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Subject 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN
[Chapter 5-2] Who Is Born of God? (1 John 5:4-8)
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.”
People, Born of God, Overcome the World
In today’s Scripture passage of 1 John 5:4-8, the Apostle John says that the faith that overcomes the world lies within one’s belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior, who has come by the water and the blood. Jesus Christ has come to this world “not only by water but by water and blood.” John clearly states here that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only true gospel that the Lord has completed with the sacrifice of His own body.
When the Apostle John mentions, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4), by the word “the world” he is signifying sin. Because Satan the Devil governs this world (Ephesians 2:2), the word “the world” is frequently used as a synonym for sin in the Scriptures. And death reigns over all humanity by sin, for sin separates us from God, the source of life (Romans 5:12-17).
However, God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son, and His Son Jesus Christ has saved us from all our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, who has descended by the water and the blood, as your Lord and Savior? The Scripture passage “This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ” is to mean that, through His reception of baptism by John the Baptist and His shedding of the blood on the Cross, Jesus Christ has granted us the remission of our sins.
The true gospel of the water and the Spirit clearly reveals through what means our remission of sins was accomplished. The salvation we receive was accomplished through Jesus’ descent on this world in human flesh, His reception of the baptism by John the Baptist, His bleeding death on the Cross, and His consequent resurrection from the dead.
Here, “water” signifies the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15; 1 Peter 3:21). And, since the wages of sin is death, Jesus, who took upon Himself all the sins of the world through His baptism, had to receive the judgment for all the sins of the world. So, He was nailed to the Cross, bleeding to His death. Therefore, to say, “Jesus has come by blood,” hence, refers that He has paid off all our sins with His blood on the Cross.
My fellow Christians, you are now uncovering the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord Jesus has given us in the Truth of the water and the blood. Now, we stand fast in Jesus Christ, and He has become life to all of us through the water and the blood. We have to listen to the living Word of Truth, which is essentially life, through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
1 John 5:6 states, “It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” Here, “the Spirit” is referring to God. To us, there is the Triune God who is God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father has planned our salvation. God the Son has executed that plan through the water and the blood. And the Holy Spirit guarantees the Truth in God’s salvation.
The works of God in the New Testament age are the teachings and activities of Jesus Christ and the witnesses of the Holy Spirit on them. We have to believe that God has delivered us from all the sins of the world through the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. We can be cleansed from our sins only through believing in the Son of God, who has come to this world in the human flesh, receiving the baptism and bleeding on the Cross to abolish all of our sins. The gospel of our Lord’ salvation for us is the very gospel that came by the water, the blood, and the Spirit. Therefore, when we call Jesus Christ “our Lord,” we are saying that, “You are my God and savior, who saved me from all sins.”
When we are sharing and listening to the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, with the Bible open, we have to confirm the Scripture passage together, think about it together, and sympathize with it together in one faith. Sermons that only preach of the worldly blessings cannot be correct.
Many people live in habitual sins. The Apostle John says that we can “overcome the world” because we can overcome all sins.
Then, you may ask, “How can we overcome sins?” We can overcome sins because we have been blotted out of all our sins with our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our approach of faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is fundamentally different from those who say that we overcome sins by not committing them. Therefore, you have to realize that I am not saying that the believers of the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit do not sin in their lives.
We overcome sins because we believe in our Lord, who abolished all of our sins, and the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Since we were cleansed from all our sins through our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, we can avoid all condemnation according to the same faith.
Since we are all humans, we possess our bodies of flesh. That is why we cannot live our lives without committing any sin. When we are under much psychological stress, most of us are prone to get angry at any surroundings without any reason. We commit sins in this world, because our bodies are insufficient. Because of our sinful bodies, we were unable to be unashamed of ourselves before God. Yet, after we have believed in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, we have been emancipated from all of our sins. Thus, we can overcome the world.
We have to know the Truth that cleanses us from all our sins of our hearts, our mind, and our deeds. Through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our Lord has taken all the sins from us, and given us the remission of sins that leads to our eternal life. While we are living in this world, we have to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the sin cleansing Truth. Then, we will overcome this world.
At the time of Noah, God had decided to judge humanity for their wickedness. However, to give is His mercy to the righteous Noah’s family out of His grace of salvation, God ordered Noah to build an ark. This was to show His plan for salvation of humanity from its sins.
For the construction of the ark, God gave specific orders to Noah to use “cypress wood” and to “coat it with pitch inside and out” (Genesis 6:14). When Noah put pieces of cypress wood together to build the ark, there were gaps between the wooden boards. It was obvious that water would penetrate into those gaps. The most important part of the boat is how water resistant it is. For this reason, God had ordered Noah to coat the ark with pitch inside and out.
Noah’s coating of the ark with pitch is analogous to the Truth of the deliverance of sins our Lord has granted us through our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. We sin inside and out, that is, within our hearts and with our flesh. As Noah coated the ark with pitch inside and out, we have to cleanse us inside and out with the faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, if we are to receive complete remission of our sins, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The spiritual pitch God has given us today is the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
As I have mentioned earlier, we sin in front of God from the day of our birth till the day of our last breath. Since we possess our bodies of flesh, it is impossible to live our lives without sinning. Our bodies are so habituated to sins that we cannot give up our habits of sins till the day we die. Hence, unless we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we cannot be free of sins. All of humanity sin because their hearts of flesh give rise to their desires of the flesh. That is why we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit even more.
Still, even the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must not forget that they too are the beings that cannot but sin constantly. However, believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit do not have sin because of that exact faith in this true gospel, which is from God.
The Gospel according Mark reports on the 12 kinds of sinful nature of humans, who commit sins from their first day on earth till the last day they part, this way: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man” (Mark 7:21-23). People’s evil thoughts move from one’s heart to one’s mind, and if a person fails to control one’s evil thoughts that person puts them into action. So, the Lord said that what comes out of one’s heart makes a person unclean.
A person cannot avoid committing sin as long as one possesses desires of the flesh, but, nonetheless, God has made believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit into His own people. We fall into sinning frequently, beginning with sinning and living in sins. People commit sins repetitively. There are many people who commit a variety of sins, numbering more than 12 kinds, in a day, while seeking to fulfill the desires of their flesh. There are some others who for awhile only sin in their hearts the twelve sins, and, then, put them into actions a couple of times a month. Yet, some others, who have confessed Jesus as their Savior, live everyday of their lives saturated with sins.
Despite the fact that we live in sins, whether of our hearts or deeds, we can be cleansed from all those sins. By believing in the gospel of the water and the blood and the Spirit that the Lord has given, we can be cleansed from our sins at once. We can cleanse all our sins by believing Jesus Christ, who is the protagonist of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, as our Savior. Now, let’s have a look at the Bible passages that explain how Jesus abolished our sins through His descent on this world.
The Truth is that Jesus abolished our sins through His coming by the water, the blood, and the Spirit. It is the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has the power of remission of sin. It is because Jesus Christ had already known best about our flaws and our weaknesses that He has delivered us from all our sins and made us His own. Therefore, instead of trying to hide your sins, you first have to confess your sins in front of God. Then, follow the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You can encounter the Truth that will forever grant the remission of your sins, if you only believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. If we only reveal our sins that we committed in our weaknesses and believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, we will receive the remission of sins. Furthermore, we will be given the new life and empowered spiritually.
Jesus Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist is written in the Bible as the Truth that saves us from all of our sins. Let’s look at the Truth of the water and the Spirit in the Bible.
Has Jesus Taken the Sins of the World through the Baptism by John the Baptist?
Matthew 3:13-17 tells us that Jesus came to John at the Jordan River to be baptized by him. At that time, Jesus was 30 years of age. At first, John refused to baptize Jesus, by saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” (Matthew 3:14), for he knew Him as the very incarnate God. Then, Jesus said again seriously to John, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
Jesus had to fulfill all of God’s righteousness by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist in a form of laying on of hands. God’s righteousness was for Jesus to take the sins of the world onto Himself by receiving the baptism. The historical moment, when Jesus lowered His head in front of John the Baptist and John the Baptist baptized Him by laying his hands on Jesus’ head, was the most miraculous event in the entire history of this universe. Jesus received the baptism by John the Baptist because that was the only method through which God’s righteousness could be fulfilled.
Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, received the baptism by John the Baptist so that the sins of the world may be transferred onto Him once for all. Therefore, Jesus received the baptism that John the Baptist performed. And as it is written that “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), Jesus was crucified, shedding His precious blood on the Cross, so that He might pay in our place the price of all our sins. This event is the Truth of the eternal remission of sins, which we call the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus’ reception of the baptism by John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross have constituted the greatest events of our salvation.
After Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist, He came up from underneath the water. And the Heavens were opened to Jesus and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
Jesus’ baptism was the definitely proper means to take the sins of the world onto Himself. We have to examine the Scripture passages of the Old Testament in order to understand the need for Jesus to receive the baptism from John the Baptist.
God had established the sacrificial system so that every person of the Old Testament age could offer his sacrifice at the Tabernacle. They, in other words, had to give sacrificial offerings in order to atone their sins that antagonize one’s relationship with God. As such, the people in the Old Testament times could reconcile with God again through the sin offerings that were given by laying on of hands and the blood of the animals. God had demanded unblemished sheep or goats for the purpose of sacrifice for their sins.
By Laying on of John’s Hands, All the Sins of Humanity Could Be Transferred onto Jesus
Leviticus 4:1-4 says, “Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them, if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the LORD for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering. He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD, lay his hand on the bull’s head, and kill the bull before the LORD.’’”
The peace offering, the sin offering, and the burnt offering were the sacrifices that enabled the people of the Old Testament to reconcile with God.
In Leviticus 4:27-31, there comes a concrete example of sin offering: “If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering. Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat, as fat is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the LORD. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.”
This Scripture passage talks about how any one of the common people could be forgiven of one’s sins in front of God. Similar to the former passage, the person had to bring an unblemished animal (a female goat) to lay his hands on the head of it in order to pass over all his sins onto it. Then, he had to cut the throat of the sacrificial animal to draw its blood. He then gave the blood to the priest, and the priest had to offer the sacrifice on behalf of him: The priest had to take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar; He had to cut the sacrifice, and burn its flesh with its fat for a sweet aroma to the Lord. By doing so a commoner’s sin could be atoned properly, and he could be forgiven of his sins before God.
This kind of offering was for when people had realized their sins against either God or each other. God gave the Israelites His Law to make them realize their sins. This was the main role of His Law and commandments (Romans 3:20).
Here, the commandments refer to what the Lord has ordered us to do and not to do. To break any of those commandments constitutes sin.
All of God’s commandments can be divided into two categories of do’s and don’ts. God has commanded us to, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3), but we have had many other gods. In case of my country, Korea, there are many religions and gods. Plus, many more people have served their ancestor ghosts for a very long time. Animism or pantheism has been common phenomena in almost all ethnic groups. People who live in mountainous area believe in the mountain gods, while oceanic people serve their oceanic gods. In short, religions are nothing more than our own fabrications of artificial gods. Every ethnic group made its own gods and has believed in them.
However, the God that we believe in differs from the gods that peoples of the world created on their own. Everything is a creation created by God. Yet, some people may look at a huge rock and say, “You are my god from this moment on. Bless me.” That would be an example of a man-made religion. Many people have made many different religions. Practicing false religions is a violation of the first commandment before God.
If we were to talk about idol worships, there would be a lot of stories to tell. Kids these days go crazy over popular singers. Even at the slightest glimpse from a far distance, they become almost mad screaming and yelling. It is understandable that youth in their teens would feel passionate about something or someone, as many of us have also experienced. It may be a normal phenomenon. However, the problem is that youth who should passionately yearn after God are yelling to entertainers. What else would this phenomenon be, if it is not idol worship?
You and I are people unable to keep the whole Ten Commandments. There is not a single day that we perfectly keep all of the Ten Commandments. A person cannot live a day of one’s life without breaking one of the commandments. And if somehow a person is able to keep 99.9% of the commandments through one’s entire life, if that same person breaks just 0.1% of the commandments, that amounts to the same as breaking 100% of the commandments. We are people, who sin as soon as we come out of our mothers’ wombs. That’s why you are sinners in front of God.
After David took Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, he then committed murder in front of God. In other words, David had committed adultery, and, in an effort to conceal this fact, David sent Bathsheba’s husband to the war front, killing him indirectly. Since he took the wife of another man, he committed theft. And since David liked Bathsheba to the point that he sent her husband to die, he also committed murder. And, David still tried to deceive God and His servants. We may say that David had violated all of God’s Ten Commandments.
The Apostle James said, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). In Galatians, the Apostle Paul said, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Galatians 3:10). As such, the Bible says that everyone without exception has sinned against God.
It is written in Leviticus 4:27-28,“If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed.”
People of Israel sinned unintentionally. At first, they didn’t know even what they had done. But, sooner or later, they came to realize before the Law of God that they had sinned against God. Then, they had to give sin offerings before God.
The sinner had to offer a goat or a sheep as a sacrifice because of one’s sins. In this sacrifice, it was essential for him to lay his hands on the head of the sacrificial animal and to kill it to draw its blood. He then handed over the blood to the priest in charge. God had prepared this method of cleansing and delivering sinners from their sins through the offerings of sacrifices.
“He shall lay his Hand on the Head of the Sin Offering, and kill the Sin Offering at the Place of the Burnt Offering” (Leviticus 4:29)
Leviticus 4:30-31 says, “Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat, as fat is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the LORD. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.”
Whether it is a peace offering or a sin offering, the sinner had to lay his hands on the head of the sacrifice. The reason for the laying of hands on the sacrifice was so that the sin of the sinner might be transferred onto the sacrifice. After the sin had been transferred from the sinner to the sacrifice, the throat of the sacrifice was to be cut to draw its blood. The blood that is mentioned in the passage “take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering” is the essence of all life. God treated a person of the Old Testament times as sinless by receiving the appropriate sacrifice for one’s sins.
Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh, took our sin onto Himself by receiving the baptism. On our behalf, He died on the Cross, bleeding to death. He resurrected from the dead and has become our Lord and Savior. We have to believe this Truth to be on our side.
God is just and loving. Although God is God of love, because He is also God of justice, He has to judge those, who do not believe in Him even after He has abolished all of our sins with His love of Truth. Some people complain that God is unrighteous, partial, and unfair, but those allegations are far from the truth. Our God is the just Savior. As was promised in the sacrificial system, God the Father had prepared Jesus Christ as the eternal sacrifice to abolish all of our sins once for all. By receiving the baptism, Jesus took onto Himself all of our sins. And God the Father presented His Son to the Cross so that Jesus may die bleeding on it as a sacrifice. Through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, now whoever believes in this Truth can receive the remission of their sins and a new life. Now then, God cleanses our sins through the baptism of Jesus the Lamb of God and His blood on the Cross. God has blotted out all our sins through a just method, and the believers in this Truth are delivered from the sins of the world through Him, the true and just God.
Increasing credit card debts might be a common social problem to every society. This will increase in the number of people who commit suicides, receive bad credit reports, and go into hiding because of their debts. Suppose a person was on the brink of declaring bankruptcy. Then, a friend, who loved this debtor so dearly, paid off all of his debts on his behalf. Would the person still be in debt? Absolutely not.
Likewise, our Lord, through His reception of baptism and His precious blood on the Cross, has paid off all our debts of sins once and for all. Our Lord has completely cleansed us form all our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. A man should be judged for his own sins. However, God the Father sent our Lord Jesus, making Him into a sacrifice on our behalf. By receiving the baptism and bleeding His precious blood on the Cross, Jesus has abolished all the sins of the world at once and made us into God’s children. This is the Truth and the just love of God.
On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest had to lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat, and kill it to draw its blood (Leviticus 16). By the way, the common denominators in the Old Testament offerings are to pass one’s sins onto the sacrifice through the means of laying on of hands and the shedding of the sacrifice’s blood, which is to be offered to God to cleanse one’s sins.
However, this sacrificial system itself was a part of the Law that could have authority over the Israelites until Jesus completed it. Therefore, it was merely a shadow of the good things to come, that is, the eternal and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:1).
Let’s Reexamine the Gospel of Truth That Abolished All of Our Sins
So far, we have looked at the sacrificial offering system of the Old Testament. Now let’s take a look at the eternal sacrifice of Jesus in the New Testament.
Matthew 3:13-17 states, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
Jesus, who received baptism from John the Baptist, is the Son of God. To deliver all humanity from its sins, Jesus the Son of God obeyed His Father by being baptized so that His Father’s will would be fulfilled.
Why did Jesus receive ‘the baptism’ from a human, John the Baptist? The reason is revealed in Matthew 3:15. It is to fulfill all righteousness of God. Matthew 3:15 tells us, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Here, to fulfill all righteousness refers to fulfilling God’s love towards the sinners. In order to deliver all sinners from their sins, Jesus came into this world as the Lamb of God, and received the baptism by John the Baptist. Through the baptism, Jesus took onto Himself all the sins of this world. By receiving the baptism from John the Baptist at the Jordan River, Jesus, as the Lamb of God, took onto Himself “all” sins of humanity. Then, Jesus had to shed His precious blood to pay off all the sins He had borne with His baptism. This was why He had to receive the baptism.
This Truth is closely related to today’s Scripture passage of 1 John 5:6, which says, “This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.” Jesus has indeed become our Savior by descending on this world by the water and the blood. Jesus has saved us perfectly, and made us free from all the sins of the world. He has given us the righteousness of God, which enables us to overcome the world. As such, the sources of this Truth can be found in both the Old and the New Testaments.
It is written in John 1:29, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’” Jesus could take away the sins of the world to the Cross because He had taken them through the baptism received from John the Baptist.
To say that Jesus came by the water is to say that the Truth is that Jesus the Son of God came to this world in human flesh, receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, which in turn transferred all of our sins onto Jesus.
1 John 5:6 also says that He came “not only by water, but by water and blood.” Jesus descended by the water. That is, He took all our sins through His reception of the baptism. Furthermore, through His baptism, He took the sins of the world to the Cross, where He was crucified, shedding His blood to receive once for all the judgment of our sins in our place.
Although I am a pastor, I still possess many flaws. Wouldn’t it be great if we could only do righteous deeds in front of God? And sometimes, I am easily irritated, especially when I can’t sleep for days over complicated matters. When I lose my temper unintentionally for nothing, my heart gets heavy in front of God. At those moments, I kneel and reflect introspectively on myself.
As I find this kind and that kind of sins within me, I confess to God that I have been inadequate in these areas and look up the Word in Matthew 3:15-16. “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.”
When I ruminate these two verses again, I remember that Jesus took the sins of humanity onto Himself in His reception of the baptism. My own sins were taken as well by Him through His baptism. And I regain new power within my heart. I am empowered by the Word of this gospel Truth. Our Lord has delivered me from all judgment by first taking the sins of this world onto Himself through the baptism by John the Baptist and then by receiving the judgment of my sins through shedding His precious blood. Jesus’ righteous act was not only for me but also for you.
No matter how insufficient we may be, in our faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, our hearts are cleansed by the same faith. Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist is enough to transfer all the sins of the world onto Jesus. By receiving the baptism by John the Baptist, Jesus took onto Himself all sins of humanity. Hence, Jesus also took yours and mine onto Himself as well.
All the sins that we commit from the day of our birth till the day we die constitute our worldly sins. In order to grant remission of these sins to us all, Jesus received the baptism, taking onto Himself the sins of the world at once, and cleansed us from all our sins through the shedding of His precious blood. In the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has given us is the power to abolish the sins of the believers.
The Apostle John said, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4). The correct faith in our Lord is faith in Jesus Christ, who came to us by the water and the blood, as our Lord and Savior.
Jesus received the baptism by immersion from John the Baptist. The way some people pour water with a bucket these days is an informal way of baptizing. The baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist was like this. Jesus went into the middle of the flowing Jordan River and lowered His head before John the Baptist. John the Baptist, in return, placed his hands on the head of Jesus, and dipped Him into the water. This baptism was similar to the Old Testament’s laying on of hands that transferred the sins of sinner onto a sacrifice.
Jesus, who had just received the baptism, immersed underneath the water, and then Jesus came up immediately from the water (Matthew 3:16). Saying that Jesus received the baptism implies that He received the laying on of hands on His head. Now, He had to die of the sins He had taken. Hence, He was submerged underneath the water. And then, He emerged from the water to show us His promised resurrection. Through the baptism and shedding of His blood, Jesus has blotted out the sins of humanity once for all.
There is no one who can escape sinning in his or her daily lives. But Jesus has blotted out all our sins, even the personal sins that we commit on daily basis, through His eternal sacrifice. How did Jesus abolish your sins? Jesus came to this world in order to take our sins away. At the age of 30, Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist, taking the sins of the world at once onto Himself. Three years later, He died crucified on the Cross, after saying, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Then, He resurrected from the dead on the third day. And 40 days later, ascending to Heaven, He has also promised to return to this world as the Lord of advent.
Jesus is the Son of God, and fundamentally God Himself to all of us. Jesus took our sins onto Himself by coming to this world and receiving the baptism. He has become our Lord and Savior, as He was judged once for all for our sins through His death on the Cross. We can overcome all sins by knowing and believing in Jesus Christ, who came by the water and the blood. Although we are weak and insufficient, we do not dwell within our own limited thoughts. Rather, we are delivered from all sins by staring at the gospel Truth. As a result, we automatically praise God with “hallelujahs.”
We can go in front of God unashamedly because we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I thank God because we are able to praise Him “with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). We, who believe in this true gospel of the water and the Spirit, can worship God in the Spirit and in Truth because we have no sins in our hearts.
One, who has sin, cannot have an encounter with God. When a person has sin, that person cannot have truthful conversation with God. How can a sinner, who is tortured with one’s own sins, approach the Holy God without fearing Him? Whoever has sin is a sad person. Because we had sins in our hearts, we were unable to receive God’s blessings and be adopted as His children. We had to live through the ups and downs of life and receive eternal damnation instead.
This is why we have to meet Jesus Christ, who has come by the water and the blood. We have to invite Jesus, who has descended to us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, into our hearts by accepting Him as our Lord and Savior. Only then can we have a conversation with our Holy Lord. My fellow Christians, if you still don’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you have to first receive the remission of your sins through this Truth.
The God given gospel of the water and the Spirit has the power to abolish the sins of all believers at once. Regardless of how insufficient we may be, we are never bound to sins again as we will overcome the world with our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Although we sin out of our weakness, we can still live righteously without sins of our hearts because we believe in this powerful gospel. We will never suffer from the binding of sins through our faith in the words of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
As illustrated, believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can overcome the world and the Devil through their faiths in this gospel Truth. Those with such a faith can please the heart of God. In this Truth, we can also give our offerings of faith with thanksgiving. Hence, we can be thankful to God in any circumstances, approaching God like an eagle soaring through the sky. God has blessed us with salvation, when we were destined to receive eternal damnation.
The Lord, who has descended by the water and the blood, is our Savior and the Host of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He has come to this world in human flesh because He loved us. Knowing even the sins we will commit in the future, He received the baptism by John the Baptist at the age of thirty. His baptism transferred all of our sins onto Himself once for all. John 1:29 describes how Jesus took such heavy burden of the sins of this world: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Some people live in disillusion that they are without sin as long as they don’t put the sins of their hearts into their actions. Yet, whether one’s sin is in one’s heart or one’s deed, they are all sins of this world. The Lord did not distinguish between the kinds of sins. Regardless of whether the sin is original sin or personal sins, the Lord took all those sins onto Himself through the baptism by John the Baptist and received judgment for the sins of all humanity. Because the Lord took onto Himself all of our sins through the baptism by John the Baptist, His precious blood on the Cross was not wasted. By His just sacrifice, He could fulfill both His love and justice, as it is written in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
After the baptism by John the Baptist, Jesus was crucified on our behalf. Still, He did not remain dead but resurrected from the dead to bear witness on how God has abolished all of our sins clean and adopted us His children. Jesus the true God is the King of kings, who has completed our salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Jesus came to this world by the gospel of the water and the Spirit and saved the sinners. While Jesus has carried the sins of all people through His baptism, He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). However, people misunderstood His salvation and believed only in His blood on the Cross. Christians still fail to see Jesus Christ as having descended by the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
In this age, we have to believe in Jesus Christ, who came to this world in human flesh, receiving the baptism to take all of our sins onto Himself once for all. We have to believe that Jesus carried the sins of this world onto the Cross, where He shed His blood to death, and that He did resurrect from the dead to complete God’s salvation once for all. Do you still believe only in the blood of Jesus? Or do you believe in Jesus our Savior, who received the baptism at the Jordan River to take the sins of humanity onto Himself and shed His precious blood on the Cross?
We must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Believing only in the blood of the Cross is a half-faith. Since many people still haven’t realized this Truth, they live with their foolish faith that is inadequate to cleanse all of their sins. This is why we, who are saved by believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, must preach the gospel Truth to the people of the entire world. That is the Lord’s wish for us.
We Have to Believe in Jesus Not Just with Our Emotion, but by Following the Word of Truth
If a person believes only in Jesus’ blood on the Cross, we can say that person believes only with his or her emotion. That is why such a person leads a life of sorrow even after having believed in Jesus Christ. Jesus has granted us the remission of sins by descending by the water and the blood. Jesus received the baptism by John the Baptist in order to take away our sins onto Himself. Jesus was nailed on the Cross in order to receive the judgment for our sins once for all.
Thus, whoever believes in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit in one’s heart knows the Truth of salvation that grants the remission of sins. One falls into a mere religionist if one does not know Jesus Christ who descended by the water and the blood, and as a result, does not believe in Him correctly. If a person trusts one’s own superstitious thoughts, that person continues to live in pain and suffering even after knowing Jesus.
But, there are people, who believe in our Lord and Savior Jesus, trying to learn His love and to live in His abundant grace. They refuse to go voluntarily into pain and suffering. If you are such kind of people, you must realize how much God has loved you by His remission of your sins through the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. You must also realize that God has really adopted you as His child.
Most Christians have to know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit from the very first moment they start to believe in Jesus. However, because they have believed in Jesus superstitiously, their initial joy fades away as times go by, and they become even greater sinners, living in perpetual sadness. We must know the very Truth that leads to our whole salvation. What is that Truth? Jesus Christ who came by the water and the blood (1 John 5:6) is that Truth. Only if we know and believe in this Truth of salvation will we live in joy and happiness.
The water in the Bible signifies the baptism Jesus received by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15, Hebrews 10:22). The reason Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist is exactly to take our sins onto Himself once for all. Our Lord is our Savior, who cleansed us from all our sins. The baptism Jesus received by John the Baptist has become our sign of salvation (1 Peter 3:21). All the sins of humanity were transferred to Jesus once for all through the baptism by John the Baptist, and thus has our Lord become our Savior once for all, cleansing us from all our sins.
Does a believer in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit no longer sin in one’s flesh? One may ponder about such a question. Since our flesh is still insufficient and weak, we cannot help ourselves but to continue sinning. We have to know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit.
If a person thinks that he will sin no longer because he has confessed all of his sins, he is still lost in his dreams. As we live our lives in daily routines, eating meals regularly and going to toilet rooms regularly, a human being continues to sin from one’s birth to one’s death. No matter how beautifully one covers oneself, the dirt of humanity still sneaks through in everyone.
Yet, Jesus came to this world and received the baptism from John the Baptist, taking all the sins of humanity onto Himself at once. And Jesus has become true Savior to all sinners by carrying our sins onto the Cross, where he bled to death, only to resurrect from the dead. Now we have been cleansed from all of our sins and adopted as God’s children, entering into eternal life, by believing in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, who came by the water, the blood, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, God has spoken through the Apostle Paul, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10).
I am not saying that you and I will quit sinning because we have received the remission of sins. How can we say that we are sinless in front of God, when all we do is sinning owing to the desires of our flesh? We can profess boldly that we are sinless through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In actuality, Jesus took on the sins of all of humanity by His baptism and abolished all our sins by being judged for them in our place. If we only believe in this, our souls can be cleansed.
I give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ.
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