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Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 9 : Romans (Commentaries on the Book of Romans)
[Chapter 5-3] Together with God (Romans 5:1-21)
(Romans 5:1-21)
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(Romans 5:1) “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
The Book of Romans makes it clear that it is not by the righteousness of man that one receives the remission of sin, but it is by believing in the righteousness of God that his faith is approved. That is why here in chapter 5 Paul explains that we have peace with God by believing in His righteousness. When God has saved us from our sins through His righteousness, it makes no sense for us not to attain peace by failing to believe in God’s righteousness on our part. The Bible tells us that one is saved from all his sins by believing in God’s righteousness. This is the peace that is obtained when one places his faith in the righteousness of God.
God’s righteousness has made us whole. Therefore, whoever knows the righteousness of God and believes in it with his heart will receive the remission of all his sins.
In Romans 1:17, the Apostle Paul said, “For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” The Book of Romans tells us that one’s own human righteousness cannot deliver him from his sins. In Romans chapter 5, the Apostle Paul once again summarized the gospel in which the righteousness of God is contained. He did this to preach this righteousness of God to the saints in Rome, so that their faith may be strengthened even more.
However, some people still interpret this passage from the erroneous viewpoint of the Doctrine of Justification. It is fallacious to distort this passage to adhere to such a doctrine. The Doctrine of Justification is an interpretation that claims that since Christians believe in Jesus, God considers them sinless even though they still have their sins intact. This is the essence of the Doctrine of Justification.
The righteousness of God tells us differently though. It tells us that those who believe in God’s righteousness have “been justified by faith.” We can be justified before God only by believing in His righteousness. God does not consider anyone sinful to have no sin.
Entering by Faith into This Grace in Which We Stand
(Romans 5:2) “Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
The righteousness of God given to us is not constituted by our own good deeds. We are saved from all our sins once for all by believing in God’s righteousness, which has already been completed and has absolute power. What is God’s righteousness then? It refers to the fact that God has already saved everyone living on this planet from all his sins to perfection, by sending His Son to this earth, having Him to be baptized by John the Baptist, die on the Cross, and rise from the dead again. Therefore, we who believe in God’s righteousness have become His children, and we have entered into His glory.
Romans 5:2 says, “Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” As the Apostle Paul underscores it again, since the righteousness of God has already been completed and is standing firm, it is by faith that we have attained God’s righteousness, and therefore you and everyone else in this world must realize that it is now possible for all to obtain, through the law of faith, this righteousness of God that is already standing. If you also become righteous with us by believing in God’s righteousness, then you, too, will receive the blessing of everlasting life.
What we need to realize clearly in God’s righteousness is the fact that the baptism and blood of Jesus have saved us from all our sins. That is why we can attain holiness and have true faith by believing in God’s righteousness. Real faith is the faith that is placed in the Truth where the righteousness of God is contained. We must not exchange God’s righteousness, which God Himself has already completed, with the Doctrine of Justification and believe in it instead. God’s righteousness is not something that was created theoretically by men. God’s righteousness has been completed concretely and actually by the baptism and blood of Jesus. Without believing in God’s righteousness, it is impossible for any sinner to be saved from all his sins. Therefore, we must understand God’s righteousness properly and believe in it properly. The reason why we must not believe in the Doctrine of Justification in lieu of the righteousness of God is because if we do so, our sins cannot be blotted out.
God has approved the faith of those who believe in His righteousness. To the hearts of the believers in God’s righteousness, He has given everlasting peace. What the righteousness of God is trying to tell us is that the sins of mankind had broken their peace with God, but Jesus Christ has reconciled them with God by blotting out all these sins with His baptism and blood.
It is only by believing in the true righteousness of God that we can have peace with Him. We who believe in God’s righteousness can no longer remain His enemies, and true peace has come to us as a result of believing in the righteousness of God. The One who has prepared such peace is God the Father. Having been sent to this earth, Jesus Christ blotted out, through the baptism He received from John, and His blood, death, and resurrection, all the sins of the world that had made us God’s enemies.
However, those who do not believe in God’s righteousness wage war against this righteousness of God by fronting their own righteousness. Such people must turn around immediately and surrender to God. And by now placing their faith in God’s righteousness, they must receive the grace that remits away all their sins.
How does God’s peace come to a sinner? Your peace with God can be had only if you attain it by believing in His righteousness. There is no other way but this to have peace with God. Yet despite this, sinners do not know the righteousness of God even when they desire to have peace with Him, and so they are not at peace with God. If a Christian sinner does not hold onto the righteousness of God and believe in it, then he has no conviction of salvation because of the sins that he constantly commits, and so he comes to rely on groundless doctrines instead. As a result, all that perpetuates is only moaning and endless despair. In contrast, we who believe in the righteousness of God are now actually enjoying peace with Him.
The Righteousness of God That Enables Us to Overcome Everything
(Romans 5:3) “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;”
Not only this—that is, not only have we received salvation by faith—but we also have joy in tribulations. This is all because we believe in God’s righteousness. The passage here says that tribulation produces perseverance; this faith is the Apostle Paul’s testimony and also our testimony. Those who have been saved by believing in God’s righteousness are sometimes persecuted to preach this righteousness of God. They face tribulations to follow the will of God.
(Romans 5:4) “And perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
However, perseverance also produces character, and character produces hope. Because God has saved us from all our sins once for all and He has given us new heavens and a new earth, we wait patiently in hope. This is the true purpose for which the saints persevere.
Tribulation produces perseverance for the saints. The saints persevere through tribulation because they believe that God’s blessings will come soon. A patient heart is the heart that longs for the early return of the Lord. Through tribulations, God refines the hearts of the saints. A refined heart makes us have strong faith and enables us to persevere through any suffering. Therefore, no tribulation can ever abolish our faith in the righteousness of God.
Before God, the saints’ hearts always hope for the Lord’s return standing firm on the Word of the righteousness of God. All our perseverance stems from the fact that we believe in the Lord’s promise, and the strength for the saints to persevere through tribulations comes from the fact that God’s love of the Truth has been poured into their hearts.
Those who believe in the righteousness of God given by the Lord are those who have received the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit makes the hearts of the saints believe firmly in the righteousness of God, and thus leads them to trust in God’s promises.
The Righteousness of God That Has Given Us Hope
(Romans 5:5) “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
One who believes in the righteousness of God is one who has hope for the Kingdom of Heaven. So he is not ashamed of the fact that he is living on this earth for the Kingdom of the Lord. That’s because the love of God has been poured into his heart. God’s love is a love that is attained by placing faith in the righteousness of God, not by believing in the Doctrine of Justification or the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification. Yet many people are still pushing God’s righteousness aside with the Doctrine of Justification.
Referring to the baptism of Jesus that constitutes God’s righteousness, some people stand against God saying, “Where does it say in the Bible that the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist?” In the Bible, the meaning of the baptism of Jesus is: 1) to be washed; 2) to be submerged; 3) to be buried in funeral; and 4) to be passed on. That the sins of the world were washed away when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist is the same principle as the laying on of hands in the Old Testament, where the sins of the people of Israel were washed away from their hearts when the High Priest laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat. The people of Israel, too, were washed from their sins by faith, by believing in the Word of the sacrificial system of God that was found in the laying on of hands set by God.
Therefore, that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and submerged under water means that He accepted the sins of the world, and it further means that Jesus died on the Cross precisely because He had accepted all those sins of the world. Jesus’ burial tells us that He died because He had taken upon the sins of the world and shouldered them through His baptism. “The wages of sin is death,” and this is God’s Law; therefore, that Jesus was baptized and buried refers to the fact that He bore all our sins and died in our stead.
When Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, He said in Matthew 3:15, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” So it is when He came out of the water after being baptized that the righteousness of God that saves mankind from sin was fulfilled. Yet despite this, some people consider themselves too smart, and they gloss over the significance that is hidden and contained in the Word of God, and do not hold onto it. Using the word baptism, the Bible spoke about the washing of sin that fulfilled the righteousness of God. God spoke about His righteousness that washes away the sins of the world through the laying on of hands in the Old Testament, and through Jesus’ baptism in the New Testament. Those who believe in the righteousness of God are those who believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus as their salvation. It is such people who abide by God’s righteousness.
Even Before We Were Born
(Romans 5:6) “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Here the Bible uses the expression, “When we were still without strength,” and this phrase refers to the time when we were not born yet. When did Jesus Christ come to this earth? He came about 2,000 years ago. He came to this earth long before any of us was born in this world.
To Adam and Eve, the first human beings, God had promised the plan of the remission of sin for all sinners. As God said to the serpent, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). Satan had incited the hearts of Adam and Eve to disbelieve in God’s Word. However, the New Testament tells us that Jesus has saved us sinners from all our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross. When God said in Genesis that Satan would bruise Jesus’ heel, this meant that the Lord would be baptized and crucified on this earth. It refers to the baptism and death of Jesus, prophesying that our Lord would take upon our sins through His baptism and die on the Cross. Therefore, the phrase in this verse, “When we were still without strength,” tells us that the Lord had promised to remit all our sins even before we were born on this earth, and that He completed this work long before any of us was born. We must therefore believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus that have become God’s righteousness as our remission of sin.
Verse 6 states, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Paul is saying here that the righteousness of God was already fulfilled even before we were born. He is therefore telling us that it is by believing in the baptism and blood of the Lord that we are saved from all the sins of the world, and that the remission of our sins is not received by offering prayers of repentance.
Those who do not know the righteousness of God claim that while one’s original sin is remitted away when he believes in Jesus Christ, his actual sins are forgiven by giving prayers of repentance everyday. Not only are such beliefs not approved by God, but they have nothing to do with the faith that believes in God’s righteousness. So we must not believe like this. That’s because the righteousness of God is not attained by this kind of faith.
These people also say that the believers are sanctified gradually, and that they will go to the Kingdom of Heaven when their bodies and souls become completely sinless in their deathbed. Among the nominal Christians who have not been born again, there also are those who advocate the Doctrine of Justification, which claims that God considers someone sinless just because he believes in Jesus, even though he still has sin in God’s eyes. This is nothing more than a man-made doctrine. If God were to call a sinner righteous, who could call Him and believe in Him as the Holy God? To believe like this is to turn God into a liar. All of you must realize clearly here that God the Father will judge anyone who has sin in his heart, regardless of whether this person professes to believe in Jesus or not.
To give us His righteousness, God the Father sent Jesus long before we were born; and the Father made the Son receive the baptism through which Jesus accepted the sins of the world from John the Baptist. It is because the Lord was baptized like this to accept all our sins that He shed His blood and died on the Cross. That is the righteousness of God and the infallible Truth. The phrase “all righteousness,” which Jesus uttered in Matthew 3:15 when He was baptized, means “what is just and righteous.” The Lord Himself came to this earth to blot out all our sins of the world; He accepted all these sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist; He went to the Cross and was condemned for the sins of the world by being crucified and shedding His blood; and through all these things, He fulfilled the righteousness of God all at once.
Knowing that we would commit sin when we are born in this world, Jesus Christ had promised to save us from all our sins. He fulfilled this promise through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection. In the age of the Old Testament, the sacrificial animals accepted the sins of the Israelites through the laying on of hands. In the age of the New Testament, Jesus Christ accepted our sins through the baptism given by John the Baptist, died on the Cross, and has thereby saved us from all our sins and fulfilled all the righteousness of God. That is why we must all have faith in the righteousness of God, and we must all realize that the Doctrine of Justification is a groundless doctrine. God only approves the faith that is placed in His righteousness. The Book of Romans is teaching us to cast aside our own human righteousness and to place our faith in God’s righteousness.
God Has Demonstrated His Love
(Romans 5:7) “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.”
This verse talks about the few in this world that have sacrificed themselves for others. There are some people, though very rare, who are willing to lay down their life for a cause they hold to be just. In other words, some people sacrifice their life for someone else whom they consider to be good. And it tells us that rarely does anyone die for the servants of God.
(Romans 5:8) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Here the Bible used the expression, “while we were still sinners,” implicitly asking whether one was a sinner even before he started to believe in God’s righteousness. Before we believed in the righteousness of God, were we sinners or righteous people? We were all sinners. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
This passage tells us that to save us from all our sins, God the Father completed the remission of our sins through the baptism Jesus received and the blood He shed on the Cross long ago. Even while we were still sinners, Christ confirmed His love for us with His baptism and death.
Ever since the foundation of the world, we were all born as Adam’s descendants and thus became sinners automatically. Because we were born with sinful bodies, there was no way for us to escape from our sins without having faith in the righteousness of God. There were only destruction and suffering for us because of our sins. However, God sent His Son to save us, and by having His Son be baptized by John the Baptist and die on the Cross, God fulfilled His righteousness once for all. Through His righteousness, God completed the remission of all the sins of the world. This talks about the perfect righteousness of God toward us.
By contrasting the weakness of mankind to the perfect righteousness of God, Paul is telling us just how great His love is. My fellow believers, you must not believe in the Doctrine of Justification that brings nothing but confusion to you. Nor should you believe in the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification. The carnal thoughts of man can only corrupt God’s righteousness. By fundamental nature, no man has ever had any goodness or righteousness of his own from his very birth. Had human beings been born in goodness by nature, the righteousness of God that Jesus fulfilled by saving sinners from all their sins would not have been exalted so highly.
However, if we who had all been bound to sin because of our iniquities have now attained the righteousness of God by believing in it, then we should all be thankful, and we should all have unwavering faith in God’s righteousness. The love of God can be known only to those who believe in the righteousness of God. That’s because it is only the righteousness of God that has saved us from all the sins of the world. Here we need to ponder upon a few words that the Apostle Paul used.
The Weakness of Mankind
These words tell us that we were fundamentally born as seeds of evildoers from our very birth (Isaiah 1:4; Mark 7:21-22). By nature, everyone was born as a sinner without any righteousness at all. That means that one’s salvation from all his sins entails absolutely no righteousness of his own. In other words, all of us have the flesh that commits sin from the day we are born to the day we die. Therefore, we have been saved from all our sins entirely by believing in God’s righteousness. For one to be saved from his sins, he doesn’t need any righteousness whatsoever of his own. Put differently, there is no rightfulness of man that can be added.
The word “ungodly” means that mankind is standing against God ferociously. The righteousness of man stands against the righteousness of God. Human beings abhor that their sins are exposed before God, and they also dislike God who judges these sins. They want to do whatever they wish without paying any attention to God, and they are trying hard to establish their own righteousness. This is why they cannot look toward the righteousness of God. They do not accept the power of the righteousness of God that has solved the problem of their sins and remitted them away. That’s because they do not want their sinful acts and lusts to turn into problems. God is righteous, but the righteousness of man refuses to acknowledge the righteousness of God. However, those whose own righteousness is all broken down and who admit themselves as sinners can be saved from their sins by believing in the love of the righteousness of God.
The word “sinners” refers to those who have failed to reach the goal set by God. Because people do not believe in God’s righteousness, they are living in sin and despair. The word “enemies” refers to those who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains God’s righteousness, and instead stand against it. Even so, God has saved us all from sin through His righteousness.
The Remission of Sins That Was Completed Long Ago
(Romans 5:9) “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
That Jesus Christ shed His blood on the Cross is the Truth that puts the final period to the totality of the righteousness of God. It is the conclusion to God’s righteousness. The righteousness of God means that Jesus Christ not only promised to come to this earth to save us, but He actually came just as He had promised, shouldered the sins of the world by being baptized, and was crucified and shed His blood on the Cross. To blot out the sins of mankind, Jesus Christ came to this earth, and to fulfill the righteousness of God, He received the baptism given by John the Baptist. He shed His blood on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved from sin all those who believe in the righteousness of God.
The Bible says that the blood of the Cross has put the final period to the righteousness of God. Some people do not know the significance of the baptism that Jesus received. They just say that one is justified only by believing in His blood. However, for Jesus to be condemned for our sins, there had to be the absolutely indispensable process whereby Jesus accepted the sins of the world through the baptism given by John the Baptist, and only then could He shoulder the sins of the world on His body. The Bible says that the wooden Cross is a symbol of curse (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13).
If the Lord was crucified and shed His blood on the accursed Cross, then we must realize and believe that Jesus had to be crucified and shed His blood precisely because He had received, in the Jordan River and from John, the baptism that fulfilled the righteousness of God. It is by believing in what the Lord did when He came to this earth to fulfill the righteousness of God—that is, by believing in the righteousness of God that Jesus fulfilled by being baptized by John the Baptist, and bearing all the punishments of our sins through His crucifixion on the accursed Cross—that we can be saved from all our sins.
There is no effect without a cause. Just as we exist now only because God had created the heavens and the earth in the beginning and decided to make us, everything has its cause and effect. If the Lord came to this earth to save us from our sins, then Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist because He had to be baptized, and that’s why He could be crucified and shed His blood on the Cross. It is extremely frustrating that many people still do not know this Truth; the significance of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and fulfilled the righteousness of God, and they still continue to misconstrue and misbelieve that only the blood of the Cross constitutes the righteousness of God. We can see that such people are only trying to establish their own righteousness, completely oblivious to God’s righteousness.
