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Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-21] The High Priest Who Gave the Offering of The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34)
(Leviticus 16:1-34)
“Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the LORD, and died; and the LORD said to Moses: ‘Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. He shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness. And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull as the sin offering which is for himself. Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die. He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. And he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD, and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of meeting, shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there. And he shall wash his body with water in a holy place, put on his garments, come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. The fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. And he who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. And they shall burn in the fire their skins, their flesh, and their offal. Then he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments; then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.’ And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.”
The High Priest was the one who gave the offering of the Day of Atonement for the people of Israel. This offering was given once a year on the tenth day of the seventh month in the Israeli calendar. On this day, as the High Priest Aaron gave the offering on behalf of the people of Israel for their sake, all their iniquities were actually passed on to this offering of sacrifice and cleansed away. The Day of Atonement therefore became a great festival for the people of Israel.
Like other offerings, the offering of the Day of Atonement also had to be accompanied by three fixed standards: unblemished sacrificial animals, the laying on of hands, and the bloodshed of the sacrificial animals. God then accepted with pleasure the offering that was given in this way. What was different of this offering from the other offerings was that the High Priest had to take the blood of the sacrificial offering into the Most Holy.
After giving an offering for himself and his household, Aaron the High Priest offered two goats to God for the people of Israel. First, he offered one of them for the Lord God according to the same manner of the sin offering he had offered with a bull. And then he offered the second goat for the scapegoat. He passed the sins of the people of Israel onto the scapegoat by laying his hands on its head before the presence of the Israelites, and this goat that had accepted their sins was then sent out into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.
The Offering of the Day of Atonement Cleansed away All the Sins of the People of Israel
On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest, representing the people of Israel, passed their sins onto the head of the sacrificial offering by laying his hands on it. He brought two live goats, cast lots for them—one for God and the other for the people of Israel.
The laying on of hands here means passing all sins onto the sacrificial offering by putting hands on its head. This laying on of hands were the method of the washing of sin set by God, and in the New Testament’ time also, the same method in a form of the laying of hands had to be applied equally for Jesus to wash away all the sins of mankind as well. To remit the High Priest’s own sins, the sins of his household, and a year’s worth of the sins of the people of Israel, he absolutely had to lay his hands on the head of the goat and pass all these sins onto it. Because the High Priest passed the sins of the people of Israel to the sacrificial offering by thus laying his hands on its head, a year’s worth of the sins of the Israelites were all blotted out. Like this, through the offering of the Day of Atonement, the people of Israel could thank God for saving them from all their sins.
Everyone who has sin is to be condemned unavoidably. For a sacrificial offering to be vicariously condemned for people’s sins, it first had to accept their sins. Were the High Priest to give an offering to God without laying his hands on its head, this offering then would have been a blasphemy to God, and so he had to refrain from doing so. To save the entire mankind that had turned into sinners, God had to establish His plan of salvation fulfilled through the method of the laying on of hands. To blot out the sins of the people of Israel, God raised the High Priest and made him pass the sins of all his people once for all by laying his hands on the head of the sacrificial offering as their representative. As such, all the sacrificial animals that were offered to God in the Tabernacle accepted the sins of the Israelites with the laying on of hands, and they bore the condemnation of sin on their behalf, shedding its blood and dying.
To fulfill the righteousness and love of God wholly, the Israelites had to offer the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement by laying the High Priest’s hands on the head of the sacrificial animals and cutting the throats to shed their blood vicariously once a year. Through this offering, in other words, God wanted to wash away a year’s worth of all the sins of the people of Israel once for all. This was the law of God’s love that satisfied both His mercifulness and His justness. Because God is just, to blot out people’s sins all at once in accordance to His just law, God prepared Jesus Christ the Lamb, had Him take upon sins through the laying on of hands, and made Him bleed on the Cross.
Jesus, who had offered Himself as the eternal sacrifice, took upon everyone’s sins once for all through this method, shed His blood once, and has thereby completed their salvation from sin. As such, we, too, must come before God with the faith that believes in the truth of salvation manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. It is by this faith that all sins can be remitted once for all. Therefore, whoever wants to receive the remission of sin all at once must come to God with the faith that truly believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Meaning of the Laying on of Hands
The laying on of hands means, “to be passed, to be transferred, or to be buried” (Leviticus 1:3-4). When any of the common people of Israel sinned unintentionally and then became aware of it, he had to give a burnt offering to God (Leviticus 4:27-29). He first had to bring a sacrificial animal without blemish, and then had to pass his sins onto it by laying his hands on its head. And he had to cut its throat, draw its blood, and then give this blood to a priest (Leviticus 4:27-31). Then the priest had to take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. He also had to burn its fat on the altar, and God then smelt the soothing aroma of the burning fat that was given in this offering.
We have already learned that to blot out the sins of the people of Israel, God prepared the offering of the Day of Atonement where hands were laid on the sacrificial animal and its blood was drawn. In this case also, God could not wash away the sins of the Israelites without the laying of hands on the sacrificial offering. Like this, the offering of the Day of Atonement that was given in the Old Testament is closely connected with the baptism and blood of Jesus in the New Testament’s time.
Just as the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament had to be an unblemished animal, in the New Testament’s time also, Jesus came as the unblemished Lamb of God, and was baptized and shed His blood on the Cross to wash away the iniquities of all sinners. As the sacrificial animal had to accept the iniquities of sinners with the laying on of hands in the Old Testament, all the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus when John the Baptist laid his hands on the head of Jesus to baptize Him in the Jordan River (Matthew 3:15). The Old Testament’s sacrificial offering and the New Testament’s Jesus alike had to receive the laying on of hands and bleed to die in the same way. The offering of the laying on of hands and bloodshed was the same offering that was prepared for sinners in both the Old and New Testaments alike.
The Sins of Mankind Are Infallibly Followed by the Wrath of God
Before God, we had been sinners who could not but die for our sins, just like the sin offering that was to be killed on account of the sins it had taken. When we picture this sacrificial offering being cut into pieces and burnt with fire on the altar of burnt offering, we can realize that like it, we had also been bound to be destroyed before God, and yet the Lord has saved us by being baptized by John and shedding His blood.
As such, those who have not been born again must acknowledge themselves as sinners facing fiery condemnation for their sins before God and believe in the baptism and blood of the Lord as their salvation. To save us from our sins instead of punishing us for them, God prepared the offering of salvation, passed our sins onto this offering of everlasting sacrifice, made Him bleed, and has thereby remitted all our sins (Leviticus 16:1-34; Romans 8:3-4, Hebrews 10:10-12). Do you still have sin in your hearts? Then, you must first admit before God that you are sinners facing the condemnation of God, and you must believe that through Jesus Christ God has fulfilled the plan of your salvation that He had designed even before the foundation of the world.
Sin cannot be atoned without paying a proper ransom. That’s why God had given the people of Israel the sacrificial system. In this sacrificial system, only the offering that was accompanied by the laying on of hands and bloodshed was the true offering of faith that could wash away the sins of the Israelites.
By faith, we must also give to God this offering that has the laying on of hands and bloodshed, all in accordance to the sacrificial system written in the Scriptures. The Lord shed His blood because He had taken our sins through His baptism, vicariously bore the condemnation of sin in our place, and thereby blotted out these sins of ours (Matthew 3:15; John 1:29; Isaiah 53:1-7). When we believe in the Word of the water and the Spirit, and when we put our hands on the Lord who has become our sacrificial offering and thereby pass all our sins onto Him, we can receive the remission of sin by believing that the Lord who took upon our sins also bore the condemnation of sin in our place. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we can pass all our sins onto the Lord who has become our sacrificial offering, and we can die with Him and live with Him (Romans 6:1-11, Galatians 3:27).
The spiritual lessons that we must realize from the offering of the Day of Atonement are, first of all, that we must recognize our sins and the condemnation of our sins, and that we must then give the offering of faith that God wants to receive—that is, we must have faith in Jesus who fulfilled our salvation with His baptism and bloodshed on the Cross. We must lay our hands on the head of Jesus by believing in His baptism. Why? Because only when we lay our hands on the offering of sacrifice by faith and draw its blood can we be saved from all our sins.
Like this, anyone who wants to be remitted from his/her sins before God must pay the ransom of life, for the wages of sin is death. Whether rich or poor, there must be the sacrificial offering that pays the wages of one’s sins and the price of the atonement of life. Unless this is the case, no one can receive the remission of sin by faith.
The Old Testament’s Offering of the Day of Atonement
Let us turn to Leviticus 16:6-10: “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.”
To enable the people of Israel to receive the remission of their sins by faith, the High Priest, on their behalf, gave the offering that was accompanied by the laying on of hands and bloodshed. How, then, is the faith of today’s Christians? Is it not a speculative and groundless faith whose offering seeks to receive the remission of sin without even passing their sins? If your faith is not the kind of faith that has passed your sins onto Jesus Christ through the laying on of hands, then you have a problem at hand. Unless your faith is the faith that believes in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross, it cannot be the true faith.
We could not but fail to keep the Law before God and committed all kinds of sins throughout the past year. So if we had lived in the Old Testament’s time, we would have needed to receive the remission of our sins by believing in the sin offering that the High Priest would have given on our behalf. To give the offering of faith to God, we must first acknowledge that we are bound to be destroyed for our sins, and we must then believe in the laying on of hands that passes all our sins onto the sacrificial offering that God prepared for us and the bloodshed of this offering.
Because the laying of hands on the sacrificial animal and its bloodshed had the power of salvation, the people of the Old Testament could receive the remission of their sins through this offering that the High Priest gave according to the sacrificial system set by God. By laying his hands on the sacrificial offering, the High Priest passed a year’s worth of his people’s sins onto it, cut its throat and drew its blood, and sprinkled this blood before the mercy seat and on its east side for seven times. By doing so, he never ceased to give the right offering to God every year. This is how the people of Israel could receive the perfect remission of sin in those days.
Like this, through the sin offering that the High Priest gave, the people of Israel believe and affirmed in their hearts that all their sins were thus remitted. What the Old Testament’s offering of the Day of Atonement is showing us is that in the New Testament, Jesus Christ took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John and shed His blood on the Cross, and that we must believe in this Jesus Christ as our Savior and receive the everlasting remission of sin by faith. All the souls of this world whose hearts are suffering and agonizing over their sins must realize that they can receive the eternal remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and they must believe this in their hearts. Like this, the offering of the remission of all sins had been set by God beforehand and promised by Him to be fulfilled, and this promise of salvation is also manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen that were used as the materials of the Tabernacle.
The Offering of the Day of Atonement Fulfilled in the Tabernacle
On the Day of Atonement, to take care of all the sins of the people of Israel, the High Priest laid his hands on the head of the sacrificial offering before the presence of all the Israelites (Leviticus 16:1-23). It was absolutely necessary for him to pass their sins onto the sacrificial offering by laying his hands on its head on their behalf. When the High Priest Aaron gave the offering of the Day of Atonement inside the Tabernacle for the people of Israel, no one else could enter into the Tabernacle. It was an extraordinary event, because there used to be many priests in the court of the Tabernacle except on the Day of Atonement.
The High Priest passed the sins of the people of Israel onto the sacrificial offering by putting his hands on its head, took the blood of this sacrifice into the Most Holy, and sprinkled it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he sprinkled it seven times (Leviticus 16:14).
