Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW
[Chapter 3-2] Jesus Who Came to Blot Out Your Sins (Matthew 3:13-17)
(Matthew 3:13-17)
“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.’”
Even
as today’s Christians profess to believe in Jesus as their Savior, many
of them do not know that Jesus is the Lord who has delivered us from
all our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is
therefore necessary to prove to them, with this gospel of the water and
the Spirit, that Jesus is indeed their Savior. As all are born as
sinners, to be washed from all their sins, all must believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, to be born again,
they must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and only
when they believe so can they meet the Lord. Whether or not we can
receive the remission of our sins and be born again depends on whether
or not we know and believe in Jesus Christ correctly.
For
us, the most important key to reach the truth of the remission of sin
is knowing and believing in who the Lord is and what the Lord has done.
When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter
answered by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
That Peter thus confessed his true faith was because he was led and
taught by God the Father to reach this understanding.
Now,
we must also reach the correct understanding of the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and like Peter, we must be able to make the true
confession of faith to our Lord. What we must all grasp here is the need
to recognize and believe that the baptism of Jesus and His bloodshed on
the Cross were exactly the sacrifice that our Lord made to shoulder our
sins and be condemned for these sins. When we believe so, we can be
wholly delivered from all our sins.
The
Word of God is divided into two parts: the Old and New Testaments. The
New Testament is the fulfillment of the prophecies promised in the Old
Testament. And it is also the record of the prophetic announcement of
the new world to come, which the Lord had promised to His disciples.
This new world will soon be fulfilled to us by Jesus Christ. The Old
Testament is also the true Word of God that records the prophesy of
mankind’s salvation, that the Son of God would come to this earth, and
that just as hands were laid on the sacrificial offering of the Old
Testament and its blood was shed, He would take upon Himself all the
sins of the world once and for all by being baptized by John the
Baptist, shed His blood by dying on the Cross, and thereby save all the
sinners of the world from their sins. Through the sacrificial system
manifested in the Tabernacle, our Lord has revealed to us that He is the
Savior who would fulfill this promise, and that He has indeed achieved
this. Put differently, the entire Old Testament is achieved exactly
throughout the New Testament by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus
has given us the true gospel of the water and the Spirit, so that when
we believe in Him as our Savior, we would all correctly understand and
believe that the Savior prophesied in the Old Testament to come is
indeed our Lord Jesus Christ.
The
sacrificial system in the Old Testament was the stepping-stones of
God’s revelation to reach the whole truth of His salvation, and it
enables us to receive the remission of our sins infallibly by
understanding and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Jesus has enabled us to realize why He had to be baptized by John the
Baptist, and how, because of this baptism, He had to shed His blood by
dying on the Cross. It is only when we reach the correct understanding
of this gospel truth that we can truly be saved and become God’s own
people. The gospel truth of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has
given us is what enables us to correctly understand and believe in His
public ministries of salvation.
These Are the Ministries of the Water and the Spirit That Jesus Fulfilled When He Came to This Earth
The
core Word of the New Testament is this: Coming to this earth, Jesus
took upon Himself all the sins of the world through the baptism that He
received from John the Baptist, and He has thereby paid off all the
wages of sin with His blood. The life and death of your soul depends
upon whether you correctly understand and believe in this gospel of the
water and the Spirit. And, in fact, all the 39 books of the Old
Testament and 27 books of the New Testament describe in detail this
pivotal truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The
sacrificial animal that was offered in the Tabernacle of the Old
Testament for the sins of the people of Israel could wash away their
sins, for they had laid their hands on its head and offered its blood
and flesh to God. Only by reaching a comparative understanding of this
sacrificial system of the Old Testament and the baptism and bloodshed of
Jesus in the New Testament can we also correctly understand the
remission of our sins and believe in it. In other words, just as a
sacrificial lamb or goat had accepted the iniquities of sinners with the
laying of their hands or the hands of the High Priest, it was by being
baptized by John the Baptist that Jesus could accept our sins of the
world and shed His blood thereby dying on the Cross.
Even
though we don’t know all the details of the Bible, when we get the
clear and concrete understanding of the baptism and bloodshed of Jesus
in the New Testament as compared with the sacrificial system of the Old
Testament, we can receive the remission of sin by faith. We must believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to receive the remission of
sin given by God.
Jesus
wrote the gospel of the water and the Spirit that can wash away all our
sins as the written Word of God. To the believers of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, He has entrusted priesthood, so that everyone on
this earth would wash away his sins with faith. In the Old Testament,
this priesthood was promised only to the descendants of Levi. It was
these descendants of Levi who were given the duties of interceders that
washed away the Israelites’ sins and fulfilled the just love of God. As
such, we the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit must
understand the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, and thereby
reach an even deeper understanding of Jesus’ baptism and His crucifixion
to fulfill this priesthood properly before God in this age of the New
Testament.
It
has now been 2005 years since Jesus Christ was born on this earth. This
Jesus came to this earth as the Savior, and by receiving baptism from
John the Baptist and being crucified to shed His blood, He has forever
washed away all our sins. Therefore, it is only proper that the year of
Jesus’ birth would become the benchmark of the chronological table of
world history. It symbolizes the fact that the beginning of all things
is from Jesus Christ, for as far as we are concerned, Jesus Christ is
God Himself who created this universe and the Savior who has blotted out
all our sins with His water and blood, and He also stands at the center
of the history of the universe.
