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Sermons

Subject 9 : Romans (Commentaries on the Book of Romans)

[Chapter 1-1] Introduction to Romans Chapter 1

“The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans” can be referred to as the treasure of the Bible. It mainly deals with how one can obtain God’s righteousness by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Comparing Romans to the Epistle of James, someone defined the former as ‘the word of treasures’ and the latter as ‘the words of straw.’ However, James is the word of God just as Romans is. The only difference is that Romans is precious because it provides a general overview of the Bible, whereas James is precious for it is the word that makes the righteous live by God’s will.
 

Who is the man, Paul?
 
Let’s read Romans 1:1-7 first. “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through Him we have received grace and Apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ: To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
These passages may be counted for “Paul’s greetings to Christians in Rome.” Paul greets them as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, who becomes the righteousness of God.
Verse 1 talks about the question ‘Who is Paul?’ He was a Jew who met the resurrected Lord on the road to Damascus, and who was a chosen vessel of the Lord (Acts 9:15) to spread the gospel to the Gentiles.
 
 

Paul spread the true gospel based on the sacrificial system and the prophecies of the Old Testament
 

In verse 2, Paul the Apostle was spreading the gospel based on the words of the Old Testament. He defined “the gospel of God” as “which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.” Through this verse, we can see that Paul the Apostle preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit based on the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. Moreover, verse 2 indicates that Paul was chosen to do the work of the gospel.
The phrase ‘through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures’ implies God’s promises to send Jesus Christ, who appears in the sacrificial system or the prophecies in the Old Testament. All of the prophets of the Old Testament, including Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel, bore witness to the fact that Jesus Christ would come into this world and die on the Cross after taking over the sins of the world.
What is the gospel that Paul the Apostle delivered like? He preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit that spoke about the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Some people say that the words of the Old Testament have already ended, and others insist on the same point, providing the words of Matthew 11:13 as evidence. Some well-known evangelists even ignore the entire part of the Old Testament.
However, God made a promise to us through the Old Testament and He has fulfilled this promise through Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Therefore, in the world of faith, the New Testament cannot exist without the Old Testament, and in the same way, the words of the Old Testament cannot be fulfilled without the words of the New Testament.
Paul the Apostle was chosen for God’s gospel. Well then, the question is, “What kind of gospel did he preach?” He preached the fact that Jesus Christ came to this world and saved us from all our sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, based on the Old Testament. Therefore, whenever we are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we should do so based on the prophecies and the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Only then will people come to believe that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the truth, and that the New Testament is the fulfillment of the words of promise of the Old Testament.
 From the beginning of the New Testament, we can find that an emphasis was put on the baptism Jesus received from John and His blood on the Cross. While in the kernel of the Old Testament, there was the sacrificial system, which was the redeeming way for a sinner. He/she had to pass over his/her sin by laying his/her hands on the head of a sin offering and making it bleed to death in order to be forgiven for the sin.
Then, if there were the laying on of hands and the blood of the sacrificial animals for the remission of sin in the Old Testament, what was there in the New Testament? There was the baptism Jesus received and His blood on the Cross. Moreover, the High Priest mentioned in the Old Testament (Leviticus 16:21) was equivalent to John the Baptist in the New Testament.
Verses 3 and 4 talk about the question, “What kind of a Person was Jesus?” The verses explain His generic character. Jesus Christ was physically born of David’s family and by the Spirit of holiness, he was recognized as the Son of God by His power of resurrection from the dead. Therefore, He became the Savior by giving the water and the blood to those who believed in Him. Jesus Christ became the God of salvation, the King of kings, and eternal High Priest of Heaven to those who believed.
In some Christian theologies, the divinity of Jesus has been denied. These theologies say, “He was just an outstanding youth.” Moreover, according to the New Theology, “There is salvation in all religions.” Therefore, in liberal seminaries, people insist that they have to accept exorcism, Buddhism, Catholicism and all the other religions in this world. This so-called Liberal Theology or the New Theology says that everything should be paid respect to, and therefore, all humans have to unite and become ‘one’.
However, it was clearly said in the Bible that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then, who’s this God? It is Jesus Christ. The name ‘Christ’ means having been anointed with oil. In the Old Testament, a king or a prophet was anointed on their heads from the High Priest. Therefore, Jesus is referred to as the King of kings. A person who denies Jesus as God is not a believer in God.
Nowadays, the faiths of the people throughout the world are turning back to the Ecumenicalism based on religious pluralism. They praise and give worship while combining all kinds of elements from heathenish religions such as Buddhism and Confucianism. At certain times, the congregation worships a Buddhist way, and at other times they do it in a Christian way. Well, there may be a delicious fusion of food. However, when it comes to faith, the purer the better.
Therefore, the answer to the question in verses 3 and 4, ‘Who is Jesus?’ is that He is the one who has been acknowledged as the Son of God by His power of resurrection from the dead. Christ became the Lord and Savior to us.
Verses 5 and 6 talk about how Paul became an Apostle through God. He became a witness to preach the gospel to the Gentiles so that they could receive salvation by believing in Jesus Christ.
 
 

What kind of authority did Paul the Apostle have?
 

As it is written in verse 7, Paul the Apostle had the authority to bless believers in Jesus by God’s name. The authority of an Apostle means the spiritual power of being able to bless all the people by the name of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Paul could say, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Here, I would like to think a little bit more about this benediction. It seemed that Paul the Apostle had the authority to make benedictions for people, and whenever we end worship services on Sundays, we close up with benedictions. “God wishes to give out this kind of blessing to the saints.” The original words of blessing are as follows.
Let’s start with Numbers 6:22. “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, “This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
Aaron the High Priest and his sons were told, “This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.” If they would bless the Israelites in this way, God would actually bless them as said in the Scripture. When we take a look at all the Pauline Epistles, we can see that he often said, “The grace of our Lord be with you.” This indicated that it was not himself that would give out blessings, but it was God who would do it. Therefore, Paul the Apostle always gave blessing to the saints whenever he ended his epistles.
Paul had the authority to give blessings to God’s people. This authority was not given out to all Christian ministers. Instead, it was given only to God’s servants. When God’s servants make benedictions saying that they truly wish to give out blessings, then God grants them these blessings actually according to the benediction.
God gives heavenly authority not only to His servants, but also to all the born-again saints. God says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23). He grants that kind of authority to all the righteous. Therefore, one should take heed not to confront the born-again saints or His servants, because it is the same as confronting God. For God has granted the authority of blessing and cursing to His Apostles as well as to His servants and the righteous.
 

Paul the Apostle who wishes to impart the spiritual gift to the saints
 
Let’s read Romans 1:8-12. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established─that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”
 First of all, for what did the Apostle Paul thank God? He thanked God for the Christians in Rome because they believed in Jesus and through them, the gospel was preached to the other people.
In verses 9 and 10, one could ask the question, “Why did Paul the Apostle want to go to Rome during his mission trip?” The reason for this was because if the gospel of the water and the Spirit were preached in Rome at that time, it would have been spread out to the entire world. Just as the whole world today looks to America, in the ancient times, Rome was the center of the world as there was the saying, “All roads lead to Rome.”
We are doing a lot of work of preaching the gospel in America. If we spread this gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit in America, many missionaries will come to rise and walk out into the world to preach this beautiful gospel to others. Therefore, Paul so wished to go to Rome.
 


The spiritual gift Paul talks about

 
In verse 11, it is written, “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established.”
What does Paul the Apostle mean by imparting some spiritual gift so that people may be established? The spiritual gift he talks about is the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which we are preaching. In verse 12, it is written, “that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.” Saying that some spiritual gift would be imparted to people to allow them to be established and to encourage the people with the mutual faiths of both Paul and them, was because by delivering the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Paul wanted to let people rest, get comfort, receive blessings, and to have fellowship within the same kind of faith.
Paul the Apostle’s saying that he would want to be encouraged together with them by mutual faiths shows that he longed to preach the gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit once again to the Roman Church. Now, all of our church members understand and believe concretely in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but there may appear to be some nominal Christians who do not believe in the true gospel with the passage of time. Like this, the Church in Rome might be in need of refreshing the gospel.
Therefore, Paul the Apostle said that he might have been encouraged by the mutual faiths in him. In fact, we receive comfort before God’s presence and our hearts can rest in peace thanks to the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We would not be able to rest in peace without the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Moreover, it is written, “I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established.” This spiritual gift is the gospel of the water and the Spirit. One can become a child of God and receive blessings only when he/she believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
However, what use is it for people to live virtuously or faithfully by giving up smoking and drinking and without doing any wrongdoings if they don’t know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, even though they believe in Jesus somehow? Their doings have nothing to do with God’s righteousness. The righteousness of God is much greater than that of human beings. It is easy to draw in people to a church, but it is more important to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to these new believers so that they can be forgiven for all their sins and become God’s children by being clothed in the spiritual blessings of Heaven.
Paul the Apostle wanted the saints in Rome to be encouraged through his own faith. So he said, “that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.” Therefore, Paul the Apostle had to preach the true gospel to all the congregation of the church to let them have faith, so they could be established by his own faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He had to deliver the believers of the church in Rome the gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit and teach them what it really was.
This is what made Paul the Apostle different from the other evangelists in today’s world. In the Epistle to the Roman Church, Paul the Apostle said that he wanted to let people be established by imparting some spiritual gift, and to encourage them by the mutual faiths of both the people and him. This is what all the preachers of the existing churches of today should learn from Paul the Apostle. Paul the Apostle used to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit with which one could discern true brethrens from the false ones.
These days, churches let a group of new participants receive the doctrinal teachings for a period of 6 months, and within a year, they finally get baptized. That’s it. They get baptized regardless of whether they know about the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has fulfilled or not. In other words, even though people have become members of a church, they have not been able to become God’s children who have obtained His righteousness. The only thing the ministers of today’s churches ask their new believers to do is to memorize the Ten Commandments and the Apostle’s Creed. If the new believers pass the memorizing test, then they are asked, “Are you going to stop drinking? Quit smoking? Are you going to offer your tithe every month? Will you lead a good life?”
The reason the churches of Europe, Asia, and all over the world became distant from God’s righteousness is because they chase after human righteousness. Nowadays, even in Korea, or the so-called ‘Jerusalem of Asia,’ the population of Christians is declining. Now, the time has arrived in which no one wants to come to church unless there is a special event held inside the church, such as a praising festival or a pop concert. Even if people come, the ordinary sermons that are given to the youth contain themes such as, ‘Don’t smoke, live a virtuous life, keep the Holy Sundays and do a lot of volunteer work,’ have nothing to do with God’s righteousness.
Because a human is swift to sin and too fragile to quit sinning, he/she has to rely on the Lord. Therefore, when people come into the church of God, we should deliver them the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that they can obtain God’s righteousness. To them, we should really pass on God’s righteousness that says that you and I have been made sinless even though we are still insufficient.
Be sure to keep this in mind. One can only live according to God’s will after he/she has become sinless by believing in God’s righteousness. One can preach the gospel once his/her own problems of sin have been settled. Our work of spreading the gospel to others should not precede the settlement of our own problems of sin. One can never preach the true gospel to others unless his/her own problems of sin have been solved.
 It is said that Paul the Apostle did truly impart some spiritual gift to others. The gift Paul talked about is not the gift of strange tongues or healing talked about in the Pentecostal Movement in the present Christianity. Most Christians regard some strange phenomena such as seeing visions, prophesying, talking of other tongues, or healing diseases as the gifts.
However, these things are not the spiritual gifts from Heaven. Seeing visions while making prayers is definitely not a spiritual gift. A person wildly screaming or a person in a cave going crazy whenever he/she hears strange sounds while not being able to sleep for three nights, are not of God’s gift. One who claims that he is able to speak other tongues and falls unconsciously to the floor after shouting out strange words ‘la-la-la-la’ with a twisted tongue is not a sight of one receiving the Holy Spirit. Instead, it’s similar to mentally unstable patients in a mental institution going wild. However, there are so called ‘charismatic revivalists’ who insist that they can teach Christians how to speak other tongues or how to receive the Holy Spirit. They are doing something very wrong and the faiths they possess are definitely not right.
The living water of the Holy Spirit flows out from our hearts when we faithfully do God’s spiritual work and follow the Lord. The water of the Holy Spirit will overflow in our hearts when we lessen the carnal deeds and follow the spiritual deeds instead.
Christians should obtain the spiritual gift of the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Someone says that numerous Christians are right now heading toward hell through the chairs of today’s churches. This indicates that today’s churches encourage human righteousness instead of preaching God’s righteousness.
Brethren, even if one has piled up a lot of human righteousness after attending church, this doesn’t mean that he/she can receive the spiritual gift by such deeds. We should take in God’s righteousness into our hearts by the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit so that we can obtain the spiritual gift.
Let’s read verses 13 to 17. “Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’”
Paul the Apostle wished to go to Rome. However, he couldn’t do so because he had been hindered. Therefore, he had to pray asking for the door of his missionary work to be opened. Likewise, we should give the same kind of prayers while preaching the gospel worldwide through literature ministries. Only when we pray will God’s heart be moved and only when God opens up the door and the path for us will we be able to deliver the gospel of the water and the Spirit worldwide.
 
 
Paul who owed a debt to all the people
 
To whom did Paul the Apostle say that he had owed a debt and what kind of debt did he mean in verses 14 and 15? He said that he had become a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, and that he owed them the preaching of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He added that he was a debtor both to the wise and the unwise. Therefore, he wished to preach the gospel to these people in Rome as best as he could.
Therefore, the purpose of Paul the Apostle writing to the church was to deliver the true gospel. He found that even in the hearts of the people inside the church in Rome, the gospel of the water and the Spirit did not stand firm by faith, and thus he referred to the gospel as the spiritual gift. Therefore, he preached the gospel of the water and the Spirit even to those who were already inside the church, as well as all the people of the world. He said that he was a debtor to the wise, the unwise, the Greeks, and all barbarians.
What kind of a debt did Paul owe? He owed the debt of having to preach the gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit to all the people in the world. He insisted on delivering all of the debt he owed to the people in the world. Like this, even the people now who have the gospel of the water and the Spirit owe the propagation of the gospel. The debt they have to pay is the work of spreading the gospel. This is the reason why we have to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the whole world at this time.
People mistakenly think that only the blood of the Cross is all of salvation. However, the heavenly gospel the Bible bears witness to is the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which Paul the Apostle also testified to. Therefore, in Romans chapter 6, Paul said that he was baptized into Christ Jesus and also into His death. Because there were nominal Christians in the Church in Rome who believed only in the blood of the Cross, Paul wanted to deliver them the hidden secret of the baptism Jesus had received. Just like this, we should preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to those who have not been able to hear it, though they have long been inside the church.
 When Christians are asked whether they possess sin or not, they think of this question itself as being useless and disregarding their personalities. However, this question is in fact of great importance and enormous value. If humans are destined to go to hell due to their sins, who is there to ask them this kind of question and provide them with a solution? Only a person who is sinless in his/her heart after having been born again by the gospel of the water and the Spirit can ask that kind of question and also give the correct answer to people. Only the born again saints can make sinners to be born again by delivering the sound gospel, that is, the gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit, which sinners have never heard before.
 Brethren, even if one believes in Jesus, but has not been born again of the water and the Holy Spirit, then one can neither enter nor see God’s Kingdom. Therefore, be thankful when you meet people who allow sinners to receive the remission of sin by delivering you the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You will then receive a great blessing.
 

The gospel Paul was not ashamed about
 
In verse 16, what was the gospel Paul the Apostle was not ashamed about like? It was the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because this gospel is God’s power to salvation for everyone who believes, Paul called it as “my gospel” (Romans 2:16, 16:25), and he regarded it to be proud and great instead of being ashamed of it. The reason he was not ashamed of the gospel of the water and the Spirit was because this gospel makes people completely sinless and destroys the barrier of sin that divides all mankind from God.
Would the washing away of sin be possible if people believed only in the gospel of the blood of the Cross? It is seemingly possible to wash away the sins committed until now with this kind of faith but it is impossible to cleanse our future sin. Therefore, people with this kind of faith try to wash away their sins by saying prayers of repentance everyday. They confess that their hearts are filled only with sins and that they are inevitable sinners. These Christian sinners who possess sin cannot talk about the gospel sincerely to others, because ‘the gospel’ they have is no more ‘the good news’ to them.
The gospel is ‘euaggelion’ in Greek, in other words, the gospel that has the ability of blowing away all the sins in this world. The only true gospel is like dynamite. It is this true gospel that eliminates all of the sins in this world. Therefore, a person like Paul, who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that has the ability to eliminate sin, was not ashamed of it. Nowadays, even Christians seem to be ashamed of preaching the gospel. However, those who possess God’s righteousness are people that stand out more with dignity and glory when they are preaching the gospel.
Paul the Apostle did not even have the slightest bit of shame while preaching the gospel. It was because the gospel he was preaching was the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It was because this beautiful gospel was God’s power to salvation for everyone who believes.
This gospel is the powerful gospel that allows anyone who believes in it to get his/her sins remitted, no matter who has delivered it to him/her. The sins of the world get completely washed away if the listener takes in the gospel with his/her heart. However, the gospel of only the blood of the Cross tells the incomplete salvation to people, that is to say, it tells people that it only eliminates their original sin and thus their additional transgressions have to be washed away by saying daily repentance prayers. It leaves an aftertaste of sin to its listeners.
Did Jesus only take away a partial amount of sin because His power was not good enough? Since Jesus knew humans so well, He did not leave behind any kind of sin. He took with Him all of the sins with the water, blood and the Holy Spirit. I believe that this beautiful gospel gives complete salvation from sin to everyone who hears and believes the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His bloodshed on the Cross.
Therefore, the gospel has the same power to everyone including the Jews and the Greeks. The gospel of the water and the Spirit allows the same salvation from sin to everyone who believes in Jesus when the gospel is preached to them. On the other hand, when one delivers something other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he/she will receive the wrath of God. So Paul said, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). Paul the Apostle clearly said that there is only the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is true out of all the other gospels.
Regardless of whether one is a Gentile or a Jew, or whether one believes in Islam, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, the sun god or anything else, every single person gets the chance to hear the gospel. Moreover, this gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit provides them the chance of getting saved from all their sins. So, we should deliver that Jesus Christ is God, that He created the Universe, that He came to this world in the likeness of human flesh to save us, that He took over all our sins by getting baptized by John, and that He received the judgment for our sins by dying on the Cross.
Therefore, Paul the Apostle was not ashamed of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even though the gospel only of the Cross must be a shameful gospel, the gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot be shameful at all; but a sound and powerful gospel that overflows with pride and dignity. Anyone who believes in this gospel receives the fullness of the Holy Spirit by the faith in the fact that he/she has become a child of God. Again I say to you that the beautiful gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit can never be a shameful gospel. However, the gospel that believes only in the blood of the Cross is shameful.
Christians, were you ashamed whenever you had to preach the gospel of only the blood of the Cross? You felt ashamed when you delivered and believed in the gospel of only the blood that does not contain Jesus’ baptism. Because you were ashamed to preach that kind of useless gospel, you always had to cry out for the Lord or give fanatic prayers in other tongues to fill up your feelings before you went out to the streets to shout out “Believe in Jesus. Believe in Jesus!”
This is something one can just do with overflowing feelings but something one would never be able to do with a sober mind. That is why those who believe only in the blood of the Cross shout tumultuously and cause disturbances whenever they are out in the streets for evangelism. Having the megaphone close to their mouths, they only shout out the words, “Jesus, to Heaven, disbelief, to hell.” However, a believer in the gospel of the water and the Spirit delivers the gospel in a very gentlemanlike fashion; while having opened up his bible, he drinks tea and converses with another.
 

What is said about the gospel of God’s righteousness?
 
In verse 17, what is said to be revealed in the gospel of Christ? It is said that “the righteousness of God” is revealed in the gospel of God. God’s righteousness is fully revealed in the true gospel. Therefore, it is said that God’s righteousness is revealed in it from faith to faith and that the just shall live only by faith. The gospel that delivers only the blood of the Cross does not contain God’s righteousness.
Brethren, if it is said that one has to give prayers of repentance everyday for his/her daily sins even though he/she has already gotten his/her original sin forgiven, and that one can gradually become sanctified to eventually become a perfectly righteous person, then does this kind of faith contain God’s righteousness? This is not something in which God’s righteousness is revealed. Something that reveals God’s righteousness talks about perfect things. The gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit talks about the perfect gospel from the beginning till the end.
You people offer daily repentance prayers because you are committing sins everyday as if you have to make new coverings out of the leaves of a fig tree to cover your shameful sides everyday, or maybe every week or month. A person repeatedly becoming a sinner by saying daily repentance prayers is like covering up his/her own shameful body with the leaves of a fig tree. This is the state of religious lives of those who believe in the gospel of only the blood of the Cross. They are the foolish ones who don’t wish to wear the leather coverings that God has given them freely, but instead enjoy wearing the coverings of the leaves of a fig tree.
Jesus’ blood on the Cross was the result of Jesus’ baptism, and it was not the bloodshed on the Cross by which Jesus was able to take over our sins. He took over our sins at the time He got baptized, then came to the Cross bearing all the sins of the world, and died to atone the sins of the world. Therefore, the Cross was the result of the baptism He had received. Since Jesus had taken over our sins through His baptism, the bloodshed at the Cross was His final deed to atone all our sins. Jesus received all of the curses of sin at the Cross because He had gotten baptized.
Then how can we obtain God’s righteousness? We can acquire it by knowing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. You would ask me, “Are you then a believer in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?” Then I can answer immediately and clearly ‘Yes’ to this question. The secret to obtaining God’s righteousness is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The reason for this is because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the truth and because it reveals God’s love and His righteousness. It is also because the gospel of the water and the Spirit contains the remission of sin God has given to mankind freely, the way to becoming His children, the blessing of eternal life by which one can receive the Holy Spirit, and the physical and spiritual blessings on earth.
Paul the Apostle said that God’s righteousness was fully revealed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that he was preaching. Therefore, putting up human righteousness without knowing God’s righteousness is like sinning before God. Moreover, a gospel that believes in only the blood of the Cross, but does not contain God’s righteousness, is false.
God’s righteousness refers to the sound gospel of the water and the Spirit He has given. The Old and New Testament as a pair save us from our sins. The Old Testament prepares for the New Testament and the New Testament fulfills the words of promise contained in the Old Testament. God saved us from the sins of the world by giving us the true gospel in which His righteousness is fully revealed. Thus He saved mankind from all sin.
Right now, the whole world should return to the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The only gospel that saves people from sin is the original gospel of the water and the Spirit. Brethren, the whole world must return to the gospel of the water and the blood. They have to return to this gospel of the water and the Spirit, which contains God’s righteousness.
The reason for this is because the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the only truth that can save us from sin. Only the gospel containing God’s righteousness can save us, make us sinless and turn us into God’s children. Moreover, the Holy Spirit inside our hearts protect God’s people and this Holy Spirit prays for us, blesses us, always stays with us and gives us eternal lives as a gift.
It is very tantalizing to see that there are so many people who don’t even pay attention to this gospel. I hope for everyone to believe in this gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit by having clear understanding of Jesus’ baptism. The baptism Jesus received from John is not something that Jesus accepted because He was modest. The reason He got baptized was in order to bearing all the sins of this world. John, who was the greatest man among those born of women, laid his hands on Jesus’ head when he baptized Jesus. This forms a parallel to the imposition of the High Priest’s hands on the head of sin offerings without blemish in the Old Testament (Leviticus 16:21). Jesus’ death on the Cross was a result of having taken over the sins onto His body, and it parallels with the sin offering shedding blood and dying after going through the imposition of hands.
Because this gospel of the water and the Holy Spirit has been mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments, anyone who believes in the other gospel while leaving out any part of the original one has a wrong faith. The most important and the very first thing Jesus did when He came to this world was to get baptized by John. It is very wrong for you to believe that His baptism is only a symbol and to think that Jesus got baptized out of His modesty.
 What kind of a person is a heretic? In Titus 3:10, it is written, “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.” A divisive man is a person who is self-condemned. A self-condemned person means one who admits and confesses that he/she possesses sin. Therefore, a Christian who says, “I’m a sinner” is a divisive man, that is, a heretic. It is written, “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition.”
Because this kind of a Christian is warped and rotten, a sinless saint should not go near such a heretic. He is one who is self-condemned because his own faith and religious life has rotted away. A person who commits unforgivable sins before God is one who does not want to be sinless by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but instead continues to sin of rejecting His absolute salvation before God while saying that he/she is still a sinner. One who self-condemns while thinking that even though he/she believes in Jesus, he/she has sin and therefore calls himself/herself a sinner, is a heretic heading to hell.
Some Christians attach a sticker on the back of their cars that says, ‘It’s my fault.’ This seems like such a kind and warm saying when viewed by human eyes, but in truth, it means that since it’s all one’s own fault, such matters as going to hell, becoming a divisive man, and getting cursed is all up to one’s own fault. ‘It’s my fault’ is a paradoxical saying that one is going to live virtuously. However, saying that a supporter of such a slogan, who thinks he/she can live virtuously, is directly challenging God’s words that defines humans as seeds of iniquity. Those who chase that kind of human thought will eventually receive all kinds of curses.
 Are there by any chance people among you who are self-condemned? Then you should once again listen carefully to my sermon on Romans chapter 3 that states that the remission of sin does not refer to the Doctrine of Justification. Romans talks about this in great detail. Paul the Apostle knew in advance what people would say someday and therefore said beforehand that becoming sinless is to become truly without sin and is not just calling a sinner righteous. He also clearly testified that only the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the truth. Therefore, it is natural that those who believe only in the blood of the Cross will become ignorant and dumb while reading Romans.
The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans is such a great Scripture because it testifies the gospel of the water and the Spirit. One should become righteous after believing in Jesus even if he/she was originally a sinner before coming to believe. One should truly become a righteous person who possesses no sin in one’s heart. This is how one gets to possess the right kind of faith.
I hope that even if right at the moment, people’s faiths are not complete, their faiths will eventually reach perfection while they lend an ear to the words of the water and the Spirit through the born again church. Please, learn more about the gospel of the water and the Spirit through these sermons and confirm the words of truth.
I believe that God will endow us with the riches of heavenly blessings.
 
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