[Chapter 1-1] Introduction to Romans Chapter 1
“The
Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans” can be referred to as the
treasure of the Bible. It mainly deals with how one can obtain God’s
righteousness by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Comparing Romans to the Epistle of James, someone defined the former as
‘the word of treasures’ and the latter as ‘the words of straw.’ However,
James is the word of God just as Romans is. The only difference is that
Romans is precious because it provides a general overview of the Bible,
whereas James is precious for it is the word that makes the righteous
live by God’s will.
Who is the man, Paul?
Let’s
read Romans 1:1-7 first. “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called
to be an Apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised
before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son
Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to
the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the
Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through Him we
have received grace and Apostleship for obedience to the faith among all
nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus
Christ: To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
These
passages may be counted for “Paul’s greetings to Christians in Rome.”
Paul greets them as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, who becomes the
righteousness of God.
Verse
1 talks about the question ‘Who is Paul?’ He was a Jew who met the
resurrected Lord on the road to Damascus, and who was a chosen vessel of
the Lord (Acts 9:15) to spread the gospel to the Gentiles.
Paul spread the true gospel based on the sacrificial system and the prophecies of the Old Testament
In
verse 2, Paul the Apostle was spreading the gospel based on the words
of the Old Testament. He defined “the gospel of God” as “which He
promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.” Through
this verse, we can see that Paul the Apostle preached the gospel of the
water and the Spirit based on the sacrificial system in the Old
Testament. Moreover, verse 2 indicates that Paul was chosen to do the
work of the gospel.
The
phrase ‘through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures’ implies God’s
promises to send Jesus Christ, who appears in the sacrificial system or
the prophecies in the Old Testament. All of the prophets of the Old
Testament, including Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel, bore
witness to the fact that Jesus Christ would come into this world and die
on the Cross after taking over the sins of the world.
What
is the gospel that Paul the Apostle delivered like? He preached the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that spoke about the Son of God,
Jesus Christ.
Some
people say that the words of the Old Testament have already ended, and
others insist on the same point, providing the words of Matthew 11:13 as
evidence. Some well-known evangelists even ignore the entire part of
the Old Testament.
However,
God made a promise to us through the Old Testament and He has fulfilled
this promise through Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Therefore, in
the world of faith, the New Testament cannot exist without the Old
Testament, and in the same way, the words of the Old Testament cannot be
fulfilled without the words of the New Testament.
Paul
the Apostle was chosen for God’s gospel. Well then, the question is,
“What kind of gospel did he preach?” He preached the fact that Jesus
Christ came to this world and saved us from all our sins through the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, based on the Old Testament.
Therefore, whenever we are preaching the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, we should do so based on the prophecies and the sacrificial
system of the Old Testament. Only then will people come to believe that
the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the truth, and that the New
Testament is the fulfillment of the words of promise of the Old
Testament.
From
the beginning of the New Testament, we can find that an emphasis was
put on the baptism Jesus received from John and His blood on the Cross.
While in the kernel of the Old Testament, there was the sacrificial
system, which was the redeeming way for a sinner. He/she had to pass
over his/her sin by laying his/her hands on the head of a sin offering
and making it bleed to death in order to be forgiven for the sin.
Then,
if there were the laying on of hands and the blood of the sacrificial
animals for the remission of sin in the Old Testament, what was there in
the New Testament? There was the baptism Jesus received and His blood
on the Cross. Moreover, the High Priest mentioned in the Old Testament
(Leviticus 16:21) was equivalent to John the Baptist in the New
Testament.
Verses
3 and 4 talk about the question, “What kind of a Person was Jesus?” The
verses explain His generic character. Jesus Christ was physically born
of David’s family and by the Spirit of holiness, he was recognized as
the Son of God by His power of resurrection from the dead. Therefore, He
became the Savior by giving the water and the blood to those who
believed in Him. Jesus Christ became the God of salvation, the King of
kings, and eternal High Priest of Heaven to those who believed.
In
some Christian theologies, the divinity of Jesus has been denied. These
theologies say, “He was just an outstanding youth.” Moreover, according
to the New Theology, “There is salvation in all religions.” Therefore,
in liberal seminaries, people insist that they have to accept exorcism,
Buddhism, Catholicism and all the other religions in this world. This
so-called Liberal Theology or the New Theology says that everything
should be paid respect to, and therefore, all humans have to unite and
become ‘one’.
However,
it was clearly said in the Bible that in the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. Then, who’s this God? It is Jesus Christ. The
name ‘Christ’ means having been anointed with oil. In the Old Testament,
a king or a prophet was anointed on their heads from the High Priest.
Therefore, Jesus is referred to as the King of kings. A person who
denies Jesus as God is not a believer in God.
Nowadays,
the faiths of the people throughout the world are turning back to the
Ecumenicalism based on religious pluralism. They praise and give worship
while combining all kinds of elements from heathenish religions such as
Buddhism and Confucianism. At certain times, the congregation worships a
Buddhist way, and at other times they do it in a Christian way. Well,
there may be a delicious fusion of food. However, when it comes to
faith, the purer the better.
Therefore,
the answer to the question in verses 3 and 4, ‘Who is Jesus?’ is that
He is the one who has been acknowledged as the Son of God by His power
of resurrection from the dead. Christ became the Lord and Savior to us.
Verses
5 and 6 talk about how Paul became an Apostle through God. He became a
witness to preach the gospel to the Gentiles so that they could receive
salvation by believing in Jesus Christ.
What kind of authority did Paul the Apostle have?
As
it is written in verse 7, Paul the Apostle had the authority to bless
believers in Jesus by God’s name. The authority of an Apostle means the
spiritual power of being able to bless all the people by the name of
Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Paul could say, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Here,
I would like to think a little bit more about this benediction. It
seemed that Paul the Apostle had the authority to make benedictions for
people, and whenever we end worship services on Sundays, we close up
with benedictions. “God wishes to give out this kind of blessing to the
saints.” The original words of blessing are as follows.
Let’s
start with Numbers 6:22. “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak
to Aaron and his sons, saying, “This is the way you shall bless the
children of Israel. Say to them: The Lord bless you and keep you; the
Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift
up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
Aaron
the High Priest and his sons were told, “This is the way you shall
bless the children of Israel.” If they would bless the Israelites in
this way, God would actually bless them as said in the Scripture. When
we take a look at all the Pauline Epistles, we can see that he often
said, “The grace of our Lord be with you.” This indicated that it was
not himself that would give out blessings, but it was God who would do
it. Therefore, Paul the Apostle always gave blessing to the saints
whenever he ended his epistles.
Paul
had the authority to give blessings to God’s people. This authority was
not given out to all Christian ministers. Instead, it was given only to
God’s servants. When God’s servants make benedictions saying that they
truly wish to give out blessings, then God grants them these blessings
actually according to the benediction.
God
gives heavenly authority not only to His servants, but also to all the
born-again saints. God says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John
20:23). He grants that kind of authority to all the righteous.
Therefore, one should take heed not to confront the born-again saints or
His servants, because it is the same as confronting God. For God has
granted the authority of blessing and cursing to His Apostles as well as
to His servants and the righteous.
Paul the Apostle who wishes to impart the spiritual gift to the saints
Let’s
read Romans 1:8-12. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you
all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God
is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son,
that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making
request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of
God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some
spiritual gift, so that you may be established─that is, that I may be
encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”
First
of all, for what did the Apostle Paul thank God? He thanked God for the
Christians in Rome because they believed in Jesus and through them, the
gospel was preached to the other people.
In
verses 9 and 10, one could ask the question, “Why did Paul the Apostle
want to go to Rome during his mission trip?” The reason for this was
because if the gospel of the water and the Spirit were preached in Rome
at that time, it would have been spread out to the entire world. Just as
the whole world today looks to America, in the ancient times, Rome was
the center of the world as there was the saying, “All roads lead to
Rome.”
We
are doing a lot of work of preaching the gospel in America. If we
spread this gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit in America, many
missionaries will come to rise and walk out into the world to preach
this beautiful gospel to others. Therefore, Paul so wished to go to
Rome.
The spiritual gift Paul talks about
In
verse 11, it is written, “For I long to see you, that I may impart to
you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established.”
