Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 4-3] Do Not Turn Again To the Weak and Beggarly Elements of the World (Galatians 4:1-11)
(Galatians 4:1-11)
“Now
I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all
from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and
stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we
were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when
the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba,
Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son,
then an heir of God through Christ. But then, indeed, when you did not
know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after
you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn
again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be
in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am
afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.”
Are Our Sins Blotted Out Only If We Offer Prayers of Repentance?
Paul
wrote this letter about 2,000 years ago. The “elements” here refer to
the basic principles of the Law to lead a legalistic life of faith
according to the Law. The Jews used to learn everything in a yeshiva.
The Apostle Paul himself was also trained under a famous teacher called
Gamaliel and taught to fear God through the Law. That is why the Apostle
Paul called it ‘elements’ to be still bound by the Law, learn the Law,
and practice the Law even after the coming of Jesus.
Paul
believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He said, “The heir,
as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though
he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time
appointed by the father.” What Paul wants to tell us in this passage is
that we should believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and
thereby become God’s children to inherit the dominion of Heaven. Before
meeting the Lord, we had been under the Law, and we were in desperate
need of a Savior.
However,
many people still had a legalistic faith even as they professed to
believe in Jesus. They were trying to observe every statute of the Law,
festivals, and the Sabbath, as it is written in Galatians 4:10-11, “You
observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest
I have labored for you in vain.” The people of Israel in the Old
Testament age had observed many festivals such as Passover, the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Harvest. The legalists, however,
argued that even in the age of the New Testament, the saints of God’s
Church still had to keep the Old Testament’s festivals and the Sabbath,
and that they could become God’s people only if they were physically
circumcised as well.
Like
this, there were many in the Early Church who pursued a legalistic
faith. What about now then? Are there such people among today’s
Christians who are still leading a legalistic life of faith? Yes. There
are so many Christians who believe that they still have to offer their
own prayers of repentance to be washed from their sins. They are none
other than the modern version of the legalists. It’s truly tragic that
most Christians are still adhering to a legalistic faith, even though
Jesus Christ has already blotted out all our sins once and for all with
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What we have to recognize here
is the fact that it’s not just “some” Christians who are such legalists,
but almost all Christians are leading a legalistic life of faith. Few
Christians actually know that leading a legalistic life is to stand
against God so much.
Those
who profess themselves to be faithful Christians, those who argue that
they must keep the Law of God, or believe that that their salvation is
completed only if they believe in the doctrine of repentance or the
Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification, are living a life of faith that
is completely divergent from the gospel Truth of the water and the
Spirit. All of us must, therefore, now cast aside the legalistic faith
and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Does
this then mean that in the present age of the New Testament, the Law is
now useless for us Christians? No, that is not the case. We still need
the Law. Everyone can believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
only if he has the proper knowledge of the role of God’s Law. For anyone
and everyone, only when one realizes his sins through the Law can he
then be saved from all sins by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, and become one of God’s people. The problem, however, is
that most Christians just try to keep God’s Law blindly, without even
realizing why God gave them His Law. God gave us His Law to let us
realize and know our sins (Romans 3:19-20). Only those who recognize
before the Law that they are sinners bound to hell can accept the gospel
of the water and the Spirit into their hearts and attain their
salvation.
When
we look back on our past lives of faith, we can see that for a long
time, we had, indeed, lived our lives of faith imprisoned by the Law.
However, once the gospel of the water and the Spirit came to us, the Son
of God made us completely righteous, so that we would no longer be
under the Law. That is how we came to belong to Jesus Christ. Through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have now become Abraham’s
spiritual descendants and the heirs who will inherit the Kingdom of God
according to His promise.
