Subject 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN
[Chapter 5-8] Although We May Always Be Lacking, God’s Perfect Love Has Delivered Us From the Sins of the World (1 John 5:1-21)
(1 John 5:1-21)
“Whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who
loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we
know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His
commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is
born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has
overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he
who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water
and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And
it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For
there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and
the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three
agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His
Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he
who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not
believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the
testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God
does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in
the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal
life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of
God. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask
anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He
hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we
have asked of Him. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does
not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who
commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not
say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and
there is sin not leading to death. We know that whoever is born of God
does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the
wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole
world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son
of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him
who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen.”
We Need to Know What Kind of Personality God Possesses
If
we want to talk about God, we first need to know what God is like. To
start with the greatest attribute of God, He is the God of love. Thus, I
would like to look at and examine God’s love.
The
Apostle John, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, wrote the Epistles of
John. The main theme the Apostle John deals with in his Epistles is the
love of God. Put differently, the Word in 1, 2, and 3 John mainly
professes about the love of God. Hence, it is impossible for us not to
talk about the love of God as we share the Word in 1 John. Even the fact
that we have been delivered from all our sins was an act out of Jesus’
unconditional and unilateral love for us.
As
I have continually emphasized, God’s love has no condition. The Lord
did not love and deliver us because He has seen our beauty or our
excellence. Our Lord has unilaterally loved us just because we appeared
to Him both so pitiful and so lovely. We have not received our salvation
of the remission of sin by any of our efforts or merits or excellence,
but rather by wearing the unilateral love of God. We have been delivered
from all the sins of the world by believing in the gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit, which is made of the love of Jesus.
Let’s
talk about the phrase, “God is love.” The love of God is absolute. It
is unconditional, unilateral, and truthful. It is the love of the Truth
(2 Thessalonians 2:10).
There
are some kinds of humanistic love. The loves between friends and
between the opposite sexes are examples of humanistic love. Scholars
classify the types of love as agape love, storge love, phileo love, and
eros love. The Greek word ‘storge’ means the love between family members
such as the parents’ love toward their children, and ‘phileo’ refers to
companionship between friends, while ‘eros’ refers to the love between
the opposite sexes. All three kinds of love are of human, and the
humanistic love is conditional, whatever kind it may be, because humans
have a strong tendency to fill in their own desires in the name of love.
Yet, agape love, on the other hand, refers to the unconditional love of
God toward us.
Humanistic
love cannot help but be conditional. We make friends by gauging whether
we sympathize with the other, we have common interests, and we
understand each other. When the other’s conditions are meeting our
standards, we make friends with them. Like this, friendship contains
many selfish elements. We are bound to each other in the name of
friendship only when we benefit from each other; we can lean on each
other, or be recognized by each other. “I love you because you
understand me and you are faithful to me.” These words imply that such a
friendly relationship can change at any time depending on the
conditions.
The
love between the opposite sexes may be what people are deceived by the
most often yet desire to fall in nonetheless. The love between the
opposite sexes is often characterized as one of absoluteness and
sacrifice. People say, “I won’t be able to live another day without my
lover,” as if they would even give up their own lives for their lovers.
Still, we easily give up on our relationships with the opposite sexes if
our loss is greater than our gain.
The
love for the opposite sexes is such that we constantly look for ones
that satisfy our standards. Even if someone passionately and
self-sacrificially loves me, I won’t love that person back as long as I
am not satisfied. Love between the opposite sexes is selfish. And it
still somehow deludes us emotionally into believing that our lovers of
the opposite sex are the ones we will cherish the most and be cherished
the most by. This is the reality of the love between the opposite sexes.
The
state of our hearts, which we call “love,” is conditional, selfish, and
relative. Only the love of God is worthy of being called true love.
What Kind of Love Is the Love of God?
God
did not pour on us His love because He expected something back in
return. God did not love us because He wanted to be loved back by us in
the equal amount. God has delivered us unconditionally because He wanted
to give us His love, grace, blessings, and glory. God only desires that
our hearts would be opened so that the love of God can come into it.
In
order to deliver us from all our sins, God sent Jesus into this world
and had Him receive the baptism from John the Baptist. Jesus received
the Baptism, which transferred all of the sins of the corrupted
humanity. When Jesus bore our sins as such onto the Cross, the love of
our Lord for us was fully revealed to us. Although people disbelieve in
God, do not rely on God, and live their lives following their lusts of
the flesh, the Lord has pity on their souls.
God
Himself has thus practiced His love by coming into this world in the
flesh of man, and recorded His righteous deeds in the Scriptures so that
we all can confirm this with our own eyes and bear witness to it with
our mouth. God did all of this so that there is not a single person who
doesn’t know of His love. God by His unconditional and unilateral love
wanted us to live eternally by receiving His absolute and worthiest
love. In His desire for such outcome, Jesus has delivered us by the
water and the Spirit.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit is God’s salvation without any cost,
the worthiest and unconditional love, and the Truth of life, which
revives all the people of the world. If there were any condition to the
love of Jesus, even that condition would have been there for our own
benefit of living life full of God’s blessings. That was the love of
Jesus.
Dear
fellow believers, is it due to our own merits that we come to believe
in Jesus Christ as our Savior and become God’s own children? Did God
love us because we in our excellence have served our God well and done
only things that God appreciates? This is absolutely not the case. If
this were true, we, who are deficient and lacking in our flesh, would
not deserve the love of Jesus. Instead, there would be others in the
world who are more deserving of such love.
There
is a saying about the love of a parent that to the eyes of a hedgehog,
its baby hedgehog is the most beautiful one in the world. Such is the
love of a parent that loves regardless of whether one’s child is good or
bad. And such is the love of God, who has delivered us, that loves us
for the sake of love. And it is also the love of Jesus, which is the
most fundamental basics for our faith.
The
love of Jesus is the framework and foundation of our faith. We build
our house of faith on the foundation of the absolute, unconditional, and
unilateral love of Jesus. In the love of Christ, there are true
serving, witnessing, praising, and praying. If we leave out the
unconditional love of God’s salvation for us from our faith, all our
worship and services for the Lord would become nothing.
I
sometimes think to myself: “What is most important to me? What is most
worthy to our congregation? And what is most precious to God’s servants?
What would be the most precious thing inscribed in our hearts?
That
would be the gospel of the water and the Spirit that professes that God
in His unconditional love has adopted us His own people. The gospel of
the water and the Spirit, by which He blotted out all our sins and
adopted us His children in His unilateral love for us, has become the
eternally unchanging light in our hearts. Even if we forget everything
else, we would never be able to forget the love of Jesus inscribed in
our hearts, which delivered us from all our sins. The gospel of the
water and the Spirit has taken its place in our hearts as the love of
God we will never forget. Is this also true for you?
Nothing
else can take its place in our hearts. In actuality, it does not matter
whether we praise well, pray well, or serve the gospel well. The
priorities of those things can change their places at any time. However,
the absolute love of our Lord, by which He delivered us, should occupy
the summit of each one’s value system at all times. The Grace of
salvation, by which Jesus in His love for us delivered us by the water,
the blood, and the Spirit, has fully filled up our hearts. Because we
have received our salvation entirely through the love of Jesus, there is
no place for pride or boasting in our hearts but only gratefulness.
God’s Commandment Is to Love One Another
In
today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle John says about God’s
Commandment, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,
and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of
Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God
and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:1-3).
All this passage is telling us is about love. That is, God’s commandment
to us is of nothing but “love.”
God’s
commandments entail what we should keep before God. Then, which
commandments should we keep before God? That would be the love of God.
It said that the love of God is also the commandment of God.
After
Jesus had delivered us, the commandment that Jesus most stressed with
great emphasis is for us to love God and to love people. Although our
Lord has spoken many things after having come to this world, all those
things could be included in these two forms of love. Surely, Jesus spoke
about our salvation and many other important matters. Yet, He still
found it most important that the saints and the servants of God keep His
commandments, that is, to love God and to love people. The Apostle John
thus said, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments”
(1 John 5:3).
Let
us look at more detailed Scripture verses about which commandments
those who have received the remission of sin should keep. Dear fellow
believers, as you may well know, the Law contained 613 codes and
regulations. The selection of the most essential of these 613 codes and
regulations is the Ten Commandments. If we look at the Ten Commandments
with a broad stroke, it could be divided into the two parts of “love
God” and “love your neighbors.”
Out
of His love, God has delivered us by the water and the Spirit and has
given us the Ten Commandments. What are those commandments? They are
God’s commandments that require us to love God and to love people. In
another word, God’s commandment that we must keep is nothing else but
“love.” It is love; love for God and love for people. As it is said in
the Bible that those who love God will keep His commandments, those who
truly believe in Jesus and those who were delivered by the unconditional
love of Jesus keep God’s commandments. And they do never abandon God’s
commandments to love God and love other people.
Sometimes,
I hear those who have allegedly received the remission of sin say that
the Law is effective only up to the point one receives one’s salvation,
and therefore, that the Law is abolished to a person as soon as he
receives the remission of sin. However, we should know with a clear
conviction that we would be leading a false life in faith, if we
abandoned God’s commandments after we receive the remission of sin.
Our
Lord has said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the
Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Our
Lord’s coming should not be understood as the abolishment of the Law.
Instead, we should understand that our Lord has come to complete the
Law.
What
then is the Law that was completed instead of being abolished? God’s
law and His commandments are professing about our obligation “to love
God and love other people.” The law was not made to disappear but rather
made firm. The commandment to love God and love other people is the
Word we should eternally keep. Therefore, if we ever give up God’s
commandment, we would surely be living wrongly in our walks of faith.
Jesus
had kept that commandment from God by coming into this world. In order
to fulfill God’s love for people, Jesus vicariously carried all of our
sins onto the Cross, where He shed His blood so that all of humanity may
be delivered from all of their sins. Because we are God’s own people,
we now have the obligation to keep the commandment of God’s love.
The
Apostle John said that only those who keep God’s commandments truly
love God. We must remember this: The more our belief deepens, the more
our faith deepens, and the closer we come to our Lord, we would realize
how deficient and weak we are. Conversely, we would also realize how
great the love our Lord was that delivered us, and we would become
grateful to our Lord. We would be grateful of the fact that we were
given commandments from God to keep.
Let’s
take a look at the Tabernacle that appears in the Old Testament for a
moment. There were 60 pillars that were standing along with the fence of
the outer court of the Tabernacle. The height of each pillar was 5
cubits, or 2.25 meters. The sockets of these pillars were all made out
of bronze, but the overlays of their capitals was made of silver (Exodus
38:17). And since the pillars could fall if they were standing on their
own, they were bound with silver hooks and bands to each other so they
can support one another. We can also see that there were the hooks
attached to the rest sides of the pillars. Then, they tied up the
pillars with their cords from the hooks to the pegs stuck into the
ground, so that the cords held the 60 pillars tightly together.
What
does each of these pillars signify? They represent you and me. How
could we stand before God without stumbling? There are things necessary
if we are to stand firmly and not falter before God.
In
the Bible, bronze signifies the judgment and condemnation of God. A
typical account that states the use of bronze is shown in Numbers
21:8-9. When Moses made a bronze serpent according to God’s command, and
put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when
he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Here, the bronze serpent
implies our Lord Jesus, who has borne all the condemnations of mankind
by nailing to the Cross in our stead.
We
are people who before God should rightly receive dreadful judgments
according to our sins. If it weren’t for the unilateral love of God, we
should have received the judgment of our sins in front of God. Since
humanity has committed sin against God by failing into the deception of
Satan the Devil, we cannot help but stand before God as the grave
sinners who should be judged.
Then,
how could we stand as the pillars of the tabernacle? How could each one
of us stand as the citizens of God’s Kingdom? We are able to stand
before God because God has given us His atoning grace. We are able to
stand before God at this moment because of the love of God. Although we
were originally destined to be judged for our sins, we are able to stand
before God in our faith because He has given us the grace of salvation.
In
the Bible, silver signifies the grace of God. As we reflect on the
bronze socket at the bottom of the pillar and the silver that covers the
overlays of the pillar capitals, we can know for sure that the silver
means the grace of the remission of sin. We should have suffered under
hell fire for our sins. We should have received condemnations and
judgments for our sins. But instead, God has given us the gift of
salvation.
When
we see the overlays of the acacia-pillar capitals covered with the
silver, we are sure that this implies the very grace of God, that is,
the remission of sin. Just like the Lord covers the pillars with the
silver overlay, He has given us the grace of salvation so that we may
stand before God instead of being judged for the sins we still commit.
Although we were sinners before God who should have received the furious
judgments for our sins and died, God has delivered us by vicariously
receiving the judgments for our sins through the love of God’s grace.
The
grace of God’s love is such. We, the humans, had no other choice but to
go to hell and receive the rightful condemnation for our sins. Yet, God
had planned to adopt humanity as His own children even before the
Creation. And thus, God had poured on humanity His unilateral and
absolute love: God sent His only Son to this world to take onto Himself
all our sins. God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, received the
baptism to transfer all our sins onto Himself and He bore all the
judgments for our sins. Jesus Christ, the true God of love willingly
died for us vicariously to give us His grace of salvation.
Our
Lord took all the sins of this world by receiving the baptism from John
the Baptist. He bore our sins onto the Cross, where He was crucified,
shed His blood, and died. Jesus has granted us the grace of salvation by
vicariously suffering all the judgments we should have received for all
our sins. By the baptism and the bloodshed, our Lord has completely
delivered us from God’s judgments of our sins. Also, our Lord has made
us God’s own people, tying a rope around us and pulling it tightly from
each side while firmly grounding the pillar so that we may boldly stand
before God.
If it weren’t for the unconditional love of Jesus, we would have not been able to escape God’s judgments and condemnations.
Do
you believe in the baptism Jesus received and the Cross, which enables
us to be clothed with the salvation of His love? God in his
unconditional love sent His own Son Jesus to this world, transferring
all the sins of humanity through the baptism Jesus received at the
Jordan River, and having Jesus vicariously receive the judgments of our
sins by the crucifixion on the Cross. Through the baptism and bloodshed,
God has made sinners into the born-again, the righteous and adopted
them His own people, only if they believed in this Truth. We have
received our salvation through such unconditional love of God.
Have
we done any good deeds that merit our own salvation from all our sins?
Not at all. We have not received our salvation because we were
excellent, pious before God, and wise and full of grace. Prayers in
fasting, prayers in the mountains, and our tithing and offerings were
not the reasons for our salvation either. We have received our salvation
through the unilateral and unconditional love of God and His Son Jesus.
We have received our salvation from all sins by listening to and
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit wholeheartedly. The
truth is that we have received our salvation and have become God’s
children only by believing in the God-given gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
How
then should we live if we became God’s children by His unconditional
love? As the children of God, we must believe in and follow the Word of
God. We should follow God’s Law instead of the law of this world. God is
calling us to love His commandments and to live according to them as
His people who have been delivered from all the sins of the world.
God Speaks to the Born-again
The
Apostle John is speaking to the born-again saints in today’s Scripture
passage that those who keep God’s commandments are those who also love
God: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And
His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
Dear
fellow believers, are God’s commandments burdensome to you? Although we
have not much and we are deficient in many ways, we have the love for
God in our hearts. Because God has loved us first, we cannot help but to
love Him. Because God has loved us unconditionally, we who are
overwhelmed by that love have the love for God in our hearts. If we have
not received the love of God, we cannot share His love confidently to
others.
Dear
fellow believers, we must keep God’s commandments. To keep God’s
commandments entails loving God as well as my neighbors, both brothers
and sisters, and even the servants of God. It is not that difficult to
love. If we were truly delivered through His unconditional love, there
should be no reason for us to share this love with others. There is a
common saying even in the world, which says, “If you have a reason for
loving, that is no true love at all.” As we inevitably have change of
hearts when we love someone conditionally, if we hold conditions when we
come before God of unconditional love, we may come to complain to God
and leave Him eventually.
We,
the saints must keep God’s commandments. Why are our hearts so desolate
sometimes? It is because we do not remember the unconditional love of
our Lord for us. It is because we have forgotten ourselves the fact that
we have received our salvation by the all-covering and absolute love of
God.
People
say that those who have fallen in love become more beautiful, that the
world appears more beautiful to them, and that their hearts grow more
abundant. If our hearts are desolate despite the fact that we have
received our salvation from all sins, it must be because we have not
fallen in fervent love with God.
If
we look around us, God has created an environment for us to fall in
true love and lead an abundant and beautiful life. God has granted us
His giant love so that we may love God, the souls of others, and
brothers and sisters. Now, we have become able to love with an abundant
and smooth heart by His love we have already received. You have received
the love of God and also become people capable of loving back. Because
people who have received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit have no sin in their hearts, they are able
to love other people around them as their own hearts are filled with
God’s love.
God
has told us to keep His commandments. Dear fellow believers, is there
anyone who is not aware of God’s commandments? I bet that all of you are
aware of God’s commandments to love God and other people. It is right
for us to love the servants of God and the brothers and sisters as one
family in Christ. That a born-again righteous leads such a life is
appropriate and beautiful. If we lack God’s love, we are essentially
nothing. It is because we love God that we sacrifice, endure, and devote
ourselves for Him as the beloved. Because God loves us, He sometimes
disciplines us, admonishes us, and rebukes us. It is all because of
love.
I
tell you clearly that God’s commandments are not burdensome. It is
right for us to try to keep God’s commandments despite of our
deficiencies, if we were delivered from our sins by grace. Our efforts
to live as such are beautiful. If we were naturally good at it without
any effort, it would not appear as beautiful as it is. However, it looks
so beautiful for us to try to keep to God’s commandments by walking
step by step in faith because we have known God’s love and want to
practice the same love.
When
Jesus received the baptism, all our sins were transferred onto Jesus.
All judgments were terminated, when Jesus died on the Cross. Jesus
unilaterally took all our sins onto Himself by receiving the baptism and
vicariously received the judgments on the Cross. How great is this
love? This great love of God has come to us by the water and the blood
of our Lord. Dear fellow believers, do you believe in this?
“And
it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth…. And
there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and
the blood; and these agree as one” (1 John 5:6-8). The water, the blood,
and the Holy Spirit were all essentials of salvation of the sinners
that God the Father had sent.
Dear
fellow believers, God has loved us. Thus, our Lord has unilaterally
delivered us from all our sins, and the Holy Spirit bears witness to
this Truth: “And it is the Spirit who bears witness” (1 John 5:6). Jesus
has unconditionally loved sinners. After making us into the righteous
by delivering us from all our sins, He has adopted us the children of
God who actually receive God’s love.
There
are three witnesses for those who have received the salvation from all
their sins. They are the ministries of the water, the blood, and the
Holy Spirit. First, God the Son has come to this world in the flesh of
man (the witness of the Holy Spirit). Second, the Lord took the sins of
humanity by being baptized (the witness of the water). And third, He
paid off all the wages of sins of the world by vicariously shedding His
blood on the Cross, where He was crucified and died for the sinners (the
witness of the blood). Our Savior Jesus has delivered all of humanity,
who were once sinners, from all judgments and made them into the
righteous, who are exempt from God’s judgments. This is the salvation by
the water and the Spirit that the Apostle John testifies about.
Thus,
the righteous who were delivered by God have the witness in themselves
that they have received salvation by the gospel Truth of the water and
the Spirit. “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in
himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he had
not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son” (1 John
5:10). We must have the witness of our salvation by God. We must possess
Truth of the water and the Spirit in our hearts as evidence that Jesus,
out of His unilateral and unconditional love for us, delivered us from
all our sins and condemnations. We all need this evidence to stand
before God when the time comes.
We,
Christians should at the least possess this evidence of our salvation
before God. Which evidences? We must have the witnesses of the water,
the blood, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the true God, and the Spiritual
Being came to this world in the flesh of man. When He turned the age of
30, to blot out all the sins of this world, He took those sins onto
Himself by the proper method of “for thus,” which was the receiving of
the baptism. And by shedding His blood on the Cross, He has taken care
of the judgments for all our sins and granted us new life. We must
believe in all these and have the evidences of our salvation. We, as
believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, have received our
salvation from all our sins and also received the Holy Spirit in our
hearts by this faith.
God
will ask us on “the great and awesome day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31):
“Have you been delivered from all your sins? What is the true gospel of
the water and the Spirit? Do you really believe in this true gospel,
which has delivered us from all our sins? Supply the Word of evidence of
your salvation from all your sins.”
Therefore,
Dear fellow Christians, you must have the definite evidence of your
salvation that is the Word of faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit in your hearts. When we are asked, “How did Jesus come to this
world? How and when were your sins transferred onto Jesus,” we should
reply, “All our sins were transferred onto Jesus, when He received the
baptism. When Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist at the
Jordan River, He took all our sins onto Himself. He has become our
Savior by bearing our sins onto the Cross unto death and by resurrecting
from the dead.” We should have the evidence contained in such
confession.
It
says in Matthew 3:15, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness.” We need to have faith in the
baptism of Jesus. However, we should not merely remember it but should
BELIEVE in our hearts the Word of Truth of salvation. Jesus has thus
blotted out all my sins, as He said in John 19:30, “It is finished.” In
Hebrews 10:18, it also says, “Now where there is remission of these,
there is no longer an offering for sin.” Since our Lord has unilaterally
blotted out all our sins, we must have the evidence in our hearts by
the Word that we will never again go to hell because of our sins. All of
us who have been delivered from all our sins must have the evidence of
our salvation in our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
This is the Truth of salvation and the evidence of our salvation.
All
the born-again have the evidence of their true faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit in front of God. This is why the Bible says,
“He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who
does not believe God has made Him a liar” (1 John 5:10).
Dear
fellow believers, do you know the fact that there is evidence of faith
for believing God as one’s Savior? I am sure you do. Those who have been
delivered by the Word of the Lord have the evidence. The truly
born-again most certainly have the evidence of the Word.
Do
we have anything we can boast about in front of God? There is
absolutely no such thing. We have absolutely nothing to boast about
except our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in our
hearts.
Look
at our flesh. We are people who become easily proud and boastful about
what we do well and, similarly, easily depressed and resentful about
what we do badly. We must realize how embarrassing it is to boast about
our righteousness that is worse than an old rag. We are people who have
nothing to boast about before God. We are merely a sinful nation, a
people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, and the children who
are corrupters (Isaiah 1:4): Everything that comes out of our flesh is
evil, and we are helpless without the grace of salvation from God.
However,
our Lord has delivered us from all our sins because He unilaterally and
unconditionally loved us. Our Lord has accomplished our salvation from
all our sins by God’s righteousness alone and none of our own
righteousness. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is now in our
hearts. He who has made us without any sin and has granted us new life
is our Lord. So, we cannot but profess, “God, You have delivered me
because You loved me.”
The
benchmark of our salvation is none other than the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Dear fellow believers, do even 0.1% of the requirements
of our salvation include our own excellence? Are we required to be
physically tall to receive our salvation? Does it matter how good our
bodies look? Does our muscle tone have an effect on our salvation? Can
our tempers be the factors on our salvation? Does anything about our
flesh add to our chance of receiving our salvation?
None
of these help us to receive our salvation before God. Whether we easily
get angry on the slightest provocation, we are like a bride, we act
innocent, we are perverse, or we are violent, none of these makes a
difference when it comes to receiving the remission of sin. Whatever
comes out from our flesh cannot be helpful to our salvation, which is
just absolutely and unilaterally given by God. Jesus has allowed us to
be born into this world according to His providence. When we look at
ourselves in the mirror, we may not appear lovely to ourselves, but God
has deemed us so very lovely that He has delivered us with His
unconditional and unilateral love for us.
Do
you believe that our Lord blotted out all our sins by the water, the
blood, and the Holy Spirit, which are the embodiments of His
unconditional and absolute love? There is not even 0.1% of our own
righteousness included in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
In
the hearts of the born-again, who have their faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, is the evidence of Truth of one’s salvation.
However, there are still those who sadden the heart of our Lord by
saying, “But Lord, I can’t believe this doubtful message. Although You
say You have delivered me from all my sins, I still have my sins.” In
the hearts of these people, there is no evidence of faith in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit. But, you must know that God clearly
declares, “He who does not believe God has made Him a liar” (1 John
5:10). Are you by any chance living your spiritual life with false faith
that makes God a liar?
God
has delivered us by His method of salvation through His unconditional
love that is completed by the water, the blood and the Spirit: The water
signifies the truth that all your sins have been washed away since all
your sins were transferred onto Jesus when He received the baptism; the
blood witnesses the truth that by taking all the sins of the world
through the baptism He received, Jesus was able to bear all our sins
onto the Cross, where He vicariously received the judgments for our sins
and died; and the Spirit bears witness to the truth the Son of God has
come in the flesh of man and unilaterally delivered all of humanity.
Put
differently, the water testifies that God has blotted out all the sins
of humanity by the baptism of Jesus, by which all the sins of the world
was transferred onto Him; the blood testifies that when Jesus died on
the Cross, all our sins died along with Him; and the Holy Spirit
declares that Jesus has become our perfect Savior.
While
God has wholly delivered us from our sins as such, those who do not
fully believe in God are making fusses over their faith by insisting
that they are still sinners. Whoever is acting this way now has not yet
believed in Jesus Christ as his own Savior who came by the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Even these people would be fully delivered from
all their sins if they only believed in the witnesses of the water, the
blood, and the Holy Spirit.
In
the hearts of the people who believe in the gospel of the water, the
blood, and the Spirit that has taken all our sins of the past, present,
and future resides the Holy Spirit. And the very Holy Spirit witnesses
that we have no more sin. Those who believe in the gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit have no sin at any point in time.
We
cannot receive the full remission of sin, if we leave out any one of
the three in our faith in the gospel of the water, the blood, and the
Holy Spirit. Yet, some people have not believed in the entire witnesses
of the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit but believed in them
selectively, leaving out one of the three or another. Because of that,
they do not have the assurance in their hearts that they have been fully
delivered from all their sins.
To
those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that
gospel becomes the evidence of their salvation. But to those who have
not yet received salvation, the gospel of the water and the Spirit
becomes the evidence of the fact that they have not yet received their
salvation. If you have believed recklessly leaving out any of the three
witnesses, you then surely have sins in your heart, and it is the
concrete evidence of the fact that you have not yet received the
remission of sin. And your hearts would be troubled by the remaining
sins in your hearts. On the contrary, those who have been truly
delivered from all their sins and have true freedom in their hearts are
those who have believed in the gospel of the water, the blood, and the
Spirit.
Jesus
unilaterally has blotted out all our sins, even the smallest ones.
Jesus did not consult with us beforehand but unilaterally blotted out
all our sins. Just in case we may be embarrassed to answer, saying,
“Please don’t ask. I can’t answer that,” Jesus unilaterally delivered
sinners from all their sins by His own baptism of ‘the water’, ‘the
blood’ shed on the Cross, and His being the Sacred Spirit. Dear fellow
believers, do you believe in this? The purpose for which our Lord has
blotted out all our sins was so that we may receive our eternal life.
You must believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Eternal Life God Has Presented Us
The
Apostle John is telling us these to let us know that we have the
eternal life (1 John 5:13). He has recorded this Word so that we may
know of our eternal life, which God has given us. Dear fellow
Christians, to those who have received their salvation, there is the
eternal life of Heaven.
Dear
fellow believers, do you understand what the eternal life is like? The
righteous shine evermore brightly like the rising sun (Proverbs 4:18).
The eternal life entails that we will never die and will live forever.
It is different from our current life that has a definite end. The
eternal life has no end. Thinking about it again, the eternal life is
almost beyond description. Because our bodies have not yet been
resurrected, we still live lives in this finite world that is full of
limits. Thus, the concept of living eternally without knowing death may
seem so unreal to us.
There
is no other way but to believe in God, who presents us with the eternal
life, for we have not yet enjoyed the eternal life. I have lived over
50 years, yet still my life feels too short to know eternal life
physically. However, in my faith, I have already attained the eternal
life.
Dear
fellow believers, the death we encounter in this world in the flesh is
not the real end for us. For those who have been born-again by believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there will also be the
resurrection of their bodies for the eternal life.
When
a person dies in the world once, he is leaving his body temporarily.
That is not an eternal death. The soul of a person will remain alive and
stand trial before God for one’s sins. There we will stand in the
crossroad between eternal life and eternal condemnation. Those who have
been born-again and been washed away completely by believing in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit receive the eternal blessed life.
Those who have not been born-again and who still have sins in their
hearts experience death one more time, being put into punishment of hell
fire where even a maggot cannot die.
God
will raise the born-again back to eternal life. And as God’s own
people, they will eternally live in the Kingdom of Heaven. They will
live eternally in transformed bodies, undying bodies, and unfading
bodies just like that of the resurrected Jesus. That indeed is the
eternal life.
The Born-again Find Peace by Remaining in God’s Commandments
We
the born-again are happy and in peace when we abide in God’s
commandments. When we keep and abide in the Word of the commandments to
love God and other people, our hearts are delighted. We are bold in our
hearts. We have peace in our hearts. And God’s glory and grace fill our
hearts abundantly.
Still,
we should caution ourselves so that there is no one who leaves God’s
love and instead falls in love with a person who is not yet born-again
out of one’s zeal to live by the commandments of loving God and other
people. Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
should love others spiritually and properly. If we fail to do so, we
will fall in fleshly love too passionately with those who have not yet
realized this Truth.
There
are times when our insufficiencies reveal their realities even after
our being born-again and while we are trying to abide in God’s
commandments. Do we not often fall short before God and other people? We
surely do. Because even we the born-again are lacking, we sometimes
commit sins.
I
am a man of a quick temper. I show my bad temperaments sometimes
especially when my body is ill. Even if I don’t show my temperaments to
others, I am prone to show it to my wife. I get upset at things not
worth getting upset about when I feel sick. It is difficult to be nice
when my belly aches and I feel fatigued, not able to control my own
body.
This
probably is an example of a very small flaw of mine. There are many
other things that my body and conscience point to me as my flaws. Are
you saying, “How could a pastor do such things?” Actually, whenever I
feel a pang on my conscience, I think about the baptism Jesus received,
and pray to God: “My Lord, help me to be healthy so that I may spread
the gospel of the water and the Spirit while living in this world.
Although I am weak, I know I have to live in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit and spread it all over the world. Oh Lord, I believe that
You have taken away all my shortcomings. Because I believe that You, my
Lord have taken all my sins away by the baptism You received, I pray to
You now as I believe so.”
Just
like this, I approach the Jordan River with my faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). It’s always
good to read about the baptism Jesus received, by which He took all our
sins onto Himself. Because all my sins that bother my conscience have
been transferred onto Jesus through the laying on of hands of John the
Baptist when he baptized Jesus, my faith is emboldened instantly any
time I read this passage of the Bible. As if I never felt that bad in
the first place, I soon say, “Honey, let’s have dinner. I am sorry I
ever was upset at you. Right? We need to go attend the evening service
after our meal.”
Dear
fellow believers, I hope that you realize that this baptism Jesus
received is the salvation from God. We can not call ourselves “the
righteous,” if it were not for the baptism Jesus received, just as we
wouldn’t be able to talk about the abolishment of judgments without
first mentioning Jesus’ bloodshed on the Cross. The baptism Jesus
received! Because Jesus received the baptism, we can approach with
confidence before God at any time. Because Jesus received the baptism,
we can stand firm in the Kingdom of God with a clear conscience as the
60 pillars that stood around the Tabernacle, professing, “Lord, I am a
righteous. I am Your servant. I am one of Your own people.”
The
believers are bold in their hearts because they believe in the Lord who
has delivered them from all their sins by the water and the Spirit.
Because Jesus took all our sins onto Himself through His baptism, we are
able to live boldly and pray to God confidently. We have received our
boldness by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Time
and again we receive answers, when we pray. And we were able to live up
until today by the grace of our Lord.
Some
may argue against this Truth saying, “If you are called a righteous,
surely you must not commit a single sin. Right?” That’s not how it is.
We are called the righteous because we have believed in the gospel of
the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit, and not because we do not
commit any sin. You must acknowledge that even the born-again commit
sins. We have to admit that each one of us commits various sins day in
and day out.
We
keep committing sins till the day we die. However, all those sins have
been transferred onto Jesus. Weren’t your sins transferred? Yes, they
were transferred when Jesus was baptized at the Jordan River. If your
sins were transferred to Jesus already, do you still have sins or not?
You no longer have any sin. When we say that all our sins were
transferred, which time period are we talking about? Doesn’t the Bible
say that all the sins of the world were transferred onto Jesus? If all
the sins of the world were transferred onto Jesus, were not all the sins
of our entire life transferred onto Jesus as well?
We
are without any sin and can stand with confidence before God because
all our sins that we have committed and will commit until the day we die
were transferred onto the head of Jesus. Jesus, knowing that we will
commit sins till the day we die, has taken onto Himself all our sins. If
we say that we do not commit any sin, we make Jesus into a liar and
further make Jesus’ righteousness into unrighteousness. We are able to
say that we are sinless only through our faith. How could we ever
confess such faith, if Jesus had not received the baptism?
Yet,
there are so many false preachers in today’s Christianity. They teach
their congregations not to sin any more. Their congregations are the
people who come to church asking God to blot out all their sins because
of the tremendous agony of sin. But such false teachers only admonish
their followers to say the prayers of repentance, to make a huge amount
of offerings, and to serve the community a lot instead of telling them
the Word of the remission of sin. They are the predators eating the body
and spirit of those who come seeking for God’s love and righteousness
because they lack their own.
Dear
fellow Christians, how could we, who are merely human, not commit any
sin? How can we, who are merely human, not commit any sin with our
bodies and conscience? We commit numerous sins. Then, how can we
possibly say that we are also righteous? It is because Jesus in His
unilateral and unconditional love became a human being by coming in the
flesh of man, and because He then has completely taken care of all our
sins and the judgments accorded to them by the water and the blood that
we are called the righteous through our faith. We are the righteous. We
have become the righteous through our faith. We are actually sinless.
How could we still have sin, if all our sins were transferred onto
Jesus?
“Did you see Jesus receiving the baptism? Did you see it?”
“Of course, I did.”
“How did you see that? Were you there?”
“Of course, I was there.”
“How can you be there? You are lying to me.”
“I
have seen it through the Word of the Bible, the eternally unchanging
Word of Truth. When I read the Word, it was written thus in the Bible.”
Dear
fellow believers, we are made very bold by our faith in the written
Word. We do not believe after having seen an illusion but rather after
having seen and read the written Word.
Now,
let’s take a look at today’s Scripture Passage from 1 John 5:16. “If
anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he
will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading
to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should
pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not
leading to death” (1 John 5:16-17).
There
are two kinds of sins: One that leads to one’s death and another that
does not lead to one’s death. One kind of sin does not lead to death,
and the other leads to death in hell. All the sins we have committed in
our weakness are blotted out and won’t lead us into hell. If so, do you
know what sins actually lead to our eternal death?
Disbelief
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the embodiment of
Jesus’ unconditional love, is the sin deserving of eternal destruction.
Not believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which professes
that Jesus came to this world and blotted out all our sins
unconditionally with His baptism and the bloodshed on the Cross is the
sin leading to death, that is, the sin deserving of eternal
condemnation. The Apostle John is telling us about this.
In
these days, there are too many nominal Christians who do not believe in
the baptism Jesus received. Many of them think that Jesus received the
baptism from John the Baptist because He wanted to show us His humility.
They argue that Jesus’ words of “You should baptize Me nonetheless” in
response to the remarks of John the Baptist that “How could I dare to
baptize You” is nothing but an expression of Jesus’ humility. It is
heartbreaking to hear people say those untrue and false words so
bluntly.
Dear
fellow believers, don’t you see the words of Jesus that “Permit it to
be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”?
The word “all righteousness” signifies “perfect fairness or equity,” and
the word “for thus” means “by the same method of laying on of the hands
recorded in the Old Testament.” This passage professes that Jesus by
receiving the baptism from John the Baptist has blotted out all the sins
of the entire humanity through such a just method. Our Lord declares
through this passage, “I have blotted out all your sins and made you the
righteous. I have made it through the baptism received from John the
Baptist. Now, whoever believes in this Truth will receive the complete
salvation.”
This
is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do you now understand the
gospel of the water and the Spirit? One of the original meanings of
baptism is “to pass the sin.” Then, what do the words “for thus” mean?
They mean “by means of Jesus’ baptism from John the Baptist.” Then, who
is John the Baptist?
It
is written in Matthews 11:11, “Among those born of women there has not
risen one greater than John the Baptist.” John the Baptist is none other
than the representative of all humanity. And he is also one of the
descendants of Aaron, the High Priest (Luke 1:5, 1 Chronicles 24:10).
John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus, was actually the High Priest, who
as the representative of all humanity transferred all our sins onto
Jesus.
What
then did Jesus intend to accomplish by receiving the baptism from John
the Baptist? Did He want to show the whole world His humility? It was
not like that. The passage, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness,” is clearly saying that Jesus received the baptism so
that everyone may be blotted out of all his or her sins. Jesus has
completed the unconditional love of God the Father with His own body
after having come to this world. He has delivered us from all our sins.
He has thus fulfilled all righteousness as well as all of God’s love.
Dear
fellow believers, not believing in the baptism Jesus received is
equivalent of making Jesus into a liar. If you do not believe that we
have received our salvation when Jesus justly took all our sins by
receiving the baptism and that Jesus unilaterally blotted out all our
sins, you are making fun of Jesus. Believing in Jesus while leaving out
the baptism, or believing in Jesus while considering His baptism to be a
sign of His humility, or believing in Jesus without knowing about the
baptism at all are acts making fun of Jesus.
If,
in your 10 or 50 years of Christian faith, you have been emotionally
infatuated with sentiments such as “How much it must have hurt Jesus
when He died on the Cross in my place,” you should turn around from your
wrong way. You should turn away from your mistaken faith and believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Of
course, it must have hurt Jesus a lot, when He was crucified on the
Cross. Like that, Jesus sacrificed His own body out of His unconditional
love so that all our sins may be blotted out. If we had been in His
place, for whom could we have ever possibly sacrificed us as such? Do
you intend to make fun and make a liar of Jesus, who has offered even
His own life for us? If not, you should know and believe correctly why
Jesus had to die on the Cross and why He had to receive the baptism.
Dear
fellow believers, let’s put ourselves in His shoes. Someone must die
because of the sins he has committed. But I love that someone so dearly.
So I say to that person, “Come out! I will die in your place. All
problems will be solved if I substitute for you!” And I die in the place
of that person. I am dying crucified on the Cross. How much would it
hurt me?
Of
course, we probably lack even the thought of sacrificing ourselves for
someone else. Even if we can conceive sacrificing oneself for one’s
lover as a beautiful moment, it would hurt physically nonetheless. If
the person I am dying for does not know my intention for dying for him
and just says, “It’s a shame that person has to die like that. How much
it must have hurt him,” how would I feel? We might regret having died
for him because of his utter ignorance.
Because
Jesus loved us so much, He died in our place, who were destined to die.
To actually deliver us from all our sins, Jesus received the baptism
before He died on the Cross. Jesus died on the Cross shedding His blood
after He received the baptism hoping that we would become the children
of God and receive the remission of sin by knowing and believing why
Jesus was crucified.
With
His dying breath, He said, “I love you. Although I die, I still love
you. Because I love you, I die in your place.” Dear fellow believers,
this is the unconditional love of Jesus. Now, we must receive the
remission of sin by believing in that unconditional love of Jesus.
Could
we human ever do such a thing? We may possibly do so for a righteous
person. Even so, it is beneficial for the both of us only if I can set
the person free by sacrificing myself with an agreement with the
executioner: “I will receive the punishment this person deserves in his
place, so transfer all his sins onto me and judge me instead of this
person.”
Dear
fellow believers, am I right or not? Without consulting the
executioner, if I unilaterally said to the condemned criminal, “Come
out! Come on. I will die in your place,” would that expunge that
person’s sins? Not at all. Only when the sins are transferred onto me
from the sinner can I save that person and die in his place. If I did
not do so but died unilaterally, it would be a waste of my life. What
benefits would be there in such a death? There is not benefit for the
other person unless there is a certain agreement or a promise between
the two parties.
But,
God had established His just law in the sacrificial system that a
person’s sins are blotted out by laying one’s hands on the sacrifice and
by shedding its blood. And Jesus had to receive the baptism and die
shedding His blood on the Cross according to God’s just Law. If we leave
out any one of those from our faith, we would not be able to receive
the remission of sin, even if God is willing, because such is only a
lawless faith.
Satan
the Devil has brought the sin into us humans. Satan the Devil had
deceived us to disobey the Word of God. Sin that had thus come into us
brought death, because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Humans
had to die before God.
However,
although sin was brought to human because of the Devil, Jesus received
the baptism to take the wages of sin, which the Devil had brought to
people, because He loved us. And by receiving the judgments in our
place, Jesus delivered those He loved from all the judgments accorded to
their sins. Thus, we must know and believe the reason why Jesus
received the baptism.
Dear
fellow believers, why did Jesus receive the baptism? He received the
baptism to take our sins away from us and unto Himself. Why did Jesus
die on the Cross shedding His blood? Jesus died on the Cross crucified
so that He may vicariously receive all the judgments of our sins in our
place. Dear fellow Christians, do you believe this? We have been
delivered by the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. We have to
believe that God delivered us from all our sins by doing these two
things.
Some
Christians are still insisting, “I believe only in the Cross and don’t
believe in the baptism Jesus received. I don’t know. I have never heard
of it.” Are you not acting like this? We should not believe without any
discernment on the true gospel. If you have not heard about Jesus’
baptism before, you need to listen to it now. Listen and believe now and
receive your salvation.
The
Apostle John said, “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not
leading to death” (1 John 5:17). All unrighteousness is sin. Every
wrongdoing is sin. Look at your own hands. When we do good and beautiful
deeds, witness, and aid with these hands, our hands are good. But
hurting people and doing bad deeds with these hands, they are merely the
instruments of sin.
Still,
the Scripture says that there are sins not leading to death. How could a
sin not lead to death? Because God has already borne all our sins out
of His love, there are sins not leading to death. The only sin that
leads to death is the sin of disbelief in Jesus’ salvation that was
accomplished by the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. Not believing
that Jesus took all our sins when He received the baptism, and not
believing that Jesus received all the judgments for our sins when He
died on the Cross are the sins leading the sinners to death.
All
the iniquities that we commit within our thought and with our flesh are
also sins before God. But, these sins do not lead us to death because
our Lord has taken all those sins of the world through His baptism.
After receiving the baptism, John the Baptist testified about Him,
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John
1:29)
Sins
that we commit in our bodies, that we commit in our hearts, and that
sting our consciences—all these sins of the world have been taken care
of by Jesus, when received the baptism at the Jordan River. Jesus thus
took all our sins by receiving the baptism and bore all our sins onto
the death on the Cross, where He ended His earthly life of 33 years.
Jesus uttered the words, “It is finished,” as He died. And He finished
all judgments of our sins. Like that, Jesus delivered us from all our
sins by the water and the blood.
Dear
fellow believers, we should not commit sins leading to death. Is there
anyone thinking, “Why is there sin in me if I believed in Jesus? It is
strange, very strange. Why would there be sin if I believe?” What such
believers are saying is that they don’t know why there are sins in their
hearts even if they believe well, try to live by the Word, and say so
many prayers of repentance. It is because they did not know or did not
believe in the reason Jesus received the baptism.
In
believing in Jesus as one’s personal Lord and Savior, it is most
important to know and believe in the baptism Jesus received. The
remission of sin without Jesus’ baptism is like a corndog without the
hotdog sausage. Gospel without the baptism is like a clock without the
hands of the clock. Salvation without the baptism is like a head without
any brain. Dear fellow believers, do you understand me? The sin that
disqualifies a person from the remission of sin and thus leads to hell
is the sin of not believing in the baptism, the Cross, and the
resurrection of Jesus altogether as one. This is not something I tell
you on my own but what the Word of God says.
1
John 5:18 says, “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but
he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not
touch him.” It said that those who have received the salvation born of
God do not commit any sin. We who are born-again are incapable of
committing some kind of sin. Which sin? It means that we cannot deny the
salvation from all my sins Jesus accomplished by the water and the
blood. Do you understand?
We
cannot deny the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If you commit any
sin after you have received the remission of sin, it is entirely your
fault, but the salvation Jesus has granted you cannot be nullified by
it. If we commit any sins in our bodies and thoughts while still living
in this flesh, they are just due to our insufficiencies, and there is
nothing wrong with the gospel of the water, the blood, and the Spirit.
All of these sins can be taken care of anytime, when we approach the
Jordan River with our faith.
Satan
the Devil provokes and tempts us often while we are stilling living in
the flesh on this world. Although we never completely yield into those
temptations, we sometimes come close. If we say, “I shouldn’t. I really
shouldn’t,” we have already fallen into the temptation and committed a
sin by heart. Then, such sins sting our consciences. Do you understand?
However, our Lord within us protects us.
“Hey! You! Aren’t you a righteous? Do you have any sin or not?”
“I don’t have any sin, Lord.”
“Then why are you so hesitant?”
“Lord, that is because I am so weak.”
“Still,
am I not your Lord and Savior? Why are you so downtrodden? Don’t be.
What do you lack, if I have become your Lord and Savior? Does My
salvation lack anything, although I did it out of My unconditional love
for you?”
“No. Not at all, Lord.”
“Then, be of good cheer!”
Our
Lord is patting on our shoulders to cheer up and He is protecting us.
Then, how the wicked one could dare touch us? The Bible said, “And the
wicked one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18).
Dear
fellow believers, truly the wicked one cannot touch those who are
born-again by the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit, like the
Apostle John was. Although we may do wrongs in our bodies, we are
fundamentally incapable of denying Jesus. We cannot deny the salvation
Jesus granted us, which was accomplished with the unconditional love of
Jesus by the water and the blood. We cannot reverse the fact that we
have become God’s own children. We cannot say that I have become sinners
again. That’s right. We may be insufficient as people are insufficient,
but Jesus can never be insufficient. Because our perfect Lord is
protecting us, the wicked one dare not touch us.
Thus,
whoever perverts this gospel have problem in their faith in the baptism
of water Jesus received. If a person has problem with his faith in the
baptism, he inadvertently emphasizes his deeds and his own
righteousness. And he tries to cling on to the Christian doctrines. He
tries to hold one or some selected verses as the most important. That is
not what true faith is like. Only when we have the right faith in the
baptism, our holding onto specific Scripture verses does not matter. And
though we may be weak, the salvation we have received is perfect.
Dear
fellow believers, the love of Jesus is unconditional, truthful, and
perfect. By the unilateral, merciful and absolute love of our Lord, we
were delivered from all our sins. The salvation you and I have received
is not insufficient, but rather perfect. Because Jesus loved us
unilaterally, He has made us into God the Father’s own people. And thus,
our salvation was accomplished. He dwells within us in the entity of
the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit, He makes us realize the meanings of
the Bible. The Holy Spirit becomes our teacher who clarifies everything
for us. And the Holy Spirit is leading us. I feel strongly about the
ways the Holy Spirit teaches you as your teacher.
1
John 5:19 says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies
under the sway of the wicked one.” There are two kinds of people
practicing their faith: those who belong to God and others who belong to
the world. Whether they believe in Buddhism, Christianity, or something
else, people who practice religion can be divided into these two
categories. Likewise, even the Christians can be divided into these two
categories. Those people that belong to God and others who belong to the
world! The people who belong to the world belong to the Devil.
Those
people who belong to God have received the remission of sin by
believing in the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit, which are the
expression of God’s unconditional love. They live joyfully, though they
may be weak, because they are grateful for the free gift of salvation
from God. Those who were born again through their faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit belong to God. They belong to God by believing
in the unconditional love of Jesus and in the salvation achieved by the
water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. However, those who do not
believe in any of these belong to the world.
I
cannot but profess my thanks to the Lord like this: “Lord, I am utterly
nothing. I am an acorn in dog food. I am merely a good-for-nothing
fellow, and I have nothing to boast before You. Although I may be so
weak as such, You are perfect. Thank You Lord. Yes, Lord. How could I
ever make up for Your grace, no matter how hard I try? Could I ever gain
You grace through my deeds, no matter how well I behave? That’s right,
Lord. Lord, Your Words are too perfect, complete, pure, and delicate.
Your love of salvation is truly amazing. It is too perfect.”
In
Psalms 18:30, David declared, “As for God, His way is perfect; The word
of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” God’s
Word is truly pure, perfect, and delicate. He has given us His perfect
salvation, which is written in His detailed Word. Therefore, if you
daily confess your faith while believing only in Jesus’ bloodshed on the
Cross, your faith is incomplete and futile. You may ask why. It is
because sins in your hearts still remain with such faith.
Do
you coerce yourself to believe in the Truth? Do you need such an effort
to believe in the Truth? Is it really necessary for us to put such
efforts, when God has already completed our salvation? There is nothing
else we can do but to be grateful and believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, which professes that our Lord in His unconditional love
has delivered us by the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. Since we
only have to respond to and agree with His love of salvation, by
saying, “Yes, You’re right. Thank You Lord. I appreciate Your love!
Amen,” it is quite plain and simple.
1
John 5:20-21 states, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has
given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are
in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and
eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen”
Dear
fellow believers, we have become God’s own children and people
belonging to God by our faith in our Lord-given salvation, which was
accomplished through the gospel of the water, the blood, and the Spirit.
I am truly thankful that we have become people belonging to God instead
of belonging to the Devil. God has granted us an understanding so that
we may know, believe, and follow God.
Dear
fellow believers, I cannot tell you how insufficient I am. I am so weak
that when I look at myself, I tell myself, “You wretched human!” I say
this not because I have committed some kind of a terrible sin but
because there is nothing perfect about me when I look at myself. Do I
actually even keep the mealtime? Or do I even remember things well?
Whenever I see a beautiful woman passing by, I try to have a glimpse of
it one more time. And I delight in someone else’s flaws. That’s me.
“You
wretched human, why are you so weak?” There is nothing whole about me
though, I can confess, “Lord, How perfect You are! How is it that my
salvation is not shaken, although I am weak as such? Your salvation is
so precious and certain.” Although we are weak, we are certain about the
salvation our Lord has granted us.
Dear
fellow believers, in this age we need to live in a clear understanding.
We need to have the right realization of and the correct faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because we are not assured of
salvation by merely believing without first knowing the baptism Jesus
received and the bloodshed on the Cross, we more desperately need to
have God-given ability of understanding. When we have the right
understanding and the right realization, we can taste the true love of
God. And we are also enabled to live abiding by God’s commandments in
His love.
Who
dares to say that you can receive the remission of sin without first
believing in the baptism Jesus received? Who is saying that one can
receive one’s salvation before God without the Cross of Jesus? Who in
this world is so bold and yet so utterly ignorant? Who dares to say that
you can receive your salvation before God by the bloodshed of the Cross
alone without the baptism Jesus received? Those who say that you can
receive your salvation even if you leave out any of the baptism and
blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are falsely witnessing.
Have
you received your remission of sin despite leaving out the baptism
Jesus received? Those who are certain of their salvation despite of
leaving out the baptism Jesus received have deceived themselves. God
will not acknowledge the faith of such persons. Believing while leaving
out either the baptism or the Cross is merely a personal determination,
and such faith will never be acknowledged before Jesus. Could someone
attain salvation without believing in the baptism Jesus received? Such a
thing is not possible at all.
Dear
fellow believers, can we say that our sins were transferred to Jesus,
although they were not? We wouldn’t be able to do so. I am telling you
so because I truly have no more sin in my heart. If I could really
receive the remission of all my sins by believing in the Cross alone
without the baptism of Jesus, why would I talk so much about both the
baptism and the Cross simultaneously? If we can attain true salvation by
believing somehow in anything, why have I been telling you the two
elements of the baptism and the Cross? It is difficult to adhere even if
told you just one of them. So when I tell you that we should believe in
both of them, you have to realize that it is not my own insistence but
what the Word of God requires.
I
also had believed only in the Cross of Jesus for a while in my life. I
believed in that one element for about 10 years. I was able to tell
others about the Cross, but I was unable to share about Jesus’ baptism.
And I myself remained a sinner before God.
But
after I realized about the baptism of Jesus, I noticed that God had
talked about the baptism all along both in the Old and New Testaments.
My God! I was upset and full of regrets when I realized that I had been
sharing a false gospel till then. I made up my mind: “If I had known the
gospel of the water and the Spirit earlier, to how many people could I
have witnessed the true gospel over the last 10 years? Still, let’s be
thankful since I have finally realized the real gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit and am able to share it with others.”
After
I was born again, I live sharing the Word of Truth with a joyful heart
and have great appetites. And whenever my brothers or sisters have
troubles, I encourage them to pray for the matters. Although I cannot
pray much because of my weary body, I pray, “Lord Jesus, You have to
fill these needs for us. Please, fill our needs.”
Dear
fellow believers, is there anyone who persists that he has received his
salvation from all his sins without first believing in the baptism
Jesus received? There is not a single person. Not even one.
Even
the Apostle Paul states that he has received the remission of sin by
the baptism Jesus received. And that he has been delivered from the
judgments of his sins by the bloodshed of the Cross (Romans 6:3-6,
Galatians 3:27). Peter also says, “There is also an antitype which now
saves us—baptism (not the removal of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1
Peter 3:21). The Apostle John also says that he has received the
salvation by the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit (1 John 5: 5-8).
He also maintains that the evidence of the remission of sin is in the
water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we should believe
about our salvation as such as well. Do you believe as such? Yes, I am
sure you do.
Dear
fellow believers, if your faith had fallen short so far, let’s believe
according to the written Word of the water and the Spirit from now on.
Let’s believe in the baptism of Jesus and His bloodshed as recorded in
our Lord-given Word.
Our
Lord has delivered sinners from all their sins by coming in the flesh
of man, receiving the baptism and shedding His blood on the Cross. I
believe that Jesus has delivered all sinners by the water, the blood,
and the Holy Spirit.
We truly give thanks to our God in our true faith. Halleluiah!
No comments:
Post a Comment