Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 6-2] What Use Are These Small Loaves and Fish to Many People? (John 6:1-15)
(John 6:1-15)
“After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’ But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.’ One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?’ Then Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.’ Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.”
John chapter six is all about the bread of life in its entirety.
It is written in today’s Scripture passage that when Jesus went over to the other side of the Sea of Tiberias, a great multitude followed Him. The reason why so many people followed Jesus was because they had seen the signs that He performed on those who were diseased. As Jesus went up on the mountain and sat with His disciples, He saw this great multitude coming toward Him, and so He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Philip then answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”
Another disciple, Andrew, then said to Jesus, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” Both Philip and Andrew only told Jesus what the actual situation was at that time. But Jesus told His disciples to make all those people sit down on the grass. He then took the five loaves and two fish that the lad brought, blessed them, and distributed them to all those sitting there. There were over 5,000 men alone who ate these bread and fish at that time, not counting women and children (Matthew 14:21; Mark 6:44).
Because of this miracle, the people gathered there tried to make Jesus their king. The people of Israel were living under the colonial rule of Rome at that time, and so even as they tilled the ground, they had very little to survive on, as most of their harvest was taken away to pay for the assessed taxes by the Roman Empire. So it was more than possible for them to try to make Jesus their king. Since they could hardly feed themselves to survive, they had no money to get any treatments when they fell ill, and that was why they were following Jesus so closely, who had healed their illnesses and fed them full.
The Bread Mentioned in John Chapter Six Signifies the Flesh of Jesus
The flesh of Jesus signifies that Jesus shouldered our sins on His body by receiving His baptism, gave up His body to be crucified, shed His blood to death, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become our true Savior. By taking our sins upon His own body all at once, and by bearing the condemnation of these sins once and for all, Jesus has saved us perfectly from all our sins. The body of Jesus is the bread of life.
And the blood of Jesus is the true drink. From a certain point of view, the Bible may seem nothing more than a historical record of the people of Israel, but in reality, it is the Word of God that writes about the flesh and blood of Jesus that God has given us to bring life to the entire human race. Each chapter of the Bible contains the Word of life that God wants to speak to us. So if anyone has the accurate knowledge of what the Word of God is saying to him, he can be saved from all his sins.
Andrew said to Jesus, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” The two small fish here refer to God’s Church. Like these fish, God’s Church is also unimpressive in its outside appearance. Nonetheless, it is God’s Church that is now preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone living on this earth. Thanks to the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are spreading now, many people in this age are able to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood. Because we are sharing this genuine gospel with the entire population of the world, of the more than 7 billion people living in this world, those who believe in this gospel are receiving the remission of their sins. Right now, God’s Church is a small gathering in number. Some people may question how much could possibly be achieved through such a small number of ministers and saints, and the few coworkers scattered around the world, but because the Lord holds God’s Church steadfast and works through it, He is saving everyone in the world from its sins. Our Lord has given the bread of life to those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Jesus Said That the Flesh of His Body is the Bread of Life for Us
When we partake in Holy Communion, we eat bread and drink wine, and the bread here symbolizes the body of Jesus, while the wine signifies the blood Jesus shed on the Cross. Jesus told us to remember Him with the bread and wine of Communion (Luke 22:19). Why? Because our Lord took upon all the sins of this world by receiving baptism on His body, and shed His blood on the Cross for us. Because our Lord took our sins upon His body through His baptism, they were passed onto Jesus Christ, and this is how our sins could be washed away. When Jesus told us to eat His flesh and drink His blood, He was telling us to believe in the Truth that He took upon Himself our sins by being baptized, gave up His body on the Cross to shed His blood, rose from the dead again, and has thereby blotted out all our sins once and for all. So considering this, what would have happened had Jesus not shouldered our sins by receiving baptism on His body? We could never have washed away ours sins. That is why we must receive the remission of our sins by faith, by eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking His blood.
When we are too busy with our own affairs, we tend to forget how thankful we should be that the Lord has saved us from sin. In other words, even though we should indeed be grateful beyond words that the Lord has saved us through His flesh and blood, when our souls are darkened, we can’t feel this grace. And as a result, we lose our gratitude for God and His grace, just as the church of Ephesus was rebuked for losing the first love despite the fact that it had worked and labored tirelessly for God (Revelation 2:1-4). However, when we free ourselves for a while from the affairs that have gripped us, set aside everything, and ruminate on God, we can see just how thankful we should be for God’s grace. When I think about how the Lord came to this earth, how He was baptized to take upon my sins once and for all, how He carried these sins to the Cross to be crucified and was condemned for them, how He died and rose from the dead again, and how He has thereby made me a sinless man, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. When I get immersed in my work, I am too busy with what’s right in front of me that I have little time to be thankful. But, when I stand before God once again, I am so thankful that He has saved someone like me.
Spiritual thoughts and carnal thoughts are often all mixed up in our minds, throwing us into confusion. However, when we think about what God has done for us, our hearts are filled with thankfulness. We need to once again remember that we could never have become sinless before God all by ourselves, because we are too insufficient and weak.
Jesus Christ is the very God who made us. Jesus is the Creator who made us as well as the entire universe, and therefore He is the Master of the universe. Jesus is the Savior who, when mankind that was made in the image of God fell into sin and was destined to hell, was born on this earth incarnated in the flesh of man through the body of the Virgin Mary to save His people from their sins; took upon the sins of the world by receiving baptism on His body; was condemned for them on the Cross and died; rose from the dead again; and has thereby truly and completely saved us from sin. I cannot thank God enough when I think about the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When people stand before their death and destruction, they become very honest. If I assume that I am about to die right now at this very hour, I would set aside all the affairs of this world and think only of my relationship with God. And even as I take in my last breath, I would be completely at peace and joyful for having eaten the flesh of Jesus and having drank His blood while alive.
Not long ago, on Easter Sunday, we thanked the Lord again for giving us everlasting life. After being baptized by John the Baptist and dying on the Cross, our Lord rose again from the dead and lived again. Because the Lord’s resurrection is our own resurrection, of you and me who believe in His gospel, just as the Lord rose from the dead again, our bodies will be transformed and we will also be resurrected into new bodies that will never die. In other words, just as the Lord rose again from the dead, we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will also rise again from the dead. Indeed, we believe in the Lord’s resurrection, and we believe that we, too, will be resurrected.
When Easter comes around, even the pastors who have not been born again preach, “Since Jesus died on the Cross and rose from the tomb again, you should also live with the hope of resurrection.” The question, however, is whether or not they really believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Put differently, are they really sure that they themselves will be resurrected on the Lord’s Day? They can’t be sure. Even though they say with their lips, “Yes, I believe,” they have doubts in their hearts, wondering, “Will this really happen?”
Before I was born again, my mind could not understand the meaning of resurrection either. I wondered, “How could Jesus rise again after death? How can a dead man ever rise again?” However, because the Lord who shouldered the sins of the world through His baptism is essentially the almighty God Himself, it was eminently possible for Him to rise again from the dead. The Lord said that just as He rose from the dead again, we, too, will live again. He said to us, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54).
That is indeed true. As Easter comes around, preachers who have not been born again speak of irrelevant things, but we should realize that the Lord has raised us to live again by giving us new life, believe in this, and give wholehearted thanks to Him. After carrying out the Lord’s work, we will eventually go and stand before His presence.
What will happen to this body when we stand before God? Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit believe that they will live again. Those who don’t believe in this gospel, however, will not be able to participate in the first resurrection (Revelation 20:5-6). How could they, who did not eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, have any hope and believe in the resurrection of Jesus and theirs? People find it impossible to believe with their hearts that they will be resurrected in the future precisely because they do not know that Jesus took the sins of the world upon His body by receiving baptism from John the Baptist, shed His blood unto death on the Cross, and rose again from the dead.
Because Jesus is fundamentally God Himself, He could truly save all of us by coming to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, taking upon Himself your sins and mine once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. If Jesus had been just a man, this would have been impossible, but He achieved this because He is God Himself. There is absolutely no human being, who is only one of God’s many creatures, that was ever born without sin in this world. All human beings are born sinners.
However, because Jesus is the Son of God the Father, because He Himself is the One who created the entire universe with His Word, and because it is the will of God the Father to save us from sin, Christ came to this earth in obedience to this will of the Father, and has indeed saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord has resurrected us who believe in this Truth from both spiritual and bodily death. It’s because Jesus is your Savior and my Savior that He has indeed done this for us. That is why in our hearts we have faith in God and a profound gratitude.
We have to grasp and believe that Jesus is God (1 John 5:20). If Jesus were just a creature, no one would be able to be saved. Let’s assume here that someone virtuous and highly respected in this world shouldered your sins and mine and died for us. Could you and I then really be saved? No, we won’t be saved. That’s because there is no one who does not commit sin, and therefore even if this person were to shoulder our sins and die in our place, he cannot save any other sinners, for he himself is a sinner.
It’s because only the almighty God alone can save us from sin that He Himself came to this earth to deliver us. That is why our Lord, who is God Himself, took the sins of the world upon His own body by being baptized, thereby cleansing away our sins. It’s also because Jesus is God Himself that the Lord was able to be condemned for our sins and die on the Cross in our place, and it’s because of His power that He could also rise from the dead again. That is how Jesus has truly saved you and me from sin. And that is why we give our thanks to God by believing in this Jesus.
There are countless people in this world leading religious lives according to their thoughts. Their religious lives are obvious. Based on today’s Scripture passage, they preach as the following: “How was it possible for the bread and fish to multiply so miraculously? Here, as a child offered his small lunch to Jesus without any hesitation, the grownups were moved by this and offered their lunch that they had stashed away, and as all this food was gathered together and shared equally, there was enough food to fill everyone and still have twelve baskets of food left over. So let us also offer even small sums and help the poor. Every little bit helps, and so we should all pool donations to help the poor.” But this actually turns the Word of God into a lifeless ethical system of human norms.
The lunch that the child brought at that time only had five barley loaves and two fish. He probably got his lunch from his parents, who apparently made sure to pack him with something to eat as he went off to see Jesus. But the child offered this small lunch to the Lord. The Lord then blessed this and performed the miracle of five loaves and two fish. Such a miracle does not arise no matter how human beings like us bless on this lunch. Anyone whose head is straight knows that this is impossible. Instead of just accepting it as a given since it’s from the Bible, imagine you were doing this yourself, and think about it again. If you were to pray over this lunch and say, “May God bless it,” would this lunch be multiplied all of a sudden to feed everyone gathered there and still have twelve baskets left over? Of course not! No such a miracle can arise out of our own power. Only Jesus can achieve this.
Right now, we are spreading the gospel of Truth all over the world. There are plenty of people in this world who are just preaching their own gospel. But those who preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit are few and far between. There is no other gospel of Truth but this gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is this gospel of the water and the Spirit that we believe in and preach, and this very gospel that you and I are spreading is the Word of God that is more than able to save everyone throughout the whole world. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the blessed gospel and the bread of life that enables mankind to be washed clean from all its sins and receive new life. Some of us have only recently heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit, while for others, it’s been a long time since they were born again by believing in this gospel. But all of us know equally well that this gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only gospel of the Truth.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the Truth that the Lord has cleansed away all our sins with His baptism and His blood on the Cross: By coming to this earth, taking upon the sins of the world through His baptism, shedding His blood and dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, our Lord has become our Savior. The five barley loaves in today’s Scripture passage symbolize the salvation of grace that the Lord has bestowed on us, and this implies the very gospel of the water and the Spirit. In the Bible, the number five signifies God’s grace and blessings.
My fellow believers, in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we believe in, there are the blessing of salvation, the blessing of everlasting life, and the blessing of new life. It is a truly wonderful gospel. It is this gospel that we believe in, and it is this gospel that we are preaching throughout the whole world through our books. Even at this very moment, people all over the world are sending us their testimonies of salvation, telling us that they have received the remission of their sins by believing in this gospel of the water and the Spirit. There are many missionaries and pastors among them. My fellow believers, are these people then saying that they were born again only now because they had not believed in Jesus all this time, or believed in Him later than us? No. What happened is that they had believed in a false gospel all this time, and it was only now that they found the gospel of the water and the Spirit preached by God’s Church and believed in it. That is why they have come to abide in God’s grace only now.
Our Lord promised that He would bring down the former rain and the latter rain according to appropriate times (Joel 2:23). During the era of the Early Church, when the Apostles were preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God had brought down the former rain, and now, He is covering the whole planet with the latter rain. This latter rain is coming down all over the world through our paper books, e-books, and audiobooks through the Internet. In other words, by feeding on this gospel of the water and the Spirit, people are quenched from their spiritual hunger and thirst and receiving everlasting life. When our Lord came to this earth, He offered His body to us to take our sins upon this body through His baptism, washed away all our sins by being condemned on the Cross, and rose from the dead again. We must eat the bread of life that He has given us. To those who believe in this gospel that Jesus has given us, He has also given salvation and eternal life.
Our Lord said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). He also said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). No matter how many things of the flesh people might have, they are still thirsty and hungry spiritually. They may drink, sing, and dance in this world, but their hearts are filled with only sadness. They may have all the fun to be had today, gorge themselves on the finest food, get drunk till they pass out, and enjoy the greatest pleasure on earth, but when tomorrow morning comes, their hearts will once again be empty. The reality of human existence is that its heart, passions, thoughts, and body all thirst after something endlessly. However, because the Lord Himself took upon all our sins by being baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, bore all the condemnation of our sins, and washed us from all our sins, those who believe in this Jesus as their Savior always have joy in their hearts. They are always bold, and they always thank God for their salvation.
My fellow believers, our Lord commanded us to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Throughout the whole world, there aren’t that many ministers or saints who are preaching this gospel. Their number is only as small as the child’s lunch in today’s Scripture passage. Yet this lunch alone was enough to feed all those people and still have leftovers. None other than this is God’s power and blessing.
Right now, you and I are spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone all over the world. It’s because God’s Church believes in this gospel and preaches it throughout the whole world that God’s blessings are added to this. No matter how far away someone might be from us, if he only believes in this gospel of the water and the Spirit with his heart, then he can be washed from all his sins and become a truly sinless child of God. And he will receive all the spiritual blessings of Heaven, solving not only the problem of his soul, but also the problem of his flesh. We believe that God will bless us as our faith grows. Such a wondrous work described in today’s Scripture passage is unfolding at this very moment. Therefore, a minister who preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a truly competent minister before God. The saints who are gathered in God’s Church that preaches the gospel of the water and the Spirit are truly holy saints. And this Church that proclaims the gospel of the water and the Spirit is God’s true Church.
Although there are many self-titled churches of God in this world, the real question is whether or not they are really preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who boast about the size of their church buildings, the number of their congregations, or the fame of their pastors are holding fast onto something useless. No matter how famous and renowned their pastors might be, all that these pastors are doing is just getting paid more and acclaiming their own names. That is the only purpose of these pastors. No matter how many different titles they may carry around with them, they have absolutely no spiritual power.
What about you then? Do you believe in this gospel of the water and the Spirit? This gospel of the water and the Spirit is hidden as a mystery, so that those whose hearts are not upright may not perceive it even as they see it, and not understand it even as they hear it as it is prophesied in Isaiah 6:9. However, for those who are seeking the Truth, the Bible reveals this gospel in each chapter, so that they may find it. In other words, although Christian sinners speak of the gospel of only the blood of the Cross, God is continually speaking of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel of the water and the Spirit consists of both the baptism that Jesus received and the blood that He shed on the Cross. Had Jesus not been baptized by John the Baptist, He could not have taken upon our sins, nor would it have been necessary for Him to be crucified.
If there are only the blood of the Cross and the resurrection of Jesus in the gospel of today’s Christianity, how could we receive the remission of our sins? It is because the Lord came to this earth, took upon all the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist, carried them to the Cross, and was condemned for them that we have been washed from all our sins. Had the Lord Himself not been baptized by John the Baptist, He could never have shouldered the sins of the world.
Today, except for the gospel of the water and the Spirit, any other gospel composed of only the blood of the Cross is a corrupted gospel. How corrupt is it? You may think that it doesn’t make that much difference to leave out the baptism of Jesus from the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but depending on which gospel you believe in, the consequences are enormously different.
During the times of the Early Church, the Apostles preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Apostle Peter said, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism” (1 Peter 3:21). Paul, too, preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He said, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). The Apostle John also bore witness of the gospel of the water and the Spirit in 1 John chapter five. Every Apostle believed as the following: “When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He shouldered all my sins, and by shedding His blood to death on the Cross, He paid off all the wages of every sin that He had borne.” Therefore, anyone who believes only in the blood of the Cross rather than in the gospel of the water and the Spirit actually believes in Christianity only as a religion. If this is the case, then he still remains a sinner even as he believes in Jesus as his Savior.
How can you then wash away the sins that are in your heart? When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). “All righteousness” here is the result that the Lord achieved by being baptized, and thus taking upon all the sins of this world and blotting them out once and for all. Jesus came to achieve this work that fulfills all the righteousness of God, and He completed this work by being baptized by John the Baptist.
What does it mean for us that Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist? It means that by being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus accepted all our sins all at once and washed them all away once and for all. If there is sin in your heart, and you want to wash it away, what should you do to achieve this? You must believe that Jesus washed away all your sins by being baptized by John the Baptist. You must realize and believe without fail that at the very moment Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, all your sins were passed onto the body of Jesus. Otherwise you will never be able to wash away your sins.
How could we wash away our sins by ourselves? Could we wash them away through our own prayers of repentance? Could we clean them away if we live as virtuous Christians doing many good deeds? Could you go to the Kingdom of Heaven if you were to sacrifice yourself to preach the gospel of Jesus?
As a hymn sings, “♬Weeping will not save me! ♪Though my face were bathed in tears, ♬That could not allay my fears, ♪Could not wash the sins of years,” your sins do not disappear no matter how much you cry. The true remission of sin is attained only if we believe in what Jesus has done for us. It is not attained by doing something on our own, but rather, we are saved from all our sins when we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit—that Jesus, out of His love for us, came to this earth to blot out all our sins; that to achieve this He took upon our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist; that He died on the Cross and rose from the dead again, and that He has thereby saved us. In other words, we are saved by hearing the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our ears and believing in it with our hearts. There is no one who can be saved through his own good deeds.
If anyone would just recognize himself properly before the Word of God, he can easily realize that he is bound to commit sin throughout his life, from his very birth to the day he dies. If someone thinks otherwise, that’s only because he is getting defensive and overrating himself. Every human life is a constant series of one sin after another, from the very beginning to the end. As Jesus said, “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28), just how many sins does mankind commit with its thoughts, words, eyes, and acts? From the very moment everyone is born, he says, “Give me this, and give me that.” And it is precisely because everyone is born with sin in his heart that he practices evil in his life. But does this mean that people would improve when they get older? No, on the contrary, they get worse when they get older. They commit even more sins, and they curse even more. No one actually learns how to commit sin, but everyone is so skilled at it.
When I was young, I, too, used to think of myself as a good kid, obedient to my parents and well behaved. The neighbors also thought highly of me, worthy of an award for my display of filial piety. So I myself thought, “I must be really virtuous!” However, once I grew older and reached puberty, I began to commit sin according to my age. I committed so many sins that I even heard people say to me, “Did your mom teach you like this?” I was deceiving myself, thinking, “I am not someone who would commit such a sin, and yet I’ve sinned! It was a mistake! I am not that kind of person, never!” As I grew older and began to commit sin, I was surprised at myself first, and then others were surprised at me. And I, too, was shocked at the other people’s sins.
After a while, as I got older and became a young man, I realized, “Mankind is such a brood of sin by nature.” After this, I came down with a serious illness that almost killed me, and this near-death experience led me to believe in Jesus. However, my heart’s sins did not disappear, but they continued to torment me. Seeing how I was so helpless to commit sin even though I believed in Jesus, I was so disappointed in myself that I even tried to commit suicide once.
Nonetheless, the Lord came to meet me with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. At that time, as I believed in this genuine gospel, so many sins that had been in my heart all disappeared completely. Before I found the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I had many sins in my heart even though I believed in Jesus. Although in those days I was saying to people, “Believe in Jesus and be washed from your sins. And offer prayers of repentance to wash away your personal sins,” I myself had many sins. At that time, I was studying theology and ministering as well, but my sins were written in my heart. Mankind’s sins are written in the tablet of its conscience (Jeremiah 17:1). That is how one realizes the sins that he committed before God.
Do you then think that you can live virtuously if you just try hard and be more careful? That’s very difficult. In fact, it’s impossible. While you can pretend to be good, it is impossible for anyone to live a perfectly virtuous life before God. Everyone commits sin until the day of his death. That is precisely why Jesus came to this earth and took upon your sins and mine by being baptized, all in order to wash them away. It’s because our Lord took away our sins through His baptism that the sins of our hearts were washed away. The problem, however, is that most people are completely oblivious to this fact. For us to believe in Jesus as the Savior is to believe that Jesus has saved us by coming to this earth, taking upon our sins by being baptized, being crucified to death, and rising from the dead again.
That is why the Bible says that one can see the Kingdom of God and enter it only if he is born again of water and the Spirit (John 3:3-5). God could save you and me only if He came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, take upon Himself all our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist, wash them all away by being condemned for them, and rise from the dead again. That is why our Lord has saved us in this way. It is by realizing this fact and believing in it that you and I have been saved.
“Even though I am such a sinful person, and even though I can’t help but commit sin all my life, to save such a person like me from sin, the Lord came to this earth, was baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved me indeed. He is my Savior. Because all my sins were also passed onto the Lord when He was baptized, I have no sin. Because the Lord was condemned for my sins on the Cross and shed His blood to death, now there is no more condemnation of sin for me. That’s because the Lord was baptized and already condemned for me.” The right faith is for us to grasp the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in it like this.
Just because we attend every church meeting without missing any, volunteer ourselves to do Christian charity works and other such good deeds, faithfully offer our tithes, and propagate the gospel diligently, this does not mean that our faith is good. Whoever comes to the Church must first be remitted from his sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. To instead front his own devotion and merits without even receiving the remission of his sins, as if he were helping the Church, is not the right faith. If anyone has sin in his heart, he will be cast into hell. So, someone who still has not received the remission of his sins must first believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus and be redeemed from his sins.
What could such a person possibly do to help God? Who is helping whom, when he himself is in such a dire quagmire? The very first thing that one must do before God is to receive his salvation from God and be remitted from his sins, and thus attain new life. It is only after then that he should try to solve his spiritual and physical problems with the help of the Lord. It makes no sense for someone who hasn’t even solved his most fundamental problem to try to volunteer his service or do good deeds in God’s Church.
The problem with today’s Christians is that they just keep trying to help God on their own. That is why so many churches are only building bigger church buildings and raising higher church towers, rather than leading people to their redemption from sin. There are so many palace-like churches in this world. Such a phenomenon is extremely wrong.
My fellow believers, what kind of church is God’s real Church? A church is not just a chapel building. The gathering of the saints who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and spread this gospel is the real Church of God. Even though they may be gathered together and worshipping in a rundown building, if the people there really know and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then this place is indeed God’s beautiful Church.
When you come to God’s Church, the Church offers its fellowship to you, solves the various problems that are in your mind with the Word, leads you, and prays for you. It thus saves your soul first. Also, God’s Church sometimes counsels the saints with their carnal problems, as well as leading them in everyday life. Is it God’s Church, if it does not have the gospel of the water and the Spirit? No, of course not.
God’s Church enables you to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and it thereby leads you to the blessed way that washes you from all your sins. May God’s great blessings be with each and every one of you who has eaten the flesh of Jesus and drunk His blood.
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission