Gospel

Pastor David Jang’s Sermon: Casting Off the Yoke of the Law and Being Clothed in the Freedom of Grace (Olivet University)

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Caspar David Friedrich’s great Romantic masterpiece Wanderer above the Sea of Fog powerfully captures the back of a human figure standing precariously and alone before the abyss of vast nature. The solitary existence of that figure, standing alone on the summit of a rocky mountain and gazing down in solitude upon the clouds and fog spread beneath his feet, reflects the immense longing of modern humanity to become the master of its own life and seize absolute autonomy and independence. Yet at the very height of the independent selfhood so desperately desired, the reality humanity encounters is not dazzling liberation, but only vain and distant ontological wandering and deep spiritual anxiety, like thick fog swaying aimlessly in every direction. This artistic landscape quietly testifies to how the impulse toward autonomy, which sought to ascend to the place of God and escape every norm, instead becomes an invisible prison and a heavy bondage that confines the self. The summit of the majestic theology that the apostle Paul unfolds on the sacred stage of Galatians likewise begins with a sharp indictment of how arrogant attempts to achieve salvation through one’s own religious deeds and efforts end in devastating spiritual bondage and slavery. The “allegory of the two women” in Galatians 4 does not remain merely an old record from the past, intended to settle a particular doctrinal dispute in the ancient church. Rather, it becomes a universal standard by which Christians living in today’s complex age may discern their innermost spiritual identity. Pastor David Jang’s sermon brings this ancient biblical text vividly onto today’s barren pulpit and solemnly asks us where the anchor of our souls has truly come to rest amid the vast whirlpool of gospel and grace, works and law.

The Fundamental Asymmetry of Existence and the Spiritual Revolution of Becoming Children

The most basic essence and condition that human existence faces lies in absolute dependence upon God the Creator. As the flow of the Word spiritually illuminates, this creative relationship is fundamentally and perfectly asymmetrical, like the relationship between the sun and a sunflower. The sun exists fully in itself and radiates infinite light, entirely independent of whether the sunflower exists or devotes itself to it. But the sunflower cannot sustain its life even for a single moment without the warm light and grace that the sun pours down from above. The essence of true faith lies in humbly accepting this undeniable and solemn truth in concrete life, and willingly and joyfully entering into a relationship of absolute dependence upon the Creator. Yet throughout the long history of humanity, an arrogant impulse has constantly surged within human beings: the impulse to reject this created dependence, declare autonomy and independence, and escape the shadow of the Creator. Pastor David Jang reads Nietzsche’s historic sentence, “God is dead,” as an extreme sign of the human impulse toward autonomy, and with sharp theological insight points out how, in the very place where the absence of God is solemnly proclaimed, the fundamental emptiness and devastating rupture of human existence are instead laid bare. Human finitude apart from God, who is the reality of eternity, ultimately becomes enslaved to incurable anxiety and condemnation. This heavy bondage can be transformed into the true freedom of children only under the light of total grace.

The fact that the severed relationship with God is the deepest root of every anxiety and fear the human soul experiences is a great truth that runs through the whole of Scripture. This tragic alienation and rupture did not arise from God’s fickleness or rejection, but from humanity’s own choice to leave the Creator’s embrace and become an independent master. The historical example of King Saul in the Old Testament symbolically testifies to this spiritual principle. When he first treated the living word of the Lord lightly and rejected it, the devastating result was the complete severing of intimate communion with God, leading him to miserable spiritual ruin and terror. Yet it is precisely in the abyss of this deep despair that the gospel speaks a completely new message humanity could never have imagined. When the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of the Son,” dwells within us, we are no longer beings who tremble in fear before the terrifying majesty of a judge. Instead, we stand boldly in the glorious status of children who can call out to God in the most intimate and tender language: “Abba, Father.” This astonishing change of address is not merely psychological comfort or an expression of emotion. It is a fundamental change in the status of our being, a spiritual revolution in which we are transferred from slaves of fear to beloved sons and daughters. The message of this passage exposes the truth that crude ancient idolatry and modern, sophisticated forms of blessing-centered religion, merit-based religion, and performance-driven faith have merely changed their outward appearance; all of them are different faces of legalism that bind human beings to a world of conditions and scores. Because the core of that cruel system is to keep human beings forever enslaved under endless qualification tests, the declaration of Galatians 5, “Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery,” becomes a powerful practical command to intentionally cut off the circuits of bondage.

Removing the Curtain of Impatience and Walking the Covenant Path through the Beauty of Waiting

Upon this great premise, the allegory of Galatians 4 gains deep persuasive power that pierces the heart of our faith. The apostle Paul reinterprets the story within Abraham’s household—the story of Hagar the slave woman and Sarah the free woman, and of Ishmael and Isaac born from them—not merely as genealogy, but as a great redemptive-historical drama symbolizing two covenants. When we examine the narrative from Genesis 15 to 17 as its background, God gave Abraham a sure promise: “One who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Yet after that majestic declaration came a long and dark period of silence that was difficult for human beings to endure. As the silence of waiting for the promise’s fulfillment grew painfully long, the aging Abraham and Sarah became seized by deep impatience. Rather than enduring to the end and waiting for God’s faithful promise, they began hastily devising a human solution “according to the flesh,” and Sarah ultimately carried out the human calculation of giving her maidservant Hagar into her husband’s arms. This scene becomes a mirror that accurately reveals how many believers today commonly collapse amid God’s silence and seeming absence.

When human beings fail to fully trust God’s appointed sacred kairos, they always attempt to force the results of grace to arrive sooner through their own limited abilities and immediate calculations. But at that very moment of impatience, the holy order of grace is instantly distorted into the cold order of human works, and the community comes into danger of division. Because faith essentially includes the beauty of waiting, enduring while looking toward the promise, when that waiting collapses, even a holy symbol such as circumcision—which had been a pure sign of grace—quickly turns into a prerequisite for obtaining salvation. As this sermon repeatedly emphasizes, the reversal of order is the fatal starting point at which poisonous legalism begins to sprout in our souls. When God changed Abram’s old name to Abraham and renewed the covenant, the circumcision that took place was not a necessary condition or payment for obtaining salvation. It was only the purest sign of obedience and gratitude that human beings could offer in response to a promise already given freely to those without qualification. Every religious attempt to make works the cause rather than grace ultimately bears the fruit of the flesh called Ishmael and drives the soul into a deep swamp of anxiety.

Beyond the Earthly Jerusalem, the Freedom of Children Proclaimed by the Heavenly City

The apostle Paul presents the symbolic correspondence of this dramatic allegory in his letter with great clarity and firmness. Hagar perfectly symbolizes the covenant of the law solemnly given at Mount Sinai, and those born under that system of works can never become full heirs, but only “bear children for slavery.” The apostle not only connects Hagar geographically with the barren “Mount Sinai in Arabia,” but also identifies her, in terms of his own age, with “the present Jerusalem,” which was ruled by powerful religious authority at the time. This exposes the sad truth that regardless of the law’s sacred origin, every religious establishment that misuses and enforces it as a means of evaluating human merit and qualification only continually reproduces the relationship between strict masters and slaves. By contrast, Sarah, the free woman, radiantly symbolizes “the Jerusalem above,” which transcends the limits of the earth. The church, described in Hebrews and Revelation as the heavenly city, the holy bride of the Lamb, and the community of the truly free, does not give birth to new children and set them free through earthly methods or human merit, but only through the faithful promise of heaven and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The miraculous birth of Isaac, the child of promise, from Sarah, who by human common sense and biological conditions could not possibly bear a child, is the dramatic climax that shows how the total grace of God works unilaterally and perfectly within history. As the prophecy of Isaiah 54 sings, the barren woman who had not conceived and had not given birth comes to have descendants more numerous, like the stars of heaven, than the descendants of those powerful on earth. This pattern of grace is a mystery granted only to those who believe the gospel. Therefore, every believer who trusts this great gospel enjoys the glory of becoming, like Isaac, a noble “child of promise” by faith alone, regardless of physical lineage or religious achievement. Just as Ishmael, who was born according to the flesh, persecuted Isaac, who was born according to the promise, so today, in our lives and churches, stubborn legalism that places works and performance first constantly tries to push out and condemn the pure gospel centered on grace. Because this fierce spiritual tension is most intensely revealed within the community, the principles that damage the essence of the gospel must be clearly discerned and removed from the center of the community. The stern command, “Cast out the slave woman and her son,” does not mean personally rejecting certain individuals. Rather, it is a theological demand to decisively exclude the false system that distorts salvation through human works.

The Fruit of Love and Eternal Rest Borne by the Complete Sufficiency of the Cross

This majestic redemptive-historical allegory naturally leads into the great declaration of Christian freedom proclaimed in Galatians 5. In Paul’s proclamation, “For freedom Christ has set us free,” freedom never means indulgence that dismantles moral norms or ethical responsibility. Rather, it appears as a creative power that liberates us from every fear of condemnation that once crushed us and fully restores our relationship with God and neighbor through the power of love. The “yoke of slavery” that we must firmly throw off does not refer only to the ancient regulation of circumcision. It is a comprehensive concept that includes human merit-based religion, moral perfectionism, performance-centered faith, and every religious compulsion and inner fear that loses sight of the essence of the gospel while obsessing over outward forms of piety. The true freedom given by the gospel is confirmed in the concrete realities of life as a dynamic rest that waits by faith, following the Spirit, for the hope of righteousness.

This process enables us to walk quietly, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, through the entire course of salvation that leads from justification to sanctification and finally to glorification. It is the story of hope in which those who have already been justified by the blood of Christ receive the holy guidance of the Spirit working within them, are transformed day by day into the image of the Lord, and finally reach completion on the glorious day when they stand before Him. The visible result borne in this dynamic process is the “fruit of the Spirit.” This fruit is never a list of exhausting achievements squeezed out by human effort. It is evidence that the life of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us naturally overflows outward, and it is the inevitable fruit that flows from the spring of grace. Yet the church has always been exposed to the frightening temptation of “a little leaven” spreading through the whole lump. False teaching usually begins with a pious slogan such as “Let us become more holy,” but before long it tilts toward legalistic pressure that says, “Do more,” and eventually returns to a religion of scores that calculates human merit.

In the face of such a situation, Paul’s attitude toward those who cleverly disturb the truth and try to mix in human works is firm. The problem is not the sacrament or norm itself, but the fatal misuse that elevates it into a necessary condition for salvation. If anyone claims that even the slightest human work is necessary in order to obtain salvation, that damages the perfect and sufficient efficacy of the cross and ultimately leads to the tragic path of “falling away from grace.” The theological radicalness of Galatians lies precisely here. If the cross is not everything, then the cross is nothing. Paradoxically, that absolute conclusion frees us from every religious burden. Pastor David Jang repeatedly reminds us of this point and teaches us to place the central axis of faith firmly and always upon the active voice of the gospel: “God has done it.”

The destination of true freedom that Paul presents is astonishingly clear. It is the paradoxical command, “Through love, become slaves to one another.” The true freedom given by the gospel bears fruit beyond selfish self-liberation in voluntary devotion and service for others. The apostle’s insight that the whole law is summed up in one command—“Love your neighbor as yourself”—means that grace does not render the law worthless and discard it, but fulfills its essential spirit through the higher principle of love. When the church loses this principle of love, the community quickly degenerates into a “hell of law” where people grade and condemn one another. But when the church returns to the place of grace where it bears one another’s burdens, the order of the “Jerusalem above” is concretely embodied in our reality. We must begin by moving the starting point of faith from “I must do it” to “God has done it,” clearly establishing grace as the cause and our works as the result. When I place my identity not in lineage or achievements, but in being a child of promise, service changes from compulsion into joy. We are no longer slaves who hide because of fear of judgment, but children who run into the Father’s arms because of His love.

Ultimately, every discussion in Galatians leads us to one fundamental question: Where am I standing now? Am I in Hagar’s tent, or in Sarah’s embrace? Am I anxiously moving back and forth between insecurity and superiority within a system that endlessly calculates works and qualifications, or am I continuing to breathe deeply in freedom and gratitude upon the grace that has been freely given? Before this existential question, the allegory of Galatians is no longer an old example from antiquity, but a clear mirror that fully reflects our present day. In trusting the complete sufficiency of the cross, listening to the quiet guidance of the Holy Spirit, and taking small steps of serving the neighbor beside us in love, this great journey of freedom will begin anew each day. Holding fast to the eternal promise of the gospel and completely casting off the yoke of slavery, toward what fruit of love will your steps now move?

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Pastor David Jang’s Sermon: The Life of the True Church Shaped by the Gospel of the Cross and Grace (Olivet University)

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The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in one of his works that if you want to build a ship, you should not merely have people gather wood or assign them tasks; rather, you must awaken in them a longing for the vast and endless sea. This is because beneath the skill of raising great sails and cutting through waves lies a fundamental yearning for the destination. The same is true when it comes to building the spiritual world and establishing the essence of the church. Pastor David Jang traces Paul’s urgent journey in Acts 17 through Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens, and brings before us the deepest essence that makes the church truly the church and enables mission that gives birth to life. This is not simply an attempt to recall history from the past, but a holy question that pierces the hearts of believers living and breathing here and now. It declares that the church’s only true starting point is not splendid ministry techniques or complex modern programs, but a longing for Jesus Christ and fervent love for one’s neighbor. In the blazing field where the gospel advanced and persecution surged at the same time, Paul’s heart beat only with love, and his steps moved forward unwaveringly upon the order of grace.

The Deepest Driving Force Beyond Strategy: Loving Relationships

The fact that Paul, despite suffering severe physical and emotional wounds after being brutally beaten and imprisoned in Philippi, did not make excuses but immediately set out for Thessalonica is an astonishing event that goes beyond a mere sense of religious duty. This sermon deeply illuminates that behind his unstoppable movement was not a cold custom, but a burning and earnest longing for relationship. His heart, which refused to give up on his own people even though they rejected, accused, and attacked him, and which went back to the synagogue to embrace them again, lies in a realm utterly impossible by human will alone. It is a miracle of love that can be shown only by those who have received the paradoxical heart of Jesus Christ flowing from the cross. The first foundation of the church as it reaches out to the world must be defined not by any other great ministry, but by this loving relationality. The profound challenge to learn the heart of Christ, who embraces even enemies, means that mission is not a kind of project, but a transformation of one’s very being.

Today, we often lose the patience and waiting required for souls under the name of efficiency, accuracy, or visible results. Truth proclaimed from a heart not fully filled with love can easily become a weapon that wounds another person’s soul. When the church boasts only of theological accuracy without love, or wields religious zeal without personal relationship, all of its missional cries collapse into empty noise. Excessive ministry only leaves behind spiritual fatigue. By contrast, when love becomes the first button and is fastened rightly, the entire spiritual order of the church finally finds its proper place. Gentle acceptance toward others, endless patience, and even painful exhortation and rebuke meant to save souls—all these actions gain true vitality only when they are rooted in the soil of love.

The Simplicity of the Cross and Resurrection That Pierces Through Truth

The message delivered to the audience in the precious vessel of love is also not complicated or ambiguous like human philosophy. The record in Acts shows that for three Sabbaths, Paul carefully explained and reasoned from the Scriptures, proving one single truth: that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead. Pastor David Jang compares this process to a spiritual puzzle in which the scattered pieces of Old Testament law and prophecy finally find their place and are completed into one great picture. When the simple yet cosmic truth of the cross and resurrection is precisely fitted together, the closed hearts of the listeners are flooded like light with explosive understanding and grace poured out by the Holy Spirit. The reason devout Greek intellectuals and prominent women laid down their status and bowed before the gospel was not because of human rhetorical brilliance, but because of the irresistible power contained in the core of this truth.

This spiritual order remains equally valid and applicable to our pulpits and ministry fields today, thousands of years later. The heart of the gospel testified to in Acts is not philosophical speculation that satisfies human intellect, but the historical fact of the resurrection itself, which shattered the power of death. Various cultural contents and countless events are filling the empty spaces of the church, but we must painfully examine whether the wonder of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ stands clearly at the center. The flow of the Word strongly warns against the paradox that as secondary programs increase, the radiance of the gospel can actually become blurred. A community that loses its essence, no matter how splendid its outward appearance may be, eventually becomes a ship that loses direction and drifts in violent waves. By contrast, if believers hold firmly to this simple and clear truth of the gospel even amid the tribulations of any era, they can continue to open a steadfast path of life even in the barren wilderness of the world.

The Breath of the Word and the Community Blooming Through Tribulation

Where the light of life shines intensely, the shadow of Satan’s subtle jealousy and rage inevitably falls darkly. It was no coincidence that troublemakers from the marketplace were stirred up to violently attack Jason’s house, and that fearful accusations rang out, saying that those who had turned the world upside down had now come here as well. This is the reality of jealousy, the oldest and most deadly spiritual weapon used to destroy God’s creative work of salvation and divide the community. Yet the history of the early church proudly proves that persecution became a gateway of advance, pushing the gospel into an even wider world. Tribulation never managed to shrink or weaken the believers; rather, it became a powerful spiritual catalyst that expanded the reach of the gospel beyond Berea and toward the ends of the earth. In the face of external misunderstanding and internal persecution, we must not become discouraged and choose defense or escape. Instead, we must willingly choose spiritual purification and bold advancement.

The Bereans, who moved beyond severe persecution, examined the Scriptures every day with eager hearts and displayed a burning thirst for truth. The sermon presents the spiritual attitude of these Berean believers through three powerful and organic links: the Word, the Holy Spirit, and the community. When the Word meditated upon in one’s private room is illuminated by the Holy Spirit and becomes the guidepost of life, and when it is then shared in the refining furnace of a small-group community, the true life of discipleship finally begins. Not only grand events, but also the great power contained in a single brief and sincere line of faith reflection posted in everyday life on a Naver café, or in a Bible study gathering, is deeply connected to this essence. The more thoroughly humble we become before the living Word, the more clearly the work of the Holy Spirit appears, and the trust and love among believers grow into a firm spiritual immunity that cannot be shaken by any tribulation.

