Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 1-6] The Apostle Paul’s Faith And His Admonishment to The Circumcisionists (Galatians 1:1-17)
(Galatians 1:1-17)
“Paul,
an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and
God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who
are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God
the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins,
that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the
will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I
marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the
grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there
are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But
even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than
what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said
before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you
than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade
men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I
would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I
neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through
the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former conduct
in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried
to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my
contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the
traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from
my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in
me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately
confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who
were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to
Damascus.”
Background of the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Churches of Galatia
When
the Apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the churches of Galatia, the
circumcisionists had caused so much havoc that the churches were about
to close down. So quite naturally, Paul’s heart was very anxious lest
they should be undermined. The churches of Galatia had been the
gathering of those who were saved from their sins through the gospel of
the water and the Spirit preached by the Apostle Paul. It was because of
their faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Apostle
Paul and the saints of the Galatian churches could be saved from their
sins. This gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that Jesus
has saved all sinners from the sins of the world through the baptism
that He received from John and the blood that He shed on the Cross. His
baptism was to take the sins of the world onto His body and to pay off
their wages on behalf of all sinners, for the wages of sin is death.
What
the Apostle Paul was now worried about the churches of Galatia was the
swelling influence of the circumcisionists. These circumcisionists’
faith was like this: For one to become one of God’s people, not only
should the person believe in Jesus, but also be circumcised. The
circumcisionists in the churches of Galatia felt that the God-given
gospel of the water and the Spirit was not sufficient, and therefore
they argued that they had to be physically circumcised. As such, the
faith of the circumcisionists was legalistic, clearly different from the
faith that enables everyone to receive salvation only by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
In
Paul’s eyes, the saints of the Galatian churches were falling under the
influence of legalistic faith. As a result, in the churches of Galatia,
more and more people came to accept such erroneous teachings of the
circumcisionists. Paul could not leave the disruption of the
circumcisionists alone. So he proclaimed, “As we have said before, so
now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what
you have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9).
The
Apostle Paul came to rebuke the circumcisionists’ faith as a flawed one
because the Truth that he believed was the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. In other words, the gospel that the Apostle Paul preached to the
churches of Galatia was the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not the
belief in physical circumcision. In Galatians 3:27-28, we can discover
that Paul’s faith was one that believed in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit manifested in the Bible: “For as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are
all one in Christ Jesus.”
Because
the gospel that Paul believed and preached to people was the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, he warned that the circumcisionists would be
accursed by God. He also made it clear that his gospel was neither
learnt from men, nor came from men, and far less was it related to the
circumcision of the Old Testament. Rather, the gospel of the water and
the Spirit that Paul believed in was the gospel of salvation that was
testified in both the Old and New Testaments. Paul’s faith was one that
believed in the salvation shone by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As
such, Paul’s faith was clearly distinct from the faith of today’s
Christians who believe that they can wash away their sins through their
own prayers of repentance. Today’s Christians mistakenly think that they
can wash away their daily sins just by giving their prayers of
repentance to Jesus. We must realize that all these legalistic faiths,
both the faith of circumcisionists and that of the prayers of
repentance, are fallacious ones that would return us back to the bondage
of the Law.
In
the Early Church period, the circumcisionists were very active in the
churches of Galatia, and these circumcisionists were like today’s
Christians who are convinced that they can be washed from their sins
through their prayers of repentance. But we must realize that the faith
of the prayers of repentance is an erroneous one. Yet because many of
today’s Christians hold this belief that they can somehow wash away
their sins through their prayers of repentance, they have turned into
foolish believers. Therefore, faith in the prayers of repentance is
disastrously flawed. Now, it is essential for every Christian to realize
that the emphasis on the prayers of repentance is fallacious. This kind
of faith is a mistaken faith that stands against the righteous love of
God.
Yet
even now, this belief that one’s sins can be washed away through the
prayers of repentance is still pervasive in every Christian’s thoughts.
Their claim is that people must believe in Jesus and His work, and then
additionally believe in the prayers of repentance. To illustrate, this
is akin to the groundless belief of the circumcisionists, who advocated
that one could become God’s people only if the person had been
circumcised, on top of believing in Jesus as his Savior. The problem is
that this kind of faith still pervades Christianity even to this day.
The Early Church faced a similar problem, for there were, as we know,
those in the Church who insisted on circumcision.
Among
today’s Christians, between those who insist on the prayers of
repentance and those who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, whose faith is right? It is the faith of the latter that is
placed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel through
which Jesus has saved us all. Our Lord has brought salvation to us
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has delivered us
from the sins of the world. This biblical gospel that we are now
preaching to you is fundamentally different from the gospel that claims
your sins can be washed away through prayers of repentance.
