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Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 17 : JESUS CHRIST and JOHN THE BAPTIST
[17-7] Why Did Jesus Have to Receive the Baptism? (John 3:22-36)
(John 3:22-36)
“After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!’ John answered and said, ‘A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”
The Role of John the Baptist Who Baptized Jesus and the Purpose of the Baptism
Many people do not know why Jesus came to this world and received baptism from John the Baptist. But we must understand clearly the purpose of the baptism Jesus received, John the Baptist who baptized Jesus, and the relationship between these two people. Therefore, I would like to first examine the background and the purpose of Jesus’ baptism that was given by John the Baptist in the Jordan River through the relevant Scripture verses. And to do so, we must turn to the Gospel of Matthew and examine John the Baptist who baptized Jesus.
The scene of John the Baptist baptizing people appears in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verses 1-12. And it says in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verse 3, “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.’”” And verse 11 says, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
John the Baptist lived the life that differed from others by going out to the wilderness wearing the clothes made of camel’s hair and eating locusts and honey. He denounced the sins of Israelites. He told them to return to God from the sin of worshipping idols. “Repent. Prepare the way of the LORD.” John’s message was that the Israelites had to turn from worshipping foreign idols and prepare to receive the Messiah because Jesus Christ the Savior of all humanity was coming to this world.
John the Baptist was the servant of God who was sent to this world 6 months prior to Jesus. He already knew that the Savior, the Messiah, would take all the sins of the world upon Him by receiving the baptism in the future and wash them away. Therefore, He preached to many people that they had to escape from the sinful life apart from God and return to God by believing in Jesus Christ. And many people that listened to his word confessed their sins and received the baptism of repentance through John the Baptist in the Jordan River. There were two objectives in the baptism of John the Baptist. The first objective was to make people recognize their sins and repent. And the second, the more important objective, was to make them receive the remission of sin by believing in Jesus Christ the Savior.
But there were many people who wanted to receive baptism only for their temporary comfort, without clearly understanding the purpose of the baptism by John the Baptist. They were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. John the Baptist said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’” (Matthew 3:7-9). To the people in politics, people worshipping the idols, and the people who do not believe in God and instead worship other gods even though they are Israelites, John the Baptist spoke this word of warning, “Don’t just go through the ritual and turn from worshipping other gods and believe with your heart in Jesus who shall cleanse all the sins at once through the atonement of your sins.”
What is the true repentance? The true repentance is turning to God from the wrong path and unbelief that comes from believing incorrectly and it is accepting the gospel of the remission of sin that Jesus Christ has given. John the Baptist fulfilled the role of turning the Israelites from the wrong path and making them repent sincerely before God and He saw in advance that Jesus would take the sins of all the people upon Himself in their place through the baptism in the future. That’s why he said they must receive salvation from all sins by believing in Jesus as their Savior. This is the most important point that John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness.
Do You Believe That the Baptism Jesus Received Is the Baptism That Took Over All Our Sins?
The first thing Jesus did during His public life was to receive baptism from John the Baptist in order to take all the sins of humanity upon Himself. And the door of Heaven opened on the day Jesus received the baptism of atonement from John the Baptist. The gospel of Heaven that says that we receive salvation from all sins by believing in Jesus as the Savior began from that moment. Therefore, we can say that the public life of Jesus started from His baptism. And the scene of Jesus being baptized in Matthew 3:15 was the same method as the laying on of hands in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament (Leviticus 4:27-31, Leviticus 1:1-3).
Each of the New Testament and the Old Testament Word in the Scriptures has its corresponding part as it is recorded in Isaiah 34:16, “Search from the book of the LORD, and read: not one of these shall fail; not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.” The High Priest transferred over the sins of the people to the scapegoat by laying both of his hands on its head when offering the sacrificial offering to God in the Old Testament. Its corresponding part in the New Testament is that Jesus took all the sins of humanity by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist, who was the representative of all mankind and a descendant of Aaron the High Priest. The work of salvation Jesus fulfilled through the gospel of the water and the Spirit was God’s will that was predicted since the Old Testament times. As I have said, the people in the Old Testament transferred over the sins of one day or one year over to the sacrificial animals through the laying on of hands. The people who committed the sins received the remission of sin when the animals that took the sins over shed blood and died in place of the sinners. In the same manner, Jesus came to this world at the beginning of the New Testament era and fulfilled the Word taking the sins of the entire humanity upon Him as it was prophesized in Isaiah 53:1-7 by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist in place of all the sinners.
