Like I shared in last week's pastor column, the purpose of Jesus' ministry was to invite the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. The passion of Christ on the cross is a good measure of how passionately the Holy Spirit desires to dwell within us. This is a tale of love about reuniting with loved ones to become one again. In the story of a prodigal son, Jesus refers to the story of those who have left God by comparing them to a son who left his home and lived as an orphan. The son only wanted the father's wealth, but not the father himself. Jesus says that the journey to salvation is to restore such a broken relationship and reunite again with the Father. Jesus said in John 14,
16 And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him,
because it neither sees him nor knows him.
But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
God passionately wants to reunite with us. In order to keep such unity of love, our hearts need to respond to it. The reason that the Holy Spirit cannot dwell within us is because we don't have room for him in our hearts. Our eyes are fixed at other places. Because the object of our affection is not God, his love does not give the satisfaction we want.
All that is required for us to be one with the Holy Spirit is 'turning back to God(repentance)'. When Peter preached to people about the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection afterward, they were cut to the heart and responded with a question, "What shall we do?". Peter said to them
"Repent nd be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–
for all whom the Lord our God will call."
(Acts 2:38-39)
This repentance fundamentally begins when the son opens his heart to his father's love. All of this is a story of love. ‘The distance between God and I’ is simply ‘my heart’s distance from God’.(To be continued..)
Following the shepherd
Pastor Jiwon Choi