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we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
In the light of this situation we are not able to mail you the books at this time.
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 14 : The First Epistle of JOHN
[Chapter 1-2] Do You Really Have Fellowship with God? (1 John 1:1-10)
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
How can there be true fellowship with God?
It is possible only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is possible only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Bible says that if we claim to have fellowship with God, and yet walk in darkness, then we are liars, and that if we walk in the light of Truth, as the Lord is in the light, then we have fellowship with God. We can therefore realize that we, the saints and God’s servants, also can have true fellowship with each other through faith only when we are in the light of Truth.
We believe in God’s light of Truth, and also preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of salvation, to others, so that they may be delivered from their spiritual death by faith. If we live by faith in God’s light of Truth, then we are also the children of light who practice the Truth. Therefore, for us to have true fellowship with each other, we have to first accept into our hearts the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit in faith. If, on the other hand, we fail to discover the light of Truth revealed to us brightly as the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and are therefore unable to abide in faith, then we will ultimately end up abiding in darkness.
This is why you must confess your sins before God’s Truth and believe in the gospel’s true light, if you still do not have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and are walking in darkness. It is from not believing in the true light of salvation that we end up as liars before God. Therefore, we must all believe with our hearts in the Truth of gospel, that Jesus Christ has delivered us from all our sins, for He loved us to much that He came to this earth, was baptized, and even died on the Cross. Doing so, we must then live the rest of our lives spreading the light of Truth.
The Apostle John says that we can have true fellowship only when we are in God’s light of Truth. When people read 1 John, they come across many passages that cannot be understood in carnal thoughts. So everyone unanimously agrees that there are many difficult passages. But if one has a proper understanding of the baptism that Jesus received and His bloodshed on the Cross, and if he believes in them, it is not so difficult to interpret and understand 1 John. In the Word of God, there is no truth that cannot be solved with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. But it is filled with the Word of truth that just cannot be interpreted without the true gospel. In other words, only those who have been washed from their sins can interpret 1 John and taste the essence of its truth. This is because through his Epistles, the Apostle John spoke about God’s true gospel and the saints’ lives of light in the Truth.
The Apostle John himself also had to abide in the light of God to have fellowship with Him. So he questioned to the readers of this Epistle that whether or not they were abiding in the light of Truth to have fellowship with God. He, in other words, wanted to have fellowship with them, but he made it clear to them that they first had to come into the God-given light of Truth.
The Apostle John wanted to share his faith with those who believe in the same Truth of light. And he said that it was possible only when they all had faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that has brought us salvation from our sins. If our faith is not the same but different from this faith that believes in this God-given gospel, then we cannot have sincere and true fellowship in Christ. This is why the Apostle John said, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).
Therefore, for any Christian to have true fellowship with other Christians, he must have the same faith that believes in the Word of Truth that has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In Jesus Christ, we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord, and by this faith we had died together with Christ and have received new life with Him. Our Lord has given the Word of Truth to all of us, that we can all be washed from our sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
My fellow believers, you must realize that even if you say that you believe in Jesus as your Savior, as long as you do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and therefore your sins are not perfectly blotted out from your hearts, you cannot become God’s children. If you do not believe in the light of Truth held in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and therefore you have not become God’s children, then it is not only impossible for you to have true fellowship with God, but it is also impossible for you to have any real fellowship with the born-again saints.
By having fellowship with those who believe in the gospel of the salvation of Jesus Christ, the Apostle John wanted to have twice as much joy. John said, “These things we write to you that your joy may be full”(1 John 1:4). In our fellowship, it is when we are standing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with the same faith that the joy for each of us can be full. Our joy can be doubled in the Lord when we share our fellowship in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
For sinners to have fellowship with the righteous, what faith must they have?
It is possible only when they have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is possible only when they have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is absolutely impossible for sinners to have fellowship with those who have received the remission of their sins. Why is this the case? It is because they are spiritually incompatible with the born-again, for they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But if they once believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they can have true fellowship with the saints. At first, those who have not been born again may not easily understand when they hear what the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit say to them, but when they eventually come to understand later on, they also come to have true fellowship in Jesus Christ. Sinners find it difficult to understand what those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit talk about. They even feel weird about the sayings and doings of the born-again at first.
For us to have true fellowship with sinners, they must first believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit and come into the light of Truth. To do so, they must know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, and they must become true Christians. And for us to come into the light of Truth, we must first admit frankly who we really are. Sinners can reach the blessed faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit only when they realize that they are on the verge of facing God’s judgment for their sins.
To be delivered perfectly from their sins, in other words, sinners must first admit that they are evildoers by birth and are doomed to go to hell. And then, they have to believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. This is the only and the right way to reach the Truth of salvation. We have to escape from all our sins and their condemnation, the result of the poison of sin inherited from Adam. This is possible only by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only then can we return to Jesus Christ. Only when we become righteous by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can we have true fellowship with God. Only then can there be true family relations between God and His people, and among His servants and saints.
If you believe in Jesus without knowing the gospel of the water and the Spirit, what would become of you?
It means that you will end up as someone whose faith had been all in vain.
It means that you will end up as someone whose faith had been all in vain.
If you do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the light of real Truth, even as you believe in Jesus as the Savior, just how futile would your faith be? This is why you must learn and know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. And you must become someone who believes in this gospel Word of Truth. It is in the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord that we can know the real Truth of salvation, and it is by believing in this Truth that we can be remitted from all our sins and become whole forever.
The Bible says, “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations” (Genesis 6:9). We have to first recognize that there were righteous people in the Bible. At that time, Noah became a just man by receiving the gift of salvation from God. In other words, by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must also receive this gift of salvation that God has prepared for us. God also described Noah as being perfect in his generations because He had clothed him with the gift of His grace, of the washing of sin.
The Truth of salvation that God had given to Noah was fundamentally different from the doctrine of incremental sanctification that many of today’s Christians and denominations hold. The God-given gift of salvation was His love.
In which gospel do you believe?
Is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or do you believe in any other gospel?
Is it the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or do you believe in any other gospel?
Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior? Whether or not you believe in the light of Truth, that Jesus has blotted out your sins with the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, is entirely up to you, but at the same time, you have to realize that all its consequences, whether to be blessed or cursed, will also be entirely determined by your choice.
Do you still believe only in the gospel of the blood of the Cross? Then, your consciences should be the first to know whether or not there are sins in your hearts. If you had believed until now only in Jesus’ blood on the Cross for you to be saved, then your sins would still be intact in your hearts. Is this not true? But if your souls had now believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you would have discovered the light of real Truth, of being born again.
What do you now think of the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have no sin in their hearts. But the believers in incremental sanctification, an absolute majority of today’s Christians, have the following misunderstanding: They think, “How can anyone so arrogantly claim to be sinless, when human beings sin all the time as they have the flesh?” They are sure that man can never be sinless on this earth, but God overlooks their sins because they believe in Jesus.
However, they must realize the fact that Jesus at once bore all the sins of this world, including all our sins of the past, present, and future, through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. And they must realize that it was because Jesus was baptized by John that He shed His blood on the Cross. Jesus Christ is the same Savior, yesterday and today and forever. By being baptized by John the Baptist, through which He took upon the sins of this world, and by going to the Cross and shedding His blood, Jesus has fulfilled all the righteousness of God at once. With the gospel of the water and the Spirit, our Lord has blotted out all the sins of this world once and for all.
Yet it is deeply saddening that so many Christians today are ignorant of these ministries of Jesus that have blotted out the sins of this world all at once. They are still questioning how the sins of the true believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit could have been blotted out. Such people will remain as sinners even as they believe in Jesus, for they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, nor believe in it. Because they do not know the real gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, they cannot truly wash away their sins by faith. I can only hope and pray that these people who believe only in the blood of the Cross as their salvation would come to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and experience the true washing of sin.
The Apostle John was one of the true disciples of Jesus who believed in Him as his Savior. He received the gift of the true washing of sin by his faith in the baptism that Jesus Christ received from John the Baptist and His bloodshed on the Cross. Elsewhere in his Gospel writing, he also clearly testified the importance of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist (John 1:29-34).
This very John now admonishes us the saints to have true fellowship with each other in the true light of salvation. What he admonishes every one of you is to let the light of Truth illuminate your spirits, and to have fellowship each other in this Truth. If your hearts have indeed been illuminated by the light of salvation in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then you, too, would have become holy saints by faith. The light of life is the truth that enables you to abide in Jesus Christ, and to also have true fellowship with each other in Jesus Christ.
What Will You Do If There Is Still Sin in Your Hearts Even As You Believe in Jesus?
There are also so many people who, even as they believe in Jesus as the Savior, think that it is only natural for them to have sin. But such people still do not know how the true salvation was fulfilled in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which was completed in God’s light of Truth. These people may think that their fellowship with God is entirely up to them, but they will come to realize that this is not the case in reality. With this kind of faith, they cannot come before God even as they try, nor are they able to move closer to Him through their prayers, for there is sin in their hearts. So seeing themselves, they can only lament over their misery.
If you are still sinners before God, then you should confess to Him frankly that you are under the punishment of sin, and admit that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the light of true salvation. It is clear that anyone who still has sin in his heart is not a child of God, regardless of whether he believes in Jesus or not. When we believe in Jesus as our Savior, we must believe in this true gospel. When you believe that this Jesus Christ has blotted out your sins and given you salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, you can be delivered from your sins. And this faith of yours can be approved before the holy God.
Today, we see that many Christians are trying to receive the remission of their sins and enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in the doctrines that each denomination has established. But through such mad-made religious and doctrinal faith, their sins cannot be blotted out. Only when they know the gospel of the water and the Spirit written in the Bible, and believe in this Word of Truth, can all their sins be blotted out. When we realize that Jesus Christ is the Savior who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and believe in Him with our hearts, the perfect salvation is fulfilled to us. The faith of the Apostle John, too, was also one that believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit (1John 5:3-7). We should examine our faith whether it is the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit from God or the religious and doctrinal faith from human thoughts
If you have sin in your hearts even as profess to believe in Jesus, then you are someone who still has no true fellowship with God. Though you say yourselves that you believe in Jesus as the Savior, you have not come into the light of salvation yet, and therefore there is no true fellowship with God. This is why you end up living in so much pain. Such people must confess, “Lord, I am still a sinner. Because I had not known the gospel of the water and the Spirit that You had given me, there had been no true fellowship with You yet. Lord, please have mercy on me, and allow me to know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Lord, because my sins still remain in my heart, I am under the wrath of sin and terrifying punishment,” and they must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Only then can you have true fellowship with Jesus Christ. For you to do so, you must stand firm on the faith that clearly knows and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Through the faith that believes in this gospel Truth, you must be remitted from all your sins once for all and abide in the light of salvation.
Today, the reality for many Christians is that even as they believe in Jesus and go on with their lives of faith, they have not yet received the true washing of their sins from their ignorance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Most of them have not even admitted God’s law that declares, “the wages of sin is death,” and as a result, they are carrying on with their lives of faith without even realizing that they are sinners on the verge of facing God’s punishment.
What is the reason for the secular people of this world to dislike Christians so much? It is because Christians have failed to become the light to this world. They can’t radiate God’s light because they have failed to become the light by not believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And as a result, they are prone to hide themselves in hypocrisy instead.
Moreover, even at this moment, many Christians think of Christianity as merely one of the many religions of this world, and believe in it as such. So there lies another reason as to why the unbelievers dislike Christians. It is because Christians usually say that they wash away their daily sins by giving their prayers of repentance. Because of this kind of religious doctrines, which is no different from the worldly faith, there is a tendency for non-Christians to dislike Jesus Christ in whom such Christians believe. Non-Christians think, “How convenient it is for them. They sin against their fellow human beings, and yet they say that all that they need to do is give a prayer of repentance just once and admit their wrongdoings to God. What a convenient religion!” So they dislike such Christians.
And there are people who say that they’ve renounced to believe in Jesus because their daily sins could not be washed away even as they have said prayers of repentance continuously. Christian sinners are easily drawn to tears when they give their prayers of repentance. They cannot but be sad, for they are still imprisoned in the darkness of sin and are unable to really receive any actual help from God. Because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they still have not received the eternal remission of their sins even as they believe in Jesus Christ, and therefore they still have not discovered the light of real Truth. It is only in their emotions that they want God’s mercy and are crying.
How have they come to have such an emotion-centered and futile faith? It is because they have been suffering from their sins, and because they cannot understand the Word of God even as they read it, that they rely so heavily on their own emotions to express their reckless fervor. However, with such zealous faith that they hold, the fruits of salvation cannot be born, but only foolish and futile fruits of sin are born. Because they have sin, they cannot bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit even as they try to bear them, nor can they truly love others no matter how hard they try.
Those who still remain as sinners cannot lead a successful life of faith no matter how hard they try. Why is that? It is because they still do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit that enables them to receive the remission of sin by washing away their sins, nor believe in this gospel.
Those who are yet to receive the remission of sin into their hearts must now meet the servants of God who hold God’s light of Truth. And they must listen to their teachings on the gospel Truth to receive the remission of their sins into their hearts. If you truly want to live your lives of faith with completely sinless hearts and calling God as your Father, you need to wholeheartedly believe in the Truth of the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord with all your hearts. When you believe in the true gospel, you will discover and receive the light of Truth. This is why the Lord calls the born-again as the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).
Our Lord said that a tree is discerned by its fruits. If humans are indeed sinners from their very birth, then they can never become righteous unless they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If someone who still has sin in his heart says that he believes in Jesus as the Savior, he will be revealed as a liar before God, for his faith is a false one. As such people do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they do not believe in the love of Truth with their hearts, and therefore they still remain as sinners. Yet they act as if they have been transformed from sinners into the righteous. This, however, is only an act of hypocrisy that deceives God, people, and themselves. Such people are chaffs even if they are attending God’s Church.
If one does not have the fruits of the Holy Spirit, then this person is someone who still does not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He can then live only if he remembers that he is a sinner and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Without doing so, one cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Those believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are led by God, for the Holy Spirit dwells in their hearts. But for sinners, because the Holy Spirit does not dwell in their hearts, they are not led by the Word of God but instead live according to their lusts, and therefore they will perish in the end.
Once you have become righteous by faith before God, then you will bear the fruits of your faith, when enough time goes by. The righteous have the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that can bring salvation from sin to others. Those who have received the remission of their sins can boldly say before others that because they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they are now righteous.
Are there people who think that there is no one righteous nowadays?
Yes, but it is because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Yes, but it is because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one,” and people have misunderstood this passage. This passage actually speaks about the condition of mankind before believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We can realize this when we read the next following passages.
The Bible says that when we were sinners, Jesus Christ turned us sinless by delivering us from sin with the righteousness of God. No mater who asks, those who have received the remission of sin can say that they are righteous. Someone may ask to the righteous, “Are all your acts then upright?” They can testify that though they are insufficient, because Jesus has blotted out all their sins with the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, they have been remitted from all their sins once for all by faith. Because all their sins were passed onto Jesus through His baptism, and therefore they can say that they are now sinless. Those who have this kind of faith are the ones who can be led by the Holy Spirit, for they abide in the light of Truth and bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
In contrast, those who do not believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit cannot dare to say before God that they are without sin, for all their sins remain intact in their hearts. This is akin to the fact that every tree bears its fruits according to its kind. Just as thorn bushes bear thorns, it is only a matter of fact that apple trees would bear apples. The righteous continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of their lips, giving thanks to His name (Hebrews 13:15). What is the fruit of lips of the Christian sinners? Do they praise God from the bottom of their hearts? Do they profess by faith that they have no sin in Jesus Christ?
The reason why they cannot sincerely profess that they are without sin is because they do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and therefore their sins remain in their hearts. Such people say that although they profess that they have been saved from their sins, they cannot claim to be without sin, since their hearts still have sin.
Everyone must believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit and become sinless. He who walks in the light of the Truth is one who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of salvation that Jesus spoke of, and in whose heart the Holy Spirit dwells because of this faith.
Is there sin in the hearts of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit?
No, there is no sin in their hearts because they believe in the true gospel.
No, there is no sin in their hearts because they believe in the true gospel.
In the hearts of those who have become God’s own children, would there be sin or not? There is, of course, no sin. The Lord’s Prayers says, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come….” God is holy, and He is light. He has no darkness at all, and has no sin, either.
How, then, could our Lord be glorified when someone who has sin in his heart says to Him, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed and glorified be Your name”? When someone who has sin in his heart prays to God, “Our God the Father, who has mercy and grace, and who is slow to be provoked to anger, this sinner now stands before you,” can such a prayer be accepted by God? This kind of prayer and faith is what blasphemies the name of God, something that makes mockery out of prayer by someone who is not even God’s child. In no time has God ever had a sinner as His child. God is sinless. The Lord’s Prayer is telling us that God can be glorified only when we first receive, through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the remission of our sins and become righteous, and are therefore able to call God as our Father.
It is written in the following passage of the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” This passage tells us that even those who have been remitted from their sins can still commit sin, for they have the flesh. However, we have already been remitted from even those sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, this passage is telling us that just as our Lord has forgiven all our sins, we who believe in this beautiful gospel must also tolerate each other’s mistakes. If we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, shouldn’t we forgive each other’s faults as well? God will surely rebuke us if we do not tolerate each other.
Today’s scripture lesson of 1 John 1 speaks to those who have received the remission of their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord dwells in the hearts of the children of light, the righteous, and makes them never thirst again. We are the servants of Christ who, by infusing our hearts with the gospel of the water and the Spirit at all times, are faithful to the Lord who has cleansed us from our sins. Though we have been perfectly remitted from our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, this does not mean that we no longer commit any sin. On the contrary, we discover even more shortcomings in us. But because the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit has washed away our sins, we are without sin.
All transgressions and lawlessness, however, are sins before God. For example, when you throw dirt into a clean spring, the water in the spring temporarily turns into brownish, murky mud. But we do not necessarily call this spring a filthy spring. Because it is purified clean by the fresh water that continues to well up from its bottom, we still call this a clean spring.
Even after receiving the remission of our sins, there are still times when our hearts are soiled by the world, but we purify these stained hearts clean by believing in the true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Just as water continues to surge from the bottom of a spring and turns impure water into pure water, those who believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit are always cleansed from all their transgressions by this faith. None other than this is the power of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. If someone professes to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but still has sin in his mind, this can only mean that he has been neither saved from his sins, nor become the true light. Only the sinless who truly believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit like the Apostle John can be said to have become the true light. The Apostle John could be ordained as a servant of God, for he first believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only those who have washed away all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can become God’s servants.
So did the Apostle Paul. Before he became God’s servant, he had indeed been a blasphemer who persecuted Christians. After he was born again, he identified his former self as “a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man and the chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:13-15). As a matter of fact, he had persecuted the believers in Jesus so much, but he came to believe that the Lord Jesus had cleansed away all his sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is how the Apostle Paul became God’s servant by believing in Jesus Christ who became his Savior.
He once confessed his evil deeds before King Agrippa: “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities” (Acts 26:9-11).
Put differently, reflecting upon the acts that he had committed before receiving the remission of sin, the Apostle Paul described himself as the “chief among sinners.” Even as he had been the chief villain among all sinners, thanks to God’s long patience, he came to discover the gospel light of the water and the Spirit and to receive the remission of sin. He is testifying that this is how, by believing in the true gospel, he became God’s servant.
In other words, the Apostle Paul is admitting here that before he was born again, he was the chief among sinners. But after encountering the Lord and being born again by faith, he became a righteous man without any sin in his heart.
In a word, if someone has any sin in his heart even after believing in Jesus, he must be a liar, and the Word of God cannot be planted in his heart. For instance, when one’s house is full with guests, no more guests can enter it. Just like this, when one holds onto the fallacious Christian doctrines, the gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot enter into his heart. This is why such a person must therefore abandon his flawed faith.
In today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle John says first to the righteous how to recover their lives of light when they are falling into darkness. But this passage is also spoken to the sinners who have no fellowship with God: They must first confess that they are not the light, but darkness, and are doomed to hell. God will then meet them and cleanse away all their sins with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, making them His children of light.
In God’s Church, true confession is to reveal oneself as he really is. But repentance is to turn around. Confession and repentance are clearly two different things. Your sins cannot be remitted away if you only repent them. If you have sin in your hearts, confess who you really are by admitting that you are sinners. The Lord will then wash away all your sins with the gospel light of the water and the Spirit. This is the reason why the Lord came to this earth as the Savior of sinners.
This very name Jesus means the Savior, as it is written, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). When we fall into sin, Jesus came to this world, and blotted out all our sins with His baptism and bloodshed; and believing in this Truth is the faith that leads you to perfect salvation. The Apostle John, as a righteous man, preached so that sinners could receive the remission of their sins to become the righteous, and, on the other hand, he also admonished the righteous to lead the proper life of light.
True confession is to confess that one is simply a mass of sin that cannot avoid but sin. The premise of true confession is found in believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given us to remit away our sins. And after receiving the remission of our sins by believing in this beautiful gospel, for us to walk uprightly in the light of God is to live our lives as true Christians.
We the saints, too, must turn around if there is something wrong in our lives, and this is the true repentance in life. Human beings are bound to commit all kinds of sins. This is why our Lord took away the sins of the world by being baptized. Those who say that they have not sinned even after committing transgressions and breaking the Word of God (1 John 1:10), have the kind of faith that is only religious. There is no room in such people for the Word of God to enter, and therefore they are bound to destruction.
Like the Apostle John, only the righteous can have fellowship with God and with their fellow saints. The Apostle John, a righteous man, says in 1 John 2:2 that Jesus took upon all the sins of the world once for all through His baptism. And Jesus also became our Advocate who pleads for us with His perfect gospel before God the Father. My dear fellow Christians, above all, you must first have faith in God. And believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your hearts. God will then teach you and nourish your souls through His Church so that you can live your lives as the true light.
The Apostle John is now telling us about the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is God’s love. He is saying to us, “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us.” He was a witness who had seen Jesus Christ with his own eyes, heard Him with his ears, and touched Him with his hands. He is now admonishing all of us that we must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus Christ had given to the Apostles, and we must all thereby be saved and come to have fellowship with God.
Where does our fellowship with God come from? It comes from the love of God the Father who was with Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we want to have fellowship with the Apostle John or the servants of God and His born-again saints, we must all be with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. To do so, there must be the same faith as that of His disciples, and it is then that we can have fellowship with Jesus Christ. This is why in the faith of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there is fellowship, and each other’s joy is doubled as a result. I want all of us to truly believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus Christ and have true fellowship with each other.
The fellowship with Jesus Christ that we yearn to have is possible only through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is in God’s love. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we can also become His people.
I give eternal thanks to Jesus Christ for saving His believers from all their sins through the baptism that He received and His bloodshed on the Cross.
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