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we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
we have temporally suspended our ‘Free Print Book service’.
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Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Pray that this pandemic will end soon and the resumption of the postal service.
Subject 28 : If You Have Confusion and Emptiness in Your Heart, Seek the Light of the Truth
[28-2] How Can We Become Jesus Christ’s Brides? (John 2:1-11)
(John 2:1-11)
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
Introduction
In today’s Scripture reading, we see the Lord attending a wedding feast held in Cana of Galilee along with His disciples. Jesus’ mother in the flesh, Mary, was also present there. It is said that Jewish wedding feasts usually last for a week or sometimes even up to two weeks. The groom hosts the bride’s guests in his home, where fun games are played and there is much singing and dancing. The guests are served with wine, along with various dishes. The groom and bride would often sing love songs to each other, setting the festive mood for the party.
The Guidance of Mary as a Predecessor of Faith
In Israeli weddings, it is customary to serve wine. Wine was also served at the wedding in Cana, but during the reception they ran out of wine. In those days, running out of wine at a wedding was considered to be rude to the guests attending the ceremony. So, if something like this happened, the guests would tend to look down on the host of the wedding feast.
Perhaps for this reason, Mary started to get concerned along with the host of the wedding feast when she heard that they were running out of wine. However, Mary set aside her worries and turned to Jesus, informing Him that they were running out of wine. Hearing this, Jesus said to Mary, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” Mary then turned to the servants working at the reception and told them by faith, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Mary told Jesus that they were running out of wine because she had faith that He could take care of this problem. It’s because Mary herself had experienced the power of the Word of God.
When Mary was a virgin, she heard the Word of God saying to her that she would conceive a Child, and that, as written in the middle of Matthew 1:21, “He will save His people from their sins.” At first, she was so shocked that she couldn’t accept this Word into her heart by faith, but she denied her own thoughts in short order and accepted the Word of God into her heart as it was relayed by an angel. Mary had experienced the Word of the Lord like this.
So, when the wedding feast was running out of wine, Mary could bring this issue to Jesus and see His work unfolding. Through an angel, Mary had heard the Word saying, “Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son and is now in the sixth month, for with the Word of God nothing is impossible” (Luke 1:36-37). Mary therefore submitted herself to the Word of God brought to her by the angel, saying in obedience, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Shortly thereafter, Mary conceived Baby Jesus and gave birth to Him, and she was used as a precious instrument for God’s work that saved mankind from sins.
Having had such an experience of faith, when Mary heard that the wedding feast was running out of wine, she could turn to her faith and ask Jesus for help. This was a request of faith that stemmed from Mary’s faith. From this passage, we can see that when human beings run out of their own strength and they finally turn to the Lord and ask for His help, God answers their prayer. Although Jesus dwelt with His disciples while on this earth, He is God Almighty Himself who created the entire universe with His Word (Genesis 1:1-3).
It is written, “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, ‘Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.’ And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom” (John 2:6-9). As written here, six waterpots of stone were set at the wedding home, which was according to the Jewish custom of the time. At the critical moment when the wine was all gone, Jesus told the servants working at the wedding to draw water and fill the empty waterpots. Before actually carrying out this task, the servants must have wondered in their minds why Jesus was telling them to fill the pots with water. Nonetheless, they did as they were told by Jesus and obeyed His Word, filling the empty pots with water. As a result, they saw the Word of God turning water into wine.
This miracle demonstrates that when we obey the Word written in the Bible and accept it into our hearts by faith, we can experience the power of the Word of the Lord. The blessing that turned water into wine at the wedding feast began with the servants obeying the Word of God, and with this faith of theirs, they were able to witness this miracle and enjoy the blessings that the Lord was giving them. By turning water into wine at the wedding feast, Jesus showed that He was the Lord who could fill everyone’s needs completely.
Like this, Jesus Christ is saying to us that He sent John the Baptist to this earth six months before Him to deliver His people living in this world from their sins, and that He has washed away all the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist and thus bearing the sins of this world. Just as Jesus performed a miracle by turning water into wine, He carried out the righteous work of bearing the sins of this world and their condemnation by being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, to take the sins of His people upon Himself.
Born into this world as Adam’s descendants, all of us were sinners who inherited every sin, and for such people like us to be born again as sinless people, the Lord had to bear the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist, the greatest of all those born of women.
John the Baptist Was Called to Be Mankind’s Representative (Matthew 11:11)
We must realize and believe that Jesus bore all your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Having come to this earth, Jesus sought to be baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30. As shown in Matthew 3:13-15, Jesus had to be baptized by John the Baptist in order to bear the sins of this world, and to save and wash His people from their sins.
For Jesus to offer the sacrifice of atonement for mankind to redeem them from the sins of this world, the very first thing He had to do was bearing these sins by being baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30 (Matthew 3:15-16). You may think that it’s not that important for Jesus to bear the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. Do you then think that if all that Jesus did was just shedding His blood on the Cross without bearing the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, He would have no problem being your Savior? We need to realize that Jesus, as the Savior of mankind, is fundamentally just.
Although Jesus came to this world as our Savior, if He did not bear the sins of mankind on His body by being baptized by John the Baptist and saved us from our sins just by giving up His body on the Cross to be crucified and shed His blood, then we cannot really say that Jesus has saved sinners with the true justice of the Savior.
Jesus is indeed the Son of God the Father and came to this earth as the Savior of mankind, but He did not carry out His work of salvation unjustly without taking the necessary step of bearing our sins. As the just Savior, Jesus Christ bore all the sins of mankind on His body once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, and He paid off the wages of the sins of mankind most justly by being crucified.
We need to realize here that if Jesus Christ were to say to us that He was crucified and shed His blood to death on the Cross arbitrarily without taking upon the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist to become our propitiation, and if He were to tell us that we should be saved just by believing blindly in the death He suffered on the Cross for us, then He would make Himself an unjust Lord.
Therefore, those in this present age who believe in just the crucified Jesus who shed His blood on the Cross as their Savior need to realize that they are no different from the religious practitioners of this world. If Jesus were to insist on you to believe blindly that He has saved you from your sins just by shedding His blood on the Cross without bearing the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, would you really be able to believe with your heart that Jesus is your Savior?
What you and I must realize here is that the human conscience wants justice and fairness. What we want from the Lord is a just process, in which the Lord bears all the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. The Lord wants to reveal Himself to us as the just Lord who bore your sins and mine once and for all justly and righteously by being baptized by John the Baptist, and who saved us from our sins and judgment justly by being crucified for these sins and shedding His blood to death. As a just Savior, Jesus does not insist on us rudely and arbitrarily to just believe blindly.
Imagine for a second that the Antichrist has appeared in this present age. If the Antichrist and his minions were to rule in these end times, depending on whether or not we believe that the Lord has saved us from the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist and thus accepting our sins, there would be a huge difference of faith. The difference between knowing and not knowing our Lord’s justice is revealed and our faith is exposed clearly when the Antichrist rules over this world.
When the Antichrist reigns over this world, Satan will be able to rule over people’s hearts and acts. At that time, among all the Christians professing to believe in Jesus as their Savior, those whose hearts have the Word of baptism through which they have passed their sins to Jesus by faith will see this faith revealed clearly in their fight against the Antichrist and his subjects. If a Christian has actually passed his heart’s sins to Jesus through the Word of His baptism, then this believer will be able to fight them and become a martyr, for the death of Jesus and the shedding of His blood are all very much relevant to him. If, in contrast, you do not have the Word of the baptism through which the Lord bore your sins justly and you believe only in His blood on the Cross, then the Antichrist will be able to turn you into his servant, for he will see that you have not received the remission of sins. It is therefore a must for us to prepare the true faith by believing now that Jesus bore our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and saved us from the sins of the world. This is to ensure that the Antichrist is not able to control us.
Our true faith is this: Jesus bore all your sins and mine in this world justly by being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind, and became our propitiation by shedding His blood on the Cross. It is absolutely important for us to have this faith. It is therefore critical for our hearts to have received the remission of sins by believing in Jesus Christ, who has become our propitiation, as our Savior. If right now you believe just in the blood on the Cross, then you do not know Jesus’ justice, and therefore you remain a sinner whose heart still has not been washed from your sins. Satan’s servants will then know right away that you are a sinner who neither knows nor believes that Jesus bore your sins through His baptism, and they will prey on you to use you for wickedness only to cast you aside.
Therefore, in this age and time, you must believe in the just salvation that Jesus has fulfilled for you by being baptized by John the Baptist and bearing the condemnation of all sins in your place with His crucifixion. Even if the Antichrist comes after you in these end times and tries to turn you into his servant, if you believe in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and His blood as the gospel of the remission of sins that has made atonement for your sins, then you will have the faith to fight and overcome the Antichrist and win in your spiritual battle against him, for you have received the remission of sins into your heart by believing in the sacrifice of atonement that the Lord made.
That is why you and I must believe, before the Antichrist comes to this world, that the Lord bore the sins of this world justly by being baptized, and that the blood He shed on the Cross constitutes the just remission of sins that has washed away our sins and borne their condemnation. The Lord told us to be born again of water and the Spirit, and according to this Word, we must now be born again by faith. In other words, you and I must be saved from all our sins by believing now that the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and the death that He suffered on the Cross constitute the just work of salvation that the Lord carried out to deliver us from our sins.
We can be washed from all our sins and become righteous by believing in the just salvation of atonement that our Lord Jesus Christ has given us. So, when the Lord returns to this world in which we are now living, we must be able to prevail in our spiritual battle against the Antichrist and his servants by this faith of ours and embrace martyrdom.
Just as Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana, He wants to save those who now believe in Him from all their sins through the baptism that Jesus Himself received, the righteous act of bearing the sins of this world, and by making atonement for all the believers’ sins with the blood He shed on the Cross. The fact that the Lord was baptized by John the Baptist and endured death on the Cross and all kinds of humiliations when He came to this earth means that He carried out His work of sacrifice to cleanse us as His brides by bearing all our sins justly through His baptism and shedding His blood to death for these sins. In other words, by bearing all your sins and mine through His baptism, suffering humiliations, and shedding His blood to death on the Cross, the Lord made atonement for our sins and completed the work of saving the believers justly. This work of sacrifice that the Lord carried out to turn those of us who believe in His justice into His brides is a truly amazing blessing of salvation.
At the wedding feast of Cana, the servants who obeyed the Word of Jesus had the honor of witnessing His first miracle. Likewise, we, too, can now become Jesus Christ’s eternal brides by believing that the Lord accepted the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and that He bore the condemnation of our sins justly in our place by being crucified and shedding His blood to death. This is because with His crucifixion, our Lord was justly condemned and made atonement for your sins and mine that He bore through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and He has given the everlasting remission of sins to all of us who now believe in this.
Therefore, it is by believing in the Lord’s just work of salvation that we can become Christ’s eternal brides. I can’t help but thank the Lord that those of us who believe in this Word of the remission of sins have partaken in God’s grace to become Jesus Christ’s brides.
When the wedding feast ran out of wine, the Lord told the servants to draw water and pour it into empty jars, and in obedience, the servants did exactly as the Lord commanded them. Likewise, by now passing all our sins to Jesus at this hour through the Word of the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist, we have received God’s blessings to obtain the everlasting remission of sins by faith. The Lord bore your sins and mine justly through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and He completed our salvation with the precious blood He shed on the Cross and His death. So let us now believe in this Lord as our Savior, and through this faith let us be blessed to become Jesus Christ’s brides.
We were able to become Jesus’ brides because we were washed from our sins by believing in the Word of His baptism. It is on account of this faith that we were able to experience God’s love and blessings, and to thus know the spiritual blessings that our God has given us. These God-given spiritual blessings of Heaven are completed in Jesus when we understand the baptism that He received from John the Baptist and believe in the shedding of His blood.
Right now, we can receive the remission of sins and new life into our hearts and become Christ’s brides by believing in the righteousness of our Lord. This is the blessing of salvation that descends on us through the baptism that our Lord received for us, the blood He shed on the Cross, His death, and His resurrection. By believing in the work of Jesus Christ that has washed away our sins with the Word of baptism that He has given us, we have reached everlasting salvation from our sins and become His brides.
Those who take part in the wedding feast of the Kingdom of the Lord through their faith in His righteousness can forever become Jesus Christ’s brides. That’s because we have faith in the true Word that our Lord bore all our sins once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. And it is possible also because we have faith in the atonement the Lord made for our sins by bearing the punishment of the Cross while shouldering the sins of this world. Born as the descendants of Adam, all human beings are fundamentally depraved sinners by nature, and therefore our hearts can be truly washed from all our sins only if we believe in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and His death on the Cross, and only if we know and believe that the Lord became our propitiation. Accordingly, for us to be saved from all our sins and become the Lord’s brides, it is absolutely necessary to know and believe in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and the sacrificial atonement on the Cross, and to thus have the faith that saves us and blesses us to be born again from all our hearts’ sins.
If we must face the age of the Antichrist while we are still carrying on with our lives in this world, we must prepare the faith of our salvation by believing that Jesus took away all our sins through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist, and that He offered the sacrifice of atonement by shedding His blood on the Cross to be punished for our sins in our place. We must become our Lord’s brides by washing away our sins with faith in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross.
Right now, if you still have any sins in your heart, then you must admit that you will be condemned for these sins. You ought to admit that your heart is still sinful because to this day you have believed only in Jesus’ precious blood on the Cross like the religious practitioners of the world, and you ought to be saved by placing your faith in the baptism of the washing of sins prepared by our Lord and His precious blood. And you must believe in the salvation that has now washed away the sins of mankind once and for all, that Jesus bore the sins of this world on His own body by being baptized by John the Baptist, went to the Cross, shed His blood on it to death, and rose from the dead again.
As Adam’s descendants, we all had sins in our hearts, and therefore we had to be condemned before God’s law of death that declares, “The wages of sin is death.” However, by being washed from our sins with our faith in the Word of the baptism that the Lord received to bear our sins, we could become Jesus’ brides. Hallelujah! Because our Savior Jesus Christ bore all the sins of this world and washed them away with the baptism that He received from John the Baptist, and because He was condemned for our sins as our propitiation, by placing our faith in this, we are able to obtain the washing of our sins. We must believe with our hearts that Jesus took upon the sins of this world through His baptism and bore the condemnation of our sins as our propitiation. Therefore, we can know that we have become Jesus Christ’s brides on account of our faith in His bearing of the sins of this world through His baptism and the punishment of the Cross. This means that we have been blessed to receive the everlasting remission of sins by believing in the Word of the baptism that the Lord received for us and the shedding of His blood.
When the Age of the Antichrist Comes, the Wheat and the Chaff among You Will Be Revealed
If your faith is currently placed in the blood on the Cross alone, you need to think about whether you can really stand against and overcome the Antichrist’s servants by this faith when he comes to rule over this world in the end times. In the not-too-distant future, we will be living in a world ruled by the Antichrist, for the time is coming soon when the Antichrist is to rule and reign over the world just as it is written in Revelation chapter 13. If your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior is based on just His Cross, there is something that you must remember: This faith is rooted in the Nicene Creed, and those who have such faith believe only in Jesus’ precious blood on the Cross and skirt over the fact that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, thinking mistakenly that they need to neither know it nor believe in it.
If this is how you believe, then your life of faith is doomed to make an irreversible mistake repeatedly. Even though you try to find some comfort for your heart when you sin by passing the condemnation of your sins to Jesus as you think of and rely on His blood, if you find comfort in just the fact that the crucified Jesus was condemned for your sins, your life of faith is bound to fail repeatedly.
To avoid this, there is something that you must make sure of absolutely. It is the fact that Jesus bore your sins once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. In other words, you and I must believe that Jesus accepted the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist and washed away our sins. By being baptized by John the Baptist personally, Jesus took upon your sins and mine. And by being crucified, He became our propitiation. It is only if we believe in these two truths that we can be saved from our sins. It is then that we are able to believe in the Lord as our Savior, serve Him alone, and follow Him alone.
In the age of the Antichrist that is soon to come, our circumstances will be such that we will have to live under his and his followers’ rule and authority. If your faith is placed only in Jesus’ blood on the Cross, will you be able to stand up against the Antichrist by this faith to the glory of God? With this faith in the blood on the Cross alone, will it be possible for you to glorify God in your life? While the faith you now have in only Jesus’ blood on the Cross may give you some temporary comfort when you sin, with this faith it is not just hard but actually impossible for you to be freed completely from your sins.
You need to realize here that in the age of the Antichrist, trying to wash away your sins with your own prayers of repentance will be an outright luxury. That is because you will be so busy fighting the Antichrist and his minions that you won’t have any time to try to find comfort for your heart by thinking about Jesus’ blood. At that time, if you are still ignorant of the fact that Jesus Christ bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, accepted all your sins and mine, and cleansed them all, your faith in the blood on the Cross will crumble. So, you will ultimately end up getting sealed with the mark of the Antichrist.
However, those who still know and believe even at that time that Jesus Christ bore the sins of this world once and for all and washed away all their hearts’ sins by being baptized by John the Baptist will give thanks and glory to the Lord, for they will never surrender in the war against the Antichrist, stand against him until the end, and face martyrdom by faith. Like this, we can see that those who believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit are qualitatively different from the rest. How about your faith then? Do you believe in the two truths fulfilled by Jesus?
Claiming himself to be God, the Antichrist will stand against the believers in the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and demand them to revere and praise him as God. At that time, Christians professing to believe in Jesus as their Savior will be living by two different kinds of faith that distinguish them. Those who believe in Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone will be living in submission to the Antichrist’s demand, while another type of believers who believe that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist and live by their faith in this Lord will stand against the Antichrist in their lives. And such people who resist the Antichrist like this in the end times will be martyred for their faith by the enemies of Jesus. The resisters of the Antichrist will be martyred for their faith because they are Jesus Christ’s brides who believe in the baptism of the Lord and His blood on the Cross, and as such, they will neither deny Jesus Christ their Groom nor betray their faith. This is all written in Revelation chapter 13.
In contrast, those whose names are not written in the Book of Life will all surrender to the Antichrist. These people are characterized by the fact that they have known and believed in just Jesus’ Cross while on this earth, and therefore they believe that the sins they commit on this earth are washed away with their own prayers of repentance. They do not believe in the two ministries of the Lord as their salvation—that is, they do not believe that Jesus washed away everyone’s sins by bearing the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and that He was crucified, shed His blood, and endured untold humiliation, shame, suffering, and death.
Among those professing to believe in Jesus, some people say that they have been saved by believing in His Cross alone, while others believe that the crucified Jesus who took upon the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist is their Savior. We have the faith of the latter. We are of those who have been washed and saved from their sins by believing in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and the righteousness of Jesus who bore their condemnation by being crucified. Like this, there are those who believe that Jesus has saved them by being baptized and crucified to death.
What about you then? Do you have the belief to keep your faithfulness in this coming age of the Antichrist? You ought to think about which of these two faiths you are living by. For us to be made sinless before God, we must believe that the Lord accepted all our sins on to His body through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and was condemned for every sin with the death He suffered on the Cross. So, through the Word of the baptism of the Lord and His blood on the Cross, we must have the faith to be born again of water and the Spirit before Him. By believing in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection, we can be washed and cleansed from all our sins once and for all.
The “waterpots of stone” mentioned in today’s Scripture reading refer to your heart and mine, and where Jesus told the servants to “fill the waterpots with water,” He is telling us to fill our hearts with the faith that He bore your sins of the world and mine through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and that He was condemned for these sins on the Cross.
Jesus said in John 3:5, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The word “water” here in the Bible means that Jesus is telling us to be washed from our sins by believing in the baptism He received from John the Baptist. He is saying to us living in this world to believe in the fact that He bore all your sins and mine through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. In other words, Jesus Christ is telling everyone to believe that He came to this world according to the will of God the Father, bore all our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and was condemned for them on the Cross as our propitiation.
It is by believing that Jesus bore our sins through the Word of His baptism that we can be washed from our sins, and it is by believing that Jesus went to the Cross and became our propitiation that we can enter the Kingdom of God. In the Bible, the word “water” means the baptism that Jesus Christ received from John the Baptist to bear the sins of mankind when He came to this earth (1 Peter 3:21). God is telling us to believe that we can be washed from our sins once and for all and become Jesus Christ’s brides by faith if we believe in the sacrifice of atonement that He completed with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross.
We Must Preach by Faith the Sacrifice of Atonement to the Many People of This Age
Whenever we preach the sacrifice of atonement that Jesus fulfilled, the first thing we must remember and teach everyone is that all human beings are, by nature, nothing but piles of sins in God’s sight. Because Adam and Eve, the ancestors of mankind, doubted the God-spoken Word with a distrustful heart and fell into Satan’s temptation, they committed the sin of disobeying God, and this is why the entire human race ended up being estranged from God. Even now, countless people are living as sinners because their hearts do not believe in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist as written in the Bible. Therefore, we need to turn around now and believe in the Word as our salvation, that Jesus bore our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and became our propitiation on the Cross.
You are about to go through times of famine, and once this is done, you will face an era when this world is ruled by the Antichrist. In times like this, we must have the faith to be washed from all our sins and become Jesus Christ’s brides. We should therefore no longer hesitate to believe that Jesus became our propitiation by being baptized by John the Baptist. We must have faith in the Lord, that He bore your sins and mine by being baptized by John the Baptist and became the propitiation for our sins by being crucified and shedding His blood. Jesus Christ has saved us by bearing our sins and being condemned for them justly, and we must have the faith to accept Him into our hearts as our Savior.
In which gospel do you now believe? Isn’t your faith placed only in the Cross? If so, then you are just a religious practitioner who is no different from any other religious people in the world. Of course, right now your life of faith is most likely characterized by prayers of repentance, praise, and service, and you are probably leading a very ordinary religious life. However, the Bible says that one must be born again of water and the Spirit. It is written in the Scripture that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, was crucified and shed His blood while shouldering these sins, and thus became the propitiation for all the sins of mankind. For us to wage our spiritual battle against the Antichrist and his minions now in these end times, we must receive the remission of sins once and for all by believing wholeheartedly that the Lord Jesus Christ, who became our propitiation with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, is our Savior.
For the sake of all of us who sinned by disobeying God, Jesus Christ accepted the sins of the world on to His own body by being baptized by John the Baptist, became our propitiation to blot out our sins once and for all by shedding His blood on the Cross, and has thereby saved all who believe in this Truth of salvation from the sins of this world. In the age of the New Testament, God made His Son Jesus fulfill the work of being baptized by John the Baptist and the work of shedding His blood, and God has now made us the believers in this salvation of water and the Spirit, Jesus Christ’s brides. We were all born once on this earth as sinners, but by believing in the baptism of Jesus Christ the Son of God and His sacrifice of atonement, that the Lord is our Savior, we are saved from all our sins to be born again one more time as His brides.
We must reach salvation now by accepting into our hearts and believing that when our Lord came to this earth, He bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist for our sake, and became our propitiation by shedding His precious blood and dying on the Cross. By believing in Jesus Christ who became our propitiation for our sake, we can all become His brides.
The wedding feast in Cana in John chapter 2 had its own bride, but in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus Christ is the Groom, and in the end times, those who believe that Jesus became their propitiation by being baptized by John the Baptist, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead will join the Lord’s wedding feast as His brides. Now, for us to qualify to partake in the wedding feast hosted by the Lord in the Kingdom of Heaven, we must have faith in the water of His baptism and His sacrifice of atonement.
The people who were invited to the wedding here at Cana refer to those who have received the remission of sins by believing in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and His blood, and they also refer to those who have become the Lord’s brides through their faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, their propitiation. Because you and I now believe in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and the Word of His blood to be the sacrifice of atonement for our salvation, we are qualified to take part in the Lord’s wedding feast. So, as we carry on with our lives, let us remember that the Lord accepted the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist, has become your Savior and mine by suffering and dying on the Cross, and as a result we have been able to receive the remission of sins into our hearts and become Jesus Christ’s brides.
We Must Accept into Our Hearts That Jesus Became Our Propitiation by Being Baptized and Shedding His Blood on the Cross
It is written in Revelation 13:8, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” You need to make sure that your name is written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. In the near future, when the Antichrist runs wild for the last time, those who worship him are those whose names are not recorded in the Book of Life written by God. The Bible says that these people will all worship the Antichrist, so with what kind of faith will you avoid their fate when this time comes?
If you now believe in the will of God the Father for the Lord to bear the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist and offer the sacrifice of atonement by pouring out His blood on the Cross, then you have been saved from all your sins through your faith in the righteousness of Jesus—that is, you believe in the sacrifice of atonement that the Lord made with His baptism and blood. Thanks to the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given them, such people have the faith to be born again before the Antichrist runs wild on this earth, and therefore they will have no problem. They will stand against the Antichrist and prevail over him, for they have already passed all their sins on to the body of Jesus Christ and believe in His just salvation, who was baptized by John the Baptist and became their propitiation. Those who have this kind of faith will not only not worship the Antichrist, but on the contrary, they will despise him, embrace martyrdom by faith, and thus bear witness of the righteousness of our Lord.
However, if your current faith is such that you are just a religious practitioner, believing only in Jesus’ punishment on the Cross and trying to be remitted from your sins with your own prayers of repentance, then you need to realize that you will capitulate to the Antichrist and end up worshiping him. Therefore, while you are still living in this world, now at this very moment rather than later, you must believe that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist and has become your Savior by shedding His blood, and to thus give glory to God. When the Antichrist demands you to betray your faith, you will then be able to reject it by placing your faith in the Truth that the Lord bore the sins of mankind through the Word of His baptism, embrace your martyrdom by this faith, and glorify your Groom’s name as the Lord’s bride.
In today’s Scripture reading, the servants at the wedding feast were able to taste wine because they filled the waterpots of stone with water in obedience to the Word of the Lord. Like this miracle, we, too, can be blessed to become Christ’s brides by believing wholeheartedly in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, passing our sins to Him through this faith, and believing in the righteousness of the Lord who offered the sacrifice of atonement with His precious blood on the Cross. Our hearts can have the faith that qualifies us as Jesus’ brides only if we accept Him as our Savior, who bore the sins of this world through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist and rose. All the sins you and I commit throughout our entire lifetime were passed on to the body of Jesus once and for all through the Word of the baptism that He received from John the Baptist, and on account of this just act, Jesus offered the sacrifice of atonement by being crucified and shedding His blood. Thanks to this, we can be saved once and for all and become Christ’s sinless brides. By believing that Jesus Christ became our propitiation with His baptism and blood to save you and me from all our sins, we can become His brides now. Those of us who have become Christ’s brides will stand against the Antichrist and keep our faith, for we are rejoiced that our Lord Jesus Christ is our Groom. Words cannot express just how happy I am that we are able to have this kind of faith in this last age.
In both testaments of the Bible, Jesus is telling us that He has become our Savior by being baptized by John the Baptist and shedding His precious blood. The parting of the Red Sea in the Old Testament was a miracle. When the priests of Israel carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the Jordan River, the water stopped flowing and formed walls on both sides. This, too, was a miracle. Like these miracles, the fact that the Lord has delivered us from the sins of the world by being baptized and dying on the Cross is the greatest of all the blessings of God. In the age of the New Testament, the Lord has saved us His believers by making the sacrifice of atonement with the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, and this work of salvation reveals the Lord’s justice.
It is absolutely critical for us to realize that believing in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross, who has washed away our sins, is the true, just faith that enables us to reach salvation from all our sins. What Jesus did when He came to this world, from being baptized by John the Baptist to shedding His blood on the Cross and suffering death, all constitutes the just work of salvation that delivers us from our sins.
We Must Believe That the Lord Has Saved Us Justly (H3)
Today in the 21st century, looking at all the church-going Christians professing to believe in Jesus, it saddens me so deeply to see that the Word of the baptism of Jesus is not found anywhere in their hearts as they believe only in the Cross. Because today’s Christians do not have the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River, their faith will struggle when they face the Antichrist in the end times. When the Antichrist comes to this world and persecutes them for their faith, they may easily end up denying Jesus.
Therefore, recognizing that the end times are nearing, God’s Church must believe and preach that the Lord has given His just salvation by being baptized by John the Baptist and thus bearing all the sins of the world, and by shedding His blood to death and rising from the dead again. That is precisely why now in the 21st century, God’s Church is devoted to preaching to today’s Christians the just salvation that had been deleted and hidden from AD 325 until now, proclaiming that Jesus has saved sinners by bearing the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and carrying them to the Cross.
With the Word of God, we are now spreading the faith that anyone can be born again as the Lord’s bride by believing in the Word of just salvation, that the Lord has saved sinners by being baptized by John the Baptist and carrying them to the Cross. From here on, we must have the faith that Jesus is the just Lord who has now given us the everlasting remission of sins by bearing the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. That is because Jesus Christ took upon the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist out of His own volition, shed His blood on the Cross, and rose again from the dead; and to all of us who believe in this Truth of the everlasting remission of sins, He has become our Savior. By being baptized by John the Baptist and crucified, Jesus Christ has brought salvation, become the everlasting Groom for His believers, and also blessed those who believe in His righteousness to become His brides.
You and I now believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Do you then believe that our hearts are still sinful? No, of course not! Is there anyone here who feels awkward to say this? Anyone who is ashamed? If you can’t bring yourself to say this, then it means that you still do not know the just salvation that the Lord has fulfilled by being baptized by John the Baptist to bear your sins and shedding His blood on the Cross. In other words, you have not met Jesus yet, who bore the sins of this world including all your sins. As Jesus has become our just Savior by being baptized by John the Baptist, shedding His blood on the Cross, and rising from the dead again, we must have faith in this Lord as our Savior. Like this, the faith you have in the baptism of Jesus Christ and His blood on the Cross is what it means to believe in the Word of life given by the Lord who has delivered mankind from their sins and death.
Are the sins that you have committed out of your shortcomings giving you little confidence to live your life of faith by trusting in and following the Lord? All human beings have shortcomings before God. Who on this earth doesn’t have any flaws? Everyone is found lacking before God. However, those who believe in the Word of baptism and blood that the Lord has given us need to believe boldly in His just salvation. Given the fact that our Lord has saved us justly through the baptism He received and the blood He shed, it is untenable for us to feel ashamed instead of believing completely in the just salvation that the Lord has fulfilled for us by blotting out our sins.
If you still believe in only the Lord’s blood on the Cross and have not been able to cleanse away your sins as white as snow, then this is clearly because you have been influenced by the faith of the religious reformers who believe in the Nicene Creed. This is even more so when it comes to receiving the remission of sins today by believing in the righteousness of Jesus. Influenced by the Nicene Creed, Christians today have a religious inclination to try to be washed from their sins by believing in Jesus’ Cross alone. Perhaps it’s because of this, but even though they believe in Jesus as their Savior, many of them have no conviction of salvation when they say that they have been washed from their sins with their own prayers of repentance to enter Heaven. This is because when it comes to their personal sins, they are not fully confident that they have actually received the remission of these sins. To be more specific, it is because they do not have the faith that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist and became their propitiation by being crucified. They try to receive the remission of sins with their own prayers, but no matter how hard they try, they have no conviction that they have been washed from their sins, and therefore they always feel like they are living as sinners.
I understand why some of you might be living a religious life like this. However, the Bible says that the Lord has justly washed away all your sins once and for all with His baptism and His blood on the Cross, so I urge you to realize and believe in this Truth. From the Word of the Bible, you must know properly and believe wholeheartedly that the Lord bore your sins once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist and has saved you justly by shedding His blood on the Cross. It is then that your heart can stand firmly by faith before the Lord. It is for this reason that I want to teach you about the water and the Spirit now and preach the Word of the remission of sins that the Lord has fulfilled with His justice.
We Enter Heaven by Faith in the Righteousness of the Lord
Matthew 11:12 says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” We need to think long and hard about the phrase here, “From the days of John the Baptist until now.” Why does the Bible say, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence”? We need to realize that it is because the Lord accepted all our sins on to His body by being baptized by John the Baptist, and this is why Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” In Matthew 3:13-16, we can also see the Bible saying that Jesus was to fulfill all the righteousness of God by being baptized by John the Baptist.
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. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” (Matthew 3:15-16).
Here Jesus is explaining why He sought to be baptized by John the Baptist. The reason is “to thus fulfill all righteousness.” “The righteousness of God” here refers to the just work of Jesus in bearing the sins of this world once and for all through His baptism and blotting out everyone’s sins. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He accepted the sins of mankind passed on to Him. Where, then, did your heart’s sins and mine go when Jesus was baptized? Since our sins were passed on to Jesus when He was baptized by John the Baptist, there is no sin in our hearts. Isn’t this true?
Because the Lord accepted our sins on to His own body through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, He went to the Cross, was crucified, shed His blood to death, and rose from the dead again; and by doing so, our Lord has saved all those who believe that He made the sacrifice of atonement to wash away all the sins of mankind in this world once and for all. We are now able to receive the everlasting remission of sins by believing in this Truth, for the Lord has saved us justly once and for all from our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross.
That is why the Lord said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” Indeed, even from this moment on, if you believe that our Lord has taken care of our sins justly with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, then you have received the remission of sins by this faith, and therefore you will be able to enter Heaven. Those who have received the remission of sins into their hearts by believing in the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross now have in their possession the key to enter Heaven, all thanks to this faith. So, if you believe in the Lord’s baptism and blood, then know that you yourself have the key of faith to enter Heaven.
