The Gospel of the Abundant Atonement (John 13:1-17)

(John 13:1-17)

“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.’ So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.’” 

 

Why did Jesus wash Peter’s feet on the day before the feast of the Passover? Just before washing his feet, Jesus said, “You do not understand now, but you will know after this.” Peter was the best of Jesus’ disciples. He believed that Jesus was the Son of God and testified that Jesus was the Christ. As Jesus washed his feet, there must have been a good reason for doing so. When Peter confessed his belief that Jesus was the Christ, it meant that he believed Jesus to be the Savior who would save him from all his sins. 

 

Why did Jesus wash the disciples’ feet before He was crucified?
Because He wanted them to understand His perfect salvation.

Why did He wash Peter’s feet? Jesus knew that Peter would soon deny Him three times and that he would continue to sin in the future. 

If, after Jesus went up to Heaven, Peter had had any sin left in his heart, he wouldn’t have been able to be united with Jesus. But Jesus knew all of His disciples’ weaknesses and He didn’t want their sins to come between Him and His disciples. Therefore, He needed to teach them that all their iniquities had already been washed away. That was the reason He washed His disciples’ feet. Jesus, before He died and left them, wanted to make sure that they would stand firm on the gospel of His baptism and also, the complete remission of all their lifelong sins. 

John 13 talks about the perfect salvation that Jesus had fulfilled for His disciples. While washing their feet, Jesus told them about the wisdom of the gospel of His baptism through which all men could be washed of their trespasses. 

“Do not be deceived by the devil in the future. I have taken away all your sins with My baptism in the Jordan River and I shall take the judgment for them on the Cross. Then, I shall be resurrected from the dead and fulfill the salvation of being born again for all of you. To teach you that I have already washed away even your future sins, to teach you the original gospel of the remission of sins, I am washing your feet before my crucifixion. This is the secret of the gospel of being born again. You should all believe thus.” 

We should all understand the reason why Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and know why He said, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” Only then can we believe in the gospel of being born again and be born again ourselves.

 

 

He Said in John 13:12 

 

What are the trespasses?
They are the sins which we commit every day due to our weakness.

Before He died on the Cross, Jesus had the feast of Passover with His disciples and convinced them of the gospel of the remission of sins by washing their feet with His own hands. 

“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’” (John 13:3-7).

He taught His disciples the gospel of baptism and the atonement for sins through the water of His baptism. 

At the time, being faithful to Jesus, Peter was not able to understand the reason why Jesus the Lord washed his feet. After Peter really understood what Jesus had done for him, the way in which he believed in Jesus had changed. Jesus wanted to teach him about the remission of sins, about the gospel of the water of His baptism. 

He was worried that Peter might not be able to come to Him because of all his future sins, in other words, the sins of his flesh in the future. Jesus washed their feet so that the devil couldn’t take away the disciples’ faiths. Later, Peter came to understand why. 

Jesus prepared the way so that anyone who believed in the water of His baptism and blood might be redeemed of his sins forever. 

In John 13, the words He spoke while washing His disciples’ feet are recorded. They are very important words that only the born-again can truly understand. 

The reason Jesus washed His disciples’ feet after the Passover feast was to help them realize that He had already washed away all their lifelong sins. Jesus said, “Why I am washing your feet you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” These words to Peter contained the truth of eternal redemption in Him. 

We should all know and believe in the baptism of Jesus, which has washed away all our sins and iniquities. The baptism of Jesus at the Jordan was the gospel of the passing of sins by the laying on of hands. We should all believe in the words of Jesus. He took away all the sins of the world through His baptism and accomplished the remission of sins by being judged and crucified. Jesus was baptized to get rid of all the sins of people.

 

 

The Remission of All Our Lifelong Trespasses Was Fulfilled with the Baptism and the Blood of Jesus 

 

What is ‘the snare’ of the devil against the righteous?
The devil tries to deceive the righteous in order to make them sinners again.

Jesus knew well that, after He was crucified, resurrected and went up to Heaven, the devil and the propagators of the untrue faith would come and try to deceive the disciples. We can see by the testimony of Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” that he believed in Jesus. But still, Jesus wanted to remind Peter once more to keep the gospel of the remission of sins in mind. That gospel was the baptism of Jesus, through which He took away all the sins of the world. He wanted to teach it once more to Peter, the disciples and even to us who would come later. “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” 

Whenever the disciples of Jesus sinned, the devil would tempt and condemn them, saying, “Look! If you still commit sins, how can you say that you are without sin? You have not been saved. You are merely a sinner.” To prevent that kind of infection, Jesus told them that their faiths in the baptism of Jesus had already washed away all their lifelong sins—past, present, and future. 

“You all know that I was baptized! The reason I was baptized at the Jordan was to wash away all your lifelong sins, as well as the original sin of humankind. Are you able to understand now why I was baptized, and why I have to be crucified and die on the Cross?” Jesus washed His disciples’ feet to show them that He had taken away all their daily sins through His baptism, and that He would take the judgment for them on the Cross. 

Now, you and I have been redeemed of all our sins by our faiths in the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and blood, which enables us to receive the remission of all our sins. Jesus was baptized and crucified for us. He has washed away all our sins with His baptism and blood. Anyone who knows and believes in the gospel of the atonement of sins and who believes in the truth is redeemed of all his/her sins. 

Then, what should the born-again do after being saved? They have to admit their sins everyday and believe in the salvation of the baptism and blood of Jesus, the gospel of the atonement for all their sins. The gospel of the remission of sins is what we, the born-again, should deeply impress on our minds. 

Just because you sin again, does that mean that you are a sinner again? No. Knowing that Jesus took away all our sins, how could we become sinners again? The baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross was the gospel of the atonement for all our sins. Anyone who believes in this original gospel of the remission of sins can be born again, without exception, as ‘a righteous person.’ 

 

 

The Righteous Can Never Become Sinners Again 

 

Why can the righteous never become sinners again?
Because Jesus has already atoned for all their lifelong sins.

If you believe in the gospel of the remission of sins, of the water and the Spirit, but still feel that you are a sinner because of your everyday trespasses, then you have to go to the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized to take away all your sins. If you became a sinner again after receiving the remission of sins, Jesus would have to be baptized all over again. You have to have faith in the remission of your sins in the gospel of the baptism of Jesus. You have to keep in mind that Jesus took away all your sins all at once through His baptism. You have to have an unwavering faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior. 

Believing in Jesus as your Savior means that you believe in the baptism of Jesus, which took away all your lifelong sins. If you really believe in His baptism, the Cross, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus, you can never become a sinner again, no matter what kind of sin you have committed. You have been redeemed of all the sins in your whole life through faith. 

Jesus Christ washed away the sins of the future as well, even the sins we commit out of our own weaknesses. Since Jesus had to emphasize the importance of His baptism, He washed His disciples’ feet with water to symbolize the gospel of the remission of sins, that is, His baptism. Jesus Christ was baptized, crucified, resurrected, and ascended to Heaven to fulfill God’s promise of abundant atonement for all the sins of the world and to save all humankind. As a result, His disciples were able to preach the gospel of the atonement for sins, the baptism of Jesus, the Cross, and the resurrection, right up until the end of their lives. 

 

 

The Weakness of Peter’s Flesh 

 

Why did Peter deny Jesus?
Because he was weak

The Bible tells us that when Peter was confronted by the servants of Caiaphas, the high priest, and was accused of being one of the followers of Jesus, he denied it twice, saying, “No, I do not know the Man.” Then, he cursed and swore it for the third time. 

Let us read the passage from Matthew 26:69. “Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, ‘You also were with Jesus of Galilee.’ But he denied it before them all, saying, ‘I do not know what you are saying.’ And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, ‘This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ But again he denied with an oath, ‘I do not know the Man!’ And after a while those who stood by came to him and said to Peter, ‘Surely you also are one of them, because your speech betrays you.’ Then he began to curse and swear, saying, ‘I do not know the Man!’ And immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.’ Then he went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:69-75). 

 

Peter really believed in Jesus and followed Him faithfully. He believed that the Lord Jesus was his Savior and ‘the Prophet’ to come. But when Jesus was taken to the court of Caiaphas and it became dangerous for him to disclose his relationship with Jesus to the authorities, he denied and cursed Him before them. 

Peter didn’t know that he would deny Jesus, but Jesus knew that he would. Jesus knew Peter’s weakness thoroughly. Therefore, Jesus washed Peter’s feet and engraved the gospel of salvation on his memory, as written in John 13, “You will sin in the future, but I have already washed away even all your future sins.” 

Peter did indeed deny Jesus when his life was in danger, but it was due to the weakness of his flesh that made him do this. Therefore, to save His disciples from all their future iniquities, Jesus washed their feet in advance. 

“I shall expiate all your future sins, too. I am to be crucified because I was baptized and took away all your sins, and I shall pay them all off to become the true Savior for all of you. I am your God, your Savior. I shall pay in full for all your sins, and I shall become your Shepherd through My baptism and blood. I am the Shepherd of your salvation.” 

To plant this truth firmly in their hearts, Jesus washed their feet before the feast of the Passover. This is the truth of the gospel. 

Because our flesh is weak even after being born again, we will sin again. Of course, we shouldn’t sin, but when we are faced with severe crises as Peter was, we tend to sin without really intending to do so. We live in the flesh, so sometimes we are led to destruction by our sins. The flesh will sin as long as we live in this secular world, but Jesus remitted all those sins with His baptism and blood on the Cross. 

We do not deny that Jesus is our Savior, but when we live in the flesh, we keep on committing sins against God’s will. It is because we are born of the flesh. 

Jesus knew well that we would commit sins while living in the flesh, so He became our Savior by paying off our sins with His baptism and blood. He has rid the sins of all those who believe in His salvation and resurrection. 

That is why all the four Gospels start with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The purpose of His human life was to fulfill the gospel of being born again, the gospel of salvation. 

 

How long do we sin in the flesh?
We sin all our lives until the day we die.

When Peter denied Him not once, nor twice, but three times before the rooster crowed, how it must have broken his heart! How ashamed must he have felt? He had sworn before Jesus that he would never betray Him. He sinned because of the weakness of his flesh, but how miserable he must have felt when he succumbed to his weakness and denied Jesus not only once, but three times? How embarrassed he must have felt when Jesus looked at him with compassion once again? 

But Jesus knew all of these things and more. Therefore, He said, “I know that you will sin again and again. But I have already taken away all those sins with My baptism, lest your sins make you stumble and turn you back into a sinner, lest you find it impossible to come back to Me. I have become the complete Savior for you by being baptized and judged for all your sins. I have become your God, your Shepherd. Believe in the gospel of the remission of your sins. I will keep on loving you even if you continuously commit the sins of the flesh. I have already washed away all your iniquities. The gospel of the remission of sins is effective forever. My love for you is also everlasting.” 

Jesus told Peter and the disciples, “If I do not wash your feet, you have no part with Me.” The reason He spoke of this gospel in John 13 was that it was important for people to be born again of water and the Spirit. Do you believe in this? 

In verse 9, “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.’” 

Dear friends, will you commit sins ‘of the flesh’ in the future, or will you not? You surely will. But Jesus said that He had already washed away even the sins of the future, all the iniquities of our flesh with His baptism and blood, and He clearly told His disciples the word of truth, of the gospel of atonement, before He was crucified. 

Because we live in our flesh with all our weaknesses, we cannot help but sin. Jesus washed away all the sins of the world with His baptism. He has not only washed our heads and bodies, but also our feet, that is, all our sins of the future. This is the gospel of being born again, of the baptism of Jesus.

After Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist testified, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) We ought to believe that all the sins of the world were washed away by being passed onto Jesus during His baptism. 

While living in this sinful world, we cannot help but sin. That is an obvious fact. Whenever our weaknesses of the flesh surface, we have to remind ourselves that Jesus washed away all our sins and all the sins of the world through the gospel of remission and paid for them with His blood. We should give thanks to Him from the bottom of our hearts. Let us confess with faith that Jesus is our Savior and God. Praise the Lord. 

Everyone in this world cannot help but to commit sins with the flesh. People continuously sin with their flesh and die of their lifelong sins. 

 

 

Evil Thoughts in the Hearts of People 

 

What defiles a person?
Various kinds of sins and evil thoughts

Jesus says in Matthew 15:19-20. “For out of heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Because various kinds of sin in the heart of a person defile him/her, he/she is unclean. 

 

 

One Has to Recognize One’s Own Evil Nature 

 

What is in the heart of every man?
The twelve kinds of sins (Mark 7:21-23)

We have to be able to say, “Those twelve kinds of sins are in the hearts of people. I have all of them in my heart. I have the twelve kinds of sins inside me that are written about in the Bible.” Before we are born again of water and the Spirit, we have to admit that the sins are originally in our hearts. We have to acknowledge that we are complete sinners before God, but we do not often do that. Most of us make excuses for our sins, saying, “I have never had those thoughts in my heart, I was just momentarily led astray.” 

But what did Jesus say about human beings? He clearly stated that what comes out of a person’s heart ‘defiles’ him/her. He told us that people have evil thoughts inside of them. What do you think? Are you good or evil? Do you know that everyone has evil thoughts? Yes, everyone’s thoughts are evil.

A few years ago, a huge department store in Seoul suddenly collapsed. The families who lost their loved ones were in deep agony, but many people went there to enjoy the tragic spectacle. 

Some thought, “How many died? 200? No, that is too low of a number. 300? Maybe? Well, it would have been much more interesting and spectacular if the number of people dead had been at least a thousand....” The hearts of people can be as evil as that. We have to accept it. How disrespectful it was to the dead! How devastating it was for the families! Some were financially ruined. 

Some of the spectators were not very sympathetic. “It would have been much more interesting if more had died! What a spectacle! What if the same thing happened at a ballpark full of people? Thousands would be buried under the rubble, wouldn’t they? Oh, yes! It would certainly be much more interesting than this!” Perhaps some had thoughts like this. The same phenomena can be heard about car accidents. The curious spectators are prone to be disappointed at minor crashes.

We all know how evil we can be sometimes. Of course, we would never say such evil thoughts aloud. We may click our tongues and express our sympathies when we take a look at an accident by chance, but secretly, in our hearts, we long for it to be more spectacular. We want to see terrible tragedies, where thousands of people are killed, as long as it does not go against our interests. This is the way the hearts of people work. Most of us are like this before being born again. 

 

 

Murder in the Heart of Every Person 

 

Why do we sin?
Because we have evil thoughts in our hearts.

God told us that there is murder inside the hearts of every person. But many would deny it before God saying, “How can You say that! I don’t have any murderous thoughts in my heart! How can You even regard me to be such a person!” They would never admit that they have murder in their hearts. They think murderers are of a different breed from them. 

“That serial killer in the news the other day, the mobs who have murdered and burned people in their basements are the ones who have murder in their hearts! They are of a different breed. I could never be like them! They are rogues! Murderers!” They become indignant with the criminals and yell, “Those born of evil seeds should be wiped off the face of this earth! They should all be sentenced to death!” 

But unfortunately, the thought of murder is inside the hearts of those indignant people, as well as in the hearts of serial killers and murderers. God tells us that in the hearts of all people, there is murder. We have to accept the Word of God, who sees even the things hidden inside our minds. Thus, we have to admit, “I am a sinner with murder in my heart.” 

Yes, God told us that there are evil thoughts, including murder, inside the hearts of all people. Let us accept the Word of God. As the generations of people become more evil, all sorts of personal protection equipment become tools for murder. This is a result of the murder in our hearts. You can murder in a fit of anger, or fear. I am not saying that every one of us would actually kill others, but we think about it in our hearts. 

We all are born with evil thoughts in our hearts. Some do indeed end up killing, not because they are especially born as murderers, but because all of us are capable of becoming murderers. God tells us that we have evil thoughts and murder in our hearts. It is the truth. None of us is the exception to this truth. 

Therefore, the correct path for us to take is to accept the word of God and obey. We sin in this world because we have evil thoughts in our hearts. 

 

 

Adultery in Our Hearts 

 

God says that there is adultery in the heart of every person. Do you agree? Do you admit that you have adultery in your heart? Yes, there is adultery in the heart of every person. 

That is why prostitution and other sexual offenses flourish in our society. It is one of the surest ways of making money in every period in human history. Other businesses might suffer from economic depression, but these vile businesses do not suffer as much because there is adultery dwelling in the heart of every single person. 

 

 

The Fruit of Sinners Is Sin 

 

What is a human being compared to?
The tree which bears only the fruits of sin

Just as apple trees bear apples, pear trees pears, date trees dates, and persimmon trees persimmons, we, who are born with the 12 kinds of sins in our hearts, cannot but bear the fruits of sin. 

Jesus says that what comes out of the heart of a person defiles him/her. Do you agree? We can only agree to the words of Jesus and say, “Yes, we are a brood of sinners, evildoers. Yes, You are right, Lord.” Yes, we have to admit our evils. We have to admit the truth to ourselves in front of God. 

Just as Jesus Christ obeyed the will of God, we have to accept the Word of God and obey Him. It is the only way we can be saved from all our sins through the water and the Spirit. These are the gifts from God. 

My country is blessed with four beautiful seasons. As the seasons progress, various kinds of trees bear their fruits. In the same way, the twelve sins in our hearts have a hold on us and constantly lead us to sin. Today, it may be murder that has a grip on our hearts and tomorrow, it may be adultery. 

Then, the next day, evil thoughts, then fornication, theft, false witness...and so on. We go on sinning all year round, every month, every day, every hour. Not a day passes without our committing some kind of sin. We keep on swearing to ourselves that we won’t commit sin, but we can’t help it because we are born this way. 

Have you ever seen an apple tree refuse to bear apples because it didn’t want to? “I don’t want to bear apples!” Even if it made up its mind to refuse to bear fruit, how could it not bear apples? The flowers would inevitably bloom in the spring, the apples would grow and ripen in the summer, and the fruit would be ready to be picked and eaten in the fall. 

It is the provision of nature, and the life of sinners must also follow the same law of nature. Sinners cannot help but bear the fruits of sin. 

 

 

‘The Baptism and the Cross of Jesus’ Was to Atone for Our Sins 

 

What does it mean by Jesus’ atonement?
It is the payment of the wages of sin by the baptism of Jesus (the laying on of hands) and His blood on the Cross.

Let us read a passage from the Bible to find out how sinners, the brood of evildoers, can atone for their sins before God and live out their lives in happiness. This is the gospel of the atonement for sins. 

In Leviticus 4, it is said, “If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has sinned comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has sinned. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour its remaining blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat, as fat is removed from the sacrifice of peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the Lord. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him” (Leviticus 4:27-31). 

During the days of the Old Testament, how did the people atone for their sins? They laid their hands on the head of the sin offering first, and passed their sins onto it. 

It is written in Leviticus. “When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock of the herd and of the flock. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make the atonement for him” (Leviticus 1:2-4). 

When a person of that era recognized sin in his heart, he had to prepare sin offerings that would be used to atone for the sin. He had to ‘lay his hand’ on the head of the sin offering to pass on the sins he had committed. Inside the court of the holy tabernacle, there was the altar of burnt offering. It was box-styled, a little bigger than the pulpit table, and it had horns on every corner. The people of Israel atoned for their sins by passing their sins onto the head of the sin offering and burning its meat on the altar of burnt offering. 

God said in Leviticus for people to “Offer it of his own free will at the gate of the court of the tabernacle before the Lord.” Their sins were passed onto the sin offering when they laid their hands on its head, and then the sinner would cut the throat of the offering and put its blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. 

After that, the body of the offering was cleaned of its internal organs, and its meat was cut into pieces and burnt to ashes on the altar of burnt offering. Then, the sweet aroma of the meat was offered to God for their atonement. This was how they atoned for their daily sins. 

God allowed another sacrifice of atonement for their yearly sins. It differed from the sacrifice of atonement for daily sins. In this case, the High Priest alone laid his hands on the sin offering on behalf of all the people of Israel and he sprinkled the blood on the east of the mercy seat seven times. Also, the laying of his hands on the head of the live goat was done in front of the people of Israel on the tenth day of the seventh month every year (Leviticus 16:5-27). 

 

Who symbolizes the sin offering of the Old Testament?
Jesus Christ

Now, let us find out how the sacrificial system changed in the New Testament and how the eternal statute of God has remained constant over the years. 

Why did Jesus have to die on the Cross? What did He do wrong on this earth that God had to let His Son die on the Cross? Who forced Him to die on the Cross? When all the sinners of the world, meaning all of us, had fallen into sin, Jesus came to this world to save us. 

He was baptized by John the Baptist at the Jordan River and took the punishment on the Cross for all sins on behalf of humankind. The way Jesus was baptized and the way He bled on the Cross was similar to the sacrifice of atonement in the Old Testament, the laying of hands on the sin offering and the shedding of its blood. 

This was the way it had been done in the Old Testament. A sinner laid his hand on the sin offering and confessed his sins, saying, “Lord, I have sinned. I have committed murder and adultery.” Then, his sins were passed onto the sin offering. 

Just as the sinner cut the throat of the sin offering and offered it before God, Jesus was offered in the same way to atone for all our sins. Jesus was baptized and bled on the Cross to save us and atoned for all our sins through His sacrifice.

In fact, Jesus died because of us. When we think about it, what was the meaning of offering those animals without blemish as sacrifices for all the sins of the people? Had all those animals known what sin was? Animals do not know sin. They had to be without blemish.

Just as those animals were completely without blemish, so, too, was Jesus without sin. He is the Holy God, the Son of God, and He has never sinned. So, He took away all our sins through His baptism in the Jordan River when He was 30 years old. 

Jesus died on the Cross because of the sins He took away from us. It was His ministry for salvation that washed away all the sins of humankind. 

 

 

The Beginning of the Gospel of the Atonement for Sins 

 

Why was Jesus baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan?
To fulfill all righteousness

It is written in Matthew 3, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness’” (Matthew 3:13-15). 

We have to know and understand why Jesus was baptized when He was 30. He was baptized to atone for the sins of all people and to fulfill all the righteousness of God. To save all people from their sins, Jesus Christ, the One without blemish, was baptized by John the Baptist. 

Thus, He took away the sins of the world and offered Himself up to atone for the sins of all human beings. In order to be saved from sin, we should know the whole truth and believe in it. It is up to us to believe in His salvation and be saved. 

What does the baptism of Jesus mean? It is the same as the laying on of hands in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the sins of all the people were passed onto the head of the sin offering by the laying on of the High Priest’s hands. Similarly, in the New Testament, Jesus took away the sins of the world by presenting Himself as the sin offering and being baptized by John the Baptist. 

John the Baptist was the greatest man among all human beings, the representative of mankind ordained by God. As the representative of mankind, the High Priest of humanity, he laid his hands on Jesus and passed all the sins of the world onto Him. ‘Baptism’ implies, ‘to pass on to, to be buried, and to be washed.’ 

Do you know why Jesus came to this world and was baptized by John the Baptist? Do you believe in Jesus, knowing the meaning of His baptism? The baptism of Jesus was to take away all our sins, the sins that we, the brood of evildoers, commit with our flesh throughout our lives. John the Baptist baptized Jesus for the fulfillment of the original gospel of atonement for all our sins. 

In Matthew 3:13-17, it begins with ‘Then,’ and it refers to the time Jesus was baptized, the time all the sins of the world were passed onto Him. 

‘Then,’ Jesus took away all the sins of humankind, died on the Cross after three years, and was resurrected on the third day. To wash away all the sins of the world, He was baptized once and for all, died on the Cross once and for all, and was resurrected from the dead once and for all. For those who want to be redeemed of their sins before God, He took all the sin of the world and saved them once and for all. 

Why did Jesus have to be baptized? Why did He have to put on the crown of thorns and be judged at the court of Pilate like a common criminal? Why did He have to be crucified on the Cross and bleed to death? The reason for all the above is because He took away all the sins of the world, the sins of you and I, onto Himself through His baptism. For our sins, He had to die on the Cross. 

We have to believe in the word of salvation that God has saved us and be grateful to Him. Without the baptism of Jesus, His Cross, and His resurrection, there would be no salvation for us. 

When Jesus was baptized by John to take away all the sins of the world, He took away our sins and thus, saved us who believe in His gospel of salvation. There are people who think, “Jesus took away only the original sin, didn’t He?” But they are wrong. 

It is recorded clearly in the Bible that Jesus took away all the sins of the world once and for all when He was baptized. All our sins, including the original sin, have been washed away. Jesus says in Matthew 3:15, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” To fulfill all righteousness means that all sins, without exception, have been taken away from us. 

Has Jesus washed away all our lifelong sins, too? Yes, He has. Let us find the proof of it in Leviticus first. It tells us about the High Priest and the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement. 

 

 

The Sacrifice of Atonement for the Yearly Sins of All Israelites

 

Could the Israelites be sanctified once for all by the sin offering of this earth?
Never

“Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:6-10). Here, Aaron took two goats at the door of the tabernacle of meeting to atone for the yearly sins of Israelites. 

“Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.” 

A sacrificial animal was needed for the lawful atonement for daily sins in order to pass the sinner’s sin onto it by laying his hand on the head of the offering. But for the yearly sins of the Israelites, the High Priest, on behalf of all the people, passed the yearly sins onto the sin offering on the tenth day of the seventh month every year. 

In Leviticus 16:29-31, it is written, “In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who sojourns among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever” (Leviticus 16:29-31). 

In the Old Testament, the people of Israel brought a sin offering to atone for daily sins and passed their sins on to its head, confessing, “Lord, I have committed such and such sins. Please forgive me.” Then, he cut the throat of the sin offering, gave the blood to the priest, and went home, convinced that he was now free of his sins. Thus, the sin offering died for the sinner, with the sin on its head. The sacrificial animal was killed instead of the sinner. In the Old Testament, the sin offering could be a goat, a lamb, a calf, or a bull, that is, one of the sacred animals that God had distinguished. 

God, in His infinite mercy, allowed an animal’s life to be offered instead of a sinner having to die for his/her sins. 

In this way in the Old Testament, sinners could atone for their sins through the sacrifice of atonement. The trespasses of the sinner were passed onto the sin offering by the laying on of hand, and its blood was given to the priest to expiate the sins of the sinner. 

However, it was impossible to atone for sins everyday. As a result, God allowed the High Priest to expiate the sins of a whole year, every year on the tenth day of the seventh month, on behalf of all the people of Israel. 

Then what was the role of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement? First, Aaron the High Priest laid his hands on the sin offering, confessing the sins of the people, “Lord, the people of Israel have committed such and such sins, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy....” 

Then, he cut the throat of the sin offering, took its blood, and sprinkled that blood seven times on the mercy seat inside the Holy Sanctuary. (In the Bible, the number 7 is considered to be the perfect number.) 

It was his task to pass the yearly sins of the people onto the head of the sin offering on their behalf, and the sin offering was sacrificed vicariously. 

Because God is just, to save all people from their sins, He allowed the sin offering to die in place of the people. Since God is truly merciful, He allowed the people to offer the life of a sacrificial animal in their stead. The High Priest then sprinkled the blood on the east side of the mercy seat and thus, atoned for all the sins of the people for the past year on the Day of Atonement, on the tenth day of the seventh month. 

 

Who is the sacrificial Lamb according to the Old Testament?
Jesus who is without blemish

The High Priest had to offer two goats on the Day of Atonement for the people of Israel. One of them was called the scapegoat, which means ‘to put out.’ In the same way, the scapegoat of the New Testament is Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). 

God gave us His only Son as the sacrificial Lamb. As the sacrificial Lamb for all mankind, He was baptized by John the Baptist and became the Savior, the Messiah of the world. Jesus means ‘the Savior’ and Christ means ‘the anointed King,’ so Jesus Christ means ‘the Son of God who came to save us all.’

Just as the yearly sins of the people were expiated on the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, almost 2000 years ago, came to this world to be baptized and bled to death on the Cross to complete the gospel of the atonement for all our sins. 

At this point, let us read a passage in Leviticus. “And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:21-22). 

It is written that the sins of all Israelites were put on the head of the goat as it is also stated in Leviticus 1. ‘All their transgressions’ refers to all the sins they committed in their hearts and with their flesh. And ‘all their transgressions’ were put on the head of the sin offering by the laying on of the High Priest’s hands. 

 

 

By the Law of God, We Have to Have True Knowledge of All Our Sins 

 

Why did God give us the Law?
To give us the knowledge of sin

The Law of God consists of 613 commandments. In fact, when we think about it, we do what He tells us not to do and don’t do what He tells us to do. 

Therefore, we are sinners. It is written in the Bible that God gave us those commandments in order for us to realize our sins (Romans 3:20). This means that He gave us His Law of commandments to teach us that we are sinners. He didn’t give them to us because we are able to live by them, but for us to realize our sins. 

He didn’t give us His commandments for us to keep. You can’t expect a dog to live like a human being. In the same way, we can never live up to the Law of God, but can only realize our sins through His Law of commandments. 

God gave them to us because we are masses of sin, but we don’t actually realize it. “You are murderers, fornicators, evildoers,” God tells us paradoxically through the commandments. He told us not to kill, but we kill nevertheless in our hearts and sometimes, with our bodies. 

However, because it is written in the Law that we should not kill, we know that we are murderers, saying, “Ah, I was wrong. I am a sinner because I did something I shouldn’t have done. I have sinned.” 

To save the people of Israel from sin, God allowed Aaron to offer the sacrifice of atonement in the Old Testament, and it was Aaron who atoned for the people once a year. 

In the Old Testament, two sin offerings had to be offered to God on the Day of Atonement. One was offered before God while the other was sent into the wilderness after the laying on of hands, taking with it all the yearly sins of the people. Before the goat was sent away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man, the High Priest laid his hands on the head of the live goat and confessed the sins of Israel. “Lord, the people have killed, fornicated, stolen, worshipped idols.... We have sinned before You.” 

The land of Palestine is a desert wilderness. The scapegoat was sent away into the endless wilderness and eventually died. When it was sent away, the people of Israel kept looking at it until it disappeared into the distance, and believed that their sins were gone with the scapegoat. The people earned peace of mind thus, and the scapegoat died in the wilderness for the yearly sins of all the people. 

In this manner, God atoned for all our sins through the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. All our sins were completely washed away through the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross. 

Jesus is God and our Savior. He is the Son of God who came to save all humankind from sin. He is the Creator who made us in His image and came down to this world to save us from sin. 

Not only were the daily sins we commit with our flesh passed onto Jesus, but also all our future sins and the sins of our minds and flesh. Thus, He had to be baptized by John the Baptist to fulfill all the righteousness of God, the complete atonement for all the sins of the world. 

Three years before Jesus was crucified, when He first began His public ministry, He took away all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. His salvation of humankind through the atonement for all our sins began with His baptism. 

In the Jordan River, in a spot where it might be about waist deep, John the Baptist put his hands on Jesus’ head and immersed Him in the water. This baptism was the same as the laying on of hands in the Old Testament and had the same effect of passing on all sins. 

To be immersed in the water meant death, and the coming up from the water meant resurrection. Thus, by being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus had fulfilled and revealed all three components of His mission: taking away all sins, crucifixion, and resurrection. 

We can be saved only if we obey the words with which Jesus saved us from sin. God had decided to save us through Jesus, and the covenant that He had made in the Old Testament had been thus fulfilled. Through this act, Jesus walked to the Cross with all our sins on His head. 

 

What kind of work is left to us since Jesus blotted out all our sins?
All we have to do is to have faith in the words of God.

In John 1:29, it is written, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” John the Baptist testified, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” All the sins of humankind were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized in the Jordan. Believe it! Then you will be blessed with the atonement for all your sins. 

We have to have faith in the word of God. We have to put aside our own thoughts and stubbornness and obey the written Word of God. We must simply believe in the truth that Jesus took away all the sins of the world. 

To say that Jesus took away all the sins of the world, and to say that He fulfilled the righteousness of God by atoning for our sins is exactly the same thing. The ‘laying on of hands’ and ‘baptism’ also mean the same thing. 

Regardless of whether we say ‘all,’ ‘everything,’ or ‘whole,’ the meaning remains the same. The meaning of the word, ‘the laying on of hands’ in the Old Testament remains the same in the New Testament, except that the word ‘baptism’ is used instead. 

It comes down to the simple truth that Jesus was both baptized and judged on the Cross to atone for all our sins. We can be saved when we believe in this original gospel. 

When the Bible says that Jesus took away all ‘the sin of the world’ (John 1:29), what does the sin of the world mean? It means all the sins we were born with, that is, evil thoughts, thefts, fornications, covetousness, wickedness, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness that dwell in our minds. It also includes all the transgressions and trespasses we commit with the flesh and in the heart. 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our God” (Romans 6:23). “And without the shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). As it is said in these verses, all sins have to be paid for. Jesus Christ, to save all humankind from sin, offered His own life and paid the wages of sin for us once and for all. 

Therefore, to be freed from all our sins, all we have to do is to believe in the original gospel―the baptism of Jesus and His blood, and His Divinity. 

 

 

The Atonement for the Sins of Tomorrow 

 

Do we need to offer a sacrifice for our sins anymore?
Never again

The sins of tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the sins that we commit until the day we die are also included in ‘the sin of the world,’ just as the sins of today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday are also included in ‘the sin of the world.’ The sins of people from birth to death are all part of ‘the sin of the world,’ and the very sins of the world were absolutely passed onto Jesus through His baptism. All the sins we will commit until the day we die have already been taken away from us. 

We need only to believe in this original gospel, the written words of God, and obey the truth to be saved. We should set aside our own thoughts to be redeemed of all our sins. You may well ask, “How could He take away the sins not yet committed?” Then, I would ask you in return, “Should Jesus come back to this world every time we sin and shed blood again and again?” 

Within the gospel of being born again, there is the law of atonement for our sins. “And without the shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). When someone wanted to be redeemed of his sins in the days of the Old Testament, he had to pass on the sins by laying his hand on a sin offering, and the sin offering had to die for his sins. 

In much the same way, the Son of God came down to this world to save all humankind. He was baptized to take away all our sins, bled on the Cross to pay the wages of our sins, and died on the Cross, saying, “It is finished.” He was resurrected from the dead on the third day and now sits at the right hand of God. Thus, He has become our Savior forever. 

To be completely remitted of our sins, we have to throw out all our fixed ideas and abandon the religious doctrine that tells us to redeem ourselves of our daily sins through prayers of repentance everyday. In order for the sins of humankind to be expiated, the lawful sacrifice had to be offered, once and for all. God in Heaven passed all the sins of the world onto His own Son through His baptism and had Him crucified for us. With His resurrection from death, our salvation was completed. 

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted… and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” In Isaiah 53, it is said that all the transgressions and iniquities of the world, of all humankind were passed onto Jesus Christ. 

In the New Testament, in Ephesians 1:4, it is written, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” This tells us that He chose us in Him before the creation of the world. Before the world was even created, God decided to make us His people, the righteous without blemish, in Christ. Whatever we may have thought before, we should now believe and obey the Word of God, the words of the water, the blood, and the Spirit. 

God told us that His Lamb, Jesus Christ, took away the sins of the world and atoned for all humankind. In Hebrews 10, it is written, “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect” (Hebrews 10:1). 

Here, it says that the same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, can never make them perfect. The Law is a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the true things. Jesus Christ, the Messiah who was to come, made us perfect once and for all (just as the yearly sins of Israel were atoned once and for all) by being baptized and crucified to atone for all our sins. 

Therefore, Jesus said in Hebrews 10, “Then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God. He takes away the first that He may establish the second.’ By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:9-18). 

We believe that Jesus has saved us from all the sins of the world through His baptism and blood on the Cross. 

 

 

The Salvation of Being Born Again of Water and the Spirit That Is Engraved in Our Hearts and Minds 

 

Are we righteous just because we don’t sin anymore?
No. We are righteous because Jesus took away all our sins and we believe in Him.

Do you all believe in His perfect salvation? —Amen— Do you obey with faith the words of God that Jesus Christ Himself was baptized and bled on the Cross to save us? We must have faith in His Word to be born again. We can be saved when we believe that Jesus Christ, through the gospel of remission, washed away all our sins, along with the sins of the world. 

We can never become sinless by obeying the Law of God, but we can become perfect through our faith in His works. Jesus Christ took away all our sins through His baptism in the Jordan, suffered the judgment and was punished for all our sins on the Cross. By believing in this gospel with all our hearts, we can be redeemed of all our sins and become righteous. Do you believe this? 

The baptism of Jesus, His crucifixion and resurrection are for the remission of all the sins of humankind and the law of salvation based on the infinite and unconditional love of God. God loves us as we are and He is just, so He made us righteous first. He made us righteous by passing all our sins onto Jesus through His baptism. 

To wash away all our sins, He sent His only Son, Jesus, down to this world for us. He allowed Jesus to take away all the sins of the world through His baptism and then passed the judgment onto His Son for all our sins. He made us His righteous children through the salvation of the water and the blood, the agape of God. 

It is written in Hebrews 10:16, “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” 

In our hearts and minds, are we sinners before God or are we righteous? If we have faith in God’s Word, we become righteous. Jesus Christ took away all our sins and was judged for them. Jesus Christ is our Savior. You may think, “Because we sin every day, how can we be righteous? We are definitely sinners.” But when we believe in the Word of God, just as Christ Jesus obeyed the Father, we become righteous.

Of course, as I have said previously, we had sin in our hearts before we were born again. After we took the gospel of the remission of sins into our hearts, we were saved from all our sins. When we didn’t know the gospel, we were sinners. But we became righteous when we started to believe in the salvation of Jesus, and became the righteous children of God. This is the faith of becoming righteous that the Apostle Paul talked about. The faith in the gospel of remission made us ‘the righteous.’ 

Neither the Apostle Paul, nor Abraham, nor the ancestors of faith became righteous by their works, but rather by having faith in the Word of God, the words of His blessing of the remission of sins. 

In Hebrews 10:18, “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” Just as it is written, God saved us so that we may not have to die for our sins. Do you believe in this? —Amen—

In Philippians 2, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the Cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11). 

Jesus Christ, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature (Hebrews 1:3), did not pursue any grand reputation for Himself. Instead, He took upon Himself the form of a servant, and came in the likeness of a human being. He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death to save us. 

Therefore, we praise Jesus, “He is our God, the Savior and King.” The reason why we glorify God and praise Jesus is that Jesus obeyed the will of His Father to the end. If He hadn’t obeyed, we wouldn’t be glorifying the Son of God now. But because the Son of God obeyed the will of His Father to the point of death, all creation and all people on this earth glorify Him, and will do so forever. 

Jesus Christ became the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, and it is written that He took them away through His baptism. Now, about 2000 years has passed since He took away the sins of the world. You and I have been living in this world from our births, and all our sins are also included in the sins of the world. 

 

Will we become sinners if we sin tomorrow?
No, because Jesus took away all our sins of the past, the present, and the future.

Without separating original sin from our own lifelong trespasses, haven’t we sinned from the time we were born? —Yes, we have.—

Jesus knew that we would sin from the day we were born until the day we die, so He took away all our sins in advance. Can you see it now? If we were to live until 70, our sins would fill more than a hundred dump trucks. But Jesus took away all our sins at once with His baptism and carried them to the Cross with Him. 

If Jesus had taken away only the original sin, we would all die and go to hell. Even if we felt that He couldn’t have taken away all our sins, it would never change the fact that Jesus had blotted out all our sins. 

How much sin can we commit in this world? All the sins we commit are included in the sins of the world. 

When Jesus told John to baptize Him, it was exactly what He meant. Jesus testified Himself that He had taken away all our sins. God sent His servant before Jesus and had Jesus baptized by him. By being baptized by John, the representative of humankind, by lowering His head before him to be baptized, Jesus took away all the sins of all humankind. 

All our sins from ages 20 to 30, from 30 to 40, and so on; even the sins of our children were included in the sins of the world, which Jesus took away through His baptism. 

Who can say that there sin remains in this world? Jesus Christ took away the sins of the world, and we can all be saved when we believe in our hearts, without a shadow of a doubt, in what Jesus did to atone for our sins: His baptism and the shedding of His precious blood. 

Most people live their turbulent lives wrapped up in their own thoughts, talking about their lives as if their lives were so important. But there are many who have led harder lives. Many people have lived turbulent lives. I also lived such a life before I was born again. How can you not understand or accept the gospel of remission, of the baptism of Jesus and His blood? 

 

 

The Salvation of Sinners Has Been Completed 

 

Why did Jesus wash Peter’s feet?
Because He wanted Peter to have strong faith in the fact that He had already washed away all his future sins through His baptism.

 

Let us read John 19. “And He, bearing His Cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the Cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin” (John 19:17-20). 

Dear friends, Jesus Christ took on all the sins of the world and was sentenced to be crucified at the court of Pilate. Now let us think about this scene together. 

From verse 28, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled,” Jesus took away all our sins to fulfill the Scripture. “And, He said, ‘I thirst!’ Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” (John 19:28-30). 

Jesus said, “It is finished!” and then died on the Cross. After three days, He was resurrected from the dead and went up to heaven. 

The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and His death on the Cross are indispensably linked with each other; one has no reason to exist without the other. Therefore, let us praise the Lord Jesus for saving us with His gospel of remission.

The flesh of humankind always follows the needs of the flesh, so we cannot help but sin with our flesh. Jesus Christ gave us His baptism and blood to save us from the sins of our flesh. He saved us from the sins of our flesh with His gospel. 

Those who have complete remission of sins can enter the Kingdom of Heaven at any time by believing in Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem, was baptized in the Jordan, died on the Cross and was resurrected on the third day. We praise the Lord and glorify His name forever. 

In the last chapter in John, Jesus went to Galilee after He was resurrected from the dead. He went to Peter and said to him, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” and Peter answered Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” Then Jesus told him, “Feed My lambs.” 

Peter realized everything, the gospel of the baptism of Jesus and His blood, the remission of sins. Now, believing in the gospel of the water and the blood that gave him the remission of all his sins and realizing why Jesus had washed his feet, his faith in Jesus became much stronger. 

Let us read John 21:15 again. “So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’” He could entrust His lambs to Peter because Peter was His disciple, who had been completely saved, and because Peter had become a righteous and perfect servant of God.

If Peter had become a sinner again by his daily sins, Jesus would not have told him to preach the gospel of the atonement for sins, because he, including the other disciples, could not help but to sin everyday in the flesh. However, Jesus told them to preach the gospel that blotted out all their sins because they believed in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross, the gospel of the atonement for sins.

 

 

“Lord, You Know That I Love You”

 

Will you become ‘a sinner’ again when you sin again?
No. Jesus already took away all my future sins at the Jordan.

Let us think about the words of Jesus to Peter. “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” His confession of love was true, arising as it did out of faith in the gospel of the atonement for all sins. 

If Jesus hadn’t taught Peter and the other disciples the gospel of the remission of sins by washing their feet, they wouldn’t have been able to confess their love in that way. 

Instead, when Jesus came to them and asked, “Do you love Me more than these?” Peter would have said, “Lord, I am merely an incomplete person. I am a sinner who cannot love You more than these things. Please leave me alone.” And Peter would have run away, hiding himself from Jesus. 

But let us think about Peter’s answers. He was blessed with the gospel of the remission of sins, the baptism of Jesus and His blood that saved all humankind. 

Therefore, Peter was able to say, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” This confession of love came out of his faith in the gospel of the remission of Jesus. Peter believed in the true gospel of the remission of sins, through which Jesus had taken away all the sins of the world. This included all the sins of the future, which people were bound to commit because of their deficiencies and weaknesses of the flesh. 

Peter firmly believed in the gospel of the remission of sins, and because he also believed that Jesus was the Lamb of God, he was able to answer the Lord without hesitation. The salvation of Jesus came from the gospel of the remission of sins, and thus, Peter had been saved from all his daily sins as well. Peter believed in salvation through the gospel of the remission of all the world’s sins. 

Are you also like Peter? Can you love and trust in Jesus, who took away all our sins with His gospel of remission, with His baptism and blood? How can you neither believe nor love Him? There is no other way. 

If Jesus had only taken away the sins of the past or the present, and left the sins of the future to us, we wouldn’t be able to praise Him as we do now. In addition to this, we would all surely go to hell. Therefore, we should all profess that believing in the gospel of the remission of sins has saved us. 

The flesh is always prone to sin, so we constantly sin. Therefore, we must confess that believing in the gospel of the abundant atonement of sins that Jesus has given us, the gospel of the baptism and blood of Jesus, has saved us. 

If we didn’t believe in the gospel of the atonement of sins, which is the baptism and blood of Jesus, no believer would be saved from his/her lifelong sins. In addition, if we were redeemed of all our lifelong sins by confessing and repenting each time, we would probably be too lazy to stay righteous and would always have sin in our hearts. 

If this were so, we would return to being a sinner and wouldn’t love Jesus or get close to Him. Then, we also wouldn’t be able to believe in the salvation of Jesus and follow Him to the end of our lives. 

Jesus gave us the gospel of the remission of sins and saved those who believed. He has become the perfect Savior and washed away all our daily trespasses so that we may truly love Him. 

We believers cannot help but love the gospel of the baptism and the blood of Jesus, the remission of our sins. All believers can love Jesus forever and become captives of the love of salvation through the gospel of the remission of sins that Jesus has given us. 

Dearly beloved! If Jesus had left even a little sin behind, you wouldn’t be able to believe in Jesus, nor would you be able to become the witness for the gospel of the remission of sins. You wouldn’t be able to work as God’s servant. 

But, if you believe in the gospel of the remission of sins, you can be saved from all your sins. He allows you to be saved from all your sins when you realize the true gospel of remission, recorded in the Word of Jesus.

 

 

“Do You Love Me More Than These?”

 

What has made us love Jesus more than anything else?
His love for us through His baptism, which washed away all our sins, even all our future sins

God entrusted His lambs to His servants, who completely believed in the gospel of the remission of sins. Jesus asked three times, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” and Peter answered each time, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Now, let us think about Peter’s answers. We can see that this was not the expression of his will, but his faith in the gospel of the remission of sins. 

When we love someone, and if that love is based on our wills, it can falter when we weaken. But if that love depended on the strength of God’s love, then it would last forever. The Love of God, namely, the abundant atonement for all our sins, the salvation of the water of the baptism of Jesus and the Spirit, is like that. 

Our faith in the gospel of the remission of sins must become the foundation for our love and works for the Lord. If we loved Him only with our wills, we would stumble tomorrow and end up hating ourselves for our iniquities. However, Jesus washed away all our sins: original sin, our daily sins of the past, the sins of today and tomorrow, and all the sins throughout our whole lives. He has not left anyone out of His salvation. 

All this is true. If our love and faiths depended on our wills and resolutions, we would fail in our faiths. But because our love and faiths depend on the gospel of remission Jesus has given us, we are already God’s children, the righteous. Since we believe in the salvation of the water and the Spirit, we are without sin. 

Due to the fact that our salvation came, not from the form of godliness in ourselves, but from the love of God and His law of true salvation by the remission of our sins, we are righteous no matter how incomplete or weak we are in life. We will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and praise God through all eternity. Do you believe this? 

1 John 4:10 states, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Jesus saved us with the water and the Spirit, so we should have faith in the gospel of remission, the baptism of Jesus and His blood. 

If God hadn’t saved us with the gospel of the remission of sins, we could not have been saved, no matter how fervently we believed. But Jesus washed away all the sins we commit in our hearts and with our flesh. 

In order for us to become righteous, we must be certain of our salvations through faith in the words of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of atonement. The gospel of the remission of all the sins of the world is composed of the baptism of Jesus and His blood. The gospel of remission is the content of the true faith, the true foundation of salvation, and the key to enter the Kingdom of God. 

 

 

We Have to Discard the Faith of Our Own Wills 

 

Where does true faith come from?
It comes from the love of the Lord, who has already washed away all our future sins.

The faith or love borne of one’s own will is neither true love nor true faith. There are many in this world who first believe in Jesus with good wills, then later give up their faiths altogether because of the agony of sin in their hearts. 

But we must realize that Jesus washed away all the sins of the world: not only the insignificant iniquities, but also the great sins that are committed through ignorance. 

In John 13, in order to teach His disciples how all embracive and perpetually effective His salvation was, Jesus gathered His disciples together before He was crucified. While having dinner with His disciples, He rose and washed their feet to engrave the truth of His abundant salvation into their hearts. We should all know and believe in the gospel of remission, which Jesus taught the disciples by washing their feet. 

But Peter firmly refused to let Jesus wash his feet at first. “You shall never wash my feet!” And this was the expression of the faith borne of his own will. But Jesus told him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” 

Now, with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can understand the words of the Bible that were beyond our comprehension. It is the Word of truth; the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the remission of sins, which lets the sinner become righteous by believing with all his/her heart. 

Peter went fishing with the other disciples, just as they had done before they met Jesus. Then, Jesus appeared before them and called out to them. Jesus had prepared breakfast for them, and while eating breakfast, Peter realized the meaning of the words that Jesus had spoken before. “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” He had finally realized what Jesus really meant by washing his feet before. 

“The Lord washed away all my sins. All the sins I commit because of my weaknesses, including all the sins I will commit in the future as well.” Peter gave up the faith borne of his own will and resolution, and began to stand firm on the baptism and blood of Jesus, the gospel of the remission of sins. 

After breakfast, Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?” Now, fortified with faith in the love of Jesus, Peter confessed. “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” Peter could reply because he had realized what Jesus had meant when He said, “You will know after this.” He was able to confess his true faith, the faith in the baptism and blood of Jesus, the gospel of the remission of sins. 

 

 

Afterwards, He Became a True Servant of God 

 

After that experience, Peter and the other disciples preached the gospel until their dying breaths. Even Paul, who had mercilessly persecuted Christians, testified to the gospel during those hard days of the Roman Empire. 

 

How can you become a true servant of God?
By believing in His eternal atonement for all my sins

Among the twelve disciples of Jesus, Judas sold Jesus and later hung himself. It was the Apostle Paul who took his place. The disciples had elected Matthias among themselves, but it was Paul whom God elected, so Paul became Jesus’ Apostle and preached the gospel of the remission of sins with the other disciples. 

Most of the disciples of Jesus died as martyrs. Even when they were threatened with death, they didn’t deny their faiths, and went on preaching the original gospel. 

They may have preached like this: “Jesus Christ washed away all the sins of your flesh with His baptism and blood, that is, with His gospel of the remission of sins. Jesus took away your sins with His baptism in the Jordan and bore the judgment for you on the Cross. Believe in the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross, and be saved.” 

Hearing the original gospel and believing in it indeed saved many. It was the power of faith in the gospel of the baptism of Jesus, His blood, and the Spirit. 

The disciples preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit, saying, “Jesus is God and the Savior.” It is because they have testified to the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you and I can now hear the gospel of the baptism and blood of Jesus as our salvation, and be saved from sin. Because of God’s infinite love and Jesus’ complete salvation, we have all become the disciples of Jesus. 

Do you all believe? Jesus loved us so much that He gave us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the remission of sins, and we have become righteous disciples of Jesus. In order to teach the true gospel of remission, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. 

Jesus washed His disciples’ feet to teach them and us that all the sins of the world, including all the sins we commit throughout our lives, were completely washed away when He was baptized and bled on the Cross. We thank Jesus for His love and the gospel of remission. 

Jesus taught us two things by washing the feet of the disciples. First, it was to teach them, just as He had said, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this,” that all our sins were washed away by the gospel of remission, the baptism of Jesus and His blood. 

The second teaching was that as Jesus had lowered Himself to save the sinners and make them righteous, we, the born-again, should serve others by preaching the gospel of remission. It is right for us who came first, to serve those who come later. 

The two reasons why Jesus washed the disciples’ feet on the day of the Passover feast are clear and they still exist within His Church. 

A disciple can never be higher than his teacher. Therefore, we preach the gospel to the world and serve it as if we were serving Jesus. We, who were previously saved, should serve those who come after us. To teach this, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. In addition, by washing Peter’s feet, He showed us that He was the perfect Savior so that we may never be deceived by the devil again. 

You can all be saved by believing in the gospel of the remission of sins, of the water and the Spirit. Jesus washed away all our sins with His baptism, crucifixion, and resurrection. Only those who believe in His gospel can be saved from the sins of the world forever.

 

 

Have Faith in the Gospel Which Washed Away All Our Daily Sins 

 

We can cut off the deceptions of the devil by believing in the gospel of remission, the words of the water and the Spirit. People are easily deceived by the devil and the devil continuously whispers in their ears. Knowing that the flesh of people ceaselessly commit sins in the world, how can they ever be without sin? All people are sinners. 

However, we know the answer. “Knowing that Jesus took away all the sins of our flesh with His baptism, how can a believer be with sin? Jesus paid in full all the wages of sin, so what wage is left for us to pay?” 

If we do not believe in the gospel of the water and the blood, the words of the devil seem reasonable. But, if we have the gospel on our side, we can have unwavering faiths in the truth of God’s Word. 

We must have faith in the gospel of being born again of water and blood. True faith is to believe in the gospel of the baptism of Jesus, His blood on the Cross, His death and His resurrection. 

Have you ever seen a picture of a model of the holy tabernacle? It is a small tent-house. The house is divided into two sections, the outer part is the holy place and the inner part is the Most Holy Sanctuary, in which the mercy seat is located. 

There are a total of 60 pillars standing in the outer court of the holy tabernacle, and the holy place has 48 boards. We must picture the holy tabernacle in our minds in order to understand the meaning of the words of God. 

 

 

What Was the Gate of the Court of the Tabernacle Made of? 

 

What was the gate of the court of the tabernacle made of?
A screen woven of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen thread

The gate of the court of the tabernacle is described in Exodus 27:16, “For the gate of the court there shall be a screen twenty cubits long, woven of blue and purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen thread, made by a weaver. It shall have four pillars and four sockets.” The materials used for the gate of the court of the tabernacle were blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen thread. It was intricately woven and very colorful. 

God had ordered Moses to weave the gate colorfully with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn so that it would be easy for everyone to find the entrance. The gate woven with blue, purple, scarlet yarn, and fine linen thread was hung on four pillars. 

These four materials symbolize the blueprint of God’s salvation, by which He would save all those who believed in His Son, through the baptism and the blood of Jesus, and in His being God. 

Each of the materials used to build the holy tabernacle has a specific meaning and it represents God’s Word and His plans to save humankind through Jesus. 

Now, how many different materials were used for the gate of the court of the holy tabernacle? Four different materials were used; blue, purple, scarlet yarn, and fine linen thread. These four are very significant in helping us strengthen our faiths in the gospel of being born again. If it were not important, this information wouldn’t be recorded in the Bible with such great detail. 

All the materials used for the gate of the court of the holy tabernacle imply significant meanings to our salvation. Therefore, God revealed these things to Moses and told him to do exactly as he was told. 

 

 

What Do Blue, Purple, and Scarlet Yarn Mean within the Gospel of God?

 

What did all the materials used for the tabernacle symbolize?
The salvation of Jesus through His baptism and blood

 

Inside the holy tabernacle, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen thread were used again for the veil that was hung between the holy place and the Most Holy Place. The same materials were used for the robes of the High Priest, who could enter inside the Most Holy Place once a year. 

Blue yarn symbolizes the baptism of Jesus. In 1 Peter 3:21, it is said, “There is also an antitype which now saves us, namely baptism.” Peter confirmed the baptism of Jesus, through which He took on all the sins of the world in this verse, as the antitype of the salvation of atonement. All our sins were passed onto Jesus through His baptism. Therefore, blue yarn, the baptism of Jesus, is the most essential part of the Word of salvation. 

Scarlet yarn symbolizes the blood of Jesus, and purple yarn symbolizes His Divinity—the status of Jesus as King and God. The three colors of yarn were necessary for our faiths in Jesus and His salvation. 

The gorgeous outer garment worn by the High Priest was called an ephod, and the robe of ephod was also all blue. The High Priest wore a turban on his head, on which a plate of pure gold was engraved, ‘HOLINESS TO THE LORD.’ The plate was fastened to the turban with a blue cord, too. 

 

 

The Truth Represented by Blue Yarn 

 

What does blue yarn symbolize?
The baptism of Jesus

 

I looked up the meaning of the blue yarn in the Bible. What does the Bible say about blue? We have to understand the blue yarn among the blue, purple, and scarlet yarns. 

Blue yarn represents ‘the water,’ that is, the baptism of Jesus. Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist to take on all the sins of the world (Matthew 3:15).

If Jesus had not taken away all the sins of the world with His baptism, we could not have become sanctified before God. Therefore, Jesus Christ had to come to this world and be baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River to take away all the sins of the world. 

The reason why there had to be blue yarn in the gate of the court of the holy tabernacle was because we could not become sanctified without the baptism of Jesus. 

Scarlet yarn represents His blood, the death of Jesus. Purple refers to Jesus’ Godhead, thus Jesus’ status as “Only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15). 

The truth is that scarlet yarn symbolizes the blood of Christ, who bled on the Cross to pay the wages of sin for all humankind. Jesus Christ came to this world in the flesh to take all the sins of humankind onto Himself through His baptism, and paid off all the wages of sin by sacrificing Himself on the Cross. The baptism and blood of Jesus is the true gospel of remission that is prophesied through the colors of yarn used for the holy tabernacle in the Old Testament. 

The pillars of the tabernacle were made of acacia wood, the sockets were of bronze, and the bronze sockets were covered with bands of silver. 

All sinners were judged for their sins because the wages of sin is death. Before someone could be blessed by God to earn a new life, he/she had to offer a sacrifice for his/her sins in the days of the Old Testament. 

However, the baptism of Jesus in the New Testament, which is represented by the blue yarn of the holy tabernacle, had taken over all our sins. Jesus took our sins to the Cross, bled and was judged for them and in doing so, He saved all of us who have faith in the gospel of remission. He is the King of kings and the Holy God. 

Beloved Christians, the baptism of Jesus was the salvation of Jesus, who saved us by taking away all our sins. Jesus, who is God, came down to the world in the flesh (the purple yarn); He was baptized to take on all the sins of the world (the blue yarn); He was crucified and bled on the Cross to accept judgment instead of us (the scarlet yarn). The baptism of Jesus undoubtedly teaches us that He had become the true Savior for all humankind. 

We can also see it in the colors that were used for the gate of the holy tabernacle. 

To embroider the cloth of the gate with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn in fine linen thread was to clearly tell us the truth of God’s salvation. The fine linen thread here means that He saved all of us without exception from our sins. It was absolutely essential to the salvation of atonement. 

We can see from the same materials used for the gate of the holy tabernacle that Jesus Christ did not haphazardly save us sinners, without planning. He, obeying God’s carefully detailed plan, was baptized, crucified and resurrected from the dead to completely fulfill the salvation of humankind. With blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, the materials of the gospel of remission, Jesus saved all who believed in His salvation. 

 

 

The Bronze Laver of The Old Testament Was a Shadow of the Baptism of The New Testament 

 

Why did the priests wash their hands and feet before they entered the holy place?
Because they had to stand in front of God without any sin.

The laver was also made of bronze. Bronze represents the judgment Jesus suffered for us. The water basin symbolized the word of the gospel, which tells us that all our iniquities were washed away. 

It shows us how the washing away of daily sins was carried out. The daily sins of all humankind can be washed away through faith in the words of the baptism of Jesus. 

The altar of burnt offering represents the judgment. The water of Jesus, which is blue, is the gospel of the atonement for sins, in other words, the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15, 1 John 5:5-10). It is the word of testimony for the gospel of salvation through atonement. 

In 1 John 5, it is written, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, the blood; and these three agree as one.” He also tells us that he who believes in the Son of God has the witness of the water, the blood, and the Spirit in him. 

God allowed us to be sanctified through faith in the gospel of atonement and to enter the holy tabernacle. Therefore, we can now live in faith, be fed on the words of God, be blessed by Him, and live the life of the righteous. To become the people of God means to be saved through faith in the gospel of atonement and to live inside the holy tabernacle. 

Many people today say that it is enough just to believe without thinking about the meaning of the blue, purple, and scarlet yarns of the gate of the holy tabernacle. If one believed in Jesus without knowing about these things, his/her faith would not be true because there would still be sin in his/her heart. Such a person would still have sin in his/her heart because of the disbelief in the truth of being born again through the gospel of atonement, of the water, the blood, and the Spirit. 

If one was asked to evaluate someone one hardly knew, and if, to please the listener, he/she said, “Yes, I believe this person. Of course, I have never met him, but I believe him nevertheless,” do you think the listener would be pleased to hear that? Maybe some of you would behave like such in human affairs, but this is not the kind of trust God wants from us. 

God wants us to believe in the gospel of the remission of sins, the salvation of Jesus through blue (Jesus’ baptism), purple (Jesus’ Deity), and scarlet (Jesus’ blood) yarn. We should know, before having faith in Jesus, how He saved us from all sin. 

When we believe in Jesus, we should know how He saved us from all our sins through the water (the baptism of Jesus), the blood (His death), and the Spirit (Jesus’ being God). 

When we truly understand, we can experience true and complete faiths. Our faiths would never be complete without knowing this truth. True faith comes only by understanding the testimony of the salvation of Jesus, the gospel of remission, and Jesus’ being the true Savior of humankind. 

What, then, would the faith that makes a mockery of Jesus be like? Let us see. 

 

 

The Faith That Makes a Mockery of Jesus 

 

What is most needed for faith?
Accurate knowledge of Jesus’ baptism

You have to realize that to believe in Jesus arbitrarily is to make a mockery of Him. If you think, “I find it hard to believe, but as He is God and the Son of God, I shall have to believe in Him anyhow,” then you are making a mockery of Jesus. If you really want to be born again, you must believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus, the gospel of atonement. 

To believe in Jesus without knowing the gospel of atonement is worse than not believing in Jesus at all. To preach the gospel of only the blood of Jesus is to work in vain without knowing the truth. 

Jesus does not want anyone to go around preaching about believing in Him arbitrarily, or having faith in Him without reason. He wants us to believe in Him through knowing the gospel of atonement. 

When we believe in Jesus, we have to admit that the gospel of atonement is the baptism and the blood of Jesus. When we believe in Jesus, we have to understand the gospel of atonement through His Word and know specifically how He washed away all our sins. 

We also have to know what the blue, purple and scarlet yarn on the gate to the holy tabernacle implies. Then, we can have the true faith that will last eternally. 

 

 

We Can Never Be Born Again without Believing in Jesus, the Realization of Blue, Purple, and Scarlet Yarn 

 

What did the priests do before they entered the holy place?
They washed their hands and feet with the water from the bronze laver.

Our Lord Jesus saved us. We cannot but praise the Lord when we see how perfectly He saved us. We should look at the holy tabernacle. He gave us the words of the gospel of atonement through the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn of the holy tabernacle and saved us with them. We thank and praise the Lord.

Sinners could not enter the holy place without going through a terrible judgment. How could one enter the holy place without being judged for his/her sins? This would be impossible. If such a person entered the forbidden place, he/she would be killed right then and there. It would be severe damnation. A sinner could never enter the holy place and expect to live. 

Our Lord saved us through the secret hidden in the gate to the holy tabernacle. With blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen thread, He saved us. He told us the secret of His salvation through these things. 

Were you and I saved that way? If we do not believe in the words of the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, there can be no salvation through the gospel of atonement. The color blue does not represent God; it symbolizes none other than the baptism of Jesus. It is the baptism of Jesus who took away all our sins. 

One can enter as far as the altar of burnt offering without believing in the blue yarn. However, he cannot enter the holy place where God resides. 

Therefore, before we enter the gate to the holy tabernacle, we have to believe in the blue yarn (the baptism of Jesus), scarlet yarn (His blood on the Cross), and purple yarn (Jesus’ being God and the Son of God). Only when we believe are we accepted by God and allowed to enter through the veil of the Most Holy Place. 

Some enter the outer court of the tabernacle and think that they are inside. But this is not salvation. How far do we have to go to be saved? We have to be able to enter the Most Holy Place. 

In order to enter the Most Holy Place, we have to pass the bronze basin. The bronze basin represents the baptism of Jesus, and we have to wash away all our daily sins with the baptism of Jesus and become sanctified to enter the holy place. 

In the Old Testament, the priests had to wash themselves before they entered, and in the New Testament, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet to symbolize the washing away of their lifelong trespasses. 

The law of God says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). God judges the sins of man without exception, but He passed them onto His Son and judged Him instead. This is the love of God, His salvation. True salvation is attained only when we believe in the gospel of atonement that contains the baptism, the blood, the death, and resurrection of Jesus. 

 

 

In Order to Be Born Again, One Should Never Scorn the Biblical Truth, the Gospel of the Atonement for Sins 

 

What is the only thing left for us to do?
It is to believe in the gospel, the written words of God.

I never scorn other people. When someone talks about something I am not familiar with, I ask him/her politely to explain it to me. But when I asked around about the implications of the holy tabernacle, nobody could tell me. 

Then what could I do? I had to go back to the Bible. In the Bible, where is the holy tabernacle talked about? It is described in detail in Exodus. If one reads this Book carefully, one can understand its meaning through the written words of God. 

Dear friends, you cannot be saved by recklessly believing in Jesus. You cannot be born again just by regularly attending church. We know what Jesus told Nicodemus. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God…Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?” (John 3:5, 10) 

All those who believe in Jesus have to believe in the blue yarn (all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized), scarlet yarn (the death of Jesus for all our sins), and purple yarn (Jesus is the Savior, God, and the Son of God). 

We have to believe that Jesus is the Savior of all the sinners of the world. Without this faith, one can never be born again, nor can one enter the holy place of the Kingdom of God. One can’t even live faithfully in this world without it. 

Wouldn’t it be so easy if one could be born again just by having faith in Jesus? —Yes— “♫You have been saved. I have been saved. We have all been saved.♫” How nice! But there are so many who believe in Jesus without being truly ‘born again.’ 

We have to know the truth in the Bible as well as have faith in Jesus. We have to understand the gospel of the remission of sin in the Bible and the meaning of the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn in order to enter the holy tabernacle and be with God in the realm of faith. Inside the tabernacle of faith, we can live happily until the time when Jesus comes again to bring us to His Kingdom. It is essential for us to believe in Jesus the right way. 

 

 

The Original Gospel Begets Sanctification with Blue Yarn 

 

What is the indispensable condition for our salvation, besides the Cross of Jesus?
The baptism of Jesus

 

People tend to think that they can live perfectly without making mistakes. However, the harder they try to do good, the more they will soon discover their shortcomings. Human beings are so incomplete, so it is impossible for them not to sin. However, because Jesus saved us with the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, the gospel of atonement, we can be sanctified and enter the holy place of God. 

If God hadn’t saved us with the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, we would never have been able to enter the holy place by ourselves. What is the reason for this? If only those who live perfectly by their flesh could enter the holy place, there would be none who would be qualified. When one believes in Jesus without knowing the true gospel, one only adds more sins to his/her heart. 

Jesus saved us with His carefully planned salvation; the salvation of the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen thread. He washed away all our sins. Do you believe in this? —Yes— Do you have the truth of the gospel of remission in your heart and bear witness to it? —Yes—

Only when you bear witness to the gospel can you put on your forehead the golden plate that says ‘HOLINESS TO THE LORD’ and join the ‘royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 2:9). Only then can you stand before people and tell them you are a servant of God, working as a royal priest. 

The turban of the High Priest has a plate of gold and the plate is fastened with blue cord. Why blue? Because Jesus saved us with the gospel of remission, took away all our sins and made us sinless through His baptism. The baptism in the New Testament is equivalent to the laying on of hands in the Old Testament. 

No matter how diligently and faithfully we believe in Jesus, we would not be able to earn the plate engraved with, ‘HOLINESS TO THE LORD’ without recognizing the secret words of the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn. 

How did we become righteous? It is written in Matthew 3:15, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus was baptized and saved us from all the sins of the world. Through His baptism, He took away all our sins, and we believers have become righteous. 

How could we say that we are without sin if there hadn’t been the baptism of Jesus? Even if we believed in Jesus and cried out, thinking of His death on the Cross, all the tears in this world couldn’t wash away all our sins. No. No matter how much we cried and repented, our sins would have remained within us. 

‘HOLINESS TO THE LORD.’ Since He took away all our sins with His baptism and blood, the Lord allowed all the sins of us sinners to be passed onto Jesus, and because the word of salvation is recorded in the Bible, we have become righteous through our faiths, despite all our iniquities and weaknesses. 

Therefore, we can now stand before God. We can now live as the righteous and preach the gospel to the world. “♪I have been saved. You have been saved. We have all been saved.♪” We have been saved according to God’s merciful plan. 

Without the word of the gospel of atonement in your heart, there is no salvation, no matter how hard you try. It is similar to a Korean popular song about unrequited love. “♫Oh, my heart beats quickly without reason whenever I see her, every time I am near her. I must be in unrequited love.♫” My heart beats quickly, but not hers. My love is never returned. Unfortunately, so many Christians still have an unrequited love toward God.

People tend to think that salvation comes in many different ways for many different people. They ask, “Why should it only come through the gospel of baptism?” But it could never be the complete salvation if it were not the gospel of the baptism of Jesus. It is the only way we can become righteous before God because it is the only way we can be completely cleansed of all our sins. 

 

 

What Is the Salvation of Blue Yarn That Jesus Gave Us? 

 

What has made us righteous?
The gospel of the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn

 

The salvation through the gospel of the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn is God’s gift to all humankind. This gift has enabled us to enter the holy tabernacle and live in peace. It has made us righteous, enabled us to live within the church and be trained by the Holy Scriptures through the church. 

Whenever we go before God to pray, the gospel blesses us with His love. This is why salvation is so precious to us. Jesus tells us to build a house of faith ‘on the rock.’ The rock is the gospel of His baptism. We should all be saved, live with salvation, go to Heaven, earn everlasting life, and become the children of God. 

Dear friends, because of the gospel of atonement, we are able to enter the holy tabernacle with faith. Because of the washing away of all our sins (the baptism of Jesus) and the judgment on the Cross, we have been saved by having faith in the gospel of the baptism of Jesus. 

The abundant atonement for all our sins, the baptism and the blood of Jesus, is the gospel that washed away all our sins. Do you believe this? The true gospel is the heavenly gospel of atonement that completely washed away all our sins. 

We have been born again by believing in the gospel of atonement. Jesus has given us the gospel of atonement, which washed away all our daily sins and even all future sins. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! 

The gospel of the water and the Spirit (the gospel of the water and the blood) is the true gospel accomplished and preached by Jesus Christ. This book was written to reveal the secret of the gospel of Jesus, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 

Because many people believe in Jesus without knowing the complete truth, they are now only boasting themselves to be the fundamentalists or the religious pluralists in the world of Christian theology (the so-called philosophical theology); in short, they live in heresy and confusion. Therefore, we should go back and believe in the true gospel. It is not yet too late. 

I will go into more detail in the second book for those who have questions about the gospel of being born again of water and the Spirit.