At this time, the golden bells that were attached to the hem of the robe of the High Priest were bound to ring, and so each time he sprinkled the blood before the mercy seat and on the east side, the bells rang and the people of Israel who were standing outside the Tabernacle could hear the sound of bells. When the Israelites heard this sound of bells, they realized that the High Priest was now giving the offering to God on their behalf. And having heard the sound of bells for all seven times, they then sighed in relief, for they knew that the giving of the offering of the Day of Atonement was now finished, confirming the completion of the offering that forgave a year’s worth of their sins.
After this, the High Priest Aaron came out of the Tabernacle, took the other remaining goat as another offering, and gave this offering of the Day of Atonement before the presence of the people of Israel. God commanded the people of Israel to do nothing on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:20-21, 29). With the huge crowd of the Israelites gathered around to see the giving of this offering outside the Tabernacle, the High Priest laid his hands on the head of the sacrificial goat to fulfill his duties and sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.
On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest brought the goat before the people of Israel, laid his hands on its head, and confessed all the iniquities and transgressions of the children of Israel, passing them onto the goat. “Lord, I confess all the sins that the people of Israel have committed during the past year. We have failed to keep all the Law wholly, we have committed countless sins against You and each other, we have failed to live the life that You had commanded us to live, and we have done those things which you commanded us not to do. We have broken so many of Your commandments during the past year. We have lied. We have murdered. We have committed adultery. We have stolen.” Like this, the High Priest passed all the sins of the people of Israel onto the sacrificial goat by putting his hands on its head before their presence, and then sent it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.
Because the wages of sin is death, God could not let the sacrificial goat live after accepting the sins of the people of Israel. The scapegoat that was abandoned into the wilderness had to suffer and die in the wilderness, for it had shouldered all the iniquities, blemishes, and transgressions of the people of Israel. Now, all the people of Israel started to enjoy the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34) because they had discarded, through the offering of the Day of Atonement, the sins that had bound them for the past year.
The laying on of hands is the means by which the sins of all people are passed onto the sacrificial offering. When the High Priest laid his hands on the sacrificial animal, all the sins of the people of Israel that had accumulated for a year were passed onto it once for all. Every single sin of each and every Israelite was all at once passed onto the offering of sacrifice with the High Priest’ laying on of hands.
Can all the sins of today’s people also be passed onto the sacrificial offering with the laying on of hands, just as the iniquities of the people of Israel were passed with the laying on of the High Priest’s hands in the Old Testament? If this were not possible, where is the way for today’s people to receive the remission of their sins? Who passes the sins of today’s people, how, and through whom? In accordance to the sacrificial system established by God in the age of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist in the New Testament’s time. Just as a year’s worth of sins were passed onto the sacrificial goat once for all through the offering of the Day of Atonement that the High Priest gave for the people of Israel, so were our sins passed onto Jesus Christ who was baptized by John the Baptist, the last High Priest. Where, then, are all the sins of today’s people? They are now on the head of Jesus Christ.
Just as the scapegoat accepted all the sins of the people of Israel through the High Priest with the laying on of his hands, Jesus became the sacrificial offering of the everlasting remission of sin for all of us who are now living in this present age. Jesus who became our own scapegoat offered Himself to God as the sacrificial offering for our sins. Jesus, in other words, was baptized by John and gave Himself up to be crucified, as in the Old Testament God had set the offering of sacrifice for the people of Israel and passed their sins onto this sacrificial animal and condemned it instead.
The scapegoat that was sent out into the wilderness could not survive, for there was no water but only burning sunlight in the sand desert. Likewise, Jesus, too, could not avoid but be crucified, for He had already taken upon mankind’s sins of the world through His baptism. As the scapegoat was abandoned in the lifeless wilderness, Jesus who took upon the sins of the world was also hated and despised by many people. If the sacrificial goat were led into the desert and abandoned in the desolate, lifeless land, would it not have wandered around, only to die in the end from thirst?
In the same manner, Jesus who accepted our sins was rejected by many people, and He had to be crucified to bear the condemnation of our sins, shed His blood, and die. This was the salvation that Jesus Christ fulfilled to give us His true salvation in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The people of Israel saw the process of the atonement of the remission of sin with their eyes and believed in it in their hearts. Like them, we, too, can now receive the remission of our sins by seeing, hearing, and believing in the righteous works of Jesus Christ in our hearts. This tells us that Jesus Christ would be baptized by John, carry the sins of the world, be crucified, shed His blood, die, and rise from the dead again, and that we would be saved by seeing all these with our spiritual eyes and believing in them in our hearts.
This offering of the Day of Atonement will go on as long as the Israelites continue to exist. They still give the offering of the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the seventh month in their calendar, because God had told them, “This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year” (Leviticus 16:34). By making the people of Israel give the offering of the Day of Atonement like this, God bestowed His mercy on them so that all their sins would be washed away and they would be delivered from the punishment of these sins.
Just like this, for today’s people also, God has enabled them to realize that Jesus bore all the sins of the world upon His own body by being baptized by John, was crucified, and has thereby wholly completed the everlasting cleansing of sin. Jesus Christ shouldered the sins of mankind with His baptism and has become the eternal High Priest of Heaven. Now, there is nothing else that remains for us to do for our own salvation but only to believe in this truth.
The Offering of the Great Atonement that the Messiah Gave to God the Father with His Own Body
Why did God command the people of Israel to give Him the offering of the Day of Atonement? He did this so that they would look forward, with their faith, to the day when God the Father would have His Son Jesus Christ offer the great atonement for the sins of all human beings with His baptism and bloodshed. This is why Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God the Father and the Savior of humanity, came to this earth to blot out all the sins of everyone, fulfilled everything with the love of God, and revealed salvation unto mankind. By being baptized by John to take upon all the sins of us mankind and shedding His blood on the Cross, Jesus has blotted out all the sins and inequities of the world, was condemned for them, and has thereby become our true Savior.
God called Moses and gave him the Law first. And then He ordered him to build the Tabernacle with such materials as blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen, and He gave him the sacrificial system. By doing so, God enabled the people of Israel to realize the importance of the laying on of hands and bloodshed, and in turn He showed them Jesus Christ, the door of salvation prophesied in the Tabernacle, would come to this earth, take upon the sins of the world by being baptized, be crucified and shed His blood. The salvation of the washing of sin that God has given us is manifested clearly in the materials that were used for the door of the Tabernacle.
Among the materials used for the door of the Tabernacle, the meaning implied by the blue thread is that Jesus took upon the sins of the world once for all by being baptized by John; the purple thread shows that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, for He created the universe; the scarlet thread tells us that because Jesus had been baptized, He bore the condemnation of sin for all sinners by shedding His blood on the Cross; and the fine woven linen tells us that the Bible is describing elaborately about these three ministries manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and God has given the remission of sin to those who believe in His Word.
Now, all must remind themselves once again and believe that this truth—that is, Jesus Christ is their Savior and He has washed away all their sins by being baptized by John and shedding His blood on the Cross—is also manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen used as the materials of the Tabernacle, and they must thereby receive the remission of their sins. Through Moses, God established the law of salvation, the law of the remission of sin for mankind, and when the time came, He sent Jesus Christ to this earth and had Him be baptized by John and shed His blood on the Cross, so that Jesus would become the offering of sacrifice that would wash away the sins of the world. And by doing so, God has enabled all those who believe to be washed from all their sins by faith.
Therefore, when we profess to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, we must believe by knowing the baptism that Jesus received and His bloodshed on the Cross. Just as the sacrificial offering of the Old Testament accepted the iniquities of sinners with the laying on of hands and was vicariously condemned by shedding its blood in their place, Jesus Christ came as the sacrificial offering of sin for everyone living on this earth, took upon the sins of the world by being baptized, was crucified and shed His precious blood, and has thereby forever blotted out, all at once, the sins of those who believe.
We must believe in the truth of the written Word exactly as it is. The biblical truth is that with the same method as the offering that the High Priest gave for his people in the Old Testament, Jesus came to this earth, was baptized and crucified, and shed His blood to save us from all the sins of the world once for all. We must therefore believe in the Bible exactly as it is written. We could not avoid but be forever condemned for our sins, but Jesus Christ came to this earth and has saved us from all our sins with His baptism and blood.
Not believing this, even though God has forgiven all our sins like this, is a sin that can never be forgiven by God. He has blotted out all the sins of the world except the only remaining sin, “the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit” (Mark 3:28-29). As such, those who truly want to receive the remission of sin must believe the truth that Jesus Christ was baptized, shed His blood, rose from the dead again, and has thereby delivered us from all the sins of the world. Apart from such faith, what good deeds would ever be necessary for our remission of sin? Now the time has come for us to know what the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit is, and to believe in this truth.
Everyone must realize and believe that the truth manifested in the door of the Tabernacle woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen is the gospel of true salvation, and the shadow of Jesus Christ to come. Insofar as believing in Jesus Christ is concerned, the baptism that He received and the blood that He shed on the Cross are essential to our salvation, and we must therefore believe in them. The indisputable and irrefutable truth is that Jesus has given salvation to those who believe in His baptism, His bloodshed on the Cross, and His resurrection from death, and that all of these were done to save us from the sins of the world.
The Sacrifice of the Son that God the Father Wanted
Let us turn to Hebrews 10:5-9: “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, “Behold, I have come—In the volume of the book it is written of Me—To do Your will, O God.”’ Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second.”
What is it meant by the passage here that says that God did not desire sacrifice and offering? This passage quotes from Psalm 40:6-7. It means that all the sins of the world could not be completely blotted out with the daily offerings of the Old Testament, and that to give the everlasting sin offering, Jesus Christ therefore came to this earth, was baptized, shed His blood, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become the Savior of all of us. The meaning of Psalm 40:7, which says, “Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me,’” is that Jesus Christ came to this earth and washed away all sins with the laying on of hands and His bloodshed, exactly as written in the Old Testament.
In the age of the Old Testament, the sins of the people of Israel were remitted as the sacrificial animal was offered to God on the Day of Atonement with the laying on of the High Priest’s hands and the bloodshed of the offering. Likewise, Jesus Christ who came to this earth to become the everlasting sacrificial offering for all mankind took upon the sins of the world by receiving baptism, a form of the laying on of hands, and bore all the condemnation of the sins of the entire mankind by carrying these sins of the world to the Cross, being crucified, shedding His precious blood and dying. By doing so, Jesus has given eternal salvation to all those who believe.
Exactly as God had promised through the Tabernacle system, in the New Testament Jesus came to this earth and has thereby fulfilled salvation once for all. Those who believe have therefore been saved from all sins. In the Tabernacle was the promise of God that Jesus would forever blot out the sins of all people once for all by being baptized and shedding His blood. And Jesus indeed came and fulfilled the promised salvation by actually being baptized and shedding His blood, and thereby fulfilling the Word of God to perfection. All God’s promises of salvation, in other words, have indeed been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The people of Israel believe that the Old Testament’s Law and the words of the prophets are the Word of God. But they are unable to believe in Jesus Christ who came to us in the age of the New Testament as God or the Savior. All the people of this world, including the people of Israel, must now realize that Jesus Christ is God Himself and accept into their hearts that He is the Messiah to come.
For What Did Jesus Come?
As Jesus came to fulfill the will of God the Father, He is the Savior of all those who believe in Him as such, and He came to this world to forever wash away all their sins. As Hebrews 10:10 states, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” We must clearly realize and believe that it was by the will of the God the Father that Jesus Christ was born unto this earth, that He was baptized according to the Father’s will, that by this will He was crucified, shed His blood to death on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become the Savior of those who believe. To blot out all our sins according to the will of God the Father, Jesus Christ had to fulfill the salvation of mankind by blotting out all sins with the baptism that He received and His bloodshed. As such, He willingly gave Himself up to be sacrificed, thereby giving us perfect salvation.
Because Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself to blot out not only the sins of the people of Israel but also the sins of the entire mankind, we can be saved only if each of us believes in this in our own hearts. Through His 33 years of life, Jesus was baptized only once, sacrificed only once, and has thereby saved the sinners of the world once for all. This is the only and perfect salvation.
Just as Jesus has all at once blotted out all the sins committed by mankind from the beginning to the end of the world, He has also enabled us to be saved once for all by faith. By offering His own body once for all, Jesus Christ has made us forever perfect. As He was baptized by John and was condemned for all our sins by shedding His blood, we must now gladly believe in this gospel in our hearts and thereby be saved from all our sins. By the will of God the Father, Jesus Christ came to this earth to bear all our sins and pay the wages of life, and He successfully revealed His true salvation through the love of God in accordance to the Father’s will.
This Word is surely the truth that you and I who are now living in this modern world must believe. We must bind the baptism of Jesus and His bloodshed on the Cross together and believe in them as the singular set of truth that saves us perfectly. If we fail to do so, we will then lose the everlasting remission of sin. As such, we must believe according to the written Word of God, according to the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit sheds the light of salvation, but if we add anything else to or subtract some essentials from the true gospel when we believe in God, or if we do not believe in the truth as it is, then this light of the gospel of salvation will be lost, only to be hidden and to disappear.
We must not fall under the illusion that the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit is also merely one of the worldly doctrines, as if it teaches that we can somehow receive the remission of sin through our prayers of repentance by asking God to forgive our sins daily. God said clearly in Hebrews 10:11, “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” He told us, in other words, and the sins that we commit everyday cannot be washed away just because we ask God to forgive us of our daily sins with our faith in the blood of the Cross.
Because the offering of sacrifice that Jesus Christ gave to God the Father by being baptized by John and dying on the Cross was the perfect offering of salvation, it was by believing in this offering that we have been wholly saved. It was because the sins of the world were passed onto Jesus Christ once for all when He was baptized by John that Jesus could carry our sins to the Cross and die on it to end the condemnation of their sins, and it was because of this that the sins of those who believe in His baptism and bloodshed have been washed away.
By believing in the baptism that Jesus Christ received and the blood of the Cross, we, too, also died with Jesus Christ and have come alive with Him by faith. Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The wages of sin is death, no matter what it may be, and therefore its wages must be paid with life. This is why it was necessary for Jesus Christ to come to this earth incarnated in the flesh, be baptized by John, and shed His blood on the Cross. The actual passing of your sins onto the body of Jesus was accomplished by His baptism, and by shouldering these sins and dying, Jesus paid the wages of your sins and has thereby blotted them out once for all. Yet despite this, even as God has given us this truth of the gospel, there are many people who still plead God to forgive their actual sins everyday—they are simply ignorant of the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When people have sin in their hearts, they cannot help but be terrified before God for this sin. It is true that there are many who, still remaining ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and yet to be washed from their sins, are gripped by fear because of the sins of their consciences. However, Jesus came to this earth to deliver them from all their sins, was baptized by John, shed His blood on the Cross, and has thereby saved them perfectly. For what reason do we need to be worried then, when the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of God’s salvation, has wholly saved us and taken care of our condemnation of sin?
Those who know and truly believe that Jesus has blotted out all the sins of mankind through the gospel of the water and the Spirit can indeed be saved perfectly by faith, just as God promised, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). We can all be saved by faith, for there was the baptism of Jesus who accepted the sins of this world according to the law of God set in the Old Testament that had passed all sins onto the sacrificial offering with the laying on of hands. It was because Jesus took upon the sins of the world by being baptized by John that He could die on the Cross, and it was because the salvation that God spoke of in the Old Testament was fulfilled that we can be saved from all our sins only by our faith.
Yet despite this infallible truth, we still see some people who believe in Jesus as if it were an exercise in empathy. They weep and cry everyday to enhance their faith because the basis of their faith is to sympathize with Jesus for the deadly sufferings that He endured on the Cross. The hearts of such people are thoroughly flawed, and they must abandon this mistaken faith.
It is you and I who need the baptism and blood of Jesus our Savior, not Jesus who needs our sympathy or devotion. The simple truth is that it is we who desperately need Jesus Christ the Savior, and yet there are many people who believe in God for no particular reason of their own, thinking that it is God who is lacking in something, as if He is begging them to believe in Him. But such faith that believes patronizingly is the kind of faith that is despised by God.
The hearts of those who condescendingly say to Jesus that that they would believe in Him, as if they are doing a favor for Him, are placed higher than even God, and so in their arrogance they can never accept into their hearts the gospel of the water and the Spirit that saves them perfectly from sin. They have so little regard for the Word of God that they consider it little different from what any of their neighbors say, scorning and patronizing it, as if to believe in it is doing a favor for God out of their sympathy.
In the end, they are the ones who do not believe in the baptism and bloodshed of Jesus as the remission of their sins and stand against God. They believe that their sins can be washed away through their agonizing prayers of repentance without even believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because they take the name of God in vain, they neither know nor believe that Jesus Christ the Savior has completely blotted out their sins, and they therefore cannot be saved.
God said, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion” (Romans 9:15). If God decided to save sinners with the law of salvation out of His mercy, then He will do so exactly as He decided. We must therefore believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and thereby receive our true salvation.
Those who do not believe in this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit will personally discover just how great God’s severity and His wrath really are. Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, on the other hand, will see just how great and merciful God’s love is. Whoever acknowledges his/her sins before God and recognizes and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God’s gospel of perfect salvation, will be delivered from all sins.
Those who believe that Jesus Christ took upon all their sins by being baptized will be delivered from all their sins. Those who despise this truth, in contrast, will face the fearful condemnation of sin for their sins. All the people of this world must therefore believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the real truth. Those sinners who do not fear God’s judgment and do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will surely be condemned for their sins. But those who believe in the truth of Jesus’ washing of sin will be saved from all their sins.
Everyone whose conscience has sin is ill at ease, and so people come up with unfounded, groundless doctrines of salvation that are completely different from the gospel of the water and the Spirit, trying to comfort their distressed consciences. There are even those who say, “Since I believe in Jesus, it’s okay for me to have sin in my heart.” But we must not forget that all who have sin in their hearts will face the punishment of hell, for God will surely render His just judgment to such people for their sins. Because they are siding with Satan, God simply cannot leave them alone.
But those who know about the justice of God, that there would be His judgment of sin, ask God for His merciful love, want to be saved from all sins, search for the truth, and desire to stand at God’s side. For such people, here is the truth that Jesus Christ took upon the all the sins of mankind by being baptized. Every sinner must believe in it and receive the remission of sin. Through His baptism, Jesus Christ accepted all the sins of the entire world once for all, died on the Cross once, and has thereby blotted out all sins and made us righteous.
Through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, all of us must now realize what our true salvation is, and in our hearts we must all have the faith that truly believes in this gospel. All who believe in this truth in their hearts, no matter what kind of sins they might have committed, will indeed be washed from all their sins by faith and receive the true remission of sin and eternal life. Do you not want to believe in this gospel Word and take the gospel of the water and the Spirit by faith, the gospel that makes all the sins of your hearts disappear? Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit before God will surely receive the remission of sin.
Your Prayers of Repentance Cannot Save You
Today, many who profess to believe in Jesus give their prayers of repentance everyday, asking God to forgive their sins. They live their lives of faith by giving their sacrificial offerings to God everyday, like in the Old Testament’s time. But this is not the life of faith that you would want to live. Does Jesus shed His blood on the Cross to wash away your sins whenever you give your prayers of repentance? This is not the case. Instead, you must wash away your sins once for all by believing that the power of the baptism and bloodshed of Jesus Christ lasts forever. Those who try to be washed from their sins by giving their prayers of repentance everyday cannot receive the everlasting remission of sin, nor do they have the faith that enables them to receive true salvation.
If everyone’s sins could be forgiven through such prayers of repentance or any man-made rituals, then God would not have established the law that declares the wages of sin to be death. For people to be remitted of their sins, they must actually give the offering that passes their sins onto the body of Jesus by faith. What we must have is not the kind of faith that gives prayers of repentance everyday, but the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the blood manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen used for the door of the Tabernacle. In other words, we must realize that only the faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can bring us the true washing of sin, and we must believe this in our hearts.
Just as the sinners of the Old Testament had passed their sins onto their sacrificial animal by laying their hands on its head when they gave their sin offering, we must also pass our sins onto Jesus Christ by believing in His baptism, and by this faith that believes in His baptism and His bloodshed on the Cross, we must come out to God and receive the everlasting remission of sin. God said, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” and “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:10, 17).
John 1:29 says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” This passage describes the testimony that John the Baptist gave on the next day that He had baptized Jesus. When John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching him, he said, “Look people! There goes the One!” This caused a commotion among the crowd gathered around John. John shouted out, “Behold! Here comes the Lamb of God! He is none other than the Son of God, the very Lamb of God who took upon the sins of mankind through me. He is our Savior. He is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”
It was because John the Baptist had baptized Jesus Christ and passed the sins of the world onto Him that John himself could personally bear witness to Jesus. Because John had passed our sins onto Jesus by baptizing Him, in other words, Jesus Christ became the Lamb of sacrifice who took upon our sins according to the will of God the Father.
In the Old Testament, the remission of sin was received by giving sacrificial offerings to God, but in the New Testament, it is only by the faith that wholly believes in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross that we can be remitted of our sins. Because God took such livestock as bulls, lambs, and goats as sacrificial offerings to blot out the sins of the people of Israel, countless animals were bled, cut into pieces, and burnt on the altar of burnt offering. Myriads of sacrificial animals were indeed killed because of the sins of people.
But in the age of the New Testament, Jesus did not offer such sacrificial animals, but He offered His own body for us. As Jesus the Lamb of God came to this earth, accepted the sins of the world onto His body through His baptism, and shed His blood on the Cross, He has enabled those who believe in this to be saved from all their sins once for all. It was to forever end our sins with the water, the blood, and the Spirit that Jesus came to us.
God is now commanding you and me to believe in this truth of real salvation. He is telling us, “I have blotted out all your sins, for I have loved you. I have saved you like this. So believe! I have blotted out your sins by giving My own Son as the sin offering for you. I let My Son live on this earth for 33 years of His life, I had Him baptized, I made Him shed His blood on the Cross for your sake, and by doing so I have wholly delivered you from all your sins and condemnation. Now, by believing in this truth, you can become My own children whom I love, and who can be embraced in My arms.” Know and believe this in your hearts—that those who believe in the baptism that Jesus Christ received and the blood that He shed will not only be saved from all their sins, but they will also receive the right to become God’s own children.
Did Jesus Really Remit All the Sins of This World?
Let us turn to Hebrews 10:14-18: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.”
The passage makes it clear: “Where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” Listen to this blessed news, that all our sins were passed onto Jesus through the baptism that He received! Not only was every sin that you and I commit in our entire lifetime passed onto Jesus, but all the sins of the entire mankind were passed onto Him as well. To fulfill all the righteousness of God, Jesus received the laying on of hands, being baptized into and out of water, and thereby allowed all sins to be passed onto Himself.
Shouldering all sins, moreover, He was crucified and thereby bore the condemnation of all the sins of mankind, and therefore those who believe have now been delivered from all their judgment. Just as the High Priest had passed the sins of the people of Israel to the sacrificial animal by putting his hands on its head, John the Baptist passed all our sins onto Jesus by baptizing Him. And Jesus, in turn, shouldered these sins and was crucified, and thus has delivered everyone who believes in Him from sin. Therefore, those who believe in this can receive the right to become God’s own children.
Romans 10:10 states, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” For all, it is by believing in the righteousness of God with the heart that they can be justified, by believing in the truth of salvation with the heart that they can receive the remission of sin and enter Heaven. Brothers and sisters, have you been saved by believing with your hearts and confessing with your tongues that the baptism and blood of Jesus are the essential elements that constitute “the righteousness of God,” “the truth of salvation,” and “the gospel of the remission of sin”? Under the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, the sins of the Israelites were not blotted out just by killing the sacrificial animal without the laying on of hands that passed their sins onto the offering. Likewise, if we believe only in the blood of the Cross and leave out the baptism that Jesus received, then all our sins cannot be washed away.
“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:17-18). Why did God say here that He would no longer remember our sins? Though we cannot help but continue to sin until the day we die, because Jesus took upon all the sins of the world once for all by being baptized, our salvation is now accomplished and will last forever, and those of us who believe in this are now sinless. This is why God has no need to remember our sins.
The righteousness of God means His justice. The justice of God the Father dictates that just as He is holy, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are also holy and sinless. From the very beginning, God loved us and desired to make us His own children. But no matter how much He wanted to make us His children, He could not do so because of our sins. So God the Father came up with a solution to resolve this problem.
Because God had set side an unblemished offering that would be vicariously sacrificed on our behalf and decided to wash away our sins by passing all sins onto this sacrificial offering, Jesus did not hesitate to be baptized, to become our own offering of sacrifice, to be vicariously condemned in our place, and to thereby give the everlasting sin offering. And through this sin offering, God fulfilled His providence to cleanse those who believe from their sins and make them His own children. Now, those who believe in this gospel of truth are remitted from all their sins before God. Because Jesus has already washed away all the sins of this world by being baptized, if we believe in this Jesus who has cleansed away mankind’s sins by being condemned vicariously, we no longer need to give any offering for our sins. Do we still need to offer sacrifices for our sins, brothers and sisters? No, absolutely not!
Do you know why Jesus Christ was crucified, even as He was sinless and pure? Although Jesus was crucified, He had done nothing wrong at all, in fact. It was only because Jesus had accepted all the sins of mankind by being baptized in the Jordan River that He had to die in our place. The reason why He had to die on the Cross was because He had already accepted the sins of the world passed onto Him through His baptism and was ready to fulfill all righteousness.
When the Son of God was baptized to fulfill all righteousness in this way, how could we not thank Him? It was because Jesus had taken upon our sins that He, like a sheep before its shearer, quietly bore the suffering of the Cross. We must all remember His baptism and Cross forever, for had He not been crucified and condemned, then we ourselves would have had to be condemned for sure.
Our Lord not only took upon all our sins, but He Himself also bore all the condemnation of sin. Put differently, Jesus the Savior Himself, who had taken upon our sins, became our own sin offering and quietly bore the punishment of the Cross, all in order to save us from sin and thereby fulfill all God’s will. This is why the Bible says, “‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:17-19).
Do you now understand why Jesus Christ was crucified? We must not believe just in Jesus’ blood of the Cross, but we must grasp the reason why He had to die on the Cross, and we must properly understand and believe that this reason lies in the baptism that He received. If you and I want to know and believe exactly where and how our sins were washed away, we must realize and believe that it was because our sins were passed onto Jesus when He was baptized by John in the Jordan River that we have been washed from our sins by faith.
By Knowing and Believing in the Truth of the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit, We Can Now Be Saved from All Our Sins
What I have told you so far is the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Bible speaks of in elaborate detail. And this truth is the salvation that had been planned even before the foundation of the world, and this salvation is also manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, the materials used for the door of the Tabernacle. Together with my fellow workers, I have been preaching this truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread to countless people in this world. And even now, at this very hour, this gospel is spreading throughout the entire world through our books.
Yet there are those who claim to believe in Jesus even as they are ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I can dare to call such people fools, for this gospel of the water and the Spirit is the core truth that tells us of the true sacrificial system fulfilled through Jesus Christ, the actual substance of the shadow of salvation manifested in the Tabernacle. Now, it is your turn. If you had believed without knowing the real truth, it is now time for you to turn around, believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and receive the remission of your sins.
The baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross had been promised even before the foundation of the world, and they were manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen also. To fulfill this promise, and to actually save you and me from our sins, Jesus was baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father.
Are you still trying to believe in Jesus by following your own experiences or emotions, without knowing this truth? There are many such people in this world, but they must now turn around from their flawed faith and wholeheartedly believe in the truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit hidden in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen manifested in the door of the Tabernacle.
Hebrews 10:19-20 says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” When Jesus Christ, having taken upon the sins of the world by being baptized, was crucified, the veil of the Temple was torn, and the sins of mankind were washed away with the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross. The veil of the Temple, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen, was so strong that it could not be torn even when pulled at its four corners by four horses.
That this sturdy veil of the Temple was nonetheless torn from top to bottom, even as it was touched by no one, reveals that the very moment Jesus Christ completed His mission, the gates of Heaven were opened wide. The tearing of the veil of Temple from top to bottom means that all the walls of sin were brought down, showing us that through Jesus Christ, God tore down these walls of sin.
What, then, does it mean that the walls of sin were torn down? This means that anyone can be remitted from all sins by believing in the baptism that Jesus Christ received and His blood on the Cross. What God sought to make manifest through the door of the Tabernacle is that the salvation of mankind has now been fulfilled once for all through the ministries of Jesus shown in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. It was because our everlasting atonement promised by God to all of us was fulfilled that the veil door of the Most Holy woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen were torn into two from top to bottom, not by the hand of man, but by the hand of God Himself.
This reveals that Jesus Christ who has become the everlasting sacrifice for the sins of mankind has perfectly saved those of us who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God the Father has set that whoever believes in the baptism Jesus Christ received and His bloodshed on the Cross can receive the remission of sin and stand before His presence. Will you believe in this truth or not?
Just as God has loved you, so has Jesus Christ the Son of God loves you, and He has given you perfect salvation by being baptized by John and crucified. By receiving this love of God given to us through Jesus Christ, and by believing in the truth that enables us to enter the Kingdom of God, all our sins have disappeared. By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, even all our actual sins have been taken care of, for all our sins and condemnation were already washed away with the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross.
Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” The Bible continues to speak of the washing of sin. We can be saved from all our sins by believing in the truth that Jesus Christ has washed away all the sins that we commit with our flesh and minds through His baptism.
Just as the High Priest also washed away his uncleanness at the laver of bronze after giving offerings, after cleansing away all our sins by believing in the baptism of Jesus, we, too, must remember this faith everyday. As the High Priest washed himself at the laver of bronze, we must wash away our actual sins by remembering and believing everyday that all our sins were cleansed away with the baptism of Jesus, for as we live in this world, there are times when we are exposed to its filthiness.
All sins, whether committed with the body, heart, or thoughts, belong to the sins of the world. With what faith, then, can we wash away all these sins of the world? We can wash them away only by the baptism that Jesus received. Those who have once become clean by believing in the baptism of Jesus must keep their clean hearts, and whenever they sin, they must wash them again by faith. Those who remember the baptism of Jesus everyday and wash the garments of their acts by faith are the blessed. Because all our sins were passed onto Jesus Christ through the baptism that He received from John, by ruminating on this truth and believing in it everyday, we can be wholly delivered from all sins forever.
You must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, that your sins were also all passed onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized by John. You have nothing to lose from believing in this gospel, for the Omnipotent God had planned it even before the foundation of the world, before the age of the Old Testament. The truth that Jesus accepted your sins by being baptized in the Jordan River and bore all the condemnation of your sins by going to the Cross has enabled you to reach the righteousness of God and your salvation. The truth that has enabled you to realize that Jesus the King of kings has forever saved you from sin, and that has sprinkled your hearts from an evil conscience and washed your bodies with pure water, is this very gospel of the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the indispensable Word for your life, and it shines even more brilliantly when you believe.
During the 3 years of His public life, the very first thing that Jesus did to save the entire mankind from sin was being baptized. Jesus Christ, in other words, had to take upon our sins, and to do so He had go to John and be baptized by him. So, all the Four Gospels write this critical incident at the beginning.
You and I, in fact, were all bound to die for our sins. But what happened? Our Lord came to this earth, took upon our sins by being baptized by John, became the Lamb of God, carried all the sins of the world to the Cross, was nailed on both His hands and feet for our sins, shed all the blood that was in His heart and died, and then rose from the dead again. This is why Jesus said, “It is finished,” when He took His last breath on the Cross.
Everything that Jesus told and did is all true. Jesus became our sin offering to save us, and rose from the dead again in three days. And after rising from the dead, He bore witness to His resurrection for 40 days, ascended to Heaven, and now sits at the right hand of the throne of the Father. This Jesus Christ will come to this earth to take us away. Jesus came as the Savior when He first came to this earth, but when He comes again for the second time, He will come as the Judge to condemn all those who do not believe.
You must now realize that Jesus Christ will return to this earth as the Judge, to call and receive as the children of God those who believe in the salvation of the water, the blood, and the Spirit that He fulfilled through His 33 years of life on this earth and enable them to live in the Millennial Kingdom and the eternal Heaven, and to render His everlasting judgment on those who do not believe in the gospel of the water, the blood, and the Spirit and have rejected the love of God.
Now, you must no longer ignore the gospel of the water and the Spirit and pretend to be unaware of it, but you must believe in this truth of salvation. And you must realize that just as God had promised through the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system, Jesus Christ came to this earth, was baptized in a form of the laying on of hands, was crucified, and has thereby saved all the nations of the whole world from all sins, and you must receive the remission of your sins by believing in this truth with all your hearts.
Even so, the nation of Israel still has its back turned away from the truth and is waiting for another Messiah. But the Israelites must realize that regardless of how ardently they wait for a Messiah other than Jesus, there simply is no other Messiah apart from Jesus Christ. That there is no other Messiah but Jesus on the face of this earth is the self-evident truth, and as even the people of Israel are no exception when it comes to this truth, nor is there any other Savior for them either.
As such, the people of Israel must repent from their sin of not believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and they must believe that Jesus Christ is indeed their true Messiah and accept this as the truth. By once again affirming and believing that Jesus Christ is the very Savior to come, the nation of Israel must become the true, spiritually chosen nation of God.
Even now, the people of Israel are still waiting for a majestic, capable, and powerful Messiah who can save them from the sufferings and miseries of this world. But Jesus Christ already came to this earth in the flesh of a man as the Messiah and has saved them, who cannot avoid but be judged by fire, from all their sins. As such, they must acknowledge this truth and believe in it. For their souls, Jesus Himself came to this earth as their sin offering of sacrifice promised in the Old Testament, has saved them forever from all their sins, and has made them God’s own people.
Jesus Christ who came as the Savior has saved all of us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the truth manifested in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine woven linen. And He will surely enable those of us who believe this to reign over the Millennial Kingdom with Him. After this, He will also allow them to take part in the everlasting Kingdom of God and live forever with God Himself in happiness and glory.
As such, while we are still on this earth, all of us must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with our hearts and become God’s own children. Only those who believe in this gospel of truth can become the sinless children of God and are guaranteed to receive all the blessings that await them in the next world.
Hallelujah! I thank the Lord with my faith for giving us the spiritual blessings of Heaven. Our Lord promised that He would return soon; even so, come, Lord!
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