Subject 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN
[Chapter 1-2] Do You Really Have Fellowship with God? (1 John 1:1-10)
(1 John 1:1-10)
“That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled,
concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen,
and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with
the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we
declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly
our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And
these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the
message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is
light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have
fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice
the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar,
and His word is not in us.”
How can there be true fellowship with God?
It is possible only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is possible only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Bible says that if we claim to have fellowship with God, and yet walk in darkness, then we are liars, and that if we walk in the light of Truth, as the Lord is in the light, then we have fellowship with God. We can therefore realize that we, the saints and God’s servants, also can have true fellowship with each other through faith only when we are in the light of Truth.
We
believe in God’s light of Truth, and also preach the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, the gospel of salvation, to others, so that they
may be delivered from their spiritual death by faith. If we live by
faith in God’s light of Truth, then we are also the children of light
who practice the Truth. Therefore, for us to have true fellowship with
each other, we have to first accept into our hearts the gospel Truth of
the water and the Spirit in faith. If, on the other hand, we fail to
discover the light of Truth revealed to us brightly as the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, and are therefore unable to abide in faith, then
we will ultimately end up abiding in darkness.
This
is why you must confess your sins before God’s Truth and believe in the
gospel’s true light, if you still do not have faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit and are walking in darkness. It is from not
believing in the true light of salvation that we end up as liars before
God. Therefore, we must all believe with our hearts in the Truth of
gospel, that Jesus Christ has delivered us from all our sins, for He
loved us to much that He came to this earth, was baptized, and even died
on the Cross. Doing so, we must then live the rest of our lives
spreading the light of Truth.
The
Apostle John says that we can have true fellowship only when we are in
God’s light of Truth. When people read 1 John, they come across many
passages that cannot be understood in carnal thoughts. So everyone
unanimously agrees that there are many difficult passages. But if one
has a proper understanding of the baptism that Jesus received and His
bloodshed on the Cross, and if he believes in them, it is not so
difficult to interpret and understand 1 John. In the Word of God, there
is no truth that cannot be solved with the gospel Word of the water and
the Spirit. But it is filled with the Word of truth that just cannot be
interpreted without the true gospel. In other words, only those who have
been washed from their sins can interpret 1 John and taste the essence
of its truth. This is because through his Epistles, the Apostle John
spoke about God’s true gospel and the saints’ lives of light in the
Truth.
The
Apostle John himself also had to abide in the light of God to have
fellowship with Him. So he questioned to the readers of this Epistle
that whether or not they were abiding in the light of Truth to have
fellowship with God. He, in other words, wanted to have fellowship with
them, but he made it clear to them that they first had to come into the
God-given light of Truth.
The
Apostle John wanted to share his faith with those who believe in the
same Truth of light. And he said that it was possible only when they all
had faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that has
brought us salvation from our sins. If our faith is not the same but
different from this faith that believes in this God-given gospel, then
we cannot have sincere and true fellowship in Christ. This is why the
Apostle John said, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).
Therefore,
for any Christian to have true fellowship with other Christians, he
must have the same faith that believes in the Word of Truth that has
come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In Jesus Christ, we
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord, and
by this faith we had died together with Christ and have received new
life with Him. Our Lord has given the Word of Truth to all of us, that
we can all be washed from our sins with the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
My
fellow believers, you must realize that even if you say that you
believe in Jesus as your Savior, as long as you do not believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and therefore your sins are not
perfectly blotted out from your hearts, you cannot become God’s
children. If you do not believe in the light of Truth held in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, and therefore you have not become God’s
children, then it is not only impossible for you to have true fellowship
with God, but it is also impossible for you to have any real fellowship
with the born-again saints.
By
having fellowship with those who believe in the gospel of the salvation
of Jesus Christ, the Apostle John wanted to have twice as much joy.
John said, “These things we write to you that your joy may be full”(1
John 1:4). In our fellowship, it is when we are standing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit with the same faith that the joy for each of
us can be full. Our joy can be doubled in the Lord when we share our
fellowship in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
For sinners to have fellowship with the righteous, what faith must they have?
