Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 3-3] What Makes It Possible for Us to Be Born Again? (John 3:1-15)
“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus answered and said to Him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’”
Must One Enter into His Mother’s Womb Twice to Be Born Again?
The Lord said to Nicodemus, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Then, Nicodemus asked Jesus in return, “How can an old man be born again? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born again?” Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews and a Pharisee. But, he did not understand what Jesus said to him because of his carnal perspective. As a result, he thought that one had to be born again from his mother’s womb all over again.
Everyone is born in this world once and dies once, for this is a law that God has set for every human being. After death, each person is to face the judgment of his sins once without fail. All humans are born with sin in this world from the parents of their flesh, and therefore, they will bear the condemnation of their sins if they die without obtaining remittance from their sins. Therefore, everyone must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and be born again before he dies.
A while ago, I saw a fascinating TV program showcasing sea crabs, explaining how they hatch from the eggs and exuviate. Every larva lives a new life again by transforming itself into an imago. For example, a cicada nymph transforms into a cicada. Similarly, for us humans, it is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are born again as righteous people from being sinners.
It is written in 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Therefore, it is never God’s will for everyone to be born in this world once and then just die without being born again. It is not God’s will that people should be born as sinners from their mothers’ wombs and then die as sinners. Just as a larva becomes a cicada, so, too, must everyone be born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, everyone must be born again from the status of a sinner into a righteous person.
In this world, there are those who have been born again from their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and then there are those who have failed to do so. According to today’s Scripture passage, this man named Nicodemus had lived in ignorance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who comes from God” (John 3:2). Although he pretended to know Jesus, Jesus said to him, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God,” and with these words He left a puzzle in Nicodemus’ heart to ponder upon. Jesus continued to say to him, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” By this, He meant that just as the wind blows where it wishes, but we cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes, so is someone who is not born again from his sins unable to recognize those who have received the remission of their sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By saying this to all those who are not born again yet, our Lord wanted to teach them what the Truth of being truly born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit is.
But Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can a man be born again?” and Jesus answered him saying, “How can you not know this as a teacher of Israel? For everyone, one can enter the Kingdom of God only when one is born again of water and the Spirit.” In other words, everyone must enter the Kingdom of God by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
We should all remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus. By telling all of us, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” Jesus wanted to teach us about being born again through the true gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Misconceptions That Many People Now Have about Being Born Again
Many people now have various misconceptions about being born again. They yearn to meet Jesus in their visions or dreams, or in their prayers, and they erroneously believe that they can be born again once they meet Jesus in these ways. That is why they tend to make outlandish claims. Saying that they saw Jesus in their vision while fasting, they claim that they are now born again. There are also some people who believe that they have been born again while dreaming. Someone even claimed that while he was dreaming, he saw Jesus in his vision, with His feet bound by iron chains and bleeding profusely, calling his name and telling him that He loved him. By claiming that the Lord told him, “I died for you like this. Can you see it now? You shall establish a prayer house here,” he says that he was born again at that time, and that this is why he built a prayer house.
Like this, some people make false claims about being born again. They also go through mistaken experiences. Some say that while they were giving their prayers of repentance to God, something hot descended on them from above. As the Holy Spirit is said to have descended like fire, they claim that something like fire descended on them and went through them from the tip of their heads to their toes. They say that it was then that the Holy Spirit came to them.
Still others claim that while they were praying, they saw a vision, and in this vision they were reminded of all the sins that they had committed, even their childhood wrongdoings and disobedience to their parents, and that all these sins were displayed right in front of them as if they were watching a film. So they say that they beat their chests and wailed, confessing each and every one of these sins in their prayers of repentance. They claim that by the time they were done with all their prayers of repentance, two days had passed by. Spinning out such fantastic stories and claiming that what seemed only a moment to them was in fact two days, they say that at that moment, they were remitted from all their sins and born again.
Some say that while they were praying, the heavens split, and Jesus came through this opening, saying to them, “I love you,” and entered into their hearts. So they say that it was then that they were born again. At any rate, speaking of their mystical experiences in various forms, people claim that they were born again by such experiences. But this kind of faith is not the faith that is based in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. These people instead end up having false beliefs.
However, Jesus made it clear in today’s Scripture passage that it is only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that one is born again. Because people do not know God’s Word of the water and the Spirit, they yearn to experience some mystic phenomena instead. And they convince themselves that they have somehow been born again through such experiences. But this is not the Word of the Truth of being born again of water and the Spirit that the Bible speaks of.
Some people say that when they were offering their prayers of repentance, the Spirit of God came to them and made them repent. But this is not the Spirit of God. It is the spirit of the Devil. The Bible says that it is Satan who accuses us. To accuse is to point out someone’s sins and to charge him before others. The Devil says to people, “You’ve sinned, haven’t you? Of course you’ve sinned!” This is accusing. The Devil always points out people’s sins, shows them their shame, makes them reach the condemnation of sinners, and destroys them through their sins. If anyone prevents people from realizing that it is through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that they can receive the remission of sin, and instead only points out their sins, then this is no more than the Devil’s work.
God often points out people’s sins directly, but He teaches them fundamentally through His Law what their sins really are. Moreover, He also enables them to know the good news that Jesus has taken away all their sins with the water, the blood, and the Spirit. Therefore, if anyone claims to have been born again without the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, then his testimony is all a lie.