Is Today’s Scriptural Passage Telling Us of the Passing of Our Sins?
In
today’s scriptural passage, it is written, “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.’”
All
of us are the descendants of Adam, born with twelve ingredients of sin
from the very day we were born into this world, and therefore we all had
no choice but to be put to death for our sins and be condemned for them
before God (Mark 7:21-23). We could not avoid but live cowardly and die
hopelessly because of our sins, and we were all bound to the terrifying
fire of hell. However, Jesus was born on this earth, when we were at
the verge of eternal destruction. He was born in the appearance of a
lowly one, to deliver us mankind from all the sins of the world. It was
to deliver such people like you and me from the everlasting sins of this
world that the Lord came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of a
man.
When
our Lord turned 30, He bore the sins of the world by being baptized by
John the Baptist in the Jordan River. At that time, John the Baptist was
giving his baptism of repentance to many Israelites that made them
return to God. But the baptism that John the Baptist gave to Jesus was
to fulfill all the righteousness of God. It was a baptism that was given
to pass all the sins of this world to the body of Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God.
John
the Baptist was the representative of mankind (Matthew 11:11). And he
was the last prophet of the Old Testament, the biblically legitimate
priest who was born from the house of the High Priest, and thus,
ministered as the last priest of the age of the Old Testament (Luke
1:1-21). Therefore, all of us must understand the ministry of John the
Baptist without fail before we try to understand the ministry of Jesus.
The truth is that Jesus Christ accepted the sins of the world through
His baptism received from John the Baptist. We must understand this
truth and believe in it. Only when we reach an in-depth knowledge of the
ministry of John the Baptist can we understand it in connection with
the ministry of Jesus and thoroughly understand the whole truth of the
remission of sin, of the true atonement.
The
Old and New Testaments make profound prophecies about and detailed
descriptions of the ministry of John the Baptist. Matthew 11:11 writes
about John the Baptist as the following: “Among those born of women
there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.” In chapters 3
and 4 of the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament, it was prophesied
that God would send Elijah. Malachi 4:5 says, “Behold, I will send you
Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of
the LORD,” followed by verse 6, “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.” The Bible
teaches us that this Elijah who was prophesied in the Book of Malachi in
the Old Testament was none other than John the Baptist who passed the
sins of mankind, the sins of the world, to Jesus through His baptism.
In
the New Testament, Jesus Himself said that John the Baptist was “the
greatest of all those born of women,” and “the Elijah who is to come”
(Matthew 11:11-14). What, then, is the role that John the Baptist
fulfilled when He came to this world? As the representative of all
mankind, John the Baptist was the one who passed the sins of the world
to Jesus by baptizing Him. He was the one who fulfilled the ministry
that turned the hearts of sinners to God, as well as the one who
baptized Jesus to pass the sins of the world to Him. As someone who was
born from the house of Aaron the High Priest by the providence of God,
John the Baptist was qualified to carry out the duties of the High
Priest (Luke 1:1-10). Therefore, John the Baptist was the one who
fulfilled his priestly duty to pass everyone’s sins to Jesus through His
baptism.
The
reason why John the Baptist had to come to this earth was to pass the
sins of the world to Jesus by baptizing Him. And John the Baptist was
the one who rebuked the people who had left God and testified to them
that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the sacrificial Lamb that would
blot out the sins of the world with His baptism and bloodshed. By coming
to John the Baptist as the sacrificial offering that would make the
sins of this world disappear and being baptized by him, Jesus fulfilled
the prophesy about the laying of hands on the head of sacrificial
offerings written in the Book of Leviticus (Leviticus 1:3-5).
This
is why John the Baptist had to baptize Jesus and pass the sins of this
world to Him, and thereby fulfill the righteousness of God, the will of
God the Father. Jesus was the Lamb of God who accepted the sins of
everyone in this world by being baptized by the greatest of all those
born of women. In other words, it was because Jesus wanted to accept the
sins of this world once and for all that He was baptized by John the
Baptist.
When
John the Baptist was giving the baptism of repentance to the people of
Israel, Jesus came to him and said, “Baptize Me. It is fitting for Me to
be baptized by you and fulfill all the righteousness of God” (Matthew
3:15). To bear all the sins of this world, Jesus had to receive His
baptism from John the Baptist, for it was the baptism through which He
took upon all the sins of everyone in this world. By thus bearing all
the sins of this world through this baptism received from John the
Baptist, and by being crucified to shed His blood unto death at the
Cross and rising from the dead again in three days, Jesus has become the
everlasting Savior God.
Thus,
Jesus was baptized because it was fitting for Him to fulfill the will
of God the Father (Matthew 3:15). And it was by this will of God the
Father that John the Baptist baptized Him. In other words, Jesus
received the spiritual laying on of hands and shed His blood just like
the Old Testament’s sacrificial offering. In Leviticus 16, we see that
two sacrificial goats accepted the yearly sins of the people of Israel
with the laying on of the hands of the High Priest. Just like this,
Jesus accepted all the sins of this world once and for all through the
baptism He received from John the Baptist and shed His precious blood on
the Cross. Jesus is therefore the Savior of mankind who accepted their
sins onto His own head by being baptized.
Jesus
is the only begotten Son of God the Father, and the heavenly High
Priest of the Kingdom of God. As such, for John the Baptist, the
representative of mankind, to fulfill his priesthood as the earthly High
Priest, he had to meet Jesus the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven
and fulfill all the righteousness of God the Father. Through the baptism
of Jesus, the just love of God came to be realized.
Who,
then, is higher between John the Baptist and Jesus? Of course, Jesus
the heavenly High Priest is higher than John the Baptist. Jesus is more
exalted than anyone else, for He is God Himself who created the entire
universe, and He is also the Son of God who came to this earth to save
mankind from the sins of the world. To save mankind from the sins of the
world, Jesus came to this earth and was baptized by John the Baptist.
Jesus is not a mere creature like us.
In
the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, there is God’s
example of a special work. When Jesus came to John the Baptist to be
baptized, John the Baptist said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by You,
and are You coming to me?” As we can see, John the Baptist at first
declined to pass all sins to Jesus by baptizing Him, but in the end he
could not refuse, for Jesus Himself wanted to be baptized by him and
thereby bear all the sins of the world. So Jesus commanded John the
Baptist to baptize Him, saying, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
Before
Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, Gentiles and Jews alike
all had sins in each of their hearts, and therefore they could not avoid
being condemned and destroyed for their sins. We know very well that
everyone is a fragile being who cannot avoid being destroyed for sinning
against God in this world. This is why Jesus took upon Himself all the
sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist. Our Lord had to
fulfill this work through John the Baptist. For Jesus to take upon
Himself all the sins of these people, He had to receive from John the
Baptist the baptism that would fulfill all the righteousness of God.
“Permit
it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Here, “all righteousness” is “δικαιοσύνη”
(pasan dikaiosunen) in Greek. This word ‘dikaiosune’ means “the fairest
state” or “righteousness,” or “equity.”
Just
as the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament had blotted out all
the sins of the Israelites by bearing them all, in the New Testament,
Jesus washed away all the sins of the entire mankind by coming to this
earth and bearing all their sins Himself by being baptized by John the
Baptist. Fundamentally speaking, Jesus came to this earth as the Lamb of
God, and by thus becoming the sacrificial offering for our own sins, He
has delivered us from the sins of this world. The reason why the Savior
became man and sought to be baptized by John the Baptist lies in the
fulfillment of the righteousness of God.
Jesus
said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill
all righteousness.” Spiritually, this means, “It is fitting for Me to
take upon Myself everyone’s sins once and for all by being baptized by
you and washing them all away.” This also means that the baptism Jesus
received from John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the laying on of
hands of the Old Testament, which, in turn, means that Jesus actually
accepted the sins of mankind once and for all. Therefore, we must all
have the faith that knows and believes in the truth manifested in this
baptism that Jesus received. We must know the result of the baptism that
Jesus received from John the Baptist and His bloodshed on the Cross,
and we must understand and believe in it correctly.
The
Presbyterian Church gives an abridged version of baptism, where its
followers are baptized not by full immersion in water, but by
sprinkling, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In
the Scriptures, this kind of baptism was given in water-scarce regions,
such as desert areas. This is how, for instance, Philip baptized the
Ethiopian eunuch. But when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He
stood in the Jordan River waist-deep. The baptism that Jesus received
from John was one where John the Baptist laid his two hands on Jesus’
head, immersing Him in the water, and then raising Him out. This baptism
was the same as the Old Testament’s laying on of hands, where the High
Priest had passed on the sins of the Israelites by putting his two hands
on the head of the sacrifice. The baptism that Jesus received from John
the Baptist was the baptism through which He accepted the sins of the
world by bearing them all.
What
is the significance of the fact that John the Baptist put his hands on
Jesus’ head to baptize Him? In the Old Testament, the ritual of ‘laying
on of hands’ was performed in the following cases: 1) to pass one’s sins
to his sacrificial offering (Leviticus 1:1-10; 4:1-25); 2) to
consecrate the servants of God (Numbers 8:10, 27:18); and 3) to return
the blasphemy to the blasphemer (Leviticus 24:14).
Whatever
the case was, ‘laying on of hands’ was the way of ‘passing something
on.’ When a servant is consecrated as a pastor, for instance, senior
pastors lay their hands on his head, signifying that their God-given
power and gifts are now also given to the new pastor. This means that
with the laying on of hands, all the gifts and power that had been
permitted to the senior pastors are now bestowed on the new pastor also.
However,
the most typical case of ‘laying on of hands’ was of the sacrificial
system, which was performed to pass sins onto the sacrificial animal.
And parallel to this, the reason why John the Baptist put his hands on
Jesus’ head was to pass on all the sins of the world. This is why to
this day, when pastors baptize believers, they invariably put their
hands on their heads. Why is this done? It is as a sign of their faith,
to show that they believe that Jesus bore the sins of the world through
His baptism, that they are baptized.
As
the Savior, Jesus took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by
John the Baptist, the representative of mankind. This was the same as
the High Priest of the Old Testament passing the sins of the people of
Israel on to the sacrifice by laying his hands on its head (Leviticus
16:21).
Having
been baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, Jesus
was immersed in water and then came out of it. Spiritually speaking,
this symbolizes the fact that because Jesus took upon Himself all our
sins of the world once and for all by being baptized by John the
Baptist, He would eventually die on the Cross, rise from the dead again,
and thereby become the perfect Savior. It tells us that Jesus accepted
the sins of this world through His baptism, shouldered our sins, and was
condemned for all sins by shedding His blood unto death on the Cross.
In
short, Jesus’ baptism by the laying on of hands implies that He
accepted the sins of the world, His immersion into the water signifies
His death on the Cross, and His coming out of the water indicates His
resurrection. For all of us, in other words, Jesus has fulfilled the
righteousness of God by vicariously satisfying the requirements of the
law of sin and death that we ourselves had to meet. This is why the
Bible states, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the
righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not
walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).
At
this time, when Jesus came up from the water, God the Father opened the
gates of Heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased” (Matthew 3:17). God had planned to blot out all the sins of
mankind through His Son before the creation. And this work was fulfilled
by His Son by coming to this earth, taking upon the sins of mankind by
being baptized by John the Baptist, shedding His blood on the Cross unto
death, and thereby perfectly delivering His believers from sin. By
being baptized and shedding His blood, our Lord fulfilled all the will
of God once and for all.
Therefore,
when Jesus obeyed the Father’s will by taking upon Himself all the sins
of mankind with His baptism, God the Father was pleased with His Son
Jesus, saying, “He who did this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.” This is why Christians must believe in the baptism that Jesus
received from John the Baptist, as well as in the blood that Jesus shed
on the Cross as the condemnation of all our sins. This is why God the
Father opened the gates of Heaven and said that the One who was baptized
now was His Son, in whom He was well pleased.
“Behold, the Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sin of the World!”
Now
turning to John 1:29, you and I must understand the evidence proving
that Jesus took upon the sins of the world once and for all by being
baptized by John the Baptist, and we must believe this with our hearts.
John the Baptist, seeing Jesus whom He had baptized coming toward him on
the very next day after His baptism, testified, “Behold! The Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Put
differently, John the Baptist testified, “None other than Jesus is the
very Savior of mankind, the Savior who accepted all their sins through
His baptism and who would shed His blood for them.” On the next day,
seeing Jesus again, John the Baptist testified once more, “Behold the
Lamb of God!” Because Jesus had already been baptized by John the
Baptist, and now that He had thus accepted the sins of the world, He had
to be crucified and shed His blood. This is why John the Baptist
testified, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!”
We
must understand the meaning of the phrase “the sin of the world” and
decide whether to believe the truth of His baptism or not. What is the
correct understanding of the sins of this world? Many people generally
think that the “world” here, temporally speaking, only entails their own
little world—that is, whatever they have known from the time they were
born to their present. But the correct understanding of the sins of the
world requires us to regard the “world” here as the all-encompassing
time from the beginning of this universe to its end.
I
was told that some kind of dayfly could live only a day at most. For
such insects, living for 12 hours means living half their lifetime. If
they last a bit longer, they would already be facing their sunset, and
if they live up to 24 hours, they would then have lived their full
lifetime. So naturally, the concept of “tomorrow” has no meaning for
them.
Like
this, since we live for only 70-80 years, we don’t really have a clear
understanding of such concepts as “eternity” or “infinity.” However, our
Lord the Almighty God is saying to us: the world is the time from the
beginning of this universe to day it ends. In other words, our concept
of time is definitely different from the temporal concept of the world
that God is speaking of here. The time of the world that our Lord is
speaking of is far more expansive than our conception.
Our
faith must be based on the Word of God—that is, we must believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit written in God’s Word. Therefore,
when we consider what John the Baptist said—“The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world”—or what our Lord Himself said—“For thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”—we must understand them to
mean that Jesus took upon the sins of all human beings with His baptism
and carried them to the Cross, and we must believe this with our
hearts.
When
did Jesus bear the sins of this world? Jesus took upon the sins of the
world once and for all when He accepted all sins by being baptized in
the Jordan River by John the Baptist. The phrase “for thus” here is
‘hutos gar’ 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 Him through the baptism He
received from John the Baptist. In other words, Jesus could blot out the
sins of the world only when He was baptized by John the Baptist without
fail. We must therefore invariably understand the baptism of Jesus and
His bloodshed as the remission of our sins and believe as such.
With
this method of passing the sins of the world to Jesus, where John the
Baptist laid his hands on Jesus’ head, Jesus took upon the sins of the
world once and for all, shed His blood, and thereby completed our
atonement to perfection. This was the purpose of Jesus’ baptism. We
understand that in the Old Testament, the laying of hands on the
sacrificial offering and its bloodshed meant the atonement of the
Israelites. Likewise, we must believe that through His baptism, Jesus
has washed away everyone’s sins by accepting the sins of the world, and
that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once and for all (Hebrews 10:10).
The
word “baptism,” “βάπτισμα” (baptisma) in Greek, means “being immersed.”
Therefore, “to baptize” literally means to immerse or to submerge under
water. To be more exact, it means: 1) to cleanse by dipping or
submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self,
bathe; 2) to overwhelm; 3) to bury; and 4) to pass on.
Herein
lies the reason why you must understand the gospel of the water and the
Spirit properly and believe in it: First of all, all your sins were
passed onto Jesus through the baptism that He received from John the
Baptist. Because Jesus accepted all our sins of the world through His
baptism, all those who believe this are now without sin. Since by being
baptized Jesus has already washed away all the sins of the world, there
can no longer be any sin. Jesus was the Lamb of God who took away the
sins of this world. These sins of the world include all the sins that
you have ever committed and will ever commit, from those committed in
your childhood to your adulthood and to those that you will commit until
the day you die. By being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus fulfilled
all righteousness, shouldering all these sins and carrying them to the
Cross.
Second,
the meaning of washing denotes that as the sins of the world were
passed onto Jesus with His baptism, they were all washed away. Third,
the meaning of burial implies that when the sins of the world were with
us, we had to bear the condemnation of sin and be cast into the fire of
hell, but now that our sins were passed onto Jesus through our faith in
His baptism, Jesus had to die for our sins in our place. This is why
Jesus was baptized in our place, was vicariously crucified and bled to
death in our stead, was buried in our place, and rose from the dead
again. By thus being baptized, crucified, and buried; by rising from the
dead again; by sitting on the right hand of God the Father; and by
letting all sinners come to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
Jesus has enabled all who believe in this to receive the remission of
their sins by faith.
When
we are saved by believing in Jesus as the Savior, in His baptism and
His blood on the Cross, then we can actually become God’s own children.
For us, this means that our sins were passed onto Jesus. Because Jesus
was baptized by John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross, our
sins can no longer be with us. All our sins, from those committed in our
childhood to those committed in adulthood and to the day we die, were
wholly passed onto the body of Jesus and were condemned already. It is
because all our sins were passed onto Jesus that He shed His blood on
the Cross in our place, died and rose from the dead, and has thereby
given us new life.
Now,
if we believe in this Jesus as the Savior, then we can all become
sinless. Those of you who from now on know the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, understand it, and believe in it with the heart are all
righteous. You are no longer sinners. You are now righteous. It is by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you can become
righteous. We cannot attain our salvation with our own endeavors, for we
will continue to be insufficient and commit sin, but the Lord has
already washed away all our sins with the baptism that He received from
John the Baptist and the blood that He shed on the Cross. So it is by
knowing the truth that salvation comes into our hearts.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Proven by the Sacrificial System of the Tabernacle of the Old Testament
First
of all, let me briefly explain the basic physical layout of the Old
Testament’s Tabernacle. The Tabernacle itself was a relatively small
structure, but it was surrounded by an outer court that was fenced in
with pillars and screens of fine woven linen. There was a gate to this
court, and past this gate, as one approached toward the Tabernacle,
there stood the altar of burnt offering, and the laver of bronze was
located past this altar. The Tabernacle itself was divided into two
parts: the Holy Place and the Most Holy. The doors of this House of God
(one for the Holy Place and another for the Most Holy), as well as the
gate of its court, were all woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread
and fine woven linen.
Why
did God make all the doors and gate of the Tabernacle by weaving them
with these blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen? The
reason is because through them, God was foretelling how Jesus would come
to this earth, take upon the sins of the world once and for all through
the baptism that He would receive from John the Baptist, and be
crucified and shed His blood. By being baptized by John the Baptist and
crucified for the sins of the world, Jesus took His own body as the
sacrificial offering for us.
By
believing in Jesus as the Savior, and by believing in the Word telling
us that Jesus who became the blue, purple, and scarlet thread took upon
the sins of the world by being baptized, we can at once be delivered
from all our sins by faith. Jesus used these blue, purple, and scarlet
thread and fine woven linen for the door of the Tabernacle in order to
tell us that He is the King of kings, and that He has saved us from our
sins by being baptized and crucified. The blue, purple, and scarlet
thread and the fine woven linen used for the door of the Tabernacle are
none other than the antitype of salvation, telling us that the Lord has
saved us perfectly (1 Peter 3:21).
This
is why if we were to open the gate of the court of the Tabernacle and
enter, we would see the laver of bronze past the altar of burnt
offering. The altar of burnt offering shows us God’s law of justice
prior to His law of salvation, that “it is appointed for men to die
once, but after this the judgment.” Through the altar of burnt offering,
in other words, God showed us beforehand that we would be condemned for
our sins. If we really believe in Jesus as the Savior, then we must
realize that in the Old Testament, in order for the Israelites to be
saved from all their sins and the condemnation of sin, they had to pass
their sins to their sacrificial offering and kill it before the altar.
Like
this, Jesus took upon the sins of the world once and for all by being
baptized by John the Baptist, and this is how He could be crucified and
shed His blood for us. Coming to this earth, our Lord bore our sins by
being baptized by John the Baptist and bore all our condemnation of sin
once and for all. In short, by being baptized, shedding His blood, and
rising from the dead again in order to save us from our sins and
condemnation, Jesus has become our true Savior.
Where Are Our Personal Sins Now Found?
What,
then, must we do about our personal sins that we will continue to
commit daily as we live on? Brothers and sisters, if we remember
everyday that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized
in the Jordan River, that is, if we continue to believe in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit with our hearts, then we will always
remain sinless. Why? Because Jesus, knowing that we would sin everyday,
took upon all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the
Baptist, carried them to the Cross, shed His blood while dying, rose
from the dead again, and blotted them out all at once.
