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we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
In the light of this situation we are not able to mail you the books at this time.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 3 : The Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
[3-28] The Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sin of the World! (John 1:29)
(John 1:29)
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’”
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’”
What happened when Jesus was about to be baptized? It is written in the Gospel of Matthew 3:15, “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.’” Did Jesus really take all the sins of the world away when He received the baptism? It is imperative that we have a clear understanding of ‘the reasons and why’ Jesus received baptism. Only then will our faith be rooted firmly in God’s Word, and be able to receive the remission of sins that will wash our conscience and heart absolutely clean.
Jesus took away even the future sins of our descendants when He received the baptism, but people who refuse to believe this biblical truth although they believe in Him cannot but remain sinners in God’s sight. Therefore we who believe in Jesus must have a clear understanding of why Jesus received the baptism and what actually happened when He received the baptism.
It is written in Matthew 3:13, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.” During this period all the descendants of Aaron who were from the tribe of Levi, had to be thirty years old before they could be appointed as High Priests. And Levites usually were able to do the daily tasks of offering the sacrifices in the holy place for the people only when they turned twenty-five years old. But to be a High Priest, one had to be 30 years old, which were Gods instructions to them. Just like this our Lord had to receive the baptism when He turned thirty years of age.
Only after Jesus received His baptism did it signal the first stepping-stone for the work of salvation that saved all mankind from their sins. Before this event Jesus just carried out personal works and lived an average life taking care of His family business. But when He turned thirty years of age, Jesus began His ministry of saving mankind. We call this the “public life of Jesus,” that is, the life of saving all of mankind.
So the question, what is the very first thing Jesus did to save mankind from sin? The answer is; He received His baptism from His chosen servant with the name of John the Baptist. This was the very beginning of the gospel of the atonement of sins for the whole of mankind.
Jesus was determined to receive baptism from John the Baptist at that time. So the next question; who is John the Baptist? He is none other than the chosen servant of God who came six months before Jesus. God sent John the Baptist six months prior to Jesus. It is imperative that we know this, because it is telling us that God made these two great events occur in this world in order to save you and me and all the mankind from their sins. A grandmother conceiving a baby and a virgin conceiving a Baby were non-other than God’s special works to save us from sins. Our Lord had prepared our salvation just like this. He prepared it like this in order to save mankind from all its sins.
This chosen man called John the Baptist who baptized Jesus had also turned thirty years of age. Therefore the Word informs us about this man “Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist,” (Matthew 11:11). Jesus was informing us that, “Among those born of woman, John the Baptist is the greatest. I will send Elijah whom I have promised to send, and he is this John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the greatest amongst those born of any woman.” God had established this John ‘the representative of mankind’ as the last High Priest of the Old Testament and of this world.
In the Old Testament when a High Priest had a son, he received the authority of the position of the High Priest only when he became 30 years of age. Receiving this authority of the position of ‘High Priest’ was like anointing a pastor these days. The father had to anoint with oil and lay both his hands on his son’s head, and when his father removed his hands, he transferred the responsibilities and authorities onto his son who then offered up the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement for one year’s sins in the holy place as ‘the representative of all his people.’
During the Old Testament times, the High Priest had to offer up the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the seventh month. This was in accordance to the sacrificial system God had established for them, and this was the shadow of the ‘real thing’ to come in the New Testament (Hebrews 10:1). So the question again; who did God send? Firstly, God sent John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the greatest amongst those born of woman and he fulfilled the mission of the High Priest when he became thirty years of age; he was born as a descendant of Aaron the High Priest.
Then the next question is “Who is Jesus?” Jesus is the Savior of mankind. Since the Old Testament had established this age requirement for a High Priest, so likewise this age requirement in the New Testament applied as well; and since the Old Testament had established the work of the High Priest by passing over the sins of the Israelites at once by laying on of hands on the Day of Atonement, so God had to send John the Baptist to this world and entrust him to do this priestly duty; and Jesus also had to come to this world as the sacrificial Lamb, who was to be offered up to God as the propitiation for all of mankind.
Therefore Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist. I realize my introduction is a little long winded. But please bear with me as I have a lot to speak about matter after this. Who is this John the Baptist actually? Is he really the representative of mankind, or not? The Bible tells us that he is indeed the representative of all mankind.
Let’s read the Word from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verses 10-12 together. “For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
And in verse 13, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” Now, let’s analyze this. Our Lord said that there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist amongst those born of woman. What do these words “Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” actually mean? It means that John the Baptist is in fact the representative of all of mankind.
If Aaron was ‘the representative of all the Israelites’ in the Old Testament, who then is the representative of all of mankind in all the Old Testament and the New Testament? Who is the greatest amongst those born of woman? It is non-other than John the Baptist who baptized Jesus. John the Baptist who baptized to Jesus is the representative of all of mankind. Brothers and sisters, do you honestly understand who ‘the representative of all of mankind’ is now?
The president of our country is currently visiting European countries now, isn’t he? What do you think he is doing in those countries? Isn’t he developing diplomatic relations and signing trade agreements and such things as ‘the representative of our country’? Are you doing these works? Or are you just watching what he is doing? But who is doing this work for? The president makes a speech in each of these countries and signs reciprocal agreements and carries all these important works. But tell me when he signs these agreements; are you not also signing them?
What is the name of the coalition for the economic co-operation of 30 advanced countries of this world? Is it abbreviated as OECD? If the president goes somewhere and signs up to join OECD, then you and I have also signed to join this organization. In this country and I’m sure for yours also, is a representative for each province. Likewise there exists a representative for us as mankind as well.
Who then is this representative of all of mankind? It is none other than John the Baptist. God appointed him as this representative. The name ‘John’ appears a lot in the Scriptures, but ‘this John’ who baptized Jesus is none other than the very representative of all of mankind. You will begin to have a clearer understanding of the Scriptures ‘with this understanding’.
When Jesus tried to receive baptism from John the Baptist, he initially resisted saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me?” Now, who is Jesus? God established Jesus as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, God the Father has established His Son as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven – and for only those who have received the remission of sins and therefore are sinless due to Jesus,’ may enter and live in this incredible place.
If Jesus is the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, then the question is “Who is the High Priest of this earth?” He is John the Baptist. These two High Priests met each other in the Jordan River. They should have met each other, shouldn’t they?
The High Priest of the Old Testament brought two goats and offered it up on the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Therefore because God had promised He would remove all our sins like this, Jesus could not arbitrarily say, “John, I will blot out the sins of the world. I will do as I please. Therefore, do not worry about this. I will do it all on my own.” God had to do this work exactly as He had promised.
Therefore, Jesus as the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven came to this world in human flesh, and when he turned thirty years of age, He carried all the sins of the world upon His own body in order to become the sacrificial Lamb, and He shed His blood and died with all these sins upon Himself, so likewise as the sacrificial offering’s throat was cut and shed its blood and died in the Old Testament. Jesus came to this world to do this very work. God sent John the Baptist to this world as the representative of all of humanity to do the work of passing all the sins of the world over onto Jesus.
So we see the High Priest of this world meeting the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven. When they met, who was greater? Who is greater between the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven and the High Priest of this world? The Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven is greater. The water in the Jordan River was flowing along serenely like it always did. John the Baptist was in a deep part of this river ‘up to the waist’ as he was baptizing people. Then on a day, Jesus came towards him. Jesus came to John the Baptist and told him to baptize Him. But John the Baptist saw immediately that this Jesus is the Son of God, the very High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven. He then thought, “You are the Representative of the Kingdom of Heaven although I am only the representative in this world.” That is why John the Baptist said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? How can you be baptized by me?”
John the Baptist priestly duties were to pass all the world sins over onto Jesus, but who was the main character of the original sacrificial offering? The sacrificial lamb of the Old Testament was none other that this Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ told John to baptize Him in order to take the sins of this world upon Himself, but John the Baptist said in human terms, “You are greater than me. How can I baptize you, when I should rather be baptized by you?”
But we need to look carefully to what the Lord says here. It is written, “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” (Mathew 3:15). Jesus commanded John ‘to permit this.’ Now let’s see what this Word from chapter 3 verse 15 is telling us. Jesus was telling John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” this word “for thus” here means that Jesus atoned for sins of all the people by receiving baptism from John the Baptist and made all those who believe in the baptism of Jesus like this, completely sinless.
Brothers and sisters, why did Jesus receive ‘baptism’? What is the meaning of His baptism? What is the purpose of receiving baptism? Jesus received baptism in order to save all of mankind from their sins, to cleanse away these sins and blot them out completely. Jesus received His baptism. He said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” “All righteousness” means all the righteous works. Then what are all these righteous works? It is only speaking of the baptism Jesus received, and has absolutely nothing to do with our own water baptism.
The Chinese character for the righteousness is ‘yi’ (義), which is composed of two letters, ‘wo’ (我, I) and ‘yang’ (羊, lamb). Isn’t this amazing? When I relied on the Lamb of God, I became a righteous person by the salvation of this Lamb. As you can see here it is exactly the same as the way the High Priest laid his hands on a goat or a sheep in the Old Testament times. When the High Priest laid both of his hands on the head of the sacrificial offering, he said, “God I have committed sins. And the Israelites have also committed sins. The Israelites have committed murder, committed theft and committed many lustful things.” This very ‘laying on of hands’ was used to pass the sins over onto the sacrificial offering.
Then, what is baptism? The baptism Jesus received by John the Baptist who likewise laid his hands on Jesus head was to take all the sins of mankind away by transferring it onto His body. “All righteousness” is the work Jesus came and did in this world by taking over all of our sins and making us as mankind, sinless. Jesus said to John the Baptist, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” and He received His baptism. Jesus receiving baptism means that all our sins were passed over onto Him. All the sins of all humanity were transferred over onto Jesus when he received the baptism.
It is written, “‘for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him,” I especially brought an original text in Greek to explain what it says in the original language, although I am not very good at Greek. I will read it in Greek nevertheless’, listen to it closely. It is written, “Αποκριθεις δε ο ιησους ειπεν προς αυτον αφες αρτι ουτως γαρ πρεπον εστιν ημιν πληρωσαι πασαν δικαιοσυνην τοτε αφιησιν αυτον.” We have to pay attention to the underlined words, “ουτως” and “πασαν δικαιοσυνην.” The Greek word “ουτως” (hutos) means ‘just in this way,’ ‘most fitting,’ or ‘there is no other way besides this.’ And the words “πασαν δικαιοσυνην” (pasan dik-ah-yos-oo’-nayn) means the fairest state that has no defect at all. Therefore, this verse means that Jesus took all the sins of mankind irreversibly onto Himself in the most proper way by His baptism which He received from John the Baptist.
It is saying that the acts of Jesus’ receiving baptism from John the Baptist and John the Baptist’s baptizing Jesus like this fulfills abundantly the work of blotting out all the sins of the world; blotting out the sins from the hearts of everyone. And Jesus meant, “It is ‘fitting’ (πρεπο; prepo) to fulfill this work abundantly by receiving baptism to make all people, all sinners, all the descendants of Adam completely sinless; and to fulfill this work of blotting out these sins justly and perfectly without any defect I received My baptism from you and you baptizing Me. It is therefore fitting and sufficient to fulfill all righteousness and the ministry of salvation that makes all people sinless.” This is the meaning of the original text.
Did Jesus receive baptism from John the Baptist? Did He or did He not receive the baptism? He did indeed receive baptism. Is this merely a fabricated story as many people think? Does it mean then that He received baptism without any special purpose? No, it certainly does not.
The Jordan River is known as the river of death. There is a hymn that goes, “♬In the sweet by-and-by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.♪” We must cross the Jordan River in order to meet Jesus. Heaven and hell appears only when we have crossed over this river of death. It is a natural principle for someone to be born into this world once and to die once, and after that is the judgment. We must therefore die in the Jordan River once, where Jesus fulfilled all righteousness by bearing all our sins and dying on that cruel Cross in our place in order to make us who believe enter Heaven without fail. He fulfilled it sufficiently. He said, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” In Greek, “to fulfill” is “πληρωσαι” (prerosai), this means to make abundantly, to fill up to be full without any lacking. It means to make something overflow.
As the sacrificial lamb of the Old Testament received all the yearly sins of the Israelites on the 10th day of the seventh month and cleansed all those sins completely without any sins remaining; Jesus similarly came into this world and fulfilled the work of saving all people from all their sins sufficiently: He has saved us all of humanity by receiving baptism ‘once’ to take all the sins of humankind upon Himself and to carry these sins to the Cross and shedding His precious blood on that Cross. In order for Jesus to accomplish this, He had to receive the baptism by saying, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus indeed received baptism from John the Baptist. What is this baptism of Jesus all about? It is taking over the sins of us all of humanity. Jesus came into this world in order to blot out all the sins of humankind ‘as the Lamb of God’, as the real substance of the Old Testament’s sacrificial offering. That is why Jesus received His baptism. That Jesus received the baptism means that the wages for all the sins of humankind was paid in full.
As the Israelites received the remission of all their yearly accumulated sins on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest laid both his hands on a scapegoat; likewise Jesus, who is the Alpha and Omega, came into this world and made people completely sinless by taking over all their sins and had them laid upon Himself by receiving baptism, the sins were from the beginning of humankind until the very end.
It means that all the righteousness of God’s salvation was fulfilled when Jesus paid the price of sins of all sinners by receiving baptism and shedding His blood on that Cross. This is the very righteousness of God. This is the very righteousness of Jesus. Although our righteousness is like filthy rags, the righteousness of Jesus shines eternally. It is written in John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Jesus is the Truth. Jesus is the true Savior. He is the true Way. He is the true Life. Jesus has received all our sins upon Himself by receiving baptism.
Where in the Scriptures Does It Say That?
People ask often; where in the Scriptures does it say that the sins of the world were passed over onto Jesus when He received His baptism. The baptism of Jesus and the laying on of hands of the Old Testament have the very same meaning. The Old Testament is the shadow and the promise, and the New Testament fulfills them all. Are they or are they not same? They are surely same.
Now when we read the Book of Joshua chapter 3, we can see that after Moses had died, Joshua become their new leader, and he led the Israelites further into the land of Canaan. The first challenge they faced on entering this land was to cross over the Jordan River safely. God spoke to Joshua regarding crossing the Jordan River. God promised, “The priests carrying the ark must put their feet in the Jordan River. Then the water which was flowing downstream shall stop suddenly and accumulate like a wall of water, and the ground will become completely dry, because the water that flows downward to the Dead Sea will be cut off completely. Then you shall enter the land of Canaan by walking over on this dry riverbed.”
So Joshua said to the priests, “Bear the ark on your shoulders and step into the Jordan River ahead of all the people.” When they stepped into the water, the water stopped flowing and accumulated in one place and stood still near the town of Adam. What does the ark in this account mean? That the ark stopped in the Jordan River, speaks to us of Jesus’ baptism, the Word who became flesh and dwelled amongst us.
Jesus is the God of the Word (John 1:1). Jesus came into this world in the age of the New Testament, and ended all the sins of this world by taking over all the sins of humankind upon His own body by receiving baptism from the last earthly High Priest namely, John the Baptist. He “thus” fulfilled the promise He made in the Old Testament. This is the meaning of this very event in the Jordan River. The event of the Jordan River in the Old Testament is this very event.
How does our Lord blot out the sins today? He blots out our sins by His Word. He ‘accounts for righteousness’ those who believe in the Word like Abraham did. It is salvation that atones for the sins of those who believe in His Word.
Jesus received baptism. It is written, “‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.” Brothers and sisters, did Jesus receive baptism or did he not receive it? He did indeed receive baptism. What does it mean that Jesus received baptism? It means that He took away all our sins upon Himself. Is this correct, or not? It is most certainly biblically correct. Then does this mean that the Lord did not take upon Himself the sins that we will commit in the future? All sins, every single sin was all included in the word “all righteousness,” which means that the Lord took all the sins of this world upon Himself. It is written, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” this means that the Lord fulfilled all righteousness.
Were you and I there when Jesus received baptism? Jesus fulfilled all righteousness of all mankind in the Jordan River about 2,000 years ago. Jesus took all our sins away even the sins of those who will be born in the future sufficiently by His baptism. Jesus swept away all the sins of the world and had them laid upon Himself perfectly without leaving one behind, and thereby made humankind sinless. Then do you still have sin even though Jesus swept away all these sins and carried them all on His head? No, you do not.
Our Jesus is the very Lord who took away even the sins of the future. He said to John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John the Baptist baptized Jesus; this means that the work of taking away all our sins was perfectly fulfilled without lacking. Thus, the work of Jesus taking all the sins at once and receiving the judgment on that Cross at once was fulfilled abundantly.
You will have received ‘the remission of sins’ if you truly believe that Jesus took even all your future sins away, that Jesus took away even the sins of all your descendants, that our Jesus took away even the sins of the last baby a certain woman would give birth to at the very end of this age, though we do not know when that time will be and how much longer the Earth will exist. It is clearly written, “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.”
Jesus indeed received baptism. And Jesus came up out from the water. This means that He was immersed under the water. He was baptized by total immersion. The word ‘baptism’ in Greek is “βάφτισμα” (baptisma), which means “to be immersed.” That is why the Baptist Church and other similar movements insist that Christians should infallibly receive baptism by total immersion. And His immersion signifies His death on the Cross. When Jesus was baptized after taking all the sins upon Himself and came back up out immediately from the water, the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove. Then God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This means that God had blotted out all the sins of the world sufficiently through His Son, in whom He is well pleased.
Now when we read the Book of Joshua chapter 3, we can see that after Moses had died, Joshua become their new leader, and he led the Israelites further into the land of Canaan. The first challenge they faced on entering this land was to cross over the Jordan River safely. God spoke to Joshua regarding crossing the Jordan River. God promised, “The priests carrying the ark must put their feet in the Jordan River. Then the water which was flowing downstream shall stop suddenly and accumulate like a wall of water, and the ground will become completely dry, because the water that flows downward to the Dead Sea will be cut off completely. Then you shall enter the land of Canaan by walking over on this dry riverbed.”
So Joshua said to the priests, “Bear the ark on your shoulders and step into the Jordan River ahead of all the people.” When they stepped into the water, the water stopped flowing and accumulated in one place and stood still near the town of Adam. What does the ark in this account mean? That the ark stopped in the Jordan River, speaks to us of Jesus’ baptism, the Word who became flesh and dwelled amongst us.
Jesus is the God of the Word (John 1:1). Jesus came into this world in the age of the New Testament, and ended all the sins of this world by taking over all the sins of humankind upon His own body by receiving baptism from the last earthly High Priest namely, John the Baptist. He “thus” fulfilled the promise He made in the Old Testament. This is the meaning of this very event in the Jordan River. The event of the Jordan River in the Old Testament is this very event.
How does our Lord blot out the sins today? He blots out our sins by His Word. He ‘accounts for righteousness’ those who believe in the Word like Abraham did. It is salvation that atones for the sins of those who believe in His Word.
Jesus received baptism. It is written, “‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.” Brothers and sisters, did Jesus receive baptism or did he not receive it? He did indeed receive baptism. What does it mean that Jesus received baptism? It means that He took away all our sins upon Himself. Is this correct, or not? It is most certainly biblically correct. Then does this mean that the Lord did not take upon Himself the sins that we will commit in the future? All sins, every single sin was all included in the word “all righteousness,” which means that the Lord took all the sins of this world upon Himself. It is written, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” this means that the Lord fulfilled all righteousness.
Were you and I there when Jesus received baptism? Jesus fulfilled all righteousness of all mankind in the Jordan River about 2,000 years ago. Jesus took all our sins away even the sins of those who will be born in the future sufficiently by His baptism. Jesus swept away all the sins of the world and had them laid upon Himself perfectly without leaving one behind, and thereby made humankind sinless. Then do you still have sin even though Jesus swept away all these sins and carried them all on His head? No, you do not.
Our Jesus is the very Lord who took away even the sins of the future. He said to John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John the Baptist baptized Jesus; this means that the work of taking away all our sins was perfectly fulfilled without lacking. Thus, the work of Jesus taking all the sins at once and receiving the judgment on that Cross at once was fulfilled abundantly.
You will have received ‘the remission of sins’ if you truly believe that Jesus took even all your future sins away, that Jesus took away even the sins of all your descendants, that our Jesus took away even the sins of the last baby a certain woman would give birth to at the very end of this age, though we do not know when that time will be and how much longer the Earth will exist. It is clearly written, “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.”
Jesus indeed received baptism. And Jesus came up out from the water. This means that He was immersed under the water. He was baptized by total immersion. The word ‘baptism’ in Greek is “βάφτισμα” (baptisma), which means “to be immersed.” That is why the Baptist Church and other similar movements insist that Christians should infallibly receive baptism by total immersion. And His immersion signifies His death on the Cross. When Jesus was baptized after taking all the sins upon Himself and came back up out immediately from the water, the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove. Then God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This means that God had blotted out all the sins of the world sufficiently through His Son, in whom He is well pleased.
While Walking to the Cross after Receiving His Baptism
After receiving His baptism, it took Jesus three years from that time until He was crucified on the Cross. He lived this public life for three full years. In the Gospel of John chapter 8 we see Jesus meeting a woman as an example who was caught in the very act of adultery. The Pharisees and the Scribes dragged this woman in front of Jesus accusing her. Each one them held a stone in one hand while wagging their fingers with the other saying, “Jesus, you have constantly said love, love and love. Now since you constantly talk about love, should we stone this adulterous woman to death or not? Tell us now what we should do.” Jesus then calmly stooped down and began writing on the ground, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And when He stood up after writing it once and said, “He who is without sin amongst you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Not only those who had stones in their hands, but also all peoples of this world who do not believe that Jesus received His baptism and died on the Cross are sinners. The Pharisees and Scribes did not believe in Jesus. How is it possible for anyone who does not believe in Jesus properly not to have any sins? They were just about to stone her like this, but Jesus pierced through the heart of the matter. He told them clearly, “He who is without sin amongst you, be the first one to throw a stone at her. You yourselves have sin and are sinners also. So then how can a sinner condemn another sinner to death?” When the Lord had clearly told them that anyone amongst them who was without sin was to throw the first stone, they recognizing this, slowly put down the stones and walked away, some saying that they had to go and cut down some wood for fire, while others said they had to go feed the cows, so like this her accusers walking away from the oldest to the youngest, as if nothing ever happened.
Jesus stooped down once more time and wrote on the ground, and then stood up again and said to the woman, “Neither do I condemn you.” What He was actually telling her that He also could not say that she had sin. Why was this? He was saying, “I took all your sins upon my own body by receiving my baptism for a sinner like you, because I knew that you would commit sins like this in this world. I have sins on my body not because I have committed any sin, but I am obliged to take these sins and receive the awful judgment to save a sinner just like you. I must receive this judgment from God the Father.” That is why our Lord was saying, “Woman, I also do not condemn you.”
We humans cannot but commit a number of the 12 kinds of sins listed in the Bible every day until we expire. Is this true or not? It is most certainly true. Are you very confident that you will not ever sin from now on? No, you are not. You cannot but commit sin because you are lacking. There is no way for you to not commit any sin until your very last breath. That’s the reason why our Lord fulfilled all righteousness. Jesus took all our sins without fail by receiving His baptism and made us sinless.
Jesus received His baptism that took all the sins of the entire humankind away. And as He came up out from the water, God the Father said, “My Son has blotted out all your sins. He is My Son whom I am well pleased. My Son in whom I am well pleased has never committed any sin before, and although My Son is your Creator and God and Lord, He became your very own Savior.” Therefore our God the Father lifted up Jesus to the highest place in this world. God lifted up His Son to the highest place. God made Him receive the greatest glory. God’s Son obeyed the will of God by blotting out the sins of all the people of this world, and received His baptism according to His will. That is why God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased.” Jesus carried all our sins upon Himself by receiving baptism and through this act, has saved us from all our sins.
So when Jesus received His baptism the heavens opened to Him and God the Father witnessed this personally by saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Dear Fellow believers, do you understand what this is saying to us? When Jesus received His baptism, He said to John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John the Baptist allowed Him. Do you believe that Jesus took all the sins of humankind including all your sins upon Himself by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist? Do you believe that the sins that were present in you since you were conceived in your mother’s womb and the sins you have committed from your birth until 10 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old, all the sins you have committed until now, have passed over onto Jesus? Although you don’t know what will happen to you in the future, do you believe that Jesus took upon Himself even the sins you will commit tomorrow, the sins of the day after tomorrow, the sins that you will commit until the moment of your death, the sins of your descendants, and all the sins of all the people of this world?
Jesus stooped down once more time and wrote on the ground, and then stood up again and said to the woman, “Neither do I condemn you.” What He was actually telling her that He also could not say that she had sin. Why was this? He was saying, “I took all your sins upon my own body by receiving my baptism for a sinner like you, because I knew that you would commit sins like this in this world. I have sins on my body not because I have committed any sin, but I am obliged to take these sins and receive the awful judgment to save a sinner just like you. I must receive this judgment from God the Father.” That is why our Lord was saying, “Woman, I also do not condemn you.”
We humans cannot but commit a number of the 12 kinds of sins listed in the Bible every day until we expire. Is this true or not? It is most certainly true. Are you very confident that you will not ever sin from now on? No, you are not. You cannot but commit sin because you are lacking. There is no way for you to not commit any sin until your very last breath. That’s the reason why our Lord fulfilled all righteousness. Jesus took all our sins without fail by receiving His baptism and made us sinless.
Jesus received His baptism that took all the sins of the entire humankind away. And as He came up out from the water, God the Father said, “My Son has blotted out all your sins. He is My Son whom I am well pleased. My Son in whom I am well pleased has never committed any sin before, and although My Son is your Creator and God and Lord, He became your very own Savior.” Therefore our God the Father lifted up Jesus to the highest place in this world. God lifted up His Son to the highest place. God made Him receive the greatest glory. God’s Son obeyed the will of God by blotting out the sins of all the people of this world, and received His baptism according to His will. That is why God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased.” Jesus carried all our sins upon Himself by receiving baptism and through this act, has saved us from all our sins.
So when Jesus received His baptism the heavens opened to Him and God the Father witnessed this personally by saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Dear Fellow believers, do you understand what this is saying to us? When Jesus received His baptism, He said to John the Baptist, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John the Baptist allowed Him. Do you believe that Jesus took all the sins of humankind including all your sins upon Himself by receiving His baptism from John the Baptist? Do you believe that the sins that were present in you since you were conceived in your mother’s womb and the sins you have committed from your birth until 10 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old, all the sins you have committed until now, have passed over onto Jesus? Although you don’t know what will happen to you in the future, do you believe that Jesus took upon Himself even the sins you will commit tomorrow, the sins of the day after tomorrow, the sins that you will commit until the moment of your death, the sins of your descendants, and all the sins of all the people of this world?
“Behold! The Lamb of God Who Takes Away the Sin of the World!”
Let’s look at the Word from the Gospel of John chapter 1 through to verse 29. It is 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!’” A day after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, many people gathered around John. And Jesus was walking past John the Baptist on the next day of His baptism. Then John the Baptist recognized Him and shouted out with a loud voice, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John the Baptist passed over the sins of this world onto Jesus the day before in the Jordan River. And on the very next day of Jesus baptism, when Jesus was walking past John, he witnessed aloud to the people saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He carried all the sins of the world. He is the very Son of God our Savior, the propitiation for all humanity. He is the Savior who has made atonement for all our sins.”
Dear Fellow believers, we must understand what ‘the sin of the world’ really is. We must understand what the sin of the world literally means exactly as it is written in the Word of God. The sins of the world are the sins we commit from the moment we were conceived in our mother’s womb until the moment we die; the sins we commit while we are breathing in this world until the moment we die. Though many people have not studied theology ‘based on the Scriptures’, they say the sins that one had while he was in his mother’s womb is the original sins and the wrongs that one has done while he was an immature little child after being born from his mother’s womb like crying, messing everywhere, and the transgressions he has done after coming into maturity are his personal sins. They try and divide it like this, but we must know that the Scriptures do not divide sin like this. Because God is great, He says that all the sins you have committed from the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb until the moment you die, are all the sins of the world, you need to latch onto this.
The sins of the world that Jesus carried are much different from our perspective of sin. Our perspective is so very narrow. Then, what does our God say? He just says ‘the sin of the world, as it is written’, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” If this be so, did Jesus take away the sins of the world, or did he not? He did indeed take away all the sins of the world. He did take the sins of the world away, did He not? It is imperative that we define the concept of this Word properly.
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Before I was truly born again, I interpreted this passage with my fleshly mind like this: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?” What sin of the world are you talking about when I have not even committed any sins of the future yet? So I interpreted it as “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away my original sin!” I interpreted it like this by myself and read it like that changing the Word of the Scriptures to suit my circumstances.
Therefore my sins could never be blotted out no matter how hard I tried to eradicate them. You might still be the same as I was, even if you received the remission of sins that you have committed until today, you will be a sinner again tomorrow when you commit sin again. That is why you have to receive the remission of sins again and again over and over again. It is just impossible to blot out all your sins that way. What then is the sin of the world? Are you or are you not a person of this world? You are indeed a person of this world? If not are you an alien? Even if there were aliens, they would also be the people of the world. We are the people who live in this world which God created from the beginning until the end.
Even the Apostles received salvation by believing in Jesus about 2,000 years ago. Abraham and David received the remission of sins by believing that Jesus would come and blot out all their sins. Isaiah the Prophet wrote, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4) and “For you have cast all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17). God the Father threw all our sins onto the back of His Son.
The people of the Old Testament received the remission of sins by faith, and the people of faith in the New Testament era also received the remission of sins by believing that Jesus took all their sins upon Himself by receiving baptism in the Jordan River and bearing all the judgment on the Cross. Now that almost 1900 years have passed since this great event, do you and I receive the remission of sins by believing in Jesus? Or do we receive the remission of sins by our own merits? We most certainly receive the remission of sins by believing in Jesus in the proper way. You and I also received the remission of sins by believing in Jesus and received our salvation from Jesus who came by the water, the blood and the Spirit.
It is written in the Gospel of John chapter 3:5, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” “The water and the Spirit” here means that Jesus received baptism; that the Sacred Spirit became a human being and took all our sins by receiving baptism; Jesus received judgment on the Cross; and Jesus who is God shed water and blood on the Cross.
The evidence of Jesus saving you and me completely; is the work of Jesus taking all our sins upon Himself when He received baptism, and His on the Cross was our death. His death was our death and He received baptism in order to save us from sins. Jesus came to this world as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Jesus came to this world 2,000 years ago and took away the sin of the world. He bore all these sins and received the full judgment on the Cross.
Let’s us think carefully about the very moment where Jesus took away the sin of the world. If the sins you committed belong to the sin of the world, did Jesus take away all the sins of the world, which includes all your sins, or did He not? He did indeed take away all the sins of the world... Did Jesus take away the sins of your grand children? He did indeed take away those sins. Did Jesus take away all the sins of our great grandson, his grandson, and all their descendants, all the sins of the people born in this world until the end of the world, the sins of all the races of the world, or did He not? He did indeed take away all those sins as well. Then do you or do you not have any sin? You do not have any more sin now.
Dear Fellow believers, we must understand what ‘the sin of the world’ really is. We must understand what the sin of the world literally means exactly as it is written in the Word of God. The sins of the world are the sins we commit from the moment we were conceived in our mother’s womb until the moment we die; the sins we commit while we are breathing in this world until the moment we die. Though many people have not studied theology ‘based on the Scriptures’, they say the sins that one had while he was in his mother’s womb is the original sins and the wrongs that one has done while he was an immature little child after being born from his mother’s womb like crying, messing everywhere, and the transgressions he has done after coming into maturity are his personal sins. They try and divide it like this, but we must know that the Scriptures do not divide sin like this. Because God is great, He says that all the sins you have committed from the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb until the moment you die, are all the sins of the world, you need to latch onto this.
The sins of the world that Jesus carried are much different from our perspective of sin. Our perspective is so very narrow. Then, what does our God say? He just says ‘the sin of the world, as it is written’, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” If this be so, did Jesus take away the sins of the world, or did he not? He did indeed take away all the sins of the world. He did take the sins of the world away, did He not? It is imperative that we define the concept of this Word properly.
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Before I was truly born again, I interpreted this passage with my fleshly mind like this: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?” What sin of the world are you talking about when I have not even committed any sins of the future yet? So I interpreted it as “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away my original sin!” I interpreted it like this by myself and read it like that changing the Word of the Scriptures to suit my circumstances.
Therefore my sins could never be blotted out no matter how hard I tried to eradicate them. You might still be the same as I was, even if you received the remission of sins that you have committed until today, you will be a sinner again tomorrow when you commit sin again. That is why you have to receive the remission of sins again and again over and over again. It is just impossible to blot out all your sins that way. What then is the sin of the world? Are you or are you not a person of this world? You are indeed a person of this world? If not are you an alien? Even if there were aliens, they would also be the people of the world. We are the people who live in this world which God created from the beginning until the end.
Even the Apostles received salvation by believing in Jesus about 2,000 years ago. Abraham and David received the remission of sins by believing that Jesus would come and blot out all their sins. Isaiah the Prophet wrote, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4) and “For you have cast all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17). God the Father threw all our sins onto the back of His Son.
The people of the Old Testament received the remission of sins by faith, and the people of faith in the New Testament era also received the remission of sins by believing that Jesus took all their sins upon Himself by receiving baptism in the Jordan River and bearing all the judgment on the Cross. Now that almost 1900 years have passed since this great event, do you and I receive the remission of sins by believing in Jesus? Or do we receive the remission of sins by our own merits? We most certainly receive the remission of sins by believing in Jesus in the proper way. You and I also received the remission of sins by believing in Jesus and received our salvation from Jesus who came by the water, the blood and the Spirit.
It is written in the Gospel of John chapter 3:5, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” “The water and the Spirit” here means that Jesus received baptism; that the Sacred Spirit became a human being and took all our sins by receiving baptism; Jesus received judgment on the Cross; and Jesus who is God shed water and blood on the Cross.
The evidence of Jesus saving you and me completely; is the work of Jesus taking all our sins upon Himself when He received baptism, and His on the Cross was our death. His death was our death and He received baptism in order to save us from sins. Jesus came to this world as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Jesus came to this world 2,000 years ago and took away the sin of the world. He bore all these sins and received the full judgment on the Cross.
Let’s us think carefully about the very moment where Jesus took away the sin of the world. If the sins you committed belong to the sin of the world, did Jesus take away all the sins of the world, which includes all your sins, or did He not? He did indeed take away all the sins of the world... Did Jesus take away the sins of your grand children? He did indeed take away those sins. Did Jesus take away all the sins of our great grandson, his grandson, and all their descendants, all the sins of the people born in this world until the end of the world, the sins of all the races of the world, or did He not? He did indeed take away all those sins as well. Then do you or do you not have any sin? You do not have any more sin now.
God Fulfilled All Righteousness
It is written, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). The wages of sin is death, but despite this Jesus took all our sins upon Himself. Therefore the only thing left for Him to do was to die on the Cross. He received the judgment in our place according to God’s law that declares; the wages of sin is death. Did Jesus die on the Cross, or did He not? He did indeed die on the Cross.
He cried out hanging on that Cross, “It is finished” just before He breathed His last breath. Jesus finished it all. Jesus said, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” when He was baptized – and confirmed this by saying, “It is finished” on the Cross. Would there be anything lacking in His complete salvation? Certainly not. And would we have sin if we commit sin again in the future? No, we would not. Should you commit sin as you please just because you do not have sin anymore? No, you should not. Human beings are committing sin even if they try hard not to commit sin. John the Baptist shouted out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Who was this Lamb of God? Wasn’t it Jesus? It was indeed Jesus, and He was the Lord who took away the sins of the world.
If this be true then do you now believe in Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus took away all the sins of the world and atoned for all of them? Do you believe that all our sins passed over onto Jesus when He received baptism in the Jordan River? You must believe clearly in these two very important things: the water and the blood. The First Epistle of John says clearly that the water, the blood and the Spirit are all one. God has saved us by the water, the blood and the Spirit. Jesus is God of the Spirit originally. The Spirit is God, and the Spirit put on human flesh and came to this world and received baptism. He took all our sins upon Himself. And He shed water and the blood on the Cross. He received the full judgment. He through this saved you and me completely.
Should we up to now have believed without having a clear understanding of Jesus complete salvation, and if we are not sure that we have received the remission of sins, then we have learned incorrectly and our faith in Jesus is wrong. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verse 15, Jesus said just before He received baptism, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus took all our sins upon Himself by being baptized and then carried all our sins to the Cross. This is Biblical Truth. All our sins were passed over onto Jesus. Does today’s Scripture passage say that all our sins were passed over onto Jesus or not? It does indeed say that all our sins were passed over onto Him. The meaning of the original text says exactly that.
The word “baptism” means “to bury, to immerse, to wash.” If the Scriptures say that Jesus was buried when He was baptized, if it says that Jesus died because of all our sins, if it says that Jesus received baptism in order to cleanse us from all our sins, and if it says Jesus received baptism for that purpose, then we just have to look at the context of the Scripture passage and understand this very reason Jesus received baptism. The saying “for thus” means Jesus made all the people of this world sinless by taking all the sins of all humanity onto Himself by receiving baptism from John the Baptist, the representative of humankind, who was the greatest amongst those born of a woman. The baptism of Jesus is the very evidence that He took away the sins of all the people of the world.
He cried out hanging on that Cross, “It is finished” just before He breathed His last breath. Jesus finished it all. Jesus said, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” when He was baptized – and confirmed this by saying, “It is finished” on the Cross. Would there be anything lacking in His complete salvation? Certainly not. And would we have sin if we commit sin again in the future? No, we would not. Should you commit sin as you please just because you do not have sin anymore? No, you should not. Human beings are committing sin even if they try hard not to commit sin. John the Baptist shouted out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Who was this Lamb of God? Wasn’t it Jesus? It was indeed Jesus, and He was the Lord who took away the sins of the world.
If this be true then do you now believe in Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus took away all the sins of the world and atoned for all of them? Do you believe that all our sins passed over onto Jesus when He received baptism in the Jordan River? You must believe clearly in these two very important things: the water and the blood. The First Epistle of John says clearly that the water, the blood and the Spirit are all one. God has saved us by the water, the blood and the Spirit. Jesus is God of the Spirit originally. The Spirit is God, and the Spirit put on human flesh and came to this world and received baptism. He took all our sins upon Himself. And He shed water and the blood on the Cross. He received the full judgment. He through this saved you and me completely.
Should we up to now have believed without having a clear understanding of Jesus complete salvation, and if we are not sure that we have received the remission of sins, then we have learned incorrectly and our faith in Jesus is wrong. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3 verse 15, Jesus said just before He received baptism, “For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus took all our sins upon Himself by being baptized and then carried all our sins to the Cross. This is Biblical Truth. All our sins were passed over onto Jesus. Does today’s Scripture passage say that all our sins were passed over onto Jesus or not? It does indeed say that all our sins were passed over onto Him. The meaning of the original text says exactly that.
The word “baptism” means “to bury, to immerse, to wash.” If the Scriptures say that Jesus was buried when He was baptized, if it says that Jesus died because of all our sins, if it says that Jesus received baptism in order to cleanse us from all our sins, and if it says Jesus received baptism for that purpose, then we just have to look at the context of the Scripture passage and understand this very reason Jesus received baptism. The saying “for thus” means Jesus made all the people of this world sinless by taking all the sins of all humanity onto Himself by receiving baptism from John the Baptist, the representative of humankind, who was the greatest amongst those born of a woman. The baptism of Jesus is the very evidence that He took away the sins of all the people of the world.
Did Jesus Receive Baptism Because He Was Bored?
Do you think Jesus received baptism just because He had nothing else to do for the initiation of His ministry or because He wanted to show off His humbleness? There was nothing not important in all the works Jesus did in this world. They are all important. Jesus received baptism and died on the Cross in order to save you and me, and to deliver us from all sins. Where in the Scripture passages does God say that Jesus just received the baptism because He is humble or that He received baptism to make an example of Himself to us?
If one asks for the reason why Jesus received baptism by ‘laying on of hands,’ then my answer will be; to bear all the sins of the world on His body. “For thus” in Matthew 3:15 tells us the very reason. It is explaining the reason to us. It is saying that Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist and John the Baptist baptized Jesus in order to fulfill all righteousness; it is fitting for Jesus to receive baptism in order to fulfill all righteousness; and it was just and proper for Jesus to blot out all our sins by receiving baptism. Is this true or not true? It is obvious Biblical Truth. If that is what the Word of the Holy Spirit means, then you must believe in that.
What was the first step of Jesus’ public life? It is Him receiving baptism. Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist. Why did He receive baptism? Jesus received baptism in order to take all our sins upon Himself, to take all the sins of the world upon Himself and make us sinless by taking away our sins. Why did Jesus die on that Cross? He died on the Cross to receive the full judgment in our place, and thereby to atone for all our sins. Dear fellow believers, is this true or not? It is obviously true. But sadly most Christians these days refute this, and question this truth by saying; where in the Word does it says the sins were passed over to Jesus when He received baptism.
It is fitting that Jesus received baptism in order to blot out all our sins. Do you also believe like that? Do you or do you not have any sin? There is no way for you to have sin. There is no way for you to have sin if you know and believe in Jesus correctly. However, most Christians today still believe firmly that they have only received the remission of their past sins, and try very hard to receive the remission of their present and future sins, by offering prayers of repentance every day and by trying to live uprightly. In short, they try very hard to reach sanctification by living a virtuous life. And furthermore it becomes even more difficult to be sanctified as people grow older. People become more impatient and their temperament also becomes worse as time goes by.
Then what in the world is sanctification? Do the Scriptures say that we go to the Kingdom of Heaven with our sins disappearing while we try to become sanctified? It is written, “For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:17). We become the righteous by faith and also live in this world by faith. The righteousness of God manifests itself in the gospel, and Jesus is the Lord of the gospel. To believe in ‘righteousness’ is to believe that God blotted out all our sins completely and that Jesus made us perfectly sinless by receiving baptism including the judgment on the Cross. Do you believe like this? If you do then you have become ‘the righteous’ at once by faith.
The Apostle Paul said, “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). And it is written in the Book of Isaiah, “Come now, and let us reason together, Says the LORD,
‘Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool’” (Isaiah 1:18).
Trying to receive the remission of sins every day is a mere worldly religion. We have been made sinless when we believe that Jesus received baptism to bear all our sins. Is this true or not true? If Jesus had not received baptism, there would be no way for us to be without sin. Can the debt be paid off just by declaring that it is paid off without someone actually paying it off? Is Jesus the Lord and Savior only in mere words? Jesus did not save us with words only. Jesus, God, indeed put on human flesh and came to this world. He lowered Himself. He came to this world in human form and received baptism in order to save all humanity from their sins. He did not say this just with lips service. The Lord took all our sins upon Himself and received baptism on the Cross in order to deliver us from death. Jesus was crucified to death on that Cross for the sins of the world. Therefore, the Lord did not become our Savior just in mere words, but He really became our Savior and Lord. Jesus is our Savior and Lord.
If one asks for the reason why Jesus received baptism by ‘laying on of hands,’ then my answer will be; to bear all the sins of the world on His body. “For thus” in Matthew 3:15 tells us the very reason. It is explaining the reason to us. It is saying that Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist and John the Baptist baptized Jesus in order to fulfill all righteousness; it is fitting for Jesus to receive baptism in order to fulfill all righteousness; and it was just and proper for Jesus to blot out all our sins by receiving baptism. Is this true or not true? It is obvious Biblical Truth. If that is what the Word of the Holy Spirit means, then you must believe in that.
What was the first step of Jesus’ public life? It is Him receiving baptism. Jesus received baptism from John the Baptist. Why did He receive baptism? Jesus received baptism in order to take all our sins upon Himself, to take all the sins of the world upon Himself and make us sinless by taking away our sins. Why did Jesus die on that Cross? He died on the Cross to receive the full judgment in our place, and thereby to atone for all our sins. Dear fellow believers, is this true or not? It is obviously true. But sadly most Christians these days refute this, and question this truth by saying; where in the Word does it says the sins were passed over to Jesus when He received baptism.
It is fitting that Jesus received baptism in order to blot out all our sins. Do you also believe like that? Do you or do you not have any sin? There is no way for you to have sin. There is no way for you to have sin if you know and believe in Jesus correctly. However, most Christians today still believe firmly that they have only received the remission of their past sins, and try very hard to receive the remission of their present and future sins, by offering prayers of repentance every day and by trying to live uprightly. In short, they try very hard to reach sanctification by living a virtuous life. And furthermore it becomes even more difficult to be sanctified as people grow older. People become more impatient and their temperament also becomes worse as time goes by.
Then what in the world is sanctification? Do the Scriptures say that we go to the Kingdom of Heaven with our sins disappearing while we try to become sanctified? It is written, “For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:17). We become the righteous by faith and also live in this world by faith. The righteousness of God manifests itself in the gospel, and Jesus is the Lord of the gospel. To believe in ‘righteousness’ is to believe that God blotted out all our sins completely and that Jesus made us perfectly sinless by receiving baptism including the judgment on the Cross. Do you believe like this? If you do then you have become ‘the righteous’ at once by faith.
The Apostle Paul said, “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). And it is written in the Book of Isaiah, “Come now, and let us reason together, Says the LORD,
‘Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool’” (Isaiah 1:18).
Trying to receive the remission of sins every day is a mere worldly religion. We have been made sinless when we believe that Jesus received baptism to bear all our sins. Is this true or not true? If Jesus had not received baptism, there would be no way for us to be without sin. Can the debt be paid off just by declaring that it is paid off without someone actually paying it off? Is Jesus the Lord and Savior only in mere words? Jesus did not save us with words only. Jesus, God, indeed put on human flesh and came to this world. He lowered Himself. He came to this world in human form and received baptism in order to save all humanity from their sins. He did not say this just with lips service. The Lord took all our sins upon Himself and received baptism on the Cross in order to deliver us from death. Jesus was crucified to death on that Cross for the sins of the world. Therefore, the Lord did not become our Savior just in mere words, but He really became our Savior and Lord. Jesus is our Savior and Lord.
The Story of the Electric Pole
I am going to tell a funny story. There were brothers long ago who were very ignorant. The older brother was working far away in a big city to earn money. As the Thanksgiving Day was drawing near he returned home and met his younger brother. It had been a long time since the brothers climbed the hill at the rear of their home, so they decided to do this since it was a seasonal holiday. There were not many electric poles there before the older brother went away, but since then many electric poles were planted during this time.
Anyway there were many signs posted on each electric pole that said, “Beware of wild fires. Check the fire extinguisher regularly. Beware of fire day and night.” But both these brothers were illiterate. They just recognized the black words as the writing and the white background as the linen. These brothers did not know the meaning of these warning signs.
There were many brush fires in that mountain and the county chief was in danger of losing his job if any fire occurred again. Since wild fires were so prevalent in such a dry autumn season, they had posted these signs everywhere. Now that his older brother came back from a big city clothed in a nice suit with a tie and shiny shoes, the younger brother thought his older brother was just so great. The younger brother thought that his older brother would know the words on the banners since he came back from a great city. So while they were going up, the younger brother asked his older brother, “Big brother, what does those words say over there? What does it say on the banner posted on that electric pole?” “Beware of Fire” was written on that banner.
But, the older brother was also illiterate and he did not know anything either. He had never learned anything and he had never even gone to the entrance gate of any elementary school.
But because the older brother had gone to a big city for years and just came back, the older brother seemed great in the eyes of this younger brother, although the older brother might not seem so great to the other people. In his younger brother’s eyes, the older brother seemed like a great person who knew everything all the time, who did not lack anything, and who had powerful fists. The older brother actually had pride in everything. So, when the younger brother asked the older brother, “Older brother, what does that say?” The older brother looked at it arrogantly, but he could not understand it. He was thinking, “What can you and I honestly know when our mother and father did not even send us to any elementary school?” The older brother looked at the sign and slowly counted the words. The banner said, “Beware of Fire” and it had three words. Usually people who are illiterate have quick wits instead, and so did the older brother. Then the older brother told the younger brother, “Younger brother, repeat after me. It says ‘The electric pole.’ This banner says that it is an electric pole.” The younger brother thought, “Wow. My older brother’s great! I am ashamed because I have not learned to read and write, but I should learn this word ‘The electric pole’ now that my brother is telling me so accurately.” He counted the words and it was exactly matching the words, “The electric pole.”
Then as they went on their way something else appeared. This time the sign said, “Be careful of fires.” So the younger brother asked the older brother again what this sign meant as it had four words now. He asked, “Older brother, what does this say?” The older brother thought, “Oh that? It said, ‘The electric pole again.’” He counted the words and it fitted perfectly. He told his younger brother arrogantly, “Younger brother, repeat what I say. “The electric pole again.” Do you understand? You saw the electric pole before, right? So it’s here again. Therefore it says ‘The electric pole again.’ Is this correct or not?” The younger brother was feeling great and thought, “Wow. My older brother is fantastic.” And they kept going up saying, “The electric pole again,” “The electric pole again,” “The electric pole again,” and “The electric pole again,” until the next electric pole appeared.
As they kept going up, there was another electric pole and another banner. What did the banner say this time? It had five letters that said “Beware of fire, fire, fire.” What could he do now since he had to say something relevant to “The electric pole” to make it consistent? So the older brother thought carefully and said, “The electric pole repeatedly again,” since the electric pole kept appearing repeatedly again. He told the younger brother, “Younger brother, that says ‘The electric pole repeatedly again.’” The younger brother counted the words with his fingers and thought, “‘The electric pole repeatedly again’ is exactly right. Wow. My brother is great.”
So they kept going up and another electric pole appeared. What appeared on the electric pole this time? It said “Beware of fire at night and day,” and the older brother told the younger brother, “The electric pole repeatedly again and again.”
Of course this is a fabricated story. But this reminds us of all the false teacher’s preposterous teachings that one receives the remission of sins by just offering prayers of repentance. The spiritually blind pastors teach their congregation dogmatically without knowing the Truth. In their believers’ eyes these spiritually blind pastors seem like great men of faith who know everything. Believers ask such pastors, “Pastor, what should I do since I have sin? I offer up my prayers of repentance every day because I have sin and I try very hard not to commit any sin, but I still have sin. So, what should I do about it?” Then these false pastors tell them, “Repent,” and when that is not enough, they tell them to practice prayer and fasting for many days, and if that is not enough, they tell them to seek God diligently with prayers and fasting for forty days. They keep changing the title of these prayers, and are always asking their congregation to offer prayers of repentance.
They say, “It’s because you have not offered prayers of repentance sufficiently. It’s because you haven’t practiced prayers and fasting as your daily sacrifice of worship. It’s because you have not done all night prayers sufficiently.” So they pray through the night, offer prayers of repentance all night on Friday, come early to the Sunday morning worship service and offer prayers of repentance for thirty minutes before the worship service, offer prayers of repentance after the worship service, offer prayers of repentance again during the evening worship service, offer prayers of repentance during the early dawn prayer meeting, and they are all stuck together in these prayers of repentance.
The doctrine of sanctification has its birth from these teachings. The doctrine of sanctification says that a person changes gradually and that a person does not instantly become sinless just because He believes in Jesus. But the Scriptures tell us plainly that Jesus blotted out all our sins at once. Jesus did it all at once! But they say that Jesus received the baptism because He was a humble man. This is due to their not knowing the reason why Jesus received baptism. But tell me, what humbleness? Did Jesus come to this world to show off His humbleness? No, He did not. After graduating from theological seminaries, so-called pastors and ministers teach their congregation to just offer prayers of repentance without any reason although they themselves have not yet received the remission of sins.
These false pastors have become the shepherds of your faith. This is a matter of life and death. I say it again; this is a matter of life and death. To people who are spiritually illiterate, such false pastors always teach them what is written on the banners, “The electric pole,” but these literate people would say, “No, you are wrong. How does that say ‘The electric pole’? It says, ‘Beware of fire.’ And how does that say ‘The electric pole again’? It says, ‘Beware of brush fire.’ How does that say, “The electric pole repeatedly again and again’? It says, ‘Beware of fire at night and day.’” So like this these religious leaders in Christianity apply the doctrine of prayers of repentance to their believers unconditionally for thousands of years. And they just keep oppressing them with the Law saying, “Haven’t you committed sins during the past week? Let’s offer prayers of repentance before we begin the worship service.” They urge their depressed believers to offer prayers of repentance every time they gather together.
Who is Jesus? Jesus washed Peter’s feet. Why did Jesus wash Peter’s feet? Jesus washed Peter’s feet so that he would not be deceived by the Devil. It is written in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 21, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It says the water is the antitype that now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is this antitype? It means something that is foreshadowed by or identified with an earlier symbol or type, such as a figure in the New Testament who has a counterpart in the Old Testament. In short, it means the real substance itself.
Jesus has taken all our sins onto His body by receiving baptism, so His dying on the Cross was the actual judgment for our sins. The water of Jesus is the antitype which now saves us, that is, His baptism; and you and I actually received the remission of our sins by believing that Jesus took all our sins by receiving baptism.
Therefore these two ministries of Jesus have fulfilled the atonement for our sins: 1 John 5:5-7 tells us that it was completed by the water and the blood. It is telling us that it is not only by the water or only by the blood, but it was fulfilled by the water and the blood and the Spirit: Jesus the true God came to this world in human flesh and received baptism and received the full judgment on the Cross, so that He could give the authority for us to become His children, to all those who truly believe in this. Is this recorded in the Scriptures, or is it not? It is indeed clearly recorded in the Scriptures.
Now let’s all read 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 22-25 together, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because
‘All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the LORD endures forever.’
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.”
Dear fellow believers, is ‘the Word’ in the above passage the gospel or not? It refers to the gospel. This is the very gospel that saves us. Did God’s Word state that He saved us by receiving the baptism, or not? It did indeed say this. You have reached salvation if you believe in this Word. Do you believe? You have been born again not by seeds that have become rotten, and not by emotions, and not even by kind of will of our own. Then how have we become born again? We have been born again by the Word. We have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through God’s Word that lives and abides forever. And this Word is always with us. It says that God’s Word has saved us completely.
It is written, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The Word of God says that the Lord has indeed saved us by the water, that is, Jesus’ baptism and His blood of the Cross. We receive salvation by believing in the Word. Do you believe in the Word?
Let’s look at the Book of Titus chapter 3 verses 5-7: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
It is written here in chapter 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration.” This ‘regeneration’ means being truly born again. The Lord made us born again as new and righteous saints because He cleansed all our sins by His baptism. Jesus cleansed all our sins completely by His baptism. God has made us new because it is written, “Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” God has made you ‘the righteous.’ God has made everyone a righteous person before Him. Believing in the righteousness of God is the very salvation. Believing in the righteousness of God rather than boasting of one’s own righteousness – is true salvation.
Let’s look at the Word from the Book of Hebrews chapter 10, starting from verse 9 to 18: “Then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 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. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.”
It says in verse 18, “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin,” and it means further that there is no need for us to still offer the sacrifice for our sins. Jesus the Son of God came to this world to perform the will of God. The Scriptures said, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Jesus received baptism in our place and died on the Cross in order to make us sinless. It is also written, “He takes away the first that He may establish the second” (Hebrews 10:9). True sanctification could not be fulfilled by the Law, by offering prayers of repentance, by human efforts, by good deeds and by any kind of human will. It could never be fulfilled even by resolving to gain it at the risk of your own life. But Jesus personally fulfilled this true sanctification.
He takes away the first sacrifice because sanctification could not be reached by the Law, by good works and by any human effort. So what did He do? Jesus made us ‘sanctified’ by His salvation. It is written, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” “We have been sanctified” means that we have received the remission of sins. We have indeed received it. This means, “By that will Jesus Christ blotted out all our sins at once and we who believe have received salvation at once by faith through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” Dear fellow believers, have you received it yet? Will you receive it? Or have you received it? You have received it if you just believe in this gospel Truth.
Dear fellow believers, you had sin before didn’t you? But, that was not true salvation. God called workers into His vineyard and entrusted them with various tasks, and there were some who came at 9 in the morning and some others at noon, and still others came even at 5pm, when the work was almost over. But what happened to them all. They all received the same wages. Dear fellow believers, whether we started believing in Jesus when we were one year old, when we were in our mother’s womb, when we were twenty years old, when we were sixty years old; it’s true meaning is that the Lord made us believe in Jesus to make us receive this very one thing, ‘true salvation’. Whether we have believed in Jesus for tens and hundreds of years, that can never be the righteousness before the presence of God. He has saved us perfectly once and for all. We have received salvation by believing that Our Lord saved us completely. Dear fellow believers, I really want you to believe in this.
Did Christ offer up one eternal sacrifice for sins, or did he not? Jesus Christ took all the sins of the world by receiving baptism and carried them to the Cross. And He died on the Cross after crying out “It is finished.” He has fulfilled all righteousness once and for all. In three days after dying on the Cross, Jesus was resurrected and witnessed for 40 days, and He now sits at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. He therefore does not work anymore as He has now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He no longer does the work of blotting out sins. He does not do the work of blotting out sins anymore because He blotted out all the sins at once.
We now must do the work from our human standpoint. What kind of work should we be doing? We must do the work of believing. We receive salvation from God now by believing in the salvation Jesus fulfilled for us once for all. It is by faith! Dear fellow believers, do you believe? Jesus cannot give you the remission of sins every day. Trying to receive the remission of sins every day is the very same thing as crucifying Jesus on the Cross every single day. If you say that you still have sin even after believing in Jesus, you are in fact insulting Him. This is the sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.
It is written, “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.” Now, have you received the remission of your sins? Do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Do you or do you not have any sin then? Now I want you to think deeply about this. Do you think you have sin, or not? You do not have sin, agree? Do you or do you not have sin in your heart? You do not have any trace of sin in your heart. How can you have sin when all your sins have been passed over onto Jesus? How can you have sins when they have all been passed over? This is the reality.
After the day I first believed in the remission of sins, after believing that my sins have been passed over onto Jesus by His baptism, that Jesus died on the Cross, that He died in my place, and that He was resurrected in my place; then the Lord God also said to me, “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” Then, what is God’s law? It is the law of love. It is the law that says, “I have saved you.” So I now profess, “Lord, You have saved me through the water and the blood.” Do you also believe this in your heart? It says that God will record this in their minds. Is this then recorded in your heart? This is the primitive gospel. I want you to defeat this world and receive salvation by believing in this very gospel.
Witnessing the water of baptism Jesus received and His blood of the Cross and the Lord, who was resurrected from death as our Lord, is the primitive or original gospel. The only faith that can defeat this world is the faith of believing in this primitive or original gospel.
Anyway there were many signs posted on each electric pole that said, “Beware of wild fires. Check the fire extinguisher regularly. Beware of fire day and night.” But both these brothers were illiterate. They just recognized the black words as the writing and the white background as the linen. These brothers did not know the meaning of these warning signs.
There were many brush fires in that mountain and the county chief was in danger of losing his job if any fire occurred again. Since wild fires were so prevalent in such a dry autumn season, they had posted these signs everywhere. Now that his older brother came back from a big city clothed in a nice suit with a tie and shiny shoes, the younger brother thought his older brother was just so great. The younger brother thought that his older brother would know the words on the banners since he came back from a great city. So while they were going up, the younger brother asked his older brother, “Big brother, what does those words say over there? What does it say on the banner posted on that electric pole?” “Beware of Fire” was written on that banner.
But, the older brother was also illiterate and he did not know anything either. He had never learned anything and he had never even gone to the entrance gate of any elementary school.
But because the older brother had gone to a big city for years and just came back, the older brother seemed great in the eyes of this younger brother, although the older brother might not seem so great to the other people. In his younger brother’s eyes, the older brother seemed like a great person who knew everything all the time, who did not lack anything, and who had powerful fists. The older brother actually had pride in everything. So, when the younger brother asked the older brother, “Older brother, what does that say?” The older brother looked at it arrogantly, but he could not understand it. He was thinking, “What can you and I honestly know when our mother and father did not even send us to any elementary school?” The older brother looked at the sign and slowly counted the words. The banner said, “Beware of Fire” and it had three words. Usually people who are illiterate have quick wits instead, and so did the older brother. Then the older brother told the younger brother, “Younger brother, repeat after me. It says ‘The electric pole.’ This banner says that it is an electric pole.” The younger brother thought, “Wow. My older brother’s great! I am ashamed because I have not learned to read and write, but I should learn this word ‘The electric pole’ now that my brother is telling me so accurately.” He counted the words and it was exactly matching the words, “The electric pole.”
Then as they went on their way something else appeared. This time the sign said, “Be careful of fires.” So the younger brother asked the older brother again what this sign meant as it had four words now. He asked, “Older brother, what does this say?” The older brother thought, “Oh that? It said, ‘The electric pole again.’” He counted the words and it fitted perfectly. He told his younger brother arrogantly, “Younger brother, repeat what I say. “The electric pole again.” Do you understand? You saw the electric pole before, right? So it’s here again. Therefore it says ‘The electric pole again.’ Is this correct or not?” The younger brother was feeling great and thought, “Wow. My older brother is fantastic.” And they kept going up saying, “The electric pole again,” “The electric pole again,” “The electric pole again,” and “The electric pole again,” until the next electric pole appeared.
As they kept going up, there was another electric pole and another banner. What did the banner say this time? It had five letters that said “Beware of fire, fire, fire.” What could he do now since he had to say something relevant to “The electric pole” to make it consistent? So the older brother thought carefully and said, “The electric pole repeatedly again,” since the electric pole kept appearing repeatedly again. He told the younger brother, “Younger brother, that says ‘The electric pole repeatedly again.’” The younger brother counted the words with his fingers and thought, “‘The electric pole repeatedly again’ is exactly right. Wow. My brother is great.”
So they kept going up and another electric pole appeared. What appeared on the electric pole this time? It said “Beware of fire at night and day,” and the older brother told the younger brother, “The electric pole repeatedly again and again.”
Of course this is a fabricated story. But this reminds us of all the false teacher’s preposterous teachings that one receives the remission of sins by just offering prayers of repentance. The spiritually blind pastors teach their congregation dogmatically without knowing the Truth. In their believers’ eyes these spiritually blind pastors seem like great men of faith who know everything. Believers ask such pastors, “Pastor, what should I do since I have sin? I offer up my prayers of repentance every day because I have sin and I try very hard not to commit any sin, but I still have sin. So, what should I do about it?” Then these false pastors tell them, “Repent,” and when that is not enough, they tell them to practice prayer and fasting for many days, and if that is not enough, they tell them to seek God diligently with prayers and fasting for forty days. They keep changing the title of these prayers, and are always asking their congregation to offer prayers of repentance.
They say, “It’s because you have not offered prayers of repentance sufficiently. It’s because you haven’t practiced prayers and fasting as your daily sacrifice of worship. It’s because you have not done all night prayers sufficiently.” So they pray through the night, offer prayers of repentance all night on Friday, come early to the Sunday morning worship service and offer prayers of repentance for thirty minutes before the worship service, offer prayers of repentance after the worship service, offer prayers of repentance again during the evening worship service, offer prayers of repentance during the early dawn prayer meeting, and they are all stuck together in these prayers of repentance.
The doctrine of sanctification has its birth from these teachings. The doctrine of sanctification says that a person changes gradually and that a person does not instantly become sinless just because He believes in Jesus. But the Scriptures tell us plainly that Jesus blotted out all our sins at once. Jesus did it all at once! But they say that Jesus received the baptism because He was a humble man. This is due to their not knowing the reason why Jesus received baptism. But tell me, what humbleness? Did Jesus come to this world to show off His humbleness? No, He did not. After graduating from theological seminaries, so-called pastors and ministers teach their congregation to just offer prayers of repentance without any reason although they themselves have not yet received the remission of sins.
These false pastors have become the shepherds of your faith. This is a matter of life and death. I say it again; this is a matter of life and death. To people who are spiritually illiterate, such false pastors always teach them what is written on the banners, “The electric pole,” but these literate people would say, “No, you are wrong. How does that say ‘The electric pole’? It says, ‘Beware of fire.’ And how does that say ‘The electric pole again’? It says, ‘Beware of brush fire.’ How does that say, “The electric pole repeatedly again and again’? It says, ‘Beware of fire at night and day.’” So like this these religious leaders in Christianity apply the doctrine of prayers of repentance to their believers unconditionally for thousands of years. And they just keep oppressing them with the Law saying, “Haven’t you committed sins during the past week? Let’s offer prayers of repentance before we begin the worship service.” They urge their depressed believers to offer prayers of repentance every time they gather together.
Who is Jesus? Jesus washed Peter’s feet. Why did Jesus wash Peter’s feet? Jesus washed Peter’s feet so that he would not be deceived by the Devil. It is written in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 21, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It says the water is the antitype that now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is this antitype? It means something that is foreshadowed by or identified with an earlier symbol or type, such as a figure in the New Testament who has a counterpart in the Old Testament. In short, it means the real substance itself.
Jesus has taken all our sins onto His body by receiving baptism, so His dying on the Cross was the actual judgment for our sins. The water of Jesus is the antitype which now saves us, that is, His baptism; and you and I actually received the remission of our sins by believing that Jesus took all our sins by receiving baptism.
Therefore these two ministries of Jesus have fulfilled the atonement for our sins: 1 John 5:5-7 tells us that it was completed by the water and the blood. It is telling us that it is not only by the water or only by the blood, but it was fulfilled by the water and the blood and the Spirit: Jesus the true God came to this world in human flesh and received baptism and received the full judgment on the Cross, so that He could give the authority for us to become His children, to all those who truly believe in this. Is this recorded in the Scriptures, or is it not? It is indeed clearly recorded in the Scriptures.
Now let’s all read 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 22-25 together, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because
‘All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the LORD endures forever.’
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.”
Dear fellow believers, is ‘the Word’ in the above passage the gospel or not? It refers to the gospel. This is the very gospel that saves us. Did God’s Word state that He saved us by receiving the baptism, or not? It did indeed say this. You have reached salvation if you believe in this Word. Do you believe? You have been born again not by seeds that have become rotten, and not by emotions, and not even by kind of will of our own. Then how have we become born again? We have been born again by the Word. We have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through God’s Word that lives and abides forever. And this Word is always with us. It says that God’s Word has saved us completely.
It is written, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The Word of God says that the Lord has indeed saved us by the water, that is, Jesus’ baptism and His blood of the Cross. We receive salvation by believing in the Word. Do you believe in the Word?
Let’s look at the Book of Titus chapter 3 verses 5-7: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
It is written here in chapter 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration.” This ‘regeneration’ means being truly born again. The Lord made us born again as new and righteous saints because He cleansed all our sins by His baptism. Jesus cleansed all our sins completely by His baptism. God has made us new because it is written, “Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” God has made you ‘the righteous.’ God has made everyone a righteous person before Him. Believing in the righteousness of God is the very salvation. Believing in the righteousness of God rather than boasting of one’s own righteousness – is true salvation.
Let’s look at the Word from the Book of Hebrews chapter 10, starting from verse 9 to 18: “Then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 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. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.”
It says in verse 18, “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin,” and it means further that there is no need for us to still offer the sacrifice for our sins. Jesus the Son of God came to this world to perform the will of God. The Scriptures said, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Jesus received baptism in our place and died on the Cross in order to make us sinless. It is also written, “He takes away the first that He may establish the second” (Hebrews 10:9). True sanctification could not be fulfilled by the Law, by offering prayers of repentance, by human efforts, by good deeds and by any kind of human will. It could never be fulfilled even by resolving to gain it at the risk of your own life. But Jesus personally fulfilled this true sanctification.
He takes away the first sacrifice because sanctification could not be reached by the Law, by good works and by any human effort. So what did He do? Jesus made us ‘sanctified’ by His salvation. It is written, “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” “We have been sanctified” means that we have received the remission of sins. We have indeed received it. This means, “By that will Jesus Christ blotted out all our sins at once and we who believe have received salvation at once by faith through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” Dear fellow believers, have you received it yet? Will you receive it? Or have you received it? You have received it if you just believe in this gospel Truth.
Dear fellow believers, you had sin before didn’t you? But, that was not true salvation. God called workers into His vineyard and entrusted them with various tasks, and there were some who came at 9 in the morning and some others at noon, and still others came even at 5pm, when the work was almost over. But what happened to them all. They all received the same wages. Dear fellow believers, whether we started believing in Jesus when we were one year old, when we were in our mother’s womb, when we were twenty years old, when we were sixty years old; it’s true meaning is that the Lord made us believe in Jesus to make us receive this very one thing, ‘true salvation’. Whether we have believed in Jesus for tens and hundreds of years, that can never be the righteousness before the presence of God. He has saved us perfectly once and for all. We have received salvation by believing that Our Lord saved us completely. Dear fellow believers, I really want you to believe in this.
Did Christ offer up one eternal sacrifice for sins, or did he not? Jesus Christ took all the sins of the world by receiving baptism and carried them to the Cross. And He died on the Cross after crying out “It is finished.” He has fulfilled all righteousness once and for all. In three days after dying on the Cross, Jesus was resurrected and witnessed for 40 days, and He now sits at the right hand of the throne of God the Father. He therefore does not work anymore as He has now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He no longer does the work of blotting out sins. He does not do the work of blotting out sins anymore because He blotted out all the sins at once.
We now must do the work from our human standpoint. What kind of work should we be doing? We must do the work of believing. We receive salvation from God now by believing in the salvation Jesus fulfilled for us once for all. It is by faith! Dear fellow believers, do you believe? Jesus cannot give you the remission of sins every day. Trying to receive the remission of sins every day is the very same thing as crucifying Jesus on the Cross every single day. If you say that you still have sin even after believing in Jesus, you are in fact insulting Him. This is the sin of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.
It is written, “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.” Now, have you received the remission of your sins? Do you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Do you or do you not have any sin then? Now I want you to think deeply about this. Do you think you have sin, or not? You do not have sin, agree? Do you or do you not have sin in your heart? You do not have any trace of sin in your heart. How can you have sin when all your sins have been passed over onto Jesus? How can you have sins when they have all been passed over? This is the reality.
After the day I first believed in the remission of sins, after believing that my sins have been passed over onto Jesus by His baptism, that Jesus died on the Cross, that He died in my place, and that He was resurrected in my place; then the Lord God also said to me, “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” Then, what is God’s law? It is the law of love. It is the law that says, “I have saved you.” So I now profess, “Lord, You have saved me through the water and the blood.” Do you also believe this in your heart? It says that God will record this in their minds. Is this then recorded in your heart? This is the primitive gospel. I want you to defeat this world and receive salvation by believing in this very gospel.
Witnessing the water of baptism Jesus received and His blood of the Cross and the Lord, who was resurrected from death as our Lord, is the primitive or original gospel. The only faith that can defeat this world is the faith of believing in this primitive or original gospel.
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