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Subject 28 : If You Have Confusion and Emptiness in Your Heart, Seek the Light of the Truth
[28-6] The Lord Has Given Us Living Water to Never Thirst Again (John 4:4-14)
< John 4:4-14 >
“But He needed to go through Samaria.
So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.””
“But He needed to go through Samaria.
So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.””
Jesus’ Visit to Samaria
Today, I would like to share God’s blessings with you from the passage in John chapter 4 that we just read. In this passage, we see a Samaritan woman meeting Jesus by a well, and from the conversation they were having, we can see the true Word flowing that makes us never thirst again. For you and me who are now living in this world, the Samaritan woman here is also our shadow.
Jesus was on His way to Galilee when He stopped by Samaria, where this woman was residing. In fact, Jesus did this deliberately, going to Jacob’s well and waiting for her, so that He would meet her. The Samaritan city called Sychar, where the woman was from, was where Jacob and his son Joseph, the ancestors of the Israelites, once lived, and Jacob’s well was preserved there.
The Jews were hesitant to deal with the people of Samaria. This is because during the age of the Old Testament, Assyrian kings pursued a policy of assimilation through forced resettlement of their conquered territories, and when they conquered Israel, they resettled various pagan groups in Samaria and promoted intermarriages. So, the Jews deliberately shunned the Samaritans, disparaging them as a mixed race for intermingling with the pagans. The Samaritans were looked down by the Jews for having lost their purity as the people of Israel.
It was midday when Jesus stopped by the well in Samaria, making it impossible to avoid the sun. So He met the Samaritan woman under the blazing sun, and He began His dialogue of life with her by asking her for water.
If You Knew Who It Is Who Says to You, “Give Me a Drink”
The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, “How is it that You, being a Jew, is asking for water from me, a Samaritan woman?” Jesus then said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10). We can see here that the Samaritan woman already had hostile feelings toward the Jews even before she began conversing with Jesus. This woman felt a great deal of pride from the fact that Jacob’s well was in Samaria, so she not only considered her ancestors’ faith to be superior, but she also was keenly interested in the difference between this faith and the faith of the Jews.
It was around noon when the woman came to the well. From noon to 2 PM, the people in that region stopped their activities and took a nap, as it was too hot. It was their daily routine to enjoy siesta after lunch until around 3 PM, and then begin their afternoon activities once the scorching sun turned less intolerable. Yet, in contrast to this custom, the woman in today’s Scripture reading came to the well to draw water at a time when everyone else was napping. We can tell from this behavior that the woman had a compelling reason to come to the well and draw water while trying to avoid others.
Jesus said in John 4:10, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” Looking at what the woman said to Jesus, we can glimpse that she was thinking, “It’s quite preposterous for You to offer me living water when You don’t even have a bucket to draw any water. This well belonged to my forefather Jacob, so how can You, a Jew, ask me for its water?”
The water that our God is offering to the thirsty is living water, which is His grace. The gift of God that Jesus is offering to the woman here is the remission of her sins. God’s gift for her is His grace that would save her from her sins. This is what Jesus meant when He said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10). However, the woman did not understand what Jesus was saying to her.
What is it that God wanted to give this woman? He wanted to give her the gospel proclaiming that Jesus took away the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist. In other words, Jesus wanted to give her the gift of salvation and let her know that He bore her sins in this world and became her propitiation.
What is the gift of salvation that the Lord is offering freely to mankind? It is the fact that Jesus shouldered the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and He consequently sacrificed Himself in sinners’ place as their propitiation. It is because Jesus bore the sins of mankind through the baptism He received from John the Baptist that He was crucified as our sacrificial offering. We must believe with our hearts that this Lord who was baptized by John the Baptist is our Savior.
We must believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior who took away the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and was crucified to shed His precious blood on the Cross. It was to shoulder the sins of this world that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. And He was condemned for our sins on the Cross. It is when we believe in this salvation that we are truly born again. Faith in the baptism of the Lord and His blood on the Cross is the amazing, blessed faith that transforms us into God’s own children now.
As the Lord took away the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, the judgment of God reserved for us was fulfilled with the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross. The baptism that Jesus Christ the Son of God received and the blood He shed on the Cross constitute the sacrifice of atonement that pacified the wrath of God the Father. Jesus is saying that the Truth that saves us from the sins of this world is the grace of God.
The Lord wanted to make us, who were all sinners, God’s holy people. To do so, He placated Himself by paying off the wages of our sins with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross. Jesus is now offering salvation to all those who believe in the baptized Lord as their Savior. Mankind’s salvation from sin is made possible by faith in the grace of salvation, by believing that Jesus shouldered the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross for us. Jesus bore the sins of this world on His own body by being baptized by John the Baptist, and it is by believing in this work of salvation that we receive true salvation into our hearts. Whoever believes that our Lord took away the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized and shed His blood on the Cross can be saved, and none other than this is God’s mercy.
Because Jesus shouldered the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist, we can find comfort for our hearts and spirits by believing in this fact. That Jesus paid off the wages of our sins with His blood by being baptized by John the Baptist and crucified is the gift of God that saves all those who believe in this fact from their sins.
Seeing that human beings were doomed to be condemned for their sins, Jesus could not just turn a blind eye to them. That is why He personally sought out the Samaritan woman and met her, to give her the gift of salvation from all sins. In fact, Jesus could have easily bypassed the land of Samaria and taken a different route to His destination. Despite this, He went through the land of Samaria deliberately because He had compassion for the Samaritan woman and wanted to free her from all her sins. Put differently, Jesus wanted to bestow His grace of salvation on the Samaritan woman.
What Is the Living Water That the Lord Is Offering You and Me?
The grace of salvation that Jesus is offering you and me is the fact that He bore our sins on His own body and washed them away by being baptized by John the Baptist. Through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, the Lord Himself took away the sins of this world once and for all. To save us from the sins of this world and our judgment, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and thereby solved away the sins of this world, and therefore, He is now able to deliver all those who know, believe in, and accept the Lord’s baptism from their sins. The baptism of Jesus Christ and His blood on the Cross are the gift of salvation that the Lord is offering to sinners.
We are now able to reach salvation through faith, by realizing and believing that the Jesus who was baptized by John the Baptist was also condemned for our sins in our place. Through our faith in the baptism and blood of Jesus, we can be saved forever to never thirst again. Those who now accept and believe in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and His blood as their salvation will see our Lord’s grace of salvation springing forth and flowing in their hearts like a fountain.
Such grace of salvation is something that can be received only by those who believe in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist on this earth. While such living water of salvation is offered to all sinners living on this earth, this grace of salvation can be received only by those who believe that Jesus took away the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. The salvation that God is offering to sinners springs forth from faith in Jesus, by believing that He took away the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist and died on the Cross for our sins in our place. As a hymn goes, “Peace! Peace! Wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above! Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray, in fathomless billows of love.”
The baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist is God’s love that saves us once and for all, who have been sinners from the day we were born in this world. By being baptized, Jesus shouldered the sins of mankind on His own body once and for all. And the blood He shed when He was crucified was to bear the condemnation of our sins in our place, and to thus bring salvation to all who believe. In short, we are saved from all our sins if we accept into our hearts the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed to deliver us from sin. We will then come to savor God’s love and see the grace of salvation springing forth in our hearts to wash away our sins.
To give us the sinners the gift of salvation, Jesus Himself washed away all the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. The Lord wanted to give us true salvation and endow us with the true peace of mind. So, even at this very moment, the Lord is offering salvation to whoever believes that Jesus Himself has delivered sinners from all their sins by being baptized by John the Baptist.
We were sinners just like the Samaritan woman, but rather than abandoning us to our sinful state, the Lord came to this earth looking for us, was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, shed His blood on the Cross, and has taught us the believers what true salvation is. In other words, the Lord Himself came looking for sinners, and He personally took care of the washing of their sins. By accepting all our sins once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and by being condemned for our sins once and for all with the blood He shed, the Lord has fulfilled our true salvation for us. The Truth of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist is the Truth of the washing of sins that saves us the believers from the sins of this world once and for all.
You must realize and believe that on account of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, all your sins and mine were passed on to His body. As Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of God by being baptized by John the Baptist, all our sins were passed on to His body thanks to this work, and the wages of our sins were paid off once and for all with the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross. We must have faith in this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. If we believe in the baptism that our Lord received from John the Baptist and His blood as our salvation, the river of the grace of the remission of sins will overflow in our hearts to submerge us in God’s love.
For all of us who are living in this cruel and loveless world, Jesus has now washed away our sins with the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and therefore we can be freed from all our sins thanks to the baptism and blood of Jesus that constitute the Truth of salvation. So, no matter how many shortcomings we might have, we must all believe in and hold steadfast to the Truth that we are washed from our sins by believing in the Lord who was baptized by John the Baptist for our sake. When we ruminate on the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, we can see that our hearts are overflowing with the joy of salvation, thanks to the Lord’s baptism that has brought the remission of sins to us.
Life in this world is so hard these days that people all over the world are lamenting just how tough it is to carry on with their lives. Countless people are struggling with their lives, worried about ever-growing tax burdens and worsening climate changes. However, even though we are living in such a tough world, and even if our hearts have been sinful until now, as long as we believe at this moment that Jesus took away the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and we believe in this Lord as our Savior, then from this hour and on we can all live by faith surrounded by the love of salvation that the Lord has given us. No matter how tough the world we are living in gets, if we can receive the washing of sins into our hearts by realizing and believing that the Truth of the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the grace of the shedding of His blood are for our salvation, we can all be truly happy before God.
If we believe that Jesus shouldered the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and that He was condemned for our sins by shedding His blood on the Cross, then we are saved from all our sins through our faith in the Truth of salvation. As long as we believe that the Lord took away our sins through His baptism and was crucified to pay off their wages, we can all live amid the God-given blessings of salvation by placing our faith in His love. What a wonderful blessing it is that you and I have now become sinless in our hearts! Words cannot describe just how grateful we are to God for the very fact that we have received the remission of sins. Our present faith that has saved us can wash away all our sins, for Jesus shouldered all the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, all our sins were passed on to His body, and we believe in this righteous salvation of the Lord.
Our hearts are overflowing with thanksgiving because we have reached true salvation by accepting the Word of the baptism of Jesus into our hearts. All of us can be saved through faith in the Word of the baptism of the Lord. Those who realize and believe in this amazing Word of the washing of sins are bound to be always at peace, with joy springing forth from the depth of their hearts. Therefore, far from living in suffering over our sins, we are now able to live the kind of life where our souls never thirst again, all because we believe in the Word of the baptism that our Lord received for us. That is how we come to give thanks and glory to our Lord in our lives for blessing our hearts to overflow with the joy of salvation.
We Were Just Like the Samaritan Woman by Nature
We were all just like the Samaritan woman in the Lord’s eyes. Full of life’s baggage, the Samaritan woman came to draw water while everyone else was taking a nap. Given how she came to Jacob’s well to draw water at noon under the blazing sun, she must have had a very tough life in this world. We can see that she herself was not happy with her life. She most likely had no choice but to draw the well’s water at this hour if she wanted to prepare meals for her family and carry on with her everyday life. And when she ran out of water the next day, she must have come back to the well again. Like this, the woman was living in this world with a constant, unquenchable thirst.
We are just like this woman. For example, some people think that buying real estate would make their lives better. So, they take out a mortgage to purchase real estate, but they then have to tighten their belt for years to come to be able to pay back their mortgage interests and principal. People may also think that finding a good job would make them happy, but this is not always true, either. Even if they pass all kinds of hurdles to land a great job at a great company, they can easily find themselves laid off when the company that seemed to guarantee their future goes under.
Some people do everything they can to move up the social ladder. To illustrate this, consider a woman frequenting an exclusive social club reserved only for the upper class. She pays the club fee, learns the polished language of the upper class, and invests a great deal of money into making her outside appearance beautiful and attractive, buying luxury bags and clothes. She then thinks to herself, “This is the only way I can move up. If I meet just one nice man here, I can turn my life around!”
The woman finally succeeds at meeting a seemingly nice man. He tells her that he loves her, and after a period of dating, they get married. However, she realizes eventually that her husband was just like her, trying to climb up the social ladder. Their marriage was a product of mutual deception, and once they got to know each other well with passing time, they realized that they were trying to do the same thing.
So, the woman divorces her husband and looks for another man. One day, she meets such a man in the social club. But, this man, too, turns out to be a dud. She moves in with him and things go well for the first couple of months. She thinks to herself, “Wow, I picked the right man this time! Great, everything will go smoothly from now on. I will pour everything into this relationship so that he can’t afford to abandon me. I should get pregnant with his child. I’m going to marry him no matter what!” The woman invests her everything into this relationship, but the man turns out to be a disappointment again. This second man cheats on her and elopes with another woman. The woman’s life is ruined again as a result.
So, the woman thinks to herself, “Whomever I meet the next time, I am going to investigate his background thoroughly before making any commitment.” She meets another man, and this time she does her due diligence. The man is indeed wealthy, and everything appears to be fine. She moves in with him, and everything about him seems to be great, until she finds out that he is actually a married man. Her third attempt also ends up a failure.
On her fourth try, she meets a wealthy old man, but he falls ill and dies soon. She thinks that she would inherit his wealth, but she gets nothing, as the fourth man did not include her in his will and died suddenly without getting married. So, her fourth attempt once again ends up failing. The Bible says that the Samaritan woman was living with her fifth man, and the man she was with now was not her husband. Let’s imagine for a moment here that the Samaritan woman was in the same situation as the hypothetical example discussed above. The woman was under similar circumstances, and the man she was living with was not her husband but someone who could easily disappoint her and leave her at any moment.
Jesus said to her, “If you ask Me for water, and if you drink of the water that I give you, you will drink living water to never thirst again.” The woman said, “If You have such water, give it to me.” Jesus then said to her, “Bring your husband.” The woman then said without any hesitation, “The man I am living with is not my husband. I have no husband.” Jesus said, “You are right. You have had five husbands, but the man you are with now is not your husband, so what you say is true.” Seeing how Jesus knew all the details about her, the Samaritan woman began to wonder about Him, thinking to herself, “This Man is no ordinary man.” Ultimately, she came to realize that Jesus was the Christ.
“Thus It Is Fitting for Us to Fulfill All Righteousness” (Matthew 3:15)
Let’s recap here. It is to save us from all our sins that Jesus Christ came to this world incarnated in the flesh of mankind. He came to this earth looking for us with the name “Jesus,” because He is the One who would save His people from their sins. It’s important for us to realize here that during the age of the Old Testament, the High Priest could begin carrying out his priestly duties at the age of 30, and Jesus was 30 years old when He went to the Jordan River looking for John the Baptist. This means that it was to fulfill His office as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus Christ went looking for John the Baptist at the age of 30 and bore the sins of mankind on His own body by being baptized.
Seeking to be baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus said to him, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). I have read this verse dozens of times, and I have also looked it up in the original text. Jesus went to John the Baptist and sought to be baptized by him because He wanted to take away the sins of this world through His baptism, for He was the Christ. This baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist had the same effect as the Old Testament’s laying on of hands.
When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, His body was submerged in the water of the Jordan River and emerged out of it. This shows us that Jesus was carrying out the work of salvation to deliver mankind from sin. The baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist was the work through which He took away the sins of this world. Moreover, it is because Jesus took our sins away from us through His baptism that He suffered death on the Cross to be condemned for them in our place. When Jesus said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15), He was saying, “I am being baptized by you, John the Baptist, in order to take away all the sins of mankind now and thus fulfill all the righteousness of God once and for all.” By being baptized by you, I am now shouldering all the sins of this world and washing them away.”