Then what kind of person was John the Baptist who baptized Jesus? John the Baptist was the descendant of Aaron that was chosen as the last High Priest and he became the representative of humanity that God Himself sent to this world and he was the servant of God who was sent to this world 6 months prior to Jesus to witness the Truth that Jesus Christ shall come to this world and take all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism from him.
All our sins were transferred over to Jesus at once by Jesus receiving the baptism through John the Baptist in A.D. 30. The way of remission of sin for all the sinners opened through this work. We must return to Jesus who is the Lord of the gospel of remission of sin and receive the cleansing of all the sins at once by believing in Jesus who received the baptism personally upon His flesh to save all the sinners of humanity from sin.
The True Shadow of the Cleansing of Sin Was the Laying on of Hands in the Old Testament and Its Real Antitype Is the Baptism of Jesus in the New Testament
We will look more closely at the baptism of Jesus that took all of the sins of the world. Here the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist means ‘to be cleansed, to be buried, to pass over.’ As the meaning of the word implies, the act of Jesus receiving the baptism from John the Baptist means that He received the sins of the world all at once. Therefore, it means, “All the sins of the world were transferred over to Jesus.” Through that baptism, all our sins were transferred over to Jesus and all humanity was able to receive the cleansing from sin. To reiterate this, the sins of the world were transferred over to Jesus and He paid the price for the sins in our place by dying on the Cross because Jesus received the baptism of taking the sins, and consequently Jesus was able to give the blessing of remission of sins to all those who believe this Truth.
The baptism of John the Baptist upon Jesus was the baptism of atonement that was performed in the same manner of the laying on of hands in the Old Testament. The laying on of hands in the Old Testament alludes to the fact that Jesus Christ would come to this world and cleanse all the sins of the world at once by receiving the baptism. John the Baptist witnessed to the fact that Jesus was the Savior by giving the baptism of transferring the sins over to Jesus, and Jesus was able to save all of us from our sins by taking all the sins of humanity upon His body by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist in the form of laying on of hands. As the High Priest in the Old Testament laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, John the Baptist in the New Testament laid his two hands on the head of Jesus and gave the baptism of transferring the sins of the world.
As soon as Jesus came up out of the water after full immersion in the water and finished being baptized, the voice of God the Father came from Heaven. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). God the Father Himself witnessed the gospel of the remission of the sins in this manner. All the Word of the prophecy, the gospel of the salvation, has been fulfilled through Jesus’ baptism and His blood of the Cross.
The New Testament testifies to this through the Word. The Old Testament prophecy that Jesus Christ would take all the sins of the world upon Himself is fulfilled in the New Testament by Jesus coming to this world and receiving the baptism that takes over the sins of the world. The recorded Word of God witnesses to the fact that the baptism John the Baptist performed on Jesus was the baptism of pardon of sin that transferred the sins of all the sinners of the world, and also the fact that it was baptism of atonement that fulfilled the righteousness of God through Jesus taking all the sins of humanity at once.
