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Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 6-18] Jesus, Who Has Given Us the Bread of Life (John 6:54-63)
( John 6:54-63 )
“‘Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.’ These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can understand it?’ When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, ‘Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.’”
“‘Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.’ These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can understand it?’ When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, ‘Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.’”
The Lord Has Blotted Out All the Sins of Yours and Mine
By coming to this earth, our Lord took on all the sins of my soul, blotted out all of them, and received the judgment for them. In doing so, He had us become people without sin. To become a spirit without sin, a person who has no sin, is truly an extraordinary event. Except for those who have received salvation, there isn’t a person that does not have sin.
You have a flesh, but you also have a spirit. Because Jesus, who is God, has blotted out all the sins of our spirits, we have become the righteous without any sin by our spirits having received salvation. What could be a greater blessing than to have become a person without sin? We must realize that the blessing that has come to us by having become those without sin is something very great. The greatest blessing is the fact that we have become the sinless. It is because there are so many advantages once we become a person without sin. First of all, we have come to be able to live in this world without any hesitation. The fact that we can go on living honorably in this world without the fear of the judgment is a blessing that only a person, whose sins have disappeared by the water and the Spirit, can have. Before our Lord, truly, we give thanks and give back the glory.
Dear fellow believers, the thought that we are the only ones enjoying this blessing of sinlessness made me feel sorry for those who are outside of this blessing. Even God did not want this precious gospel to be known only among us. Thus, I have a wish that by spreading this gospel, we could have people be without sin like us. Because this work is also the command of our Lord (Matthew 28:19-20), we are gladly spreading this gospel all over the world. Our Lord requested us to spread to all people, how great and perfect God’s love truly is. He told us to let all the nations know how much God loves us and how the Lord blotted out all our sins and gave us everlasting life.
Because Our Lord Has Blotted out All Our Sins by the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit, We Have No Sin in Our Hearts
Dear fellow believers, as human beings, how could people say that they are without sin? The Lord said, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). As people commit sins with their eyes whenever they open their eyes, how could they become a person without sin? What I am asking is how could a creation become a person without sin like God? Do you know that you are without sin because the Lord had blotted out all your sins? Dear fellow believers, it is something that is possible only by the grace of God. Actually, we were able to receive salvation from sin because God took pity on us and saved us.
What I am saying is that since the fact that we are living honorably by having become those without sin is completely by the grace of God, how could we be the only ones to possess and enjoy this precious Truth? In this world, there are so many people in hardship due to sin. Because of sin, they moan, feel ashamed, commit suicide, and have sicknesses in their hearts and bodies. And, there are so many people who are dying because nothing seems to go right, because they have become spiritually blinded, and because they have become physically confused. Yet, how can those who have received the remission of sin before God turn away from the will of God and be ignorant, all the while possessing and enjoying this precious Truth all to themselves? This is what I am trying say.
God loves not only us, but also all the people. And, He has saved every single person from sin. The only difference is that there are those who have received the grace before God by knowing and believing in that Truth and then, there are those who haven’t received the grace because they do not believe in that Truth for they have no knowledge of it, and the truth of the matter is that God loves everyone.
When a great multitude started to follow the Lord, He took pity on them, and fully fed more than five thousand people by blessing the five loaves of barley bread and two fish that a lad had taken out. People, after having eaten this food, tried to make Jesus their king. But, perceiving their intentions, the Lord departed the place. The disciples went over to the other side of the Sea of Tiberias by a boat, but it seems as though Jesus hadn’t gone with them. Thus, when the disciples in the boat met a great wind and were afraid, not knowing what to do, it is written in the Bible that Jesus came walking on the sea and had calmed it.
On the following day, those who tasted the blessing called “the miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish” found out that Jesus wasn’t there, and started to look for the Lord. Jesus was someone who had healed the sick, resurrected the dead, and fed over five thousand souls with just a single food basket. Because it was very difficult for them to go on living, for their country was under the colonial rule of Rome, these people had started to think that if they were to make Jesus, who had fed them fully, their king and serve Him, they will be free from destitution and also drive out the Roman Empire. That is why people had started to look for Jesus. But, the motive behind it was not in gaining the blessing of everlasting life by receiving the remission of sin but rather, in eating bread for the flesh to their content.
Like so, even today, there are many Christians who believe in Jesus in order to receive bread for the flesh. Why do they believe in Jesus? They believe in Him to receive blessings for the flesh. The Lord tells us to enjoy God’s blessing of everlasting life by being born again and also to lead the life of a disciple who passes on that blessing. Yet, the faith of the multitudes was seeking Jesus only to satisfy the desires of the flesh. That is why our Lord said, “You seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26), to the great multitude who came expecting more bread after having seen Jesus performing wonders. The Lord knew that they came to Him seeking bread for the flesh. What He is telling us is that when a person seeks the Lord, he or she shouldn’t seek Him to get bread to eat, but instead, he or she should confirm and believe the signs that tell us that Jesus is the Savior who has blotted out all our sins. It means that when Jesus performed the miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish, people should have recognized that He is the Son of God, as well as God who had created the heavens and the earth, and the One who has come to give people life.
Jesus wanted those people to know that He is the Son of God and the Savior who was going to blot out the sins of all human kind. However, they perceived Him at best as just some person who had given them some bread for the flesh. Because they perceived Jesus merely as the one who feeds them bread for the flesh, He felt awkward as He told them, “How come you do not labor for the food that does not perish, but instead, follow Me seeking food that perishes? Didn’t you follow Me now in order to eat some more bread? Did you chase after Me to this faraway place just to eat some more bread, as if you were going to a house in celebration? Jesus felt very regrettable: “If you seek everlasting life from Me, I shall give you the everlasting life, and if you seek remission of sin in your heart, I shall give you the remission of sin once and for all and turn you into children of God. And, if you seek blessings of Heaven, I can give you all the blessings of Heaven. Yet, how come you only seek the things of the earth?”
Let us take a look at scripture passages from the Gospel of John chapter 6 verse 28 through 40. “Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.’ Therefore they said to Him, ‘What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ Then they said to Him, ‘Lord, give us this bread always.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.’”
Dear fellow believers, why did our Lord come to this earth and perform miracles and wonders? The Lord did so in order to teach us that He is the Son of God and the Savior of all human beings. If Jesus came to this earth and heals the sickness of people only, it is the case that the healed would live for just a few years or a few decades more and go to hell after dying with sins still in their hearts. Then, there would be no benefit for Jesus to have come to this earth. Our Lord performed miracles and wonders to people to show that the Lord Himself is the Savior, and that He is the One with the power to blot out so many sins of all humans once and for all.
Various miracles performed by Jesus were the foreshadowing of the remission of sin. The Lord performing the miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish was to teach us what sort of faith would have us gain the everlasting life: “I give you My flesh, and I give you My blood. In doing so, I give you all My life. You receive the remission of sin and gain the everlasting life by eating My flesh and blood.” The Lord performed the miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish in order to teach us the Truth that Jesus Himself is the bread that comes down from Heaven and that if people should eat the bread that comes down from Heaven, they will gain everlasting life.
Dear fellow believers, many false prophets today are performing numerous wonders and miracles, but they are all deceptions. Our Lord performed the miracles in order to blot out all our sins by coming down to this earth and to teach us that He is the Son of God and our Savior, the Redeemer.
As Jesus said He is the bread, what did all the people pay attention to? They were interested in the bread itself. They thought that they would not go hungry if they could only eat the manna from heaven, just like in the times of Moses. That is why they said, “Our fathers ate manna in the desert, just as it is written He had us eat the bread from Heaven.” In reply, our Lord said, “Manna did not come from Moses, but rather, it came from My Father.” In the Old Testament, God gave people of Israel manna when they were wandering in the desert for 40 years, and they were able to survive without having to cultivate food. Similarly, in the New Testament times, God gave His own life to us and had us live for all eternity. He was saying that by taking the example of God giving manna when the people of Israel were living in the desert long ago, God the Father, by sending Jesus, has now had people receive remission of sin by eating and drinking Jesus’ flesh and blood and thereby gaining everlasting life.
People Have Great Interest in Food That Perishes
The multitude was greatly interested in the issue, “What can I do to eat and be full today?” However, our Lord was interested in having people receive remission of sin and having them live eternally by giving up Himself for them to eat and drink. Jesus gave up His flesh and blood so that we may live on this earth in eternal abundance and also to have us enter the Kingdom of Heaven, for one will never get hungry and thirsty for all eternity by eating them just once. Our Lord came to this earth not for the satisfaction of our flesh but for our spirits to be liberated from sins and to live in peace for all eternity.
Why do you believe in Jesus? Do you perhaps believe in Jesus in order to have your flesh be well off? You mustn’t work for the food that perishes. Instead, you must do the work of the food that does not perish. If one is healthy inside, the outside will become healthy, also. Dear fellow believers, if we believe the Lord in our hearts and know the genuine gospel in greater detail, and if the gospel penetrates our hearts deeper, then our infirmities of the flesh will be healed, also. However, if there are sins in our hearts, our hearts will become sick and our spirits will also become sick. And thus, our bodies will eventually shut down. We must realize this fact. That is why it is said in the Bible, “The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit?” (Proverbs 18:14)
Our Lord came to this earth to blot out the sins of our spirit. This is a fact that you must know. It isn’t the case that the Lord came down to this earth wearing the flesh to have us eat and live well and to make us rich. Dear fellow believers, do you understand this? The great multitude sought Jesus when He was living in the land of Judea because they wanted to eat the bread for the flesh. However, we should not be like these people. Our Lord blotted out all the sins of human kind by giving up Himself in the whole to people all over the world. Jesus did so in order to have all the people gain everlasting life by believing in Him.
Dearly beloved fellow saints, our spirits must become well off first of all. If our spirits become well off first, everything else of ours will then become well off. All the blessings will come to us. A person, who unites with God’s Church in faith after having received the remission of sin, dwells in the Word, and lives with the clear conviction that his or her spirit has no sin, will have a body that is healthy, also. A path opens up to everything that the person does. It is because the Lord gives that person all the blessings that just cannot be expressed into words. Although nothing may be visible to the eye now, the person will be able to taste the blessings and the helpings of the Lord, which He provides at times.
However, if the spirit were to turn bad, dear fellow believers, all would come to an end. If the spirit were to go bad, everything would become dark, and even with both eyes open, one would not be able to find the way around. Even in a bright daylight, one would be fumbling about and wandering around asking, “Where is the road?” If the spirit were to go wrong, one would start to wonder, “Alas, what should I do? What must I do? What must I do to find a way to live? What work should I do? What business must I start? How do I solve family problems?” But, one would find no answer to all these questions. That is why the spirit must be well off first of all. If we were to receive in our hearts the remission of sin, which makes sins go away completely because of our Lord, a path will open up. Therefore, our spirits must be well off first. The spirit must be well off for everything else to go well.
There was a time when my body was in very bad shape. By the way, because of my illness, I started to believe in the Lord in my early twenties. And almost twenty years have passed since I had really met the Lord through the genuine gospel of the water and the Spirit. However, my body wasn’t in any better shape. Did things get better right away just because I met the Lord and my spirit became well off? That isn’t so. The fact is that my body became really better without my being aware as I was meditating everyday on how our Lord had blotted out my sins, reaffirming it with the Word everyday, listening to the Word everyday, sharing fellowship with the other saints in the Word, and spreading the fact that He had blotted out all our sins with the Word. As my heart got better, my body got better, eyes of the flesh became clearer, and our Lord blessed me with everything I did.
At first, after having received salvation, there were more losses from the perspective of flesh, but as time passed, our Lord started to bless me unnoticeably, and more than anything else, I started having a stronger faith. The Lord gave me the faith that He, who has saved me and blotted out all the sins of my soul, will take responsibility for my everything and bless me. After I came to possess that faith, although there have been many occasions when I had made Him feel regretful, the Lord has never disappointed me, not once. Truly, there were many times when I had made God feel regretful to my lacking, and there also were many times, really, when I had made other people feel regretful. But, the Lord had not made me feel regretful, not once.
Why did our Lord come to this earth? The Lord didn’t come to do His bidding. The reason the Lord came down from Heaven was to carry out the will of God the Father, as it is said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day” (John 6:38-39).
Do you want to receive the remission of sin? Do you want to become a child of God, without any sin inside your spirit? If you truly want it, you will no doubt receive the remission of sin. Who are all those in the passage, “all He has given Me”? They are none other than those who come out seeking the Lord with the desire to receive the remission of sin. Take a look at Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2-5). Although he might have committed many shameful sins and thus his heart might be filled with sins, but he went forth before the Lord because he wanted to be without sin before God and go to the Kingdom of God.
Dear fellow believers, if such a person goes before God, He will give such person His love. The fact is that, for the people who truly long for the Kingdom of God, God the Father decided to blot our all our sins by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus, down to this earth. And Jesus, following the will of God, came down to this earth actually, received the baptism at the Jordan River, and perfected our salvation by dying on the Cross shedding His blood.
“She Will Bring Forth a Son, and You Shall Call His Name JESUS”
In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 1 verses 21-23, it is written, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins. So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’”
The Virgin Mary conceived the baby Jesus. The fact is that she had conceived Him by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. In order for God to save us humans, He had to be born in human flesh. Because people could be saved only if Jesus were to take on all the sins of human flesh with His own flesh, our Lord had to come to this earth by the body of the Virgin Mary. And through an angel, God gave a name for the Baby who was to be born: “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
It is said that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. What it means is that in order for God to come as the Redeemer of human kind, He had to be born as baby Jesus, having borrowed Mary’s body. It is said, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23), and as it were, ‘Immanuel’ means that God is with us, (Isaiah 7:14), and it tells us that God has come to this earth in human flesh.
Now, we must find out why God came to this earth in human flesh. It was because there had to be a body to take on all the sins of people in order for Him to take over the sins of the world. It is just like the way of offering a sacrifice in the Old Testament where there had to be a sacrificial animal without blemish to blot out the sins incurred by humans by passing them over to it. And that is why Jesus, in order to become sacrificial offering for all of us, human beings, came to this earth in human flesh.
In the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament, if people wanted to receive the remission of sin, they received it by offering a lamb without blemish. If a person with sins brought forth a lamb, a goat, or a cow without blemish and laid his or her hand on it, all the sins got passed onto that sacrificial offering. And, that sacrificial offering without blemish died on behalf of the person who had passed on the sins. Just as it was said, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, … for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11), people passed on their sins to an animal made of flesh and bled it to death. It is the case that people of the Old Testament received the remission of all their sins in this manner.
Our God, in order to save us in a way similar to this, came down to this earth Himself in human flesh. And so, we will find out how He has saved us by looking at the Scripture passages in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3. These are the written Word on how Jesus has given us the flesh.
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:13-17).
There are three Persons of the Godhead―the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three may differ in terms of status, but they are all actually God. Jesus is God. The Holy Spirit is also God. God the Father is God, too. All three Persons of the Godhead had the same intention, and from among them, Jesus, who is the Son of God the Father, came to this earth in human flesh. By being born on this earth through Mary, Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist who was the representative of all humankind. That is why God the Father bore witness to His Son, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), after Jesus had received the baptism. Who bore witness to what? The fact is that God the Father bore witness that the baptized Jesus is His Son. By this baptism, all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus. That is why, on the following day of the baptism, John the Baptist said, pointing out Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
Our God sent down the bread of everlasting life from Heaven. That bread was none other than His Son, Jesus. He had sent down Jesus, the Creator of all things, the King of all kings, the Lord of all hosts, the Son of God who is also God Himself, to this earth. Jesus, who was sent down to this earth in human flesh, took on all the sins of humankind by receiving the baptism. God had the sins of the world be passed on to His Son, and had all humankind receive the remission of sin by faith, for Jesus had taken on all the sins of humankind with His flesh.
Some people say, “Jesus received the baptism at the Jordan River to show a good example of humility.” That is not so. He didn’t ornate the first work of His public life with the baptism in order to show His humble character. There wasn’t a single work that was wasteful among the works that He had done after having come to this earth. Why did the Lord, who has come to save you and me, start off the work of our salvation by going to John the Baptist, bending down His head before him, and receiving the baptism? Why do all Four Gospels start to record the ministry of the Lord by starting off with the baptism of Jesus, and why do all the disciples mention, on countless occasions, the baptism that Jesus had received? Why does the Apostle Paul proclaim, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27)?
Our Lord came down to this earth to save us, and as He turned thirty, He took on all the sins of humankind unto His flesh. His flesh had been without sin. Why? It was because Jesus wasn’t born of reproductive relationship between a man and a woman. In order to wear human flesh purely as God, He had merely borrowed Mary’s body. And, in order to take on the sins of all human beings unto His flesh, which was void of sin then, He had received the baptism at the Jordan River. This is what is meant by “Jesus has given His flesh for us.”
Why Did Jesus Have to Receive the Baptism from John the Baptist?
John the Baptist was a messenger of God sent by God. In the Old Testament era, the High Priest Aaron, as the representative of all Israelites, performed the laying of both hands on the sacrifice on the 10th day of the 7th month, which would blot out the sins of the people of Israel all at once (Leviticus 16:20-22, 29). The High Priest passed on a year’s worth of sins of the people of Israel to the flesh of that sacrificial offering once and for all by laying both his hands on it as the representative in accordance with the sacrificial system established by God. As such, there was the need to send a representative of humankind onto this earth in order for God to blot out all the sins of humankind by having them passed onto Jesus. That is why, 6 month prior to the birth of Jesus, He had John the Baptist be born through Zacharias, a descendant of the High Priest Aaron (Luke 1:5-25).
God is a God of the Covenant. Just as He had promised through the sacrificial system and His Word of prophecies, God came to this earth actually and offered His sinless flesh for all humankind. To do so, through whom did He take on our sins? It was through John the Baptist. Jesus had received the baptism from John the Baptist, the messenger of God and the representative of all humankind. The Lord personally witnessed that John the Baptist was the representative of all people, saying, “For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.’ Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:10-11).
He said that he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he because John the Baptist was the representative of earth. A representative of earth, no matter how great, is still less than the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But, the fact is that John the Baptist is the greatest on earth. The greatest born of a woman refers to the representative of all human beings. Also, the Lord, making reference to the Book of Malachi chapter 3 verse 1, said, “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You” (Matthew 11:10). It means that God, in order to blot out people’s sins, sent a representative of people 6 months before His coming to this earth. Who was he? He was none other than John the Baptist.
“‘Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,’
Says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:1).
Whom does the messenger of God mentioned here refer to? Jesus says personally that he is John the Baptist. Jesus bore witness that Elijah who was to come is none other than John the Baptist (Malachi 4:5).
Near the end of the Old Testament era, the nation of Israel was destroyed and there wasn’t any hope for they had departed from God. Then, God, through the prophet Malachi, promised to send a representative of all people as His messenger High Priest. God the Father promised to send down the representative of all people prior to the Lord Jesus, and Jesus Himself took on all the sins of humankind by receiving the baptism from the representative, John the Baptist. In order to save us, the fact is that He had already set up a perfect program.
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence from the invaders, the men of faith. In chapter 3 of the Gospel of Matthew, why did Jesus have to receive the baptism? In the Gospel of John chapter 6, Jesus says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life. As you do so, you can abide in Me just like I abide in the Father. But, should you not eat My flesh and not drink My blood, you and I have nothing to do with each other.” Between Jesus’ flesh and His blood, if a person were to ignore either one of them, the person would neither be able to abide in Jesus nor be able to gain everlasting life.
“Oh, I like the blood of Jesus, but not the flesh.” Is there anyone who speaks such words? In order to blot out our sins, our Lord came to this earth in human flesh, took on all our sins by receiving the baptism with His body, and thus, has made us be without sin in our hearts. If it is the case that He has planned to save us, we must believe it so. If we were to ignore either the flesh or the blood of Jesus, it would be like ignoring God’s plan for salvation.
Our God received the baptism in order to save us. And that is why Jesus commanded John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now.” “Are you the High Priest of the earth? Are you the representative of humankind? Do not say anything, but lay your hands on my head as I tell you to do. Only if you do so does all the sins of the world come over to Me. It is only right for us to make all people be without sin by doing so. It is only fitting to fulfill all righteousness.”
Dear fellow believers, is this fitting or is it not? It is fitting. Is it the case that Jesus had saved us just by saying, “Hey, I am dying for you. Believe in Me,” as were dying on the Cross without having taken on the sins, even though they lie within us? If He had done so, the fact would be that sins would still be within us, so the sins of the heart would never go away. The reason is the same as to why there are sins still inside the hearts of those who do not believe in the baptism of Jesus.
You cannot ignore Jesus’ baptism. Dear fellow believers, if our spirits were to receive the remission of sin, we cannot but have faith in the fact that our Lord had received the baptism at the Jordan River and that He had taken on all my sins at that moment. Without having faith in the baptism of Jesus, which is our true food, how can we say that our spirits are without sin? Our God is the just God. Because we commit sins all throughout our lives with our flesh, we are those who must die due to our sins. Yet, the Lord came to this earth in human flesh just like ours in order to blot out all our sins, and saved us from sins by taking on all the sins of all people through the baptism that He had received and then sacrificing His flesh on the Cross.
Jesus received the baptism at the Jordan River. What does the word ‘baptism’ mean? First of all, the word ‘baptism’ means “to cleanse.” Dear fellow believers, how do our hearts get cleansed? As our hearts are full of sin, how do they get cleansed? The sins in our hearts get cleansed because the sins were passed onto Jesus. Our sins were passed onto Jesus because He had received the passing on of sins through the representative of all people, and because our sins were passed on, it is the case that sins of our hearts disappeared completely through cleansing. When we look into the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, don’t sins get passed on, just as a sinner lays his or her hands on a lamb? Then, is there a sin inside this person? No, there isn’t. For there is no sin, it is the case that sins have been cleansed away. This is redemption. Redemption refers to there being no more sins through the payment of price for sins.
On the day of the great redemption, the High Priest Aaron lays his hands on the sacrificial offering on behalf of the people of Israel. Because the sins of the people of Israel get passed on to the sacrificial offering completely by doing so, it is case that the sins of these people get cleansed. Thus, it is the case that one receives the remission of sin by having faith in that fact. Just like this, the fact is that Jesus, in order to cleanse our sins, took on all the sins of all of us humankind by receiving the baptism Himself from John the Baptist who is the representative of all humankind. It is the case that sins get cleansed by believing in our hearts this fact.
Secondly, in the word ‘baptism,’ there is the meaning, “to bury.” In other words, it implies death. Dear fellow believers, why did Jesus die? Jesus died at the Cross because He had taken on our sins at the Jordan River. Jesus was someone who had no sin. Not even once did He commit a sin. No matter how hard we look at the Gospels, there isn’t a single passage that says Jesus did something by mistake. Jesus did not have any imperfection, spiritually or before the Law. The passages state that He is the Son of God, spotless, flawless, and without blemish. This is why the Bible states, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Why did Jesus come to this earth and received the baptism? In order to take on the sins of us human beings, He had received the baptism. Jesus, by giving us His immaculate flesh, completely took all our sins onto His flesh. Because He had to receive the judgment in order for Him to save human beings from sin, it is the case that He had received the baptism of taking over worldly sins by giving us His flesh. Jesus took on all our sins completely. Our Lord gave us His flesh. He had us eat His flesh. Just as He said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15), the sins of all people went away and all righteousness was fulfilled the moment when Jesus received the baptism. It tells us that the work of all the sins of this world going away and the righteousness getting fulfilled in its place was accomplished through the baptism of Jesus.
Just as the sacrificial offerings in the Old Testament took over sins, it is the case that Jesus had taken over all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism. Just as the sin of the people of Israel went away the moment when the scapegoat died after having taken over the sins of all the people of Israel and then having gone to the wilderness crying “maah, maah,” Jesus came to this earth as the Lamb of God, and in order to blot out all the sins of humankind, He finished off the judgment for all sins by taking on the sins through the baptism and then dying on the Cross. The fact is that Jesus took on all the sins by receiving the baptism.
Thirdly, in the word ‘baptism,’ there is the meaning “to pass onto.” From a sinner’s point of view, only when his or her sin is passed into the sacrificial offering, does he or she become without sins and receive redemption. Jesus was a sacrificial offering for redemption. In order to save you and me from sin and to save all humankind from sin, Jesus Himself became the sin offering that has taken on all sins. If it were the case that the Lord did not take on all our sins, then how would it be possible for our sins to go away? “I do not want to. I have no sin. Yet, why must I taken on sins? Please, don’t say that, Father. I have no sin. I did not make mistakes. There is no sin in My heart. I am Holy. With the only difference being that I am Your Son, am I not equal to You? Yet, why must I become a sinner by taking on the sins of all those vulgar beings? I do not want to do so.” If Jesus had done so, it would have been the end for us. If Jesus hadn’t received the baptism, there would have been no hope whatsoever for us humankind. It is because all of us humankind would have had no choice but to go to hell.
When Jesus was receiving the baptism, God said, “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17). It means that although He was without sin, in order to uphold the will of God to save humankind, Jesus put forth His head toward John the Baptist and voluntarily took the sins upon His body, which was without a single sin. That is why God said, “In whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). God was pleased by the fact that Jesus had died vicariously by becoming the sacrificial offering for a short while and bearing the sins of the world, and God had Him live again, though He was dead.
Our Lord died after having lived on this earth for 33 years. For 30 years, He had lived His private life, and as for the following 3 years, He had lived His public life. The 3 years span from the moment when He had received the baptism until His death on the Cross. Jesus died after having lived His public life for 3 years. In order to blot out all our sins, Jesus received the baptism, and gave us His own flesh. Today’s Scripture passage in the Gospel of John speaks of to this Truth.
“The Bread That I Shall Give Is My Flesh, Which I Shall Give for the Life of the World”
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
It was said that Jesus is the living bread that came down from Heaven. He gave us that bread. It means that He gave us His flesh. Because His flesh was for the life of the world, He had gladly given it to us. By taking on the sins by receiving the baptism onto His flesh, He had all humankind be without any single sin. The Lord has saved us by taking on all your sins as well as mine by giving up His flesh. Those who have faith in this are without any sin, no matter how lacking they might be. Jesus has made us perfectly sinless by taking on all the sins of the world. Dear fellow believers, do you believe this? Jesus has saved us so by giving His flesh.
Are there sins in your spirit? No, there aren’t any. There is no sin in your spirits as well as mine. We are the righteous. No matter how lacking, we are the righteous who has received the grace of God. The righteous people are the princess, princes, as well as kings of the Kingdom of Heaven. We have actually become children of God by faith. Now, laughter comes out from those who have faith in this Truth. The laughter comes from deep within their hearts. “Hallelujah! I am said to have no sin. It is said that the Lord gave His flesh and all my sins were completely taken on by His flesh! That’s what happened! Yes.” As we think more and more, our hearts feel refreshed, and even while we are asleep, laughter comes out from deep within our hearts.
In the Gospel of John chapter 6 verse 53, the Lord has firmly said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” Yet, why do people not eat the flesh of the Son of Man? Why do people not believe in the fact that the Lord has taken on all the sins of whole humankind? The Lord came to this earth to save us and took on all our sins completely by giving us His immaculate flesh. Yet, why do people not believe in such grateful love? Why do they resist? Please, eat by faith. If people were to resist, the Lord think of it as regrettable. And the Lord’s life cannot come inside such people. The Lord wants to give us life, but if we were to resist that, life cannot come inside us. Because the Holy Spirit cannot reside inside the hearts of those with sin, the Lord wants us to receive the remission of sin and obtain new life. We must believe in the fact that the Lord has taken on all the sins of humankind by receiving the baptism for you and for me.
“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” (John 6:53). The Lord gave up His flesh to us in order to save us. He gave up His flesh to us so that you and I, including all the people in this world, not missing any single person, could be saved. By giving us His flesh at the Jordan River, that is, by taking all the sins of the world onto His body, the Lord had us eat His flesh by faith. What is said to happen if we were to not eat His flesh into which He had taken on all the sins of humankind completely? It is said, “No life in you” (John 6:53). It is said that no matter how hard one believes, the Holy Spirit does not come inside.
Is the Holy Spirit inside you? How does the divine Spirit, namely, the Holy Spirit, come inside your hearts? The Lord seals our hearts with the Holy Spirit when we believe in the righteous work done by the Lord as is. The Lord had those who believe receive the remission of sin by giving them the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And to those who have received the remission of sin, He gave the Holy Spirit inside their hearts. It is the case that we have come to receive the Holy Spirit by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts.
The Lord took on all my sins completely by receiving the baptism at the Jordan River. He took all our sins completely with His flesh, and by shedding blood on the Cross, He has given us life. We must believe in our hearts the work of terminating all our sins and the judgment that the Lord has done. People who believe in the fact that the Lord had taken on all our sins completely at the Jordan River have no sin in their hearts. If sinners were to realize and believe this fact, there would be no sin in their hearts, no matter who they are. The Holy Spirit smacks down a seal on those who are without sin, and dwells insides their hearts. The Lord stays inside us as the Spirit, and I enter inside the Lord by faith; this is how the Lord and I become one. The fact is that the Lord stays as the Holy Spirit inside those who have received the remission of sin by believing in the fact that the Lord has redeemed them through His Son.
It is said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). We must believe in both of them. Jesus received the baptism and died on the Cross, and so we must realize that the death of the Lord is your death as well as mine. And, we must believe. That Jesus received the baptism at the Jordan River was to save you and me from sins. We must believe in the fact that God had received the baptism so as to realize His love for us and to save us, and we must also believe in the fact that it was the proper way to our salvation. Only when we believe in these two things, the flesh and blood of Jesus, does the salvation become perfectly realized. Also, only then does life come inside the hearts of those who have received salvation, and does the Holy Spirit come inside. If one were to deny any one of these two, one can never be able to receive salvation.
When our Lord said He would give His flesh, the Jews said, “What do You mean? We just can’t understand it.” Dear fellow believers, are these words of the Truth difficult also for you? For Jesus is the good Shepherd, He has saved His sheep by giving His flesh and blood for them. The Lord is our good Shepherd. Isn’t it too easy? The gospel of the water and the Spirit is easy, but because it is something so very important, we must spread it, listen to it, and so on everyday. Between the flesh and the blood that were given by Jesus, if either one were to be left out, there can never be salvation.
I saw a sign that read, “Are you sinners despite having faith,” posted on some church. Actually, most Christians believe in Jesus in their own way, but sin is still in their hearts. Despite having faith in Jesus, why are the Christians of the world sinners? Do you know why they are sinners despite having faith? It is because they drank only the Lord-given drink. Because they only believe in the Cross, they still have sins even though they profess, “Lord Jesus, I believe. I believe You have died vicariously for me. I believe You have blotted out all my sins. Hallelujah.” No matter how fervently they believe, the fact is that the Holy Spirit isn’t in their hearts. Because they do not have the Word witnessing the fact that their sins have been transferred, as they sin again, it is the case that sin still remains in their hearts. They wonder, “Oh, how strange. I have faith in Jesus, but there still are sins in my heart. The Lord took away the original sins as well as those committed sins. Yet, why are there sins? Strange! It is strange!” If you are in a case like that, you must accurately examine anything that’s strange. If you were to examine, you will come to the conclusion that you have sins despite having faith in Jesus due to the fact that you do not know the way by which the Lord has saved you.
Having come to know about the fact that the Lord has saved us by giving His flesh at the Jordan River, what would happen to you? Even while you were sleeping, you would say, “Lord, I didn’t know very well. Yet, Lord, You had done so. Yes, it is true. That is why so many Scripture passages all speak of the flesh and blood. Thank You, Lord. I am truly thankful to You for having saved me in these two ways, the flesh and the blood.”
Dear fellow believers, I hope for you to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord has saved us thus. We have become sinless because the Lord had come in the flesh of man, because the Lord had taken on our sins with that flesh, and because He died on the Cross after having done so. If it were the case that the Lord had come to this earth not in a flesh and did not receive the baptism even though He had come, you and I would be sinners despite our faith.
Christianity isn’t a religion. It is faith. It came from above. Faith is to uphold and believe in the fact that the Lord has blotted all our sins. We look up to the work that the Lord has done and receive the remission of sin by having faith in it. This is what faith is. Religion is something that I hold on to and rely on by making a determination. If you were to take a hold on your own saying, “Oh, Lord. I believe in You,” it would be useless. You ought to look at the work that the Lord has done and say, “Alas! Lord, You have thus blotted out all my sins. Hallelujah. I believe in this Truth.” Only then does the Lord give you a passing grade.
Dear fellow believers, do you have sin? No, you do not. Jesus took on all our sins by giving us His flesh at the Jordan River. “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus, by going to the Cross bearing the sins of the world, has perfectly ended once and for all the punishment for all our sins. The Lord has saved us perfectly so that we may receive the remission of sin by believing it with our hearts. The Lord has made it so that we would be able to receive salvation only by faith, without the need for any virtuous deeds or effort.
Our Lord has saved us. The Lord is our Savior. For 33 years, in order to save us, the Lord was patient with those who disgusted Him, and we can’t imagine how patient He was. The Jews, Pharisees, and scribes challenged Jesus, and they tried to strike and to capture Him to kill. If I were the Creator like Jesus, I would have crushed them in an instant, but because our Lord is merciful, He came to save them, instead. Because He wanted to take on such people’s sins also and to have them acquire everlasting life, He was patient like a sheep that is silent before its shearers (Isaiah 53:7). How noble and marvelous love of the Truth is that love? Because our Lord is too compassionate, He even wanted all those who had nailed Him to the Cross to receive the salvation. That is why, even as He were nailed to the Cross, begged the Father, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Our Lord came to this earth and gave us His flesh and His blood in order to save you and me. This is what salvation is. Having done so, He has allowed us to breathe. Our Lord made our hearts without sin so that our hearts, which have been oppressed by sins, could breathe. The Lord gave us His flesh, and He gave us His blood. And now, sitting on the right side of the throne of God, He hopes for many people to acquire salvation by eating His flesh and drinking His blood by faith. He desires it so much so that we cannot even imagine it. “I have received the baptism for you and taken away all your sins. I have saved you by giving you everything that is Mine for you. I have blotted out the sins of all you people of flesh. I have saved you with My flesh and My blood.” We must realize how the Lord wants us to receive the remission of sin by believing in this. And, we must realize how the Lord longs for us to enter the Kingdom where God resides by acquiring the everlasting life by faith. Are you able to see the heart of God?
Why did God come to this earth in human flesh and suffered all those indignities? Why did our Lord give up His flesh? As our Lord was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, how great was the pain Jesus was about to go through that He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me” (Mark 14:36)? It was the cup of blood. Because He had taken on all our sins with the flesh, which He had given up, He had to die on the Cross, and it meant drinking the cup of tremendously horrific pain. That is why Jesus, if it were possible, had wanted to avoid that cup. But, Jesus, after having prayed in earnest three times, bowed down before God saying, “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36). He said, “Father, do as You will,” and gave Himself up to crucified. Though He Himself was without sin, because He had taken on all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism with His flesh in order to save all humankind from sin, the Lord had to pay for the price of all those sins. Truly, although our Lord did not like being blamed for sins since He dislikes sins, the fact is that He had endured all those work in order to save us.
By having faith in Jesus, we must receive the remission of sin and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And even on this earth, we should be able to live in peace as those without sin. This was the will of our Lord toward us. Dear fellow believers, do you believe? Our Lord has saved us by giving us His flesh. Though this is the Truth, why do people not believe it? When we say this to Christians, most of them tend not to believe in this, saying, “Well, how can there be such a thing?” And, whenever this happens, the Lord feels pain. All the works that the Lord had done by coming to this earth in order to save us are the footprints toward our salvation. Yet, why do they have faith in only some of the works that He had done, and not others? Why do they nullify just some of His atoning works? Why do they put forth only the doctrine of their denominations? What Jesus says is the first essential. We must eat and drink by faith the flesh and blood that Jesus has given us.
Religious sect isn’t important. I do not have a religious sect. Prior to being born-again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I studied theology from the Kosin denomination, one of the most conservative Presbyterian denominations in Korea. My family had a strong background in the Kosin denomination. But now, I am no longer working with such a sect. The fact is that I believe in the Lord because I want to follow Him, and because He has blotted out all my sins, I love Him by faith and do the work of spreading this gospel, which He wishes and finds joy in. It isn’t the case that I am working to build and expand my own sect. Are we spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world to show off ourselves? No, we aren’t. We are not trying to boast that we are better than others. For He has blotted out the sins of all people, the Lord wants all people to receive the remission of sin and He wants those of us who have received it first to become tools for the spreading of the gospel of the Lord.
Some People Ignore the Baptism of Jesus from the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
What does the Scripture say would happen if we were to ignore the baptism of Jesus? It is clearly written, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). If one does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the fact is that the person will go to hell despite having faith in Jesus. There would be no life.
Is the Holy Spirit inside you? There isn’t any sin inside the heart of those who have the Holy Spirit. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit do believe in Jesus, but once they commit a wrongdoing, they get tied up again by sin. Because they get tied up by sin again and again, they make a commitment saying, “I must not sin. I shouldn’t commit sin.” But, for they are human beings, how could they not commit sin again? Also, when they do commit sin again, they become fearful, saying, “Alas, I sinned again. What shall I do?” Why would someone who has faith in Jesus be fearful of the judgment? It is because they hadn’t received the salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
If God had told us to pay the price for sin whenever we commit sin, then you would have gone through mourning much more than ten thousand times. Just for the sins that we had committed for a week, we should already have been beaten to death a hundred times over and more. If it were the case that the judgment would be made over sins carried in the heart as well as those of deeds, there wouldn’t be a single person left on this world. What did our Lord say? He said, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:13).
Dear fellow believers, this ‘mercy’ refers to the fact that the Lord has blotted out all our sins for He had taken pity on us. And, the passage, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” means that the Lord does not want us offering prayers of repentance, offering services and acting out things, just as the people of Israel during the Old Testament era had done, coming forth to a priest carrying a sacrificial offering and saying, “I have sinned. Please forgive me. I will be requited.” He just wants us to receive the remission of sin by believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Do you eat the flesh of the Son of Man by faith? Please, eat the flesh of the Son of Man. In the Gospel of John chapter 6 verses 54-55, the Lord said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” The flesh of the Lord is food indeed. The fact that our Lord has taken on all our sins with His flesh is a true sign of our salvation. Dear fellow believers, do you believe this? It is the case that we obtain food of our hearts by our spirits ruminating, “Ah, yes. The Lord took on the sins of the world through the baptism. Yes, that’s right.” Thus, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the food that gives life for all eternity and it does not perish even if we were to keep it for a long, long time and eat it.
The Lord perfected all the righteousness for me by taking on all my sins at the Jordan River. Through His baptism, Jesus completely took on the sins of all people. Jesus came as the Lamb of God, and went away bearing all the sins of the world. If we were to remind ourselves of that fact everyday, our hearts would be without sin. Jesus has taken away sins that we had committed from birth until the age of thirty by the baptism, and even if we were to live until the age of seventy, He has taken away the sins that we would be committing up until then. Having faith in the fact that He has taken away not only our sins but also the sins of our fathers and mothers as well as the sins of our children, that is, the sins of all people starting from Adam until those at the end of this world becomes the food to our hearts.
One’s spirit cannot bear the sin when it commits the sin. Yet, how can our spirits be in peace while going through these sinful lives? It is only possible for our Lord to give us our true food. What is the true food to the spirits of us human beings? The true food to our spirits is His flesh. The fact that our Lord gave us His flesh at the Jordan River is the food to our spirits. Our Lord’s flesh is our true food. And the true drink is the blood of the Lord. The fact that the Lord had received all the judgment that we were supposed to receive is the true drink. Our spirits feel refreshed due to the fact that all our sins have been atoned for.
If we were to perhaps fall weak and worry about receiving the judgment again by having committed sins, not matter how good the food may be, we would not be able to digest and gain strength from it. What refreshes our hearts and calms us? It is the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus refers to none other than the judgment. We have nothing to be judged for because Jesus has received every judgment vicariously. It was something that was done by our Lord who has saved us. That is why the Lord is our Savior.
How can we live refreshingly and peacefully in our hearts? We can enjoy such grace by having the true food and the true drink that the Lord has given us. We are able to live always in our spirits filled with peace and strength because He has given us His flesh and blood. By having faith in the work of His flesh and blood, we are able to live in this world having gained strength with refreshed and peaceful hearts, and we will be able to live forever in comfort even in the world to come. This is our salvation. This is the salvation that has blotted out the sins of us humankind. Dear fellow believers, do you believe? I also believe in the Lord. We don’t know how good the Lord is.
For 10 years, after having started to believe in Jesus for the first time, I lived as a Christian sinner. So, for the 10 years, I was very, very anguished. Prior to having faith in Jesus, I believed Buddhism, but because of the illness of my body, I started to believe Jesus. Thus, I came to believe in Jesus and came to know the Law and sin. At first, I had gained peace in my heart, knowing that Jesus had died on the Cross. I believed like that, and for the first five years, I spoke in tongue well, was fervent with love, and was first in helping others. Whenever money was in my pocket, I gave away all of it to people who were in hardship. Whenever I walked down a street filled with beggars, my pockets became empty. A certain missionary said he had given away everything except for a piece of attire and thus, had lived with no possession, and for 10 years, I endeavored to live like that, also.
But, as I tried harder and harder to live uprightly, I came to realize the fact that I had so much lacking in me. Sins started to accumulate inside my heart. I was so afflicted by sins, and I felt as though I was going to die. When I realized the fact that my spirit was in suffocation by sins, I could not even see the faces of people. Not only people, I could not even look up to the sky and I could not even call out the Lord. After having sinned, I could not even say a word when I tried to pray to God. Only the word, “Lord” came out of my mouth, and I did not know what to say next. It was so agonizing. At first, I prayed well, but as time passed by, strangely, more difficult it became for me to pray. As words didn’t come out after having called out, “Lord,” as I was offering overnight prayers all through the night, I was only repeating, “Lord, Lord,” and thus, you could imagine how stifling it must have been for me. I had to go before the Lord and I had to make earnest requests. But, I just could not do so. It wasn’t just once or twice that I had to face the morning after dawn, having just called out, “Lord, Lord,” all night long.
It lasted for 5 years. It was getting truly tedious. Though such pain cannot be described into words, but the most serious thing was that I felt myself dying due to suffocation of my spirit. “There is no more need for me to go on living. I think I should retire from this world.” Only such thought captured my heart, so I could not but always feel suffocated.
Just then, I realized something as I was reading the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verses 13 through 15. It was the fact that the Lord has taken on all my sins at the Jordan River. When I realized the fact that the Lord has taken over all my sins by giving me His flesh and receiving the baptism, my spirit that had been suffocating started to breathe in and out immediately. “Now then, I must be without sin. I received salvation without any mishap. I would have died of suffocation despite having faith in Jesus if I hadn’t known about the Scripture passage that says the Lord had truly taken on my sins at that moment. Thankfully, I received salvation just in time.” I was full of joy and filled with elation. Thus, even when I was in bed, I look at this Scripture passage. Whenever I am bored or fall into weaknesses, I take a look at this Scripture passage that tells me how all my sins have passed onto the body of Jesus.
Also, from the Scripture passages, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) and “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18), I obtained a clear proof that the Lord already has perfectly completed my salvation. Furthermore, the Lord said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and by saying, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), it has become so that there can never be condemnation inside the hearts of those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit by which the Lord has perfected all the righteousness.
Dear fellow believers, whenever I fall into weaknesses, I reaffirm these Scripture passages. And, my spirits eats the flesh of the Lord everyday. Now, even if I don’t read these passages everyday, I swallow into my heart the fact that the Lord has taken on all my sins with His flesh by ruminating it. I thank the Lord. I am truly thankful. For me to eat the flesh of the Lord by faith has become the true food. Thus, I am able to laugh, spread the Word, share fellowship, pray for others, and ask God’s blessings for them.
Dear fellow believers, our Lord has saved me and you, as well as all the other people, with His flesh and His blood. Do you believe so? Thus, He had made it so that we would never receive the judgment.
I keep myself busy with the gospel works. As I am alone, I realize how lacking and weak I am. I want to march forward spiritually, yet there are so many fleshly thoughts arising inside of me. As I see them, I cannot but recognize myself as is. When I am lying down, I say to myself to stay lying down just a bit longer. Then, I say to myself to doze a little while longer. And then, I say to myself to sleep a little while longer, and it becomes so difficult for me to get up. So, I look at myself and start to grieve, saying, “Lord, how can there be a person like me? Lord, You have saved me. Yet, instead of praying for others, I tell myself to lie down just a bit longer.” Despite of it all, I am able to come to my senses and follow the Lord again because the fact remains that there is no sin in my heart. Someone might say, “But, how can you dare say that you are without sin?” Still, the fact remains that my spirit is without sin due to the fact that I have eaten the flesh of the Lord.
The Lord gave us His flesh and blood. Thus, we are able to shake away the fear of sin and the judgment by faith whenever they try to bind us. Even today, not being bound by our weaknesses, we pray, “Lord, I want to help few more spirits receive the remission of sins today,” and then go out to the streets or to campuses. As we meet other spirits outside, we start spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit by asking, “Do you have sins, or do you not? Do you know how Jesus has saved you perfectly?” As we do so, we get to meet numerous people with wrongful faith who say that they believe Jesus but have sins in their hearts, and we start telling them the gospel of the water and the Spirit with elation.
When asked, “Are you righteous?” some people answer, “I am righteous since I have faith in Jesus, but because I commit sins everyday, I am a sinner.” How can there be a righteous person who still has sin? To those spirits that are in such confusion, we must widely the gospel of the water and the Spirit in detail. I have seen so many cases where such people receive the remission of sin after only an hour’s worth of fellowship in God’s Word. After conveying to them the gospel fully, when I ask, “Now, do you have sins?” and they answer back saying that they don’t have sin anymore, my heart fills up with joy. You don’t realize how joyous they are also, after having seen the Word and confirmed the fact that their hearts are truly without sin. They confess how they could have lived thus far without having known about something so good like this.
Our Lord has given His flesh and blood for you and me, as well as for people of the world, and thus, our hearts become refreshed whenever we eat and drink this food and drink. Because we are without sin, it is the case that we are able to move around honorably, thank God, and praise Him. I always thank the Lord, and because of Him, I am happy. Even though I am so weak, I can always thank the Lord only because the Lord has saved people like me by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I am thankful for having taken away the judgment by saving people like me with the water and the Spirit. That is why the Apostle Paul had said, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Dear fellow believers, we are able to be thankful for all things because our Lord has given us His flesh and blood. Dear fellow believers, is this so, or is it not? Yes, it is.
The flesh of Jesus is His receiving of the baptism, and the blood of Jesus is His receiving of the judgment. Because life lies in the blood, on behalf of those of us who were suppose to receive the curse and die, Jesus received the judgment and the curse at the Cross by having taken on all our sins completely. He has made us not to be judged any more. There is a gospel song in our children’s hymn book. “♪There is no judgment for me. ♬The blood of the Lord covers all my sins. ♬For Jesus has died for me, there is no judgment for me.♪” Dear fellow believers, is there any judgment reserved for you? No, there isn’t. I can stand before you and give sermons because I have no sin and I have no judgment set aside for me. If I had judgment set aside for me, how would I even be able to raise my face?
Dear fellow believers, please, look up to the Lord and believe in the works that the Lord has done. Please, take in the flesh and the blood of the Lord. That is precisely what having faith is, that is precisely to believe in the Lord, that is precisely what salvation is, and that is precisely what everlasting life is. Praise our Lord!
Is the Holy Spirit inside you? There isn’t any sin inside the heart of those who have the Holy Spirit. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit do believe in Jesus, but once they commit a wrongdoing, they get tied up again by sin. Because they get tied up by sin again and again, they make a commitment saying, “I must not sin. I shouldn’t commit sin.” But, for they are human beings, how could they not commit sin again? Also, when they do commit sin again, they become fearful, saying, “Alas, I sinned again. What shall I do?” Why would someone who has faith in Jesus be fearful of the judgment? It is because they hadn’t received the salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
If God had told us to pay the price for sin whenever we commit sin, then you would have gone through mourning much more than ten thousand times. Just for the sins that we had committed for a week, we should already have been beaten to death a hundred times over and more. If it were the case that the judgment would be made over sins carried in the heart as well as those of deeds, there wouldn’t be a single person left on this world. What did our Lord say? He said, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:13).
Dear fellow believers, this ‘mercy’ refers to the fact that the Lord has blotted out all our sins for He had taken pity on us. And, the passage, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” means that the Lord does not want us offering prayers of repentance, offering services and acting out things, just as the people of Israel during the Old Testament era had done, coming forth to a priest carrying a sacrificial offering and saying, “I have sinned. Please forgive me. I will be requited.” He just wants us to receive the remission of sin by believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Do you eat the flesh of the Son of Man by faith? Please, eat the flesh of the Son of Man. In the Gospel of John chapter 6 verses 54-55, the Lord said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” The flesh of the Lord is food indeed. The fact that our Lord has taken on all our sins with His flesh is a true sign of our salvation. Dear fellow believers, do you believe this? It is the case that we obtain food of our hearts by our spirits ruminating, “Ah, yes. The Lord took on the sins of the world through the baptism. Yes, that’s right.” Thus, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the food that gives life for all eternity and it does not perish even if we were to keep it for a long, long time and eat it.
The Lord perfected all the righteousness for me by taking on all my sins at the Jordan River. Through His baptism, Jesus completely took on the sins of all people. Jesus came as the Lamb of God, and went away bearing all the sins of the world. If we were to remind ourselves of that fact everyday, our hearts would be without sin. Jesus has taken away sins that we had committed from birth until the age of thirty by the baptism, and even if we were to live until the age of seventy, He has taken away the sins that we would be committing up until then. Having faith in the fact that He has taken away not only our sins but also the sins of our fathers and mothers as well as the sins of our children, that is, the sins of all people starting from Adam until those at the end of this world becomes the food to our hearts.
One’s spirit cannot bear the sin when it commits the sin. Yet, how can our spirits be in peace while going through these sinful lives? It is only possible for our Lord to give us our true food. What is the true food to the spirits of us human beings? The true food to our spirits is His flesh. The fact that our Lord gave us His flesh at the Jordan River is the food to our spirits. Our Lord’s flesh is our true food. And the true drink is the blood of the Lord. The fact that the Lord had received all the judgment that we were supposed to receive is the true drink. Our spirits feel refreshed due to the fact that all our sins have been atoned for.
If we were to perhaps fall weak and worry about receiving the judgment again by having committed sins, not matter how good the food may be, we would not be able to digest and gain strength from it. What refreshes our hearts and calms us? It is the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus refers to none other than the judgment. We have nothing to be judged for because Jesus has received every judgment vicariously. It was something that was done by our Lord who has saved us. That is why the Lord is our Savior.
How can we live refreshingly and peacefully in our hearts? We can enjoy such grace by having the true food and the true drink that the Lord has given us. We are able to live always in our spirits filled with peace and strength because He has given us His flesh and blood. By having faith in the work of His flesh and blood, we are able to live in this world having gained strength with refreshed and peaceful hearts, and we will be able to live forever in comfort even in the world to come. This is our salvation. This is the salvation that has blotted out the sins of us humankind. Dear fellow believers, do you believe? I also believe in the Lord. We don’t know how good the Lord is.
For 10 years, after having started to believe in Jesus for the first time, I lived as a Christian sinner. So, for the 10 years, I was very, very anguished. Prior to having faith in Jesus, I believed Buddhism, but because of the illness of my body, I started to believe Jesus. Thus, I came to believe in Jesus and came to know the Law and sin. At first, I had gained peace in my heart, knowing that Jesus had died on the Cross. I believed like that, and for the first five years, I spoke in tongue well, was fervent with love, and was first in helping others. Whenever money was in my pocket, I gave away all of it to people who were in hardship. Whenever I walked down a street filled with beggars, my pockets became empty. A certain missionary said he had given away everything except for a piece of attire and thus, had lived with no possession, and for 10 years, I endeavored to live like that, also.
But, as I tried harder and harder to live uprightly, I came to realize the fact that I had so much lacking in me. Sins started to accumulate inside my heart. I was so afflicted by sins, and I felt as though I was going to die. When I realized the fact that my spirit was in suffocation by sins, I could not even see the faces of people. Not only people, I could not even look up to the sky and I could not even call out the Lord. After having sinned, I could not even say a word when I tried to pray to God. Only the word, “Lord” came out of my mouth, and I did not know what to say next. It was so agonizing. At first, I prayed well, but as time passed by, strangely, more difficult it became for me to pray. As words didn’t come out after having called out, “Lord,” as I was offering overnight prayers all through the night, I was only repeating, “Lord, Lord,” and thus, you could imagine how stifling it must have been for me. I had to go before the Lord and I had to make earnest requests. But, I just could not do so. It wasn’t just once or twice that I had to face the morning after dawn, having just called out, “Lord, Lord,” all night long.
It lasted for 5 years. It was getting truly tedious. Though such pain cannot be described into words, but the most serious thing was that I felt myself dying due to suffocation of my spirit. “There is no more need for me to go on living. I think I should retire from this world.” Only such thought captured my heart, so I could not but always feel suffocated.
Just then, I realized something as I was reading the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verses 13 through 15. It was the fact that the Lord has taken on all my sins at the Jordan River. When I realized the fact that the Lord has taken over all my sins by giving me His flesh and receiving the baptism, my spirit that had been suffocating started to breathe in and out immediately. “Now then, I must be without sin. I received salvation without any mishap. I would have died of suffocation despite having faith in Jesus if I hadn’t known about the Scripture passage that says the Lord had truly taken on my sins at that moment. Thankfully, I received salvation just in time.” I was full of joy and filled with elation. Thus, even when I was in bed, I look at this Scripture passage. Whenever I am bored or fall into weaknesses, I take a look at this Scripture passage that tells me how all my sins have passed onto the body of Jesus.
Also, from the Scripture passages, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) and “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18), I obtained a clear proof that the Lord already has perfectly completed my salvation. Furthermore, the Lord said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), and by saying, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), it has become so that there can never be condemnation inside the hearts of those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit by which the Lord has perfected all the righteousness.
Dear fellow believers, whenever I fall into weaknesses, I reaffirm these Scripture passages. And, my spirits eats the flesh of the Lord everyday. Now, even if I don’t read these passages everyday, I swallow into my heart the fact that the Lord has taken on all my sins with His flesh by ruminating it. I thank the Lord. I am truly thankful. For me to eat the flesh of the Lord by faith has become the true food. Thus, I am able to laugh, spread the Word, share fellowship, pray for others, and ask God’s blessings for them.
Dear fellow believers, our Lord has saved me and you, as well as all the other people, with His flesh and His blood. Do you believe so? Thus, He had made it so that we would never receive the judgment.
I keep myself busy with the gospel works. As I am alone, I realize how lacking and weak I am. I want to march forward spiritually, yet there are so many fleshly thoughts arising inside of me. As I see them, I cannot but recognize myself as is. When I am lying down, I say to myself to stay lying down just a bit longer. Then, I say to myself to doze a little while longer. And then, I say to myself to sleep a little while longer, and it becomes so difficult for me to get up. So, I look at myself and start to grieve, saying, “Lord, how can there be a person like me? Lord, You have saved me. Yet, instead of praying for others, I tell myself to lie down just a bit longer.” Despite of it all, I am able to come to my senses and follow the Lord again because the fact remains that there is no sin in my heart. Someone might say, “But, how can you dare say that you are without sin?” Still, the fact remains that my spirit is without sin due to the fact that I have eaten the flesh of the Lord.
The Lord gave us His flesh and blood. Thus, we are able to shake away the fear of sin and the judgment by faith whenever they try to bind us. Even today, not being bound by our weaknesses, we pray, “Lord, I want to help few more spirits receive the remission of sins today,” and then go out to the streets or to campuses. As we meet other spirits outside, we start spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit by asking, “Do you have sins, or do you not? Do you know how Jesus has saved you perfectly?” As we do so, we get to meet numerous people with wrongful faith who say that they believe Jesus but have sins in their hearts, and we start telling them the gospel of the water and the Spirit with elation.
When asked, “Are you righteous?” some people answer, “I am righteous since I have faith in Jesus, but because I commit sins everyday, I am a sinner.” How can there be a righteous person who still has sin? To those spirits that are in such confusion, we must widely the gospel of the water and the Spirit in detail. I have seen so many cases where such people receive the remission of sin after only an hour’s worth of fellowship in God’s Word. After conveying to them the gospel fully, when I ask, “Now, do you have sins?” and they answer back saying that they don’t have sin anymore, my heart fills up with joy. You don’t realize how joyous they are also, after having seen the Word and confirmed the fact that their hearts are truly without sin. They confess how they could have lived thus far without having known about something so good like this.
Our Lord has given His flesh and blood for you and me, as well as for people of the world, and thus, our hearts become refreshed whenever we eat and drink this food and drink. Because we are without sin, it is the case that we are able to move around honorably, thank God, and praise Him. I always thank the Lord, and because of Him, I am happy. Even though I am so weak, I can always thank the Lord only because the Lord has saved people like me by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I am thankful for having taken away the judgment by saving people like me with the water and the Spirit. That is why the Apostle Paul had said, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Dear fellow believers, we are able to be thankful for all things because our Lord has given us His flesh and blood. Dear fellow believers, is this so, or is it not? Yes, it is.
The flesh of Jesus is His receiving of the baptism, and the blood of Jesus is His receiving of the judgment. Because life lies in the blood, on behalf of those of us who were suppose to receive the curse and die, Jesus received the judgment and the curse at the Cross by having taken on all our sins completely. He has made us not to be judged any more. There is a gospel song in our children’s hymn book. “♪There is no judgment for me. ♬The blood of the Lord covers all my sins. ♬For Jesus has died for me, there is no judgment for me.♪” Dear fellow believers, is there any judgment reserved for you? No, there isn’t. I can stand before you and give sermons because I have no sin and I have no judgment set aside for me. If I had judgment set aside for me, how would I even be able to raise my face?
Dear fellow believers, please, look up to the Lord and believe in the works that the Lord has done. Please, take in the flesh and the blood of the Lord. That is precisely what having faith is, that is precisely to believe in the Lord, that is precisely what salvation is, and that is precisely what everlasting life is. Praise our Lord!
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