Who, then, was John the Baptist? What do we think of the man who baptized Jesus? It is imperative for us to know the exact reason why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the greatest of those born of women, just as Jesus said, “Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). John the Baptist may be described as the representative of mankind. When we examine John the Baptist’s birth, we see that he was Zachariah’s son, born in a household of High Priests whose lineage is traced all the way back to the age of the Old Testament. When John the Baptist tried to baptize Jesus, He said, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” In Greek, the word “thus” here is “ουτως” (hutos), which means “in this way,” “in no other way but this,” or “in such a way,” and it refers to the baptism that Jesus was seeking to receive from John the Baptist.
By being baptized by John the Baptist in this way, Jesus took away the sins of mankind once and for all. As John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, passed their sins on to the body of Jesus once and for all through the baptism he gave to Jesus, all the righteousness of God was fulfilled. As Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, all the sins of this world were passed on to His body once and for all. It was the will of God for Jesus to wash away all the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. By thus blotting out everyone’s sins, Jesus was to fulfill the righteousness of God. Like this, Jesus Christ is saying that when He came to this earth, He took away the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, and this is what has now fulfilled the righteousness of God.
Because Jesus accepted the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, all the righteousness of God was fulfilled, just as He said, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). As Jesus placed His head under John the Baptist’ hands to be baptized by him, the sins of mankind were passed on to His body once and for all. So, Jesus accepted the sins of mankind through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and His body was submerged completely in the water of the Jordan River. When He came out of the water, the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and the voice of God the Father was heard, saying about the baptized Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
“This Is My Beloved Son, in Whom I Am Well Pleased” (Matthew 3:17)
God the Father decided to send His Son to this earth and make Him shoulder the sins of this world once and for all, and Jesus Christ the Son of God fulfilled this will of the Father in obedience by being baptized by John the Baptist serving as the representative of mankind. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” By being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus took away the sins of mankind once and for all. By receiving baptism from John the Baptist at once according to the will of God the Father, Jesus accepted all the sins of this world once and for all. Like this, Jesus did what pleased God the Father by being baptized by John the Baptist and thus shouldering all the sins of mankind on His own body.
Every word has a meaning. If we profess to believe in Jesus as our Savior even as we do not understand the true meaning of what Jesus said in Matthew 3:15, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” it is akin to claiming to own a piece of land blindly without even knowing its boundaries drawn in a cadastral map. Believing in Jesus as our Savior blindly without realizing God the Father’s plan of salvation is just like making such a groundless claim.
Hidden in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist is the profound providence of the Triune God. The problem, however, is that people today do not know the reason why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, nor do they understand exactly how Jesus took away their sins and why He was crucified. If you believe in Jesus without understanding what Jesus said to John the Baptist in the Jordan River, do you think you would still be able to go to Heaven? No, this is not possible. That is why I am spending so much time now to explain the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, so that you may grasp its meaning. Whenever I preach to you the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, I explain repeatedly that Jesus took away the sins of mankind once and for all and shouldered them on His own body by being baptized by John the Baptist. I do this to make it easier for you to understand, because so many of you do not know about the baptism of Jesus even though you all believe in Him.
All our sins were passed on to the body of Jesus through the baptism that John the Baptist gave Him. Jesus accepted the sins of mankind once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and He shouldered our sins and washed them away once for all for those who now believe in Him. Therefore, because all the sins of mankind were passed on to the body of Jesus once and for all, every sin that is in our hearts is now washed away once and for all by faith. Since our sins in the world were passed on to the body of Jesus through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, they have all been cleansed away from our hearts. And because Jesus took away the sins of mankind once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, He was condemned for our sins on the Cross in our place. I am doing my best here to untangle and explain this gospel of salvation to you in simple terms, so that you can all understand it with ease.
I am sure some of you are not well-versed in theological terms. If you are one of them, you will have a hard time trying to understand my sermon if I throw around theological terms. Preachers should refrain from using theological vocabulary in their sermons, and instead rely on simple, everyday words to explain the reason why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and shed His blood. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He accepted the sins of mankind once and for all. On account of this baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, He shouldered all our sins on His own body, and He shed His blood and died on the Cross. Like this, whenever I preach, my intention is to deliver my sermons in as easy terms as possible, so that even a first grader can understand.