In Matthew 3:15, let’s look at what Jesus said at the time He received the baptism. It is written, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The word ‘for thus’ is ‘οϋτως γάρ (hutos gar)’ in Greek, which means ‘just in this way,’ ‘most fitting,’ or ‘there is no other way besides this.’ This word shows that Jesus took the sins of humankind onto Him irreversibly and most properly through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Therefore, it means that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist was the “the exclusive method that is most fair and appropriate in remitting all the sins of the world.” The Scriptures record much about such Word of the true gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Christians perform two types of baptism: baptism by immersion and baptism by effusion. Baptism by effusion, the simplified form of baptism performed in our time has nothing to do with Jesus’ baptism that took away the sins of the world all at once. The word ‘baptism’ in essence means “to cleanse our sins.” But, the simplified baptism in our times only signifies that the person has become a baptized Christian. Jesus took all the sins of humanity through the baptism He received. The simplified baptism is the same only in letters with the baptism Jesus received at the Jordan River, but it is in wholly different dimension. As in the Old Testament, the true baptism transferred the sins of the people over to the sacrificial animal by laying hands on its head, and our Lord took the sins of humanity at once by receiving the baptism in such form of laying on of hands by John the Baptist.
Jesus received such baptism from John the Baptist and fulfilled all righteousness all by being nailed to the Cross with all the sins of the world. The disciples of Jesus who believe in this fact cried out to the Jews, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). The way that mankind can truly become sinless is through the faith of believing the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood of the Cross. Jesus the Savior came to the Jordan River, received the baptism, and took all the sins of humanity upon Him at once through the baptism He received. Therefore, the Scriptures say that we are born again by receiving the salvation from sin by believing in the baptism of Jesus who took all the sins of the entire humanity and the blood on the Cross that contains the true judgment of sin.
The Word from Matthew 3:13-17 records, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
In the Old Testament, people transferred their sins to the sacrificial animals by laying of the hands, and in the New Testament, Jesus took all the sins of humanity at once by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” from Matthew 3:15 means that Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of God by receiving the baptism that washed away the sins of all the people. He thus has given us the salvation of the remission of sin.
Luke chapter 1 says that Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was a priest from the division of Abijah, a grandson of Aaron. Why did God send John the Baptist, a descendant of Aaron, to this world? God sent John the Baptist as the one who would transfer all the sins of the world to Jesus. Every Word in the Scriptures has its corresponding part (Isaiah 34:16). Leviticus 16:29-30 talks about the ritual of the Day of Atonement. At that time, they set aside one day out of the year and Aaron the High Priest who was the representative of the Israelites performed the laying on of hands of pardon that transferred over all the sins of the people to the scapegoat.
For Jesus to offer the eternal sacrifice according to the sacrificial system, there had to be a person that represented the humanity like Aaron in the Old Testament, and to fulfill this role, God sent John the Baptist to the family of Aaron the High Priest 6 months before He sent Jesus. John the Baptist who came to this world according to the calling of God cried out, “Repent, children of vipers,” and said, “The Messiah has come. Those who do not turn from the idols will be burned in the eternal fire.”
Acts 3 verse 19 states, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Even here, God’s disciples speak about the baptism of cleansing of sin, that the day of refreshing through the cleansing of the sin in the heart shall be fulfilled before the Lord if they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who believe in the baptism of cleansing of sin will receive salvation and attain the eternal life by transferring all their sins over to Jesus because John the Baptist performed the baptism of transferring the sins of the world over to Jesus. People receive the cleansing of sin all at once by believing in the baptism and the blood that Jesus pardoned the sins of the entire humanity.
Let’s return to the scene of Jesus receiving the baptism from John the Baptist. In Matthew 3:14-16, we can see Jesus drawing near to John the Baptist and saying, “Baptize me.” Then, John the Baptist declined this saying, “How can I baptize You? How can you come to me? I am the one that needs to be baptized by You.” John the Baptist, who came to realize who Jesus was, could not understand why a lowly person like himself had to baptize Jesus at first. But, at last, John the Baptist performed the baptism that transferred over the sins to Jesus because he realized the purpose of the work Jesus wanted to fulfill through the baptism. The salvation of pardoning the sins of all humanity was fulfilled through this. This is the true gospel of the water and the Spirit.
John the Baptist said to Jesus in Matthew 3:14, “How can I baptize You when I am the one that needs to be baptized by You,” but John the Baptist had to baptize Jesus and have Him take all the sins of the world over to Him in order to fulfill the Word prophesized in the Old Testament. Therefore, Jesus was able to take all the sins upon Him and become the true Savior in this world. All the sins of this world disappeared through the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.
Jesus was the Son of God Himself but He did not come to this world to be the king of this world. Instead, He took all the sins of the world by personally receiving the baptism on His flesh in order to save all the sinners of the world from sin. That’s how Jesus Christ became the Savior who saved us from all the sins of the world. I want you to know and believe that in order for Jesus to save us, Jesus had to first receive the baptism of taking the sins of the world from John the Baptist and then go to the Cross. The Baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist was the evidence of the remission of sin that took responsibility for all the sins of the entire humanity. Just as God set the law in the Old Testament that the sins of the people were passed over through the laying on of hands on the sacrificial animals, the sins of the world transferred over to Jesus as He received the baptism from John the Baptist and, hence, we have received the blessing of the remission of sins through faith.
Jesus had to fulfill God’s promise of taking the sins by receiving the baptism from John, the representative of humanity. Even the Scriptures testify to the fact that the baptism Jesus received in the New Testament was the ‘baptism of transferring the sins’ like the laying on of hands of the Old Testament. All the people in the world can be released from their sins only by understanding and believing that both the baptism of Jesus and blood of the Cross constitute the Truth of taking upon the sin. Understanding this Truth is the way to receive salvation from sin. There is no other way.
The Baptism of Cleansing Sin That Jesus Received
In Matthew chapter 3, we can see the appearance of John the Baptist denying Jesus trying to receive the baptism. John said, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” Jesus responded to this and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
This Word means as follows if we unravel it: “John the Baptist, I must take over all the sins of the world upon myself through your baptism in order for the people in this world to receive the remission from all their sins once and for all by believing My baptism of taking the sins and the blood that I will shed. Therefore, permit it to be so, right now.” After going through this process, Jesus Christ received the “baptism of taking over the sin” from John the Baptist and the gospel of remission of sin began in this world since that time. All the sins of the world transferred over to the head of Jesus Christ at the time when John the Baptist performed the baptism of taking over the sins to Jesus. And all those who believe in the remission of sins through the water and the Spirit that Jesus performed become the children of God the Father because Jesus who took our sins died on the Cross in our place and sits at the right hand of God the Father’s throne now. The gospel of the remission of sins through the water and the Spirit started since Jesus Christ came to this world and received the baptism of taking over the sins of the world upon Him in this manner.
The Apostle Paul records in Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Not only this, but many sections of the Scriptures also testify to the baptism of cleansing the sin. We must believe that the baptism of Jesus and the blood on the Cross is the gospel of the cleansing of the sins that makes us born again through the water and the Spirit.
“Permit It to Be So Now”
In Matthew chapter 3 verse 15, the Lord Jesus said, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Here ‘all righteousness’ signifies the baptism of Jesus that makes all people sinless by taking all the sins over to Him. The Scriptures record the baptism of cleansing of sin by Jesus as all uprightness or “all righteousness” of God.
John the Baptist transferred over the sins of the world to Jesus by baptizing Jesus in the form of laying on of hands as it was performed on the head of the sacrificial animal in the Old Testament. John the Baptist who was sent to this world as the priest representing the humanity achieved the covenant Word of taking sins over by transferring over the sins of the world unto Jesus (Leviticus chapter 16 and 17), and through this all the sins passed over to Jesus’ head as intended by God. I want you to accept the Truth that all your sins also were passed over to Jesus.
The baptism of passing over the sin by laying two hands on the head of Jesus was the exact baptism of laying on of hands to take over the sins for God’s just salvation. Jesus rescued all of us who believe in the baptism and the blood and perfectly saved us from all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism of taking over the sins of humanity from John the Baptist.
The Heavens Were Opened at the Moment
Matthew 3:16-17 says, “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the Heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from Heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
The door of the Heaven opened when Jesus received the baptism of taking over the sins of the world to take care of them justly. Henceforth, many people received the grace of registering into the Kingdom of Heaven through Jesus’ baptism of taking over the sin and the blood on the Cross. Jesus fulfilled the gospel of the remission of sins by receiving the baptism of water in the Jordan River in the New Testament. It was the fulfillment of God’s promise that was made for thousands of years during the Old Testament period. All the sins of this world were transferred over to Jesus’ flesh the moment Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist. This means that all the sins of humanity were pardoned according to the will of God the Father. Therefore, all of humanity received the salvation from the sins of the world.
Jesus who took over all the sins of the world carried our sins and went to the Cross at the Golgotha Hill to pay the price for our sins even though He did not have sin originally. During the three years of His public life after receiving the baptism, He preached the gospel that He was taking the sins of the world through the baptism He received. He preached the gospel of the Truth in the baptism of taking over the sin and the blood to all the sinners wherever He went, saying, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven.” In the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 11, Jesus said to the woman who was caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you.” This means that He could not condemn her because He had taken even the very sin of adultery. This implies that Jesus who took over all the sins was the only One who shall receive the judgment for the sins of the world. During the 3 years of public life, Jesus witnessed to the sinners who were distraught and crushed by their sins that their sins were already pardoned. This is because He Himself was the Savior who received the sins of the sinners through His baptism.
Jesus who took over all the sins of the world to His body through the baptism of taking over the sins had to receive the terrible penalty of the Cross for the price of all sins. Jesus thought about the terrifying pain of the penalty of the Cross that He was to receive as He said to God the Father, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Though I have taken over the sins of the world by receiving the baptism, isn’t there any other way besides my death?”
As I have said in the introduction of this sermon that the baptism of Jesus was the same form as the ritual of laying on of hands in the Old Testament. Because they always cut the throat of the animal that took over the sin through the laying on of hands and offered up its blood of sacrifice in the Old Testament, Jesus who took over the sins of humanity through the baptism in the same manner of the laying on of hands definitely had to shed the blood of sacrifice. Jesus knew this from the beginning, but He also understood how horrifying the penalty of the Cross that He was to suffer in the future because He had the same body as humans.
Jesus prayed even until the sweat turned into blood from the fear and distress for the extreme suffering, but Jesus did not insist on such mind to the end. So He went away a second time and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Then, He drank the cup of the penalty of the Cross in obedience. Jesus who took all the sins of the world upon Himself through His baptism paid the price for sin by dying on the Cross in that manner and delivered all humanity from all their sins and saved all those who believe in the gospel of the water, blood, and the Spirit.
Jesus had to die on the Cross in place of all humanity only because He had received the baptism. As the Scriptures say, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23), Jesus received the vicarious death that we should have suffered because the wage for every sin is death. God fulfilled the salvation through Jesus the Word of covenant to the people who believed in God. God promised that He would send the Savior who would take over the sins of the world through the baptism of laying on of hands, and Jesus received the judgment for the penalty of the sins of the world in our place on the Cross according to God’s will as He said, “Abba, Father, not what I will, but what You will.”
From the standpoint of Satan the Devil, he was defeated by the death of Jesus because the problem of the sins of the entire humanity was resolved and the path of salvation was opened through the death of Jesus. That’s because the problem of the sins of the entire humanity would not have been resolved and all the humans would have had to go to hell if Jesus did not die on the Cross. That was what Satan the Devil wanted.
That’s why Satan the Devil always stayed near Jesus and tempted Jesus so that He would hang on the Cross. But Jesus did not waver and He eventually fulfilled that salvation. And this also fulfilled the Word God spoke to Satan the Devil in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15,
“And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
All humans are descendants of Adam, the descendants of the first man, but Jesus is the only descendant of a woman because He was born to Mary without the sexual relations with a man and was instead born only through the conception of the Holy Spirit. Jesus blocked the work of Satan the Devil by achieving the salvation of humanity. He thus bruised the head of Satan the Devil.
The prophecy that Jesus would save us appears clearly in the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament. It is the event that occurred when Moses prayed to God to save the Israelites who were bitten by the serpents of fire for complaining against God while dwelling in the tough wilderness. God answered Moses’ prayer and said, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live” (Numbers 21:8). Moses told God’s Word to the Israelites who were dying in pain from the snakebite. He told them, “Attention, Israelites! Look at the bronze serpent on the top of the pole. Those who look at the bronze pole shall live.” Then, those who believed this and looked at the bronze serpent on the pole were freed from the sin of complaining against God and received salvation. This account reveals God’s Word that says the Lord already judged Satan the Devil and resolved the problem of his poison through the righteous act of Jesus, that is, His just baptism and the death on the Cross. And this account was also the prophecy of Jesus who was to come to the world and receive the baptism of atonement and receive the penalty for sin in place of sinners.
You have now heard that “Those who look at the baptism of the cleansing of sin Jesus received to take over the sins and the blood shed through His death on the Cross with faith shall be delivered from the penalties for all their sins.” The true gospel that the Lord has given to us is the gospel that says, “We must believe in the Lord who came to this world and took all the sins of the world by receiving the baptism of taking over the sins, shed blood from the death on the Cross for the price of those sins, and resurrected again from death and saved us perfectly in order for us to receive salvation from all sins.”
You Shall Live If You Look at It
Among the people who were bitten by the snake while complaining against God in the Book of Numbers, those who listened to Moses’ word and looked at the bronze serpent on the top of the pole had their wounds from the snake bite healed completely through their faith. As such, the people who believe in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross these days can also be healed completely from their sins and penalties in an instant; but those who do not believe this cannot receive salvation from their sins in the same way the people, who stubbornly did not believe in the God’s Word and did not look at the bronze serpent on the pole, eventually died as the snake poison spread all over their body.
Just as the Word recorded in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world” and as the Word from John 3:14 says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” Jesus Christ who took all the sins of the world upon Himself through His baptism of atonement had to be lifted up high on the Cross and consequently remitted away all our sins without any remains. And those who believe in all this could become the children of God and go to the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus received the baptism from John the Baptist in the form of the laying on of hands and shed blood, died on the Cross with the sins of the world, and was resurrected from death. All the people can receive the true salvation by looking with faith at Jesus who saved us through the baptism of atonement and the blood of the Cross.
John the Baptist said, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’” and that “I am not the Lord and I am not the real Savior, Christ is the true Savior. I am just one of His servants who was sent before Him. I am God’s servant that is to transfer over the sins of the world to Jesus and Jesus is the groom.” John the Baptist also said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). And Jesus became our true Lord according to this witness. John the Baptist baptized Jesus and transferred over all our sins to the head of Jesus and those who believe with their hearts in Jesus who received the sins and paid the price for the sins with His death shall receive salvation from the sins and attain the blessing of eternal life. God gave such a gospel of God’s baptism and blood that makes all the sinners become the righteous by faith. Through this, all those who believe in Jesus’ baptism of taking over the sin and the blood on the Cross receive salvation. You must receive the perfect remission of sins by believing this gospel in your hearts.
The True Prayer Can Be Offered by Believing in Jesus’ Baptism That Cleanses the Sins of the World
Even the servants of God cannot just baptize or pray for anyone. They pray and baptize only those who believe in the baptism of cleansing the sin and the blood of the Cross as the evidence of their faith. When a baptizing minister baptizes a born again saint who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he first puts his hands on the saint’s head and prays like this, “God, I want You to bless this brother (or sister) both in body and spirit, so that he (or she) may serve faithfully throughout his (or her) life.” This prayer is based on the presumption that both the minister and the one receiving the baptism believe in their hearts the gospel of the baptism and the blood of Jesus.
But for what reason do people receive baptism? The baptism is the sign that all my sins have been transferred over to Jesus through the baptism Jesus received and I died with Him when Jesus Christ died on the Cross and I resurrected with Him when Jesus resurrected. Therefore, when one receives the baptism that is similar to the baptism Jesus received, he is now confessing that he has received salvation by completely believing in Jesus’ baptism and the blood Jesus shed on the Cross. The ceremony of water baptism is performed for that reason. Those who believe in their hearts that the baptism Jesus received was the baptism for pardoning their sins can receive the baptism in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is because they actually have already been saved from all the sins of the world. The real purpose of the ritual of baptism is for the baptized to confirm that they have become new creations and their old selves are dead. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
The life of faith after receiving the remission of sins must be of the faith of believing and following all the recorded Word of God. We must not live out our faith according to our temporary emotion. The true faith stands for our conviction that Jesus took all our sins through the baptism of taking over the sins. Through the baptism from John the Baptist, Jesus washed away and took over all our sins that are as huge and thick as the cloud and the mist. And He received the penalty on the Cross for sin. And for three years before He was crucified, He preached the gospel as the Lamb of God, and He also testified to the fact that He was God by doing the work of God the Father. We must believe in our hearts that the Lord took all our sins through the baptism of taking over the sin and live every day confirming this through the recorded Word.
Even though one is born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he can think, “How can I not have sin when I cannot help but commit sin everyday,” if he leads a carnally minded life. Therefore, those who have received the remission of sins must get rid of their own subjective thinking and serve God by believing in God’s Word and serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit while living in this world. This is the life of the people who have received the remission of sins and this is the true faith.
John the Baptist declared that Jesus who atoned for the sins of the world is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and that He carried the sins we will commit tomorrow as well as all the sins we have committed until now. Just as his witness, all the raw source of sin that we were born with from our mother’s womb, and all small and great sins we have committed in this world since our birth―all those sins were transferred over to Jesus at the very moment He received the baptism from John the Baptist. We must actually verify the baptism of taking over the sin that Jesus received through the Scriptures and apply this gospel in our daily life. And we must believe with the confirmation that not only the sins that we have committed have been transferred over to Jesus Christ, but also that Jesus carried all the sins that we commit in our lifetime through the baptism of atonement. Sins we have committed since we were born, needless to say, as well as the sins that we will commit in the future were all transferred over to Jesus at the time when Jesus received baptism about 2000 years ago. This is the true gospel of the water and the Spirit that is revealed in God’s Word. This is the true gospel of Heaven. We must understand and believe in this gospel. Believing this is the true faith and the blessing of salvation.
The Gospel of John 1:29 testifies about Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” And the Scriptures also say, “And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true” (John 3:32-33). Those who believe in the baptism of pardon of sin and the blood of the Cross as the Truth receives salvation from all the sins of the world. But those who do not know the fact that their sins have been transferred over through the baptism Jesus received and do not believe in it continue to believe that the sins they commit continuously are still within them and consequently are headed toward the door of hell. Because many people still do not know the Truth of the baptism Jesus received and the blood of the Cross, they are deceived by the false teachers and therefore dwell in the incorrect faith.
To think as they do, that you have sin even after you have believed in Jesus is evidence that you have been deceived by Satan the Devil. The Devil tells them, “How can you not have sin when you sin every day?” But, although you may become a person with sin in fleshly thinking, you can receive the remission of sin if you believe in God’s Word that manifested through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The crafty Devil deceives people without faith by saying, “You are a sinner because you commit sin every day.” But we can overcome such temptation of the Devil if we have already become people without sin by believing in the baptism and the blood of Jesus. Do you still think you are a sinner even though you believe in Jesus? We who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit do not have sin. Jesus blotted out all our sins through His baptism and the blood.
Actually we can never say that we do not have sin when we look at the things we do while living in this world. But we have received the true remission of sins by believing in His salvation through the gospel of the baptism and the blood of Jesus. We come to know that there is no sin in us when we believe perfectly in Jesus’ baptism of pardon of sin and the blood of the Cross. We sing, “I have received the remission of sin. You have received the remission of sin through the baptism of Jesus. I’ve got salvation, You’ve got salvation” and want to share the gospel with an excited and joyful heart. We are led by the Holy Spirit like that.
I reiterate the fact that the person who has been born again does not have sin because there is Jesus’ baptism of atonement and the merit of blood. Our hearts were in bondage to the sins before we knew Jesus’ baptism of atonement, but how can we still have sin within us when we believe that all our sins have been transferred over to Jesus through Jesus’ baptism of pardon? As the Word in Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,” I want you to know that there is no sin whatsoever in us.
God’s Word confirms the salvation of Jesus by saying, “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” (Hebrews 10:16). We can realize that we do not have sin when we believe in the baptism
of the remission of sins Jesus received and the blood on the Cross; and, therefore, this God-given gospel that has made us perfectly sinless becomes even more precious and priceless. The true spiritual life is actualized through the faith of believing in God’s recorded Word and the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
of the remission of sins Jesus received and the blood on the Cross; and, therefore, this God-given gospel that has made us perfectly sinless becomes even more precious and priceless. The true spiritual life is actualized through the faith of believing in God’s recorded Word and the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Person Who Believes in Jesus’ Baptism of Atonement and His Blood of the Cross Cannot Become a Sinner Again
Those who believe in the baptism Jesus received and His blood of the Cross do not have sin. When I did not believe the gospel of the water and the Spirit in my heart before, the sins in my heart did not disappear even though I always offered prayers of repentance. But one day, after understanding the gospel of Jesus’ baptism of atonement and the Cross, I realized that all my sins have been removed. Some look at our transformation and ask like this, “How has your heart become so bright?” And when we say, “It’s because I do not have sin in my heart,” they say “You then would sin without restraint if you do not have sin!”
We reply to such people in the following way, “Don’t talk like that. Although people are creatures who cannot help but sin, Jesus has already resolved all the sins of this world by receiving the baptism of pardoning sin. I do not have sin now because I believe in this! That’s why I have the desire to give myself to serve the gospel in the Church, and God recorded in Romans chapter 6 that everyone must do this. I have the desire to do righteous work because I do not have sin in my heart. God’s work is for us to believe and preach the power of Jesus’ baptism of the remission of sin and the blood, and therefore we must preach the gospel of the baptism of atonement and salvation to the whole world. We will never become sinners again if we believe in Jesus who is the Lord of the baptism of atonement. We must believe the salvation of the baptism of the pardon of sin and the atoning blood of God’s Son and we must keep this faith. I am now thankful! I have now received salvation. I have now become one of the people of God! I am a righteous person! Halleluiah!” Can you imagine the happy countenance of God as He looks at such people of faith?
The Scriptures say, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it” (Romans 6:1-2). And it also says, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Romans 6:15-19).
Who Receives the Holy Spirit of God?
Those who receive the heavenly blessing are the people who have received salvation from all sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of Jesus’ baptism and His blood. Acts chapter 2 verses 38-39 records how people received the Holy Spirit: “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’” Being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ means believing that He took over all our sins and thereby receiving the cleansing of sin through faith.
We receive the Holy Spirit that God gives as the gift when we believe in Jesus’ baptism that took over the sins of the whole world and His blood of the Cross. The Holy Spirit descends in our hearts at the very moment we clearly believe in the baptism and the blood of Jesus with our heart. The Holy Spirit of God comes into the hearts of the born-again at the time when they understand and believe in the fact that all their sins have been transferred over through the baptism of Jesus Christ and that all their condemnations have been eliminated through Jesus’ penalty on the Cross. Therefore, the Holy Spirit testifies to us and says, “Yes, that is correct” when we believe in the baptism and the blood of Jesus as the Word of our salvation. The Holy Spirit testifies, “Right! You do not have sin. You believe that Jesus received the baptism to blot out all your sins and that the Person who shed the blood on the Cross is none other than the Son of God.”
We must now believe in our hearts the Truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit that says Jesus received the baptism of cleaning of sin and saved all of us by dying on the Cross in our place. Then we come to know that the Spirit of God dwells inside the hearts of all those who believe in the baptism of taking over the sin and the blood of the Cross. I give thanks to God by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with all my heart. Halleluiah!
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