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Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 1-6] The Apostle Paul’s Faith And His Admonishment to The Circumcisionists (Galatians 1:1-17)
“Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.”
Background of the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Churches of Galatia
When the Apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the churches of Galatia, the circumcisionists had caused so much havoc that the churches were about to close down. So quite naturally, Paul’s heart was very anxious lest they should be undermined. The churches of Galatia had been the gathering of those who were saved from their sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit preached by the Apostle Paul. It was because of their faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Apostle Paul and the saints of the Galatian churches could be saved from their sins. This gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel that Jesus has saved all sinners from the sins of the world through the baptism that He received from John and the blood that He shed on the Cross. His baptism was to take the sins of the world onto His body and to pay off their wages on behalf of all sinners, for the wages of sin is death.
What the Apostle Paul was now worried about the churches of Galatia was the swelling influence of the circumcisionists. These circumcisionists’ faith was like this: For one to become one of God’s people, not only should the person believe in Jesus, but also be circumcised. The circumcisionists in the churches of Galatia felt that the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit was not sufficient, and therefore they argued that they had to be physically circumcised. As such, the faith of the circumcisionists was legalistic, clearly different from the faith that enables everyone to receive salvation only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
In Paul’s eyes, the saints of the Galatian churches were falling under the influence of legalistic faith. As a result, in the churches of Galatia, more and more people came to accept such erroneous teachings of the circumcisionists. Paul could not leave the disruption of the circumcisionists alone. So he proclaimed, “As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9).
The Apostle Paul came to rebuke the circumcisionists’ faith as a flawed one because the Truth that he believed was the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, the gospel that the Apostle Paul preached to the churches of Galatia was the gospel of the water and the Spirit, not the belief in physical circumcision. In Galatians 3:27-28, we can discover that Paul’s faith was one that believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit manifested in the Bible: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Because the gospel that Paul believed and preached to people was the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he warned that the circumcisionists would be accursed by God. He also made it clear that his gospel was neither learnt from men, nor came from men, and far less was it related to the circumcision of the Old Testament. Rather, the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Paul believed in was the gospel of salvation that was testified in both the Old and New Testaments. Paul’s faith was one that believed in the salvation shone by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As such, Paul’s faith was clearly distinct from the faith of today’s Christians who believe that they can wash away their sins through their own prayers of repentance. Today’s Christians mistakenly think that they can wash away their daily sins just by giving their prayers of repentance to Jesus. We must realize that all these legalistic faiths, both the faith of circumcisionists and that of the prayers of repentance, are fallacious ones that would return us back to the bondage of the Law.
In the Early Church period, the circumcisionists were very active in the churches of Galatia, and these circumcisionists were like today’s Christians who are convinced that they can be washed from their sins through their prayers of repentance. But we must realize that the faith of the prayers of repentance is an erroneous one. Yet because many of today’s Christians hold this belief that they can somehow wash away their sins through their prayers of repentance, they have turned into foolish believers. Therefore, faith in the prayers of repentance is disastrously flawed. Now, it is essential for every Christian to realize that the emphasis on the prayers of repentance is fallacious. This kind of faith is a mistaken faith that stands against the righteous love of God.
Yet even now, this belief that one’s sins can be washed away through the prayers of repentance is still pervasive in every Christian’s thoughts. Their claim is that people must believe in Jesus and His work, and then additionally believe in the prayers of repentance. To illustrate, this is akin to the groundless belief of the circumcisionists, who advocated that one could become God’s people only if the person had been circumcised, on top of believing in Jesus as his Savior. The problem is that this kind of faith still pervades Christianity even to this day. The Early Church faced a similar problem, for there were, as we know, those in the Church who insisted on circumcision.
Among today’s Christians, between those who insist on the prayers of repentance and those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, whose faith is right? It is the faith of the latter that is placed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel through which Jesus has saved us all. Our Lord has brought salvation to us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has delivered us from the sins of the world. This biblical gospel that we are now preaching to you is fundamentally different from the gospel that claims your sins can be washed away through prayers of repentance.
We must know the Truth of salvation properly. The gospel of the water and the Spirit claims that our Lord has delivered us from all our sins by bearing the sins of this world once for all through the baptism He received from John, by shedding His blood and dying on the Cross, and by rising from the dead again. Therefore, we must clearly realize that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the God-given Truth of perfect salvation, and we must believe so. This is the only perfect gospel that lacks nothing, and therefore, is way different from the prevailing pseudo-gospel that claims that one can wash away his sins through his prayers of repentance.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the perfect antitype of the sacrificial system established by the Law: In the Old Testament’s time, the Israelites received the remission of their sins by putting their hands on the heads of the offerings and by killing the animals vicariously. And in this New Testament age, all sinners can be saved unconditionally by believing in the baptism that Jesus Christ received from John the Baptist and His bloodshed. Therefore, to insist on the circumcision of the Old Testament instead of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or to now insist on the prayers of repentance in this age of the New Testament, is not to have true faith.
Actually, we have to know that those who insist on prayers of repentance have originated from the circumcisionists of the Early Church age. At that time, some who had come into the Galatian churches did not rely on the perfect merits of Jesus Christ who had blotted out all their sins through His baptism of Jesus and His precious bloodshed on the Cross, but rather they had argued that they could become God’s people only if they were physically circumcised after believing in Jesus as their Savior.
In today’s Christianity, most people mistakenly believe that Christians have to give their prayers of repentance everyday to be washed from their sins. This is the unfortunate but undoubted reality of Christianity today. Now, the doctrine of incremental sanctification and the doctrine of repentance are firmly lodged in the hearts of most Christians. Such doctrines of repentance and of incremental sanctification are working in the hearts of today’s Christians, preventing them from opening their spiritual eyes. But you have to recognize that all these hypothetical doctrines are groundless claims that have been just made out of human thoughts. These are false and wicked doctrines.
Therefore, the doctrine of repentance that is prevalent in today’s Christianity is a false doctrine that is far removed from the gospel of the water and the Spirit revealed in the Bible. However, much like the circumcisionists, today’s Christians have fallen into fallacy, and yet there is hardly anyone who can pinpoint the fallacies of such a man-made doctrine and teach them properly. Since people have long believed that they can wash away their sins through their prayers of repentance, they don’t even think that there is any mistake in this “orthodox” doctrine of repentance.
However, the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit is the same gospel that the Apostles Peter and Paul believed in (1 Peter 3:21; Galatians 3:27). Therefore, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the pure and perfect gospel of Truth. From now on, all of us must learn the gospel of the water and the Spirit in purity, know it, and believe in it with our hearts, for this gospel is the only true gospel manifested through the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Truth that consists of the baptism Jesus received from John and the blood He shed on the Cross, we must learn and believe in it. It is also because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Truth where the righteousness of God and His love are perfectly revealed.
Perfect Salvation That Came to This Earth by the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
Our Lord shouldered the sins of the world through His baptism and carried them for three years, was crucified and shed His blood to death, rose from the dead again in three days, and is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. Even now, He continues to be the everlasting Savior of the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As such, those who sought to be delivered from all their sins could wash them away forever all at once by believing in this gospel Truth. Therefore, whoever sought to wash away his sins could be forever saved from all his sins only if he believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with his heart.
However, since the doctrine of repentance, different from the gospel of the water and the Spirit, is a false doctrine that cannot deliver us from the sins of this world, and no matter how fervently today’s Christians may offer prayers of repentance, their sins can never disappear. In the end, to try to wash away their sins through faith in Jesus’ bloodshed on the Cross alone, and through their prayers of repentance, only brings about a result of futile beliefs. This is why today’s Christians who are trying to cleanse away their sins through their prayers of repentance cannot ultimately achieve their goal.
The Apostle Paul faced many difficulties as he sought to preach the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit to the believers of his days. It was because they had already been indoctrinated with the teachings of the circumcisionists. Now, because many in Christian communities did not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit from the beginning, they still believe in useless Christian doctrines that came out of man-made thoughts. Even though the gospel of the water and the Spirit is now being preached to them right before their noses, many Christians remain unable to accept it. It is also difficult for us to preach the true gospel of the water and the Spirit to all Christians who still suffer from their sins intact in their hearts.
Of course, I understand that since they have known only the imperfect doctrine of repentance until now, it is bound to take quite some time for them to empty their hearts and thoughts. Because they have learned and believed in only the doctrine of repentance as the way to wash away their personal sins, it is natural for them to feel strange about the gospel of the water and the Spirit when they first hear about it. Those who still believe in the doctrine of repentance should empty their hearts first, even though it is not easy for them to do so because they have long been held onto such a fallacious doctrine.
Paul’s faith, as stated in Galatians 3:27, was to believe, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” His faith was placed in the Truth that Jesus washed away our sins through the baptism He received from John and the blood He shed on the Cross. Put differently, he believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that could cleanse away all his sins all at once and make him one of God’s people. We must also have this faith of the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul’s faith rested on the fact that Jesus Christ was born unto this earth, took upon Paul’s sins and all the sins of the entire mankind once for all when He was baptized by John, and shed His blood for him. By this faith, Paul could confess that he was baptized into Jesus Christ, died with Jesus Christ, and was resurrected with Jesus Christ. Just like Paul, we also believe that Jesus bore the sins of this world once for all through His baptism, carried them to the Cross, was crucified in both his hands and feet, shed His blood and died to pay off the wages of all our sins, and rose from the dead again. This is the only biblical faith that deserves to be approved by God. Therefore, your faith must not be a legalistic faith, but you must place your faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
What Should We Consider Once Again?
Here, we have something to consider once again and make sure one more time before we move on. This is the question of whether God has saved us from all our sins by giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or He has determined that our sins would be washed away through our own prayers of repentance. The question is, in other words, should we hold fast to the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or our own prayers of repentance?
How has our Lord saved you and me from all our sins? We should always examine ourselves to see if we really believe in Jesus according to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. I ask you first to return to your hearts’ condition before believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and examine yourselves. We had to ask ourselves whether we had sin or not before we knew the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Has the Lord truly blotted out our sins by giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Or did we wash away our sins through our prayers of repentance? If the latter is the way for us to be cleansed of our sins, God’s salvation cannot be of His grace, but rather it is something that can be achieved by our own deeds. But God’s salvation is given absolutely by His grace alone to those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Is your faith placed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Or do you believe in your own prayers of repentance? Of these two gospels, the former is the perfect gospel that cleanses all our sins at once when we believe in it. Our Lord took upon all the sins of the world by being baptized by John, shed His blood on the Cross, and thus saved us from all our sins. We had to contemplate upon the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and understand it clearly before becoming its believers. What is the gospel that you now believe in? Is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit? The gospel through which our Lord has blotted out all our sins once for all is the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
It is because we now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given to us that we have been able to be washed from all our sins. All of us must be capable of having this faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. We should neither believe in the prayers of repentance that so many of today’s Christians believe in, nor should we preach it. If we had indeed been washed from our sins through our prayers of repentance, there would have no need for us to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But you cannot deny that there had been sins in your hearts before you came to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, no matter how hard you had been offering the prayers of repentance everyday.
But, you and I now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we are washed from all our sins by believing in it. Was the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you now believe in learned from the people of this world? Or did it come from God? This gospel that we have did not come from men, but it came from our Lord. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that we now have is the gospel of the Truth of salvation that God has bestowed on us. Fundamentally speaking, therefore, the gospel of the water and the Spirit did not come from men, but it is the gospel of salvation that came from God. Today, it is through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can have the very faith that makes it possible for us to be saved from all our sins.
God has enabled all of us to let everyone else know about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In other words, He has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). We thank the Lord for making us spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the entire world without corrupting it. I am sure that you, too, rejoice in the fact that you have become preachers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
I thank the Lord all the time for giving me the true salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Ever since we met our Lord through this gospel Truth, we have been able to continue to preach the true gospel. However, there were some people who told me, “I wish you would just leave out the baptism of Jesus when you are preaching the gospel.” But I could not heed their request. So we have been able to preach the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit exactly as it is.
You, too, should be utterly grateful to God for allowing you to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit that holds His righteousness. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that we believe in today did not come from men. Rather, it came from God, and therefore it is the forever-unchanging Truth. All those who have encountered the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in it are the ones who have received abundant blessings from God.
However, apart from the true gospel, the legalistic gospels that came out of men have made many Christians sinful and thus tormented them. Those who believe that their prayers of repentance is a means to wash away their sins are now actually spreading confusion to many people who do not know Jesus properly. Their claim is that while their original sin was remitted away when they first believed in Jesus Christ, they must give prayers of repentance everyday to wash away their personal sins. They think that a proper life of faith requires them to pray all night, to fast, to do a lot of volunteer works, and to make many sacrifices. But their confused faith is essentially the same faith of the circumcisionists because these two require certain human deeds as complimentary factors to their salvation. This kind of faith is nothing more than a legalistic belief, for they claim that prayers of repentance are necessary to wash away their sins.
However, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that came from God were able to be saved all at once only through their faith in this true gospel. It is because we believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit coming from God that we could be saved from all our sins perfectly. And we have evidence that we have been saved perfectly in hearts, and we can also testify to our salvation in much assurance. Also, since the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the perfect Truth that enables us to receive the remission of sins, we can profess with deep conviction that we have no sin anymore even in our consciences.
I give my thanks to the Lord for giving us this perfect gospel of the water and the Spirit, and enabling us to preach it today and tomorrow. It is a great blessing and a majestic glory of God that we are now able to preach this gospel Truth throughout the whole world. If we were not to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and instead preach the legalistic gospel to this world, no one in this world would be able to be saved from sin, not even a single person. If we had been preaching the legalistic gospel instead of the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world, we would have been laughed at. We would have been despised and told, “You fools! We’ve known this for hundreds of years, and yet here you are preaching it only now. Who is preaching to whom?”
However, letters of appreciation and testimony are coming to us from our readers throughout the entire world, testifying how they heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit, how they are so grateful for it, and how they have been saved. Right now, throughout the whole wide world, we are spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we received from God. Because we are now preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit that came from God Himself, we can preach it boldly before anyone.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Is the Source of Reform for the Lapsed Faith
The gospel of the water and the Spirit entails a meaning that is even greater than the significance of the 16th century Reformation triggered by Luther’s call to return to the Bible. The genuine reformation of faith is found in the gospel of the power of God, the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This reformation is so great that the achievements of Luther’s Reformation cannot be even compared with it.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is far greater and more powerful than anything else. In opposing the clergy that were selling indulgences to finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica, Luther nailed his 95 Theses in protest. Because of this action, he became the pioneer of the Reformation unintentionally.
However, he just believed that salvation consisted of the blood of the Cross alone and that it could be attained through the prayers of repentance. So among the Catholic doctrines, he also retained the creed of infant baptism and the doctrine of transubstantiation. However, the true gospel that the Apostles believed in was the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and the teachings of the Reformists were far different from this true gospel. The Reformists had just substituted the Catholic sacrament of penance with the doctrine of prayers of repentance. This was completely different from the faith of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is not man-made, but is from God. So, this true gospel can never be changed forever. In contrast, faith in the prayers of repentance is from human thoughts claiming that while original sin is remitted away at the moment one first accepts Jesus as his Savior, personal sins can only be washed away whenever prayers of repentance are offered. This is a fallacious gospel for the seekers of human righteousness, and it is fundamentally different from the true gospel that the Apostles believed in and preached.
Those who believe in such a legalistic gospel might have thought that they could be washed from their sins through their religious faithfulness, but the consequences of their enthusiasm turned out to be in vain. They remain sinners no matter how fervently they offer prayers of repentance. The reason why these people cannot be washed from their sins is because they are holding fast onto the groundless doctrine of repentance without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit. How could the legalistic religionists wash away their sins through such groundless faith? To put it differently, when people commit more sins than their hairs in a single day, how could they wash away their sins once for all? It is impossible to wash away one’s sins by relying on such man-made, religious doctrines. Clearly, such a legalistic gospel is raising a rebellious flag against the Truth, with which the Lord has blotted out the sins of this world once and for all.
The Apostle Paul wanted to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone, and he also wanted to correct the faith of the circumcisionists. Therefore, we, too, are rejoiced to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world. I consider it utterly grateful that I am, together with you, my coworkers, preaching the gospel throughout the whole world from God’s Church.
We are spreading the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit throughout the world by publishing books in many different languages. This gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are now preaching has shown our readers what the definitive salvation is. As a result, testimonies of salvation are coming from every corner of the world, from prisons, hospitals and schools, and from countless individuals. People throughout the world are telling us how they have been so inspired by reading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. One of them sent us this testimony: “I agree with the gospel of the water and the Spirit that you are preaching, and I agree with your method of spreading this gospel. The gospel preached by you is very simple, full of conviction, and so clear.”
Why are they sending us such testimonies of salvation? They say that it is because they had never heard of the true gospel of the water and the Spirit until now even as they have long considered themselves to be Christians. It is because they had neither heard of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nor seen anyone preaching it, that they could not truly believe in it.
The gospel that they had heard until that time was not the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Since people could neither know nor believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they had continued to live with all their sins intact in their hearts to this very day. Through their legalistic faith, which is different from the gospel of the water and the Spirit, none of them could be washed from their sins.