How Can We Obtain the Lord’s Living Water for Our Hearts?
Returning to the main point, even if people believe in Jesus as their Savior, if they try to be saved from their sins by believing in just the doctrine of the Cross, they will all fail. This is because Jesus said that anyone wishing to be born again must “be born again of water and the Spirit.” Jesus said, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10). The Lord is saying to us here, “If you know Me properly and drink the water that I am offering you, your heart will overflow with living water. You will then never thirst again. To do so, you must first bring your sins before Me.”
Because we were all born as Adam’s descendants, we all have sin in our hearts by our fundamental nature, and therefore we cannot help but be cast into hell. This is because according to the Law of God, the wages of sin are death. Through the Law that God established to expose everyone’s sins, He is saying, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The Word of the God-given Law is what God has commanded us to follow. We ought to realize clearly here that anyone who breaks this commandment and is guilty of any sin before God will be condemned for this sin.
The Kingdom of God is a holy dominion where the sinless are gathered to live together. Because we were all born in this world as sinners by our nature, we must all be condemned by God for our sins. However, Jesus wanted to take away all the sins of this world through the baptism He would receive from John the Baptist, and He wanted to be condemned in our place. Therefore, if we realize and believe that Jesus shouldered the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, then we can also realize the fact that all the sins that were in our hearts were moved to Jesus’ body. We now have the Word of the baptism that Jesus received to save us from all the sins of this world. By believing in the Word that delivers us from all our sins—that is, the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist—we can all receive the washing of sins into our hearts.
Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman about His living water. Just like the Samaritan woman, we were always thirsty no matter how much water of this world we drank. That’s why we must realize the fact that the Lord took away our sins by fulfilling His ministry as the Christ, and that He was condemned for them as well. The Samaritan woman here is none other than you and I, and Jesus is our Savior who took away the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. To save us from the sins of this world, Jesus was born on this earth through the body of a woman, and He is the Savior who bore the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist.
Having shouldered all your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, Jesus was crucified, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become our true Savior. And He has become our everlasting King. We have now become God’s holy children, for we know and believe in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Having thus been saved from all our sins and become God’s children, we are now serving our Lord as the Savior. By believing in the righteousness of Jesus, we have become God’s own people who have been delivered from the sins of this world. We believe that the baptism the Lord received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed constitute our salvation, and on account of this faith, we have already been made God’s children.
It was by realizing and believing in the righteousness of God with our hearts that we were able to be saved from all our sins. How about you then? Do you believe that the Lord took away the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist? This baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist for our sake was more than enough for Jesus to take away all our sins.
Jesus Christ’s ministry was fulfilled through three offices. He sought to fulfill these three offices as the King of kings, the High Priest, and the Prophet. So, the Lord was baptized by John the Baptist to take away your sins and mine, shed His blood and died on the Cross, and has thereby completed His work of salvation to wash away all our sins once and for all. That is why Jesus Christ is the Savior who came to deliver His people from their sins. He is the “High Priest” of the Kingdom of Heaven. As the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, He received baptism on His body in the Jordan River for us, and He is the Savior who was condemned for our sins by being crucified to death. In the age of the Old Testament, it was the High Priest, such as Aaron, who passed the sins of the people of Israel to their sacrificial animal. As the High Priest, it was Aaron’s duty to wash away his people’s sins once a year with a sin offering. To fulfill this priestly duty, Aaron passed the sins of the people of Israel to the sacrificial animal by laying his hands on its head, drew its blood, sprinkled it seven times on the mercy seat inside God’s Tabernacle, and put the remaining blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. During the age of the Old Testament, if the High Priest did not make this sin offering on behalf of his people on the Day of Atonement, the people of Israel could not be remitted from the sins they committed for the entire year.
In the age of the New Testament, had Jesus not been baptized by John the Baptist, the greatest of those born of women, to wash away all the sins of every sinner in this world, then it would have been impossible for any sinner anywhere in the world to ever be saved from his sins. Fulfilling His duty as the High Priest to save mankind from the sins of this world, Jesus completed His work of salvation by sacrificing His own body.
