Subject 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN
[Chapter 2-3] Our Lord Who Has Become Our Advocate (1 John 2:1-17)
(1 John 2:1-17)
“My
little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.
And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not
for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we
know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and
does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.
By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought
himself also to walk just as He walked. Brethren, I write no new
commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the
beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the
beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true
in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true
light is already shining. He who says he is in the light, and hates his
brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in
the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates
his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know
where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
I write to you, little children,
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.
I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.
Do
not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the
world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing
away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides
forever.”
Who Has Become Our Advocate?
In
the Old Testament, when a sinner brought a sacrificial animal to offer
to God, he had to believe that while it was he who had to die for his
sins, his sacrificial offering instead accepted his sins with the laying
on of his hands and bled to death for his sins on his behalf. All those
who are to have this faith must believe with their hearts that God has
remitted away all their sins according to the sacrificial system of the
Tabernacle—that is, by passing all their sins onto their offerings of
sacrifice and drawing the animals’ blood.
This
sacrificial system was a shadow of the good things to come (Hebrews
10:1). Here, the phrase “the good things to come” implies the righteous
deeds of Jesus Christ, namely, His salvation of the water and the
Spirit. Do you also want to really believe in the true gospel of the
water and the Spirit with your hearts? My fellow believers, when we come
before God and stand before His presence, we must have received the
washing of our sins by knowing and believing in the law of salvation
that has saved us from all our sins and took them away. We must also
know and believe with our hearts that this salvation of the washing of
sin is entirely the mercy of God and His love, and it is with this
knowledge and faith that we must stand before God.
As
the only way and faith for all of us to be saved from all our sins, we
must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that by coming to
this earth, being baptized by John the Baptist and thus taking upon the
sins of the world, and dying on the Cross and rising from the dead
again, He has indeed perfectly saved us from all our sins, condemnation
and death. It is ultimately by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit that we have received the remission of our sins. By coming to
this earth, being baptized, and shedding His blood on the Cross, Jesus
Christ has completely blotted out all our sins once for all.
Hebrews
10:11-13 states, “And every priest stands ministering daily and
offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies
are made His footstool.” My dear fellow believers, Jesus Christ has at
once blotted out the sins of mankind, including all your sins, by coming
to this earth, being baptized, and shedding His blood. He blotted out
not only the sins that you and I have committed ever since we were born
and will commit until the day we die, but He also blotted out all the
sins of our descendants once and for all.
Jesus
Christ is the One who took upon our sins and died for us, the One who
offered the sacrifice of salvation. By thus giving the everlasting sin
offering with His baptism and the Cross, Jesus has forever completed our
salvation. You can received the washing of your sins only when you
believe that Jesus Christ has forever blotted out all our sins with the
gospel of the water and the Spirit once for all. Do believe. You will
then receive the everlasting remission of your sins. And receive eternal
life.
Therefore,
it is critically important for us to realize that it is by believing in
Jesus Christ, the Host of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that
we can receive the everlasting remission of sin. Those who believe in
the baptism that the Messiah received and the blood that He shed on the
Cross as their own remission of sin have indeed been forever remitted
from all their sins once for all.
But
those who do not believe in this gospel Truth will surely face the
condemnation of their sins when God’s judgment day arrives. God is
leaving them alone for now, but when the Day of Judgment comes, everyone
who has sin will absolutely be condemned and suffer eternally. Those
who have received the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, in contrast, will be able to partake in
the glory of the Kingdom of God.
In Which Book Are Your Names Written Now?
Revelation
20:12-15 tell us that those who have sin in their hearts have their
names written in the Books of Deeds, while those who have received the
remission of their sins by faith and thus are sinless have their names
written in the Book of Life. Because everyone is born as a sinner,
everyone’s name is automatically written in the Books of Deeds; however,
thanks to the Lord who has remitted away our sins, the believers’ names
have been blotted out from the Books of Deeds and are instead now
written in the Book of Life.
This
passage also says that those whose names are written in the Books of
Deeds are the ones who have sin in their consciences, and therefore He
will cast them all into the everlasting fire (Revelation 20:15). This is
the very judgment of the second death that awaits every sinner. This
judgment of the second death is the judgment of sin, the condemnation
that casts sinners into the pit of fire to live there forever.
Those
whose names are written in the Book of life, on the other hand, are the
ones who believe that God has truthfully saved them from all their
sins. They are the ones who believe in God’s salvation woven of blue,
purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen, and who have, by their
faith, entered into the gate of the Tabernacle, the gate of Heaven. Our
Lord has bestowed the great blessings of salvation on those who have
truly received the remission of their consciences’ sins by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. These people whose sins God has
remitted away are the ones who know how Jesus Christ has blotted out all
the sins of their entire lifetime, and believe in this. It is because
of this faith of ours that God has allowed us to receive from Him the
everlasting remission of our sins.
