If you have the eyes to see and ears to hear you find subliminal messages that pertain to the gospel even in things of the world that have nothing to do directly to the gospel however you can apply hidden meanings and compare. In Full Metal Alchemist there’s a law called Equivalent Exchange and it states that: “To obtain something, something of equal value must be given up or lost.”
You see this in everyday life it’s common logic. To obtain money you have to work and give of your time you have lost time but obtained money. There can be negatives however along with risk of these exchanges we do. You need to give up your time and sometimes money for a relationship that may or may not lead to marriage.
You lost time and money but you gained the relationship with your partner, however things somehow didn’t workout and you both split. So you lost the money, time, and the relationship in the end. However you gained experience and knowledge through your loss of the relationship, that law of equivalent exchange was active throughout the entire exchange.
There’s always something that must be given to obtain something, you see this in spiritual matters. Jesus said :
“What does it profit a man to gain The World but lose His soul?.”
If you want nothing to do with Christ nor follow Him The One who was crushed under The Wrath of God at the cross on your behalf for your sins you have the free will to do so. You can gain the world, what’s it mean to gain the world?
Meaning to indulge in sin, and to take everything the world offers: Pleasure, Sexual sin, perversion, pornography, adultery, lying. cheating, greed, selfish ambition, hatred of others, wealth, power, clout, idols, love of self, and just about anything you want you can chase and have. In short you are choosing the world and your sin and rejecting God.
As it says in 1st John concerning the world:
“For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things]–these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].”
- 1 John 2:16
You are obtaining these things however what’s given in exchange is your soul. You are in fact selling your soul to the world, but what does it offer? Temporal fleeting gratification you gain your sins and can keep them. But once the thrill is over and the fleeting pleasure of sin is over what are you left with? Utter emptiness and futility and sorrow.
The world presents itself as a prostitute arrayed and dressed in all sorts of fine manner and beauty, you indulge yourself with her fornication and sensuality as you please. She gives you money, gifts, pleasure, and everything you wish, she whispers good things to you, she takes care of you and listens to you and praises you when you need her.
You don’t know that her end it to be burned with fire and she will be of no help to you. As it says in revelation concerning the end times:
“He gave a mighty shout: “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a hideout for every foul spirit, a hideout for every foul vulture and every foul and dreadful animal. For all the nations have fallen because of the wine of her passionate immorality. The kings of the world have committed adultery with her. Because of her desires for extravagant luxury, the merchants of the world have grown rich.” Then I heard another voice calling from heaven, “Come away from her, my people. Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her. The merchants of the world will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods. “The fancy things you loved so much are gone,” they cry. “All your luxuries and splendor are gone forever, never to be yours again.””
Revelation 18:2-4, 11, 14
Do you have eyes but with no sight? Do you have ears but can’t hear? Babylon is the world, and she is depicted as a prostitute in Revelation, in the end she is burned up and the people are mourning over her now destroyed. In a sense when we love the world and our sins we are committing spiritual fornication meaning cheating on God with the world. When I was lost I loved pleasure and sin, I know that this is true and I was ignorant to how deceived i was.
As it says in Peter
“But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.”
2 Peter 3:10
Truly I tell you this world will burn up and cease to exist.
Those who pass over to hell will weep because they made sensual love with the world yet that prostitute callee Babylon will be of no help to you now. You gave the prostitute your soul and in exchange she gave you all the pleasures and sin this life had to offer but the cost was so great in that awful dreadful equivalent exchange your soul is now in The Lake of Fire I can’t shed enough tears and plead with you enough if you know not Christ!
Do you think the damned in hell right now are wishing they had their possessions they had on earth? What will money profit for eternity? They left it to someone else they cannot buy heaven. As it says in the psalms:
“Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.”
Psalm 49:7-9
Christ fulfills this by going to the cross and dying on behalf of sinful humanity, He payed your bond but you are choosing sin and the world.
On the other hand salvation (heaven) is a free gift meaning that you don’t have to pay with anything physical. Nevertheless the law of equivalent exchange is active, to gain heaven you must lose your life. As Jesus said:
“If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.”
-Luke 17:33
Clinging to your life is keeping your sins and the pleasures of the world, letting your life go is forsaking what this world, your sins, and what this life offers and losing it for Christ and following Him. The demand is high you are making yourself a slave to Christ and obeying Him and you have sin, the flesh, and the devil as your enemies, along with the hatred of the world, that’s why Jesus talked about how some who come to him endure for a time but when trials and persecution comes they leave the faith. Their faith was shallow it had no substance nor root and this happens everyday and it’s a grievous matter.
Due to cowardliness or other things they go back to the world and betray Christ and they shrink back to destruction. Beloved, when you come to Christ the blessing isn’t heaven it’s Christ! Heaven without Christ is no heaven at all it’s hell! Though God has been undoing the scrupulous mindset I have God has been teaching me it’s not about just escaping hell (though there is an urgency for those lost.) it’s about a restored relationship with The Creator of the universe.
Christianity is no bland false religion about keeping legalistic rules and commands it is true faith and a relationship with The Son of God and His Spirit that lives in you and reading His Word that is living and alive that purifies the soul and pierces you when needed, along with correction from sin and a lamp to your feet. The keeping of the commandments of God starts to be a delight and overflow of salvation, you start hating the things you once loved and loving the things you once hated.
In better terms you gain Christ and lose your life not your soul. The law of equivalent exchange is active in this eternal exchange.
Therefore knowing these things you can either gain the world and all its temporary pleasures and sin that never even satisfy and at best (if you even live that long) live to be 90 and when you die you got to hell forever.
Or you gain Jesus The Savior and True God of this world, and lose your life and when you die you go to be with Him in heaven for eternity and have unspeakable joy and rewards and eternal pure pleasures.
“To obtain something, something of equal value must be given up or lost.”
MY STORY OF RELIGIOUS OCD 