It is possible only when they have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is possible only when they have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is absolutely impossible for sinners to have fellowship with those who have received the remission of their sins. Why is this the case? It is because they are spiritually incompatible with the born-again, for they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But if they once believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they can have true fellowship with the saints. At first, those who have not been born again may not easily understand when they hear what the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit say to them, but when they eventually come to understand later on, they also come to have true fellowship in Jesus Christ. Sinners find it difficult to understand what those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit talk about. They even feel weird about the sayings and doings of the born-again at first.
For
us to have true fellowship with sinners, they must first believe in the
gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and come into the light of
Truth. To do so, they must know the gospel Truth of the water and the
Spirit, and they must become true Christians. And for us to come into
the light of Truth, we must first admit frankly who we really are.
Sinners can reach the blessed faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit only when they realize that they are on the verge of facing God’s
judgment for their sins.
To
be delivered perfectly from their sins, in other words, sinners must
first admit that they are evildoers by birth and are doomed to go to
hell. And then, they have to believe in the gospel Truth of the water
and the Spirit. This is the only and the right way to reach the Truth of
salvation. We have to escape from all our sins and their condemnation,
the result of the poison of sin inherited from Adam. This is possible
only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only then
can we return to Jesus Christ. Only when we become righteous by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can we have true
fellowship with God. Only then can there be true family relations
between God and His people, and among His servants and saints.
If you believe in Jesus without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, what would become of you?
It means that you will end up as someone whose faith had been all in vain.
It means that you will end up as someone whose faith had been all in vain.
If
you do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the
light of real Truth, even as you believe in Jesus as the Savior, just
how futile would your faith be? This is why you must learn and know the
gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. And you must become someone
who believes in this gospel Word of Truth. It is in the true gospel Word
of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord that we can know the real
Truth of salvation, and it is by believing in this Truth that we can be
remitted from all our sins and become whole forever.
The
Bible says, “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations” (Genesis
6:9). We have to first recognize that there were righteous people in the
Bible. At that time, Noah became a just man by receiving the gift of
salvation from God. In other words, by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, we must also receive this gift of salvation that
God has prepared for us. God also described Noah as being perfect in his
generations because He had clothed him with the gift of His grace, of
the washing of sin.
The
Truth of salvation that God had given to Noah was fundamentally
different from the doctrine of incremental sanctification that many of
today’s Christians and denominations hold. The God-given gift of
salvation was His love.
In which gospel do you believe?
Is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or do you believe in any other gospel?
Is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or do you believe in any other gospel?
Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior? Whether or not you believe in the light of Truth, that Jesus has blotted out your sins with the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, is entirely up to you, but at the same time, you have to realize that all its consequences, whether to be blessed or cursed, will also be entirely determined by your choice.
Do
you still believe only in the gospel of the blood of the Cross? Then,
your consciences should be the first to know whether or not there are
sins in your hearts. If you had believed until now only in Jesus’ blood
on the Cross for you to be saved, then your sins would still be intact
in your hearts. Is this not true? But if your souls had now believed in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you would have discovered
the light of real Truth, of being born again.
What
do you now think of the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Those who
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have no sin in their
hearts. But the believers in incremental sanctification, an absolute
majority of today’s Christians, have the following misunderstanding:
They think, “How can anyone so arrogantly claim to be sinless, when
human beings sin all the time as they have the flesh?” They are sure
that man can never be sinless on this earth, but God overlooks their
sins because they believe in Jesus.
However,
they must realize the fact that Jesus at once bore all the sins of this
world, including all our sins of the past, present, and future, through
the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. And they must
realize that it was because Jesus was baptized by John that He shed His
blood on the Cross. Jesus Christ is the same Savior, yesterday and today
and forever. By being baptized by John the Baptist, through which He
took upon the sins of this world, and by going to the Cross and shedding
His blood, Jesus has fulfilled all the righteousness of God at once.
With the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our Lord has blotted out
all the sins of this world once and for all.
Yet
it is deeply saddening that so many Christians today are ignorant of
these ministries of Jesus that have blotted out the sins of this world
all at once. They are still questioning how the sins of the true
believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit could have been
blotted out. Such people will remain as sinners even as they believe in
Jesus, for they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nor
believe in it. Because they do not know the real gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit, they cannot truly wash away their sins by faith. I
can only hope and pray that these people who believe only in the blood
of the Cross as their salvation would come to believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit and experience the true washing of sin.
The
Apostle John was one of the true disciples of Jesus who believed in Him
as his Savior. He received the gift of the true washing of sin by his
faith in the baptism that Jesus Christ received from John the Baptist
and His bloodshed on the Cross. Elsewhere in his Gospel writing, he also
clearly testified the importance of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist
(John 1:29-34).
This
very John now admonishes us the saints to have true fellowship with
each other in the true light of salvation. What he admonishes every one
of you is to let the light of Truth illuminate your spirits, and to have
fellowship each other in this Truth. If your hearts have indeed been
illuminated by the light of salvation in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, then you, too, would have become holy saints by faith. The
light of life is the truth that enables you to abide in Jesus Christ,
and to also have true fellowship with each other in Jesus Christ.
What Will You Do If There Is Still Sin in Your Hearts Even As You Believe in Jesus?
There
are also so many people who, even as they believe in Jesus as the
Savior, think that it is only natural for them to have sin. But such
people still do not know how the true salvation was fulfilled in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, which was completed in God’s light
of Truth. These people may think that their fellowship with God is
entirely up to them, but they will come to realize that this is not the
case in reality. With this kind of faith, they cannot come before God
even as they try, nor are they able to move closer to Him through their
prayers, for there is sin in their hearts. So seeing themselves, they
can only lament over their misery.
If
you are still sinners before God, then you should confess to Him
frankly that you are under the punishment of sin, and admit that the
gospel of the water and the Spirit is the light of true salvation. It is
clear that anyone who still has sin in his heart is not a child of God,
regardless of whether he believes in Jesus or not. When we believe in
Jesus as our Savior, we must believe in this true gospel. When you
believe that this Jesus Christ has blotted out your sins and given you
salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you can be
delivered from your sins. And this faith of yours can be approved before
the holy God.
Today,
we see that many Christians are trying to receive the remission of
their sins and enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in the doctrines
that each denomination has established. But through such mad-made
religious and doctrinal faith, their sins cannot be blotted out. Only
when they know the gospel of the water and the Spirit written in the
Bible, and believe in this Word of Truth, can all their sins be blotted
out. When we realize that Jesus Christ is the Savior who has come by the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and believe in Him with our hearts,
the perfect salvation is fulfilled to us. The faith of the Apostle
John, too, was also one that believed in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit (1John 5:3-7). We should examine our faith whether it is the
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit from God or the
religious and doctrinal faith from human thoughts
If
you have sin in your hearts even as profess to believe in Jesus, then
you are someone who still has no true fellowship with God. Though you
say yourselves that you believe in Jesus as the Savior, you have not
come into the light of salvation yet, and therefore there is no true
fellowship with God. This is why you end up living in so much pain. Such
people must confess, “Lord, I am still a sinner. Because I had not
known the gospel of the water and the Spirit that You had given me,
there had been no true fellowship with You yet. Lord, please have mercy
on me, and allow me to know the gospel Truth of the water and the
Spirit. Lord, because my sins still remain in my heart, I am under the
wrath of sin and terrifying punishment,” and they must believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Only
then can you have true fellowship with Jesus Christ. For you to do so,
you must stand firm on the faith that clearly knows and believes in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Through the faith that believes in
this gospel Truth, you must be remitted from all your sins once for all
and abide in the light of salvation.
Today,
the reality for many Christians is that even as they believe in Jesus
and go on with their lives of faith, they have not yet received the true
washing of their sins from their ignorance of the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Most of them have not even admitted God’s law that
declares, “the wages of sin is death,” and as a result, they are
carrying on with their lives of faith without even realizing that they
are sinners on the verge of facing God’s punishment.
What
is the reason for the secular people of this world to dislike
Christians so much? It is because Christians have failed to become the
light to this world. They can’t radiate God’s light because they have
failed to become the light by not believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. And as a result, they are prone to hide themselves in
hypocrisy instead.
Moreover,
even at this moment, many Christians think of Christianity as merely
one of the many religions of this world, and believe in it as such. So
there lies another reason as to why the unbelievers dislike Christians.
