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we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
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Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 9 : Romans (Commentaries on the Book of Romans)
[Chapter 16] Greet One Another
Paul the Apostle told the saints in Rome and us to greet one another in his epilogue. Whom can we greet whole-heartedly in the Lord even in this age? We can joyfully greet the ministers and believers who are preaching the Word of God all over this world. We can have fellowship with those who are saved by reading the books of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We, too, have the churches, the believers, and the servants of God whom we can greet in Christ.
Since not everyone believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the righteous cannot greet everyone. There aren’t too many people in this world whom we can greet with joy. It is only regrettable that there aren’t that many people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, whom we can greet and have fellowship in the same faith. We cannot have fellowship with the sinners who pretend to be God’s servants in worldly churches.
Just as sin and the Holy Spirit cannot dwell together, the sinners and the righteous cannot greet one another. Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can offer spiritual worships to God and work for spiritual things. But the sinners, who have not yet received the remission of their sins, attempt to be saved by keeping the Law of God, and thus they cannot have spiritual fellowship with the righteous. Just as a beast and a human cannot converse with each other, the righteous cannot have spiritual fellowship with the sinners.
We can see that the only people with whom Paul had spiritual fellowship were those who had the same faith as his. We know that if someone had fellowship with Paul, it means that Paul approved his/her faith. So, I thought, “If I were to head to a particular region today, whom should I visit and greet?” I am sure I will visit Sokcho Church if I go to Sokcho, and Gangneung Church if I go to Gangneung. I can meet God’s servants and believers and have fellowship and break bread with them. I can also visit the houses of my brothers and sisters there and greet them. But the people whom I can greet are only those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and those with whom I can share the same faith in the Holy Spirit.
We can see how blessed those whose faith is approved by Paul are. How great it is that we have the gospel of the water and the Spirit to confirm each other’s faith and greet one another. Do you have the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that lets you greet one another? Can you faithfully confess, without a doubt, to God that you do not have any sin?
I had a chance to greet the fellow believers in China when I visited there. I visited a brother who lived on the banks of the Heran River. As soon as we woke up the next morning, he prepared us a big breakfast. We sat at a huge round table, the kind that we used to use to sit everyone in the extended family and had a lovely fellowship with the believers there. There also was an evangelist in a nearby city who was so eager to see us. So, we visited and had fellowship with him, too. We can greet whoever believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Where would I go to if I visited the United States? I’d visit Pastor Sangchan Lee and his wife in Flushing, New York. I’d also visit The New Life Church to meet our brothers and sisters there. In Russia, too, there is a born-again church that I visited a few years ago. In Japan, I’d love to visit the house of Deaconess Soon-Ok Park in Tokyo.
We are the righteous who are saved by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We were not saved because of any accomplishments of our flesh, but because of the righteousness of God that we received through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
As you can see, there are people set aside for the righteous to greet, just as Paul had a list of people to greet in Romans chapter 16. Just as Paul did, we cannot greet every Christian because not all of them have the right faith, but only those who know and believe in the righteousness of God. We cannot help but praise God for giving us the faith in which we can greet and be greeted.
Paul warned us to stay away from these people
Starting from verse 17, the second admonition that Paul makes to us is to stay away from those who only serve their own bellies. “Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17-18). There are those who do not serve Christ, but their own bellies. They are the ones who cause strife among believers and deceive the naïve with smooth words and flattering speeches. We must not greet such people but stay away from them.
Paul warned us to stay away from such people, for they only enjoy causing distresses in church, disrupt those who truthfully believe in God, and gather the naïve only to feed their own greed. Such swindling Christian leaders try to confine people under sin by teaching their followers to completely obey the Law. They only fill up their own bellies in the name of Jesus and deceive the innocent. There is no need for us to greet them, for they are in the ministry only to serve their own bellies.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit must be spread to all nations!
Thirdly, Paul talked about the need to spread the gospel to all nations. Verse 26 says, “But now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith…” The gospel of the water and the Spirit that Paul preached is truly the gospel that all nations must believe and obey. It is only too unfortunate that most of the regions in which Paul planted churches with those who believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have now become Islamic regions.
At the time, Paul went to these regions and established church leaders there among the believers of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that contains the righteousness of God. It was similar to the way we send workers to our church after training them in our mission school. Although the churches at that time kept their faith in “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5), they failed to maintain their faith in the gospel, as they did not record the gospel in writing.
Right now, we are in the process of translating our books into Turkish. Someone from Turkey was touched by our English editions and volunteered to translate them. We are now starting to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to where Paul himself once preached the gospel and planted God’s churches. We are preaching the same gospel that Paul preached throughout the same region that he had visited. The gospel Paul preached was the gospel of the water and the Spirit that can save all nations just by believing and obeying it.
In the last chapter of Romans, Paul told the saints in Rome to greet one another, to stay away from those who only fill their bellies, and to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all nations.
The Gospel of the water and the Spirit will strengthen us
The fourth thing Paul mentioned was that this gospel of the water and the Spirit is the wisdom of God that will establish us. “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen” (Romans 16:25-27). What could establish the saints in Rome? It was Paul’s gospel of the water and the Spirit that could and did establish the saints in Rome. This gospel is also the wisdom of God.
In the gospel that God gave us is His wisdom. This gospel has the power to take away all the sins of even those who are full of shortcomings. Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are made not only sinless but the preachers of this gospel, no matter how weak and full of shortcomings that they may be. Only the wisdom of God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit that comes from it can make us complete beings. There is no truth besides this gospel that can strengthen one’s soul, heart, thoughts, and body.
Paul did not plainly call the gospel “the gospel,” but called it “my gospel.” The gospel that Paul preached was the gospel of the water and the Spirit, revealed in both the Old and New Testaments. This gospel of the water and the Spirit is based on the gospel revealed through the prophets in the Old Testament and fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. This is why Paul said that ‘his gospel’ was made manifest according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret in the prophetic Scriptures.
The gospel that Paul preached was implied in the sacrificial system in Pentateuch of the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus, and was completed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament as God’s righteousness through His baptism, His death on the Cross and His resurrection. This is why Paul gave all glory “to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel.”
The gospel of the water and the Spirit establishes the saints and servants of God. Through this gospel, our faith, souls, thoughts, minds, and bodies are strengthened. How can our faith be strengthened? What makes us stand strong at all times when we are always weak?
Our faith becomes stronger and stronger because we have received the salvation of Christ, who took away all our sins through His baptism and the bloodshed on the Cross. We can say that we have no sin before God because our hearts have nothing to be ashamed of anymore, and with this unashamed spiritual faith, we can spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to those who are still bound in sin.
The final admonitions
Paul ends chapter 16 with the closing prayer saying, “To God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever, Amen.” What glorifies God most of all? Preaching the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ glorifies God the most. We are also glorified when we serve the gospel with our whole hearts.
The essence of Paul’s message in Romans 16 are these: greet one another, stay away from those who only fill their belly, spread the gospel to all nations. This was the last admonition that Paul gave to the church in Rome. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that Paul preached has the power to strengthen us in every way. This is what we believe in. The faith in gospel of the water and the Spirit is the same as the faith that the apostles in the Bible had and what our own church believes in right now.
Can you feel the sameness? I am amazed whenever I read the Bible and realize that we have the same faith as the biblical figures who lived two thousand years ago.
Have you thought about how many people we share the gospel with every day? We share the gospel with no less than two thousand people per day. This two thousand will soon multiply to ten thousand if the newly born-again saints in every nation preach the gospel to their neighbors, and the ten thousand people only have to share it once for them to become twenty thousand. As you can see, preaching the gospel to the entire world is not such an impossible task after all.
Of course, the key feature of our books on the gospel of the water and the Spirit is that they do not disappear but are stored, and their meanings do not change regardless of how many people read them. Where there is a book that contains the gospel of the water and the Spirit, many people will borrow and read it, and the gospel of God will spread. The day when the gospel will reach the entire world is not too far away.
The righteousness of God that you have by your faith is the gospel of the water and the Spirit that even those in the developed countries are not well aware of. The true gospel we want to share with the entire world is a mystery unknown to this world, and thus, we eagerly want to reveal the secret of salvation to all those who smother in their sins. This righteousness of God shown in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is so clear that whoever accepts this gospel will give thanks and glory to God.
Some people think it odd that we repeatedly talk about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But no matter how many times we repeat it, it still stirs joy and thanks in our souls. Since there are so many Christians who are still bound to sin, we repeatedly preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the entire world. Because this gospel is the very gospel that was handed down by the apostles, including Paul, all souls should believe in this gospel. We need to listen and engrave the gospel of the water and the Spirit in our hearts because it is essential to every Christian.
We share the gospel with over two thousand people a day through our books, both printed and electronic, and web site. We are sure that if the seed of the truth falls on good soil, it will be able to produce a crop―thirty, sixty, or hundred times more than what was sown. One person can preach the gospel to dozens of people, and each of these people then can preach the gospel to dozens more, spreading the gospel to a vast number of people.
When we hear that our gospel is spread to over two thousand people a day, our hearts get filled with God’s righteousness. I thank God for opening the way for us to deliver this gospel all over the world. I pray that God will strengthen even more the faith of His servants.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit that is now spreading all over the world is a new wave of truth for salvation. This gospel is the only way to receive the Holy Spirit and to enter the Kingdom of God. No matter how hard you search in secular religions, you will not find the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
People all over the world will thank God because they can now believe in His righteousness through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Everyone who reads our book will exclaim, “Ah! This is how Jesus saved me from my sins!”, for they had never heard this gospel before.
Those who want to be free from the bondage of sin and those who endlessly desire to receive the Holy Spirit will receive the complete forgiveness of their sins and the peace of their minds when they finally know and accept the gospel of the water and the Spirit. From this moment on, the gospel of the water and the Spirit will spread to every nation in the world.
My heart is filled with joy that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is spreading all over the world. Though I serve the gospel, I know that I am still full of weaknesses and shortcomings. But because I completely believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and know God’s righteousness, I always receive new strength from the Lord so that I can continue to serve His gospel. The gospel has now entered more nations; more people have read our books and have been amazed by such perfect gospel.
Those who believe in God’s righteousness all over the world are those who have been saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The reason why we can stand as whole and complete despite our weaknesses is because we believe in our Lord, the righteousness of God. We are God’s workers. We do not seek to only satisfy our carnal bellies, but to spread the true faith all over the world. I bless and hope that many righteous believers will rise to our challenge to spread the gospel throughout the world.
Like Paul, we can spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit regardless of when the Lord comes. Let us work hard together for this Great Commission. When we spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, the Lord will come according to His promise and take us home. We must listen carefully to what Paul admonished us, greet and encourage one another. Although we lack in our deeds, we are greatly strengthened spiritually through our faith in God’s righteousness. We come to know how fair and sure our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit really is. We really are believers in our Lord, who is the perfect righteousness of God.
When we look at this world with our faith in God’s righteousness, we find that there is so much to do. We can all live our lives spreading the gospel throughout this world, praising God with our faith in Christ, who is the righteousness of God.
Hallelujah! I forever praise our Lord, the righteousness of God!
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Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission