence of Christianity that enables many Christians to go to death bravely by virtue of their hope beyond the world.
And true Christianity is more than tame and harmless, it has many benefits. Today, many centuries later, Christianity has already confirmed the positive value and inner vitality of this faith with its huge positive impetus and civilized influence on the entire human history. Wherever the gospel goes, people's lives are changed, which in turn leads to changes in the entire society and the times. Today, we live in the world and accept this belief. We don’t need to experience such brutal persecution and even life threats like the early churches did. But today, all godly Christians still need to face possible persecution, and they still have Many people do not understand this belief.
Faced with the unreasonable persecution of Christians in the film, perhaps we can imagine: Jesus Christ can immediately appear in the sky with a great light that shocks the world, put an end to these sufferings, and judge the world, especially those who persecute the church. , But He did not—because the day set has not yet come, He is still patient and tolerant, waiting for the world to repent and know the true God.
In this period of ancient Rome, when the apostle Paul preached the gospel in Rome, he faced Nero's false accusations and unreasonable convictions. People did not understand or understand the true gospel of Christ. As Jesus Christ said on the cross: Father forgive them because they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). Therefore, the screenwriter of this film designed the following plot: Let the Roman warden in Paul’s prison encounter the helpless suffering of his daughter’s dying daughter, and then put aside the pride of the Romans, and through the recommendation of Paul, through the brilliant medical skills of Dr. Luke , Saved his beloved daughter who was on the verge of death-treating the warden as the representative of the tens of thousands of sinners who have not repented and accepted Jesus' salvation, to tell these people:
God is not cruel. He is love. He wants people to know his love through the cross and be willing to obey and follow him. Jesus was hung on the cross not because of his own sins, but because of the sins of everyone who participated in the crucifixion, bearing the punishment for their sins, and dying for their sins.
And the apostle Paul, a saint who claimed to be the "chief of sinners" in the Bible, experienced this kind of mental journey and came to know the love of the Lord Jesus who died and was resurrected to redeem sinners. The film keeps flashing back to remind us that in the process of persecuting Christians, Paul once had the same blood as the Roman authorities at the time. It is not the righteous that Christ redeemed, but the sinner. Throughout the history of the church from generation to generation, every sinner was willing to leave the path of sin and live for God because he knew the love of the cross of Jesus. The apostle Paul is like this, and so are countless Christians.
The gospel of this cross:
——Not to conquer people's hearts through force and violence;
——Not the righteous view of "a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye";
——It is the transcendent faith that transcends the world and the hope of eternity.
I think this is the true meaning of the gospel that the apostle Paul tried to tell the world. It is the great love of the cross that Jesus Christ conquered all mankind.
Written on 2018.6.18
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