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 18 : GENESIS
[Chapter 1-2] Have You Become Light In the Gospel of Truth? (Genesis 1:2-3)
(Genesis 1:2-3)
“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”
By creating the universe and all creatures in it, God revealed His great and majestic plan through Jesus Christ. Chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis shows us the majestic plan that God has prepared for mankind. In other words, the creation of the heavens and the earth and of all creatures, the making of mankind in the likeness of the image of God, the fall of mankind deceived by Satan, salvation through Jesus Christ, our becoming God’s children in His providence, and the blessings of the everlasting grace of God—all these things are shown in this first chapter of Genesis.
That is why it is written, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and this is followed by, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). When it says here, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep,” this implies the condition of mankind and all things created by God that fell into confusion deceived by Satan, a fallen spiritual creature. Put differently, it describes mankind’s fall into sin.
First of all, we must reach the proper understanding of the will of God who created the universe and all creatures in it. If we do not know God’s will, or, even worse, misunderstand it, then we are at great risk. Everything under the heavens has its existential purpose. When God created us, He essentially decided to adopt us as His children in Jesus Christ. Even before the foundation of the world, in other words, God already had in His mind a plan to make us His children and thereby lifting us up as divine beings.
That is why God made us according to His plan, allowed us to face hardship while living on this earth, made us look for Him through such difficulties, permitted us to find the gospel of Truth that has blotted out our sins through Jesus Christ, and in doing so, God adopted us as His Children and gave us His beautiful Kingdom. Like this, God has shown us that nothing depends on our own will, but everything has come only by His will. Therefore, as we live in this world, feeling and reflecting on these things, we experience for ourselves that what we want to do is not achieved according to our own will, but according to how God had already predestined originally; all that we do is enter into God’s domain by believing in and accepting His Word and then follow Him by faith. That is why Jesus said, “I am the Way” (John 14:6).
It is when we read the Bible that we can fully grasp God’s plan. God had a plan for mankind, and He has also shown us His plan by manifesting it in the Word according to how He planned. Therefore, it is in the Word of God that we can discover the will of God, and it is by believing in this Word and following it that we can find God. So when we believe in God, it is according to His promised Word that we should know and believe in God.
If you are to think all on your own without giving any heed to God’s Word of promises, decide all for yourselves and try to find God all on your own, then from then on, you will only fall into confusion. To find God, one must believe in His promised Word and follow it; only then can we meet God. That is why God has given us the Bible.
Without the Bible, the Word of God, it is impossible for us to find God. The Bible is the Word of God. And it is the Word of a covenant, which God has fulfilled and will continue to fulfill. The Bible writes that God is the God of the Word, who planned with the Word, fulfilled this plan for us with the Word, and came to us and met us through the Word.
The Word is God (John 1:1). God is the Word, and when He manifests Himself before mankind, He does so through the Word of promise. We should all clearly realize that God has already revealed Himself through His Word, and that He is the God of promise who meets us through this Word.
We must not read the Bible as if we were reading a novel or a history book. Rather, we must realize and believe that this Word in itself is the Word of promise spoken by God. It is in His Word that God reveals Himself to us. So whenever you and I read the Bible, we should all first realize that it is the Word that God promised to us.
The Bible Is the Light of Salvation to Mankind
It is written, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light… God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night” (Genesis 1:2-5).
In this passage God called the light day and the darkness night, thereby setting forth God’s indomitable will to drive out sin from the souls that are bound in it. It is saying that what drives out this sin, all this confusion, void, and darkness, is the light.
Who, then, is this light? It is none other than Jesus Christ, the Savior. Who, then, are the formless and void, those who have darkness on the face of the deep? They refer to none other than ourselves. This describes us humans, who, though created by God, were deceived by evil Satan and fell into confusion. From the very beginning, God was promising the following: “When you fall into confusion, I will save you with the light. And those who accept the light will become light, but those who do not accept the light will become darkness.”
When we create something, we have in advance a certain purpose for having it created. There is nothing that is created without a purpose. When God created the heavens and the earth and created mankind in the beginning, His plan was to raise us as His children, and to glorify us in this position as His own children, so that we would not exist as merely simple creatures any longer.
This is what the Bible is saying: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and when He created us His creatures, He did not make us as robots, but He gave free will to all of us. God is saying to us, “Each of you can either accept or reject My grace and my blessings. I made you as creatures with the freedom of choice.”
John 3:20-21 states, “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
We the born-again can clearly distinguish the light from darkness. However, the confused people who are still under sin cannot discern the light from darkness. They, instead, generally hate the light and love evil. Nonetheless, the right to choose which of these two we would accept belongs entirely to us. Had God not given us this right to choose—that is, had He not given us free will—then we could not say that God is just.
On the other hand, had God left everyone all alone to be cast into hell, then nor could we say that God is holy and just. God is saying, “I am the Almighty, but I have given you free will. So if you really love goodness, then follow this goodness and receive all My blessings, and live in Me. But if you love darkness, then feel free to do so.”
Therefore, those who have come into God’s light chose God, acknowledged Him and believed in Him, and for this choice, they will all receive the blessings of salvation from God and live forever. Those who fail to do so, on the other hand, will deservedly be cast into hell and made to suffer and gnash their teeth in pain, for they chose their own wickedness. This is the righteous Truth of God, and this is what reveals God’s divinity. It manifests that God is completely perfect. God did not coerce us into anything, but He manifested Himself through His covenant, and made us praise Him justly.
By giving us His grace and Truth, God has stipulated us to rule over all other creatures and be served by them. It is those who choose before God what is right—the light, that is—whom God blesses. But for those who choose evil, God judges their sins according to His justice. This is who our God is as revealed in the Bible.
God is the God of a covenant. No one can say that God is unjust and unfair. God has given mankind the right to choose. The Bible is saying that if anyone likes curses over blessings, it has been established for whoever wants this to have it. In contrast, to those who like the light and have accepted into their lives this light, the Word of God, God will give all the blessings that He promised. God has allowed whoever wants to be blessed by Him, who created the heavens and the earth, to choose His goodness and to receive the blessings of salvation and eternal life.
God, who created the heavens and the earth, is speaking to us. God is perfect. He alone is righteous, perfect, and is divine for all creatures. He is the Creator. He is the Absolute Being. There is no one who can object to this.
Through the Word, we saw the God of the covenant who promised us with the Word and fulfilled this Word of promise to us. God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. God actually made everything, darkness and light alike. Do you acknowledge this? The right to choose has been given to all human beings, and it is according to their choice that the grace of God has been bestowed upon them.
In the Kingdom of God, there is no such a word as “no,” but only “yes.” In other words, there is only the infallible Truth. That there is only “yes” means that there is nothing negative.
It is written, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:2-3). When the Bible says that “God created the heavens and the earth,” and follows on to say, “The earth was without form, and void,” it implies that even before the foundation of the world, God’s plan was already premised on the temptation of Satan.
If chapters 1 and 2 of the Book of Genesis are describing God’s plan, then from chapter 3 and subsequently, it is about the fulfillment of this plan. We may say that God implemented His entire plan step by step. Architects in this world change their construction plans several times when building just one building. However, God has never changed His plan once He designed it. He executed everything exactly according to how He planned. God did not just leave His creatures merely as creatures, but He planned for them to be born again by being recreated. What set mankind free from sin was the light. The Word of God was the resource that enabled people to escape from sin.
If mankind were not formless and void, and there were no darkness on the face of the deep—that is, if mankind were not deceived by Satan—then human beings could not have put on the grace that set them free from sin and become God’s children. It is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that all of us have been allowed to put on the grace of salvation that Jesus Christ has given to us and to become God’s children. Our glory was already prepared by the providence of God in His plan.
Adam and Eve, the common ancestors of mankind, were deceived by Satan. However, even this was included in God’s predestination. Maggots live for many years under the ground in the larval stage, but they eventually climb up to a tree and are transformed through metamorphosis to open their wings and become cicadas. To become cicadas, they must all invariably live as maggots in the dark underground. Like this, that we human beings were tempted by Satan and fell into sin was also predestined in God’s glorious plan. In other words, God permitted us to be tempted by Satan because only if we became sinners first could we be transformed into God’s children by believing in Jesus Christ.
That people are formless and void, and darkness is on the face of the deep, is a condition that has resulted from leaving the light of God. When one departs from God, the Creator who made him, and from His Word of the covenant, his heart is visited by confusion and void. Just as the first man Adam fell into confusion by departing from the Word of God, among the descendants of Adam now, those who have failed to meet Jesus Christ through the Word of covenant have all fallen into confusion. Why have they fallen into confusion? It is because they do not know the God-given gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. This is why they cannot know God, who meets us through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Given this, then, what must people do to escape from their confusion? If they return to God’s Word of Truth, they can surely find God.
Moreover, everyone has fallen into a void because of their sins. So people have no satisfaction. We human beings are void unless we meet the God of Truth. Human beings were imperfect when they were first created. God permitted this imperfection first in order to make us perfect in His plan. Since it is the perfect God who created us, unless we have Him inside us, we would remain imperfect, have no true satisfaction, and fall into a void. Therefore, because God fundamentally made us human beings in His image when He created us, to find true satisfaction, everyone must be born again without fail. In other words, in people’s hearts there must be the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus Christ, and only when we have the Holy Spirit inside us can we be made perfect. One is truly satisfied only when he finds Jesus Christ.
All of us were deceived by Satan’s evil schemes, and as a result, we all fell into confusion, void, and sin. God said that He would save such people like us through His Son Jesus Christ. From what did He promise to save us? He promised to save us from confusion, void, and sin. He promised to save us from our sins, from our profound emptiness, and from our unquenchable dissatisfaction. This promise of salvation was already predestined in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ the Creator Is the Savior of Those Who Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
The Lord of the universe is Jesus Christ. When it is written in the Bible, “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light,” the light here is none other than Jesus Christ who has saved you and me from our sins. Who created the universe and all things in it with the Word? It is Jesus Christ Himself. It is this very Jesus Christ who created everything that our eyes see, from the heavens to the earth, from the mountains to the seas, and from flowers to all life forms.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The One who created this earth and these heavens is Jesus Christ, and what we must all realize is that God has blotted out our sins by sending us this Son of His. Who else does the Bible say Jesus Christ is? It says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Father. As it is written, “I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You’” (Psalms 2:7), the Bible says that Jesus was begotten by the Father. However, the Bible also says that the Son of God the Father is the same true God as the Father (1 John 5:20).
That is why the Apostle John, who saw Jesus Christ with his own eyes and touched Him with his own hands, and who had lived with Him for three years, declared, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). In other words, Jesus is the very God who created the universe. God the Father built the Kingdom of Heaven through His Son, and Jesus Christ created the heavens and the earth that our eyes now see. All of us must know this Jesus Christ accurately, that He is God Himself.
What else did God say? He said that He would save us from all our sins through His sinless Son. God is the God of Truth. When the Son of God the Father made this world, God said that it was good to see the world that was illuminated by the Light. And the Bible says, “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9).
This plan of God was all revealed by the Triune God, that is, by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Who is this Spirit that was hovering over the face of the waters? The Spirit here is the Holy Spirit. The Son of the Father is the One who made this universe, and God the Father promised that through His Son He would save all these human beings who have fallen into confusion and void.
And God sought to bestow upon us the Spirit that makes us God’s children, but this Spirit could not come into our hearts as long as there was sin inside us. That is why God the Father established a covenant with us His creatures and promised us to send His Son to this earth. The “Spirit of God” here refers to the Holy Spirit, and this Holy Spirit comes into those who believe in and follow the promised Word of God and dwells in them. This is the very plan of God. The Triune God is all manifested here. God had His complete plan for us before the creation of the world, and He has been fulfilling it step by step. We need to realize that this is why God said it was good to see when He made the domain of the earth and the domain of the heavens.
God said that when His Son created light on the first day that He made this universe, it was good to see. In other words, God was pleased to make His creatures His own children, the same children as Jesus Christ. That is why the Apostle Paul, realizing the majestic plan of God, praised, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)
It is also written, “Of Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Romans 11:36). How could then a mere creature disobey its Creator? Disobedience in itself is sin. God spoke the Word of promise to us. And He is the God who separates His people from the Devil’s people with His Word. If you accept the God-spoken Word into your hearts, then you, too, will become God’s people. Come into the light of Truth. You will then be able to also become light.
God Said, “Let There Be Light”
The Bible says that when God made mankind and the universe, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. This is how the Bible describes the condition of those who have fallen into sin. The Bible also says that when the earth—that is, the human heart—was without form, void, and in the depth of sin, the Spirit of God was hovering on the face of the waters. Put differently, God, who created the universe and saves mankind works in the hearts of the sinful.
God speaks and has fellowship with those who come out to Him through His Word, trusting in the Word. God approves us when we believe in His Word. However, if we do not believe in the Word of God, then our own thoughts will lead us to perish in the end.
Why did Judas, who betrayed and sold out Jesus Christ, hang himself? He should have resolved this sin by trusting in the Word of God, but the Bible writes that instead of relying on the Word, he repented all on his own and hung himself. Those whose hearts have no faith in the Word of God end up condemning their sins themselves, and therefore they cannot avoid dying forever. That Judas repented on his own only means that he was convicted by his conscience, realizing that he had made a profound mistake by betraying and selling out his own teacher to certain death just for a handful of coins.
Judas’ deed was very wicked, but his even greater spiritual mistake was the fact that he did not believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. We should reflect on what Jesus Christ did when He came to this earth based on the Word of both the New and Old Testaments, and from this we must realize and believe that He is God Himself and the Son of God. However, Judas did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and so instead of repenting, “I betrayed the real Son of God. And I did not accept Him as my Savior,” he was merely convicted by his own human conscience, guilt-ridden only to the extent that he betrayed a man who had been his teacher, and ended up killing himself.
We can stand before God only if we know our wrongdoings based on the Word of God and repent from our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit; if, contrary to this, we judge our deeds only according to our own standard, then we will not only lose our life, but we will also enter into the everlasting fire of hell.
When we do something wrong, we often tend to think of it on our own, “Oh, so I made a mistake,” but our own standard of good and evil is too ambiguous. Depending on our point of view, our deeds can be assessed differently. Many times, what appears virtuous in the eyes of the flesh is exposed to be very wicked from the spiritual point of view. So when Judas repented before God, he only repented in his conscience, not by believing in the Word of God. Clearly, Jesus Christ was God Himself and the Savior of us mankind. The very fact that Judas did not believe in this Savior was his greatest mistake. Since Judas did not believe in Jesus Christ as God, he was bound to betray Him, and this was his wrongdoing, but Judas did not realize this. In other words, Judas did not admit his wrongdoing based on the Word of God. Instead, he only admitted his wrongdoing in his conscience, and so simply thinking that he was bound to hell for sure, he ended up killing himself. That is why Jesus Christ lamented over Judas, saying that it would have been better for him if he had never been born (Mark 14:21).
All of us should realize that it is through His Word that God speaks to us and works in our lives. And we must all realize that through this Word of Truth, God has shone the light of salvation on us, who had been confused, void, and in the depth of sin. As God illuminates us with His light, it is through this light of Truth that we can finally realize how our hearts are empty and confused, and how we are in the depth of sin. That is because God has shone the light of salvation on all of us. Had God not shone this light, it would have been impossible for us to realize anything at all, not knowing that we were confused, nor grasping that we were void and in darkness.
To such people like us, God has illuminated the light of salvation, and He has separated the light from the darkness. We must know about this light. It is simply indispensable for us to receive the remission of our sins and to follow the light. When we are working on something, depending on whether we look at it from the viewpoint of the Word of God or just based on our own carnal thought, the same thing can be seen very differently. Even when we look at the same object, what we see through the Word of God, the light, and just through our own eyes of the flesh can be completely different.
So it is extremely important to follow the light. Our hearts and thoughts must cherish this light and love it, and we should always live according to this light and see everything from its point of view. This is indispensable, and we must all live according to the light in this way.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). There is no darkness whatsoever in God, and there only exists the light. By accepting the God-given light of salvation, we have become righteous people. Whether we are actually saved or not, and whether we remain as sinners or become righteous, all depend entirely on whether or not we have this light of Truth.
So our salvation requires us to have this light, but what about afterwards? How should we live after being saved? We must follow the light of Truth. When you are spreading the gospel, you are just illuminating others with the God-given light of Truth, just as it is written, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” You are following the light and shinning the light. We are not the maker of this light, but all that we do is just accept this light into our hearts and illuminate it to others. That’s because preaching this gospel is to shine the light. For us to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit is to spread the light itself. Souls will then hear the Word of light preached by us and be transformed.
If we do not shine the light to those who are still in darkness, then everything is useless, no matter how well we might have taught them and how well we might have plowed the fields of their hearts. All our efforts turn out to be useless. To shine the true light is what all of us must do as Jesus Christ’s witnesses and saints. Our lives will become brighter if only we make up our minds, saying, “Our lives of faith are ones that follow the light. We follow the light, the light of God. To bear witness is to shine the light. I shine the light. There are many things in this world, but in God, there is no darkness, only the light.”
We have this light with us. There exist both light and darkness in this world, but it is the light that we follow. As God said, “Let there be light,” He gave us the light of Truth. When we are preaching the gospel, we are shining this light, and when we carry on with our everyday life, we are also following this light.
Through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that God has given us—that is, through the Truth of God—we have been saved, and we have become light. Now, we believe that we are light, we preach the light, and we live our lives following this light. We want to live the kind of life that is lived according to the light, and that spreads this light, not the things of the flesh on this earth. It is for this purpose that God has called us. What we must never forget in our lives is to follow this light. But this does not mean that we are to live in carnal perfection.
The light is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ alone is the light, and He has illuminated our hearts with this light. And we have accepted this light. So we have become day. That we have become light does not mean that we can live perfectly in the flesh. Rather, it means that we have received the remission of sin in the providence of the grace of God. All of us must know clearly what is the light.
As we carry on with our lives, we often forget about the gospel light too easily. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the light, but we actually end up forgetting this. Once we find something we have lost, we are prone to soon forget about the person who found and returned it to us. Like this, our minds end up forgetting about the light itself. This is a serious problem.
We have the light. This light is Jesus Christ. This light is also the gospel of the water and the Spirit. When there is light, people’s basic instinct is to follow the light. They want to serve the light. It is good for our hearts to have the light, and it is good for our minds to remember that God is the light. To preach the gospel is to spread the light. It is not when we make something on our own, but when we preach the gospel received from the Lord, that we are spreading the light. We may do many different things, but all these things are actually done to spread the light. It is to follow the light that we are living our lives of faith, and it is in this light that we do everything and live all our lives.
In the First Epistle of John, God speaks about the light frequently. It is written, “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:9-11).
We are living by the grace of God. To preach the gospel and to do God’s work are indeed to live the life that spreads the light. Instead of thinking about this life too complicatedly, you should just realize simply, clearly, and correctly that to believe in Jesus Christ and preach His gospel Truth of salvation is to live the life that spreads the light. All that you have to do is just keep in mind that to believe in and preach Jesus Christ as the light is what the life of light is all about.
Unless you keep this in mind, you can hardly realize what you are living for. The reason why I am saying this is because those who have received the remission of their sins just recently have too many things on their mind. When they are told to become God’s servants and work, they get overwhelmed by all kinds of hesitation. Why is this the case? It’s because they have forgotten about the Word of God. Even the very fact that we have been saved through the gospel of the water and the Spirit is something that has already been attained, and so it is quite possible for us to forget about its preciousness.
That is why we must regularly affirm the fact that we have become light. We need to once again ruminate on the Word, reflecting, “God is the light. God commanded there to be light. As God said so, there was light. And God separated the light from the darkness. He called the light day, and the darkness night. God shone the light on the earth that was formless, void, and in the depth of darkness. As God shed His light on this earth, I came to be born again, and to realize my confusion, my void, and the depth of my darkness.”
Whether a soul becomes righteous or remains sinful is a simple result that is determined by the light of God. When God illuminates us with the light of salvation—that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit—those who accept this light of salvation are to become righteous people, and those who do not accept this light into their hearts are to remain as sinners. When the sun comes up in the morning, its light illuminates the whole world. No one can escape and hide from its warmth (Psalm 19:6).
In other words, no place is too far away from the true light to receive it. Everything is illuminated, and everything reflects back this light and also shines.
Just as the moon shines by reflecting the light from the sun, we who have become holy by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit also look toward the light and reflect this light everyday. While Jesus Christ said, “I am the light of the world,” we ourselves cannot say that we are the light of the world. There is nothing in our flesh to love or be proud of, and we really are nobody. It is simply impossible to shine the light with our own flesh. As the Bible says, “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6), in our everyday life, the light and the darkness still coexist.
When those of us who have received the remission of our sins know that we have the light, and when we focus on this light and march forth following this light, we can always live an upright life. It is such a joy to think about this, that we truly have the light. Whenever our hearts are darkened, and whenever we get confused and don’t know what to do, we can decide what is right in no time at all if we just look at the light. It is by the light that we can discern what we should do and how we should live. Because we are only too human, we often fall into confusion, we often feel empty, and darkness is often on the face of the deep. Even so, however, we can still continue to follow the light in times like these, for we have the light.
I am so thankful that we have the light, that this light is in our hearts, and that this light is in the whole universe. I am truly grateful for the fact that there is a God who gave us the light. No matter what circumstances we might face, and no matter what insufficiencies might be revealed in us, because we have the light, we can still follow it. Words cannot express how thankful I am for this. If this light were not there, only hopelessness would await us.
There is a huge difference between someone who has the light and someone who does not. Those who have the light may be darkened for a short while, but because they have the light, they can get hold of the rudder once again, follow the guidance of the light, set the direction for their lives, and go forth following the light.
In contrast, it is fundamentally impossible for those who have no light, those who have not accepted this light, to live the life of light no matter how much they might desire this. This makes a huge difference. In terms of the flesh itself, there is little difference between those who have accepted the light and those who have not. Viewed in carnal terms, nor are their thoughts so different from each other. Any difference between the two is only paper-thin, and there really is no big difference of which to speak. When someone who is not born again goes to the washroom, I go to the washroom also, and when he eats, I eat too.
The only difference is whether one has accepted Jesus Christ by faith or not; apart from this, there is no other difference. This may seem like a small difference, but it is actually a huge difference. Because we have Jesus Christ, we live in His grace, and because we believe in Jesus Christ, we really can do God’s work at all times.
Those who have been born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit may be completely insufficient, but they can still look toward the light and follow it always; in contrast, those who have not accepted the light cannot live virtuously, no matter how much they might desire to do this. I see this happening all too often around me. Even the so-called servants of God actually have no light in them, and so they are incapable of teaching anything. Many of them cannot even teach the congregation when the rapture shall come, whether it would be before, after, or in the middle of the great tribulation, precisely because they themselves do not know this.
If they know that Jesus Christ is the light and have accepted this light, why are they still in darkness? Why are they still dark? When the gospel and the light are there, how can they not know this? The Lord clearly said that He will come back when the trumpet is blown at the end, but when will this last trumpet sound? Is it before the great tribulation? Absolutely not! Then is it after the great tribulation? No way! Neither view is correct, for our Lord said that the rapture will come after the great tribulation begins but before it ends, before the wrath of the seven bowls are poured, and many saints will be martyred at that time. All that we have to do is just believe accordingly. Would someone who really has the light fail to discern this?
Nowadays, it seems as if the churches in Korea are competing against each other to build a bigger church building. Five of the ten largest churches in the world are said to be located in Korea. Some pastors of these churches make their congregation donate construction funds by taking out loans and mortgaging their houses. Would such a conduct be appropriate to the kind of life that is led by those who have received the light? I bet that they are not the receivers of the true light.
Those who have accepted the light walk in grace. As God has saved us, it is in His grace that we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God, and it is according to how much God has empowered us that we do everything. That is why the Apostle Paul confessed, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
Some people say that they are studying the Bible in their homes on their own to minister as a pastor later on. But to minister as a pastor, one must first learn about the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe in it. He must first accept the light. And only when he himself becomes light can he shine the light on others sitting in darkness.
By believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have come to dwell in God’s grace. It is because we have accepted the gift of salvation through God’s gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are shinning the light that God has illuminated us. In the Lord, I reflect quietly on what kind of grace God has given us. God has entrusted us with His work, and we do this work by faith, within the bounds of the strength that He gives us. Since we follow the Lord by believing so, we are always at peace.
If someone does not accept his salvation, then nor can we impose it on him by force. Are we God? No, of course not; we only believe that God is the light and follow this light. Whenever our hearts are about to fall into weaknesses and darkness, we have to look toward the light once again and follow this light as we are illuminated by it.
When you go out and bear witness, don’t make this any more difficult than it really is. What we are spreading is only the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We are not spreading our own eloquence, our own gift, or our own wisdom. We are not boasting of anything else, but we are spreading only the gospel of the water and the Spirit that Jesus Christ has completed. And we are living according to the light. Whether we do something well or not is not what is important, but what is important is to live for the Lord and follow Him.
We have already accepted the light, and we have already become the ones who are spreading this light. There must be such a belief in our hearts. This faith itself enables us to always spread the gospel, do the work of righteousness, look toward the light, and live according to the light. We can then live upright at all times and never stumble.
Above all else, I give my thanks to God for giving us the light of salvation. Even if we have nothing else but only the light of salvation, we can still always live our lives in the Lord. Because there is nothing good in us, we need the light, and all that we have to do is just believe in this light of salvation and live our lives in this grace, spreading the true gospel to everyone. As we believe in the light of salvation, it has now been made possible for us to always live the life of light before God.
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