Offering His body in our place, Jesus Christ took away all the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind; He gave up His body on the Cross to shed His blood and die on it; and He has thereby saved all who believe in Him. Therefore, it is through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross that Jesus has saved His believers from all the sins of this world once and for all. He is our true Savior who faithfully carried out His work as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven when He came to this world.
Jesus Christ is our Prophet. He is also our God, our Savior, and our Highest Priest, and He has now solved away our sins once and for all. When we were facing death as sinners because of our transgressions, the Lord offered His own body as our propitiation, was baptized by John the Baptist to take away our sins, and paid off their wages by being crucified in our place—He is our Savior.
Jesus Christ came looking for us the sinners with the three offices of the King, the High Priest, and the Prophet, and He has saved us from all our sins through His baptism and blood. We must realize and believe that He took away all our transgressions once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and He was condemned for our sins by shedding His blood. We ought to receive salvation from all our sins by faith. As our Savior, Jesus Christ is also our Good Shepherd. We must therefore be saved from all our sins by faith alone, relying on Jesus Christ’s righteous work shown in His three offices.
This true Word of salvation cannot be replaced by any theological teachings in this world. The theological doctrines that so many people in this world believe in are man-made, conjured up by theologians out of their own imagination. In contrast, true faith is all about looking toward the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross when He came to this earth, believing in them with the heart, and receiving salvation through this faith. Jesus Christ is the God of the Word, and in obedience to the will of His Father, He has saved those who are under the condemnation of sins through His baptism and blood. Our faith must now be placed in the righteous work of God that Jesus carried out by being baptized by John the Baptist and thus taking away the sins of mankind, and by this faith we must be saved and become God’s children.
Those on this earth who believe in the baptism that our Lord received from John the Baptist and His blood will receive salvation and new life from the Lord. It is by faith in the righteousness of the Lord that we receive the remission of our sins into our hearts. No man-made doctrine, philosophy, or theology can ever make it possible for us to be washed from all our sins once and for all. In contrast, by understanding and believing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we can be saved from not only our past sins but also all our future sins, and we can truly live out our faith.
Jesus Christ has saved us from all our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross for us. We must believe in the baptism of Jesus and the shedding of His blood, knowing that without them our remission of sins would not have been possible. Man-made theological doctrines in this world do not have the Truth of regeneration. Our salvation is found only in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, and this salvation is reached once and for all by believing in the gospel Word.
It is through faith alone that we can be born again once and for all, by believing in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and His blood. Born once as sinners, human beings are fated to be condemned for their sins and have no choice but to end up in hell. However, the Lord has fulfilled our salvation through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross, and by believing in this salvation, we can now be saved once and for all. Even though we were all born as sinners once, we can be born again for a second time from this sinful state into the righteous by placing our faith in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and His blood.
If we now believe that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the condemnation He bore on the Cross constitute God’s just salvation, then we have been born again, for the Lord wants to be our Savior. By believing in the remission of sins that our Lord has fulfilled through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood, we are saved from all our sins to become God’s own people.
The Samaritan woman shouted out, “I have met the Messiah! People, come over here! I have met the Messiah!” The Messiah is Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind. The Messiah had come looking for the Samaritan woman while she was living in this world, and she had now met Him. In Greek, the word Messiah is χριστοσ and it means “anointed One.” We must realize here that our deliverance from sin is reached by placing our faith in the salvation that has been fulfilled with the water and the Spirit. By believing in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and His blood, we are saved from all our sins and born again. It is with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood that the Lord has enabled us His believers to be born again.
Because we know and believe in the righteousness of Jesus Christ our Savior, we have now been born again from all our sins and become righteous once and for all. By believing in the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, we are able to become God’s own people. Having also become God’s workers, we are able to live our lives by faith. We have become witnesses preaching the gospel of salvation by faith. Our God has blessed our lives to be able to spread such amazing salvation and preach the gospel of His righteousness, and I give all honor and thanks to God for this wonderful blessing. Hallelujah!
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