በኮቪድ-19 እና በዓለም አቀፉ የመላላኪያ አገልግሎት መዛባት ምክንያት ‹ነጻ የታተመ መጽሐፍ አገልግሎታችንን› ለጊዜው አቋርጠናል፡፡
በዚህ ሁኔታ ምክንያት በዚህ ጊዜ መጽሐፎቻችንን ለእናንተ መላክ አንችልም፡፡
ይህ ወረርሽኝ በቅርቡ እንዲያበቃና የፖስታ አገልግሎት እንዲጀምር ጸልዩ፡፡
ይህ ወረርሽኝ በቅርቡ እንዲያበቃና የፖስታ አገልግሎት እንዲጀምር ጸልዩ፡፡
Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-30] Holiness to the Lord (Exodus 28:36-43)
(Exodus 28:36-43)
“You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And you shall put it on a blue cord, that it may be on the turban; it shall be on the front of the turban. So it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD. You shall skillfully weave the tunic of fine linen thread, you shall make the turban of fine linen, and you shall make the sash of woven work. For Aaron’s sons you shall make tunics, and you shall make sashes for them. And you shall make hats for them, for glory and beauty. So you shall put them on Aaron your brother and on his sons with him. You shall anoint them, consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister to Me as priests. And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness; they shall reach from the waist to the thighs. They shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they come into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place, that they do not incur iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and his descendants after him.”
Exodus 28:36 says, “You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS TO THE LORD.” This plate was fixed with a blue cord so that it would not fall from the turban.
What is God showing us with this turban of the High Priest? The turban and its ornament imply that Jesus Christ took upon all our sins through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist and has thereby cleansed away all our sins.
To live out our faith before God, we, first of all, should have the true faith in Him. And to have faith in the truth, we first need to have the correct knowledge of the Truth. Our Lord said to all of us, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Believing in God is not something that can be done with only emotions. This is why our faith must have this knowledge of the Truth, and then this should be followed by emotions, and then by our willpower. To do so, we must have the faith that clearly knows and believes in the truth manifested in the materials used for the garments of the High Priest.
On the turban worn by the High Priest, a gold plate was hung and it was fixed with a blue cord. This clearly shows us the truth that the Lord took upon all our sins by coming to this earth and being baptized. That’s why today’s Scripture passage above says, “So it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts” (Exodus 28:38). The faith that could solve away the problem of sin of the Israelites was manifested in the gold plate put on the front of the turban of the High Priest and in the blue cord that secured the plate.
Jesus’ Baptism Is Essential for the Salvation of All Human Beings
As the High Priest wore the turban attached with the golden plate fixed by the blue cord on his forehead, if you really are today’s spiritual priests, then you must know and believe that the Lord came to this earth, was baptized by John the Baptist in a form of the laying on of hands that corresponds with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, and has thereby cleansed away all your sins. In the age of the Old Testament, the High Priest had to know that it was through the sacrificial offering given according to the sacrificial system that every sin was blotted out. On the other hand, you and I who are living in the New Testament’s time must know that because the Lord was baptized by John the Baptist when He came to this earth, He took upon our sins once and for all. Because Jesus Christ was baptized, all our sins were passed onto Him and He took upon all the sins of the world once and for all.
Through this baptism, all the sins of each and every person on this planet were passed onto Jesus without exception. Even the sins of John the Baptist, the last High Priest and the representative of all mankind, were also passed onto Jesus, as were the sins of the people of the entire world.
What kind of faith must we then have before God? We must have the genuine faith that believes that Jesus Christ was baptized and thereby truly took upon the sins of all people. Along with the knowledge of the Truth, we must also have this faith that believes in this Truth with our hearts. When we work and spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit with the faith that believes in this Truth, people will hear it and believe in it with their hearts, and they also will thereby be washed of all their sins as white as snow. Jesus Christ has given the true remission of sins to all those who believe this Truth wholeheartedly.
Above all, Today’s spiritual priests must have a clear faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Without the knowledge of this Truth and faith in it, we cannot fulfill the duties of our spiritual priesthood. In other words, only those who have this faith that believes in the Truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread—that is, in the truth of the real remission of sins—can carry out the duties of their spiritual priesthood. In other words, only those who have received the remission of sins by believing in both the baptism of Jesus Christ and His blood of the Cross can fulfill the duties of the spreading of the gospel. Like this, having the correct knowledge on the Truth is essential to each and every spiritual priest. This is why the Bible clearly says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hosea 4:6).
When the High Priest came before God on the Day of Atonement, he could never come into the Most Holy Place without putting on his turban. The High Priest had to put on the turban of fine woven linen and place the gold plate fixed with blue cord on its front exactly as set by God. As you have already confirmed, the blue thread bears witness to the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15; 1 Peter 3:21).
Everyone cannot but commit sin every day. Everyone therefore cannot avoid but be condemned, put to death, and be destroyed eternally for their sins. But the Lord came to this earth, and took the sins of mankind upon His body through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. As Jesus said in Matthew 3:15, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” through this baptism God the Father wanted to pass all the sins of the entire mankind onto His Son Jesus Christ, and permitted this to happen. That Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist means that through John the Baptist He accepted the sins of the world onto Himself once and for all. Therefore, your sins and mine were also all passed onto Jesus at the time.
Because all have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The Bible says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19). Is there anyone who does not sin? No, absolutely not! Then what will our destiny be? God said that if we have any kind of sin, regardless of how it is committed, whether by our acts, hearts or thoughts, we would all be destroyed. Because God said that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), if we have a sin even as small as a mustard seed, we then must still be washed of this sin without fail. The entire mankind has sinned before God, and because of this all of them could not avoid but be condemned for their sins. However, as God said that “the wages of sin is death,” He made His Son to be baptized and permitted Him to be crucified. The price of sin is death. What is meant by death here? Hell is what is meant by death.
Hebrews 9:27 says, “As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” God tells us that judgment awaits us when we die. All people, whether the righteous or the sinners, those who have received the remission of sin or those who have not, will live forever beyond their physical death. That human beings were made in God’s own image tells us that because God lives forever, everyone is to live eternally absolutely regardless of his or her wish. But you should remember that there are two kinds of eternal lives: one is the blessed eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, and the other is the cursed one in hell.
Jesus Christ is the eternal High Priest of Heaven. He came to this earth as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, and He has blotted out the entire sins of mankind not by giving an earthly offering of sacrifice, but by giving up His own body (Hebrews 7:21, 8:11-12, 10:10). God is the very One who came to this earth and took upon all our sins by being baptized, all in order to save you and me from the sins of the world. Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven came to this earth incarnated into the flesh of a man and accepted the sins of mankind onto His body through His baptism. Through this, all your sins were passed onto Jesus Christ once and for all. And because Jesus Christ accepted our sins on His body through His baptism, He could go to the Cross, be crucified, shed His blood to death.
This is why God had set the statute that the High Priest had to put on the gold plate engraved with “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” on the front of his turban and tie it with the blue cord so that it would not fall off. This tells us that because Jesus has washed away all the sins of the entire mankind with His baptism, those who believe can receive holiness into their hearts and come before God.
The Gold Plate Shall Be on the Front of the Turban
Exodus 28:37 says, “And you shall put it on a blue cord, that it may be on the turban; it shall be on the front of the turban.” This passage means that we must have the faith in His baptism. By knowing and believing that the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus Christ, we must receive the remission of sin. Is it wrong to say Jesus took upon all our sins when He was baptized? Why do people get destroyed? It is not because you and I have sinned that we are destroyed and abandoned by God. They get destroyed because they do not believe in this clear-cut Truth and therefore still have sin. Because Jesus Christ came to this earth and took upon all our sins once for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and because our sins were thus passed onto Him, our Lord was vicariously condemned in our stead. We must know this with our heads and believe in it with our hearts as well. Only then can the baptism of Jesus be planted in our hearts as our faith. Gold in the Bible refers to faith. It is by believing in the true gospel that we can enter Heaven.
All the religions of this world commonly teach their followers to reach one’s own awakening. For example, Buddhism teaches its believers to cleanse their hearts through ascetic exercises to enter into Nirvana. The objective of Buddhism, in other words, is to cast aside all illusive, mundane thoughts by immersing oneself in meditation and ultimately becoming a god on one’s own. But there is no one who can achieve this. Some religionists are trying to become a god on their own by secluding themselves in mountains. For example, even in Christianity just after the Early Church era, there arose so many monasteries that sought self-sanctification. But secluding oneself in a mountain does not mean that this person would no longer be visited by decadent thoughts. It is a huge mistake to think that if we just cut ourselves off from the world and have no contact with other human beings, we could be freed from all our lustful desires and emotions. On the contrary, our flesh is such that the more we seclude ourselves, the more we are haunted by the lustful desire and pleasure of this secular world. Because we have such sins in our hearts, it is impossible for us to get away from our sins no matter how much we want to do so. This is why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Our Lord is the only Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. He is the Truth. And He is the Life. Jesus is the Lord of life.
What people want to find out is the way to go to Heaven. To realize this way that lead them to the Kingdom of God, they must know and believe in the Truth thoroughly. The Truth is that God Himself came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of a man and that by being baptized by John the Baptist; He took upon all the sins of the entire mankind. We can all enter the Kingdom of God by knowing this Truth and believing that all our sins have also been passed onto Jesus.
On the contrary, it is impossible for us to enter Heaven by our own merits, in other words, by doing many good deeds. Why? Because no matter how many good deeds we might have done, if we had broken even just one statute of God’s Law, then this only means that we have failed to keep all the Word of God. Because breaking even just one statute of God’s Law means that one is a sinner before God, it is impossible for such a person to go to Heaven by his acts. We must believe in this truth, and we must thereby pass our sins onto Jesus Christ through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. Jesus took all the sins of mankind including yours as well upon His body. So it is by having your sins passed onto Jesus that all your sins are washed away clean.
To achieve this, you must first examine yourselves to see whether there is sin in your hearts or not, and when you realize that there is sin, you then must believe in the remission of sin manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and thereby get your faith approved by God. It is by believing in the sacrificial offering of the body of Christ that we can go to Heaven after being saved from sin once and for all. It is not because people have sinned that they are unable to enter Heaven, but it is because they do not know and do not believe in the real truth, the gospel manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, that they are unable to enter Heaven. We should not just say that we are ill-informed because of our ignorance and distance ourselves from the Word of God, but we must be saved by hearing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
As the High Priest ministered to God by offering the sacrifice with faith to sanctify his people, we, the royal priests of today, also must know the clear truth in our heads and embrace the holiness of God in our hearts. No matter when, where, and which souls ask us to give the offering of faith for them, we must first be clothed in the holiness of God. The gold plate engraved with the phrase ‘Holiness to the Lord’ will forever be on the foreheads of us, today’s High Priests.
The truth of the real and clear remission of sin is the gospel that is manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. This gospel has cleansed away all our sins and made us sinless, holy, and consecrated. It is crystal-clear that our sins were passed onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized. It is because Jesus Christ washed away our sins once for all by being baptized that those who believe in Him can receive the remission of sins and live out their faith. Moreover, as we continue with our lives of faith after receiving our remission of sins, we must also meditate and believe deeply just how important and necessary this gospel is, and how greatly the gospel of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist is demanded from our spiritual lives.
The gospel Word of the water and the Spirit must always abide in our hearts. Why? We should do so because we sin all the time and everyday. Among the readers of my books, there is hardly anyone who does not know that Jesus bore all the condemnation of our sins by being baptized and crucified. However, it is of no use if we just regard this truth as mere knowledge. We have to ruminate upon His baptism as frequently as possible, for we are prone to be stained by sins everyday. Having this faith is like bringing in the grains stored in a barn and having them as our food. In other words, ruminating about the true gospel of the water and the blood is the spiritual food for our souls. That’s why Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:53-54).
We must confirm our faith in the baptism of Jesus everyday. For all priests, this faith must be even more firmly established. Only when they have this clear and determined faith can they maintain their salvation, as well as teach other sinners so that they may also be saved. Is this not the case? Of course it is! What we need everyday is the faith that believes in the baptism of Jesus, and the faith that believes in Jesus who bore the condemnation of all our sins.
The turban worn by the High Priest cannot be found in this world. Is there any turban in this world that has a gold plate hanging onto it and tied with a blue cord? There is only one such turban, and it is the turban of the High Priest. This speaks of a profound truth to us today: The royal priests should stand firm on the faith in Jesus’ baptism. And it also shows us that you and I can fulfill our priestly duties only when we have strong faith in this truth.
Our faith in Jesus’ baptism must become clearer and sharper everyday. Jesus was crucified to death because He had taken our sins upon Himself. Because He had taken our sins when He was baptized, He could say, “It is finished” (John 19:30) just before He died on the Cross. And He then rose up from the dead and came alive again. By doing these righteous works, Jesus has perfectly blotted out all our sins and become the eternal Savior of all those who believe in Him.
We must remember Jesus’ baptism every day. Why? It is because our lives are full of mistakes and blemishes. Are you lacking or not? The more time goes by, the more we see our insufficient and frail selves. Would you still then not believe in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross?
The Gold Plate Engraved with “Holiness to the Lord”
What kind of faith is the faith that enables us to become sinless and holy? It is the faith of the blue thread that believes in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist. It is because Jesus accepted the sins of mankind by being baptized by John that all our sins were passed onto Him. When we come to believe in Jesus’ baptism that He was baptized to take all our sins onto His body, such faith renders us a wonderful experience of having all our sins blotted out by faith. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the sins of mankind were passed onto Him. So because the sins of everyone were passed onto Jesus, those who believe in this Truth have been washed from all their sins once and for all. Their sins have been cleansed by faith. This washing of sin is implied in the blue color of the Tabernacle system. In other words, the sins of your hearts are blotted out by faith when you believe in His baptism and confess, “Ah, my sins, your sins, and the sins of all the people in the whole wide world were passed onto Jesus Christ.” Your sins also have been completely washed away if you have this faith.
Before you came to know this baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, your hearts clearly had sin. There is no one on this planet that has been approved sinless even before knowing this Truth. Everyone has sin, and thus is destined to hell. But to blot out all our sins, Jesus came to this earth and accepted all our sins onto Himself by being baptized. The baptism that Jesus received is the same as the laying on of hands of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament; the sins of the people of Israel were passed onto the head of the sacrificial animal by the laying on of their hands. Thus, we can find so many phrases of ‘lay his (or their) hands on’ in the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus.
Were your sins passed onto Jesus when He was baptized? When Jesus was baptized, He said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The word “for thus” here is “hutos” in Greek, which means ‘in this way,’ ‘most fitting,’ or ‘there is no other way besides this.’ This word shows that Jesus irreversibly took the entire sins of humankind onto Himself through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Because the moment Jesus took upon all our sins by being baptized is a decisive moment, I can never forget this moment. You must remember in your heads this Word that is clearly written in the original text also. And by meditating on this gospel of the water and the Spirit everyday, you must believe in your hearts.
We can become sinless and enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in our hearts that Jesus accepted all our sins and washed them away through His baptism. Can we enter Heaven by any other means? You might think that you would become gentler and disciplined when you grow old, but you see the older you get, the nastier you become. If you think that you can become kinder and more self-disciplined with passing of time, you should soon acknowledge yourselves as being incapable of becoming like this. The fact is that as we grow older, we become even more impatient and are even less able to handle our anger. Had we possessed the ability to do this, perhaps we could enter the Kingdom of Heaven by keeping the Law with our acts. But because we have no such abilities, only sin, evilness, and anger arise from us.
What I am trying to tell you here is that salvation cannot be attained by acts, but only by faith. Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Though we have not seen Him, God still exists, and because this God is alive, He works in our lives. God created this universe unseen by us, and through His Word He has shown us the Truth of salvation. By believing in this truth of salvation in our hearts, we can be saved from sin and cleanse away all the sins of our hearts. And this is still effective even now. Therefore, sinners must now be saved by believing in this Truth in their hearts, not trying to be saved from their sins by their own virtuous deeds.
What is it meant by the fact that the gold plate was put on the front of the turban of the High Priest and tied with blue cord? It means that we must know the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in it. By being baptized, Jesus took upon all the sins of everyone, including yours and mine. Jesus who is almighty thus took upon all our sins in this way. We must know this and believe in it. It is when we hear the Word of God with our ears, know it with our heads, and believe it with our hearts that our hearts are cleansed. Because we have sinned before and cannot but commit more sins now and in the future, to save us from all our sins, the Lord came to this earth and took upon our sins by being baptized.
When Jesus accepted the sins of mankind and washed them all away, your sins were also passed onto Him. By believing in this Truth, you can be remitted from all your sins. When we believe in the baptism that Jesus Christ who came by the water and the Spirit received, you and I can be washed from all the sins in our hearts, and by believing that Jesus Christ also bore all the condemnation of our sins, we can become God’s very own children. Therefore, it is by the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can be born again and become God’s children. Our Lord has given us this kind of faith.
The Linen Trousers of the High Priest
God commanded Moses to make the linen trousers for the High Priest and clothe him with them. They had to reach from the waist to the thighs and cover the nakedness of the priests. And God said that in order to avoid death, Aaron and his sons must wear them when they come into the Tabernacle of meeting or approach the altar to minister inside the court of the Tabernacle, and He also said that this should be a statute forever to Aaron and his descendants after him.
They were undergarments worn to cover the nakedness of the priests. Revealing nakedness before God is revealing uncleanness before Him, and so anyone whose sins are revealed before God is put to death. This is why God commanded His priests to cover their nakedness. God, in other words, has told us to cover our sins and our uncleanness with the faith that believes in this perfect gospel of His righteousness.
Then, what are the white linen trousers of the High Priest? They are the faith that believes in the righteousness of God. They are the truth of perfect salvation that God has made us sinless. Jesus Christ who is God Himself (purple thread) came to this earth, was baptized (blue thread), shed His blood and died on the Cross (scarlet thread), rose from the dead again, and has thereby completed our salvation perfectly. Believing that God has blotted out all our sins with His baptism and was condemned to pay the wages for all those sins on our behalf is wearing the linen trousers of salvation in our hearts. It is by believing in our hearts that we can be wholly saved from sin and that we can become the children of God and enter His Kingdom.
The only way to cleanse away all the filthiness of our hearts is to believe in the baptism that Jesus received and His blood of the Cross. In particular, the faith of the blue thread, that Jesus accepted all sins with His baptism, is the core truth on our salvation that washes away all our sins, and it is by believing this that we can cover all our uncleanness. How can we come before God without hesitation regardless of our insufficiencies and iniquities? It is possible only when we believe in the righteousness of God that covers all our filthiness perfectly. With the faith that believes that God has saved us with the water and the blood, that is, with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, we can cover all our uncleanness. Jesus came to this earth, made us perfectly righteous with His righteous acts, and has thereby become the Lord of our everlasting salvation. It is by believing in this that we can reach a sinless state. By believing in the righteous works of God, with which He loves us and has made us sinless, we can escape from the condemnation of sin. By believing in this righteous salvation of God in our hearts, we can receive eternal life.
We sin everyday. We must therefore realize that anyone who comes to God without wearing the white linen trousers of God’s salvation that has blotted out all our sins with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, the person will be put to death. The kind of faith that prevents us from dying when we come before God is none other than the faith that believes in His righteousness. This faith that believes in the righteousness of God is the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because God has told us to put on such white linen trousers, we must obtain this and wear the trousers of the true remission of sin by faith in our hearts.
When we come before God with this faith, we will not be put to death. As such, what is manifested in these garments of the High Priest is all about the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. None of the garments of the High Priests is devoid of some spiritual meaning. We, the High Priests of today, cannot omit any of the garments that God has commended us to wear. What would happen if the High Priest put on all the other garments but without the linen trousers? He would surely be put to death. Whether the ordinary people wear these linen trousers or not is your choice, but if the High Priests did not wear them, they would be killed, for their shameful nakedness—that is, their sins and uncleanness—would not have been covered thoroughly.
What would happen if we do not have the kind of faith that believes in His perfect salvation with all our hearts before God? What would happen if we come before God without believing in our hearts that He has made us sinless, without wearing the garments of salvation in our hearts? We would remain as sinners. Because ‘the wages of sin is death,’ sinners who have not been remitted of their sins must be condemned, put to death, and cast into the everlasting fire of hell. This is why your hearts must wear the garments of salvation that God has made for you. It is by believing in the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and we are able to enter the Kingdom of God.
This is why the Bible says that gold, the rustproof and most precious metal, denotes ‘faith.’ In the Bible, gold refers to faith, while bronze refers to condemnation. We can find the fact that the gold thread was used frequently to make the garments of the High Priest. This implies that we always have to keep a strong faith in this gospel of the perfect salvation. Believe in the Truth that is manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. God said that this should be a statue that we must keep forever.
In our minds and hearts, you and I must believe in this Truth unmistakably. True faith must be accompanied by true knowledge, feelings, and acts. Do you have this kind of faith and truth? Do you truly believe in the truth which is manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread with all your hearts? Do you believe that God loves you, that He blotted out all your sins by being baptized, shedding His blood, and rose up from the dead again? If you indeed believe in this Truth, then this means that you have clothed your hearts and souls with the garments of salvation.
God rebuked the people of Israel through the Apostle Paul saying, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3). God dislikes those who try to establish and boast their own righteousness with their seemingly good deeds. Those who do not believe in the good works that God has done for us out of His love for us will all be destroyed. In what do you trust? Do you trust in the righteousness of God, or your own righteousness? Do you really believe with all your hearts that God loves you, and that He has blotted out all your sins with both the baptism of Jesus and His blood of the Cross? Do you believe in this Truth, and is this where you entrust yourselves to? Do you truly hold onto this Truth in your hearts and believe? Or are you still trying to receive the remission of your sins by striving to lead your lives benevolently on your own?
You, of course, must live benevolently. After being born again, you must live even more benevolently. However, in the Holy Spirit, you must first recognize what the virtuous life really is. The Bible says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). For today’s priests of God, living benevolently means serving the genuine gospel.
How pitiful are those who do not believe in the gospel and God’s love for us, who do not believe that God has blotted out all their sins perfectly with both the baptism of Jesus and His blood of the Cross!
Once there was a group of wrecked fishermen who just arrived at the mouth of the Amazon River after 10 days struggling against the storm and waves of the boundless ocean. They all got exhausted by not drinking any water for 10 days. At last, they arrived in a part where flesh water was. However, the mouth of the river was so vast that none of them could recognize this incredible fact that they were actually floating on drinkable water. As a result, they all eventually died, exhausted on the abundance of flesh water. How pitiful they were! Looking at this from a spiritual viewpoint, almost all the people of this generation are struggling desperately against their sins, exhausted spiritually, while not knowing that all the time their sins had already been blotted out through both the baptism of Jesus and His bloodshed on the Cross.
Because God loves you and me, He has completed the righteous works of blotting out all our sins. By believing in this Truth we can enter the Kingdom of God. This faith enables us to be born again. To be born again means to be born once again as the children of God; even though we were born once as sinners, we become the righteous by the work of the Holy Spirit when we profess to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is by being born again as the sinless like this that we can enter the Kingdom of God.
Have you clothed your souls with God’s good and righteous garments of salvation? Have you made your souls truly believe in this gospel? What is important above all is whether or not you believe in this genuine gospel in your hearts. Instead of trying to realize the Truth on your own or hold fast onto the teachings of this secular world, you must believe in the Word of God which is taught to you by those who have received the remission of sins prior to you. The true gospel is not something that you may just know in your heads, but it is something that you must truly believe in your hearts. You must enter Heaven by truly believing in it. What blessing, brothers and sisters, has God granted to us through His Son Jesus Christ? By blotting out all our sins through His only begotten Son’s sacrifice, God has made us His own children.
The people of this world want to do what is righteous and they also revere those who do the right things. Aren’t the works of Jesus who sacrificed Himself for the entire mankind most righteous? The gospel of the water and the Spirit has not been made by mankind. It is the most virtuous and righteous work that God has fulfilled especially for us. Because Jesus was baptized and sacrificed Himself on the Cross for all the people of this world, we recognize Him as our true Savior. No matter when and where, there is only one righteous Person and it is Jesus Christ alone. There is absolutely no one else who is righteous by himself or herself on this planet except through Jesus Christ.
Do you want to become righteous? By believing in the righteous work that God has done for you, you can all become these righteous people. The righteous work of God is none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Believe in Jesus who has done this righteous work. God has blotted out all our sins for He has loved us. When we accept His love of this Truth by faith, we also become holy, just as God is holy. God said, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). God has told us to actually lead our lives of faith by faith. Do you wholeheartedly believe in this righteous work of Jesus that has saved you perfectly from all your sins? I believe that the most righteous work in the world has already been fulfilled by our Lord’s eternal sacrifice. I believe that it has all been fulfilled through the baptism that Jesus received, His blood of the Cross, and His resurrection from death.
I thank God with my faith that He gave me through His Word of truth.
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