The Bible says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). The letter here refers to interpreting and believing in the Word of God literally. One must believe in God’s Word within His righteousness. If one were to believe in it literally, misunderstandings are bound to arise. If anyone believes like this while misunderstanding God’s righteousness, then this person cannot receive the remission of his sins. The spiritual meanings of the Bible are not hidden in the letter itself. They are hidden in the Truth of the water and the Spirit that is in God’s righteousness; thus, we must believe in this righteousness of God. Only when we know clearly what the righteousness of God is and believe accordingly can we receive the remission of our sins.
This is why God said, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Do you know the righteousness of God that He speaks of? Do you understand the meaning of the Cross with an in-depth knowledge of the significance of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist? You can be saved from all your sins only when you believe in Jesus’ Cross with a clear understanding of the meaning of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist when He came to this earth.
(Romans 5:10-11) “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
The phrase, “When we were enemies,” refers to the time when human beings were God’s enemies because of their sins. The Bible says that mankind became enemies not only because they had sinned, but because they were all born sinners as Adam’s descendants. That’s why David said in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” It is because we were born as Adam’s descendants that we became God’s enemies. However, because our Lord came to this earth and has reconciled us to God the Father by being baptized, dying, and rising from the dead again, we were able to have peace with God once again by believing in His righteousness. The Lord has saved us from all our sins through the righteousness of God.
Like this, God’s righteousness was completed through the baptism and death of Jesus, and it is by believing in this righteousness of God that we have been reconciled to God. God’s righteousness refers to the fact that the Lord became the Lamb of atonement before God when He was baptized and crucified to death on this earth. Therefore, those who believe in the righteousness of God are those who have been reconciled with God by believing in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood that He shed on the Cross. In other words, the very people who had been by nature God’s enemies have now become His children and one family with God, all by believing in His righteousness. Seeing us, who believe in His righteousness, God says to us, “You are My children,” and we, too, have no hesitation whatsoever to call Him “God our Father.” “Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” This tells us that because our Lord rose from the dead again, our bodies will also be resurrected on the last day.
Christ and Adam
(Romans 5:12) “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—”
What the Apostle Paul addresses from verse 12 and on is how sin came to enter into this world. He is also explaining what the weight of this sin is, and how Jesus has blotted out all such sins.
The word “therefore” here refers to the fact that even before we were born on this earth, and even before we knew God, Jesus came to this earth, took upon our sins through His baptism, shed His blood on the Cross for the wages of all our sins, and has thereby saved us from all our sins perfectly. That’s why Paul used the word “therefore,” underscoring the fact that every sinner is saved from all his sins by believing in the righteousness of God previously explained.
The Bible says that sin entered the world through one man. And death came to everyone thereby. “Thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The one man here refers to Adam, the first human being. Death spread to all men because of Adam and Eve. As everyone came to sin, every human being is bound to suffer death without exception.
There are two theories concerning human nature: the theory of innate goodness and the theory of innate wickedness. The theory of innate goodness asserts that human beings are born with goodness in them by nature, whereas the theory of innate wickedness argues that human beings are wicked from their very birth. Divided in these two camps, scholars have argued over the fundamental nature of mankind for ages, but God said in the Bible that sin entered this world through one man. Sin entered because of a single couple, Adam and Eve, and through this sin death came to mankind.
(Romans 5:13) “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
To explain the gospel of righteousness once again, the Apostle Paul spoke about the God-given Law. God had given the Law to the people of Israel through Moses, but even before this, there was already sin in people’s hearts because of the inheritance of the original sin committed by Adam and Eve.
“Until the law sin was in the world.” Sin was in people’s hearts even before God gave the Law to mankind, but they did not recognize sin as sin, and they came to realize sin through the Law only when it was given to them. Sin is explained here in connection with the Law because for sin to be exposed as sin, there must be the Law. Human beings continue to sin throughout their lifetime because they all inherited sin from the moment they were born. This was all because of one man. Ultimately, they are bound to reach death because of this sin, and Paul said here what exposes this sin is none other than the Law.
Romans 3:19-20 state, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Why did God give the Law to sinners? It was to expose mankind’s sins. Everyone has sin in his heart, but without the Law no one can recognize sin as sin, nor can anyone realize that he is a seed of evildoer—this is why God gave the Law.
For example, when some people do some good deeds, they think of themselves highly, saying, “Who can live virtuously like me?” They think that they are living virtuously, and they consider themselves good. However, such people consider themselves good and virtuous precisely because they do not know the Law of God; if they knew God’s Law, none of them could confidently say to God that they have lived virtuously.
The Law is subdivided into 613 commandments, but its backbone can be summarized into ten. These are the Ten Commandments, and in here there are rules that we must keep in our relationship with God, as well as rules that we must keep in our relationship with each other. If we were to reflect our individual lives upon these Ten Commandments, which constitute the gist of the Law, there is no one who would emerge innocent. That’s because human beings are incapable of keeping even a single commandment of the Law.
We begin to break the first commandment telling us, “You shall not have other gods before Me.” Since human beings love their own life more than God, and they love money, fame, and power more than they love God, they have many idols according to their needs, and therefore they have a lot of other gods before God. Many people worship another human being as a god, while others worship God’s creation such as trees and rocks, but all these are in fact committing sin. When we stand before the commandment that God has given us, “You shall not have other gods before Me,” we are compelled to admit that we have all offended this commandment before God. But when there was no Law, many people did not consider sin as sin.
Although Abraham was approved as a righteous man because he believed in God’s Word, his descendants committed idolatry when they were living in the wilderness after escaping from Egypt, and they did not even realize what a grave sin they were committing against God. Before the people of Israel received the Law through Moses from the Mountain Sinai, they did not know about sin. They finally came to realize that idolatry was a sin only after they received the Law that told them not to have other gods before God.