A Faith in Which Sunday’s Confession Becomes Monday’s Faithfulness

The dynamism of the gospel has an eternal quality that never evaporates into a single moment of hot tears or the emotion of a one-time religious gathering. In Paul’s letters to the church in Thessalonica, there is firm and solemn rebuke against the attitude of using a vague hope for the coming return of Christ as an excuse to neglect one’s present daily life and responsibilities. Paul’s noble life—laboring day and night with his own hands, taking responsibility for his livelihood, making tents without growing weary, and proclaiming the gospel—vividly proves that true faith is not escapism or asceticism that turns away from the pain of reality. Rather, it is a holy ethic of responsibility that works faithfully and serves one’s neighbor fiercely in the place of life called today. Our faith does not end the moment we step out of the heavy doors of the sanctuary on Sunday. It must begin again, intensely and beautifully, in the real fields of life: at home and in the workplace.

If the holy confession of faith made in Sunday worship does not spread into the sweat, honesty, and faithfulness of the workplace on Monday morning, such empty faith can never transform the world. The ministry landscape of the community, which has remarkably expanded to 161 countries around the world as it marks its thirtieth anniversary, was not completed by outstanding individual talent or coincidence. It was made possible because someone packed their bags and left for an unfamiliar land, someone else sent them with material support and prayer so that they could fully carry out ministry, and still others offered unseen dedication by learning local cultures and building bridges of language. Pastor David Jang powerfully declares that mission is not the cold achievement of an organization, but an organic life process in which some go ahead, some send from behind, and all support one another firmly as if supporting life itself. Ultimately, the most powerful apologetic toward the world is not a sophisticated and logical technique, but honest daily faithfulness in which the words of one’s lips and the path of one’s life are aligned.

Every great history of the church is not found in splendid buildings or numbers on statistical charts, but in the sincere stories of specific faces—people who tremble, suffer, and long for grace. Jason’s anxious gaze, the trembling heart of a new believer, and the warmth of the early church believers who cared for one another even amid persecution are no different from the faces of the neighbors beside us today. Even in the middle of a barren modern city overflowing with the roar of news, the cold speed of algorithms, and frames of division, the gospel still does not cease. It tenderly calls wounded souls and rebuilds a holy community. When we discern the world through the Word like the Berean believers, and when we continue advancing without stopping even amid persecution like the Thessalonian believers, the weighty grace of thirty years will become a radiant bridge gladly devoted to saving the souls of the next generation. When the deep and quiet truth of the cross pierces through the hardened places within me, whose burden will your steps of love move toward sharing today?

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Pastor David Jang Bible Meditation 1: In a Collapsing Age, Rebuilding the Walls of Faith by Grace (Olivet University)

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Pastor David Jang

In A.D. 410, on the day when the mighty Roman Empire—once thought impossible to overthrow—fell to the invasion of foreign tribes, Augustine, the philosopher and theologian, looked upon the terrible ruins before his eyes and deeply contemplated the eternal “City of God,” which never fades away. Even as the visible walls of a seemingly unshakable empire turned to ashes, he meditated on how an unseen spiritual foundation could become humanity’s ultimate hope.

This motif of historical ruin and rebuilding flows most clearly and powerfully through the Old Testament history of the people of Israel, who returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile in the fifth century B.C. The grief over a broken age and the holy longing to raise it up again still present us, thousands of years later, with a deeply relevant question of faith. Pastor David Jang’s sermon takes the history of rebuilding in the book of Nehemiah as a mirror and presents profound theological insight into how the modern church—lost and collapsing amid the fierce waves of secularization—can regain vitality and be restored as an outpost of the gospel.

The Tears of Grief in the Place of Ruins and the Beginning of Grace

In Hebrew, the name Nehemiah carries the profound meaning “Yahweh comforts,” along with a strong nuance of encouragement and renewed courage. Yet this holy comfort was never cheap consolation. It began with tears that looked directly at a devastating reality.

When Nehemiah heard the tragic news that the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins and its gates had been burned, he was living in the comfort of the Persian royal court. Yet he carried in his heart the misery of his people who had been taken into Babylonian exile, and for 120 days he fasted and mourned. His sorrow was not merely sentimental nostalgia for a lost homeland. It was a piercing spiritual concern over the collapse of the place of worship and the shaken identity of God’s covenant people.

As the king’s cupbearer, appearing sorrowful before the monarch could have been a fatal risk, even a matter of life and death. Nevertheless, the sincere tears that ran down his face moved the king’s heart powerfully. In the end, Nehemiah received the remarkable permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild its broken walls. This is a majestic narrative showing how one person’s earnest prayer can move beyond the power of a vast empire and bring God’s invisible providence into the world. As he rebuilt the fallen walls and burned gates, Nehemiah dreamed of the people being fully restored as a holy community that could gather again to worship, bow down, and pray.

The place illuminated by this sermon does not remain only in the distant history of the ancient Near East. Today, many church buildings in Western societies, including the United States and Europe, are closing because of declining membership and financial crisis. Some have even been turned into bars, circus venues, or mosques. Like the metaphor of the missionary clock, lands that once sent countless missionaries throughout the world and shone with the bright noonday light of the gospel have now, in reverse, become mission fields facing a dark night.

In this darkness of the age, we must ask ourselves whether we, like Nehemiah, are truly grieving over the broken spiritual walls before us. When we are restored as watchmen who warn of approaching danger and recover knees of prayer that cry out in wakefulness, only then can the closed doors of grace begin to open again.

The Gospel of the Cross and the Partnership of Faith That Raises the Broken Walls

The record that the wall was completed in only 52 days despite the plots and obstruction of enemies was a mighty work of God that made even the surrounding Gentile nations tremble in fear. Yet Pastor David Jang clearly points out that the completion of the physical wall did not mean that Israel’s spiritual salvation and renewal had reached its final destination.

The external reconstruction that preserves the space of worship must be accompanied by the restoration of the gospel of the cross, which fills that space with truth. If Nehemiah, as governor, blocked external threats and built a strong wall, Ezra, the priest and scribe, gathered the people in the square before the Water Gate and read the Law from early morning until noon, filling their dry inner lives with the Word of life.

This beautiful partnership shown by Ezra and Nehemiah presents the most ideal model and direction of leadership for the modern church. When the practical devotion of kingdom builders who protect the outward form of the church is fully united with the proclamation of the truth of salvation that continually flows from the pulpit, the church finally possesses true vitality.

No matter how splendidly a church building is constructed, if the profound theological truth of Romans is not proclaimed within it—that all have sinned, yet are justified freely by grace through the atoning work of Christ—the church will collapse once again like a sandcastle before the fierce waves of secularization. The doctrine of perfect righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ alone must take deep root in the hearts of all believers.

Therefore, true temple rebuilding is a fierce spiritual battle to protect the essence of the living community purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. When church buildings filled with the long heritage of Christianity face the threat of closure, the process of purchasing them and transforming them into worshiping communities of diverse languages and cultures is never merely the maintenance of real estate. It is a concrete and intense missionary decision to save even one more soul and raise that soul as the light and salt of the world.

The sacrifices of believers who participate in the business of God’s kingdom through the fruit of their labor in daily life and the workplace are no different from the holy footsteps of obedience shown by the people who rebuilt the heaps of stone in ancient Jerusalem with their bare hands.

Spiritual Revival Blossoming Through True Repentance and Holy Hope

After the wall was completed, the people heard the reading of the Book of the Law in the square before the Water Gate, and they all began to weep. They painfully realized their ignorant sins and the deep corruption of their community as reflected in the mirror of Scripture.

The biblical record of the people wearing sackcloth, confessing their sins for a long time, and repenting thoroughly declares that revival never comes from beautifully packaged cultural programs or shallow human management techniques. As the prophet Hosea lamented that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, without torn-hearted repentance that humbles itself before the cross and returns to the knowledge of truth, any religious zeal becomes nothing more than an empty cry.

Yet the people’s hot tears did not end in miserable despair. The leaders proclaimed to the grieving multitude that the joy of the Lord was their strength, and they led them from the painful piercing of the Law into the grace of true forgiveness and the place of holy hope. The grace of cleansing that comes after thorough self-confrontation before the Word, and the spiritual joy that pours down from there like a waterfall, is the most radiant privilege enjoyed by the saints dwelling within the rebuilt walls.

The blueprint of true revival continually emphasized through these teachings also reaches this truth: the vitality that cares for the least and practices love toward wounded neighbors flows from this overflowing joy of biblical meditation.

