Jesus Has Washed Our Feet Just as He Washed Peter’s Feet (John 13:1-11)
(John 13:1-11)
“Now
before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had
come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved
His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And supper
being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas
Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had
given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was
going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel
and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began
to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which
He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him,
‘Lord, are You washing my feet?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I
am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.’
Peter said to Him, ‘You shall never wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him,
‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’ Simon Peter said to
Him, ‘Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said
to him, ‘He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is
completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’ For He knew
who would betray Him; therefore He said, ‘You are not all clean.’”
I
arrived a day earlier than planned, so I would like to take this
opportunity to share with you John 3:1-11 from the Word of God which I
had meant to do this past Thursday evening at the discipleship training
camp, but didn’t have enough time. Here in today’s Scripture reading, we
see Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. Jesus wanted to wash Peter’s
feet and all the other disciples’ feet as well, but Peter refused at
first. As written here Peter protested embarrassingly, asking how the
Lord could wash his feet. From today’s Scripture reading, let’s find out
how Peter was able to follow the Lord so faithfully.
Do You Love Me More Than These?
Last
Thursday morning at the discipleship training camp I gave a sermon
based on John chapter 21. When we turn to this passage we see the Lord
saying to Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
Peter then said to Him, “Yes Lord, you know that I love You.” “Feed My
lambs,” said the Lord. He then asked Peter again, “Simon, son of Jonah,
do you love Me?” “Yes Lord, you know that I love You,” answered Peter.
“Tend My sheep.” The Lord asked the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do
you love me?” Jesus was asking Peter the same question three times. But
the third time Peter answered and said, “Lord, You know all things, and
you know that I love You.” It’s to the resurrected Lord that Peter made
this confession. From here onwards Peter would go on to work faithfully
as a disciple of Jesus Christ and a servant of God, and the reason why
he could do this is because the Lord had blotted out all the sins of his
entire lifetime. It’s because the Lord Himself had borne all the sins
of mankind including Peter’s sins when He was baptized by John the
Baptist, had been crucified to death, had risen from the dead again, and
had thereby become Peter’s Savior—including our Savior.
Peter
could follow the Lord and fulfill his duties as an apostle because the
Lord had already blotted out all his sins. Even though Peter had denied
Jesus no less than three times, he was still able to follow the Lord,
and the Lord permitted him to do so, because He had blotted out all his
sins. If the Lord had not blotted out Peter’s sins once and for all—that
is, if Jesus Christ had not borne all his sins when He was baptized by
John the Baptist, and if He had not been condemned for these sins by
being crucified—then Peter could not have followed Him. Nor could Peter
have made such a confession when the resurrected Jesus appeared before
him. He couldn’t have given the same answer three times to Jesus,
saying, “You know that I love You.” When the Lord asked Him the third
time, Peter said, “Lord, You know all things.” Peter could answer like
this because even though he knew just how weak and inadequate he was, he
also knew that the Lord had blotted out all his sins already.
Why Did Jesus Seek to Wash Peter’s Feet?
Today’s
Scripture passage records what transpired before this conversation
between Jesus and Peter took place in John chapter 21. Just before He
was to be seized, the Lord wanted to observe the Feast of the Passover
for one last time. After sharing the Last Supper with His disciples and
speaking with them, the Lord rose from the table, took a towel, poured
water into a basin, and began washing the disciples’ feet, then wiping
them dry with the towel. After washing several disciples’ feet, it was
now Peter’s turn. But Peter said to Him, “Lord, how can you wash my
feet?” Jesus then said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand
now, but you will know after this.” Peter said to Him, “You shall never
wash my feet!” But Jesus said to him, “If I do not wash you, you have no
part with me,” to which Peter replied, “Then wash my whole body!” But,
Jesus said, “Since you are already completely clean, you only need to
wash your feet.”
It
looks like Peter had a rather fastidious personality. The Lord washed
the other disciples’ feet also, but they did not protest. In contrast,
when it came to Peter’s turn, he protested and refused, saying, “Lord,
how can You wash my feet?” Earlier, Jesus had asked the disciples what
the people were saying who He was. Peter had answered at the time saying
that the Lord was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter knew
that Jesus was the Son of God, God Himself who created the universe, and
his Savior who had come to save mankind from their sins. So when the
Lord tried to wash his feet, he protested and said how his Savior could
wash his feet. It appears that the other disciples’ faith was as strong
as Peter’s faith. Jesus then said to Peter, “What I am doing you do not
understand now, but you will know after this.” When the Lord told Peter
that he would have no part with Him unless He washed his feet, Peter
asked Him fervently then to wash his whole body. The Lord then said to
Peter, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely
clean.”
What
we can see from this conversation that Jesus had with Peter here shows
us just how much the Lord loved His people in this world. How much did
He love them? He loved them to the end. This means the Lord’s love for
us is not circumstantial, as though He would stop loving us when it is
no longer convenient for Him. Just as John 13:1 says, “Having loved His
own who were in the world, He loved them to the end,” the Lord loved His
disciples to the end. He had already borne all the sins of mankind and
all the sins of Peter once and for all by being baptized. Because Jesus
had shouldered all the sins of this world through the one baptism He
received from John the Baptist, He had already washed away Peter’s sins.
So the only thing remaining for Jesus to do was to be crucified to
death and to rise from the dead again, thereby completing the salvation
of mankind.
However,
Peter here did not know himself well enough to realize that he would
deny Jesus no less than three times. Peter and the other disciples did
not realize that they would still continue to commit many sins. That is
why Jesus wanted to wash their feet before being crucified, so as to
teach them how to deal with their future sins. He also wanted to show
and demonstrate to the disciples that He would love not only them but
also all the people of God forever, and that’s why He said, “What I am
doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” Jesus
said this because He wanted to teach Peter that He had washed away all
his sins long before he would come to deny Him three times in the course
of Pilate, and long before he would fall into despair upon the death of
Jesus and go back to fishing as he did before.
People
tend to think that if they do something too wrong to another person,
there would be no forgiveness. They also have a tendency to run away in
shame when they think they have committed a sin that is too great.
However, the Lord is teaching us here that He has also washed away all
the sins that we commit after receiving the remission of sins by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It’s to teach this
important lesson that the Lord washed the disciples’ feet. When and
where did the Lord bear and wash away all the sins of the disciples? He
did so when He was baptized in the Jordan River, saying in Matthew 3:15,
“Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.” As this passage explicitly says, all the sins of mankind
were washed away when Jesus bore them once and for all by being
baptized by John the Baptist. It was God the Father’s will for the Lord
to bear all the sins of the world on His body, and it was for this very
reason that He was baptized by John the Baptist. At that time, the Lord
took upon all the sins mankind once and for all and washed them all
away. Jesus washed Peter’s and the other disciple’s feet so that they
may know this. And, it’s because Jesus knew that He would be arrested
soon, and Peter was such a weak person that he would deny Him no less
than three times before His crucifixion.
Even
after receiving the remission of sins by believing in the righteousness
of our Lord, whenever our weakness is exposed, we must ruminate on this
righteousness. Yet, it’s easy for us to get discouraged when too many
of our weaknesses are exposed repeatedly while following the Lord, and
the many lusts that we have been trying to suppress are stirred up in
our hearts. We fall into despair, wondering to ourselves, “Why am I so
weak? Is this all that I’m capable of?” Recently, we have received many
testimonies of salvation from people all over the world, telling us that
they have been saved from their sins from reading our books on the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. When asked how they have received
the remission of sins, they say that they have received it by believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When asked about the sins
they will commit in the future, most of them say they believe the Lord
bore all their sins, but some of them say that they can settle their
daily sins by living according to the will of the Lord.
Those
who have just recently received the remission of sins by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit do not know their weaknesses that
well. Even if they do, they have little knowledge. So they find it
intolerable when they see themselves sinning again. They try to overcome
their weaknesses and shortcomings with their own willpower. Since they
have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, they do their best not to sin again. However,
although their own effort may help them avoid sinning for a short while,
but in the end, they cannot resist and succumb to sin. How can we
resist sin then? We resist it by trusting in the righteousness of God,
by uniting ourselves with the Church, and by receiving guidance of the
servants of God. That’s why we carry out the Lord’s work as instructed
by God’s servants.
To
a large extent, the righteous can overcome the lust of sin stirring up
in their hearts by focusing on and actually doing the righteousness
work. We overcome the world by doing the righteous work like this,
sharing fellowship with our fellow righteous saints, and listening again
to the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of God. It is
when we hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit in the hour of
worship that we know we are walking in the light always. By once again
confirming that the Lord bore not only your sins but also all the sins
of everyone in this world when He was baptized, and that He was
crucified to bear the condemnation of these sins, you can realize that
your heart has already been cleansed.