It is because Christians usually say that they wash away their daily
sins by giving their prayers of repentance. Because of this kind of
religious doctrines, which is no different from the worldly faith, there
is a tendency for non-Christians to dislike Jesus Christ in whom such
Christians believe. Non-Christians think, “How convenient it is for
them. They sin against their fellow human beings, and yet they say that
all that they need to do is give a prayer of repentance just once and
admit their wrongdoings to God. What a convenient religion!” So they
dislike such Christians.
And
there are people who say that they’ve renounced to believe in Jesus
because their daily sins could not be washed away even as they have said
prayers of repentance continuously. Christian sinners are easily drawn
to tears when they give their prayers of repentance. They cannot but be
sad, for they are still imprisoned in the darkness of sin and are unable
to really receive any actual help from God. Because they do not believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they still have not received
the eternal remission of their sins even as they believe in Jesus
Christ, and therefore they still have not discovered the light of real
Truth. It is only in their emotions that they want God’s mercy and are
crying.
How
have they come to have such an emotion-centered and futile faith? It is
because they have been suffering from their sins, and because they
cannot understand the Word of God even as they read it, that they rely
so heavily on their own emotions to express their reckless fervor.
However, with such zealous faith that they hold, the fruits of salvation
cannot be born, but only foolish and futile fruits of sin are born.
Because they have sin, they cannot bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit
even as they try to bear them, nor can they truly love others no matter
how hard they try.
Those
who still remain as sinners cannot lead a successful life of faith no
matter how hard they try. Why is that? It is because they still do not
know the gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables them to receive
the remission of sin by washing away their sins, nor believe in this
gospel.
Those
who are yet to receive the remission of sin into their hearts must now
meet the servants of God who hold God’s light of Truth. And they must
listen to their teachings on the gospel Truth to receive the remission
of their sins into their hearts. If you truly want to live your lives of
faith with completely sinless hearts and calling God as your Father,
you need to wholeheartedly believe in the Truth of the gospel Word of
the water and the Spirit given by the Lord with all your hearts. When
you believe in the true gospel, you will discover and receive the light
of Truth. This is why the Lord calls the born-again as the light of the
world (Matthew 5:14).
Our
Lord said that a tree is discerned by its fruits. If humans are indeed
sinners from their very birth, then they can never become righteous
unless they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If
someone who still has sin in his heart says that he believes in Jesus as
the Savior, he will be revealed as a liar before God, for his faith is a
false one. As such people do not know the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, they do not believe in the love of Truth with their hearts, and
therefore they still remain as sinners. Yet they act as if they have
been transformed from sinners into the righteous. This, however, is only
an act of hypocrisy that deceives God, people, and themselves. Such
people are chaffs even if they are attending God’s Church.
If
one does not have the fruits of the Holy Spirit, then this person is
someone who still does not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
He can then live only if he remembers that he is a sinner and believes
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Without doing so, one cannot
receive the Holy Spirit. Those believers in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit are led by God, for the Holy Spirit dwells in their hearts.
But for sinners, because the Holy Spirit does not dwell in their hearts,
they are not led by the Word of God but instead live according to their
lusts, and therefore they will perish in the end.
Once
you have become righteous by faith before God, then you will bear the
fruits of your faith, when enough time goes by. The righteous have the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that can bring salvation from
sin to others. Those who have received the remission of their sins can
boldly say before others that because they believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, they are now righteous.
Are there people who think that there is no one righteous nowadays?
Yes, but it is because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Yes, but it is because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one,” and people have misunderstood this passage. This passage actually speaks about the condition of mankind before believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can realize this when we read the next following passages.
The
Bible says that when we were sinners, Jesus Christ turned us sinless by
delivering us from sin with the righteousness of God. No mater who
asks, those who have received the remission of sin can say that they are
righteous. Someone may ask to the righteous, “Are all your acts then
upright?” They can testify that though they are insufficient, because
Jesus has blotted out all their sins with the gospel Truth of the water
and the Spirit, they have been remitted from all their sins once for all
by faith. Because all their sins were passed onto Jesus through His
baptism, and therefore they can say that they are now sinless. Those who
have this kind of faith are the ones who can be led by the Holy Spirit,
for they abide in the light of Truth and bear the fruits of the Holy
Spirit.
In
contrast, those who do not believe in the gospel Truth of the water and
the Spirit cannot dare to say before God that they are without sin, for
all their sins remain intact in their hearts. This is akin to the fact
that every tree bears its fruits according to its kind. Just as thorn
bushes bear thorns, it is only a matter of fact that apple trees would
bear apples. The righteous continually offer the sacrifice of praise to
God, that is, the fruit of their lips, giving thanks to His name
(Hebrews 13:15). What is the fruit of lips of the Christian sinners? Do
they praise God from the bottom of their hearts? Do they profess by
faith that they have no sin in Jesus Christ?
The
reason why they cannot sincerely profess that they are without sin is
because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
and therefore their sins remain in their hearts. Such people say that
although they profess that they have been saved from their sins, they
cannot claim to be without sin, since their hearts still have sin.
Everyone
must believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and become
sinless. He who walks in the light of the Truth is one who believes in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of salvation that
Jesus spoke of, and in whose heart the Holy Spirit dwells because of
this faith.
Is there sin in the hearts of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?
No, there is no sin in their hearts because they believe in the true gospel.
No, there is no sin in their hearts because they believe in the true gospel.
In the hearts of those who have become God’s own children, would there be sin or not? There is, of course, no sin. The Lord’s Prayers says, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come….” God is holy, and He is light. He has no darkness at all, and has no sin, either.
How,
then, could our Lord be glorified when someone who has sin in his heart
says to Him, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed and glorified be Your
name”? When someone who has sin in his heart prays to God, “Our God the
Father, who has mercy and grace, and who is slow to be provoked to
anger, this sinner now stands before you,” can such a prayer be accepted
by God? This kind of prayer and faith is what blasphemies the name of
God, something that makes mockery out of prayer by someone who is not
even God’s child. In no time has God ever had a sinner as His child. God
is sinless. The Lord’s Prayer is telling us that God can be glorified
only when we first receive, through the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, the remission of our sins and become righteous, and are
therefore able to call God as our Father.
It
is written in the following passage of the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us
our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” This passage tells us that even
those who have been remitted from their sins can still commit sin, for
they have the flesh. However, we have already been remitted from even
those sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, this
passage is telling us that just as our Lord has forgiven all our sins,
we who believe in this beautiful gospel must also tolerate each other’s
mistakes. If we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
shouldn’t we forgive each other’s faults as well? God will surely rebuke
us if we do not tolerate each other.
Today’s
scripture lesson of 1 John 1 speaks to those who have received the
remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Our Lord dwells in the hearts of the children of light, the
righteous, and makes them never thirst again. We are the servants of
Christ who, by infusing our hearts with the gospel of the water and the
Spirit at all times, are faithful to the Lord who has cleansed us from
our sins. Though we have been perfectly remitted from our sins by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, this does not mean
that we no longer commit any sin. On the contrary, we discover even more
shortcomings in us. But because the gospel Truth of the water and the
Spirit has washed away our sins, we are without sin.
All
transgressions and lawlessness, however, are sins before God. For
example, when you throw dirt into a clean spring, the water in the
spring temporarily turns into brownish, murky mud. But we do not
necessarily call this spring a filthy spring. Because it is purified
clean by the fresh water that continues to well up from its bottom, we
still call this a clean spring.
Even
after receiving the remission of our sins, there are still times when
our hearts are soiled by the world, but we purify these stained hearts
clean by believing in the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
Just as water continues to surge from the bottom of a spring and turns
impure water into pure water, those who believe in the gospel Word of
the water and the Spirit are always cleansed from all their
transgressions by this faith. None other than this is the power of those
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If someone
professes to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but
still has sin in his mind, this can only mean that he has been neither
saved from his sins, nor become the true light. Only the sinless who
truly believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit like the Apostle
John can be said to have become the true light. The Apostle John could
be ordained as a servant of God, for he first believed in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. Only those who have washed away all their sins
by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can become God’s
servants.
So
did the Apostle Paul. Before he became God’s servant, he had indeed
been a blasphemer who persecuted Christians. After he was born again, he
identified his former self as “a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent
man and the chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:13-15). As a matter of fact,
he had persecuted the believers in Jesus so much, but he came to believe
that the Lord Jesus had cleansed away all his sin through the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. This is how the Apostle Paul became God’s
servant by believing in Jesus Christ who became his Savior.
He
once confessed his evil deeds before King Agrippa: “Indeed, I myself
thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in
prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they
were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them
often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being
exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign
cities” (Acts 26:9-11).
Put
differently, reflecting upon the acts that he had committed before
receiving the remission of sin, the Apostle Paul described himself as
the “chief among sinners.” Even as he had been the chief villain among
all sinners, thanks to God’s long patience, he came to discover the
gospel light of the water and the Spirit and to receive the remission of
sin. He is testifying that this is how, by believing in the true
gospel, he became God’s servant.
In
other words, the Apostle Paul is admitting here that before he was born
again, he was the chief among sinners. But after encountering the Lord
and being born again by faith, he became a righteous man without any sin
in his heart.
In
a word, if someone has any sin in his heart even after believing in
Jesus, he must be a liar, and the Word of God cannot be planted in his
heart. For instance, when one’s house is full with guests, no more
guests can enter it. Just like this, when one holds onto the fallacious
Christian doctrines, the gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot enter
into his heart. This is why such a person must therefore abandon his
flawed faith.
In
today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle John says first to the righteous
how to recover their lives of light when they are falling into
darkness. But this passage is also spoken to the sinners who have no
fellowship with God: They must first confess that they are not the
light, but darkness, and are doomed to hell. God will then meet them and
cleanse away all their sins with the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, making them His children of light.
In
God’s Church, true confession is to reveal oneself as he really is. But
repentance is to turn around. Confession and repentance are clearly two
different things. Your sins cannot be remitted away if you only repent
them. If you have sin in your hearts, confess who you really are by
admitting that you are sinners. The Lord will then wash away all your
sins with the gospel light of the water and the Spirit. This is the
reason why the Lord came to this earth as the Savior of sinners.
This
very name Jesus means the Savior, as it is written, “And she will bring
forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His
people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). When we fall into sin, Jesus
came to this world, and blotted out all our sins with His baptism and
bloodshed; and believing in this Truth is the faith that leads you to
perfect salvation. The Apostle John, as a righteous man, preached so
that sinners could receive the remission of their sins to become the
righteous, and, on the other hand, he also admonished the righteous to
lead the proper life of light.
True
confession is to confess that one is simply a mass of sin that cannot
avoid but sin. The premise of true confession is found in believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given us to remit
away our sins. And after receiving the remission of our sins by
believing in this beautiful gospel, for us to walk uprightly in the
light of God is to live our lives as true Christians.
We
the saints, too, must turn around if there is something wrong in our
lives, and this is the true repentance in life. Human beings are bound
to commit all kinds of sins. This is why our Lord took away the sins of
the world by being baptized. Those who say that they have not sinned
even after committing transgressions and breaking the Word of God (1
John 1:10), have the kind of faith that is only religious. There is no
room in such people for the Word of God to enter, and therefore they are
bound to destruction.
Like
the Apostle John, only the righteous can have fellowship with God and
with their fellow saints. The Apostle John, a righteous man, says in 1
John 2:2 that Jesus took upon all the sins of the world once for all
through His baptism. And Jesus also became our Advocate who pleads for
us with His perfect gospel before God the Father. My dear fellow
Christians, above all, you must first have faith in God. And believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your hearts. God will then
teach you and nourish your souls through His Church so that you can live
your lives as the true light.
The
Apostle John is now telling us about the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, which is God’s love. He is saying to us, “That which we have
seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with
us.” He was a witness who had seen Jesus Christ with his own eyes,
heard Him with his ears, and touched Him with his hands. He is now
admonishing all of us that we must believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit that Jesus Christ had given to the Apostles, and we must
all thereby be saved and come to have fellowship with God.
Where
does our fellowship with God come from? It comes from the love of God
the Father who was with Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we want to have
fellowship with the Apostle John or the servants of God and His
born-again saints, we must all be with God the Father and His Son Jesus
Christ. To do so, there must be the same faith as that of His disciples,
and it is then that we can have fellowship with Jesus Christ. This is
why in the faith of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, there is fellowship, and each other’s joy is doubled as a
result. I want all of us to truly believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit given by Jesus Christ and have true fellowship with each
other.
The
fellowship with Jesus Christ that we yearn to have is possible only
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is in God’s love. It
is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can
also become His people.
I
give eternal thanks to Jesus Christ for saving His believers from all
their sins through the baptism that He received and His bloodshed on the
Cross.
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