Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-30] Holiness to the Lord (Exodus 28:36-43)
(Exodus 28:36-43)
“You
shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the
engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And you shall put it on a
blue cord, that it may be on the turban; it shall be on the front of the
turban. So it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the
iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all
their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may
be accepted before the LORD. You shall skillfully weave the tunic of
fine linen thread, you shall make the turban of fine linen, and you
shall make the sash of woven work. For Aaron’s sons you shall make
tunics, and you shall make sashes for them. And you shall make hats for
them, for glory and beauty. So you shall put them on Aaron your brother
and on his sons with him. You shall anoint them, consecrate them, and
sanctify them, that they may minister to Me as priests. And you shall
make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness; they shall reach
from the waist to the thighs. They shall be on Aaron and on his sons
when they come into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near
the altar to minister in the holy place, that they do not incur iniquity
and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and his descendants after
him.”
Exodus
28:36 says, “You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on
it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD.” This plate
was fixed with a blue cord so that it would not fall from the turban.
What
is God showing us with this turban of the High Priest? The turban and
its ornament imply that Jesus Christ took upon all our sins through the
baptism that He received from John the Baptist and has thereby cleansed
away all our sins.
To
live out our faith before God, we, first of all, should have the true
faith in Him. And to have faith in the truth, we first need to have the
correct knowledge of the Truth. Our Lord said to all of us, “And you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).
Believing in God is not something that can be done with only emotions.
This is why our faith must have this knowledge of the Truth, and then
this should be followed by emotions, and then by our willpower. To do
so, we must have the faith that clearly knows and believes in the truth
manifested in the materials used for the garments of the High Priest.
On
the turban worn by the High Priest, a gold plate was hung and it was
fixed with a blue cord. This clearly shows us the truth that the Lord
took upon all our sins by coming to this earth and being baptized.
That’s why today’s Scripture passage above says, “So it shall be on
Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things
which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts” (Exodus
28:38). The faith that could solve away the problem of sin of the
Israelites was manifested in the gold plate put on the front of the
turban of the High Priest and in the blue cord that secured the plate.
Jesus’ Baptism Is Essential for the Salvation of All Human Beings
As
the High Priest wore the turban attached with the golden plate fixed by
the blue cord on his forehead, if you really are today’s spiritual
priests, then you must know and believe that the Lord came to this
earth, was baptized by John the Baptist in a form of the laying on of
hands that corresponds with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament,
and has thereby cleansed away all your sins. In the age of the Old
Testament, the High Priest had to know that it was through the
sacrificial offering given according to the sacrificial system that
every sin was blotted out. On the other hand, you and I who are living
in the New Testament’s time must know that because the Lord was baptized
by John the Baptist when He came to this earth, He took upon our sins
once and for all. Because Jesus Christ was baptized, all our sins were
passed onto Him and He took upon all the sins of the world once and for
all.
Through
this baptism, all the sins of each and every person on this planet were
passed onto Jesus without exception. Even the sins of John the Baptist,
the last High Priest and the representative of all mankind, were also
passed onto Jesus, as were the sins of the people of the entire world.
What
kind of faith must we then have before God? We must have the genuine
faith that believes that Jesus Christ was baptized and thereby truly
took upon the sins of all people. Along with the knowledge of the Truth,
we must also have this faith that believes in this Truth with our
hearts. When we work and spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit
with the faith that believes in this Truth, people will hear it and
believe in it with their hearts, and they also will thereby be washed of
all their sins as white as snow. Jesus Christ has given the true
remission of sins to all those who believe this Truth wholeheartedly.
Above
all, Today’s spiritual priests must have a clear faith that believes in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Without the knowledge of this
Truth and faith in it, we cannot fulfill the duties of our spiritual
priesthood. In other words, only those who have this faith that believes
in the Truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread—that is, in the
truth of the real remission of sins—can carry out the duties of their
spiritual priesthood. In other words, only those who have received the
remission of sins by believing in both the baptism of Jesus Christ and
His blood of the Cross can fulfill the duties of the spreading of the
gospel. Like this, having the correct knowledge on the Truth is
essential to each and every spiritual priest. This is why the Bible
clearly says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because
you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest
for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will
forget your children” (Hosea 4:6).
When
the High Priest came before God on the Day of Atonement, he could never
come into the Most Holy Place without putting on his turban. The High
Priest had to put on the turban of fine woven linen and place the gold
plate fixed with blue cord on its front exactly as set by God. As you
have already confirmed, the blue thread bears witness to the baptism
that Jesus received from John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15; 1 Peter 3:21).
Everyone
cannot but commit sin every day. Everyone therefore cannot avoid but be
condemned, put to death, and be destroyed eternally for their sins. But
the Lord came to this earth, and took the sins of mankind upon His body
through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. As Jesus
said in Matthew 3:15, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness,” through this baptism God the
Father wanted to pass all the sins of the entire mankind onto His Son
Jesus Christ, and permitted this to happen. That Jesus was baptized by
John the Baptist means that through John the Baptist He accepted the
sins of the world onto Himself once and for all. Therefore, your sins
and mine were also all passed onto Jesus at the time.
Because
all have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans
3:23). The Bible says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made
sinners” (Romans 5:19). Is there anyone who does not sin? No, absolutely
not! Then what will our destiny be? God said that if we have any kind
of sin, regardless of how it is committed, whether by our acts, hearts
or thoughts, we would all be destroyed. Because God said that “the wages
of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), if we have a sin even as small as a
mustard seed, we then must still be washed of this sin without fail. The
entire mankind has sinned before God, and because of this all of them
could not avoid but be condemned for their sins. However, as God said
that “the wages of sin is death,” He made His Son to be baptized and
permitted Him to be crucified. The price of sin is death. What is meant
by death here? Hell is what is meant by death.
Hebrews
9:27 says, “As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the
judgment.” God tells us that judgment awaits us when we die. All people,
whether the righteous or the sinners, those who have received the
remission of sin or those who have not, will live forever beyond their
physical death. That human beings were made in God’s own image tells us
that because God lives forever, everyone is to live eternally absolutely
regardless of his or her wish. But you should remember that there are
two kinds of eternal lives: one is the blessed eternal life in the
Kingdom of Heaven, and the other is the cursed one in hell.
Jesus
Christ is the eternal High Priest of Heaven. He came to this earth as
the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, and He has blotted out the
entire sins of mankind not by giving an earthly offering of sacrifice,
but by giving up His own body (Hebrews 7:21, 8:11-12, 10:10). God is the
very One who came to this earth and took upon all our sins by being
baptized, all in order to save you and me from the sins of the world.
Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven came to this
earth incarnated into the flesh of a man and accepted the sins of
mankind onto His body through His baptism. Through this, all your sins
were passed onto Jesus Christ once and for all. And because Jesus Christ
accepted our sins on His body through His baptism, He could go to the
Cross, be crucified, shed His blood to death.
This
is why God had set the statute that the High Priest had to put on the
gold plate engraved with “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” on the front of his
turban and tie it with the blue cord so that it would not fall off. This
tells us that because Jesus has washed away all the sins of the entire
mankind with His baptism, those who believe can receive holiness into
their hearts and come before God.
The Gold Plate Shall Be on the Front of the Turban
Exodus
28:37 says, “And you shall put it on a blue cord, that it may be on the
turban; it shall be on the front of the turban.” This passage means
that we must have the faith in His baptism. By knowing and believing
that the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus Christ, we must
receive the remission of sin. Is it wrong to say Jesus took upon all our
sins when He was baptized? Why do people get destroyed? It is not
because you and I have sinned that we are destroyed and abandoned by
God. They get destroyed because they do not believe in this clear-cut
Truth and therefore still have sin. Because Jesus Christ came to this
earth and took upon all our sins once for all by being baptized by John
the Baptist, and because our sins were thus passed onto Him, our Lord
was vicariously condemned in our stead. We must know this with our heads
and believe in it with our hearts as well. Only then can the baptism of
Jesus be planted in our hearts as our faith. Gold in the Bible refers
to faith. It is by believing in the true gospel that we can enter
Heaven.
