The Gospel of Jesus’ Baptism That Has Made Us Clean (Ephesians 2:14-22)
(Ephesians 2:14-22)
“For
He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the
middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity,
that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to
create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that
He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the Cross,
thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to
you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we
both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no
longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows
into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built
together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
The adopted child due to poverty
What has alienated man from God?
His sin has done.
His sin has done.
Half
a century has passed since the end of the Korean War. But it left
tremendous wounds among the Korean people. In the aftermath of the
Korean War, many young children were adopted to foreign countries. Even
though the United Nations forces came to Korea and helped us enormously
at that time, but many children were left fatherless after the soldiers
left.
Many
of the UN soldiers who had wives and children here left their families
behind when they returned home. Many of these children were then again
abandoned to orphanages by their mothers and then sent away for adoption
to foreign countries. It was actually very fortunate that these young
people could find foster parents and be brought up very well.
These
adopted children realized that they looked quite different from their
parents and their neighbors as they grew older, and they learned that
they were adopted from a far away country called Korea. ‘Why did my
parents abandon me? Did they send me away to this country because they
hated me?’ With their young minds, these children just couldn’t
understand what had happened.
Their
curiosity and hatred toward their real parents began to grow in tandem
with a longing to meet them. ‘I wonder what my parents look like? How
could they abandon me? Did they do it because they hated me? No, there
was probably a reason for this.’ They probably had many
misunderstandings and sometimes even felt extreme hatred. And at other
times they likely resolved not to think about it anymore. Before they
were even aware of it, time had passed and the children grew up to be
adults. They got married, had children and formed families of their own.
I
became interested in these children through a program on one of the
local TV networks. In this program, a TV reporter interviewed a woman
now living in Germany who had been adopted. This woman was in her
twenties at that time and was studying theology. At first, the woman
very much tried to avoid meeting the reporters because she didn’t want
anyone else to become aware that she was adopted. The reporter persuaded
her to understand that submitting to an interview would help stem the
tide of adoptions to foreign countries. The woman agreed.
One
of the reporter’s questions was, “What would you say if you could meet
your real parents? What are you most curious about?” The woman answered,
“I just can’t understand why they had to put me up for adoption. I want
to ask them if they hated me.” Her birth mother saw the woman’s
interview on TV, contacted the broadcasting station, and said that she
wanted to meet her daughter. This is how the two came to meet.
The
mother went very early to the airport and waited for her daughter’s
arrival. When the young woman emerged from the exit, her mother could
only stand there and weep.
These
two people had never met face to face. The first time the mother saw
her grown-up daughter was when she appeared on TV. Even though they
spoke different languages, they could talk with their hearts, and
through the emotional looks they exchanged. They touched each other’s
faces while the mother begged for forgiveness for what she had done. All
she could do was cry and repeat that she was very sorry.
The
mother brought her daughter home and they ate together. Of course, the
daughter only spoke German and the mother only Korean, so they couldn’t
communicate verbally. But somehow the fact that they were mother and
daughter allowed them to make themselves understood. They had many
wordless conversations and expressed themselves through gestures,
touching each other’s faces and talking with their eyes and their
hearts.
By
the time she returned to Germany, the daughter knew that her birth
mother loved her. The same reporters that had conducted the previous
interview spoke to her once again before her departure. “There was no
need for me to ask why my mother had given me up for adoption. My mother
is poor even now. Wealthy people in this country are so rich that they
drive foreign cars, but my mother is still living in poverty.” She went
on to say, “Even though I didn’t ask my mother that question and didn’t
receive an answer from her, I could see that she sent me away to save me
from poverty. That is why I didn’t feel the need to ask her that
question, and why all doubts and hatred are now gone.”
People become alienated from God due to the sin in their hearts
Why
do we become separated from God, and why can’t we draw near to Him? The
woman who was put up for adoption learned that her birth mother sent
her away to save her from poverty. Is the same true of God? God created
us in His own image. What could have separated us from Him? The answer
is that Satan tempted man to commit sin, and sin separated him from God.
Originally,
God created man in His own image and dearly loved His creation. Men
were made as an object for God’s love and possessed more nobility than
any other creation. However, a fallen angel named Satan worked to
alienate man from God. Satan tempted man not to believe in God’s words,
and made him eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil.
Man
was thus separated from God due to his sin. Man was disobedient to God.
Man did not eat the fruit of the tree of life, which gives eternal life
and which God allowed, but instead ate the forbidden fruit that gave
him knowledge of good and evil. The result was that man was separated
from God.
Previously
the object of God’s love, man disobeyed and became separated from Him
out of arrogance. Due to the sin that came to dwell in his heart, man
was eventually alienated from God. After that, man lived apart from God
for a long time and complained, “Why did God abandon us after He made
us? Why did He let us commit sin? Why does He send us to hell after
making us weak? It would have been better if He hadn’t made us in the
first place.” We lived with many questions, as well as curiosity, doubts
and hatred before we were born again.
When
I saw the adopted woman on a TV program, I realized that the
relationship between man and God is the same as the relationship she had
with her real mother. No tribulation, misunderstanding, curse or sin of
any kind could separate man from God under any circumstances. Also, I
could understand that even though the relationship between God and man
is based on love, it was still possible for misunderstandings to occur.
Just
as the mother hadn’t sent her daughter away out of hatred, so God
separated Himself from man not out of hatred but because of sin. There
is no reason for God to hate man and no reason for men to hate God. We
love each other. The reason that man remains separated from God is that
he became a sinner after succumbing to Satan’s trickery.
God has embraced us through Jesus
“But
now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by
the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both
one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished
in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in
ordinances” (Ephesians 2:13-15). The Lord was baptized by John and took
away all the sins of the world in order to abolish the law of
commandments. He then shed His blood on the Cross in order to save man
from his sins and allow him to be embraced by God. God has now embraced
those who were cleansed by Him.
Have
you ever imagined a world without water? Not long ago, I attended a
Bible meeting in Inchon City, one of the largest ports in Korea where
the tap water didn’t work at that time for a few days and I thought,
‘People can’t live without water.’
If
God would make this world waterless for a month, it would be impossible
to live in the cities due to the odor, filth and all-pervasive thirst.
We should understand the value of water, which God gave us. Just as
water is an absolute necessity for humans, the baptism that Jesus
received from John in the Jordan River is equally indispensable.
If
Jesus had not come into this world to be baptized by John, then how
could believers in Jesus receive the remission of sins? Just as people
cannot live without water, everyone in this world would have died from
their sins if John hadn’t baptized Jesus.
However,
since Jesus’ baptism took away all our sins, we can now feel confident
in the knowledge that our hearts have been cleansed and we have been
blessed with salvation. Jesus’ baptism is crucial to our faith.
Furthermore, His baptism is absolutely necessary for us to receive the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Peter,
one of Jesus’ disciples said, “There is also an antitype which now
saves us ─ baptism, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter
3:21). Peter’s statement says that Jesus was baptized by John the
Baptist and shed His blood in order to save us from our sins. Jesus’
baptism, which washed away all the sins of the world, is the true
gospel.
Now
let’s look at the passage about the laver of bronze written in Exodus
30:17-21. “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ‘You shall also make a
laver of bronze, with its base also of bronze, for washing. You shall
put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. And you shall
put water in it, for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their
feet in water from it. When they go into the tabernacle of meeting, or
when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by
fire to the LORD, they shall wash with water, lest they die. So they
shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die. And it shall be a
statue forever to them ─ to him and his descendants throughout their
generations.’”
In
the tabernacle there was a laver of bronze, which was set between the
tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and which contained water for
washing. If this laver had not been in the tabernacle, how dirty the
priests offering the sacrifices would have been.
How
much blood and dirt would stain the priests who were offering so many
daily sacrifices for the people and laying their hands on the sin
offerings and then killing them? If there hadn’t been the laver in the
tabernacle, the priest would have gotten very dirty.
This
is why God prepared the laver for them so they could draw near to Him
with clean hands. Sinners passed on their sins by laying their hands on
the head of the sin offerings, and then the priests sacrificed them to
God on their behalf. God prepared the laver of bronze so that the
priests could enter the holy place, and so that they could wash with
water, lest they die. Even a priest could not enter the holy place while
stained with an animal’s blood. That is why priests washed away all the
dirt with the water in the laver in order to draw near to God after
offering sacrifices for the people.
Jesus’ baptism washed away all the sins of the world
Through
Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River, all the sins of the world
were transferred to Him. And His total submersion in the water
symbolized His death and His emergence from the water represented His
resurrection. In other words, Jesus was baptized by John to take all the
sin of the world, paid the wages of sin and died on the Cross. His
death was to pay the price for our sins and His resurrection gave us
eternal life.
If
we didn’t believe that Jesus took away all our sins through His
baptism, our hearts would be full of sin. In that case, how could we
possibly draw near to God? The gospel of the remission of sins is not a
doctrine of one denomination but the truth of God.
We
cannot lead our faith without perfect knowledge, in other words, we
can’t overcome the world if we don’t really care whether Jesus was
baptized by John. Just as all living things need water in order to
sustain their lives, we need the remission of sins and the water of
Jesus’ baptism in order to live by faith and enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. Jesus had to be baptized, die on the Cross and resurrect in
order to save us from our sins. This is the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, which we must believe with all our hearts.
Even
though Jesus was crucified to death on the Cross, He had done nothing
to deserve such punishment. He came into this world to wash away our
sins, was baptized at age 30, and became our Savior through His death on
the Cross at age 33. God wanted to make mankind His children no matter
how fragile and sinful we were. That’s why Jesus was baptized. God gave
us the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit at the same
time.
The
Bible says that unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he
can neither see the kingdom of God nor enter it (John 3:3-5). You have
to know and believe that Jesus was baptized in order to wash away all
our sins. Even if one is a born-again Christian, if he doesn’t meditate
on the truth that Jesus Christ took away all the sins of the world
through His baptism, his heart will soon become soiled. Because we are
corporeal beings, we are liable to be soiled by sin even in daily life.
That’s why we always have to live by faith, meditating on Jesus’
baptism, His blood, and His resurrection. This faith upholds us until
the day we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus
had no choice but to be baptized and die for our sins, so we must
believe that by doing so He brought us salvation. There is nothing more
we have to do than believe in this beautiful gospel in order to be
delivered from all the sins of the world.
We
give thanks to the Lord, who gave us the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. The greatest gift God gave us was to send His only begotten Son
to save us from all our sins through His baptism and blood.
The
reason we couldn’t draw near to God and were forced to live apart from
Him was that we had sin in our hearts. Jesus was baptized by John to
take away all the sins of the world and died on the Cross in order to
break down the wall that was separating God and man. The relationship
between God and man was restored by His baptism and blood. We thank Him
for these gifts. The love of the physical parent toward their child is
great, but it is incomparable to God’s love, by which Jesus saved us
sinners.
Jesus’
baptism and blood are both important. If there were no water in this
world, would any living thing survive? Without Jesus’ baptism, there
would be no one without sin in his heart. If Jesus had not been baptized
and if He had not died on the Cross, no one would have received the
remission of sins. Fortunately, Jesus was baptized and made the ultimate
sacrifice for us. Even though we are lacking and fallible, we can
receive the Holy Spirit by believing in His baptism and blood on the
Cross.
People
who believe in Jesus Christ’s baptism and death on the Cross can draw
near to God, pray and praise Him. We are now able to praise the Lord and
worship Him because we have become His children. This is God’s grace
and blessing. The gospel of the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the
Cross is truly wonderful. We can all receive salvation and the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit by believing in this beautiful gospel.
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