That
is actually what happens. However, the newly redeemed do not fully
understand this well enough, so they may find themselves intolerable and
struggle with these issues for a while. Lately I’ve been preparing a
sermon book titled, “How Do You Wash Away Your Personal Sins?” This book
teaches about personal sins. There is a compelling need to teach the
believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit about their sins.
Although they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they
are bound to fall into their weaknesses again, so the Word of Truth
needs to be preached to them again.
Of
course, as a matter of knowledge, the gospel of the water and the
Spirit can be understood in just five minutes. But there is a huge
difference between knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit and
hearing it again when you actually sin and darkness descends on your
heart. Although we know the gospel power of the water and the Spirit,
but when we hear and confirm the Word of power once again, darkness is
lifted from our hearts. Our hearts are already clean; it’s just that
darkness had come momentarily. It’s because of the Devil accusing us of
our sins. It’s then that our hearts are darkened. The way to drive out
this darkness with the light is to once again confirm in our hearts the
glorious news of our salvation, that our Lord bore our sins once and for
all by being baptized by John the Baptist, died on the Cross, and rose
from the dead again. Our hearts are then brightened by confirming that
all our sins and all the sins of everyone in this world were passed to
Jesus when He was baptized.
It
is for this very reason that Jesus said to us the believers in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, “You are the light of the world.” We
are indeed the light of the world, for we have received the remission
of sins by believing in the God-given gospel of the water and the
Spirit. However, if there is something that is blocking this light, then
darkness can envelop us. So we may feel as though the light of
salvation is hidden from us. In turn, we may find ourselves becoming
disheartened amid Satan’s accusations, and it may seem as though we are
once again under the judgment, even though we are actually - the light
of the world. As a result, some people end up dwelling under the shadow
of sin and losing their spiritual strength even after believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Because
such darkness is felt in one’s conscience, it’s absolutely
indispensable for us to ruminate on the gospel of the water and the
Spirit again and again driving out the darkness by faith. We must give
prayers of confession trusting in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
by renewing our faith that the Lord had already bore all our sins once
and for all when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and we must
ruminate on this Truth. The darkness of our hearts is lifted when we
remind ourselves once again that our sins have already been washed
again.
When
we ruminate on the gospel of the water and the Spirit and fully
realize, “Our everyday sins were also passed on to the body of Jesus.
That’s why the Lord is my Savior. Knowing that I would sin like this, He
bore all these sins by being baptized by John the Baptist!” It’s then
that our hearts become brightened once again. So, it’s quite
understandable for us the believers in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit to have these mood swings and periodically go through different
emotions, feeling happy one day and disappointed in another. What does
not change, however, is the fact that you and I who know and believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit have no sin in our hearts.
It’s
just that our hearts can still be darkened momentarily despite our
sinless state. Why does darkness come? It comes when we allow ourselves
to follow the desires of the flesh or act on them. In times like these
when our hearts become darkened momentarily, the way to be freed from
this darkness is coming to the hour of worship and listening to the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. It is by sharing fellowship
with our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith, meeting with God’s
workers, and carrying out His work that we can dwell in the light of the
Lord. By ruminating on the written gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit, reflecting on it, and reaffirming it in our hearts, our darkened
hearts are once again illuminated by the light of Truth.
We
are the saints who reflect the true light of the water and the Spirit
to the whole world. Our hearts are like a mirror that can collect dust
and lose its clarity with the passing of time. However, just as a mirror
turns clear and reflects everything spotlessly when it is wiped clean
with microfiber cloth, so our hearts turn crystal clear again when we
wipe it clean with the gospel of the water and the Spirit and ruminate
on it. This is how we are able to live as the light of this world. And
this is what the Lord is teaching us here in today’s Scripture reading.
By
what kind of faith can the redeemed follow the Lord even when they sin?
It’s having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is
possible because our Lord has already washed away all our sins with the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, just as He washed Peter’s feet. We
have found the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we have received
the remission of sins by believing in this true gospel. So we know that
on account of our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we
have already been remitted from all the sins that we commit after
receiving the remission of sins. That’s because our Lord bore all our
sins beforehand when He was baptized by John the Baptist. And because He
was already condemned for our sins on the Cross, we the believers in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit can always dwell in the light and
follow the Lord. In short, our Lord has become our everlasting Savior.
You and I, therefore, are able to follow the righteous Lord.