God gave the Law to the people of Israel and the whole mankind, and soon after giving this Law He also gave them the sacrificial system. The God-given sacrificial system commanded the people of Israel that whenever they realized their sins through the Law, they should bring an unblemished sacrificial lamb to the Tabernacle, pass their sins onto it by laying their hands on its head, and draw its blood by cutting its throat. When this blood was given to the priests, the priests then had to put it on the four horns of the altar of burnt offering and poured the rest on the ground. Like this, the people of Israel received the remission of their sins through the sacrificial system set by God, and they sacrificed in this way because they recognized their sins through the Law. In other words, they came to realize their sins precisely because the Law pointed out their iniquities to them.
This is why the Apostle Paul said that the Jews and the people of the world did not consider sin as sin when there was no Law. So before he spoke about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he first mentioned the Law. This explains why the Apostle Paul preached the gospel of God’s righteousness in connection to the Law and the sacrificial system, so that people would realize their sins and God’s remission of these sins.
(Romans 5:14) “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
Paul used the word “nevertheless” here to underscore the fact that since sin entered this world through one man, and death came into the world because of this sin, our Lord has saved all of us humans who had been sinners from the time of Adam. To preach the gospel to the unbelievers, the Apostle Paul once again explained the gospel of the righteousness of God by contrasting it to the innate and universal sinfulness of all humanity.
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” By mentioning Adam, the father of mankind, the Apostle Paul explained why Jesus came. In other words, the Savior came when all human beings inherited sin from Adam and were therefore bound to commit sin throughout their entire lifetime only to reach death and be accursed. Paul said here that Adam is a type of the Savior to come. By this, he was using a comparison to explain how Jesus has blotted out all our sins; that is, just as everyone has sin and will die and be cursed without exception because of one man, Jesus came as the Savior and has blotted out all the sins of the countless people once for all.
In other words, just as every human being turned into a sinner because of one man, Adam, everyone can now reach salvation because of one Man, Jesus Christ. When Paul described Adam as a type of Him who was to come, he was referring to Jesus Christ “Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin.” This tells us that just as sin entered all human beings through one man, Adam, their salvation from sin is also reached by believing in the righteousness of God fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
Through One Man, Jesus Christ
(Romans 5:15) “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”
The Apostle Paul continues to explain how sin entered this world and how this sin has been remitted through God’s righteousness. The free gift here refers to the gift of salvation given by Jesus. In other words, it explains that the righteousness of God has blotted out all our sins through the water and the Spirit, and has saved us perfectly.
“But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” Since the entire human species originated from Adam, and there is no one in this world who was not born from Adam, sin perpetuated onto all Adam’s descendants because of his transgression, and thus every human being was born as a sinner. In other words, everyone continues to sin, and because of this everyone is to reach death. Just as every sin came from one man Adam, the salvation from sin was also completed by one Savior. Thanks to the grace of salvation that Jesus Christ has bestowed, salvation from sin now abounds to everyone in this world, and the God-given love of salvation also abounds for all.
People like to divide. They have divided themselves into different races, countries, nations and cultures, and they have established laws to their likings. However, no one can be born without God, and it is only because God made us that we were all born on this earth. So even though we may be of different nations, races, and laws, we are all Adam’s descendants before God. Therefore, the Law of God applies to everyone equally, and the Word of God applies to everyone equally. Because of one man, everyone was born as a sinner, continues to sin, and is to drown in this sin, and this perpetuates continuously even at this very moment.
God made Adam and Eve, and through them He planned to bring forth their descendants. However, as a result of their fall, deceived by Satan and eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the sins of the world entered the entire mankind. Adam and Eve bore their children after sin entered the world like this. How then, were these children? These children also inherited their parents’ sin intact and were all born as sinners. Since the descendants of Adam and Eve all have the twelve kinds of sin in their hearts, they came to commit sin by nature, without anyone teaching them how to sin. The twelve kinds of sin such as murder, adultery, fornication, jealousy, and thievery were inherited to them; and so these sins spring forth from their hearts by nature—this is why human beings continue to sin repeatedly time after time, today and tomorrow, for twelve months a year.
An apple tree is bound to bear apples even if it doesn’t want to, and a pear tree can only yield pears when it grows no matter how desperately it might want to bear some other fruits. Human beings, too, cannot help but continue to sin, no matter how much they don’t want to and how hard they try not to sin, precisely because they were all born with sin. Everyone commits sin constantly with their thoughts, acts, and hearts. If circumstances would allow, people put into action the sins they committed only with their thought, and they even commit each and every one of the twelve kinds of sin all at once.
The secular law punishes only the sins committed in deed. However, the Law of God says that even the transgressions committed with the heart are sins, and they are to be punished also. Therefore, what people may not grasp as a sin, God still sees it all clearly. As such, the iniquities that we commit in our hearts are also counted as sins in God’s sight. This is the God-spoken Law. Just as His Word is true—that sin entered through one man, and death through this sin—the claim that human beings, who are all seeds of evildoers, can live in holiness without committing any sin is a lie. It is nothing more than a whitewashed tomb; a deception that tries to hide the fact that all human beings are sinful seeds through one man Adam.
Of course, I am not suggesting here that we should try to sin deliberately. Rather, what I mean is that it’s not because people are deliberately determined to sin that they commit sin, but they cannot help but sin because they were all born as seeds of sin. Whether people sin or not has nothing to do with their level of education or character. Everyone is a sinner who repeatedly commits sin in various forms under various circumstances.
How, then, can human beings, who can only be sinners, ever become God’s sinless children? Paul answers that just as sin entered this world through one man, it is also through one Man that everyone can receive the gift of salvation and be remitted from all his sins by believing in the righteousness of God.
The Righteousness of God That Is Greater than Sin
(Romans 5:16) “And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.”
Paul continues to explain the righteousness of God by comparing His salvation to sin. The “free gift” here refers to the salvation that God has given to us, and this gift “is not like that which came through the one who sinned.” In other words, this gift from God is fundamentally different from the gift given by Adam. Because of one man, everyone was born as a sinner and is to commit sin until the day he dies. But “the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.” In other words, the grace of God that has saved us from all our sins has perfectly justified His believers, for it is greater than all the sins committed by mankind.
All the descendants of Adam are still committing sin continuously because of this one man. Once born, everyone continues to sin perpetually, even after he reaches his 30s and 40s, and even until the very day he dies. Human beings commit sin like this constantly in the present tense; and although we do not know when exactly the world would end, human beings will continue to sin without ceasing until the very last day of this world. However, because of God’s salvation, all these sins that have such an extensive and long history have already been remitted away, and people have come to be justified by faith. That is why God said that where sin abounds, the gift of salvation abounds even more. Here we can see clearly that God’s gift of salvation is found in His righteousness.
One Man’s Righteous Act
(Romans 5:17) “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
The Apostle Paul continues to explain that death came to this planet because of one man’s offense, and death reigned through this one man. Death reigned because everyone committed sin.
“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” The Apostle Paul is addressing even the sins that we have not committed yet. The reason for this is because we have all become those who cannot help but continue to sin until the day we die, all stemming from one man Adam. Since everyone who was and will ever be born in this world cannot avoid but continue to sin until his death, all human beings will commit sin perpetually until the end of this world and the end of the history of mankind; even so, however, the free gift of God is greater than all these offenses.
(Romans 5:18) “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”
When Jesus came to this earth, He at once blotted out all the sins committed by every human being until the end of this planet. To take away all our sins that are darker than ink and redder than scarlet, Jesus was baptized and crucified, and He has thereby saved us perfectly from all our sins once for all. Therefore, although sin entered into the world through one man Adam, the power of salvation that Jesus has given to us is far greater than this. It was more than sufficient to blot out all our sins.
As such, when people profess to believe in Jesus and yet say, “Lord, I’ve committed sin. Please forgive me,” they are actually establishing their own righteousness, oblivious to the righteousness of God. Our Lord has remitted away all the sins that you and I have committed and will ever commit from the day we were born to the day we die, as well as all the sins that our descendants would commit in the future. In other words, He has remitted away all the sins of everyone from the beginning to the end of the world.
The world means all human history ranging from the days of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, to the days when Jesus and His disciples walked on this earth, and to the present age and the future ages to come. God is the Alpha and the Omega, and He took away not only our present sins, but also all the sins of the world that will ever be committed in the future. Because all mankind is bound to sin ceaselessly, when Jesus came to this earth, He accepted all the sins of the world once for all by being baptized, and by carrying these sins of the world to the Cross and being crucified to death, He has saved us from all our sins, death, and judgment. This grace of Jesus is that much more majestic, amazing, tremendous and powerful.
Jesus took upon all the sins of everyone, of all those who ever lived in the past and are now living in the present age, and even of all those who will be born with sin and continue to commit sin; He was crucified to death at once; He rose from the dead again; and through all these things, He has saved mankind perfectly once for all. This is why the gift of the righteousness of God is so great and so vast that we must all be profoundly grateful for it.
Despite this, however, those who do not know this grace of salvation still assert the Doctrine of Justification or the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification. These people claim that when the Bible says here, “through one Man’s righteous act,” it means that God considers them sinless even though they all commit sin everyday and therefore still remain sinful. This interpretation and the accompanying belief constitute the Doctrine of Justification. Such claims are words of rebellion against God, arising out of their ignorance of and disbelief in His righteousness.
However, there are people of faith who believe that the Lord fulfilled God’s righteousness when He came to this earth, and God has made those believers His children by His grace. God does not just consider them as sinless even though they have sin, but He has truthfully turned them into His own children by making them actually sinless.
By the Lord’s Obedience
(Romans 5:19) “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
Verse 19 says, “By one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Here again, Paul drew a comparison. Let’s assume for a moment that a pear tree has human faculties. Thinking that apple trees are more beneficial to people, the pear tree decides to yield apples from now on. But can any pear tree really bear apples? No, it’s impossible. A pear tree is nothing but a pear tree; it cannot turn into an apple tree, and it can only produce pears, not apples. Until the end of this planet, a pear tree will continue to sprout its own kind and bear nothing else but pears.
Like this, by one’s man disobedience, many became sinners before God. And by one Man’s obedience, many will be made righteous. Jesus, God Himself, came to this earth as a Man, and by being baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30, He fulfilled all the righteousness of God. In other words, He accepted all sins onto Himself.
“By one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Since God has made everyone righteous, it is by faith that one can become righteous. The righteousness of God proclaims that Jesus Christ took away all our sins when He came to this earth. This entails the principle of representation whereby everyone is represented by one man. Because of one man, Adam, all mankind automatically turned into sinners, and they were all accursed to be cast into hell. Because of one Man, Jesus, we have now become God’s children, for Jesus came to this earth to save us, accepted all the sins of mankind by being baptized when He was 30, carried them to the Cross, was crucified, and declared, “It is finished!” The children of God have the hope that they, too, will be resurrected just as Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, and that they will live forever with Him next to God in the Millennial Kingdom and Heaven. All these things came from the salvation that was fulfilled by one Man’s righteous act that has blotted out all the sins of this world.
In writing about the Book of Romans, far too many people have addressed it without knowing the Truth. As a result, they ended up producing many different arguments and their own thoughts, only to lengthen their books. By expounding on the Doctrine of Justification (which claims that God considers Christians sinless even though they have sin in their hearts), or the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification (which tries to hide their sins), these authors have established only the righteousness of man. This is completely irrelevant to God’s law of life, and in doing so they have led countless people in this world to stand against God’s righteousness.
In contrast, what the Bible says is that Jesus has saved us from all our sins once for all by actually taking upon all the sins of mankind from their beginning to the end in the Jordan River, and by being crucified three years later. And by rising from the dead again, He has given us everlasting life. This is the Truth testified by the Bible. Yet, even though this is the real Truth, many people still remain far too ignorant of it.
Some people stand against us saying, “Is the gospel of the water and the Spirit all that you know?” But of the many preachers on this earth, how many of them can really preach this gospel? Most of them just say, “You will go to Heaven if you believe in Jesus. It’s good to believe in Jesus. You should believe in Jesus and live virtuously.” This is all that they can say while preaching the so-called gospel. That is no gospel however. People can believe properly only if they are taught in detail and according to the written Word how exactly Jesus has saved each of them. Yet despite this, if we were to scream, “Jesus is salvation! Believe in Him or you will go to hell!” wouldn’t we be just scaring them off?
It’s not because we do something good or evil with our acts that we become sinners or righteous people. It is wrong for Christians to try to blot out their sins and sanctify themselves through their own efforts in complete irrelevance to the Word. Can Christians enter the Kingdom of God only if they are sanctified through their own acts, or do they become righteous and enter the Kingdom of Heaven by realizing what the Lord has done to blot out the sins of the world once for all, and by believing in it with the heart? It is by believing in the righteousness of God that we can become righteous.
However, Romans chapter 10 makes it clear that the Jews who did not know God’s righteousness disobeyed it by trying to establish their own righteousness. The Jewish people even today have not accepted Jesus Christ, trying to live virtuously and still waiting for the Messiah to come. They are still pretending to be godly and holy on their own, slaughtering bulls and lambs to offer sacrifices that were already abolished long ago. Even now, they are divided into the conservatives and liberals, with one camp beholden to the Law trying to keep it to the very letter, and the other drawn to religious festivities and captured by the murky beauty of the world. There also are too many Jews who even deny the existence of God.
Even the Jews who believe in God’s existence are only trying to keep their own righteousness and to manifest their own rightfulness, rather than believing in God’s Truth. So even to this very day, they still make sure to wear dark robes and hats, and to keep their beards because the Law forbids them from shaving them. They are still trying to keep the Law through and through, writing scriptural passages on a piece of paper and wearing it on their arms to read, and putting on their foreheads a plate written with the phrase, “Holiness to the Lord.” However, they refuse to accept the fact that Jesus is the Lamb of God who has become their Savior by coming to this earth over 2,000 years ago, taking upon all their sins by being baptized, and dying on the Cross, all in order to save them.
Not only these people, but even today’s Christians say all kinds of nonsense, falsely asserting, “Anyone who believes in Jesus is saved,” or “Since you’ve come to church and believe in Jesus, you are the chosen people.” My fellow believers, our Lord chose those who would be saved in Jesus Christ by believing in Him; He did not say that anyone who blindly calls upon His name would be saved. To have the right faith, you must understand the whole Bible, and you must grasp its core message. The Apostle Paul explained the Word repeatedly to convey its core message. Unless this is done, people often fail to grasp the key Word that they must all understand. This is why the entire Christianity worldwide has fallen into a decline, even though countless churches are preaching about Jesus.
The word baptism means “to be buried in funeral,” “to be passed on,” “to be transferred,” and “to be washed away.” My fellow believers, why was Jesus crucified? It was because He was baptized by John the Baptist. Yet when Christians think about the crucifixion of Jesus, all that they can muster is to wonder how much pain He must have suffered. They don’t even realize for whom and why He died; they only wonder how much they would have suffered if they had been subjected to this punishment, and say, “Lord, You must have suffered a lot.” The Lord died for us in order to make us holy because He had accepted our sins. You need to get away from the mindset that considers your own emotion as somehow reflecting your faith. You should actually think about and shed tears over your soul and all the souls around you who are bound to hell.
The gospel can be preached properly only when we know the Truth and we have its exact knowledge in our hearts. It is because Jesus took our sins upon Himself that He died on the Cross. When our Lord came to this earth, He did not just die without first accepting our sins through His baptism. He didn’t say, “I am dying on the Cross for you. Look at the Cross and repent from your sins all the time.” The first thing that Jesus did in His public life was to go to the Jordan River and receive His baptism from John the Baptist at the age of 30. The Four Gospel Books first speak about the Jordan River, John the Baptist, and the fact that Jesus was baptized by John. For 29 years Jesus had lived a private life, but once He turned 30, He began His work to save mankind from its sins, and the first thing that He did in His public life was to be baptized.
After Jesus was baptized and accepted our sins, He was testified by John the Baptist who had baptized Him, saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) In other words, Jesus accepted the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. The word baptism means “to be washed,” “to be submerged,” “to be buried in funeral,” and “to pass on.” The biblically sound way to perform baptism is for the baptizer and the one who is to be baptized to be half-submerged in the water up to their waist, and for the baptizer to lay his hands on the head of his counterpart and say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The righteous have the evidence of their faith in Jesus, that is, the evidence of their belief that all the sins of the world including theirs were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist, and that He has saved them by being crucified.
It is because Jesus accepted our sins by being baptized in the Jordan River when He came to this earth that He could go to the Cross and die. If Jesus had not shouldered the sins of the world, how could He be accursed on the Cross, when He has no sin? The Bible says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). How could Jesus, who has no sin, be crucified then?
Many Christians believe in Jesus far too religiously. Just as Buddhists consider themselves faithful followers if they bow to a statue of Buddha carved out of stone and give offerings to their temple, many Christians think that all that they have to do is just give some offerings and attend every worship service, saying, “I believe in Jesus. I believe in the blood of the Cross. I drank the precious blood of the Lord.” But it is by believing in the righteousness of God that we can drink the Lord’s precious blood. It other words, we drink the Lord’s great salvation by believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus. We believe in the Truth that Jesus died on the Cross in our place precisely because all sins were passed onto Him instantaneously through His baptism, and He accepted them all. So we receive the Lord’s grace of salvation by believing that His death on the Cross was the condemnation He bore for our sins, and that He washed away our sins and accepted them by being baptized.
Since faith does not just seek after worldly blessings, we should look at this reality objectively. A preacher should open the Word and then give his sermon according to the Scripture passage he has chosen. However, far too many preachers only say preposterous things as the Word is opened. The congregation should learn spiritual lessons from the Word, understand it and believe in it, and yet they only come to learn about formalistic and acts-oriented faith.
“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” It is because one Man, Jesus, came to this earth in obedience and accepted our sins through His baptism that our sins were all washed away. And it is because Jesus accepted our sins that He had to die on the Cross in our place. The reason why the death of Jesus Christ is our death, and why He was pierced, abused, and beaten is because He had already shouldered the sins of the world by being baptized. Throughout all these sufferings that Jesus endured in Pilate’s court, He did not open His mouth until His death.
He knew that He had to bear this punishment without fail because He had taken upon all our sins through His baptism. It’s because this was the will of the Father that Jesus obeyed Him like a lamb before its shearer. Just before He died, He said for the last time, “It is finished,” indicating that Jesus fulfilled all the ministries of the salvation of mankind. He rose from the dead on the third day, bore witness for 40 days, and then ascended to the Kingdom of Heaven. If anyone believes in Jesus Christ who has fulfilled the righteousness of God as his Savior, then no matter what insufficiencies he might have, Christ has made him righteous. There is no sin whatsoever that Jesus Christ did not take away. He bore them all.
Through One Man Many Were Made Sinners; Through one Man, Jesus Christ, All the Sins of the World Have Disappeared
(Romans 5:20) “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,”
Paul says here that the Law entered that our offense might abound. As Adam’s descendants, human beings were fundamentally born with sin and committed sin constantly. But even as they committed sins, they did not realize those sins as sins. In other words, because there was no Law, they did not know their sins; but once God’s Law of commandments came, they recognized sin as sin. As the Law made us realize the sins that we did not recognize before, our sins abounded more as a result. We all commit many sins by nature, but once we recognized them, our offense abounded even more. That is why the Bible says here, “The law entered that the offense might abound.”
When it further says here, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,” it means that through God’s commandments we know sin, and by believing in His righteousness we become God’s sons and daughters. Only when people realize through the Law, “I am this much insufficient; I am this much sinful,” can they realize that the perfect gospel, which constitutes the righteousness of God, is the very grace of God. Only someone who knows his sins well can realize that he is bound to hell, and he also comes to realize that the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross have saved him, and to believe in this with thanksgiving. In other words, those who realize their sins through the Law, and realize them even more, can appreciate the grace of salvation that is even greater than their sins, all because of the gospel of the righteousness of God.
(Romans 5:21) “So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Explaining that sin reigned in death, the Bible says that the righteousness of God has saved us perfectly from all sins through His wisdom, and therefore we who have become God’s children have now become the King’s children. That is why God said that He has made us reign in His grace. So we conclude that it is by believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ that we have been remitted from all our sins and received everlasting life.
Before you were born in this world and before Jesus came to this earth, there was Adam. He is the first man created by God, and this first man, Adam, is the father of every human being all over the world. As he committed what God forbade him to do, he sinned, and because of him, sin was passed down to us, his descendants.
Therefore, to save us, who all were born with sin as Adam’s descendants, God sent His only begotten Son to this earth. This Son is none other than Jesus who obeyed God the Father. As God the Father ordered Him, Jesus took upon all our sins by being baptized. By shouldering the sins of the world to the Cross, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, He has become the Savior of mankind. Do you believe that all the sins of the world were remitted through Jesus Christ who obeyed God the Father? Anyone who believes in this is saved, but those who do not believe in this, and instead try to become righteous through their own prayers of repentance, their own rituals, their own attempts at godliness, and their own virtues, will all end up in hell.
The Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification and the Doctrine of Justification are foolish claims that have arisen out of people’s ignorance of the Word of God. It would be correct to view them as nothing more than sheer nonsense produced by incompetent philosophers incapable of interpreting the Word correctly. God’s Truth is transparent and clear.
We have been saved from the sins of the world by believing that one Man, Jesus Christ, came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man and has saved us from all our sins. Anyone who believes in this is saved. Do you believe this?
If anyone believes in the righteousness of God, then he is delivered and saved from his sins unequivocally. What many false prophets claim, that one is gradually sanctified and saved by giving prayers of repentance faithfully and living virtuously in this world, is tantamount to saying that one can be saved even if Jesus did not come to this earth. Given the fact that only Jesus Christ is the gate of salvation, the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification that claims one’s own efforts and virtuous deeds are helpful to his salvation is completely contradictory to the Truth.
The Lord says to us that we are incapable of keeping even 0.1 percent of His Law. If we broke just 0.1 percent of the Law, it is the same as breaking it 100 percent. So anyone who claims that he can keep the Law of God does not know himself at all, and because of his own righteousness he will ultimately end up standing against the righteousness of God. Do not try to grasp God’s righteousness set by God Himself based on your own man-made thoughts and logic. Having saved us from all our sins perfectly with His righteousness, God is waiting for you to believe in this and become His child. My fellow believers, I beseech all of you to believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross with all your heart, and receive the overflowing grace that God has bestowed on you.
For God is almighty and merciful, He has saved us wholly with His grace and mercy. He has saved you perfectly from all your sins. I give all my thanks to God.
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