Ultimately, when a building collapses, the gathered community also slowly scatters. When the assembly of believers disappears, the spark of the gospel toward the world inevitably grows cold. Therefore, in this dark age, defending the physical place of worship to the end and building an altar of thorough training in truth and prayer within that space is not simply the preservation of religious tradition.

It is a lifeline for protecting souls amid the rough temptations of secular culture and passing down an unchanging inheritance to the young people and children of the next generation. Through the unprecedented crisis of the pandemic and the cold gazes of the world, the essence we can never abandon is the rebuilding of this firm spiritual foundation.

The rebuilding of the wall from the dust of ruined Jerusalem was, in the end, a great act of providence meant to shape the many souls dwelling within that safe enclosure firmly in the unshakable love of the cross. The aching heart that placed bricks upon ancient ruins with tears and prayer, and the holy sorrow of the Israelites who beat their breasts before the Word of life, must flow deeply into our hardened hearts today.

Now is the time to quietly examine ourselves. Are we watching the collapse of the community as if it were someone else’s problem before the massive currents of the age? Or are we first inspecting the broken spiritual walls within ourselves and bowing quietly before God?

In the empty place where every splendid outward appearance has been stripped away, is the eternal wall of truth that can never collapse truly standing firm in the depths of your soul?

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Building an Eschatological Daily Life on the Rock of the Cross – Pastor David Jang (Olivet University)

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In 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, imprisoned in Tegel Prison by the Nazis, wrote letters to friends and fellow believers from a cell overshadowed by the constant possibility of execution. His prison correspondence was not a cold catechism or speculative philosophy, but a burning confession and a fierce record of life that asked what the essence of faith truly is in the midst of a desperate age. The many letters left behind by the Apostle Paul in Scripture are no different. Pastor David Jang does not read the epistles of the early church as theories produced in an empty vacuum, but leads us into the rugged historical field where persecution and conflict swirled without rest. His preaching vividly restores the dust and sweat of the Book of Acts hidden behind the text, reviving frozen letters into a living message that shakes our souls today.

The Narrative of the Gospel Blooming in the Wounded Field of History
When we place the Pauline Epistles upon the three-dimensional stage of Acts, we finally witness words that once seemed suspended in midair descend to the earth and begin to walk. The counsel and exhortations the apostle sent to specific churches were never leisurely academic discussions. They were desperate struggles responding to the real questions of life amid idols and marketplaces, economic hardship and labor, and the painful conflicts among believers. The reason Paul so majestically proclaimed the overwhelming fullness and sovereignty of Christ to the Colossian church, which he had not personally founded, was also born out of the urgency to correct distorted teachings that threatened to destroy that church. Theology must not be an intellectual amusement for the sake of theory; it must be a fierce pastoral event that gives life to souls. At this point, the perspective of Pastor David Jang, marked by profound theological insight, reminds us that only when biblical doctrine and historical narrative interlock does the Word become a compass of life that guides our everyday existence.

Christ as the Steadfast Anchor, and the Time of the End with Sails Raised upon It
When the weary footsteps of the Apostle Paul crossed the Via Egnatia and reached Thessalonica, where the dark shadow of emperor worship hung heavily over the city, the heart of what he proclaimed in the synagogue was not the delivery of refined knowledge. It was the gospel of the cross: that the ancient promises of the Old Testament had been fully fulfilled through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Some responded with overflowing faith, but others, burning with jealousy, stormed Jason’s house and cruelly framed them as political rebels. Under the intense pressure and furnace of affliction that forced Paul and his companions to flee by night to Berea, the newly born church was left behind in the storm. If Colossians asks the fundamental question, Who is Christ, the Lord over all things?, then 1 Thessalonians, written amid this severe crisis, asks, Where is this history heading, and how then should we live? Pastor David Jang draws deep attention to the fact that the early church took unshakable Christology as its bedrock and built its eschatology upon that secure foundation.

The Wall Broken Down by Grace, and the Obedience of Daily Life Brought to Bloom by Peace
The two words Paul places at the opening of his letters, “grace and peace,” far surpass a mere conventional greeting. Grace is the sublime love of atonement that emptied itself completely and bore the cross; peace is the holistic shalom in which vertical reconciliation with God flows outward into horizontal solidarity with one’s neighbor. Those who have passed through deep repentance and come to experience grace must, as Ephesians declares, move toward the place where the dividing wall between self and others is torn down and relationships are truly healed. Furthermore, this great ministry of the gospel was not the solo performance of a single extraordinary hero. Paul, Silas, and Timothy endured the storms of their age because they stood within a fellowship of co-laborers who upheld one another in their wounds. The church’s true authority shines most brilliantly not in the language of domination that rules over others, but in the order of love in which believers submit to one another and carry each other’s weakness with tenderness.

The Ethics of Honest Reading That Discerns the Pulse of the Text
Our attitude toward the Word is directly connected to our attitude toward life itself. The fact that Hebrews adopts the startling form of omitting even an opening greeting and plunging immediately into the great heart of theology suggests that the weight of gospel truth can transform even the outward structure of a text. To consume Scripture merely as a tool for self-confirmation, using it to reinforce one’s own opinions, or to pick and choose from it according to personal taste, is to damage the text. Rather, we must examine carefully the literary logic unique to the passage itself and quietly listen to the rough breathing of the historical scene from two thousand years ago. The habit of continually asking and probing what revolutionary meaning familiar customs and religious expressions originally carried is the true starting point of deep biblical meditation. An approach that organically weaves together literature and history, theology and pastoral ministry, transforms the letters on old paper into a river of living water that makes the hearts of both ourselves and our communities beat anew.

A Spirituality That Looks to Heaven While Sowing Seeds of Faithfulness on Earth
When people hear the word eschatology, they often think first of sensational mysticism that tries to predict the dates of future events, or of cynical escapism that turns its back on the world and gazes only at heaven. But the end spoken of in Scripture asks about the clear purpose of history and becomes a weighty power of endurance that enables us to live today’s daily life in holiness even in the midst of tribulation. Pastor David Jang strongly emphasizes that the unchanging hope of the Lord’s return must be translated fiercely into the ethics of diligence, self-restraint, brotherly love, and obedience in the realities of our lives. To long earnestly for the heaven that is to come, while planting both feet firmly on the ground where we stand and laboring faithfully in sweat-filled work—that tension was the secret of the life-force by which the early church overcame the world. True comfort does not arise from the anxious urge to calculate the timetable of the end, but from quiet footsteps that faithfully practice the will of God here and now.

Information floods over us like a deluge, yet the true wisdom by which to interpret the world seems to be drying up. In such a time, upon what rock are we really standing? A hasty eschatology severed from the truth of the cross and resurrection will inevitably lose its way and stagger into confusion. What we truly need in the midst of crisis is not shallow prophecy that stirs anxiety, but the memory of the faithful promise the Lord left us long ago. When doctrine does not remain as mere knowledge in the mind but crosses over into the warm living temperature of hands and feet, the fresh vitality preserved by the young and persecuted church in Thessalonica will begin to pulse again in our homes and workplaces today. Now that this journey of thought has come to its end, what shape are the marks of the cross and the faithfulness of one who lives in light of the end taking in the midst of your remaining daily life? When we linger honestly before this solemn and tender question, our lives themselves will become another radiant epistle written to the world.

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Radiant Grace Flowing Through Broken Cracks – Pastor David Jang (Olivet University)

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On a Stormy Night, a Lost Soul Encounters the Light of Providence

People say that the darker the night, the brighter the stars shine. Yet when the fierce waves of life begin to swallow the ground beneath our feet, we often forget even that self-evident truth. In moments of despair, when it feels as though walls are closing in on every side, human beings finally confront their own finitude and begin to thirst for the Absolute. This unwelcome guest we call “suffering” may, in fact, be a paradoxical invitation sent by God so that He may meet His children most intimately.

The message of Pastor David Jang begins precisely at this point. He does not treat the Apostle Paul’s second missionary journey as a mere historical record of the past, but lifts it onto the horizon of our lives today. Along the rugged road Paul walked, careful human planning, unexpected persecution, and the vast providence of God that overshadowed them all were deeply intertwined. When we despair at what seems to be a dead end in life, Pastor David Jang reminds us that such a dead end may actually become a heavenly passageway expanding the territory of the gospel.

A Duet of Suffering and Glory Embroidered on Canvas

Consider Rembrandt, the great master of the Baroque era, and his painting Christ in the Storm. Inside a small boat that seems about to capsize beneath raging waves, the disciples cry out in terror. Yet at the very center of the chaos, Jesus Christ lies peacefully asleep, forming a striking contrast. The resonance of this masterpiece is unmistakable. Light reveals its true nature only in the presence of darkness, and a storm is not always meant to sink the ship; sometimes it becomes the very force that drives us toward our destination.

This artistic insight is deeply connected to the principle of “making a road (道路)” that Pastor David Jang proclaims. Paul was a strategist with a grand vision of reaching Rome and even Spain, yet what hastened his steps was none other than the fierce persecution of the Jews. His involuntary departure from Thessalonica, driven by persecution, ultimately gave rise to the miracle of churches being established in Berea, Athens, and Corinth. Pastor David Jang calls this “the road (路) on which truth (道) travels,” emphasizing that when the external pressure of suffering meets human intention, the work of God is finally brought to completion. The pain we endure does not remain merely as a wound, but becomes a channel through which other souls are saved. That is the mysterious dynamism of the gospel.

Heavenly Comfort Poured into the Empty Vessel of Weakness

The true depth of biblical meditation becomes all the richer when we are brought to our lowest place. In order to care for the believers in Thessalonica who were in the midst of tribulation, Paul sends Timothy, his most beloved co-worker. What is noteworthy is that Timothy was by no means a flawless hero. He was young, physically frail, and at times timid—a vulnerable young man.

Here Pastor David Jang offers a remarkable theological insight. God deliberately placed weak Timothy at the forefront of ministry so that, through his very insufficiency, believers would learn to depend on and help one another. Where the strong dominate, there may be order; but where the weak join hands with one another, there flow the warmth of love and comfort.

Recall that the English word comfort traces back to the Latin fortis, meaning “strong.” Comfort is not merely a sentimental act of wiping away tears. It is a spiritual force that rebuilds the broken walls of a soul devastated by suffering. In Pastor David Jang’s preaching, we find ourselves confessing the very essence of the gospel: that when I am weak, God’s strength is finally revealed, and that our very presence can become a source of life-giving comfort to one another.

The Fragrance of Hope Blossoming Upon Steadfast Faith

In the end, Christian grace is not a lucky escape from suffering, but the courage to press through it. Paul could cry out, “Now we live,” simply upon hearing that the Thessalonian church was standing firm in faith. This holy union—in which the life of the minister is bound up with the spiritual growth of the believers, and the peace of the believers is intertwined with the earnest prayers of the minister—is the true face of the church.

Even today, the environment surrounding us is far from easy. Yet, as Pastor David Jang’s message makes clear, when we reach out to one another in love within the Lord, a peace that the world cannot give descends upon us. Even if your life now appears shattered and broken, do not lose heart. Those very cracks are the openings through which the grace of God seeps in most clearly.

We must once again stand upon the road of the gospel. We must rejoice even in tribulation, trust in the wisdom of God who raises up the weak, and build a community of comfort that calls one another by name. Engraving the deep resonance of Pastor David Jang’s message upon our hearts, may we each become true Christians who carve out a beautiful heavenly road in the places where we live. As we love one another more fervently with the heart of a bride waiting for the Lord’s return, our suffering will one day be transformed into a radiant crown of glory.

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A Woman Who Shattered the World’s Calculator: Sacred Extravagance, and the Cross – Pastor David Jang (Olivet University)

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A lavish banquet hall in Jerusalem, wrapped in deepening twilight. Amid the low murmur of conversation and the crisp clink of cups, a sharp sound sliced through the air—crack! The room fell into a heavy silence. There, a woman knelt and broke what was both her entire fortune and her most precious treasure: an alabaster jar of pure nard. She poured it out, soaking Jesus’ feet. As the room filled with a thick, trembling fragrance, some frowned and accused her of wasting wealth, while others whispered that it was incomprehensible fanaticism.

Yet what flowed through those broken shards was not merely expensive oil. It was a sign—an unspoken prophecy of Jesus’ body that would soon be shattered on the hill of Golgotha. And before that, it was the pure and fierce confession of a soul that had poured out her whole self in love. Brief but incandescent, this story still knocks against the hardened doors of our hearts thousands of years later, asking with unsettling clarity: What does real love look like?

Fragrant Shards: Defying the Age of Efficiency

We live in a bleak age that turns everything into numbers and argues over cost-effectiveness. Even the human heart is treated like a line item on a profit-and-loss statement. In such a world, the woman’s act—pouring out in an instant what amounted to three hundred denarii—can only look reckless.

Reflecting on this vivid Gospel scene, Pastor David Jang names what the world cannot explain with a paradoxical phrase: “sacred extravagance.” His profound preaching reminds us that love, by its very nature, cannot be translated into the language of economic efficiency. While Judas Iscariot and the disciples tap away at their calculators under the rational banner of helping the poor, Jesus praises the woman instead, declaring that she has prepared His burial fully. In doing so, He announces a law of Cross-shaped grace: love is not completed by hesitating over conditions, but by being poured out without remainder.

Only the One Who Gives All Knows the Weight of Love

This message of radical self-emptying and devotion runs like an unbroken thread through the great works of Christian history. In C.S. Lewis’s classic Mere Christianity, we find a piercing theological insight that reaches into the essence of this “sacred extravagance.” Lewis insists that what Jesus Christ asks of us is not a reasonable portion of our time or leftover resources, but our whole self.

His declaration—often summarized like this: “I don’t want some of your time or some of your money; I want you.”—resonates powerfully with the truth of the broken jar. The woman did not offer perfume alone; she offered her very existence, the entirety of her life. As Pastor David Jang emphasizes, real love cannot be divided into neat fractions, nor can it be postponed as we bargain for future security. The woman understood with the instinct of the soul that if she did not give everything now, she might lose forever the chance to love at all. And that immediate obedience placed her life inside the eternal history of the Gospel.

Tears on Canvas: Becoming an Everlasting Trace of the Gospel

This breath-stopping moment of devotion has stirred artists for centuries, becoming a timeless setting for biblical meditation. In Paolo Veronese’s monumental 16th-century work, Feast in the House of Simon, amid marble columns and a sumptuous banquet, only one figure lies low to the ground: the woman. While the powerful and the wealthy remain absorbed in their worldly interests, she alone offers wholehearted worship to the King of Heaven. Later, the Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens captured the same scene with dramatic contrasts of light and shadow, setting the cold gaze of the world against the woman’s burning repentance.

What is striking is this: what the world might have dismissed as inefficient “waste”—these artistic “extravagances”—still shake countless souls hundreds of years later. Through such testimony from art history, Pastor David Jang proclaims that tears and devotion poured out for the Kingdom of God never scatter into empty air. They become an enduring fragrance of the Gospel, awakening generations to come.

Today: Standing Before My Unbroken Jar

Then what is the alabaster jar for us—twenty-first-century people sprinting toward success and achievement? Pastor David Jang insists that this jar is not limited to money alone. It includes the career path I refuse to surrender, the golden hours I guard obsessively, the shallow pride and stubborn will that insists on controlling life on my terms. These are our jars—each one meant to be shattered and broken at the Lord’s feet.

By the world’s logic, there is no waste more foolish and inefficient than this: the Son of the Creator God giving His life on the Cross for sinners. And yet, paradoxically, it was precisely that sacred extravagance of the Cross that saved our dead souls. Pastor David Jang urges us: only those who have truly encountered this love that surpasses calculation can gain the freedom to break their own jar willingly.

Will you stop settling for “reasonable” compromises that you keep postponing—and be ready today to let what is most precious in your hands be poured out? When we smash the calculator named efficiency and choose the “waste” called love, our rough, ordinary lives will finally be shaped into a holy and beautiful masterpiece of the Gospel.

www.davidjang.org

Pastor David Jang (Olivet University) — What Are You Standing On?

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David Jang

Pastor David Jang’s Meditation on Ephesians 6: From Restored Relationships to Spiritual Victory

Among the engravings of the great German artist Albrecht Dürer, there is a masterpiece titled Knight, Death, and the Devil. In a valley draped in pitch-black darkness, “Death,” holding a skull, thrusts forward an hourglass as if to hurry time along, while a grotesque “Devil” threatens from behind. Yet the knight at the center fixes his gaze straight ahead and silently rides on. He does not tremble, nor does he look left or right. The solid armor that wraps his body, the sword at his waist, and his unwavering eyes are what guard him.

This image sharply reflects the spiritual reality we face today. In a world where visible conflicts and invisible temptations are tangled together, what should a Christian wear—and what should a Christian hold onto as they walk forward? Ephesians 6 is the Apostle Paul’s solemn answer to that question, a strategic manual delivered from heaven. Through his exposition of Ephesians 6, Pastor David Jang (founder of Olivet University) emphasizes that this chapter goes far beyond mere ethical guidance; it is an essential “survival manual” for believers to triumph in the war between earth and heaven.

Heaven’s Order Begins in the Closest Places

Before speaking about grand spiritual warfare, Paul turns his gaze to the most intimate and ordinary spaces: the “home” and the “workplace.” The battlefield is not far away. The relationships we face every day—between parents and children, and between supervisors and employees—are themselves intense spiritual ground.

Pastor David Jang highlights Paul’s declaration about children obeying their parents: “for this is right.” Here, “right” is not simply a social norm. It carries a profound theological insight: it is the order God embedded into the world at creation, and only by aligning with that order can humans enter into a right relationship with the Creator.

The promise of “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land” is not a shallow, prosperity-driven guarantee, but points to a state of shalom—wholeness and peace—that comes when spiritual order is properly established. Likewise, parents are told not to provoke their children but to raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord; masters and servants are to recognize that they, too, stand before a Master in heaven, abandoning threats and acting faithfully. All of this is an act of acknowledging God’s sovereignty hidden within relationships.

As Pastor David Jang explains, the attitudes we display at home and at work become our confession of faith. When we act not merely for the eyes of people, but with sincerity—“as to Christ”—that genuine heart becomes one of the most powerful weapons that can transform the world.

Armor of Light That Cuts Through Darkness: Firm Comfort

After establishing order in daily life, Paul expands the lens to the spiritual realm. He proclaims that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against evil spiritual forces, and commands us to “put on the full armor of God.” Just as the knight in Dürer’s engraving passes through the valley of death wearing armor, we, too, need spiritual equipment.

The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit—these six pieces are not scattered fragments, but a single covering that envelops us in the character of Christ.

Pastor David Jang especially stresses that this full armor is a tool of grace that covers our weakness. When Satan fires arrows of condemnation, the breastplate of righteousness guards the heart. When waves of doubt surge in, the shield of faith extinguishes the flaming arrows. When the world shakes, the gospel of peace steadies our steps. Even in despair, the helmet of salvation protects our minds with hope. And the only offensive weapon—the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God—has the authority to cut down the enemy’s schemes in an instant, just as Jesus did in the wilderness.

In this way, the full armor is not something we manufacture ourselves; it is a gift and protection that God Himself provides and clothes us with.

The Unceasing Breath of Prayer: Marching Toward Victory

Yet even if we wear perfect armor and carry a sharp sword, it becomes useless without the strength to move. That is why, immediately after describing the armor, Paul speaks of prayer: “pray at all times in the Spirit… be alert… always persevere.”

Prayer is to an armored soldier what breathing is to the body; it is the supply line pouring resources onto the battlefield. Pastor David Jang delves deeply into the significance of prayer at this point. Spiritual warfare is not fought by our own strength; it is a delegated battle—one we fight by receiving heaven’s power through prayer.

What is striking is the prayer request Paul makes while in chains. He does not ask for release or personal comfort. Instead, he asks: “that I may declare it boldly,” the mystery of the gospel. Even the despair of imprisonment was, for Paul, the very place where his calling as an “ambassador” for the gospel was carried out. Pastor David Jang says this posture is the spiritual wildness we must recover today. When we move beyond our personal well-being and intercede for the church and for gospel messengers, we no longer fight alone—we win together as a great spiritual army.

At the close of Ephesians, Paul sends comfort through Tychicus and blesses “all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying (unchanging) love.” Ultimately, the driving force behind this entire struggle is steadfast love. Perhaps the reason the knight in Dürer’s engraving could ride forward through the darkness without wavering was that he held faith and love for the fortress he was headed toward.

How is your life today? Are you exhausted by strained relationships or a nameless emptiness? Let us stand again before the mirror of God’s Word and examine ourselves. As in the message of Ephesians that Pastor David Jang proclaims, put on the full armor God has given you—securely. And kneel in prayer. Then, at last, we will become victors who break through darkness and move toward the light. Grace will surely come to those who are prepared—and to those who love to the very end.

www.davidjang.org

Warmth of the Charcoal Fire and Love That Feeds – Pastor David Jang (Olivet University)

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They say the deepest hush of a forest is broken by the friction of leaves. But the silence of the forest village where I live began to split in a completely different way. Outside my window at dawn—faint scratching of claws, the crunch of dry soil underfoot, and the exchanged breaths by which creatures confirm one another’s presence. Before I knew it, a grand feline clan of well over twenty had become the forest’s true residents. This small world did not begin with some grand plan. It began with a child’s unguarded compassion: a single bowl of kibble placed on a veranda. That tiny kindness altered the grain of the forest itself.

A Gaze That Fills Loneliness and Existence

Among the group, one presence kept catching my eye: a white cat with heterochromia—an “odd-eyed” cat, each eye a different color. Despite its mysterious appearance, the cat was thoroughly pushed out of the pack. Unable even to approach the warm place where the others ate, it wandered like a shadow. One day, as it sought shelter from the rain, I approached it for the first time. Behind its stiff wariness, I felt a fierce hunger and a deep loneliness. In the small sound of kibble being chewed, and in the subtle hesitation as it tested the reality of a human touch, I found myself facing an essential question. Even in the roughness of the wild, that longing to be cared for and received looked—uncannily—like our own spiritual thirst as human beings.

At that point my reflections flowed naturally into Pastor David Jang’s exposition of John 21. Pastor David Jang reads John 21 not as a simple epilogue, but as the decisive scene in which resurrection faith condenses—right in the field of lived reality—into a concrete calling. The answer to the question, “How is the post-resurrection world proven?” is found here. Resurrection is not an idea but a path one walks, and faith is not a sentiment but a responsibility. His emphasis overlapped with the very hand I had extended toward that forest cat.

Dawn at Tiberias: The Authority of the Word That Fills an Empty Net

The disciples’ emptiness after casting their nets all night and catching nothing symbolizes the existential powerlessness we feel when we live faithfully yet our results remain hollow. Recall Raphael’s Renaissance masterpiece, The Miraculous Draft of Fishes. In the painting, the disciples’ bodies are taut with strain; the muscles that haul the net are alive with motion. Yet at the center of all that commotion stands Jesus—quiet, authoritative. Raphael visually bears witness to the “intervention of the Other” that opens only when human striving finally meets its limit.

Pastor David Jang defines this moment as “a void that human effort cannot fill,” and he draws attention to the fact that the disciples did not succeed by trying “harder,” but by casting the net to the right side “in reliance on the Word,” at which point they gathered an abundant catch—153 fish. This number is not mere tally, but a sign of universal salvation reaching toward all nations, and a vision of world mission that the church must bear. In the instant when the night’s emptiness turns into the dawn’s fullness, we witness a gospel event that begins only when a human being steps down from self-centeredness.

The Rhythm of Repetition That Flows Beyond Condemnation into Healing

That the risen Lord’s first act was not a dazzling sermon but the preparation of breakfast for the disciples is a grace that brings tears. With the warmth of a charcoal fire and the scent of bread, the Lord’s hands soothe human despair. After the meal, Jesus asks Peter: “Do you love me?” The threefold question reflects Peter’s threefold denial like a mirror, yet Pastor David Jang explains this repetition not as interrogation but as a “rhythm of healing.” Because a wound is not sealed by a single declaration, the repeated question of love rearranges the memory of failure into a pathway of restoration.

We often speak of “great love (Agape),” yet in practice even small friendship can feel heavy. But according to the theological insight Pastor David Jang conveys, the Lord does not discard even our incomplete love. It is not the perfect who receive the commission; rather, those who acknowledge their limits and find their hearts catching in their throats before the question of love are called back again to the place of mission. This is the paradoxical power the gospel holds.

A Life That Feeds While Scattered: The Living Essence of the Church

Finally, the command—“Feed my sheep”—becomes the practical evidence by which the truth of one’s love for Jesus is tested. Pastor David Jang interprets “feeding” not as merely giving food, but as wholehearted devotion: wiping the blood of the wounded, nurturing the immature, and bearing the work of pastoral care—shepherding. Gathering in the sanctuary (Gathering) matters, but when the church is scattered into the world (Scattering) and lives as a presence that feeds hungry souls, only then does it truly become a witness to the resurrection.

When the odd-eyed cat rubbed against me and offered its trust, I saw in it the image of Peter rising again. All of us—excluded from the crowd, collapsed under our fragility—are sheep invited to the Lord’s table. As Pastor David Jang’s sermon suggests, shepherding is not a technique for managing well-adjusted people; it is an art of taming those who are out of joint through love.

Even today, countless people around us thirst for recognition and love. Resurrection faith is not a miracle in some far-off place; it is completed in the humble companionship of listening to a neighbor with a broken heart, and making room for the excluded. May the confession, “Lord, you know that I love you,” be translated through our hands and feet into a “life that feeds.”

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Pastor David Jang – The Gospel for Tax Collectors and Sinners

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1. The Gospel and Love

The Gospel is the love story of Christ. It is the good news proclaimed by the church and the message of God’s salvation delivered to us through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We can confirm in various parts of the Bible why this Gospel must be inevitably connected to “love,” and why the Gospel demonstrates the pinnacle of sacrificial love. As some biblical scholars say that Luke chapter 15 is “the chapter that explains the Gospel best,” it contains the core of both salvation and love. At the same time, the essence of the Gospel is transformation of life, and that transformation is ultimately the way for humanity to become truly human—namely, restoring the “image of God” that lies within us. For this Gospel not to remain merely an emotion or a temporary excitement but to be realized as “love” in our actual lives, it must have its source in God, and its practical outworking should appear as “sacrifice.”

Many people think of the Gospel as a set of doctrines or a system of faith that the church must convey. However, the Gospel that Jesus personally demonstrated through His life is, literally, “love itself that gives everything for the sake of a single life.” A representative chapter analytically describing the essence of that love is 1 Corinthians 13. The so-called “Love Chapter,” articulated in the language of an urban society by the Apostle Paul, explains the attributes of love in a highly logical and expository manner. The statement that begins, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy…” (1 Cor. 13:4ff) is a universal language easily understood no matter where or when it is heard in the world. Yet it is crucial to recognize that this is not merely an ethical teaching or a set of polite manners; rather, it is the sacrificial love Christ showed on the cross.

Toward the end of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, “Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12). He equates love with “knowing.” In Hebrew, the word “to know” does not simply denote the acquisition of information; it signifies personal communion and deep intimacy. Accordingly, love entails a relational aspect of deeply understanding and accepting one another. The phrase, “Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known by the Lord,” can be interpreted as, “Just as the Lord has loved me, I too will come to know the Lord with perfect love.” Thus, the nature of love is rooted in intimate fellowship with God.

As 1 John 4:19 teaches, “We love because He first loved us,” the Gospel is the declaration that God first loved us. We can say that we “learn” love only because we have first been loved by God; and as we gradually come to realize that love, we too can be transformed into beings who love others. In this way, the Gospel thoroughly begins with God’s love and sacrifice, and its targets include everyone—even tax collectors and prostitutes. Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death, and in that humbling and sacrifice, God’s love was most clearly revealed.

Romans 10 says, “It is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Faith means that the heart opens first, and from that heart naturally flows a confession. The circumstances that open the heart vary: sometimes intellectual enlightenment comes first and then opens the heart; sometimes the heart opens first and intellectual understanding follows. The important point is that heart and mind must move together for complete faith and the practice of love to be possible. Just as the Greeks emphasized that “human beings are rational beings,” the process of contemplating what love is, why the Lord has saved us, and why we ought to believe in Him is extremely important. Without such understanding, our faith risks degenerating into mere formalities or habitual acts.

What then, concretely, is love? From beginning to end, the Bible consistently describes love as “sacrifice.” Among many historical examples, one famous case is that when Pompeii was buried by a volcanic eruption, the remains of a mother were found holding her child in her arms. The mother’s instinctive sacrifice to protect her child with her own body at the moment of the explosion remained there, fossilized for all to see. This vividly illustrates how powerful the love to preserve life truly is. In general, life has a tendency to focus on self-preservation. When plants sprout from the ground, they engage in a survival competition to claim more sunlight and nutrients rather than yield to one another. However, contrary to this natural inclination, love makes it possible to “give way” to other lives and protect them through one’s own self-sacrifice.

We confess that the life of Jesus Christ—namely His death on the cross—is indeed the apex of “sacrificial love.” The event of Jesus on the cross was the most dramatic act of love, in which the perfectly sinless One died in the place of sinners for their salvation. As Pastor David Jang often emphasizes in his sermons and lectures, the core of the Gospel is precisely this sacrifice. The Lord’s death is not merely a religious symbol or ritual; it is an actual expression in which He personally showed all of us, “This is how I love you.” There are countless forms of love in the world, but the love that “spares nothing of oneself and gives one’s whole being” is the most ultimate form; and that is the essence of the message that the Christian Gospel proclaims.

Moreover, once we realize the value of this love, we come to see that such sacrifice is never in vain. Examining the word “sacrifice” in certain Asian languages (e.g., the Chinese characters for “희생”), some note that the character includes the word for “ox” (牛), recalling how an ox plows the fields its whole life, exerts its strength for its master, and in the end offers even its meat, hide, bones, and tail for human use. Just as the ox serves its master throughout its lifetime, Jesus devoted His entire life for us, displaying the greatness of love. It did not appear in some grand, flashy event but through humble acts of service visible up close—washing feet in a servant’s posture.

In John 13, where Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, it is a symbolic episode inaugurating the journey to the cross. The scene states that He “loved His own who were in the world, and He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). The phrase “to the end” implies God’s heart that endures endlessly and embraces us, even in the face of our betrayal, rejection, and ingratitude. The love of the cross is not merely intended to offer moral lessons or consolation; it was an actual event that brought salvation and restoration. We were treading the path of eternal death because of sin, but the Lord gave His life for us, granting us life. When we confess, “I love Jesus,” underlying that confession is the historical fact that “the Lord loved me first.”

Why, then, is this sublime and sacrificial love story called “the Gospel”? The Gospel is not just news of God’s existence; rather, it is the announcement that “God has loved us in this way,” and through that love, humans, once trapped in sin, can receive salvation and genuine life. In Romans 5, Paul says that “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In other words, salvation is not our own achievement attained through our efforts; it is entirely the grace of God, and that grace is manifested in the fact that God first extended His love. We realize that love and respond to it by living lives of gratitude and dedication. That is how the Gospel is realized in our daily lives.

The love the Bible speaks of is not merely shouting “I love you” in words but is specifically revealed through “service” and “sacrifice.” When Jesus sat to eat with tax collectors and sinners, He was criticized by the Pharisees and scribes, but He paid them no mind. Instead, He personally visited them, stayed with them, reproved their sins yet at the same time extended forgiveness and restoration. Genuine love is a “love that goes forth and seeks people out.”

If we have truly come to know Jesus, we too should be able to serve and embrace people with that same love. When we care for the most marginalized and suffering people in our world—just as Jesus did for sinners and tax collectors—we most concretely demonstrate the love of Christ. As Pastor David Jang has taught on numerous occasions, for the church to serve as salt and light in society, it must base its work on this sacrificial love of Jesus and actively reach out to those who need a helping hand in real life. It is only when we show the Gospel through actions, not just words, that people can see and understand its true meaning.

We must recognize that all of us possess, in the depths of our hearts, the heart of a shepherd. Because God created humankind in His own image, we hold within us an inherent capacity to feel compassion for those in need and care for vulnerable lives. The logic of the world typically values the ninety-nine over the one. Conditioned by a common calculation that “ninety-nine are more important than one,” we may consider it inefficient to invest our time, resources, and energy in caring for the weak or marginalized. But the logic of the Gospel is the complete opposite. Through the story of the shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep in the open field to search for the one that is lost, Jesus emphasizes that “To God, that one is infinitely precious.”

2. The Gospel for Tax Collectors and Sinners

Luke 15 beautifully reveals God’s heart for “even one single life.” Verse 1 begins, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus,” and verse 2 describes how the Pharisees and scribes muttered among themselves, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” In Jewish society, the term “sinner” did not only refer to those who strayed greatly from religious and moral standards but served as a general label for those the majority avoided. Yet Jesus did not shun such sinners; He even shared meals and fellowship with them. This was not just breaking a social taboo but fundamentally shaking the mindset of those who were accustomed to the Law.

Pharisees and scribes were respected in the Jewish religious community and society for their strict observance of the Law. They emphasized “holiness” and “separation” to the point that they thoroughly distanced themselves from sinners, to the extent of not even dining with them. In contrast, Jesus tore down that wall and welcomed sinners, entering directly into their everyday lives. This “unfamiliar contact” is precisely how the Gospel is practically conveyed. Instead of shouting from a distance, “You are sinners; repent immediately,” Jesus approached them up close, took them by the hand, and helped them stand. This is the Gospel Jesus demonstrated.

The parables in Luke 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son all contain the same theme: God’s persistent intention to save those who seem worthless and whose lives are mired in sin, and the joy of heaven when they are restored. Jesus Himself told these parables, saying that “there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons” (Luke 15:7). This is not about logic or efficiency; it is about the heart of God driven by love.

Indeed, tax collectors and prostitutes were among the most despised groups under the religious system of the time. Tax collectors were scorned as slaves to money, and prostitutes were disdained for their sexual sin. Yet Jesus declared, “The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you (Pharisees)” (Matt. 21:31). Because they had been great sinners, once they received forgiveness, they felt an even deeper gratitude and joy, and that gratitude ultimately led to a complete repentance and transformation of life. As Paul famously stated, “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom. 5:20), an ironic demonstration of just how immense the grace and thankfulness can be for those who repent of great sins.

This love and message of salvation apply just as powerfully to us today. The world often says, “We must distinguish between valuable people and those who are not,” or “We should invest resources where the return on investment is greatest.” Sometimes the church itself adopts such worldly logic, welcoming those who appear more “capable” or those who “have more” while ignoring or neglecting those who do not. However, the core of the Gospel points in a completely different direction. The heart of the shepherd who spares no effort to find that single lost sheep embodies the essence of the church Jesus describes, and this love is the driving force for recovering lost souls.

Jesus repeatedly emphasized this concern for “those in the lowest places.” In Matthew 25, at the end of the Olivet Discourse, He teaches, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me.” This leaves no doubt that what the Lord wants from us is “concrete interest and love for those who are poor and marginalized.” Demonstrating such love is the responsibility of the church, and through that path, we expand Christ’s kingdom in the world. Pastor David Jang has often stressed in numerous missional contexts that the Gospel must be accompanied by concrete deeds as well as words. A Gospel lacking the unity of speech and action is only half complete and cannot truly move people’s hearts.

Therefore, when the church seeks to expand its Gospel ministry, the first posture it must adopt is to “look for the weakest and most marginalized in the world and reach out to them.” In Luke 15:4, Jesus asks, “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” Through this question, Jesus revives the “heart of the shepherd” inherently present in all of us. The Pharisees and scribes had lost that heart, so they despised tax collectors and sinners and reproached Jesus for dining with them. But in our deepest inner selves, we possess the capacity to feel that sorrow for even one lost sheep. The problem is that our worldly values, busy routines, or selfishness suppress that compassion.

The Lord wants us to overcome such barriers. The more a church grows, adding various programs and receiving ample financial resources, the more we are tempted to choose convenient and efficient ministries for “the many who have already gathered” rather than investing in “even one who is lost.” Yet the Gospel instructs us to value every single soul. It reminds us that when that single soul repents and returns, there is a great heavenly celebration.

Luke 15:5–6 says, “And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” When the shepherd who went to find the lost sheep finally recovers it, he experiences profound delight. This is not merely the relief of finding a missing item; it is incomparable joy rooted in restoring life and relationship. Nothing else in the world can match the true gladness that arises from resurrecting and reconciling a life.

If we truly want to please God, we must never neglect the lost. Nothing delights God more than the moment a sinner repents. Luke 15:7 clarifies this: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

Here, we should note that “repentance” does not merely refer to moral regret or a routine confession of sin. Biblical repentance means an about-face. It is a fundamental reorientation of life’s goals and values, entailing an awareness of sin, trust in God’s forgiveness, and the determination not to return to that path of sin. Such genuine repentance is only possible when we more deeply comprehend God’s love. The more someone understands the magnitude of God’s love, the more they grasp the seriousness of sin and how great a grace they have received from it. The more profound one’s awareness of that grace, the more naturally gratitude and devotion arise, and such a person becomes a channel through which the power of the Gospel is proclaimed.

We can take Peter as an example. Although Jesus already knew that Peter would deny Him three times, He said, “When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). This implies that even though Peter would sin, through genuine repentance and turning back, he would become an even stronger witness of love. This is both a comfort and a challenge for us. Even if we fall into sin, if we repent and return, God can use our very weakness to share an even greater grace and love. Such is the realm of the Gospel, quite different from the realm of the Law. In the world of Law, “those who commit sins must be punished” is the normal order. But in the world of the Gospel, “change is brought about through forgiveness,” and God’s trust in us comes first.

Pastor David Jang has reiterated, through multiple sermons and teachings, “The life of Jesus welcoming tax collectors and sinners is the church’s eternal model.” According to his teaching, for the church to exist as the body of Christ, it must not be a closed house that excludes the world but should be constantly open, offering new opportunities, and leaving its doors wide open so that even a single soul may return in repentance. He also asserts that the church today must more actively approach society’s dark corners—serving the poor, the sick, the homeless, foreign workers, North Korean defectors, immigrants, and so forth—so that we may tangibly show the Gospel of Jesus. This is the calling of the church to continue the spirit of the “Gospel for tax collectors and sinners.”

In our era, as the church grows larger and accumulates substantial finances and resources, being acknowledged as “successful” by society is not inherently bad. The danger, however, is that such material abundance can narrow our perspective, leading us to disregard or neglect the poor and vulnerable. When Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39), He did not intend for these words to remain a conceptual notion floating in our minds. In the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, we see clearly that we must practically take care of our neighbors who are found “beaten and left half-dead” rather than walking by on the other side of the road. That is what the Gospel is, and that is the role the church must fulfill here on earth.

To pursue this mission, both organized efforts and personal dedication are sometimes needed. Some churches build schools in mission fields, carry out medical missions, and engage in educational ministries to improve the lives of local people. Pastor David Jang has often shared a vision of celebrating the church’s 30th anniversary by building 300 schools in impoverished countries, explaining that the purpose is not merely to erect buildings but to search for lost souls and bring them tangible benefits of the Gospel. If children can be educated, freed from diseases, and gain opportunities to shape their futures through these schools, that goes far beyond a mere mission project. It is the very practice of “the Gospel that searches for one lost sheep.”

In this way, the Gospel opens our “new eyes.” It allows us to see people we had never before considered, to laugh and cry with them, and to find joy in meeting their needs. This is a paradoxical world unexplainable by ordinary calculations. It is a world where one might leave ninety-nine sheep behind for the sake of one, where we extend our hands first to the poor and the sick, where we do not automatically condemn a sinner but instead leave the door open for them to repent and return. That world is precisely what we call the Kingdom of God.

We should meditate daily on Jesus’ question: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” Then we must examine whether we are truly seeking out the lost sheep in our concrete daily lives, investing our time and compassion in them. This applies inside the church as well. We should ask ourselves if we are neglecting newcomers, those who have come to church for the first time, or those who have been hurt and closed their hearts because of past failures. The Gospel is precisely the Lord’s call to stretch out our hands to them first.

“The Gospel for tax collectors and sinners” is not just for criminals or those who have committed notably large sins; it stems from the biblical teaching that essentially all human beings are sinners and in need of grace. We are all sinners before God, and we all require His grace. Jesus declared, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). This also warns each one of us not to think, “I am righteous; His words only apply to those people.” In truth, we all belonged to the “lost sheep” whom Jesus came to seek, and He loved us “to the end.”

One of the questions Pastor David Jang poses is, “Do we truly have the heart of the shepherd for that one lost sheep?” This remains a central question the church must keep pondering. While constructing larger church buildings or developing new programs or increasing church membership and offerings can all be significant, the more fundamental and essential task is “going to the places of need, sharing in people’s joys and sorrows, and concretely proclaiming the Gospel.” It is easy to say we lack the ability, but as Peter said in Acts 3, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth…”—we must hold on to that confidence and courage. The Gospel itself is the greatest gift and power.

When God seeks the lost sheep, He greatly delights in this labor of love from heaven’s perspective. We too can share in that joy. In Luke 15, when the shepherd finds his lost sheep, he calls his friends and neighbors together and exclaims, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” The church is the community that celebrates this joy with others. In other words, we share the joy of salvation, repentance, and forgiveness with one another, allowing people to taste in advance the banquet of the Kingdom of God.

In conclusion, the Gospel is “the Gospel for tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus’ life and teachings can be summarized by His practical dedication and love toward the lost. Tax collectors and prostitutes repent, enter God’s kingdom, and serve God with profound gratitude after receiving forgiveness for grave sins. This radical transformation brought by Jesus’ Gospel is the essence of what He accomplished. We must not merely grasp this love with our minds, but rather prove it through actual deeds in our lives. As Pastor David Jang has consistently emphasized, “Share the grace you have received with the weak and marginalized of the world,” because this is the most fundamental proclamation of the Gospel. And it is by no means grandiose or impossible; this “shepherd’s heart” is already dormant within us, waiting to be awakened, and emerges naturally when we follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

Countless “lost sheep” suffer in our world today—people we often disregard or pass by unnoticed. If the church truly is a Gospel community, it must go out to them and care for them. Whether it is a tax collector enslaved to money, a prostitute who has fallen in love, a young person wandering aimlessly, a patient in a hospital bed, or a soul contemplating a desperate end—everyone has an open path to becoming a child of God, and the church ought to have a shepherd’s heart to guide them to that path. If the “Gospel for tax collectors and sinners” is powerfully proclaimed again today through our churches and the lives of believers, and if Christ’s love is translated into tangible compassion and transformation, heaven will be filled with indescribable rejoicing. That is precisely how we experience in this world the Lord’s promise: “There is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” And it is also the most vivid demonstration that love is indeed the core of the Gospel.

Pastor David Jang ardently hopes that the Korean church and the global church will rediscover this “Gospel for tax collectors and sinners” and that the power of the Gospel will bring about real transformation in our society and mission fields worldwide. Whether in cities or rural areas, in wealthy nations or impoverished nations, if the church returns to “the shepherd’s heart that seeks the lost sheep,” countless souls will be restored, and God’s name will be greatly glorified. As we fulfill this calling of love, the Gospel will be proven by our actions, continuously extending to embrace more sinners who will then experience repentance, forgiveness, healing, and restoration. Through this entire process, the church becomes a true hope to the world, and it becomes evident that God’s kingdom is already unfolding here and now. In this way, the Gospel steadily expands, enabling more people to witness the love of Jesus Christ and join in the feast of salvation.

Thus, the Gospel is not merely a teaching to be heard but rather the life of Jesus Himself, who embraces tax collectors and sinners, dining with them. Because He first loved us, we also can know and share that love. Hence, the act of pursuing that single lost sheep is at the very heart of the church’s calling, and it is the channel through which the “Gospel for tax collectors and sinners” is fully embodied in the world. And for every pastor, servant, and believer who walks upon that path, God has prepared the commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” May we continue to pray unceasingly and take real steps forward as God’s church and people.

www.davidjang.org