Due to COVID-19 and disruption to international mail service
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 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 2-4] Fill the Waterpots With Water (John 2:1-11)
(John 2:1-11)
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’ Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, ‘Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.’ And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, ‘Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!’ This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
The Miracle That Also Occurs in Our Souls
At the wedding reception in Galilee, our Lord performed the miraculous work of turning water into wine. With this miracle our Lord provided all the wine that was needed for the wedding reception. The servants at the wedding feast could experience this miracle because they wanted to believe in our Lord and obey Him; they abided in faith and they fully accepted the Word of God ordering them to fill the jars with water.
Likewise, if we also want to witness the amazing work of God, then we must first believe in the God who has come by the gospel of the water and the Spirit; we have to have the faith to obey and believe in the Word of God even if it does not fit into our thoughts, and thus accept God’s Word. Such miracles and blessings will then also arise in our souls.
That Jesus told the servants to fill six waterpots of stone with water up to the brim means that He is telling us to fill our hearts with the Word of God. When we fill our spirits with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, we are saved, just as the servants saw the amazing miracle of water turning into wine. Freed from curses and destruction, we are blessed to receive everlasting life and become God’s children. Today, I would like to share the Word with you with my sermon titled, “Fill the Waterpots with Water.”
What did our Lord do to save us from all our sins? To save you and me, Jesus, God Himself, came to this lowly earth incarnated in the flesh of man. About 700 years before Jesus came to the domain of man, God had promised to send Him through the Prophet Isaiah, saying, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This Son who was conceived in the body of the virgin also refers to none other than “her Seed” (Genesis 3:15) whom God had promised to Adam and Even, the ancestors of mankind, before they were cast out of the Garden of Eden for their fall. All the descendants of Adam are sinners, and that is why Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born by a woman, so that He would be born a Man but without any sin. Who is this woman Mary then? She was from the tribe of Judah, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Her fiancé Joseph was also from the tribe of Judah from the royal lineage: Of the twelve tribes of Israel descended from the twelve sons of Jacob, the tribe of Judah was the royal lineage. God had promised in the Old Testament that He would bring forth Jesus through the lineage of Judah, and exactly according to this promise, Jesus was indeed born through the Virgin Mary who was from the tribe of Judah.
When our Lord came to this earth, He came as the King of kings to save us from all sins. Our Lord was not born in the household of Aaron the High Priest. Aaron the High Priest’s descendants were still existing at that time, and so the Lord did not come as an earthly priest, but through the tribe of Judah He came as the King of the Kingdom of Heaven and the heavenly High Priest. John the Baptist, who was born into the world before Jesus, testified that Jesus would come, and according to this witness, as well as the promise of the Old Testament, Jesus indeed came to this earth to save us. Our Lord is telling us to fill our hearts with His work of salvation that has saved us from all sins, just as the jars were filled with water.
Let Us Fill Our Hearts with the Work of Our Lord
It’s written, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus came to this earth to fulfill the promise written in the Old Testament, as John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus coming toward him, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” “Behold!” John the Baptist was saying to us, “Take a look at the work the Lord has done!” That is, whoever wants to be cleansed of all his sins must see what Jesus has done for him with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Through the Bible, we see that Jesus came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When we see Jesus through the Bible, we see that He is a sacrificial Lamb prepared by God the Father. To atone for all our sins, Jesus was baptized and shouldered the sins of the world. “The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). And having been baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus the Lamb of God died on the Cross while shouldering the sins of this world. To fulfill the will of God the Father to save all sinners, Jesus died as the sacrificial Lamb. Like this, our Lord is saying to us humans that He bore all our sins and transgressions in the Jordan River through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and that He took away all the sins of the world 2,000 years ago. None other than this is the Word that must fill our hearts.
My fellow believers, when did our Lord take away the sins of this world? How many years ago was it from now? It was about 2,000 years ago. To be exact, we have to subtract 30 years from this as the Lord began His public life at His age of 30. The current year is 1995. If we subtract 30 years from this, we get 1,965 years. So Jesus Christ our Lord began His public ministry 1,965 years ago when He was baptized at the Jordan River. Our Lord is saying to us, “I took away your sins. How many years ago was this? It’s been 1,965 years. Even before you were born on this earth, I knew that you would commit sin, and so I shouldered your iniquities by being baptized. Long ago, 1,965 years ago, before you were born, I took away your sins by being baptized by John the Baptist.” My fellow believers, do you believe in this gospel Word of the water and the Spirit?
