Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-21] The High Priest Who Gave the Offering of The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34)
(Leviticus 16:1-34)
“Now
the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when
they offered profane fire before the LORD, and died; and the LORD said
to Moses: ‘Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the
Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark,
lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. Thus
Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a
sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. He shall put the holy
linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a
linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are
holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them
on. And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel
two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt
offering. 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. And Aaron shall bring
the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement
for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull as the sin
offering which is for himself. Then he shall take a censer full of
burning coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, with his hands
full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he
shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of
incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die.
He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his
finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he
shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he
shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring
its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood
of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy
seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the
uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their
transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the
tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their
uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he
goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he
may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the
assembly of Israel. And he shall go out to the altar that is before the
LORD, and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the
bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the
altar all around. Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with
his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the
uncleanness of the children of Israel. And when he has made an end of
atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he
shall bring the live goat. 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. Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of
meeting, shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went
into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there. And he shall wash his
body with water in a holy place, put on his garments, come out and offer
his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make
atonement for himself and for the people. The fat of the sin offering he
shall burn on the altar. And he who released the goat as the scapegoat
shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may
come into the camp. The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the
sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy
Place, shall be carried outside the camp. And they shall burn in the
fire their skins, their flesh, and their offal. Then he who burns them
shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may
come into the camp. This shall be a statute forever for you: 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 dwells 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. And the priest, who
is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place,
shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments;
then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make
atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall
make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.
This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the
children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.’ And he did as the
LORD commanded Moses.”
The
High Priest was the one who gave the offering of the Day of Atonement
for the people of Israel. This offering was given once a year on the
tenth day of the seventh month in the Israeli calendar. On this day, as
the High Priest Aaron gave the offering on behalf of the people of
Israel for their sake, all their iniquities were actually passed on to
this offering of sacrifice and cleansed away. The Day of Atonement
therefore became a great festival for the people of Israel.
Like
other offerings, the offering of the Day of Atonement also had to be
accompanied by three fixed standards: unblemished sacrificial animals,
the laying on of hands, and the bloodshed of the sacrificial animals.
God then accepted with pleasure the offering that was given in this way.
What was different of this offering from the other offerings was that
the High Priest had to take the blood of the sacrificial offering into
the Most Holy.
After
giving an offering for himself and his household, Aaron the High Priest
offered two goats to God for the people of Israel. First, he offered
one of them for the Lord God according to the same manner of the sin
offering he had offered with a bull. And then he offered the second goat
for the scapegoat. He passed the sins of the people of Israel onto the
scapegoat by laying his hands on its head before the presence of the
Israelites, and this goat that had accepted their sins was then sent out
into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.
The Offering of the Day of Atonement Cleansed away All the Sins of the People of Israel
On
the Day of Atonement, the High Priest, representing the people of
Israel, passed their sins onto the head of the sacrificial offering by
laying his hands on it. He brought two live goats, cast lots for
them—one for God and the other for the people of Israel.
The
laying on of hands here means passing all sins onto the sacrificial
offering by putting hands on its head. This laying on of hands were the
method of the washing of sin set by God, and in the New Testament’ time
also, the same method in a form of the laying of hands had to be applied
equally for Jesus to wash away all the sins of mankind as well. To
remit the High Priest’s own sins, the sins of his household, and a
year’s worth of the sins of the people of Israel, he absolutely had to
lay his hands on the head of the goat and pass all these sins onto it.
Because the High Priest passed the sins of the people of Israel to the
sacrificial offering by thus laying his hands on its head, a year’s
worth of the sins of the Israelites were all blotted out. Like this,
through the offering of the Day of Atonement, the people of Israel could
thank God for saving them from all their sins.
Everyone
who has sin is to be condemned unavoidably. For a sacrificial offering
to be vicariously condemned for people’s sins, it first had to accept
their sins. Were the High Priest to give an offering to God without
laying his hands on its head, this offering then would have been a
blasphemy to God, and so he had to refrain from doing so. To save the
entire mankind that had turned into sinners, God had to establish His
plan of salvation fulfilled through the method of the laying on of
hands. To blot out the sins of the people of Israel, God raised the High
Priest and made him pass the sins of all his people once for all by
laying his hands on the head of the sacrificial offering as their
representative. As such, all the sacrificial animals that were offered
to God in the Tabernacle accepted the sins of the Israelites with the
laying on of hands, and they bore the condemnation of sin on their
behalf, shedding its blood and dying.
To
fulfill the righteousness and love of God wholly, the Israelites had to
offer the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement by laying the High Priest’s
hands on the head of the sacrificial animals and cutting the throats to
shed their blood vicariously once a year. Through this offering, in
other words, God wanted to wash away a year’s worth of all the sins of
the people of Israel once for all. This was the law of God’s love that
satisfied both His mercifulness and His justness. Because God is just,
to blot out people’s sins all at once in accordance to His just law, God
prepared Jesus Christ the Lamb, had Him take upon sins through the
laying on of hands, and made Him bleed on the Cross.
Jesus,
who had offered Himself as the eternal sacrifice, took upon everyone’s
sins once for all through this method, shed His blood once, and has
thereby completed their salvation from sin. As such, we, too, must come
before God with the faith that believes in the truth of salvation
manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven
linen. It is by this faith that all sins can be remitted once for all.
Therefore, whoever wants to receive the remission of sin all at once
must come to God with the faith that truly believes in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
The Meaning of the Laying on of Hands
The
laying on of hands means, “to be passed, to be transferred, or to be
buried” (Leviticus 1:3-4). When any of the common people of Israel
sinned unintentionally and then became aware of it, he had to give a
burnt offering to God (Leviticus 4:27-29). He first had to bring a
sacrificial animal without blemish, and then had to pass his sins onto
it by laying his hands on its head. And he had to cut its throat, draw
its blood, and then give this blood to a priest (Leviticus 4:27-31).
Then the priest had to take some of its blood with his finger, put it on
the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining
blood at the base of the altar. He also had to burn its fat on the
altar, and God then smelt the soothing aroma of the burning fat that was
given in this offering.
We
have already learned that to blot out the sins of the people of Israel,
God prepared the offering of the Day of Atonement where hands were laid
on the sacrificial animal and its blood was drawn. In this case also,
God could not wash away the sins of the Israelites without the laying of
hands on the sacrificial offering. Like this, the offering of the Day
of Atonement that was given in the Old Testament is closely connected
with the baptism and blood of Jesus in the New Testament’s time.
Just
as the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament had to be an
unblemished animal, in the New Testament’s time also, Jesus came as the
unblemished Lamb of God, and was baptized and shed His blood on the
Cross to wash away the iniquities of all sinners. As the sacrificial
animal had to accept the iniquities of sinners with the laying on of
hands in the Old Testament, all the sins of the world were passed onto
Jesus when John the Baptist laid his hands on the head of Jesus to
baptize Him in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:15). The Old Testament’s
sacrificial offering and the New Testament’s Jesus alike had to receive
the laying on of hands and bleed to die in the same way. The offering of
the laying on of hands and bloodshed was the same offering that was
prepared for sinners in both the Old and New Testaments alike.
The Sins of Mankind Are Infallibly Followed by the Wrath of God
Before
God, we had been sinners who could not but die for our sins, just like
the sin offering that was to be killed on account of the sins it had
taken. When we picture this sacrificial offering being cut into pieces
and burnt with fire on the altar of burnt offering, we can realize that
like it, we had also been bound to be destroyed before God, and yet the
Lord has saved us by being baptized by John and shedding His blood.
As
such, those who have not been born again must acknowledge themselves as
sinners facing fiery condemnation for their sins before God and believe
in the baptism and blood of the Lord as their salvation. To save us
from our sins instead of punishing us for them, God prepared the
offering of salvation, passed our sins onto this offering of everlasting
sacrifice, made Him bleed, and has thereby remitted all our sins
(Leviticus 16:1-34; Romans 8:3-4, Hebrews 10:10-12). Do you still have
sin in your hearts? Then, you must first admit before God that you are
sinners facing the condemnation of God, and you must believe that
through Jesus Christ God has fulfilled the plan of your salvation that
He had designed even before the foundation of the world.
Sin
cannot be atoned without paying a proper ransom. That’s why God had
given the people of Israel the sacrificial system. In this sacrificial
system, only the offering that was accompanied by the laying on of hands
and bloodshed was the true offering of faith that could wash away the
sins of the Israelites.
By
faith, we must also give to God this offering that has the laying on of
hands and bloodshed, all in accordance to the sacrificial system
written in the Scriptures. The Lord shed His blood because He had taken
our sins through His baptism, vicariously bore the condemnation of sin
in our place, and thereby blotted out these sins of ours (Matthew 3:15;
John 1:29; Isaiah 53:1-7). When we believe in the Word of the water and
the Spirit, and when we put our hands on the Lord who has become our
sacrificial offering and thereby pass all our sins onto Him, we can
receive the remission of sin by believing that the Lord who took upon
our sins also bore the condemnation of sin in our place. By believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can pass all our sins onto
the Lord who has become our sacrificial offering, and we can die with
Him and live with Him (Romans 6:1-11, Galatians 3:27).
The
spiritual lessons that we must realize from the offering of the Day of
Atonement are, first of all, that we must recognize our sins and the
condemnation of our sins, and that we must then give the offering of
faith that God wants to receive—that is, we must have faith in Jesus who
fulfilled our salvation with His baptism and bloodshed on the Cross. We
must lay our hands on the head of Jesus by believing in His baptism.
Why? Because only when we lay our hands on the offering of sacrifice by
faith and draw its blood can we be saved from all our sins.
Like
this, anyone who wants to be remitted from his/her sins before God must
pay the ransom of life, for the wages of sin is death. Whether rich or
poor, there must be the sacrificial offering that pays the wages of
one’s sins and the price of the atonement of life. Unless this is the
case, no one can receive the remission of sin by faith.
The Old Testament’s Offering of the Day of Atonement
Let
us turn to Leviticus 16:6-10: “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.”
To
enable the people of Israel to receive the remission of their sins by
faith, the High Priest, on their behalf, gave the offering that was
accompanied by the laying on of hands and bloodshed. How, then, is the
faith of today’s Christians? Is it not a speculative and groundless
faith whose offering seeks to receive the remission of sin without even
passing their sins? If your faith is not the kind of faith that has
passed your sins onto Jesus Christ through the laying on of hands, then
you have a problem at hand. Unless your faith is the faith that believes
in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross, it cannot be the
true faith.
We
could not but fail to keep the Law before God and committed all kinds
of sins throughout the past year. So if we had lived in the Old
Testament’s time, we would have needed to receive the remission of our
sins by believing in the sin offering that the High Priest would have
given on our behalf. To give the offering of faith to God, we must first
acknowledge that we are bound to be destroyed for our sins, and we must
then believe in the laying on of hands that passes all our sins onto
the sacrificial offering that God prepared for us and the bloodshed of
this offering.
Because
the laying of hands on the sacrificial animal and its bloodshed had the
power of salvation, the people of the Old Testament could receive the
remission of their sins through this offering that the High Priest gave
according to the sacrificial system set by God. By laying his hands on
the sacrificial offering, the High Priest passed a year’s worth of his
people’s sins onto it, cut its throat and drew its blood, and sprinkled
this blood before the mercy seat and on its east side for seven times.
By doing so, he never ceased to give the right offering to God every
year. This is how the people of Israel could receive the perfect
remission of sin in those days.
Like
this, through the sin offering that the High Priest gave, the people of
Israel believe and affirmed in their hearts that all their sins were
thus remitted. What the Old Testament’s offering of the Day of Atonement
is showing us is that in the New Testament, Jesus Christ took upon the
sins of the world by being baptized by John and shed His blood on the
Cross, and that we must believe in this Jesus Christ as our Savior and
receive the everlasting remission of sin by faith. All the souls of this
world whose hearts are suffering and agonizing over their sins must
realize that they can receive the eternal remission of sin by believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and they must believe this in
their hearts. Like this, the offering of the remission of all sins had
been set by God beforehand and promised by Him to be fulfilled, and this
promise of salvation is also manifested in the blue, purple, and
scarlet thread and the fine woven linen that were used as the materials
of the Tabernacle.
The Offering of the Day of Atonement Fulfilled in the Tabernacle
On
the Day of Atonement, to take care of all the sins of the people of
Israel, the High Priest laid his hands on the head of the sacrificial
offering before the presence of all the Israelites (Leviticus 16:1-23).
It was absolutely necessary for him to pass their sins onto the
sacrificial offering by laying his hands on its head on their behalf.
