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Subject 9 : Romans (Commentaries on the Book of Romans)
[Chapter 3-4] In What Respect Are Jews Better Than Gentiles? (Romans 3:1-31)
(Romans 3:1-31)
“What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.’ But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
As it is written:
‘There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.’
‘Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit’;
‘The poison of asps is under their lips’;
‘Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.’
‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.’
‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
(Romans 3:1) “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?”
The Jews, the descendants of Abraham, had a big advantage over the other nations. The Jews were the people who had received a lot of spiritual teaching from God and their parents’ lives and they also grew up watching God’s work personally. They were people who had received the circumcision of the flesh as the sign of the covenant and as God’s people. As such, they were people who had received a lot of blessing from God because they were God’s people who received the covenant through the Word.
But the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 3 that the Jews and the Gentiles both receive salvation from sin just by believing the righteousness of God. In what ways are the Jews better than the Gentiles then? It’s that they have the Word entrusted to them. They heard God’s Word since the early days of their ancestors. The Jews were considered better than the Gentiles because God’s Word was passed down through them. But the Jews were cast away before the presence of God because they did not believe that Jesus Christ was God’s Son.
Among Christians today, there are people that have such faith. They recognize Jesus as their Savior and go to church but they are sinners. They are sinners even after they believed in Jesus just as they were sinners before they believed, and there is no benefit to their faith even though they believe in Jesus because they have never attained the righteousness of God after believing in Jesus. There are many religious people like this even today.
(Romans 3:2) “Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.”
God’s Priests were the people entrusted with the job of delivering God’s Word. God entrusted God’s Word to His servants to deliver it to the people. Therefore the Jews have received the great blessing. God spoke to their ancestors and chose His servants from among those people and made them listen to His Word. Now even the Gentiles have the blessing of listening to God’s Word through their ancestors.
Because They Do Not Believe in the Righteousness of God
(Romans 3:3) “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?”
The Jews are responsible for God’s Word and they share it with their people. But what benefit is it for them if they themselves don’t believe it? This Word was also spoken to those who have believed in Jesus and become leaders in today’s Christianity. There are many Christian leaders who do not believe in the Word of the water and the Spirit that manifests the righteousness of God. Then what is the benefit to them? Would the truthfulness of the righteousness of God disappear just because they do not believe in the Word of God’s righteousness? No, it would not. The righteousness of God exists forever.
The Apostle Paul was the servant of God who had preached the gospel that contained the righteousness of God to the Jews and the Gentiles. But the Jews did not believe the righteousness of God that the Apostle Paul preached nor recognized and believed that Jesus Christ was the Savior. That doesn’t mean that God’s righteousness that God the Father fulfilled through Jesus Christ can be nullified. Would the righteousness of God disappear just because humans do not believe in the righteousness of God? Could the righteousness of God be nullified just because of the unbelievers in the righteousness of God? God’s righteousness does not disappear just because people do not believe in it. In other words, the righteousness of God does not become nullified just because we humans do not believe in the righteousness of God. How could the righteousness of God be nullified just because people do not believe in it? The Gentiles will believe in the righteousness of God if the Jews do not believe in it. It’s because whosoever believes in the righteousness of God in his heart receives the salvation from all sins. As such, the Jews had a big advantage over the other nations but the Jews were cast away because they did not believe in the righteousness of God.
As neither the Jews nor the Gentiles can receive the salvation from their sin through human morality or good deeds, the Jews cannot receive the salvation from their sins even though they say they are better. Therefore, neither the Jews nor the Gentiles can receive the salvation from sin without believing in Jesus Christ who has fulfilled the righteousness of God as their Savior. God gave the same righteousness to both the Jews and the Gentiles. Therefore God cast away the Jews who turned their backs on the righteousness of God and gave the same opportunity to the Gentiles to believe in the righteousness of God.
Righteousness by Faith
The message of the Apostle Paul can be stated more specifically as follows. It is saying that God gave His righteousness, the salvation from the sin, as a gift to all the people. It is saying that we must believe that the gospel is the Word of promise in the Old Testament that was fulfilled in the New Testament through the baptism of Jesus Christ and His blood on the Cross and that the gospel has removed all of our sins. But there are some who do not believe this even though the gospel of God’s righteousness was manifested clearly through Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross. But God has given the grace of becoming children of God to those who believe in the righteousness of God. God’s righteousness does not disappear and it is not nullified just because many people do not believe in the grace of God.
Anyone can receive the righteousness of God if they listen to the gospel that contains the righteousness of God and just believe it in their hearts. That’s why those who say they believe in God without believing in God’s righteousness are mocking God to be a liar and therefore are sinning against God. As a result, they stand on the side of the ones who are against God and therefore will receive destruction due to that sin. God fulfilled all of the righteousness to save the sinners from their sin. But there were many who did not believe this during that time just as there are in our days. But the righteousness of God is not nullified just because people do not believe. That’s why the Apostle Paul said, “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?”
God planned the gift of salvation, the righteousness of God, for all humanity. And He fulfilled this plan through the baptism and the blood of His Son Jesus. This is the righteousness of God. Therefore the righteousness of God brings glory and nobility to those who believe.
What is the greatest gift that God has given to humanity? It’s the righteousness of God. What is the righteousness of God? God sent His Son to this world and liberated all the sinners and gave them the right to become the children of God by paying for the sins with His Son’s blood. God has given us the blessing of becoming the children of God from the beginning, that is, from Creation.
However, many people are still imprisoned within their sins because they do not believe in the righteousness of God. Would the righteousness of God disappear just because they do not believe in the righteousness of God? That’s definitely not the case. The righteousness of God exists forever as the eternal power. The righteousness of God that saves the sinners will not disappear forever. Whosoever accepts the righteousness of God receives the blessing of the remission of sin and everlasting life. But, those who do not believe in it will go to hell on the last day. Therefore the Scriptures say, “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged” (Romans 3:4, Psalm 51:4).
God promised in advance that He will give the righteousness of God to humanity and the Lord fulfilled that promise completely. Therefore, God blesses those who deserve to be blessed and curses those that deserve to be cursed. So the Scriptures say, “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.”
God’s Word came to us in the flesh of man and saved us from sin. That’s why Paul said, “That You may be justified in Your words,”
The Lord went up to Heaven because He had fulfilled all of the righteousness of God. The Lord is faithful to the end. We know that the Lord is faithful before Satan the Devil, before all creation, and before Himself. But we humans are not faithful. Humans change even the promise they have made if it is unfavorable for them. But God did not break any Word of promise He made to humanity and fulfilled them all because He is faithful. Therefore, we must place our foundation of faith on the Word of God’s righteousness.
What If Our Unrighteousness Demonstrates the Righteousness of God?
(Romans 3:5-6) “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?”
Romans 3:5 states, “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?” This Word shows how great God’s righteousness is. Man is deceitful, but the Lord is truthful.
Do you know the righteousness of God? Do you know that your weakness demonstrates the righteousness of God even more? God is really faithful and righteous. God is the Lord of our salvation. God is the true God who promised to us and has fulfilled all the promises. We cannot help but sin because we humans are evil from birth. But such evilness of ours demonstrates God’s righteousness even more.
It says that the righteousness of God is demonstrated even more because people are evil, and you may have some questions about what this is saying. Actually, the righteousness of God manifested as the Savior came to this world and received baptism from John the Baptist because people cannot help but sin until they die. We can discover this Truth clearly in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has given to us. All humans have sinned in the past and they will continue to sin in the future also. Therefore, our Lord fulfilled the righteousness of God and has blotted out all the sins of all human beings in this world from beginning until end all at once. God does not save the virtuous people who do not sin. Then who does God save from sin? He saves the sinners that are destined for hell from all their sins. This is the perfect love of God that is fulfilled through the righteousness of God.
There is nothing lovable in us humans when we look at our behavior before God. So God sent His only begotten Son and saved us humans from the hands of the Devil when we had no choice but to go to hell for the sins we commit. This is why the Scriptures say, “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say” (Romans 3:5). The more human beings sin the more the righteousness of God manifests. This is the gospel that the Apostle Paul is talking about.
But that doesn’t mean you should lead an unrighteous life. It means that human beings cannot live righteously before God no matter how hard they try. Human beings who are the descendants of Adam do not have the power to live righteously even if they want to. Therefore people must believe the righteousness of God. People must get rid of hypocrisy in order to believe in the righteousness of God. Anyone who tries to live virtuously instead of accepting the righteousness of God will fall into fallacious and hypocritical faith because he is incapable of doing so.
People who could live virtuously before God are the only people who have the righteousness of God. There is no one who could live virtuously without knowing and believing the righteousness of God because people do not have righteousness. Then how can people who can’t help but sin in this manner receive the salvation from all sins? They need the righteousness of God and the righteousness of God illuminates the light as a result. Therefore people need to change the notion of trying to build their righteousness to be saved. The Apostle Paul says that He himself received the salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of God.
But what do the people who have not been born again understand about the salvation from sin? They think and claim that they must believe in Jesus and also live righteously to receive the salvation from sin. That’s why they cannot escape from their sins. Those who have truly been saved from all the sins of their entire life are the people who believe in the righteousness of God. These people exalt and praise the righteousness of God. They are only boastful of the righteousness of God and they cast away the righteousness of their flesh. In short, we have received the salvation from sin by faith not through the addition of the human righteousness.
“But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say” (Romans 3:5). Human evilness only proves the preciousness of the righteousness and love of God. The Scriptures say, “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.” The Scriptures say those who do not believe in the righteousness of God and go against God’s righteousness with human thinking will receive the judgment and go to hell. It says that their names are recorded in the Books of the Judgment because they did not believe in the righteousness of God. These people must surely turn from evil and repent and receive the salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of God. The Apostle Paul said, “Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not!” It is saying that people go to hell because they do not believe in the Truth that manifests the righteousness of God, not because they have committed sins. Is the salvation of God, that has saved all humans from sin through His righteousness, wrong? No, it’s not.
Those Who Do Not Know the Righteousness of God
(Romans 3:7) “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?”
This Word speaks from the fact that human beings sin instinctively because they have been born with sin from their birth. Paul is saying, “What if the righteousness of God demonstrates even more due to such sinful human beings?” In other words, he is saying that the glory would be added to God because God sent Jesus Christ to this world and had Him take all the sins of the world through His baptism and shed His blood on the Cross to blot out all those sins. He has remitted all the sins that people commit during their lifetime after being born as a mass of sin.
The people at the time argued against Paul and said, “Then it’s okay even if we don’t practice any righteous work. If you say that you have been saved from sin just by faith, then would you sin even more now because you don’t have sin?” But we must understand this: We humans do not sin because we want to sin. We sin because we are human beings who cannot help but sin. People sin throughout their lifetime because they have been born as a sinner. As it is totally proper for the apple tree to bear apples, it is totally proper for the sinner to sin after being born as sinners to this world. Through His righteousness, God has saved those who can only display sin and bear all kinds of fruit of sin. The Scriptures say that people do not commit sins even more to add to God’s grace, and that sinners who cannot be saved from their sins for themselves receive salvation from sin just by believing in the righteousness of God.
The Refutation of the Argument That Goes, “Let Us Do Evil Intentionally”
(Romans 3:8) “And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.”
This Word points to those who did not believe in the righteousness of God and insisted on their own thinking because they were deceived by the liars of that time. Even today, those who have been deceived by the liars though they believe in Jesus say the same things. The Book of Romans was written about 2000 years ago, but the people in our times claim like the people of that time did, saying, “If all the sins have been blotted out through Jesus then all the people who believe in this may intentionally sin even more!” These people claim this with the judgment from their own fleshly thinking. Jesus has remitted all the sins of the people regardless of what their deeds are. But people are not able to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that reveals the righteousness of God because of the bondage of their thinking that they cannot receive salvation if they continue to sin. Therefore they are not able to come into the Truth of salvation from sin that God has given to them.
Both the people who have received the remission of sin and the people who have not been born again continue to sin. But all these continuing sins are removed clearly by the righteousness of God. Therefore, all people can receive the salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of God. You cannot help but sin even after you have received the remission of sin because your flesh is still insufficient. But there is some limitation to sinning after you have received the remission of sin. People sin even more before receiving the remission of sin because they do not recognize a sin as a sin even while sinning. But the righteous who have received the remission of sin do not sin intentionally because they know what sin really is.
Some people refuted against the Apostle Paul in regards to the righteousness of God, saying, “Let us do evil that good may come.” But Paul said, “As we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.” It is right for them to receive the judgment for their sin because they do not believe in the righteousness of God. Why? It’s because they do not dwell in the faith of believing in the righteousness of God and they are busy refuting against the righteousness of God as they dwell in their own thinking of flesh and their deeds of hypocrisy. The Lord saving us from all our sins has nothing to do with our own righteousness. But there is a huge difference between the people who believe in the righteousness of God and those who don’t. The people who believe this receive the salvation according to the Truth and those who do not believe go to hell because they cannot receive the salvation according to the Truth. That’s why God said that Jesus is the stumbling stone. A person becomes righteous and receives eternal life if he believes in the righteousness of God no matter how great a sin the person has committed. And a person receives God’s judgment as the price for his sins and receives eternal destruction if he does not believe in the righteousness of God no matter how many virtuous deeds he has done. Therefore, Jesus becomes the stumbling block for the people who seek human hypocrisy.
Can there be a righteous person who has sin? No, there cannot. Then is there a righteous person who does commit sin? Yes, there is. Some people are worried that they cannot become righteous because they will continue to sin in the future even though they believe in the righteousness of God. But we must definitely understand that we have become the righteous just by believing in the righteousness of God and not by our virtuous deeds. The righteousness of God has taken away all the sins we commit in this world even after believing in this gospel. We have become the righteous by believing that Jesus took all the sins of the world through His baptism at the Jordan River. The Scriptures say, “There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). There is a righteous person who sins, but there is none who has become a sinner even after believing the righteousness of God. Is one in debt even after paying off all that he owed? Jesus blotting out all our sins is the same as the notion that a son of a certain father is not in debt to a store no matter how much he buys on credit from a store if his wealthy father already paid enough to the store for the son to buy all that he wants from the store until he dies.
Man cannot become righteous by not sinning. A human body is not a perfect body that could refrain from sinning. People have to eat whenever they are hungry and they have to sin because there are all kinds of desires and greed in them. That is the fate of every human being. Therefore, people must get rid of the fleshly thinking that they become righteous by not sinning after they have come to believe in Jesus. There is no human being that does not sin. But people receive the salvation from sin just by believing in the righteousness of God.
Those who have not been born again only follow their own fleshly thinking. The Scriptures say, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). We humans cannot make someone who continues to sin in their whole lifetime without sin, but the righteousness of God has the power to make a sinner who commits sin all through his or her lifetime sinless. It is God who can cleanse all the sins of human beings so that they may be called righteous even conscientiously. God has blessed us so that we who commit sin may be called the righteous and also have the privilege to call out to God as our Father. God has the power to give the freedom from sins of the world to those who believe in the Word of the Truth that records the righteousness of God. Believing this is the true faith, and you cannot become righteous through your own hypocritical faith.
Those who have not been born again are always imprisoned to their own thinking. That’s why sinners can’t ever escape from their own thinking. Even though they profess to believe in Jesus, they never understand the fact that the righteousness of God has perfectly saved those who believe in Jesus. Therefore, you need to listen to God’s Word of the righteousness and believe it if you want to be born again from sin. The righteousness of God witnessed by the righteous makes the sinners who listen to it become born again because the Holy Spirit dwells within the righteous who are born again. You must remember that you must meet the born again if you want to truly become born again. People become sinless by believing in the righteousness of God that manifested through Jesus Christ.
(Romans 3:4) “Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.’”
We humans are essentially liars. But God is the Truth itself. God promised in the Word from the Old Testament to send the Savior who will save us from sin. And He sent us the Messiah. Jesus Christ the Messiah came to this world in human flesh and received baptism from John the Baptist, died on the Cross in the state that took over all the sins of the world, and was resurrected from death and delivered the sinners out from sin to make those who believe this Truth become God’s people. God won the victory against Satan according to the Truth that He had spoken. No one can say that God is a liar.
(Romans 3:5-6) “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?”
Just as God said, “Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written,” we don’t have anything truthful and rather we are deceitful and full of sin. But the righteousness of God is truthful and it does not change. That’s why the Apostle Paul said the righteousness of God is increased because of the sin people continue to commit. The Word shows how perfect the righteousness of God is and how unrighteous and weak human beings are. Therefore, one can obtain God’s established law of salvation just by believing in the righteousness of God.
God has established the Truth of salvation that liberates human beings from all sins only within the righteousness of God. Therefore, the wrath God brings down on the people who do not believe in the righteousness of God is an appropriate and just wrath. God brings down the wrath of judgment upon those who became sinners because they did not believe in the righteousness of God. Is God’s rod of wrath upon those who do not believe in the righteousness of God wrong? No, it’s not. God is a God of love, but He is a God who brings down wrath to those who deserve His wrath and bestows mercy upon those who deserve His mercy.
What Shall We Say If Our Unrighteousness Demonstrates the Righteousness of God
(Romans 3:7) “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?”
Apostle Paul continues to say, pondering on the Word of the Lord, “Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.” Paul himself came to understand that the righteousness of God became more abundant through his weakness when he lied and sinned because of his weakness. Therefore, Paul asks whether he would receive judgment for his weakness like a sinner who does not believe, when even though he believed in the righteousness of God. A person who has received the remission of sin certainly does not receive the judgment of God due to his weakness. This is the righteousness of God and the Truth. How come a sinner does not receive the judgment of God? It’s because Jesus resolved all the sins of the world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross. That’s why Paul asked rhetorically how he could receive God’s judgment like a sinner when he had faith and believed in the righteousness of God. He confessed the true faith that rather, his weakness manifested the righteousness of God even more.
The Jews are better than the Gentiles in that they are the descendants of Abraham. God promised to give the Law to the descendants of Abraham along with the sacrificial system and that He would also send the Savior to them. The Jews, the descendants of Abraham, became the people who were committed to God’s Word through their forefathers of faith.
Romans 2:17 talks about how the Jews are better than the Gentiles. The Jews are better than the Gentiles in that the Jews were circumcised. The circumcision was God’s promise that He would be God of Abraham and his descendants. This circumcision is pulling the foreskin of a man and cutting it off, and spiritually it means a person cutting off the sin and receiving salvation from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But the Jews had not received the spiritual circumcision even though they were circumcised physically.
Even though the Jews were physically the descendants of Abraham who were entrusted with God’s Word, they did not have anything better than the Gentiles spiritually because they did not believe in Jesus and they did not receive the remission of sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In what ways then are Christians better than people who follow other religions today? Those who believe in Christianity do not have anything better than those who believe in Gentile religions if they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit the Lord has given. Believing in Christianity means believing in Jesus as one’s Savior and this means believing in Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross.
There are many religions in the world: Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity and many other religions. Among them, Islam, Catholicism, Buddhism, and Hinduism are major religions. However, is there any religion that has the Truth of remitting the sins of human beings? There isn’t. There isn’t any religion that blots out the sins of a human being. As the Scriptures say, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name [except Jesus Christ] under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). But in what ways is Christianity better than other religions when there is sin in the hearts of the person who believes in Buddhism just the same as the person who believes in Jesus. Those who believe in Buddhism give a lot of money and utter “Um-mani-padme-hum” when they sin and the people who believe in Jesus come to church and attain comfort in their hearts by offering a lot of money and doing a lot of service for the church. Therefore, Christianity is not beneficial because it does not have anything better than other religions.
It is written that one can enter and see the Kingdom of God only if he is born again through the water and the Spirit (John 3:3-5). But today’s Christians do not have an advantage of believing in Jesus because they do not know the meaning of becoming born again of water and the Spirit. Actually, the Word the Apostle Paul is talking about here is a very challenging Word to every Christian believer.
All of Us Must Come Back to the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
These days, many people go to church not knowing how to be born again, but these Christians sinners must also come back before the presence of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can see that these Christians try hard to lead others to Christianity, but they can only bring them to their respective churches and they cannot teach them about the righteousness of God. It’s no wonder that they can’t teach it because they do not know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, all the Christian believers must receive the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God the Father has given to us through Jesus Christ and receive the righteousness of God in their hearts and come back to God.
The Book of Romans is not written for the Jews only. It also says to those who have not been born again these days, that they must also come back to the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All Christians must look back to their faith and see “Do I believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit or not?” and return to the correct faith if they believe erroneously.
As it is written, “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9), the gospel of the water and the Spirit is spreading abundantly throughout the world. People in my country, Korea, also cannot say that they do not know this gospel of the water and the Spirit, because we have been preaching this gospel since 1991. But what things is Christianity doing these days? When Christians get married, they have the wedding ceremony in a Christian manner and they are also given a funeral according to the Christian tradition. And they are given a dedication service instead of performing the ancestral rites after they die, and the rites may be different from other religions but they are actually not different from other religions in its contents because they are also sinners who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Therefore, all Christians must return to the faith of believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They should hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit by meeting the born again who understand and believe in the true righteousness of God. Then they can obtain the gospel of the remission of sin in God’s plan written in the Scriptures. There are some people who hear this gospel and throw it away, but we, the born again, are truly thankful before the presence of God.
Before I was born again, I really did not know the reason why Jesus received baptism. Therefore, I asked a lot of questions, but there wasn’t even one person who knew the answer correctly even among those who supposedly knew the Bible well and had great faith. But God gave me the understanding of the Truth. We can know this Truth through the Word in Matthew 3:15. The Truth is that Jesus Christ took all the sins upon Himself through His baptism which is the antitype of our salvation and by which He has fulfilled the righteousness of God. God has met with me through His righteousness and also removed all my sins once and for all. And He made me become an evangelist sharing the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world. I was able to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit in God’s Church so far through the grace of God.
But if the gospel is not preached in this manner, people’s souls will die and they will lose faith and be forever apart from God. That’s why this gospel must be preached to all the people, not only in our gathering, but all the churches in the world should be filled with faith that believes the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Anyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains God’s righteousness has received the remission of sin and became a person who has attained the righteousness of God. Those who have believed in the righteousness of God have already received the remission of all sins. Those who have already received the righteousness of God by believing in such a way became the ones who live for the righteousness of God. Those who believe in the righteousness of God receive the sacred blessings of Heaven.
What Is the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit That Constitutes the Righteousness of God?
Has God really saved all of us from the sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Yes, He has saved us all. The righteousness of God is manifested and witnessed within the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit contains the Truth that saves all humanity in the world from sin.
Then, what is the gospel of the water and Spirit? God sent His Son Jesus Christ to this world to save all the sinners of the world from all their sins. After Jesus was born and when He became 30 years old, Jesus went to the Jordan River and received the baptism from John the Baptist, the representative of all humanity, and took all the sins of humanity upon Him. When we look at Matthew 3:15-16, we can see that Jesus took all the sins of the world upon Himself through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. And He received judgment for those sins through the blood He shed on the Cross He was nailed to. This is the very gospel of the water and the Spirit. The baptism and the blood on the Cross shed by Jesus represents the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has washed all the sins from sinners, and that’s how God saved us. The work Jesus came and performed truthfully and realistically in this world was this gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel is neither a religious doctrine nor a fabrication and it is the work that has actually saved the sinners from sin.
The Scriptures say, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17). God the Father sent His only begotten Son to this world in order to save you and me, who are people of this world from such huge sin. God sent His only Son Jesus to this world because He so loved us that live in this world destined to hell. Jesus came to this world and received the baptism from John the Baptist and removed all the sins of the world to fulfill that love, the righteousness of God. God the Father did not love us just with His lips, but He sent Jesus, whom He was pleased with and loved and had Him take over all the sins of the world upon His body.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit removed all the sins of the world. Jesus Christ came to this world as the Son of God and took all the sins of humanity upon Himself by being baptized by John the Baptist, dying on the Cross, and being resurrected from the death. He thus blessed us so that we can receive remission from all the sins of the world if we just believe in this Truth. We actually receive salvation by believing in the baptism and the blood of Jesus because this salvation from sin is the true salvation that is given by the righteousness of God. The true love of God does not perish.
That’s why those who believe in Jesus are saved from sin and those who do not believe receive the penalty as the price for their sin due to the sins they have committed. God’s Word and the remission of sin that God has given to us do not vanish just because we do not believe the baptism and the blood that the Lord has performed to blot out all our sins out of His love toward us. The righteousness of God that has given the remission of sins to us does not vanish even though this universe may disappear.
Let’s then think about the benefit of the faith that you and I now possess. What is beneficial, believing or not believing? God so loved us that He removed all our sins unilaterally without even asking us. It means that God has saved us from the sins of the world through the righteousness of God from His side. And God gives us the eternal remission of sins and the eternal life if we just believe in the baptism and the blood on the Cross Jesus performed from our side. But He destroyed the unbelievers due to their sins. Therefore, our benefit lies in our faith in this Truth.
God has made even the most hideous sin committed by a person be passed over to Jesus through the baptism of Jesus. God has removed all the sins the people in this world commit in their whole lifetime including the sins committed by average citizens in their life and the great swindling and hideous sins committed by a brutal criminal. Jesus has remitted all the sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross. Therefore, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit attain the benefit of receiving the remission of sin, but those who do not are excluded from that blessing.
Could the faith of the deceitful nullify the faithfulness of God? No, it cannot. But those who have the false faith do not believe in the remission of sin that was fulfilled through the baptism Jesus received and the blood on the Cross He shed. But the righteousness of God will never disappear even if they do not believe in this Truth.
There is sin in their hearts even if they believe that they can receive the remission of sin even with the blood of the Cross alone. People cannot receive the salvation from all their sins through the blood of the Cross alone. Did Jesus come to this world and only shed blood on the Cross to remove the sins of the sinners? No, that’s not true. Jesus was born to this world and then He received the baptism from John the Baptist at the age of thirty and took all the sins of the world upon His body. It means that Jesus first took the sins upon Himself through His baptism in order to receive the judgment on the Cross later. That’s why Jesus had to be nailed to death on the Cross and resurrected from death. Could Jesus shed blood on the Cross and die even if He didn’t take over the sins through His baptism? No, that could not happen. If the Lord did not take all the sins upon Him through the baptism and die on the Cross, then His death does not have anything to do with us. That’s why Jesus first received the baptism from John the Baptist and then died on the Cross afterwards. Jesus was able to go to the Cross because He received the baptism from John the Baptist. Jesus took all the sins upon Him all at once by receiving the baptism. That’s why there is the effect of salvation only to those who believe in the baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross.
The Scriptures say, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus died on the Cross because He had already taken all our sins upon Himself through baptism. Jesus could never have been wounded on the Cross if He had not taken all our sins upon Him through the baptism. Really, He was wounded for our transgressions and He was bruised for our iniquities.
But then why don’t people believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood together? Why don’t people believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit? That’s because the people do not know the reason for the great blessing of baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist. Some say that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist is not important. They say the baptism Jesus received is symbolic and it just shows His humility. They ask, “If the baptism Jesus received is so important in regard to our remission of sins, why does the Bible emphasize the blood on the Cross only?”
But God spoke countless times about the importance of the baptism Jesus received through the laying of hands on the head of the sacrificial animals in the Old Testament. Jesus received the baptism at the Jordan River and the act of removing all the sins of humanity was performed there. The Jordan River was the place where the sins of the world were completely terminated in the New Testament through the righteousness of God and this is connected to some events that happened at the Jordan River in the Old Testament. For example, the Jordan River stopped flowing when the priests stepped into the river to cross with the Ark on their shoulders (Joshua 3:11-17). Also, Naaman was healed from his sickness when he dipped himself into the Jordan River seven times (2 Kings 5:14). There are countless examples in the Old Testament regarding the Jordan River.
We also can find countless examples of “the laying on of hands” in the Old Testament. In one example, a sinner had to bring in a sacrificial animal into the Tabernacle to receive the remission of sin. Then he laid hands over the head of the animal to transfer his sins over to the animal (Leviticus 4:1-32).
In such manner, Jesus came to this world and received the baptism according to the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle and shed blood and blotted out all the sins of the world. However, most Christians do not know the reason why Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist and they just believe that Jesus took care of all their sins on the Cross. But such faith comes from one’s own thinking. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus took all the sins upon Him on the Cross. Rather, in many places in the Scriptures, we can find the Word that says Jesus fulfilled all the righteousness of God through the baptism He received from John the Baptist at the Jordan River (Matthew 3:13-17; Galatians 3:27; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Peter 3:21). Jesus died on the Cross because Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist and took all the sins upon Himself. Jesus was able to resolve the sins of the world with His own blood because He had received the baptism as our Savior.
There has to be a process in order to have a result. Therefore, those who can explain the process clearly are the people who understand the result perfectly. That’s why we can preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the righteousness of God, only if we understand it thoroughly. The Scriptures say that we can enter and see the Kingdom of God only if we are born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore people cannot enter or see the Kingdom of God if they just believe in the blood of the Cross alone.
Just believing in Jesus’ blood on the Cross in this manner is to believe in Him with understanding half of the Truth and it is not a perfect faith. The core of the Scriptures spoken countless times is the gospel of the water and the Spirit and the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. The remission of sin that the Bible is talking about is the act of Jesus saving us from sin by receiving baptism and dying on the Cross.
All the Christians must believe in the Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They must definitely believe it because they will go to hell if they don’t. They receive the remission of sin and step into the path to Heaven if they believe in the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But the righteousness of God does not disappear even if all Christians do not believe in the baptism Jesus received. Not all Christians are born again just because they believe in Jesus. If people profess to believe in Jesus but do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit the Lord has given, then they are following the path of Judas Iscariot to be accursed for the price of their sins, and the true believers are rescued from all their sin if they truly believe in the significance of the baptism Jesus received and believe in the effect of the Cross. The righteousness of God exists forever and we must believe in it because the Word of the water and the Spirit is the work God has unilaterally planned and fulfilled regardless of whether we believe it with our hearts or not. The righteousness of God the Father fulfilled through His only begotten Son to save us from sin exists eternally.
Peter and Judas sinned before God in the same manner but there is a clear difference in their faith. Peter denied Jesus three times and even cursed Him, but he returned to the Lord after he understood who his Savior was and received the salvation by believing in Jesus who has blotted out all his sins. What about Judas? Judas sold Jesus for 30 silver coins and he tried to resolve his own sin and hung himself afterward, depressed by his sense of guilt as if he could take responsibility for his act as his conscience penetrated his heart. True repentance is receiving the remission of sin and becoming children of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given to us even if we have committed the most treacherous sin like Peter had. But false repentance is taking responsibility of one’s own sin like Judas.
You must return to the faithfulness of God. The method of returning to God is to have faith. God has saved us with the gospel of the water and the Spirit because He sincerely loves us who have fallen into sin. We must believe this. We must return to the faith of believing in this gospel that Jesus truly saved us from our sins. All those who don’t believe will go to hell. God does not want any soul to go to hell. He is waiting for all the people in the world to come into Heaven by believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do not make God wait too long.
People Are Deceitful, but God Is Truthful
Romans 3:4 states, “Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.’” He said here, “let God be true but every man a liar” because the Lord came to this world as God promised and saved us perfectly from sin. That’s why the Bible says God is true but humans are liars.
Humans are always dishonest and evil. But God is always honest and true. Where does God’s truthfulness appear? God’s truthfulness appears in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, the only way to be rescued from that lie is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has spoken and fulfilled for humanity. The gospel of the water and the Spirit defeats every lie and sin and lifts us out from all the unrighteousness.
How does God evaluate and judge the sins of human beings? God judges people’s sin based on whether there is sin in people’s hearts, that is, whether they believe or not in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with their hearts. The faith of believing in the Word makes people go to Heaven when they go before the presence of God and those who do not believe in His Word receive the punishment according to the Word before the presence of God. Consequently, we defeat the sin and the lie through the faith of believing in God’s Word.
David offers up a prayer of repentance in Psalm 51:4 and we can see, “That you may be found just when the Lord says that you are just, and you are righteous if the Lord judges you to be righteous, and you have sin if He says you have sin.” David committed the sin of adultery. He not only committed adultery, but also killed the woman’s husband, like it was not enough to take another man’s wife. Even though David did not kill the man directly, David killed the man indirectly by sending the man to the worst battlefield. That was David. Lust, adultery, murder, and worshipping idols before the presence of God were all sins and violations of God’s Law.
There was a prophet named Nathan. Nathan told David about a person who had only a sheep. “There is a person who is raising only one sheep. And there is a wealthy man who raises many sheep. Then one day a guest came to visit the wealthy person’s home and the wealthy man took the only sheep from the poor person who had only one sheep and served the guest a meal.” When David heard this, he became angry and said, “What an evil person he is! Who is that person? Such a person should be cursed by God.” Then the Prophet Nathan said to David, “That wealthy man is none other than you.”
Then David had nothing else to say. And David confessed before the presence of God, “I am just when the Lord judges me to be just, and I am unrighteous if the Lord judges me to be unrighteous. Judge me according to Your judgment not according to mine. Lord, I have wronged, if You say I have wronged, and I am without sin if You say You have remitted all my sins.” David thus completely put himself under God’s judgment and remission of the sin. Those who believe in Jesus are also like that before the presence of God. When we are facing a certain situation, whether we are right or wrong depends on how God brings down His judgment on that matter. It is okay if God says it is okay and it is not okay if God says it is not. So, the Scriptures say. “As it is written: That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged.”
God said that He would send the Savior to save us and in fact has sent the Savior to us. God the Father sent Jesus Christ and made Him receive the baptism, shed blood on the Cross, and resurrect Him from the dead to save us. Jesus came to this world and did everything according to God’s Word and fulfilled all the promises. We receive salvation from judgment and sin, if we believe in the Word that gives us the remission of sin because Jesus has completed God’s promise wholly according to the Word. But we will be cursed in the midst of sin if we do not believe God’s Word exactly as it is. God was victorious against the enemies because He truthfully fulfilled the promise He made.
God’s Word became the Truth and therefore the Word of the Truth defeats all lies. God has never lied even once and has never done even a little evil. The righteousness of God is perfect. God promised to perfectly save the sinners of this world from all their sins through the righteousness of God and fulfill this promise with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
People Who Go to Hell Even though They Have Believed in Jesus
Because all God’s promise have been fulfilled, those who have sinned because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, even though they believe in Jesus, shall receive the judgment of hell when they stand before the presence of God. They will make an excuse and say, “Why are You bringing down the verdict of hell to me just because I have a little sin when I believe in Jesus?” And God will say to them, “It is appropriate for you to go to hell. I promised that I would blot out your sins and I received the baptism in this world and took all your sins upon Myself as I promised, but you still have sin. Therefore, it is appropriate for you to go to hell.”
That’s right. The remission of sin is received by believing with your heart. Those who believe shall be endowed with the grace and blessing because they do not have sin and those who do not believe shall receive the penalty of judgment because their sins will be revealed according to the Law. God has fulfilled everything according to His Word and He gives award to those who believe according to the Word and He gives penalty to those who do not believe. That’s why not all those who believe in Jesus will go to Heaven. In believing in Jesus, it is very good for you to have a proper understanding of the gospel of the water and the Spirit prior to having faith in Jesus on your own. The gospel of the water and the Spirit appears in all parts of the Old and the New Testament of the Scriptures. Therefore, those who believe in the righteousness of God go to Heaven because they can always confess their proper faith before the presence of God. Our human righteousness is filthy but God has clothed us with the righteousness of God that God has made.
With what faith that you go before the presence of God is very important. You must go forth toward God with the faith of believing in the Word of the righteousness of God. You must not go before God with the experience of illusion and the power of performing miracles. The important thing is why you have received the remission of sin. You must discover and believe in the righteousness of God within the gospel of the water and the Sprit. You and I can be approved before the presence of God and enter the Kingdom of God without fail through the faith of believing the Word of God’s righteousness when we stand before the presence of God.
Our physical body does wrong because of our weakness in this world, but we escape from the judgment of sin and the adversity of Satan the Devil through the faith of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can say, “Depart from me, Satan the Devil! The Lord received baptism at the Jordan River and He shed blood on the Cross. Haven’t all the righteousness been fulfilled at the time when Jesus said it was proper for Him to receive the baptism! Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist to take all the sins upon Him. He took upon Himself all the sins I will commit until I die. I believe the baptism of Jesus is to take all my sin, that the death of Jesus is my death, that Jesus shedding blood on the Cross is the shedding of blood on my behalf, that the resurrection of Jesus is to give new life to me.” We can rebuke Satan the Devil with this faith and say, “I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Stay away from me!” Then Satan the Devil departs from us when he sees our faith in the true remission of sin.
You and I do not keep our faith until the end before the presence of God because of our strong will and good memory. You and I must not forget that we cannot deny God with our faith in the righteousness of God as we stand before Him. Hell is reserved to those who do not believe in the righteousness of God. But those who believe have become people who have received the Holy Spirit as a gift and become sons of God who have attained the eternal life of Heaven. There is an ever so clear work of the Holy Spirit to the righteous.
Do Our Sins That We Commit Demonstrates the Righteousness of God Even More?
Romans 3:5 says, “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?” (I speak as a man).
Do all the sins that we commit manifest the righteousness of God even more? Yes, they do. Human beings have so many shortcomings that they sin from their conception in the mother’s womb till they are buried in the grave. Then how many sins do humans commit? Humans commit more sin than the specks of sand of a seashore and they commit sins greater than the dark clouds of the sky. They commit such sins, but such sins manifest the righteousness of God even more. Because we commit sin continuously until we die, the greatness of the righteousness of God and His love is revealed even more. Because we are insufficient, the righteousness of God is revealed even more in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because humans have shortcomings and weaknesses, the salvation God has saved us with is revealed even more.
Then is it wrong for God to judge the sinners for their sin? No, it is not. It is appropriate to judge those and bring down the wrath to those who do not believe because of their unbelief. God takes the people who believe in the righteousness of God as His people and embraces them in His bosom and allows them to enjoy the wealth and glory forever because God’s righteousness has manifested in them. But there is nothing wrong even if God judges the sins of the people who do not believe because they did not believe even though God bestowed an amazing grace that has wiped away all the sins they commit in their lifetime.
“Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?” This is asking whether God commits sin. It is very appropriate that God brings down the wrath to the people who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God. Therefore, can people who go to hell because they have sin in their hearts, even though they say they believe in Jesus, protest against God claiming that God is unjust? No, they cannot. Why? It’s because God clearly removed all the sins of humanity through His only begotten Son’s righteous acts. God the Father sent Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, and made Him take over all the sins through the baptism and had Him die on the Cross and saved all humanity from the judgment for their sins. Therefore, people are forgiven of all and any sin they commit as long as they do not reject the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
But there is nothing that anyone can do about them going to hell because they do not believe in the righteousness of God. It is also appropriate for God to bring down wrath on those people. There is nothing wrong with God. Therefore, one actually decides one’s own fate. Your fate is decided on whether you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus fulfilled through the righteousness of God and receive the remission of your sin or whether you do not receive this gospel. Therefore, God’s wrath sending the souls who do not believe to hell is appropriate.
The greatest sin before God is not accepting the love of God that has sent His Son Jesus Christ to this world; the love that took all our sins through Jesus’ baptism; and the love that atoned for all our sins by Jesus dying on the Cross. Such sinners do not acknowledge and believe in the Truth of salvation that gave the remission of sin through His only begotten Son because they do not receive the love of God’s righteousness into their hearts. That is the biggest sin. Therefore it is proper for those who do not believe to be cast into hell.
Do some Christians also go to hell? Of course they do. They cannot help but go to hell if they do not believe in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross and insist on their own righteousness. Why is there sin in the hearts of people who believe in Jesus? It’s because they do not believe in the righteousness of God and insist on their own righteousness instead. Those who insist on their own righteousness, who come before God with the righteousness of their own deeds, become people who have sin in their hearts. Those who believe in the righteousness of God and give thanks to the salvation He has given to us, want other souls to receive the salvation from sin and they are happy to be used for God’s work. God receives our sacrifice for the Lord and the sacrifice for the gospel, but He does not receive what we offer with our own righteousness before the presence of God and rather casts them away. Why? It’s because God is pleased with those who believe in the righteousness of God.
Do You Believe That Your Weakness Manifests the Righteousness of God Even More?
Romans 3:6-7 states, “Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?” The Apostle Paul spoke the Word of Faith by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and he said that God’s truthfulness and the abundant glory of salvation manifests even more through his weakness. He is saying, “How could I receive judgment like a sinner if God’s truthfulness became even more abundant to His glory through my lie?” The Lord saved such inadequate people who lie, and therefore the righteousness of the salvation that saved us from the sin illuminates even brighter and greater as our shortcoming is revealed more.
People actually have come short of God’s glory because all the people have committed sin, and the core theme of the Scriptures is that such people have fulfilled the glory of God by believing in the grace of salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s grace overflowed in the evil that resulted from our weakness. Actually the more we acknowledge our shortcomings the more the righteousness of God that removed our sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit becomes magnified in our hearts. That’s right. But we do not sin more intentionally in order that grace may abound.
We obtain liberation from all sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit whenever we make mistakes and our shortcomings and weaknesses are revealed after you and I have received the remission of sin. As we see that all our sins are remitted whenever our shortcomings are revealed, we come to know how great, how immense, how endless God’s love is and therefore become inspired to give praise to God. The Apostle Paul is talking about that here.
What if God’s truthfulness became even more abundant to His glory through his lie? Then, would I be judged because of the sins that I commit? It’s not like that. It means that I do not receive the judgment because the salvation God gives is greater than the sin I commit. This is the message the Apostle Paul speaks continuously through the Book of Romans. Because the salvation of God that saved us is so great and because the remission of sin that Jesus has given is so great, those who believe this do not receive the judgment and also go to Heaven as the righteous by receiving the righteousness of God.
The righteous are those who do not have sin by believing in the righteousness of God. The righteous are those who have the Holy Spirit in their hearts by receiving the remission of sin, that is, by believing in the righteousness of God. God loves the righteous forever. He never sends the righteous to hell because He loves His people eternally. No matter how insufficient a person may be, God considers anyone who believes in the righteousness of God as His people and sends them to Heaven. But He severs them from that salvation and the blessing of Heaven if someone betrays this faith. This kind of sin is the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and this sin can never be forgiven. Therefore we must never commit the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. In the end times, Satan the Devil will compel the righteous to reject the gospel that Jesus received the baptism, took over all their sins, died on the Cross and resurrected from the dead. But the people of faith can never reject the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The righteous can never reject the righteousness of God. They can never reject it. The strong faith that we can never deny this Truth no matter how Satan the Devil tempts us and threatens us will help us embrace our martyrdom in the end times. We could defend our faith because this gospel that Jesus saved us is so precious.
Is it right to commit sin in order that the grace of the righteousness of God may abound? Romans 3:8 says, “And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come?’—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.” Is it right to sin in order that the grace of the righteousness of God may abound? Should we continue sinning in order to demonstrate God’s righteousness even more? No we shouldn’t. There were some people at that time who said these things to slander the righteous. People who do not believe in the righteousness of God are slanderous in this manner these days just as they were at the apostolic age.
They say, “If you have received the remission of all sins through the righteousness of God, then you must commit even more sin to manifest the righteousness of God even more.” But we must understand clearly. We do not commit sin more because we have received the remission of sin before the presence of God, but we sin even if we don’t want to sin because our body and heart are weak until we die. We do not sin more because we have received the remission of sin.
Rather, the righteous who have received the remission of sin do not sin more. The heart that has become sanctified without sin is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and thus filthy sin cannot dwell in it. But we sin because our physical body is still weak. That means that we sin because we are weak; we don’t commit even more sins in order to enjoy the blessing that declares all our sins are already blotted out. The sins we commit after we have received the remission of sin are also committed because of our weakness. And we also sin because our faith of believing in God’s Word is small even though we have the faith of receiving the salvation.
For example, the print shop has finished producing our book and the books are brought to the front of our Church on a truck. Let’s say we are bringing the books up to the third floor. A strong person would carry the books up without much problem, but what about a person who is not so strong? Wouldn’t he try to make the other brothers and sisters do more work? Isn’t this a selfish sin that seeks only one’s benefit? But this sin is stemmed out from our weakness. As such, we cannot help but sin out of our weakness.
Some people look at us and say, “You have now received the remission of sin. Wouldn’t you sin more to demonstrate the righteousness of God all through your life?” But this is wrong. We who believe in the righteousness of God cannot sin more because we know sin as sin for we have received the remission of sin. But we do sin as we live in this world because the human flesh is so weak. But we still do not have sin. That’s because all our sins have been remitted away already by believing in the righteousness of God. Therefore, the Apostle Paul said those who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are sinners before the presence of God even though they believe in Jesus and therefore it is appropriate for them to receive the judgment to go to hell. And this faith is truly amazing.
This Word of the Book of Romans was recorded about two thousands years ago. Even in this Book of Romans that was recorded before A.D. 100, there were people who told Paul exactly the same thing that those who slander us are saying. Isn’t it amazing that there were people in the old days who misunderstood the gospel of the water and the Spirit that constitutes the righteousness of God and slandered the righteous just as they do today? It is amazing. This Word does not change even today because it is God’s Word.
Satan the Devil always attacks the born-again with the same method. Therefore, no matter how Satan the Devil attacks you, no matter how it attacks God’s Church, we must win over Satan with the faith of believing in the righteousness of God when it attacks us. Satan the Devil always attacks God’s Church with the same method today as it did in the old days. They slander those who have obtained the righteousness because they have not received the remission of sin. They say, “You should sin more and more as your heart desires because you do not have sin no matter how much you commit sin. You should sin more to manifest the righteousness of God even more.” But that’s not the case. If we sin that’s because of our weakness. But even the sins we commit because we are weak, we understand as wrong before the presence of God and admit the sin before God and live without sin by believing that the Lord has taken even this sin upon Him. That’s why the weaker we are, the greater the righteousness of God becomes magnified in our hearts and manifests as greater glory.
Therefore, the Apostle Paul asked, “What advantage then has the Jew?” So, what is the benefit to believing in Jesus? There is no benefit if Christians do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If Christians do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that is, if they do not believe in the righteousness of God, there is no benefit for them to believing in Jesus as long as they believe only in the blood of the Cross. It is just like believing in any other religion because there is no benefit. Faith is beneficial to someone only when the person believes with their heart in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that manifests the righteousness of God. And even though the righteous who have received the remission of sin also commit sins in this world, they just need to admit that they have sinned and believe all those sins are also remitted already because Jesus has already taken over even all those sins a long time ago. That’s right. We do not sin more because we have received the remission of sin and because we have no worry about the condemnation of sin.
Those of you who believe in Jesus should come back to the gospel of the water and the Spirit now. Then you can receive the righteousness of God and you shall obtain it. The fruits of evangelism become abundant when the blessing of believing the righteousness of God dwells in your hearts.
(Romans 3:8) “And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.”
Some who do not know the righteousness of God say to the person who believes in the righteousness of God, “If the Truth of the water and the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God removed even all those sins that a person has yet to sin in their lifetime, then it should be okay for the person to continue sinning.” But the Apostle Paul says clearly that the sins people commit in the future after receiving the remission of sin are sins that people commit because they can’t help but sin for they are weak, not the sins they sin intentionally. You must not distort the gospel of God’s righteousness in your thinking. People sin until they die for they are weak and they do not commit sins intentionally because they believe the righteousness of God and have received the remission of sin. Humans are weak beings. It means that people cannot help but sin until the final moment of their life and until the ends of the world because they are weak beings.
Do you sin intentionally without having any reason? There is reason why we sin as we live in this world and the reason lies in our weakness. But the Lord took upon Himself even the sins you and I will commit in the future all at once by receiving the baptism and dying on the Cross, and thus He has blotted out all those sins. Therefore, you must not look at the faith of those who believe in the righteousness of God as wrong faith. I hope you understand that such thinking is a departure from God’s Word and believe the gospel that contains the righteousness of God and receive the eternal remission of sin all at once by faith.
Even now most Christians indulge themselves with moralistic religious life. So they cannot help but think like that because they worry about what would happen if there is something wrong with them morally. But God wants all people to believe the remission of sin that is in the righteousness of God. If you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God, then you will remain a sinner eternally because you will not receive the remission of sin.