This
is written in Hebrews 10:19-22, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness
to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way
which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and
having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” By the baptism
and blood of Jesus, we have received this boldness to enter into the
Holiest. Jesus Christ could shed His blood only because He had first
taken upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John (Matthew
3:15).
Here,
the writer of Hebrews said, “And having a High Priest over the house of
God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water.”
To
blot out the sins of mankind, Jesus Christ forsook the glorious throne
of God and came to this earth. Just as God had promised through the
Prophet Isaiah, after about 700 years went by since Isaiah had so
prophesied, Jesus was indeed born unto this earth through the body of
the Virgin Mary. The Messiah Himself came to this earth incarnated in
the flesh of man and took upon our sins through His baptism in the
Jordan River.
Why
did Jesus the true God have to be baptized by a man, John the Baptist?
This question has been a mystery to every truth seeker for ages.
However, thanks to the Lord, He has “made known to us the mystery of His
will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself”
(Ephesians 1:9). The Lord has made us to realize the meaning of His
baptism that constitutes the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the
original gospel that His Apostles received and preached.
When
it says here, “having a High Priest over the house of God,” this High
Priest refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the High Priest of the
Kingdom of Heaven, and the role of the earthly High Priest was fulfilled
by John the Baptist. Why did God need to set aside a man called John,
who was the greatest of all those born of women? This was done so that
Jesus would be baptized by John the Baptist. To save us from our sins,
in other words, God Himself as the heavenly High Priest lowered His head
to John the Baptist, the representative of all mankind (Matthew 11:11),
and received the baptism through which He accepted the sins of the
world.
It
was to bear our sins that Jesus Christ laid down His body as our own
offering of sacrifice and was baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus Christ
was offered to God the Father as our propitiation. Referring to this,
Hebrews says that “our hearts” have been “sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22).
The
passage also says, therefore, “Let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22). It is telling us that those
who have realized that they are piles of sin have been sprinkled from an
evil conscience and washed their bodies with pure water. This “pure
water” refers to the baptism that Jesus received (1 Peter 3:21).
Do
you know just how many sins you commit throughout your entire lifetime?
Human beings are born with sin from their mothers’ wombs, and are bound
to live their entire lifetime committing sins until the day they die.
Everyone, in other words, is born with over a dozen of sinful minds:
Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and
foolishness (Mark 7:20-22). And they sin throughout their entire
lifetime with both their bodies and hearts. Because they are always
insufficient, they commit these various kinds of sin without ceasing.
They come to realize that the sins that they committed today will be
committed again tomorrow, and the sins that they committed this year
will once again be committed the next year. Like this, we are such
beings that are bound to continue to sin time after time until the day
we die.
However,
the writer of Hebrews says here that we have washed our bodies with
pure water. This means that by personally being baptized by John, Jesus
Christ has washed away all our sins. When were our sins actually passed
onto Jesus and washed away? It was when Jesus Christ was baptized by
John. But on our side, our sins were all cleansed away by believing in
this Truth from the center of our hearts. We believe this because Jesus
Christ became our own sacrificial offering by being baptized and
shedding His blood.
“Permit It to Be So Now, for Thus It Is Fitting for Us to Fulfill All Righteousness” (Matthew 3:15)
Let
us turn to Matthew 1:21-23: “‘And she will bring forth a Son, and you
shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.’
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with
child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is
translated, ‘God with us.’”
To
save His people from their sins, God Himself was incarnated in the
flesh of man and born unto this earth through the body of the Virgin
Mary. God had promised this about 700 years ago through the Prophet
Isaiah, that He would send us the Messiah: “Behold, the virgin shall be
with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel.”
The
name ‘Immanuel’ here means that God is with us. To be with us, then,
what must God do? He has to come to us as a Man. Why did He come to us
as a Man? He did so because He had to take upon all our sins once and
for all. It is because Jesus Christ, God Himself, had to take upon our
sins that He was born unto this earth in the flesh of man through the
body of the Virgin Mary. And Jesus remained quiet until the age of 29,
but the next year, when He turned 30, He revealed Himself.
When,
then, were all our sins passed onto Jesus Christ? For this, let us
specifically turn to Matthew 3:13-17 here: “Then Jesus came from Galilee
to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent
Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’
But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it
is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and
behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came
from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.’”
The Reason Why Jesus Was Baptized by John the Baptist
Here,
Matthew 3:13-14 says, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the
Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I
need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’” The John here
refers to John the Baptist. This John was born in the house of Aaron the
High Priest of the Old Testament as his descendant, and he was the Old
Testament’s last High Priest who faithfully fulfilled all his duty when
Jesus came (Luke 1:5, 76-77).
You
probably remember that in the Old Testament, Aaron the High Priest had
laid his hands on the head of a living goat and drew its blood to offer
sacrifice on behalf of the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement. God
had promised that through the sacrifice that was given according to the
sacrificial system, He would accept the offering and blot out the
Israelites’ sins in turn.
Just
as the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament had received the
laying on of hands from the High Priest, Jesus, too, came to the Jordan
River and took upon the sins of the world by receiving baptism from
John, which was performed according to the same manner. Matthew 11:13-14
says, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if
you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” This
passage points out that all the prophecies of the Old Testament’s
prophets and its promises of God ended with the ministry of John. John’s
calling was to be completed with the fulfillment of his role—that is,
to baptize Jesus and pass the sins of mankind. By thus actually passing
the sins of the world, now the age of promise ended, and the age of the
Lord’s actual salvation began starting from the baptism Jesus received
from John.
Who
was Elijah? He was one of the greatest prophets of Israel who turned
the heart of God to His children and the hearts of the children to their
Father God (Malachi 4:5-6). Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who came to
bear the sins of us mankind, accepted the sins of the world by being
baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, the Elijah
to come, and a descendant of the Old Testament’s High Priest. As John
the Baptist laid his hands on the head of Jesus, all the sins of us
mankind were passed onto the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
In
other words, the High Priest of Heaven and the representative of the
earth met together and gave the everlasting sacrifice of sin offering
that would blot out mankind’s sins. It is because Jesus the heavenly
High Priest was baptized by John the representative of mankind that all
the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This is
why Jesus said here, “All the prophets and the law prophesied until
John.”
Also,
saying in Matthew 11:14, “If you are willing to receive it, he is
Elijah who is to come,” Jesus Himself called John as Elijah. This
passage actually had been prophesied in the Old Testament. If we turn to
Malachi 4:5-6, we would see this clearly:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
God had promised to send us Elijah, and this Elijah whom He had promised to send is none other than John the Baptist.
Elijah,
one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, was the
quintessential prophet who had turned all the people of Israel back to
God. This Elijah was a man who had lived in 9th century B.C. Over 800
years had passed when Jesus said this. How, then, would God send this
Elijah? This promise was that God would send someone who would fulfill
Elijah’s role. Therefore, the passage here was prophesying about John
the Baptist.
By
baptizing Jesus, John the Baptist turned the hearts of the entire
mankind back to God. In Matthew 11:11-12, Jesus Himself also testified
about John the Baptist, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of
women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who
is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days
of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent take it by force.”
What
does this passage mean? It means that God had promised to forever blot
out everyone’s sins, and that according to this promise, He accepted, as
the heavenly High Priest, all the sins of all the people through the
earthly High Priest. And it proclaims that whoever believes in Jesus’
baptism can now boldly enter Heaven by his faith.
Since
it was not possible to forever remit away all our sins once for all
with the Old Testament’s blood of lambs and bulls, some other sacrifice
was needed. Yet on this earth, there was no such unblemished sacrificial
offering that could completely and forever blot out all our sins;
therefore, the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, had to come to this
earth and become this sacrificial offering Himself. As Jesus Christ thus
came to this earth to give the everlasting sin offering for His people,
there also had to be a representative of mankind, the High Priest who
would pass their sins to Him, the Lamb of God. This is why there had to
be John the Baptist, a descendant of Aaron, whom God had prepared for
this purpose.
Only
Aaron and his descendants, who were the High Priests of the Old
Testament, were qualified to offer the sacrifice of the Day of
Atonement. As such, God could not just take anyone as the earthly High
Priest. So God prepared this representative of mankind from the house of
the High Priest; that is, from the descendants of Aaron. This
representative was John the Baptist who was born of Zacharias and
Elizabeth six month before Jesus was born. Both parents of John,
Zacharias and Elizabeth, were also of the descendants of Aaron.
Therefore,
John the Baptist, whose parents were Aaron’s descendants, could fulfill
his priesthood as the High Priest set by God, and he was the
representative of mankind who was truly qualified to pass all their sins
to Jesus. Because John the Baptist, the Elijah to come, who would turn
the hearts of the children to their fathers, was the earthly High Priest
whom God had prepared, he baptized Jesus Christ, who became the
sacrificial offering, in a form of the Old Testament’s laying on of
hands.
John
the Baptist baptized Jesus by laying his hands on His head. Jesus was
30 at that time. Aaron’s descendants were to start their priesthood from
their age 30 (Numbers 4:3). As John the Baptist baptized Jesus, all the
sins of mankind were passed onto Him. Therefore, we no longer need any
more sacrifice to blot out our sins (Hebrews 10:18). John the Baptist
was the last High Priest of the Old Testament.
God
sent John the Baptist, the Elijah to come, and six months later, He
also sent His Son Jesus as the sinless and unblemished offering for
mankind. By making John give baptism to Jesus and by making Jesus
receive this baptism from John, God had passed all our sins onto Jesus.
By doing so, the providence and promises of God were all fulfilled. John
the Baptist, the earthly High Priest, laid his hands on the head of
Jesus, our own sacrificial offering. And receiving this laying on of
hands, Jesus went into the water and then reemerged from it. Jesus
received the baptism that fulfilled all the righteousness of God.
That
Jesus went into water implies His death. And that He came up again from
the water symbolizes His resurrection. And the laying on of hands that
Jesus received from John tells us that He accepted all our sins.
That
baptism of Jesus that is written in Matthew 3:13-17 was to accept the
sins of the world. To take upon our sins, Jesus Christ sought to be
baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, where John was
baptizing Israelites to repent. At first, John protested, saying, “I
need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” John the Baptist
tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized because he knew that while he
was only the High Priest of this earth, Jesus Christ was the High
Priest of Heaven, and he could not bear with himself, as a mere man, to
dare to lay his hands on God’s own head. But Jesus was able to command
Him forcefully, “Permit it to be so now.”
Why
did the High Priest of Heaven come to this earth? He came to this earth
to forever save us from our sins once for all, not by offering the
blood of bulls or goats, but by offering His own body (Hebrews 9:12). By
receiving His baptism from John, Jesus accepted all our sins of the
world onto His body, and by offering this body of His to God the Father,
He has saved us from all our sins. Like this, Jesus accepted all our
sins by being baptized, offered His body to God the Father by being
crucified, and thereby became our own sacrificial offering for the
atonement of all our sins, thus saving us all.
Then,
Jesus said firmly to this hesitating John, “Permit it to be so now, for
thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” John the
Baptist then also realized Jesus’ will, and obeyed Him. At last, he laid
his hands on the head of the Messiah, and this was the moment when the
will of God was properly fulfilled. So, the Bible states, “When He had
been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the
heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from
heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’”
(Matthew 3:16-17).
The
word “baptism” means to be washed, to be submerged under water, and to
be buried. When sin is passed on, the one who accepted this sin must
die. So the one who passed sin is washed from it, and since the one who
accepted this sin must die for it, he is to be buried—it is, in other
words, as the symbol of this death that Jesus went into the water. John
the Baptist, the representative of mankind, Elijah to come and the High
Priest, baptized Jesus and thereby passed the sins of the world to Jesus
Christ, the Savior who came to this earth to perfectly save everyone
from sin.
The
spiritual meaning of baptism is the passing of sin. What, then, is the
spiritual meaning of the laying on of hands? The laying on of hands also
means to pass on sin, or to transfer sin. Therefore, this laying on of
hands of the Old Testament and the baptism of the New Testament are the
same. As such, by putting his hands on Jesus’ head, John the Baptist
baptized Him to pass over all the sins of the world.
That
Jesus took upon all our sins by being baptized was fitting to fulfill
all the righteousness of God. What is the meaning of the phrase ‘for
thus’ in the passage, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness”? The word ‘for thus’ is ‘hutos’ in
Greek, which means ‘just in this way,’ ‘most fitting,’ or ‘there is no
other way besides this.’ This word shows that Jesus irreversibly took
the sins of humankind onto Himself through the baptism He received from
John. In other words, nothing else was proper to fulfill all the
righteousness of God but this method that entailed John the Baptist, the
representative of mankind, to baptize Jesus the Son of God and thereby
make Him take upon the sins of us mankind.
It
is written, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life” (John 3:16). Sending His Son Jesus Christ to this earth, God the
Father made Him receive baptism from the representative of mankind in
this way. It is because Jesus had accepted all our sins by being
baptized that He could carry the sins of the world and die on the Cross.
Like this, Jesus was the sacrifice of our everlasting sin offering who
has wholly saved us by being baptized and dying on the Cross. This was
the providence of God.
This
is why Jesus said in John 3:5, “Unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” It is because Jesus Christ
had accepted all our sins by being baptized that He was crucified and
shed His blood in our place. The next day of Jesus’ baptism, John the
Baptist personally bore witness of Jesus by saying, “Behold! The Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) And Jesus, by
carrying the sins of the world to the Cross and being crucified, has
saved us from them.
My
dear fellow Christians, you and I must believe in this gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Jesus Christ accepted all our sins through His
baptism, was crucified to death in our place, rose from the dead again
in three days, and lives even now and to eternity. You, too, must now
believe in Jesus Christ as your God and your Savior.
By
accepting all our sins through His baptism and dying on the Cross,
Jesus has completely fulfilled the law that declares the wages of sin to
be death. In this way, our Lord has saved you and me from all our sins.
This why God the Father opened the gates of Heaven when His Son was
baptized. The Bible says that when Jesus was baptized and came up from
the water, the gates of Heaven were opened: “Behold, the heavens were
opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:16-17).
God
was pleased that Jesus was baptized. Our God the Father fulfilled
salvation through His Son. Taking His own Son as the sacrificial
offering for our sins, He made Him bear all our sins and our
condemnation, and has thereby saved the entire mankind. In order to save
mankind from all their sins exactly according to how he had promised in
the Old Testament, God the Father has fulfilled His righteousness
exactly according to His promised way.
In
today’s’ scripture passage, the Apostle John says, “My little children,
these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone
sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only
but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
We
have to recognize that John is talking of the gospel of the water and
the Spirit by this passage. In other words, Jesus has blotted out all
the sins of the world. Who became the propitiation for the whole world?
Jesus Christ is the Lord who, to blot out the sins of the world, was
baptized by John the Baptist, and thereby took upon all the sins of the
whole world and has washed away them away once for all. What the Apostle
John is saying here, therefore, is not that we are forgiven from our
sins on a daily basis every time we sin in this world and whenever we
say prayers of repentance, but that Jesus Christ has remitted away all
our sins once for all through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Who is our Advocate?
Only Jesus Christ who has delivered us from the sins of the world is our Advocate.
Only Jesus Christ who has delivered us from the sins of the world is our Advocate.
The passage is telling us, in other words, that if anyone in this world sins, we have Jesus Christ as our Advocate before the Father. The “Advocate” here refers to our Lord, implying that Jesus Christ speaks to the Father in our defense regarding our sins. Jesus Christ is the Savior who has perfectly saved us from all the sins of the world. This is why when any believer in the gospel of the water and the Spirit sins, Jesus Christ who has become our Savior speaks to God the Father and to even to us in his defense, saying, “To blot out all his sins, I was baptized by John the Baptist. Therefore, he is not guilty, Father, for he believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit…. You, my child, do not be afraid of your sins you have committed these days. Don’t you know that all these sins were also washed away through My baptism and bloodshed on the Cross? Just admit and confess them before God, and have confidence in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and ruminate on it again.”
What is true confession?
It is to confess our daily sins by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is to confess our daily sins by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
This passage tells us that after believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, if we once again commit sins before God, then we need to confess these sins to Jesus Christ and to believe that the Lord took away even these sins. What we need to realize clearly here is that it is not because of our deed of confession itself that our sins are blotted out. Rather, it is because our Lord took upon our personal sins through the baptism that He received that these personal transgressions of ours are solved away by our faith. This is because when our Lord came to this earth and was baptized by John the Baptist, He had already taken upon all the sins of the world once for all. And because He already bore the condemnation of our sins on the Cross, all that we have to do is confess them by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
As
such, by thus believing that our Lord took away all the sins that we
have ever committed and will ever commit throughout our entire lifetime
on this earth, we are saved from all our sins and freed from our guilt.
What the Apostle John is telling us here is that he wants us, in Jesus
Christ, to never be bound by sin again. This is why Jesus Christ Himself
became the propitiation for our sins before God the Father.
The
Apostle John, in other words, is admonishing us to dwell in the perfect
gospel and live a perfect life by faith. Only then can we really live
the true life of faith. It is when we know this Truth that we could have
washed all our sins only in the Lord, and that we will never again be
bound by our weaknesses and we can become God’s workers. In other words,
by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we are no
longer under condemnation, and this is what makes it possible for us to
make the true confession of faith that enables us to call Jesus Christ
as our true Savior. Why? Because by believing in the true gospel in our
hearts, all of us can now boldly come before the Holy God.
Those
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the true gospel
that our Lord has given us, have been delivered from all the sins that
they have committed once for all by faith. It is only by believing in
this perfect gospel that we have been perfectly saved from all these
sins that we commit throughout our entire lifetime. The true gospel that
has brought to us our salvation from all the sins of the world is that
when our Lord came to this earth and was baptized, He already took the
sins of the world upon His own body. Faith in this Truth is to believe
that the Lord has saved us from all our sins once for all. Only by
believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit can we be saved.
However,
all of us still continue to sin again as we live on in this world. This
is because everyone has flesh, and is therefore always insufficient.
However, we cannot become sinners again. It is because Jesus Christ, who
has blotted out all our sins and become our Advocate, is still on our
side that those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit will always remain whole.
Do we continue to sin as we live in this world?
Yes, but our Lord has also blotted out all such sins.
Yes, but our Lord has also blotted out all such sins.