We
must know the Truth of salvation properly. The gospel of the water and
the Spirit claims that our Lord has delivered us from all our sins by
bearing the sins of this world once for all through the baptism He
received from John, by shedding His blood and dying on the Cross, and by
rising from the dead again. Therefore, we must clearly realize that the
gospel of the water and the Spirit is the God-given Truth of perfect
salvation, and we must believe so. This is the only perfect gospel that
lacks nothing, and therefore, is way different from the prevailing
pseudo-gospel that claims that one can wash away his sins through his
prayers of repentance.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit is the perfect antitype of the
sacrificial system established by the Law: In the Old Testament’s time,
the Israelites received the remission of their sins by putting their
hands on the heads of the offerings and by killing the animals
vicariously. And in this New Testament age, all sinners can be saved
unconditionally by believing in the baptism that Jesus Christ received
from John the Baptist and His bloodshed. Therefore, to insist on the
circumcision of the Old Testament instead of believing in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, or to now insist on the prayers of repentance
in this age of the New Testament, is not to have true faith.
Actually,
we have to know that those who insist on prayers of repentance have
originated from the circumcisionists of the Early Church age. At that
time, some who had come into the Galatian churches did not rely on the
perfect merits of Jesus Christ who had blotted out all their sins
through His baptism of Jesus and His precious bloodshed on the Cross,
but rather they had argued that they could become God’s people only if
they were physically circumcised after believing in Jesus as their
Savior.
In
today’s Christianity, most people mistakenly believe that Christians
have to give their prayers of repentance everyday to be washed from
their sins. This is the unfortunate but undoubted reality of
Christianity today. Now, the doctrine of incremental sanctification and
the doctrine of repentance are firmly lodged in the hearts of most
Christians. Such doctrines of repentance and of incremental
sanctification are working in the hearts of today’s Christians,
preventing them from opening their spiritual eyes. But you have to
recognize that all these hypothetical doctrines are groundless claims
that have been just made out of human thoughts. These are false and
wicked doctrines.
Therefore,
the doctrine of repentance that is prevalent in today’s Christianity is
a false doctrine that is far removed from the gospel of the water and
the Spirit revealed in the Bible. However, much like the
circumcisionists, today’s Christians have fallen into fallacy, and yet
there is hardly anyone who can pinpoint the fallacies of such a man-made
doctrine and teach them properly. Since people have long believed that
they can wash away their sins through their prayers of repentance, they
don’t even think that there is any mistake in this “orthodox” doctrine
of repentance.
However,
the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit is the same gospel
that the Apostles Peter and Paul believed in (1 Peter 3:21; Galatians
3:27). Therefore, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the pure and
perfect gospel of Truth. From now on, all of us must learn the gospel
of the water and the Spirit in purity, know it, and believe in it with
our hearts, for this gospel is the only true gospel manifested through
the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, because the gospel of
the water and the Spirit is the Truth that consists of the baptism Jesus
received from John and the blood He shed on the Cross, we must learn
and believe in it. It is also because the gospel of the water and the
Spirit is the Truth where the righteousness of God and His love are
perfectly revealed.
Perfect Salvation That Came to This Earth by the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
Our
Lord shouldered the sins of the world through His baptism and carried
them for three years, was crucified and shed His blood to death, rose
from the dead again in three days, and is now sitting at the right hand
of the throne of God the Father. Even now, He continues to be the
everlasting Savior of the believers in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. As such, those who sought to be delivered from all their sins
could wash them away forever all at once by believing in this gospel
Truth. Therefore, whoever sought to wash away his sins could be forever
saved from all his sins only if he believed in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit with his heart.
However,
since the doctrine of repentance, different from the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, is a false doctrine that cannot deliver us from
the sins of this world, and no matter how fervently today’s Christians
may offer prayers of repentance, their sins can never disappear. In the
end, to try to wash away their sins through faith in Jesus’ bloodshed on
the Cross alone, and through their prayers of repentance, only brings
about a result of futile beliefs. This is why today’s Christians who are
trying to cleanse away their sins through their prayers of repentance
cannot ultimately achieve their goal.
The
Apostle Paul faced many difficulties as he sought to preach the
God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit to the believers of his
days. It was because they had already been indoctrinated with the
teachings of the circumcisionists. Now, because many in Christian
communities did not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit
from the beginning, they still believe in useless Christian doctrines
that came out of man-made thoughts. Even though the gospel of the water
and the Spirit is now being preached to them right before their noses,
many Christians remain unable to accept it. It is also difficult for us
to preach the true gospel of the water and the Spirit to all Christians
who still suffer from their sins intact in their hearts.
Of
course, I understand that since they have known only the imperfect
doctrine of repentance until now, it is bound to take quite some time
for them to empty their hearts and thoughts. Because they have learned
and believed in only the doctrine of repentance as the way to wash away
their personal sins, it is natural for them to feel strange about the
gospel of the water and the Spirit when they first hear about it. Those
who still believe in the doctrine of repentance should empty their
hearts first, even though it is not easy for them to do so because they
have long been held onto such a fallacious doctrine.
Paul’s
faith, as stated in Galatians 3:27, was to believe, “For as many of you
as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” His faith was placed
in the Truth that Jesus washed away our sins through the baptism He
received from John and the blood He shed on the Cross. Put differently,
he believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that could cleanse
away all his sins all at once and make him one of God’s people. We must
also have this faith of the Apostle Paul.
The
Apostle Paul’s faith rested on the fact that Jesus Christ was born unto
this earth, took upon Paul’s sins and all the sins of the entire
mankind once for all when He was baptized by John, and shed His blood
for him. By this faith, Paul could confess that he was baptized into
Jesus Christ, died with Jesus Christ, and was resurrected with Jesus
Christ. Just like Paul, we also believe that Jesus bore the sins of this
world once for all through His baptism, carried them to the Cross, was
crucified in both his hands and feet, shed His blood and died to pay off
the wages of all our sins, and rose from the dead again. This is the
only biblical faith that deserves to be approved by God. Therefore, your
faith must not be a legalistic faith, but you must place your faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
What Should We Consider Once Again?
Here,
we have something to consider once again and make sure one more time
before we move on. This is the question of whether God has saved us from
all our sins by giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or He
has determined that our sins would be washed away through our own
prayers of repentance. The question is, in other words, should we hold
fast to the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or our own prayers of
repentance?
How
has our Lord saved you and me from all our sins? We should always
examine ourselves to see if we really believe in Jesus according to the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. I ask you first to return to
your hearts’ condition before believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, and examine yourselves. We had to ask ourselves whether we
had sin or not before we knew the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Has the Lord truly blotted out our sins by giving us the gospel of the
water and the Spirit? Or did we wash away our sins through our prayers
of repentance? If the latter is the way for us to be cleansed of our
sins, God’s salvation cannot be of His grace, but rather it is something
that can be achieved by our own deeds. But God’s salvation is given
absolutely by His grace alone to those who believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
Is
your faith placed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Or do you
believe in your own prayers of repentance? Of these two gospels, the
former is the perfect gospel that cleanses all our sins at once when we
believe in it. Our Lord took upon all the sins of the world by being
baptized by John, shed His blood on the Cross, and thus saved us from
all our sins. We had to contemplate upon the gospel Truth of the water
and the Spirit and understand it clearly before becoming its believers.
What is the gospel that you now believe in? Is it the gospel of the
water and the Spirit? The gospel through which our Lord has blotted out
all our sins once for all is the gospel Truth of the water and the
Spirit.
It
is because we now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
given to us that we have been able to be washed from all our sins. All
of us must be capable of having this faith in the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit. We should neither believe in the prayers of
repentance that so many of today’s Christians believe in, nor should we
preach it. If we had indeed been washed from our sins through our
prayers of repentance, there would have no need for us to believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. But you cannot deny that there had
been sins in your hearts before you came to believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, no matter how hard you had been offering the
prayers of repentance everyday.
But,
you and I now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we
are washed from all our sins by believing in it. Was the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that you now believe in learned from the people of
this world? Or did it come from God? This gospel that we have did not
come from men, but it came from our Lord. The gospel of the water and
the Spirit that we now have is the gospel of the Truth of salvation that
God has bestowed on us. Fundamentally speaking, therefore, the gospel
of the water and the Spirit did not come from men, but it is the gospel
of salvation that came from God. Today, it is through our faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can have the very faith that
makes it possible for us to be saved from all our sins.
God
has enabled all of us to let everyone else know about the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. In other words, He has given us the ministry of
reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). We thank the Lord for making us
spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the entire
world without corrupting it. I am sure that you, too, rejoice in the
fact that you have become preachers of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
I
thank the Lord all the time for giving me the true salvation through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Ever since we met our Lord
through this gospel Truth, we have been able to continue to preach the
true gospel. However, there were some people who told me, “I wish you
would just leave out the baptism of Jesus when you are preaching the
gospel.” But I could not heed their request. So we have been able to
preach the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit exactly as it
is.
You,
too, should be utterly grateful to God for allowing you to know the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that holds His righteousness. The
gospel of the water and the Spirit that we believe in today did not come
from men. Rather, it came from God, and therefore it is the
forever-unchanging Truth. All those who have encountered the gospel of
the water and the Spirit and believe in it are the ones who have
received abundant blessings from God.
However,
apart from the true gospel, the legalistic gospels that came out of men
have made many Christians sinful and thus tormented them. Those who
believe that their prayers of repentance is a means to wash away their
sins are now actually spreading confusion to many people who do not know
Jesus properly. Their claim is that while their original sin was
remitted away when they first believed in Jesus Christ, they must give
prayers of repentance everyday to wash away their personal sins. They
think that a proper life of faith requires them to pray all night, to
fast, to do a lot of volunteer works, and to make many sacrifices. But
their confused faith is essentially the same faith of the
circumcisionists because these two require certain human deeds as
complimentary factors to their salvation. This kind of faith is nothing
more than a legalistic belief, for they claim that prayers of repentance
are necessary to wash away their sins.
However,
those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that came
from God were able to be saved all at once only through their faith in
this true gospel. It is because we believed in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit coming from God that we could be saved from all our sins
perfectly. And we have evidence that we have been saved perfectly in
hearts, and we can also testify to our salvation in much assurance.
Also, since the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the perfect Truth
that enables us to receive the remission of sins, we can profess with
deep conviction that we have no sin anymore even in our consciences.
I
give my thanks to the Lord for giving us this perfect gospel of the
water and the Spirit, and enabling us to preach it today and tomorrow.
It is a great blessing and a majestic glory of God that we are now able
to preach this gospel Truth throughout the whole world. If we were not
to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and instead preach the
legalistic gospel to this world, no one in this world would be able to
be saved from sin, not even a single person. If we had been preaching
the legalistic gospel instead of the gospel of the water and the Spirit
throughout the world, we would have been laughed at. We would have been
despised and told, “You fools! We’ve known this for hundreds of years,
and yet here you are preaching it only now. Who is preaching to whom?”
However,
letters of appreciation and testimony are coming to us from our readers
throughout the entire world, testifying how they heard the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, how they are so grateful for it, and how they
have been saved. Right now, throughout the whole wide world, we are
spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we received from
God. Because we are now preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit
that came from God Himself, we can preach it boldly before anyone.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Is the Source of Reform for the Lapsed Faith
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit entails a meaning that is even
greater than the significance of the 16th century Reformation triggered
by Luther’s call to return to the Bible. The genuine reformation of
faith is found in the gospel of the power of God, the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. This reformation is so great that the achievements
of Luther’s Reformation cannot be even compared with it.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit is far greater and more powerful
than anything else. In opposing the clergy that were selling indulgences
to finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica, Luther nailed his
95 Theses in protest. Because of this action, he became the pioneer of
the Reformation unintentionally.
However,
he just believed that salvation consisted of the blood of the Cross
alone and that it could be attained through the prayers of repentance.
So among the Catholic doctrines, he also retained the creed of infant
baptism and the doctrine of transubstantiation. However, the true gospel
that the Apostles believed in was the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, and the teachings of the Reformists were far different from this
true gospel. The Reformists had just substituted the Catholic sacrament
of penance with the doctrine of prayers of repentance. This was
completely different from the faith of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit is not man-made, but is from God.
So, this true gospel can never be changed forever. In contrast, faith in
the prayers of repentance is from human thoughts claiming that while
original sin is remitted away at the moment one first accepts Jesus as
his Savior, personal sins can only be washed away whenever prayers of
repentance are offered. This is a fallacious gospel for the seekers of
human righteousness, and it is fundamentally different from the true
gospel that the Apostles believed in and preached.
Those
who believe in such a legalistic gospel might have thought that they
could be washed from their sins through their religious faithfulness,
but the consequences of their enthusiasm turned out to be in vain. They
remain sinners no matter how fervently they offer prayers of repentance.
The reason why these people cannot be washed from their sins is because
they are holding fast onto the groundless doctrine of repentance
without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. How could the
legalistic religionists wash away their sins through such groundless
faith? To put it differently, when people commit more sins than their
hairs in a single day, how could they wash away their sins once for all?
It is impossible to wash away one’s sins by relying on such man-made,
religious doctrines. Clearly, such a legalistic gospel is raising a
rebellious flag against the Truth, with which the Lord has blotted out
the sins of this world once and for all.
The
Apostle Paul wanted to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to
everyone, and he also wanted to correct the faith of the
circumcisionists. Therefore, we, too, are rejoiced to preach the gospel
of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world. I consider it
utterly grateful that I am, together with you, my coworkers, preaching
the gospel throughout the whole world from God’s Church.
We
are spreading the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit throughout
the world by publishing books in many different languages. This gospel
of the water and the Spirit that we are now preaching has shown our
readers what the definitive salvation is. As a result, testimonies of
salvation are coming from every corner of the world, from prisons,
hospitals and schools, and from countless individuals. People throughout
the world are telling us how they have been so inspired by reading the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. One of them sent us this testimony:
“I agree with the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you are
preaching, and I agree with your method of spreading this gospel. The
gospel preached by you is very simple, full of conviction, and so
clear.”
Why
are they sending us such testimonies of salvation? They say that it is
because they had never heard of the true gospel of the water and the
Spirit until now even as they have long considered themselves to be
Christians. It is because they had neither heard of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, nor seen anyone preaching it, that they could not
truly believe in it.
The
gospel that they had heard until that time was not the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Since people could neither know nor believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, they had continued to live with all
their sins intact in their hearts to this very day. Through their
legalistic faith, which is different from the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, none of them could be washed from their sins.
Some
theologians said, “We have been saved from all our sins, are now in the
process of our salvation, and will be saved perfectly in the future.”
Isn’t this contradiction a consequence of the doctrine of incremental
sanctification that theologians talk about? For hundreds of years since
the Reformation, theologians have taught complete nonsense and preached
an uncertain gospel.
Yet
now, people came to grasp clearly what their real existences are like,
and what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is. They are saying, “I
fully agree with this gospel of the water and the Spirit that you are
preaching.” Some people have said, “I would like to use your books that
hold the gospel of the water and the Spirit as textbooks for bible study
at my church.” Others have testified, “This book is so clear that it
gives hope to people behind bars. This gospel of Truth enables them to
receive the true gift of salvation, and makes them more than sufficient
to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I thank God for giving us the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, the gospel of Truth that has made us God’s
children without fail.”
Do You Still Rely on Your Prayers of Repentance?
There
must not be circumcisionists in today’s Christianity, and yet there are
so many Christians who are still relying on their prayers of
repentance. Is the faith of those who now insist on prayers of
repentance a foolish faith? Yes. Such faith is based on the doctrine of
repentance, and is incapable of delivering people from their sins. When
we compare the prevailing gospel of the majority of Christians with the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can find out clearly which gospel
is the true gospel and which is the false one. Like this, the gospel of
the water and the Spirit is a gospel that is unmistakably distinguished
from the prevailing gospel that cannot stand alone without a supplement
called the prayers of repentance.
How,
then, can we know and discern the true gospel from the false gospel? We
can find out this when we separate the two and compare them against
each other. When we know and believe in the true gospel of the water and
the Spirit, not the gospel that insists on prayers of repentance, then
we experience for ourselves how our sins are blotted out from our
hearts. In contrast, the prayers of repentance actually bind Christians
in sin even as they believe in Jesus, thereby making them continue to
live as sinners all the time. Therefore, it is definitively clear that
people need the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which can blot out
all their sins once and for all. If we believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit now, all of us can receive the remission of sins,
and as a result, we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and live
boldly before God as the righteous.
If,
on the other hand, you place your faith in the doctrine of repentance,
then while at first it may seem just fine, the more time goes by, the
more you will be bound by your sins, and ultimately you will end up with
even more sins than what you had before you believed in Jesus. If you
do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and instead
hold onto the prayers of repentance, you will continue to remain as
sinners.
Is
there anyone among you who received the Spirit of God as a gift even
before believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Was there a
time, before you believed in the gospel Word of the water and the
Spirit, when you received the burning fire of the Holy Spirit? Also,
have you spoken in tongues, uttering words that no one could
understand?
You
may think that you have, but you should remember that all these things
happened before you received the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You
might have had such experiences before knowing and believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. But, you have to know that you can
have such experiences even in the countless pagan religions of the
world. Therefore, you must not think of such experiences as the evidence
of your salvation.
In
contrast, I came to experience my real remission of sins and the
blessing of becoming God’s child when I believed in the gospel Truth of
the water and the Spirit with my heart. Now, in my heart, the Holy
Spirit has descended like a dove. Together with the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of all believers,
and is always with them. As the Holy Spirit who now dwells in my heart
came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, He has convinced my
heart to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the
whole world, and even now He is making me serve God’s work. The gospel
of the water and the Spirit is the very Truth that enables people to
receive the Holy Spirit. It is because we believed in this true gospel
that we were able to be washed from all our sins and received the Spirit
of God as our gift.
My
fellow believers, we must be able to understand the Apostle Paul’s
heart. We must be able to truly appreciate what the Apostle Paul had in
mind when he said to the churches of Galatia that they would be accursed
if they preached any other gospel, and we must realize that we cannot
be washed from our sins through our prayers of repentance. This is
possible only when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Fortunately,
you and I came to encounter the God-given gospel Truth of the water and
the Spirit, heard it with our ears, and came to believe in this real
Truth. However, some people say that they believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, and yet they are still relying on prayers of
repentance everyday. Such is a mixed belief that makes no sense. There
is no other Truth but only the gospel of the water and the Spirit
through which our Lord has delivered us from all our sins. If we do not
preach this true gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will surely be
accursed by God.
My
heart is enormously thankful to the Lord. Those with whom I am now
ministering are at least believers in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. I am grateful to God for enabling me to serve the gospel of the
water and the Spirit with His Church, instead of just by myself.
Now,
the gospel of the water and the Spirit will soon be preached to the
ends of the earth. Now, by wholeheartedly believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, every truth-seeker will receive the perfect
remission of sins. We thank God for giving us the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and we pray that this gospel would be spread throughout
the whole world. How could we have the gospel of the water and the
Spirit just for ourselves? In obedience to the will of God, we want to
preach this gospel Truth throughout the whole world. And no matter what
might happen to us, we must preserve the gospel of the water and the
Spirit lest it become perverted. Then, I am sure that we will be able to
spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world
until the day our Lord returns. This is the will of God. Therefore, it
is my hope and prayer that we would all think about the will of God in
broader terms, look farther and farther as we spread the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that manifests the Lord’s righteousness, and be
thankful. I cannot thank God enough for giving us the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
Many
Christians now believe in the theory of pre-tribulation rapture. But
the theory of pre-tribulation rapture is a doctrine that departs from
the Word of God. Its adherents believe that the Lord would come and take
them away before the Great Tribulation begins, and that it is only
after then that the Tribulation would start in full force. Since this is
how they believe, they are always joyful regardless of whether the
world is being engulfed in darkness or not, and they praise God,
seemingly convinced that they would go to the Kingdom of Heaven. So they
praise fervently in pitched tones, as if they are screaming.
I
suspect that they sing like this probably because they themselves find
it hard to believe in the theory of pre-tribulation rapture, and yet
they still want to believe in it more fervently and more fanatically.
However, our Lord made no mention of the theory of pre-tribulation
rapture in Revelation. You have to realize that this theory of
pre-tribulation is a lie.
God Has Told the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit from the Beginning
Believing
in the Word of God blindly, many Christians today say the following:
“What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted to him for righteousness.’ This happened over 400 years before
God gave His detailed statutes of the sacrificial system through Moses.
Wasn’t Abraham, then, accounted for righteousness by simply believing
in His Word unconditionally?”
So
questioning whether it is absolutely necessary for them to believe in
the baptized Jesus, they stubbornly insist that it’s okay to believe
only in the crucified Jesus. But such a claim is no more than the
sayings of the foolish who have absolutely no understanding of God’s
providence of salvation. The Bible speaks of the gospel of the water and
the Spirit from the beginning and later in increasingly clearer terms.
From the days of Adam and Eve, God said that if anyone sins, he must
offer a sacrifice to God and pay the wages of sin with its death and
blood. In obeying this will of God, Abel offered his sin offering with
the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel
and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. Why?
Because Cain wanted to come forth to God according to the way he liked,
while Abel obeyed Him. Later, God gave His people the sacrificial system
of the Tabernacle. During the age of the Tabernacle, God said that
before a sinner offered his sacrifice to God, he had to first lay his
hands on its head and pass his sins onto it (Leviticus 1:4).
When
God promised Abraham, “I will make your descendants as many as the
stars in the sky. And I will give them the land of Canaan,” as a sign of
these two promises, God told Abraham to offer a three-year-old heifer, a
three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a
young pigeon to Him. This implies that God was already demanding
sacrifices for sin. And through the laying on of hands, everyone had to
pass his sins onto such sacrificial animals that were used for sin
offerings, burnt offerings, or peace offerings, and offer the blood of
these sacrifices to God. At last, when God gave His people the
sacrificial system, He gave detailed statutes on how to atone their
sins: A sinner had to pass his sins by laying his hands on the head of
an unblemished sacrificial animal and offer its blood and flesh to God
as his sacrifice in the Tabernacle. This tells us that in the age of Old
Testament also, the people of Israel were remitted from their sins by
faith, through the laying of their hands on the sacrificial offering and
its bloodshed.
God
was telling us, in other words, that all who are now living in this age
of the New Testament must not ignore the baptism that Jesus received
from John when they profess to believe in Him as their Savior. Of
course, they must also believe in the blood that Jesus shed on the
Cross. If you were to believe only in the blood of the Cross, without
realizing the truth that Jesus accepted and took upon the sins of
mankind once for all by being baptized by John, then your faith would be
akin to a boxer throwing his punch into the empty air. Such beliefs
cannot lead people to have proper faith in Jesus and to receive the full
remission of their sins, because their sins still remain intact in
their hearts.
Most
Christians today believe their so-called gospel, which is not the Truth
of real salvation. They are standing outside Jesus Christ, for they
believe not in the Truth of the water and the Spirit, but in another
gospel. Some of them believe that they have been remitted from all their
sins just by believing in Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone. But,
honestly speaking, they cannot deny that their sins still remain intact
in their hearts. God said that He has saved us from sin in these wicked
generations with His perfect gospel. Today’s true believers do not
believe that Jesus came only by the half gospel, that is, the gospel of
only the blood of the Cross. On the contrary, they believe that it is
through the water, the blood, and the Spirit that the Lord came to this
world (1 John 5:4-7). We must become the believers in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
If
the Lord has wholly saved us from these wicked generations, then it is
clear that He has saved us from our sins not through our own prayers of
repentance, but through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If there
is anyone who is looking for another way other than the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, then he is ultimately making a big mistake. Jesus
Christ came to this earth to save the sinners of this world from their
sins, and He has done so once for all through the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. By receiving baptism on His own body for our sins, dying
on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, He has given us true
salvation. Now, we have come to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and
to be delivered from all our sins and condemnation by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. As such, we must realize clearly
beyond any doubt that we have become God’s children by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It
is written in Romans 2:28-29, “For he is not a Jew who is one
outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but
he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart,
in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from
God.” This means that we have to be spiritually circumcised to be God’s
own people.
Then,
what kind of faith enables us to be spiritually circumcised before God?
It is the belief that the Lord was baptized from John the Baptist to
take upon our sins once for all onto His own body, shed His blood for
us, and has thereby saved us. When our Lord was baptized by John, all
our sins were passed onto Jesus. It is by believing in this Truth that
we are spiritually circumcised. When we believe that Jesus Christ
accepted all our sins through the baptism He received from John, we can
be spiritually circumcised and become Abraham’s descendants. By placing
our faith in the Word of God, we must be spiritually circumcised. It is
by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can truly
become God’s people.
Many
Christians today do not understand the promise of spiritual
circumcision, and as a result they are devoted only to prayers of
repentance even as they believe in Jesus. They are like this because
such beliefs constitute a legalistic faith. The spiritually sound faith
that God has given us is to believe that Jesus has blotted out our sins
with the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine
woven linen that was shown through the patterns of the Tabernacle. In
the age of the New Testament, our Lord has revealed to us the Truth of
salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He took upon
our sins and blotted them out once for all. And now, whoever believes in
this gospel Truth can exactly attain true salvation from Him.
We
must distance ourselves far from those who only try to fill their own
carnal lusts with the Word of God. Because they are filled with carnal
lusts, they are blindly affixed to their own prayers of repentance, even
as the gospel of the water and the Spirit is right before their eyes.
Some people try to domineer over everyone in the name of God. God has
blinded the spiritual minds of such people who are lustful and
untruthful before Him, so that they would not be able to find His Truth
of salvation so easily. The gospel of God is like a treasure that
someone hid in his field. God does not want to be with those who disobey
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He wants to meet, through the
Truth of real salvation, those of us who acknowledge His Word that says,
“It is for your salvation that the Son was baptized and shed His blood
on the Cross.”
What Is True Spiritual Circumcision?
When
it came to offering a spiritual sacrifice to God for the Israelites’
sins, the very first thing that they had to do was to lay their hands on
the sacrifice to pass their sins onto it. By doing so, they could
actually cut off their sins from their hearts. Like this, it is the
circumcision of faith for us to know and believe in the gospel Truth of
the water and the Spirit. God had told Abraham to be physically
circumcised, saying, “You and your male descendants shall be circumcised
in 8 days since birth.” An infant who is only 8 days old is so young
that his foreskin is still red. Such a young baby was taken and
circumcised, pulling out the foreskin at the tip of his penis and
cutting it off in part. If anyone among the people of Israel had not
been circumcised, then he would have not belonged to the people of God.
Therefore, every Israelite, even his male slaves bought from afar, had
to be circumcised within 8 days of being born. So we see in the Bible
that Jesus was also taken to the Temple and circumcised in 8 days since
His birth.
As
the Bible says, “Circumcision is that of the heart” (Romans 2:29), the
real spiritual circumcision is to receive the remission of sins into the
heart, not to receive physical circumcision. “Our sins were passed onto
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ took upon all our sins of the world once for
all by being baptized by John”—to believe in this is to be spiritually
circumcised. Unless we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
with our hearts, we can never become God’s people (John 3:1-7). Whoever
has the evidence of his faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
is a child of God, just like the promise God gave to Abraham through
the statute of circumcision. He promised, “Anyone who is uncircumcised
in the flesh does not belong to the people of God, but for everyone who
is circumcised in the flesh, even for a servant bought from the
Gentiles, the circumcision is the sign that he belongs to the people of
God.”
Therefore,
if our hearts have been spiritually circumcised—that is, if we have
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit—then we are God’s
people; accordingly, if we do not have this faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, then we are not God’s people. So when God discerns
us whether or not we have been spiritually circumcised, He looks
whether or not have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and
it is on this basis that He determines whether or not we are His
people. God does not judge us based on our acts, but He judges us based
on the content of our faith. This is why we must believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit to become God’s children. It was by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we could
receive the gift of salvation.
However,
many people today still remain ignorant of this truth of spiritual
circumcision, and instead believe that they can be washed from their
sins through their prayers of repentance. And they claim that they
receive the remission of their sins anew everyday by offering their
prayers of repentance, upon their faith in Jesus’ blood of the Cross.
But this kind of faith is the faith of spiritual swindlers who only
pursue their greed.
Do
you believe that Jesus took upon your sins once for all by being
baptized? It is because Jesus bore all our sins once for all by being
baptized by John that we could have been washed from all our sins by
believing in this gospel of Truth; had Jesus not taken upon our sins
through His baptism, they could not have been blotted out. If we do not
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then no matter how
ardently we might all believe in Jesus as our Savior, our sins simply
cannot be blotted out.
That
Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist is the evidence that all
our sins have been blotted out. It was because Jesus had taken upon our
sins through His baptism that He could then be crucified to bear all the
condemnation of sin. God wants to find such Word of evidence in our
hearts.
What
did our Lord say to us in John chapter 6? He said, “I am the bread of
life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me
shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Again He said, “For My flesh is food
indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My
blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:55-56). To be our real food
and drink, our Lord was actually baptized by John the Baptist, shed His
blood, and has brought true salvation to all of us who believe in this
Truth. As Jesus has told us, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood
has eternal life,” we have to believe in the two essentials of the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, that is, His baptism and His blood
on the Cross.
Jesus
took upon our sins by being baptized by John. Our sins were therefore
passed onto Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:15; John 1:29; 1 Peter 3:21). And by
shouldering these sins and dying on the Cross in our place for our
sins, Jesus has saved you and me from all the condemnation of sin. As
such, it is through our faith in Jesus Christ and in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that we have been saved from all our sins.
My
fellow believers, I am not so sure if it’s okay for you to just leave
alone those who stubbornly insist that they can be washed from their
sins just by offering their prayers of repentance. This is because if
you leave them alone, they will be condemned by both their own
consciences and God Himself. Christians who insist on prayers of
repentance have stood against the believers in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit so much that they will be judged by God for their sins.
But I myself have no desire to quarrel with them. I just want to say to
them, “Oh, yeah? So, do you just believe in your prayers of repentance?
Are you sure your sins are forgiven through such prayers? Believe in
what you want! But I am making it clear here that your hearts still have
sin, don’t they? If you have sins in your hearts you cannot avoid going
to hell no matter how fervently you might have believed in Jesus as
your Savior.”
Many
Christians are obstinately refusing to accept God’s unconditional love
that lies in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But we have already
taught them all about how they can be saved from the sins of this world
through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. What should we do
then? What more could we say to them? We should wait for them to turn
around and return to the true gospel!
God
did not say it’s okay whether we believe or we don’t believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. There is the only way for us to
receive the remission of our sins and enter the Kingdom of Heaven:
faith. This way is one that is walked by placing our faith in God’s
salvation that Jesus has brought to us—that is, by believing that Jesus
took upon our sins by being baptized by John, shed His blood on the
Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved those of us who
believe from all the sins of the world. Our Lord has the power to make
the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit sinless in their
hearts. This is how He takes away the believers in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Apart
from this faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, through any
other faith, such as believing in our own prayers of repentance, it is
impossible for us to receive the remission of our sins and enter the
Kingdom of Heaven. It is only by placing our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit with our hearts that we can become God’s children
and enter Heaven. In contrast, those who do not believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, and instead rely on their prayers of
repentance, cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Imagine that you are
trying to wash away your sins through your prayers of repentance, rather
than by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You can do
this all you want, but your sins will still remain intact, and anyone
who has sin cannot enter Heaven.
You
and I now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and we are
preaching this gospel. In the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we
comfort each other and thank one another. That we are in God’s Church is
reason enough for us to be utterly thankful, and placing our faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we are living righteously in
these end times. Because the Lord has saved you and me from our sins in
this wicked generation, it is by our faith in the Truth that we overcome
the evils of the world and carry on with our victorious lives as the
righteous. Since we have been saved from all our sins by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we cannot just live our lives in
whatever way we want, following the world outside God’s Church. As the
true believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our faith must
not accommodate the faith of the liars who claim that they can wash
away their sins through their prayers of repentance.
The
world is changing rapidly in these days. God told us about the end
times that “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase”
(Daniel 12:4). Isn’t this passage pointing out the reality of this age?
In this last age, we must draw a clear line around the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, the line of faith, and we must live everyday by
faith in the Word of God. Just as the priests of the Old Testament had
kept the light inside the Tabernacle constantly lit, we must keep our
souls in His light by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit everyday.
We
have to fight our spiritual battles by faith to maintain our status as
God’s children, lest we should be tainted by this evil generation. And
placing our faith in the Lord’s gospel of the water and the Spirit as
the gift of salvation, we must thank God for allowing us to become His
children and live our lives by faith. Though the time flows like a river
and out flesh becomes weaker and older, our zeal for serving the gospel
of the water and the Spirit cannot be extinguished; rather, there must
arise more co-workers throughout the world who have received the
remission of their sins.
It
is written, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith
to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans
1:17). We can receive the remission of our sins by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and also grow up to be the people of
faith by ruminating on this true gospel. Because the day of our Lord’s
return is not far away, we must live by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit even more steadfastly.
In
this wicked generation, God has saved you and me from the sins of the
world, and He has made us His own children. For this, we give all our
thanks to God.
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