However,
some people have a hard time trying to understand this truth. In
particular, they struggle to understand the full meaning of John
13:10-11, “Jesus said to him, ‘He who is bathed needs only to wash his
feet, but is completely clean; you are clean, but not all of you.’ For
He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, ‘You are not all
clean’” (John 13:10-11). Question: Are the believers in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit completely clean or just partially clean? They
are completely clean, for they have already been remitted from all their
sins.
Ever
since I first encountered the righteousness of the Lord, I have been
preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit faithfully to this very
day. When I preach this gospel in God’s Church, I tend to speak softly.
But when I preach it at a large revival meeting, I speak with even more
energy. I could preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit forever.
And when I preach this gospel, those who already believe in it are
strengthened spiritually. Some people may think that I speak of nothing
else but the gospel of the water and the Spirit because that’s all I
know. But that is not the case at all. I preach the gospel of the water
and the Spirit every day because it is so precious and majestic. It’s
because this Word has the power to give new life to people. Of course,
if someone says what you already know time after time, you may get tired
of it, and this is true even for the speaker. However, the gospel of
the water and the Spirit is very different. It is wonderful to preach it
day after day.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit must be preached every day because
even though you and I have received the remission of sins by believing
in this gospel, we still continue to commit many sins in our lives.
Sometimes we may sin by making the wrong choices in our lives, or
sometimes we may follow our own thoughts and end up going in the
opposite direction from the way of the Lord. That’s why all of us need
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Just as we need oxygen every
minute of our lives, so we need the gospel of the water and the Spirit
every minute of our lives. That’s because it is the gospel of the water
and the Spirit that has given us new life, and we have this duty to
shine the true light on the whole world.
Misunderstanding of Today’s Scripture Reading
Unfortunately,
many contemporary Christians do not understand this passage of
scripture. Let’s turn to John 13:1 and read what the Bible says so
clearly: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His
hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father,
having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
The Lord spoke this to the righteous, His very own people in this world,
knowing that He would soon pass away. He spoke this not only to His
disciples at that time, but also to us in the future who believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. How long does the Bible say Jesus
loved His people? Does it say He loved them for six month? For 60 years?
No, it says that He loved them to the end. It is to teach us this
lesson that the Lord did what He did at the Last Supper. And the Apostle
John, a disciple of Jesus, wrote about in detail how He washed the
disciples’ feet to address this important subject.
It
is because Jesus loved us to the end that we can follow Him. How did He
love us? We can find the answer when we turn to the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Because Jesus forever bore all our sins once and for
all by being baptized, we can follow Him by believing in His
righteousness. Some people say, “Isn’t this passage speaking of prayers
of repentance?” So they think that Jesus was speaking of our everyday
sins when He said that Peter was completely clean and needed to wash
only his feet, and they claim mistakenly that we are cleansed from our
daily sins by offering our own prayers of repentance.
This,
however, is totally unfounded. We need to look back at what our Lord
actually did for us. We need to know and grasp fully what the Lord said
when He was baptized by John the Baptist. Let’s turn to Matthew 3:13-17,
“But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus
it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water;
and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice
came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.’” When the Lord was baptized, He said that it was thus fitting
for them to fulfill all righteousness. The word “thus” here refers to
the method by which all righteousness was fulfilled. In other words, it
refers to the way of salvation, by which the Lord shouldered all our
sins, was crucified to death and condemned for them. Like this, Jesus is
speaking of our salvation. He is saying that He bore all the sins of
mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist. By baptizing Jesus, John
the Baptist passed all the sins of mankind to Jesus.
John
the Baptist was the representative of all mankind, for he was the
greatest of all those born of women. He was therefore greater than even
the prophets. Representing everyone, John the Baptist fulfilled his role
as the last earthly High Priest. He is the one who passed the sins of
mankind to Jesus by baptizing Him. Therefore, it is by ruminating on
this Word once again that we can abide in the light always. We know and
believe that all our sins were passed to Jesus once and for all when He
was baptized by John the Baptist. It’s because Jesus was baptized that
He was crucified and shed His blood to death as the Lamb of God who took
away the sins of the world. And rising from the dead again, He has
become our everlasting Savior. That’s why Jesus cried out in His last
breath before He passed away on the Cross as the final confirmation, “It
is finished!” These were the very last Words of the Lord on the Cross.
The Lord Himself had completed the final work of salvation. If it were a
book, He put the final period at the end of the book. This was the end
and the completion of His work. When Jesus died on the Cross, in other
words, His work of salvation was finished.
Jesus
poured out all the blood that was in His heart. Do you know what
happens when people bleed out too much? Their hearts beat very fast,
their faces turn white, and sometimes they even faint from shock to the
system. When I was a kid, my hand once got impaled by a piercing
machine. But I didn’t hear anything. It all happened so fast that I only
saw my hand getting impaled. I was too shocked to say anything or even
scream in pain. I just stood there and began sweating becoming cold all
over my body. Someone else nearby me saw my injury and took me to a
hospital to get it treated. If your whole body were wounded and bleeding
all over, would you be able to say, “It is finished”? No, of course
not! Only Jesus could do this. He had come to this earth incarnated in
the flesh of man. He had been born on this earth from the body of Mary,
and He had taken upon our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist. He
was crucified because He had shouldered all our sins. And just before
He passed away, He found the last bit of strength to say, “It is
finished!” In this way, He wanted to tell us that our everlasting
salvation had now been completed.
Until
the very moment the Lord’s earthly life ended, He preached the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, saying, “It is finished!” Sister Soyoung
recently hurt her hand while cutting something. So several of our
sisters and the wife of one of our pastors took her to hospital, and the
doctor there asked for her guardian to come into the office. But Sister
Soyoung panicked at the sight of her blood, her face turned all blue,
and she got so frantic that instead of calmly asking one of the
accompanying sisters to come into the office as her guardian, she
blurted out hysterically, “Come into the office, Soyoung Kwon’s
guardian! Hurry up! Whoever you are, come now!” Sister Soyoung was not
being herself. She panicked because she was terrified when she saw her
blood. When you see your own blood, you can get frantic like this or
even go into a shock. At any rate, Sister Choi went in as her guardian,
and fortunately, her injury was not a serious one, so they all had a
good laugh about it. When I heard this story, I also laughed.
Of
course, bleeding is no laughing matter. People get scared when they get
injured and see even a little bit of blood, and some people even go
into a shock. People panic when they see themselves bleeding. It’s
because the blood is life. When you get hurt, you can even die from a
shock. Biblical scholars say that when Jesus was crucified, his arteries
were pierced by the nails. With both His hands and feet nailed, Jesus
bled to death. The cardiovascular system runs on the heart, which pumps
blood regularly to circulate it around the body. The blood that is
pumped away from the heart returns to the heart, which is then pumped
out again. That’s how our blood circulates in the body.
When
Jesus was crucified, His arteries were pierced, and His blood poured
out of these holes. Bleeding out is followed by dehydration. As the
blood is a fluid composed of water and other components, profuse
bleeding leads to severe dehydration. That’s why Jesus said He was
thirsty. Like this, Jesus poured out all the blood that was in His body.
He was nearing death. Having lost so much blood, He was losing
consciousness. Yet even in that traumatic condition, Jesus could cry out
before passing away on the Cross, “It is finished!” He wanted to teach
us about His work of salvation. He was saying to us that He had come to
this earth, taken upon all your sins and mine through His baptism, and
borne all the condemnation of our sins by being crucified and shedding
His blood.
It’s
absolutely important for us to realize and fully understand that our
sins are not blotted out by offering our own prayers of repentance. How,
then, was our sins blotted out? They have been blotted out because the
Lord actually bore them by being baptized by John the Baptist. It’s
because Jesus was condemned for all our sins by being crucified to death
while shouldering these sins of the world. And it’s because He rose
from the dead again, and has thereby become our true Savior. It is the
Lord who has become our Savior. Therefore, whoever believes in this work
of the Lord has no more sin. This is what people must realize. They
need to grasp how the Lord has indeed washed away all their sins. By
being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, the Lord took
upon all the sins of our entire lifetime. He bore each and every sin on
this earth once and for all, from its beginning to its end. That is what
we must know and believe. I can’t emphasize enough just how important
it is for us to realize this and believe in it.
We
have already been cleansed. We have received the remission of all our
sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. However, as
we carry on with our lives, we still continue to sin. But all these
sins have also been washed away by the Lord. Just as the Lord washed
Peter’s feet and the other disciples’ feet as well, the Lord bore all
our personal sins also when He was baptized by John the Baptist. He was
then condemned for all our sins by being crucified. And rising from the
dead again, He has made us forever whole. All your sins have therefore
been washed away already. That is why Peter could become the Lord’s head
disciple. Because the Lord blotted out all of Peter’s sins and loved
him to the end, Peter could also love the Lord until the end, even
though he had denied Jesus three times when Jesus was interrogated in
the court of Pilate before His crucifixion. So, when asked by the Lord
if he loved Him, Peter told Him that He knew that he loved Him. Peter
couldn’t help but love the Lord, for the Lord loved him first to the
end.
