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Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-14] The Veil That Was Torn (Matthew 27:50-53)
(Matthew 27:50-53)
“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”
The Most Holy was the place where God dwelt. And only the High Priest could enter into the Most Holy once a year, on the Day of Atonement, carrying the blood of the sacrificial goat for the remission of the sins of the Israelites. He did so because the Most Holy of the Tabernacle, the House of God, was a holy place where he could not enter unless he took the blood of the sacrifice, on whose head his hands were laid, to blot out the iniquities of sinners. Put differently, even the High Priest could not avoid God’s condemnation unless he had received the remission of his sins by offering a sacrifice before entering into His presence.
When was the veil of the Temple torn? It was torn when Jesus shed His blood and died on the Cross. Why should He shed His blood on the Cross to die? Because Jesus the Son of God, coming to this earth in the flesh of a man, had taken upon all the iniquities of sinners by being baptized by John in the Jordan River. Because Jesus had taken upon all the sins of the world through His baptism, Jesus could end all the condemnation of sin only if He shed His blood on the Cross and died. This is why the veil that had separated the Most Holy from the Holy Place in the House of God was torn from top to bottom. This means that the wall of sin that had separated God from mankind fell down once for all.
In other words, through the baptism that Jesus received and the blood that He shed on the Cross, He has made all sins disappear. With the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ, God the Father has blotted out all our sins once for all and opened the way to Heaven, so that anyone can now enter Heaven by believing in the these baptism and bloodshed of Jesus.
When Jesus died on the Cross, darkness fell on where He was for three hours. Having shouldered all the sins of the world through His baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus, crucified and nearing His death, cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”, which meant, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). He then said His last words, “It is finished!”, and then died. And in three days He rose form the dead again, bore witness for 40 days, and then ascended to Heaven before the eyes of His many disciples and followers.
Did the Father Really Forsake Jesus?
The pain that Jesus suffered was so intense that He felt as if His Father had forsaken Him. The suffering of the condemnation of sin was that much great. Because Jesus took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John, it is true that He was momentarily averted by the Father when He bore the condemnation of sin on the Cross. God the Father had to punish anyone who had sin, and because all the sins of the world had passed onto Jesus, Jesus had to be pierced and shed His blood on the Cross as the punishment for these sins.
Because Jesus, who is God Himself in His essence, took upon all the sins of mankind by being baptized, the sins of the world were shifted onto His own holy body. So Jesus, having taken upon the sins of the world, now had to be averted by God the Father for a moment, suffer death on the Cross to pay the wages of all our sins, and thereby save mankind from all sins. This is why Jesus had to be subjected to the extreme suffering of the condemnation of sin, and why God the Father could not but turn His face away from His Son briefly.
But this does not mean that Jesus was forsaken by the Father forever. Rather, it just means that Jesus had to bear the vicarious condemnation of our sins, and therefore He had to be forsaken by the Father only momentarily. But as Jesus shouted out in His pain, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” it was because Jesus suffered such extreme agony of sin that we have been saved from the condemnation of sin. We had been someone who had to be abandoned by God for our sins, but Jesus took upon our sins, suffered the pain of the condemnation of sin on the Cross, and, moreover, was even forsaken by the Father for a while for our sake.
As you might already know, after the construction of the Temple during the reign of the King Solomon, the Tabernacle was substituted by the Temple. But the basics of the Tabernacle system were still applied to the Temple exactly as they were applied before its construction. So there was also a veil that separated the Most Holy Place from the Holy Place of the Temple. And at the very moment when our Lord shouted out on the Cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” this veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. The truth spoken by this event is that because the Lord has washed away our sins with the baptism that He received and the precious blood that He shed on the Cross, the gate of Heaven has now been flung open, so that all who believe may enter it. Now, by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can all enter Heaven by faith.
Through the revelation of the Tabernacle system, the people of the Old Testament also believed in Jesus to come as the Messiah, and therefore they were also remitted of all their sins and became God’s children. In the New Testament, all God’s righteousness of the remission of sin was fulfilled once for all when our Lord was actually baptized in the Jordan River and died on the Cross. The reason why we have thankful hearts, having heard and believed in the gospel of the remission of sin that the Lord has given us, is because we have the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
On our own, we could not be freed from sin, but because of the truth of salvation that God has given us through the water and the Spirit, we have been able to be remitted of our sins by believing in this truth. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given us, our sins have disappeared and we are now able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by faith. Given this, how could we not thank God? We can only thank Him, for we now know that the gate of Heaven was broken down from top to bottom the moment our Lord died. This is the joyful news telling us that our Lord took upon all the sins of mankind through the baptism that He received in the Jordan River, bore the condemnation of sin with His blood of the Cross, and has thereby delivered from sin all those who believe.
The fact that the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom when Jesus died on the Cross teaches us the truth that now in this age, those who have been cleansed from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the blood can all enter Heaven. This is the definitive evidence of the truth of salvation that the Lord has permitted to us. Because we were sinners, there was a wall of sin that had blocked us, disabling us from coming before God, but with His baptism and blood, Jesus has made this wall of sin disappear once for all. That God tore the veil of the Temple from top to bottom signifies that anyone who believes in the baptism through which the Son of God took upon all the iniquities of sinners and in the blood of the Cross can now be perfectly cleansed from their sins and thereby enter Heaven unimpeded. God has saved us from sin like this.
Jesus tore the veil of the Temple from top to bottom as the evidence of these works of salvation that He fulfilled. Therefore, Hebrews 10:19-22 states, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
When Jesus died on the Cross, the entrance of the Most Holy was opened wide as its veil was torn, and this open door of the Most Holy here is the God’s Word of the gospel that opened a new and living way to Heaven. Here, the Bible tells us again that all the sins of our hearts and bodies were blotted out through His baptism (the pure water) and His blood, and therefore, we can be cleansed by our full assurance of faith in His perfect salvation.
For this, I give all my thanks to God. We could not enter Heaven no matter how much we tried, but for such people as us, Jesus has saved us from all our sins with these righteous acts of His baptism and His bloodshed on the Cross, and He has flung the gate of Heaven wide open, all so that only those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit may enter Heaven. Now it has become possible for us to be cleansed from our sins and enter Heaven by the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Because the Lord has opened the gate of Heaven for us by being baptized and crucified, we are now able to wash away our sins and enter Heaven by believing in this truth. How could we then not thank God? We cannot thank Him enough for His love of sacrifice. The veil-door of the Most Holy was torn across by the baptism that Jesus received to take upon our sins and the sacrificial offering of His body that He made to be vicariously condemned for these sins of ours.
There Is Only One Way to Enter Heaven
Because we believe in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross, we will enter Heaven. There is no other way to enter Heaven but by believing in this gospel of truth. It is only by believing in what Jesus has done for us that we can enter Heaven, for God has done such works for those who believe in the gospel of the water and blood of Jesus.
This is why Christians cannot enter Heaven through their own efforts, devotion, or other such hypocritical attempts. God has determined that only those who have been cleansed from their sins by believing in the baptism that Jesus received and His bloodshed can enter Heaven. Those who believe in this truth are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, God Himself, and the everlasting Savior who has saved them from sin through His baptism and bloodshed. It is to such people that God has permitted the washing of sin. Only through the baptism that Jesus received and the suffering that He endured on the Cross, God the Father has enabled those of us who believe in these to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by faith.
Do we need money to enter Heaven? If this were the case, we would be attaining our salvation by paying for it, and so this cannot be the salvation that is given freely by the Lord. For us to enter Heaven, we need nothing else apart from the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, to enter Heaven, no payment, act, or effort of our own is ever needed. Nothing that is of human character is necessary to enter Heaven. For us to be qualified to enter Heaven, God does not demand any effort, act, will, compensation, or goodness from us.
There is only one thing that is absolutely necessary for us to enter Heaven, and this is the faith that believes in the baptism of the washing of sin that Jesus received in the Jordan River and the sacrifice that He made by shedding His blood on the Cross as our own remission of sin. There is no other way. The only thing we need is the faith that believes in the gospel of the baptism and blood of Jesus. This is why for us to receive the remission of sin and enter Heaven, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has fulfilled.
Jesus, the Lord of love, has fulfilled our perfect salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because Jesus has already completed the salvation of the remission of sin, if sinners were only to believe in this gospel truth wholeheartedly, they can be saved from all their sins. Our Lord has remitted all our sins, whether we have many or only a few sins, and He has enabled anyone to enter Heaven but only by faith.
That Jesus has opened the gate of Heaven, so that sinners may enter it by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, is the grace of salvation that is truly special. “The Lord was baptized to bear all my sins and died on the Cross in my place! He has washed away my sins and opened the gate of Heaven for me! He loved me so much that He was baptized, shed His blood, and fulfilled my remission of sin like this!” In this way, when you thus believe in the truth of salvation, you will enter Heaven by this faith.
For people to believe in Jesus as their Savior is not that difficult, but it is, in fact, rather easy, for all that they have to do is just accept into their hearts the already accomplished facts that Jesus achieved when He came to this earth and believe in them. Because Jesus has blotted out all our sins and delivered us from them through His baptism in the Jordan River that He received from John the Baptist, and through the blood that He shed on the Cross and through the Spirit, when we believe in this Jesus in our hearts, we will all be saved.
“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Whether our sins are great or small, by being baptized and shedding His blood, Jesus has made them all disappear. It is by believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit, the truth that sets us free from sin, that we can receive our eternal salvation and encounter the freedom of this true salvation.
By fulfilling the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our Lord has flung the gate of Heaven wide open. Our Lord came to this earth, was baptized, died on the Cross, and rose from the dead again in three days-this truth, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, has moved us close to God, and it has enabled us to make Heaven ours in the future. Now, if you want to enter Heaven, as well as to be freed from sin and become God’s children, then you must receive your remission of sin by believing in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross. It is this faith that will enable you to receive the remission of sin and lead you into the gate of Heaven.
Our Lord knows everything about us. He knows when we were born, and He knows all about the sins that we have committed and are to commit. And He also knows very well that no matter how hard we try, we cannot make our sins disappear on our own. Because the Lord knows us so well, He Himself has blotted out all our sins with His baptism and the blood of the Cross.
Why Did Jesus Come to This Earth?
The name Jesus means the Savior. Jesus was born on this earth because our salvation from sin is accomplishable by no human being, but it falls only within the purview of divine power. Like this, the birth of Jesus entailed a clear purpose. This is why to save mankind from all sins, Jesus was born on this earth through the body of a virgin. In other words, Jesus was born through the body of a woman for the sake of sinners who inherited sin because of the transgression of Adam and Eve. To become the Savior who saves all the sinners of this world from all their iniquities, the Lord came to this world, conceived in the body of a virgin by the power of God.
Our Lord was born on this earth through the body of His own creation so that He Himself may become our unblemished offering. And when the time came, step-by-step He proceeded with His plan to bring salvation to us. When our Lord turned 30, he was baptized in the Jordan River. To achieve the purpose of His birth on this earth, Jesus had to accept the sins of the world by being baptized, and so it was to fulfill this task that He was baptized by John (Matthew 3:13-17).
When three years had passed since Jesus thus accepted the sins of the world through His baptism, He was crucified. It was because our Lord was baptized and had taken upon the sins of the world that He was vicariously condemned for our sins. Through the baptism given by John the Baptist and His blood of the Cross, the Lord has made all sins disappear, and He has thereby enabled those who believe to be saved from their sins.
No matter in what ignorance people find themselves, in what weaknesses they are trapped, and what kind of sinners they may be, God has enabled us believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to enter Heaven, the Kingdom of the Lord. It was to pay the wages of sin that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River and shed His blood on the Cross. Because of the salvation that Jesus has fulfilled by paying the wages of our sins and sacrificing Himself, those of us who believe can now be washed of our sins only by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is the fundamental truth of Christianity and the core of the remission of sin.
The Lord came to this world to become the Savior of all the sinners of this world. And the Lord has actually saved all of us from sin. Our Lord has enabled all sinners, no matter who they may be, to enter Heaven by believing in His works.
This is the love of the Lord. It was because our Lord loved us so much that He was baptized and shed His blood to save us. To deliver us from sin, whom He loved as much as His own body, our Lord fulfilled salvation by being baptized and shedding His blood. We had been sinners who would continue to sin until the day we die. Tormented by our sins, we kept moving away from God only further. To save such people as us, the Lord had to accomplish the works of salvation that enable us to become united with Him.
Our Lord has saved us who were sinners with the love of God. To save us sinners from our iniquities, He has completed the righteousness and love of God by receiving His baptism and shedding His blood. We who believe in this gospel are so thankful for what the Lord has done for us that words simply fail us to express our thanks of faith as we bow down before Him. The truth of the remission of sin that our Lord has given us is such a noble and absolute love that no words of logic, no words of sweetness can ever describe it.
Over 2,000 years ago, none of us were even born at that time. It was about 2,000 years ago that the veil of the earthly Temple and the heavenly Temple of the Kingdom of God were opened. We were not even in the wombs of our mothers at that time, but our Lord already knew all about us. He knew that you would be born, and that you would all live your lives each according to your own unique way. And the Lord has loved me—not only me, but He has loved you and everyone else the same. The Lord has loved us so much that He has enabled all sinners to enter Heaven by believing in the gospel of the water, the blood, and the Spirit that Jesus has fulfilled for us. Through the water and the Spirit (the baptism of Jesus and His blood of the Cross), Jesus has completed our salvation from sin.
That the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom is a truly amazing event. How could this veil of the Most Holy be torn, just because Jesus died on the Cross? This veil was like today’s carpets. It was woven very thick and sturdy. In Palestine, even now we can still come across such thick veils woven like carpets. They are woven so tightly that it is said that it takes four horses pulling in the opposite direction to tear them apart. How strong is a horse? Yet the veil that was so strong that it would have required four horses to tear was ripped from top to bottom when Jesus died on the Cross.
Why was the veil torn? It was torn because Jesus had washed away all the sins that were in the hearts of mankind. It was torn because Jesus had fulfilled all His righteous works by being baptized and crucified to death. By accepting the sins of the world through His baptism and being condemned on the Cross, Jesus opened the way for those who believe to enter Heaven. All that you have to do now is just believe. The Lord has opened the gate of Heaven so that you may all enter it just by believing.
Are Both Jesus’ Baptism and Blood Essential to Our Salvation?
It was according to the method of salvation planned even before the time of the Old Testament that hands were laid on the head of Jesus, a ritual that was reserved only for sacrificial offerings. Because its was the law of salvation set by God for the sacrificial offering to accept all sins with the laying on of hands and to die, Jesus, coming as our own sacrificial offering to save us forever, could blot out all our sins only by receiving His baptism, a form of the laying on of hands. This is why to enter into the Most Holy, even the High Priest had to make sure to take with him the blood of the sacrificial offering which had taken upon sins with the laying on of hands.
Why, then, did the High Priest have to enter into this place with blood? For the life of the flesh is in the blood, God had given it to the High Priest to make atonement for his soul before he came into His presence (Leviticus 17:11). All people had to die for their sins, but because Jesus took upon all the sins of mankind by being baptized in the Jordan River (all sins were passed onto Jesus with His baptism) and shouldered them all, Jesus was crucified and has thereby saved us with the blood that He shed, with His own life. This tells us that when sinners come before God, they must for sure take with them the faith that believes in the water and the blood. Only when we wholeheartedly believe in the water of the baptism of Jesus and the blood that He shed can we escape from being condemned for our sins.
Now, Jesus has washed away all sins, so that no one would have to give prayers of repentance, or fast, or give offerings for his/her remission of sin. We do not have to give prayers of repentance, nor do we have be punished for our sins, for Jesus has already given the offering of the remission of sin and condemnation. All that we have to do is just believe with our hearts in the salvation manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread.
All that anyone has to do is just believe in the baptism that Jesus received as the blue thread that was used for the Tabernacle of the Old Testament, and to believe in the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross as its scarlet thread. And the truth that Jesus is the King in His fundamental essence is manifested in the purple thread used for the door of the Tabernacle. As such, if we are washed of our sins by believing in the remission of sin manifested as the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and believe that all our condemnation has already ended, then any of us can now enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This gospel is the very gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Why Was the Veil of the Temple Torn When Jesus Died on the Cross? Let Us Consider This One More Time
The blue, purple, and scarlet thread manifested in the Old Testament is the gospel that brings the blessings of receiving the remission of sin and entering the Kingdom of Heaven to those who believe. This is why the veil was torn when Jesus, having been baptized, died on the Cross. For those who believe in Jesus, this is the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God Himself. “Ah, it was because Jesus was baptized by John in my place that He shed His blood and died on the Cross, and thereby paid the wages of death, the wages of sin. Dying on the Cross, Jesus said, “It is finished,” and it was at this moment that He opened the way for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus came to this earth to save those who were separated from God by the wall of sins that they could not avoid but keep building. This was Jesus’ own will, but at the same time it was also the command of God the Father and His love for us. Obeying the will of the Father, Jesus received the baptism that passed the sins of the world onto His own body. It was because Jesus shouldered the sins of the world through His baptism that He went to the Cross, was crucified, shed His blood and died, rose from the dead in three days, and thereby completed His works of salvation. These are the ministries manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, the remission of sin that delivers sinners from their iniquities, and the completion of the sacrificial system.
It is because Jesus has fulfilled salvation with His ministries that the gate of Heaven, which no man could enter so far, has now been opened. This demonstrates that the door of salvation is no longer opened with the laying on of hands and the blood of the animal that was used for the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament, but it is now opened with the faith that believes in the baptism that Jesus received and the blood that He shed on the Cross. That the veil was torn manifests the completion of salvation, that God has now enabled anyone who knows and truly believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit fulfilled by the Lord to enter Heaven. This is why the veil of the Temple had to be torn.
You must enter the Kingdom of Heaven with the faith that believes in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross. Jesus who had no sin at all came to this earth incarnated in the flesh and was baptized by John to accept all our sins (Matthew 3:15). Moreover, our Lord gave up the life of His body as the wages of our sins and has become the everlasting offering of atonement that we must take with us when we come before God. Therefore, all of us must believe in this blood that Jesus shed after being baptized as our salvation. To deliver mankind from sin and make them God’s own people, Jesus opened the gate of Heaven by tearing His own body.
When it comes to Jesus saving us, we must know that He did not just bleed on the Cross. Three years before dying on the Cross, He had already taken upon our sins by being baptized in the Jordan River. So Jesus was baptized by John for the sake of the entire mankind and then was crucified by Roman soldiers. Even before you and I were born in this world, Jesus had already cleansed away all our sins by being baptized and shedding His blood.
That Jesus was baptized by John was the method of salvation that He had to fulfill for sure in order to take upon our sins beforehand all at once. And the blood that He shed was the payment of the wages of all those sins. Because Jesus is God Himself, the baptism that He received and the blood that He shed on the Cross could certainly constitute our salvation from sin. This was our Lord’s perfect sacrifice that He made for the salvation of the entire mankind. Do you believe that the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit has cleansed away our sins and delivered us from all our sins and condemnation?
Through the Baptism of Jesus and the Blood of the Cross, All the Sins of Mankind Have Now Been Washed away
It was to wash away the sins of mankind that Jesus was baptized by John. If we look at Jesus’ ministries of salvation by leaving out this baptism of Jesus from His public life, then the salvation of mankind planned in Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world would all turn into lies. Even before the foundation of the world, Jesus was already preparing to be baptized to take upon the sins of mankind and to shed His blood.
This is why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of all mankind, and thereby accepted all sins (Matthew 11:11-12; Matthew 3:15). For Jesus to wash away the iniquities of sinners by being baptized was the method of salvation. Jesus accepted the iniquities of sinners and cleansed them away, and instead of us dying for our sins, He died vicariously in our place, and by doing so He has delivered those who believe in this from all their sins and condemnation. Through this method (the method of being baptized), Jesus could accept all the sins of mankind onto Himself and bear all the condemnation of sin by shedding His blood on the Cross. “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). That Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River meant that He accepted all the sins of us sinners.
Brothers and sisters, are you unable to believe that Jesus came to this earth over 2,000 years ago, that He was baptized when He turned 30, and that He shed His blood for you, just because you did not see this with your own eyes? But knowing all about our insufficiencies, God had already planned our salvation with the water and the blood even before the foundation of the world, and by sending Jesus Christ and John the Baptist to this earth according to this plan, He has fulfilled the salvation of all of us. To enable us to realize and know all this truth, God made His servants write down His Word. Through His written Word, God has revealed everything about the plan of salvation and its fulfillment to the entire mankind. He has now enabled anyone to realize through the written Word of God the truth that Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River to take upon all our sins.
All of us must now believe in the baptism that Jesus received and the blood that He shed on the Cross as our own salvation. Though we have not seen it with our eyes of the flesh, we must believe in our hearts. True faith comes to us when our faith is based on His Word. The Lord said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Jesus has saved you and me with the baptism that He received and the blood that He shed. God has enabled anyone who believes in this to enter Heaven.
This is why God tore the veil of the Temple when Jesus died on the Cross. Jesus brought down the wall of sin that had blocked us mankind from God. What Jesus had done was more than sufficient to tear down all the wall of sin. He has made it possible for anyone to enter Heaven absolutely unimpeded just by believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit in the heart. I thank our Lord for giving us this truth, so that we may all truly enter Heaven if we only believe in our hearts.
How great is this event, that Jesus was born on this earth in the body of a mere creature to save sinners? It is a truly remarkable event, even when compared to His creation of the world. It is only a matter of course that the Lord, the Creator who made all things, would create His creatures, but that the Creator became like a creature, took upon the sins of the world by being baptized, and was crucified, cannot be anything else but the great event of salvation.
How could the Creator Himself become like one of His creatures? Yet Jesus, God Himself, lowered Himself to such an extent that He was even baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, in the Jordan River. What an amazing event is this? But this is not the end of it, for Jesus lowered Himself all the way down, obeying to even His death, to endure countless cruel sufferings on the Cross, to shed His blood and die. All these things cannot be anything else but the love of God, His mercy and His great grace.
All the sins of mankind were completely cleansed away once for all with the baptism of the Lord and His blood of the Cross. And having torn the veil of the Temple, Jesus rose from the dead in three days, and He now wants to meet in the truth all those who believe in this truth. Like this, the works of the Lord that have saved sinners are a event that is greater and larger than even His works of the creation that made this universe and all things in it. The birth of Jesus, His baptism, His death on the Cross, His resurrection, ascension and return, and that He has made us His own children are the works of the love of God.
Our Lord has saved you and me from all sins. Our Lord has delivered you and me once for all from the sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can therefore become righteous by faith and thank God. God has bestowed on us His blessing of salvation to its fullness. Do you believe?
Brothers and sisters, you and I had been someone who could not but be cast into Hell. We had been someone who could not but be destroyed for our sins and live our lives in sadness, but the Lord has saved us from sin with the salvation that He had planned even before the foundation of the world. We had no other choice but to live our lives sitting in the midst of our sins, wailing, resenting, and cursing our fate, but to enable such people like us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord has delivered us from all our sins. Our Lord has thus become the Lord of our salvation.
Jesus has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and He has also guaranteed our remission of sin. Jesus Himself has become the Lord of salvation. Jesus took upon the sins of the world in our place, died in our stead, and has thereby become our perfect Savior.
Do You Believe in the Baptism that Jesus Received and the Blood That He Shed?
Our deliverance from sin is fulfilled by believing in the baptism that Jesus received and the blood of the Cross. For sinners to be saved by believing in Jesus as the Savior, they must make sure to consider His baptism and Cross in order, and they must believe that it is by the union of these two that the perfect salvation is fulfilled.
By any chance, are you not believing that Jesus was baptized and died on the Cross? Are you not ignoring the baptism that Jesus received from John and refusing to believe in it? The righteousness of God was fulfilled because the baptism that Jesus received was the process through which He took upon all the iniquities of sinners, and the death that He suffered by shedding His precious blood was the condemnation of our sins. As such, when you and I profess to believe in Jesus, we must believe both in His baptism and His blood of the Cross as one salvation.
God wrote the necessity of the baptism and bloodshed of Jesus in His Word, and yet despite this many people still insist that they need to believe only in the blood of the Cross to be saved. If you are one of them, then you must seriously reconsider your belief, turn around, and believe in both these two essentials. If you do not do so but believe only in the blood of the Cross, you will then end up turning the holy ministries of the public life of the Lord all in vain. If you happen to have such faith, then you must turn around from this flawed faith and have the true faith that is spoken of throughout the Bible. Without His baptism, what relevance would His death on the Cross have for us? If Jesus had not been baptized by John the Baptist, His death would have had nothing to do with our sins.
Brothers and sisters, if you were to erase your names from a bill, would you not have to actually bring money and pay the creditor? Debtors must hand over money for the corresponding amount of their debts, and only then can they erase their names from the list. Like this, to pay the wages of our sins, Jesus accepted such sins and iniquities of ours through His baptism and blotted them out by shedding His blood.
Through the baptism that He received, the Lord actually took away all our sins, and this is why He could be condemned for all our sins by shedding His blood. To pay off a debt, common sense dictates that one should bring a value that corresponds to this debt. If debtors do not bring money but only claim to have paid off their debts and demand their names to be erased from the bill, would their names really be erased? No matter how seriously they believe that their names have been erased, the fact of the matter is that their names still remain recorded in the bill.
As debtors can be freed from their debts only when the debts are actually paid off, for us sinners to receive the remission of sin, we must have in our hearts the faith that believes that our sins were passed onto Jesus through the baptism that He received. We ourselves did not give this baptism that passed our sins onto the head of Jesus.
But through an intermediary named John the Baptist, we were able to pass our sins onto Jesus. Jesus who was baptized by John the Baptist shouldered the sins of the world, went to the Cross, shed His blood and died. By believing in His baptism, the antitype and receipt of salvation, through which Jesus took upon our sins and has saved us, we can receive the proof of our salvation. By believing in what our Lord has done for us in our hearts, we are now able to receive the remission of sin. Why? Because through His baptism and blood, our Lord has given us new life.
When Jesus died on the Cross, the veil of the Most Holy was torn into two pieces, the earth was shaken, rocks were rolled, tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Through these events, God showed that He would raise those who believed in His Word, that Jesus Christ would come and blot out all the sins of mankind. He showed that Jesus indeed rose from the dead, and that those who believe in Jesus would indeed be brought alive. Jesus has not only saved us from sin, but He has also given new life to us who were spiritually dead. It was to given us new life that Jesus was baptized, died on the Cross, and lived again. God has enabled us to enter His Holy City and live in it forever. I give my true thanks to Him with my faith.
The place where those who have received the remission will live is Heaven. So do believe that those who have received the remission of sin on this earth will all enter Heaven and live in it. Heaven belongs to those who have received the remission of sin. Believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and being born again are not two separate things, but they are both the same.
If anyone believes in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, then this person is born again the very moment he/she believes. When sinners receive the remission of sin, they become God’s own children, and to His children, God gives Heaven as a gift. Even though in our flesh we have no work of our own, looking at just one thing, our faith that believes in the Savior, our Lord has given us the remission of sin and Heaven as His gifts for us.
The fact that our Lord came to this earth, that He was baptized, and that He shed His blood, is all true. When Jesus died on the Cross, He had already taken upon the sins of the world with His baptism. Before Jesus was crucified, having been baptized by John beforehand, He was already carrying the sins of the world. So it was because Jesus had shouldered all the sins of the world by being baptized that He had to bear the punishment of the law declaring the wages of sin to be death. For Jesus to save mankind from sin, He had to die on the Cross while He was carrying the sins of the world that He had taken upon with His baptism.
When Jesus was crucified, people who nailed Him were not Jews, but they were Roman soldiers. Jesus was crucified by Gentile soldiers. Shedding all His blood for the sake of our sins, Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” with His last breath. At the very moment, the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Moreover, the Bible also tells us that the earth quaked, the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and that many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised as well (Matthew 27:51-52). When the centurion and the Roman soldiers saw what happened when Jesus died on the Cross, they testified, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54). God had made the mouths of these Gentile soldiers to testify, “Jesus was the Son of the living God.”
Now, those who must testify the true gospel throughout the world are none other that us, the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that everyone is changed. When people receive the remission of sin from Jesus, they are transformed spiritually without even trying, for the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in their hearts. And the hearts of the born-again righteous are renewed everyday, for in God’s Church they can consistently hear the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They come to hear the Word, praise Jesus, and as they praise, they experience that the lyrics are engraved into their hearts, thereby renewing their hearts everyday. The righteous have their hearts continuously transformed, and they can feel such tangible changes in themselves.
And seeing our changed selves, who have become righteous, unbelievers come to testify, “They are truly saved. They are real Christians, the people of God.” Like this, our remission of sin is not the kind of salvation that is proven by ourselves alone. The Roman centurion and soldiers also testified this truth, that Jesus as the Son of God had saved sinners from the sins of the world when He was crucified. Like this, God Himself bore witness to those who believe in the truth that Jesus has saved us from all our sins with the water and the blood.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit That Made Even the Devil Surrender
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the salvation to which even the Devil has surrendered. When Jesus said, “It is finished” on His death, the Devil might have said, “Ah! This is mortifying, but there is nothing I can do about it! He is right. There is no sin in this world anymore. Everyone is now completely sinless without any exception! It’s eating up my heart, but I can’t do anything about it!”
In other words, the Devil himself could not help but also acknowledge this salvation that Jesus fulfilled. But he still tries to hinder those who have received the remission of sin from living their lives of faith. As those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit fulfilled by Jesus are God’s children, they try to live for Him. But for the Devil, this can only mean that there would be fewer servants of his who are enslaved to sin, and so he tries to prevent God’s servants from spreading this truth all over the world.
If those who have received the remission of sin continue to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then there would be even more people who are remitted of sin. This is why Satan sinks his teeth into the weaknesses of people and wouldn’t let go, hindering them so that even just one more person would be thwarted from following Jesus.
Inciting people’s hearts by telling them, “Kill Jesus!”, the Devil made them crucify Him to death. But just when the Devil thought that everything ended with this, Jesus, crucified and dying, shouted out loud, “It is finished!” Satan was shocked by this. Far from being thwarted, by taking upon all our sins through His baptism in the Jordan River and dying on the Cross, Jesus had righteously fulfilled the salvation that delivers mankind from sin and condemnation. The Devil had been oblivious of this wisdom of God. He had thought that everything would be over if he just kills Jesus on the Cross, but this was not the case. After taking upon the sins of the world through His baptism, Jesus completed sinners’ remission of sin by giving up His body on the Cross and dying.
With the death of His body, Jesus has already paid off all the wages of sin. As such, sin can no longer be found in people. Why? Because according to the law declaring the wages of sin to be death, Jesus already died instead of sinners. We must believe that it was because Jesus had taken upon all the iniquities of sinners in the Jordan River that He could die vicariously instead of sinners.
“It is finished!” This is what Jesus shouted out on the Cross with His last breath. Because Jesus died, the Devil can no longer say to us, “You have sin, don’t you?” Because of the birth of Jesus, His baptism, His death on the Cross, and His blood and resurrection, the Devil suffered a crushing defeat before Jesus. Though the Devil had estranged our relationship with God by making us sin all the time, in the end, because of the wisdom of Jesus the Son of God, His washing of sin and condemnation, he ultimately could not avoid but be totally defeated.
When you believe in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross, do you still have sin? Of course not! Saying that we have no sin is something that just cannot be said with the conscience of the flesh. Bu by believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus, we are now able to declare boldly that we are sinless. Do you believe the truth that Jesus took upon our sins by being baptized in the Jordan River, died on the Cross in our place, and has thereby saved us? By our faith in this truth, we can say now that we have no sin. And in fact, there can be no sin at all in our hearts, not even as small as a penny. This is why grateful hearts spring up in us before God, giving our thanks with faith.
“God, my faith may not be great, but even with a faith that is as small as a mustard seed, I still give my thanks you. I was someone who could not even bear Your great love, but You still came into my heart, and so with my faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I now hold Your love in my heart. My heart is thankful to You everyday, for the Lord who dwells in my heart and is with me. For giving this heart, I give all my thanks to You.” Like this, our Lord has given us thankful hearts. And our Lord blesses us everyday.
So not only I, but also everyone else who hears and believes in the truth of His perfect salvation also, we all clearly have no sin at all in our hearts. Because we believe in the truth of the water and the Spirit, we have received the blessing of salvation, of becoming God’s own children. And God wholeheartedly wants all to realize that there is no way for them to be saved from all their sins without believing in the birth of Jesus and His baptism and blood, and to return to Him and believe in this truth.
Acts 4:12 declares, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” We believe in Jesus as our Savior. In those who believe in this, thankful hearts spring up. We therefore have hearts that are thankful to the Lord. Our Lord has given us salvation, and He has also given us thankful hearts. The Lord has given us eternal life. We cannot help but glorify the Lord with our thanks for giving us all these abundant blessings.
Even if our faith is as small as a mustard seed, if we still believe in what Jesus has done for us in our hearts, we can all be saved. I beseech you all to realize that there is nothing else we can do for our salvation but only believe, to know this salvation that God has given us freely, and to believe in it. It is because the remission of sin cannot be attained through our own efforts that God has unilaterally blotted out all our sins on His own and has given His salvation to those of us who believe. Now, all that remains for us to do is just receive this remission of sin by faith.
There is a saying in Korea that goes, “If you like freebies too much, you will go bald.” In English parlance, its equivalent might be, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” That is certainly true; nothing in life comes to us for free. And we are apt to ridicule those who expect to receive gifts without giving anything in return. Nonetheless, being saved and going to Heaven are achieved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, all for free. Baldness from receiving too many freebies may be unsightly in the flesh, but spiritual baldness to receive God’s gift is a blessing before God. I pray you would all realize that God is rejoiced to see our sinless hearts, and that seeing this, He embraces us in His arms.
We are fond of God’s free grace. And we cannot but thank the Lord: Our Lord came to this earth, received His baptism by water, shed His blood on the Cross, and has thereby opened the gate of Heaven. By tearing the veil of the Most Holy from top to bottom, He has enabled anyone who is born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You, too, must also enter Heaven by believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit in your hearts.
I thank our Lord for being baptized, shedding His blood, rising from the dead, and for the grace that has thereby opened the door of the remission of sin for us.
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