[Chapter 3-4] In What Respect Are Jews Better Than Gentiles? (Romans 3:1-31)
(Romans 3:1-31)
“What
advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much
in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of
God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the
faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be
true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified
in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.’ But if our
unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we
say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly
not! For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has
increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a
sinner? And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?—as we are
slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation
is just.
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
As it is written:
‘There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.’
‘Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit’;
‘The poison of asps is under their lips’;
‘Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.’
‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.’
‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’
Now
we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be
justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But
now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being
witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God,
through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there
is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood,
through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His
forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be
just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Where
is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the
law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is
He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since
there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the
uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith?
Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
(Romans 3:1) “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?”
The
Jews, the descendants of Abraham, had a big advantage over the other
nations. The Jews were the people who had received a lot of spiritual
teaching from God and their parents’ lives and they also grew up
watching God’s work personally. They were people who had received the
circumcision of the flesh as the sign of the covenant and as God’s
people. As such, they were people who had received a lot of blessing
from God because they were God’s people who received the covenant
through the Word.
But
the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 3 that the Jews and the
Gentiles both receive salvation from sin just by believing the
righteousness of God. In what ways are the Jews better than the Gentiles
then? It’s that they have the Word entrusted to them. They heard God’s
Word since the early days of their ancestors. The Jews were considered
better than the Gentiles because God’s Word was passed down through
them. But the Jews were cast away before the presence of God because
they did not believe that Jesus Christ was God’s Son.
Among
Christians today, there are people that have such faith. They recognize
Jesus as their Savior and go to church but they are sinners. They are
sinners even after they believed in Jesus just as they were sinners
before they believed, and there is no benefit to their faith even though
they believe in Jesus because they have never attained the
righteousness of God after believing in Jesus. There are many religious
people like this even today.
(Romans 3:2) “Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.”
God’s
Priests were the people entrusted with the job of delivering God’s
Word. God entrusted God’s Word to His servants to deliver it to the
people. Therefore the Jews have received the great blessing. God spoke
to their ancestors and chose His servants from among those people and
made them listen to His Word. Now even the Gentiles have the blessing of
listening to God’s Word through their ancestors.
Because They Do Not Believe in the Righteousness of God
(Romans 3:3) “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?”
The
Jews are responsible for God’s Word and they share it with their
people. But what benefit is it for them if they themselves don’t believe
it? This Word was also spoken to those who have believed in Jesus and
become leaders in today’s Christianity. There are many Christian leaders
who do not believe in the Word of the water and the Spirit that
manifests the righteousness of God. Then what is the benefit to them?
Would the truthfulness of the righteousness of God disappear just
because they do not believe in the Word of God’s righteousness? No, it
would not. The righteousness of God exists forever.
The
Apostle Paul was the servant of God who had preached the gospel that
contained the righteousness of God to the Jews and the Gentiles. But the
Jews did not believe the righteousness of God that the Apostle Paul
preached nor recognized and believed that Jesus Christ was the Savior.
That doesn’t mean that God’s righteousness that God the Father fulfilled
through Jesus Christ can be nullified. Would the righteousness of God
disappear just because humans do not believe in the righteousness of
God? Could the righteousness of God be nullified just because of the
unbelievers in the righteousness of God? God’s righteousness does not
disappear just because people do not believe in it. In other words, the
righteousness of God does not become nullified just because we humans do
not believe in the righteousness of God. How could the righteousness of
God be nullified just because people do not believe in it? The Gentiles
will believe in the righteousness of God if the Jews do not believe in
it. It’s because whosoever believes in the righteousness of God in his
heart receives the salvation from all sins. As such, the Jews had a big
advantage over the other nations but the Jews were cast away because
they did not believe in the righteousness of God.
As
neither the Jews nor the Gentiles can receive the salvation from their
sin through human morality or good deeds, the Jews cannot receive the
salvation from their sins even though they say they are better.
Therefore, neither the Jews nor the Gentiles can receive the salvation
from sin without believing in Jesus Christ who has fulfilled the
righteousness of God as their Savior. God gave the same righteousness to
both the Jews and the Gentiles. Therefore God cast away the Jews who
turned their backs on the righteousness of God and gave the same
opportunity to the Gentiles to believe in the righteousness of God.
Righteousness by Faith
The
message of the Apostle Paul can be stated more specifically as follows.
It is saying that God gave His righteousness, the salvation from the
sin, as a gift to all the people. It is saying that we must believe that
the gospel is the Word of promise in the Old Testament that was
fulfilled in the New Testament through the baptism of Jesus Christ and
His blood on the Cross and that the gospel has removed all of our sins.
But there are some who do not believe this even though the gospel of
God’s righteousness was manifested clearly through Jesus’ baptism and
His blood on the Cross. But God has given the grace of becoming children
of God to those who believe in the righteousness of God. God’s
righteousness does not disappear and it is not nullified just because
many people do not believe in the grace of God.
Anyone
can receive the righteousness of God if they listen to the gospel that
contains the righteousness of God and just believe it in their hearts.
That’s why those who say they believe in God without believing in God’s
righteousness are mocking God to be a liar and therefore are sinning
against God. As a result, they stand on the side of the ones who are
against God and therefore will receive destruction due to that sin. God
fulfilled all of the righteousness to save the sinners from their sin.
But there were many who did not believe this during that time just as
there are in our days. But the righteousness of God is not nullified
just because people do not believe. That’s why the Apostle Paul said,
“For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the
faithfulness of God without effect?”
God
planned the gift of salvation, the righteousness of God, for all
humanity. And He fulfilled this plan through the baptism and the blood
of His Son Jesus. This is the righteousness of God. Therefore the
righteousness of God brings glory and nobility to those who believe.
What
is the greatest gift that God has given to humanity? It’s the
righteousness of God. What is the righteousness of God? God sent His Son
to this world and liberated all the sinners and gave them the right to
become the children of God by paying for the sins with His Son’s blood.
God has given us the blessing of becoming the children of God from the
beginning, that is, from Creation.
However,
many people are still imprisoned within their sins because they do not
believe in the righteousness of God. Would the righteousness of God
disappear just because they do not believe in the righteousness of God?
That’s definitely not the case. The righteousness of God exists forever
as the eternal power. The righteousness of God that saves the sinners
will not disappear forever. Whosoever accepts the righteousness of God
receives the blessing of the remission of sin and everlasting life. But,
those who do not believe in it will go to hell on the last day.
Therefore the Scriptures say, “That You may be justified in Your words,
and may overcome when You are judged” (Romans 3:4, Psalm 51:4).
God
promised in advance that He will give the righteousness of God to
humanity and the Lord fulfilled that promise completely. Therefore, God
blesses those who deserve to be blessed and curses those that deserve to
be cursed. So the Scriptures say, “That You may be justified in Your
words, and may overcome when You are judged.”
God’s
Word came to us in the flesh of man and saved us from sin. That’s why
Paul said, “That You may be justified in Your words,”
The
Lord went up to Heaven because He had fulfilled all of the
righteousness of God. The Lord is faithful to the end. We know that the
Lord is faithful before Satan the Devil, before all creation, and before
Himself. But we humans are not faithful. Humans change even the promise
they have made if it is unfavorable for them. But God did not break any
Word of promise He made to humanity and fulfilled them all because He
is faithful. Therefore, we must place our foundation of faith on the
Word of God’s righteousness.
What If Our Unrighteousness Demonstrates the Righteousness of God?
(Romans 3:5-6)
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what
shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?”
Romans
3:5 states, “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness
of God, what shall we say?” This Word shows how great God’s
righteousness is. Man is deceitful, but the Lord is truthful.
Do
you know the righteousness of God? Do you know that your weakness
demonstrates the righteousness of God even more? God is really faithful
and righteous. God is the Lord of our salvation. God is the true God who
promised to us and has fulfilled all the promises. We cannot help but
sin because we humans are evil from birth. But such evilness of ours
demonstrates God’s righteousness even more.
It
says that the righteousness of God is demonstrated even more because
people are evil, and you may have some questions about what this is
saying. Actually, the righteousness of God manifested as the Savior came
to this world and received baptism from John the Baptist because people
cannot help but sin until they die. We can discover this Truth clearly
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has given to us. All
humans have sinned in the past and they will continue to sin in the
future also. Therefore, our Lord fulfilled the righteousness of God and
has blotted out all the sins of all human beings in this world from
beginning until end all at once. God does not save the virtuous people
who do not sin. Then who does God save from sin? He saves the sinners
that are destined for hell from all their sins. This is the perfect love
of God that is fulfilled through the righteousness of God.
There
is nothing lovable in us humans when we look at our behavior before
God. So God sent His only begotten Son and saved us humans from the
hands of the Devil when we had no choice but to go to hell for the sins
we commit. This is why the Scriptures say, “But if our unrighteousness
demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say” (Romans 3:5).
The more human beings sin the more the righteousness of God manifests.
This is the gospel that the Apostle Paul is talking about.
But
that doesn’t mean you should lead an unrighteous life. It means that
human beings cannot live righteously before God no matter how hard they
try. Human beings who are the descendants of Adam do not have the power
to live righteously even if they want to. Therefore people must believe
the righteousness of God. People must get rid of hypocrisy in order to
believe in the righteousness of God. Anyone who tries to live virtuously
instead of accepting the righteousness of God will fall into fallacious
and hypocritical faith because he is incapable of doing so.
People
who could live virtuously before God are the only people who have the
righteousness of God. There is no one who could live virtuously without
knowing and believing the righteousness of God because people do not
have righteousness. Then how can people who can’t help but sin in this
manner receive the salvation from all sins? They need the righteousness
of God and the righteousness of God illuminates the light as a result.
Therefore people need to change the notion of trying to build their
righteousness to be saved. The Apostle Paul says that He himself
received the salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of
God.
But
what do the people who have not been born again understand about the
salvation from sin? They think and claim that they must believe in Jesus
and also live righteously to receive the salvation from sin. That’s why
they cannot escape from their sins. Those who have truly been saved
from all the sins of their entire life are the people who believe in the
righteousness of God. These people exalt and praise the righteousness
of God. They are only boastful of the righteousness of God and they cast
away the righteousness of their flesh. In short, we have received the
salvation from sin by faith not through the addition of the human
righteousness.
“But
if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what
shall we say” (Romans 3:5). Human evilness only proves the preciousness
of the righteousness and love of God. The Scriptures say, “For if the
truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also
still judged as a sinner? And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may
come’?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say.
Their condemnation is just.” The Scriptures say those who do not believe
in the righteousness of God and go against God’s righteousness with
human thinking will receive the judgment and go to hell. It says that
their names are recorded in the Books of the Judgment because they did
not believe in the righteousness of God. These people must surely turn
from evil and repent and receive the salvation from sin by believing in
the righteousness of God. The Apostle Paul said, “Is God unjust who
inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not!” It is saying that
people go to hell because they do not believe in the Truth that
manifests the righteousness of God, not because they have committed
sins. Is the salvation of God, that has saved all humans from sin
through His righteousness, wrong? No, it’s not.
Those Who Do Not Know the Righteousness of God
(Romans 3:7) “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?”
This
Word speaks from the fact that human beings sin instinctively because
they have been born with sin from their birth. Paul is saying, “What if
the righteousness of God demonstrates even more due to such sinful human
beings?” In other words, he is saying that the glory would be added to
God because God sent Jesus Christ to this world and had Him take all the
sins of the world through His baptism and shed His blood on the Cross
to blot out all those sins. He has remitted all the sins that people
commit during their lifetime after being born as a mass of sin.
The
people at the time argued against Paul and said, “Then it’s okay even
if we don’t practice any righteous work. If you say that you have been
saved from sin just by faith, then would you sin even more now because
you don’t have sin?” But we must understand this: We humans do not sin
because we want to sin. We sin because we are human beings who cannot
help but sin. People sin throughout their lifetime because they have
been born as a sinner. As it is totally proper for the apple tree to
bear apples, it is totally proper for the sinner to sin after being born
as sinners to this world. Through His righteousness, God has saved
those who can only display sin and bear all kinds of fruit of sin. The
Scriptures say that people do not commit sins even more to add to God’s
grace, and that sinners who cannot be saved from their sins for
themselves receive salvation from sin just by believing in the
righteousness of God.
The Refutation of the Argument That Goes, “Let Us Do Evil Intentionally”
(Romans 3:8) “And
why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?—as we are
slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation
is just.”
This
Word points to those who did not believe in the righteousness of God
and insisted on their own thinking because they were deceived by the
liars of that time. Even today, those who have been deceived by the
liars though they believe in Jesus say the same things. The Book of
Romans was written about 2000 years ago, but the people in our times
claim like the people of that time did, saying, “If all the sins have
been blotted out through Jesus then all the people who believe in this
may intentionally sin even more!” These people claim this with the
judgment from their own fleshly thinking. Jesus has remitted all the
sins of the people regardless of what their deeds are. But people are
not able to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that
reveals the righteousness of God because of the bondage of their
thinking that they cannot receive salvation if they continue to sin.
Therefore they are not able to come into the Truth of salvation from sin
that God has given to them.
Both
the people who have received the remission of sin and the people who
have not been born again continue to sin. But all these continuing sins
are removed clearly by the righteousness of God. Therefore, all people
can receive the salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of
God. You cannot help but sin even after you have received the remission
of sin because your flesh is still insufficient. But there is some
limitation to sinning after you have received the remission of sin.
People sin even more before receiving the remission of sin because they
do not recognize a sin as a sin even while sinning. But the righteous
who have received the remission of sin do not sin intentionally because
they know what sin really is.
Some
people refuted against the Apostle Paul in regards to the righteousness
of God, saying, “Let us do evil that good may come.” But Paul said, “As
we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their
condemnation is just.” It is right for them to receive the judgment for
their sin because they do not believe in the righteousness of God. Why?
It’s because they do not dwell in the faith of believing in the
righteousness of God and they are busy refuting against the
righteousness of God as they dwell in their own thinking of flesh and
their deeds of hypocrisy. The Lord saving us from all our sins has
nothing to do with our own righteousness. But there is a huge difference
between the people who believe in the righteousness of God and those
who don’t. The people who believe this receive the salvation according
to the Truth and those who do not believe go to hell because they cannot
receive the salvation according to the Truth. That’s why God said that
Jesus is the stumbling stone. A person becomes righteous and receives
eternal life if he believes in the righteousness of God no matter how
great a sin the person has committed. And a person receives God’s
judgment as the price for his sins and receives eternal destruction if
he does not believe in the righteousness of God no matter how many
virtuous deeds he has done. Therefore, Jesus becomes the stumbling block
for the people who seek human hypocrisy.
Can
there be a righteous person who has sin? No, there cannot. Then is
there a righteous person who does commit sin? Yes, there is. Some people
are worried that they cannot become righteous because they will
continue to sin in the future even though they believe in the
righteousness of God. But we must definitely understand that we have
become the righteous just by believing in the righteousness of God and
not by our virtuous deeds. The righteousness of God has taken away all
the sins we commit in this world even after believing in this gospel. We
have become the righteous by believing that Jesus took all the sins of
the world through His baptism at the Jordan River. The Scriptures say,
“There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin”
(Ecclesiastes 7:20). There is a righteous person who sins, but there is
none who has become a sinner even after believing the righteousness of
God. Is one in debt even after paying off all that he owed? Jesus
blotting out all our sins is the same as the notion that a son of a
certain father is not in debt to a store no matter how much he buys on
credit from a store if his wealthy father already paid enough to the
store for the son to buy all that he wants from the store until he dies.
Man
cannot become righteous by not sinning. A human body is not a perfect
body that could refrain from sinning. People have to eat whenever they
are hungry and they have to sin because there are all kinds of desires
and greed in them. That is the fate of every human being. Therefore,
people must get rid of the fleshly thinking that they become righteous
by not sinning after they have come to believe in Jesus. There is no
human being that does not sin. But people receive the salvation from sin
just by believing in the righteousness of God.
Those
who have not been born again only follow their own fleshly thinking.
The Scriptures say, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). We humans cannot make
someone who continues to sin in their whole lifetime without sin, but
the righteousness of God has the power to make a sinner who commits sin
all through his or her lifetime sinless. It is God who can cleanse all
the sins of human beings so that they may be called righteous even
conscientiously. God has blessed us so that we who commit sin may be
called the righteous and also have the privilege to call out to God as
our Father. God has the power to give the freedom from sins of the world
to those who believe in the Word of the Truth that records the
righteousness of God. Believing this is the true faith, and you cannot
become righteous through your own hypocritical faith.
Those
who have not been born again are always imprisoned to their own
thinking. That’s why sinners can’t ever escape from their own thinking.
Even though they profess to believe in Jesus, they never understand the
fact that the righteousness of God has perfectly saved those who believe
in Jesus. Therefore, you need to listen to God’s Word of the
righteousness and believe it if you want to be born again from sin. The
righteousness of God witnessed by the righteous makes the sinners who
listen to it become born again because the Holy Spirit dwells within the
righteous who are born again. You must remember that you must meet the
born again if you want to truly become born again. People become sinless
by believing in the righteousness of God that manifested through Jesus
Christ.
(Romans 3:4)
“Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is
written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when
You are judged.’”
We
humans are essentially liars. But God is the Truth itself. God promised
in the Word from the Old Testament to send the Savior who will save us
from sin. And He sent us the Messiah. Jesus Christ the Messiah came to
this world in human flesh and received baptism from John the Baptist,
died on the Cross in the state that took over all the sins of the world,
and was resurrected from death and delivered the sinners out from sin
to make those who believe this Truth become God’s people. God won the
victory against Satan according to the Truth that He had spoken. No one
can say that God is a liar.
(Romans 3:5-6)
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what
shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?”
Just
as God said, “Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is
written,” we don’t have anything truthful and rather we are deceitful
and full of sin. But the righteousness of God is truthful and it does
not change. That’s why the Apostle Paul said the righteousness of God is
increased because of the sin people continue to commit. The Word shows
how perfect the righteousness of God is and how unrighteous and weak
human beings are. Therefore, one can obtain God’s established law of
salvation just by believing in the righteousness of God.
God
has established the Truth of salvation that liberates human beings from
all sins only within the righteousness of God. Therefore, the wrath God
brings down on the people who do not believe in the righteousness of
God is an appropriate and just wrath. God brings down the wrath of
judgment upon those who became sinners because they did not believe in
the righteousness of God. Is God’s rod of wrath upon those who do not
believe in the righteousness of God wrong? No, it’s not. God is a God of
love, but He is a God who brings down wrath to those who deserve His
wrath and bestows mercy upon those who deserve His mercy.
What Shall We Say If Our Unrighteousness Demonstrates the Righteousness of God
(Romans 3:7) “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?”
Apostle
Paul continues to say, pondering on the Word of the Lord, “Indeed, let
God be true but every man a liar.” Paul himself came to understand that
the righteousness of God became more abundant through his weakness when
he lied and sinned because of his weakness. Therefore, Paul asks whether
he would receive judgment for his weakness like a sinner who does not
believe, when even though he believed in the righteousness of God. A
person who has received the remission of sin certainly does not receive
the judgment of God due to his weakness. This is the righteousness of
God and the Truth. How come a sinner does not receive the judgment of
God? It’s because Jesus resolved all the sins of the world through the
baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross.
That’s why Paul asked rhetorically how he could receive God’s judgment
like a sinner when he had faith and believed in the righteousness of
God. He confessed the true faith that rather, his weakness manifested
the righteousness of God even more.
The
Jews are better than the Gentiles in that they are the descendants of
Abraham. God promised to give the Law to the descendants of Abraham
along with the sacrificial system and that He would also send the Savior
to them. The Jews, the descendants of Abraham, became the people who
were committed to God’s Word through their forefathers of faith.
Romans
2:17 talks about how the Jews are better than the Gentiles. The Jews
are better than the Gentiles in that the Jews were circumcised. The
circumcision was God’s promise that He would be God of Abraham and his
descendants. This circumcision is pulling the foreskin of a man and
cutting it off, and spiritually it means a person cutting off the sin
and receiving salvation from sin by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. But the Jews had not received the spiritual
circumcision even though they were circumcised physically.
Even
though the Jews were physically the descendants of Abraham who were
entrusted with God’s Word, they did not have anything better than the
Gentiles spiritually because they did not believe in Jesus and they did
not receive the remission of sin through the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. In what ways then are Christians better than people who follow
other religions today? Those who believe in Christianity do not have
anything better than those who believe in Gentile religions if they do
not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit the Lord has
given. Believing in Christianity means believing in Jesus as one’s
Savior and this means believing in Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the
Cross.
There
are many religions in the world: Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Islam, and Christianity and many other religions. Among them, Islam,
Catholicism, Buddhism, and Hinduism are major religions. However, is
there any religion that has the Truth of remitting the sins of human
beings? There isn’t. There isn’t any religion that blots out the sins of
a human being. As the Scriptures say, “Nor is there salvation in any
other, for there is no other name [except Jesus Christ] under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). But in what ways
is Christianity better than other religions when there is sin in the
hearts of the person who believes in Buddhism just the same as the
person who believes in Jesus. Those who believe in Buddhism give a lot
of money and utter “Um-mani-padme-hum” when they sin and the people who
believe in Jesus come to church and attain comfort in their hearts by
offering a lot of money and doing a lot of service for the church.
Therefore, Christianity is not beneficial because it does not have
anything better than other religions.
It
is written that one can enter and see the Kingdom of God only if he is
born again through the water and the Spirit (John 3:3-5). But today’s
Christians do not have an advantage of believing in Jesus because they
do not know the meaning of becoming born again of water and the Spirit.
Actually, the Word the Apostle Paul is talking about here is a very
challenging Word to every Christian believer.
All of Us Must Come Back to the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
These
days, many people go to church not knowing how to be born again, but
these Christians sinners must also come back before the presence of God
by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can see that
these Christians try hard to lead others to Christianity, but they can
only bring them to their respective churches and they cannot teach them
about the righteousness of God. It’s no wonder that they can’t teach it
because they do not know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
Therefore, all the Christian believers must receive the remission of sin
by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God the
Father has given to us through Jesus Christ and receive the
righteousness of God in their hearts and come back to God.
The
Book of Romans is not written for the Jews only. It also says to those
who have not been born again these days, that they must also come back
to the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All Christians must look back
to their faith and see “Do I believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit or not?” and return to the correct faith if they believe
erroneously.
As
it is written, “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9), the gospel of the water
and the Spirit is spreading abundantly throughout the world. People in
my country, Korea, also cannot say that they do not know this gospel of
the water and the Spirit, because we have been preaching this gospel
since 1991. But what things is Christianity doing these days? When
Christians get married, they have the wedding ceremony in a Christian
manner and they are also given a funeral according to the Christian
tradition. And they are given a dedication service instead of performing
the ancestral rites after they die, and the rites may be different from
other religions but they are actually not different from other
religions in its contents because they are also sinners who do not know
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Therefore,
all Christians must return to the faith of believing the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. They should hear the gospel of the water and the
Spirit by meeting the born again who understand and believe in the true
righteousness of God. Then they can obtain the gospel of the remission
of sin in God’s plan written in the Scriptures. There are some people
who hear this gospel and throw it away, but we, the born again, are
truly thankful before the presence of God.
Before
I was born again, I really did not know the reason why Jesus received
baptism. Therefore, I asked a lot of questions, but there wasn’t even
one person who knew the answer correctly even among those who supposedly
knew the Bible well and had great faith. But God gave me the
understanding of the Truth. We can know this Truth through the Word in
Matthew 3:15. The Truth is that Jesus Christ took all the sins upon
Himself through His baptism which is the antitype of our salvation and
by which He has fulfilled the righteousness of God. God has met with me
through His righteousness and also removed all my sins once and for all.
And He made me become an evangelist sharing the gospel of the water and
the Spirit throughout the world. I was able to preach the gospel of the
water and the Spirit in God’s Church so far through the grace of God.
But
if the gospel is not preached in this manner, people’s souls will die
and they will lose faith and be forever apart from God. That’s why this
gospel must be preached to all the people, not only in our gathering,
but all the churches in the world should be filled with faith that
believes the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Anyone who believes in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains God’s righteousness
has received the remission of sin and became a person who has attained
the righteousness of God. Those who have believed in the righteousness
of God have already received the remission of all sins. Those who have
already received the righteousness of God by believing in such a way
became the ones who live for the righteousness of God. Those who believe
in the righteousness of God receive the sacred blessings of Heaven.
What Is the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit That Constitutes the Righteousness of God?
Has
God really saved all of us from the sins of the world through the
gospel of the water and the Spirit? Yes, He has saved us all. The
righteousness of God is manifested and witnessed within the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit
contains the Truth that saves all humanity in the world from sin.
Then,
what is the gospel of the water and Spirit? God sent His Son Jesus
Christ to this world to save all the sinners of the world from all their
sins. After Jesus was born and when He became 30 years old, Jesus went
to the Jordan River and received the baptism from John the Baptist, the
representative of all humanity, and took all the sins of humanity upon
Him. When we look at Matthew 3:15-16, we can see that Jesus took all the
sins of the world upon Himself through the baptism He received from
John the Baptist. And He received judgment for those sins through the
blood He shed on the Cross He was nailed to. This is the very gospel of
the water and the Spirit. The baptism and the blood on the Cross shed by
Jesus represents the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has washed
all the sins from sinners, and that’s how God saved us. The work Jesus
came and performed truthfully and realistically in this world was this
gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel is neither a religious
doctrine nor a fabrication and it is the work that has actually saved
the sinners from sin.
The
Scriptures say, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John
3:16-17). God the Father sent His only begotten Son to this world in
order to save you and me, who are people of this world from such huge
sin. God sent His only Son Jesus to this world because He so loved us
that live in this world destined to hell. Jesus came to this world and
received the baptism from John the Baptist and removed all the sins of
the world to fulfill that love, the righteousness of God. God the Father
did not love us just with His lips, but He sent Jesus, whom He was
pleased with and loved and had Him take over all the sins of the world
upon His body.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit removed all the sins of the world.
Jesus Christ came to this world as the Son of God and took all the sins
of humanity upon Himself by being baptized by John the Baptist, dying on
the Cross, and being resurrected from the death. He thus blessed us so
that we can receive remission from all the sins of the world if we just
believe in this Truth. We actually receive salvation by believing in the
baptism and the blood of Jesus because this salvation from sin is the
true salvation that is given by the righteousness of God. The true love
of God does not perish.
That’s
why those who believe in Jesus are saved from sin and those who do not
believe receive the penalty as the price for their sin due to the sins
they have committed. God’s Word and the remission of sin that God has
given to us do not vanish just because we do not believe the baptism and
the blood that the Lord has performed to blot out all our sins out of
His love toward us. The righteousness of God that has given the
remission of sins to us does not vanish even though this universe may
disappear.
Let’s
then think about the benefit of the faith that you and I now possess.
What is beneficial, believing or not believing? God so loved us that He
removed all our sins unilaterally without even asking us. It means that
God has saved us from the sins of the world through the righteousness of
God from His side. And God gives us the eternal remission of sins and
the eternal life if we just believe in the baptism and the blood on the
Cross Jesus performed from our side. But He destroyed the unbelievers
due to their sins. Therefore, our benefit lies in our faith in this
Truth.
God
has made even the most hideous sin committed by a person be passed over
to Jesus through the baptism of Jesus. God has removed all the sins the
people in this world commit in their whole lifetime including the sins
committed by average citizens in their life and the great swindling and
hideous sins committed by a brutal criminal. Jesus has remitted all the
sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood
on the Cross. Therefore, those who believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit attain the benefit of receiving the remission of sin, but
those who do not are excluded from that blessing.
Could
the faith of the deceitful nullify the faithfulness of God? No, it
cannot. But those who have the false faith do not believe in the
remission of sin that was fulfilled through the baptism Jesus received
and the blood on the Cross He shed. But the righteousness of God will
never disappear even if they do not believe in this Truth.
There
is sin in their hearts even if they believe that they can receive the
remission of sin even with the blood of the Cross alone. People cannot
receive the salvation from all their sins through the blood of the Cross
alone. Did Jesus come to this world and only shed blood on the Cross to
remove the sins of the sinners? No, that’s not true. Jesus was born to
this world and then He received the baptism from John the Baptist at the
age of thirty and took all the sins of the world upon His body. It
means that Jesus first took the sins upon Himself through His baptism in
order to receive the judgment on the Cross later. That’s why Jesus had
to be nailed to death on the Cross and resurrected from death. Could
Jesus shed blood on the Cross and die even if He didn’t take over the
sins through His baptism? No, that could not happen. If the Lord did not
take all the sins upon Him through the baptism and die on the Cross,
then His death does not have anything to do with us. That’s why Jesus
first received the baptism from John the Baptist and then died on the
Cross afterwards. Jesus was able to go to the Cross because He received
the baptism from John the Baptist. Jesus took all the sins upon Him all
at once by receiving the baptism. That’s why there is the effect of
salvation only to those who believe in the baptism of Jesus and His
death on the Cross.
The
Scriptures say, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus died on the
Cross because He had already taken all our sins upon Himself through
baptism. Jesus could never have been wounded on the Cross if He had not
taken all our sins upon Him through the baptism. Really, He was wounded
for our transgressions and He was bruised for our iniquities.
But
then why don’t people believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood
together? Why don’t people believe in this gospel of the water and the
Spirit? That’s because the people do not know the reason for the great
blessing of baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist. Some say
that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist is not important.
They say the baptism Jesus received is symbolic and it just shows His
humility. They ask, “If the baptism Jesus received is so important in
regard to our remission of sins, why does the Bible emphasize the blood
on the Cross only?”
But
God spoke countless times about the importance of the baptism Jesus
received through the laying of hands on the head of the sacrificial
animals in the Old Testament. Jesus received the baptism at the Jordan
River and the act of removing all the sins of humanity was performed
there. The Jordan River was the place where the sins of the world were
completely terminated in the New Testament through the righteousness of
God and this is connected to some events that happened at the Jordan
River in the Old Testament. For example, the Jordan River stopped
flowing when the priests stepped into the river to cross with the Ark on
their shoulders (Joshua 3:11-17). Also, Naaman was healed from his
sickness when he dipped himself into the Jordan River seven times (2
Kings 5:14). There are countless examples in the Old Testament regarding
the Jordan River.
We
also can find countless examples of “the laying on of hands” in the Old
Testament. In one example, a sinner had to bring in a sacrificial
animal into the Tabernacle to receive the remission of sin. Then he laid
hands over the head of the animal to transfer his sins over to the
animal (Leviticus 4:1-32).
In
such manner, Jesus came to this world and received the baptism
according to the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle and shed blood and
blotted out all the sins of the world. However, most Christians do not
know the reason why Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist and
they just believe that Jesus took care of all their sins on the Cross.
But such faith comes from one’s own thinking. Nowhere in the Bible does
it say that Jesus took all the sins upon Him on the Cross. Rather, in
many places in the Scriptures, we can find the Word that says Jesus
fulfilled all the righteousness of God through the baptism He received
from John the Baptist at the Jordan River (Matthew 3:13-17; Galatians
3:27; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Peter 3:21). Jesus died on the Cross because Jesus
received the baptism from John the Baptist and took all the sins upon
Himself. Jesus was able to resolve the sins of the world with His own
blood because He had received the baptism as our Savior.
There
has to be a process in order to have a result. Therefore, those who can
explain the process clearly are the people who understand the result
perfectly. That’s why we can preach the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, which is the righteousness of God, only if we understand it
thoroughly. The Scriptures say that we can enter and see the Kingdom of
God only if we are born again through the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Therefore people cannot enter or see the Kingdom of God if they
just believe in the blood of the Cross alone.
Just
believing in Jesus’ blood on the Cross in this manner is to believe in
Him with understanding half of the Truth and it is not a perfect faith.
The core of the Scriptures spoken countless times is the gospel of the
water and the Spirit and the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. The
remission of sin that the Bible is talking about is the act of Jesus
saving us from sin by receiving baptism and dying on the Cross.
All
the Christians must believe in the Truth of the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. They must definitely believe it because they will go to
hell if they don’t. They receive the remission of sin and step into the
path to Heaven if they believe in the Word of the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. But the righteousness of God does not disappear even if
all Christians do not believe in the baptism Jesus received. Not all
Christians are born again just because they believe in Jesus. If people
profess to believe in Jesus but do not believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit the Lord has given, then they are following the
path of Judas Iscariot to be accursed for the price of their sins, and
the true believers are rescued from all their sin if they truly believe
in the significance of the baptism Jesus received and believe in the
effect of the Cross. The righteousness of God exists forever and we must
believe in it because the Word of the water and the Spirit is the work
God has unilaterally planned and fulfilled regardless of whether we
believe it with our hearts or not. The righteousness of God the Father
fulfilled through His only begotten Son to save us from sin exists
eternally.
Peter
and Judas sinned before God in the same manner but there is a clear
difference in their faith. Peter denied Jesus three times and even
cursed Him, but he returned to the Lord after he understood who his
Savior was and received the salvation by believing in Jesus who has
blotted out all his sins. What about Judas? Judas sold Jesus for 30
silver coins and he tried to resolve his own sin and hung himself
afterward, depressed by his sense of guilt as if he could take
responsibility for his act as his conscience penetrated his heart. True
repentance is receiving the remission of sin and becoming children of
God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus
has given to us even if we have committed the most treacherous sin like
Peter had. But false repentance is taking responsibility of one’s own
sin like Judas.
You
must return to the faithfulness of God. The method of returning to God
is to have faith. God has saved us with the gospel of the water and the
Spirit because He sincerely loves us who have fallen into sin. We must
believe this. We must return to the faith of believing in this gospel
that Jesus truly saved us from our sins. All those who don’t believe
will go to hell. God does not want any soul to go to hell. He is waiting
for all the people in the world to come into Heaven by believing the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do not make God wait too long.
People Are Deceitful, but God Is Truthful
Romans
3:4 states, “Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a
liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, And
may overcome when You are judged.’” He said here, “let God be true but
every man a liar” because the Lord came to this world as God promised
and saved us perfectly from sin. That’s why the Bible says God is true
but humans are liars.
Humans
are always dishonest and evil. But God is always honest and true. Where
does God’s truthfulness appear? God’s truthfulness appears in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, the only way to be
rescued from that lie is to believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that God has spoken and fulfilled for humanity. The gospel of the
water and the Spirit defeats every lie and sin and lifts us out from
all the unrighteousness.