What Kind of People Does the Holy Spirit Come To?
Just as it is clearly explained in Matthew 3:13-17 and Acts 2:38, it is through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that one is born again, and it is only when one is saved from all his sins that he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Lord said in John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” When the people of Israel were bitten by fiery serpents and were dying, they were healed from all their wounds by looking at the bronze serpent that was raised up on a pole, like General Naaman was healed from his leprosy in the Jordan River. By telling us this, Jesus has made it possible for us to have hope for our salvation.
When we turn to Numbers 21, we see that when the people of Israel were passing through a region called Edom on their way to the land of Canaan, their souls became very discouraged on the way and they turned to speak against God and against Moses. They accused God, saying, “Is there no other place to put us to death that You have dragged us to this wilderness to die? Our God, the God of our forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob! If You are indeed the true God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob, then why have You dragged us to this desert and placed us in such a desolate place with neither food nor water only to suffer freezing temperatures in the night and scorching heat in the day?”
As the people of Israel spoke against God, God sent fiery serpents among them, who were dwelling in tents, and had these serpents bite them. Bitten by these venomous serpents, the people of Israel were dying off. Moses then prayed fervently to God on their behalf. The people of Israel also confessed their wrongdoing and prayed to God to save them. Hearing Moses’ prayer, God said, “Make a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and tell the people that everyone who looks at it shall live.”
As a matter of fact, among the people of Israel, those who believed in the words of God’s servant Moses—that is, those who looked at the bronze serpent—were indeed saved from the serpents’ venom. This event is recorded in the New Testament also, as it is written in John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” This means that Jesus, now that He was baptized to take upon all the sins of mankind, would have to be crucified to death to pay the wages of all our sins.
Just as Moses in the Old Testament raised up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, Jesus, too, was lifted up on the wooden Cross to save His believers from of all their sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and thereby accepting all the sins of this world that are like the venom of serpents. Jesus said that when He carries on His shoulders the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist and is crucified to death, He would deliver those who believe in this Truth from all their sins.
Understanding the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit written in the Bible is like finding a hidden picture. It is like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Many children enjoy playing with jigsaw puzzles. A big picture is cut up into many pieces of different shapes, and when each piece is put together, the original picture is revealed. If any single piece is lost or misplaced while putting the jigsaw puzzle together, the original picture cannot be fully restored. But when a child puts together each jigsaw piece one by one, he comes to realize what the picture looks like.
As such, the Bible is also divided into the Old and New Testaments, but when all the pieces of the Word are put together, what ultimately emerges is the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. The Word that makes it possible for us to be born again is this very gospel of the water and the Spirit. God’s Word is the Truth that enables us to be born again from all of our sins through the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross.
Once more, we need to examine one by one what the Word is that allows us to be born again. We need to reach the definitive understanding of the meaning of the Word of the water and the Spirit spoken in John 3.
Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Why, then, did Jesus have to be baptized by John before He was crucified? He said that it was because of our sins. It was because Jesus had accepted all the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist before He was crucified, that He could carry on His shoulders the sins of the world and be nailed to the Cross.
Does this then mean that Jesus was crucified as punishment for our sins? Yes, this is precisely the reason for His crucifixion. Jesus was crucified because He had taken upon all the sins of mankind, and because He consequently had to suffer the punishment of death on the Cross for all the sinners of the world. Having accepted all the sins of mankind once and for all through His baptism by John the Baptist, He had to be crucified in accordance to the Law of God that declared the wages of sin to be death.
When Jesus said that He would be crucified and lifted up high, He spoke about the condemnation of sin from His Word of “the water and the Spirit.” In other words, for everyone to be born again from his sins and to become God’s own child, he has to realize and believe that both the baptism Jesus received from John and His Crucifixion have blotted out all his sins perfectly. It is through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that one is born again from his sins.
The Spirit refers to Jesus Himself, who is God. It tells us that Jesus is the Son of God and the true Savior who came to save sinners from all of their sins. Jesus was conceived by the Virgin Mary and became a Man. He accepted all our sins through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:13-17), died on the Cross while carrying the sins of the world, rose from the dead again, and by doing so He has delivered us from all our sins, thus becoming our true Savior. To save sinners from their sins, God Himself took upon all the sins of mankind through His baptism by John, and saved them from their punishment of sin, by bearing all the condemnation of sin on the Cross—through these righteous acts, He has saved them once and for all. All the acts of salvation fulfilled by Jesus clearly manifest that He is indeed the Savior who has saved sinners from their sins. In the gospel Truth of “the water and the Spirit,” the water refers to the baptism that Jesus received, and the Spirit manifests that Jesus is fundamentally our Savior.
Jesus was baptized by John to accept the sins of mankind, and for Him to able to be crucified also. Put differently, it was not the case that Jesus could be crucified even if He had not been baptized by John. Jesus had to be crucified and lifted up from the earth precisely because He had taken upon all the sins of mankind once and for all by receiving baptism from John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Thus, He has fulfilled the righteousness of God once and for all. This is how He was able to bring salvation from all the sins of the world to those who believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit at one time. Jesus has washed away all our sins once and for all with the baptism that He received, and He bore the condemnation of all these sins on the Cross. Therefore, it is by believing in the baptism of water that Jesus received, and in the blood that He shed on the Cross, that we have been saved from all our sins.
Speaking to Nicodemus about being born again, Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness” (John 3:14). The serpent symbolizes those who stand against God. The serpent lifted up on a pole implies two meanings. One is that God had judged the sins of mankind, and the other is that Jesus Himself would bear the condemnation of all the sins of mankind.
Jesus is the Savior of all humanity. He came to this earth as a man, and when He turned 30, He took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, as the very first act of His public life dedicated to the salvation of mankind. By doing so, He has saved us from all the sins of the world, where Satan rules, intervenes, and accuses. By being baptized, in other words, Jesus took upon all the sins of this world that Satan the Devil had planted in us mankind. It was because Jesus had taken all the sins of mankind upon His own body through His baptism that He was nailed to the Cross, when, in fact, only sinners should have been crucified.
By doing so, Jesus has become the everlasting Savior who gives the remission of sin to all the generations to come who believe in and rely on His baptism and His blood on the Cross. It was because Jesus had carried the sins of the world through His baptism that He could be crucified. As our sins were passed onto the body of Jesus and He died on the Cross, He was lifted up high from this earth so that those who understand this with faith would be saved from all of their sins.
Why are we thankful to God? Human beings are so insufficient that they cannot help but commit so many sins while living in this world. It is not just in our past that we were insufficient, but we are still insufficient in the present, and we will continue to be insufficient in the future until the day we die. Yet despite this, Jesus the Savior was born of Mary as a human, and by being baptized by John in the Jordan River, He accepted and washed away all the sins that we commit throughout our entire lifetime from our very birth to our death—just how fortunate and thankful is this?
To be born again from sin, both the water with which Jesus was baptized and the blood that He shed on the Cross are absolutely indispensable. Put differently, it is by believing in this Jesus who was baptized and crucified to bear the punishment of sin that one can be born again by faith. This faith is the faith that enables us to be born through the gospel of the water, the blood, and the Spirit (1 John 5:6-8). All of us must return to the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Is The Truth of Real Salvation
Nicodemus asked Jesus in return, “How can a man be born again? Must he enter into his mother’s womb twice?” Jesus Himself then answered him, saying, “To be born again, one must be born again of water and the Spirit.” We must believe that the baptism by water Jesus received was the way for Him to wash away all our sins; we must also believe that it was because Jesus was baptized that He was crucified to death; and we must believe it is only by having faith in His resurrection that we can enter the Kingdom of God and see Him.
To explain how we can receive the remission of our sins and be born again, Jesus first spoke about the “water.” He mentioned the water first because before His crucifixion through which He bore the condemnation of sin, there was the water of His baptism, the procedure through which He took onto Himself all the sins of the world.
When Jesus was about to be baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus said to John, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Here the phrase “thus” means: 1) proper; 2) appropriate; and 3) no other way but this. The baptism Jesus received from John was in the form of “laying on of hands.” As you may know, the laying of hands on the head of the scapegoat by the High Priest was to pass over the sins of the Israelites all at once to the sacrifice. Therefore, when the hands of John, the representative of all mankind, were laid on the head of Jesus, the sins of the world were transferred onto the body of Jesus once and for all. So, the next day of Jesus’ baptism, John the Baptist cried out seeing Jesus coming toward him, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
For human beings, who are all sinners, to enter the Kingdom of God by believing in Jesus, they must first receive the remission of their sins and be born again. Sinners can never enter His Kingdom. They must be saved by believing that just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Jesus was lifted up high on the Cross and was condemned for their sins, for He had taken upon all the sins of mankind at the Jordan River through His baptism. Whenever the Devil is accusing them to be sinful, they must overcome the Devil by placing their faith in the Truth, that Jesus washed away all their sins in their place by being baptized by John the Baptist and shed His blood to death on the Cross for their sake. Now, it is through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can possess the true faith, which makes it possible for us to be born again from all our sins. For a person to be born again, he must believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross.
As I mentioned previously at the beginning, one cannot be born again whether he sees some kind of vision, give prayers of repentance, or volunteer to serve the community. It is not through one’s own effort that he is born again. It is by believing in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross that we are born again from our sins.
To enable us to be born again, God temporarily bound us under His Law, as we were ruled by Satan, and made us sinners. And when we were still sinners, God Himself came as the Savior of sinners incarnated in the image of man to make us His own people, the people of God. Then, He took upon all the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and then He carried all of these sins of the world to the Cross where He shed His blood vicariously on behalf of the sinners of this world. He was condemned to pay off the wages of sin in their place, and has thereby saved them once for all. The baptism through which Jesus took upon our sins was an act of the remission of sin that He carried out to cleanse His believers’ hearts of their sins. With these righteous acts, He has now made it possible for all those who believe that He is God Himself, and that He bore the condemnation of the Cross, to be born again
Jesus was not crucified for no reason. To enable us to be born again and to make it possible for our old selves to die and to become renewed once again by believing in God, the Lord was baptized by John, was crucified to death, and rose from the dead again. To be born of water and the Spirit means precisely this Word. It is to believe in this Word which tells us that our Lord was baptized by John and died on the Cross to blot out all our sins. It is this Truth that has made us new by washing away all the sins of our hearts and souls, and allowed us to lack nothing in becoming God’s own people.
The Word of the water and the blood of Jesus is the real Truth of being born again. Jesus said so clearly to Nicodemus: “What makes it possible for sinners to be born again is faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.” It was because Jesus was baptized that He could die on the Cross, and it is because we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we have been born again from all our sins and received everlasting life.
All These Things Were Fulfilled According to God’s Plan
One should never think that his being born again from sin depends on his endeavors. It is something that God has completed to grant us according to His plan, and is not something that we have to strive for. To allow us to be born again from our sins, and to make us His own children in the likeness of His image, God planned to come Himself as a man, receive John’s baptism on His body, be condemned and crucified to death, and through all these things, make it possible for us to be born again once more.
My fellow believers, the blessing of being born again from sin is the gift from God to the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which proclaims that the Savior Himself took upon all the sins committed by everyone in this world, and that He was crucified. The baptism that Jesus received from John was the baptism that washed away mankind’s sins, and His blood on the Cross was the wages of our sins.
We are grateful for the baptism of Jesus Christ, for His crucifixion, for His resurrection also, and for His second coming as well. God had chosen us and predestined us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and it was to make us His own children that He created man on the sixth day after making the whole universe and everything in it.
When God made us to be born into this world, He had planned to make it possible for us to receive everlasting life as His eternal children. This is why God made man on the sixth day of His creation of the heavens and the earth. His plan was to enable those of us who believe in all of the spoken Word of God to be born again of water and the Spirit, and thereby make us into His own people. This is the very reason why God gave us the gospel of the water and the Spirit through His son, so that we humans would be born again from our sins once more.
Even the smallest insects in this world do not just disappear once born, but they transform themselves into imagoes that have wonderful wings. We, too, must be born again as the righteous by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus came to give us the gospel of the water and the Spirit and deliver all those who believe in this Truth from the sins of the world. And in our place He was baptized, carried all our sins on His shoulders, died on the Cross on our behalf, and rose again from the dead. By doing all these things, Jesus paid off all the wages of our sins with His own baptism and crucifixion, and He has made it possible for the believers to be born again with new life.
Why Was Jesus Crucified?
Jesus was to be crucified because He had taken upon Himself all of our sins once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Yet the Christian religionists of the world do not know that Jesus was baptized by John and was crucified to blot out the sins of this world through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. However, they must grasp the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit clearly, finding out “who, when, where, what, how, and why” this gospel was fulfilled. God’s Word is not a lie. Nor is it superstition. What God has done for our salvation has no defect whatsoever, no matter how hard the heretics try to find it. His Word meets every inquiry and resolves every doubt from human reasoning.
Why were you born into this world? Why are human beings born as humans? What is the reason and purpose for God’s creation of man? What is the reason for Jesus Christ’s coming to this earth? It was for God to enable us to be born again from our sins, to make us be born anew, to turn us into God’s children, and to make us sinless, that Jesus Christ came to this earth, was baptized, died on the Cross, and has thereby saved sinners from all of their sins and transgressions. We must believe in this Truth.
My fellow believers, we need to recognize that we cannot be born again by giving some prayers of repentance, or through any such effort of our own. We need to realize that our own effort has nothing to do with the Truth that enables us to be remitted from all of our sins. For us to be born again, we must realize that this Jesus Christ who was lifted up high on the Cross had first took on and carried our sins in the Jordan River through His baptism. With all our hearts we must believe in this Truth, that to suffer our own death in our place, to pay the wages of sin, death itself, and to fulfill God the Father’s commanded Word in obedience, Jesus was baptized, shed His blood in the place of sinners, and thereby paid off their wages of sin.
Is there anything else that we need to do to be born again? There is nothing else for us to do but to only believe in this Jesus who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Do we need to give prayers of repentance, climb a mountain to pray, fast, provide aid to the poor, go out into the mission fields, or embrace our martyrdom to be born again? No, none of these is necessary for us. “Should I offer money to God, or should I offer Him a great chapel building? Doesn’t God like money?” To this God said, “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine” (Haggai 2:8). Our God is the Lord of creation who made the universe and all things in it. Would He then have any want for gold?
Would He want good deeds from us? Would He want us to utter absolutely strange sounds such as “allelluiah-lululala,” trying to speak in tongues? Would God be pleased if we remember even more of our sins, list them all, and ask Him in tears to forgive us? No! What God wants from us is our faith in His Son who came by His water baptism and His blood on the Cross! For us to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior is the will of God the Father, and He has given us the gift of being born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has completed.
God has never demanded anything else from us apart from our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even in this world, the rich do not ask for something from others. Why would then God ask for something small from us humans? What would God demand from you and me? Would He ask us to attend morning prayer meetings faithfully, to be devout, to offer our material belongings, to give Him our prayers of repentance, and to remind ourselves of our sins over and over again in our repeated prayers of repentance while shedding our tears? Even without all these things, we already have enough wrinkles on our foreheads as it is. So why on earth would the Lord be pleased to see us frown, calling on His name in our everyday suffering and sadness due to our sins? Is this who God is? Of course not! Jesus, God Himself, is the Savior of mankind in our hearts who was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross for us, and He is the God that has made it possible for us believers to be born again.
Jesus is our Savior. He is the One who has enabled us to be born again into this world. Our Lord has renewed the hearts of all believers with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, as it is written in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Eventually, God will also renew the bodies of us believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God Himself came as our Savior, and through the baptism He received and the blood He shed on the Cross, He has allowed us to be born again. We must believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus. He was baptized to take upon Himself our iniquities. He was pierced for our blemishes. He was injured as a result of taking upon our sins through the baptism He received from John.
Jesus Christ was crucified because He had taken upon Himself the sins of this world by being baptized by John, for you and me. It was to make it possible for all those who believe in Jesus to be born again, to turn them into God’s children, to make us without sin, to enable us to be born again as the sinless—it was for all these things that Jesus was baptized by John and shed His blood for us. It was not to just boast His compassion upon us that Jesus Christ was crucified. All of us must realize and believe that Jesus was crucified solely because He had been baptized. Because Jesus has perfectly saved us from all our sins through His baptism and bloodshed on the Cross, the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have been born again from their sins.
Just as the Apostle Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), the reason why Jesus Christ was crucified was to make us be born again, to be condemned for our sins, to put our old selves to death and to make us be born again as new selves—all because He had received His water baptism in the Jordan River. We must all believe that Jesus shed His blood for us only after being baptized first.
Do you now understand the real Truth of being born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Or do you still believe that you can somehow be born again if you would just give prayers of repentance everyday? This simply is not true. Anyone who claims that our sins can be blotted out just by giving prayers of repentance is someone who has not been born again yet.
It is written in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Whoever only mentions prayers of repentance and does not speak about the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a robber and a thief. But he who preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit is God’s real servant.
My fellow believers, God has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit to make us be born again, so that He would make us His children, allow us to be sinless and righteous, and transform us into His own people who can forever enjoy everything that God has and live eternally with Him. Those of us who believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood have now been saved from our sins according to His providence. Do you accept it into your hearts that God has made you born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that He would turn you into His own children to live forever? Do you really believe that the Word of the baptism of Jesus and of His blood is the Word of salvation that makes you born again?
What is to be born again? By believing that Jesus took upon all our sins with His baptism, we become sinless in our hearts and become the born-again people of God. To believe in this Truth, that Jesus took upon Himself all the iniquities of sinners with His baptism and was crucified to death in our place, all to solve the problem of our sins, and to believe that He rose from the dead in three days, and has thereby brought His believers to life—this is the very faith that enables us to be born again.
That, my fellow believers, is precisely the Truth of being born again of water and the Spirit. To believe in the Word of Truth that enables us to be born again of water and the Spirit is to believe that Jesus is God Himself and was baptized to wash away the sins of all humanity. Jesus’ blood on the Cross signifies the punishment of sin, and His baptism signifies the washing of our sins. The resurrection of Jesus has brought us new life.
What Is the Conclusive Evidence That Proves Jesus Has Washed Away All Our Sins?
Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist to take upon the sins of this world (Matthew 3:15). It is written in 1 Peter 3:21, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Previous to this passage, Peter the Apostle had discussed the water of Noah’s flood. Therefore, he meant that the baptism of Jesus removed all the sins of the world as if the water of Noah’s flood had swept away all the filth of the first world. That’s why the Bible clearly states here that there is an antitype that now saves us—baptism through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
What is this antitype that proves that the Savior came to this world as a man, washed away our sins, and made us sinless? It is the baptism that Jesus received from John! What is the evidence of salvation that made us be born again? It is written in the Word that Jesus has washed away our sins through His baptism and His blood on the Cross.
This is why it is written in 1 John 5:6-8, “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.”
God Himself came to this earth, washed away all the sins of His believers with the water of His baptism, and then died on the Cross for us to pay the wages of our sins. God has given new life to us, to all of us who believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. God has given us the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the gift of salvation.
“There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). The baptism of Jesus is the Word that has made it possible for us to be born again from our sins, and it is the evidence of salvation through which He took upon Himself our sins in the Jordan River. He died on the Cross to bear the punishment for our sins. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was to bring new life to His believers. The Lord is our Savior who has saved us forever from our sins through the Word of baptism and blood that enables sinners to be born again.
By believing in this, that Jesus was baptized, shed His blood and died on the Cross, and rose from the dead again, our souls can be brought to new life once again to live forever. The gospel of the water and the Spirit has therefore turned our consciences into good consciences before God. It has emboldened us so that we would not hesitate to go toward God. Had Jesus not been baptized and not been crucified high on the Cross, how could we have received the remission of our sins and go boldly to stand before the presence of God the Father? In other words, without the baptism of Jesus Christ and His bloodshed, we could never have boldly stood before God. Because Jesus Christ took upon Himself all our sins and cleansed them all away from our hearts by being baptized by John, because He died on the Cross and rose from the dead again in three days, and because we believe in this Word of God, of the Truth of the atoning water and blood, we have been saved all at once, so that our consciences may lack nothing to call God as our Father. In this way, Jesus has enabled us to boldly come before the presence of God the Father by this very faith. Even now, because Jesus was crucified to death, we were also crucified to death with Christ, and because He was resurrected, our souls and our spirits could also be resurrected. This is the Truth of being born again. You must all accept this Truth into your hearts.
You and I are seemed to be born into this world once and to die once all too soon. But, is this all that there is to life? No! There is, after all, a new way of everlasting life to us. There are many life forms in this world that are born again. When even the nymphs of cicadas or the larvae of butterflies can be transformed into the adult cicadas or butterflies within God’s providence, wouldn`t God allow us, who are the lords of all creation, be born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit? By making us accept the baptism of Jesus and His blood, God has made us be born again from our sins.
My fellow believers, to believe in Jesus’ baptism and His blood is none other than to be born again. Let’s turn to Galatians here. Galatians 3:27 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” The phrase “as many of you” here means “whoever.” In other words, our Lord said that whoever was baptized into Christ has put on Christ. To be baptized into Christ means to unite with Jesus by believing that Jesus took away all of our old selves with all of our sins through His baptism. What about you then? Were you baptized into Christ? If so, then you have put on the garment of salvation, along with Christ. The believers in this Truth have now become God’s children. This Word is the Word of Truth and the Word of being born again.
Let us together turn to Romans 8 also. It is written in Romans 8:1-2, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Precisely as stated in this passage, you have to believe that Jesus has indeed given new life to His believers, and that He has indeed enabled you to be born again of water and the Spirit. My fellow believers, do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? If you do, then you have been baptized into Jesus and entered into Him by faith.
Have you put on Jesus Christ by being baptized into Him? It is written, “There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). My fellow believers, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can never have sin. They have become absolutely righteous by faith. They have been born again definitively, for the gospel of the water and the Spirit has swept away all their sins perfectly.
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Through what means has Jesus saved us? The Lord has saved us through His baptism and His blood on the Cross. He has saved us from the sins of the world with this new law called the law of the Spirit of God. It is through the law of the Spirit that give us life, this law of God, that the Lord has saved us from the law of sin and death, from the curses of the Law, from all the sins that derive from our human weaknesses, ignorance, powerlessness, and wickedness. It is not through our own goodness that God has saved us, but it is through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the life-giving law of God’s salvation. God Himself came as our Savior and gave us His baptism and blood, and He saved all of us who accepted this God-given remission of sin into our hearts.
My fellow believers, I am sure you now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Then, do you still have sin? No! Is there still condemnation waiting for you because of your sins? No! Is there no condemnation whatsoever? None whatsoever! But if you sin again by any chance, would you come to have sin again? No! You have already died and were brought to new life within the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Have you received the spiritual baptism of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ? Have you really been baptized into Christ by faith? If you have done so, then you have come into Jesus Christ by believing in His water and blood. In contrast, however, he who does not believe in the water of the baptism of Jesus Christ and in His blood is one who is standing outside Jesus Christ.
Let us read Roman 8:3-4 together: “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Could we ever keep the Law of God in our flesh? Of course not! Clearly, we human beings could never keep the Law of God because of the weaknesses of our flesh. This is precisely the reason why God sent His Son Jesus Christ to satisfy the righteous requirement of the Law for us. We can never satisfy that requirement because of the weaknesses of our flesh. The Law declares that the wages of sin is death. One who has sin in his heart must be put to death. In other words, every sinner must be sent to hell, sentenced to eternal death. But, the Son of God, our Lord, resolved the problem of sin and death that the Law speaks of. So our Lord Himself came to us and took care of not only our sins, but also all the consequences of sin, even death itself. And to blot out our sins, He was baptized by John.
God said, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). What does it mean when it says here that “He condemned sin in the flesh?” This means that God passed our sins onto Jesus Christ who had come in the flesh of man. God the Father had His Son, Jesus, be baptized according to the established law to pass our sins to Him. Jesus’ baptism was administered in the form of the laying on of hands in the Old Testament.
Through His baptism, Jesus took upon all the sins of this world, as it is written, “God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Jesus accepted all the sins of the world onto His own body through His baptism. The reason for this was for Jesus Christ to bear the condemnation of our sins, for we could never, ever abide by all of the Law of God until the day we die. “He condemned sin in the flesh” means that God the Father transferred all the sins specified by His Law, all the sins that we commit from our failure to keep this Law, onto Jesus Christ through His baptism.
God the Father sent His Son as the Savior of mankind, and He had His Son accept our sins through John the Baptist. Jesus, in turn, did not seek after the comfort of His flesh, but in obedience to the will of God the Father, was baptized by John in the Jordan River and thus accepted the sins of the world, and following this will of the Father, He gave up His body on the Cross. Jesus willingly laid down His life so that we would be born again from our sins. And by doing so, He fulfilled all the requirements of the Law and the commandments spoken by God the Father.
God told us to recognize our sins through the Law and then receive the remission of our sins. Because the Law of God was given to mankind once, and God could not repeal this commandment, He gave us the law of salvation that could deliver mankind from sin.
God commanded to all of us, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). But humans were too weak that they turned to worship other gods. Each and every one of them has his own idol, that is, something more precious than God Himself. And God also commanded, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). Yet people are still taking the name of God in vain. Again, God ordered, “Keep the Sabbath holy. Honor your parents. Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not covet. If you fail to keep even one of these, you will die. Anyone who breaks any of these commandments will die.”
However, human beings are weak in their flesh and they are incapable of living according to God’s Law, even though they know that His Law is right, and they themselves desire to live accordingly. Although human beings are incapable of keeping this Law because of their weak flesh, this does not mean that God would somehow excuse them. Therefore, once their sins are established, they must submit to death. Everyone who fails to keep the Law must be put to death before God. “You shall die, for you have broken the Law of God.” Once God issues His commandment, it must be fulfilled infallibly. What is written in Romans 6:23, that “the wages of sin is death,” must be fulfilled by God without fail. And since each and every human being is insufficient, the entire human race has fallen into being sinners that must be put to death before God. So the Bible states, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).
Jesus’ Baptism and Blood Have Fulfilled All the Requirements of the Law
However, God could not just abandon mankind to their death, for He so loved us humans. So, out of His love for us, He sent His only begotten Son to this earth to deliver us from our sins. By sending us His Son, God fulfilled all the requirements of the Law and lifted up all its curses, and has thereby saved us all. It was to fulfill the requirements of the Law that God sent Jesus Christ to this earth. Through His Son, God made it possible to fulfill the purpose of His love for us, as well as the requirements of the Law that He had established. The way to achieve this mission began with the baptism of our Lord, when He accepted all the sins of mankind once and for all and took them all upon His own body by being baptized by John. Then by giving up His body unto the Cross, He then bore the condemnation of sin in our place, was crucified and shed His blood to death. By doing so, Jesus paid off the wages of sin demanded by the Law with the price of death, and He fulfilled the law of the Spirit of life that saves us from the sins of the world.
The will of God was to give us the remission of our sins and eternal life through the gospel of the water and the Spirit in Jesus Christ. This baptism and the blood of the Cross through which God has brought us to life again constitute the very gospel of the water and the Spirit. To fulfill the law of salvation for us, our Lord carried our sins on His shoulders in our place by being baptized by John, was crucified to death, rose from the dead again, and has thereby brought to life again all the souls of those who believe in Jesus Christ. This is the Truth of being born again. Jesus met all the requirements of the Law of God by shedding His blood on the Cross, all the while bearing all the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John.
We have confirmed that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only Truth of salvation that is written in the Bible. Therefore, with all our hearts, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit through which God has enabled us to be born again from our sins. No matter what our thoughts may be, we must believe that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the real Truth of salvation. God has made it possible, in other words, for the spirits of all those who believe in Jesus’ water and blood to be born again through the baptism of Jesus and the Spirit.
My fellow believers, we humans are born as sinners without exception. Therefore, we need to realize that if we are to die just as we are, without being born again, then all that awaits us is our destruction. Now is the time for all sinners to be born again. And if we want to be born again from our sins, we must believe in the gospel, that Jesus Christ has saved us through the water and the blood that He has given us. We must believe, in short, in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We must believe that the Lord took upon our sins through His baptism, washed our hearts clean once for all, and took away the sins of the world. We must believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross in our place to pay the wages of all of our sins.
We must believe in God’s law of love. For God to save us from our sins is the very will of God. Sending us His Son, passing our sins to Him, putting His Son to death in our place, resurrecting His Son, and thus making it possible for those who believe in His Son to be born again, all for the purpose of saving us from our sins—none other than this is the love of God. We must understand this will of our God and believe in this love of His.
It is through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are born again from our sins. If we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then we will be born again and enter the Kingdom of God, but if we do not believe in it, then we will be condemned for our sins and cast into the everlasting fire of hell. Unless we believe that God loves us, there can only be curses and never-ending agonies. Therefore, it is only when you and I believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can receive new life.
When we become God’s children by faith and pray to Him, our prayers will surely be answered. Hence, if we want to be helped and blessed by God, we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only then can we receive eternal life and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is to be born again, and this brings to us tremendous blessings bestowed by God. Herein lies the reason why all of us must be born again.
God has allowed us to be born again out of His love. Through what has He done this? He has made us be born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Lord God Himself came in the likeness of the flesh of man, took our sins of mankind upon His body by being baptized, was condemned for us by shedding the blood of His flesh, and in body He rose from the dead again. Through all this, He has opened the way for us to be saved by faith. In other words, God Himself came to this earth and made it possible to be born again for all those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that He fulfilled. Our Lord has given us, to all the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gift of being born again and the right to become God’s children. This is the only way to be born again.
Christian legalists still lay undue emphasis on human deeds for one to be born again. Yet, we all have to realize here that being born again has absolutely nothing to do with our deeds at all. We need to grasp clearly that it is entirely through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can be born again, and that being born again is entirely a matter of faith. We should never be deceived by the legalists again. It is neither through our obedience to the Law, nor through our pious religious lives that we can be born again. In fact, all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). It is God Himself who loved us so much that He became a man; it is God Himself who, to blot out all our sins, accepted these sins by being baptized by the representative of mankind in the Jordan River; it is God Himself who was crucified to fulfill the Law that declares the wages of sin to be death; and it is God Himself who has thus delivered us from sin and death. Our Lord has delivered us from our old selves, died in our place, and has made us be born again, receive new life, and live for Him.
Jesus Christ is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. When His time comes, our Lord will appear a second time to those who eagerly wait for Him without sin for salvation (Hebrews 9:28). These people are the ones who have become the brides of Jesus Christ. They are the ones who have become sinless by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, they are the righteous. They are the ones who will receive God in joy, never in fear. We thank God for this Truth. Since all that we have done is to just believe in the God-given gospel of baptism and blood, and we now lack nothing to be able to call God our own Father, we cannot thank Him enough.
Now then, what is our understanding of God? What kind of God is He to us? We understand Him to be the God of mercy who loves us. We know Him as the God of love. We know Him as the God who has enabled us to be born again of water and blood and brought us to new life. Before, we might have known Him as the fearsome God, the frightful God, and as the God of judgment, but now that we have been born again of water and the Spirit, this is no longer our understanding of Him. When Jesus came to this earth as a Man, He bore the condemnation of our sins and made it possible for us to be born again. Why would we then fear the Lord when He has made us God’s own children while we are living on this earth?
The Evidence of the Fact That We Have Been Born Again by Believing in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
Once a larva turns into a dragonfly, it flies freely in the sky. You all know what a dragonfly is, right? Sometimes, when we stand and extend one of our fingers toward the sky, a dragonfly would come and sit on our fingertip. Imagine a certain dragonfly is striking a conversation with larvae. “Hey, guys. Do you believe that you are to be born twice? Do you believe that one day you will turn into dragonflies like me?” Some larvae say that they believe, but there are also others who say that they don’t know. But the dragonfly says to the larvae, “You have to believe. You will also be changed like this. Someday, you, too, will become like me. Let’s meet again when you turn into dragonflies later. Bye~”
Have you seen a midsummer cicada? In the summer cicadas would sing from the trees. Decorating midsummer with their beautiful songs from the trees, they praise God. How do you suppose these cicadas became what they are? Cicada nymphs, burrowed deep in the ground, transformed themselves into cicadas. A cicada might say to a cicada nymph, “Look at me. I was born again like this. Get out of earth and climb up the tree. Become great cicadas like myself. I am so happy with my new state.”
A dragonfly or a cicada no longer has anything to do with its larval stage. It has now become an imago that flies the sky freely. Like this, we were sinners before we were born again. But now, we have become completely sinless by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The very fact that we now have no sin in our hearts is the clear evidence that proves that we have indeed been born again.
We are the born-again believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is constituted by the baptism and blood of Jesus. Those who believe in God, who has allowed us to be born again, live the life of preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit as they live on this earth. As we carry on with our lives on this earth, we testify, “I have been born again! I am now sinless! My salvation did not come through my own acts. It came through my faith. It was reached through my faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus Christ has allowed me to be born again of water and blood. The Truth of the water, the blood, and the Spirit is the Truth of being born again.” We live our lives, in other words, testifying the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
To make it possible for you and me to be born again from our sins, our Lord came to this earth, and He lived and labored for 33 years. In His 33 years on this earth, through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our Lord redeemed all those who had been under the curse of the Law from all their sins. Coming to this earth, the Lord was baptized at 30, died on the Cross at 33, rose from the dead in three days, bore witness to His resurrection for 40 days, and ascended to Heaven. He now sits at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. Our Lord has enabled us to see how to be truly born again, even though we are lowly beings as cicadas and dragonflies, through the transformation of these insects.
Our Lord is saying to every sinner all over the world, “Meet My children who have been born again of water and the Spirit. Believe in My servants’ words, and you, too, shall be born again. I have made it possible for you to be born again of water and the Spirit.”
Jesus Christ our Savior is now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. Now, Jesus Christ is no longer baptized, nor crucified, nor shedding His blood, nor bearing suffering for us. This is because He already did all these things and has completely fulfilled the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Now there is no longer any need for Him to come again to wipe out our sins, nor to be baptized again, nor to die on the Cross again, nor to be resurrected once more. Why? Because Jesus was already baptized by John, was already crucified, rose from the dead again, ascended to Heaven, and has thereby completed all our salvation to perfection, so that all that He now has to do is just return to this earth to take away His believers in due time. Until the day when the Lord judges unbelievers with fire, He has no more work to do for our salvation. All that He does now is just be with those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of Truth that He has already fulfilled. And He gives them the gift of eternal life. He has sent the Holy Spirit to their hearts and sealed them.
Our Lord has blotted out all our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord therefore recognizes with approval the faith of all those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God approves their faith to be right, saying, “You are righteous. You are without sin.” God in fact seals the sinless people with the Holy Spirit.
In the work of God, there is no sense of the flesh. However, when one is remitted from his sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and thus the Holy Spirit comes into his heart, then the true peace of mind comes to him, not just fleeting, empty emotional experiences. The righteous have no sin. So when you first believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you likely did not go through much emotional change.
Jesus has allowed those of us, who believe in His baptism and blood, to be born twice. He has brought us up spiritually and made us preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And He has given us eternal life, so that when the time comes, we would live forever in the Kingdom of God the Father.
For those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit God has allowed us to be born again from our sins. Do you now accept this gospel of the water and the Spirit into your hearts? He who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit gives all his thanks to God. He who accepts the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit is blessed to be born again from all his sins before God.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Word of blessings that makes us born again by faith once and for all.
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission