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Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 1-7] Jesus Took Away The Sins of the World (John 1:29)
(John 1:29)
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Man Is a Brood of Evildoers
Jesus said in Matthew 15:19-20, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” The Lord also said in Matthew 15:8-9, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” In Matthew 15:3, He said, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” These passages mean that many people are worshiping God in vain, for they honor God only with their lips and teach the commandments of men as doctrines. The commandments of men set the Word of God aside, and so it also means that even though these people claim to believe in God with their words, they don’t actually obey the Word of God.
Most people think that they are good, decent human beings. They think that they were born as good human beings and that they commit sin only because of bad circumstances, but this is all nothing more than their own delusion. It saddens me deeply that so many people do not realize just how evil they are, how by nature they were born as a brood of evildoers. Although the Bible teaches us that we should honor our parents, we are not capable of practicing it fully. In other words, people practice the Word of God only with their lips, not with their acts.
Everyone is supposed to honor their parents and take care of them in their old age. However, many people don’t really want to provide for their parents, and so they come up with all kinds of excuses to justify their greed, claiming, “I am sorry for not giving you your necessities, father. I offered my possessions to God.” The Word of God teaches us how people invoke the name of God to satisfy their own greed.
When Jesus’ disciples ate food without washing their hands, some of the Jews criticized them along with Jesus, saying, “You are so filthy! How can you eat without even washing your hands?” Jesus then said to them, “It is not what enters the mouth that defiles a man, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man.” Jesus thus rebuked those who were criticizing His disciples and taught them about human nature.
We Are Born with Evil Thoughts and Wicked Desires Inherited from Our Parents
Matthew 15:19-20 says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” In other words, God is saying that the twelve sins proceeding from the human heart are more wicked than any filthy things of the world. Jesus says that human beings themselves are evildoers.
The Bible says to us, “You have such sins in your heart. You have such evil desires.” Before we know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must first realize that we are such people and admit this to God. However, everyone’s habit is to not admit his wickedness and sins until they are exposed obviously. So people try to justify themselves, mistakenly thinking, “I never had such an evil desire. It’s just that I thought wrong for a minute and made a mistake.” However, God says that what proceeds out of everyone’s heart is evil, and that man’s thoughts, plans, and everything are always wicked (Genesis 6:5).
Several years ago, a big shopping mall in Seoul collapsed all of a sudden. The families of the missing couldn’t leave the scene, all worried and grieved. But the many others that gathered at the scene were no more than spectators. Some of them even thought, “I wonder how many people died. About 200? No, it’s got to be more than that. Around 300 then? Maybe even over 1,000? That seems more likely.”
How about a car crash? When we happen to observe a car crash on the street, most of us feel some disappointment if the crash results only in light damages. As people’s hearts are evil, when there is an accident, they would rather see a lot of dead people than just a slightly wounded person. Of course, this is all under the precondition that no one they care about is involved in the accident.
We must realize just how evil everyone’s mind is. And we must admit that we ourselves also have evil thoughts along with everyone else. Even though the victims’ lives were cut short and their families suffered in untold grief, there might have been some among the spectators who even thought, “I wish more people had died! It would be great if a similar accident happened in a baseball stadium! It would be so spectacular if a packed baseball stadium collapsed and thousands and tens of thousands people were crushed to death!” Of course, people think like this on the premise that they themselves are not included among the victims. Like this, the thoughts and hearts of human beings are always evil. That’s why God spoke about just how wicked man’s thoughts are. When there is a devastating disaster, people who are unaffected by it say with their words that they are sorry, but inside they think, “I wonder how many died. Maybe even 30,000? I wish there would be more dead.” That’s why the Bible defines human beings as a brood of evildoers. Everyone is like this until he is born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Murderous Desire That Is in Man
God said that there is a murderous desire in people’s hearts. However, many people say that this is nonsense, and in their delusion they think that God is insulting them. It is in everyone’s tendency as a human being not to admit that there is a murderous desire in his heart by nature. People think that such evil people mentioned in the Bible are scumbags and have nothing to do with them. When they read about multiple murders committed by gangsters, they marvel at how it’s possible for there to be such wicked people.
Of course, none of us should ever become like these criminals, but if we are actually in their shoes, we may very well end up doing the same thing. When we see the evil deeds committed by such criminals, all of us should appreciate the fact that we, too, can also end up becoming like them, and that all our sins have been washed away by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before God. Yet despite this, some people swear that they would never commit any such crimes, claiming that they are of a fundamentally different seed. And they clamor to get such criminals executed.
However, the Lord says that because there is a murderous desire in everyone’s heart, anyone on this planet can commit murder just like the real murderers if one is in the same situation. What God said to us looking into our hearts, we must admit. We must admit that we are murderous sinners. God said that there are evil thoughts and murderous desires in everyone’s heart. Since everyone has a murderous desire in his heart by nature, when this age turns even more evil, it is highly likely self-defense tools would turn into weapons of murder. Of course, by no means am I suggesting here that we should go out and kill someone! The point here is that by nature, everyone’s heart has such bloodthirsty desires.
You must recognize that by nature, everyone has had an evil and corrupt heart from the moment he was born. It’s not just some people who are particularly evil, but all human beings are a brood of murderers and evil beings before God. God said that everyone is evil because everyone is indeed wicked. There is no one who is not evil. The right faith is to recognize this Word of God and submit to it. Human beings practice evil with their acts because they have such evil hearts, and therefore everyone must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that blots out all his sins for real.
The Obscene Lust That Is in Man’s Heart by Nature
Do you agree with the Word of God that there is lewd lust in man’s heart? Do you admit this? Everyone has a lewd desire in his heart. That’s why sex industries are so highly developed in the world. One can make a lot of easy money if he goes into the adult industry. The reason why this industry is immune from any recession even when all the other industries are in a recession is because everyone has a lewd desire in his heart.
An apple tree bears apples and a pear tree bears pears. Likewise, we commit sin in our lives precisely because we were born with twelve sinful natures in our heart. God says to us that what proceeds from a man’s heart is what defiles him. We can’t help but agree with God’s Word and admit that we ourselves are of an evil brood. We must admit that we are sinners, and we must recognize the Word of God. Just as Jesus Christ submitted to the will of God, we humans also acknowledge God’s Word and submit to it. Only then can we be saved from all our sins through the water and the Spirit God has given us.
Just as seasons change with passing time, so do twelve sins repeatedly arise from our hearts and make us commit transgressions. Today it’s murder; tomorrow it’s fornication; the next day it’s evil thought; then it’s fraud; then it’s theft; then it’s foolishness; then it’s blasphemy—like this, we keep committing sin constantly day after day. Not a single day goes by without sinning. We are a brood of sinners who can’t help but commit sin time after time, even though we constantly resolve ourselves to never sin again.
For instance, have you seen any apple tree not bearing any fruit just because it doesn’t want to? It is the natural order of things for apple trees to blossom in the spring, bear fruit in the summer, ripen in the fall, and then be harvested to be consumed by us. Just like this, it is also the natural order of life for sinners to commit sin.
The Washing of Sin Is Attained through the Baptism of Jesus and His Death on the Cross
How then can this brood of evildoers ever receive the remission of sins from God and live in joy? To find the answer to this question, let us turn to the Word of God and pay close attention.
Turning to the Old Testament, it is written in Leviticus 4:27-31: “If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering. Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat, as fat is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the LORD. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.”
The Bible says here that in the age of the Old Testament, when the Israelites committed sin, they all obtained the remission of their sins by laying their hands on a sacrificial animal and thereby passing their sins onto this animal. It’s written in Leviticus 1:2-4: “When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.”
God made the people of Israel prepare sacrificial animals that would make atonement for all their sins. And it’s written that they should lay their hands on the head of these sacrificial animals. In the Old Testament, laying one’s hands on the head of a sacrificial animal meant passing one’s sins to it. Any Israelite seeking the remission of his sins had to first enter through the gate of the court of the Tabernacle, and then he had to lay his hands on the head of the sacrificial animal before the altar of burnt offering that had four horns on its corners. By doing so, he passed his sins onto the head of the sacrificial animal and his sins were all remitted before God.
God said in Leviticus, “He shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf.” The man who passed his sins through the laying on of hands received the remission of all his sins from God by cutting the throat of the animal to which his sins were passed, drawing its blood and putting it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, burning the flesh of the animal with fire, and offering it to God with its smell. This was the sacrifice through which the people of Israel obtained the remission of their daily sins.
To obtain the remission of their yearly sins, the people of Israel offered the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement. In this sacrifice, the High Priest laid his hands on the head of the sacrificial animal on behalf of all the sinners of Israel, and he took its blood into the Most Holy and sprinkled it seven times before the Ark of the Testimony. On the tenth day of the seventh month, the High Priest put his hands on the head of the scapegoat while all the people of Israel were watching, and thus remitted away all their sins. Let us then examine how the requirements of this sacrificial system of atonement in the Old Testament was fulfilled in the New Testament, and how the eternal statutes of God were kept consistently.
Why did Jesus Christ have to die on the Cross? What wrong did God do on this earth that He was crucified to death? Who put Jesus Christ to death on the Cross? When you and I were trapped in sin, Jesus Christ came to this earth to save all sinners from the condemnation of all sins. To make atonement for your sins and mine, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and on the Cross He bore the punishment of sin that all human beings deserve in their place. That Jesus was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross is the same as the Old Testament’s sacrifice of atonement in which hands were laid on the head of the burnt offering and this sacrificial animal was killed before the altar of burnt offering.
In the age of the Old Testament, the Israelites offered God the sacrifice of atonement for their sins by laying their hands on the head of the sacrificial animal, and cutting its throat and drawing its blood. Likewise, it was to blot out all your sins and mine and save us from our iniquities that Jesus Christ was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross to death.
It isn’t far off to say that it is we who actually killed Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, sacrificial animals bled to death for the sole purpose of paying off the sins that were transferred from the people of Israel. Likewise, Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself in order to accept the sins of mankind onto His body. Jesus Christ was fundamentally the sinless Son of God. It was to make atonement for all the sins of mankind that He bore them all by being baptized in the Jordan River at the age of 30, and it was because He had accepted all our sins that He was crucified to death. All these things done by Jesus constituted His work of salvation carried out to blot out all the sins and iniquities of sinners. How Jesus bore our sins is recorded in Matthew chapter 3 in the New Testament.
Jesus Bore Our Sins through the Baptism He Received in the Jordan River
It is written in Matthew 3:13-16: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water.”
We must realize the reason why Jesus was baptized at the age of 30. The purpose of the baptism of Jesus was to wash away all the sins of mankind, and it was also to fulfill all the righteousness of God once and for all. To save the human race from all sins, Jesus Himself, who was blameless, personally received baptism from John the Baptist. He thus bore all the sins of this world and remitted them all away, thereby saving the entire human race. To be remitted from our sins, we must believe in this. It is our job to believe.
The spiritual meaning of baptism is the same as the Old Testament’s laying on of hands. Spiritually speaking, baptism means “to pass on, to transfer, to be buried, or to be washed.” It means that our sins were all passed onto Jesus through His baptism. In the Old Testament age, the Israelites passed their sins to their sacrificial animals by laying their hands on their heads, whereas in the New Testament, Jesus Christ accepted and bore all our sins as John the Baptist’ hands were laid on Him, thereby saving us. Like this, John the Baptist passed the sins of mankind by baptizing Jesus as the representative of all men.
We should know why Jesus had to receive the baptism of the atonement of sin from John. We must believe in Jesus with this knowledge. Jesus was baptized in order to bear on His own body all the sins of the world that you and I commit with both our bodies and hearts until the day we die. It was by being baptized by John the Baptist that Jesus washed away all our sins.
Jesus said in Matthew 3:15, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” This means that Jesus was baptized to make everyone sinless and free everyone from all the sins of the world. It’s said here that Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist for all sinners.
The word “then” in Matthew 3:13 refers to the time when Jesus Christ was baptized in the Jordan River and everyone’s sins were thereby passed onto Him. Having taken upon everyone’s sins at that time, Jesus Christ died on the Cross three years later, and He rose from the dead again in three days. To remit away all the sins of this world, He was baptized once, crucified to death once, and resurrected once. For all those who believe in God and desire to obtain the atonement of their sins from God, Jesus has saved them once and for all.
Why did Jesus, subsequent to His baptism, have to put on the crown of thorns, stand before the court of Pilate, be crucified, and shed all His blood to death? Jesus had to die on the Cross like this precisely because He had taken upon all the sins of mankind through His baptism, including yours and mine.
We must believe in the Word of God who has saved us and thank Him. Unless Jesus was baptized, crucified to death, and resurrected, there was no way to save us from the sins of the world. At the very moment Jesus Christ was baptized by John, He took away all the sins of the world and saved us from them all by paying their wages on the Cross. Some people may then wonder if Jesus took away only our original sin, but this is just their own thought. God blotted out all the sins of mankind once and for all when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Mathew 3:15 says, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Fulfilling all righteousness means blotting out all our sins.
Jesus took away all the personal sins of everyone in this world also. To find further evidence for this, let us first turn to Leviticus chapter 16 in the Old Testament and examine the role of the High Priest and the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement.
The Sacrifice of the Washing of Sin Offered for the Iniquities of the Entire People of Israel
It is written in Leviticus 16:6-10: “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.”
The passage here describes how Aaron was to take a bull as a sin offering for himself and his household, and two goats to be presented to the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle of Meeting. It’s written here, “Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats; one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.” This implies that a scapegoat was needed to save us.
In the Old Testament, the institutions of the sacrificial system established by God had two different sacrifices: one was for each person’s daily sins, in which a sinner passed his sins to his sacrificial animal by laying his hands on its head; and the other was for the yearly sins of all Israelites, in which the High Priest, acting as the representative of the entire people of Israel, passed their sins on the tenth day of the seventh month.
It’s written in Leviticus 16:29-31: “This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.”
In the Old Testament, when the people of Israel brought their daily sins before God, they confessed them to Him, passed their sins to the sacrificial animal, cut its throw and drew its blood, gave it to the priest, and then returned home. This animal had to die to remit away the sins of the person after receiving the laying of hands on its head. God then accepted the sacrificial animal instead of condemning the sacrificer. Because God is merciful, He had allowed the Israelites to pass their sins to their sacrificial animals and let the animals die instead of them, all to save them. Like this, the sacrificial system of atonement in the age of the Old Testament brought the remission of sins to the people of Israel by passing their sins to the sacrificial animals through the laying on of their hands, killing them, and handing their blood to the priest.
The yearly sins of the people of Israel in the Old Testament were passed on all at once by the High Priest acting as their representative. The High Priest first laid his hands on the sacrificial animal, confessed all the sins of the Israelites to God, cut its throat, took the blood into the Most Holy where the Ark of the Testimony was located, and then sprinkled the blood seven times. In the Bible, the number seven is the perfect number. As all the people of Israel passed their sins to the sacrificial animal, this scapegoat was sacrificed and put to death in everyone’s place. God is merciful and just, and that’s why, to save the people of Israel from all their carnal sins, He had accepted the vicarious death of the sacrificial animal in their place.
Every year, the people of Israel offered the sacrifice of atonement for their yearly sins on the tenth day of the seventh month, and on this day they offered two goats as their sacrificial animals. One of them is called “scapegoat,” which means “to be released,” and this scapegoat of the Old Testament symbolizes none other than Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
It is written, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This passage means that God gave His own Son as the Lamb of sacrifice. In other words, Jesus Christ came to us as our Savior who would bear all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist. So the word “Messiah” means the Savior, and the name “Jesus Christ” means the King who came to save sinners. Just as God had remitted away all the Israelites’ sins on the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, Jesus Christ remitted away all the sins of mankind by coming to this earth about 2,000 years ago, being baptized, and shedding His blood on the Cross.
It’s written in Leviticus 16:21-22: “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. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.”
You can find the expression “the laying on of hands” in many places in the Bible, especially in the Book of Leviticus. “The laying on of hands” means “to pass something through.” Therefore, when Aaron laid his hands on the scapegoat and confessed “all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins,” all those sins were transferred onto the scapegoat without fail. “All the iniquities of the children of Israel” here refer to each and every sin, both those harbored in the heart and committed with the act. All these iniquities were passed onto the sacrificial animal through the laying on of hands.
The Law of God Points out the Sins of Mankind and Condemns Them
The Law of God consists of 613 statutes and commandments. To be honest, all of us did what God told us not to do, and what He told us to do, we did not do. So we were sinners constantly committing sin. The Bible writes that God gave us the Law so that we would realize and know sin (Romans 3:20). In other words, the Law was given so that we would realize sin, not to keep it all. God didn’t give us the Law to be kept to perfection. Rather, He gave us the Law so that we would recognize our sins.
In other words, God gave us the Law because we did not know ourselves even though we were filled with sin, saying to us, “You are murderers, adulterers, and evil thinkers.” Even though God told us not to murder, it’s in our human nature to commit murder in our hearts and even carry it out with our acts. When we do something wrong, it is the Law that we break, and therefore it is through the Law that we realize our sins and recognize that we are sinners.
In the Old Testament, to save all the people of Israel from sin, God allowed Aaron to minister the sacrificial offering of atonement, and Aaron, in turn, made atonement for the yearly sins of the entire people of Israel by fulfilling this ministry. On the Day of Atonement, two sacrificial offerings were presented to God. On one of them, Aaron laid his hands inside the Tabernacle; for the other offering, he laid his hands on it before the people of Israel watching and passed all their sins to it, thus remitting them all away. After Aaron laid his hands on this second sacrificial animal, that is, the scapegoat, it was handed over to a suitable man and sent out into the wilderness. The scapegoat was taken into the vast wilderness and abandoned there. The people of Israel found peace of mind when they saw this scapegoat carrying their yearly sins far away from them, and as the scapegoat died somewhere in the wilderness while shouldering their sins, it made atonement for them.
God says to us that atonement has been made for all our sins through the baptism of Jesus our Lamb of sacrifice and His blood on the Cross. Jesus is God Himself and our Savior. He is the Son of God who came to save us from all the sins of the world, and He is also the Creator who made us. Jesus had to be baptized by John the Baptist in order to make atonement for all the sins we commit with both our hearts and bodies until the day we die, and to fulfill all the righteousness of God.
It is when Jesus Christ was baptized that He began to work on the atonement of the sins of mankind and its salvation on this earth. Waste deep in the Jordan River, John the Baptist laid his hands on the head of Jesus and submerged Him in the water. This baptism refers to none other than the Old Testament’s laying on of hands, and it signifies that Jesus accepted all the sins of mankind once and for all. That Jesus went into the water symbolizes His death, and that He came out of the water symbolizes His resurrection. By being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus Christ built a fitting foundation to carry out His three duties as the High Priest of Heaven, the King of kings, and the Prophet to come.
We are saved only if we submit ourselves to the Word of Jesus who has saved us. God had determined to save us through Jesus Christ, and He fulfilled this plan in the New Testament exactly according to the Word of covenant promised in the Old Testament. And Jesus Christ shouldered all our sins of the world and went to the Cross.
It’s written in John 1:29, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” John the Baptist was testifying here that Jesus Christ took away all the sins of this world. Each and every sin of mankind was passed onto Jesus when He was baptized. The atonement of all sins is obtained by faith.
All of us humans must have faith in the Word of God. Renouncing our own thoughts, our own preconceived notions, and our own stubbornness, we must submit ourselves to this Word telling us that Jesus took away the sins of the world, and we must believe in it. That Jesus took away all the sins of the world once and for all means that we can receive the remission of sins by faith in the righteousness fulfilled by Jesus.
And the laying on of hands and baptism mean the same thing. Even though their letters are different, their meaning is the same. Just as the Israelites’ sins were passed onto the sacrificial animal through the laying on of hands, in the New Testament, our sins are washed away through the baptism of Jesus, which was performed in a form of the laying on of hands. All the sins of the world that Jesus took away include the original sin with which all of us were born from the womb of our mothers, as well as all the sinful attributes that are in our hearts such as evil thoughts, thefts, jealousy, dissent, resentment, pride, foolishness, and so forth. Our blemishes, our personal sins, and the sins that are in our hearts are all included in the sins of the world. The Bible says that Jesus Christ was baptized and condemned on the Cross for the remission of our sins, and we have been saved by believing in this original gospel.
The wages of sin must be paid without fail, as the Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23), and, “without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). However, Jesus Christ says that He has made atonement for all our sins by paying their wages off with His own and only life. It is by believing in the baptism of Jesus, His blood, and His deity, which constitutes the original gospel, that we obtain the remission of sins.
Our Lord Took Away Even Our Sins of Tomorrow
All the sins that we ever commit from our birth to our death belong to the sins of the world. The Bible says that as Jesus Christ was baptized, all the sins of the world were passed onto the Lord.
We are saved from all sins only if we believe in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit and surrender ourselves to it. Only if we cast aside our own stubborn thoughts do we receive the remission of sins. But some of us may ask stubbornly, “How could Jesus have taken away the sins that we haven’t even committed yet?” I would like to ask in return, “Then every time you commit sin, does Jesus Christ have to come down and shed His blood everyday to blot out your sins?”
My fellow believers, to be born again, you must make atonement for all your sins. And the Bible says, “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). If any Israelite wanted to obtain the remission of his sins, then he had to lay his hands on a sacrificial animal to pass his sins and kill it without fail. Only when he thus paid the wages of his sins could this man be saved. To save all human beings from sin, Jesus came to this earth, took upon all our sins once and for all by being baptized, shed His blood on the Cross to death, saying, “It is finished,” rose from the Cross in three days, ascended to Heaven, and is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father as our everlasting Savior.
We must cast aside the religious notion that we somehow have to be remitted from our carnal sins on a daily basis. Before God, only one single remission of sin was necessary to grant mankind’s salvation from sin. God the Father remitted away all our sins by sacrificing His own Son, passing the sins of the world to the Son once and for all through His baptism, crucifying Him and condemning Him on the Cross in our place, and resurrecting Him from the dead.
Isaiah 53 says that Jehovah laid on Him all the iniquities of everyone in this world as it is written,
“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.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).
In the New Testament, Ephesians 1:4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” God said that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to make us His own people, and we must believe in and submit to this Word of the water, the blood, and the Spirit of God.
God said that Jesus Christ took away all the sins of the world and made atonement for them, and Jesus did in fact take them all away. The Bible says in Hebrews 10:1, “The law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” This means that offering sacrifices everyday and laying hands on the sacrificial animals everyday could not make the Israelites perfect. In other words, Jesus Christ would bear all the sins of this world once and for all, similar to how the yearly sins of the people of Israel were passed on all at once, but this time, He would bear them for all ages. The Lord indeed took away all the sins of the world by being baptized and crucified.
The Apostle Paul says in Hebrews 10:9-10: “Then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Paul continued on to say, “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:11-18). We believe that the Lord has saved us from all sins through His baptism and His blood on the Cross.
The Sins That Are Engraved in the Heart and the Mind Are Washed Away with the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
My fellow believers, you can be born again only if you submit yourself by faith to the Word of God which says that Jesus Christ has saved us by being baptized and shedding His blood on the Cross. The remission of sins is received by believing that Jesus Christ has blotted out all our sins with the gospel of atonement. It is not by living virtuously everyday that we receive the remission of sins, but it is by believing in what God has done for us that we obtain the atonement of sin. The remission of our sins is received and we are made righteous people by believing that Jesus Christ took upon all our sins through His baptism and bore all our condemnation on the Cross in our place.
The baptism of Jesus, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection constitute the way by which man can make atonement for all sins before God, and the Lord’s law of salvation and love. The just God does not love us and tolerates us even as we remain sinful. Rather, to blot out all our sins, God the Father made His Son receive His baptism, and the Father has made righteous those of us who believe in this. It was to eradicate all our sins that God the Father sent Jesus Christ His only begotten Son to this earth, passed our sins to Him, and condemned Him in our place. That God has thereby made us righteous and accepted us as His own children constitutes the very salvation of God that has delivered us through the water and the blood. This is God’s agape love.
Hebrews 10:16 says, “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” If we ourselves submit to the Word of God, then we are righteous people. Jesus Christ is our Savior who took away all our sins and was condemned in our place. We may think that since we commit sin everyday, we can’t possibly become righteous people, but just as Jesus Christ obeyed the Word of God, if we also submit to the Word of God’s salvation, then we are made into righteous people.
Before, when we didn’t know the gospel of redemption, we were all sinful. However, once we accepted Jesus Christ’s gospel of redemption, we were saved from all our sins. By believing in the salvation of God, that He has saved us through the gospel of redemption, and by surrendering ourselves to this salvation, we have become righteous. This is the very Christian faith spoken of by the Apostle Paul—“justification by faith.”
The Bible writes that neither the Apostle Paul nor Abraham was justified by their acts, but by believing in the God-spoken Word and submitting themselves to this Word of grace. Just as Hebrew 10:18 says, “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin,” God has set us completely free from sin so that we would never be bound by it.
It is written in Philippians 2:5-11: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus Christ made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and appearing as a man, and He humbled Himself and was obedient to the Father to the point of death, thus saving us all (Philippians 2:7). It is on account of this that we praise Jesus Christ as our God, our Savior, and our King. We give all glory to God the Father, and we praise Jesus Christ at the same time because He obeyed the will of the Father. Had Jesus Christ not been obedient, then the Son of God would not have received glory. But because He obeyed the will of the Father trusting in Him to the point of death, He has been glorified by all creatures and every human being, and He will continue to be glorified forever.
The Bible writes that Jesus became the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world, and that He shouldered your sins and mine through His baptism. Although 2,000 years have gone by since Jesus bore the sins of the world, all the sins that we commit from our birth to our death were included in these sins of the world, and Jesus took them all away. That is precisely why we say that Jesus is our Savior, and why He could have become our Savior. Knowing full well that we would commit sin from the moment we are born to the moment we die, Jesus took away all the sins of the world beforehand. To make redemption for everyone’s sins once and for all, Jesus bore all sins by being baptized and carrying them to the Cross.
If Jesus had taken only original sin and not personal sins, then we would all perish. The notion that Jesus did not take away all sins is nothing more than only our own human thought. Jesus, by being baptized, indeed bore and shouldered each and every sin of the world. Jesus bore all the sins that we commit throughout our entire lifetime. That’s what Jesus had in mind when He told John the Baptist to baptize Him. Although the Lord Himself could have testified, “I have blotted out all your sins,” the righteous Lord had sent His servant first, and through this man He remitted away all the sins of the world. It is Jesus the Savior who has blotted out all the sins of mankind with His baptism.
My fellow believers, who can then say that there still is sin in this world? Jesus Christ has made atonement for all sins like this, and if anyone believes in what was accomplished by John the Baptist and Jesus from the depth of their heart and with full conviction, then he will be redeemed and saved from all sins.
People think that the lives they’ve led so far mean everything to them, but just as we laugh when we look at the life of a dayfly, so does God laugh when He looks at our lives. God is the forever-living One who decides the beginning and the end, and so even now, He abides in timeless hours. He sees us from His timeless hours. Long ago, God Himself came to this earth to make atonement for all the sins of the entire human race, He bore all its sins through His baptism, died on the Cross saying, “It is finished,” rose from the dead again in three days, and ascended to Heaven. He now abides in a timeless dominion. Watching over us from His timeless dominion, the Lord says that He was baptized to make atonement for all the sins committed by all human beings from their birth to death.
The Lord Has Saved Every Sinner All at Once by Receiving Baptism and Shedding His Blood
Let’s turn to John 19:17-20: “And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.”
Having taken upon all the sins of the world, Jesus was sentenced to death in the court of Pilate and was crucified. Jesus Christ had borne all sins according to the Scripture.
It’s written in John 19:28-30, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, ‘I thirst!’ Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”
After receiving the sour wine, Jesus Christ said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He passed away, but He rose from the dead again on the third day and ascended to Heaven. To fulfill the gospel of the atonement of sin, Jesus had to be baptized by John the Baptist and die on the Cross. The Bible makes it unambiguously clear, beyond all doubts, that Jesus Christ indeed took away all our sins.
Trusting in this, I give all thanks to the Lord for giving us the gospel of the atonement of sin, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
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