A causa del COVID-19 e dell'interruzione del servizio di postainternazionale,
bbiamo temporaneamente sospeso il nostro "Servizio di libri a stampagratuita".
bbiamo temporaneamente sospeso il nostro "Servizio di libri a stampagratuita".
Alla luce di questa situazione, al momento non siamo in grado di inviarti i libri.
Prega che questa pandemia finisca presto e la ripresa del servizio postale.
Prega che questa pandemia finisca presto e la ripresa del servizio postale.
Subject 3 : The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
[3-30] The Primitive Gospel That Can Overcome the Sins of the World (1 John 5:4-9)
(1 John 5:4-9)
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.”
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.”
God has made it possible for you to overcome the world, prevail over sin, and defeat the Devil to live a victorious life by believing in the gospel of the atonement of sins fulfilled by Jesus. However, if you believe in Jesus while leaving out the gospel Word of the “water” of the baptism of Jesus, you cannot be saved from all your personal sins. That is why the Apostle John said in 1 John 5:5-10 that the faith that overcomes the world is the faith that’s placed in the water, the blood, and the Spirit. God the Father had passed all the wages of our sins to Jesus. Jesus had come to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, accepted the sins of the human race through the baptism He received in the Jordan River, shouldered all the sins of the world on His body, shed His blood on the Cross, and thus paid off all the wages of the sins of mankind with His baptism and blood.
For us to overcome this world, we must believe in the gospel of the baptism and blood of Jesus. The only faith that enables us the born-again to overcome this world is the faith that’s placed in the gospel Word fulfilled by the baptism and blood of Jesus, our assured Savior. If you believe in the gospel of the baptism and blood of Jesus, the gospel of the atonement of sins, then your faith will be approved by God; but if you otherwise have no faith in this gospel Word of the baptism and blood of Jesus, then you have not reached salvation yet. Both the baptism of Jesus and His blood were indispensable for the atonement of all the sins of the world that Jesus made on this earth, and therefore if you do not believe in either one of them, then far from being saved from all the sins of the world, you will fall into destruction. That is why we call the gospel of the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross as the gospel of the atonement of sins. Almost all Christians believe in Jesus’ Cross alone, but for you to be truly born again, faith in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist is also absolutely indispensable.
Unless You Have the Gospel of the Atonement of Sins Fulfilled by Jesus, You Cannot Be Saved from Sin
I know that there are many pious Christians around the world. Some of them are willing to be martyred for their faith, while others lead what they think is an outstanding Christian life, diligently offering prayers of repentance every day and devoting all their free time to a good cause, thinking to themselves, “I have given up all my possessions for God and devoted all my life to Him. I didn’t even get married to serve the Lord. So I’m sure that God will not ignore me.” But these Christians still have sin in their hearts, yet they are sure of their salvation nonetheless, thinking, “I believe that Jesus came to this earth as a Man and died on the Cross to save me. So just because I have a few sins in my heart, will God really send me to hell?” However, such people have not been born again, and therefore they will all be cast into hell in the end.
Still others say that since Jesus Christ came to this earth conceived by the Holy Spirit and bore all the punishments of the sins of mankind with His crucifixion, man will not be condemned for his sins. But how can your sins disappear unless you believe that Jesus bore them through His baptism? To thus believe in the Cross alone is to misbelieve in Jesus according to your own wish. It is a flawed faith that is built on your own thoughts. Such faith that’s only placed in Jesus’ Cross is not the perfect faith, but one of your own making, and therefore far from standing in the file of the born-again, you will instead reach destruction in the end. Remember this clearly. To bring the remission of sins and salvation to us, the Lord was baptized by John the Baptist to accept the sins of the world, He was condemned for our sins and paid off their wages by shedding His blood on the Cross in our place, and He rose from the dead again in three days. Unless you know and believe in this gospel of the atonement of sins, that Jesus bore all the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, your faith in Jesus is flawed.
Ultimately, if you have not put on the baptism of Jesus Christ by faith, then your faith is not the faith of the atonement of sins, nor have you been saved from your sins. Jesus Christ was born on this earth conceived by the Holy Spirit for the remission of our sins, and with the baptism He received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River and the blood He shed on the Cross, He made perfect atonement for all our sins. Having thus fought against and prevailed over Satan, Christ has completely blotted out all the sins of everyone in this world, and He has brought the perfect salvation of regeneration to all His believers. Jesus Christ took upon all our sins by being baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again in three days, and is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father.
With His baptism and blood, Jesus has remitted away all our sins and become the Savior of all of us who believe in the Lord according to the gospel Word of regeneration; and having sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts, He is now bearing witness of our salvation, saying, “I have saved you like this, and with My baptism and blood, I have made atonement for all your sins unto perfect salvation. The faith of the remission of sins that enables you to overcome the world is one that’s placed in My baptism and blood, and just as I have overcome the world, so will you overcome it. I have saved you from all the sins of the world through My water and blood. Be bold, for you can overcome the world!” Inside all of us the born-again, we have the Holy Spirit testifying our true salvation.
The gospel that bears witness of salvation inside the righteous is the gospel of the baptism and the blood. Jesus Christ took away all the sins of the world through His baptism. He bore them all on His own body. God has saved us on account of our faith in the remission of our sins. This true gospel declares that all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, that He shed His blood for us on the Cross, and that He is God Himself. And because Christ rose from the dead again in three days, and because we have the witness of the Word of the baptism and blood of Jesus in our hearts, we are able to overcome Satan, fight and defeat the false prophets, and endure and prevail over any and all persecutions and tribulations of the world. The faith that overcomes the world is one that believes in these three—the baptism of Jesus, His blood, and His divinity as the Son of God.
Thanks to the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross, we can overcome Satan by faith and prevail over this world and its sins. It is by believing in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross that we can stand up against many false prophets and defeat them all. The true gospel of the remission of sins is constituted by the baptism and blood of Jesus. No Christian can overcome the world unless he has faith in this Word of the atonement of sins.
How about you then? Do you have the true Word of the baptism and blood of Jesus in your heart? Do you have the water of the baptism of Jesus and His blood? Do you believe in the Word of Truth that all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized? And do you believe in the true Word that Jesus Christ, having thus been baptized, was crucified to death in our place and bore all our condemnation? Faith in this Word of the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross is the faith that enables us to prevail over the world.
The Apostle John also believed in the baptism of Jesus, His blood, and His divinity. That is why he could overcome the world and preach and teach this true gospel of the water and the blood, the gospel of the remission of sins, to the brethren facing persecution and tribulation. He told them that they had overcome the world, for they wholeheartedly believed in Jesus Christ who had come by the water, the blood, and the Spirit. With what kind of faith do the saints overcome the world? It is the faith to believe in the gospel Word of the atonement of sins and in Jesus Christ who has come by the water, the blood, and the Spirit. This is precisely what the Apostle John wrote in today’s Scripture passage.
It’s written in 1 John 5:8: “And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.” Most Christians say that they believe in Jesus’ blood and the Spirit as well, but hardly any of them know the Word of the “water,” that Jesus bore all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist. In the Bible, the baptism (water) of Jesus is crucial to the gospel of the atonement of sins. So the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:21 that the baptism of Jesus is the antitype of our salvation: “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Among the countless Christians who have believed in Jesus while leaving out His baptism to this day, only those who reject such a false teaching, turn around, and believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus as their salvation can be saved. Even if you believe in Jesus’ blood and His divinity, if you don’t believe in the “water” of His baptism to the end, then you can neither become a righteous person nor overcome the world, but instead you will remain a sinner until the very end no matter how ardently you believe in Jesus. You can’t be born again ever because you don’t believe in the baptism of the atonement of sins. That is why you must believe in the gospel of the remission of sins, of the baptism of Jesus and His blood, which is the hand of salvation the Lord has given you. And by this faith you must fight against and overcome Satan to reach your salvation.
The Word of God is a sword, the life, and the light. I keep emphasizing this point, but even now too many Christians believe in just the blood of Jesus and the Spirit; and if you believe in just these two things, then instead of overcoming the world, you will collapse and perish buried under your sins. Even though God has said, “Arise, shine,” many Christians are unable to shine their light as they believe in Jesus halfheartedly, only to be cast into hell to their regret. Aren’t you such a Christian, by any chance? Non-Christians are not the issue here, but it is you as a Christian; are you sure that there is no problem with your salvation?
Salvation Can Be Reached Only If the Word of the Baptism and the Blood of Jesus Is Clearly Testified
Jesus Christ has come to us by the water (the baptism through which the Lord bore all our sins), the blood, and the Spirit, and whoever preaches His gospel of the water and the Spirit must testify all these three elements clearly. Unless one preaches the saving Word of Jesus, who has come by the water and the blood, this person cannot lead anyone to be born again. Such people are nothing more than propagators of a religion called Christianity. That is why I call this worldly Christianity a religion, but the real Christianity is a faith built upon the Word of Truth, not a mere religion.
How can Christianity be an earthly religion, when religion is man-made? Christianity is all about faith, one that is placed in the gospel Word of the atonement of sins accomplished by God. It’s about believing in the remission of sins that God Himself has achieved. This is the difference between the Christian faith and a mere religion. Jesus Christ did not come to this earth to found a religion, nor did He establish today’s worldly Christianity.
You must reach true salvation by believing in the gospel of the baptism and blood of Jesus, the gospel of the atonement of sins that has saved all sinners who believe in this Truth of salvation. And once you are born again, you must arise and shine the light with the gospel Word of the atonement of sins and become a bold witness of the gospel of the water and the blood, testifying, “Salvation cannot be reached just by believing in the Cross alone; there is no other way to salvation but this gospel Word of the remission of sins!” To all who ask you about the true salvation of the remission of sins, you must tell them that the baptism and blood of Jesus constitute the true gospel that enables everyone to be born again, and that the blood of Jesus on the Cross alone is not the real gospel.
Whoever Loves the Lord by Himself Will Be Destroyed in the End
When a Christian believes in the Lord without knowing the Word of regeneration given by Jesus, and loves the Lord all by himself, his faith is like unrequited love.
Let me illustrate this with an example. Imagine that you got shipwrecked while crossing the Pacific, and you sent the distress signal and are about to be rescued. Upon arrival, the rescue helicopter lowers a rope to you to pull you out of the sea, but instead of wrapping your entire body with the rope, you just hold onto it with your bare hands. This is akin to loving Jesus on your own without being loved in return, saying blindly, “Please save me! I believe that You will save Me if I just believe in You!” In time, such people will be exhausted of their own strength and lose the grip to fall off the rope and perish. This is because they rely on their own strength to believe in Jesus. You should never allow yourself to become such a misguided believer.
Loving Jesus one-sidedly is to say, “Lord, I believe in You! I believe in the salvation of Jesus Christ, who came by the blood of the Cross and the Spirit!” Countless people love Jesus one-sidedly like this. Because they are ignorant of the gospel of the atonement of sins and do not know the Word of the baptism and blood of Jesus that has concretely blotted out all their hearts’ sins, they can’t believe in the Lord’s salvation even when they try their best. And because they are not confident of their salvation, they just call on the name of the Lord desperately and say with only their words that they believe in Him.
In contrast, we have every confidence in our salvation because we have accepted the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Professing faith just with words is completely different from believing with the heart. All the Christian sinners who are not born again and therefore still have sin in their hearts will be ultimately cast into hell. Even though they say that they will follow the Lord until the end, because they have sin in their hearts, they will be forsaken on the last day. This is all because they love Jesus one-sidedly. And because they believe only in the blood of Jesus Christ and the Spirit, their unrequited love for the Lord will be all in vain, only to be rejected by the Lord and cast into hell in the end.
Therefore, if you want to believe in Jesus correctly, you must fasten your soul with the rope of the Word of the baptism of Jesus, His blood, and the Spirit, the gospel of the atonement of sins; and when you fasten your soul, you must make sure that it is fastened properly with the rope of Truth. When the Word of the atonement of sins descends, whoever believes in this Word will be remitted from all sins without fail.
Returning to the rescue example that I just gave you, imagine now that the rescuer on the helicopter said through the mike, “Listen to me carefully. When I lower this rope, make sure to wrap it around your body tightly, so that it won’t come off. Then just hang on and wait. Don’t try to climb up the rope on your own to the helicopter. You will just fall to your death. So trust my words, have faith, and just wait.” Hearing this, someone wrapped himself around with the rope just as instructed. And he waited in faith. This person was then saved from death by relying on the rope wrapped around him.
In contrast, let’s now say that another person refused to follow the instruction, saying, “Don’t worry about me. You have no idea how strong I am. You have nothing to worry about here. From here I can climb up the rope myself.” So this person grabbed the rope and started to climb on his own. At first, he made a good progress, but soon there was a problem. The helicopter was flying to the land with the man hanging in the air, and eventually, he got so exhausted that he lost his grip on the rope in the end. Which of these two men had better faith?
Each of these two men tried to climb up to the helicopter in a different way. The first man who wrapped his body with the rope was lifted up to the helicopter even though he had no strength of his own. In contrast, the second man who boasted of his own strength eventually got completely exhausted and ended up losing his grip on the rope and plunged to his death.
Like this, those who can say that they have been completely remitted from all their sins by believing in Jesus Christ and His gospel are those who believe in the gospel Word that has come by the baptism and blood of Jesus and the Spirit, through which the Lord has saved sinners to perfection. Through the gospel of the water and the blood, the gospel of the atonement of sins, the Lord is saying, “I have saved you perfectly like this with the water, the blood, and the Spirit.” And He has brought perfect salvation to all who believe in this gospel exactly as it is.
However, those who don’t believe in this gospel say, “Lord, I believe in You. I can be saved from all my sins just through the precious blood You shed on the Cross. Although I don’t know anything about Your baptism and what it really means, since I believe in Your blood and the Spirit, this should be enough. I can still be born again even if I don’t know the mystery of Your baptism. After all, I still believe in You as my Savior no matter what. So don’t You worry that I’ll end up in hell!” Despite believing in Jesus, however, these people still have sin in their hearts, and therefore they will be cast into hell for sure. You should not allow yourself to end up like them. You must be born again by believing in the Word of salvation, the Word of the baptism of Jesus.
Reflect yourself on the true Word of God and see what it is that you really believe. If you believe only the blood of Jesus and the Spirit, then you need the gospel Word of God and the faith that enable you to be born again and be saved from all your sins. The Spirit of Jesus and His blood are not sufficient to blot out all your sins. The Word with which God Himself testifies that you have been born again as one of His own people is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. This gospel of the atonement of sins, God’s true Word of salvation, proclaims that Jesus bore all your sins through His baptism, was crucified and condemned to death for your sins in your place, and rose from the dead again. And to all who believe wholeheartedly in this Word of salvation, God has blessed them to be born again. The Lord has sealed such believers, saying, “I have become your Savior. I have saved you Myself. You believe in My baptism and blood, and you believe that I am God. You have therefore been born again. You are God the Father’s own child, and as its evidence, I have given you the Holy Spirit.”
However, if one does not believe wholeheartedly in all the three indispensable elements of salvation—the water (baptism) of Jesus, His blood (death), and the Spirit—then God the Holy Spirit says, “You have not been saved, for you do not believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus.” Each and every Apostle also testified invariably that the salvation of the atonement of sins is reached through the baptism of Jesus, His blood, and the Spirit.
It’s written in 1 Peter 3:21, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism.” The antitype of salvation is the gospel of the water, the blood, and the Spirit proclaiming that Jesus bore all our sins through His baptism and was condemned on the Cross by shedding His blood, and that He has thereby saved all His believers from each and every sin of the world to become our Savior.
Speaking of the salvation of the baptism of Jesus, the Apostle Paul said in Romans 6:3, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” Paul then went on to say in verse 5, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,” and elsewhere in Galatians 3:27, he said, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Like this, the Apostles also believed in and preached the Word of the baptism of Jesus, the gospel of the atonement of sins. Is your faith somehow better than the Apostles’ faith? Did the Apostles ignore the baptism of Jesus, through which our Lord bore all the sins of the world? No, of course not; they all believe in it. You must then also believe in the true gospel and be saved.
The God-given Gospel of the Atonement of Sins Was Fulfilled with the Water of the Baptism of the Lord and His Blood on the Cross
Jesus came to this earth by His baptism and blood. All of us must shine the light of the baptism and blood of Jesus, the true light of salvation, and we must believe in the Word that saves us—that is, in Jesus’ baptism, His blood on the Cross, and His divinity. We must testify clearly that Jesus is the Son of God and the perfect Savior of all sinners, and we must thereby shine the gospel light of His baptism and blood. God has clearly given us the light of salvation, and He has told us to shine this light. We must obey this commandment now.
If anyone has sin in his heart despite professing to believe in Jesus and claiming to be a righteous person, then this person is not a righteous person but a sinner. No sinner can overcome the world. Far from it, every sinner will perish because of sin.
Unless you believe in this water (baptism) of Jesus, your sins can never be blotted out. Likewise, unless you believe in the blood of Jesus, you can never be freed from the condemnation of sin nor receive salvation. Jesus Christ is God Himself who came to this earth conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary’s womb, and you can never be saved unless you believe in this Lord. Whoever does not believe in Jesus wholeheartedly cannot be made perfectly righteous and will instead remain a sinner. Those who say that they are imperfectly righteous advocate the so-called “doctrine of justification,” claiming that God considers them sinless even as they actually have sin. These people still have not come into Jesus Christ’s Truth of regeneration. Although such Christians argue that they have been born again since God regards them sinless in spite of their sinful state, they are completely ignorant of the Bible. These people teach others how to be born again, but they can’t teach it to themselves, for they do not know how!
If you think that God would somehow consider you righteous even as you have sin, you are making a huge mistake. God says that only those who are completely righteous are the just, and He tells the sinful that they are sinners and have not been born again. He doesn’t say a sinner is righteous just because this person claims to believe in Jesus somehow. Although God is almighty, He cannot lie. The problem is that many Christians have misunderstood and mistaken God profoundly in their own thoughts. Only those whom God says are righteous are actually clean.
The man-made doctrine of justification is nothing but a product of man’s own thoughts; it is not the God-made gospel of the baptism and blood of Jesus. This doctrine claims that God considers a sinner righteous even if he is still sinful. But our God does not lie by calling a sinner righteous even as he has sin. Because it is absolutely impossible for God to lie, He does not call anyone sinful a righteous person, even if this person is a Christian. Yet despite this, if anyone still thinks that God would call him a righteous person just because he believes in Jesus somehow, then he is a fool. Even human beings don’t like lies, and so would God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, call anyone righteous just because he believes in Jesus? No, of course not! I’m sure that you yourself know very well that God would never do that.
Of the Word by which Jesus has saved us, if either His baptism or His blood is left out, then such a gospel is just a man-made conjecture; it is not the real Truth that makes sinners righteous. Therefore, there is only one type of people whose faith God approves. God approves the faith of those who believe in the baptism of salvation that Jesus received on this earth, those who wholeheartedly believe in the gospel of the atonement of sins. The belief that Jesus Christ came to this earth and accepted all the sins of every sinner by being baptized; the belief that He was condemned on the Cross by shedding His blood while shouldering all the sins of the world; and the belief that He rose from the dead again—it is those who have such faith in this Word of the atonement of sins whom God has saved as His righteous people.
If Jesus had died on the Cross without even bearing our sins through His baptism on this earth, and just said, “I’ll die for you; just believe in Me,” then He could not have become the just Lord, and the Lord would have been seen by us as a despotic and irrational God. That’s because if the Lord were to say that He has blotted out all the sins of the world without even accepting them through His baptism, then His salvation would be too absurd for us to believe.
The Lord said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Jesus can invite all sinners to His rest because He has saved them from all their sins through His baptism and blood. God does not approve anyone who only believes in Jesus’ blood on the Cross.
The Kingdom of God has only the truth, justice, honesty, love, and kindness, and it is completely devoid of any falsehood. Unlike in this present world, no sin is overlooked in the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s written, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’” (Matthew 7:22) But God has never approved anyone’s virtuous acts as his salvation.
God is not so softhearted as we think He is (Matthew 7:23). When the judgment day comes, some people may say, “Lord, I have offered You two houses and even laid down my life for You. Did You not see me then? Didn’t You see me sacrificing my life not to deny You?”
But the Lord will say to them, “Depart from Me! A sinner like you cannot come in here!”
“But I was martyred for You!”
“What martyrdom? You died just to show your own stubbornness. Did I ever testify that you were one of My people? I have saved sinners through the gospel Word of My baptism, My blood, and the Spirit. Did this gospel Word ever testify that you were one of My people? Did you know this Word? Did you learn it? Didn’t you instead stand against it? So what can I do now, since you believed all on your own that you were saved even though My Word of Truth did not testify this? You were not martyred to defend your faith in the gospel of the water of My baptism, My blood, and the Spirit; far from it, your death was in vain. You loved Me all on your own, believing in My blood on the Cross and the Spirit in vain. Do you now realize what you’ve done? So you shall be cast into hell!” This is what the Lord will say to all who believe themselves to be righteous even as they have sin.
For us the born-again, that our salvation is approved by God is testified in His Word. The fact that we are righteous people is testified in God’s written Word of the water and the Spirit.
It’s written, “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son” (1 John 5:10). God said here that those who believe in His Son have the witness in themselves. I, too, have the witness inside me. And the Word of witness testifies as the following: “For our sake, God Himself came to this earth as the Savior incarnated in the flesh of man through the body of the Virgin Mary and conceived by the Holy Spirit; at the age of 30, He bore all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the same way as the Old Testament’s laying on of hands; having thus shouldered the sins of the world, He was condemned on the Cross instead of sinners; and He rose from the dead again in three days to bring us back to life.” In this way, the Lord has saved His believers from sin.
If the Lord had not risen from the dead and instead were still buried in His grave, how could the dead Christ bear witness? But the Lord was resurrected! So Jesus has become the Savior of all His believers, and we have been saved to become righteous people whose hearts are completely sinless. Our hearts have become as white as snow.
Because Jesus has saved us in this way prophesied in the Old Testament, we reach our salvation by believing accordingly through the gospel of the baptism of Jesus and His blood that is testified even more clearly in the New Testament. I have the witness inside me, you have the witness inside you, and everyone else who has been saved also has the witness inside him. The born-again saints believe in the baptism of Jesus unwaveringly and never ignore it. You are saved only if you believe in everything Jesus has done for you, never leaving out anything at all.
The Faith of Those Who Make God a Liar
It’s written, “He who does not believe God has made Him a liar.” The Apostle John clarifies that those who don’t believe everything God has done for them—that is, those who profess to believe in Jesus while leaving out His water—are ultimately making God a liar. When such people are told that Jesus took away all the sins of the world, they say, “That’s not true. The Lord took away only our original sin, and so we must offer prayers of repentance for our personal sins every day; as far as our future sins are concerned, the Lord will blot them out whenever we confess them.” These people essentially deny the baptism of Jesus, and since those who believe like this make God a liar, they will all be condemned for this sin.
One is cast into hell not because he commits many sins, but he is forsaken because he does not believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood, and therefore turns God into a liar. Such people who don’t believe in this baptism of Jesus have sin in their hearts, and that is why they say, “How can I say that I am sinless when I still commit sin?” In this way they make God a liar until the very end, only to be punished for this sin.
I once asked a certain elder, “Will my sins disappear if I believe in Jesus?”
“Yes, of course,” said the elder.
“Then you must have been saved, since the Bible says that Jesus took away all the sins of the world, and He finished all the work of salvation?”
The elder replied, “Sure, of course!”
I asked him again, “Then you must be sinless, right?”
“Yes, I am sinless now thanks to the blood of Jesus.”
“What happens if you commit sin in the future then?”
He replied, “I’ll be a sinner. How can anyone have no sin? Since we are all human, it’s impossible for us not to commit sin. But we should repent whenever we commit any sin, and then this sin will disappear.”
“What about now then? Do you have any sin?”
“Yes, I have sin.”
“Are you a saint then?”
“No, I’m a sinner.”
“Then who will go to Heaven, a righteous person or a sinner?”
“It’s the righteous who will go to Heaven.”
So I asked him one last time, “Where will you go then?” Lost for words, the elder couldn’t answer my question anymore and left me murmuring incoherently to himself. It’s none other such people’s faith that makes God a liar, and therefore they will be cast into hell for making a liar out of God.
Whoever Believes in the Primitive Gospel Does Not Deny the Divinity of Jesus
Just as the Bible says, “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son” (1 John 5:10), we all have the clear witness of our salvation. Whoever has been saved assuredly through the water and the Spirit believes in the Truth that Jesus was born on this earth through the body of the Virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit, that all his sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized, and that Jesus has blotted them out by dying on the Cross for the sins of the world. Such people believe that salvation is reached by believing in Jesus who came by the water, the blood, and the Spirit. Only those who believe in Jesus Christ who came by the Spirit, the water, and the blood can obtain the witness testifying his salvation before God.
The Bible says, “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance” (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Satan loves to see people preaching only the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and he is deceiving countless people into believing in just this blood of Jesus. You must realize here that in this present age and time, the Devil works through the flourishing of worldly churches rather than persecution to deceive people into believing in a gospel that is devoid of the baptism of Jesus, which is the antitype of salvation (1 Peter 3:21).
The gospel that Satan fears the most in this world is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Devil flees when facing anyone who has faith in the Word of the baptism of Jesus, His blood on the Cross, and His divinity as the Son of God.
When you watch a movie like The Exorcist, you can see Catholic priests performing exorcist rituals to drive out a demon, praying fervently and shaking a cross to the demon, but even the priests are no match for the demon and they end up dead. In contrast, it’s impossible for anyone who has been truly born again, and whose salvation is testified by God Himself, to ever lose to Satan. The born-again sit down quietly, and placing their faith in the written Word, they calmly command the demon to leave. If the Devil tries to deceive you, just speak calmly of the primitive gospel of the water and the Spirit, saying to Satan, “Do you realize that Jesus took away all my sins?” The Devil will then find this intolerable and run away.
What is the witness testifying the Son of God? Is it not the gospel of salvation testifying that Jesus Christ came to this earth conceived by the Holy Spirit, shouldered all our sins on His own body through His baptism, and shed His blood to death on the Cross in our place? One lies to God because he does not believe in this Word of witness testified by the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and whoever believes in and preaches a false gospel turns himself into a false prophet.
The Bible says in I John 5:11, “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” As God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son, whoever has received this eternal life is a sinless person, and he will live forever. If you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you have also received everlasting life.
The Apostles John, Paul, and Peter all distinguished the born-again from those who have not been born again. How, then, can today’s servants of God recognize the born-again? And how can you discern the true servants of God and His people? Those who have received salvation and eternal life through the water and the Spirit can distinguish the saved from the unsaved. That’s because they have the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God in them.
If someone holding a church office, such as a pastor or an evangelist, cannot discern whether a member of his church is a saint or not, then this person himself has not been saved, and he is a lifeless man who doesn’t have the Word of the water, the blood, and the Spirit in him. Those who have no life in them cannot discern this, and like a blind man, they just stumble along without any conviction on what is right and wrong. In contrast, someone who has truly been saved can discern whether one is a saint or not.
This is akin to trying to distinguish different colors in complete darkness. A blind person cannot say that green is green and white is white because his eyes have no sight, and because he can’t see, he can’t tell the difference between these two colors. In contrast, anyone with an open eye can tell the difference right away. He knows there is a clear difference between green and white because he has seen it.
Unless we the born-again shine the light testifying the baptism of Jesus and His blood, the gospel of the remission of sins, countless people will perish. If we let this happen, then far from being pleased with us, God will rebuke us for being indolent servants. We must shine the light clearly and wisely. I keep emphasizing this point repeatedly because most people can’t understand it until it is explained to them in detail over and over again. For instance, you can’t just bring someone completely illiterate and expect him to begin reading right away without even teaching him the alphabet. When a language is taught, one must begin with the very basics to explain what the alphabet is, how different words are composed from the alphabet, and how phrases and sentences are built with a combination of words to communicate. Likewise, the Bible must be taught clearly from the basics.
Like this, the baptism of Jesus must also be explained clearly and repeatedly. What I have written here in this book is not just my own claim, but it is preached based on the Word, verified by the original texts of the Scriptures, and built on a sound biblical foundation.
The salvation of sinners has been completely accomplished. Because all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized, He was buried instead of sinners; because all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus, all of us who believe in this have been washed from our hearts’ sins; and therefore, it is this faith in the original gospel that allows everyone to be embraced into God’s arms. This primitive gospel accomplished by the Lord enables everyone to be born again of the water, the blood, and the Spirit, and I hope and pray that you would all believe in this gospel and step inside.
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