Nevertheless,
Christians who still adhere to their legalistic faith remain oblivious
to the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, absolutely convinced
that they must give prayers of repentance everyday to receive the
remission of their sins. They believe that although everyone is remitted
from his original sin all at once by believing in the blood of the
Cross, his personal sins committed thereafter are washed away through
prayers of repentance. So even though they believe in Jesus as their
Savior, they have no other choice but to always remain sinners. That is
why they believe that even if one believes in Jesus, it is only at his
death that he is made sinless to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
These
people have actually become God’s enemies, although this was never
their intention. Why? They have come to stand against God and His Church
precisely because they have rejected God’s Truth that remits away their
sins once and for all, and are instead trying to receive the remission
of their sins through their own prayers of repentance. They believe
staunchly that their sins are always forgiven through their own prayers
of repentance. But those who adhere to this kind of faith have all their
sins remaining intact in their hearts, and therefore they cannot help
but continue to be bound by sin and offer prayers of repentance
throughout their lives. These people do not have the proper knowledge of
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that is why they are
leading their lives of faith so foolishly. Yet despite this, they don’t
even think of the slightest possibility that they are misleading their
lives of faith.
In
this light, we can see that virtually all Christians today are still
living a legalistic life of faith under the elements. This doctrine of
repentance is a doctrine commonly found in every religion of the world,
which indicates that it fits everyone’s thoughts because it is based on
“the principle of rewards and punishments according to one’s deeds.” In
other words, mankind’s logic of rewards and punishments, in which one
has to do something on his own to compensate for his sin whenever he
commits one, has led to a doctrine that tries to wash away sin through
an act of penance called prayer of repentance.
However,
the adherents to such a doctrine believe in Jesus in vain. The blessing
that Jesus wants to give them is for them to receive the remission of
their sins once and for all, become forever sinless and righteous, and
turn into God’s children, all by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Yet despite this, these people remain ignorant of this
true gospel, and, as a result, they have all their sins remaining intact
in their hearts, and they continue to be tormented by their sins
everyday, only to be cast into hell in the end. Because they still have
sin in their hearts, they can never become God’s people. Since countless
sins have been written on the tablet of their hearts (Jeremiah 17:1),
they cannot say to God, “I have no sin. I am a righteous person.” In
such people’s hearts, there is neither the Word testifying to their
remission of sin, nor the Holy Spirit.
Because
these people still remain spiritually blind, they believe in Jesus in
vain with a vague expectation, thinking, “Since I believe in Jesus, I’ll
be changed into a sinless person someday.” Common to all of them is the
fact that they are still sinners, and that because of their sins, they
are living in bondage under the Law.
Then What Should We Do for Them?
The
Apostle Paul rebuked the faith of those who insisted that they could
become God’s people only if they were physically circumcised. Before we
try to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to today’s
Christians, we also have to teach them that they can never receive the
remission of their sins just by offering their own prayers of
repentance. To those who believe that they can be washed from their sins
through prayers of repentance, we should ask as the following: “Did
your heart’s sins really disappear when you offered prayers of
repentance?”
Honest
people would then surely answer with a “no.” After thus making them
realize how they had believed incorrectly, we then have to explain the
gospel of the water and the Spirit to them in detail. The first thing
that we should teach to those who believe in Jesus mistakenly is the
fact that it is impossible for them to be remitted from their sins
through their own prayers of repentance. They can then realize that
their hearts are bound by sin, and that their spirits are to be cursed
by God. That’s because it’s after this realization that they come to
listen to the gospel of the water and the Spirit, accept it into their
hearts, and believe in it.
We
must teach all those who are relying on their own prayers of repentance
that only the gospel of the water and the Spirit can cleanse them from
sin and make them God’s people. To do so, however, we must first have
them realize that those with legalistic beliefs have not yet received
the remission of sin from God, and we must also have them admit that
this remission of sin cannot be received by offering prayers of
repentance. They will then also realize what it really means when the
Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23), and return to the
true gospel of the water and the Spirit. That’s because only then do
they finally grasp the fallacy of their faith, and realize that the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, the real Truth of salvation, is the
gospel that saves them from all sins.
If
anyone realizes and believes that Jesus has indeed washed away all our
sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shedding
of His blood on the Cross, he will receive abundant spiritual blessings.
There is no one who would misbelieve in Jesus once he realizes that God
has completely washed away his sins with the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. We must grasp the fallacy of a legalistic faith. Only when
we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is true salvation
finally fulfilled in our hearts.
The
Book of Galatians teaches us many truths. Through this Word of
Galatians, we can teach people all over the world who just recently
believed the gospel of the water and the Spirit as they began to realize
why the circumcisionists’ legalistic faith is incorrect. Moreover,
through this Word, we can also teach them clearly why today’s legalistic
faith captivated by the doctrine of repentance is so wrong, and, in
doing so, shine the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit even more
brightly. Like this, the knowledge of this Word of Galatians is
absolutely indispensable when the believers in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit seek to preach their faith to those who are leading a
legalistic life of faith.
To
those who just recently believed in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, the Book of Galatians will be the Sword of the Spirit that
affirms the Truth of salvation and cuts off the false doctrines. Our
brothers, sisters, and colleagues all over the world, who have met the
gospel of the water and the Spirit through our books, are probably not
aware of what they should teach first when they preach this genuine
gospel to the Christian sinners around them. In particularly, when they
preach this gospel to those who are trying to wash away their sins
through their own prayers of repentance, they are likely to be at a
loss, not knowing what they should teach first. However, what is clear
is that that those who have the gospel of the water and the Spirit can
heal them from their mistaken beliefs.
In
the Catholic Church, when its believers commit sin, they partake in the
sacrament of penance. Catholics confess their sins to a priest, sitting
across a small window in a confession room, saying, “I’ve committed
such and such sins.” Then the priest asks the penitent to express sorrow
by saying one of the prayers found in the ritual or praying in his own
words, and assigns him corresponding penance. The priest then prays ‘the
prayer of absolution,’ to which the penitent responds, “Amen.” This is
an institution that corresponds to prayers of repentance in
Christianity.
However,
do Christians, Catholics and Protestants alike get their sins washed
away by partaking in the sacrament of penance or offering prayers of
repentance? No, absolutely no sin is blotted out through such a method
and such beliefs. Yet despite this, today’s Christians believe in Jesus
as their Savior according to their own convenience, without knowing the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Believing that the crucified Jesus
is their Savior, they are trying to be washed from their sins by
offering prayers of repentance. They think that their sins will all
disappear if they are just diligent with their prayers of repentance. In
other words, they believe in Jesus only as a matter of religion. That
is why they always remain sinners even as they profess to believe in
Jesus as their Savior.
During
the Early Church era, the saints of the Galatian churches received
physical circumcision to avoid contempt and persecution from
unbelievers. Seeking the approval of the Jews who did not believe in
Jesus, they followed the religious tradition of Judaism. These people
had no desire to seek the will of God, nor the growth of their faith. By
whatever means, they only sought to avoid the persecution that
inevitably followed their faith in Jesus. However, if they had been
under the curse of the Law before, but they now came to know and believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Truth of real salvation,
then it was only a matter of course that they should be persecuted by
many friends, colleagues, and even families.
You
must realize that even in God’s Church, there are many who are not
truly God’s people. It’s only natural for us to be persecuted because of
our faith in Jesus by those who are not God’s people. The Apostle Paul
had also believed in Judaism, and when he converted and believed in
Jesus Christ, the Jews persecuted him and tried to kill him. That is why
the Apostle Paul said, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power
of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
“The
message of the cross” here refers to the Truth that the Lord came to
this earth, took upon all the sins doomed to be cursed by the just Law
through His baptism, was crucified, rose from the dead again, and has
thereby saved us from all our sins. This “message of the cross” does not
just refer to the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross, but it refers to
the gospel of Truth, that Jesus has saved us humans from all our sins by
shouldering the sins of mankind and dying on the Cross to atone for
them. This also means that once we believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, we are to be persecuted for our faith in Jesus. If we
have indeed become God’s people by believing in this genuine gospel,
then it is only a matter of course that we should be hated by all the
people of the world, and detested by even our own families of the flesh
and our friends.
After
you received the remission of your sins by believing in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, didn’t many of your own family members turn
against you? Once we are born again by believing in this genuine gospel
and receive the remission of our sins, we often come across many people
who vehemently oppose us and hate us for no reason. Those who have not
yet received the remission of their sins have evil spirits in them, and
that is why they groundlessly hate us who have met Jesus by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They persecute us in both body
and spirit, just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac in the Old Testament.
Few
Christians actually know that their sins are not blotted out through
their own prayers of repentance. Therefore, to break down their
fallacious beliefs, we must first teach them to realize the futility of
prayers of repentance. To do so, we need to ask them, “It’s been ten
years since you believed in Jesus, and yet don’t your sins still remain
intact? Did your sins really disappear through your own prayers of
repentance?” And we need to ascertain to them that their sins are not
blotted out just by offering prayers of repentance after committing
them.
When
you first started to believe in Jesus, your hearts probably felt
liberated. When you thought about Jesus, this alone was probably enough
to fill you with gratefulness, and you probably felt as if your hearts
were cleansed after offering prayers of repentance. However, after
several years passed by since you first believed in Jesus, you came to
realize that sin continued to pile up in your hearts, and that these
sins did not disappear even though you offered lots of prayers of
repentance. Was this not the case? So, in general, while Christians are
very enthusiastic when they first attend church, after a short while,
they eventually end up becoming like the hypocritical Pharisees.
For
us to really be saved from all our sins, we must believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord. If you still have sin in
your hearts despite believing in Jesus, then it’s all because the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit is not in your hearts. Unless you have
faith in this genuine gospel, you will surely end up attending church
only out of obligation, and, as a result, turn into a hypocrite without
even realizing that this has happened to you.
So,
when we meet and talk with people who have led a religious life for a
long time, we can see just how wrong it is to believe in the doctrine of
repentance or the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification that they rely
upon. According to the logic of their faith placed in those doctrines,
after leading their lives of faith for that long, they should have
become sanctified to brilliance. But the reality is that their hearts
still remain sinful, and so whenever they face any problem, they only
lament, crying out, “What should I do? What should I do?” Indeed, having
relied only on doctrines without any faith in the real gospel of the
water and the Spirit, they are exposed as sinners before God, and they
are therefore no longer able to maintain their own doctrinal conviction.
That their hearts remain sinful is the clear proof that they have not
been delivered from sin yet.
As
such, when we preach the gospel to Christians, we need to let them know
first that it is nothing more than a lie to claim that the remission of
sin is received by offering prayers of repentance. If you are still
offering prayers of repentance, then you are still leading a legalistic
life of faith. If people believe that their sins are blotted out by
offering prayers of repentance, then they have no other choice but to
keep offering prayers of repentance time after time, for otherwise their
sins would remain in their hearts.
So,
everyday, most Christians try not to commit sin, but they end up
sinning again and again, and therefore they have to offer prayers of
repentance day after day. They turn into strange people, switching back
and forth from sinners to righteous people several times in just a day.
That is why the Bible says, “Its swamps and marshes will not be healed;
they will be given over to salt” (Ezekiel 47:11). To such people who
offer prayers of repentance everyday, we need to make it clear that
their own faith will ultimately cause them to be sinners and lead them
to death.
Those Who Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Are Now No Longer under the Law
The
Apostle Paul said to the Galatian saints, “Now I say that the heir, as
long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is
master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time
appointed by the father” (Galatians 4:1-2). And he said that once we are
saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we are no
longer under a tutor. In other words, once we are born again through
this genuine gospel, we don’t try to receive the remission of our sins
by offering prayers of repentance, nor by keeping the Sabbath
faithfully, far less by observing Lent or the festivals of the Old
Testament.
Now
that we have received the remission of our sins by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, it is by our faith in God that we
live, just as He said, “The just shall live by faith.” In other words,
we live by believing that the Lord is our Savior, and that He has
blotted out all our sins. This is what the lives of the righteous are
like. After we really grasp that the Lord has wholly saved us through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can have real faith in Him,
in His Word, and in all His good intentions toward us.
Those
who are leading a legalistic life of faith still have not moved beyond
the elementary stage of a religion called ‘Christianity.’ They are
fundamentally different from those who are leading an elevated life of
faith. The believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are
people of extremely accurate faith, but those Christians who now think
that the remission of sin is received by offering prayers of repentance
are still leading their lives of faith without even realizing the wrath
of the Law prepared for them. The wrath of the Law brings eternal death.
Young
students have to continue to attend school until they become adults.
Why? Because they have to get at least the basic education to function
properly in society. However, once they become adults, they no longer go
to school. Yet almost all Christians are still bound under the bondage
of the Law. Everyone was already a sinner from the very moment he was
born, and therefore he is under the rule of the Law. Why? Because there
is sin in everyone’s heart. That is why every sinner must meet Jesus
Christ through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And he must
escape from the elementary knowledge of the Law.
Galatians
4:4-5 says, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth
His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were
under the law.” The words “to redeem” here mean to purchase by paying a
price. Slave markets were quite active in the old days. When someone
needed a slave, he had to go to the slave market and pay an appropriate
price to purchase one. In other words, to possess a slave, one had to
pay the money and buy him. Likewise, in order for the Lord to take us to
the Kingdom of God and make us live forever as God’s children, He had
to redeem us with the atoning work of the water and the Spirit. That is
why the Lord was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified to
death, all to pay off the wage of our sins.
This
is how the Lord has redeemed us from all our sins: Before Jesus Christ
came, this world was under the Law, and therefore everyone was a sinner.
At that time, when we were sinners, Jesus was born on this earth
incarnated in the flesh through the body of the Virgin Mary. To atone
for all our sins, the Lord Jesus had to take upon Himself all the sins
of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist in the
Jordan River, shed His precious blood and die on the Cross, and rise
from the dead again. By fulfilling all these ministries, the Lord paid
off the wages of all our sins. He bought us by paying the proper price
of salvation.
By
offering Himself to God, the Lord redeemed us from sin, and enabled us
to attain the right to become God’s children if we only believe in His
righteous work wholeheartedly. Before, we were sinners, but now, by
believing in the merits of Jesus Christ, we have been adopted into God’s
family. The Lord has saved us from all our sins through the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, and by believing in this gospel, we have been
saved from all our sins once and for all. That is why Galatians 4:6-7
says, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no
longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through
Christ.” The Lord has indeed redeemed us from sin.
Anyone
who believes in this Truth can now be washed from all his sins and
become a son of God. And God sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts and
enabled us to call God as Abba, Father. Therefore, we are no longer
slaves but sons, and if sons, then we are heirs of God. In other words,
if we are indeed God’s sons, then we are heirs who will inherit
everything God has. Just as God lives forever, we are to live forever
also; by giving us salvation, God has enabled us to enjoy all His
splendor and glory; and God has given us everything He has. In short, we
have become God’s sons through our faith in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
Now,
we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit no longer
live as slaves under the elements of this world. Also, we do not make
friends with those who are not born again as of yet. The Lord said in
Psalm:
“Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners” (Psalms 1:1).
The
righteous can never join hands with sinners to work together, nor
should they. And even if they were to do this, it would not work. Those
who have been born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit
cannot work with not only unbelievers, but they can’t work with
legalistic Christians either. If you have really received the remission
of your sins, then you probably have experienced for yourselves how you
are not compatible with those worldly people. If, however, you are
marching to the same drum as the people of the world, then you should
realize that you have already been utterly corrupted. And you should
turn around as soon as possible, realizing that you are turning into an
instrument of evil.
Once
I met the Lord through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, I
had to part from my old companions with whom I had led my life of faith.
Although they asked me to stay and work with them, I said to them, “No,
I’m afraid I can’t. While I don’t hate you personally, I cannot be with
you. If the gospel of the water and the Spirit that I preached was
right, then you should have believed in it. Unless you believe in this
gospel, I can’t share fellowship with you.”
If
I were to work with them, I would still be a liar. Had I joined hands
and worked with the legalists or those claiming that the remission of
sin is received through prayers of repentance, then this would have
meant that I still approved of their lies, and that is why I could never
join hands and work with them.
However,
there are many Evangelicals who join hands and work with legalistic
believers without any hesitation. Such people pretend to be spiritual,
only to exploit their followers for financial gains. I could never bring
myself to do this. When I met my old worldly friends just after I was
born again of water and the Spirit, I could see at first glance that I
could never be with such people. Since we were close friends back in our
childhood, I was deeply attached to them emotionally. But, I found out
that their faith was only elementary, and I felt spiritually shameful
and uncomfortable to be with them.
Of
course, I’m not saying here that you should isolate yourselves from all
the people of the world. But it is not that beneficial to maintain
spiritual fellowship with your old acquaintances. When you try to preach
the gospel to your friends who have memories of your old selves only,
they will not easily accept the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit
that’s inside you, since their carnal memories will hinder them from
believing in the Truth. This is why the Lord said, “A prophet is not
without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in
his own house” (Mark 6:4).
So
unless you remove them from your minds, you cannot serve the Lord, nor
follow Him, nor preach the gospel. The Bible says that Abraham left his
country, his family, and his father’s house to follow the Word of God.
Likewise, unless we throw away our old relationships, we cannot follow
God’s Word. So it is absolutely indispensable for us to never be
enslaved by the legalists or the people of the world. We must not join
hands and work with them.
That
is why the Apostle Paul rebuked the Galatian saints and warned them,
saying, “Now that you know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, how
is it that you wish to turn again to the weak and beggarly elements?” To
couch this message in today’s terms, the Bible is asking, “How can a
born-again person want to return to the world, and back into the faith
of the legalists claiming that the remission of sin is received through
prayers of repentance?” To do so would render it meaningless that Jesus
Christ came to this earth, was baptized, and died on the Cross to save
us. Given the fact that Jesus did not avoid persecution or hardship but
personally bore them all to save us, how could we return to the
elementary knowledge, submit under the legalists, and just be content to
live like this? We must never do this. If the born-again want to be
servants, they must be servants of righteousness. They must not be
servants of sin, servants of the Devil, or servants of the legalists.
The Apostle Paul made it clear here that we must not be enslaved to
those who do not practice righteousness.
Because
the Lord has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
the Apostle Paul said the following: “For you, brethren, have been
called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the
flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). In other
words, God has given us true liberty, but we should not use this liberty
to serve our own flesh or practice evil. When we were bound by sin to
be cursed, God delivered us from the curses of the Law and of sin. And
Jesus freed us from all the shackles that had bound us and gave us true
liberty.
The
Lord said that He gave us true freedom because He wanted us to live
voluntarily for what is right. Yet do you wish to be bound by the world
again despite this? If anyone wants to be bound by sin again, and to be
enslaved by the world again, then he deserves to be rebuked. We must
listen to the admonition of the Apostle Paul.
This
year also, we have a great deal of God’s work that needs to be done
through His Church. We have made many preparations so far, and now, we
will actually carry out many works. We need many workers of God as well.
The saints should serve the Lord, make money diligently through their
jobs, and take care of their families properly, while His servants
should labor diligently to carry out their entrusted tasks from each of
their posts. There are many things that we have to do from our
respective posts.
We
must never return to the weak and beggarly elements to be enslaved by
the Law. The word “beggarly” is an antonym of “noble.” Those who do not
do righteous work are called “beggarly.” If politicians do not work for
their fellow countrymen but only for the interest of their own party and
themselves, then they are “beggarly.” What else could they be but
charlatans? If we Christians defend only our own denominations’
doctrines and forsake the Truth, then we would be nothing more than
spiritual scoundrels. Such scoundrels are none other than the
circumcisionists and the advocates of prayers of repentance.
We
Christians must take the Word of God as our bread and grow spiritually
by trusting in God’s Church. And we must live by faith and pool our
strengths together. We shouldn’t say, “I don’t have to care anymore.
Since the Church has leaders and preceding servants, they will take care
of everything.” The Lord wants to use all of us as His workers.
Nowadays,
I wish I had ten bodies. One of me could then write the book, another
could work to make money, yet another could meet and have fellowship
with the saints, my fourth person could travel around the world to
preach, and so on. I say this because there is so much work to do, and
it would be wonderful if all this work could be completed soon.
My
fellow believers, do you want to return to the weak and beggarly
elements? Do you want to return to such legalistic beliefs, claiming
that the remission of original sin is received just by believing in
Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone, and that the remission of personal sins
are received by offering prayers of repentance? I know that this is not
what you want. If you and I offer our bodies to what is right, then we
will be made instruments of righteousness, but if we offer our bodies to
evil despite receiving the remission of our sins, then we will become
servants of evil.
That
is why the Lord is telling us to become servants of righteousness.
Regardless of who, if anyone offers his body as an instrument of
righteousness, the Holy Spirit inside him will rejoice, the Lord will
bestow grace on him, and He will bless him in His time. However, if we
offer our bodies to what is evil as its instruments, then only curses
will await us. If we do this, it’s inevitable for us to come across
those whom we should never meet, and so whether intentionally or
unintentionally, we may very well be tainted with filth and stained by
their evil thoughts and their wicked and false beliefs.
The
Apostle Paul had labored hard to preach the gospel of the water and the
Spirit to the saints of the Galatian churches and to nurture them, and
yet the circumcisionists came and ruined them all. That is why the
Apostle Paul said, “Do not render my labor for you in vain. Please don’t
make it futile.” Yet despite this, after the Apostle Paul’s death, the
saints and God’s servants tolerated the circumcisionists and left them
alone, and God’s Church in this region disappeared as a result. The
Early Churches all disappeared in vain like this.
In
our Church also, if we tolerate those who claim that sin is blotted out
by offering prayers of repentance, then we will all perish away. First
of all, therefore, we ourselves must not turn into such people. And
second, we must never tolerate those who misinterpret the Word and
confuse the Church. We have patience to wait for those who are
insufficient in the flesh. When the flesh is insufficient, all that is
needed is some correction. However, if one misinterprets the Word, then
this brings about immediate death. It will kill not only this person,
but countless people around him.
Therefore,
those who preach the Word of God are very important to you. While all
those who serve the gospel in various ways are very important, you need
to cherish even more those who preach the Word of God to you. Remember
that if the Word is properly understood and properly explained,
countless people will be able to be saved, but if not, then countless
people will die. Never tolerate such false teachers inside the Church.
Now,
we must not return to the elementary knowledge to live a legalistic
life of faith. Nor should we tolerate such beliefs. We must always live
and overcome by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Indeed, living by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
we must preach this true gospel to even more countries. To preach this
gospel all over the world completely, we must live by faith until the
day we stand before the presence of the Lord. I admonish you all to
willingly dedicate your bodies and hearts to support the spreading of
the gospel.
I,
too, give myself to the Lord like this. I am now carrying out what has
been entrusted to me from my post so that the gospel flowers would
blossom fully. I believe that you will also fulfill what has been
entrusted to you until the gospel flowers blossom fully throughout the
whole world. Having escaped from the legalistic faith of this world,
whether we eat or drink, we must live for the glory of God (1
Corinthians 10:31).
I
give my thanks to the Lord for saving us from all our sins and
confusion, and moving us to the Kingdom of the Son of God. Hallelujah!
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