Some theologians said, “We have been saved from all our sins, are now in the process of our salvation, and will be saved perfectly in the future.” Isn’t this contradiction a consequence of the doctrine of incremental sanctification that theologians talk about? For hundreds of years since the Reformation, theologians have taught complete nonsense and preached an uncertain gospel.
Yet now, people came to grasp clearly what their real existences are like, and what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is. They are saying, “I fully agree with this gospel of the water and the Spirit that you are preaching.” Some people have said, “I would like to use your books that hold the gospel of the water and the Spirit as textbooks for bible study at my church.” Others have testified, “This book is so clear that it gives hope to people behind bars. This gospel of Truth enables them to receive the true gift of salvation, and makes them more than sufficient to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I thank God for giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of Truth that has made us God’s children without fail.”
Do You Still Rely on Your Prayers of Repentance?
There must not be circumcisionists in today’s Christianity, and yet there are so many Christians who are still relying on their prayers of repentance. Is the faith of those who now insist on prayers of repentance a foolish faith? Yes. Such faith is based on the doctrine of repentance, and is incapable of delivering people from their sins. When we compare the prevailing gospel of the majority of Christians with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can find out clearly which gospel is the true gospel and which is the false one. Like this, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a gospel that is unmistakably distinguished from the prevailing gospel that cannot stand alone without a supplement called the prayers of repentance.
How, then, can we know and discern the true gospel from the false gospel? We can find out this when we separate the two and compare them against each other. When we know and believe in the true gospel of the water and the Spirit, not the gospel that insists on prayers of repentance, then we experience for ourselves how our sins are blotted out from our hearts. In contrast, the prayers of repentance actually bind Christians in sin even as they believe in Jesus, thereby making them continue to live as sinners all the time. Therefore, it is definitively clear that people need the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which can blot out all their sins once and for all. If we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit now, all of us can receive the remission of sins, and as a result, we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and live boldly before God as the righteous.
If, on the other hand, you place your faith in the doctrine of repentance, then while at first it may seem just fine, the more time goes by, the more you will be bound by your sins, and ultimately you will end up with even more sins than what you had before you believed in Jesus. If you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and instead hold onto the prayers of repentance, you will continue to remain as sinners.
Is there anyone among you who received the Spirit of God as a gift even before believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Was there a time, before you believed in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, when you received the burning fire of the Holy Spirit? Also, have you spoken in tongues, uttering words that no one could understand?
You may think that you have, but you should remember that all these things happened before you received the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You might have had such experiences before knowing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But, you have to know that you can have such experiences even in the countless pagan religions of the world. Therefore, you must not think of such experiences as the evidence of your salvation.
In contrast, I came to experience my real remission of sins and the blessing of becoming God’s child when I believed in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit with my heart. Now, in my heart, the Holy Spirit has descended like a dove. Together with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of all believers, and is always with them. As the Holy Spirit who now dwells in my heart came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, He has convinced my heart to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world, and even now He is making me serve God’s work. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the very Truth that enables people to receive the Holy Spirit. It is because we believed in this true gospel that we were able to be washed from all our sins and received the Spirit of God as our gift.
My fellow believers, we must be able to understand the Apostle Paul’s heart. We must be able to truly appreciate what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he said to the churches of Galatia that they would be accursed if they preached any other gospel, and we must realize that we cannot be washed from our sins through our prayers of repentance. This is possible only when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Fortunately, you and I came to encounter the God-given gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, heard it with our ears, and came to believe in this real Truth. However, some people say that they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and yet they are still relying on prayers of repentance everyday. Such is a mixed belief that makes no sense. There is no other Truth but only the gospel of the water and the Spirit through which our Lord has delivered us from all our sins. If we do not preach this true gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will surely be accursed by God.
My heart is enormously thankful to the Lord. Those with whom I am now ministering are at least believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I am grateful to God for enabling me to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit with His Church, instead of just by myself.
Now, the gospel of the water and the Spirit will soon be preached to the ends of the earth. Now, by wholeheartedly believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, every truth-seeker will receive the perfect remission of sins. We thank God for giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we pray that this gospel would be spread throughout the whole world. How could we have the gospel of the water and the Spirit just for ourselves? In obedience to the will of God, we want to preach this gospel Truth throughout the whole world. And no matter what might happen to us, we must preserve the gospel of the water and the Spirit lest it become perverted. Then, I am sure that we will be able to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the world until the day our Lord returns. This is the will of God. Therefore, it is my hope and prayer that we would all think about the will of God in broader terms, look farther and farther as we spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit that manifests the Lord’s righteousness, and be thankful. I cannot thank God enough for giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Many Christians now believe in the theory of pre-tribulation rapture. But the theory of pre-tribulation rapture is a doctrine that departs from the Word of God. Its adherents believe that the Lord would come and take them away before the Great Tribulation begins, and that it is only after then that the Tribulation would start in full force. Since this is how they believe, they are always joyful regardless of whether the world is being engulfed in darkness or not, and they praise God, seemingly convinced that they would go to the Kingdom of Heaven. So they praise fervently in pitched tones, as if they are screaming.
I suspect that they sing like this probably because they themselves find it hard to believe in the theory of pre-tribulation rapture, and yet they still want to believe in it more fervently and more fanatically. However, our Lord made no mention of the theory of pre-tribulation rapture in Revelation. You have to realize that this theory of pre-tribulation is a lie.
God Has Told the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit from the Beginning
Believing in the Word of God blindly, many Christians today say the following: “What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ This happened over 400 years before God gave His detailed statutes of the sacrificial system through Moses. Wasn’t Abraham, then, accounted for righteousness by simply believing in His Word unconditionally?”
So questioning whether it is absolutely necessary for them to believe in the baptized Jesus, they stubbornly insist that it’s okay to believe only in the crucified Jesus. But such a claim is no more than the sayings of the foolish who have absolutely no understanding of God’s providence of salvation. The Bible speaks of the gospel of the water and the Spirit from the beginning and later in increasingly clearer terms. From the days of Adam and Eve, God said that if anyone sins, he must offer a sacrifice to God and pay the wages of sin with its death and blood. In obeying this will of God, Abel offered his sin offering with the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. Why? Because Cain wanted to come forth to God according to the way he liked, while Abel obeyed Him. Later, God gave His people the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle. During the age of the Tabernacle, God said that before a sinner offered his sacrifice to God, he had to first lay his hands on its head and pass his sins onto it (Leviticus 1:4).
When God promised Abraham, “I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. And I will give them the land of Canaan,” as a sign of these two promises, God told Abraham to offer a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon to Him. This implies that God was already demanding sacrifices for sin. And through the laying on of hands, everyone had to pass his sins onto such sacrificial animals that were used for sin offerings, burnt offerings, or peace offerings, and offer the blood of these sacrifices to God. At last, when God gave His people the sacrificial system, He gave detailed statutes on how to atone their sins: A sinner had to pass his sins by laying his hands on the head of an unblemished sacrificial animal and offer its blood and flesh to God as his sacrifice in the Tabernacle. This tells us that in the age of Old Testament also, the people of Israel were remitted from their sins by faith, through the laying of their hands on the sacrificial offering and its bloodshed.
God was telling us, in other words, that all who are now living in this age of the New Testament must not ignore the baptism that Jesus received from John when they profess to believe in Him as their Savior. Of course, they must also believe in the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross. If you were to believe only in the blood of the Cross, without realizing the truth that Jesus accepted and took upon the sins of mankind once for all by being baptized by John, then your faith would be akin to a boxer throwing his punch into the empty air. Such beliefs cannot lead people to have proper faith in Jesus and to receive the full remission of their sins, because their sins still remain intact in their hearts.
Most Christians today believe their so-called gospel, which is not the Truth of real salvation. They are standing outside Jesus Christ, for they believe not in the Truth of the water and the Spirit, but in another gospel. Some of them believe that they have been remitted from all their sins just by believing in Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone. But, honestly speaking, they cannot deny that their sins still remain intact in their hearts. God said that He has saved us from sin in these wicked generations with His perfect gospel. Today’s true believers do not believe that Jesus came only by the half gospel, that is, the gospel of only the blood of the Cross. On the contrary, they believe that it is through the water, the blood, and the Spirit that the Lord came to this world (1 John 5:4-7). We must become the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
If the Lord has wholly saved us from these wicked generations, then it is clear that He has saved us from our sins not through our own prayers of repentance, but through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If there is anyone who is looking for another way other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then he is ultimately making a big mistake. Jesus Christ came to this earth to save the sinners of this world from their sins, and He has done so once for all through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By receiving baptism on His own body for our sins, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, He has given us true salvation. Now, we have come to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and to be delivered from all our sins and condemnation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As such, we must realize clearly beyond any doubt that we have become God’s children by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is written in Romans 2:28-29, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” This means that we have to be spiritually circumcised to be God’s own people.
Then, what kind of faith enables us to be spiritually circumcised before God? It is the belief that the Lord was baptized from John the Baptist to take upon our sins once for all onto His own body, shed His blood for us, and has thereby saved us. When our Lord was baptized by John, all our sins were passed onto Jesus. It is by believing in this Truth that we are spiritually circumcised. When we believe that Jesus Christ accepted all our sins through the baptism He received from John, we can be spiritually circumcised and become Abraham’s descendants. By placing our faith in the Word of God, we must be spiritually circumcised. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can truly become God’s people.
Many Christians today do not understand the promise of spiritual circumcision, and as a result they are devoted only to prayers of repentance even as they believe in Jesus. They are like this because such beliefs constitute a legalistic faith. The spiritually sound faith that God has given us is to believe that Jesus has blotted out our sins with the truth of the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen that was shown through the patterns of the Tabernacle. In the age of the New Testament, our Lord has revealed to us the Truth of salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He took upon our sins and blotted them out once for all. And now, whoever believes in this gospel Truth can exactly attain true salvation from Him.
We must distance ourselves far from those who only try to fill their own carnal lusts with the Word of God. Because they are filled with carnal lusts, they are blindly affixed to their own prayers of repentance, even as the gospel of the water and the Spirit is right before their eyes. Some people try to domineer over everyone in the name of God. God has blinded the spiritual minds of such people who are lustful and untruthful before Him, so that they would not be able to find His Truth of salvation so easily. The gospel of God is like a treasure that someone hid in his field. God does not want to be with those who disobey the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He wants to meet, through the Truth of real salvation, those of us who acknowledge His Word that says, “It is for your salvation that the Son was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross.”
What Is True Spiritual Circumcision?
When it came to offering a spiritual sacrifice to God for the Israelites’ sins, the very first thing that they had to do was to lay their hands on the sacrifice to pass their sins onto it. By doing so, they could actually cut off their sins from their hearts. Like this, it is the circumcision of faith for us to know and believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. God had told Abraham to be physically circumcised, saying, “You and your male descendants shall be circumcised in 8 days since birth.” An infant who is only 8 days old is so young that his foreskin is still red. Such a young baby was taken and circumcised, pulling out the foreskin at the tip of his penis and cutting it off in part. If anyone among the people of Israel had not been circumcised, then he would have not belonged to the people of God. Therefore, every Israelite, even his male slaves bought from afar, had to be circumcised within 8 days of being born. So we see in the Bible that Jesus was also taken to the Temple and circumcised in 8 days since His birth.
As the Bible says, “Circumcision is that of the heart” (Romans 2:29), the real spiritual circumcision is to receive the remission of sins into the heart, not to receive physical circumcision. “Our sins were passed onto Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ took upon all our sins of the world once for all by being baptized by John”—to believe in this is to be spiritually circumcised. Unless we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts, we can never become God’s people (John 3:1-7). Whoever has the evidence of his faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a child of God, just like the promise God gave to Abraham through the statute of circumcision. He promised, “Anyone who is uncircumcised in the flesh does not belong to the people of God, but for everyone who is circumcised in the flesh, even for a servant bought from the Gentiles, the circumcision is the sign that he belongs to the people of God.”
Therefore, if our hearts have been spiritually circumcised—that is, if we have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit—then we are God’s people; accordingly, if we do not have this faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then we are not God’s people. So when God discerns us whether or not we have been spiritually circumcised, He looks whether or not have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and it is on this basis that He determines whether or not we are His people. God does not judge us based on our acts, but He judges us based on the content of our faith. This is why we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to become God’s children. It was by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we could receive the gift of salvation.
However, many people today still remain ignorant of this truth of spiritual circumcision, and instead believe that they can be washed from their sins through their prayers of repentance. And they claim that they receive the remission of their sins anew everyday by offering their prayers of repentance, upon their faith in Jesus’ blood of the Cross. But this kind of faith is the faith of spiritual swindlers who only pursue their greed.
Do you believe that Jesus took upon your sins once for all by being baptized? It is because Jesus bore all our sins once for all by being baptized by John that we could have been washed from all our sins by believing in this gospel of Truth; had Jesus not taken upon our sins through His baptism, they could not have been blotted out. If we do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then no matter how ardently we might all believe in Jesus as our Savior, our sins simply cannot be blotted out.
That Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist is the evidence that all our sins have been blotted out. It was because Jesus had taken upon our sins through His baptism that He could then be crucified to bear all the condemnation of sin. God wants to find such Word of evidence in our hearts.
What did our Lord say to us in John chapter 6? He said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Again He said, “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:55-56). To be our real food and drink, our Lord was actually baptized by John the Baptist, shed His blood, and has brought true salvation to all of us who believe in this Truth. As Jesus has told us, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life,” we have to believe in the two essentials of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that is, His baptism and His blood on the Cross.
Jesus took upon our sins by being baptized by John. Our sins were therefore passed onto Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:15; John 1:29; 1 Peter 3:21). And by shouldering these sins and dying on the Cross in our place for our sins, Jesus has saved you and me from all the condemnation of sin. As such, it is through our faith in Jesus Christ and in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have been saved from all our sins.
My fellow believers, I am not so sure if it’s okay for you to just leave alone those who stubbornly insist that they can be washed from their sins just by offering their prayers of repentance. This is because if you leave them alone, they will be condemned by both their own consciences and God Himself. Christians who insist on prayers of repentance have stood against the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit so much that they will be judged by God for their sins. But I myself have no desire to quarrel with them. I just want to say to them, “Oh, yeah? So, do you just believe in your prayers of repentance? Are you sure your sins are forgiven through such prayers? Believe in what you want! But I am making it clear here that your hearts still have sin, don’t they? If you have sins in your hearts you cannot avoid going to hell no matter how fervently you might have believed in Jesus as your Savior.”
Many Christians are obstinately refusing to accept God’s unconditional love that lies in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But we have already taught them all about how they can be saved from the sins of this world through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. What should we do then? What more could we say to them? We should wait for them to turn around and return to the true gospel!
God did not say it’s okay whether we believe or we don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There is the only way for us to receive the remission of our sins and enter the Kingdom of Heaven: faith. This way is one that is walked by placing our faith in God’s salvation that Jesus has brought to us—that is, by believing that Jesus took upon our sins by being baptized by John, shed His blood on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved those of us who believe from all the sins of the world. Our Lord has the power to make the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit sinless in their hearts. This is how He takes away the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Apart from this faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, through any other faith, such as believing in our own prayers of repentance, it is impossible for us to receive the remission of our sins and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is only by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts that we can become God’s children and enter Heaven. In contrast, those who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and instead rely on their prayers of repentance, cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Imagine that you are trying to wash away your sins through your prayers of repentance, rather than by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You can do this all you want, but your sins will still remain intact, and anyone who has sin cannot enter Heaven.
You and I now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and we are preaching this gospel. In the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we comfort each other and thank one another. That we are in God’s Church is reason enough for us to be utterly thankful, and placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we are living righteously in these end times. Because the Lord has saved you and me from our sins in this wicked generation, it is by our faith in the Truth that we overcome the evils of the world and carry on with our victorious lives as the righteous. Since we have been saved from all our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we cannot just live our lives in whatever way we want, following the world outside God’s Church. As the true believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our faith must not accommodate the faith of the liars who claim that they can wash away their sins through their prayers of repentance.
The world is changing rapidly in these days. God told us about the end times that “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4). Isn’t this passage pointing out the reality of this age? In this last age, we must draw a clear line around the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the line of faith, and we must live everyday by faith in the Word of God. Just as the priests of the Old Testament had kept the light inside the Tabernacle constantly lit, we must keep our souls in His light by placing our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit everyday.
We have to fight our spiritual battles by faith to maintain our status as God’s children, lest we should be tainted by this evil generation. And placing our faith in the Lord’s gospel of the water and the Spirit as the gift of salvation, we must thank God for allowing us to become His children and live our lives by faith. Though the time flows like a river and out flesh becomes weaker and older, our zeal for serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot be extinguished; rather, there must arise more co-workers throughout the world who have received the remission of their sins.
It is written, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:17). We can receive the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and also grow up to be the people of faith by ruminating on this true gospel. Because the day of our Lord’s return is not far away, we must live by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even more steadfastly.
In this wicked generation, God has saved you and me from the sins of the world, and He has made us His own children. For this, we give all our thanks to God.
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