You
and I have also received such love from the Lord. Yet, some people
still mistakenly think, “I don’t know about this sin. It’s so heinous
that even I can’t forgive myself. Jesus couldn’t have blotted out such a
terrible sin.” Some other Christians say that while nearly all sins can
be remitted away, the sins that are committed with the body cannot be
forgiven. But where is such a thing written the Bible? It’s nowhere to
be found in Scripture! But nevertheless, some pastors still claim that
while every other sin can be remitted away, the sin of adultery cannot
be forgiven? If this were the case, then wouldn’t it mean that anyone
who commits adultery cannot enter Heaven? Wouldn’t it imply that there
can be no complete remission of sins? Don’t these mistaken teachings
then suggest that Jesus had failed to blot out the sin of adultery?
Everyone
speaks based on their own experiences. The pastors who have not been
born again do not speak based on the Word, even after reading it. Both
the preachers and the listeners of the Word must speak based on this
Word of God. Only then can they share meaningful fellowship, plant the
Word in hearts, and find the answer to the questions by faith. Yet,
those who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit say that
while every other sin can be forgiven, the sin of adultery cannot be
forgiven or remitted away. This, my fellow believers, is totally wrong.
The Lord has blotted out each and every sin. No matter what kind, there
is not a single sin in this world that the Lord has not blotted out. He
has blotted out all the sins that are committed with our bodies.
However,
there is one sin that cannot be forgiven. What is this sin? It is the
sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. This sin is committed when one
denies that the Lord came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man,
took upon the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist,
shed His life blood to death on the Cross, rose from the dead, and has
thereby become our everlasting Savior. This sin cannot be forgiven.
Those who deny the gospel of the water and the Spirit are forever unable
to receive the remission of sins. Even when they hear the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, they continue to deny that Jesus bore their sins
when He was baptized, and they claim that the remission of sins is
received by offering their own prayers of repentance instead.
This
is the wicked act of altering Scripture. It is an act that nullifies
the Lord’s work and corrupts it. That’s why those who believe only in
Jesus’ blood on the Cross for salvation cannot receive the remission of
sins. It’s because they have fallen into grave fallacy. Such people
cannot be remitted from their sins. Why? It’s because they do not
believe in what the Lord has done for them. It’s because they nullify
the work of salvation done by the holy Lord. And it’s because they are
stomping on the Lord’s work of salvation, neither believing in nor
accepting it. That’s why they cannot be forgiven. Except for this sin,
every other sin can be forgiven.
Let
me explain once again. Some Christians have a different interpretation
of what is meant by the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit and claim,
“When the believers speak in tongues and cast out demons, this is the
work of the Holy Spirit. To dismiss this teaching or to oppose it is the
sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. So this sin cannot be forgiven.” A
lot of Christians hold such a misinterpretation. This, however, is not
the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Such things are not the work of
the Holy Spirit, and therefore, opposing such false teaching is not the
sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. What is the real work of the Holy
Spirit? It is the Biblical fact that to save us from our sins, the Lord
was born on this earth from the body of Mary, bore our sins by being
baptized by John the Baptist, bleed to death on the Cross while
shouldering the sins of the world, and rose from the dead again. Jesus,
through this, has become our Savior. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. It is God’s work. Therefore, whoever denies this work of God
cannot receive the remission of sins in this world or the next.
How,
then, should we follow the Lord to become His approved workers? Let’s
turn to John 15:3-4, “You are already clean because of the word which I
have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless
you abide in Me.” The Lord said clearly here that we are already clean
because of the Word He has spoken to us. Here in John chapter 15, the
Lord is telling us that we have been cleansed by His work of salvation.
The remission of sins is received by believing in the Word of God. The
Word of God is written in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and it
is by believing in this Word that the remission of sins is received.
We
are made sinless by believing in the Word of the Lord. It’s then that
we can abide in the Lord, and the Lord can abide in us also. Therefore,
when we accept the Word of the Lord, we shouldn’t do so based on our own
experiences. It is when we accept it exactly as it is written that we
receive the remission of sins. When you hear the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit, all that you have to do is say Yes to this Word
and accept it into your heart with an Amen. It’s then that you receive
the remission of sins. The Scripture says, “Faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith indeed comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How do we abide in the Lord? We
abide in the Lord by believing in His Word. How does the Lord abide in
us then? He comes into and abides in the hearts of those who believe in
His Word. In other words, the Lord abides in the hearts of the redeemed.
This Lord is none other than the Holy Spirit.
The
Lord said that He is the true vine as written here in John 15:1-2, “I
am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me
that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears
fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” The fruit bearing
branches are those who accept the Word of the Lord. What about the
branches that do not bear fruit then? They are those who, despite having
heard the Word of God, do not accept it with an Amen. Such people
cannot bear any fruit.
My
fellow believers, you and I are now working hard to spread the gospel
of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world. We are doing
everything we can to support this ministry. It is through you and me
that the Lord is spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The
gospel is spread as new buds emerge. As the vine grows, it branches out
and sprouts out new buds. These branches work as a bridge to channel
nutrients from the roots. Where is the fruit born then? When new buds
sprout and blossom, that’s where the fruit is born. It’s from the new
buds sprouting in the spring that flowers blossom and grapes are born.
We are all like the branches of the vine.
We
tap into the Lord’s nutrients and channel them to people all over the
world. And when they hear the gospel from us, they blossom. That’s how
they receive the remission of sins. And that’s how fruit is born. The
gospel continues to be preached through these new believers who have
received the remission of sins by hearing the gospel from us. When the
gospel work unfolds like this, the new believers come to support the
ministry just like us so that others may also bear fruit. Who, then, are
the branches that bear fruit in the Lord? They are those who have
received the remission of sins by believing in the Lord’s Word.
How Can We Follow the Lord When We Have So Many Shortcomings?
We
can follow the Lord and live as His disciples despite our shortcomings
because the Lord has already blotted out all your sins and mine. It’s
because the Lord already bore all our sins once and for all when He was
baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. That’s why the Lord
could become our Savior by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead
again. Therefore, now that we have received the remission of sins, we
can all carry out the Lord’s work and continue to follow Him. In other
words, we can follow the Lord because the Lord has made it possible for
us to do so. It is not we who loved the Lord first, but it is the Lord
who loved us first. Not only this, the Lord loves us to the end. That’s
why we can love the Lord. And that’s why it’s now possible for us to
live as the Lord’s disciples. It’s precisely for this reason that those
whose faith is mature do not boast of their own righteousness. They
instead submit to the Lord in all things to His pleasure.
The
righteousness of the Lord is made theirs, their righteousness is made
the Lord’s, and in the end, they become one with the Lord in unity. Even
we the redeemed may continue to commit many sins, but we can still
follow the Lord because He has already blotted out all our sins once and
for all, including our personal sins. That’s why you and I can follow
the Lord. That’s why Peter and the other disciples of Jesus could love
the Lord and live according to His will even unto martyrdom. Among the
disciples of Jesus was a man named Thomas. Thomas did not believe when
the other disciples told him that they had seen the resurrected Lord. He
was so incredulous that he said he would not believe unless he could
put his hand into Jesus’ wounds. For this reason, Thomas is sometimes
called the Doubting Thomas. Yet even such a doubtful man was one of the
twelve disciples of Jesus. And when he finally saw the resurrected Lord,
he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”
According
to the Christian tradition, Thomas is believed to have gone to India to
spread the gospel and was martyred there. Perhaps for this reason, the
Hindus consider the Ganges River in India as a sacred river, believing
that they can cleanse away all their souls’ sins if they bathe in that
river. The devout dip themselves in the Ganges regularly. Many Hindus
nearing death also come to the Ganges so they can spend their last
moment at the river. The dead also have their bodies cremated on the
banks of the Ganges and their ashes scattered in it. They think this
would grant them salvation. Perhaps this is a belief derived from or
influenced by the Christian faith. It may be that someone went to India
and preached to its people about the baptism of Jesus, teaching that
Jesus had born and washed away all their sins by being baptized by John
the Baptist, but this teaching somehow got corrupted and led to the
Hindu belief in the sacredness of the Ganges. This, of course, is
entirely my own speculation. It is not the truth. Only what’s written in
the Scripture is the truth.
Although
the history of the world may seem very long, it is actually quite
short. Modernity is traced back to only about 500 years. Prior to this,
the world was full of superstitious beliefs. When we look at the whole
span of world history, we can see that humanity did not begin to make
significant advancements until about 500 years ago. There are now
billions of people living on this earth, but in the ancient times, the
world population was rather small, numbering less than a hundred million
for a long time. At the time of Noah’s blood, the size of the
population must have been even smaller, though we don’t know the exact
number. In many ways, we are very lucky to have been born in this
present age.
Being
Koreans, if we had been born 70 years ago, we would be living under
Japanese colonial rule. During the colonial rule, the Japanese exploited
Koreans as though they were mere slaves. If we had been born at that
time, we would have held so much hatred for the Japanese that we would
think of nothing else but how to exact revenge. If I had a chance to
preach the gospel to the Japanese during the colonial period, I would
have probably sworn at them in my pent-up anger. A while ago, I actually
did get to preach the gospel to a Japanese man named Sakamoto. I
explained to him that Jesus had taken away even the smallest sins, but
he had trouble understanding me. I got so frustrated that I blurted out
to Sakamoto that he was being too dense. But, instead of being offended
by this, Sakamoto just said that he was not the brightest bulb in the
box.
He
seemed like a good man. At least he knew his limits. Intellectually
speaking, it is not that difficult to grasp the gospel message that all
the sins of this world were passed to Jesus when He was baptized by John
the Baptist, and that Jesus was crucified to death subsequently. But
Sakamoto struggled to understand this, and so I ended up losing my
patience, which I shouldn’t have. I’m sure that once Sakamoto reaches a
clear understanding of the gospel, he will be able to preach it to the
whole world. The Japanese are selfish and calculating, so they can’t
serve the gospel with as much devotion as we can.
At
any rate, Koreans are ideal for God’s use. They are not just good for
God’s use, but they are perfect for it. Koreans don’t flinch at asking
others whether they are sinful or not. They don’t really have any
business asking such a direct question, but they can be rather blunt.
When Koreans see someone going somewhere, they like to ask where that
person is going. When they are told where the person is going, they keep
asking why he is going there, what the purpose of the trip is, and what
he will be doing there. Wherever someone else might be going and
whatever he might be doing, it’s none of their business, but they still
ask with an inquisitive mind. Yet, Koreans don’t mind telling them where
they are going and what they are doing. So, when we look at Koreans, we
see that they are rather empathetic.
Perhaps
that’s why God loves us Koreans so much and lets the gospel be preached
through you and me. And Koreans are also honest. There are however,
many dishonest Koreans, but most Koreans tend to be on the honest side.
When they get angry, they show this bluntly. But being honest is not the
right answer for all occasions; if it can hurt others, you shouldn’t be
too honest. Being too frank can be counterproductive many times.
However, we must be honest before the Lord.
All
of us must abide in the Lord, but how can we achieve this? We can abide
in the Lord by faith. It’s by faith that we become the Lord’s
disciples. It’s also by faith that we can follow the Lord. Even those
who have received the remission of sins continue to sin out of their
shortcomings, but they can still follow the Lord. How is this possible?
It’s because the Lord has already washed our feet—that is, washed all
our personal sins away. This is not something that is still ongoing. It
is not as though the Lord is still washing away our sins. Rather, it is
something that has already been done and finished. The Lord already bore
all our sins once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist
when He came to this earth over 2,000 years ago. He has already washed
away our sins. And while shouldering these sins, He was condemned for
them by being crucified and shedding His blood to death. He then rose
from the dead again
All
of these things were done a long time ago. Since this year is 2014 and
Jesus died at the age of 33, all these works of salvation were finished
about 2,000 years ago. There is nothing more to be done; everything was
completed a long time ago. What we have heard, believe in, and are
preaching now is something that has been completed already. It is by
faith that the remission of sins is received. And it is by faith that we
have already received the remission of sins. It is also by holding fast
to the Word that we can follow the Lord despite our many shortcomings.
If
we sin before the Lord, we admit and confess it. And we believe that
all such sins were also passed on to the Lord. By believing that the
Lord has already remitted away these sins also, we can follow the Lord
with a clear conscience. We can always live as the Lord’s disciples
carrying out His work. The Lord has blessed us as such holy people.
That’s why we are so grateful to the Lord. We can’t help but thank the
Lord for such wonderful blessings.
My
fellow believers, no matter how many shortcomings you may have, as long
as you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you can
become the Lord’s approved worker. And you can follow the Lord always.
Even though you may feel as though are not cut out to follow the Lord
when you look at yourself, if you look towards the Lord, you will be
more than able to follow Him. All that you have to do is just look
towards Jesus Christ who has made us whole. The Lord has blotted out not
only our sins but also all the sins of the whole world. He has blotted
out even the sins that we have committed after we first received the
remission of sins. And by doing so, He has turned us into the workers of
righteousness. I give all my thanks to our Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment