God's Righteousness- a Response to the Audience

 Transcribed by AI

For every Afghan, in every language, for all humanity, God hears you and answers. Ask questions, think deeply, let's discover the truth together.

Dear compatriots and our friends, greetings. We have a very good viewer named Hasanat, who has asked us some questions. These are very deep and important questions. The first question is how can we be sure that God truly forgives our sins? The second question is whether it is just for one person to sin while another person bears the punishment for them. For example, if we believe that Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, is it not unjust for one person to suffer while we are declared innocent? These are very profound questions.

Friends, if you have any questions or any other questions, send us a message, and we will examine each of your questions according to the word of God. Khalid, what do you think? Aren't these wonderful and excellent questions? Indeed, it is rare to find people who ask such questions from the heart; they genuinely come from deep within.

Most of our friends who listen see that we have become Christians or that the Gospel of Jesus Christ condemns and judges without asking questions, and we truly commend Hasanat for asking these questions. As you mentioned, all the questions are in accordance with the scriptures. The Bible is the only source where we find the answers.

Many of our other friends say that forgiveness of sin and repentance are concepts found in Islam, but we do not understand where they derive these answers from, for example, regarding repentance or forgiveness of sins, as these were written long ago in the Torah.

For instance, if we look in the book of Chronicles, in the second book of Chronicles, chapter 7, verses 14 and 15, it says, "If my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin." Similarly, in the book of Isaiah, it says that the wicked should forsake their ways and return to God, and He will have mercy on them and forgive their sins.

Our Muslim friends or in Islam, if we observe, many topics are taken from the Bible. They do not remember this, for example, and think it is something new, while it is clearly stated in the Quran that whatever has been given to you before, nothing new will be given to you.

This means that all these topics of repentance, confession, and everything else are still taken from this Holy Book. They say that, well, Islam says to repent and confess your sins to God; we have been researching this subject for a few days now.

We have examined how forgiveness of sins in Islam works, and they say to turn to God and confess, and God will forgive your sins. They say that God is merciful and forgiving. Firstly, this is not very complete, is it? For forgiveness of sins, there are several very important steps that we must take according to the word of God. Secondly, even if it were complete, you mentioned that they took it from this Holy Book.

It is better that the verses you read show that Islam follows the Old Testament. Many topics in the Quran and Hadith come from the Old Testament; the Holy Scriptures are not only from the Old Testament but also from the New Testament, meaning from the Torah, Psalms, Prophets, and the Gospel.

So, let's not stray from the main question. The first question from Hasanat was: how can we be sure that God truly forgives our sins?

Yes, well, first of all, according to the teachings of the Bible, we see that God has made promises and assured us. According to God's promises found in the Old Testament and the New Testament, if you turn to me, I will forgive your sins, and then we see that there is a salvation.

This was promised to us in the Old Testament from the beginning when Adam and Eve sinned; there a sacrificial animal was offered, and that foreshadowed the great sacrifice that Jesus Christ would make, who, like a lamb, sacrificed Himself for all humanity once and for all.

So, God's promise is the first step; according to God's promise, we can be confident that our sins have been forgiven when we believe in Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ has promised that if you believe in Him, your sins will be forgiven because He paid the penalty for our sins and the punishment for our sins on the cross.

Furthermore, we understand that our lives are transformed. When we believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and into our lives.

It is this Spirit of God that changes us from the inside out. It transforms us. And every day we are in communion with God and in relationship with Him. We have a relationship with God and with one another. Thus, the fruits of our lives show that we are truly forgiven.

This is a very important point. We want to return to the point about the sacrifice. The first time Adam and Eve sinned, God made a sacrifice so that they could, in a sense, cover their nakedness. A lamb was killed there, and they made clothes from its skin.

Another sacrifice in the Old Testament shows that there was always a sacrifice for sin, for repentance, for atonement for everything. God commanded that you must offer sacrifices because until the blood is shed, your sins will not be cleansed. Therefore, there was always sacrifice at that time. It was God's command at that time.

And when Jesus Christ became the sacrifice, this was the final sacrifice, and God says if you accept this sacrifice, your sins will be cleansed. You no longer need any other sacrifice if you believe in this one.

We see that even now in Afghanistan and in some countries, people make annual sacrifices. During the Eid al-Adha, people take goats or sheep and sacrifice them. Why do they sacrifice? Because Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son. It was God's command, and they are sacrificing.

This means that if our compatriots believe in Jesus Christ, they no longer need to sacrifice. Because Jesus Christ was sacrificed once for all. There is no longer a need for sacrifice.

In our faith, we read that God tells the people of Israel, and today He tells us as well. To those who make sacrifices every year, I remember my father would sacrifice and would place his hand on the lamb and confess his sins.

So, you see, it is not only a direct return to God, but also a sacrifice is involved. In the Old Testament, we read about how many animals the people of Israel sacrificed every year to the extent that they completely lost sight of the main purpose.

They completely forgot the true purpose of God in these sacrifices. And today, for example, my father does this, but he does not understand. Even now, they do not understand what this sacrifice means. The word of God clearly states that sin can only be cleansed through the shedding of blood.

Nothing else can cleanse it. And the animals that the people of Israel sacrifice for their sins each year, they confess their sins for a specific people. But Jesus Christ is the Lamb.

In the Gospel of John, we read that this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Once and for all. Thus, the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, like the sacrificial lamb, has caused our sins to be cleansed if we believe in Him.

And this is God's promise and God's word. Jesus Christ has truly done a great work for us to cleanse our sins.

So, when God offers a gift to the people, He says that you just have to believe in it, and that will suffice for you. But if a person does not accept it and goes back to doing the same things that God had previously commanded in the Old Testament, then they are disregarding God's gift.

Yes, that is, humans always try to rely on their own capabilities, which is not right, to earn salvation or forgiveness of sin through their works. While the word of God here clearly states that God says if you rely on your sacrifices, on your good deeds, you cannot take my grace into account.

This means you are rejecting my grace. On one hand, we say God is full of grace, merciful and compassionate. On the other hand, we want to earn salvation and forgiveness of sins through our own efforts. While God clearly states here that if we take one step, we must follow the teachings of Christ.

We read in the book of Acts of the Apostles. Acts 3:19 says, "Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out." Right? If you do this, you will experience inner peace in the presence of God, and God will send Jesus, the promised Messiah, who was predetermined for you. Right?

This was addressed to those who were there at the time of Acts. Right? That is, Peter rises to speak to the people. He tells them that Jesus was promised to come to take away our sins.

So when we turn to God, we should remember that God had promised centuries ago that He would send the Saviour, Jesus Christ, and if you believe in Him, your sins will be cleansed. This is our return.

Excuse me, before you continue, let me briefly clarify for our friends regarding what you said about the book of Acts.

The book of Acts was written at a time when Jesus had just ascended to heaven, and His first disciples formed the first church and began writing, which is referred to as the Acts of the Apostles, meaning the early church, and Peter is one of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Thank you.

So we see that in the Holy Scriptures, according to God's promises, if we believe in God's promises, of course, the prophets who were before Jesus Christ came to Earth, they had faith in God's promise and were waiting for Jesus Christ to come as promised by God.

In this faith, they must have understood the forgiveness of sins. That is, before the coming of Jesus Christ and after His coming, today the Gospel tells us this, and we read it and believe it.

Next, regarding sacrifice, we read in the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 7, which says, "In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace." This is the result of God's grace. As we mentioned earlier, this is the result of God's grace that we have been saved.

Not by our own works. This is the result of God's work that sent Jesus Christ to lay down His life for our sins. If we rely on our works, then we are disregarding God's grace completely.

What is God's grace? God's grace is the gift and unconditioned forgiveness of God offered to us through Jesus Christ. It is the difference between what we did not deserve, but Jesus Christ graciously gave this grace to us.

Completely, completely when we were sinners, God sent Jesus Christ, and this is God's grace that we have been saved; if we were to earn forgiveness of sins through our own works, we would then take pride in ourselves. When we go before God, we would say, "God, I have sinned, but look at how I have paid for my sins; I have done good deeds, given charity, worshipped, obeyed."

All this would be based on our own capabilities, and it is here that God's grace, God's mercy, love, and kindness are completely overlooked. Therefore, we must keep this in mind. In the third part, we will move on, and of course, regarding God's grace, we have discussed it, and in the fourth part, we see the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit; when we believe in Jesus Christ, we receive the Spirit of God, transforming us from the inside out.

That is, first, our hearts, our thoughts, our minds, every day we are transformed until we become like Jesus Christ.

This is God's aim, that we become like His children, Jesus Christ. This must be experienced personally; if we explain what this feeling is, no one would understand. Everyone must experience it themselves; each person must have faith in God, repent, confess their sins, and ask God to forgive them through the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit forgives, then that person personally experiences it. Yes, yes.

They may not understand what we mean by the Holy Spirit. They cannot understand, and so many topics arise; when Peter speaks to the people of Israel, he says, "Repent."

When people speak about Jesus Christ, they say, "What should we do?" He says, "Repent so that your sins may be forgiven and you may receive the Holy Spirit," who lives in us and transforms us.

I have a verse in the Gospel, in Romans 8:16, let's start from verse 15 for better understanding, which says, "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship."

That is, one of the things that assures us that our sins are truly forgiven is that according to the word of God, by believing in Jesus, we become children of God and receive the Holy Spirit. Is that correct?

That Spirit makes us children of God, and with the help of this Spirit, we cry out to God, "Abba, Father," and in verse 17, it says, "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."

It is not just a return. There are many other things that we can boldly come into the presence of God and call Him Father. We become children of God. We can confidently approach God and speak with Him and worship Him.

Yes, it is very wonderful. Well, these points have all been made; let's move on to the next topic. We said there is a change in our lives.

Regarding change, if we talk about how we change in our lives after receiving the Holy Spirit, we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

One is that God has brought us into this world. It is not physical. One is that spiritually, we are given a new creation in faith in Jesus Christ. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. Everything old has passed away; behold, everything has become new, and this is all blessings from God that we are reconciled through Jesus Christ.

It says that through Christ, we are reconciled with Him, and He has given us the task of reconciling others, which we are currently doing by speaking to our friends.

So, this is the wonderful thing that we are a new creation. It is not just about confessing our sins. It is not just about doing good deeds and hoping to go to heaven.

If we say that Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, then what about God's justice? Some might ask, "Does God's justice not come into question?" People often ask this question.

You say that we inherit sin from Adam and Eve, and we should go to the world? This is not right. This is not true. It is true that we inherited sin from Adam and Eve and that it flows through our veins. Is that not so?

But another question that they ask is, "Is it just for one person to take the punishment for another?" This is not injustice; rather, it is the opposite. Jesus Christ came to bear our sins upon Himself.

You see, the Gospel says that Jesus Christ laid down His life willingly, not because anyone forced Him. He had the power to call down an army of angels to save Him at any moment, yet He chose not to do so.

He said, "Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Thus, Jesus Christ willingly laid down His life for us.

And we see that in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 18, it says, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again." So this is not injustice.

Because God's justice was revealed on the cross, and not only God's justice but also God's love was shown there, where both come together: on one side, God is the absolute judge, and according to God's justice, we should be punished, we are condemned in the presence of the Holy God because we are sinners.

On the other hand, God came in human form, paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, and laid down His life. Why does He do this? Because He loves us. It is because of His love that this is not injustice.

Thus, both justice and love are displayed, and we receive salvation from eternal death. Therefore, God's justice is upheld, not diminished. In Romans 6:23 it says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So what is the wage of sin? Death. God does not overlook sin. Right? In the Torah, it is written that anyone who sins must be put to death.

At times, God allowed grace, but at other times, God would say that they must sacrifice to atone for their sins. In justice, we see that people sinned and came back, repented, and God forgave them.

But today, how easy it has become under the grace of Jesus Christ that we can simply repent and come into His presence and accept Him. Amen, amen. We read in Romans 3:23 that says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

In Romans 3:25-26 it says, "God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished."

In this way, justice is upheld. This means that it is not by force that we take someone and kill them for our sins. No, this was done according to God's promise, according to His justice.

This was not an arbitrary act. It was not an act of a vengeful God but rather an act of love. Jesus Christ came to be the mediator between us and God.

And who can be the mediator? If you want to approach a king or a judge, you need a mediator, right?

And this mediator, Jesus Christ, became the mediator between us and God to have our sins forgiven. Amen.

Another very important verse I want to share with you is in 2 Corinthians 5:21, which says, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

Yes, very good.

Dear friends, today we have addressed two questions. First, Hasanat asked how can we be sure that God forgives our sins. The answer is that God has promised in His word that He will forgive us if we return to Him.

Secondly, we must believe in Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for our sins. Thirdly, by believing in Jesus Christ, we receive the Spirit of God, which completely transforms our lives.

We must believe in these three points, not just dwell on our feelings about them. The second question from Hasanat is whether it is just for one person to sin while another bears the punishment for them.

From a human perspective, this may not seem fair. However, according to the word of God, it is just. He did not take our punishment by force. He willingly chose to do so for both God's justice to be upheld and for the forgiveness of our sins.

When we are forgiven, it does not mean we can sin every day. If we have a good relationship with God because of His love, His goodness, and His kindness, we will not turn towards sin.

We hope you accept this gift of God's grace, which is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Our program today comes to an end. Until next time, we bless you in the name of the Lord. Goodbye and God bless you.

We hope you bless the Lord.