Good morning everyone and welcome to the class on Christology. I know it's quite a deep subject that we are learning, deep insights, deep truths, theology, but I hope it's exciting and hope you're learning and you're being benefited from what you are learning. It's not just kind of becoming knowledge in your head, but it's something that is also helping you to know more about this God that you serve, the God you worship, having deeper insights and just leading you to trust in Him more, put your faith more on Him, and also it's leading you to praise and, you know, just worship and honour this God who's so great, so infinite, so powerful, but yet so accessible, right? So near to us even though He's so great and awesome. Like 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 16 I think says, No, He lives in unapproachable light who no man has seen and can see, but even though He is so great, so awesome, you know, we have access to this God. We can approach Him. We can, you know, cure Him. We can speak to Him. We can, you know, unload our burdens to Him.  He's just, you know, He's just so high, but He's so close to us, so present, so accessible. So that's just so wonderful about who God is and how He relates to us as mankind. Okay. So before we continue with chapter 7, The Purpose of Incarnation, we'll just pause for the word of prayer. Can one of you please lead us in prayer? The students don't have the mic. Okay. So can one of you lead us in prayer, please? Anyone? Do you want to use the mic? The mic is here. Yeah. Yeah. Can you lead us in prayer, please? Yeah, put it on and lead us in prayer. Okay. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for this wonderful morning, Lord. Lord Jesus, I submit all things into your hands, Lord Jesus. But as we are going to study Christology, Lord Jesus, help us and give us wisdom and knowledge, Lord Jesus, and help us to gain more and more Lord Jesus. Thank you for everything. Thank you for Ma'am. And thank you for everything, Lord Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. So in chapter 5, we basically, you know, looked at, you know, trying to understand what is the, what Incarnation is, how God took on the human form. We examined also the humanity of Christ, and now we will look at the why of the Incarnation. Okay. So we look at the why of the Incarnation. In chapter 5, we try to understand how Jesus was fully God, how Jesus is fully man, how He is true God, He is true man, and how He lived here on the earth. And when Jesus became a man, we saw that He did not cease to be eternally God. He was fully God, was fully man. Okay. But we see that this eternal God, you know, took on the fullness of humanity. Okay. Very important to say that the eternal God took on the fullness of humanity, not just part of humanity to do His work, but He took on the fullness of humanity, which means in body, spirit, and soul, He was fully human. And also we see in the way that He was born into this world, He was through the natural conception, sorry, the conception, not the natural conception, but conception, natural birth, and growing up and becoming a man, and the things that He did. Okay. So even as He became fully man, He was also fully deity, He was fully God, but He limited Himself in the manifestations of His divinity. Okay. Which means that He did not, He ceased to, or He refrained from exercising or expressing His omnipotence, His omniscience, and His omnipresence. So He, it was not that He did not have that in Him, He had it, but He refrained or He stopped or He seized or He stopped from using it. And He also, we see that He took on the weaknesses and the frailties of the human flesh. Okay. Or the human body or human being. And then we also looked at the seven steps of incarnation. Which chapter do we find the seven steps of the incarnation in? Philippians, seven steps of incarnation, which chapter? Philippians chapter two versus six to eight. So in that we saw the seven steps of incarnation, very, very important. We saw that Christ was in the form of God. He was equal with God, but He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Okay. And He made Himself of no reputation. He took on the form of a born servant. He came in the likeness of man, and He was found in the appearance as a man. Okay. So we see that, you know, even though He refrained from exercising or expressing His omniscience, His omnipotence, and His omnipresence, but we see what did He willingly give up? What did He willingly give up in His deity? His sonship glory, not His sonship glory. He took on the sonship glory, but He gave up the glory of deity of God. Why did He give up the deity of God? To be fully human? To be an example for us? To give us a sonship glory? Okay. If He had His glory as deity, what would have happened? We could not approach Him, we could not access Him, we could not touch, see, you know, we could hear Him, but He can't touch, see, and just have a tangible experience of the presence of God in the human form. Okay. And also, what does it mean? He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, means what? You can take the mic so that others can, can you pass on the mic to her please? If you have another mic, you can have one this side and you can have one this side to be helpful, yes. Even though it was something that He owned or that He possessed, He did not think of it as something to keep it to Himself, He left it. Okay, something to hold on to, so what did He not hold on to? The deity. He held on to His deity, He was fully God, right? Yes. So, what do we mean when He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God? He did not hold on to His glorious estate and, you can put your hand, His privilege and position, so what was that? What was the privilege? What did He not consider it robbery to be equal with God? What did He give up? He can't descendant, right? What did He, He came down in rank and dignity. How was He not equal with God in terms of receiving, honour and worship? Remember, okay, He did not seek to be honoured and worshipped as God. That is what it means, He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Okay, very important, you can write down it's in your notes, but you can make this point, you know, He did not come, He came down in rank or dignity. He did not consider to be honoured or worshipped as God, okay? Then we moved on to chapter 6. In chapter 6, we looked at the humanity of Christ. We discovered that Christ was really human in all areas, but even though He willingly restricted Himself as a human being, He was truly human in every sense except in what area? Okay, are you listening? He was truly human in every sense, in every area except as a, except that He was sinless. Yes, okay, that's very important. He was truly human in every sense except that He was sinless. Okay, now since we understood the importance of His incarnation, we looked at the importance of incarnation in chapter 5 and 6. We look at why was it necessary for Jesus to become a human being? Okay, so now we're going to basically having understood what incarnation is that God is taking on human form, having examined His humanity of Christ. We will now summarize the why of the incarnation. Why did God have to become man? What was the purpose of the incarnation? Why did Christ have to become a man and take on the fullness of humanity? All of this is in your notes. And just follow through. Okay, what was God doing through humanity that He could not do in any other means?  Why did He have to be completely human? What was the necessity? Why could He not accomplish His purpose in any other way rather than just becoming a human being? So in this chapter, we're going to try to attempt these questions. What was the purpose of the incarnation? Why did Christ have to become a man? Why did He have to take on the fullness of humanity? What was God doing through the humanity of Christ that He could not do in any other means? Okay, so in this chapter, we're going to attempt to answer these questions and we're going to answer these questions by looking at our studying scripture passages like we have been doing for the other chapters. Because when we study any doctrine, we always have to study the doctrine in the light of scripture from Genesis right up till Revelation. Look at what each of them are telling and in the entirety of scripture, we try to come to conclusions or draw conclusions in the light of the entire scripture and not base our doctrines or our understanding about sin, salvation, Holy Spirit, angels, God, Trinity, based on just one scripture passage. So let's go and look at various scripture passages. The first one is Hebrews chapter one versus one and two. So can somebody please read Hebrews chapter one versus one and two. It's in your notes, so you can just read it out. Where's the mic? Pass it on quickly. Hebrews chapter one verse one and two. God who is at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. Has in this last day spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed here of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. Thank you. So in the past, that's talking about the Old Testament, talking to the fathers. God spoke to the prophets and they spoke what God told them. They told it to the people. Thus says the Lord and they told the people what God had spoken to them. So in the past, God spoke to the prophets. He communicated his message, whatever he wanted to say to the people. He communicated it to the prophets. In the fullness of time, in the Chairos time, in God's appointed time, God sent his son and he spoke his word or communicated what he wanted to say through his son, who is the word. So everything that God wanted to say, his final revelation, everything he wanted to communicate to man, he has spoken or said or has made known through the person and the work of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is God's final and complete revelation to mankind. So in the incarnation of Jesus, we see God's final and complete revelation or whatever God wanted to communicate to man is seen in Jesus's incarnation. In incarnation is basically also God speaking to man, to human beings through the man Jesus Christ. So one aspect of incarnation is God speaking to human beings through the man Jesus Christ. You need to know that here in scripture it says through the man Jesus Christ.  He had humanity in the fullness sense in his entire fiber in his being. And if he was the final revelation to whom God spoke to mankind. Now in your notes, there is a quote that says Jesus Christ is a self manifestation of God, the final culmination of all the acts of revelation of the Old Covenant and their fulfillment in the highest personal peculiar word of God. So some things that we can understand from this quote is the first thing is that Jesus is the image of God. He's a perfect, complete, exact representation copy of God. He's the exact, complete, perfect copy or representation of the nature of God or what God is really like. So in the incarnation, we have the complete revelation of the living God. We are able to understand God, we are able to understand his ways, his nature, his characteristic, his way of doing things. And the other third thing that we can understand from this quote which I just read is that the word with Jesus Christ is God speaking to man.  So it's God revealing himself to man through the person of Jesus Christ, through humanity of Jesus Christ. So the word which is Jesus Christ is God manifested. Okay, which means Jesus Christ manifested means made known, expressed who God is, his nature, his ways of doing things, his characteristic. Everything is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. And it's not something that we can't see or can't experience, but it's something that's manifest, it's something that is expressed. And that is why God became man so that he can express who God is.  We are able to touch and experience in a very, very real personal and tangible way. Okay, the last thing that we can understand from this quote is that the acts of God, the revelation of God in the Old Testament is completed and fulfilled in the highest and in the very personal way in the person and life of Jesus Christ. So all of the acts, all of the revelations, all of the prophecies that that's spoken of in the Old Testament is completed and fulfilled in the highest sense, in the fullest sense, in the deepest sense, in a very personal way as well in the person of Jesus Christ. Okay, the next ref, the next point is that, you know, how, when we're trying to understand or answer these questions about the purpose of incarnation, why God had to become man, why had to take on the fullness of humanity. What was God doing through humanity of Christ that he could not do in any other means? The first thing is that, you know, through incarnation or through Christ humanity, God's fullest revelation could be seen, revealed, expressed to mankind, you know, because Jesus became human. The second thing is that, you know, Jesus was the only one who could reveal the Father in the fullest sense to us as human beings and who we can see and understand and perceive and know is because he's the only one who was in the bosom of the Father. Now what does it mean when we read in Scripture that he's on the bosom of the Father, bosom of the Father means, you know, very intimate to the Father, very close to the Father.  So that is, this is called the bosom. We are very, you know, so it's talking about great intimacy, great love, great closeness, great oneness, great unity between the Father and the Son. So no one is so close to the intimate or close to the Father like the Son is, okay, and so the only person who could reveal the heart of the Father God or could reveal God's nature and characteristic is somebody who's very close to the Father, okay. Now, you know, you can, you are somebody who's very close to your Father or mother and you are the best person who could understand who could relate and who can express what your parents want. So now, for example, if your mother or father is unwell, you know, if my father or mother is unwell, then the one who's very closest to them is able to relate to them and understand what they're saying, they're doing, they want, okay. Now, for example, if you love dogs very much, I'm not a dog lover, but you know, my sister loves dogs very much and we had a golden retriever at home and anytime, his name is Travis, anytime Travis was unwell or anything he wanted, he would go right up to my sister and tell her and she would just catch it like this. If she's not there, he would not come to me because I'm not too close to him and even if he tries telling me, I will not be able to understand, but I don't know how she can understand. He has a stomach ache or he is having a flea somewhere that is biting him, that is troubling him or he's having a toothache. I'm like, how does she ever know what is wrong with Travis, which I'm not able to because you know, they're so close, they can understand, they can relate. She knows how to put him to bed, where to make him sleep, his bedding, his food, when he's sick, what to do, I just totally am clueless, okay. Because I don't have that kind of relation, that intimacy. So the one who could, who's very close is the best one who can actually reveal, express, make known the person that you are very close to, like in a husband and wife. The wife can express the husband and make known the husband better than anybody else because they're so intimate, they're so close. The same way husband can express and make known who the wife is or understand who the wife is or express who the wife is in clearer terms because they have a very intimate close relationship. So the only one who could express God in the fullest and the best way is one who's very close and that is Jesus Christ. And why is only Jesus Christ? Because, you know, like I said in 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 16, it says no one has seen God, you know, or can see him because he lives in unapproachable light. Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, you know, no one, God lives in unapproachable light who no man can see or can ever see or has ever seen. So we can't see God, we can never see him, okay, because he lives in this unapproachable holiness and awesomeness and might and splendor that he has. But, you know, and we could never fully know God, but it's only through the person of Jesus Christ who became man was able to reveal the Father heart of God to us. So only when God became fully man that he fully revealed the nature of God, the characteristic of God, the works of God to us. And now we are having a clarity of who God is, his nature, his way of doing things, his deeper understanding of who God is, is because it's revealed to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, okay. Like 2 Corinthians 4-6, can somebody read 2 Corinthians 4-6 please. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Amen, thank you. Because so here we see that, you know, we were people living in darkness. We are living in, we were living in sin. We are slaves of Satan. And, you know, we, and we are also living in darkness when it came to our understanding of God, okay. We not have a deeper understanding. If you look at Old Testament, they did not have a deeper understanding of, you know, the Trinity, but we have a deeper understanding because of the, of the work of Jesus Christ and because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst. So we have a greater deeper understanding of the knowledge of who God is, you know, because of Jesus Christ. But once we were living in darkness, because of our sin, because we are slaves of Satan, we were away from God, we could not understand him. And also, you know, we did not, we were living in darkness because we did not have a complete understanding of who God is. Jesus Christ, who is the light? Remember Jesus said, I am the light of the world, one of the seven I am say, sayings of Jesus and John, the Gospel of John, the John records for us. And Jesus is the light. And he, you know, he brought about light in, in the way of us understanding or giving us a knowledge of who God is, his way of doing things. Also gives us a better understanding of the knowledge of God's glory, what it means of his manifest glorious presence. So in the Incarnation, the Son of God, who was intimately one with the Father, one in the bosom of the Father, like we read in John chapter one verse 18. Okay, where John introduces Jesus as the Word and he says, you know, we have seen him full of grace and truth. You know, one who was in the bosom of the Father who came to reveal the Father, to declare the Father to us, reveal the glory of the Father to us as we read in John chapter one verse 18. So the bosom of the Father means somebody was very intimate, very close. And that was who, who, who was that that is Jesus Christ. And he was the only one who could make known God to us. And he could not make known God to us if he came in deity because we can't see him. We can't understand God. We can't, we can't, you know, express or understand or even experience his tangible presence. If he came as deity, if he came as God, that is why he came fully as a human being. He was fully God, fully human. But as fully human, we could, you know, see, touch, you know, have that close relationship with him and understand who God is. Okay. So John chapter one was 18, which says, no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who's in the bosom of the Father has declared him. So there's no one else who's qualified to reveal the Father to us. There's no one who's more intimately one with the Father, not even any angelic being. That is why God could not send any angel. Okay. No one had this honor, accepting the Son. And hence it was only the Son who could come and become fully human and, you know, reveal the Father's heart of God to us. So if somebody asks you a question, why did God have to become man? Why couldn't he choose some other human being? Why could he choose some angel? Then you know the square, how to answer it. Okay. John chapter one was 18. Okay. Explain the bosom of the Father. Okay. This, why was it important for God to become man? Why was it incarnation important? Why did God have to take on the fullness of humanity? The third point is that, you know, because he could suffer in the flesh. Okay. 1 Peter chapter three was 18. Can somebody read that please? 1 Peter chapter three was 18. 1 Peter chapter three 18. For Christ also suffered once for sin. But just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh, but not alive by the spirit. Okay. Thank you. So in this verse, in 1 Peter chapter three verse 18, it tells us that Christ was put to death in the flesh. Okay.  So he did not really go through all of those pain and suffering and all of those things. Because look at him. You know, if anyone, any human being would have gone through, they wouldn't have lasted or they wouldn't have been able to endure it and all of that.  But here we see that for Christ also suffered for the sins. He was put to death in the flesh. Very important scripture passage. Okay. So it was not that he suffered as, he was crucified as being deity. We could not do that to deity. We could not do that to God because if he was God, we could not even touch him. Right. Because, you know, and we could not even, we wouldn't be able to even see him. Okay. Because he's God. He lives in unapproachable life. We know man can even touch him. Can even, we will not see him touch him also. Okay. So he suffered in, was put to death in the flesh in his human body. Therefore, you know, the human body provided a means for Christ to die.  And for that, he had to be fully human so that he can identify with us so that he can take upon the sins of the humankind upon himself. Now, if he was God, he was deity, he could not take on the sins of the entire human kind on himself because God is holy. You know, sin cannot come near him. Sin cannot even touch, sin cannot even touch him. So if he had to take on the sins of the entire human race, that means he can't be deity has to be man. Okay. So he came as fully man so that he could take on the sins. And also what is the consequence of sin? Death.   Yes, Chira, you have a question? I'm just now reading like John 18, right? No one sin God at any time. It means like no angels, no one can sin, including angels also? Yeah. When it says no one, it means no one. Okay. I'm not sure about the angelic beings. But it says that he lives in unapproachable light who no man can see as no man can see or has ever seen it qualifies there as man. But I'm not sure about the angelic beings, whether they can, because God lives in such great glory and awesomeness and splendor. So I don't think that even the angelic beings can even see him. But here in this verse says, you know, in 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 16 says who no man has seen or can ever see, qualifies. But we can check on the angelic beings and let you know. Good question. Okay. So we'll move on. So the purpose of his death was so that he might bring us back to God. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, bosom of the father is very, very close. So very intimately one. Yes. So nobody can even approach accepting God, the son. Yes. So the bosom of the father is only Jesus had the honor because he was intimately close. So no, not even angelic beings had that privilege of being intimately close with that close with the Godhead. Yes. Can you take the mic, please? Yeah. I mean, can we consider like this? I mean, the bosom and this seeing is different like so angelic beings can see the father, but they don't have the bosom with the father. Okay. Yes. Angelic beings are saying can because the word see and bosom is two different words. Yes. But I also don't have much clarity whether angels can see, but of course they receive orders from God, but I don't think they can, they can see. That is, this is what I think, but I can just back it up with scripture worse and, you know, give you that answer that question. Okay. So it was through his debt that, you know, he accomplished so many things. One of the things that he accomplished through his debt was that he, we could be made blameless and without guilt. So when he took upon the sins of the entire mankind, it was one way that, you know, he could do away with sin, break the power of sin. And we could be blameless, which means without fault, without sin, without guilt. And it was through his debt that we could, you know, be presented holy and blameless without any acquisition without any guilt before God, the father. Okay. So one thing that Christ accomplished through his debt as, you know, being fully human was so that, you know, we could be blameless. So we have access before God, we can be presented before God, blameless, holy, without any accusations, without any guilt. Okay. And it was also because of his debt that we are being, we have been reconciled back to God. What is being reconciled mean? For given, come together. Yes. You know, it's basically our relationship with God was severed. We, you know, was, we were far away from him. Our relationship with him has broken, fellowship with him is broken because of sin. But once Jesus died on the cross, he not only pronounced us blameless and holy before the father and guiltless free from sin, but also through his debt, we have been reconciled back to God. That means we have access back to God. We can relate to God. We can approach this throne of grace freely. You know, we are friends with him. We are sons, daughters of God. We can relate to him. We can hear him speak to us as it says in as we read in second Corinthians chapter five versus 18 and 19. Can somebody read that please? No, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespass to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Amen. Thank you. So here he's saying that, you know, God has reconciled us back to him. So the very purpose that God created us was for what? Why did he create Adam to have a relationship of fellowship with with Adam? But when that was broken because of sin, God, you know, through time past, you know, tried various means of reconciling himself back with mankind, bringing back mankind back to himself. But then in the fullness of time, he sent his son and who died on the cross and through Jesus's death on the cross, he reconciled us back to God. So now we are no longer strangers. We are no longer enemies of God. We are now friends, sons, daughters of God. We have that access and that fellowship. So it was God who was reconciling the world to himself through Jesus Christ. So God was not holding on to the sins of the world or sins of the people against them. Why? Because the sins of the world or the sins of the people was fully paid. It was a done, completed thing because of what Jesus did on the cross. And because the payment was made, the penalty for sin was paid once for all complete. God was able to reconcile the world back to him as self.  And also that we have been reconciled back to God. That means we have been brought together to God. We are close to God. We have this intimate relationship, this oneness. And that is why we can call him Abba, okay? Not just like father in the Old Testament. They knew God as a father, but it was a very different understanding of the father. A father who was strict, a father who would punish them. Sin was dealt with there and there itself. A father who was strict, a father who was authoritative, supreme, sovereign. But the father heart of God that Jesus revealed was Abba. Abba is a more very intimate, close relationship that one can have with their father. So it's not here that a father is sovereign, one who punishes sin. One who is, you know, there's curse pronounced when sin is done. But here, you know, sin has been dealt with. So here we have a God who is, you know, loving, gracious, compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving, okay? So that is the different concept of God, of the father heart of God that Jesus came to. Reveal to us that he is a father who can be very close and all of these attributes of God. Look at what Colossians chapter 1 verses 21 and 22 say. Can somebody read that please? And you who once were eliminated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. Amen. So thank you. And in this verse is in Colossians chapter 1 verses 21 and 22, we see how we were enemies of God. You know, we were alienated. Alienated means what? Aliens means the far away. We just didn't know about God, just totally separated. There was a huge gap. Okay, we are enemies of God in our minds, but yet now we have been reconciled back to God and how we've been reconciled to God in the body of his flesh. Again, talking about humanity of God, Jesus Christ through his death and through his death, he presented us holy and blameless, you know, beyond reproach in his sight and also that we have been reconciled to God. Another purpose of incarnation was, you know, so that there was a body that was provided through this body, you know, God was able to deal with sin, death and Satan. And it was, you know, somebody who identified with the human race, somebody who could take on the human race or mankind and could die in our place. Okay, so somebody who had to identify with us, with our sins, somebody would also die in our place and that is what was the reason why, or the purpose of incarnation, why God became fully man so that it facilitated Christ's physical, that through which we could be made blameless, without reproach, be made holy in his sight and also be reconciled back to God. So through his death, God and man are reconciled. We'll read another scripture passage, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 and 20. Can somebody read that please? Hebrews chapter 10, 19 and 20. Amen, thank you. So here we see that, you know, through Jesus' death on the cross, so when Jesus died, remember the curtain of the temple that separated the holy from the holy of holies. And the holy of holies, only the priest had access only one day in a year, day of atonement, okay? But that curtain of that, you know, that separated the holy place, the holy of holies was torn into two, which means now we have, anyone has access before, you know, the holy of holies, that means we have access before this God who lives in unapproachable light, who's extremely holy, who's, you know, utterly holy, and we have access. And what gave us this access, it says, and what gave us this confidence to go enter this holy of holies, it's because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now look at how the writer of Hebrews very beautifully puts it. You know, even when the high priest used to enter the holy of holies on the day of atonement, that is one day in the year, he would go, you know, enter that curtain and go into the holy of holies, he would have actually sacrificed a bull for himself, we'll study that, for his own sins, and also would have sacrificed a goat for the sins of the entire Israelite nation community, and he would take that blood of that bull, which he made as a sacrifice for his sins, and as for the goat, which he made for the sacrifice of the sins of the entire Israelite community, would take that blood and he would sprinkle it on the Ark of the Covenant, which is, you know, the mercy seat. Now we have the Ark of the Covenant that is placed in the holy of holies, and on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant are two cherubims, two angels with their wings, you know, covered like this, and in between that is the mercy seat where God would come and relate to man. Just imagine this holy God, you know, who lives in unapproachable holiness and greatness and light, you know, he would actually come and this high priest man who is sinful would have access to, you know, not see God because he would come in his great awesomeness and glory and light, but would be able to speak and hear God in a very tangible, in a very real way. So for that to happen and for the high priest not to fall down dead because of his sin, you know, he would sprinkle that blood on that mercy seat and also would sprinkle the blood of the goat that represented the sins of the sun and the sins would be atoned for and God would come and meet man and God would, you know, man would have access to God. And so beautifully, you know, the writer of Hebrews pictures this whole thing and he brings in what Jesus did on the cross and he says his blood was sprinkled for us, shed for us and by a new living way, which he's talking about the new covenant, by the new covenant we have access to God without any sacrifice because Jesus made the full sufficient, perfect sacrifice and says he opened the curtain for us and so beautifully the writer of Hebrews says this curtain is actually his body. I mean, amazing way, you know, the Holy Spirit leads and he writes, you know, he says, you know, the curtain is torn, but this curtain is not just that physical curtain, but it is the body of Christ that was broken in, you know, and shed for the blood that was shed for us so that we have access.  We can approach this Holy God, this great, awesome, mighty God, you know, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we can hear him speak, we can receive answers for our problems, challenges, difficulties, we can share our burdens with him, he counsels us, he helps us, we don't need any counselor, we don't need anybody we can go to, we can just go to God. We have this great access to the work of the Holy Spirit to God, to him hearing him speak to us is because of what Jesus did on the cross. So because of Jesus that we have this boldness to go before God in a new and living way, isn't that amazing?  You know, honor that because you are in the presence of the Holy God, you know, we need to honor that. We know that, you know, we have access to this God who's hearing us speak with which the Old Testament people did not have, and we are going to hear and speak it's because of what Jesus did. So, you know, just live in that great sense of awe and respect to what Jesus has done on the cross and what access we have and what grace we have, you know, make use of the spiritual, gives the spiritual inheritance that you have received because of what Jesus has done and your faith in and belief in what Jesus has completed on the cross. Okay, we'll stop here and we meet after the break. After the break, we'll take any questions or doubts that you have. Okay. Thank you, everyone. We'll see you after the break.


Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. Welcome and aloha to all our friends. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. Today we will go across the sea between Hawaii and Japan and talk about friendship among lawyers. You may ask yourself, can lawyers be friends with each other? Can lawyers from across the sea, from different cultures and different legal systems, be friends with each other? Can bar associations from different countries be friends with each other? My guest today is Shimpei Oke and he is going to answer those questions for us. Mr. Oke is a lawyer practicing with the Hawaii law firm of Goodsill, Anderson Quinn and Stifle. In 2005, the Hawaii State Bar Association and the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association entered into a friendship agreement and the lawyers from each bar association have been going back and forth across the sea holding biennial meetings either in Tokyo or Honolulu ever since. Mr. Oke recently chaired the 2018 friendship meeting between the Hawaii State Bar Association and the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association here in Hawaii. Welcome my friend. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you. Good to see you. Good to see you too. Thank you very much.  Yes please do Mark. We are Tomodachi. Yes we are. So we are friends. We are friends for quite some time now I believe. So first of all before we go into friendship agreements and everything like that I want you to tell me a little bit about yourself so we can figure out how you how you got to be the chair of the 2018 friendship meeting between the two bar associations. Of course. Tell me a little bit about your background. Of course thank you Mark. Yes I was as you introduced I was born and raised in Japan to Japanese parents who don't speak a word of English. I attended a international school in Japan so how although I was brought up in a Japanese household I was educated in a U.S. curriculum and it was a very natural for us for the graduates of international students international school students to move on to colleges in the United States Europe Canada Australia some choose to stay in Japan what I did was I decided to proceed with my college education in the United States where I attended a university in St. Louis Missouri. Okay say no wait a St. Louis Missouri how did you ever figure that you're gonna go there from Tokyo? Well that's a that's a very long story but to to keep it short it was I was thankfully accepted to university of one of my choices and just happens to be in St. Louis. It provided the curriculum that I was looking for and and the the the one issue that I had in mind when I was choosing colleges is I wanted to be someplace that's very different from where I well sure so and in fact it was very different frigid winters and very hot summers very little Asians very little Japanese so those things are all a mix of the reasons why I decided to attend college in St. Louis Missouri. Okay and so you were speaking Japanese at home yes you're going to international school in Tokyo speaking English yes I guess right yes and so you're learning both languages how did you get to the I mean how did your parents send you to the international school? Well you know it's it's that's a that's somewhat of a mystery to me too but what I suspect is that 30 years ago what they my parents took a gamble to just they I guess they they thought that 30 years from that time English would be a critical aspect of being able to survive in this global wow global economy. Pretty good foresight. I'm very thankful now but I did have to study Japanese as an extracurricular activity which seems a little odd but reading and writing is an important aspect of language also not just speaking so that was that was what we did so you grew up doing both both languages and you ultimately came to Hawaii went to law school here yes I did so after I graduated University in St. Louis I was on a student visa and when you graduate on a student after a student visa you're afforded a 12-month period of optional practical training where the where international students and afforded an opportunity to get practical work experience in the United States and I wanted to take advantage of that 12-month period because I thought once I go back to Japan I would go back permanently I wouldn't have the opportunity to work in the United States at that time my brother my older brother happened to be living in Hawaii and I just decided maybe it would be fun to just live with him for a couple of months and decided to come to Hawaii met some people here who recommended law school could be fun if I didn't go back to Japan I applied got in and been here since yeah and and so your background kind of a combination Japanese I guess American and now you're a lawyer here at Goodsell and does that that the type of practice you have that you bring all those things together yes unfortunately I am I am in in an industry where and a location Hawaii is very friendly to Japanese investors Japanese businesses and and very much today Japan remains very much interested in Hawaii and my work involves assisting Japanese companies and the individual Japanese investors trying to to to do something in Hawaii be it start a business by real estate now all sorts of things so I am in thankfully in a very interesting area of being able to help Japanese clients do things in Hawaii okay well all right well let's talk now about friendship agreements I know something about them I've been involved since the beginning of these friendship agreements but I want to learn a little bit about your experience with them and tell us what is a friendship agreement I mean what what what does it do no from my limited experience and involvement with friendship agreements I mean I it's it's a great opportunities for two bar associations to get together learn about each other just really make friends and as a professional at one level it's a great networking opportunity because you get to meet lawyers from other countries and you become friends with them and at a at a higher level it really is an opportunity for the people involved to to just learn about how different countries practice law and how from the simple things like how a bar bar association is organized to the complexities of how they deal with foreign clients these things are things that you can learn firsthand from being involved in a friendship agreement and the friendship agreement gives you a excuse for you to meet people and talk to people about the things that you're interested in it's like a vehicle it does yes okay good good good I think that's perfect way to describe it and and now we have lawyers in Hawaii and we have lawyers in Japan and our agreement was with a Tokyo Bar Association Daichi Tokyo what what what basically we how many lawyers do we have in Hawaii how many in Japan and what's what what's the differences between the practice of law okay and I did do a little bit of homework so I have I have a little bit of information about that my understanding is as of 2017 the Hawaii State Bar Association has approximately 8,000 members 7,991 of which 4,931 are active well compare that to Japan Japan has approximately 40,000 attorneys and of course this is the entire country country but when you look at the Tokyo Bar Association's and and I can provide a little bit of information about how the Tokyo Bar Association is set up but in Tokyo of the 40,000 I believe 18,243 are based in Tokyo okay all right and we and in Hawaii we have one bar association yes now in Tokyo there's three bar association what's that about there's three bar associations and I don't know what the story behind that is but what I've been told from the Japan attorneys because that's something that we're all curious about why does is it just a sheer number of attorneys that they have or what I understand is historically when the lawyer licensing system in Japan was established the three bar associations in Tokyo existed and what happened was after it pre-existed the the what is currently known as the federal bar association in Japan so what happened was when the federal bar association in Japan was created it created bar associations each of the 50 district but Tokyo already had three bar associations existing at the time so it just carried on from what it had okay so that makes sense well it's it's a cultural thing perhaps and are they in competition are they do you how do you know which bar bar to choose from is there any any way to figure that out no I what is what one attorney in Japan told me is the bar association in Tokyo that they would join is completely determined upon which bar association your boss is in so even within the same law firm you could have people in different bar associations so there is the Tokyo bar association the Daiichi Tokyo bar association which we have the relationship with and the Daini Tokyo bar association okay but what does Daiichi mean Daiichi means number one or yeah not in terms of rank but you know number one like the first one the first one I guess the first first one Daini would mean the second one and the Tokyo bar association doesn't have any numbers okay okay all right so we have a relationship with the Hawaii state bar association and the Daiichi Tokyo bar association have a relationship a friendship agreement okay and I know that it started a few quite a few years ago when we started to think about going outside of Hawaii and making relationships I think as you said that would help develop social and professional contacts and networking so that's what happened and has that been your experience I mean your personal experience how long how long have you been involved with the friendship agreements and what has been your experience with them so I was licensed in Hawaii practiced in 2010 and as you previously noted this friendship agreement with the Daiichi Tokyo bar association had been established in 2005 so I was very fortunate to be able to come out come in as a practicing attorney when this relationship already existed of course your background makes it fit worked very well for me yes and the first time I was actively involved with this relationship with the Daiichi Tokyo bar association was fairly recently it was back in 2016 when we had the we as in the HSBA had it was our turn to visit the Daiichi Tokyo bar association in Japan and with that I got involved in the planning of it and my language ability was it was of some use because we did have to coordinate the events with the Daiichi bar association members and and that's how I started and and how did you get grabbed to become the chairman of the the latest meeting the the latest friendship meeting well mark you're you're very kind to to to to note me as a chair but this very much was a collective effort among everybody that was involved