However,
this truth of salvation, the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit,
is effective only when we truly understand it and believe in it with all
our hearts. We can become perfectly sinless only by remembering and
believing that all our sins were passed onto Jesus and washed away when
He was baptized by John the Baptist, for we sin everyday. We have been
washed from all our original sin and personal sins by our faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Dear
fellow Christians, if you want to be remitted from all your sins, then
you must understand and believe that all our sins were passed onto Jesus
when He was baptized. And you must always ruminate on the Word of the
true gospel, especially whenever you commit actual sins. Only then can
your hearts be always cleansed, and only then can you be qualified to
serve the righteous works of God. The gospel of the water and the Spirit
tells us that all our sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized
by John the Baptist, and that He was condemned for them on the Cross. It
is through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Bible tells
us about the remission of sin.
All
of us must regard and believe in the Word of God as the truth. If you
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then it is impossible
for you to have any sin. If we really believe in Jesus Christ as the
Savior, then we are the people of faith who believe that Jesus at once
took upon Himself all the sins of this world, whatever they might be,
through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. The baptism
that Jesus received from John the Baptist has made everyone sinless,
just as the Book of Romans tells us, “For as by one man’s disobedience
many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made
righteous” (Romans 5:19).
As
we live in this world, we sin everyday. Were all our sins passed onto
Jesus already? All our sins were already passed onto the body of Jesus a
very long time ago, more than 2,000 years ago. Were the sins that we
are to commit out of our weaknesses in the future also passed onto
Jesus, and was He condemned for them as well? That is right.
Does
this then mean that it’s okay for us to commit all kinds of sin at our
whim? That is not the case. Even those who have been born again by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are, of course, all
bound to continue to sin out of their weaknesses. However, they can
still keep their hearts clean at all times by ruminating on the true
gospel of the water and the Spirit. People sin more out of their
weakness than out of their voluntary will.
Therefore,
when the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit experience
their weaknesses, they cannot but thank the Lord even more by renewing
their faith in His baptism and bloodshed, for the Lord has already
washed away all their sins with His baptism and His blood on the Cross
and was condemned for them. Now they are not bound by sin anymore, but
rather they willingly volunteer to spread this truth to others. By doing
so, our hearts are rejoiced even more.
What
about you then? Do you believe that to blot out all your sins, Jesus
came to this world, was baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood to
death, and rose from the dead again? Yes, we are giving our thanks to
Jesus who came to blot out our sins perfectly. And He has indeed made
them completely disappear once and for all.
In
the Tabernacle of the Old Testament, entering through the gate of its
court and passing by the altar of burnt offering, we would come across
the laver of bronze. While measurements and limits were specified for
all other utensils of the Tabernacle, no such limited measurements were
given for this laver of bronze. Spiritually speaking, this symbolizes
the fact that by being baptized and shedding His blood, Jesus has
blotted out all our sins without quantitative limitation. Like this, the
laver of bronze has the unlimited efficacy to wash away all our sins.
It holds the power to wash them all away.
This
laver was made of bronze, implying that all sins must be condemned. But
it contained the water to wash the priest’s hands and feet. This tells
us that the Lord has completely washed away the sins of the world by
being baptized. When the priests of the Old Testament gave sacrifices at
the altar of burnt offering, they were smeared with all kinds of filth,
from animal blood to feces, as they slaughtered sacrificial offerings
after laying their hands on them. It was with the water of the laver
that they washed themselves of such filth. Like this, this laver of
bronze implies the baptism of Jesus that has washed away filthy sins.
All our personal sins that we commit in this world have already been
blotted out through Jesus’ baptism. This is what the laver of bronze
reveals. By believing in this truth, we can be remitted from all our
sins and always live with clean consciences forever.
How
many times was Jesus baptized by John the Baptist to accept the sins of
this world? He was baptized only once. By receiving baptism from John
the Baptist only once, Jesus has forever washed away all the sins of
this world perfectly. Why was He baptized only once? Because Jesus is
the everlasting Son of God who had the power to accept all the sins of
the world from its beginning to its end once and for all with His
baptism. As Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” He is God the
eternal Being. Because Jesus is the Son of the forever living God, He
could accomplish His eternal salvation once and for all: He came to this
world once; shouldered the sins of the world all at once by being
baptized by John the Baptist once; was crucified and shed His blood
once, and has thereby washed away all our sins all at once.
We
must know the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit and believe in
Jesus as the Savior. It is by being baptized once that Jesus has washed
away the sins of the world. Your sins were passed onto Jesus once and
for all when He was baptized. By thus being baptized once, Jesus
fulfilled all the righteousness of God that blots out the sins of the
world. You must realize that all your sins were passed onto Jesus
through His baptism. And you must believe this. You have nothing to lose
from believing this. It is by our faith in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit that we can receive the everlasting remission of our sins.
If
you find yourselves asking Jesus to forgive your sins everyday, then
you should know that you are not yet born again. And you have to
understand the gospel truth of the water and the Spirit, and you must
believe in Jesus as your true Savior all over again according to this
gospel. Pastors throughout the world, who have misunderstood the baptism
of Jesus, must also believe in Him all over again. Many pastors do not
have the proper understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit
that has washed away their sins. How, then, do you think it would be
possible for them to help others to receive the remission of sin, when
they themselves have not received it? If, by any chance, you have been
pretending to be holy only with the deeds and appearance of your flesh
even as your hearts remain sinful, then you are merely hypocritical
religionists and the children of destruction. People will not be able to
receive the remission of sin with your help.
However,
your souls can be freed from all your sins when you can discern the
truth of salvation from the false religions of the world with the faith
that knows and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only
when you properly understand the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
God’s Word of life, and believe in it properly in your hearts, can all
your sins be washed away. Yet countless people still remain oblivious to
the fact that the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when He was
baptized by John the Baptist. Therefore, you yourselves must first
humbly accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit into you hearts by
believing in it. Jesus said, “For thus, it is thus fitting for us to
fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Jesus fulfilled all the
righteousness of God when He was baptized. Through this baptism that He
received, Jesus accepted all the sins of the world. With this baptism,
all your sins were also accepted by Jesus.
Are
you not the people of this world? Of course you are. Are your sins not
included in the sins of the world? Of course, they are. Once you realize
this, you can be delivered through the truth that Jesus shouldered all
your sins by being baptized. To realize that you are sinners bound to be
condemned for your sins is the stepping-stone that leads you to realize
that your only Savior is Jesus Christ Himself.
Have
you come into Christ? Or are you still standing outside Christ? You
must clearly know where exactly you stand. You are the people of this
world. Were all your sins then passed onto Jesus or not? They were. Do
you then admit that those Christians who say, “Lord, I’m still a
sinner,” are not the born-again saints? In spite of believing in Jesus,
they do not understand that our sins were passed onto Jesus through His
baptism, and as a result they rely only on the blood of the Cross and
are suffering everyday, asking the Lord to forgive their sins.
However,
what did the Apostle Paul tell us? He told us, “Rejoice always, pray
without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). So, if we wail and
cling to the Lord constantly asking Him to forgive our sins, all that we
are doing is only blaspheming His baptism and bloodshed even as we
profess to believe in Him. This kind of faith is only an insult to
Jesus.
Do All of Us Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit?
Jesus
was baptized by John the Baptist. All our sins were passed onto Jesus
at that time once and for all. Accepting the sins of the world through
His baptism, Jesus then shed His blood and died on the Cross. And He
rose from the dead in three days and now sits at the right hand of the
throne of God.
It
is imperative that we first reach the correct understanding of whether
or not Jesus took away the sins of the world, including your sins, when
He was baptized. By understanding the gospel of the water and the Spirit
and believing in it, we must respond to the salvation of God. We must
respond to what God did for us, saying, “That’s right.” When the Bible
tells us that the Lord took away all the sins of the world by being
baptized, we must abandon our own thoughts and respond to this by
believing the Word as it is. Had the Lord not taken away your sins
through His baptism, then His bloodshed on the Cross would have been all
in vain. We must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with
our hearts. The Lord has completely blotted out all your sins of the
world.
Faith
and salvation do not depend on your own efforts. Your salvation from
sin is depends on whether or not you have the faith that believes in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given us.
Do
you now recognize that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the
only true gospel, and do you now want to admit this truth in your heart?
Then, you must confess as the following: “Lord, to this day, I had not
known that You shouldered the sins of the world once and for all by
being baptized; I had misunderstood and misbelieved. But I thank You for
making me realize, even now, that I had misunderstood Your salvation.
Now that I have come to understand and know the truth of the water and
the Spirit, I believe in it and thank You for it.”
You,
too, must now understand the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
realize that it is for none other than yourselves, and accept it into
your hearts as such. Always acknowledging salvation as it is in your
hearts is what faith is about, and this is the faith that is based on
the correct understanding of Jesus, one that enables you to receive Him
into your hearts. And believing in this truth is the way for you to
become God’s own children, the very faith that remits you from all your
sins. What is your understanding of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, and how exactly do you believe in it?
Our
Lord said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free” (John 8:32). We must recognize the gospel truth of the water and
the Spirit as it is. This is the faith that believes in God. He has
saved us from the sins of the world with His water and blood. Because He
has saved us from the sins of the world with the water and the Spirit,
those who truly believe this before God will indeed be born again.
Are You Still Debtors?
Jesus
said in John 3 that unless one is born again of water and the Spirit,
he can neither go to the Kingdom of Heaven, nor see it. Being born again
of water and the Spirit is only possible when we believe in the baptism
of Jesus, His blood on the Cross, and the truth that He is the Son of
God and our Savior. Do you believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit?
Let’s
assume here that a man has accumulated half a million dollars in debt.
Interest alone is too much for him to bear. For ordinary working people,
this kind of debt is beyond their means to settle. Nor could this man
pay back his debt, and so he just went bankrupt and disappeared. But
even he flees to somewhere else and works hard trying to pay off his
debt, would he really be able to pay even the interest, let alone the
principal amount? His creditor, meanwhile, goes after his co-signer to
get the money back, but the co-signer has no way to pay back, either. So
the creditor, being rather unscrupulous, goes after his parents, making
all kinds of threat to force them to pay back the debt. The parents
can’t stand this, and so they pay off the creditor, and they get a
receipt from him in return.
Having
paid the creditor off, the father then starts to look for the son, who
no doubt would be suffering both in body and mind. He looked for his son
everywhere for 10 years, but he still could not find him. One day,
after 12 years went by, the son finally returns, having saved some
money. He first goes to his father and says, “I’ve saved $400,000, but I
am still short for $100,000. Can you lend me this amount? I’ll stay
with you and work hard to pay you back.” The father then embraced his
son in tears, saying to him, “I’ve already paid off all your debt! You
have nothing to worry anymore! How much you must have suffered all this
time!” Telling the son that his debt was paid off, the father shows him
the receipt.
The
son is overwhelmed with gratefulness, but at the same time he feels as
if he had suffered needlessly, thinking to himself, “For the past 12
years, I had lived my life as a deadbeat, never having a moment of
peace, when in fact I didn’t have to. I had lived as a deadbeat when I
wasn’t one. I just didn’t know. All my sufferings have been in vain!”
Dear
fellow Christians, those who are trying to receive the forgiveness of
their sins on their own, even as Jesus has already remitted all their
sins through His baptism and Cross, are still tormented with the problem
of sin, just like this son.
By
being baptized, Jesus has already blotted out our sins. He already took
away all our sins by being baptized, bore all the condemnation of sin
by shedding His blood on the Cross, and has thereby saved us. Do you now
realize this? That you were bound by your sins is because you did not
know that Jesus took away all your sins when He was baptized. Jesus
indeed took all your sins away. Believe this.
“There Is No Longer an Offering for Sin”
Let
us now turn to Hebrews 10:1-18: “For the law, having a shadow of the
good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never
with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year,
make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to
be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more
consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of
sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and
goats could take away sins.
Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’’
Previously
saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin
You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered
according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your
will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once and for all. 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. For by one offering He has perfected
forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also
witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put
My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then
He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’
Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering
for sin.”
The
passage here says that the Law is “a shadow of the good things to
come.” Just as passing yearly sins with the laying on of hands in the
Old Testament was real, so was it real that Jesus came to this earth and
took upon all our sins once and for all by being baptized by John the
Baptist. The Old Testament is a shadow of the New Testament. Shadows can
exists only when there are actual objects that cast them.
Like
this, God’s salvation manifested in the sacrificial system of the Old
Testament was realized through the ministry of Jesus Christ. In the Old
Testament, countless lambs, goats, and pigeons were slaughtered and
offered to God. But it was not possible for the blood of bulls and goats
to completely take away sins. The everlasting remission of sin had to
be fulfilled by Jesus the High Priest of Heaven. This is why our Lord
came to this world, was baptized, and shed His blood for us.
Referring
to Jesus, the Book of Hebrew declares that He is the High Priest of
Heaven. In the Old Testament, it was the High Priest who remitted the
sins of the Israelites by offering sacrifices to God on their behalf.
Like this, our Lord came as the High Priest of Heaven. “Behold, I have
come—In the volume of the book it is written of Me—To do Your will, O
God.” Jesus came to do the will of God the Father.
What
do you think is the will of God the Father? It is to save all human
beings from their sins. Actually, there was no human being on this
planet who could do the will of God the Father. There was One who could
do the will of the Father, and this was none other than Jesus. Because
Jesus accepted all the sins of mankind and blotted them all out in
obedience to the will of God the Father, the Father can now accept those
who believe in His Son as His own children. This was the will of God
the Father. His will, in other words, was to blot out our sins.
Following
the will of God the Father, Jesus came to this earth, took upon all the
sins of the world by being baptized, shed His blood and died on the
Cross, and has thereby given us new life. This is why our Lord said in
Hebrews 10:9, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.”
Verse
9 continues to say, “He takes away the first that He may establish the
second.” The sacrificial system of the Law could not give eternal
salvation to mankind. So God has given everlasting salvation to those
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not the Law. Can
we wash away our sins by doing some charitable works? Or by giving
prayers of repentance? Or by giving large offerings to our churches?
None of these can wash away our sins. We simply cannot receive the
remission of our sins through our own good deeds. This is why our Lord
came to this earth to be baptized and shed His blood.
Hebrews
10:10 says, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” By being baptized once,
dying on the Cross once, and rising from the dead again at once, Jesus
has become the Savior of those of us who believe in Him. Dear
Christians, it is imperative for you to realize that you cannot receive
the remission of your sins through the Law. But once you believe in the
water and the blood of Jesus, and that He is God Himself, you will all
be able to enter Heaven.
To
make all our sins disappear, Jesus offered the everlasting sacrifice
with His body by being baptized and shedding His blood. By coming to
this earth, being baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead
again, He has become the eternal Savior. Were your sins forever passed
onto Jesus when He was baptized? Is this why Jesus said, “It is
finished,” as He passed away on the Cross? Has God placed His law of the
Spirit of life in our hearts and blotted out all our sins? Is your
faith placed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? By believing in
this gospel, are you now righteous? Or, do you still remain sinners?
You
are all righteous. Before hearing the Word, you were clearly all
sinners, but after hearing it, you have now become righteous, and have
put on the new man who is renewed even in knowledge (Colossians 3:10).
How can we then be baptized into Jesus? By believing in Jesus’ righteous
ministry with our hearts, we can be baptized with Him, die with Him,
and be brought to life with Him. This is the elementary principle of
faith that believes with the heart.
Dear
fellow Christians, let us all realize that there is no other way to
enter Heaven but by faith; let us all understand and believe in this
baptism of Jesus and His blood, instead of fronting our own
righteousness; and by doing so, let us all be washed clean from all our
sins.
With
my faith, I give my boundless thanks to God before the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that He has given us through our Lord. It is my
sincerest hope and prayer that each and every one of you would also now
come to know and understand, without fail, the gospel truth of the water
and the Spirit revealed in Matthew 3:13-17, and believe in it with your
hearts, so that you would all become God’s own people.
May all His blessings be with you!
No comments:
Post a Comment