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Subject 21 : The Gospel According to MARK
[Chapter 8-2] The Faith That Enables You to Be Born Again (Mark 8:22-26)
(Mark 8:22-26)
“Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, ‘I see men like trees, walking.’ Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Then He sent him away to his house, saying, ‘Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.’”
In many parts in both the New and Old Testaments, God explains to us what it means to be truly born again. The passage from Mark 8:22-26 which I will share with you today can also be described as one of such passages. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). This means that those who believe only with their lips cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who truly know the will of God and act according to this will of God.
What then is the will of God mentioned here? The will of God is for every sinner to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and to thus be saved from their sin. The Lord said that the only way for all human beings to be born again from sin is to open up their spiritual eyes by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. For us as those who believe in Jesus as our Savior, to be born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is an extremely important issue that cannot be glossed over. This may in fact be described as an indispensable task that God has given you and me alike.
As God the Father sent His Son Jesus to this earth, our Lord was baptized shed His blood on the Cross, and rose up from the dead. In doing this God has blessed whoever believes in this Jesus who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit as his Savior to be born again and attain all the blessings of Heaven. In John chapter 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus who visited him in the night, “No one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless he is born again of water and the Spirit.” Therefore, if there are any people among you who still have sin in their hearts, all such people must also be born again by believing in Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit and then live their lives of faith properly.
I am sure that you are all familiar with summer visitors called cicadas. These cicadas spend a long time underground as nymphs. Although they vary depending on the species, in general, cicadas live underground for 6-7 years as nymphs, and in some cases, up to 17 long years. Regardless of the particular species, all cicadas are no more than small underground nymphs before they turn into adult cicadas. Also called larvae, these nymphs spend a long time in the dark underground without any light, but when they surface and emerge, they are changed into beautiful cicadas. It’s a truly marvelous and amazing mystery that these underground nymphs are transformed into beautiful cicadas. God has allowed such a mysterious phenomenon to occur in nature so that all sinners would be able to realize the mystery of how the gospel of the water and the Spirit works to make them righteous.
Just as the underground nymphs are transformed into adult cicadas that look completely different, all of us living on this earth should also be born again as God’s children by believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, which is on a completely different dimension from all other religious teachings. Until now, we have all lived as nymphs. Just as the cicada nymphs live in the dark underground without any form of light, likewise, everyone in this world is living imprisoned in the darkness of sin. David, a man of faith in the Bible confessed in Psalms 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” All those born in this world were “brought forth in iniquity” and “conceived in sin” just like David. Because Adam and Eve, our common ancestors, sinned against God, and from then on everyone was born with sin. You and I were clearly sinners born in the darkness of sin and could not help but commit sin from our birth to our deaths.
Where then would our final destination have been as sinners? God said that anyone with any sin can never enter His Kingdom. He has made it impossible for anyone with even the smallest sin to enter the Kingdom of God. The only destination for all who have even a little bit of sin is the fiery hell. That’s because God has clearly established it as an unmovable law for anyone whose heart has even the slightest sin to be punished for this sin.
Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, “Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny” (Matthew 5:26). This means that whoever has any sin at all cannot avoid going to hell. It is also written in Romans, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). This passage means that anyone with sin must face the eternal punishment of hell. It is God’s just judgment for whoever is sinful to be cast into hell for his sins. Does this then mean that you and I are all inexorably bound to hell, as we were all born as nothing more than piles of sin? No, that is not necessarily the case. As the Lord is full of love, He has completed our salvation with the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that we the sinners would be able to be saved from all our sins. This salvation is reached by believing in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that is also how everyone can receive the remission of their sins and be born again.
Everyone whose heart is sinful is just like a cicada nymph before it undergoes metamorphosis. Just as this nymph lives in the perpetual dark underground, everyone who is living in his sins still has not been born again. For those whose hearts still remain sinful even as they profess to believe in Jesus as their Savior, this in itself is the clear evidence of the fact that they still have not been born again. In contrast, those of us who have been saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have now been born again as God’s perfect children, just as a nymph is transformed into a cicada. Today, through the Word of God, the Lord is teaching us that everyone must be born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
My fellow believers, can anyone who is blind open his eyes on his own? The Bible says that this is absolutely impossible. Just as no blind person can open his eyes on his own, no one who has sin in his heart can ever blot out his sins on his own. For you and me to blot out all our hearts’ sins, we must also find Jesus Christ who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This means that we can receive the true remission of sins only if we meet Jesus our Savior and are born again by believing in Him.
I arrived at Moscow yesterday with my fellow pastors. The trip was long but not boring, as I was full of anticipation to meet you. Today, to all my fellow believers living in Russia, I would like to preach the Truth of being born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Have you still not received the true remission of sins even though you have believed in Jesus as your Savior? Are these sins still remaining in your heart? If so, I am sure that God will wash away all these sins of yours at this hour, while you are listening to the Word of God. I believe that just as the blind man in today’s Scripture passage opened his eyes on the day he met Jesus, if only you would completely accept into your heart the Word of Jesus who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, your sins will also be cleansed away at this very moment. The living Word of God has the power to wash away all your sins and make you be born again. God is the God of the Word. I admonish you all to believe that God speaks the Truth to us, and He fulfills all His promises through this Word of Truth.
When we turn to the beginning of Hebrews chapter 1, we see that it’s written, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1-3). In the Gospel of John we read the following, “The Word of God is God Himself, the Word became flesh, and this God Incarnate is Jesus Christ.” The very first thing that you must believe as the Lord’s faithful believers is that the Word of God is the Truth. The Bible says in Hebrews, “With the power of His Word, God made the heavens and the earth and He reigns over all its hosts.” This means that the very fact that we are breathing today is also thanks to the power of the Word of God.
My fellow believers, what else does this living and powerful Word of God say to us? Let’s all turn to Hebrews 1:3. It’s written clearly, “He had by Himself purged our sins.” God has indeed saved you and me from all our sins. Believe in this Word. Then on account of this faith, the Lord will be with you, He will also teach you the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and He will thereby bless your soul to be born again.
To Be Born Again, You Must First Break Out of Your Own Little World Built with Your Own Experiences
My fellow believers, for you to be born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you must first break out of the little world that you have built based on with your own experiences. In other words, you must set yourself free from the confines of your own experiences in order to accept the true Word of God without any obstruction. Everyone in this world lives his own little bubble, formed by his own experiences. You are also all living in your own little world. In this world formed by one’s own experiences, everyone knows it so well that he can go anywhere easily even with his eyes closed. You know where everything is located. Even a blind person can live in his own little world without too much discomfort.
While living in this world, we have all come to accept various Christian doctrines and religious experiences into our hearts. Formed out of this is our own little world of faith built with our own experiences. Most people are used to this world of fake faith that they have known, and they are living quite comfortably in it, oblivious to the fact that they are sinners who have neither received the remission of sins nor been born again yet.
However, my fellow believers, if you really want your soul to be born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then it is absolutely necessary for you to break out of your own little world. That’s because you can never open your eyes to the Truth as long as you remain inside your own comfortable bubble that you are used to for so long. So long as you remain in this little world of your own experiences, you can’t help but continue to live according to your own prejudices and interests. This is far removed from the life that follows God completely. Living in the bubble of your own experiences is completely different from living according to the Word of God.
Here let us turn to the Book of Genesis for a short while. As you yourself know very well, Satan misled Adam, the first man into eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Devil thereby made Adam discern good and evil based on his own standard. Satan deceived Adam with his lies and taught him to judge good and evil on his own so that he would be unable to believe in the true Word of God exactly as it is, and ultimately depart from God. Having thus eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, from then on Adam and Eve came to have their own standard of good and evil, one that was completely different from God’s standard. Before their fall, their thoughts had been exactly congruent with the Word of God, but now each and every thought they had turned completely opposite to the Word of God. And this difference between man’s thoughts and the Word of God continues to apply to everyone living in this world as a descendant of Adam today.
My fellow believers, if there is sin in your heart, and if you are living in opposition to the Word of God far from realizing the true standard of good and evil, then you must right now renounce your own little world of experiences. The very first thing that our Lord did to open the eyes of the blind man was to lead him out of his own little town of experiences. All the beliefs that you have held while confined in your own little bubble, such as fallacious Christian doctrines that are focused only on the blood of the Cross, are wrong beliefs. If you want to find the real Truth of the Lord and believe in His Word exactly as it is, you must first be freed from these mistaken beliefs.
The Book of Second Kings chapter 5 gives the account of General Naaman. Naaman was the commander of the powerful Syrian army, but he was a leper. He had failed to cure his leprosy despite trying out every means, and in the end, he had to come before Elisha the servant of God. General Naaman expected that Elisha would lay his hands on him and pray for him. However, Elisha just sent his servant to him and relayed the Word of God, saying to him, “Go to the Jordan River and dip yourself in the water seven times. Your flesh will then be cleansed like a baby.”
General Naaman could not understand any of this. That’s because the message he got from Elisha made no sense in his own little world that he had known. As Naaman had not yet broken out of his own world of experience, he got angry and said, “In my own country of Syria there are far greater and cleaner rivers than this Jordan River. Wouldn’t it be better for me to bathe in one of these rivers in my own country than in the muddy waters of the Jordan River?” He got so angry and felt so insulted that he even thought about returning with his army to invade Israel and lay its land to waste.
This General Naaman speaks volumes about all of us living in the present. Just as he preferred big and clean rivers in his own country of Syria over the dirty and muddy waters of the Jordan River, we also think that we would be born again if we attend a church that has a long history and many members. This, however, is a mistaken thought that still confined to our own little town of experiences. No worldly church can make anyone be born again no matter how big and palatial it may be. The blessing of being born again can be obtained only in a place that preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit according to the Word of God. In other words, only if you are washed from all your sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can you then be cured perfectly from your spiritual leprosy and your body healed to be like that of a little child.
Aroused to anger by Elisha’s message telling him to bathe in the Jordan River, General Naaman could not hold down his wrath, and as mentioned, he thought about invading Israel in retaliation. However, one of his servants approached him and said to him, “General, if Elisha had told you to do something far more difficult, would you not have done it? If this is so, why wouldn’t you then just believe in the Word of God, since this is all that you have to do?” Hearing this, General Naaman changed his mind and believed in this Word, and he went to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times. That Naaman dipped his body in the water seven times does not imply any human effort or act on his own part. It just means that he believed in the Word. Put differently, Naaman had broken out of his own little world of experience and accepted the Word of God exactly as it was.
What happened to his leprosy? If you are curious, look it up in 2 Kings 5:14: “So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” It was only a predictable outcome that his leprous skin would be completely healed like that of a little child.
Spiritually speaking, the leprosy mentioned in the Bible can be interpreted as the disease of sin that everyone has. Just as General Naaman was healed from his leprosy by believing in the Word of God exactly as it was, it is when we believe in the Word of God exactly as it is that we can also be washed from all our filthy sins. Yet despite this, countless people who have not left the town of their own experiences think that their sins can be blotted out by volunteering their services to some good cause, practicing asceticism, or exercising self-discipline.
This, however, is a mistaken notion. God said in Jeremiah, “For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, Yet your iniquity is marked before me” (Jeremiah 2:22).
This means your sins are washed away clean only when you believe in the gospel Word of the remission of sins, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Like this, our Lord is making it clear here that all the sins in your heart are blotted out only when you break out of your own little town of experiences and completely accept the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
By any chance, is there anyone here who thinks that he can enter Heaven just by offering prayers of repentance diligently and being sanctified? Do you think that you can enter Heaven if you just live virtuously and keep the Law of God zealously? Are you still unsure about the authenticity of the gospel of the water and the Spirit which Jesus has given to you? If so, then this is the very indicator showing that you have not yet broken out of the little town of your own experiences. If there is anyone who thinks like this, now is the time to put away such thoughts of one’s own experiences. You must break out of this little town of yours. All this time you have believed in the Lord zealously while living in this little town of your experiences, but how is your condition now? Your heart’s sins have not disappeared but continue to remain there. Now is the hour for you to escape from the mistaken beliefs you have held, for you can never enter the Kingdom of God by this faith of your own experience.
There is only one way for everyone to escape from his sins, and it is by encountering the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord and believing in this gospel with the heart. General Naaman was completely healed from his leprosy once and for all because he had met Elisha the servant of the Lord, heard the Word of God from him, and believed in this Word exactly as it was. Likewise, today, if you also believe with your heart in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the true Word of God, then at this very moment you can receive the complete remission of all your sins and be born again.
That is why you must first put away all the beliefs and thoughts that you have had until now. You must completely break out of the little town of your own experiences, listen to God’s Word, and hold onto this Word of God by faith. God made it clear that anyone with sin can never enter His Kingdom. And the only way to blot out all your sins, if I may reiterate it one more time, is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit which the Lord has given you and thus being born again.
Spiritually Speaking the Many Blind People Appearing in the Bible Refer to Sinners
Hence, that the blind man in today’s Scripture passage opened his eyes from meeting the Lord means that a sinner was remitted from all his sins by encountering Jesus. In other words, it means that through the Lord, a man who was living in sins and transgressions had become a righteous child of God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that brought life to his soul. Like this, the Lord teaches us through His Word that the only way for everyone to be washed from his sins is by having faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Everyone must be washed from his heart’s sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit without fail. Although we were born as filthy sinners when our mothers gave birth to us, if we believe in God’s gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of our spiritual Father, we will obtain the washing of sins and be born again as spotlessly clean righteous people.
For the blind man to open his eyes—that is, for a sinner to be born again—two things were necessary. As we read the Bible, we can find a similar account in John 9:1-7. In this case, the Lord spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the blind man’s eyes with this clay. These two things had to be done before the blind man could open his eyes. This is quite strange. After all, Jesus could have opened the blind man’s eyes with a better and neater method. Why does the Bible then say that He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva? Why did the Lord do this?
My fellow believers, there is nothing written in the Bible that is superfluous. God said clearly that not even one jot or one tittle can ever be changed from His Word until the heavens and the earth pass away. Like this, each and every Word of God contains a profound truth, and such truths can clearly be found in today’s account as well.
The spit here means judgment and curse. Think about when we swear at someone. We spit at his filthy soul and curse him. In John chapter 9, that the Lord spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva and then anointed the blind man’s eyes with the clay means that He is making it known to us that none other than we deserve to be cursed and judged. My fellow believers, all of us must realize without fail the fact that we ourselves cannot help but be condemned for our sins. We must clearly admit before the Word of God that we are destined to hell for our sins. In other words, we must recognize before God that we were sinful from the moment we were born, and therefore we must be destroyed. You and I alike must make this admission in our hearts, for anyone who does not admit that he is destined to hell cannot receive the remission of sins from Jesus.
When Jesus was on this earth, the Pharisees at that time did not believe that they were destined to hell for their sins. Even as they had met Jesus in person, they were still unable to be born again, and this was all because they had failed to realize their true selves. In contrast, those whose souls were born again from meeting Jesus had clearly recognized that they were sinners bound to hell for their iniquities, and they had believed in Jesus as their Savior. The Lord said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:17). This means that the Lord looks for and heals only those who admit that they are sinners.
My fellow believers, are you bound to hell for your sins? I admonish you all to admit this to God. Our Lord will then come looking for each and every one of you who admits to himself that he is a depraved sinner. Is there anyone among you who admits frankly that he is bound to hell? Raise your hand if you admit this. Hallelujah! God is truly pleased by all those who raised their hands. Even for those who have not raised their hands, I am sure that many of them have also admitted in their hearts that they are grave sinners. They probably are too self-conscious to raise their hands. However, everyone who has sin in his heart—that is, all sinners—must raise his hand before God and admit that he is a sinner. It is only to such people that God gives the Word of power that blots out all their sins and enables them to be born again. It is complete nonsense to say that one can go to Heaven even if he is sinful, or that one can avoid hell even if he is not born again. Those who hold this notion have not broken out of their old world yet.
God said to His beloved Abraham, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house” (Genesis 12:1). Abraham then left his country, his family and his father’s house—that is, he left his own town of experience—and followed God only by His Word, and for this he was ultimately blessed by God in abundance.
I am sure that you and I must also be like this Abraham. God’s blessings are bestowed on those who escape from their mistaken beliefs and admit before the Word of God, “Lord, I am indeed sinful. I cannot help but be cast into hell.” Jesus said clearly, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Like this passage, those who admit to God that they are sinful and consequently destined to hell are poor in spirit, and their hearts are sincere which can lead them to Heaven.
Do you grasp this? If you do, then honestly admit to God that your heart is sinful. It is to make us realize this that our Lord spat on the eyes of the blind man. By spitting on the blind man’s eyes, Jesus was saying to none other than us, “You are all destined to hell, for you all have sin in your hearts.”
What did Jesus do next? He put his hands on the blind man and touched his eyes. Then the blind man’s sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. One’s eye is said to be the window to his heart. The Lord also spoke of the importance of the eye, saying, “The lamp of the body is the eye” (Matthew 6:22). That the Lord put His hands on the blind man’s eyes, the lamp to his heart, means that the Lord took away all the sins that were in his heart.
That Jesus put His hands on the eyes of the blind man holds an extremely important spiritual meaning to us. In the age of the Old Testament, God established the sacrificial system for His people as the means by which they could wash away their sins and obtain the remission of sins. This sacrifice, however, could not be a perfect sacrifice until the arrival of Jesus Christ on this earth. That’s because no matter how diligently one offered such sacrifices to God, his sins were not completely blotted out from his heart. Think about it. Your heart’s sins do not disappear no matter how fervently you may believe in Jesus and how diligently you may offer prayers of repentance. Although many pastors teach their congregations that this is possible, in reality, no sin whatsoever is ever blotted out through your own prayers of repentance. There is no record anywhere in the Word of God teaching that your sins are washed away through your prayers of repentance.
God only says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). In other words, the baptism by water that Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross as a consequence of this baptism is the only means by which you can eradicate all your sins and your condemnation.
As such, because God had compassion for us who were doomed to be condemned and cast into hell for our sins, He gave us a fail safe way to eradicate all our sins and be remitted from them. He taught us the method of the laying on of hands, whereby sinners could pass their sins onto an unblemished lamb by putting their hands on its head. When we turn to the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament, we can see many passages recording how one’s sins were passed onto a lamb by laying his hands on it.
You Must Pass Your Sins onto Jesus by Faith
In the Old Testament’s ritual of sin offering, which was performed by the Israelites who were to be forgiven from their sins, the first requirement was an unblemished lamb. Of course, other sacrificial animals such as bulls, cows, and goats were also used, but today, I will use the lamb here as the representative sacrificial animal. In those days, to be washed from his sins, a sinner passed them onto the lamb by laying his hands on its head. Spiritually speaking, this laying on of hands means the passing of sins. As God loved the people of Israel, He gave them the law of the remission of sins by which they could pass their hearts’ sins onto a sacrificial lamb by laying their hands onto its head. And He had permitted this sacrificial lamb to be condemned for the Israelites’ sins in their place.
What I would like to emphasize here at this hour is the fact that in the age of the Old Testament, the Israelites passed their sins onto a sacrificial animal by laying their hands onto its head. To verify this, let’s look up just one more passage in the Old Testament. Evangelist Bae Lydia from our Church in Russia will read two verses from Leviticus 16:20-21: “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess 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 shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.” Amen.
As you can see in this passage, all the sins of the people of Israel were passed onto the scapegoat when the High Priest laid his hands onto its head. Like this, the laying on of hands means the passing of sins. God had washed away all the sins of the people of Israel by making them pass their sins onto a sacrificial animal through the laying on of their hands.
Let’s now return to the New Testament and look up the related Word there. In Hebrews 10:10, the Lord said, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” From this passage we can realize that Jesus Christ became our own Lamb of sacrifice, just like the scapegoat that had taken upon the Israelite’s sins on the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament. Jesus is the Lamb of God who had come to this earth to bear all the sins of everyone in this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist; and to wash away all the sins of every sinner, He shed His blood and died on the Cross. Jesus is the Son of God who had come to this earth about 2,000 years ago. It was to accept all your sins and mine through His baptism that this glorious Jesus had come to this lowly earth incarnated in the flesh of man.
When Jesus came to this earth, He was baptized by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:13-15). Because John the Baptist was a descendant of Aaron the High Priest, he was eligible to become the representative of mankind, and as he put his hands on the head of Jesus Christ on behalf of all mankind, all the sins of the human race were passed onto Jesus. In the Old Testament, Aaron the Highest Priest was able to pass the yearly sins of the people of Israel onto the scapegoat on their behalf as their representative. Likewise, John the Baptist, a descendant of this Aaron, was also qualified to pass all the sins of mankind onto Jesus as the High Priest of this earth.
Referring to John the Baptist, the Lord said the he was the greatest of all those born of women (Matthew 11:11). John the Baptist is the representative of all mankind, including you and me. It’s because John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River that all the sins of mankind were passed onto Jesus. Spiritually speaking, baptism has the same meaning as the laying on of hands. Put differently, Jesus was baptized in the form of the laying on of hands.
If John the Baptist, the representative of every man and woman, laid his hands on the head of Jesus, doesn’t this then mean that all the sins of everyone in this world were passed onto Jesus? Of course they were! I know that there are some people who just can’t believe in this Truth. Others may also say that all this is simply beyond their understanding. However, their unbelief stems from the fact that they still have not escaped from their own thoughts which is shaped by their own experiences. If you set yourself free from everything you had believed in thus far, and instead believe in the Word of God alone exactly as it is, then all these things will be engraved in your heart as the clear and unambiguous Truth.
God said in Matthew 3:15 that Jesus “thus” accepted all the sins of this world by this method—that is, by being baptized by John the Baptist. Through this baptism, all the sins of this world were passed onto the body of Jesus once and for all, transcending time and space. None other than this is the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that constitutes the Truth of life. God the Father has washed away all our sins once and for all with the mystery of the laying on of hands and the baptism of Jesus. Therefore, if we really believe in the Lord, then it is only our natural duty to learn about the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and live by placing all our faith in this gospel.
The Lord said,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
As we have now received the remission of sins and become as white as snow by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must never return to our own little world of past experience. At each and every passing moment, until the day we take our last breath, we must all trust in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has washed away our sins and enabled us to be born again. And by this faith we must follow the Lord.
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission