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Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 4-1] The Lord Who Solves All Our Problems (John 4:3-19)
(John 4:3-19)
“He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.’”
A heart that knows one’s insufficiencies is the heart that finds grace from God. As we carry on with our lives in this world, we sometimes feel keenly the necessity of needing God’s help because of our insufficiencies. Such a heart truly deserves to receive the grace of God, and it actually experiences His grace in His time. Those who know their insufficiencies and need God’s help while living in this world are far more blessed than those who neither realize any shortcomings nor any need for God’s help. We are of those who cannot live without the grace of God everyday, and therefore, we need His grace day after day. Whatever we do, we need God’s help in our whole lives and for everything, whether it is to spread the gospel around the world or in Korea. I believe that this need for God’s help is in and of itself a blessing, and it is actually what allows us to put on God’s blessings.
Today went by so fast that I can hardly remember it. Pastor Shin came to see me yesterday, and we spent the whole day today working on our literature ministries. I was too busy to realize the sunset, and by the time I got to church for worship service, it was already dark. Daylight has become rather short nowadays. It seems the winter is now nearing. As the winter is now nearing, my heart yearns for His grace even more, because there remain still more things that I have to do in this year. It’s also my sincere desire that I would become a man who never forgets his insufficiencies all his life, and who always seeks God’s help truthfully. I don’t want to become a man who is too abundant and prosperous by himself that he doesn’t need God’s help. I would rather be a man whose heart and body are too insufficient, and therefore who needs God’s help constantly. I want to live everyday under God’s shade asking for His help.
The Woman Who Met Jesus
Today’s Scripture passage describes a Samaritan woman who met Jesus. Jesus had asked this woman for some water, but the woman snubbed Him, saying to Him, “That’s odd. Why are You, a Jew, asking me for water, a Samaritan woman?” Jesus then said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman then asked many preposterous questions, and eventually, she came to recognize the identity of Jesus. She came to realize that Jesus was the true Prophet, and that He was none other than the very Savior whom God had prophesied in the Old Testament to send to Israel and this world. So the woman came to recognize and believe in Jesus as her Savior. And she also went on to preach about Him.
As we read this passage now, we are led to ponder on “Who is it that really gives us living water?” Who gives us such water that quenches our hearts, that is alive, and that makes us never thirst again? Isn’t it God? Isn’t it Jesus who has saved us from sin? As we ponder these questions, we believe that it is neither any man nor any material substance on this earth that gives us living water, but it is Jesus the Almighty who is truly powerful. Who will quench our hearts, bring us peace of mind, and solve our hearts’ problems in both spirit and body?
The Samaritan woman had been thirsty everyday as long as she was in this desert-like world, and so she had to keep coming to the well to draw water time after time. However, our Lord said to this woman, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” In the end, the woman came to recognize the identity of Jesus. And thus, she was remitted from all her sins, and received living water into her heart.
I believe that only our Lord is able to give us living water. Whenever we encounter hardships, whenever our hearts are weary, and whenever we have any needs for our hearts, it is none other than Jesus our Savior who truly provides for all our spiritual and physical needs and solves all our problems. The Lord alone has solved away all the sins of our hearts, and He alone has given true peace to you and me. When we were weary from our sins, tormented by them and unhappy, and when we were suffering with many problems and struggling with our lives in this desert-like world, it was none other than our Lord who gave us living water. Only our Lord has given us living water.
My fellow believers, who has solved away all your problems and mine? Is it man, any religion, or the wealth of this world? No, it’s none of these. Jesus alone has solved away all the problems that we face in our lives. Because He is the almighty God, and because He truly loves us, He is able to solve our problems. Out of His love for us, Jesus momentarily forsook His glory and authority to come to this earth, and He solved away all your problems of sin and mine alike. It is Jesus who thankfully solves away not only the problem of our sins, but also all our spiritual and physical problems.
The Lord has permitted us to have the living water of Heaven that cannot be attained from any man. He has allowed us to receive the remission of sins and the eternal life of God, He has blessed us to become God’s children, and He has given us everything we need to live in this world. We have indeed received so many blessings from our Lord that we cannot even count them all. I wonder how we could live in this desert-like world were it not for the Lord. Without the Lord, life in this world would be so thirsty. Indeed, but for the Lord, our lives would be too dry and unsatisfactory.
People risk their lives just to accumulate wealth. But is anyone happy just because he is wealthy? King Solomon, who had enjoyed all kinds of wealth and splendor, made the following confession: “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.
When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?” (Ecclesiastes 5:10-11)
Indeed, wealth has no benefit except for the eye to see. I spend sometime today looking for a house to rent as I plan to move soon. I feel that while living in this world, whether we live in a big mansion or a rundown shack all depends on whatever God permits. I looked at a house from the outside without entering, but anyways, the realtor said that inside the house was also nice, as it was built new. Its owner has built the house with the loaned money to live there. But now that it was finished, he could not afford to live there because he now owed an extra $100,000 to the builder besides the bank loan. So I was told that even though the owner had built the house elegantly for himself, he couldn’t live there but had to rent it out. He had built a picturesque house to live there with his beloved ones, but as he could not pay all the money he owed, the builder was now practically its owner.
I realized that unless God allows, even the house owner couldn’t live in the house that he had built for himself. Although the owner had built the house to live there happily, because God did not permit this, he was sadly forced to put it on the sale market to resolve the situation. I don’t care whether my house is big or small; if I can just rest my body, and if I can continue to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then I am satisfied. Most houses nowadays can be purchased with only US$200,000-$300,000. The house that I saw today could also be purchased with just $300,000. In fact, even if I didn’t have $300,000, if I had just $100,000 in cash, then I could have easily bought the house. If I had agreed to assume responsibility for the bank loan that the house owner had taken out, then I could have become its owner. But what’s the use of owning the house? I would have to struggle just to pay back the bank loan.
Even if you don’t have that much wealth, if you have no debt, then you are a very rich person. Do you grasp this? In these days, being debt-free alone means that you are rich. Long ago, a beggar was living under a bridge with his son. One day, a big fire broke out across the river. So the father said to the son, “Son, you should thank me that we don’t own anything, since we’ve got nothing to worry about in fire like this.” There was nothing under the bridge to catch on fire. And since they were living under the big bridge as the roof over their heads, they had nothing to worry about even when it rained heavily. There wasn’t anything to be stolen, nor any tax to pay. So in some ways, such a life might indeed be a happy life. If they got hungry, they just had to go out with a tin can, beg for some food, and eat what they got. The father might say to the son, “What do you want to eat? Chicken? Here, have this piece of chicken leg. Do you want some fruits? I got them too!” You can imagine how the tin can would hold all kinds of food. Since in the old days in Korea, people used to give generously to beggars, if they went to a hundred houses, then they had a hundred different dishes to eat. That’s why a beggar’s dish tastes the best.
Regardless of whether you are wealthy or poor, a happy life is one that asks for God’s help and puts on His grace. I believe that the happy are those who live in God’s grace, ask Him for His grace, and live clothed in this grace. It is better for us to lack a few things than have everything in abundance while living in this world.
When we live in a world that’s like a desert, God permits living water to be in our hearts. The Lord solves all our problems. In other words, when we ask the Lord for His grace, saying to Him, “Lord, I really need Your grace. Please bestow it upon me. I need Your help,” we can finally taste the grace of God. It’s good that we have such a heart that asks God for His help. Although we have lived by the grace of God until now, it’s my sincerest hope that we would also continue to live by the grace of the Lord in the days to come. I know and believe that just as the Lord Jesus had given living water to this Samaritan woman, and indeed solved away all her problems, He will also clothe us with all the grace and blessings that we need to live in this world.
Our God is powerful, and He has not only saved us from sin, but He has also become our Shepherd and our Father. Because God bestows His grace on everything we do, we cannot help but thank Him, and we cannot help but believe in this God. We truly believe in Him and thank Him. We indeed give all our thanks. We thank our Lord because He will fill us with everything we need and lack in our lives. Because the Lord is powerful, because He knows all our needs, and because we are His children and His people, we believe that the Lord will be with us and help us until the end of the world.
Jesus Has Given Us a Fountain of Water Springing up into Everlasting Life
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” The Lord also said, “The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman then said to Jesus, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” As this women met Jesus, her earnest wish deep inside her was also revealed. Her heart was completely overturned. Because of her shame, this woman had not been able to come to draw water during the cool morning, but she had come only during the hot midday. So her life was a wretched one. Yet even though she had led such a tired life everyday, Jesus told her that there was a fountain of water that, once she drinks, would spring forever into eternal life. Shocked by this, the woman asked Jesus, “If there is such water, give me it to me just once!”
We get thirsty time after time even though we drink water everyday. So how wonderful would it be if there were some water that would make us never thirst again if we drink it just once? Wouldn’t you be amazed, if there were such water that would make you never thirst again and quench your throat and your whole body just by drinking it once? Wouldn’t you also be willing to die to get hold of this water, saying, “Let me drink it just once! I don’t care what happens later; let me try this water just once!” So the Samaritan woman was also bewildered, and asked the Lord for this water.
Jesus then said to her, “Call your husband.” The woman then thought to herself, “Gee, that’s just my luck. Of all people, why does He want to see my husband?” So she said to Him, “Although I am living with a man, he is not my husband. I have no husband.” Jesus then said, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” “Wow, You are right. How do you know? Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”
At first, this woman thought that Jesus was a prophet. A prophet is someone who knows the things of the past, of the present, and of the future. So the woman thought that Jesus was a prophet. However, after she continued to talk with Him, she came to realize finally that Jesus was the true Messiah. The woman recognized that Jesus was the Messiah of mankind, the Savior who had been prophesied in the Old Testament from the Book of Genesis and right up until her encounter with the Lord. This woman was so happy to recognize and believe in Jesus that she left her jar of water, went into her village, and testified, “I’ve met the Messiah!” Because of her, many people came to believe in Jesus.
There is actually nothing that our Lord doesn’t know about us. He knows all about us. Is there anything that the Lord doesn’t know about each of us? No, He knows everything about us. Jesus knows all about my life. He knows what will happen to my life in the future, what happened in the past, and what is happening now. Would Jesus not know our sins? When Jesus said to the Samarian woman, “I will give you living water that will make you never thirst again,” the woman was so happy that she said, “Give it to me! I will drink it!” But the Lord said to her, “Bring your husband.”
This exchange implies that for us to attain everlasting life, become God’s children, and turn into righteous people, the biggest obstacle is none other than the problem of sin. So by pointing out the problem of sin to this woman, Jesus made her submit her problem of sin to the Lord, and by solving this problem of sin for her, He clothed her with the garment of the salvation that made her a righteous woman and a child of God.
When God gives us living water, He first solves the problems of our sins and then gives us His living water. That’s why Jesus had first exposed the Samaritan woman’s problem of sin and then solved it all away. The Lord had bestowed His grace on her. He didn’t care how this woman had led her life so far or what kind of a woman she was; He simply solved away all her problems. The woman had lived with no less than five men. Is this somehow negligible? No, it’s a big deal. In Korea, she could very well have set a new record. No woman in Korea can have so many husbands. Yet despite this, Jesus not only exposed this woman’s problem of sin, but He also solved it all way.
When we continue reading today’s Scripture passage, we see that Jesus made Himself known. So when the woman recognized who Jesus was, she realized that just as the lamb of atonement in the Old Testament had accepted sin through the laying on of hands, Jesus had come to this earth as the Savior of this world and bore all her sins by being baptized. The Lord has solved away the problem of all your sins and mine.
Why did we live accursed lives, unable to receive God’s blessings? It was all because of the very sins that were in our hearts. Nothing else matters before God. The wall that divides us from God is not our insufficiencies or anything else, but it is the problem of our sins. That’s why the Lord came to this earth, accepted the sins of the world by being baptized in the Jordan River, and completely solved away this problem of sin on the Cross.
Like this, because the Lord has solved away the problem of all your sins and mine, by believing in this, we have received the remission of sins. The Samaritan woman yearned for Jesus to give her the living water of eternal life, and our Lord indeed gave her this living water. He gave living water not only to this woman, but to you and me also.
Is this woman the only person to live with five men? Did we not also live with five spouses? Spiritually speaking, the spouses here mean the values of this world that are expected to make us happy. For example, they are such as wealth, power, prestige, religion, pleasure, and so on. We cannot help but commit sin chasing such things until the day we die, and we cannot avoid but be cast into hell because of our sins.
Yet our Lord has blotted out all these sins. By being baptized and dying on the Cross, Jesus has blotted out each and every sin. Because God is almighty, and because He loves us, He has bestowed His grace on us and solved away all our problems without any exception. By doing so, the Lord quenched the thirst of Samaritan woman’s heart, and He has also quenched the thirst of your heart and mine.
How Could We Ever Be Quenched Our Thirst without the Lord?
It’s because the Lord has solved away the problem of our sins that our hearts’ thirst can be quenched wholly; had He not done so, then we would have had no choice but to die under the constant weight of sin. Moreover, we had been destined to die not only under the burden of our sins, but also under the weight of our worries, the oppressions of evil Satan, and even the grim realities of life living in this world. Yet because our Lord is powerful, He has solved away not only the problem of our sins, but also every other problem. And even now, He is solving away our problems. Whenever we face a problem, the Lord bestows His grace. Whenever things go wrong, the Lord corrects them to ensure success. God also bestows His grace on what we cannot achieve through our own effort. Giving us His blessings every moment, God makes it possible for us to achieve what’s impossible.
We know that God has bestowed us with His grace of salvation. So, we are wholeheartedly thankful to the Lord. We know that the Lord we believe in is almighty, has blotted out our sins, and also bestows His grace on us with everything we need in order to live. By any chance, does your heart have any issues, lack anything, or need anything? Then submit such problems to God and ask Him to solve them. Praying is how you submit your problems to God.
When you go to a hospital, you first present your health card, right? Like this, you have to first present your problems to God. Once you submit your request to God, saying, “Lord, this is what I need,” then this problem will be solved sooner or later. God will take care of this problem when you really need it. We have such a privilege to submit our problems to the Almighty God in whatsoever they may be. Today’s Scripture passage compels me to reflect on just how powerful our Lord is, and what a wonderful privilege it is that we have been saved. I recognize and believe that it is our happiness that we’ve met with the Lord, and it is our privilege as Christians that the Lord provides us with living water everyday, and that we are able to drink it everyday. Do you also recognize and believe in this manner?
Our Lord bestows His grace on everything you need in your life according to His time. I admonish you to believe in this also. What a powerful and wonderful God our Lord is! God is the Lord who bestows His grace on everything we do, on our every thought and aspiration. It is written, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). We should pray and thank God that we have become His children. And we should give thanks to this Lord who gives living water to you and me everyday, to the Lord who solves all our problems and has already born the burden of all our sins. Indeed, we have no choice but to thank God. I am sure that even in the days to come, we will continue to live by the grace of the Lord.
Do you also believe this? Do you also need God’s grace everyday? Do you have any needs? Do you lack anything? If so, then you are a very happy person. Why? You and I are happy people because all our needs and shortcomings will be filled and supplemented by the almighty Lord. Do you believe in this? I admonish you to believe so.
I, too, believe so. I believe that if I need anything, God would fill me and bestow grace upon me. And I believe that the Lord will do the same to you as well. I didn’t know at first that being saved was so amazing and wonderful like this. When I first heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit and received my salvation, I thought that only the problem of sin was solved. However, as I continued to carry on with my life in this world after receiving the remission of sin, I came to realize that I had many needs, and that I had many things lacking. And I came to realize that our Lord bestows His grace upon us from time to time, provides for our needs according to our necessities, provides for us to live by faith, allows for us live differently from the people of the world, and makes it possible for us to choose to receive living water from God everyday. So the more time has passed by since I received the remission of my sins, the more I am thankful to the Lord. I am grateful because He is the Lord who will solve our problems.
My fellow believers, have you received the remission of sin? It’s a huge deal that you’ve received the remission of sin. It’s tremendous. Since you’ve received the remission of sin, you’ve become God’s children and His blessed people. My fellow believers, even though there may be many problems after receiving the remission of your sins, I admonish you to follow the Lord. I admonish you to follow the Lord with your heart united with the brothers and sisters and God’s Church, reading His Word, as well as praying. If you are not sure what to do, then, just follow those who are ahead of you. Be led by them, share fellowship with them, be ruled by them, and follow the Lord. Your will then live a very blessed life. I cannot be thankful enough when I think about how we’ve become God’s children, received everlasting life, and attained living water everyday all because we’ve received this one thing, the remission of sin.
As we are living in this world in our flesh, we have many needs for both our bodies and our spirits, and we also need God’s help for many things. However, because we have become God’s children, we have put on this grace where God helps us. Even now, we are clothed in it. We put on God’s grace forever. Words cannot express just how grateful I am. To the God who gives us living water everyday, to the Lord who solves away all our problems everyday, let us give our thanks by faith, and let us also follow the Lord diligently by faith.
Jesus Gives the Remission of Sin and Everlasting Life through the Word of the Bible
The most widely read book in the whole wide world is the Bible, the Word of God. This Bible is the Truth, for it is God’s Word. The Bible is the storehouse of the profound Truth, so much so that there is hardly anything that is not addressed in the Word of God. Shakespeare, the world-renowned literary giant whom we know very well, is said to have read the Bible over 200 times. His writings boast extremely accurate and powerful expressions, but it’s said that all his writings actually emulated the expressive power of the Word of God. Although Shakespeare had discovered good expressions in the Bible, we should discover in the Bible the blessed gospel that enables us to be born again. We should thereby receive the everlasting life offered by the Lord.
This Bible is the Word of God that bears witness of Jesus. It teaches the Truth that enables one to receive the Holy Spirit by believing in the wonderful gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Word of the Bible writes about the mystery of the beautiful salvation that Jesus has given to mankind. This Bible writes of how the world was created at the beginning, who God the Father is, who His Son Jesus is, and what Jesus has done for mankind.
Genesis 1:1-3 also writes about Jesus. It’s also written in Genesis, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” We can see here that God is the Triune God of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The fact that God said when He created mankind, “Let Us make Man according to Our likeness,” manifests that He is the Triune God. Put differently, what the Triune God did is different in each manifestation of the Godhead; God the Father planned every aspect of this salvation, Jesus has achieved Father’s plan of salvation and bears witness of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is testifying to what the Son did.
This Bible says from the beginning that it is Jesus our Savior who created the world and the whole universe. Jesus is the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Prophet for all mankind, and the King of kings. Jesus concurrently holds the three offices of the High Priest, the Prophet, and the King. Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind who came to deliver it from Satan, sin, destruction, and judgment, and to destroy the work of Satan. There is no story in the Bible that’s more beautiful than the wonderful gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given to us.
However, the Jews thought that Moses was greater than Jesus. It was ignorance and foolishness that stemmed from their lack of faith in Jesus. Even now, denying that Jesus is the Son of God, they are still waiting for the Messiah to come. However, the entire Bible reveals that Jesus has already come, and that He will return again. In John 5:46, Jesus says, “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.”
Moses recorded the Bible. He received the Law from God and recorded it, and He also wrote about the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle in detail. The Word of the Bible became the foundation of our faith. Through Moses, God had given the sacrificial system to wash away all the sins of everyone in this world.
The Book of Leviticus, which we know very well, clearly records and shows what kind of sacrifice should be offered by man in order to receive the remission of sin from God. It says that if anyone of the common people committed sin before God and wanted to sacrifice an offering to Jehovah to receive the remission of that sin, then he had to bring an unblemished animal. And according to this sacrificial system, the sinner had to lay both his hands on the head of the sacrificial animal without fail. Having thus passed all his sins to the sacrificial animal, he then had to kill it in his place, thus drawing its blood. He then had to hand it over to a priest, and the priest put some of this blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, poured the rest on the ground, cut the flesh of the sacrificial animal, put it on the altar of burnt offering along with the fat taken out of the animal’s entrails, and burned them with fire to be offered to God. The Bible says that it was established that all the people would receive the remission of their sins as the priest did these things for them. And God also established the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month in order to blot out the yearly sins of Israelites. This sacrificial system was a law that God had given through Moses.
For What Purpose Do We Believe in Jesus?
The purpose for which we believe in Jesus is to receive the remission of our sins. When Jesus came to this earth for the first time, He did not come in majesty like this world’s kings. On the contrary, He had abandoned the glory of Heaven and came as a root out of dry ground. Even though Jesus came to this earth incarnated in a body that had nothing to desire, He is not just an ordinary man, but He is God Himself. Because Jesus came to this earth in humbleness, many people of those days did not receive Him. They were therefore excluded from His wonderful salvation. Most Israelites did not believe in the Word of the Bible. As they each were more interested in the glory of their flesh than the salvation offered by Jesus, they did not believe in the wonderful gospel of the water and the Spirit with the desire to attain it.
Moses Is the Representative of the Law in the Old Testament
Moses received the Law from God, and he relayed His clear commandments to the people. God gave no less than 613 statutes and commandments to mankind. This Law is constituted by the statutes that must be kept toward God, and the divine norms of life that are indispensable for human beings to live in harmony with each other. Moses clearly relayed God’s Law to the people. Yet despite this, the people did not realize their sins even after receiving God’s Law.
God taught the method of the remission of sin through the sacrificial system in the Bible. In the Old Testament, for a sinner to receive the remission of his sins, he had to pass them to his sacrificial animal by laying his hands on its head without fail. And he had to draw its blood and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. That is how God had set forth the law of salvation, and how He had decided to bless all mankind by delivering it from sin.
Mankind’s sins had to be passed onto the head of the sacrificial animal through the laying on of hands. And God said that if anyone believed in His Word according to the law established by Him, he would be saved from all sins. Despite this, however, the people of Israel are still awaiting for their Superman-like Savior even now. But Jesus, a leader more powerful than even Moses, has come to them and ascended to Heaven already. He has already come to the people of Israel and the Gentiles alike, and ascended back to Heaven.
But they did not believe in Jesus. This Messiah was so wise that to complete the work of perfect salvation, He came to this earth quietly, received the baptism given by John the Baptist, carried the sins of this world as a result, bore the condemnation of the sins of mankind by being crucified, and has thereby saved the entire human race. After being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus shed His blood on the Cross, and just before dying, He testified that He had completely fulfilled salvation from sin, saying, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) He then rose from the dead again, and having ascended to Heaven, He now sits at the right hand of the throne of God the Father.
In a village in Israel called Bethlehem, Jesus the Savior of sinners was born. In outside appearance, it seemed as though He had come as someone lowlier than even an ordinary person. So many people could not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. However, we are now able to recognize Jesus, who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we can also believe in Him. If only we examine this Jesus more closely, we can see that He is the Son of God, the Creator, and the Savior of mankind. We can recognize clearly that Jesus is God Himself, and we can also meet with Him by faith.
What Is the Wonderful Gospel That Every Sinner Must Believe?
In order to be remitted from one’s sins, everyone must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus fulfilled through the baptism He received from John and His blood on the Cross. Everyone must believe in this wonderful gospel of the water and the Spirit. Yet despite this, too many people are making an irrevocable mistake by refusing to recognize the Truth that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and His blood constitute their salvation. They understand and believe that Jesus has saved mankind simply by shedding His blood on the Cross.
But what a mistaken understanding is this? Jesus was the Lamb of God who blotted out the sins of the world once and for all. By being baptized by John the Baptist, He accepted all the sins and blemishes of this world, and with the blood that He shed crucified to the Cross, He blotted out all these sins. Yet many people failed to recognize Him as their Savior.
Jesus always treats us gently. In this Bible is contained the blessed Word, the wonderful gospel that makes it possible for everyone to be born again of the water and the Spirit. All those who want to believe in Jesus must believe in Jesus the Son of God who has come by the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and thus receive the remission of their sins.
The Word of the Bible is a treasure house of the wonderful gospel that enables us to receive the remission of sin and the Holy Spirit. Let us then all believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord, and let us all thus receive the true remission of our sins, everlasting life, and the living water.
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