[Chapter 5-3] Together with God (Romans 5:1-21)
(Romans 5:1-21)
“Therefore,
having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace
in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not
only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation
produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured
out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
For
when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a
good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own
love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we
also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
now received the reconciliation.
Therefore,
just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin,
and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—(For until the law
sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had
not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who
is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the
offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace
of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded
to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who
sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in
condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted
in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through
the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift
of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
Therefore,
as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in
condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came
to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s
disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many
will be made righteous.
Moreover
the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace
might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord.”
(Romans 5:1) “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
The
Book of Romans makes it clear that it is not by the righteousness of
man that one receives the remission of sin, but it is by believing in
the righteousness of God that his faith is approved. That is why here in
chapter 5 Paul explains that we have peace with God by believing in His
righteousness. When God has saved us from our sins through His
righteousness, it makes no sense for us not to attain peace by failing
to believe in God’s righteousness on our part. The Bible tells us that
one is saved from all his sins by believing in God’s righteousness. This
is the peace that is obtained when one places his faith in the
righteousness of God.
God’s
righteousness has made us whole. Therefore, whoever knows the
righteousness of God and believes in it with his heart will receive the
remission of all his sins.
In
Romans 1:17, the Apostle Paul said, “For in it [the gospel] the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” The Book of
Romans tells us that one’s own human righteousness cannot deliver him
from his sins. In Romans chapter 5, the Apostle Paul once again
summarized the gospel in which the righteousness of God is contained. He
did this to preach this righteousness of God to the saints in Rome, so
that their faith may be strengthened even more.
However,
some people still interpret this passage from the erroneous viewpoint
of the Doctrine of Justification. It is fallacious to distort this
passage to adhere to such a doctrine. The Doctrine of Justification is
an interpretation that claims that since Christians believe in Jesus,
God considers them sinless even though they still have their sins
intact. This is the essence of the Doctrine of Justification.
The
righteousness of God tells us differently though. It tells us that
those who believe in God’s righteousness have “been justified by faith.”
We can be justified before God only by believing in His righteousness.
God does not consider anyone sinful to have no sin.
Entering by Faith into This Grace in Which We Stand
(Romans 5:2) “Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
The
righteousness of God given to us is not constituted by our own good
deeds. We are saved from all our sins once for all by believing in God’s
righteousness, which has already been completed and has absolute power.
What is God’s righteousness then? It refers to the fact that God has
already saved everyone living on this planet from all his sins to
perfection, by sending His Son to this earth, having Him to be baptized
by John the Baptist, die on the Cross, and rise from the dead again.
Therefore, we who believe in God’s righteousness have become His
children, and we have entered into His glory.
Romans
5:2 says, “Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in
which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” As the
Apostle Paul underscores it again, since the righteousness of God has
already been completed and is standing firm, it is by faith that we have
attained God’s righteousness, and therefore you and everyone else in
this world must realize that it is now possible for all to obtain,
through the law of faith, this righteousness of God that is already
standing. If you also become righteous with us by believing in God’s
righteousness, then you, too, will receive the blessing of everlasting
life.
What
we need to realize clearly in God’s righteousness is the fact that the
baptism and blood of Jesus have saved us from all our sins. That is why
we can attain holiness and have true faith by believing in God’s
righteousness. Real faith is the faith that is placed in the Truth where
the righteousness of God is contained. We must not exchange God’s
righteousness, which God Himself has already completed, with the
Doctrine of Justification and believe in it instead. God’s righteousness
is not something that was created theoretically by men. God’s
righteousness has been completed concretely and actually by the baptism
and blood of Jesus. Without believing in God’s righteousness, it is
impossible for any sinner to be saved from all his sins. Therefore, we
must understand God’s righteousness properly and believe in it properly.
The reason why we must not believe in the Doctrine of Justification in
lieu of the righteousness of God is because if we do so, our sins cannot
be blotted out.
God
has approved the faith of those who believe in His righteousness. To
the hearts of the believers in God’s righteousness, He has given
everlasting peace. What the righteousness of God is trying to tell us is
that the sins of mankind had broken their peace with God, but Jesus
Christ has reconciled them with God by blotting out all these sins with
His baptism and blood.
It
is only by believing in the true righteousness of God that we can have
peace with Him. We who believe in God’s righteousness can no longer
remain His enemies, and true peace has come to us as a result of
believing in the righteousness of God. The One who has prepared such
peace is God the Father. Having been sent to this earth, Jesus Christ
blotted out, through the baptism He received from John, and His blood,
death, and resurrection, all the sins of the world that had made us
God’s enemies.
However,
those who do not believe in God’s righteousness wage war against this
righteousness of God by fronting their own righteousness. Such people
must turn around immediately and surrender to God. And by now placing
their faith in God’s righteousness, they must receive the grace that
remits away all their sins.
How
does God’s peace come to a sinner? Your peace with God can be had only
if you attain it by believing in His righteousness. There is no other
way but this to have peace with God. Yet despite this, sinners do not
know the righteousness of God even when they desire to have peace with
Him, and so they are not at peace with God. If a Christian sinner does
not hold onto the righteousness of God and believe in it, then he has no
conviction of salvation because of the sins that he constantly commits,
and so he comes to rely on groundless doctrines instead. As a result,
all that perpetuates is only moaning and endless despair. In contrast,
we who believe in the righteousness of God are now actually enjoying
peace with Him.
The Righteousness of God That Enables Us to Overcome Everything
(Romans 5:3) “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;”
Not
only this—that is, not only have we received salvation by faith—but we
also have joy in tribulations. This is all because we believe in God’s
righteousness. The passage here says that tribulation produces
perseverance; this faith is the Apostle Paul’s testimony and also our
testimony. Those who have been saved by believing in God’s righteousness
are sometimes persecuted to preach this righteousness of God. They face
tribulations to follow the will of God.
(Romans 5:4) “And perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
However,
perseverance also produces character, and character produces hope.
Because God has saved us from all our sins once for all and He has given
us new heavens and a new earth, we wait patiently in hope. This is the
true purpose for which the saints persevere.
Tribulation
produces perseverance for the saints. The saints persevere through
tribulation because they believe that God’s blessings will come soon. A
patient heart is the heart that longs for the early return of the Lord.
Through tribulations, God refines the hearts of the saints. A refined
heart makes us have strong faith and enables us to persevere through any
suffering. Therefore, no tribulation can ever abolish our faith in the
righteousness of God.
Before
God, the saints’ hearts always hope for the Lord’s return standing firm
on the Word of the righteousness of God. All our perseverance stems
from the fact that we believe in the Lord’s promise, and the strength
for the saints to persevere through tribulations comes from the fact
that God’s love of the Truth has been poured into their hearts.
Those
who believe in the righteousness of God given by the Lord are those who
have received the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit makes the hearts of
the saints believe firmly in the righteousness of God, and thus leads
them to trust in God’s promises.
The Righteousness of God That Has Given Us Hope
(Romans 5:5)
“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured
out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
One
who believes in the righteousness of God is one who has hope for the
Kingdom of Heaven. So he is not ashamed of the fact that he is living on
this earth for the Kingdom of the Lord. That’s because the love of God
has been poured into his heart. God’s love is a love that is attained by
placing faith in the righteousness of God, not by believing in the
Doctrine of Justification or the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification.
Yet many people are still pushing God’s righteousness aside with the
Doctrine of Justification.
Referring
to the baptism of Jesus that constitutes God’s righteousness, some
people stand against God saying, “Where does it say in the Bible that
the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by
John the Baptist?” In the Bible, the meaning of the baptism of Jesus is:
1) to be washed; 2) to be submerged; 3) to be buried in funeral; and 4)
to be passed on. That the sins of the world were washed away when Jesus
was baptized by John the Baptist is the same principle as the laying on
of hands in the Old Testament, where the sins of the people of Israel
were washed away from their hearts when the High Priest laid his hands
on the head of the scapegoat. The people of Israel, too, were washed
from their sins by faith, by believing in the Word of the sacrificial
system of God that was found in the laying on of hands set by God.
Therefore,
that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and submerged under water
means that He accepted the sins of the world, and it further means that
Jesus died on the Cross precisely because He had accepted all those sins
of the world. Jesus’ burial tells us that He died because He had taken
upon the sins of the world and shouldered them through His baptism. “The
wages of sin is death,” and this is God’s Law; therefore, that Jesus
was baptized and buried refers to the fact that He bore all our sins and
died in our stead.
When
Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, He said in Matthew 3:15,
“Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.” So it is when He came out of the water after being
baptized that the righteousness of God that saves mankind from sin was
fulfilled. Yet despite this, some people consider themselves too smart,
and they gloss over the significance that is hidden and contained in the
Word of God, and do not hold onto it. Using the word baptism, the Bible
spoke about the washing of sin that fulfilled the righteousness of God.
God spoke about His righteousness that washes away the sins of the
world through the laying on of hands in the Old Testament, and through
Jesus’ baptism in the New Testament. Those who believe in the
righteousness of God are those who believe in the baptism and blood of
Jesus as their salvation. It is such people who abide by God’s
righteousness.
Even Before We Were Born
(Romans 5:6) “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Here
the Bible uses the expression, “When we were still without strength,”
and this phrase refers to the time when we were not born yet. When did
Jesus Christ come to this earth? He came about 2,000 years ago. He came
to this earth long before any of us was born in this world.
To
Adam and Eve, the first human beings, God had promised the plan of the
remission of sin for all sinners. As God said to the serpent, “He shall
bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). Satan
had incited the hearts of Adam and Eve to disbelieve in God’s Word.
However, the New Testament tells us that Jesus has saved us sinners from
all our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and
the blood He shed on the Cross. When God said in Genesis that Satan
would bruise Jesus’ heel, this meant that the Lord would be baptized and
crucified on this earth. It refers to the baptism and death of Jesus,
prophesying that our Lord would take upon our sins through His baptism
and die on the Cross. Therefore, the phrase in this verse, “When we were
still without strength,” tells us that the Lord had promised to remit
all our sins even before we were born on this earth, and that He
completed this work long before any of us was born. We must therefore
believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus that have become God’s
righteousness as our remission of sin.
Verse
6 states, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly.” Paul is saying here that the righteousness of God
was already fulfilled even before we were born. He is therefore telling
us that it is by believing in the baptism and blood of the Lord that we
are saved from all the sins of the world, and that the remission of our
sins is not received by offering prayers of repentance.
Those
who do not know the righteousness of God claim that while one’s
original sin is remitted away when he believes in Jesus Christ, his
actual sins are forgiven by giving prayers of repentance everyday. Not
only are such beliefs not approved by God, but they have nothing to do
with the faith that believes in God’s righteousness. So we must not
believe like this. That’s because the righteousness of God is not
attained by this kind of faith.
These
people also say that the believers are sanctified gradually, and that
they will go to the Kingdom of Heaven when their bodies and souls become
completely sinless in their deathbed. Among the nominal Christians who
have not been born again, there also are those who advocate the Doctrine
of Justification, which claims that God considers someone sinless just
because he believes in Jesus, even though he still has sin in God’s
eyes. This is nothing more than a man-made doctrine. If God were to call
a sinner righteous, who could call Him and believe in Him as the Holy
God? To believe like this is to turn God into a liar. All of you must
realize clearly here that God the Father will judge anyone who has sin
in his heart, regardless of whether this person professes to believe in
Jesus or not.
To
give us His righteousness, God the Father sent Jesus long before we
were born; and the Father made the Son receive the baptism through which
Jesus accepted the sins of the world from John the Baptist. It is
because the Lord was baptized like this to accept all our sins that He
shed His blood and died on the Cross. That is the righteousness of God
and the infallible Truth. The phrase “all righteousness,” which Jesus
uttered in Matthew 3:15 when He was baptized, means “what is just and
righteous.” The Lord Himself came to this earth to blot out all our sins
of the world; He accepted all these sins of the world by being baptized
by John the Baptist; He went to the Cross and was condemned for the
sins of the world by being crucified and shedding His blood; and through
all these things, He fulfilled the righteousness of God all at once.
Knowing
that we would commit sin when we are born in this world, Jesus Christ
had promised to save us from all our sins. He fulfilled this promise
through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, His death on the
Cross, and His resurrection. In the age of the Old Testament, the
sacrificial animals accepted the sins of the Israelites through the
laying on of hands. In the age of the New Testament, Jesus Christ
accepted our sins through the baptism given by John the Baptist, died on
the Cross, and has thereby saved us from all our sins and fulfilled all
the righteousness of God. That is why we must all have faith in the
righteousness of God, and we must all realize that the Doctrine of
Justification is a groundless doctrine. God only approves the faith that
is placed in His righteousness. The Book of Romans is teaching us to
cast aside our own human righteousness and to place our faith in God’s
righteousness.
God Has Demonstrated His Love
(Romans 5:7) “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.”
This
verse talks about the few in this world that have sacrificed themselves
for others. There are some people, though very rare, who are willing to
lay down their life for a cause they hold to be just. In other words,
some people sacrifice their life for someone else whom they consider to
be good. And it tells us that rarely does anyone die for the servants of
God.
(Romans 5:8) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Here
the Bible used the expression, “while we were still sinners,”
implicitly asking whether one was a sinner even before he started to
believe in God’s righteousness. Before we believed in the righteousness
of God, were we sinners or righteous people? We were all sinners. “But
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.”
This
passage tells us that to save us from all our sins, God the Father
completed the remission of our sins through the baptism Jesus received
and the blood He shed on the Cross long ago. Even while we were still
sinners, Christ confirmed His love for us with His baptism and death.
Ever
since the foundation of the world, we were all born as Adam’s
descendants and thus became sinners automatically. Because we were born
with sinful bodies, there was no way for us to escape from our sins
without having faith in the righteousness of God. There were only
destruction and suffering for us because of our sins. However, God sent
His Son to save us, and by having His Son be baptized by John the
Baptist and die on the Cross, God fulfilled His righteousness once for
all. Through His righteousness, God completed the remission of all the
sins of the world. This talks about the perfect righteousness of God
toward us.
By
contrasting the weakness of mankind to the perfect righteousness of
God, Paul is telling us just how great His love is. My fellow believers,
you must not believe in the Doctrine of Justification that brings
nothing but confusion to you. Nor should you believe in the Doctrine of
Incremental Sanctification. The carnal thoughts of man can only corrupt
God’s righteousness. By fundamental nature, no man has ever had any
goodness or righteousness of his own from his very birth. Had human
beings been born in goodness by nature, the righteousness of God that
Jesus fulfilled by saving sinners from all their sins would not have
been exalted so highly.
However,
if we who had all been bound to sin because of our iniquities have now
attained the righteousness of God by believing in it, then we should all
be thankful, and we should all have unwavering faith in God’s
righteousness. The love of God can be known only to those who believe in
the righteousness of God. That’s because it is only the righteousness
of God that has saved us from all the sins of the world. Here we need to
ponder upon a few words that the Apostle Paul used.
The Weakness of Mankind
These
words tell us that we were fundamentally born as seeds of evildoers
from our very birth (Isaiah 1:4; Mark 7:21-22). By nature, everyone was
born as a sinner without any righteousness at all. That means that one’s
salvation from all his sins entails absolutely no righteousness of his
own. In other words, all of us have the flesh that commits sin from the
day we are born to the day we die. Therefore, we have been saved from
all our sins entirely by believing in God’s righteousness. For one to be
saved from his sins, he doesn’t need any righteousness whatsoever of
his own. Put differently, there is no rightfulness of man that can be
added.
The
word “ungodly” means that mankind is standing against God ferociously.
The righteousness of man stands against the righteousness of God. Human
beings abhor that their sins are exposed before God, and they also
dislike God who judges these sins. They want to do whatever they wish
without paying any attention to God, and they are trying hard to
establish their own righteousness. This is why they cannot look toward
the righteousness of God. They do not accept the power of the
righteousness of God that has solved the problem of their sins and
remitted them away. That’s because they do not want their sinful acts
and lusts to turn into problems. God is righteous, but the righteousness
of man refuses to acknowledge the righteousness of God. However, those
whose own righteousness is all broken down and who admit themselves as
sinners can be saved from their sins by believing in the love of the
righteousness of God.
The
word “sinners” refers to those who have failed to reach the goal set by
God. Because people do not believe in God’s righteousness, they are
living in sin and despair. The word “enemies” refers to those who do not
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains God’s
righteousness, and instead stand against it. Even so, God has saved us
all from sin through His righteousness.
The Remission of Sins That Was Completed Long Ago
(Romans 5:9) “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
That
Jesus Christ shed His blood on the Cross is the Truth that puts the
final period to the totality of the righteousness of God. It is the
conclusion to God’s righteousness. The righteousness of God means that
Jesus Christ not only promised to come to this earth to save us, but He
actually came just as He had promised, shouldered the sins of the world
by being baptized, and was crucified and shed His blood on the Cross. To
blot out the sins of mankind, Jesus Christ came to this earth, and to
fulfill the righteousness of God, He received the baptism given by John
the Baptist. He shed His blood on the Cross, rose from the dead again,
and has thereby saved from sin all those who believe in the
righteousness of God.
The
Bible says that the blood of the Cross has put the final period to the
righteousness of God. Some people do not know the significance of the
baptism that Jesus received. They just say that one is justified only by
believing in His blood. However, for Jesus to be condemned for our
sins, there had to be the absolutely indispensable process whereby Jesus
accepted the sins of the world through the baptism given by John the
Baptist, and only then could He shoulder the sins of the world on His
body. The Bible says that the wooden Cross is a symbol of curse
(Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13).
If
the Lord was crucified and shed His blood on the accursed Cross, then
we must realize and believe that Jesus had to be crucified and shed His
blood precisely because He had received, in the Jordan River and from
John, the baptism that fulfilled the righteousness of God. It is by
believing in what the Lord did when He came to this earth to fulfill the
righteousness of God—that is, by believing in the righteousness of God
that Jesus fulfilled by being baptized by John the Baptist, and bearing
all the punishments of our sins through His crucifixion on the accursed
Cross—that we can be saved from all our sins.
There
is no effect without a cause. Just as we exist now only because God had
created the heavens and the earth in the beginning and decided to make
us, everything has its cause and effect. If the Lord came to this earth
to save us from our sins, then Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist
because He had to be baptized, and that’s why He could be crucified and
shed His blood on the Cross. It is extremely frustrating that many
people still do not know this Truth; the significance of the baptism
that Jesus received from John the Baptist and fulfilled the
righteousness of God, and they still continue to misconstrue and
misbelieve that only the blood of the Cross constitutes the
righteousness of God. We can see that such people are only trying to
establish their own righteousness, completely oblivious to God’s
righteousness.
The
Bible says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2
Corinthians 3:6). The letter here refers to interpreting and believing
in the Word of God literally. One must believe in God’s Word within His
righteousness. If one were to believe in it literally, misunderstandings
are bound to arise. If anyone believes like this while misunderstanding
God’s righteousness, then this person cannot receive the remission of
his sins. The spiritual meanings of the Bible are not hidden in the
letter itself. They are hidden in the Truth of the water and the Spirit
that is in God’s righteousness; thus, we must believe in this
righteousness of God. Only when we know clearly what the righteousness
of God is and believe accordingly can we receive the remission of our
sins.
This is why God said, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Do
you know the righteousness of God that He speaks of? Do you understand
the meaning of the Cross with an in-depth knowledge of the significance
of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist? You can be
saved from all your sins only when you believe in Jesus’ Cross with a
clear understanding of the meaning of the baptism that Jesus received
from John the Baptist when He came to this earth.
(Romans 5:10-11)
“For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the
death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the
reconciliation.”
The
phrase, “When we were enemies,” refers to the time when human beings
were God’s enemies because of their sins. The Bible says that mankind
became enemies not only because they had sinned, but because they were
all born sinners as Adam’s descendants. That’s why David said in Psalm
51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother
conceived me.” It is because we were born as Adam’s descendants that we
became God’s enemies. However, because our Lord came to this earth and
has reconciled us to God the Father by being baptized, dying, and rising
from the dead again, we were able to have peace with God once again by
believing in His righteousness. The Lord has saved us from all our sins
through the righteousness of God.
Like
this, God’s righteousness was completed through the baptism and death
of Jesus, and it is by believing in this righteousness of God that we
have been reconciled to God. God’s righteousness refers to the fact that
the Lord became the Lamb of atonement before God when He was baptized
and crucified to death on this earth. Therefore, those who believe in
the righteousness of God are those who have been reconciled with God by
believing in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and
the blood that He shed on the Cross. In other words, the very people who
had been by nature God’s enemies have now become His children and one
family with God, all by believing in His righteousness. Seeing us, who
believe in His righteousness, God says to us, “You are My children,” and
we, too, have no hesitation whatsoever to call Him “God our Father.”
“Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” This
tells us that because our Lord rose from the dead again, our bodies
will also be resurrected on the last day.
Christ and Adam
(Romans 5:12) “Therefore,
just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin,
and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—”
What
the Apostle Paul addresses from verse 12 and on is how sin came to
enter into this world. He is also explaining what the weight of this sin
is, and how Jesus has blotted out all such sins.
The
word “therefore” here refers to the fact that even before we were born
on this earth, and even before we knew God, Jesus came to this earth,
took upon our sins through His baptism, shed His blood on the Cross for
the wages of all our sins, and has thereby saved us from all our sins
perfectly. That’s why Paul used the word “therefore,” underscoring the
fact that every sinner is saved from all his sins by believing in the
righteousness of God previously explained.
The
Bible says that sin entered the world through one man. And death came
to everyone thereby. “Thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
The one man here refers to Adam, the first human being. Death spread to
all men because of Adam and Eve. As everyone came to sin, every human
being is bound to suffer death without exception.
There
are two theories concerning human nature: the theory of innate goodness
and the theory of innate wickedness. The theory of innate goodness
asserts that human beings are born with goodness in them by nature,
whereas the theory of innate wickedness argues that human beings are
wicked from their very birth. Divided in these two camps, scholars have
argued over the fundamental nature of mankind for ages, but God said in
the Bible that sin entered this world through one man. Sin entered
because of a single couple, Adam and Eve, and through this sin death
came to mankind.
(Romans 5:13) “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
To
explain the gospel of righteousness once again, the Apostle Paul spoke
about the God-given Law. God had given the Law to the people of Israel
through Moses, but even before this, there was already sin in people’s
hearts because of the inheritance of the original sin committed by Adam
and Eve.
“Until
the law sin was in the world.” Sin was in people’s hearts even before
God gave the Law to mankind, but they did not recognize sin as sin, and
they came to realize sin through the Law only when it was given to them.
Sin is explained here in connection with the Law because for sin to be
exposed as sin, there must be the Law. Human beings continue to sin
throughout their lifetime because they all inherited sin from the moment
they were born. This was all because of one man. Ultimately, they are
bound to reach death because of this sin, and Paul said here what
exposes this sin is none other than the Law.
Romans
3:19-20 state, “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.” Why did God give the Law to sinners? It was to expose
mankind’s sins. Everyone has sin in his heart, but without the Law no
one can recognize sin as sin, nor can anyone realize that he is a seed
of evildoer—this is why God gave the Law.
For
example, when some people do some good deeds, they think of themselves
highly, saying, “Who can live virtuously like me?” They think that they
are living virtuously, and they consider themselves good. However, such
people consider themselves good and virtuous precisely because they do
not know the Law of God; if they knew God’s Law, none of them could
confidently say to God that they have lived virtuously.
The
Law is subdivided into 613 commandments, but its backbone can be
summarized into ten. These are the Ten Commandments, and in here there
are rules that we must keep in our relationship with God, as well as
rules that we must keep in our relationship with each other. If we were
to reflect our individual lives upon these Ten Commandments, which
constitute the gist of the Law, there is no one who would emerge
innocent. That’s because human beings are incapable of keeping even a
single commandment of the Law.
We
begin to break the first commandment telling us, “You shall not have
other gods before Me.” Since human beings love their own life more than
God, and they love money, fame, and power more than they love God, they
have many idols according to their needs, and therefore they have a lot
of other gods before God. Many people worship another human being as a
god, while others worship God’s creation such as trees and rocks, but
all these are in fact committing sin. When we stand before the
commandment that God has given us, “You shall not have other gods before
Me,” we are compelled to admit that we have all offended this
commandment before God. But when there was no Law, many people did not
consider sin as sin.
Although
Abraham was approved as a righteous man because he believed in God’s
Word, his descendants committed idolatry when they were living in the
wilderness after escaping from Egypt, and they did not even realize what
a grave sin they were committing against God. Before the people of
Israel received the Law through Moses from the Mountain Sinai, they did
not know about sin. They finally came to realize that idolatry was a sin
only after they received the Law that told them not to have other gods
before God.
God
gave the Law to the people of Israel and the whole mankind, and soon
after giving this Law He also gave them the sacrificial system. The
God-given sacrificial system commanded the people of Israel that
whenever they realized their sins through the Law, they should bring an
unblemished sacrificial lamb to the Tabernacle, pass their sins onto it
by laying their hands on its head, and draw its blood by cutting its
throat. When this blood was given to the priests, the priests then had
to put it on the four horns of the altar of burnt offering and poured
the rest on the ground. Like this, the people of Israel received the
remission of their sins through the sacrificial system set by God, and
they sacrificed in this way because they recognized their sins through
the Law. In other words, they came to realize their sins precisely
because the Law pointed out their iniquities to them.
This
is why the Apostle Paul said that the Jews and the people of the world
did not consider sin as sin when there was no Law. So before he spoke
about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he first mentioned the
Law. This explains why the Apostle Paul preached the gospel of God’s
righteousness in connection to the Law and the sacrificial system, so
that people would realize their sins and God’s remission of these sins.
(Romans 5:14)
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had
not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who
is a type of Him who was to come.”
Paul
used the word “nevertheless” here to underscore the fact that since sin
entered this world through one man, and death came into the world
because of this sin, our Lord has saved all of us humans who had been
sinners from the time of Adam. To preach the gospel to the unbelievers,
the Apostle Paul once again explained the gospel of the righteousness of
God by contrasting it to the innate and universal sinfulness of all
humanity.
“Nevertheless
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned
according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of
Him who was to come.” By mentioning Adam, the father of mankind, the
Apostle Paul explained why Jesus came. In other words, the Savior came
when all human beings inherited sin from Adam and were therefore bound
to commit sin throughout their entire lifetime only to reach death and
be accursed. Paul said here that Adam is a type of the Savior to come.
By this, he was using a comparison to explain how Jesus has blotted out
all our sins; that is, just as everyone has sin and will die and be
cursed without exception because of one man, Jesus came as the Savior
and has blotted out all the sins of the countless people once for all.
In
other words, just as every human being turned into a sinner because of
one man, Adam, everyone can now reach salvation because of one Man,
Jesus Christ. When Paul described Adam as a type of Him who was to come,
he was referring to Jesus Christ “Just as through one man sin entered
the world, and death through sin.” This tells us that just as sin
entered all human beings through one man, Adam, their salvation from sin
is also reached by believing in the righteousness of God fulfilled by
Jesus Christ.
Through One Man, Jesus Christ
(Romans 5:15)
“But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s
offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace
of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”
The
Apostle Paul continues to explain how sin entered this world and how
this sin has been remitted through God’s righteousness. The free gift
here refers to the gift of salvation given by Jesus. In other words, it
explains that the righteousness of God has blotted out all our sins
through the water and the Spirit, and has saved us perfectly.
“But
the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense
many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the
one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” Since the entire human species
originated from Adam, and there is no one in this world who was not
born from Adam, sin perpetuated onto all Adam’s descendants because of
his transgression, and thus every human being was born as a sinner. In
other words, everyone continues to sin, and because of this everyone is
to reach death. Just as every sin came from one man Adam, the salvation
from sin was also completed by one Savior. Thanks to the grace of
salvation that Jesus Christ has bestowed, salvation from sin now abounds
to everyone in this world, and the God-given love of salvation also
abounds for all.
People
like to divide. They have divided themselves into different races,
countries, nations and cultures, and they have established laws to their
likings. However, no one can be born without God, and it is only
because God made us that we were all born on this earth. So even though
we may be of different nations, races, and laws, we are all Adam’s
descendants before God. Therefore, the Law of God applies to everyone
equally, and the Word of God applies to everyone equally. Because of one
man, everyone was born as a sinner, continues to sin, and is to drown
in this sin, and this perpetuates continuously even at this very moment.
God
made Adam and Eve, and through them He planned to bring forth their
descendants. However, as a result of their fall, deceived by Satan and
eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the sins
of the world entered the entire mankind. Adam and Eve bore their
children after sin entered the world like this. How then, were these
children? These children also inherited their parents’ sin intact and
were all born as sinners. Since the descendants of Adam and Eve all have
the twelve kinds of sin in their hearts, they came to commit sin by
nature, without anyone teaching them how to sin. The twelve kinds of sin
such as murder, adultery, fornication, jealousy, and thievery were
inherited to them; and so these sins spring forth from their hearts by
nature—this is why human beings continue to sin repeatedly time after
time, today and tomorrow, for twelve months a year.
An
apple tree is bound to bear apples even if it doesn’t want to, and a
pear tree can only yield pears when it grows no matter how desperately
it might want to bear some other fruits. Human beings, too, cannot help
but continue to sin, no matter how much they don’t want to and how hard
they try not to sin, precisely because they were all born with sin.
Everyone commits sin constantly with their thoughts, acts, and hearts.
If circumstances would allow, people put into action the sins they
committed only with their thought, and they even commit each and every
one of the twelve kinds of sin all at once.
The
secular law punishes only the sins committed in deed. However, the Law
of God says that even the transgressions committed with the heart are
sins, and they are to be punished also. Therefore, what people may not
grasp as a sin, God still sees it all clearly. As such, the iniquities
that we commit in our hearts are also counted as sins in God’s sight.
This is the God-spoken Law. Just as His Word is true—that sin entered
through one man, and death through this sin—the claim that human beings,
who are all seeds of evildoers, can live in holiness without committing
any sin is a lie. It is nothing more than a whitewashed tomb; a
deception that tries to hide the fact that all human beings are sinful
seeds through one man Adam.
Of
course, I am not suggesting here that we should try to sin
deliberately. Rather, what I mean is that it’s not because people are
deliberately determined to sin that they commit sin, but they cannot
help but sin because they were all born as seeds of sin. Whether people
sin or not has nothing to do with their level of education or character.
Everyone is a sinner who repeatedly commits sin in various forms under
various circumstances.
How,
then, can human beings, who can only be sinners, ever become God’s
sinless children? Paul answers that just as sin entered this world
through one man, it is also through one Man that everyone can receive
the gift of salvation and be remitted from all his sins by believing in
the righteousness of God.
The Righteousness of God That Is Greater than Sin
(Romans 5:16)
“And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.
For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation,
but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in
justification.”
Paul
continues to explain the righteousness of God by comparing His
salvation to sin. The “free gift” here refers to the salvation that God
has given to us, and this gift “is not like that which came through the
one who sinned.” In other words, this gift from God is fundamentally
different from the gift given by Adam. Because of one man, everyone was
born as a sinner and is to commit sin until the day he dies. But “the
free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.” In
other words, the grace of God that has saved us from all our sins has
perfectly justified His believers, for it is greater than all the sins
committed by mankind.
All
the descendants of Adam are still committing sin continuously because
of this one man. Once born, everyone continues to sin perpetually, even
after he reaches his 30s and 40s, and even until the very day he dies.
Human beings commit sin like this constantly in the present tense; and
although we do not know when exactly the world would end, human beings
will continue to sin without ceasing until the very last day of this
world. However, because of God’s salvation, all these sins that have
such an extensive and long history have already been remitted away, and
people have come to be justified by faith. That is why God said that
where sin abounds, the gift of salvation abounds even more. Here we can
see clearly that God’s gift of salvation is found in His righteousness.
One Man’s Righteous Act
(Romans 5:17)
“For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much
more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
The
Apostle Paul continues to explain that death came to this planet
because of one man’s offense, and death reigned through this one man.
Death reigned because everyone committed sin.
“Therefore,
as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in
condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came
to all men, resulting in justification of life.” The Apostle Paul is
addressing even the sins that we have not committed yet. The reason for
this is because we have all become those who cannot help but continue to
sin until the day we die, all stemming from one man Adam. Since
everyone who was and will ever be born in this world cannot avoid but
continue to sin until his death, all human beings will commit sin
perpetually until the end of this world and the end of the history of
mankind; even so, however, the free gift of God is greater than all
these offenses.
(Romans 5:18)
“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men,
resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the
free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”
When
Jesus came to this earth, He at once blotted out all the sins committed
by every human being until the end of this planet. To take away all our
sins that are darker than ink and redder than scarlet, Jesus was
baptized and crucified, and He has thereby saved us perfectly from all
our sins once for all. Therefore, although sin entered into the world
through one man Adam, the power of salvation that Jesus has given to us
is far greater than this. It was more than sufficient to blot out all
our sins.
As
such, when people profess to believe in Jesus and yet say, “Lord, I’ve
committed sin. Please forgive me,” they are actually establishing their
own righteousness, oblivious to the righteousness of God. Our Lord has
remitted away all the sins that you and I have committed and will ever
commit from the day we were born to the day we die, as well as all the
sins that our descendants would commit in the future. In other words, He
has remitted away all the sins of everyone from the beginning to the
end of the world.
The
world means all human history ranging from the days of the first man
and woman, Adam and Eve, to the days when Jesus and His disciples walked
on this earth, and to the present age and the future ages to come. God
is the Alpha and the Omega, and He took away not only our present sins,
but also all the sins of the world that will ever be committed in the
future. Because all mankind is bound to sin ceaselessly, when Jesus came
to this earth, He accepted all the sins of the world once for all by
being baptized, and by carrying these sins of the world to the Cross and
being crucified to death, He has saved us from all our sins, death, and
judgment. This grace of Jesus is that much more majestic, amazing,
tremendous and powerful.
Jesus
took upon all the sins of everyone, of all those who ever lived in the
past and are now living in the present age, and even of all those who
will be born with sin and continue to commit sin; He was crucified to
death at once; He rose from the dead again; and through all these
things, He has saved mankind perfectly once for all. This is why the
gift of the righteousness of God is so great and so vast that we must
all be profoundly grateful for it.
Despite
this, however, those who do not know this grace of salvation still
assert the Doctrine of Justification or the Doctrine of Incremental
Sanctification. These people claim that when the Bible says here,
“through one Man’s righteous act,” it means that God considers them
sinless even though they all commit sin everyday and therefore still
remain sinful. This interpretation and the accompanying belief
constitute the Doctrine of Justification. Such claims are words of
rebellion against God, arising out of their ignorance of and disbelief
in His righteousness.
However,
there are people of faith who believe that the Lord fulfilled God’s
righteousness when He came to this earth, and God has made those
believers His children by His grace. God does not just consider them as
sinless even though they have sin, but He has truthfully turned them
into His own children by making them actually sinless.
By the Lord’s Obedience
(Romans 5:19) “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
Verse
19 says, “By one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Here
again, Paul drew a comparison. Let’s assume for a moment that a pear
tree has human faculties. Thinking that apple trees are more beneficial
to people, the pear tree decides to yield apples from now on. But can
any pear tree really bear apples? No, it’s impossible. A pear tree is
nothing but a pear tree; it cannot turn into an apple tree, and it can
only produce pears, not apples. Until the end of this planet, a pear
tree will continue to sprout its own kind and bear nothing else but
pears.
Like
this, by one’s man disobedience, many became sinners before God. And by
one Man’s obedience, many will be made righteous. Jesus, God Himself,
came to this earth as a Man, and by being baptized by John the Baptist
at the age of 30, He fulfilled all the righteousness of God. In other
words, He accepted all sins onto Himself.
“By
one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Since God has made
everyone righteous, it is by faith that one can become righteous. The
righteousness of God proclaims that Jesus Christ took away all our sins
when He came to this earth. This entails the principle of representation
whereby everyone is represented by one man. Because of one man, Adam,
all mankind automatically turned into sinners, and they were all
accursed to be cast into hell. Because of one Man, Jesus, we have now
become God’s children, for Jesus came to this earth to save us, accepted
all the sins of mankind by being baptized when He was 30, carried them
to the Cross, was crucified, and declared, “It is finished!” The
children of God have the hope that they, too, will be resurrected just
as Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, and that they will live
forever with Him next to God in the Millennial Kingdom and Heaven. All
these things came from the salvation that was fulfilled by one Man’s
righteous act that has blotted out all the sins of this world.
In
writing about the Book of Romans, far too many people have addressed it
without knowing the Truth. As a result, they ended up producing many
different arguments and their own thoughts, only to lengthen their
books. By expounding on the Doctrine of Justification (which claims that
God considers Christians sinless even though they have sin in their
hearts), or the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification (which tries to
hide their sins), these authors have established only the righteousness
of man. This is completely irrelevant to God’s law of life, and in doing
so they have led countless people in this world to stand against God’s
righteousness.
In
contrast, what the Bible says is that Jesus has saved us from all our
sins once for all by actually taking upon all the sins of mankind from
their beginning to the end in the Jordan River, and by being crucified
three years later. And by rising from the dead again, He has given us
everlasting life. This is the Truth testified by the Bible. Yet, even
though this is the real Truth, many people still remain far too ignorant
of it.
Some
people stand against us saying, “Is the gospel of the water and the
Spirit all that you know?” But of the many preachers on this earth, how
many of them can really preach this gospel? Most of them just say, “You
will go to Heaven if you believe in Jesus. It’s good to believe in
Jesus. You should believe in Jesus and live virtuously.” This is all
that they can say while preaching the so-called gospel. That is no
gospel however. People can believe properly only if they are taught in
detail and according to the written Word how exactly Jesus has saved
each of them. Yet despite this, if we were to scream, “Jesus is
salvation! Believe in Him or you will go to hell!” wouldn’t we be just
scaring them off?
It’s
not because we do something good or evil with our acts that we become
sinners or righteous people. It is wrong for Christians to try to blot
out their sins and sanctify themselves through their own efforts in
complete irrelevance to the Word. Can Christians enter the Kingdom of
God only if they are sanctified through their own acts, or do they
become righteous and enter the Kingdom of Heaven by realizing what the
Lord has done to blot out the sins of the world once for all, and by
believing in it with the heart? It is by believing in the righteousness
of God that we can become righteous.
However,
Romans chapter 10 makes it clear that the Jews who did not know God’s
righteousness disobeyed it by trying to establish their own
righteousness. The Jewish people even today have not accepted Jesus
Christ, trying to live virtuously and still waiting for the Messiah to
come. They are still pretending to be godly and holy on their own,
slaughtering bulls and lambs to offer sacrifices that were already
abolished long ago. Even now, they are divided into the conservatives
and liberals, with one camp beholden to the Law trying to keep it to the
very letter, and the other drawn to religious festivities and captured
by the murky beauty of the world. There also are too many Jews who even
deny the existence of God.
Even
the Jews who believe in God’s existence are only trying to keep their
own righteousness and to manifest their own rightfulness, rather than
believing in God’s Truth. So even to this very day, they still make sure
to wear dark robes and hats, and to keep their beards because the Law
forbids them from shaving them. They are still trying to keep the Law
through and through, writing scriptural passages on a piece of paper and
wearing it on their arms to read, and putting on their foreheads a
plate written with the phrase, “Holiness to the Lord.” However, they
refuse to accept the fact that Jesus is the Lamb of God who has become
their Savior by coming to this earth over 2,000 years ago, taking upon
all their sins by being baptized, and dying on the Cross, all in order
to save them.
Not
only these people, but even today’s Christians say all kinds of
nonsense, falsely asserting, “Anyone who believes in Jesus is saved,” or
“Since you’ve come to church and believe in Jesus, you are the chosen
people.” My fellow believers, our Lord chose those who would be saved in
Jesus Christ by believing in Him; He did not say that anyone who
blindly calls upon His name would be saved. To have the right faith, you
must understand the whole Bible, and you must grasp its core message.
The Apostle Paul explained the Word repeatedly to convey its core
message. Unless this is done, people often fail to grasp the key Word
that they must all understand. This is why the entire Christianity
worldwide has fallen into a decline, even though countless churches are
preaching about Jesus.
The
word baptism means “to be buried in funeral,” “to be passed on,” “to be
transferred,” and “to be washed away.” My fellow believers, why was
Jesus crucified? It was because He was baptized by John the Baptist. Yet
when Christians think about the crucifixion of Jesus, all that they can
muster is to wonder how much pain He must have suffered. They don’t
even realize for whom and why He died; they only wonder how much they
would have suffered if they had been subjected to this punishment, and
say, “Lord, You must have suffered a lot.” The Lord died for us in order
to make us holy because He had accepted our sins. You need to get away
from the mindset that considers your own emotion as somehow reflecting
your faith. You should actually think about and shed tears over your
soul and all the souls around you who are bound to hell.
The
gospel can be preached properly only when we know the Truth and we have
its exact knowledge in our hearts. It is because Jesus took our sins
upon Himself that He died on the Cross. When our Lord came to this
earth, He did not just die without first accepting our sins through His
baptism. He didn’t say, “I am dying on the Cross for you. Look at the
Cross and repent from your sins all the time.” The first thing that
Jesus did in His public life was to go to the Jordan River and receive
His baptism from John the Baptist at the age of 30. The Four Gospel
Books first speak about the Jordan River, John the Baptist, and the fact
that Jesus was baptized by John. For 29 years Jesus had lived a private
life, but once He turned 30, He began His work to save mankind from its
sins, and the first thing that He did in His public life was to be
baptized.
After
Jesus was baptized and accepted our sins, He was testified by John the
Baptist who had baptized Him, saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) In other words, Jesus accepted
the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the
Jordan River. The word baptism means “to be washed,” “to be submerged,”
“to be buried in funeral,” and “to pass on.” The biblically sound way to
perform baptism is for the baptizer and the one who is to be baptized
to be half-submerged in the water up to their waist, and for the
baptizer to lay his hands on the head of his counterpart and say, “I
baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
The righteous have the evidence of their faith in Jesus, that is, the
evidence of their belief that all the sins of the world including theirs
were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and
that He has saved them by being crucified.
It
is because Jesus accepted our sins by being baptized in the Jordan
River when He came to this earth that He could go to the Cross and die.
If Jesus had not shouldered the sins of the world, how could He be
accursed on the Cross, when He has no sin? The Bible says, “Cursed is
everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). How could Jesus, who has
no sin, be crucified then?
Many
Christians believe in Jesus far too religiously. Just as Buddhists
consider themselves faithful followers if they bow to a statue of Buddha
carved out of stone and give offerings to their temple, many Christians
think that all that they have to do is just give some offerings and
attend every worship service, saying, “I believe in Jesus. I believe in
the blood of the Cross. I drank the precious blood of the Lord.” But it
is by believing in the righteousness of God that we can drink the Lord’s
precious blood. It other words, we drink the Lord’s great salvation by
believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus. We believe in the Truth
that Jesus died on the Cross in our place precisely because all sins
were passed onto Him instantaneously through His baptism, and He
accepted them all. So we receive the Lord’s grace of salvation by
believing that His death on the Cross was the condemnation He bore for
our sins, and that He washed away our sins and accepted them by being
baptized.
Since
faith does not just seek after worldly blessings, we should look at
this reality objectively. A preacher should open the Word and then give
his sermon according to the Scripture passage he has chosen. However,
far too many preachers only say preposterous things as the Word is
opened. The congregation should learn spiritual lessons from the Word,
understand it and believe in it, and yet they only come to learn about
formalistic and acts-oriented faith.
“For
as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one
Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” It is because one Man,
Jesus, came to this earth in obedience and accepted our sins through His
baptism that our sins were all washed away. And it is because Jesus
accepted our sins that He had to die on the Cross in our place. The
reason why the death of Jesus Christ is our death, and why He was
pierced, abused, and beaten is because He had already shouldered the
sins of the world by being baptized. Throughout all these sufferings
that Jesus endured in Pilate’s court, He did not open His mouth until
His death.
He
knew that He had to bear this punishment without fail because He had
taken upon all our sins through His baptism. It’s because this was the
will of the Father that Jesus obeyed Him like a lamb before its shearer.
Just before He died, He said for the last time, “It is finished,”
indicating that Jesus fulfilled all the ministries of the salvation of
mankind. He rose from the dead on the third day, bore witness for 40
days, and then ascended to the Kingdom of Heaven. If anyone believes in
Jesus Christ who has fulfilled the righteousness of God as his Savior,
then no matter what insufficiencies he might have, Christ has made him
righteous. There is no sin whatsoever that Jesus Christ did not take
away. He bore them all.
Through One Man Many Were Made Sinners; Through one Man, Jesus Christ, All the Sins of the World Have Disappeared
(Romans 5:20) “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,”
Paul
says here that the Law entered that our offense might abound. As Adam’s
descendants, human beings were fundamentally born with sin and
committed sin constantly. But even as they committed sins, they did not
realize those sins as sins. In other words, because there was no Law,
they did not know their sins; but once God’s Law of commandments came,
they recognized sin as sin. As the Law made us realize the sins that we
did not recognize before, our sins abounded more as a result. We all
commit many sins by nature, but once we recognized them, our offense
abounded even more. That is why the Bible says here, “The law entered
that the offense might abound.”
When
it further says here, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much
more,” it means that through God’s commandments we know sin, and by
believing in His righteousness we become God’s sons and daughters. Only
when people realize through the Law, “I am this much insufficient; I am
this much sinful,” can they realize that the perfect gospel, which
constitutes the righteousness of God, is the very grace of God. Only
someone who knows his sins well can realize that he is bound to hell,
and he also comes to realize that the baptism of Jesus and His blood on
the Cross have saved him, and to believe in this with thanksgiving. In
other words, those who realize their sins through the Law, and realize
them even more, can appreciate the grace of salvation that is even
greater than their sins, all because of the gospel of the righteousness
of God.
(Romans 5:21)
“So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through
righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Explaining
that sin reigned in death, the Bible says that the righteousness of God
has saved us perfectly from all sins through His wisdom, and therefore
we who have become God’s children have now become the King’s children.
That is why God said that He has made us reign in His grace. So we
conclude that it is by believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus
Christ that we have been remitted from all our sins and received
everlasting life.
Before
you were born in this world and before Jesus came to this earth, there
was Adam. He is the first man created by God, and this first man, Adam,
is the father of every human being all over the world. As he committed
what God forbade him to do, he sinned, and because of him, sin was
passed down to us, his descendants.
Therefore,
to save us, who all were born with sin as Adam’s descendants, God sent
His only begotten Son to this earth. This Son is none other than Jesus
who obeyed God the Father. As God the Father ordered Him, Jesus took
upon all our sins by being baptized. By shouldering the sins of the
world to the Cross, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again,
He has become the Savior of mankind. Do you believe that all the sins of
the world were remitted through Jesus Christ who obeyed God the Father?
Anyone who believes in this is saved, but those who do not believe in
this, and instead try to become righteous through their own prayers of
repentance, their own rituals, their own attempts at godliness, and
their own virtues, will all end up in hell.
The
Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification and the Doctrine of
Justification are foolish claims that have arisen out of people’s
ignorance of the Word of God. It would be correct to view them as
nothing more than sheer nonsense produced by incompetent philosophers
incapable of interpreting the Word correctly. God’s Truth is transparent
and clear.
We
have been saved from the sins of the world by believing that one Man,
Jesus Christ, came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man and has
saved us from all our sins. Anyone who believes in this is saved. Do you
believe this?
If
anyone believes in the righteousness of God, then he is delivered and
saved from his sins unequivocally. What many false prophets claim, that
one is gradually sanctified and saved by giving prayers of repentance
faithfully and living virtuously in this world, is tantamount to saying
that one can be saved even if Jesus did not come to this earth. Given
the fact that only Jesus Christ is the gate of salvation, the Doctrine
of Incremental Sanctification that claims one’s own efforts and virtuous
deeds are helpful to his salvation is completely contradictory to the
Truth.
The
Lord says to us that we are incapable of keeping even 0.1 percent of
His Law. If we broke just 0.1 percent of the Law, it is the same as
breaking it 100 percent. So anyone who claims that he can keep the Law
of God does not know himself at all, and because of his own
righteousness he will ultimately end up standing against the
righteousness of God. Do not try to grasp God’s righteousness set by God
Himself based on your own man-made thoughts and logic. Having saved us
from all our sins perfectly with His righteousness, God is waiting for
you to believe in this and become His child. My fellow believers, I
beseech all of you to believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on
the Cross with all your heart, and receive the overflowing grace that
God has bestowed on you.
For
God is almighty and merciful, He has saved us wholly with His grace and
mercy. He has saved you perfectly from all your sins. I give all my
thanks to God.
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