What
does Paul the Apostle mean by imparting some spiritual gift so that
people may be established? The spiritual gift he talks about is the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, which we are preaching. In verse 12,
it is written, “that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by
the mutual faith both of you and me.” Saying that some spiritual gift
would be imparted to people to allow them to be established and to
encourage the people with the mutual faiths of both Paul and them, was
because by delivering the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Paul
wanted to let people rest, get comfort, receive blessings, and to have
fellowship within the same kind of faith.
Paul
the Apostle’s saying that he would want to be encouraged together with
them by mutual faiths shows that he longed to preach the gospel of the
water and the Holy Spirit once again to the Roman Church. Now, all of
our church members understand and believe concretely in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, but there may appear to be some nominal
Christians who do not believe in the true gospel with the passage of
time. Like this, the Church in Rome might be in need of refreshing the
gospel.
Therefore,
Paul the Apostle said that he might have been encouraged by the mutual
faiths in him. In fact, we receive comfort before God’s presence and our
hearts can rest in peace thanks to the faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. We would not be able to rest in peace without the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Moreover,
it is written, “I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you
may be established.” This spiritual gift is the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. One can become a child of God and receive blessings only
when he/she believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
However,
what use is it for people to live virtuously or faithfully by giving up
smoking and drinking and without doing any wrongdoings if they don’t
know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, even though they believe in
Jesus somehow? Their doings have nothing to do with God’s
righteousness. The righteousness of God is much greater than that of
human beings. It is easy to draw in people to a church, but it is more
important to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to these new
believers so that they can be forgiven for all their sins and become
God’s children by being clothed in the spiritual blessings of Heaven.
Paul
the Apostle wanted the saints in Rome to be encouraged through his own
faith. So he said, “that is, that I may be encouraged together with you
by the mutual faith both of you and me.” Therefore, Paul the Apostle had
to preach the true gospel to all the congregation of the church to let
them have faith, so they could be established by his own faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. He had to deliver the believers of
the church in Rome the gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit and teach
them what it really was.
This
is what made Paul the Apostle different from the other evangelists in
today’s world. In the Epistle to the Roman Church, Paul the Apostle said
that he wanted to let people be established by imparting some spiritual
gift, and to encourage them by the mutual faiths of both the people and
him. This is what all the preachers of the existing churches of today
should learn from Paul the Apostle. Paul the Apostle used to preach the
gospel of the water and the Spirit with which one could discern true
brethrens from the false ones.
These
days, churches let a group of new participants receive the doctrinal
teachings for a period of 6 months, and within a year, they finally get
baptized. That’s it. They get baptized regardless of whether they know
about the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has fulfilled or
not. In other words, even though people have become members of a
church, they have not been able to become God’s children who have
obtained His righteousness. The only thing the ministers of today’s
churches ask their new believers to do is to memorize the Ten
Commandments and the Apostle’s Creed. If the new believers pass the
memorizing test, then they are asked, “Are you going to stop drinking?
Quit smoking? Are you going to offer your tithe every month? Will you
lead a good life?”
The
reason the churches of Europe, Asia, and all over the world became
distant from God’s righteousness is because they chase after human
righteousness. Nowadays, even in Korea, or the so-called ‘Jerusalem of
Asia,’ the population of Christians is declining. Now, the time has
arrived in which no one wants to come to church unless there is a
special event held inside the church, such as a praising festival or a
pop concert. Even if people come, the ordinary sermons that are given to
the youth contain themes such as, ‘Don’t smoke, live a virtuous life,
keep the Holy Sundays and do a lot of volunteer work,’ have nothing to
do with God’s righteousness.
Because
a human is swift to sin and too fragile to quit sinning, he/she has to
rely on the Lord. Therefore, when people come into the church of God, we
should deliver them the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that they
can obtain God’s righteousness. To them, we should really pass on God’s
righteousness that says that you and I have been made sinless even
though we are still insufficient.
Be
sure to keep this in mind. One can only live according to God’s will
after he/she has become sinless by believing in God’s righteousness. One
can preach the gospel once his/her own problems of sin have been
settled. Our work of spreading the gospel to others should not precede
the settlement of our own problems of sin. One can never preach the true
gospel to others unless his/her own problems of sin have been solved.
It
is said that Paul the Apostle did truly impart some spiritual gift to
others. The gift Paul talked about is not the gift of strange tongues or
healing talked about in the Pentecostal Movement in the present
Christianity. Most Christians regard some strange phenomena such as
seeing visions, prophesying, talking of other tongues, or healing
diseases as the gifts.
However,
these things are not the spiritual gifts from Heaven. Seeing visions
while making prayers is definitely not a spiritual gift. A person wildly
screaming or a person in a cave going crazy whenever he/she hears
strange sounds while not being able to sleep for three nights, are not
of God’s gift. One who claims that he is able to speak other tongues and
falls unconsciously to the floor after shouting out strange words
‘la-la-la-la’ with a twisted tongue is not a sight of one receiving the
Holy Spirit. Instead, it’s similar to mentally unstable patients in a
mental institution going wild. However, there are so called ‘charismatic
revivalists’ who insist that they can teach Christians how to speak
other tongues or how to receive the Holy Spirit. They are doing
something very wrong and the faiths they possess are definitely not
right.
The
living water of the Holy Spirit flows out from our hearts when we
faithfully do God’s spiritual work and follow the Lord. The water of the
Holy Spirit will overflow in our hearts when we lessen the carnal deeds
and follow the spiritual deeds instead.
Christians
should obtain the spiritual gift of the remission of sin by believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Someone says that numerous
Christians are right now heading toward hell through the chairs of
today’s churches. This indicates that today’s churches encourage human
righteousness instead of preaching God’s righteousness.
Brethren,
even if one has piled up a lot of human righteousness after attending
church, this doesn’t mean that he/she can receive the spiritual gift by
such deeds. We should take in God’s righteousness into our hearts by the
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that we can obtain
the spiritual gift.
Let’s
read verses 13 to 17. “Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren,
that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I
might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.
I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to
unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you
who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the
Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by
faith.’”
Paul
the Apostle wished to go to Rome. However, he couldn’t do so because he
had been hindered. Therefore, he had to pray asking for the door of his
missionary work to be opened. Likewise, we should give the same kind of
prayers while preaching the gospel worldwide through literature
ministries. Only when we pray will God’s heart be moved and only when
God opens up the door and the path for us will we be able to deliver the
gospel of the water and the Spirit worldwide.
Paul who owed a debt to all the people
To
whom did Paul the Apostle say that he had owed a debt and what kind of
debt did he mean in verses 14 and 15? He said that he had become a
debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, and that he owed them
the preaching of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He added that
he was a debtor both to the wise and the unwise. Therefore, he wished to
preach the gospel to these people in Rome as best as he could.
Therefore,
the purpose of Paul the Apostle writing to the church was to deliver
the true gospel. He found that even in the hearts of the people inside
the church in Rome, the gospel of the water and the Spirit did not stand
firm by faith, and thus he referred to the gospel as the spiritual
gift. Therefore, he preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit even
to those who were already inside the church, as well as all the people
of the world. He said that he was a debtor to the wise, the unwise, the
Greeks, and all barbarians.
What
kind of a debt did Paul owe? He owed the debt of having to preach the
gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit to all the people in the world.
He insisted on delivering all of the debt he owed to the people in the
world. Like this, even the people now who have the gospel of the water
and the Spirit owe the propagation of the gospel. The debt they have to
pay is the work of spreading the gospel. This is the reason why we have
to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the whole world at
this time.
People
mistakenly think that only the blood of the Cross is all of salvation.
However, the heavenly gospel the Bible bears witness to is the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, which Paul the Apostle also testified to.
Therefore, in Romans chapter 6, Paul said that he was baptized into
Christ Jesus and also into His death. Because there were nominal
Christians in the Church in Rome who believed only in the blood of the
Cross, Paul wanted to deliver them the hidden secret of the baptism
Jesus had received. Just like this, we should preach the gospel of the
water and the Spirit to those who have not been able to hear it, though
they have long been inside the church.
When
Christians are asked whether they possess sin or not, they think of
this question itself as being useless and disregarding their
personalities. However, this question is in fact of great importance and
enormous value. If humans are destined to go to hell due to their sins,
who is there to ask them this kind of question and provide them with a
solution? Only a person who is sinless in his/her heart after having
been born again by the gospel of the water and the Spirit can ask that
kind of question and also give the correct answer to people. Only the
born again saints can make sinners to be born again by delivering the
sound gospel, that is, the gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit,
which sinners have never heard before.
Brethren,
even if one believes in Jesus, but has not been born again of the water
and the Holy Spirit, then one can neither enter nor see God’s Kingdom.
Therefore, be thankful when you meet people who allow sinners to receive
the remission of sin by delivering you the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. You will then receive a great blessing.
The gospel Paul was not ashamed about
In
verse 16, what was the gospel Paul the Apostle was not ashamed about
like? It was the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because this gospel
is God’s power to salvation for everyone who believes, Paul called it
as “my gospel” (Romans 2:16, 16:25), and he regarded it to be proud and
great instead of being ashamed of it. The reason he was not ashamed of
the gospel of the water and the Spirit was because this gospel makes
people completely sinless and destroys the barrier of sin that divides
all mankind from God.
Would
the washing away of sin be possible if people believed only in the
gospel of the blood of the Cross? It is seemingly possible to wash away
the sins committed until now with this kind of faith but it is
impossible to cleanse our future sin. Therefore, people with this kind
of faith try to wash away their sins by saying prayers of repentance
everyday. They confess that their hearts are filled only with sins and
that they are inevitable sinners. These Christian sinners who possess
sin cannot talk about the gospel sincerely to others, because ‘the
gospel’ they have is no more ‘the good news’ to them.
The
gospel is ‘euaggelion’ in Greek, in other words, the gospel that has
the ability of blowing away all the sins in this world. The only true
gospel is like dynamite. It is this true gospel that eliminates all of
the sins in this world. Therefore, a person like Paul, who believed in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has the ability to eliminate
sin, was not ashamed of it. Nowadays, even Christians seem to be
ashamed of preaching the gospel. However, those who possess God’s
righteousness are people that stand out more with dignity and glory when
they are preaching the gospel.
Paul
the Apostle did not even have the slightest bit of shame while
preaching the gospel. It was because the gospel he was preaching was the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. It was because this beautiful
gospel was God’s power to salvation for everyone who believes.
This
gospel is the powerful gospel that allows anyone who believes in it to
get his/her sins remitted, no matter who has delivered it to him/her.
The sins of the world get completely washed away if the listener takes
in the gospel with his/her heart. However, the gospel of only the blood
of the Cross tells the incomplete salvation to people, that is to say,
it tells people that it only eliminates their original sin and thus
their additional transgressions have to be washed away by saying daily
repentance prayers. It leaves an aftertaste of sin to its listeners.
Did
Jesus only take away a partial amount of sin because His power was not
good enough? Since Jesus knew humans so well, He did not leave behind
any kind of sin. He took with Him all of the sins with the water, blood
and the Holy Spirit. I believe that this beautiful gospel gives complete
salvation from sin to everyone who hears and believes the gospel of
Jesus’ baptism and His bloodshed on the Cross.
Therefore,
the gospel has the same power to everyone including the Jews and the
Greeks. The gospel of the water and the Spirit allows the same salvation
from sin to everyone who believes in Jesus when the gospel is preached
to them. On the other hand, when one delivers something other than the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, he/she will receive the wrath of
God. So Paul said, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any
other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be
accursed” (Galatians 1:8). Paul the Apostle clearly said that there is
only the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is true out of all the
other gospels.
Regardless
of whether one is a Gentile or a Jew, or whether one believes in Islam,
Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, the sun god or anything else, every
single person gets the chance to hear the gospel. Moreover, this gospel
of the water and the Holy Spirit provides them the chance of getting
saved from all their sins. So, we should deliver that Jesus Christ is
God, that He created the Universe, that He came to this world in the
likeness of human flesh to save us, that He took over all our sins by
getting baptized by John, and that He received the judgment for our sins
by dying on the Cross.
Therefore,
Paul the Apostle was not ashamed of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Even though the gospel only of the Cross must be a shameful
gospel, the gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot be shameful at
all; but a sound and powerful gospel that overflows with pride and
dignity. Anyone who believes in this gospel receives the fullness of the
Holy Spirit by the faith in the fact that he/she has become a child of
God. Again I say to you that the beautiful gospel of the water and the
Holy Spirit can never be a shameful gospel. However, the gospel that
believes only in the blood of the Cross is shameful.
Christians,
were you ashamed whenever you had to preach the gospel of only the
blood of the Cross? You felt ashamed when you delivered and believed in
the gospel of only the blood that does not contain Jesus’ baptism.
Because you were ashamed to preach that kind of useless gospel, you
always had to cry out for the Lord or give fanatic prayers in other
tongues to fill up your feelings before you went out to the streets to
shout out “Believe in Jesus. Believe in Jesus!”
This
is something one can just do with overflowing feelings but something
one would never be able to do with a sober mind. That is why those who
believe only in the blood of the Cross shout tumultuously and cause
disturbances whenever they are out in the streets for evangelism. Having
the megaphone close to their mouths, they only shout out the words,
“Jesus, to Heaven, disbelief, to hell.” However, a believer in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit delivers the gospel in a very
gentlemanlike fashion; while having opened up his bible, he drinks tea
and converses with another.
What is said about the gospel of God’s righteousness?
In
verse 17, what is said to be revealed in the gospel of Christ? It is
said that “the righteousness of God” is revealed in the gospel of God.
God’s righteousness is fully revealed in the true gospel. Therefore, it
is said that God’s righteousness is revealed in it from faith to faith
and that the just shall live only by faith. The gospel that delivers
only the blood of the Cross does not contain God’s righteousness.
Brethren,
if it is said that one has to give prayers of repentance everyday for
his/her daily sins even though he/she has already gotten his/her
original sin forgiven, and that one can gradually become sanctified to
eventually become a perfectly righteous person, then does this kind of
faith contain God’s righteousness? This is not something in which God’s
righteousness is revealed. Something that reveals God’s righteousness
talks about perfect things. The gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit
talks about the perfect gospel from the beginning till the end.
You
people offer daily repentance prayers because you are committing sins
everyday as if you have to make new coverings out of the leaves of a fig
tree to cover your shameful sides everyday, or maybe every week or
month. A person repeatedly becoming a sinner by saying daily repentance
prayers is like covering up his/her own shameful body with the leaves of
a fig tree. This is the state of religious lives of those who believe
in the gospel of only the blood of the Cross. They are the foolish ones
who don’t wish to wear the leather coverings that God has given them
freely, but instead enjoy wearing the coverings of the leaves of a fig
tree.
Jesus’
blood on the Cross was the result of Jesus’ baptism, and it was not the
bloodshed on the Cross by which Jesus was able to take over our sins.
He took over our sins at the time He got baptized, then came to the
Cross bearing all the sins of the world, and died to atone the sins of
the world. Therefore, the Cross was the result of the baptism He had
received. Since Jesus had taken over our sins through His baptism, the
bloodshed at the Cross was His final deed to atone all our sins. Jesus
received all of the curses of sin at the Cross because He had gotten
baptized.
Then
how can we obtain God’s righteousness? We can acquire it by knowing and
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You would ask me,
“Are you then a believer in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?”
Then I can answer immediately and clearly ‘Yes’ to this question. The
secret to obtaining God’s righteousness is to believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit.
The
reason for this is because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is
the truth and because it reveals God’s love and His righteousness. It is
also because the gospel of the water and the Spirit contains the
remission of sin God has given to mankind freely, the way to becoming
His children, the blessing of eternal life by which one can receive the
Holy Spirit, and the physical and spiritual blessings on earth.
Paul
the Apostle said that God’s righteousness was fully revealed in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that he was preaching. Therefore,
putting up human righteousness without knowing God’s righteousness is
like sinning before God. Moreover, a gospel that believes in only the
blood of the Cross, but does not contain God’s righteousness, is false.
God’s
righteousness refers to the sound gospel of the water and the Spirit He
has given. The Old and New Testament as a pair save us from our sins.
The Old Testament prepares for the New Testament and the New Testament
fulfills the words of promise contained in the Old Testament. God saved
us from the sins of the world by giving us the true gospel in which His
righteousness is fully revealed. Thus He saved mankind from all sin.
Right
now, the whole world should return to the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. The only gospel that saves people from sin is the original
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Brethren, the whole world must
return to the gospel of the water and the blood. They have to return to
this gospel of the water and the Spirit, which contains God’s
righteousness.
The
reason for this is because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is
the only truth that can save us from sin. Only the gospel containing
God’s righteousness can save us, make us sinless and turn us into God’s
children. Moreover, the Holy Spirit inside our hearts protect God’s
people and this Holy Spirit prays for us, blesses us, always stays with
us and gives us eternal lives as a gift.
It
is very tantalizing to see that there are so many people who don’t even
pay attention to this gospel. I hope for everyone to believe in this
gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit by having clear understanding of
Jesus’ baptism. The baptism Jesus received from John is not something
that Jesus accepted because He was modest. The reason He got baptized
was in order to bearing all the sins of this world. John, who was the
greatest man among those born of women, laid his hands on Jesus’ head
when he baptized Jesus. This forms a parallel to the imposition of the
High Priest’s hands on the head of sin offerings without blemish in the
Old Testament (Leviticus 16:21). Jesus’ death on the Cross was a result
of having taken over the sins onto His body, and it parallels with the
sin offering shedding blood and dying after going through the imposition
of hands.
Because
this gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit has been mentioned in both
the Old and New Testaments, anyone who believes in the other gospel
while leaving out any part of the original one has a wrong faith. The
most important and the very first thing Jesus did when He came to this
world was to get baptized by John. It is very wrong for you to believe
that His baptism is only a symbol and to think that Jesus got baptized
out of His modesty.
What
kind of a person is a heretic? In Titus 3:10, it is written, “Reject a
divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a
person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.” A divisive man is a
person who is self-condemned. A self-condemned person means one who
admits and confesses that he/she possesses sin. Therefore, a Christian
who says, “I’m a sinner” is a divisive man, that is, a heretic. It is
written, “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition.”
Because
this kind of a Christian is warped and rotten, a sinless saint should
not go near such a heretic. He is one who is self-condemned because his
own faith and religious life has rotted away. A person who commits
unforgivable sins before God is one who does not want to be sinless by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but instead
continues to sin of rejecting His absolute salvation before God while
saying that he/she is still a sinner. One who self-condemns while
thinking that even though he/she believes in Jesus, he/she has sin and
therefore calls himself/herself a sinner, is a heretic heading to hell.
Some
Christians attach a sticker on the back of their cars that says, ‘It’s
my fault.’ This seems like such a kind and warm saying when viewed by
human eyes, but in truth, it means that since it’s all one’s own fault,
such matters as going to hell, becoming a divisive man, and getting
cursed is all up to one’s own fault. ‘It’s my fault’ is a paradoxical
saying that one is going to live virtuously. However, saying that a
supporter of such a slogan, who thinks he/she can live virtuously, is
directly challenging God’s words that defines humans as seeds of
iniquity. Those who chase that kind of human thought will eventually
receive all kinds of curses.
Are
there by any chance people among you who are self-condemned? Then you
should once again listen carefully to my sermon on Romans chapter 3 that
states that the remission of sin does not refer to the Doctrine of
Justification. Romans talks about this in great detail. Paul the Apostle
knew in advance what people would say someday and therefore said
beforehand that becoming sinless is to become truly without sin and is
not just calling a sinner righteous. He also clearly testified that only
the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the truth. Therefore, it is
natural that those who believe only in the blood of the Cross will
become ignorant and dumb while reading Romans.
The
Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans is such a great Scripture
because it testifies the gospel of the water and the Spirit. One should
become righteous after believing in Jesus even if he/she was originally a
sinner before coming to believe. One should truly become a righteous
person who possesses no sin in one’s heart. This is how one gets to
possess the right kind of faith.
I
hope that even if right at the moment, people’s faiths are not
complete, their faiths will eventually reach perfection while they lend
an ear to the words of the water and the Spirit through the born again
church. Please, learn more about the gospel of the water and the Spirit
through these sermons and confirm the words of truth.
I believe that God will endow us with the riches of heavenly blessings.
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