Though There Essentially Is None Righteous
(Romans 3:9) “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.”
This Word does not mean those who believe in the righteousness of God are also under sin. Those who believe in the righteousness of God have escaped from all sins. But the Jews at the time had sin because they did not believe in Jesus.
This verse says, “Are we better than they?” This passage is telling us that the Jews and Greeks alike were fundamentally under sin but that they got to receive the remission of sin through the righteousness of God. The Apostle Paul is now describing the fundamental sinfulness of humans first to explain the power of the gospel that contains the righteousness of God to the Jews and Greeks as well as all Gentiles. The Apostle Paul is saying that all people were under sin. It means that there is none righteous in this world because humans cannot help but constantly sin. He is saying that God turned the sinners into righteous through the righteousness of God, but there is none who understands this.
All mankind were sinners before God. But Jesus made them righteous through the righteousness of God. Verse 10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one,” and this means that there is none righteous without believing that all the sins of the world have been blotted out through the righteousness of God. There is no true awakening to a person unless he or she comes to believe in the righteousness of God because he or she cannot become righteous then. That’s why the word “sanctification” was made up in religions. But people cannot achieve sanctification no matter how hard they try to live ascetically and no matter how sincerely they discipline their character within the boundaries of religion. Therefore all humans were sinners before they knew the righteousness of God.
It says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” It is possible for people to become righteous by believing the righteousness of God although they are born sinners. And verse 10 also says, “There is none who understands.” It means that sinners don’t even recognize themselves as the ones doomed to hell. They do not understand how scary God’s judgment is because they do not understand they are sinners before God and they are heading for hell. This is the Word that summarizes the sinful state of every human being. According to Paul, the Jews are not better than the Gentiles and the Gentiles are not better than the Jews. Rather, all are under sin and all have therefore become object of the wrath of the Omnipotent God and the final judgment.
Quoting a passage from Psalm 14:1-3, Paul declares, “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.’” This is the correct understanding of human nature. This is the Word that looks squarely at the truly horrible state of humanity. Humans do not have the ability to make God happy and the ability to understand and seek God. Humans are “totally corrupt beings” from their birth.
For those who are heaping up human righteousness, the total corruption theory that says humans are a mass of sin from birth is difficult to accept. They say it’s because the theory has a tendency to take the human dignity lightly. But isn’t that true? Most people willingly acknowledge that a human being is not perfect, but they are not ready to admit that there is no human righteousness. And they are willing to admit that humans have lost the righteousness of God and that they are wandering away from the path of Truth, but most of them are not willing to admit that they have completely gone astray from the path of righteousness and that they stand in the path of destruction. Those who seek human righteousness pretend to seek God instead of admitting that they are standing against the righteousness of God.
Those who do not acknowledge the righteousness of God and fight against it in order to insist on human righteousness will never be able to avoid the penalty of hell. Such faith and acts are extremely evil. Humans do not try to understand the righteousness of God while they only seek human righteousness. That is because they are possessed by their own ignorance. When people do not understand they are arrogant before the presence of God, there is no need for them to know the righteousness of God. And they do not go before God, in the same way that a person who does not know they are sick does not go to see a doctor to receive treatment. A person would not think of going to the hospital as long as he is convinced that he is healthy. But as one who realizes that he has a serious sickness goes to the hospital, a person who realizes that he does not have righteousness spiritually and that he will be destroyed because of this will seek and return to Jesus Christ who is the only Person who can cure this disease of sin.
There Is None Who Has This Understanding
That there is none who understands means that there is not even one person who understands that he is going to hell because he has sin. Rarely there are some people who feel that they are destined for hell. But that understanding is gleaned from mere feeling and it is not from knowing and believing in God’s law that says, “The wages of sin is death.” Therefore people need to look at their spiritual state according to God’s Word in order to receive the treatment. People need to understand first that their soul is destined for hell after living a meaningless life because they do not have the righteousness of God in their souls. They find the righteousness of God when they truly have such understanding.
“They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable” (Romans 3:12). Humans have all turned aside and they have become unprofitable. That they have “all turned aside” means they have gone astray towards human thinking because they do not understand the righteousness of God. The true criteria for judgment of the Truth resides only in the righteousness of God. Everything begins with the righteousness of God and ends with it. This is because only God is righteous and only God has done the righteous work for humanity.
The righteous judgment resides only in God. Humans have no ability to give righteous judgment. Even so, people are imprisoned to their thinking and say, “I think like this”, “I think and believe this way” because they are slanted toward their own thinking. All people are slanted toward their own thinking and they have no interest in God’s will. The people who do not get rid of their thinking in this manner cannot discover the righteousness of God. Therefore, they do not seek God and they do not come back to the faith of believing in God’s Word. This is because they believe that their thinking is of the truth. But God’s Truth only exists within the righteousness of God. God’s Word is the canon, the measuring stick. You must understand that God’s Word of Truth is the criteria for all things.
The Quotation That the Religious People Use the Most
(Romans 3:10) “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one.’”
All human beings who have been born from their common ancestors Adam and Eve have been born with sin from their origin. David confesses in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” David confessed that he came out from his mother’s womb in a sinful state having sin and evil, and also that he was a mass of sin since his mother conceived him because his mother conceived him in the midst of sin. But David was a person who became righteous by believing the righteousness of God through the sacrifice that God had allowed in the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle.
Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” As such, there is none righteous who had no sin originally from their birth. Paul is saying that there is none in this world who were originally righteous, but that God has made us who believe the gospel of the water and the Spirit righteous through His righteousness. We must understand and believe the Scripture within the righteousness of God. God is saying that people were originally sinners from their birth but that they have been made righteous through the righteousness of God.
When we look at the passage of Romans 3:10, we should not believe by misunderstanding that even those who have received the righteousness of God by believing in Jesus are all sinners as well. What Paul says in this verse reveals the sinful state that we were in before we believed in the righteousness of God. This Word is not saying that there isn’t anyone in the world who is righteous. It is talking about the state we were in before we believed the righteousness of God.
Why Do the Religious People Like to Say That There Isn’t Anyone Righteous?
But there are so many Christians of religious faith who use this passage for their own religious benefit. They quote this passage and think their faith is so appropriate and proper. They claim that their faith of believing Jesus with sin is rather biblical. Therefore we must inform all the people clearly about what this passage is talking about and lead them to the correct answer.
All People Were Under Sin Because They Have Not Met the Righteousness of God
Romans 3:9 says, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.” Is Apostle Paul saying here that he is also under sin? We must move to this passage with this question in mind. We must first understand whether Paul includes himself in the application of the Word from Romans chapter 3 verses 9 to 18. And we must also find out whether he includes the people who have attained the righteousness of God by believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit as well as himself, and the answer is “No, he doesn’t.” Put differently, Paul did not include righteous when he mentioned Romans 3:10-18.
When we use a quotation from another source we use a quotation mark as the sign to point out that it is the word spoken by someone. And if we pay attention to Romans 3:10, we can see that the verse begins with “As it is written.” The Apostle Paul’s word in Romans 3:10 is quoted from Psalms 14:1 and the following words. It says, “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one.’”
From the standpoint of time, is this verse describing one’s state before believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus Christ has given? Or, does it mention the state of faith after believing in the Truth? It is talking about the state of people’s heart before they meet the salvation that Jesus Christ has given. It does not describe the state of people’s heart after Jesus Christ came to this world and saved us from our sins all at once through the righteousness of God. So, it does not mean that there is none righteous even after Jesus Christ came to us. The Word from this passage speaks about the state of faith before believing in the righteousness of God. This Word is saying that there is none righteous before believing the righteousness of God.
Does that mean that there isn’t any righteous person in the Old Testament time? No, there were the righteous in the Old Testament too. Some people in the Old Testament had become the righteous by believing the Messiah that was to come in the future. They became righteous by believing that Jesus Christ who was to come to this world in the future would blot out their sins through His baptism and blood and give them the salvation from all sins. Therefore, there is none, in the past and now, who has become righteous without the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It means that there isn’t even one righteous person among people who do not believe the righteousness of God that Jesus Christ has given.
People can ask this sort of question, “The Lord has come to this world and fulfilled all the righteousness, but don’t we still have sin even if we believe in that righteousness?” No, that’s not true. All people are not sinners. The people who have attained the righteousness from God by believing the righteousness of God are the righteous and the people who have not received the righteousness of God are sinners. But it is saying that there was not even one righteous person besides the people who received the remission of sin by faith before they believe in the Lord, for both the Israelites and the Gentiles.
The State of a Sinner’s Heart Is Like This
(Romans 3:11) “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.”
If there were not any righteous people and there were only sinners, then how was the spiritual state of those sinners? Verse 11 says, “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.” Then, can a sinner realize his own sin? No, he can’t. It means that one cannot come to the realization by himself that he is a sinner. As it is said in Genesis 1:2, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep,” people’s hearts are so jumbled up with sin and they are filled with so much darkness that there is no way for a person to realize his sinful self. They look at the sins inside of their hearts and think of reasons and excuses to justify their committing sins and therefore cannot see the fact that they are really a mass of sin and that they are sinners. As the Word that says, “There is none who understands,” a sinner cannot realize the sinful appearance of his own self.
Even people who are imprisoned in jail justify and defend themselves with all kinds of rational reasons and excuses. A sinner does not know what kind of sinner he is. But sinners must first understand that they are the brood of evildoers that has sin from birth and that they have no choice but to go to hell.
Do sinners seek God then? Sinners pretend to seek God but they do not really seek after God. There is a religious appearance of seeking God because God is alive and God has given the yearning heart to seek God to every human being. But people do not seek God sincerely. Sinners cannot meet God without the faith of believing the righteousness of God even though they seek God.
(Romans 3:12) “They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
In the state of having sin in the heart because of not believing in the righteousness of God, all the sinners are prone to commit sin every moment and end up falling into useless lives before the presence of God. It is saying therefore that there is not even one truly righteous deed performed by the sinners before the presence of God. Among the good deeds people perform, we should think about whether there is anyone who would really perform a good deed without expecting anything in return as God does.
God says that sinners cannot perform any deed that is truly righteous. And He says that all humans are slanted toward their own benefit. Are you performing truly good deeds? The truly good deed is the act that has nothing to do with the person’s own benefit. God said that there isn’t anyone in this world who essentially does the truly good deed, and all humans are turned aside to seek after their own benefit. People cannot do any good deed because they are a mass of sin and a brood of evildoers from birth. People can only do unbeneficial things and they are the seeds of sin that cannot do any kind of goodness.
Can a sinner do a truly good deed? A truly good deed is the unconditional agape love that God gives without any price in return. Only that is the true love and the truly good deed. The good deed and the love of human beings cannot be without condition and there isn’t any good deed that does not have a cost until the end. Humans turn their back when the situation becomes unfavorable to them and they are the brood of sin far from righteousness, who can stick a sword into a former friend at any time. Therefore sinners cannot perform a truly good deed. And they are unbeneficial beings.
God said that humans are unbeneficial beings in this world, but what does this mean? It means that humans are unbeneficial from His viewpoint. This is what God can see. Is it beneficial to try hard to not sin and to go before God with clean appearance? Is it beneficial to go to the mountain and cry out in prayer for many days and nights of fasting in the mountain? It is not beneficial.
It may be beneficial to the world when a seed of sin tries not to commit sin, but it has no benefit to God. Such people are rather evil in God’s sight, and they are hypocrites who are like the children of the Devil. But I do not mean that you should try hard to commit sin. Since people know who they are, they should acknowledge their fundamental nature and seek God’s mercy before the presence of God.
Some people wonder, “Would God be happy if I led a decent life by not committing sin? Maybe that would be very beneficial before God.” It is beneficial for the righteous to lead an upright life before God. But it is useless for a sinner to try not to sin before God. It is rather unprofitable.
A certain Buddhist monk lived an ascetic life facing the wall and meditating all the time as he just sat in the room and never even came out of the room to discipline himself during the rest of his life. He submitted himself to the endless path of ascetic discipline but could not gain anything profitable except that he realized the fact that a human being is just a human being. Such things are not profitable before God at any rate. Whether humans commit sin or not is neither harmful nor profitable to God. It has nothing to do with God. A sinner just goes to hell for the price of his sin and receives the penalty for his sin, but it does not harm or profit God. Even if all the people on this planet went to hell and even if they were all destroyed, it won’t be any harm to God. Therefore, concerning the sinners, He said, “They have together become unprofitable.” Humans are completely unprofitable beings.
It is written, “There is none who does good, no, not one.” Sinners cannot do a truly righteous deed. Human righteousness is similar to the political acts of congressmen. Regardless of whether they are enemies or allies, they will use whatever is necessary for them and will also throw it away if they become useless. Yesterday’s enemy turns into today’s ally if that’s what is needed for them. The human righteousness changes like this according to what is profitable for them. Sinners who are not yet born again act like this.
(Romans 3:13) “Their throat is an open tomb;” “with their tongues they have practiced deceit;” “the poison of asps is under their lips;”
The sinner’s throat is like an open tomb because they live to eat until the day they die. Sinners commit deceit and murder until the day they die in order to eat. That’s why a person who does not know and believe in the righteousness of God is a mass of sin, a person that does only evil. That’s why people need to believe in the righteousness of God. To understand whether a person eats to live or whether a person eats to die, we need to know whether he is a person who believes in the righteousness of God. A human being is a mass of sin and he is also a seed of evildoer who does only evil.
Who says that humans are essentially born virtuous? The Scriptures define human as the brood of evildoers (Isaiah 1:4) because humans are born with sin and evil inherited from their parents from birth. But humans often seem to be virtuous because they behave in that manner for the benefit of their community.
Geneticists say that people’s DNAs are essentially composed of egotistical DNAs. In other words, each DNA struggles to survive the other DNAs desperately. Isn’t it the fundamental nature of every human being? But they make the social norms and laws for the benefit of their communities and seek the benefit of one another because there is no benefit to one another if they just insist on their own egotistical demands. That’s why it looks like there is some sort of goodness even in egotistical people.
But people’s throats fulfill their role as the essentially open graves until the day of their death because they are essentially sinners. The sinners are liars who say as if they are telling the truth every time they tell lies. Even among the creatures in the animal world, we cannot find a being that is as evil as a sinner.
What do the Scriptures say about the tongue and the lip and the throat of the human being? It says the throat of the human being is an open tomb. A tomb is a place where a dead person is buried and the Scriptures say that a person’s throat is an open tomb. It means that human beings eat and live in order to die. That means all human beings are like they are already dead although they can speak because their throat is still open. Consequently, they eventually die while eating. I hope you understand that a sinner’s life is not living even though it breathes and it has actually become a dead life already.
It then goes on to say, “With their tongues they have practiced deceit.” People leave this world after a lifetime of deceiving one another. They lie about this and that, they lie to God, they lie to themselves, and they lie to their family. They leave this world after a lifetime of lying to all of them. There is nothing but lies that come out of the mouth of a sinner who has not received the remission of sin. The mouth of a sinner is busy sinning as it is not possible for a sinner to speak about the Word of the righteousness of God that saves all of humanity.
There is a poison of a serpent on the lips of sinners. They spill out blessing when they are given something to eat, otherwise they spit out the curse. There is a poison of the deadly serpent on the lips of sinners. They live with the poison that can kill people. They are always wrapped with smooth and sweet stuff on the outside although they always speak lies and damaging words, words that hurt others. But they spew out poison mercilessly when they see preys show up or when they are in a critical situation.
For example, “entering Nirvana” in Buddhism sounds like truly righteous and good words. But that word is the word of poison that brings curse upon a person by drawing him further apart from God. Christianity also spreads the poison through the doctrine of sanctification. “Sanctification” is trying hard to live a holy life before the presence of God and become more and more like the image of God and eventually become holy like God before death. This is a cursed word that comes out of human ignorance that does not understand the essence of human nature.
“Justification by faith” means that one is called righteous because of his faith in Jesus. This does not mean that you have attained God’s righteousness by faith; rather it is saying that God overlooks your sin even though you have sin just because you are a Christian somehow. Therefore, this is a terrifying word that leads many Christians to hell because it blindfolds their eyes and tells them that they are going Heaven.
(Romans 3:14) “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
Actually, curse and evil that fills human hearts or a mouth of a sinner cannot be found anywhere in the animal world. You just have to look back to the time when you were a sinner to see how filthy and evil a sinner’s mouth is. A sinner does not understand he is sinning even while he is sinning. That’s because he does not feel sin is bad for his nature and is essentially the same element as sin. Even the Scriptures say that the false prophets bless you when you give them something to chew on, but spew out curse from the mouth when you don’t give anything for them to eat. Among the ministers who do not know and believe in the righteousness of God, there are some who display their pleasure when church members serve them with something good, others spew out curse from their mouth. That’s because the essence of a sinner is a mass of evil. That’s why ministers, lay believers, and even the spiritual Gentiles must surely believe the word of the water and the Spirit that constitutes the righteousness of God.
All the sinners must believe in the righteousness of God because the righteousness of God makes them receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. All evil is removed and you become a servant of God who practices the righteousness of God when the Holy Spirit manifests in your heart after believing in God’s righteousness. Sinners live all their life sinning because they are filled with evil and curse. They spew out curse and evil whenever they are at a disadvantage.
People cannot live alone because they are not perfect. Therefore, they need to live among other people and they need law and order and regulations to live together because the essence of human beings is evil and sinful. You follow the law so that you may not be harmed and you may not harm others, definitely not because you have a positive inclination toward the law to live virtuously. Sinners are full of curse and evil. That’s why they need the law to restrict their evil. Human beings spew out curse and evil according to the situation and whenever they are at a critical situation.
(Romans 3:15) “Their feet are swift to shed blood;”
Those who live without knowing the righteousness of God have sin in their hearts. That’s why they are called sinners. Sinners who have sin in their hearts have a heart that enjoys committing sin and will commit sin quickly. Believe in the Word of the water and the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God if you want to break away from the evil sin. Then you will experience that your feet have drifted far away from following after sin.
The Lord said that a tree bears fruit according to its kind and that a good tree cannot bear a bad fruit. If you continue to desire and commit sin that you do not want to commit, then you need to examine your heart and see whether you have the righteousness of God in your heart or not. Believing in Jesus without knowing the righteousness of God is the same as trying to bear a good fruit from a bad tree.
A sinner is so restless to commit sin. Why does a sinner like to sin? Sinners are always thinking about “what to do” and this concern is about “what sin should I commit?” From the Christian perspective, they not only pursue the pleasure of the flesh, but they also kill, harm, hit people, steal, swindle, and step on people as well. Because sinners themselves are of the seed of sin and evil, the desire to sin overflows even more in dark nights and they commit all kinds of sin. People become excited when they see blood and they find pleasure in the moaning, flowing out from pain. Man is a breed of evildoers that is in a hurry to try to commit sin whenever they can. It means all those who are not born again are like that. Romans 3:9-18 tells us about this.
The righteous who are born again must understand they also belong to such a breed when it comes to their flesh and believe in it. We recognize the need for evangelization of the gospel to the sinners when we understand this, and we can share the gospel with the sinners when they understand plainly what kind of sinful breed they really are. The bread for sinners is sin and the bread for the righteous is to believe in the righteousness of God and preach it.
What If You Do Not Solve the Problem of Sin by Not Believing in the Righteousness of God!
(Romans 3:16) “Destruction and misery are in their ways”
We must know that there is only destruction and hardship awaiting the sinners that have sin in their hearts. There is only the pouring of destruction and hardship welcoming a sinner no matter how earnestly he wants and seeks the blessing from God. That’s because you do not accept the righteousness of God in your heart. The righteousness of God leads you to the path of blessing of the Truth. The reason you suffered hardship in your life until now is because of the sin in your hearts, and the way to escape from that sin is by believing in your heart the baptism and the Cross of Jesus that is of the righteousness of God. Only destruction and misery rule over the life of a sinner. There is no blessing. Sinners repeat a life of hardship and curse from their birth to their death. Is there happiness in a person who is not born again? No, there isn’t.
There may be some people who say, “There is happiness in the stories and characters we see on TV dramas or movies, and there are many people who say they are happy among the people I know.” TV dramas and movies attract people’s attention by sharing dreams and hopes that are not present in our life. Those who say they are very happy are the people who are lying to themselves and many other people with the hope for the rotten things because they do not know true happiness. But their inside is full of sin and there is destruction and hardship in their path.
That’s the reason why you need to receive salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of God. You need to receive the righteousness of God and become the children of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in order to be rescued from the path that leads you to hell with destruction and hardship. You will only receive destruction and hardship throughout your life if you do not receive the salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of God and stay in God’s Church.
The life of a sinner is predestined. We can summarize every sinner’s life in a stereotype: “A sinner laughs, and then cries. Wins the congressional election, and then loses the election. His business goes well, and then goes bankrupt. Wins the lotto, then he is murdered because of that money.” There is only destruction and hardship on the path of sinners in this manner as the Scriptures tell us.
There was a Korean woman who received huge sums of money as a compensation for an airplane accident that had taken her husband’s life in the United States. She could have done anything she wanted to do because she had so much money. She bought a huge house and a nice car, clothes, a new man, and she had everything she wanted as she lived in this life. She had nothing to wish for because she had so much money, but she didn’t have a good relationship with her neighbors because maybe she didn’t feel it was needed. Then one day she was found dead in her swimming pool in her home, but it was said that she did not die while swimming because she did not know how to swim. She was killed at a young age even though she had everything she wanted. There is no real happiness for a sinner. There is only destruction and hardship for a sinner even if the sinner has everything in this world.
(Romans 3:17) “And the way of peace they have not known.”
Those who do not understand the righteousness of God do not understand the way of peace in their hearts. Do you always resolve all your problems with the righteousness of God? Actually the righteousness of God solves all your sin, curse, and pain.
Most people want to attain peace in their hearts through their own way. Some try to attain peace through yoga, some others with material goods, and still others through prayers of repentance, but nothing can give you eternal peace. The eternal peace is not temporary and is attained by believing in the baptism our Savior Jesus received and the blood He shed. The only thing that can give peace in a person’s heart is the faith of believing in the Old Testament and the New Testament Word, God’s Word. God’s Word of the water and the Spirit written in the Scriptures leads your heart to the way of peace.
Is there peace for a sinner? Is there peace in a sinner’s heart? There is no peace and comfort in the hearts of those who have not received the remission of sin. They are always insecure, always depressed by sin, always waiting for the Day of Judgment for their sins. They try to have a joyful life at least as long as they live because they are so fearful of the coming of the last day. They eat and enjoy and live for the temporary pleasure in this world because they know the miserable end for themselves. When you ask a sinner, “What is the purpose of your life?” The sinner will answer, “Pleasure.”
When you go to the graveyard in Korea, you can see people have erected tombstones. Some prestigious families even carve and set some stone statues before their tombs, but common people generally have two stone posts erected on each side of their tombs. This signifies pleasure. “He lived for this and He died as this had lost its function.” Therefore, they plant two phallus-type stone posts at both sides of the grave when they die so that they may take the pleasures of this land to the other world. When you look closer at the stone posts, there is a squirrel on each post, one is going up the post, the other squirrel is running down the stone post, and these signify the sexual pleasure. People live for this sexual pleasure and then go down when the time comes. Therefore, they carved and erected two posts for them to take this pleasure to the other world.
The life of sinners is focused on the pleasures of this life. Having a good family with sons and daughters and living a comfortable life is the sole purpose of their life. The purpose of life for the sinners who have not been born again is to seek the satisfaction in pleasure, but eventually they die without gaining any satisfaction and without fulfilling anything.
Is there peace in sinners’ hearts? How can there be peace when there is sin in their hearts? There is no peace in their hearts because they cannot understand the righteousness of God and there is no one telling them about it. That’s why you must become the person who shares the gospel of the righteousness of God with others. There must be a person who preaches the righteousness of God in order that many people get to be enlightened about the righteousness of God. People who shall preach the righteousness of God are you and me who have met the Lord.
There is no peace for sinners. They are full of worries and concerns even while they are on a beautiful scenery excursion. There is a load of worries and concerns in their hearts even while they are eating delicious food and laughing with friends. Those who do not know the peace in their hearts must definitely receive the righteousness of God. They will receive the comfort in their hearts only when they receive the remission of sin in their hearts by hearing, understanding and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God. They can finally have fellowship with God when they have accepted the righteousness of God. But a sinner who is full of sin because he did not listen to the Word of the Truth cannot receive the remission of sin and the comfort in their hearts. Therefore, there is no peace for those sinners.
(Romans 3:18) “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Sinners who do not understand the righteousness of God live a life of not fearing God in the real world. That’s because the eyes of their hearts are darkened by their sins. The people whose eyesight is darkened live this life not knowing where the road is, even during the daytime. Sinners are those who do not know by themselves what they should believe, what the righteousness of God is, and what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is. That’s why they live in this real world without any fear, even though they are headed for hell for their sins. They do not have any interest in God’s righteousness even if they are cast into hell tomorrow. According to this verse, do sinners have a heart fearing God? No, they don’t. Then, do the righteous have a heart that fears God? Yes, they do.
Sinners are prone to have a grudge against God rather than have fear and admiration for God in their hearts. They spill their bitterness, “Where is God? Would God leave such evil people alone if there were a God? Would He leave alone those who are living a lavish life with money they stole or those who killed so many people, and make such people like me who are living an upright life, suffer in this manner?”
There is a reason God leaves a sinner in the midst of hardship in this world. Would sinners turn to God for dependence if they wouldn’t have gone through appropriate anguish? God allows evil people and gives pain in this world intentionally so that the sinners can return to God. God allows such a world so that sinners may say, “Oh, my God, please help me,” and return to God. But there are too many people who do not understand the intention of God and insist that there isn’t a God and do not fear God at all. They only seek pleasure in this world even until the moment of death because they do not fear God.
Many people in Korea believe in Confucianism. They believe that worshipping their ancestors is very important and they think that’s filial piety. But we can see that even the filial piety, the greatest virtue in Korean morals, doesn’t have much worth if it doesn’t bring them much to their own mouth or if they can’t acquire much for themselves. The people who say they believe in the Confucianism and value filial duty are the people who sell out even the land their grandmother and grandfather is buried on if it would bring in a lot of money to them. Of course their ancestral deities are not God and are just dead spirits, but how would they have the heart of fearing and admiring Jesus Christ, the true God, if they don’t fear their ancestral gods that they have established in their hearts.
Sinners are ignorant and they do not do righteous works; their throat is an open tomb and their tongue spills out deceit; their lips have the serpent’s poison and their mouth is full of curse and evil; their feet move about hurriedly to spill blood and there is destruction and suffering in their path; and they do not know the way of peace and they do not have the fear of God in their eyes. This is the nature of a sinner.
There wasn’t any righteous person in this world before believing in the righteousness of God that Jesus Christ gave. Except for only a few believers among Jews, there wasn’t any perfectly righteous person. However, the gospel of the water and the Spirit began to save, from the sins of the world, those people who had become sinners before the Law.
The Scriptures say, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” This is not talking about the doctrine of justification by faith. After Jesus Christ came, those who believe in the righteousness of God become the righteous and those who do not believe in it are destined to go to hell.
Sinners who are all around us really cannot do good and their feet are swift to spill blood. They are people who don’t know what to do because they are so eager to sin. Even though they speak of love and virtuous deeds and pretend to be very merciful, they are actually sinners who lie.
The substance of the sinners is exactly as the Scriptures tell us. The most important thing is how we look at fundamental human nature. Do you still have a perspective that there are righteous as well as evil people? But the Scriptures look at people as a mass of sin because they definitely commit sin until they die. We must look at the sinners in the same manner. We must not look at them like, “This is a little better sinner. That sinner is not okay.” We must look at sinners as a brood of evildoers, who have the poison of the serpent, enjoy harming people, and whose feet are swift to spill blood. It means that the nature of humans is a mass of sin. Those who are not born again are people who seek pleasure of the flesh like a beast and terrible people who pretend to be humble. Those who pretend to be merciful are people who are full of evil. We also need to look at the sinners as such.
Sinners are swift to spill blood and they are busy seeking sin for pleasure throughout their lifetime after they are born into the world. And their life purpose is to seek how they can get more material wealth and how they can commit more sin. A sinner’s life is committing sin as he pleases in that manner until he leaves this world. A sinner is such a breed. We cannot distinguish them as an acceptable sinner and a treacherous sinner; we have to regard them as the same sinners. Those who have received a lot of education in this world and have refined themselves, will hide their sins well and those who have not will have their sins exposed plainly, but their essential nature is all the same as a breed of sinners. We can interpret God’s Word correctly and share the gospel to those who have not received the remission of sin when we can see their fundamental nature clearly.
Even the righteous can be grouped into the righteous that follow God and the righteous that do not follow God. But we look at them as the righteous because at least they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even though they may have shortcomings. But we must look at the sinners and evildoers as just horrible people, not people who are insufficient. Those whose souls are destined to fall to hell because they do not believe in God’s Word are like beasts and actually worse than beasts, therefore it is appropriate to look at them as such. Humans are beings that attack the opponent with higher intelligence than animals, attacking more terribly, fearfully, and sharply to kill the opponent. It is proper even according to God’s Word to look down on the sinners who think it is okay for them to trample on anyone for their own benefit as tremendously evil people.
The Israelites had the faith of looking at themselves as the chosen people of God and all the other Gentiles as beasts. Of course, the Israelites also are not the chosen people spiritually even though they are the chosen people physically. But we, the righteous, who have been born again spiritually through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, have such faith that pleases God.
We must have such a mindset when we look at them spiritually to be able to battle them and be victorious and save the pitiful souls. Sinners are souls definitely destined for hell. We must preach to them the gospel that contains the righteousness of God because they are souls destined for hell, but we cannot rescue them if we do not show them their true self first. There is no way to rescue them because they do not want to come and ask for help. We can rescue them from their sins when we can point out their sins sharply and let them understand their fundamental sinful nature and their destination. We will lose the battle if we fight them without understanding them clearly. How do you understand the sinners? Do you live with sentiment that there are some virtuous ones even among the people who are not born again? If you have had such sentiment so far, throw them away by believing in the Word.
“Their feet are swift to shed blood.” This means, “A person who is not born again is worse than a beast.” Hijackings or terrorism occur frequently these days, and countless innocent victims are sacrificed by such terrorism. People curse the terrorists whenever they hear bad news of terrorism saying that the terrorists are unspeakably and treacherously evil beasts, but actually their mouths are full of evil and cruelty as well because of their innate sins. The righteous who are born again must look at sinners in that manner and share the gospel to them. It is a mistake to look at a person who looks gentle and graceful and think they are any different from other people because the inside of the person is filled with unspeakable evil. Such a person is an even more treacherous sinner who has covered himself so firmly with an armor of hypocrisy so that it’s really difficult to break through.
Some religious organizations build orphanages and provide a place to stay for the unwed mothers and orphans and provide protection for them. This looks so beautiful. But it is full of unspeakable evil, deceit, and schemes on the other side. They are wolves although they look like good shepherds. All the religious people including Christians who do not know and do not believe in the righteousness of God are filled with curse and evil in their hearts and curse and evil spills out if you just provoke them. But we the righteous say bad things about someone just by our lips sometimes but actually do not have cruelty in our hearts.
How should we look at sinners? We need to look at them exactly as it is recorded in Romans 3:9-18. We may have thought that there are sinners who come to an understanding, some who seek God, some who do good deeds, and some who are decent, but we mustn’t think that way from now on. We must think, ‘Sinners are people who have no concern for God’s righteousness, people who like to sin, people full of poison, people who are unprofitable, pitiful people who have no choice but to go to hell because they cannot do any good. Therefore they also must believe in the gospel of the righteousness of God and we have the realistic mission to share the gospel to them.’
Romans 3:9-18 is talking about people’s fundamental nature before they have faith in Jesus Christ. Those who believe in the righteousness of God that Christ has given are not applied by this Scripture passage. It means that only the sinners belong to that Word. The Apostle Paul quoted the Old Testament Word from Psalm 14:1 and the following verses to teach us that there are now people who became righteous through Jesus Christ as well as sinners who still did not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus Christ gave, treacherous sinners like the sinners in the Old Testament. In other words, this passage is clearly talking about the sinners who have not met Jesus Christ through the righteousness of God, and it is clearly not talking about the righteous. We must understand this clearly.
But Christian sinners are prone to use this as the source for justifying their claim that there is sin in a person even if he believes in Jesus. But this Word cannot be grounded for justifying their claim that a person is still a sinner even if he believes in Jesus. The Apostle Paul is saying here that all the Jews and the Gentiles, excluding those among the Israelites who believed in Jesus who was to come in the future, were sinners before Jesus came to this world. He says that’s the reason God gave the Law to the sinners and sent Jesus to give the righteousness of God to all the sinners.
According to God’s promise, Jesus Christ was conceived in Maria’s body by the Holy Spirit and was born to this world. Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist at the Jordan River when he became 30 years old (Matthew 3:13-17). Jesus, who took all the sins of the world upon Him by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, shed blood on the Cross and died in our place for the penalty for all the sins He had taken over. Now there is no judgment for the person who believes in Jesus who carried the sins of the world upon His shoulder. Such a person has become a righteous one. Romans 3:9-18 tells us that such sinners became righteous through Jesus Christ and that people should realize their sinful nature so that they could attain God’s salvation by believing in Jesus Christ.
Those who take this Word, “There is none righteous, no, not one” and claim that there cannot be any righteous, are going to hell according to their faith. We have definitely become the righteous by believing Jesus Christ and by believing the baptism of the Savior and His death on the Cross. Those who do not know and believe this are sinners who are evil, swift to shed blood, heartless, and full of curse even though they are in their respective Christian communities. It is appropriate for you to look at everyone like that except the righteous that have been born again. That’s why it is our duty and the will of God for us to have pity toward those who are destined to go to hell and share the gospel with them. Therefore it is important for us to understand clearly and believe the Word, “There is none righteous.” I want you to believe the righteousness of God with your heart. As the Apostle Paul defined the gospel as “my gospel,” I hope you have the gospel as your gospel as well.
The Way to Bring about Wrath
(Romans 3:19) “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
What does God’s Law say? And to whom is it spoken? God’s Law teaches and points out what sin is to the people who are imprisoned under the power of sin. It says that the function of the Law that God has given is not only to point out people’s sin, but also to teach us that all the people in the world are under the terrible judgment of God if they do not believe in the righteousness of God.
All human beings are in the helpless situation where they cannot help but commit sins and iniquities because they have been born with sin from their birth. Therefore, all people are under the judgment of the Truth that says, “The wages of sin is death,” which is the chief declaration of God’s Law. Therefore, everyone’s mouth is shut before God’s Law. That’s because God has made such laws for the sinners. How can humans change the law of death that God has made for sinners when He Himself made this Law? No one can change this Law. The sinners can only be destroyed according to the process of the judgment according to the Law.
Everyone must respect the law of death God has made for sinners. And they must shut their mouth attempting to cry out for appeal and just pray for God to have mercy on them. And they must believe in their hearts the righteousness of God that God has mercifully given them. Sinners surely do need the righteousness of God.
“The Law brings about wrath” (Romans 4:15). And the Law speaks to those who are under the Law. God gave the Law to people and taught them that they cannot live by the Law. God gave such Law to us humans. God did not give the Law for us to not keep the Law. Then is it God’s will to nullify the Law? No, it’s not.
The Law makes the people who have departed from God realize their sins through the Law and come back to Jesus Christ. But the sinners who try to receive salvation by keeping the Law live without knowing the way of peace because of the Law. First, their life is in the state of war against God because their relationship is not peaceful with God because of their sins. Secondly, they curse and attack one another because they are not at peace with other people. Thirdly, they are not at peace with themselves. Rather, they are constantly anxious and worried.
The only way for such sinners to find peace is to believe in Jesus Christ who gives the righteousness of God. Jesus Christ took away all the sins that were blocking the relationship between God and people and erected a bridge of reconciliation between God and human beings with the righteousness of God. Therefore, sinners must seek peace with God within the righteousness of God. And they need to have fellowship with God and one another within the righteousness of God that gives us a way to live peacefully.
The pain is the thing that evil people experience personally. There is hardship and destruction in the path of the evil people. Therefore those who do not know and believe in the righteousness of God try instinctively to destroy one another. The true peace comes when you know and believe in the righteousness of God.
There Is No Fear of God
Romans 3:18 is saying that the relationship between mankind and God has been broken off and their lives have been destroyed because of the sins in their hearts as a result of not believing in God’s Word. They became ignorant, so they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. That there is no fear of God in the hearts of the sinners, is evidence that they have become atheists. This Scripture passage points out that fact. A person will receive the curse and destruction before God if he does not depend on the righteousness of God in this manner. Actually, not being fearful of the Omnipotent God means that he is ready to receive the wrath of God. Not receiving the righteousness of God is a sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. God definitely brings down an appropriate punishment for that sin because it is an unforgivable sin.
Even though people are in the midst of sin, they do not fear God, who is holy and the only divine Being who brings His judgment of wrath. Rather, they fear the beings that are created by God and this is because of the sins of human beings. What an inconsistent contradiction it is. They fear the visible creatures that will be rotten and do not fear God whom they all have to stand before and confess their sins. It is not surprising that the writer of a Psalm said, “Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways.” This is the proper Word.
As Paul said, mankind is on the verge of destruction because of its sin. Then how can the problem of sin that destroys mankind be solved? Mankind must receive salvation from sin by believing in the righteousness of God that Jesus Christ, the true God, has fulfilled. Only this faith can save mankind from the destruction for its sin.
There Is Nobody That Can Be Considered Righteous by the Deeds of the Law
(Romans 3:20) “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
People cannot be without sin by the deeds of the Law. Those who believe in Jesus cannot wash their sins and become people without sin even if they believe in the doctrine of sanctification and offer prayers of repentance fervently and follow the Word of the Law diligently. You must know clearly and believe that you cannot cleanse your own sin with the faith of the Law. Then what kind of faith can wash away one’s own sin? You can receive the cleansing of all your sins at once if you believe in the righteousness of God. You may come to realize your sin through the Law but you cannot receive the righteousness of God by it. You must realize this Truth and live out your faith properly.
Apostle Paul told us to realize sin by the Law. Can we become the righteous by keeping the Law? We cannot become the righteous by the Law. Can people become sanctified by keeping the Law and enter the Kingdom of God? No, they can’t. People who have not been born again are all under God’s Law because they think they need to keep the Law. As a result, they offer prayers of repentance every day and challenge every day to keep the Law. This is a wrongful act that comes from taking the first step wrongly. If one misplaces the first button into the second buttonhole, then all the rest of the buttons are misplaced automatically. The Law is given to us to teach us that humans are complete sinners. Therefore, misunderstanding God’s Law and trying to keep the Law is an embarrassment that comes from ignorance and it is the work that comes out of confused religious thinking. It means that they do this because they misunderstand the function of the Law. Can people enter the Kingdom of God by becoming sanctified on their own? No, they can’t.
The distinctive feature of the doctrine of sanctification is that all the religions of this world have similar doctrine in their teaching. Buddhism has the doctrine of entering Nirvana. Christianity has the doctrine of sanctification. But this doctrine came out of human fleshly thinking, not out of the Truth. Therefore, it could be regarded demonic. Did Jesus tell us that we become sanctified little by little and eventually enter the Kingdom of Heaven on the last day? No, He didn’t. The righteousness of our Lord sanctified us at once and made us receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore people without the Holy Spirit are not the righteous. Sinners are only sinners, regardless of how hard they try to become sanctified by believing in Jesus and living virtuously. Although people may look clean from the outside, they still have sin that pollutes inside and outside and that is the typical appearance of a sinner.
But those who have received the remission of all the sins through the righteousness of God are different. Humans can’t help but live maliciously, but they live cleaner lives after receiving the remission of sin. Humans cannot help but spread sin throughout their life because they were born infected with sin and the sin keeps coming out unintentionally from inside because they are already infected with sin. They need to take in the medicine of the righteousness of God that heals the disease of the sin fundamentally if they truly don’t want to be a person who spreads the germs of sin. And those who believe in the righteousness of God bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit because they have the Holy Spirit inside them.
Another reason people cannot become righteous before the presence of God by keeping the Law is that there actually isn’t anybody who does keep the Law perfectly. Anyone who keeps the Law perfectly would be approved as righteous before the presence of God, but people actually cannot practice all the things according to God’s Law. Rather, all people are violating God’s Law. How can people keep all the statutes of the Law when people cannot even keep the slightest stipulation? What would you do?
The Righteousness of God Witnessed by the Law and the Prophets
(Romans 3:21) “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets”
The righteousness of God is speaking of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Where does the gospel of the righteousness of God receive its witness? It has to be witnessed by God’s Law and the prophets. God prophesized through the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle that Jesus Christ would become the sacrifice offering to take all the sins of mankind through the laying on of hands and shed blood to death. As such, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that has been witnessed in the Old Testament Scriptures. Therefore, the baptism Jesus received is same as the laying of hands on the sacrificial animal, and the sacrifice of an animal, outpouring its blood to death, is the same as Jesus dying on the Cross. God’s righteousness is fulfilled when Jesus came to this world and took over the sins of the world by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, dying on the Cross with the sins of the world, and receiving the judgment for the sins. It is the righteousness of God that saved the sinners from sin in this manner.
When we read Paul’s Epistles more closely, we can see that he often used expressions that showed contrast like “before” and “now.” He used these expressions because he experienced both the dark past when he was in bondage to the Law and the glorious salvation now. That change took place on the way to Damascus, but Paul had actually been the enemy of Jesus and His disciples before that took place. He tried to remove the Early Church believers in any way he could and he thought he was doing the right thing like most fanatic believers in Judaism do. But he was actually standing against God with his own righteousness without knowing God.
Jesus Christ appeared to Paul on his way to Damascus and revealed that He was Jesus the Son of God who was persecuted by him. The Truth of Heaven manifested as the new light to Paul at that time and removed all the darkness from his heart. Paul gave up the life of arrogance, prejudice, and persecution from that time and began a new life of serving Christ and His righteousness. Paul said, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”
What do we have to do in order to not be caught by all the evil sins? It is impossible with our own strength. Paul believed in the righteousness of God instead of the wrath of God. The only way for people to receive the salvation from God’s wrath of judgment for their sins is for them to believe in the righteousness of God. And we must follow God who gave us this path with thankfulness.
Paul was transformed to a child of God who had no sin by believing in the righteousness of God through his faith in Jesus Christ in this manner. But most people who believe in Jesus think that they won’t be condemned by God even though they have sin. They think so just because they believe in Jesus somehow. That’s why they have an illusion that they have received the salvation from their own standpoint even though they have sin because they do not have the faith of believing the righteousness of God.
But we now have a way of living in the righteousness of God without sin instead of receiving judgment for our sins due to the meritorious work Christ has done. That is the righteousness of God we receive “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
Then, let’s look at your heart. Did you have sin before believing in Jesus? But you would have no sin if you knew and believed the righteousness of God. If there is anything in you that has changed after believing in Jesus, it’s that you now believe in the righteousness of God while you believed in human righteousness before. If we just believe in Jesus without having faith in the righteousness of God, would your faith be approved as righteous before God? No. The faith of believing in Jesus with the understanding of the righteousness of God makes God’s righteousness become yours before the presence of God. Therefore you must know the righteousness of God. If you just believe in Jesus without believing in the righteousness of God because you do not know it, then you have a wrong belief in faith. You must know this very clearly and know and believe the righteousness of God.
(Romans 3:22) “Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference”
Anyone who believes the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that was fulfilled together with Jesus’ baptism and His death on the Cross receives the righteousness of God, and there is no difference. Believing in Jesus Christ is to believe the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God lies in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. Therefore all the sinners, no matter who they are, must believe in the baptism Jesus Christ received from John the Baptist and the blood of the Cross in order to receive the remission of sin.
Doctrine of Justification by Faith or the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit?
(Romans 3:23-24) “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”
The redemption in Jesus Christ that sinners received is enough to make those people who believe in the righteousness of God sinless. Sinners can receive the perfect remission of sin only by believing the righteousness of God. From God’s standpoint, God paid the due price of sacrifice to give us the righteousness of God. But, from our standpoint, we can attain the righteousness of God just by believing without any sacrifice. God’s Word telling us to believe in the Lord Jesus is the Word of salvation that admonishes us to believe only in the righteousness of God.
Romans chapter 3 speaks about becoming righteous by faith. Here, Romans 3:24 states, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Now, we have become righteous through the redemption in Christ without a price. Then, does attaining the righteousness of God by His grace mean that we are considered righteous even if we still have sin? Are we called righteous even if we have sin? Or, are we called righteous because we actually don’t have any sin? I want to tell you clearly about this based on the Scriptures.
Is the Doctrine of Justification Correct?
Is the doctrine of justification in Christian theology correct? No, it’s not. The doctrine of justification is the doctrine that says Christians are considered without sin because they believe in Jesus even though they have sin. In this passage, was the Apostle Paul talking about the doctrine of justification? We became without sin through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. We have become people without sin because our Lord took our sins upon Him through His baptism and His death on the Cross. Because we became people without sin by believing with our hearts in the salvation the Lord fulfilled this way, God looks at this faith and considers those who believe in this Truth as the righteous without sin. To be called a righteous person means to be without sin. Therefore, the doctrine of justification spoken of in Christian theology is a negative and unrighteous claim that says Jesus did not take all our sins forever.
Some people try hard to become righteous through the work of the Law, that is, by keeping the Law. But it is impossible for a person to become sinless by living upright. A person becoming sinless and becoming a righteous person by living an upright life is just a wishful thinking that stems from the religions of this world. Such a notion may be logical in the religious perspective but this can never be true from the spiritual perspective.
Legalistic Christians interpret Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” as saying that Christians are considered without sin through their merit of believing in Jesus although they have sin. But Jesus has blotted out the sins of the world with the water and the Spirit. The word “redemption” in this verse means “deliverance upon payment of ransom.” There was the Civil War in the United States of the issue of the abolition of slavery. The war broke out like this: The wealthy people living in the south claimed that they should not give freedom to the slaves because then the owners would have to work because there wouldn’t be anyone to work if the slaves were liberated, and the north claimed, “No, they must be given freedom. They are human beings just like us,” and the war erupted because this issue turned into a political confrontation. Before this war, blacks were generally slaves of the whites. The slaves also had children even though they usually did not have a wedding ceremony. And when the slaves had many children, the owners took their children to the market and sold them. They put a price on the slave in the slave market and bid for the slave. The one who bid the highest won the slave if there weren’t any other bids that went higher. People bought some other people in this manner with money. That is so-called slavery.
The slave exists for the owner. The price of a slave is called “ransom.” One should pay the ransom to redeem a slave. What did Jesus do to redeem us who have become slaves of sin? What did Jesus do to pay the ransom for us? He was born to this world and received the baptism to take all our sins over to Him to save us from sin. Because He took all the sins upon Himself in this manner, He went to the Cross and died, shed all the blood of His body, resurrected from death on the third day and witnessed for 40 days after being resurrected from death, went up to Heaven, sat at the right hand of God the Father’s throne and became our Savior. Our Lord justified us freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We have received the remission of sin and new life and the righteousness of God by believing in this Truth. Therefore, it is written, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
But many people in this world do not believe that Jesus saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit although they try hard to become righteous by the deeds of the Law. As such, in today’s Christianity, there are many who have the faith that deteriorates Christianity into just another worldly religion. The ministers that teach the doctrine of justification represent such people. Who are the people that claim the doctrine of justification? They are the philosophers in Christian communities. They are people who try to interpret the Scripture by fitting it into their thinking. The Lord is rejected because of these people.
The Puritans in England had to go to the American continent because they received so much persecution in England. The first thing they did when they came to America was to build churches and offer up a worship service. After this, they established theological schools to teach theology, and the teachers of the seminaries were the philosophical theologians. The philosophical clergymen taught people as the theological experts. They looked at Romans 3:24 that states, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” and interpreted and taught, “We are called as the righteous even though we have sin only if we believe in Jesus.” Although they understood the meaning of the words “redemption” and “God’s grace,” they did not understand the words “redemption” and the “grace” in connection with the Truth of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, they interpreted this passage erroneously and eventually fabricated the so-called doctrine of justification.
The doctrine of justification is the doctrine that says, “Christian believers are called righteous even though they actually have sin.” Such theological experts taught the students, and those students that learned the doctrine of justification from them became pastors and thus the doctrine of justification was spread all over the world.
The word “saint” means a sinless person who does not have one iota of sin. When we ask those “self-styled saints” who believe in Jesus with this doctrine of justification whether they actually have sin in their hearts or not, they reply “Who in the world does not have sin?” They say, “How can there be a righteous person when the Bible says, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one?’” They profess the doctrine of the justification because they do not know the Truth of the water and the Spirit. The doctrine of justification was created by such people in that manner and it spread to our times in that manner. Therefore Christians just believe it without much question when the theologians teach such doctrines.
But that’s not true. God does not call those people with sin as sinless, and He definitely sends people who deserve to go to hell to hell. God blesses those who deserve to be blessed and has mercy on those who deserve to have mercy. Those who deserve to receive judgment because they have sin will definitely be judged. But many people came to understand and believe wrongly because the erroneous teachings of the theologians influenced the people throughout the world. They go to church and call one another saints, deacons, deaconess, elder, and pastor and they all say that they are the saved sinners even though they have sin in their hearts. The common characteristic of those people who believe in the doctrine of justification is that they are all the same sinners. Those who believe in Buddhism have sin, and those who say they believe in Christianity have sin also in the same manner. Consequently all of them have not attained the righteousness of God. Those who have not received the righteousness of God by faith are merely religious people all the same.
There are so many religious people in Christianity like this. The religious Christians are not true Christians. Only those who have attained the righteousness of God can lead a true life of faith. If we look at this in simple black and white terms of whether a person has sin or not, then those people who believe in Buddhism and those who believe in Christianity all have sin alike. Therefore the faith of believing in the doctrine of justification is all fallacious.
Then where did the doctrine of justification originate? It was formulated in the head of philosophers. They look at the passage, “Being justified freely by His grace” and used it as the material for fabricating the doctrine of justification. “You shall be called righteous even though you have sin. You shall be called a saint.” They say the reason one shall be called a saint is because the person believes in Jesus as the Savior.
But you actually do not have sin when you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given. It means that your sins and mine have actually been passed over to Jesus when we joined together in Jesus’ baptism. Did Jesus take all the sins of all humanity upon Him, or not? He did. Jesus went to the Cross and received the judgment for the sin He had taken over through His baptism. Then He resurrected from the death on the third day and went up to the right hand of God the Father’s throne. That Jesus is our Savior. If we have received the remission of sin by believing in Jesus, is that God’s gift or did we receive the salvation through effort?
Salvation is God’s gift. Gift means that it is God’s grace. The Scriptures say, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Did you and I receive the righteousness of God through grace, or did we make ourselves sinless? We have received the salvation from sin by believing in the redemption that is in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the righteousness of God. This is not earned through the doctrine of justification.
Who is Jesus? He is the Savior. God of the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit saved us from all the sins of the world through His Son. We do not have sin by believing in the righteousness of God that God has fulfilled. God manifested in our hearts as the gift of the Holy Spirit because there is no sin in our hearts. That’s why we can say, “I am righteous. When you look at me, I have shortcomings and weaknesses and I do many wrong things. But I have no sin in my heart because I believe that Jesus removed all my sins through the baptism He received and His blood on the Cross.”
Those who believe in the doctrine of the justification are people who have false faith. They profess Christianity with much misunderstanding. Those who teach this doctrine of justification are doing much wrong to the people who want to believe in God. Their faith is very harmful to many people. You often hear the doctrines like the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of sanctification, but the reality is that people are falling into destruction by believing in these doctrines. They believe that they are considered sinless because they believe in Jesus even though they all have sin.
Jesus took all our sins upon Himself when He received the baptism from John the Baptist. There cannot be sin in us and there must not be sin in us when we always remember and ruminate with faith that Jesus has already blotted out all our sins. You and I are really righteous people because we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even though we have shortcomings. We really do not have sin.
1 John 1:9 states, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This passage doesn’t mean that God will blot out our sins whenever we confess our sins, but that we believe that all the sins have already been remitted because the righteousness of God is fulfilled through the water and the Spirit. It is saying that there is the effect of the remission of sin if we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit Jesus has given to us.
(Romans 3:25-26) “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
The passage, “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness,” means that God made Jesus the sacrifice of reconciliation. Shedding blood here means death, so God already planned the remission of our sins through the death of Jesus to blot out our sins. Jesus was able to die in our place instead because He received the baptism. We must understand what the passage “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood” means. This Word means that God made His Son to be put to death because the remission of sin of people is accomplished by paying the price of sins with sacrificial blood, that is, the death of sacrificial offering.
The wages of sin is death. Here, “death” means not only physical death but also spiritual death, which means going to hell. God gave us the Law so that we may realize what sin is and we know through the Law that we are people who cannot help but sin every day. Therefore, we absolutely needed Jesus and Jesus, as the mediator for reconciliation between God and us, came to this world, took over all our sins by receiving the baptism, and shed blood for the payment for all the sin. He thus made reconciliation between God and us. Therefore God made us who believe this the children of God, and now we can be called by God as His children. This is our remission of sin that has already been fulfilled through the righteousness of God.
This Scripture passage goes on to say, “To demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” Here, “to pass over something” means “to leave out; disregard.” To pass over something means to leave out something that should be dealt with importantly. And it also means to not care for it.
God really endures for a long time. God has created humans and endured for a long time. Humans have sinned so much and they will commit so much sin in the future too. But God said, “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” This means that God manifested His righteousness and did the righteous work for us. By doing truly righteous work, He has removed all our sins. He made the believers in His righteousness to be sinless.
Now, let’s take a closer look at this particular clause that goes, “God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” Does the everlasting God perceive the concept of time just as we perceive it? No, He doesn’t. To Him, even the end of the world is well seen. In other words, the entire human history is the past tense to God. Therefore, this passage means that God passes over all the sins that we commit from the time of our birth until we die whether it is 80 or 90 years of life.
These days Koreans have entered the aging period. Koreans are living a long life too. Most people generally live over 70 years of age. There are some social problems because of the aging population. Well, let’s say that you received the remission of sin at the age of 30. You received the remission of sin at the age of 30, and you have about 40 years to sin from now on, if you are to live until 70. But our Lord came to this world about 2000 years before we were born and received baptism at the age of 30, was nailed to the Cross at the age of 33 and received the penalty for sin as the price for the sin, and resurrected from the dead and became our Savior. The Lord knew that we were going to be born into this world about 2000 years later and also knew that we would sin until we died and already took all those sins upon Him. It means that He not only took over the sin of our children and our grandchildren, but that He even took all the sins that our descendants would commit until the last day.
Therefore, the passage “God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” tells us that from God’s perspective, God has already removed the sins we committed today and the sins we will commit in the future. From our perspective, it is the sin we will commit in the future in our timeframe. But from God’s perspective, it is the sin God has already blotted out in the past. God removed the eternal sin because He is the eternal being that exists forever. Therefore, even though people commit many sins in the future after they are born, He has already removed those sins a long time ago from God’s perspective. In other words, all the sins we humans commit are mere sins that were committed previously in God’s eyes.
It says, “God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,” because they are the sins that He had already removed. People sin every day, but from God’s perspective, God has already removed all our sins a long time ago through Jesus, His only begotten Son. God the Father has removed our sins by sending Jesus to this world, having Him receive the baptism from John the Baptist and take over the sins of the world when He became 30 years old, having Him nailed on the Cross and die with the sins of this world, and resurrecting Him from death. God removed the sins from His standpoint in order to manifest His righteousness and say that He is righteous and those who believe in Jesus are righteous by passing over the sins that were previously committed because they are the sins that God had already removed a long time ago.
You must have the faith that says “yes” to this Word. Although we sin in present sense, God does not care about that sin because Jesus already removed all the sins of this world at the time when He removed the sins. If we have received the remission of sin by believing Jesus who has come by the water and the blood, we are righteous in God’s sight even though we still sin out of our insufficiencies. It means that we do not have sin when we acknowledge our sinful nature and admit Jesus Christ as our Lord. That’s why the Scriptures say that God had passed over and does not care about the sins that were committed previously.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that we can sin as we please. Do we sin even though we don’t want to, or, don’t we? We do sin. Do we sin intentionally or do we sin because we are weak? We commit sin because we are weak. We wouldn’t sin if we were perfect, if our will were invincible, because we would know it was sin. But how is our will? It changes in an instant. We swear and decide in the morning, but completely collapse in the evening and say, “Why did I do this?” And then sharpen our knives of will again in the night. And we swear and decide one more time in the morning and begin the day, but it may go a day, a week, but we can see all that crumbling down within a month.
But those sins are all of the past from God’s perspective even though we continuously sin any way we can in the present timeframe. God forgave all our sins in the past. That’s why the Scriptures say, “To demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” God has planned the righteous work and blotted out all our sins according to His plan. And He said to those who believe in Jesus Christ who fulfilled this work, “You are righteous. You are without sin.” It means that God saved us from sin in this manner. Do you understand this?
You need to understand such Truth in order to believe in God and not fall when Satan attacks you. But when we ask those who believe in the doctrine of the justification whether they have sin, most of them say they have sin. Some of them reply, “I don’t have sin because Jesus has atoned for all my sin with His blood on the Cross.” Then if we ask what they would do with the sins they commit in the future, they say they just need to offer prayers of repentance. Such people are the ones that believe in the doctrine of justification. All those who say they receive the cleansing of the sin by offering prayers of repentance are Christian sinners that advocate the doctrine of justification.
Do you receive the remission of sin by offering prayers of repentance? Or, do you receive the remission of sin by faith just because Jesus Christ has blotted out all our sins by coming to this earth, taking all our sins through His baptism, receiving the penalty of all those sins by His death on the Cross, and being resurrected from death? What should we believe to have all our sins removed? Are the sins removed whenever we offer prayers of repentance? Or is the sin removed when we believe that Jesus has blotted out all our sins through the water and the Spirit?
We have become sinless by believing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not by offering a lot of prayers of repentance. If someone stabs and kills another person and then says, “I am sorry. I have done wrong. I have killed your only son. I am sorry. I will never kill another person. Please forgive me,” could that sin be forgiven? The person must pay the price for that sin. He must go to prison and face the death penalty himself or be sentenced to life imprisonment. Otherwise, could that person be forgiven just by saying, “Please forgive me?” There is a Korean saying that goes, “You could feed all Korean people with a piece of rice cake if you do it just in word.”
People who believe in the doctrine of justification say that they receive the remission of sin whenever they offer prayers of repentance. But how can they receive the remission of sin through the prayers of repentance? We receive the remission of sin by knowing and believing that Jesus has blotted out all our sins by taking them upon Himself through His baptism, and by receiving all the judgment and shedding His blood on the Cross. Advocating the doctrine of justification is the same as the Buddhist teaching that says they could take a soul from hell to Heaven by sounding a wooden gong while citing the Buddhist scriptures.
The Law is claiming that a person is a sinner even if one sins just once in their lifetime. Moreover, a human being is inevitably a sinner even if he never commits sin in his lifetime because he is born to this world with sin from his mother’s womb, and therefore he goes to hell. Even so, people generally do not acknowledge that. Then from what age do they acknowledge the sin? They acknowledge the sins committed from about 7 years old and till their death in this world.
Then if a person were to be approved as a righteous person without any sin before God by the deeds of the Law, then he must not commit sin even once from the cradle to the grave. All become nullified if he commits sin just once even by mistake. Sinning just once nullifies everything even if he has been perfect 99.9% of the time. For example, let’s say one Buddhist monk went into a cave and meditated for 40 days to get rid of the filthy desires inside his heart. After 20 days, he sees an illusion of a woman. The woman appears to him naked and tempts him. At first he rebukes the woman to depart from him as he attempts to overcome the temptation, but he later begins to enjoy the woman serving him at his side. Then the 40 days of meditation becomes for naught. A well known Korean Buddhist monk named Sungchul Lee, who was famous for his decades of meditation sitting against the wall, composed a poem just before he died as follows: “I have deceived so many men and women; my sins are greater than the highest mountain. I will fall to the endless pitfall of hell; and my sorrow will be boundless. A slice of red sun is hanging on the ridge of a blue mountain.” He left this as his last Buddhist sermon and died. He was saying, “I am going to hell.”
It is not bad for a human being to try to live a virtuous life. But human beings cannot live a perfectly upright life. We Christians should live a virtuous and upright life. And we need to be led by the Holy Spirit. And we must absolutely remember to live for God. But even if people in the worldly religion suck out the pus from a leper and die in place of a cancer patient, no matter how virtuous a life the person may live, he goes to hell if he does not have the love that has blotted out all our sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus gave us. One goes to hell if he does not have that faith.
Conclusively, the doctrine of justification is an erroneous doctrine. A person who actually still has sin in their hearts even though he says he believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a person who has wrongful faith because he is still a sinner. Sins really disappear when a person actually believes the gospel of the water and the Spirit with his heart, but he still remains a sinner if he just believes in it theoretically. The result is important. Whether you believe or not is important from God’s perspective, but how can there be sin if you really believed in this true gospel?
Therefore, those who believe in the doctrine of justification consequently make God a liar. This means that God could not even blot out my past sins and the sins that I will commit in the future. When Il-sung Kim, North Korea’s President, was alive I preached that Jesus even took Il-sung Kim’s sin when He was baptized. Strictly speaking, God has removed the person’s sin from His side. But Ilsung Kim is a sinner because he has sin for he does not believe that Jesus took over his sin through His baptism and died on the Cross and saved him from all his sin.
If people believe in Jesus through the doctrine of justification, they think that they receive the remission of the past sins but they need to offer prayers of repentance for the sins they will commit in the future to receive the remission of those sins. This is the same as the faith that says, “Jesus, you are a liar.” This is so wrong. Such faith makes Jesus a complete liar, a fraudulent cult leader.
The cultic leaders of this world extort money from people in the name of faith. But our Lord Jesus is not a cult leader. Jesus came to this world to give us new life and blot out all our sins and removed them all at once. Jesus took all the sins of humanity by receiving the baptism and was nailed to the Cross at the age of 33 and spilled all the blood from His heart and resurrected from the dead and really saved us from sin. That’s right. Jesus is not a swindler.
But you are turning Jesus into a swindler if you still believe in the doctrine of justification. If you say “Jesus, please forgive me” even after 10 years have passed since you first believed in Jesus, then it is the same as saying that you want Jesus to die on the Cross again. It is requesting, “I have sinned again and my heart has become filthy again. Please pay the price for this sin again in my stead.” But one must go to the fountain of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and wash himself cleanly with the fountain of God’s Word if he wants to cleanse his feeling or heart. One must cleanse himself with faith. Among the people who believe in Jesus in this world, those who have sin in their hearts are actually degrading God and going against God by making God a liar.
You must not believe in the doctrine of justification. This is one of the fallacious Christian doctrines. Before I was born again, I learned about the so-called doctrines of justification, sanctification, predestination, and other things that didn’t make sense for 10 years. Most Christians including Evangelicals believe these doctrines. Strictly speaking we can see that these people have sin even though they say they do not have sin. The Salvation Sect in Korea says that they have received the remission of sin. But what happens when they sin? They say everything will be okay if they receive due punishments for their sins on this earth. All such faith has originated from people’s erroneous faith that believes in the doctrine of justification. They say, “I have no sin because I believe in Jesus. I believe that God considers me sinless even though I have sin in my conscience. Therefore, I do not have sin.”
But people who have really received the remission of sin do not actually have sin in their conscience. Do you have sin in your conscience? No, I don’t. The Bible says, “He [Christ] might sanctify and cleanse her [the Church] with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26). Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 10:22 also says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
We can find in these passages that the Bible emphasizes the water of Jesus’ baptism as well as His death on the Cross. Christ has saved us from all our sins by receiving the baptism and dying on the Cross. Jesus took all the sins of our conscience. In other words, Jesus took all the sins we commit through our actions, the sins we commit in our thoughts, the sins we commit intentionally, the sins we commit unconsciously, and the sins we commit because we are weak, and so on. Sin is recorded in the tablet of conscience when people commit sin. And they feel the pain in their conscience. The conscience is the detector of the sins. Jesus took all our sins that torment our conscience when He received the baptism and He removed all our sins by dying on the Cross. That’s why God has cleansed our conscience from dead works to make us serve the living God.
We sometimes deceive our conscience. When we are in a critical situation, we ignore the voice of the conscience and say things that are different from what is in our hearts in order to escape the situation. But God said He has cleansed our conscience from dead works. Jesus received the baptism and died on the Cross so that we might receive the remission of all the sins that we commit with our conscience and all the sins we actually commit in our lifetime, if we just believe in His baptism and blood. And even though we sin with our conscience after we have received the remission of sin, we always maintain perfect purity if we just acknowledge our shortcoming in our flesh and always look and believe in the merit of the work that God has fulfilled.
The Lord has blotted out all our sins through the water and the blood. The Lord has filled us with grace if we, who believe in this gospel, remember and ruminate the Lord’s meritorious work that has blotted out all our sins until the day we go before the Lord. Therefore, this is the reason why we have to come to God’s Church and listen to the Word and offer up the worship service even more frequently. Because even the person who believes in the righteousness of God and does not have sin, commits sin in this life and his heart will become filthy again if he cannot listen to the Word that the Holy Spirit is speaking to the Church. Then, even though he does not have sin, his conscience becomes as evil as it can be and becomes a completely useless person in this world, a person who commits more sin in this world. That’s why we need the Church. Even though we have some bad things in our life or some disagreeable things in our conscience, when we come to the Church and listen to the Word and reconfirm our faith and look to the Lord and listen to the Word that the Lord took all our sins by receiving the baptism of the water and the blood, the Holy Spirit says, “That’s right. That’s it,” and the conscience is pleased as our hearts say “Oh, that’s how it is. It is so much better now.” That’s how you and I can live a happy life through faith without being oppressed by sin. And we can share fellowship with God and live with the grace God gives to us.
Do you believe this? It will be terrible for you to draw far away from the Church. Those who stay away from the Church or those who degrade their pastors or the predecessors cannot live the upright spiritual life. As a result, they become very evil.
(Romans 3:27-28) “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
The question is whether the removing of sin is through the work or through the faith—through what gospel do people become sinless? The Apostle Paul says one becomes righteous through the law of faith. What is the law of faith? In the Book of Exodus, God gave and showed Israelites the Law and the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system in concrete terms. Then the Book of Leviticus talks in detail about how people should offer up the sacrifice in order to receive the remission of sin before the presence of God. A sinner had to bring a lamb or a goat without blemish first, lay his hands on the head of the animal, confess his sins, and transfer them to the sacrificial animal. Then, the sinner cut the throat, took the blood and gave it to a priest. The priest then put the blood on the horns of the altar of the burnt offering, poured the rest of the blood on the ground, cut the animal to pieces and burnt it up on the altar of burnt offering before the presence of God. This was a typical sin offering for a sinner to receive the remission of daily sins. Leviticus speaks about the sin offerings in detail. It describes the daily sin offering of a common people, that of a priest, and that for the elders.
For one year’s worth of sin, the High Priest transferred over all the sins the Israelites had committed during the past year unto the head of one of two sacrificial goats by the laying of hands on its head. Then, he cut its throat, drew the blood and put the blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. And he went into the Holy Place and put the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense in the Holy Place and sprinkled the blood seven times on the Ark. Then he cut the sacrificial animal to pieces and burned it up before the presence of God.
The High Priest then brought the live goat before the Israelites. He laid his hands on the head of the live goat, confessed over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man (Leviticus 16:20-21). God established such sacrificial systems in the Old Testament for the remission of one year’s worth of sins of the Israelites.
According to this revelation of the Old Testament, Jesus came to this world as the sacrificial Lamb and received the baptism in the form of laying on of hands and shed blood on the Cross and resurrected from the dead for the remission of our sins. Therefore, we receive the remission of sin by believing this. Then, is the remission of sin attained by the deeds of the Law? No, we receive the remission of sin by the law of faith.
Here, the law of faith means that we can attain the righteousness of God by believing in the works Jesus Christ has done for us: God established the sacrificial system in the Old Testament as the promise of His salvation; to fulfill this promise, Jesus came to this world and took all the sins upon Him by receiving the baptism and dying on the Cross to pay for the price for all of our sins and resurrected from the death. We receive the remission of sin by believing in Jesus. That’s why the righteousness of God cannot be attained by the deeds of the Law. That’s why we cannot be boastful of the righteousness we have attained. The Bible concludes that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law--we become righteous by believing that God has blotted out all our sins with His Son’s ministry promised in the sacrificial system.
(Romans 3:29-30) “Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
Is there any difference in the way God brings about the remission of sin for the Israelites and the Gentiles? No, there isn’t. God is not only the God of the Israelites but also the God of the Gentiles. It is saying that He is the same God, and the law and the faith to receive the remission of sin are also same. The Triune God planned to blot out all the sins of humanity through Jesus and fulfilled all this through the water and the blood in order to make all the people receive the remission of sin through faith. God saved both the Israelites and the Gentiles with this same method.
(Romans 3:31) “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
Can we make void the Law just because we have received the salvation through the law of faith? No, we cannot. It says that we establish the Law even more firmly because the Law includes not only the 613 commandments that includes the Ten Commandments, but also all the Word that God has spoken to humanity constitutes the Law. Therefore, the Law essentially cannot be made void. Rather, the Law is established even more firmly through faith. Through faith we establish the Law even more firmly because we come to know God’s commandments through the Law, we come to know the sin through the Law, and we receive the remission of sin by believing that the Lord has saved us according to the sacrificial system that is established in the Law.
We have received the remission of sin, but we can understand and acknowledge what is right and wrong in our deeds and turn from wrong, thanks to the Law. The Law is the criteria for our proper deeds, so we establish the Law even more firmly because we know the criteria of the Law. The Law is God’s commands that tell us about sin, and our faith becomes even more constant because the Law makes us even more grateful to God whenever we admit what rotten beings we are. We establish the Law even more firmly because our Lord saved us through the water and the blood. We acknowledge God even more whenever we stand before the Law.
This faith is not the faith that has come from the doctrine of justification. We actually receive the remission of sin by believing in the Truth. Those who believe in the doctrine of justification say that God just removed original sin from us when we first believed in Jesus; that He removes our personal sins whenever we offer prayers of repentance; and that He saves us by leading us to gradual sanctification. But this is never the case. For our salvation, Jesus came to this world, received the baptism, died on the Cross, and removed all our sins to save us. We became righteous by believing this. Although many people believe in the doctrine of justification, the Lord gave us the actual and perfect justification through the remission of sin that is not of the doctrine of justification. We give thanks to God.
God Had Passed over the Sins That Were Previously Committed
(Romans 3:25) “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed”
The righteousness of God is the Truth of the salvation that was fulfilled by the baptism Jesus Christ received and the blood of the Cross in this world. Here, the Word “by His blood” in Romans 3:25 is speaking about the Truth that Jesus Christ was able to shed blood on the Cross because He had received the baptism at the age of 30, which fulfilled all righteousness of God. Jesus Christ was able to become the propitiation that brought reconciliation between God and all the sinners because He took the sins of the world through His baptism. Therefore Jesus could become our Lord who has blotted out the sins of all those who believe by fulfilling the righteousness of God.
What does the Word “God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” mean? This is spoken from God’s standpoint. God said this because the sins people who believe in the righteousness of God are committing, now are the sins that were removed a long time ago when viewed with God’s eyes. When Jesus looks at the sins of those who believe in the righteousness of God, they are the sins of the world that He removed a long time ago through the baptism and the blood of the Cross. Therefore God is saying that the sins they commit now do not matter any more and He doesn’t care about them either. This blessing comes from the abundance of the righteousness of God.
Therefore, “to pass over the sins that were previously committed” means that God has remitted all the sins of humanity about 2000 years ago through the righteousness of God. That’s why we should view all the sins we commit now as the sins that were passed over by God. To pass over means the sins of the world are not sins worthy of God’s wrath because the price for the sins has already been paid. This Truth was fulfilled in the righteousness of God, and we have become the righteous by believing in this righteousness of God.
(Romans 3:26) “To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
God manifests His righteousness beyond the dimension of time and space to the people who believe in Jesus and the people who do not believe in Him. God saved us through the righteousness of God to show how great His righteousness is, and God wants to make people who believe in the righteousness of God sinless through Jesus Christ even today in the year 2000, passing over time and space.
From Jesus’ point of view, the sins of the world do not matter any more because He has already paid for them a long time ago through the righteousness of God that He has fulfilled through the baptism He received and the blood He shed on the Cross. But Jesus takes big issue with those who do not believe in the righteousness of God. That’s why we must understand correctly the sin that Jesus Christ makes a serious issue of, and therefore we must be careful not to commit that sin.
Jesus Christ takes the unbelief of those unbelievers, who do not believe the righteousness of God with thankful hearts and do not even try to understand, more seriously than the sins humans are committing. More than any other sin the biggest sin before the presence of God is the sin of not believing the righteousness of God that has blotted out all the sins of this world. God considers those who believe in Jesus sinless, because the gospel of the water and the Spirit has manifested the righteousness of God thoroughly and God made them sinless to His satisfaction through His righteousness. This is through the righteousness of God, not through the doctrine of the justification.
“To demonstrate at the present time His righteousness” means that Jesus came to this world and demonstrated His righteousness through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross. God sent His only begotten Son and made Him receive the baptism from John the Baptist and had Him nailed to the Cross and demonstrated the righteousness of God to humanity. And to those who believe this, He gave them the salvation from all their sin all at once. That’s how we became righteous by believing the righteousness of God with our hearts.
Those who believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus, through which God has removed all the sins, do not have sin. We don’t have sin because we believe the righteousness of God. Therefore we have received the salvation from all the sins we commit in our lifetime. That’s why God is saying that He has passed over the sins we committed in the past, the sins we commit now, and the sins we will commit in the future.
(Romans 3:27) “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.”
And it goes on to say, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law” (Romans 3:28-31).
We believe all this Word because all the recorded Word is God’s Word. “We establish the law” (verse 31) means that we cannot make ourselves exempt from the judgment of sin when it comes to our deeds of the Law. In other words, we are weak people who cannot help but go to hell if God judged us according to God’s Law. But the righteousness of God has saved us from all our sins and made us His perfect people. This means that we became perfect because we were saved from all the sins by believing the righteousness of God. Our deeds are still lacking even after receiving the remission of sin by believing in the righteousness of God. But the Lord saved us perfectly.
We receive salvation from all sins by believing in the righteousness of God. Then there could be nothing for us to boast about, and we can only boast with faith about the meritorious acts of Jesus that fulfilled the righteousness of God. We cannot receive the righteousness of God by the deeds of the Law and we can only attain it by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Scriptures say, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” God asks all of us for the faith of believing the righteousness of God, not the works.
You must keep this Truth in your hearts. If you belong to those who don’t even try to understand the righteousness of God and perceive the righteousness of God as the like of the doctrine of justification, then you should come out of them and meet the Church that is united with Christ by believing in the righteousness of God. Then the peace like a river will fill your heart greatly through the righteousness of God.
The doctrine of justification is the doctrine the legalists believe. Now you are no longer a legalist but a saint of God if you understood and believed in the righteousness of God. Those who believe in God must understand the righteousness of God and know that there is a law of salvation that enables us to attain the righteousness of God. “By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” We receive salvation by believing in the righteousness of God not through the works.
The Scriptures say, “Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not!” Those who believe in the righteousness of God are established but the people who don’t believe shall stumble. People who do not believe in the righteousness of God cannot live in peace. Such people will receive God’s judgment according to the Law because they do not accept God’s Word.
Now we must have the faith of believing in the righteousness of God in the Word. Regardless of how extraordinarily powerful the salvation fulfilled by Jesus Christ is, the salvation by Jesus Christ becomes useless to you if you do not make it yours personally. The only way to make God’s work yours personally is for you to believe it. That is why the Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6), and that is also the reason Apostle Paul often told about the faith through the Book of Romans. For example, Paul said in Romans 3:22, “Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.” He also said in verse 25, “Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith.” Again he said, “We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (verse 28).
Faith is not good deeds. The salvation attained by faith manifests the righteousness of God. Through the righteousness of God, He removed the burden of sin from us. God saved us from all sins through our belief in the baptism and the blood of Jesus Christ.
(Romans 3:28) “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
The righteousness of God brings the remission of sin to those who believe in it. Man is not called “righteous” (sinless) by keeping the Law or offering prayers of repentance and advocating the doctrine of sanctification. But it is possible by believing in the remission of sin for humanity that was fulfilled through the righteousness of God.
Most Christians today regard the righteousness of God like the doctrine of justification, which was fabricated by theologians arbitrarily. But we must clearly understand that the righteousness of God and the doctrine of justification are clearly different. The righteousness of God is made through the baptism and blood of Jesus, but the doctrine of justification came out of the brain of a person with the IQ of about 120 to 140 at the most. This is a doctrine made by theologians as they saw that they could not but continually sin while living in this world and tried to comprehend the righteousness of God with their brains, and they concluded in their thoughts, “God calls a person with sin ‘the saint without sin’ if the person just believes in Jesus.” Anyone can make such a doctrine. But I want to bring to light that the righteousness of God is not a doctrine made by humans.
(Romans 3:29) “Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,”
It is saying that the gospel of the righteousness of God gives all people who believe in this salvation from sin. The gospel of the righteousness of God does not have effect only on a particular race or nation, but it applies to all the people in the world who believe in this. God is the God of Jews and the God of Gentiles as well. That’s because all the people are created by God and all their sins have already been cleansed through the righteousness of God that God has given to all humanity. All those who believe in the righteousness of God have received the blessing of becoming a person without sin. God is the God of those who believe in His righteousness.
(Romans 3:30) “Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
The righteousness of God that the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham, and all the other people attain through faith is the same for all. God cares for the people who believe in the righteousness of God even now because God is the God of righteousness. God calls those who have the faith of believing in the righteousness of God sinless, but He does not consider those who have sin because they do not believe in His righteousness sinless just because they believe in Jesus. We must remember that God does not acknowledge such faith. And you must give thanks to God for becoming a sinless person by believing in the righteousness of God. I want the blessing of the righteousness of God to be with you forever.
God Establishes the Law Firmly
(Romans 3:31) “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
How do those who have become sinless by believing in the righteousness of God understand God’s Law? Do they make void the Law? No. Instead, those who believe in the righteousness of God are more perceptive about sin through God’s Law. We are more thankful because the Word of the Law that God has given us teaches us how important the righteousness of God is.
Maybe there are some people who have become righteous by believing in the righteousness of God but are worried that they may become the kind of people that commit sin at will because they are not under the Law. You certainly don’t have to worry about that because you have now become the righteous people who walk by the Law by believing in the law of salvation of love even though you had been oppressed by the Law in the past. There are some who are worried what would happen if they do something wrong after believing in the righteousness of God.
But your original nature is so weak like that. That’s why God saved you from all your sins through His righteousness. Therefore, I hope you take a look at your true self and become one who shares the love of the righteousness of God to all humanity even more with thankfulness to God, who has given us the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Then you will also become a servant of the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of God illuminates even more brightly through God’s Law. They complement one another. God saved us with His righteousness but He did not make void the Law itself. God’s Law is eternal and perfect because God planned it and made it.
We have attained the righteousness of God by believing in Jesus as our Savior who has fulfilled the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can see that the functions of the gospel of the water and the Spirit are:
(1) Remove the boasting of the righteousness of man (Romans 3:27-28),
(2) Present one and only one path of salvation to all the people (Romans 3:29-30),
(3) Contrary to the claim made by some people, the gospel does not make void God’s Law. Instead, it makes the Law perfect (Romans 3: 31).
Paul spoke of the salvation from sin by believing the righteousness of God apart from the Law. However, the Apostle Paul said that the righteousness of God does not turn the Law into nothing and that the Law instead makes the righteousness of God even more constant. This is because the Law manifests the righteousness of God.
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