When the High Priest Aaron gave the offering of the Day of Atonement
inside the Tabernacle for the people of Israel, no one else could enter
into the Tabernacle. It was an extraordinary event, because there used
to be many priests in the court of the Tabernacle except on the Day of
Atonement.
The
High Priest passed the sins of the people of Israel onto the
sacrificial offering by putting his hands on its head, took the blood of
this sacrifice into the Most Holy, and sprinkled it with his finger on
the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he sprinkled
it seven times (Leviticus 16:14).
At
this time, the golden bells that were attached to the hem of the robe
of the High Priest were bound to ring, and so each time he sprinkled the
blood before the mercy seat and on the east side, the bells rang and
the people of Israel who were standing outside the Tabernacle could hear
the sound of bells. When the Israelites heard this sound of bells, they
realized that the High Priest was now giving the offering to God on
their behalf. And having heard the sound of bells for all seven times,
they then sighed in relief, for they knew that the giving of the
offering of the Day of Atonement was now finished, confirming the
completion of the offering that forgave a year’s worth of their sins.
After
this, the High Priest Aaron came out of the Tabernacle, took the other
remaining goat as another offering, and gave this offering of the Day of
Atonement before the presence of the people of Israel. God commanded
the people of Israel to do nothing on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus
16:20-21, 29). With the huge crowd of the Israelites gathered around to
see the giving of this offering outside the Tabernacle, the High Priest
laid his hands on the head of the sacrificial goat to fulfill his duties
and sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.
On
the Day of Atonement, the High Priest brought the goat before the
people of Israel, laid his hands on its head, and confessed all the
iniquities and transgressions of the children of Israel, passing them
onto the goat. “Lord, I confess all the sins that the people of Israel
have committed during the past year. We have failed to keep all the Law
wholly, we have committed countless sins against You and each other, we
have failed to live the life that You had commanded us to live, and we
have done those things which you commanded us not to do. We have broken
so many of Your commandments during the past year. We have lied. We have
murdered. We have committed adultery. We have stolen.” Like this, the
High Priest passed all the sins of the people of Israel onto the
sacrificial goat by putting his hands on its head before their presence,
and then sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable
man.
Because
the wages of sin is death, God could not let the sacrificial goat live
after accepting the sins of the people of Israel. The scapegoat that was
abandoned into the wilderness had to suffer and die in the wilderness,
for it had shouldered all the iniquities, blemishes, and transgressions
of the people of Israel. Now, all the people of Israel started to enjoy
the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34) because they had discarded,
through the offering of the Day of Atonement, the sins that had bound
them for the past year.
The
laying on of hands is the means by which the sins of all people are
passed onto the sacrificial offering. When the High Priest laid his
hands on the sacrificial animal, all the sins of the people of Israel
that had accumulated for a year were passed onto it once for all. Every
single sin of each and every Israelite was all at once passed onto the
offering of sacrifice with the High Priest’ laying on of hands.
Can
all the sins of today’s people also be passed onto the sacrificial
offering with the laying on of hands, just as the iniquities of the
people of Israel were passed with the laying on of the High Priest’s
hands in the Old Testament? If this were not possible, where is the way
for today’s people to receive the remission of their sins? Who passes
the sins of today’s people, how, and through whom? In accordance to the
sacrificial system established by God in the age of the Old Testament,
Jesus Christ took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John
the Baptist in the New Testament’s time. Just as a year’s worth of sins
were passed onto the sacrificial goat once for all through the offering
of the Day of Atonement that the High Priest gave for the people of
Israel, so were our sins passed onto Jesus Christ who was baptized by
John the Baptist, the last High Priest. Where, then, are all the sins of
today’s people? They are now on the head of Jesus Christ.
Just
as the scapegoat accepted all the sins of the people of Israel through
the High Priest with the laying on of his hands, Jesus became the
sacrificial offering of the everlasting remission of sin for all of us
who are now living in this present age. Jesus who became our own
scapegoat offered Himself to God as the sacrificial offering for our
sins. Jesus, in other words, was baptized by John and gave Himself up to
be crucified, as in the Old Testament God had set the offering of
sacrifice for the people of Israel and passed their sins onto this
sacrificial animal and condemned it instead.
The
scapegoat that was sent out into the wilderness could not survive, for
there was no water but only burning sunlight in the sand desert.
Likewise, Jesus, too, could not avoid but be crucified, for He had
already taken upon mankind’s sins of the world through His baptism. As
the scapegoat was abandoned in the lifeless wilderness, Jesus who took
upon the sins of the world was also hated and despised by many people.
If the sacrificial goat were led into the desert and abandoned in the
desolate, lifeless land, would it not have wandered around, only to die
in the end from thirst?
In
the same manner, Jesus who accepted our sins was rejected by many
people, and He had to be crucified to bear the condemnation of our sins,
shed His blood, and die. This was the salvation that Jesus Christ
fulfilled to give us His true salvation in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
The
people of Israel saw the process of the atonement of the remission of
sin with their eyes and believed in it in their hearts. Like them, we,
too, can now receive the remission of our sins by seeing, hearing, and
believing in the righteous works of Jesus Christ in our hearts. This
tells us that Jesus Christ would be baptized by John, carry the sins of
the world, be crucified, shed His blood, die, and rise from the dead
again, and that we would be saved by seeing all these with our spiritual
eyes and believing in them in our hearts.
This
offering of the Day of Atonement will go on as long as the Israelites
continue to exist. They still give the offering of the Day of Atonement
on the 10th day of the seventh month in their calendar, because God had
told them, “This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make
atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year”
(Leviticus 16:34). By making the people of Israel give the offering of
the Day of Atonement like this, God bestowed His mercy on them so that
all their sins would be washed away and they would be delivered from the
punishment of these sins.
Just
like this, for today’s people also, God has enabled them to realize
that Jesus bore all the sins of the world upon His own body by being
baptized by John, was crucified, and has thereby wholly completed the
everlasting cleansing of sin. Jesus Christ shouldered the sins of
mankind with His baptism and has become the eternal High Priest of
Heaven. Now, there is nothing else that remains for us to do for our own
salvation but only to believe in this truth.
The Offering of the Great Atonement that the Messiah Gave to God the Father with His Own Body
Why
did God command the people of Israel to give Him the offering of the
Day of Atonement? He did this so that they would look forward, with
their faith, to the day when God the Father would have His Son Jesus
Christ offer the great atonement for the sins of all human beings with
His baptism and bloodshed. This is why Jesus Christ, the only begotten
Son of God the Father and the Savior of humanity, came to this earth to
blot out all the sins of everyone, fulfilled everything with the love of
God, and revealed salvation unto mankind. By being baptized by John to
take upon all the sins of us mankind and shedding His blood on the
Cross, Jesus has blotted out all the sins and inequities of the world,
was condemned for them, and has thereby become our true Savior.
God
called Moses and gave him the Law first. And then He ordered him to
build the Tabernacle with such materials as blue, purple, and scarlet
thread and fine woven linen, and He gave him the sacrificial system. By
doing so, God enabled the people of Israel to realize the importance of
the laying on of hands and bloodshed, and in turn He showed them Jesus
Christ, the door of salvation prophesied in the Tabernacle, would come
to this earth, take upon the sins of the world by being baptized, be
crucified and shed His blood. The salvation of the washing of sin that
God has given us is manifested clearly in the materials that were used
for the door of the Tabernacle.
Among
the materials used for the door of the Tabernacle, the meaning implied
by the blue thread is that Jesus took upon the sins of the world once
for all by being baptized by John; the purple thread shows that Jesus is
the King of kings and the Lord of lords, for He created the universe;
the scarlet thread tells us that because Jesus had been baptized, He
bore the condemnation of sin for all sinners by shedding His blood on
the Cross; and the fine woven linen tells us that the Bible is
describing elaborately about these three ministries manifested in the
blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and God has given the remission of sin
to those who believe in His Word.
Now,
all must remind themselves once again and believe that this truth—that
is, Jesus Christ is their Savior and He has washed away all their sins
by being baptized by John and shedding His blood on the Cross—is also
manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven
linen used as the materials of the Tabernacle, and they must thereby
receive the remission of their sins. Through Moses, God established the
law of salvation, the law of the remission of sin for mankind, and when
the time came, He sent Jesus Christ to this earth and had Him be
baptized by John and shed His blood on the Cross, so that Jesus would
become the offering of sacrifice that would wash away the sins of the
world. And by doing so, God has enabled all those who believe to be
washed from all their sins by faith.
Therefore,
when we profess to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, we must
believe by knowing the baptism that Jesus received and His bloodshed on
the Cross. Just as the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament
accepted the iniquities of sinners with the laying on of hands and was
vicariously condemned by shedding its blood in their place, Jesus Christ
came as the sacrificial offering of sin for everyone living on this
earth, took upon the sins of the world by being baptized, was crucified
and shed His precious blood, and has thereby forever blotted out, all at
once, the sins of those who believe.
We
must believe in the truth of the written Word exactly as it is. The
biblical truth is that with the same method as the offering that the
High Priest gave for his people in the Old Testament, Jesus came to this
earth, was baptized and crucified, and shed His blood to save us from
all the sins of the world once for all. We must therefore believe in the
Bible exactly as it is written. We could not avoid but be forever
condemned for our sins, but Jesus Christ came to this earth and has
saved us from all our sins with His baptism and blood.
Not
believing this, even though God has forgiven all our sins like this, is
a sin that can never be forgiven by God. He has blotted out all the
sins of the world except the only remaining sin, “the sin of blaspheming
the Holy Spirit” (Mark 3:28-29). As such, those who truly want to
receive the remission of sin must believe the truth that Jesus Christ
was baptized, shed His blood, rose from the dead again, and has thereby
delivered us from all the sins of the world. Apart from such faith, what
good deeds would ever be necessary for our remission of sin? Now the
time has come for us to know what the truth of the gospel of the water
and the Spirit is, and to believe in this truth.
Everyone
must realize and believe that the truth manifested in the door of the
Tabernacle woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven
linen is the gospel of true salvation, and the shadow of Jesus Christ to
come. Insofar as believing in Jesus Christ is concerned, the baptism
that He received and the blood that He shed on the Cross are essential
to our salvation, and we must therefore believe in them. The
indisputable and irrefutable truth is that Jesus has given salvation to
those who believe in His baptism, His bloodshed on the Cross, and His
resurrection from death, and that all of these were done to save us from
the sins of the world.
The Sacrifice of the Son that God the Father Wanted
Let
us turn to Hebrews 10:5-9: “Therefore, when He came into the world, He
said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have
prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no
pleasure. Then I said, “Behold, I have come—In the volume of the book it
is written of Me—To do Your will, O God.”’ Previously saying,
‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did
not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to
the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He
takes away the first that He may establish the second.”
What
is it meant by the passage here that says that God did not desire
sacrifice and offering? This passage quotes from Psalm 40:6-7. It means
that all the sins of the world could not be completely blotted out with
the daily offerings of the Old Testament, and that to give the
everlasting sin offering, Jesus Christ therefore came to this earth, was
baptized, shed His blood, rose from the dead again, and has thereby
become the Savior of all of us. The meaning of Psalm 40:7, which says,
“Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written
of me,’” is that Jesus Christ came to this earth and washed away all
sins with the laying on of hands and His bloodshed, exactly as written
in the Old Testament.
In
the age of the Old Testament, the sins of the people of Israel were
remitted as the sacrificial animal was offered to God on the Day of
Atonement with the laying on of the High Priest’s hands and the
bloodshed of the offering. Likewise, Jesus Christ who came to this earth
to become the everlasting sacrificial offering for all mankind took
upon the sins of the world by receiving baptism, a form of the laying on
of hands, and bore all the condemnation of the sins of the entire
mankind by carrying these sins of the world to the Cross, being
crucified, shedding His precious blood and dying. By doing so, Jesus has
given eternal salvation to all those who believe.
Exactly
as God had promised through the Tabernacle system, in the New Testament
Jesus came to this earth and has thereby fulfilled salvation once for
all. Those who believe have therefore been saved from all sins. In the
Tabernacle was the promise of God that Jesus would forever blot out the
sins of all people once for all by being baptized and shedding His
blood. And Jesus indeed came and fulfilled the promised salvation by
actually being baptized and shedding His blood, and thereby fulfilling
the Word of God to perfection. All God’s promises of salvation, in other
words, have indeed been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The
people of Israel believe that the Old Testament’s Law and the words of
the prophets are the Word of God. But they are unable to believe in
Jesus Christ who came to us in the age of the New Testament as God or
the Savior. All the people of this world, including the people of
Israel, must now realize that Jesus Christ is God Himself and accept
into their hearts that He is the Messiah to come.
For What Did Jesus Come?
As
Jesus came to fulfill the will of God the Father, He is the Savior of
all those who believe in Him as such, and He came to this world to
forever wash away all their sins. As Hebrews 10:10 states, “By that will
we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all.” We must clearly realize and believe that it was by
the will of the God the Father that Jesus Christ was born unto this
earth, that He was baptized according to the Father’s will, that by this
will He was crucified, shed His blood to death on the Cross, rose from
the dead again, and has thereby become the Savior of those who believe.
To blot out all our sins according to the will of God the Father, Jesus
Christ had to fulfill the salvation of mankind by blotting out all sins
with the baptism that He received and His bloodshed. As such, He
willingly gave Himself up to be sacrificed, thereby giving us perfect
salvation.
Because
Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself to blot out not only the sins of the
people of Israel but also the sins of the entire mankind, we can be
saved only if each of us believes in this in our own hearts. Through His
33 years of life, Jesus was baptized only once, sacrificed only once,
and has thereby saved the sinners of the world once for all. This is the
only and perfect salvation.
Just
as Jesus has all at once blotted out all the sins committed by mankind
from the beginning to the end of the world, He has also enabled us to be
saved once for all by faith. By offering His own body once for all,
Jesus Christ has made us forever perfect. As He was baptized by John and
was condemned for all our sins by shedding His blood, we must now
gladly believe in this gospel in our hearts and thereby be saved from
all our sins. By the will of God the Father, Jesus Christ came to this
earth to bear all our sins and pay the wages of life, and He
successfully revealed His true salvation through the love of God in
accordance to the Father’s will.
This
Word is surely the truth that you and I who are now living in this
modern world must believe. We must bind the baptism of Jesus and His
bloodshed on the Cross together and believe in them as the singular set
of truth that saves us perfectly. If we fail to do so, we will then lose
the everlasting remission of sin. As such, we must believe according to
the written Word of God, according to the truth of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit sheds the
light of salvation, but if we add anything else to or subtract some
essentials from the true gospel when we believe in God, or if we do not
believe in the truth as it is, then this light of the gospel of
salvation will be lost, only to be hidden and to disappear.
We
must not fall under the illusion that the truth of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit is also merely one of the worldly doctrines, as if
it teaches that we can somehow receive the remission of sin through our
prayers of repentance by asking God to forgive our sins daily. God said
clearly in Hebrews 10:11, “And every priest stands ministering daily and
offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away
sins.” He told us, in other words, and the sins that we commit everyday
cannot be washed away just because we ask God to forgive us of our daily
sins with our faith in the blood of the Cross.
Because
the offering of sacrifice that Jesus Christ gave to God the Father by
being baptized by John and dying on the Cross was the perfect offering
of salvation, it was by believing in this offering that we have been
wholly saved. It was because the sins of the world were passed onto
Jesus Christ once for all when He was baptized by John that Jesus could
carry our sins to the Cross and die on it to end the condemnation of
their sins, and it was because of this that the sins of those who
believe in His baptism and bloodshed have been washed away.
By
believing in the baptism that Jesus Christ received and the blood of
the Cross, we, too, also died with Jesus Christ and have come alive with
Him by faith. Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The wages of
sin is death, no matter what it may be, and therefore its wages must be
paid with life. This is why it was necessary for Jesus Christ to come to
this earth incarnated in the flesh, be baptized by John, and shed His
blood on the Cross. The actual passing of your sins onto the body of
Jesus was accomplished by His baptism, and by shouldering these sins and
dying, Jesus paid the wages of your sins and has thereby blotted them
out once for all. Yet despite this, even as God has given us this truth
of the gospel, there are many people who still plead God to forgive
their actual sins everyday—they are simply ignorant of the truth of the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When
people have sin in their hearts, they cannot help but be terrified
before God for this sin. It is true that there are many who, still
remaining ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and yet to
be washed from their sins, are gripped by fear because of the sins of
their consciences. However, Jesus came to this earth to deliver them
from all their sins, was baptized by John, shed His blood on the Cross,
and has thereby saved them perfectly. For what reason do we need to be
worried then, when the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of
God’s salvation, has wholly saved us and taken care of our condemnation
of sin?
Those
who know and truly believe that Jesus has blotted out all the sins of
mankind through the gospel of the water and the Spirit can indeed be
saved perfectly by faith, just as God promised, “Though your sins are
like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like
crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). We can all be saved by
faith, for there was the baptism of Jesus who accepted the sins of this
world according to the law of God set in the Old Testament that had
passed all sins onto the sacrificial offering with the laying on of
hands. It was because Jesus took upon the sins of the world by being
baptized by John that He could die on the Cross, and it was because the
salvation that God spoke of in the Old Testament was fulfilled that we
can be saved from all our sins only by our faith.
Yet
despite this infallible truth, we still see some people who believe in
Jesus as if it were an exercise in empathy. They weep and cry everyday
to enhance their faith because the basis of their faith is to sympathize
with Jesus for the deadly sufferings that He endured on the Cross. The
hearts of such people are thoroughly flawed, and they must abandon this
mistaken faith.
It
is you and I who need the baptism and blood of Jesus our Savior, not
Jesus who needs our sympathy or devotion. The simple truth is that it is
we who desperately need Jesus Christ the Savior, and yet there are many
people who believe in God for no particular reason of their own,
thinking that it is God who is lacking in something, as if He is begging
them to believe in Him. But such faith that believes patronizingly is
the kind of faith that is despised by God.
The
hearts of those who condescendingly say to Jesus that that they would
believe in Him, as if they are doing a favor for Him, are placed higher
than even God, and so in their arrogance they can never accept into
their hearts the gospel of the water and the Spirit that saves them
perfectly from sin. They have so little regard for the Word of God that
they consider it little different from what any of their neighbors say,
scorning and patronizing it, as if to believe in it is doing a favor for
God out of their sympathy.
In
the end, they are the ones who do not believe in the baptism and
bloodshed of Jesus as the remission of their sins and stand against God.
They believe that their sins can be washed away through their agonizing
prayers of repentance without even believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Because they take the name of God in vain, they neither
know nor believe that Jesus Christ the Savior has completely blotted
out their sins, and they therefore cannot be saved.
God
said, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whomever I will have compassion” (Romans 9:15). If God
decided to save sinners with the law of salvation out of His mercy, then
He will do so exactly as He decided. We must therefore believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit and thereby receive our true
salvation.
Those
who do not believe in this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit will
personally discover just how great God’s severity and His wrath really
are. Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, on the
other hand, will see just how great and merciful God’s love is. Whoever
acknowledges his/her sins before God and recognizes and believes in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, God’s gospel of perfect salvation,
will be delivered from all sins.
Those
who believe that Jesus Christ took upon all their sins by being
baptized will be delivered from all their sins. Those who despise this
truth, in contrast, will face the fearful condemnation of sin for their
sins. All the people of this world must therefore believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, the real truth. Those sinners who do not
fear God’s judgment and do not believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit will surely be condemned for their sins. But those who
believe in the truth of Jesus’ washing of sin will be saved from all
their sins.
Everyone
whose conscience has sin is ill at ease, and so people come up with
unfounded, groundless doctrines of salvation that are completely
different from the gospel of the water and the Spirit, trying to comfort
their distressed consciences. There are even those who say, “Since I
believe in Jesus, it’s okay for me to have sin in my heart.” But we must
not forget that all who have sin in their hearts will face the
punishment of hell, for God will surely render His just judgment to such
people for their sins. Because they are siding with Satan, God simply
cannot leave them alone.
But
those who know about the justice of God, that there would be His
judgment of sin, ask God for His merciful love, want to be saved from
all sins, search for the truth, and desire to stand at God’s side. For
such people, here is the truth that Jesus Christ took upon the all the
sins of mankind by being baptized. Every sinner must believe in it and
receive the remission of sin. Through His baptism, Jesus Christ accepted
all the sins of the entire world once for all, died on the Cross once,
and has thereby blotted out all sins and made us righteous.
Through
the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, all of us must now realize
what our true salvation is, and in our hearts we must all have the
faith that truly believes in this gospel. All who believe in this truth
in their hearts, no matter what kind of sins they might have committed,
will indeed be washed from all their sins by faith and receive the true
remission of sin and eternal life. Do you not want to believe in this
gospel Word and take the gospel of the water and the Spirit by faith,
the gospel that makes all the sins of your hearts disappear? Those who
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before God will surely
receive the remission of sin.
Your Prayers of Repentance Cannot Save You
Today,
many who profess to believe in Jesus give their prayers of repentance
everyday, asking God to forgive their sins. They live their lives of
faith by giving their sacrificial offerings to God everyday, like in the
Old Testament’s time. But this is not the life of faith that you would
want to live. Does Jesus shed His blood on the Cross to wash away your
sins whenever you give your prayers of repentance? This is not the case.
Instead, you must wash away your sins once for all by believing that
the power of the baptism and bloodshed of Jesus Christ lasts forever.
Those who try to be washed from their sins by giving their prayers of
repentance everyday cannot receive the everlasting remission of sin, nor
do they have the faith that enables them to receive true salvation.
If
everyone’s sins could be forgiven through such prayers of repentance or
any man-made rituals, then God would not have established the law that
declares the wages of sin to be death. For people to be remitted of
their sins, they must actually give the offering that passes their sins
onto the body of Jesus by faith. What we must have is not the kind of
faith that gives prayers of repentance everyday, but the faith that
believes in the gospel of the water and the blood manifested in the
blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen used for the
door of the Tabernacle. In other words, we must realize that only the
faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can bring
us the true washing of sin, and we must believe this in our hearts.
Just
as the sinners of the Old Testament had passed their sins onto their
sacrificial animal by laying their hands on its head when they gave
their sin offering, we must also pass our sins onto Jesus Christ by
believing in His baptism, and by this faith that believes in His baptism
and His bloodshed on the Cross, we must come out to God and receive the
everlasting remission of sin. God said, “For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation,” and “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”
(Romans 10:10, 17).
John
1:29 says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said,
‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” This
passage describes the testimony that John the Baptist gave on the next
day that He had baptized Jesus. When John the Baptist saw Jesus
approaching him, he said, “Look people! There goes the One!” This caused
a commotion among the crowd gathered around John. John shouted out,
“Behold! Here comes the Lamb of God! He is none other than the Son of
God, the very Lamb of God who took upon the sins of mankind through me.
He is our Savior. He is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Behold! The Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world!”
It
was because John the Baptist had baptized Jesus Christ and passed the
sins of the world onto Him that John himself could personally bear
witness to Jesus. Because John had passed our sins onto Jesus by
baptizing Him, in other words, Jesus Christ became the Lamb of sacrifice
who took upon our sins according to the will of God the Father.
In
the Old Testament, the remission of sin was received by giving
sacrificial offerings to God, but in the New Testament, it is only by
the faith that wholly believes in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on
the Cross that we can be remitted of our sins. Because God took such
livestock as bulls, lambs, and goats as sacrificial offerings to blot
out the sins of the people of Israel, countless animals were bled, cut
into pieces, and burnt on the altar of burnt offering. Myriads of
sacrificial animals were indeed killed because of the sins of people.
But
in the age of the New Testament, Jesus did not offer such sacrificial
animals, but He offered His own body for us. As Jesus the Lamb of God
came to this earth, accepted the sins of the world onto His body through
His baptism, and shed His blood on the Cross, He has enabled those who
believe in this to be saved from all their sins once for all. It was to
forever end our sins with the water, the blood, and the Spirit that
Jesus came to us.
God
is now commanding you and me to believe in this truth of real
salvation. He is telling us, “I have blotted out all your sins, for I
have loved you. I have saved you like this. So believe! I have blotted
out your sins by giving My own Son as the sin offering for you. I let My
Son live on this earth for 33 years of His life, I had Him baptized, I
made Him shed His blood on the Cross for your sake, and by doing so I
have wholly delivered you from all your sins and condemnation. Now, by
believing in this truth, you can become My own children whom I love, and
who can be embraced in My arms.” Know and believe this in your
hearts—that those who believe in the baptism that Jesus Christ received
and the blood that He shed will not only be saved from all their sins,
but they will also receive the right to become God’s own children.
Did Jesus Really Remit All the Sins of This World?
Let
us turn to Hebrews 10:14-18: “For by one offering He has perfected
forever those who are being sanctified. But 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 in 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.”
The
passage makes it clear: “Where there is remission of these, there is no
longer an offering for sin.” Listen to this blessed news, that all our
sins were passed onto Jesus through the baptism that He received! Not
only was every sin that you and I commit in our entire lifetime passed
onto Jesus, but all the sins of the entire mankind were passed onto Him
as well. To fulfill all the righteousness of God, Jesus received the
laying on of hands, being baptized into and out of water, and thereby
allowed all sins to be passed onto Himself.
Shouldering
all sins, moreover, He was crucified and thereby bore the condemnation
of all the sins of mankind, and therefore those who believe have now
been delivered from all their judgment. Just as the High Priest had
passed the sins of the people of Israel to the sacrificial animal by
putting his hands on its head, John the Baptist passed all our sins onto
Jesus by baptizing Him. And Jesus, in turn, shouldered these sins and
was crucified, and thus has delivered everyone who believes in Him from
sin. Therefore, those who believe in this can receive the right to
become God’s own children.
Romans
10:10 states, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” For all, it is by
believing in the righteousness of God with the heart that they can be
justified, by believing in the truth of salvation with the heart that
they can receive the remission of sin and enter Heaven. Brothers and
sisters, have you been saved by believing with your hearts and
confessing with your tongues that the baptism and blood of Jesus are the
essential elements that constitute “the righteousness of God,” “the
truth of salvation,” and “the gospel of the remission of sin”? Under the
sacrificial system of the Old Testament, the sins of the Israelites
were not blotted out just by killing the sacrificial animal without the
laying on of hands that passed their sins onto the offering. Likewise,
if we believe only in the blood of the Cross and leave out the baptism
that Jesus received, then all our sins cannot be washed away.
“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
10:17-18). Why did God say here that He would no longer remember our
sins? Though we cannot help but continue to sin until the day we die,
because Jesus took upon all the sins of the world once for all by being
baptized, our salvation is now accomplished and will last forever, and
those of us who believe in this are now sinless. This is why God has no
need to remember our sins.
The
righteousness of God means His justice. The justice of God the Father
dictates that just as He is holy, those who believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit are also holy and sinless. From the very
beginning, God loved us and desired to make us His own children. But no
matter how much He wanted to make us His children, He could not do so
because of our sins. So God the Father came up with a solution to
resolve this problem.
Because
God had set side an unblemished offering that would be vicariously
sacrificed on our behalf and decided to wash away our sins by passing
all sins onto this sacrificial offering, Jesus did not hesitate to be
baptized, to become our own offering of sacrifice, to be vicariously
condemned in our place, and to thereby give the everlasting sin
offering. And through this sin offering, God fulfilled His providence to
cleanse those who believe from their sins and make them His own
children. Now, those who believe in this gospel of truth are remitted
from all their sins before God. Because Jesus has already washed away
all the sins of this world by being baptized, if we believe in this
Jesus who has cleansed away mankind’s sins by being condemned
vicariously, we no longer need to give any offering for our sins. Do we
still need to offer sacrifices for our sins, brothers and sisters? No,
absolutely not!
Do
you know why Jesus Christ was crucified, even as He was sinless and
pure? Although Jesus was crucified, He had done nothing wrong at all, in
fact. It was only because Jesus had accepted all the sins of mankind by
being baptized in the Jordan River that He had to die in our place. The
reason why He had to die on the Cross was because He had already
accepted the sins of the world passed onto Him through His baptism and
was ready to fulfill all righteousness.
When
the Son of God was baptized to fulfill all righteousness in this way,
how could we not thank Him? It was because Jesus had taken upon our sins
that He, like a sheep before its shearer, quietly bore the suffering of
the Cross. We must all remember His baptism and Cross forever, for had
He not been crucified and condemned, then we ourselves would have had to
be condemned for sure.
Our
Lord not only took upon all our sins, but He Himself also bore all the
condemnation of sin. Put differently, Jesus the Savior Himself, who had
taken upon our sins, became our own sin offering and quietly bore the
punishment of the Cross, all in order to save us from sin and thereby
fulfill all God’s will. This is why the Bible says, “‘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. Therefore,
brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus”
(Hebrews 10:17-19).
Do
you now understand why Jesus Christ was crucified? We must not believe
just in Jesus’ blood of the Cross, but we must grasp the reason why He
had to die on the Cross, and we must properly understand and believe
that this reason lies in the baptism that He received. If you and I want
to know and believe exactly where and how our sins were washed away, we
must realize and believe that it was because our sins were passed onto
Jesus when He was baptized by John in the Jordan River that we have been
washed from our sins by faith.
By Knowing and Believing in the Truth of the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit, We Can Now Be Saved from All Our Sins
What
I have told you so far is the truth of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that the Bible speaks of in elaborate detail. And this truth is
the salvation that had been planned even before the foundation of the
world, and this salvation is also manifested in the blue, purple, and
scarlet thread, the materials used for the door of the Tabernacle.
Together with my fellow workers, I have been preaching this truth
manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread to countless people
in this world. And even now, at this very hour, this gospel is spreading
throughout the entire world through our books.
Yet
there are those who claim to believe in Jesus even as they are ignorant
of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I can dare to call such
people fools, for this gospel of the water and the Spirit is the core
truth that tells us of the true sacrificial system fulfilled through
Jesus Christ, the actual substance of the shadow of salvation manifested
in the Tabernacle. Now, it is your turn. If you had believed without
knowing the real truth, it is now time for you to turn around, believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and receive the remission of
your sins.
The
baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross had been promised even
before the foundation of the world, and they were manifested in the
blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen also. To
fulfill this promise, and to actually save you and me from our sins,
Jesus was baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and is
now sitting at the right hand of God the Father.
Are
you still trying to believe in Jesus by following your own experiences
or emotions, without knowing this truth? There are many such people in
this world, but they must now turn around from their flawed faith and
wholeheartedly believe in the truth of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit hidden in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven
linen manifested in the door of the Tabernacle.
Hebrews
10:19-20 says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the
Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” When Jesus
Christ, having taken upon the sins of the world by being baptized, was
crucified, the veil of the Temple was torn, and the sins of mankind were
washed away with the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross. The
veil of the Temple, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine
woven linen, was so strong that it could not be torn even when pulled at
its four corners by four horses.
That
this sturdy veil of the Temple was nonetheless torn from top to bottom,
even as it was touched by no one, reveals that the very moment Jesus
Christ completed His mission, the gates of Heaven were opened wide. The
tearing of the veil of Temple from top to bottom means that all the
walls of sin were brought down, showing us that through Jesus Christ,
God tore down these walls of sin.
What,
then, does it mean that the walls of sin were torn down? This means
that anyone can be remitted from all sins by believing in the baptism
that Jesus Christ received and His blood on the Cross. What God sought
to make manifest through the door of the Tabernacle is that the
salvation of mankind has now been fulfilled once for all through the
ministries of Jesus shown in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and
the fine woven linen. It was because our everlasting atonement promised
by God to all of us was fulfilled that the veil door of the Most Holy
woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen were torn
into two from top to bottom, not by the hand of man, but by the hand of
God Himself.
This
reveals that Jesus Christ who has become the everlasting sacrifice for
the sins of mankind has perfectly saved those of us who believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. God the Father has set that whoever
believes in the baptism Jesus Christ received and His bloodshed on the
Cross can receive the remission of sin and stand before His presence.
Will you believe in this truth or not?
Just
as God has loved you, so has Jesus Christ the Son of God loves you, and
He has given you perfect salvation by being baptized by John and
crucified. By receiving this love of God given to us through Jesus
Christ, and by believing in the truth that enables us to enter the
Kingdom of God, all our sins have disappeared. By believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, even all our actual sins have been
taken care of, for all our sins and condemnation were already washed
away with the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross.
Hebrews
10:22 says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water.” The Bible continues to speak of the
washing of sin. We can be saved from all our sins by believing in the
truth that Jesus Christ has washed away all the sins that we commit with
our flesh and minds through His baptism.
Just
as the High Priest also washed away his uncleanness at the laver of
bronze after giving offerings, after cleansing away all our sins by
believing in the baptism of Jesus, we, too, must remember this faith
everyday. As the High Priest washed himself at the laver of bronze, we
must wash away our actual sins by remembering and believing everyday
that all our sins were cleansed away with the baptism of Jesus, for as
we live in this world, there are times when we are exposed to its
filthiness.
All
sins, whether committed with the body, heart, or thoughts, belong to
the sins of the world. With what faith, then, can we wash away all these
sins of the world? We can wash them away only by the baptism that Jesus
received. Those who have once become clean by believing in the baptism
of Jesus must keep their clean hearts, and whenever they sin, they must
wash them again by faith. Those who remember the baptism of Jesus
everyday and wash the garments of their acts by faith are the blessed.
Because all our sins were passed onto Jesus Christ through the baptism
that He received from John, by ruminating on this truth and believing in
it everyday, we can be wholly delivered from all sins forever.
You
must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that your sins
were also all passed onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized by John. You
have nothing to lose from believing in this gospel, for the Omnipotent
God had planned it even before the foundation of the world, before the
age of the Old Testament. The truth that Jesus accepted your sins by
being baptized in the Jordan River and bore all the condemnation of your
sins by going to the Cross has enabled you to reach the righteousness
of God and your salvation. The truth that has enabled you to realize
that Jesus the King of kings has forever saved you from sin, and that
has sprinkled your hearts from an evil conscience and washed your bodies
with pure water, is this very gospel of the water and the Spirit. The
gospel of the water and the Spirit is the indispensable Word for your
life, and it shines even more brilliantly when you believe.
During
the 3 years of His public life, the very first thing that Jesus did to
save the entire mankind from sin was being baptized. Jesus Christ, in
other words, had to take upon our sins, and to do so He had go to John
and be baptized by him. So, all the Four Gospels write this critical
incident at the beginning.
You
and I, in fact, were all bound to die for our sins. But what happened?
Our Lord came to this earth, took upon our sins by being baptized by
John, became the Lamb of God, carried all the sins of the world to the
Cross, was nailed on both His hands and feet for our sins, shed all the
blood that was in His heart and died, and then rose from the dead again.
This is why Jesus said, “It is finished,” when He took His last breath
on the Cross.
Everything
that Jesus told and did is all true. Jesus became our sin offering to
save us, and rose from the dead again in three days. And after rising
from the dead, He bore witness to His resurrection for 40 days, ascended
to Heaven, and now sits at the right hand of the throne of the Father.
This Jesus Christ will come to this earth to take us away. Jesus came as
the Savior when He first came to this earth, but when He comes again
for the second time, He will come as the Judge to condemn all those who
do not believe.
You
must now realize that Jesus Christ will return to this earth as the
Judge, to call and receive as the children of God those who believe in
the salvation of the water, the blood, and the Spirit that He fulfilled
through His 33 years of life on this earth and enable them to live in
the Millennial Kingdom and the eternal Heaven, and to render His
everlasting judgment on those who do not believe in the gospel of the
water, the blood, and the Spirit and have rejected the love of God.
Now,
you must no longer ignore the gospel of the water and the Spirit and
pretend to be unaware of it, but you must believe in this truth of
salvation. And you must realize that just as God had promised through
the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system, Jesus Christ came to this
earth, was baptized in a form of the laying on of hands, was crucified,
and has thereby saved all the nations of the whole world from all sins,
and you must receive the remission of your sins by believing in this
truth with all your hearts.
Even
so, the nation of Israel still has its back turned away from the truth
and is waiting for another Messiah. But the Israelites must realize that
regardless of how ardently they wait for a Messiah other than Jesus,
there simply is no other Messiah apart from Jesus Christ. That there is
no other Messiah but Jesus on the face of this earth is the self-evident
truth, and as even the people of Israel are no exception when it comes
to this truth, nor is there any other Savior for them either.
As
such, the people of Israel must repent from their sin of not believing
in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and they must believe that Jesus
Christ is indeed their true Messiah and accept this as the truth. By
once again affirming and believing that Jesus Christ is the very Savior
to come, the nation of Israel must become the true, spiritually chosen
nation of God.
Even
now, the people of Israel are still waiting for a majestic, capable,
and powerful Messiah who can save them from the sufferings and miseries
of this world. But Jesus Christ already came to this earth in the flesh
of a man as the Messiah and has saved them, who cannot avoid but be
judged by fire, from all their sins. As such, they must acknowledge this
truth and believe in it. For their souls, Jesus Himself came to this
earth as their sin offering of sacrifice promised in the Old Testament,
has saved them forever from all their sins, and has made them God’s own
people.
Jesus
Christ who came as the Savior has saved all of us through the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and
scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. And He will surely enable
those of us who believe this to reign over the Millennial Kingdom with
Him. After this, He will also allow them to take part in the everlasting
Kingdom of God and live forever with God Himself in happiness and
glory.
As
such, while we are still on this earth, all of us must believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts and become God’s own
children. Only those who believe in this gospel of truth can become the
sinless children of God and are guaranteed to receive all the blessings
that await them in the next world.
Hallelujah!
I thank the Lord with my faith for giving us the spiritual blessings of
Heaven. Our Lord promised that He would return soon; even so, come,
Lord!
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