All
the religions of this world commonly teach their followers to reach
one’s own awakening. For example, Buddhism teaches its believers to
cleanse their hearts through ascetic exercises to enter into Nirvana.
The objective of Buddhism, in other words, is to cast aside all
illusive, mundane thoughts by immersing oneself in meditation and
ultimately becoming a god on one’s own. But there is no one who can
achieve this. Some religionists are trying to become a god on their own
by secluding themselves in mountains. For example, even in Christianity
just after the Early Church era, there arose so many monasteries that
sought self-sanctification. But secluding oneself in a mountain does not
mean that this person would no longer be visited by decadent thoughts.
It is a huge mistake to think that if we just cut ourselves off from the
world and have no contact with other human beings, we could be freed
from all our lustful desires and emotions. On the contrary, our flesh is
such that the more we seclude ourselves, the more we are haunted by the
lustful desire and pleasure of this secular world. Because we have such
sins in our hearts, it is impossible for us to get away from our sins
no matter how much we want to do so. This is why Jesus said, “I am the
way, the truth, and the life.” Our Lord is the only Way to the Kingdom
of Heaven. He is the Truth. And He is the Life. Jesus is the Lord of
life.
What
people want to find out is the way to go to Heaven. To realize this way
that lead them to the Kingdom of God, they must know and believe in the
Truth thoroughly. The Truth is that God Himself came to this earth
incarnated in the flesh of a man and that by being baptized by John the
Baptist; He took upon all the sins of the entire mankind. We can all
enter the Kingdom of God by knowing this Truth and believing that all
our sins have also been passed onto Jesus.
On
the contrary, it is impossible for us to enter Heaven by our own
merits, in other words, by doing many good deeds. Why? Because no matter
how many good deeds we might have done, if we had broken even just one
statute of God’s Law, then this only means that we have failed to keep
all the Word of God. Because breaking even just one statute of God’s Law
means that one is a sinner before God, it is impossible for such a
person to go to Heaven by his acts. We must believe in this truth, and
we must thereby pass our sins onto Jesus Christ through the baptism that
He received from John the Baptist. Jesus took all the sins of mankind
including yours as well upon His body. So it is by having your sins
passed onto Jesus that all your sins are washed away clean.
To
achieve this, you must first examine yourselves to see whether there is
sin in your hearts or not, and when you realize that there is sin, you
then must believe in the remission of sin manifested in the blue,
purple, and scarlet thread, and thereby get your faith approved by God.
It is by believing in the sacrificial offering of the body of Christ
that we can go to Heaven after being saved from sin once and for all. It
is not because people have sinned that they are unable to enter Heaven,
but it is because they do not know and do not believe in the real
truth, the gospel manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread,
that they are unable to enter Heaven. We should not just say that we are
ill-informed because of our ignorance and distance ourselves from the
Word of God, but we must be saved by hearing and believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit.
As
the High Priest ministered to God by offering the sacrifice with faith
to sanctify his people, we, the royal priests of today, also must know
the clear truth in our heads and embrace the holiness of God in our
hearts. No matter when, where, and which souls ask us to give the
offering of faith for them, we must first be clothed in the holiness of
God. The gold plate engraved with the phrase ‘Holiness to the Lord’ will
forever be on the foreheads of us, today’s High Priests.
The
truth of the real and clear remission of sin is the gospel that is
manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven
linen. This gospel has cleansed away all our sins and made us sinless,
holy, and consecrated. It is crystal-clear that our sins were passed
onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized. It is because Jesus Christ
washed away our sins once for all by being baptized that those who
believe in Him can receive the remission of sins and live out their
faith. Moreover, as we continue with our lives of faith after receiving
our remission of sins, we must also meditate and believe deeply just how
important and necessary this gospel is, and how greatly the gospel of
the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist is demanded from
our spiritual lives.
The
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit must always abide in our
hearts. Why? We should do so because we sin all the time and everyday.
Among the readers of my books, there is hardly anyone who does not know
that Jesus bore all the condemnation of our sins by being baptized and
crucified. However, it is of no use if we just regard this truth as mere
knowledge. We have to ruminate upon His baptism as frequently as
possible, for we are prone to be stained by sins everyday. Having this
faith is like bringing in the grains stored in a barn and having them as
our food. In other words, ruminating about the true gospel of the water
and the blood is the spiritual food for our souls. That’s why Jesus
said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My
flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at
the last day” (John 6:53-54).
We
must confirm our faith in the baptism of Jesus everyday. For all
priests, this faith must be even more firmly established. Only when they
have this clear and determined faith can they maintain their salvation,
as well as teach other sinners so that they may also be saved. Is this
not the case? Of course it is! What we need everyday is the faith that
believes in the baptism of Jesus, and the faith that believes in Jesus
who bore the condemnation of all our sins.
The
turban worn by the High Priest cannot be found in this world. Is there
any turban in this world that has a gold plate hanging onto it and tied
with a blue cord? There is only one such turban, and it is the turban of
the High Priest. This speaks of a profound truth to us today: The royal
priests should stand firm on the faith in Jesus’ baptism. And it also
shows us that you and I can fulfill our priestly duties only when we
have strong faith in this truth.
Our
faith in Jesus’ baptism must become clearer and sharper everyday. Jesus
was crucified to death because He had taken our sins upon Himself.
Because He had taken our sins when He was baptized, He could say, “It is
finished” (John 19:30) just before He died on the Cross. And He then
rose up from the dead and came alive again. By doing these righteous
works, Jesus has perfectly blotted out all our sins and become the
eternal Savior of all those who believe in Him.
We
must remember Jesus’ baptism every day. Why? It is because our lives
are full of mistakes and blemishes. Are you lacking or not? The more
time goes by, the more we see our insufficient and frail selves. Would
you still then not believe in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the
Cross?
The Gold Plate Engraved with “Holiness to the Lord”
What
kind of faith is the faith that enables us to become sinless and holy?
It is the faith of the blue thread that believes in the baptism that
Jesus received from John the Baptist. It is because Jesus accepted the
sins of mankind by being baptized by John that all our sins were passed
onto Him. When we come to believe in Jesus’ baptism that He was baptized
to take all our sins onto His body, such faith renders us a wonderful
experience of having all our sins blotted out by faith. When Jesus was
baptized by John the Baptist, the sins of mankind were passed onto Him.
So because the sins of everyone were passed onto Jesus, those who
believe in this Truth have been washed from all their sins once and for
all. Their sins have been cleansed by faith. This washing of sin is
implied in the blue color of the Tabernacle system. In other words, the
sins of your hearts are blotted out by faith when you believe in His
baptism and confess, “Ah, my sins, your sins, and the sins of all the
people in the whole wide world were passed onto Jesus Christ.” Your sins
also have been completely washed away if you have this faith.
Before
you came to know this baptism that Jesus received from John the
Baptist, your hearts clearly had sin. There is no one on this planet
that has been approved sinless even before knowing this Truth. Everyone
has sin, and thus is destined to hell. But to blot out all our sins,
Jesus came to this earth and accepted all our sins onto Himself by being
baptized. The baptism that Jesus received is the same as the laying on
of hands of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament; the sins of the
people of Israel were passed onto the head of the sacrificial animal by
the laying on of their hands. Thus, we can find so many phrases of ‘lay
his (or their) hands on’ in the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus.
Were
your sins passed onto Jesus when He was baptized? When Jesus was
baptized, He said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for
us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The word “for thus”
here is “hutos” in Greek, which means ‘in this way,’ ‘most fitting,’ or
‘there is no other way besides this.’ This word shows that Jesus
irreversibly took the entire sins of humankind onto Himself through the
baptism He received from John the Baptist. Because the moment Jesus took
upon all our sins by being baptized is a decisive moment, I can never
forget this moment. You must remember in your heads this Word that is
clearly written in the original text also. And by meditating on this
gospel of the water and the Spirit everyday, you must believe in your
hearts.
We
can become sinless and enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in our
hearts that Jesus accepted all our sins and washed them away through His
baptism. Can we enter Heaven by any other means? You might think that
you would become gentler and disciplined when you grow old, but you see
the older you get, the nastier you become. If you think that you can
become kinder and more self-disciplined with passing of time, you should
soon acknowledge yourselves as being incapable of becoming like this.
The fact is that as we grow older, we become even more impatient and are
even less able to handle our anger. Had we possessed the ability to do
this, perhaps we could enter the Kingdom of Heaven by keeping the Law
with our acts. But because we have no such abilities, only sin,
evilness, and anger arise from us.
What
I am trying to tell you here is that salvation cannot be attained by
acts, but only by faith. Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Though
we have not seen Him, God still exists, and because this God is alive,
He works in our lives. God created this universe unseen by us, and
through His Word He has shown us the Truth of salvation. By believing in
this truth of salvation in our hearts, we can be saved from sin and
cleanse away all the sins of our hearts. And this is still effective
even now. Therefore, sinners must now be saved by believing in this
Truth in their hearts, not trying to be saved from their sins by their
own virtuous deeds.
What
is it meant by the fact that the gold plate was put on the front of the
turban of the High Priest and tied with blue cord? It means that we
must know the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in it. By
being baptized, Jesus took upon all the sins of everyone, including
yours and mine. Jesus who is almighty thus took upon all our sins in
this way. We must know this and believe in it. It is when we hear the
Word of God with our ears, know it with our heads, and believe it with
our hearts that our hearts are cleansed. Because we have sinned before
and cannot but commit more sins now and in the future, to save us from
all our sins, the Lord came to this earth and took upon our sins by
being baptized.
When
Jesus accepted the sins of mankind and washed them all away, your sins
were also passed onto Him. By believing in this Truth, you can be
remitted from all your sins. When we believe in the baptism that Jesus
Christ who came by the water and the Spirit received, you and I can be
washed from all the sins in our hearts, and by believing that Jesus
Christ also bore all the condemnation of our sins, we can become God’s
very own children. Therefore, it is by the faith that believes in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can be born again and become
God’s children. Our Lord has given us this kind of faith.
The Linen Trousers of the High Priest
God
commanded Moses to make the linen trousers for the High Priest and
clothe him with them. They had to reach from the waist to the thighs and
cover the nakedness of the priests. And God said that in order to avoid
death, Aaron and his sons must wear them when they come into the
Tabernacle of meeting or approach the altar to minister inside the court
of the Tabernacle, and He also said that this should be a statute
forever to Aaron and his descendants after him.
They
were undergarments worn to cover the nakedness of the priests.
Revealing nakedness before God is revealing uncleanness before Him, and
so anyone whose sins are revealed before God is put to death. This is
why God commanded His priests to cover their nakedness. God, in other
words, has told us to cover our sins and our uncleanness with the faith
that believes in this perfect gospel of His righteousness.
Then,
what are the white linen trousers of the High Priest? They are the
faith that believes in the righteousness of God. They are the truth of
perfect salvation that God has made us sinless. Jesus Christ who is God
Himself (purple thread) came to this earth, was baptized (blue thread),
shed His blood and died on the Cross (scarlet thread), rose from the
dead again, and has thereby completed our salvation perfectly. Believing
that God has blotted out all our sins with His baptism and was
condemned to pay the wages for all those sins on our behalf is wearing
the linen trousers of salvation in our hearts. It is by believing in our
hearts that we can be wholly saved from sin and that we can become the
children of God and enter His Kingdom.
The
only way to cleanse away all the filthiness of our hearts is to believe
in the baptism that Jesus received and His blood of the Cross. In
particular, the faith of the blue thread, that Jesus accepted all sins
with His baptism, is the core truth on our salvation that washes away
all our sins, and it is by believing this that we can cover all our
uncleanness. How can we come before God without hesitation regardless of
our insufficiencies and iniquities? It is possible only when we believe
in the righteousness of God that covers all our filthiness perfectly.
With the faith that believes that God has saved us with the water and
the blood, that is, with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, we can
cover all our uncleanness. Jesus came to this earth, made us perfectly
righteous with His righteous acts, and has thereby become the Lord of
our everlasting salvation. It is by believing in this that we can reach a
sinless state. By believing in the righteous works of God, with which
He loves us and has made us sinless, we can escape from the condemnation
of sin. By believing in this righteous salvation of God in our hearts,
we can receive eternal life.
We
sin everyday. We must therefore realize that anyone who comes to God
without wearing the white linen trousers of God’s salvation that has
blotted out all our sins with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, the
person will be put to death. The kind of faith that prevents us from
dying when we come before God is none other than the faith that believes
in His righteousness. This faith that believes in the righteousness of
God is the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Because God has told us to put on such white linen trousers, we
must obtain this and wear the trousers of the true remission of sin by
faith in our hearts.
When
we come before God with this faith, we will not be put to death. As
such, what is manifested in these garments of the High Priest is all
about the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. None of the
garments of the High Priests is devoid of some spiritual meaning. We,
the High Priests of today, cannot omit any of the garments that God has
commended us to wear. What would happen if the High Priest put on all
the other garments but without the linen trousers? He would surely be
put to death. Whether the ordinary people wear these linen trousers or
not is your choice, but if the High Priests did not wear them, they
would be killed, for their shameful nakedness—that is, their sins and
uncleanness—would not have been covered thoroughly.
What
would happen if we do not have the kind of faith that believes in His
perfect salvation with all our hearts before God? What would happen if
we come before God without believing in our hearts that He has made us
sinless, without wearing the garments of salvation in our hearts? We
would remain as sinners. Because ‘the wages of sin is death,’ sinners
who have not been remitted of their sins must be condemned, put to
death, and cast into the everlasting fire of hell. This is why your
hearts must wear the garments of salvation that God has made for you. It
is by believing in the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and
scarlet thread and we are able to enter the Kingdom of God.
This
is why the Bible says that gold, the rustproof and most precious metal,
denotes ‘faith.’ In the Bible, gold refers to faith, while bronze
refers to condemnation. We can find the fact that the gold thread was
used frequently to make the garments of the High Priest. This implies
that we always have to keep a strong faith in this gospel of the perfect
salvation. Believe in the Truth that is manifested in the blue, purple,
and scarlet thread. God said that this should be a statue that we must
keep forever.
In
our minds and hearts, you and I must believe in this Truth
unmistakably. True faith must be accompanied by true knowledge,
feelings, and acts. Do you have this kind of faith and truth? Do you
truly believe in the truth which is manifested in the blue, purple, and
scarlet thread with all your hearts? Do you believe that God loves you,
that He blotted out all your sins by being baptized, shedding His blood,
and rose up from the dead again? If you indeed believe in this Truth,
then this means that you have clothed your hearts and souls with the
garments of salvation.
God
rebuked the people of Israel through the Apostle Paul saying, “For they
being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their
own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God”
(Romans 10:3). God dislikes those who try to establish and boast their
own righteousness with their seemingly good deeds. Those who do not
believe in the good works that God has done for us out of His love for
us will all be destroyed. In what do you trust? Do you trust in the
righteousness of God, or your own righteousness? Do you really believe
with all your hearts that God loves you, and that He has blotted out all
your sins with both the baptism of Jesus and His blood of the Cross? Do
you believe in this Truth, and is this where you entrust yourselves to?
Do you truly hold onto this Truth in your hearts and believe? Or are
you still trying to receive the remission of your sins by striving to
lead your lives benevolently on your own?
You,
of course, must live benevolently. After being born again, you must
live even more benevolently. However, in the Holy Spirit, you must first
recognize what the virtuous life really is. The Bible says, “But you
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own
special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you
out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). For today’s
priests of God, living benevolently means serving the genuine gospel.
How
pitiful are those who do not believe in the gospel and God’s love for
us, who do not believe that God has blotted out all their sins perfectly
with both the baptism of Jesus and His blood of the Cross!
Once
there was a group of wrecked fishermen who just arrived at the mouth of
the Amazon River after 10 days struggling against the storm and waves
of the boundless ocean. They all got exhausted by not drinking any water
for 10 days. At last, they arrived in a part where flesh water was.
However, the mouth of the river was so vast that none of them could
recognize this incredible fact that they were actually floating on
drinkable water. As a result, they all eventually died, exhausted on the
abundance of flesh water. How pitiful they were! Looking at this from a
spiritual viewpoint, almost all the people of this generation are
struggling desperately against their sins, exhausted spiritually, while
not knowing that all the time their sins had already been blotted out
through both the baptism of Jesus and His bloodshed on the Cross.
Because
God loves you and me, He has completed the righteous works of blotting
out all our sins. By believing in this Truth we can enter the Kingdom of
God. This faith enables us to be born again. To be born again means to
be born once again as the children of God; even though we were born once
as sinners, we become the righteous by the work of the Holy Spirit when
we profess to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is
by being born again as the sinless like this that we can enter the
Kingdom of God.
Have
you clothed your souls with God’s good and righteous garments of
salvation? Have you made your souls truly believe in this gospel? What
is important above all is whether or not you believe in this genuine
gospel in your hearts. Instead of trying to realize the Truth on your
own or hold fast onto the teachings of this secular world, you must
believe in the Word of God which is taught to you by those who have
received the remission of sins prior to you. The true gospel is not
something that you may just know in your heads, but it is something that
you must truly believe in your hearts. You must enter Heaven by truly
believing in it. What blessing, brothers and sisters, has God granted to
us through His Son Jesus Christ? By blotting out all our sins through
His only begotten Son’s sacrifice, God has made us His own children.
The
people of this world want to do what is righteous and they also revere
those who do the right things. Aren’t the works of Jesus who sacrificed
Himself for the entire mankind most righteous? The gospel of the water
and the Spirit has not been made by mankind. It is the most virtuous and
righteous work that God has fulfilled especially for us. Because Jesus
was baptized and sacrificed Himself on the Cross for all the people of
this world, we recognize Him as our true Savior. No matter when and
where, there is only one righteous Person and it is Jesus Christ alone.
There is absolutely no one else who is righteous by himself or herself
on this planet except through Jesus Christ.
Do
you want to become righteous? By believing in the righteous work that
God has done for you, you can all become these righteous people. The
righteous work of God is none other than the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Believe in Jesus who has done this righteous work. God has
blotted out all our sins for He has loved us. When we accept His love of
this Truth by faith, we also become holy, just as God is holy. God
said, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45).
God has told us to actually lead our lives of faith by faith. Do you
wholeheartedly believe in this righteous work of Jesus that has saved
you perfectly from all your sins? I believe that the most righteous work
in the world has already been fulfilled by our Lord’s eternal
sacrifice. I believe that it has all been fulfilled through the baptism
that Jesus received, His blood of the Cross, and His resurrection from
death.
I thank God with my faith that He gave me through His Word of truth.
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