mark is you well know you were very very much involved from the beginning and in the organization of this year's event but how it happened to be that I got actively more actively involved than before was it's just the language abilities the the the planning of it and you know discussing the details with the Daiichi folks it just helps to be able to communicate in Japanese and I think it's a way for the the the Hawaii state bar associations to show and it's at one level some respect to be able to to communicate with them in Japanese and be able to organize in the in a way that they feel comfortable doing and one thing you mentioned was that this was a group effort okay and I want to talk a little bit about that after the break and also I want to go through some photos of our last meeting here in in Honolulu after the break we're going to take a short break and then come back sounds right okay talking about friendship agreements with Shinpei Oki Hawaii lawyer with good Sal Anderson Quinn and Stifle and Shinpei you mentioned before our break that we had a group effort to put together uh the latest meeting between the two bar associations the Daiichi Tokyo bar Hawaii state bar now that tells me something group effort that means friendship yes so who were the friends I mean they were from all over town or who was involved just generally just generally well well you were involved specifically um but uh we had the support of the international law section of the Hawaii state bar association shared by Rex Fujichaku um he has been of course tremendously helpful in in getting things going in terms of planning communicating with the bar association um getting the venues and and uh yeah we had local attorneys involved as speakers we had local businesses involved as sponsors we had local attorneys involved as the planners so we had and not just from one firm but from all over oh not just from one firm we really had from all over we had private practitioners we have members from larger firms we have uh yeah we was it was really a whole mix of of of different attorneys involved in the planning and through the planning process I had the opportunity to meet with a lot of new different Hawaii folks as well and make some friends it makes them very good friends yes now uh when the Daiichi Tokyo bar came here we had a lot of activities I want to go through first set of photos sure maybe tell us with each one what what's going on with these activities of the Daiichi Tokyo bar association okay let's let's see if we can get the first set of photos up okay okay so this is a photo from the actual seminar that we had um we had speakers from the now Denton firm we had Glenn Melchinger and Dick Mosher and we had we had two speakers from Daiichi uh let me get their names so I don't get them so Mr. Tezuka Hiroyuki and Mr. Yoshiro Takatori and the topic of the conference uh the seminar was international ADR and that was the seminar that they had with both bar associations here in Honolulu that's correct up at the bar headquarters okay that's correct yes next one this is a photo from our welcome reception which was graciously hosted by the residents of Rich and Ray Turbin this is a photo of the president of the Tokyo bar right in the middle there Daiichi Tokyo bar station in the middle and of course everyone would recognize Justice McKenna and the fluent speaker who is born in Japan born in Japan fluent Japanese speaker we have Professor Levinson and a couple of law students who were able to get involved as well yeah and that's a good point I mean some of the law students from UH law school got involved and made contacts and made some friends with bar bar members from both bars okay let's go to the next photo this is a photo from our farewell reception which was hosted by the Daiichi Tokyo bar association we did it at Cafe Julia downtown and uh yeah it was a nice get together at the end of the program where where we got to sit talk and enjoy entertainment okay we have a couple more yeah okay and this is the entertainment that that was provided by Louise Ng of the Denton firm her Hula group came out to perform for us and so there is Louise Ng a practicing attorney doing the Hula yes former president of Hawaii State Bar Association and doing a really nice job yes it was fantastic okay next and to the farewell reception just this wrecked and walled was kind enough to drop by to give a few words and this is him giving a quick quick uh speech to uh the attendees the CJ okay next this is a photo form we do among not we're just not here to to study we are here to have fun as well and in the spirit of making friends uh we had a golf get together with the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association members and uh this is a photo from their round of I think this is right after the round of golf right it's so and yeah so that's an important part is is to blend the social activities along with uh professional activities and the networking and we put on a seminar and and so you everybody gets to know each other on different levels which I think is a cultural thing too right I agree yeah yeah it's it's very much true all right is is there words are okay oh so this is a photo again from the welcome reception and we see you and Rex Fuji-chan the president of the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association every year or not every year when we have these events the two bar associations have a tradition of exchanging gifts and that photo which mark you had a you played a critical role in in in deciding what to to to provide um is a photo from a local photographer Matt quark yeah and and it's a of Kilauea I mean talk about time timing right perfect yes the beautiful photo which we presented to Daiichi as our gift from HSBA very nice next and that is a gift provided by the Daiichi Bar Association to HSBA I think it is displayed at the HSBA office today okay all right and this is a photo and one of the activities that the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association gets involved with is the tour of the Supreme Court of course mean which Justice McKenna allows us to make happen and and by chance the India Supreme Court justices were visiting at the same time and this is a photo with them and so we made some more friends I think they did yes from India as well yes that's interesting that's fun yes and this final photo is a good photo of the attendees from the Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association okay all right well now so uh is there anything about these meetings that are culturally significant or related to either Japan or Hawaii cultures no it's I would I think so I mean this is an opportunity for just lawyers to talk frankly not on a transaction or not on adverse basis but we're just here to talk and being able to do so allows us to exchange ideas with other lawyers from other countries and I mean who are in fact interested in Hawaii we're interested in Japan and the people from Daiichi are interested in Hawaii so it provides a good opportunity it's just a good vehicle as you mentioned for for these things to be discussed and it's just a fun discussion that we have and and because the issues we discuss involve both countries we both have something to share we both have something to contribute and and I think it's helpful that we talk to each other too from different cultures and get to know each other and maybe help avoid problems hopefully in the future or help us get through problems talking yeah no I absolutely agree and and the topic this year at our seminar was cross-border ADR and and one of the the discussion was you know how can we both get involved in in in doing resolving disputes and and where it would be a good place to do it how we should do it these are all things that would not have been discussed unless this event had happened and we went to Hawaii State Bar Association went to Tokyo a couple years ago right when it was our turn to go yes and so we we do have some photos of that trip yes and I'd like to go through some of those photos and kind of explain who who is in the photos sometimes and and what happened in in Tokyo and then tell us when the next trip is for the Hawaii State Bar okay so let's let's take a look okay so this is a photo this is a conference room at the Morse and Forrester Tokyo office where we have Craig Wagner at the top giving a presentation and as part of our trip to Japan what we included was a CLE session for the Hawaii attorneys who are practicing in Japan to get credit get credit yeah so that was that one of the events that we had and this is a photo from that conference because and in the Hawaii State Bar you have to get so many credits every year and this gives those lawyers a chance to get it right that in person that's right yeah thank you for that yeah okay and this is a group photo of HSBA members at the Japan Supreme Court we had the opportunity to as as part of our tour we arranged different educational trips as well and and we did have an opportunity to meet with one of the justices in chambers where no photos were allowed unfortunately but in one of the hearings room we were able to take a photo and this is a this is supreme court of Japan room where they hear cases that's correct yes next this is a photo from the background you can see it's a it's a photo of the joint seminar which was in Japan upfront it's kind of small but you see the speakers up there from HSBA and the speakers from Daichi and that's in the Daichi Tokyo Bar Association this was in the the the Tokyo I think I don't know who owns that building but the Bar Association in Tokyo I think collectively owns an entire building and it's from the it is in in in one of the seminar rooms from from their building and the topic this was back in 2016 was cross-border estate planning okay and that's a photo of again our our chair of the international law section of the HSB's HSBA Rex Fuji Chakaland I believe that's the the former president of the Daichi Tokyo Bar Association okay next of course we always have fun as well and this is one of the nomikais or get-togethers we had at one of the izakayas on your Tokyo station we see a a group of we see you and your wife and members from the Daichi Tokyo Bar we also have an attorney from New York yeah now let that's that's how this thing has spread because because the one in Tokyo we had a lawyer from New York that's that's the fellow right on the on the right hand side as I'm looking at it Richard Goldstein and we also had a lawyer from France that's right who both both of them wanted to become part of that uh Hawaii Bar trip to the Daichi Tokyo friendship right meeting and so they they joined us right we kind of it spread out beyond just Hawaii and Tokyo yes it's not every day that they get to mingle in this fashion with Japanese attorneys and and this was a good opportunity for them to just just jump in on the bandwagon and so that helps uh networking opportunities yes absolutely okay yes and this is a group photo of of all members from HSBA and Daichi Tokyo Bar attended the seminar in 2016 okay nice group not quite a bit of us yeah okay so when is the next time for Hawaii State Bar Association to go to Tokyo how do uh lawyers get involved and do you have to be a lawyer to be involved no uh the the next round of of meetings is going to happen in 2020 in Tokyo Olympic year very exciting I think we're going to avoid the summertime though yeah yeah we won't go to the Olympics right and of course uh anyone can involve to get involved at that at any level the seminars are usually tailored towards attorneys as this is an organization between uh two two bar associations but we get we we need sponsors we we we provide gifts to the bar associations and there's there's ways that people can get involved in terms of sponsorship or or support or whether they want to just come to Japan and not attend the seminar but just attend the other social activities when we had the event in Japan we had non-lawyers be present at the social events because they wanted to make network they wanted to meet attorneys so a Hawaii business might want to make some contacts in Japan or provide some sort of service to Japanese Bengoshi lawyers and uh this is a good opportunity it would be yes I would think so so if I'm a Hawaii lawyer who should I contact uh about the next uh next meeting well you can contact mark or you can contact me uh and you are rex of course you can always contact the head of the international law section yes and of course if if rex may not be chairing the international law section if you contact the international law section they are the the the the the central organization in allowing us to make this event happen okay chimpeh thank you for talking about friendship across the sea and uh friendship agreement we have between the hawaii state bar and the daichi tokyo bar association and i'm looking forward to the next the next time we all get together with the daichi tokyo well mark thank you for having me absolutely arigato arigatou all right thank you very much


Hello and welcome to the session. In this session we discussed the following question which says round of 34.2106 correct to 4 significant digits. First of all we will define significant digits. These are the total number of digits present in a number except the zeroes preceding the first numeral. Now we have certain steps to round off the decimal number to the required number of significant digits. Let's see what are these steps that we need to follow. In the first step we retain the digits, the required number. In the next step we see the extra digit retained and if the extra digit retained to the digit just before it we leave the digit and in the last step the extra digit is then this is the key idea that we would follow to solve this question. Let's proceed with the solution now. Now the given decimal number is 34.2106 and we make to round this off on significant digits. The significant digits are the total number of digits which are present in a number except the zeroes preceding the first numeral. So we can see that in the given decimal number that is 34.106 the number of significant digits is 3, 4, 2, 1, 0 and 6. So there are total 6 significant digits in the given decimal number. Now since we need to round off this decimal number to 4 significant digits we would retain up to one more than the required number of significant digits and the required number of significant digits are 4. So one more than 4 would be 5. So we would retain 5 digits, we retain, we equal to 34.210. We see the extra digit that is retained, digit retained in sets again. If the extra digit is 5 or more than 5 then we would add 1 to the digit just before it. But in this case the extra digit that is 0 is less than 5 the digit just before it as such. The extra digit retained is 0 which is less than 5 the digit therefore we get the number as 34 point this number is correct for significant digits. We have rounded off the given decimal number that is 34.2106 to 34 point plus significant. This is our final answer. With this we complete the session. Hope you understood the solution of this question.