Our Lord wants us to accept into our hearts His birth, His bearing of our sins and transgressions through His baptism, and the fact that He took away all the sins of this world and washed them away. Our Lord took away all our sins and transgressions once for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Because of the sins we committed with our hands, Jesus was baptized and His holy hands were nailed; because of the sins we committed with our feet, His feet were nailed; and because of the sins we committed with our hearts, His heart was pierced by a spear. And because of the sins we committed with our bodies, the body of Jesus was whipped and beaten. Like this, Jesus shouldered all our sins and suffered extreme pain, humiliation, and contempt on the Cross. He then lowered His head and passed away, leaving these last words: “It is finished!” (John 19:30) As the stone waterpots were filled with water, Jesus is telling us to also fill our hearts with His work of salvation, to fill our faith with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
For our Lord to save us from the sins of the world, He had to come to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man. And to take upon all our sins and iniquities, He had to be baptized in the Jordan River. That is why He was baptized. In this way our Lord shouldered all our sins and iniquities and carried them to the Cross. Our Lord is saying to us humans, “I have taken away all your sins.” This is absolutely true. Do you then acknowledge this fact? My fellow believers, we must accept this gospel of Truth into our hearts as the stone waterpots were filled with water. Can you accept it into your heart now?
We Must Become the Waterpots of Miracle
The waterpots of stone are where water was miraculously turned into wine. When we accept the Word of God into our hearts, we, too, can see the same miracle as the one that unfolded in the waterpots. Our Lord is saying to us that He has blotted out all our sins. But how about us? What kind of people were we fundamentally? We were always sinners before God. What kind of people were we before God? We were a wicked brood of evildoers who could not live according to the will of God, beast-like people who did not recognize our sins even as we committed sin all the time. Isn’t this true? Of course it is. Even though God made us, we did not know Him, we did not know who the Creator was, we did not listen to the God-given commandments, and instead we lived in our own way oblivious to God. We were terrible sinners who did not do what we were supposed to do and did what we were told not to do.
My fellow believers, you and I have to remember what kind of people we were before receiving the remission of sins. What is our reality before God, now that we have received the remission of sins? How are our acts? Our Lord took away all our sins by being baptized by John. Our Lord is saying that He shouldered the sins of the world, but what was our reflection? The Bible says, “The ox knows its owner
And the donkey its master’s crib;
But Israel does not know,
My people do not consider” (Isaiah 1:3). Indeed, we did not know God, we recognized neither His commandments nor His Law, and we were instead walking on the path of curses on our own. Each of us was going on his own way. We were such sinners walking on each of our own ways only to inevitably end up in hell. Yet to save such people like us, our Lord came to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man, took upon all our sins and iniquities in the Jordan River, and carried these heavy sins to the Cross.
Only if we accept this fact into our hearts can we become God’s children and righteous people, obtain eternal life, be freed from all curses, and receive both heavenly and earthly blessings given by God. All of us humans must accept the work God has done for us. Do not hesitate to accept this Truth. Our Lord is not saying that He took away our sins right now, but that He took them all away about 2,000 years ago, all the sins that we have ever committed and will ever commit from the moment we were born to the day we die. Do you admit this fact? Jesus is not carrying our sins right now or whenever we offer prayers of repentance. He took them away long ago. It’s ancient history going back about 2,000 years. We’re not speaking of merely ten, twenty, or even thirty generations ago. Our Lord is saying, “It is not you who loved Me and served Me, but it is I who loved you and served you. It is I who have saved you.” That is what our Lord is saying to us.
My fellow believers, we must open our hearts and accept Jesus Christ, who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As the waterpots were filled with water, we must fill our hearts with the fact that our Lord has saved us. Even before we believed in Him, God the Father already exacted all the wages of our sins from Jesus, and therefore all our sins have already been remitted away before God. That’s what God is asking you to believe. God has already fulfilled it all regardless of whether people believe it or not. While living in the flesh, all of us can make mistakes and go astray. Even if we resolve ourselves to never again commit any sin at all, we still cannot but commit sin irrespective of our will. What should we then do about these sins committed after we have received the remission of sins and the sins we will be committing in the future? Has God also remitted them away? He has indeed remitted away even our future sins. You can be saved only if you accept this Word of salvation. Do you accept this Word? Do you then have any sin? No, you have no sin! Whoever accepts this Word into the heart will obtain everlasting life, receive the remission of sins, and become a child of God.
My fellow believers, our Lord is telling us that He carried away the sins of the world. Yet despite this, we sometimes feel indifferent about it, unable to really appreciate it. I am also like this. But there are times when I am truly grateful to the Lord, and they are when I recognize my lacking, when my blemishes are revealed while carrying on with my life in this world. In contrast, I am less thankful in ordinary times. How about you? Don’t you also find yourself not being grateful enough to the Lord for remitting away all your sins? So let us then be more thankful to the Lord, for it is precisely because of Jesus that we are now sinless, and it is because of this that we can now live in peace.
Reflect on Who You Were before Receiving the Remission of Sins
When someone who complained of a headache is asked if he is still hurting, and he says that he is not in pain anymore, then this means that his headache has gone away. Like this, the very fact that you are now no longer suffering because of sin means that you have received the remission of sins. Just how painful was your life before you accepted the fact that the Lord took away the sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit? How much did you struggle and suffer in agony all because of your sins, your blemishes, your evil thoughts, your wrongdoings, and your weaknesses? Was it not a living hell for you? It was for me. If I had still not realized the Truth, then even while living on this earth, I would have been living with the bitterness of hell. If I had not received the remission of sins yet, my heart would be in hell. It’s a living hell when there is sin in your heart.
My fellow believers, I confess to you that I was an extremely sinful man in my past. I had countless sins in my heart back then. I had failed to live according to the Word of God. And I had failed to live according to the will of God. I was tormented. I was in extreme suffering. A Korean poet and independence activist named Dongju Yun wrote in one of his poems that he desired to live without any trace of shame under the heavens, and I also wanted to be such a man before God. But I could not keep the commandments God gave to me, and even though I tried my best, I failed to obey all the Word of God and broke His commandments. I broke them day in and day out, committing small and great sins, so much so that it hurt my heart. Death was indeed all but certain and hell was unavoidable for me. My suffering was unbearable. I was tormented because even as I knew how I should live, I was not able to live like that. It really was like hell.
My Conception of the Sins of the World Changed
One day, however, our Lord taught me what it meant when the Bible said that He took away the sins of the world. He said to me clearly, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” When I first read this passage, however, I had no conception of the sins of the world. The very concept itself was beyond my understanding. I just thought that since I was already born a sinner from my mother’s womb as a descendant of Adam, our Lord took away this original sin. That was my conception of the sins of the world. But upon closer examination, I realized that when Jesus took away the sins of the world, He also took away my personal sins. Are your personal sins then also included in the sins of the world? Of course they are included. Regardless of whether you realize this or not, God has done so. It doesn’t matter whether you think that the Lord took away your sins or not; irrespective of your own thought, the Lord indeed took away all your sins. Nor does it matter whether you believe this or not. Regardless, Jesus carried away all the sins of everyone in this world without any exception. From the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb to the day you die, all your sins belong to the sins of the world. The sin you inherited from your parents also belongs to the sins of the world. This sin that you inherited from your parents as Adam’s descendant is usually called “original sin.” This original sin that you had from the moment you were in your mother’s womb is also included in the sins of the world. All the sins that you commit henceforth until the day you are buried in your grave also belong to the sins of the world. Isn’t this true? Of course it is.
I attained the age of discretion when I turned 20 years old. When I was called for medical exams to be drafted into the military, I realized that I was no longer a kid but an adult, and thought to myself, “I should act like a mature, responsible adult.” And as I realized that I needed some changes in my life, I began to believe in Jesus. From then on I led my life trusting in Jesus. However, when I learned about the problem of sin, I wasn’t taught that Jesus took away the sins of the world, but I was merely taught about various kinds of sins: Original sin, personal sins, future sins, presumptuous sins, and so forth. So the big problem was that I was taught wrong from the beginning. Even though the Bible said that Jesus took away the sins of the world, I thought this meant that Jesus took away only the original sin that I brought out with me when I was born from my mother’s womb. So I struggled with the question of how I could repent from my personal sins and be remitted from them.
It’s Imperative to Have a Clear Conceptual Understanding of the Sins of the World
What are the sins of the world that God speaks of in the Bible? You must have a clear conceptual understanding of this question. The sins of the world God speaks of are all the sins that have ever been committed and will ever be committed from the beginning of the earth to its end. However, because I did not have a clear concept of the sins of the world, I just thought that only the original sin I inherited from my mother’s womb belonged to the sins of the world. It was a big headache for me to think of sins in different categories, dividing them into original sin, personal sins, future sins, presumptuous sins, and so forth.
The more I learned about the Bible, the worse my headache got. So I began to think that it was because God had chosen me before the foundation of the world that I came to my senses when I turned 20 and believed in Jesus. I thought that the reason why I didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, but was such a good Christians was all because I was chosen, and so I focused only on this aspect, even though this was not true in reality.
Some pastors say that if you commit any sin consciously, you can’t be remitted from this sin. So I myself also thought, “It would have been better if I didn’t know Jesus. I would have been so much happier if I didn’t know Him at all. My life got ruined the moment I believed in Jesus. I’m all ruined now!” I thought that I made a huge mistake in believing in Jesus; if I waited until my deathbed before believing in Jesus, then I wouldn’t have been tormented by my personal sins and entered Heaven scot-free. However, my conceptual understanding of the sins of the world began to change. I realized that the sins of the world included all my personal sins as well, and that all these sins I committed in my twenties and thirties now belonged to Jesus Christ. Did I then still have sin or was I sinless? I was sinless!
The Truth is not too far away, nor is it that complicated. It is in fact very simple. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, could carry them to the Cross precisely because He had been baptized in the Jordan River and had thus accepted all our sins. The Old Testament speaks about this― Jesus took away all our sins in this way. But I didn’t realize this when I first believed in Jesus at 20. So you can imagine just how much I suffered until I reached a clear understanding of the concept of the sins of the world. I even tried to commit suicide, thinking to myself, “My life is all but ruined from believing in Jesus.” It’s all because I saw myself becoming even more of a sinner the more I believed in Jesus. My heart was so tormented.
But the Lord bestowed me His Truth so that I could reach a clear understanding on the concept of the sins of the world. Jesus had taken away all the sins I committed until 30. “Oh, Jesus bore my sins in the Jordan River and took them away!” Where did Jesus go carrying my sins? He went to the Cross and was crucified. He bore my condemnation instead of me, blotted out my sins, and passed away saying, “It is finished!”
Even though I was in my mid-forties, I realized that when Jesus took away all my past sins, He took away all my future sins as well. What an amazing Truth and wonderful salvation it is! That is what our Lord is saying to us. He is telling you and me that He took away all our sins of this world, blotted them all out, and completely fulfilled our salvation. Do you believe in this? Once I began to read the Bible after realizing this, it was such a joy to read the Scriptures. Every time I read the Bible, it became my nourishment, and my heart was planted with joy and a renewed mind.
Saying to us, “I have taken away the sins of this world,” our Lord is telling us to believe in this. What an amazing truth it is! Do you then still have sin? No, there is no sin. Those who can say that they have no sin belong to a special tribe. They are true Christians. It is the weak who receive the remission of sins. In other words, it is the grave sinners that can be remitted from their sins. We were all destined to hell, and yet by believing in Jesus Christ, we have received the remission of sins. That is the essence of what the Lord is saying to us. Our Lord is telling us to let our hearts be filled with the Truth that the Lord took away all our sins.
Let’s turn to the Word here and read Hebrews 10:10 together: “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The will of God was to remit away all the sins of mankind, and as Jesus Christ offered His body once, we were made holy. Our Lord wants us to accept this Truth into our hearts.
Jesus Offered the Everlasting Sacrifice
Let’s turn to Hebrews 10:12-14: “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
Everlasting atonement is possible from God’s point of view. Therefore, Jesus had offered to God one sacrifice for sins forever, and this sacrifice has the power to make us perfect forever. All our sins have been remitted away by God eternally and completely. Transcending all ages, its power reaches every individual human being, not only the past and the present but also the future. Do you grasp this? What is the everlasting sacrifice? It is the eternal sacrifice offered by Jesus once and for all to blot out all the sins of the world, so that there would be no sin left whatsoever anywhere in the entire universe. This means that Jesus Christ shouldered the sins of the world and became our everlasting propitiation on the Cross. Only Christ gave one everlasting sacrifice for sins, and then He sat at the right hand of God the Father. He has blotted out all sins forever. And He is sitting at the right hand of God.
God is saying to us that He has blotted out all our sins long ago. And He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. Who is God’s enemy? It’s the Devil. And who among human beings remain God’s enemies? They are those who say, “God, I remain sinful. You failed to blot out all my sins. I still have sin.” God is waiting until He overcomes such people with His just judgment. He is waiting to judge His enemies from the white throne of judgment.
Hebrew 10:14 says, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” By becoming our propitiation once, Jesus blotted out all our sins, sanctified us, and made us forever holy. He has now made us righteous people eternally.
Let’s turn to the Word once again and continue to read Hebrews 10:16-18: “‘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.”
My fellow believers, do you accept that God has already saved us long ago? Isn’t this written in the Bible? Yes, of course it is! God has written His law of salvation in our hearts and minds. Salvation is engraved in the hearts of all who have received the remission of sins. What about you then? Is your heart written with the law of salvation? In your thoughts are you then still a sinner or a righteous person? You are a righteous person! What about in your heart then? Are you a righteous person or a sinner in your heart? You are a righteous person. You now can proclaim that you are sinless. That’s because God has written it so in your heart. We call ourselves righteous people precisely because we have accepted the salvation fulfilled by our Lord, because we believe in this salvation.
The Lord said, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Did the Lord say that He still remembers our sins and our blemishes, or did He say that He doesn’t remember them anymore? He said that He doesn’t remember them. Why does God then not remember our sins? That’s because the Lord has already paid the wages of our sins with His condemnation. Let’s say that you owed some money, but you paid it all back. Just because you remember that you used to owe money, does this mean that you still have debt to pay back? No, you paid back all the money you owed. Yet even so, are you still suffering? Of course, you would remember that you had debt. You would probably also remember how you had suffered because of your debt. Like this, we also remember the sins we had committed, and we are also reminded of how we had suffered because of these sins. But that’s just memory; because the Lord has taken care of all our sins in our place, we are no longer facing any condemnation for them. When you thus accept what God has done for you, the Lord will give you everlasting life, grant you victory in the Lord, and bless you all.
“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” That God does not remember our sins does not mean that He just considers us to be sinless even though we are actually sinful. Rather, it means that there is nothing to condemn anymore nor anything to remember, for the Lord bore all our sins and paid off all their wages with His condemnation. Can you grasp this? Why would you then suffer in all those painful memories? Why would you needlessly dwell in your sinful past when Jesus has already paid off all the wages of your sins? Some people say that even though they have received the remission of sins, their hearts are still suffering as they remember their past sins. But these are all in the past, for the Bible says, “Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
“Now Where There Is Remission of These, There Is No Longer an Offering for Sin”
Our Lord has not saved us imperfectly. He does not ask us about our sins anymore, nor does He rebuke us for shamelessly entering Heaven despite having many sins. Just as the Bible says, “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin,” there is no need for us to agonize over sin anymore. Is there any sin in the world? Do you still have any sin? No, there is no sin whatsoever!
I have committed all the sins listed in the Ten Commandments. I have failed to do what God told me to do, while doing what God told me not to do. Although I broke some of the Ten Commandments with my acts, in my heart, I broke them all. Yet God has remitted away even these sins, as the Bible says, “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” My fellow believers, anyone can receive the remission of sins if he understands just this one passage. Do you then have sin or are you now sinless? You have already been forgiven in the mind of the One who forgives sin. That’s why God said, “There is no longer an offering for sin.” Yet even after hearing this Word, some people still look into their hearts to see if their sins have disappeared or not, saying, “Well, that’s what the Word says, but I want to check it for myself.” You must believe in God’s heart. Can you see His heart? This Word of the Bible is God’s heart. Take a look at it. Isn’t God saying from His heart that He no longer remembers your sins? Our Lord has remitted away all the sins of the world. He has blotted them all out. Do you now believe this? If anyone still says that he has sin, then he deserves to be cast into hell.
Let Us Turn to the Book of Romans
Let’s turn to Romans 4:25: “Who [Jesus] was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” Romans 5:1-2 say, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoiced in hope of the glory of God.” This means that you have peace if you believe in Jesus Christ. You were once God’s enemy, but now you are His child. You have peace with God.
My fellow believers, do you realize that you are at peace with God? Let’s turn to Romans 5:8-10: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
It is by the life of Jesus Christ that our salvation is affirmed. The strained relationship between the Judge (God) and sinners (us) has changed into a loving relationship between the Father and His children. If Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead again after bearing all our sins in the Jordan River and dying on the Cross, then we could not have been saved. By rising from the dead again, Jesus Christ completed our salvation. Much more, we have been saved by His resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is our remission of sins, and His death is our condemnation of death. Do you believe in this?
Romans 7:24-25 say, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Romans 8:1 then says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
These three verses here are all connected. The Apostle Paul called his body ‘the body of death.’ This applies to everyone irrespective of whether one has received the remission of sins or not. In other words, the redeemed and the unredeemed alike all commit sin with their bodies. That is why Paul felt so wretched and miserable. Because of what was he wretched? He felt miserable because he was in the flesh. Isn’t this the case? Who then saves us from all these sins that we commit in our flesh? What are the sins committed with the body? Don’t they also belong to the sins of the world? Of course they do! Yet the Apostle Paul had received the remission of sins.
Let’s turn to the Word again. The Bible says in Romans 7:9-12: “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” Amen!
Paul said here that sin, taking occasion by the commandment, had deceived him. The Apostle Paul had thought that the commandments of God were given to him to specify what he should do and what he shouldn’t do, but once he reached a better understanding, he realized that this was not why they were given. Rather, the Law and the commandments were given to not only the Apostle Paul but also the entire human race so that all would realize that everyone is a sinner. It is written, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20).
By the Law, the Apostle Paul realized that he was a sinner, and he also realized that there was nothing good in his flesh. However, even after receiving the remission of sins, Paul confessed that what his body wanted was different from what his heart wanted, and so these two desires were constantly battling each other. The Apostle Paul reflected on both his past and present, saying, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul was speaking of the struggle between the flesh and the spirit that occurred in his heart.
Who then saves us from the sins of this world and such a wretched situation? It is Jesus Christ. As Paul said, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” In other words, even though we were sinners destined to hell—for we commit sin in our flesh all the time until the day we die—to those who believe that Jesus Christ is their Savior, those who believe that Jesus took away the sins of the world, there is no condemnation on account of this faith. Amen!
Although we were all bound to hell, because Jesus Christ has saved us, we will never face condemnation. It’s impossible for us to be condemned. It’s infeasible for us to go to hell. Even though we were sinners destined to hell at one time, Jesus made atonement for our sins and took them all away, and in doing so He has made us sinless. He has saved us. Do you believe in this, my fellow believers? Amen!
When Christians read Romans chapters 7 and 8, many of them fail to make the right connection and misinterpret what Paul said because Paul seems like a sinner, even more so when they see Paul suddenly saying, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” So from this passage, they think mistakenly, “It’s so amazing that Paul had the same feeling as mine! The Apostle Paul is the same as me! That’s why he called himself chief of sinners. So it’s natural that I should still remain sinful even as I believe in Jesus!”
Such mistaken Christians interpret the Bible all on their own, thinking to themselves, “Paul also said that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. What is he saying then? Does this mean that there is no more sin? I am all confused again! I guess this means that there is no more sin and no more judgment. So that’s what it means. The Apostle Paul was sinful, but God considered him to be sinless because he believed in Jesus. So that’s what it means. Hallelujah! I believe in You and praise You, Lord!” Following this reasoning, they then conclude that God regards the sinners as righteous just because they believe in Jesus. This notion comes from none other than the Doctrine of Justification.
Why do so many Christians interpret the Word of God with such a preposterous notion? They misinterpret like this because up until chapter 7, what Paul said seemingly fits perfectly with how they feel. So when they see Paul saying, “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good” (Romans 7:21); “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice,” they think, “If even such a man of faith as the Apostle Paul struggled like this, I am also like him. This then means that there is nothing wrong with my beliefs. Hallelujah! Amen!” They then come across Paul saying in the following chapter 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2). They then think, “So God has made me free. But what is the law of the Spirit then?”
My fellow believers, we could not help but be cast into hell because of our sins. And God gave us the Law so that we would realize our sins. Under His Law, there is no one who will not be condemned. This is the law of sin and death. However, because God loved us, He sent us Jesus Christ so that our Lord may give us eternal life through the law of the Spirit of life and bring us back to life. And Christ took upon all our iniquities and was condemned for all our sins to meet the demand of the Law—that is, the Law demands death from all sinners, as the wages of sin is death. That is how God has saved us perfectly. In other words, the law of the Spirit of life, the law that God established in order to make us righteous and live forever as His children, has saved us perfectly.
Why was the Law given? God gave the Law so that we would realize and know our sins. Adam and Eve had obeyed God’s commandments faithfully at first, but Satan deceived them. He made them unable to believe in God. As Satan made our ancestors unable to believe, he also made us fall into sin, disabled us from believing in God, pushed us into disbelief, and made us stand against God. Deceived by Satan’s temptation, we became the Devil’s servants enslaved to sin and death, but in order to save us, God established a new law. He established the law of salvation. This law was to give us life. Seeing the fall of man, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit consulted each other to save the human race perishing in sin, and designed to send the Son and make Him pay the wages of sin. This is why God the Father had sent Jesus Christ. By passing all sins to His Son, God the Father made His Son bear all condemnation, and by resurrecting Him back to life, the Father enabled everyone who believes in His Son to receive new life. And we have received this salvation by faith. Do you grasp this?
The Bible says, “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). Our flesh simply cannot follow the Law. Even though the Law commands us to love our neighbors and honor God, if we are starved enough, we forget all about God and our neighbors.
Let’s turn to the Bible again, but this time to Galatians 2:19-21: “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Our God Ended All the Punishments of All Our Sins on the Cross
God is saying to us that He has saved us from sin and that we have no sin whatsoever. He is telling us that although we were originally sinners, we now have no more sin, and that we have been saved. He is saying to us that we are completely sinless. Do you accept this, my fellow believers? Do you accept it into your heart?
Fill the stone waterpots with water! Have you also filled your heart with the Word of God? Have all your sins disappeared completely? Are you now sinless? Yes, you are now sinless. Do you believe in this wholeheartedly? Amen! The Lord has become our Savior. Do we believe in this with all our hearts? We are saved when we wholeheartedly believe in what our Lord has done for us. And it is then that we are rejoiced. Moreover, when we completely accept this salvation of God and fill it to the brim, when we believe in it 100 percent, God gives us the gift of Heaven.
Our God is saying to us to fill the stone waterpots with water. He is telling us to accept His salvation and believe in it completely. God is assuring us that He has given everlasting life to whoever believes in His salvation. Those of us who already believe in the Word of Truth have obtained eternal life. Do all of us present here believe without any exception? Brother Joong-hee Yoon, do you believe so? I hope and pray that each and every one of us gathered here does believe in the Word of God completely and wholeheartedly.
Have you filled the waterpots to the brim? Amen! God has blotted out all our sins, and through His servants, our Lord has filled our hearts to the brim with this Truth. I thank God for this. I give all my thanks to our Lord for saving us from all our sins.
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