How
does God evaluate and judge the sins of human beings? God judges
people’s sin based on whether there is sin in people’s hearts, that is,
whether they believe or not in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
with their hearts. The faith of believing in the Word makes people go to
Heaven when they go before the presence of God and those who do not
believe in His Word receive the punishment according to the Word before
the presence of God. Consequently, we defeat the sin and the lie through
the faith of believing in God’s Word.
David
offers up a prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:4 and we can see, “That
you may be found just when the Lord says that you are just, and you are
righteous if the Lord judges you to be righteous, and you have sin if He
says you have sin.” David committed the sin of adultery. He not only
committed adultery, but also killed the woman’s husband, like it was not
enough to take another man’s wife. Even though David did not kill the
man directly, David killed the man indirectly by sending the man to the
worst battlefield. That was David. Lust, adultery, murder, and
worshipping idols before the presence of God were all sins and
violations of God’s Law.
There
was a prophet named Nathan. Nathan told David about a person who had
only a sheep. “There is a person who is raising only one sheep. And
there is a wealthy man who raises many sheep. Then one day a guest came
to visit the wealthy person’s home and the wealthy man took the only
sheep from the poor person who had only one sheep and served the guest a
meal.” When David heard this, he became angry and said, “What an evil
person he is! Who is that person? Such a person should be cursed by
God.” Then the Prophet Nathan said to David, “That wealthy man is none
other than you.”
Then
David had nothing else to say. And David confessed before the presence
of God, “I am just when the Lord judges me to be just, and I am
unrighteous if the Lord judges me to be unrighteous. Judge me according
to Your judgment not according to mine. Lord, I have wronged, if You say
I have wronged, and I am without sin if You say You have remitted all
my sins.” David thus completely put himself under God’s judgment and
remission of the sin. Those who believe in Jesus are also like that
before the presence of God. When we are facing a certain situation,
whether we are right or wrong depends on how God brings down His
judgment on that matter. It is okay if God says it is okay and it is not
okay if God says it is not. So, the Scriptures say. “As it is written:
That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are
judged.”
God
said that He would send the Savior to save us and in fact has sent the
Savior to us. God the Father sent Jesus Christ and made Him receive the
baptism, shed blood on the Cross, and resurrect Him from the dead to
save us. Jesus came to this world and did everything according to God’s
Word and fulfilled all the promises. We receive salvation from judgment
and sin, if we believe in the Word that gives us the remission of sin
because Jesus has completed God’s promise wholly according to the Word.
But we will be cursed in the midst of sin if we do not believe God’s
Word exactly as it is. God was victorious against the enemies because He
truthfully fulfilled the promise He made.
God’s
Word became the Truth and therefore the Word of the Truth defeats all
lies. God has never lied even once and has never done even a little
evil. The righteousness of God is perfect. God promised to perfectly
save the sinners of this world from all their sins through the
righteousness of God and fulfill this promise with the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
People Who Go to Hell Even though They Have Believed in Jesus
Because
all God’s promise have been fulfilled, those who have sinned because
they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, even
though they believe in Jesus, shall receive the judgment of hell when
they stand before the presence of God. They will make an excuse and say,
“Why are You bringing down the verdict of hell to me just because I
have a little sin when I believe in Jesus?” And God will say to them,
“It is appropriate for you to go to hell. I promised that I would blot
out your sins and I received the baptism in this world and took all your
sins upon Myself as I promised, but you still have sin. Therefore, it
is appropriate for you to go to hell.”
That’s
right. The remission of sin is received by believing with your heart.
Those who believe shall be endowed with the grace and blessing because
they do not have sin and those who do not believe shall receive the
penalty of judgment because their sins will be revealed according to the
Law. God has fulfilled everything according to His Word and He gives
award to those who believe according to the Word and He gives penalty to
those who do not believe. That’s why not all those who believe in Jesus
will go to Heaven. In believing in Jesus, it is very good for you to
have a proper understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit
prior to having faith in Jesus on your own. The gospel of the water and
the Spirit appears in all parts of the Old and the New Testament of the
Scriptures. Therefore, those who believe in the righteousness of God go
to Heaven because they can always confess their proper faith before the
presence of God. Our human righteousness is filthy but God has clothed
us with the righteousness of God that God has made.
With
what faith that you go before the presence of God is very important.
You must go forth toward God with the faith of believing in the Word of
the righteousness of God. You must not go before God with the experience
of illusion and the power of performing miracles. The important thing
is why you have received the remission of sin. You must discover and
believe in the righteousness of God within the gospel of the water and
the Sprit. You and I can be approved before the presence of God and
enter the Kingdom of God without fail through the faith of believing the
Word of God’s righteousness when we stand before the presence of God.
Our
physical body does wrong because of our weakness in this world, but we
escape from the judgment of sin and the adversity of Satan the Devil
through the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. We can say, “Depart from me, Satan the Devil! The Lord received
baptism at the Jordan River and He shed blood on the Cross. Haven’t all
the righteousness been fulfilled at the time when Jesus said it was
proper for Him to receive the baptism! Jesus received the baptism from
John the Baptist to take all the sins upon Him. He took upon Himself all
the sins I will commit until I die. I believe the baptism of Jesus is
to take all my sin, that the death of Jesus is my death, that Jesus
shedding blood on the Cross is the shedding of blood on my behalf, that
the resurrection of Jesus is to give new life to me.” We can rebuke
Satan the Devil with this faith and say, “I command you in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Stay away from me!” Then Satan the Devil departs
from us when he sees our faith in the true remission of sin.
You
and I do not keep our faith until the end before the presence of God
because of our strong will and good memory. You and I must not forget
that we cannot deny God with our faith in the righteousness of God as we
stand before Him. Hell is reserved to those who do not believe in the
righteousness of God. But those who believe have become people who have
received the Holy Spirit as a gift and become sons of God who have
attained the eternal life of Heaven. There is an ever so clear work of
the Holy Spirit to the righteous.
Do Our Sins That We Commit Demonstrates the Righteousness of God Even More?
Romans
3:5 says, “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of
God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?” (I speak as a
man).
Do
all the sins that we commit manifest the righteousness of God even
more? Yes, they do. Human beings have so many shortcomings that they sin
from their conception in the mother’s womb till they are buried in the
grave. Then how many sins do humans commit? Humans commit more sin than
the specks of sand of a seashore and they commit sins greater than the
dark clouds of the sky. They commit such sins, but such sins manifest
the righteousness of God even more. Because we commit sin continuously
until we die, the greatness of the righteousness of God and His love is
revealed even more. Because we are insufficient, the righteousness of
God is revealed even more in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Because humans have shortcomings and weaknesses, the salvation God has
saved us with is revealed even more.
Then
is it wrong for God to judge the sinners for their sin? No, it is not.
It is appropriate to judge those and bring down the wrath to those who
do not believe because of their unbelief. God takes the people who
believe in the righteousness of God as His people and embraces them in
His bosom and allows them to enjoy the wealth and glory forever because
God’s righteousness has manifested in them. But there is nothing wrong
even if God judges the sins of the people who do not believe because
they did not believe even though God bestowed an amazing grace that has
wiped away all the sins they commit in their lifetime.
“Is
God unjust who inflicts wrath?” This is asking whether God commits sin.
It is very appropriate that God brings down the wrath to the people who
do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains
the righteousness of God. Therefore, can people who go to hell because
they have sin in their hearts, even though they say they believe in
Jesus, protest against God claiming that God is unjust? No, they cannot.
Why? It’s because God clearly removed all the sins of humanity through
His only begotten Son’s righteous acts. God the Father sent Jesus
Christ, His only begotten Son, and made Him take over all the sins
through the baptism and had Him die on the Cross and saved all humanity
from the judgment for their sins. Therefore, people are forgiven of all
and any sin they commit as long as they do not reject the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
But
there is nothing that anyone can do about them going to hell because
they do not believe in the righteousness of God. It is also appropriate
for God to bring down wrath on those people. There is nothing wrong with
God. Therefore, one actually decides one’s own fate. Your fate is
decided on whether you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
that Jesus fulfilled through the righteousness of God and receive the
remission of your sin or whether you do not receive this gospel.
Therefore, God’s wrath sending the souls who do not believe to hell is
appropriate.
The
greatest sin before God is not accepting the love of God that has sent
His Son Jesus Christ to this world; the love that took all our sins
through Jesus’ baptism; and the love that atoned for all our sins by
Jesus dying on the Cross. Such sinners do not acknowledge and believe in
the Truth of salvation that gave the remission of sin through His only
begotten Son because they do not receive the love of God’s righteousness
into their hearts. That is the biggest sin. Therefore it is proper for
those who do not believe to be cast into hell.
Do
some Christians also go to hell? Of course they do. They cannot help
but go to hell if they do not believe in the baptism of Jesus and the
blood of the Cross and insist on their own righteousness. Why is there
sin in the hearts of people who believe in Jesus? It’s because they do
not believe in the righteousness of God and insist on their own
righteousness instead. Those who insist on their own righteousness, who
come before God with the righteousness of their own deeds, become people
who have sin in their hearts. Those who believe in the righteousness of
God and give thanks to the salvation He has given to us, want other
souls to receive the salvation from sin and they are happy to be used
for God’s work. God receives our sacrifice for the Lord and the
sacrifice for the gospel, but He does not receive what we offer with our
own righteousness before the presence of God and rather casts them
away. Why? It’s because God is pleased with those who believe in the
righteousness of God.
Do You Believe That Your Weakness Manifests the Righteousness of God Even More?
Romans
3:6-7 states, “Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why
am I also still judged as a sinner?” The Apostle Paul spoke the Word of
Faith by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and he said
that God’s truthfulness and the abundant glory of salvation manifests
even more through his weakness. He is saying, “How could I receive
judgment like a sinner if God’s truthfulness became even more abundant
to His glory through my lie?” The Lord saved such inadequate people who
lie, and therefore the righteousness of the salvation that saved us from
the sin illuminates even brighter and greater as our shortcoming is
revealed more.
People
actually have come short of God’s glory because all the people have
committed sin, and the core theme of the Scriptures is that such people
have fulfilled the glory of God by believing in the grace of salvation
of our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s grace overflowed in the evil that
resulted from our weakness. Actually the more we acknowledge our
shortcomings the more the righteousness of God that removed our sin
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit becomes magnified in our
hearts. That’s right. But we do not sin more intentionally in order that
grace may abound.
We
obtain liberation from all sin by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit whenever we make mistakes and our shortcomings and
weaknesses are revealed after you and I have received the remission of
sin. As we see that all our sins are remitted whenever our shortcomings
are revealed, we come to know how great, how immense, how endless God’s
love is and therefore become inspired to give praise to God. The Apostle
Paul is talking about that here.
What
if God’s truthfulness became even more abundant to His glory through
his lie? Then, would I be judged because of the sins that I commit? It’s
not like that. It means that I do not receive the judgment because the
salvation God gives is greater than the sin I commit. This is the
message the Apostle Paul speaks continuously through the Book of Romans.
Because the salvation of God that saved us is so great and because the
remission of sin that Jesus has given is so great, those who believe
this do not receive the judgment and also go to Heaven as the righteous
by receiving the righteousness of God.
The
righteous are those who do not have sin by believing in the
righteousness of God. The righteous are those who have the Holy Spirit
in their hearts by receiving the remission of sin, that is, by believing
in the righteousness of God. God loves the righteous forever. He never
sends the righteous to hell because He loves His people eternally. No
matter how insufficient a person may be, God considers anyone who
believes in the righteousness of God as His people and sends them to
Heaven. But He severs them from that salvation and the blessing of
Heaven if someone betrays this faith. This kind of sin is the sin of
blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and this sin can never be forgiven.
Therefore we must never commit the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
In the end times, Satan the Devil will compel the righteous to reject
the gospel that Jesus received the baptism, took over all their sins,
died on the Cross and resurrected from the dead. But the people of faith
can never reject the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The
righteous can never reject the righteousness of God. They can never
reject it. The strong faith that we can never deny this Truth no matter
how Satan the Devil tempts us and threatens us will help us embrace our
martyrdom in the end times. We could defend our faith because this
gospel that Jesus saved us is so precious.
Is
it right to commit sin in order that the grace of the righteousness of
God may abound? Romans 3:8 says, “And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that
good may come?’—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that
we say. Their condemnation is just.” Is it right to sin in order that
the grace of the righteousness of God may abound? Should we continue
sinning in order to demonstrate God’s righteousness even more? No we
shouldn’t. There were some people at that time who said these things to
slander the righteous. People who do not believe in the righteousness of
God are slanderous in this manner these days just as they were at the
apostolic age.
They
say, “If you have received the remission of all sins through the
righteousness of God, then you must commit even more sin to manifest the
righteousness of God even more.” But we must understand clearly. We do
not commit sin more because we have received the remission of sin before
the presence of God, but we sin even if we don’t want to sin because
our body and heart are weak until we die. We do not sin more because we
have received the remission of sin.
Rather,
the righteous who have received the remission of sin do not sin more.
The heart that has become sanctified without sin is the temple of the
Holy Spirit, and thus filthy sin cannot dwell in it. But we sin because
our physical body is still weak. That means that we sin because we are
weak; we don’t commit even more sins in order to enjoy the blessing that
declares all our sins are already blotted out. The sins we commit after
we have received the remission of sin are also committed because of our
weakness. And we also sin because our faith of believing in God’s Word
is small even though we have the faith of receiving the salvation.
For
example, the print shop has finished producing our book and the books
are brought to the front of our Church on a truck. Let’s say we are
bringing the books up to the third floor. A strong person would carry
the books up without much problem, but what about a person who is not so
strong? Wouldn’t he try to make the other brothers and sisters do more
work? Isn’t this a selfish sin that seeks only one’s benefit? But this
sin is stemmed out from our weakness. As such, we cannot help but sin
out of our weakness.
Some
people look at us and say, “You have now received the remission of sin.
Wouldn’t you sin more to demonstrate the righteousness of God all
through your life?” But this is wrong. We who believe in the
righteousness of God cannot sin more because we know sin as sin for we
have received the remission of sin. But we do sin as we live in this
world because the human flesh is so weak. But we still do not have sin.
That’s because all our sins have been remitted away already by believing
in the righteousness of God. Therefore, the Apostle Paul said those who
do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are sinners
before the presence of God even though they believe in Jesus and
therefore it is appropriate for them to receive the judgment to go to
hell. And this faith is truly amazing.
This
Word of the Book of Romans was recorded about two thousands years ago.
Even in this Book of Romans that was recorded before A.D. 100, there
were people who told Paul exactly the same thing that those who slander
us are saying. Isn’t it amazing that there were people in the old days
who misunderstood the gospel of the water and the Spirit that
constitutes the righteousness of God and slandered the righteous just as
they do today? It is amazing. This Word does not change even today
because it is God’s Word.
Satan
the Devil always attacks the born-again with the same method.
Therefore, no matter how Satan the Devil attacks you, no matter how it
attacks God’s Church, we must win over Satan with the faith of believing
in the righteousness of God when it attacks us. Satan the Devil always
attacks God’s Church with the same method today as it did in the old
days. They slander those who have obtained the righteousness because
they have not received the remission of sin. They say, “You should sin
more and more as your heart desires because you do not have sin no
matter how much you commit sin. You should sin more to manifest the
righteousness of God even more.” But that’s not the case. If we sin
that’s because of our weakness. But even the sins we commit because we
are weak, we understand as wrong before the presence of God and admit
the sin before God and live without sin by believing that the Lord has
taken even this sin upon Him. That’s why the weaker we are, the greater
the righteousness of God becomes magnified in our hearts and manifests
as greater glory.
Therefore,
the Apostle Paul asked, “What advantage then has the Jew?” So, what is
the benefit to believing in Jesus? There is no benefit if Christians do
not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If Christians do
not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that is, if they
do not believe in the righteousness of God, there is no benefit for them
to believing in Jesus as long as they believe only in the blood of the
Cross. It is just like believing in any other religion because there is
no benefit. Faith is beneficial to someone only when the person believes
with their heart in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that
manifests the righteousness of God. And even though the righteous who
have received the remission of sin also commit sins in this world, they
just need to admit that they have sinned and believe all those sins are
also remitted already because Jesus has already taken over even all
those sins a long time ago. That’s right. We do not sin more because we
have received the remission of sin and because we have no worry about
the condemnation of sin.
Those
of you who believe in Jesus should come back to the gospel of the water
and the Spirit now. Then you can receive the righteousness of God and
you shall obtain it. The fruits of evangelism become abundant when the
blessing of believing the righteousness of God dwells in your hearts.
(Romans 3:8)
“And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?—as we are
slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation
is just.”
Some
who do not know the righteousness of God say to the person who believes
in the righteousness of God, “If the Truth of the water and the Spirit
that contains the righteousness of God removed even all those sins that a
person has yet to sin in their lifetime, then it should be okay for the
person to continue sinning.” But the Apostle Paul says clearly that the
sins people commit in the future after receiving the remission of sin
are sins that people commit because they can’t help but sin for they are
weak, not the sins they sin intentionally. You must not distort the
gospel of God’s righteousness in your thinking. People sin until they
die for they are weak and they do not commit sins intentionally because
they believe the righteousness of God and have received the remission of
sin. Humans are weak beings. It means that people cannot help but sin
until the final moment of their life and until the ends of the world
because they are weak beings.
Do
you sin intentionally without having any reason? There is reason why we
sin as we live in this world and the reason lies in our weakness. But
the Lord took upon Himself even the sins you and I will commit in the
future all at once by receiving the baptism and dying on the Cross, and
thus He has blotted out all those sins. Therefore, you must not look at
the faith of those who believe in the righteousness of God as wrong
faith. I hope you understand that such thinking is a departure from
God’s Word and believe the gospel that contains the righteousness of God
and receive the eternal remission of sin all at once by faith.
Even
now most Christians indulge themselves with moralistic religious life.
So they cannot help but think like that because they worry about what
would happen if there is something wrong with them morally. But God
wants all people to believe the remission of sin that is in the
righteousness of God. If you do not believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God, then you will
remain a sinner eternally because you will not receive the remission of
sin.
Though There Essentially Is None Righteous
(Romans 3:9)
“What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously
charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.”
This
Word does not mean those who believe in the righteousness of God are
also under sin. Those who believe in the righteousness of God have
escaped from all sins. But the Jews at the time had sin because they did
not believe in Jesus.
This
verse says, “Are we better than they?” This passage is telling us that
the Jews and Greeks alike were fundamentally under sin but that they got
to receive the remission of sin through the righteousness of God. The
Apostle Paul is now describing the fundamental sinfulness of humans
first to explain the power of the gospel that contains the righteousness
of God to the Jews and Greeks as well as all Gentiles. The Apostle Paul
is saying that all people were under sin. It means that there is none
righteous in this world because humans cannot help but constantly sin.
He is saying that God turned the sinners into righteous through the
righteousness of God, but there is none who understands this.
All
mankind were sinners before God. But Jesus made them righteous through
the righteousness of God. Verse 10 says, “There is none righteous, no,
not one,” and this means that there is none righteous without believing
that all the sins of the world have been blotted out through the
righteousness of God. There is no true awakening to a person unless he
or she comes to believe in the righteousness of God because he or she
cannot become righteous then. That’s why the word “sanctification” was
made up in religions. But people cannot achieve sanctification no matter
how hard they try to live ascetically and no matter how sincerely they
discipline their character within the boundaries of religion. Therefore
all humans were sinners before they knew the righteousness of God.
It
says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” It is possible for people
to become righteous by believing the righteousness of God although they
are born sinners. And verse 10 also says, “There is none who
understands.” It means that sinners don’t even recognize themselves as
the ones doomed to hell. They do not understand how scary God’s judgment
is because they do not understand they are sinners before God and they
are heading for hell. This is the Word that summarizes the sinful state
of every human being. According to Paul, the Jews are not better than
the Gentiles and the Gentiles are not better than the Jews. Rather, all
are under sin and all have therefore become object of the wrath of the
Omnipotent God and the final judgment.
Quoting
a passage from Psalm 14:1-3, Paul declares, “As it is written: ‘There
is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is
none who seeks after God.’” This is the correct understanding of human
nature. This is the Word that looks squarely at the truly horrible state
of humanity. Humans do not have the ability to make God happy and the
ability to understand and seek God. Humans are “totally corrupt beings”
from their birth.
For
those who are heaping up human righteousness, the total corruption
theory that says humans are a mass of sin from birth is difficult to
accept. They say it’s because the theory has a tendency to take the
human dignity lightly. But isn’t that true? Most people willingly
acknowledge that a human being is not perfect, but they are not ready to
admit that there is no human righteousness. And they are willing to
admit that humans have lost the righteousness of God and that they are
wandering away from the path of Truth, but most of them are not willing
to admit that they have completely gone astray from the path of
righteousness and that they stand in the path of destruction. Those who
seek human righteousness pretend to seek God instead of admitting that
they are standing against the righteousness of God.
Those
who do not acknowledge the righteousness of God and fight against it in
order to insist on human righteousness will never be able to avoid the
penalty of hell. Such faith and acts are extremely evil. Humans do not
try to understand the righteousness of God while they only seek human
righteousness. That is because they are possessed by their own
ignorance. When people do not understand they are arrogant before the
presence of God, there is no need for them to know the righteousness of
God. And they do not go before God, in the same way that a person who
does not know they are sick does not go to see a doctor to receive
treatment. A person would not think of going to the hospital as long as
he is convinced that he is healthy. But as one who realizes that he has a
serious sickness goes to the hospital, a person who realizes that he
does not have righteousness spiritually and that he will be destroyed
because of this will seek and return to Jesus Christ who is the only
Person who can cure this disease of sin.
There Is None Who Has This Understanding
That
there is none who understands means that there is not even one person
who understands that he is going to hell because he has sin. Rarely
there are some people who feel that they are destined for hell. But that
understanding is gleaned from mere feeling and it is not from knowing
and believing in God’s law that says, “The wages of sin is death.”
Therefore people need to look at their spiritual state according to
God’s Word in order to receive the treatment. People need to understand
first that their soul is destined for hell after living a meaningless
life because they do not have the righteousness of God in their souls.
They find the righteousness of God when they truly have such
understanding.
“They
have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable” (Romans
3:12). Humans have all turned aside and they have become unprofitable.
That they have “all turned aside” means they have gone astray towards
human thinking because they do not understand the righteousness of God.
The true criteria for judgment of the Truth resides only in the
righteousness of God. Everything begins with the righteousness of God
and ends with it. This is because only God is righteous and only God has
done the righteous work for humanity.
The
righteous judgment resides only in God. Humans have no ability to give
righteous judgment. Even so, people are imprisoned to their thinking and
say, “I think like this”, “I think and believe this way” because they
are slanted toward their own thinking. All people are slanted toward
their own thinking and they have no interest in God’s will. The people
who do not get rid of their thinking in this manner cannot discover the
righteousness of God. Therefore, they do not seek God and they do not
come back to the faith of believing in God’s Word. This is because they
believe that their thinking is of the truth. But God’s Truth only exists
within the righteousness of God. God’s Word is the canon, the measuring
stick. You must understand that God’s Word of Truth is the criteria for
all things.
The Quotation That the Religious People Use the Most
(Romans 3:10) “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one.’”
All
human beings who have been born from their common ancestors Adam and
Eve have been born with sin from their origin. David confesses in Psalm
51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother
conceived me.” David confessed that he came out from his mother’s womb
in a sinful state having sin and evil, and also that he was a mass of
sin since his mother conceived him because his mother conceived him in
the midst of sin. But David was a person who became righteous by
believing the righteousness of God through the sacrifice that God had
allowed in the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle.
Romans
5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.”
As such, there is none righteous who had no sin originally from their
birth. Paul is saying that there is none in this world who were
originally righteous, but that God has made us who believe the gospel of
the water and the Spirit righteous through His righteousness. We must
understand and believe the Scripture within the righteousness of God.
God is saying that people were originally sinners from their birth but
that they have been made righteous through the righteousness of God.
When
we look at the passage of Romans 3:10, we should not believe by
misunderstanding that even those who have received the righteousness of
God by believing in Jesus are all sinners as well. What Paul says in
this verse reveals the sinful state that we were in before we believed
in the righteousness of God. This Word is not saying that there isn’t
anyone in the world who is righteous. It is talking about the state we
were in before we believed the righteousness of God.
Why Do the Religious People Like to Say That There Isn’t Anyone Righteous?
But
there are so many Christians of religious faith who use this passage
for their own religious benefit. They quote this passage and think their
faith is so appropriate and proper. They claim that their faith of
believing Jesus with sin is rather biblical. Therefore we must inform
all the people clearly about what this passage is talking about and lead
them to the correct answer.
All People Were Under Sin Because They Have Not Met the Righteousness of God
Romans
3:9 says, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have
previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.” Is
Apostle Paul saying here that he is also under sin? We must move to
this passage with this question in mind. We must first understand
whether Paul includes himself in the application of the Word from Romans
chapter 3 verses 9 to 18. And we must also find out whether he includes
the people who have attained the righteousness of God by believing the
gospel of the water and the Spirit as well as himself, and the answer is
“No, he doesn’t.” Put differently, Paul did not include righteous when
he mentioned Romans 3:10-18.
When
we use a quotation from another source we use a quotation mark as the
sign to point out that it is the word spoken by someone. And if we pay
attention to Romans 3:10, we can see that the verse begins with “As it
is written.” The Apostle Paul’s word in Romans 3:10 is quoted from
Psalms 14:1 and the following words. It says, “As it is written: ‘There
is none righteous, no, not one.’”
From
the standpoint of time, is this verse describing one’s state before
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus Christ
has given? Or, does it mention the state of faith after believing in the
Truth? It is talking about the state of people’s heart before they meet
the salvation that Jesus Christ has given. It does not describe the
state of people’s heart after Jesus Christ came to this world and saved
us from our sins all at once through the righteousness of God. So, it
does not mean that there is none righteous even after Jesus Christ came
to us. The Word from this passage speaks about the state of faith before
believing in the righteousness of God. This Word is saying that there
is none righteous before believing the righteousness of God.
Does
that mean that there isn’t any righteous person in the Old Testament
time? No, there were the righteous in the Old Testament too. Some people
in the Old Testament had become the righteous by believing the Messiah
that was to come in the future. They became righteous by believing that
Jesus Christ who was to come to this world in the future would blot out
their sins through His baptism and blood and give them the salvation
from all sins. Therefore, there is none, in the past and now, who has
become righteous without the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It means
that there isn’t even one righteous person among people who do not
believe the righteousness of God that Jesus Christ has given.
People
can ask this sort of question, “The Lord has come to this world and
fulfilled all the righteousness, but don’t we still have sin even if we
believe in that righteousness?” No, that’s not true. All people are not
sinners. The people who have attained the righteousness from God by
believing the righteousness of God are the righteous and the people who
have not received the righteousness of God are sinners. But it is saying
that there was not even one righteous person besides the people who
received the remission of sin by faith before they believe in the Lord,
for both the Israelites and the Gentiles.
The State of a Sinner’s Heart Is Like This
(Romans 3:11) “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.”
If
there were not any righteous people and there were only sinners, then
how was the spiritual state of those sinners? Verse 11 says, “There is
none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.” Then, can a
sinner realize his own sin? No, he can’t. It means that one cannot come
to the realization by himself that he is a sinner. As it is said in
Genesis 1:2, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on
the face of the deep,” people’s hearts are so jumbled up with sin and
they are filled with so much darkness that there is no way for a person
to realize his sinful self. They look at the sins inside of their hearts
and think of reasons and excuses to justify their committing sins and
therefore cannot see the fact that they are really a mass of sin and
that they are sinners. As the Word that says, “There is none who
understands,” a sinner cannot realize the sinful appearance of his own
self.
Even
people who are imprisoned in jail justify and defend themselves with
all kinds of rational reasons and excuses. A sinner does not know what
kind of sinner he is. But sinners must first understand that they are
the brood of evildoers that has sin from birth and that they have no
choice but to go to hell.
Do
sinners seek God then? Sinners pretend to seek God but they do not
really seek after God. There is a religious appearance of seeking God
because God is alive and God has given the yearning heart to seek God to
every human being. But people do not seek God sincerely. Sinners cannot
meet God without the faith of believing the righteousness of God even
though they seek God.
(Romans 3:12) “They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
In
the state of having sin in the heart because of not believing in the
righteousness of God, all the sinners are prone to commit sin every
moment and end up falling into useless lives before the presence of God.
It is saying therefore that there is not even one truly righteous deed
performed by the sinners before the presence of God. Among the good
deeds people perform, we should think about whether there is anyone who
would really perform a good deed without expecting anything in return as
God does.
God
says that sinners cannot perform any deed that is truly righteous. And
He says that all humans are slanted toward their own benefit. Are you
performing truly good deeds? The truly good deed is the act that has
nothing to do with the person’s own benefit. God said that there isn’t
anyone in this world who essentially does the truly good deed, and all
humans are turned aside to seek after their own benefit. People cannot
do any good deed because they are a mass of sin and a brood of evildoers
from birth. People can only do unbeneficial things and they are the
seeds of sin that cannot do any kind of goodness.
Can
a sinner do a truly good deed? A truly good deed is the unconditional
agape love that God gives without any price in return. Only that is the
true love and the truly good deed. The good deed and the love of human
beings cannot be without condition and there isn’t any good deed that
does not have a cost until the end. Humans turn their back when the
situation becomes unfavorable to them and they are the brood of sin far
from righteousness, who can stick a sword into a former friend at any
time. Therefore sinners cannot perform a truly good deed. And they are
unbeneficial beings.
God
said that humans are unbeneficial beings in this world, but what does
this mean? It means that humans are unbeneficial from His viewpoint.
This is what God can see. Is it beneficial to try hard to not sin and to
go before God with clean appearance? Is it beneficial to go to the
mountain and cry out in prayer for many days and nights of fasting in
the mountain? It is not beneficial.
It
may be beneficial to the world when a seed of sin tries not to commit
sin, but it has no benefit to God. Such people are rather evil in God’s
sight, and they are hypocrites who are like the children of the Devil.
But I do not mean that you should try hard to commit sin. Since people
know who they are, they should acknowledge their fundamental nature and
seek God’s mercy before the presence of God.
Some
people wonder, “Would God be happy if I led a decent life by not
committing sin? Maybe that would be very beneficial before God.” It is
beneficial for the righteous to lead an upright life before God. But it
is useless for a sinner to try not to sin before God. It is rather
unprofitable.
A
certain Buddhist monk lived an ascetic life facing the wall and
meditating all the time as he just sat in the room and never even came
out of the room to discipline himself during the rest of his life. He
submitted himself to the endless path of ascetic discipline but could
not gain anything profitable except that he realized the fact that a
human being is just a human being. Such things are not profitable before
God at any rate. Whether humans commit sin or not is neither harmful
nor profitable to God. It has nothing to do with God. A sinner just goes
to hell for the price of his sin and receives the penalty for his sin,
but it does not harm or profit God. Even if all the people on this
planet went to hell and even if they were all destroyed, it won’t be any
harm to God. Therefore, concerning the sinners, He said, “They have
together become unprofitable.” Humans are completely unprofitable
beings.
It
is written, “There is none who does good, no, not one.” Sinners cannot
do a truly righteous deed. Human righteousness is similar to the
political acts of congressmen. Regardless of whether they are enemies or
allies, they will use whatever is necessary for them and will also
throw it away if they become useless. Yesterday’s enemy turns into
today’s ally if that’s what is needed for them. The human righteousness
changes like this according to what is profitable for them. Sinners who
are not yet born again act like this.
(Romans 3:13) “Their throat is an open tomb;” “with their tongues they have practiced deceit;” “the poison of asps is under their lips;”
The
sinner’s throat is like an open tomb because they live to eat until the
day they die. Sinners commit deceit and murder until the day they die
in order to eat. That’s why a person who does not know and believe in
the righteousness of God is a mass of sin, a person that does only evil.
That’s why people need to believe in the righteousness of God. To
understand whether a person eats to live or whether a person eats to
die, we need to know whether he is a person who believes in the
righteousness of God. A human being is a mass of sin and he is also a
seed of evildoer who does only evil.
Who
says that humans are essentially born virtuous? The Scriptures define
human as the brood of evildoers (Isaiah 1:4) because humans are born
with sin and evil inherited from their parents from birth. But humans
often seem to be virtuous because they behave in that manner for the
benefit of their community.
Geneticists
say that people’s DNAs are essentially composed of egotistical DNAs. In
other words, each DNA struggles to survive the other DNAs desperately.
Isn’t it the fundamental nature of every human being? But they make the
social norms and laws for the benefit of their communities and seek the
benefit of one another because there is no benefit to one another if
they just insist on their own egotistical demands. That’s why it looks
like there is some sort of goodness even in egotistical people.
But
people’s throats fulfill their role as the essentially open graves
until the day of their death because they are essentially sinners. The
sinners are liars who say as if they are telling the truth every time
they tell lies. Even among the creatures in the animal world, we cannot
find a being that is as evil as a sinner.
What
do the Scriptures say about the tongue and the lip and the throat of
the human being? It says the throat of the human being is an open tomb. A
tomb is a place where a dead person is buried and the Scriptures say
that a person’s throat is an open tomb. It means that human beings eat
and live in order to die. That means all human beings are like they are
already dead although they can speak because their throat is still open.
Consequently, they eventually die while eating. I hope you understand
that a sinner’s life is not living even though it breathes and it has
actually become a dead life already.
It
then goes on to say, “With their tongues they have practiced deceit.”
People leave this world after a lifetime of deceiving one another. They
lie about this and that, they lie to God, they lie to themselves, and
they lie to their family. They leave this world after a lifetime of
lying to all of them. There is nothing but lies that come out of the
mouth of a sinner who has not received the remission of sin. The mouth
of a sinner is busy sinning as it is not possible for a sinner to speak
about the Word of the righteousness of God that saves all of humanity.
There
is a poison of a serpent on the lips of sinners. They spill out
blessing when they are given something to eat, otherwise they spit out
the curse. There is a poison of the deadly serpent on the lips of
sinners. They live with the poison that can kill people. They are always
wrapped with smooth and sweet stuff on the outside although they always
speak lies and damaging words, words that hurt others. But they spew
out poison mercilessly when they see preys show up or when they are in a
critical situation.
For
example, “entering Nirvana” in Buddhism sounds like truly righteous and
good words. But that word is the word of poison that brings curse upon a
person by drawing him further apart from God. Christianity also spreads
the poison through the doctrine of sanctification. “Sanctification” is
trying hard to live a holy life before the presence of God and become
more and more like the image of God and eventually become holy like God
before death. This is a cursed word that comes out of human ignorance
that does not understand the essence of human nature.
“Justification
by faith” means that one is called righteous because of his faith in
Jesus. This does not mean that you have attained God’s righteousness by
faith; rather it is saying that God overlooks your sin even though you
have sin just because you are a Christian somehow. Therefore, this is a
terrifying word that leads many Christians to hell because it blindfolds
their eyes and tells them that they are going Heaven.
(Romans 3:14) “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
Actually,
curse and evil that fills human hearts or a mouth of a sinner cannot be
found anywhere in the animal world. You just have to look back to the
time when you were a sinner to see how filthy and evil a sinner’s mouth
is. A sinner does not understand he is sinning even while he is sinning.
That’s because he does not feel sin is bad for his nature and is
essentially the same element as sin. Even the Scriptures say that the
false prophets bless you when you give them something to chew on, but
spew out curse from the mouth when you don’t give anything for them to
eat. Among the ministers who do not know and believe in the
righteousness of God, there are some who display their pleasure when
church members serve them with something good, others spew out curse
from their mouth. That’s because the essence of a sinner is a mass of
evil. That’s why ministers, lay believers, and even the spiritual
Gentiles must surely believe the word of the water and the Spirit that
constitutes the righteousness of God.
All
the sinners must believe in the righteousness of God because the
righteousness of God makes them receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. All
evil is removed and you become a servant of God who practices the
righteousness of God when the Holy Spirit manifests in your heart after
believing in God’s righteousness. Sinners live all their life sinning
because they are filled with evil and curse. They spew out curse and
evil whenever they are at a disadvantage.
People
cannot live alone because they are not perfect. Therefore, they need to
live among other people and they need law and order and regulations to
live together because the essence of human beings is evil and sinful.
You follow the law so that you may not be harmed and you may not harm
others, definitely not because you have a positive inclination toward
the law to live virtuously. Sinners are full of curse and evil. That’s
why they need the law to restrict their evil. Human beings spew out
curse and evil according to the situation and whenever they are at a
critical situation.
(Romans 3:15) “Their feet are swift to shed blood;”
Those
who live without knowing the righteousness of God have sin in their
hearts. That’s why they are called sinners. Sinners who have sin in
their hearts have a heart that enjoys committing sin and will commit sin
quickly. Believe in the Word of the water and the Spirit that contains
the righteousness of God if you want to break away from the evil sin.
Then you will experience that your feet have drifted far away from
following after sin.
The
Lord said that a tree bears fruit according to its kind and that a good
tree cannot bear a bad fruit. If you continue to desire and commit sin
that you do not want to commit, then you need to examine your heart and
see whether you have the righteousness of God in your heart or not.
Believing in Jesus without knowing the righteousness of God is the same
as trying to bear a good fruit from a bad tree.
A
sinner is so restless to commit sin. Why does a sinner like to sin?
Sinners are always thinking about “what to do” and this concern is about
“what sin should I commit?” From the Christian perspective, they not
only pursue the pleasure of the flesh, but they also kill, harm, hit
people, steal, swindle, and step on people as well. Because sinners
themselves are of the seed of sin and evil, the desire to sin overflows
even more in dark nights and they commit all kinds of sin. People become
excited when they see blood and they find pleasure in the moaning,
flowing out from pain. Man is a breed of evildoers that is in a hurry to
try to commit sin whenever they can. It means all those who are not
born again are like that. Romans 3:9-18 tells us about this.
The
righteous who are born again must understand they also belong to such a
breed when it comes to their flesh and believe in it. We recognize the
need for evangelization of the gospel to the sinners when we understand
this, and we can share the gospel with the sinners when they understand
plainly what kind of sinful breed they really are. The bread for sinners
is sin and the bread for the righteous is to believe in the
righteousness of God and preach it.
What If You Do Not Solve the Problem of Sin by Not Believing in the Righteousness of God!
(Romans 3:16) “Destruction and misery are in their ways”
We
must know that there is only destruction and hardship awaiting the
sinners that have sin in their hearts. There is only the pouring of
destruction and hardship welcoming a sinner no matter how earnestly he
wants and seeks the blessing from God. That’s because you do not accept
the righteousness of God in your heart. The righteousness of God leads
you to the path of blessing of the Truth. The reason you suffered
hardship in your life until now is because of the sin in your hearts,
and the way to escape from that sin is by believing in your heart the
baptism and the Cross of Jesus that is of the righteousness of God. Only
destruction and misery rule over the life of a sinner. There is no
blessing. Sinners repeat a life of hardship and curse from their birth
to their death. Is there happiness in a person who is not born again?
No, there isn’t.
There
may be some people who say, “There is happiness in the stories and
characters we see on TV dramas or movies, and there are many people who
say they are happy among the people I know.” TV dramas and movies
attract people’s attention by sharing dreams and hopes that are not
present in our life. Those who say they are very happy are the people
who are lying to themselves and many other people with the hope for the
rotten things because they do not know true happiness. But their inside
is full of sin and there is destruction and hardship in their path.
That’s
the reason why you need to receive salvation from sin by believing in
the righteousness of God. You need to receive the righteousness of God
and become the children of God by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit in order to be rescued from the path that leads you to
hell with destruction and hardship. You will only receive destruction
and hardship throughout your life if you do not receive the salvation
from sin by believing in the righteousness of God and stay in God’s
Church.
The
life of a sinner is predestined. We can summarize every sinner’s life
in a stereotype: “A sinner laughs, and then cries. Wins the
congressional election, and then loses the election. His business goes
well, and then goes bankrupt. Wins the lotto, then he is murdered
because of that money.” There is only destruction and hardship on the
path of sinners in this manner as the Scriptures tell us.
There
was a Korean woman who received huge sums of money as a compensation
for an airplane accident that had taken her husband’s life in the United
States. She could have done anything she wanted to do because she had
so much money. She bought a huge house and a nice car, clothes, a new
man, and she had everything she wanted as she lived in this life. She
had nothing to wish for because she had so much money, but she didn’t
have a good relationship with her neighbors because maybe she didn’t
feel it was needed. Then one day she was found dead in her swimming pool
in her home, but it was said that she did not die while swimming
because she did not know how to swim. She was killed at a young age even
though she had everything she wanted. There is no real happiness for a
sinner. There is only destruction and hardship for a sinner even if the
sinner has everything in this world.
(Romans 3:17) “And the way of peace they have not known.”
Those
who do not understand the righteousness of God do not understand the
way of peace in their hearts. Do you always resolve all your problems
with the righteousness of God? Actually the righteousness of God solves
all your sin, curse, and pain.
Most
people want to attain peace in their hearts through their own way. Some
try to attain peace through yoga, some others with material goods, and
still others through prayers of repentance, but nothing can give you
eternal peace. The eternal peace is not temporary and is attained by
believing in the baptism our Savior Jesus received and the blood He
shed. The only thing that can give peace in a person’s heart is the
faith of believing in the Old Testament and the New Testament Word,
God’s Word. God’s Word of the water and the Spirit written in the
Scriptures leads your heart to the way of peace.
Is
there peace for a sinner? Is there peace in a sinner’s heart? There is
no peace and comfort in the hearts of those who have not received the
remission of sin. They are always insecure, always depressed by sin,
always waiting for the Day of Judgment for their sins. They try to have a
joyful life at least as long as they live because they are so fearful
of the coming of the last day. They eat and enjoy and live for the
temporary pleasure in this world because they know the miserable end for
themselves. When you ask a sinner, “What is the purpose of your life?”
The sinner will answer, “Pleasure.”
When
you go to the graveyard in Korea, you can see people have erected
tombstones. Some prestigious families even carve and set some stone
statues before their tombs, but common people generally have two stone
posts erected on each side of their tombs. This signifies pleasure. “He
lived for this and He died as this had lost its function.” Therefore,
they plant two phallus-type stone posts at both sides of the grave when
they die so that they may take the pleasures of this land to the other
world. When you look closer at the stone posts, there is a squirrel on
each post, one is going up the post, the other squirrel is running down
the stone post, and these signify the sexual pleasure. People live for
this sexual pleasure and then go down when the time comes. Therefore,
they carved and erected two posts for them to take this pleasure to the
other world.
The
life of sinners is focused on the pleasures of this life. Having a good
family with sons and daughters and living a comfortable life is the
sole purpose of their life. The purpose of life for the sinners who have
not been born again is to seek the satisfaction in pleasure, but
eventually they die without gaining any satisfaction and without
fulfilling anything.
Is
there peace in sinners’ hearts? How can there be peace when there is
sin in their hearts? There is no peace in their hearts because they
cannot understand the righteousness of God and there is no one telling
them about it. That’s why you must become the person who shares the
gospel of the righteousness of God with others. There must be a person
who preaches the righteousness of God in order that many people get to
be enlightened about the righteousness of God. People who shall preach
the righteousness of God are you and me who have met the Lord.
There
is no peace for sinners. They are full of worries and concerns even
while they are on a beautiful scenery excursion. There is a load of
worries and concerns in their hearts even while they are eating
delicious food and laughing with friends. Those who do not know the
peace in their hearts must definitely receive the righteousness of God.
They will receive the comfort in their hearts only when they receive the
remission of sin in their hearts by hearing, understanding and
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains the
righteousness of God. They can finally have fellowship with God when
they have accepted the righteousness of God. But a sinner who is full of
sin because he did not listen to the Word of the Truth cannot receive
the remission of sin and the comfort in their hearts. Therefore, there
is no peace for those sinners.
(Romans 3:18) “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Sinners
who do not understand the righteousness of God live a life of not
fearing God in the real world. That’s because the eyes of their hearts
are darkened by their sins. The people whose eyesight is darkened live
this life not knowing where the road is, even during the daytime.
Sinners are those who do not know by themselves what they should
believe, what the righteousness of God is, and what the gospel of the
water and the Spirit is. That’s why they live in this real world without
any fear, even though they are headed for hell for their sins. They do
not have any interest in God’s righteousness even if they are cast into
hell tomorrow. According to this verse, do sinners have a heart fearing
God? No, they don’t. Then, do the righteous have a heart that fears God?
Yes, they do.
Sinners
are prone to have a grudge against God rather than have fear and
admiration for God in their hearts. They spill their bitterness, “Where
is God? Would God leave such evil people alone if there were a God?
Would He leave alone those who are living a lavish life with money they
stole or those who killed so many people, and make such people like me
who are living an upright life, suffer in this manner?”
There
is a reason God leaves a sinner in the midst of hardship in this world.
Would sinners turn to God for dependence if they wouldn’t have gone
through appropriate anguish? God allows evil people and gives pain in
this world intentionally so that the sinners can return to God. God
allows such a world so that sinners may say, “Oh, my God, please help
me,” and return to God. But there are too many people who do not
understand the intention of God and insist that there isn’t a God and do
not fear God at all. They only seek pleasure in this world even until
the moment of death because they do not fear God.
Many
people in Korea believe in Confucianism. They believe that worshipping
their ancestors is very important and they think that’s filial piety.
But we can see that even the filial piety, the greatest virtue in Korean
morals, doesn’t have much worth if it doesn’t bring them much to their
own mouth or if they can’t acquire much for themselves. The people who
say they believe in the Confucianism and value filial duty are the
people who sell out even the land their grandmother and grandfather is
buried on if it would bring in a lot of money to them. Of course their
ancestral deities are not God and are just dead spirits, but how would
they have the heart of fearing and admiring Jesus Christ, the true God,
if they don’t fear their ancestral gods that they have established in
their hearts.
Sinners
are ignorant and they do not do righteous works; their throat is an
open tomb and their tongue spills out deceit; their lips have the
serpent’s poison and their mouth is full of curse and evil; their feet
move about hurriedly to spill blood and there is destruction and
suffering in their path; and they do not know the way of peace and they
do not have the fear of God in their eyes. This is the nature of a
sinner.
There
wasn’t any righteous person in this world before believing in the
righteousness of God that Jesus Christ gave. Except for only a few
believers among Jews, there wasn’t any perfectly righteous person.
However, the gospel of the water and the Spirit began to save, from the
sins of the world, those people who had become sinners before the Law.
The
Scriptures say, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus.” This is not talking about the doctrine of
justification by faith. After Jesus Christ came, those who believe in
the righteousness of God become the righteous and those who do not
believe in it are destined to go to hell.
Sinners
who are all around us really cannot do good and their feet are swift to
spill blood. They are people who don’t know what to do because they are
so eager to sin. Even though they speak of love and virtuous deeds and
pretend to be very merciful, they are actually sinners who lie.
The
substance of the sinners is exactly as the Scriptures tell us. The most
important thing is how we look at fundamental human nature. Do you
still have a perspective that there are righteous as well as evil
people? But the Scriptures look at people as a mass of sin because they
definitely commit sin until they die. We must look at the sinners in the
same manner. We must not look at them like, “This is a little better
sinner. That sinner is not okay.” We must look at sinners as a brood of
evildoers, who have the poison of the serpent, enjoy harming people, and
whose feet are swift to spill blood. It means that the nature of humans
is a mass of sin. Those who are not born again are people who seek
pleasure of the flesh like a beast and terrible people who pretend to be
humble. Those who pretend to be merciful are people who are full of
evil. We also need to look at the sinners as such.
Sinners
are swift to spill blood and they are busy seeking sin for pleasure
throughout their lifetime after they are born into the world. And their
life purpose is to seek how they can get more material wealth and how
they can commit more sin. A sinner’s life is committing sin as he
pleases in that manner until he leaves this world. A sinner is such a
breed. We cannot distinguish them as an acceptable sinner and a
treacherous sinner; we have to regard them as the same sinners. Those
who have received a lot of education in this world and have refined
themselves, will hide their sins well and those who have not will have
their sins exposed plainly, but their essential nature is all the same
as a breed of sinners. We can interpret God’s Word correctly and share
the gospel to those who have not received the remission of sin when we
can see their fundamental nature clearly.
Even
the righteous can be grouped into the righteous that follow God and the
righteous that do not follow God. But we look at them as the righteous
because at least they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
even though they may have shortcomings. But we must look at the sinners
and evildoers as just horrible people, not people who are insufficient.
Those whose souls are destined to fall to hell because they do not
believe in God’s Word are like beasts and actually worse than beasts,
therefore it is appropriate to look at them as such. Humans are beings
that attack the opponent with higher intelligence than animals,
attacking more terribly, fearfully, and sharply to kill the opponent. It
is proper even according to God’s Word to look down on the sinners who
think it is okay for them to trample on anyone for their own benefit as
tremendously evil people.
The
Israelites had the faith of looking at themselves as the chosen people
of God and all the other Gentiles as beasts. Of course, the Israelites
also are not the chosen people spiritually even though they are the
chosen people physically. But we, the righteous, who have been born
again spiritually through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, have
such faith that pleases God.
We
must have such a mindset when we look at them spiritually to be able to
battle them and be victorious and save the pitiful souls. Sinners are
souls definitely destined for hell. We must preach to them the gospel
that contains the righteousness of God because they are souls destined
for hell, but we cannot rescue them if we do not show them their true
self first. There is no way to rescue them because they do not want to
come and ask for help. We can rescue them from their sins when we can
point out their sins sharply and let them understand their fundamental
sinful nature and their destination. We will lose the battle if we fight
them without understanding them clearly. How do you understand the
sinners? Do you live with sentiment that there are some virtuous ones
even among the people who are not born again? If you have had such
sentiment so far, throw them away by believing in the Word.
“Their
feet are swift to shed blood.” This means, “A person who is not born
again is worse than a beast.” Hijackings or terrorism occur frequently
these days, and countless innocent victims are sacrificed by such
terrorism. People curse the terrorists whenever they hear bad news of
terrorism saying that the terrorists are unspeakably and treacherously
evil beasts, but actually their mouths are full of evil and cruelty as
well because of their innate sins. The righteous who are born again must
look at sinners in that manner and share the gospel to them. It is a
mistake to look at a person who looks gentle and graceful and think they
are any different from other people because the inside of the person is
filled with unspeakable evil. Such a person is an even more treacherous
sinner who has covered himself so firmly with an armor of hypocrisy so
that it’s really difficult to break through.
Some
religious organizations build orphanages and provide a place to stay
for the unwed mothers and orphans and provide protection for them. This
looks so beautiful. But it is full of unspeakable evil, deceit, and
schemes on the other side. They are wolves although they look like good
shepherds. All the religious people including Christians who do not know
and do not believe in the righteousness of God are filled with curse
and evil in their hearts and curse and evil spills out if you just
provoke them. But we the righteous say bad things about someone just by
our lips sometimes but actually do not have cruelty in our hearts.
How
should we look at sinners? We need to look at them exactly as it is
recorded in Romans 3:9-18. We may have thought that there are sinners
who come to an understanding, some who seek God, some who do good deeds,
and some who are decent, but we mustn’t think that way from now on. We
must think, ‘Sinners are people who have no concern for God’s
righteousness, people who like to sin, people full of poison, people who
are unprofitable, pitiful people who have no choice but to go to hell
because they cannot do any good. Therefore they also must believe in the
gospel of the righteousness of God and we have the realistic mission to
share the gospel to them.’
Romans
3:9-18 is talking about people’s fundamental nature before they have
faith in Jesus Christ. Those who believe in the righteousness of God
that Christ has given are not applied by this Scripture passage. It
means that only the sinners belong to that Word. The Apostle Paul quoted
the Old Testament Word from Psalm 14:1 and the following verses to
teach us that there are now people who became righteous through Jesus
Christ as well as sinners who still did not know the gospel of the water
and the Spirit that Jesus Christ gave, treacherous sinners like the
sinners in the Old Testament. In other words, this passage is clearly
talking about the sinners who have not met Jesus Christ through the
righteousness of God, and it is clearly not talking about the righteous.
We must understand this clearly.
But
Christian sinners are prone to use this as the source for justifying
their claim that there is sin in a person even if he believes in Jesus.
But this Word cannot be grounded for justifying their claim that a
person is still a sinner even if he believes in Jesus. The Apostle Paul
is saying here that all the Jews and the Gentiles, excluding those among
the Israelites who believed in Jesus who was to come in the future,
were sinners before Jesus came to this world. He says that’s the reason
God gave the Law to the sinners and sent Jesus to give the righteousness
of God to all the sinners.
According
to God’s promise, Jesus Christ was conceived in Maria’s body by the
Holy Spirit and was born to this world. Jesus received the baptism from
John the Baptist at the Jordan River when he became 30 years old
(Matthew 3:13-17). Jesus, who took all the sins of the world upon Him by
receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, shed blood on the Cross
and died in our place for the penalty for all the sins He had taken
over. Now there is no judgment for the person who believes in Jesus who
carried the sins of the world upon His shoulder. Such a person has
become a righteous one. Romans 3:9-18 tells us that such sinners became
righteous through Jesus Christ and that people should realize their
sinful nature so that they could attain God’s salvation by believing in
Jesus Christ.
Those
who take this Word, “There is none righteous, no, not one” and claim
that there cannot be any righteous, are going to hell according to their
faith. We have definitely become the righteous by believing Jesus
Christ and by believing the baptism of the Savior and His death on the
Cross. Those who do not know and believe this are sinners who are evil,
swift to shed blood, heartless, and full of curse even though they are
in their respective Christian communities. It is appropriate for you to
look at everyone like that except the righteous that have been born
again. That’s why it is our duty and the will of God for us to have pity
toward those who are destined to go to hell and share the gospel with
them. Therefore it is important for us to understand clearly and believe
the Word, “There is none righteous.” I want you to believe the
righteousness of God with your heart. As the Apostle Paul defined the
gospel as “my gospel,” I hope you have the gospel as your gospel as
well.
The Way to Bring about Wrath
(Romans 3:19) “Now
we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God.”
What
does God’s Law say? And to whom is it spoken? God’s Law teaches and
points out what sin is to the people who are imprisoned under the power
of sin. It says that the function of the Law that God has given is not
only to point out people’s sin, but also to teach us that all the people
in the world are under the terrible judgment of God if they do not
believe in the righteousness of God.
All
human beings are in the helpless situation where they cannot help but
commit sins and iniquities because they have been born with sin from
their birth. Therefore, all people are under the judgment of the Truth
that says, “The wages of sin is death,” which is the chief declaration
of God’s Law. Therefore, everyone’s mouth is shut before God’s Law.
That’s because God has made such laws for the sinners. How can humans
change the law of death that God has made for sinners when He Himself
made this Law? No one can change this Law. The sinners can only be
destroyed according to the process of the judgment according to the Law.
Everyone
must respect the law of death God has made for sinners. And they must
shut their mouth attempting to cry out for appeal and just pray for God
to have mercy on them. And they must believe in their hearts the
righteousness of God that God has mercifully given them. Sinners surely
do need the righteousness of God.
“The
Law brings about wrath” (Romans 4:15). And the Law speaks to those who
are under the Law. God gave the Law to people and taught them that they
cannot live by the Law. God gave such Law to us humans. God did not give
the Law for us to not keep the Law. Then is it God’s will to nullify
the Law? No, it’s not.
The
Law makes the people who have departed from God realize their sins
through the Law and come back to Jesus Christ. But the sinners who try
to receive salvation by keeping the Law live without knowing the way of
peace because of the Law. First, their life is in the state of war
against God because their relationship is not peaceful with God because
of their sins. Secondly, they curse and attack one another because they
are not at peace with other people. Thirdly, they are not at peace with
themselves. Rather, they are constantly anxious and worried.
The
only way for such sinners to find peace is to believe in Jesus Christ
who gives the righteousness of God. Jesus Christ took away all the sins
that were blocking the relationship between God and people and erected a
bridge of reconciliation between God and human beings with the
righteousness of God. Therefore, sinners must seek peace with God within
the righteousness of God. And they need to have fellowship with God and
one another within the righteousness of God that gives us a way to live
peacefully.
The
pain is the thing that evil people experience personally. There is
hardship and destruction in the path of the evil people. Therefore those
who do not know and believe in the righteousness of God try
instinctively to destroy one another. The true peace comes when you know
and believe in the righteousness of God.
There Is No Fear of God
Romans
3:18 is saying that the relationship between mankind and God has been
broken off and their lives have been destroyed because of the sins in
their hearts as a result of not believing in God’s Word. They became
ignorant, so they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an
image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and
creeping things. That there is no fear of God in the hearts of the
sinners, is evidence that they have become atheists. This Scripture
passage points out that fact. A person will receive the curse and
destruction before God if he does not depend on the righteousness of God
in this manner. Actually, not being fearful of the Omnipotent God means
that he is ready to receive the wrath of God. Not receiving the
righteousness of God is a sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.
God definitely brings down an appropriate punishment for that sin
because it is an unforgivable sin.
Even
though people are in the midst of sin, they do not fear God, who is
holy and the only divine Being who brings His judgment of wrath. Rather,
they fear the beings that are created by God and this is because of the
sins of human beings. What an inconsistent contradiction it is. They
fear the visible creatures that will be rotten and do not fear God whom
they all have to stand before and confess their sins. It is not
surprising that the writer of a Psalm said, “Blessed is every one who
fears the LORD, who walks in His ways.” This is the proper Word.
As
Paul said, mankind is on the verge of destruction because of its sin.
Then how can the problem of sin that destroys mankind be solved? Mankind
must receive salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of
God that Jesus Christ, the true God, has fulfilled. Only this faith can
save mankind from the destruction for its sin.
There Is Nobody That Can Be Considered Righteous by the Deeds of the Law
(Romans 3:20) “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
People
cannot be without sin by the deeds of the Law. Those who believe in
Jesus cannot wash their sins and become people without sin even if they
believe in the doctrine of sanctification and offer prayers of
repentance fervently and follow the Word of the Law diligently. You must
know clearly and believe that you cannot cleanse your own sin with the
faith of the Law. Then what kind of faith can wash away one’s own sin?
You can receive the cleansing of all your sins at once if you believe in
the righteousness of God. You may come to realize your sin through the
Law but you cannot receive the righteousness of God by it. You must
realize this Truth and live out your faith properly.
Apostle
Paul told us to realize sin by the Law. Can we become the righteous by
keeping the Law? We cannot become the righteous by the Law. Can people
become sanctified by keeping the Law and enter the Kingdom of God? No,
they can’t. People who have not been born again are all under God’s Law
because they think they need to keep the Law. As a result, they offer
prayers of repentance every day and challenge every day to keep the Law.
This is a wrongful act that comes from taking the first step wrongly.
If one misplaces the first button into the second buttonhole, then all
the rest of the buttons are misplaced automatically. The Law is given to
us to teach us that humans are complete sinners. Therefore,
misunderstanding God’s Law and trying to keep the Law is an
embarrassment that comes from ignorance and it is the work that comes
out of confused religious thinking. It means that they do this because
they misunderstand the function of the Law. Can people enter the Kingdom
of God by becoming sanctified on their own? No, they can’t.
The
distinctive feature of the doctrine of sanctification is that all the
religions of this world have similar doctrine in their teaching.
Buddhism has the doctrine of entering Nirvana. Christianity has the
doctrine of sanctification. But this doctrine came out of human fleshly
thinking, not out of the Truth. Therefore, it could be regarded demonic.
Did Jesus tell us that we become sanctified little by little and
eventually enter the Kingdom of Heaven on the last day? No, He didn’t.
The righteousness of our Lord sanctified us at once and made us receive
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore people without the Holy
Spirit are not the righteous. Sinners are only sinners, regardless of
how hard they try to become sanctified by believing in Jesus and living
virtuously. Although people may look clean from the outside, they still
have sin that pollutes inside and outside and that is the typical
appearance of a sinner.
But
those who have received the remission of all the sins through the
righteousness of God are different. Humans can’t help but live
maliciously, but they live cleaner lives after receiving the remission
of sin. Humans cannot help but spread sin throughout their life because
they were born infected with sin and the sin keeps coming out
unintentionally from inside because they are already infected with sin.
They need to take in the medicine of the righteousness of God that heals
the disease of the sin fundamentally if they truly don’t want to be a
person who spreads the germs of sin. And those who believe in the
righteousness of God bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit because they have
the Holy Spirit inside them.
Another
reason people cannot become righteous before the presence of God by
keeping the Law is that there actually isn’t anybody who does keep the
Law perfectly. Anyone who keeps the Law perfectly would be approved as
righteous before the presence of God, but people actually cannot
practice all the things according to God’s Law. Rather, all people are
violating God’s Law. How can people keep all the statutes of the Law
when people cannot even keep the slightest stipulation? What would you
do?
The Righteousness of God Witnessed by the Law and the Prophets
(Romans 3:21) “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets”
The
righteousness of God is speaking of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Where does the gospel of the righteousness of God receive its
witness? It has to be witnessed by God’s Law and the prophets. God
prophesized through the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle that Jesus
Christ would become the sacrifice offering to take all the sins of
mankind through the laying on of hands and shed blood to death. As such,
the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that has been
witnessed in the Old Testament Scriptures. Therefore, the baptism Jesus
received is same as the laying of hands on the sacrificial animal, and
the sacrifice of an animal, outpouring its blood to death, is the same
as Jesus dying on the Cross. God’s righteousness is fulfilled when Jesus
came to this world and took over the sins of the world by receiving the
baptism from John the Baptist, dying on the Cross with the sins of the
world, and receiving the judgment for the sins. It is the righteousness
of God that saved the sinners from sin in this manner.
When
we read Paul’s Epistles more closely, we can see that he often used
expressions that showed contrast like “before” and “now.” He used these
expressions because he experienced both the dark past when he was in
bondage to the Law and the glorious salvation now. That change took
place on the way to Damascus, but Paul had actually been the enemy of
Jesus and His disciples before that took place. He tried to remove the
Early Church believers in any way he could and he thought he was doing
the right thing like most fanatic believers in Judaism do. But he was
actually standing against God with his own righteousness without knowing
God.
Jesus
Christ appeared to Paul on his way to Damascus and revealed that He was
Jesus the Son of God who was persecuted by him. The Truth of Heaven
manifested as the new light to Paul at that time and removed all the
darkness from his heart. Paul gave up the life of arrogance, prejudice,
and persecution from that time and began a new life of serving Christ
and His righteousness. Paul said, “But now the righteousness of God
apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets.”
What
do we have to do in order to not be caught by all the evil sins? It is
impossible with our own strength. Paul believed in the righteousness of
God instead of the wrath of God. The only way for people to receive the
salvation from God’s wrath of judgment for their sins is for them to
believe in the righteousness of God. And we must follow God who gave us
this path with thankfulness.
Paul
was transformed to a child of God who had no sin by believing in the
righteousness of God through his faith in Jesus Christ in this manner.
But most people who believe in Jesus think that they won’t be condemned
by God even though they have sin. They think so just because they
believe in Jesus somehow. That’s why they have an illusion that they
have received the salvation from their own standpoint even though they
have sin because they do not have the faith of believing the
righteousness of God.
But
we now have a way of living in the righteousness of God without sin
instead of receiving judgment for our sins due to the meritorious work
Christ has done. That is the righteousness of God we receive “through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
Then,
let’s look at your heart. Did you have sin before believing in Jesus?
But you would have no sin if you knew and believed the righteousness of
God. If there is anything in you that has changed after believing in
Jesus, it’s that you now believe in the righteousness of God while you
believed in human righteousness before. If we just believe in Jesus
without having faith in the righteousness of God, would your faith be
approved as righteous before God? No. The faith of believing in Jesus
with the understanding of the righteousness of God makes God’s
righteousness become yours before the presence of God. Therefore you
must know the righteousness of God. If you just believe in Jesus without
believing in the righteousness of God because you do not know it, then
you have a wrong belief in faith. You must know this very clearly and
know and believe the righteousness of God.
(Romans 3:22) “Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference”
Anyone
who believes the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that
was fulfilled together with Jesus’ baptism and His death on the Cross
receives the righteousness of God, and there is no difference. Believing
in Jesus Christ is to believe the righteousness of God. The
righteousness of God lies in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the
righteousness of God. Therefore all the sinners, no matter who they are,
must believe in the baptism Jesus Christ received from John the Baptist
and the blood of the Cross in order to receive the remission of sin.
Doctrine of Justification by Faith or the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit?
(Romans 3:23-24)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus”
The
redemption in Jesus Christ that sinners received is enough to make
those people who believe in the righteousness of God sinless. Sinners
can receive the perfect remission of sin only by believing the
righteousness of God. From God’s standpoint, God paid the due price of
sacrifice to give us the righteousness of God. But, from our standpoint,
we can attain the righteousness of God just by believing without any
sacrifice. God’s Word telling us to believe in the Lord Jesus is the
Word of salvation that admonishes us to believe only in the
righteousness of God.
Romans
chapter 3 speaks about becoming righteous by faith. Here, Romans 3:24
states, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus.” Now, we have become righteous through the
redemption in Christ without a price. Then, does attaining the
righteousness of God by His grace mean that we are considered righteous
even if we still have sin? Are we called righteous even if we have sin?
Or, are we called righteous because we actually don’t have any sin? I
want to tell you clearly about this based on the Scriptures.
Is the Doctrine of Justification Correct?
Is
the doctrine of justification in Christian theology correct? No, it’s
not. The doctrine of justification is the doctrine that says Christians
are considered without sin because they believe in Jesus even though
they have sin. In this passage, was the Apostle Paul talking about the
doctrine of justification? We became without sin through the redemption
that is in Jesus Christ. We have become people without sin because our
Lord took our sins upon Him through His baptism and His death on the
Cross. Because we became people without sin by believing with our hearts
in the salvation the Lord fulfilled this way, God looks at this faith
and considers those who believe in this Truth as the righteous without
sin. To be called a righteous person means to be without sin. Therefore,
the doctrine of justification spoken of in Christian theology is a
negative and unrighteous claim that says Jesus did not take all our sins
forever.
Some
people try hard to become righteous through the work of the Law, that
is, by keeping the Law. But it is impossible for a person to become
sinless by living upright. A person becoming sinless and becoming a
righteous person by living an upright life is just a wishful thinking
that stems from the religions of this world. Such a notion may be
logical in the religious perspective but this can never be true from the
spiritual perspective.
Legalistic
Christians interpret Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” as saying that
Christians are considered without sin through their merit of believing
in Jesus although they have sin. But Jesus has blotted out the sins of
the world with the water and the Spirit. The word “redemption” in this
verse means “deliverance upon payment of ransom.” There was the Civil
War in the United States of the issue of the abolition of slavery. The
war broke out like this: The wealthy people living in the south claimed
that they should not give freedom to the slaves because then the owners
would have to work because there wouldn’t be anyone to work if the
slaves were liberated, and the north claimed, “No, they must be given
freedom. They are human beings just like us,” and the war erupted
because this issue turned into a political confrontation. Before this
war, blacks were generally slaves of the whites. The slaves also had
children even though they usually did not have a wedding ceremony. And
when the slaves had many children, the owners took their children to the
market and sold them. They put a price on the slave in the slave market
and bid for the slave. The one who bid the highest won the slave if
there weren’t any other bids that went higher. People bought some other
people in this manner with money. That is so-called slavery.
The
slave exists for the owner. The price of a slave is called “ransom.”
One should pay the ransom to redeem a slave. What did Jesus do to redeem
us who have become slaves of sin? What did Jesus do to pay the ransom
for us? He was born to this world and received the baptism to take all
our sins over to Him to save us from sin. Because He took all the sins
upon Himself in this manner, He went to the Cross and died, shed all the
blood of His body, resurrected from death on the third day and
witnessed for 40 days after being resurrected from death, went up to
Heaven, sat at the right hand of God the Father’s throne and became our
Savior. Our Lord justified us freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. We have received the remission of sin and new
life and the righteousness of God by believing in this Truth. Therefore,
it is written, “Being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
But
many people in this world do not believe that Jesus saved us through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit although they try hard to become
righteous by the deeds of the Law. As such, in today’s Christianity,
there are many who have the faith that deteriorates Christianity into
just another worldly religion. The ministers that teach the doctrine of
justification represent such people. Who are the people that claim the
doctrine of justification? They are the philosophers in Christian
communities. They are people who try to interpret the Scripture by
fitting it into their thinking. The Lord is rejected because of these
people.
The
Puritans in England had to go to the American continent because they
received so much persecution in England. The first thing they did when
they came to America was to build churches and offer up a worship
service. After this, they established theological schools to teach
theology, and the teachers of the seminaries were the philosophical
theologians. The philosophical clergymen taught people as the
theological experts. They looked at Romans 3:24 that states, “Being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus,” and interpreted and taught, “We are called as the righteous even
though we have sin only if we believe in Jesus.” Although they
understood the meaning of the words “redemption” and “God’s grace,” they
did not understand the words “redemption” and the “grace” in connection
with the Truth of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, they interpreted
this passage erroneously and eventually fabricated the so-called
doctrine of justification.
The
doctrine of justification is the doctrine that says, “Christian
believers are called righteous even though they actually have sin.” Such
theological experts taught the students, and those students that
learned the doctrine of justification from them became pastors and thus
the doctrine of justification was spread all over the world.
The
word “saint” means a sinless person who does not have one iota of sin.
When we ask those “self-styled saints” who believe in Jesus with this
doctrine of justification whether they actually have sin in their hearts
or not, they reply “Who in the world does not have sin?” They say, “How
can there be a righteous person when the Bible says, ‘There is none
righteous, no, not one?’” They profess the doctrine of the justification
because they do not know the Truth of the water and the Spirit. The
doctrine of justification was created by such people in that manner and
it spread to our times in that manner. Therefore Christians just believe
it without much question when the theologians teach such doctrines.
But
that’s not true. God does not call those people with sin as sinless,
and He definitely sends people who deserve to go to hell to hell. God
blesses those who deserve to be blessed and has mercy on those who
deserve to have mercy. Those who deserve to receive judgment because
they have sin will definitely be judged. But many people came to
understand and believe wrongly because the erroneous teachings of the
theologians influenced the people throughout the world. They go to
church and call one another saints, deacons, deaconess, elder, and
pastor and they all say that they are the saved sinners even though they
have sin in their hearts. The common characteristic of those people who
believe in the doctrine of justification is that they are all the same
sinners. Those who believe in Buddhism have sin, and those who say they
believe in Christianity have sin also in the same manner. Consequently
all of them have not attained the righteousness of God. Those who have
not received the righteousness of God by faith are merely religious
people all the same.
There
are so many religious people in Christianity like this. The religious
Christians are not true Christians. Only those who have attained the
righteousness of God can lead a true life of faith. If we look at this
in simple black and white terms of whether a person has sin or not, then
those people who believe in Buddhism and those who believe in
Christianity all have sin alike. Therefore the faith of believing in the
doctrine of justification is all fallacious.
Then
where did the doctrine of justification originate? It was formulated in
the head of philosophers. They look at the passage, “Being justified
freely by His grace” and used it as the material for fabricating the
doctrine of justification. “You shall be called righteous even though
you have sin. You shall be called a saint.” They say the reason one
shall be called a saint is because the person believes in Jesus as the
Savior.
But
you actually do not have sin when you believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that Jesus has given. It means that your sins and
mine have actually been passed over to Jesus when we joined together in
Jesus’ baptism. Did Jesus take all the sins of all humanity upon Him, or
not? He did. Jesus went to the Cross and received the judgment for the
sin He had taken over through His baptism. Then He resurrected from the
death on the third day and went up to the right hand of God the Father’s
throne. That Jesus is our Savior. If we have received the remission of
sin by believing in Jesus, is that God’s gift or did we receive the
salvation through effort?
Salvation
is God’s gift. Gift means that it is God’s grace. The Scriptures say,
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus.” Did you and I receive the righteousness of God through
grace, or did we make ourselves sinless? We have received the salvation
from sin by believing in the redemption that is in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, which is the righteousness of God. This is not
earned through the doctrine of justification.
Who
is Jesus? He is the Savior. God of the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and
the Holy Spirit saved us from all the sins of the world through His Son.
We do not have sin by believing in the righteousness of God that God
has fulfilled. God manifested in our hearts as the gift of the Holy
Spirit because there is no sin in our hearts. That’s why we can say, “I
am righteous. When you look at me, I have shortcomings and weaknesses
and I do many wrong things. But I have no sin in my heart because I
believe that Jesus removed all my sins through the baptism He received
and His blood on the Cross.”
Those
who believe in the doctrine of the justification are people who have
false faith. They profess Christianity with much misunderstanding. Those
who teach this doctrine of justification are doing much wrong to the
people who want to believe in God. Their faith is very harmful to many
people. You often hear the doctrines like the doctrine of justification
and the doctrine of sanctification, but the reality is that people are
falling into destruction by believing in these doctrines. They believe
that they are considered sinless because they believe in Jesus even
though they all have sin.
Jesus
took all our sins upon Himself when He received the baptism from John
the Baptist. There cannot be sin in us and there must not be sin in us
when we always remember and ruminate with faith that Jesus has already
blotted out all our sins. You and I are really righteous people because
we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even though we have
shortcomings. We really do not have sin.
1
John 1:9 states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This
passage doesn’t mean that God will blot out our sins whenever we confess
our sins, but that we believe that all the sins have already been
remitted because the righteousness of God is fulfilled through the water
and the Spirit. It is saying that there is the effect of the remission
of sin if we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit Jesus has
given to us.
(Romans 3:25-26)
“Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to
demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed
over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the
present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
The
passage, “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through
faith, to demonstrate His righteousness,” means that God made Jesus the
sacrifice of reconciliation. Shedding blood here means death, so God
already planned the remission of our sins through the death of Jesus to
blot out our sins. Jesus was able to die in our place instead because He
received the baptism. We must understand what the passage “whom God set
forth as a propitiation by His blood” means. This Word means that God
made His Son to be put to death because the remission of sin of people
is accomplished by paying the price of sins with sacrificial blood, that
is, the death of sacrificial offering.
The
wages of sin is death. Here, “death” means not only physical death but
also spiritual death, which means going to hell. God gave us the Law so
that we may realize what sin is and we know through the Law that we are
people who cannot help but sin every day. Therefore, we absolutely
needed Jesus and Jesus, as the mediator for reconciliation between God
and us, came to this world, took over all our sins by receiving the
baptism, and shed blood for the payment for all the sin. He thus made
reconciliation between God and us. Therefore God made us who believe
this the children of God, and now we can be called by God as His
children. This is our remission of sin that has already been fulfilled
through the righteousness of God.
This
Scripture passage goes on to say, “To demonstrate His righteousness,
because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were
previously committed.” Here, “to pass over something” means “to leave
out; disregard.” To pass over something means to leave out something
that should be dealt with importantly. And it also means to not care for
it.
God
really endures for a long time. God has created humans and endured for a
long time. Humans have sinned so much and they will commit so much sin
in the future too. But God said, “Whom God set forth as a propitiation
by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because
in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously
committed.” This means that God manifested His righteousness and did the
righteous work for us. By doing truly righteous work, He has removed
all our sins. He made the believers in His righteousness to be sinless.
Now,
let’s take a closer look at this particular clause that goes, “God had
passed over the sins that were previously committed.” Does the
everlasting God perceive the concept of time just as we perceive it? No,
He doesn’t. To Him, even the end of the world is well seen. In other
words, the entire human history is the past tense to God. Therefore,
this passage means that God passes over all the sins that we commit from
the time of our birth until we die whether it is 80 or 90 years of
life.
These
days Koreans have entered the aging period. Koreans are living a long
life too. Most people generally live over 70 years of age. There are
some social problems because of the aging population. Well, let’s say
that you received the remission of sin at the age of 30. You received
the remission of sin at the age of 30, and you have about 40 years to
sin from now on, if you are to live until 70. But our Lord came to this
world about 2000 years before we were born and received baptism at the
age of 30, was nailed to the Cross at the age of 33 and received the
penalty for sin as the price for the sin, and resurrected from the dead
and became our Savior. The Lord knew that we were going to be born into
this world about 2000 years later and also knew that we would sin until
we died and already took all those sins upon Him. It means that He not
only took over the sin of our children and our grandchildren, but that
He even took all the sins that our descendants would commit until the
last day.
Therefore,
the passage “God had passed over the sins that were previously
committed” tells us that from God’s perspective, God has already removed
the sins we committed today and the sins we will commit in the future.
From our perspective, it is the sin we will commit in the future in our
timeframe. But from God’s perspective, it is the sin God has already
blotted out in the past. God removed the eternal sin because He is the
eternal being that exists forever. Therefore, even though people commit
many sins in the future after they are born, He has already removed
those sins a long time ago from God’s perspective. In other words, all
the sins we humans commit are mere sins that were committed previously
in God’s eyes.
It
says, “God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,”
because they are the sins that He had already removed. People sin every
day, but from God’s perspective, God has already removed all our sins a
long time ago through Jesus, His only begotten Son. God the Father has
removed our sins by sending Jesus to this world, having Him receive the
baptism from John the Baptist and take over the sins of the world when
He became 30 years old, having Him nailed on the Cross and die with the
sins of this world, and resurrecting Him from death. God removed the
sins from His standpoint in order to manifest His righteousness and say
that He is righteous and those who believe in Jesus are righteous by
passing over the sins that were previously committed because they are
the sins that God had already removed a long time ago.
You
must have the faith that says “yes” to this Word. Although we sin in
present sense, God does not care about that sin because Jesus already
removed all the sins of this world at the time when He removed the sins.
If we have received the remission of sin by believing Jesus who has
come by the water and the blood, we are righteous in God’s sight even
though we still sin out of our insufficiencies. It means that we do not
have sin when we acknowledge our sinful nature and admit Jesus Christ as
our Lord. That’s why the Scriptures say that God had passed over and
does not care about the sins that were committed previously.
Of
course, that doesn’t mean that we can sin as we please. Do we sin even
though we don’t want to, or, don’t we? We do sin. Do we sin
intentionally or do we sin because we are weak? We commit sin because we
are weak. We wouldn’t sin if we were perfect, if our will were
invincible, because we would know it was sin. But how is our will? It
changes in an instant. We swear and decide in the morning, but
completely collapse in the evening and say, “Why did I do this?” And
then sharpen our knives of will again in the night. And we swear and
decide one more time in the morning and begin the day, but it may go a
day, a week, but we can see all that crumbling down within a month.
But
those sins are all of the past from God’s perspective even though we
continuously sin any way we can in the present timeframe. God forgave
all our sins in the past. That’s why the Scriptures say, “To demonstrate
His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the
sins that were previously committed.” God has planned the righteous work
and blotted out all our sins according to His plan. And He said to
those who believe in Jesus Christ who fulfilled this work, “You are
righteous. You are without sin.” It means that God saved us from sin in
this manner. Do you understand this?
You
need to understand such Truth in order to believe in God and not fall
when Satan attacks you. But when we ask those who believe in the
doctrine of the justification whether they have sin, most of them say
they have sin. Some of them reply, “I don’t have sin because Jesus has
atoned for all my sin with His blood on the Cross.” Then if we ask what
they would do with the sins they commit in the future, they say they
just need to offer prayers of repentance. Such people are the ones that
believe in the doctrine of justification. All those who say they receive
the cleansing of the sin by offering prayers of repentance are
Christian sinners that advocate the doctrine of justification.
Do
you receive the remission of sin by offering prayers of repentance? Or,
do you receive the remission of sin by faith just because Jesus Christ
has blotted out all our sins by coming to this earth, taking all our
sins through His baptism, receiving the penalty of all those sins by His
death on the Cross, and being resurrected from death? What should we
believe to have all our sins removed? Are the sins removed whenever we
offer prayers of repentance? Or is the sin removed when we believe that
Jesus has blotted out all our sins through the water and the Spirit?
We
have become sinless by believing the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, not by offering a lot of prayers of repentance. If someone stabs
and kills another person and then says, “I am sorry. I have done wrong.
I have killed your only son. I am sorry. I will never kill another
person. Please forgive me,” could that sin be forgiven? The person must
pay the price for that sin. He must go to prison and face the death
penalty himself or be sentenced to life imprisonment. Otherwise, could
that person be forgiven just by saying, “Please forgive me?” There is a
Korean saying that goes, “You could feed all Korean people with a piece
of rice cake if you do it just in word.”
People
who believe in the doctrine of justification say that they receive the
remission of sin whenever they offer prayers of repentance. But how can
they receive the remission of sin through the prayers of repentance? We
receive the remission of sin by knowing and believing that Jesus has
blotted out all our sins by taking them upon Himself through His
baptism, and by receiving all the judgment and shedding His blood on the
Cross. Advocating the doctrine of justification is the same as the
Buddhist teaching that says they could take a soul from hell to Heaven
by sounding a wooden gong while citing the Buddhist scriptures.
The
Law is claiming that a person is a sinner even if one sins just once in
their lifetime. Moreover, a human being is inevitably a sinner even if
he never commits sin in his lifetime because he is born to this world
with sin from his mother’s womb, and therefore he goes to hell. Even so,
people generally do not acknowledge that. Then from what age do they
acknowledge the sin? They acknowledge the sins committed from about 7
years old and till their death in this world.
Then
if a person were to be approved as a righteous person without any sin
before God by the deeds of the Law, then he must not commit sin even
once from the cradle to the grave. All become nullified if he commits
sin just once even by mistake. Sinning just once nullifies everything
even if he has been perfect 99.9% of the time. For example, let’s say
one Buddhist monk went into a cave and meditated for 40 days to get rid
of the filthy desires inside his heart. After 20 days, he sees an
illusion of a woman. The woman appears to him naked and tempts him. At
first he rebukes the woman to depart from him as he attempts to overcome
the temptation, but he later begins to enjoy the woman serving him at
his side. Then the 40 days of meditation becomes for naught. A well
known Korean Buddhist monk named Sungchul Lee, who was famous for his
decades of meditation sitting against the wall, composed a poem just
before he died as follows: “I have deceived so many men and women; my
sins are greater than the highest mountain. I will fall to the endless
pitfall of hell; and my sorrow will be boundless. A slice of red sun is
hanging on the ridge of a blue mountain.” He left this as his last
Buddhist sermon and died. He was saying, “I am going to hell.”
It
is not bad for a human being to try to live a virtuous life. But human
beings cannot live a perfectly upright life. We Christians should live a
virtuous and upright life. And we need to be led by the Holy Spirit.
And we must absolutely remember to live for God. But even if people in
the worldly religion suck out the pus from a leper and die in place of a
cancer patient, no matter how virtuous a life the person may live, he
goes to hell if he does not have the love that has blotted out all our
sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus gave us.
One goes to hell if he does not have that faith.
Conclusively,
the doctrine of justification is an erroneous doctrine. A person who
actually still has sin in their hearts even though he says he believes
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a person who has wrongful
faith because he is still a sinner. Sins really disappear when a person
actually believes the gospel of the water and the Spirit with his heart,
but he still remains a sinner if he just believes in it theoretically.
The result is important. Whether you believe or not is important from
God’s perspective, but how can there be sin if you really believed in
this true gospel?
Therefore,
those who believe in the doctrine of justification consequently make
God a liar. This means that God could not even blot out my past sins and
the sins that I will commit in the future. When Il-sung Kim, North
Korea’s President, was alive I preached that Jesus even took Il-sung
Kim’s sin when He was baptized. Strictly speaking, God has removed the
person’s sin from His side. But Ilsung Kim is a sinner because he has
sin for he does not believe that Jesus took over his sin through His
baptism and died on the Cross and saved him from all his sin.
If
people believe in Jesus through the doctrine of justification, they
think that they receive the remission of the past sins but they need to
offer prayers of repentance for the sins they will commit in the future
to receive the remission of those sins. This is the same as the faith
that says, “Jesus, you are a liar.” This is so wrong. Such faith makes
Jesus a complete liar, a fraudulent cult leader.
The
cultic leaders of this world extort money from people in the name of
faith. But our Lord Jesus is not a cult leader. Jesus came to this world
to give us new life and blot out all our sins and removed them all at
once. Jesus took all the sins of humanity by receiving the baptism and
was nailed to the Cross at the age of 33 and spilled all the blood from
His heart and resurrected from the dead and really saved us from sin.
That’s right. Jesus is not a swindler.
But
you are turning Jesus into a swindler if you still believe in the
doctrine of justification. If you say “Jesus, please forgive me” even
after 10 years have passed since you first believed in Jesus, then it is
the same as saying that you want Jesus to die on the Cross again. It is
requesting, “I have sinned again and my heart has become filthy again.
Please pay the price for this sin again in my stead.” But one must go to
the fountain of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and wash himself
cleanly with the fountain of God’s Word if he wants to cleanse his
feeling or heart. One must cleanse himself with faith. Among the people
who believe in Jesus in this world, those who have sin in their hearts
are actually degrading God and going against God by making God a liar.
You
must not believe in the doctrine of justification. This is one of the
fallacious Christian doctrines. Before I was born again, I learned about
the so-called doctrines of justification, sanctification,
predestination, and other things that didn’t make sense for 10 years.
Most Christians including Evangelicals believe these doctrines. Strictly
speaking we can see that these people have sin even though they say
they do not have sin. The Salvation Sect in Korea says that they have
received the remission of sin. But what happens when they sin? They say
everything will be okay if they receive due punishments for their sins
on this earth. All such faith has originated from people’s erroneous
faith that believes in the doctrine of justification. They say, “I have
no sin because I believe in Jesus. I believe that God considers me
sinless even though I have sin in my conscience. Therefore, I do not
have sin.”
But
people who have really received the remission of sin do not actually
have sin in their conscience. Do you have sin in your conscience? No, I
don’t. The Bible says, “He [Christ] might sanctify and cleanse her [the
Church] with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26). Hebrews
9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 10:22 also
says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water.”
We
can find in these passages that the Bible emphasizes the water of
Jesus’ baptism as well as His death on the Cross. Christ has saved us
from all our sins by receiving the baptism and dying on the Cross. Jesus
took all the sins of our conscience. In other words, Jesus took all the
sins we commit through our actions, the sins we commit in our thoughts,
the sins we commit intentionally, the sins we commit unconsciously, and
the sins we commit because we are weak, and so on. Sin is recorded in
the tablet of conscience when people commit sin. And they feel the pain
in their conscience. The conscience is the detector of the sins. Jesus
took all our sins that torment our conscience when He received the
baptism and He removed all our sins by dying on the Cross. That’s why
God has cleansed our conscience from dead works to make us serve the
living God.
We
sometimes deceive our conscience. When we are in a critical situation,
we ignore the voice of the conscience and say things that are different
from what is in our hearts in order to escape the situation. But God
said He has cleansed our conscience from dead works. Jesus received the
baptism and died on the Cross so that we might receive the remission of
all the sins that we commit with our conscience and all the sins we
actually commit in our lifetime, if we just believe in His baptism and
blood. And even though we sin with our conscience after we have received
the remission of sin, we always maintain perfect purity if we just
acknowledge our shortcoming in our flesh and always look and believe in
the merit of the work that God has fulfilled.
The
Lord has blotted out all our sins through the water and the blood. The
Lord has filled us with grace if we, who believe in this gospel,
remember and ruminate the Lord’s meritorious work that has blotted out
all our sins until the day we go before the Lord. Therefore, this is the
reason why we have to come to God’s Church and listen to the Word and
offer up the worship service even more frequently. Because even the
person who believes in the righteousness of God and does not have sin,
commits sin in this life and his heart will become filthy again if he
cannot listen to the Word that the Holy Spirit is speaking to the
Church. Then, even though he does not have sin, his conscience becomes
as evil as it can be and becomes a completely useless person in this
world, a person who commits more sin in this world. That’s why we need
the Church. Even though we have some bad things in our life or some
disagreeable things in our conscience, when we come to the Church and
listen to the Word and reconfirm our faith and look to the Lord and
listen to the Word that the Lord took all our sins by receiving the
baptism of the water and the blood, the Holy Spirit says, “That’s right.
That’s it,” and the conscience is pleased as our hearts say “Oh, that’s
how it is. It is so much better now.” That’s how you and I can live a
happy life through faith without being oppressed by sin. And we can
share fellowship with God and live with the grace God gives to us.
Do
you believe this? It will be terrible for you to draw far away from the
Church. Those who stay away from the Church or those who degrade their
pastors or the predecessors cannot live the upright spiritual life. As a
result, they become very evil.
(Romans 3:27-28)
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but
by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by
faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
The
question is whether the removing of sin is through the work or through
the faith—through what gospel do people become sinless? The Apostle Paul
says one becomes righteous through the law of faith. What is the law of
faith? In the Book of Exodus, God gave and showed Israelites the Law
and the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system in concrete terms. Then
the Book of Leviticus talks in detail about how people should offer up
the sacrifice in order to receive the remission of sin before the
presence of God. A sinner had to bring a lamb or a goat without blemish
first, lay his hands on the head of the animal, confess his sins, and
transfer them to the sacrificial animal. Then, the sinner cut the
throat, took the blood and gave it to a priest. The priest then put the
blood on the horns of the altar of the burnt offering, poured the rest
of the blood on the ground, cut the animal to pieces and burnt it up on
the altar of burnt offering before the presence of God. This was a
typical sin offering for a sinner to receive the remission of daily
sins. Leviticus speaks about the sin offerings in detail. It describes
the daily sin offering of a common people, that of a priest, and that
for the elders.
For
one year’s worth of sin, the High Priest transferred over all the sins
the Israelites had committed during the past year unto the head of one
of two sacrificial goats by the laying of hands on its head. Then, he
cut its throat, drew the blood and put the blood on the horns of the
altar of burnt offering. And he went into the Holy Place and put the
blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense in the Holy Place and
sprinkled the blood seven times on the Ark. Then he cut the sacrificial
animal to pieces and burned it up before the presence of God.
The
High Priest then brought the live goat before the Israelites. He laid
his hands on the head of the live goat, confessed over it all the
iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions,
concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and
sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man
(Leviticus 16:20-21). God established such sacrificial systems in the
Old Testament for the remission of one year’s worth of sins of the
Israelites.
According
to this revelation of the Old Testament, Jesus came to this world as
the sacrificial Lamb and received the baptism in the form of laying on
of hands and shed blood on the Cross and resurrected from the dead for
the remission of our sins. Therefore, we receive the remission of sin by
believing this. Then, is the remission of sin attained by the deeds of
the Law? No, we receive the remission of sin by the law of faith.
Here,
the law of faith means that we can attain the righteousness of God by
believing in the works Jesus Christ has done for us: God established the
sacrificial system in the Old Testament as the promise of His
salvation; to fulfill this promise, Jesus came to this world and took
all the sins upon Him by receiving the baptism and dying on the Cross to
pay for the price for all of our sins and resurrected from the death.
We receive the remission of sin by believing in Jesus. That’s why the
righteousness of God cannot be attained by the deeds of the Law. That’s
why we cannot be boastful of the righteousness we have attained. The
Bible concludes that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of
the law--we become righteous by believing that God has blotted out all
our sins with His Son’s ministry promised in the sacrificial system.
(Romans 3:29-30)
“Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the
Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will
justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
Is
there any difference in the way God brings about the remission of sin
for the Israelites and the Gentiles? No, there isn’t. God is not only
the God of the Israelites but also the God of the Gentiles. It is saying
that He is the same God, and the law and the faith to receive the
remission of sin are also same. The Triune God planned to blot out all
the sins of humanity through Jesus and fulfilled all this through the
water and the blood in order to make all the people receive the
remission of sin through faith. God saved both the Israelites and the
Gentiles with this same method.
(Romans 3:31) “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
Can
we make void the Law just because we have received the salvation
through the law of faith? No, we cannot. It says that we establish the
Law even more firmly because the Law includes not only the 613
commandments that includes the Ten Commandments, but also all the Word
that God has spoken to humanity constitutes the Law. Therefore, the Law
essentially cannot be made void. Rather, the Law is established even
more firmly through faith. Through faith we establish the Law even more
firmly because we come to know God’s commandments through the Law, we
come to know the sin through the Law, and we receive the remission of
sin by believing that the Lord has saved us according to the sacrificial
system that is established in the Law.
We
have received the remission of sin, but we can understand and
acknowledge what is right and wrong in our deeds and turn from wrong,
thanks to the Law. The Law is the criteria for our proper deeds, so we
establish the Law even more firmly because we know the criteria of the
Law. The Law is God’s commands that tell us about sin, and our faith
becomes even more constant because the Law makes us even more grateful
to God whenever we admit what rotten beings we are. We establish the Law
even more firmly because our Lord saved us through the water and the
blood. We acknowledge God even more whenever we stand before the Law.
This
faith is not the faith that has come from the doctrine of
justification. We actually receive the remission of sin by believing in
the Truth. Those who believe in the doctrine of justification say that
God just removed original sin from us when we first believed in Jesus;
that He removes our personal sins whenever we offer prayers of
repentance; and that He saves us by leading us to gradual
sanctification. But this is never the case. For our salvation, Jesus
came to this world, received the baptism, died on the Cross, and removed
all our sins to save us. We became righteous by believing this.
Although many people believe in the doctrine of justification, the Lord
gave us the actual and perfect justification through the remission of
sin that is not of the doctrine of justification. We give thanks to God.
God Had Passed over the Sins That Were Previously Committed
(Romans 3:25) “Whom
God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to
demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed
over the sins that were previously committed”
The
righteousness of God is the Truth of the salvation that was fulfilled
by the baptism Jesus Christ received and the blood of the Cross in this
world. Here, the Word “by His blood” in Romans 3:25 is speaking about
the Truth that Jesus Christ was able to shed blood on the Cross because
He had received the baptism at the age of 30, which fulfilled all
righteousness of God. Jesus Christ was able to become the propitiation
that brought reconciliation between God and all the sinners because He
took the sins of the world through His baptism. Therefore Jesus could
become our Lord who has blotted out the sins of all those who believe by
fulfilling the righteousness of God.
What
does the Word “God had passed over the sins that were previously
committed” mean? This is spoken from God’s standpoint. God said this
because the sins people who believe in the righteousness of God are
committing, now are the sins that were removed a long time ago when
viewed with God’s eyes. When Jesus looks at the sins of those who
believe in the righteousness of God, they are the sins of the world that
He removed a long time ago through the baptism and the blood of the
Cross. Therefore God is saying that the sins they commit now do not
matter any more and He doesn’t care about them either. This blessing
comes from the abundance of the righteousness of God.
Therefore,
“to pass over the sins that were previously committed” means that God
has remitted all the sins of humanity about 2000 years ago through the
righteousness of God. That’s why we should view all the sins we commit
now as the sins that were passed over by God. To pass over means the
sins of the world are not sins worthy of God’s wrath because the price
for the sins has already been paid. This Truth was fulfilled in the
righteousness of God, and we have become the righteous by believing in
this righteousness of God.
(Romans 3:26)
“To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be
just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
God
manifests His righteousness beyond the dimension of time and space to
the people who believe in Jesus and the people who do not believe in
Him. God saved us through the righteousness of God to show how great His
righteousness is, and God wants to make people who believe in the
righteousness of God sinless through Jesus Christ even today in the year
2000, passing over time and space.
From
Jesus’ point of view, the sins of the world do not matter any more
because He has already paid for them a long time ago through the
righteousness of God that He has fulfilled through the baptism He
received and the blood He shed on the Cross. But Jesus takes big issue
with those who do not believe in the righteousness of God. That’s why we
must understand correctly the sin that Jesus Christ makes a serious
issue of, and therefore we must be careful not to commit that sin.
Jesus
Christ takes the unbelief of those unbelievers, who do not believe the
righteousness of God with thankful hearts and do not even try to
understand, more seriously than the sins humans are committing. More
than any other sin the biggest sin before the presence of God is the sin
of not believing the righteousness of God that has blotted out all the
sins of this world. God considers those who believe in Jesus sinless,
because the gospel of the water and the Spirit has manifested the
righteousness of God thoroughly and God made them sinless to His
satisfaction through His righteousness. This is through the
righteousness of God, not through the doctrine of the justification.
“To
demonstrate at the present time His righteousness” means that Jesus
came to this world and demonstrated His righteousness through the
baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the
Cross. God sent His only begotten Son and made Him receive the baptism
from John the Baptist and had Him nailed to the Cross and demonstrated
the righteousness of God to humanity. And to those who believe this, He
gave them the salvation from all their sin all at once. That’s how we
became righteous by believing the righteousness of God with our hearts.
Those
who believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus, through which God has
removed all the sins, do not have sin. We don’t have sin because we
believe the righteousness of God. Therefore we have received the
salvation from all the sins we commit in our lifetime. That’s why God is
saying that He has passed over the sins we committed in the past, the
sins we commit now, and the sins we will commit in the future.
(Romans 3:27) “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.”
And
it goes on to say, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by
faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews
only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and
the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through
faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law” (Romans
3:28-31).
We
believe all this Word because all the recorded Word is God’s Word. “We
establish the law” (verse 31) means that we cannot make ourselves exempt
from the judgment of sin when it comes to our deeds of the Law. In
other words, we are weak people who cannot help but go to hell if God
judged us according to God’s Law. But the righteousness of God has saved
us from all our sins and made us His perfect people. This means that we
became perfect because we were saved from all the sins by believing the
righteousness of God. Our deeds are still lacking even after receiving
the remission of sin by believing in the righteousness of God. But the
Lord saved us perfectly.
We
receive salvation from all sins by believing in the righteousness of
God. Then there could be nothing for us to boast about, and we can only
boast with faith about the meritorious acts of Jesus that fulfilled the
righteousness of God. We cannot receive the righteousness of God by the
deeds of the Law and we can only attain it by believing in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. The Scriptures say, “For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.” God asks all of us for the faith of believing the
righteousness of God, not the works.
You
must keep this Truth in your hearts. If you belong to those who don’t
even try to understand the righteousness of God and perceive the
righteousness of God as the like of the doctrine of justification, then
you should come out of them and meet the Church that is united with
Christ by believing in the righteousness of God. Then the peace like a
river will fill your heart greatly through the righteousness of God.
The
doctrine of justification is the doctrine the legalists believe. Now
you are no longer a legalist but a saint of God if you understood and
believed in the righteousness of God. Those who believe in God must
understand the righteousness of God and know that there is a law of
salvation that enables us to attain the righteousness of God. “By what
law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” We receive salvation by
believing in the righteousness of God not through the works.
The
Scriptures say, “Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God
without effect? Certainly not!” Those who believe in the righteousness
of God are established but the people who don’t believe shall stumble.
People who do not believe in the righteousness of God cannot live in
peace. Such people will receive God’s judgment according to the Law
because they do not accept God’s Word.
Now
we must have the faith of believing in the righteousness of God in the
Word. Regardless of how extraordinarily powerful the salvation fulfilled
by Jesus Christ is, the salvation by Jesus Christ becomes useless to
you if you do not make it yours personally. The only way to make God’s
work yours personally is for you to believe it. That is why the Bible
says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6), and
that is also the reason Apostle Paul often told about the faith through
the Book of Romans. For example, Paul said in Romans 3:22, “Even the
righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all
who believe.” He also said in verse 25, “Whom God set forth as a
propitiation by His blood, through faith.” Again he said, “We conclude
that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (verse
28).
Faith
is not good deeds. The salvation attained by faith manifests the
righteousness of God. Through the righteousness of God, He removed the
burden of sin from us. God saved us from all sins through our belief in
the baptism and the blood of Jesus Christ.
(Romans 3:28) “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
The
righteousness of God brings the remission of sin to those who believe
in it. Man is not called “righteous” (sinless) by keeping the Law or
offering prayers of repentance and advocating the doctrine of
sanctification. But it is possible by believing in the remission of sin
for humanity that was fulfilled through the righteousness of God.
Most
Christians today regard the righteousness of God like the doctrine of
justification, which was fabricated by theologians arbitrarily. But we
must clearly understand that the righteousness of God and the doctrine
of justification are clearly different. The righteousness of God is made
through the baptism and blood of Jesus, but the doctrine of
justification came out of the brain of a person with the IQ of about 120
to 140 at the most. This is a doctrine made by theologians as they saw
that they could not but continually sin while living in this world and
tried to comprehend the righteousness of God with their brains, and they
concluded in their thoughts, “God calls a person with sin ‘the saint
without sin’ if the person just believes in Jesus.” Anyone can make such
a doctrine. But I want to bring to light that the righteousness of God
is not a doctrine made by humans.
(Romans 3:29) “Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,”
It
is saying that the gospel of the righteousness of God gives all people
who believe in this salvation from sin. The gospel of the righteousness
of God does not have effect only on a particular race or nation, but it
applies to all the people in the world who believe in this. God is the
God of Jews and the God of Gentiles as well. That’s because all the
people are created by God and all their sins have already been cleansed
through the righteousness of God that God has given to all humanity. All
those who believe in the righteousness of God have received the
blessing of becoming a person without sin. God is the God of those who
believe in His righteousness.
(Romans 3:30) “Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
The
righteousness of God that the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham,
and all the other people attain through faith is the same for all. God
cares for the people who believe in the righteousness of God even now
because God is the God of righteousness. God calls those who have the
faith of believing in the righteousness of God sinless, but He does not
consider those who have sin because they do not believe in His
righteousness sinless just because they believe in Jesus. We must
remember that God does not acknowledge such faith. And you must give
thanks to God for becoming a sinless person by believing in the
righteousness of God. I want the blessing of the righteousness of God to
be with you forever.
God Establishes the Law Firmly
(Romans 3:31) “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
How
do those who have become sinless by believing in the righteousness of
God understand God’s Law? Do they make void the Law? No. Instead, those
who believe in the righteousness of God are more perceptive about sin
through God’s Law. We are more thankful because the Word of the Law that
God has given us teaches us how important the righteousness of God is.
Maybe
there are some people who have become righteous by believing in the
righteousness of God but are worried that they may become the kind of
people that commit sin at will because they are not under the Law. You
certainly don’t have to worry about that because you have now become the
righteous people who walk by the Law by believing in the law of
salvation of love even though you had been oppressed by the Law in the
past. There are some who are worried what would happen if they do
something wrong after believing in the righteousness of God.
But
your original nature is so weak like that. That’s why God saved you
from all your sins through His righteousness. Therefore, I hope you take
a look at your true self and become one who shares the love of the
righteousness of God to all humanity even more with thankfulness to God,
who has given us the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Then you will also become a servant of the righteousness of God.
The
righteousness of God illuminates even more brightly through God’s Law.
They complement one another. God saved us with His righteousness but He
did not make void the Law itself. God’s Law is eternal and perfect
because God planned it and made it.
We
have attained the righteousness of God by believing in Jesus as our
Savior who has fulfilled the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can
see that the functions of the gospel of the water and the Spirit are:
(1) Remove the boasting of the righteousness of man (Romans 3:27-28),
(2) Present one and only one path of salvation to all the people (Romans 3:29-30),
(3)
Contrary to the claim made by some people, the gospel does not make
void God’s Law. Instead, it makes the Law perfect (Romans 3: 31).
Paul
spoke of the salvation from sin by believing the righteousness of God
apart from the Law. However, the Apostle Paul said that the
righteousness of God does not turn the Law into nothing and that the Law
instead makes the righteousness of God even more constant. This is
because the Law manifests the righteousness of God.
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