My fellow Christians, do we or do we not continue to commit sins as we live in this world? ―Of course we do.― We indeed continue to sin until the very day we pass away. If this is the case, then isn’t it true that these sins that we commit throughout our entire lifetime all belong to the sins of the world? They all belong to the sins of the world. But didn’t Jesus Christ take upon all these sins of the world once for all by being baptized by John the Baptist? He indeed took them all way.
And
did He or did He not carry these sins of the world and die for us on
the Cross? Of course He did. And didn’t Jesus Christ then rise from the
dead again, and hasn’t He now become our true Savior? He has indeed
become our true Savior. Our Lord lives now, and He has become the Savior
of all those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We
have to know clearly and believe in this true gospel. Unless we do so,
we can never be freed from our sins, even if we profess to believe in
Jesus.
What must we admit before God?
We must admit that we sin at all times, and that all our sins have been remitted away only through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We must admit that we sin at all times, and that all our sins have been remitted away only through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
If we do not even admit that we are bound to continue to sin on this earth until the day we die, it is simply impossibly for us to even believe in the Lord. How can someone who is not a sinner have any need to believe in Jesus as the Savior? It is written, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Matthew 9:12). Can anyone say that though he had sinned against God and man before, he will never sin again? If we are confident of ourselves that we will never sin again, and if we are so perfect as to never sin again indeed, then what need is there for us to believe in Jesus as our Savior?
If
one does not know that Jesus took away all the sins of the world, and
is oblivious to the Truth that Jesus fulfilled all the righteousness of
God by taking upon all our sins through John the Baptist when He was
baptized, could this person be saved from his sins by just believing in
this Lord somehow? Who dares to say that he is confident enough to never
sin again?
My
fellow saints, through the baptism that Jesus received from John the
Baptist, He took upon all the sins that you and I commit throughout our
entire lifetime. This is why we must believe in this Jesus, who took
away all the sins of our entire lifetime through His baptism, as our
Savior, and only when we believe so can we become sinless. Before we
believe in the Lord as our Savior, we must first admit that we are the
seeds of transgression, and that we are bound to continue to sin
throughout our lifetime until the day we die. Only those who acknowledge
their sinful nature before God can have the right faith, and only they
can believe in the true gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It
is extremely important for us to admit to God that we are bound to sin
until the day we die. Whenever we sin in this world, whether out of our
weaknesses or for whatever reason, we must admit that we sinned, and we
must also acknowledge that Jesus took upon all these sins once for all
by being baptized by John the Baptist, and that all our sins were indeed
passed onto Him—only then can we have the true faith. It is when we
have such faith that we move far away from all our sins and all the
condemnation of sin, and become truly close to the Lord instead. It is
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can become truly clean
and move away from darkness.
Rather
than trying to hide our sins from God while living our lives of faith
before Him, we need to come before His bright light of Truth and
confess, “Lord, I am such a sinner. I am bound to sin until the day I
die, but I believe that Jesus came to this earth to save me from my
sins, and that He accepted all the sins of this world by being baptized
by John the Baptist.” By believing in the gospel Truth of the water and
the Spirit and confessing our sins, we become closer to God in His light
of Truth, for the Lord took upon all our sins once for all through the
water and the Spirit. Just as the sacrificial offering of the Old
Testament accepted the sins of the Israelites with the laying on of
hands, our Lord Jesus accepted all the sins of the world through John
the Baptist.
For
us to believe like this in what the Lord has done for us is the truly
right faith. If our faith is not like this, but instead we hide the sins
that we commit in this world from God and try to atone for our sins by
doing something good and virtuous, far from being redeemed, we will only
end up falling deeper into the pit of an even greater sin. When this
happens, our hearts will be darkened by our sins, and we will become so
ashamed of ourselves that we will not be able to face anyone.
Without
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, neither can we call on
the name of God, nor can we discern right from wrong, for our reason,
wisdom, and perception will all be clouded. This is what Satan wants to
happen to us. For those who do not believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and therefore not only do not pass their sins to Jesus,
but even try to hide themselves from God, the great wrath of God will
follow.
Why must we confess the sins that we commit?
It is to dwell in God’s light of Truth, that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is to dwell in God’s light of Truth, that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We must confess to God that our seeds are such that we just cannot help but continue to sin, and we must also believe that by being baptized, our Lord took upon all these sins that we commit in this world until the day we die. We must believe that our Lord thus shouldered the sins of the world, carried them to the Cross, and bore all the condemnation of sin by shedding His blood on it. It is by thus believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that Jesus forever becomes the Savior of believers. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are washed from all our sins, and it is by this faith that we become God’s own people.
It
is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we
become the ones who are truly sinless, whose hearts are as white as
snow. It is then when our hearts become as light as a feather, able to
serve our Holy God as His workers and praise Him. My dear fellow saints,
none other than this is the very power of the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
The
so-called “gospel of the Cross” that the people of this world believe
posits that we are sanctified by our own daily efforts not to sin, but
we can never cleanse our hearts as white as snow by believing like this.
Unless we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our hearts
can never become as light as a feather. We cannot help but sin in this
world, and we do indeed sin all the time, but when we believe that our
Lord took away all our sins by being baptized, bore all the condemnation
of our sins by shedding His blood on the Cross, and has thereby saved
you and me from all our sins, we can still become God’s children only by
faith.
Must everyone know his fundamental nature before God to live his life of faith properly?
Yes, because whoever does not know himself before God cannot believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Yes, because whoever does not know himself before God cannot believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Bible describes the Pharisees as hypocrites. Whenever they saw someone even slightly unclean, they pulled up their sleeves to cover their eyes, lest they be polluted by what their eyes saw. But in fact, they, too, were filthy before God. They were the kind of people who were totally ignorant of themselves and only too eager to stone others to death, constantly invoking the Law. This is none other than the sad portrait of today’s worldly Christians and the servants of Satan.
Those
who do not know themselves should learn from Socrates first. What did
he say to us? He famously said, “Know yourself.” What a wise saying is
this? There have been many philosophers in this world, but no one left
as famous a remark as this motto. Socrates said something that was
worthy of a great philosopher. Many of his contemporary philosophers
only boasted of their own wisdom, speaking loftily of asceticism and
hedonism, and telling everyone how to live. But Socrates did not bother
with them and simply said, “Know yourself. Before you say anything,
first realize who you truly are. When you have so many shortcomings
yourself, what qualifies you to comment on whether others have done
right or wrong?”
The
Bible also makes this point. Jesus said, “First remove the plank from
your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from
your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). This, my fellow Christians, is the
reason why we must be clear about who we really are, and that we are
sinful beings. You need to realize that our Lord has become the true
Savior of sinners, and you need to recognize that by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, your hearts must be lightened as a
feather.
You
must acknowledge the fact that you commit countless sins while living
on this earth, and you must confess your daily sins to God everyday by
placing your faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And you
must also recognize that your sins are no longer in your hearts, because
you believe that our Lord took away all your sins by being baptized. It
is by believing that Jesus bore all the condemnation of your sins that
your hearts become as light as a feather.
Our
hearts are that of someone who, by believing in the gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit, has acknowledged all his sins and passed them all
to Jesus. This very heart of the one who passed his sins to Jesus
Christ by believing that his sins were indeed passed onto Him through
John the Baptist—none other than this is the heart that is as light as a
feather. Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus Christ took
upon all the sins of the world? Do you believe that He has become the
propitiation for our sin? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is our
Helper? Do you believe that He is the Lord who has blotted out all our
sins?
Whenever
we stumble out of our weaknesses, and whenever we fall short, our Lord
comes to us and says to us, “I took away those sins also. I am your
Savior. I bore all your sins. You are My people, and you are My
children.” So it is by faith that we have become His children. I thank
our God for this abundant grace!
The
Apostle John said, “My little children, these things I write to you, so
that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” My
fellow believers, there are many Pharisee-like people who live in
complete contradiction to this passage. Such people believe themselves
to be highly virtuous and honest.
You
probably have come across some investigative reports in TV uncovering
unethical and unscrupulous acts committed by some crooked people. Seeing
them, many viewers feel quite indignant and enraged at them. But the
fact of the matter is that before God, there can be no doubt that we are
just like these people. Both the journalists who uncover these stories
and the crooks who are exposed by the journalists are the same before
God, in that they are the same human beings who likewise sin time after
time.
Yet
there are some people who entertain rather strange thoughts; that is to
say, there are people who believe that they are not like the crooks at
all. None other than such people are mentally ill. “I am never like
these crooks.” Those who insist like this are so mentally ill that their
sickness has reached beyond the stage of treatment and cannot be cured
by the psychiatrists of this world. Most mental illnesses are treatable,
but there are still many mentally ill patients who have exhausted all
their treatment options and lie beyond the limits of modern medical
science.
Remember
the infamous scandal that had rocked Washington a few years ago?
President Clinton was put on an impeachment trial over the so-called
“Zippergate.” Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor assigned with the
task of probing President Clinton’s misconduct, doggedly pursued him in a
relentless fashion. But was Clinton the only person who was sexually
immoral and lustful? I would like to say to Starr and the American
public, “Are you any better than Clinton? Know yourselves!”
The
Bible says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). It is said here that it is because of
our Lord that all of us have been saved.
You
must never have the eyes of the Pharisees. You must never have their
hearts. My fellow saints, can anyone condemn or judge anyone else? No
one can do this. No man can judge any other fellow human being. Remember
the story about the adulterous woman caught in the act? The Pharisees
and the scribes wanted to stone her to death, but what did Jesus say? He
said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone
at her first” (John 8:7).
The
kind of people whom Jesus considered to be the most repulsive, filthy,
and disgraceful was none other than the Pharisees and the scribes. There
are countless such people in this world. All the religionists of this
world are like these Pharisees and scribes. In their hypocrisy, the
religionists of this world claim to be holy outside, but inside they are
rotten to the core. When we look into what’s really inside these
worldly religionists, we can easily see that they are all corrupt. This
is why Jesus Christ came to this earth to save all such sinners from
their sins, and to do so, He had to be baptized to take upon all the
sins of mankind.
My
fellow believers, each and every one of all our sins were passed onto
Jesus Christ once for all. And by carrying these sins of the world to
the Cross and dying on it, Jesus has saved those of us who believe in
Him. Therefore, it is by believing in the Word of God that one can be
saved perfectly, as the Bible states, “For with the heart one believes
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation” (Romans 10:10).
What,
then, must be acknowledge and believe? We must realize that we are
worthless beings who are bound to sin until the day we die, and we must
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And to have such
faith consistently, we must confess all the sins that we commit. We must
confess them as the following: “Lord, I commit sins everyday. Not a day
goes by when I do not sin, but for each and every day, I end up
committing all kinds of iniquities. But You, my Lord, took away all
these sins also.” We must confess ourselves as we really are, and we
must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Unless we do so,
we can never be saved from our sins. For all of us, in other words, we
cannot be saved from our sins unless we believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
In
1 John 2:3-11, the Apostle John goes on to say at length, “Now by this
we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I
know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth
is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is
perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he
abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. Brethren, I
write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have
had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard
from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing
is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and
the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light, and
hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother
abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he
who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not
know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
The
key point that summarizes this passage is this: “He who keeps His
commandments knows that he is dwelling in God. But he who does not keep
them dwells in darkness.” For us to live according God’s commandments is
to love God and to love one another. Put into a single question, at
issue here is whether or not the righteous love each other. In other
words, what is at stake is whether the righteous hate each other and are
jealous of one another, or they love each other; whether or not they
know that they have indeed become God’s own people; whether they realize
that they have been clothed in the same grace by Jesus Christ and give
the same recognition to one another; and whether or not they love each
other. It is said here that he who does not love dwells in darkness, and
that he who dwells in darkness has been blinded by this sin.
The
Apostle John also speaks about the new and old commandments, saying,
“The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment I write to you.” Whether old or new, all the
commandments boil down to love. Just as the Old Testament’s Law
commanded us to love God and to love our neighbors as our own bodies, so
is the new commandment is centered on love, on what Jesus told us—“Love
one another, as I have loved you.” Those who do not love, regardless of
whatever reason, are sinning against God, and they are by no means
living their lives according to His will. They are utterly arrogant,
standing before God as if they were judges. Such people are most wicked.
My
fellow believers, this lesson is equally applicable to all of us, to
all our brothers and sisters of faith, as well as to the servants of
God, who are all living their lives of faith. Nothing could be more
contradictory than to believe ourselves to be problem-free while looking
down on others as being worse than us, and to pick every shortcoming
that others have while being completely unable to see our own
shortcomings. We must therefore truly love one another. Our hearts must
truly care for each other. This love is not to be shown only on the
surface, but we must cherish one another from the depth of our hearts,
realizing that our fellow believers are of our own race and the people
of God. This caring heart must be ours. Anyone who does not have this
loving heart is on a wrong track. Turning the weaknesses of others into
our own advantage is no love. To turn the weaknesses of others into our
own weaknesses is what love is all about.
For
those who find joy in others’ weaknesses and turn them into their own
advantage, this can only mean that love has left them already. They are
no longer actually dwelling in the Word of our Lord. Though they may
have received the remission of their sins, they are not walking in the
Word. God cannot unite with such people who turn others’ weaknesses into
their advantage and find joy in them, and they will end up drifting
away from everyone.
In
Christ, all of us must become one united together, like fine flour
becomes one dough. Just as flour can turn into bread and noodle only
when it is first knead into one dough, if you remain scattered around
all on your own, this will amount to nothing. Each of us standing on our
own is easily blown away at the slightest wind. Just as each wheat
grain must first be ground and the resulting flour must be knead into
one dough to turn into edible bread, it is only when we the righteous
unite together and become one with God that we can become worthy workers
before Him. This is why all of us must become one and love each other.
We must all remember our Lord who has become our Advocate.
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