To ruminate on this Word again, the Lord said in Matthew 3:15-16 when He was about to be baptized by John the Baptist that He was doing this “to fulfill the righteousness of God.” What, then, is the “righteousness of God” that Jesus is speaking of here? The “righteousness of God” is the “justness of God.” The biblical meaning of God’s justice is the fact that Jesus bore all the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist and thus made Himself our propitiation. This is why the Lord said, “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus is telling us here that it was a just act for Him to accept all the sins of mankind on to His own body once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. That Jesus bore every sin by being baptized by John the Baptist is what constitutes God’s justice. This is the reason for which Jesus was baptized, and it is His justice. Do you now understand the justice of God, that Jesus has fulfilled your everlasting salvation by bearing the sins of this world through the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shedding His blood on the Cross? You must realize that you can be remitted from all the sins that are in your heart by placing your faith in this just Word of salvation, that the Lord bore the sins of the world once and for all through His baptism and washed away your sins once and for all with His precious blood. For you to know this fact is to know the just Word of salvation that the Lord has given us to be born again of water and the Spirit.
For you and me, the Lord has fulfilled our just salvation by bearing the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shedding His blood on the Cross, and accordingly, we ought to be saved from all our sins now by believing in this just Word of salvation. The Lord wants us to receive the remission of sins into our hearts and reach our salvation by placing our faith in the sacrifice of atonement He made for us. The strength for us to fight and overcome the Antichrist and his subjects comes from our just faith. Such faith is placed wholeheartedly in the Lord, who bore our sins justly by being baptized and became our propitiation by shedding His blood on the Cross.
Christianity today believes in just the Word of the Cross, with the Word of the baptism of Jesus removed, but such faith is highly likely to fail in the spiritual war against the Antichrist. That is why the Lord is bearing witness to the Christians living in these end times that He Himself has justly washed away the sins of this world once and for all with the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His Cross. Jesus is telling you to believe that He bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, went to the Cross, and fulfilled the remission of sins by shedding His blood; and He is telling you to enter Heaven justly by this faith.
If you understand and believe that this is what Jesus meant when He said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence,” you will be able to enter Heaven. As the sins of this world were passed on to Jesus when the Lord was baptized by John the Baptist, and as He shed His blood on the Cross, the Lord has clothed every believer in His just salvation. That is why Jesus said that from the days of John the Baptist, Heaven belongs to the violent who take it by faith.
The Bible Says That This Present Age Is an Age of Famine
This world that you and I are living in is going through a global pandemic stemming from COVID-19 and its numerous variants. Every country is struggling with this disease, but it has been shown that emerging and less developed countries are particularly vulnerable to this disease, and its adverse effects are felt by the global economy. The world now is facing not just a virus, but countless difficult problems ranging from food shortages to economic hardship, war, climate change, and refugee crisis.
In the future, as such problems continue to accumulate to such an extent that each country cannot solve them on its own, a world organization for global unity will be established through the existing UN, a global religious organization, or some other form. To address the many problems facing the whole world, each country will elect its representative to the newly established world organization and try to address global problems through cooperation at this organization. At some point, Satan’s spirit will enter the heart of the leader of this global organization, and this leader will rule over the world as the Antichrist and at the same time coerce Christians into worshiping him. Such an age is ahead of us.
To be ready for this age, you and I must receive the remission of sins by believing in Jesus Christ our propitiation as our Savior. Jesus Christ bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, and He paid off all the wages of our sins by shedding His blood and dying on the Cross. We must receive the remission of sins by believing in this sacrifice of atonement, so that we can have the faith to enter Heaven. When we come face to face with the Antichrist, we must have the faith that empowers us to stand against him and be martyred by believing in the righteousness of Jesus. For your sake and mine, and for the sake of every human being from Adam to the last human being, the Lord paid off the wages of all our sins with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, and it is absolutely indispensable for all of us to have faith in this fact.
The problem, however, is that many Christians believe in and preach only Jesus’ Cross without any faith in the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and this is why Christianity today is declining. We can see that today’s Christians are drifting further and further away from the Lord. I am worried that far from being the salt of the world, Christianity today is seen by the people of the world as stinking garbage. My heart is even more saddened to see that so many Christians are unable to fulfill their calling. They are devoted to believing in and serving Jesus as their Savior while they remain completely ignorant of the meaning of the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist. They should be keenly interested in understanding the righteousness of God, but far from it, they are doing their best to establish their own righteousness. That is why I am preaching the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist along with the blood He shed on the Cross, so that I may bear witness of the power of the sacrifice of atonement He offered.
To do so, it’s necessary to go back to AD 325, around 1,700 years ago from now, to first find out the reason why Christianity today has fallen so far. This fall began when Constantine the Great, a Roman emperor, summoned the First Council of Nicaea and founded the Roman Catholic Church after deleting the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and promulgating the Nicene Creed. To this day, the universal religion of Rome has been spreading in this world only the Word of the Cross with the Word of the baptism of Jesus deleted. The founder of this religion was Roman Emperor Constantine, and he was joined by many philosophers and theologians. Even though they claimed to be carrying out many of God’s works at the First Council of Nicaea, what they actually did was the opposite. In particular, when they produced the Nicene Creed, which eventually became the Apostles’ Creed, they left out the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, and they ended up creating another new religion in the world called the religion of the Cross.
Later on in the 16th century, the Reformation was launched, but it was still based on the Nicene Creed that had removed the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, and its adherents also believed in the Cross alone just like the Catholic Church and followed their own theological doctrines. They still felt their faith in just the Cross was lacking, for the Nicene Creed did not have the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist. So, to fill this void, they came up with theological doctrines, and they were successful in their days to establish and spread their own denominations. Like this, another version of Christianity sprang forth, which was no different from the Catholic Church. The promulgation of the Nicene Creed in Late Antiquity was the catalyst that led Christianity today to preach that Jesus’ blood on the Cross alone is salvation, while the Word of the baptism He received remains deleted.
Are you not shocked by this? After all, how could they delete the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist when it is written in the Bible, and then proceed to produce the Apostles’ Creed without it? Even though Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, they removed this Word from the Nicene Creed and corrupted the faith of the Early Church, saying that the blood on the Cross alone was their salvation. They then claimed to have inherited the faith of the Apostles of the Early Church. Did they even know that by making the Apostles’ Creed like this and believing in just the Cross as their salvation, they were actually standing against the real salvation that the Lord fulfilled by offering the sacrifice of atonement for mankind when He came to this earth? I feel so sorry for them.
Because Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the New Testament, He bore the sins of this world once and for all on His own body through this baptism, and as our Savior, He came to offer His body to God the Father as the sacrifice of atonement. This then means that Jesus also accepted and bore all our present sins once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and He is saying to us that by shouldering the sins of this world, shedding His blood, and rising from the dead again, He has become the Savior for all of us who now believe in this fact. Therefore, we ought to believe that the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross constitute our salvation just as it is written in the Scripture, and that this faith is what saves us from all our sins.
Is the Faith of the Protestants Today Also Following the Nicene Creed?
Today, all of us must believe that Jesus bore the sins of this world once and for all through the Word of the baptism that He received from John the Baptist just as it is written in the Bible, and we must strengthen and reinforce our hearts with this faith. We should know that John the Baptist written in the Bible was born six months before Jesus, that Jesus bore the sins of mankind once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist at the age of 30, and that He sacrificed Himself as our propitiation by shedding His blood on the Cross; and we must believe that this Jesus is the Savior who has given the remission of sins into our hearts.
However, we can see that even though today’s believers in the Nicene Creed believe in Jesus as their Savior ardently, they do so while ignoring the biblically written fact that Jesus accepted and bore the sins of this world on His body through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. Christians these days believe only in the blood on the Cross as their salvation, with the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist removed. As a result, they always find themselves as sinners. Having turned into worldly religious practitioners like this, they are unable to be born again, for they do not know that their sins were passed on to the body of Jesus through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. This is the reason why it was inevitable for today’s Christianity to turn into a worldly religion incapable of truly following Jesus even if it wanted to.
It is not too late. Even now, all of us must accept Jesus into our hearts as our Savior who bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist as written in the Word of the Bible. The gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given us is the Word that empowers us to be remitted from all our sins by faith in Jesus, who accepted our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and became our propitiation on the Cross. Moreover, by believing in this Word of water and the Spirit, we can walk with the Lord.
In these end times, a vital movement of faith must arise to proclaim that our sins were passed on to Jesus through the Word of the baptism that He received from John the Baptist as revealed in both testaments of the Bible. For this to come about, I have no choice but to criticize the faith of the Protestant reformers in the 16th century for their failure to lead mankind to the right path. Even though they launched and led the Reformation for the cause of reforming the most universal church and eventually left the Catholic Church, when we look at their reformed faith, we see that they more or less emulated the faith of the universal church. They had followed and believed in the theology of the universal church, and even after the Reformation, they still kept many aspects of the Catholic Church’s theological doctrines and inherited the Nicene Creed wholly, and therefore we may say that they are the same as today’s Catholics preaching only the blood on the Cross.
If they wanted to pursue genuine religious reform, they should have reformed the Nicene Creed first by reaffirming the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist as written in the Bible. Their movement for religious reform should have called Christians to return to faith in Jesus as their propitiation for their sins, and to urge them to believe concomitantly that Jesus bore the sins of this world through His baptism and shed His blood on the Cross. They failed to do so, however, and this explains the tragic state of Christianity today.
That is why today’s Protestants, the descendants of the religious reformers from the 16th century, believe in just Jesus’ blood on the Cross, and as a result they are unable to be washed from their hearts’ sins and still remain as sinners. We can therefore see that even though today’s Protestant believers profess to believe in Jesus as their Savior, in reality, they are stuck with a worldly religious life. It is for this reason that I am working so hard now to spread the gospel of the salvation of the water and the Spirit, preaching that the Lord has cleansed away our sins as white as snow, for He bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. Everyone in this world needs to believe in the Word that the Lord bore all the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist.
It saddens me deeply that today, even the descendants of the Protestant reformers do not know that Jesus bore the sins of this world through the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and as a result they do not believe in this true Word of salvation and instead believe only in the Cross. In particular, it is even more saddening when I see the Protestant leaders claiming to have succeeded the religious reformers. The fact that they believe in and preach only the Word of the Cross of Jesus as the Christian Truth of salvation in their lives puts their souls in jeopardy. In the Word of the Cross that they are preaching now, the Word that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist is deleted and not preached. As a result, today’s Christians are trying to find a way to be freed from their sins by offering their own prayers of repentance and turning only to the blood on the Cross, but they need to realize that this is the evidence showing that they are actually drifting even further away from the Word that Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist.
The Apostle Paul once said, “I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). On one occasion, he met philosophers at Athens and engaged them in a religious debate all day long. His conversations with them were philosophical. When the Apostle Paul went to Athens, he saw that people were bowing before and praying to even unknown gods. So, frustrated by this, he debated the Athenian philosophers on the subject of religion, saying to them, “Look, just as all the houses you see in this world have their builders, the universe and all things in it exist because of God the Creator. Why are you then bowing before an unknown god instead of looking for the Creator God?” However, Paul could not convince even one soul to be saved at this encounter. That is why he said, in a reflection of his evangelical approach, “I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). This means that the Apostle Paul knew and believed that Jesus bore the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, and that the crucified Jesus offered Himself as the sacrifice of atonement (Acts 17:16-23).
Did the Apostle Paul Believe in Jesus as His Savior without Knowing the Meaning of His Baptism?
Do you think the Apostle Paul was someone who insisted on the Cross alone as salvation like today’s Christians, not knowing that Jesus accepted the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist? Far from it, the Apostle Paul’s faith was such that he knew and believed that Jesus bore the sins of mankind through the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist. He was highly knowledgeable of the Old Testament. That is why he came to believe that the Word of the laying on of hands in the Old Testament was fulfilled in the age of the New Testament as the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist. Do not mistake the Apostle Paul for someone who believed only in Jesus’ Cross.
That the Apostle Paul did not believe in and preach just the way of the Cross is evident from the written Word of God as well. He said in Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” You need to realize here that when the Apostle Paul proclaimed Jesus as the Savior of mankind, his preaching of the Word of the Cross was predicated on the Word that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. Like this, the Apostle Paul spoke of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist because he knew and believed in the Word of the covenant of God regarding the mystery of baptism. Paul knew and believed in the fact that Jesus has saved us from all the sins of the world and their condemnation by bearing every sin of this world through the Word of the baptism that He received from John the Baptist, shedding His blood on the Cross, and rising from the dead again.
When the Apostle Paul preached the Cross through the Word of God, he made absolutely sure to testify that Jesus Christ has become our Savior by bearing the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and sacrificing Himself on the Cross as the offering of atonement for all sinners. The Apostle Paul was someone who knew and believed that Jesus was the Lord who took upon the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross to bear the condemnation of all our sins. That is why when the Apostle Paul showed his faith, he said, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27), demonstrating his belief that Jesus bore the sins of this world through His baptism. In a manifestation of his faith, the Apostle Paul confessed that the Jesus who was baptized by John the Baptist and crucified to shed His blood on the Cross was his Savior, and with this confession he sought to make his faith known to the whole world.
Not only the Apostle Paul, but the Apostle Peter also preached that he believed in the crucified Jesus as his Savior based on the fact that He bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. He said in 1 Peter 3:21, “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.” Peter said this to show his faith, demonstrating that he knew and believed that Jesus went to the Cross because He bore the sins of mankind once and for all through the baptism that He received from John the Baptist, and it is on account of this faith that Peter became Jesus’ disciple.
What Peter said here describes his fundamental faith as someone who believed in the Word that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross. He is confessing his faith in 1 Peter 3:21, saying that Jesus is the Savior who bore and washed away our sins through His baptism. He is telling us that if we also believe in the fact that Jesus took upon all the sins of mankind in this world and washed them away once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, then this baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross constitute the antitype of our salvation.
The Apostle Peter testified here that by believing in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist to save all mankind from the sins of this world, we are to answer God with a good conscience of faith. Peter, too, knew and believed that because Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, He went to the Cross, shed His blood, and rose from the dead again; and because he knew and believed in this, he confessed his faith in Jesus as his Savior and taught us that He has become our everlasting propitiation.
The Apostle Peter was Jesus’ special disciple who believed in Him as the Savior who washed away all the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. That is why he is saying that those who believe in the baptism of Jesus as His bearing of their sins have a good conscience, and therefore they no longer have any shame to answer God.
So, the Apostle Peter is telling us that those who believe that their salvation is reached through the baptism of Jesus can come out before Him, all thanks to the Lord who sacrificed Himself as their everlasting propitiation.
In short, even though we have many shortcomings in our flesh, if we believe in Jesus now as our Savior who bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross, we will realize from this moment on that we now have a good conscience and lack absolutely nothing to answer God. Since we believe that the Lord came to this earth to save you and me from the sins of the world and fulfilled our salvation through the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and His Cross, we lack nothing to come out to the Lord by this faith.
We now have faith in the baptism through which the Lord bore the sins of this world and the shedding of His blood, and we have absolutely no hesitation to come out to the holy God by this faith. This is because we are now able to believe in Jesus as our Savior who took upon our sins through His baptism and bore their condemnation with His blood on the Cross. That is why we can confess our faith to the Lord, saying, “Lord, You are my Groom, and I am Your bride.” The baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist was the work He carried out to bear all our sins, and all of us who believe in this Truth now have a good conscience in our hearts, and therefore we lack absolutely nothing to come before the Lord. Hallelujah!
The Apostle John wrote 1 John, and when we turn to chapter 5, we see the Bible continuing to speak of the water of the baptism of Jesus. We must wash away all our filthy sins with the water of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist. Filthy things getting burnt by fire means God’s judgment. The Word of baptism that washes away all the sins of this world is the Word that Jesus bore your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and He carried these sins to the Cross and was condemned for them in our place. Those who have been washed from all their sins on account of their faith in this Word of the baptism of Jesus are the blessed whose sins have been cleansed away in God’s sight. As a disciple of Jesus, the Apostle John, too, believed in Jesus as his Savior who bore the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and carried them to the Cross, and he testified that he could be washed from all his sins thanks to this faith.
Why, then, are so many Christians in this world failing to live out their faith? It is all because they do not have faith in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, and they are instead trying to be freed from their sins just by believing in the crucified Jesus. Such people believe in Jesus in vain, for they have not discovered the Truth from the Bible that Jesus bore all our sins once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist.
We need to realize here that these Christians came to have a religious faith because they laid down the foundation of their faith on the Nicene Creed that Roman Emperor Constantine promulgated at the First Council of Nicaea. Because Emperor Constantine deleted the gospel of the baptism of Jesus that the saints of the Early Church believed in—that is, they believed that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist—he led even today’s Christians to know only Jesus’ Cross. In the Bible, just as everyone became a sinner because one man sinned, and just as one Man’s obedience to God saved many people from their sins, it is because of this one man, Emperor Constantine, that Christians today ended up turning into religious people who do not know the Truth of the washing of sins, that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. It is because he forever removed from this world the Truth of baptism, that Jesus bore the sins of mankind by being baptized by John the Baptist.
To save the sinners of this world from their sins, Jesus took upon all their sins once and for all by being baptized and was crucified to death. Because Jesus Christ bore the sins of this world once and for all through His baptism, even when He was crucified, He could endure the suffering joyously and say, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Isaiah chapter 53 says that Jesus Christ, having risen from the dead, is happy to see us obtaining the washing of our sins by believing in His baptism and living our lives of faith before God as His holy and righteous people. God is telling us that when we believe in Jesus as our Savior, we must be saved from all our sins by believing that Christ became our propitiation with His baptism and blood, and offer our praise to the Lord.
However, Christianity today is suffering, for it is unable to obtain the washing of sins as it has been deceived by the articles of the Nicene Creed that Emperor Constantine produced at the First Council of Nicaea as Satan’s scheme. It’s not just Emperor Constantine, but there are others who have also taken part in Satan’s scheme to prevent many souls from being freed from their sins. This is what is making today’s Christians so sad. Despite facing persecution from Roman emperors and their subjects for 300 years, the saints of the Early Church still believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Under such circumstances, Emperor Constantine reversed Rome’s policy by granting religious freedom to Christians and treating them favorably, such as returning their previously confiscated properties or promoting them to high positions. However, his policy was no more than an instrument to build his own Roman religion by deleting the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist from the Nicene Creed.
Although the many saints of the Early Church believed that Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, Emperor Constantine’s favorable policy meant they were actually facing spiritual persecution, so much so that they couldn’t say anything against what he was doing. Constantine stopped the physical persecution of the saints of the Early Church that had been going on for 300 years, but in its place, he persecuted them spiritually for their faith in the baptism of Jesus. In this way, he was successful at deleting the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist. Through the First Council of Nicaea, he also convinced people to believe in the Nicene Creed as the Truth of salvation.
Constantine also ensured that the Nicene Creed of his making would exert a great deal of influence on even the reformers of the 16th century. As the man who removed the Word that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, Constantine’s influence reaches all the way down to today’s Christianity. So, today’s Protestant believers and even theologians, the descendants of the Puritans, ended up believing in and preaching Jesus’ Cross alone without the Word that He bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. Like this, even to this day, every Christian believer has turned into a religious practitioner trying to follow the Lord by believing only in Jesus’ Cross without the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and through which He bore the sins of this world.
Put differently, Christians today ended up believing in just the Word of the Cross. Because they are ignorant of the Word that Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, unbeknownst to them, they have been excluded from washing away their sins with the Word of baptism. What an atrocious spiritual fraud they have suffered! It’s a sad, sad tragedy. Because Christianity today does not know the Truth that Jesus has washed away all the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, it is not able to believe in it, and therefore it is not capable of being the salt of the world. Even so, it still does not know itself. This is why the faith of today’s Christians has rotten to the core.
When we turn to the middle of the Apostles’ Creed, it says, “who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.” Where it’s written here in the Apostles’ Creed, “was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,” this should have been followed by, “was baptized by John the Baptist and thus bore the sins of this world.” However, many leaders of Christianity are absolutely oblivious to the reason as to why the Apostles’ Creed should include the phrase, “was baptized by John the Baptist and thus bore the sins of this world.”
What all of us must realize here is that Jesus came to this world to save all its sinners from their sins. That is why Jesus bore the sins of every sinner in this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, carried these sins of the world to the Cross, shed His blood to death, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved all who believe in Him as their propitiation from all their sins once and for all. This is the grace of redemption that the Lord has bestowed on mankind.
When Jesus began to minister in His public life to save the sinners of this world from its sins, the very first thing He did was accepting the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and this is written in the early part of all the four gospels. So, the four gospels all write that Jesus began His public life with the work of taking upon the sins of mankind once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist.
The purpose of the plan of the Triune God is to save all who believe in Jesus as their Savior and make them His own people by sending Jesus to this earth to be born here, bear the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, be crucified to shed His blood, rise from the dead again, and thus offer Himself as our propitiation with His baptism and blood. This plan of salvation that the Lord fulfilled is the very gospel that He spoke of in John 3:1-5, one that blesses everyone to be “born again of water and the Spirit.” That is why the Lord said to us, “One can see and enter the Kingdom of God only if he is born again of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3-5), and it is in this Word that we can find the Lord’s plan of salvation.
Having established His plan to save mankind from the sins of this world in His Son, the Triune God sent His Son to this earth and made Him bear the sins of the human race by being baptized by John the Baptist, the representative of mankind. We must reach salvation from all our sins by realizing and believing here that the baptism that the Lord received from John the Baptist is the baptism through which He bore your sins and mine once and for all, and we must grasp that this is the will of God. Jesus took upon the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, went to the Cross and was crucified once, and rose from the dead again for us. Therefore, from now on, salvation will come to whoever admits his sins to the Lord and believes that the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross constitute the way of salvation for the Lord to become our propitiation. So, realizing that this is the will of the Lord, everyone must be saved by faith.
We need to realize that God’s plan of salvation for us is this: if we believe with our hearts that Jesus has washed away all the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, we can be saved from all our sins once and for all. If, on the other hand, we do not believe wholeheartedly in the salvation of the remission of sins that Jesus has given us through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood, then we will forever be unable to be saved from all our sins.
Do You Believe That You Can Become Jesus Christ’s Bride by Your Present Faith?
If your sins still have not been passed on to the baptized Jesus once and for all, then this can only mean that your sins still remain intact in your heart. Such people wish to be freed and washed from all their sins, but the problem is that with the faith they have, they have no power to escape from the sins they commit every day. So, when you sin again, this sin remains in your heart to torment you. This is all because you do not understand the meaning of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, and therefore you neither know nor believe that Jesus, who bore all your sins once and for all, has become your propitiation. So, even at this very moment, you must believe in the Jesus who bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, and you must be saved from all your sins by this faith.
It is estimated that there are around a billion Christians around the world who believe that Jesus was crucified and shed His blood on the Cross. However, these Christians misunderstand and misbelieve in Jesus, for they do not know that He has become our propitiation by being baptized by John the Baptist and thus bearing the sins of this world once and for all. Such people are not able to say that they now have no sin in their hearts. Why is it that they can’t help but confess that they are sinners whose hearts remain sinful? It is because today’s Christians think that only the crucified Jesus who shed His blood on the Cross is their Savior. Because they believe in the Nicene Creed alone, which deleted the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist to bear the sins of this world, it is inevitable for them to say that they are sinners with a sinful heart. Because they do not know the true gospel proclaiming that Jesus bore and washed away the sins of this world once and for all with the baptism He received from John the Baptist, their sins remain completely intact in their hearts.
There is only one way to believe in the Lord Jesus as the Savior, who bore the sins of mankind through His baptism and carried the sins of this world to the Cross. In the Old Testament, for the High Priest to offer the sacrifice of atonement for his sins and the sins of his people, he first had to pass them to the sacrificial animal by laying his hands on its head. In the same manner, in the age of the New Testament, Jesus could wash away the sins of mankind by accepting the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist.
Seeking to sacrifice Himself as the offering of atonement, Jesus bore our sins of the world on His body by being baptized by John the Baptist, poured out His blood on the Cross, suffered, and died; and it was only then that He could be our propitiation for all our sins. By washing away the sins of mankind with the baptism that Jesus His Son received and making Him bear their condemnation, God the Father has made it possible for the believers to be saved from their sins. God has enabled us to be saved by believing in Jesus as our Savior who sacrificed Himself as our propitiation to bear our sins and blot them out.
For us living in the 21st century also, Jesus Himself bore our sins through His baptism, and therefore we, too, can be saved from all our sins if only we have the faith that the Lord has become our propitiation. Even though we do not know when Jesus will return to this world, we must receive the remission of all our sins by believing in the baptism Jesus received and the blood He shed to become our propitiation, and thereby prepare the faith to receive the returning Lord.
This world is getting more and more depressing. We must believe now that Jesus bore the sins of this world through the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist, that He shed His blood and died on the Cross, and that these were the works He carried out to become our own propitiation. In particular, to those who are trying to be saved from their sins by believing in His Cross alone, Jesus is admonishing them to be washed from their sins by believing in the Word of the baptism that He received from John the Baptist.
There Are around One Billion Christians on This Planet Earth
These days my heart is drawn to a billion Christians all over the whole world who say that their hearts are sinful despite believing in Jesus. They are still ignorant of the fact that Jesus bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. My heart yearns to preach the gospel Word of baptism to these people also. That is because if they believe in the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, they can believe that all their sins were passed on to Jesus, and they will therefore be able to find peace for their hearts. Having inherited the faith of the Nicene Creed, they are now living as sinners. They still do not understand properly that Jesus Christ bore the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist and became our propitiation by being condemned for the sins of this world on the Cross; and since they do not know, they cannot believe, either.
The Lord has commanded me, “All this time you have been preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit to nonbelievers, but from now on, also reach out to the Christians who claim to have been saved by believing in just the Cross, point out their problem, and preach to them faith in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and His blood on the Cross.” I want to obey this Word of the Lord.
I believe that the Lord has told me, “I bore the sins of the people of this world once and for all through the baptism I received from John the Baptist, went to the Cross, and was condemned for their sins by shedding My precious blood as their propitiation. Bear witness of this work of Mine to people and show it to them by faith.” The Lord is now burdening us the born-again with this spiritual task to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world. I am now preaching to this world that Jesus offered the sacrifice of atonement by being baptized by John the Baptist and crucified, believing that it is the will of the Lord God for me to do so by faith.
I see that there still are many people in this world trying to be saved from their sins by believing in just Jesus’ Cross. They are still living in pain, tormented by the sins they commit every day. We need to think about the pain they are suffering because of their sins. Today, since so many Christians professing to believe in Jesus believe in the gospel of the Cross only, when would they ever be able to live as sinless people before Jesus Christ? They are still waiting for the day when they can be completely washed from their sins through Jesus. This is because even though they are trying to be delivered from their sins once and for all by believing in just the Word of the Cross, without knowing the mystery of the Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, it is impossible for them to be cleansed from their sins.
Although they are now saying that they believe in Jesus as their Savior, there is no way they can get their sins addressed with their faith in the Cross alone. That is because the Cross to which Jesus was nailed is not the place where mankind’s sins were washed, but it is the place where these sins were condemned. This is so because it is only by being baptized by John the Baptist that Jesus bore the sins of mankind. The blood that Jesus shed on the Cross to be condemned for mankind’s sins is the result of the fact that He was baptized by John the Baptist.
By being baptized by John the Baptist and shedding His precious blood on the Cross, Jesus offered the sacrifice of atonement for mankind and has become our Savior. Through the baptism He received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River, He bore your sins and mine once and for all, and to offer the sacrifice of atonement for our sins, He shed His blood on the Cross for us. Without the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, there would have been no shedding of blood, either. We must realize here that we can be saved only if we believe that Jesus became the propitiation for our sins through His baptism. Only then can we be saved from all our sins by faith.
When we believe in Jesus’ work of atonement, that He bore your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross, it is then that we can be saved from all our sins. This is why the Lord said to everyone that “one must be born again of water and the Spirit.” Let us not forget that Jesus could become the propitiation for our sins only if He bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist! And let us believe in the baptism of Jesus and His sacrifice of atonement. When we believe in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, we can also believe that all our hearts’ sins were passed on to Jesus. Unless you have this faith, you will forever be unable to be delivered from all your sins.
If your heart does not believe that Jesus bore and took away the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist, then you will be enslaved by your sins only to be condemned for them. If you could be saved from your sins by believing in just the crucified Jesus, you would render in vain the baptism that the Lord received to take away your sins, and therefore you will suffer for this sin.
It appears that Emperor Constantine summoned the First Council of Nicaea deliberately, determined from the very beginning to delete the Word of the baptism of Jesus. That’s because if everyone in the world came to know the fact that Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, everyone would be able to be saved by believing that Jesus had become the propitiation for his sins. Constantine deleted the Truth of the Baptism of Jesus from the Nicene Creed intentionally, to prevent people from reaching salvation from their sins by believing in the baptism of Jesus and the shedding of His blood as their propitiation. It was to pursue his political interests that he removed the baptism of Jesus all on his own.
Indeed, people all over the world remain as sinners and are suffering under their sins because they do not know and therefore cannot believe in the Word that Jesus bore their sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Who could be sorrier than such victims of deception? I have nothing but pity for them. Even worse, every Christian in the 21st century who believes in Jesus is living today without even realizing that his faith is flawed, all because of the Nicene Creed that was formulated erroneously.
We Must Believe in the Word of the Baptism That the Lord Received from John the Baptist Exactly as It Is Written in the Bible
In today’s Scripture reading from John chapter 2, what did Mary say to the servants when she heard that the wedding feast was running out of wine? She told them, “Do exactly as Jesus says.” The servants did in fact pour water in the waterpots of stone as Jesus told them. And when they served this water to the guests as Jesus commanded them, it turned into wine miraculously. It is when the servants obeyed what Jesus told them that a miracle unfolded to turn water into wine. The Bible says that this miracle came about because the servants obeyed Jesus when He told them, “Draw the water and take it to the guests.” We, too, can experience the miracle of becoming Jesus Christ’s brides by believing in the Word exactly as it says, that your sins and mine can be washed away because Jesus bore and took away the sins of this world by being baptized by John the Baptist. Of course, this is true when we also believe in the Word that Jesus became our propitiation on the Cross.
To explain this Word again in spiritual terms, for us to now experience the miracle of being made righteous with our hearts’ sins disappearing, we must accept and believe in Jesus as our Savior, that the Lord bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, shed His blood on the Cross, and rose from the dead again; and if we do this, we can be saved from all our sins and become Jesus Christ’s brides. If we believe in Jesus as our Savior who accepted all our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, shed His blood on the Cross, and died on it, we will be blessed to receive the everlasting remission of sins.
Every sin of mankind is such that one can be released from his sins only if the corresponding cost is paid. That is why God the Father made His Son bear the sins of this world by being baptized; by letting His Son be crucified, shed His blood, and endure terrible suffering and humiliation on the Cross to death, God the Father also obtained sufficient reparation for the wages of our sins through His Son’s sacrifice; and because of this, we have been able to be saved from all our sins. Faith in this Truth—that is, believing in the baptism of Jesus and the shedding of His blood as our propitiation—is the faith that enables us to be remitted from all our sins. Do you get it? As such, we ought to be saved by believing in Jesus as our Savior who bore our sins once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and carried them to the Cross, and we ought to praise Him and thank Him, for we can reach salvation by believing in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!
For us to be saved from all the sins of this world, we need the undiluted faith that Jesus bore our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and was condemned for them on the Cross. In God’s sight, the remission of our hearts’ sins does not depend on our own work, nor does it depend on our own devotion. Instead, it depends entirely on the sacrificial law of salvation fulfilled with the righteousness of Jesus, who was baptized by John the Baptist.
Our salvation is now within reach if only we accept the Truth of salvation that Jesus bore the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, was crucified, and shed His blood to death. The Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist is the Word through which He accepted all the sins of mankind, and to believe that the blood Jesus shed on the Cross is our propitiation is to believe in the Word that can save us from all our sins. If we open our hearts to and believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that our Lord has given us, our faith in this Word of Truth will bring true salvation to us.
To save us from the sins of this world, Jesus came as a Man just like us, and because He took upon all the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist, He was crucified, shed His blood, and died on the Cross as our propitiation. In doing so, Jesus has brought true salvation to all of us who believe that He is our Savior who was baptized by John the Baptist and offered the sacrifice of atonement on the Cross.
When we accept into our hearts the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given us, our sins are passed on to His body and condemned, and therefore all our sins are blotted out. That is how we the believers in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit have been saved from the sins of this world and come to praise the Lord in our lives. It is on account of our faith in the fact that Jesus bore our sins through His baptism, and our faith in the punishment of sins on the Cross, that our sins are washed away once and for all. Therefore, the knowledge of and faith in the baptism that the Lord received for us is what brings true salvation to us.
When we believe in the fact that the sins of this world were passed on to the body of Jesus through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, we are blessed to be transformed into the righteous from sinners.
We Have Been Washed from Our Everyday Sins Also
As Jesus Christ bore the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received in the Jordan River and His blood on the Cross, He has saved us once and for all from all the sins that we commit in our everyday lives. So, through our faith in the baptism and the blood that constitute the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we can be washed from all our sins. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given us is “εὐαγγέλιον” in Greek, and it is powerful like “dynamite.” Just as a stick of dynamite lit and thrown at a house will blow it to pieces without even a trace, our Lord has given the gift of the remission of sins that is fulfilled all at once to all of us who believe in the baptism that He received from John the Baptist to bear our sins of the world, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection.
Even though you and I are lacking in our flesh, we can still be saved if we believe that Jesus accepted your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, went to the Cross, shed His blood, paid off all the wages of our sins once and for all with His death, and has thereby saved us. The Word of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist is the powerful Word that enables us to be washed from our sins. We ought to thank the Lord for this, believing that He has cleansed away our sins with this Word. Born on this earth about 2,000 years ago, Jesus accepted all the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist at the age of 30, shed His blood on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby forever delivered us from our sins once and for all as our Savior.
In not-too-distant future, the Antichrist will make his appearance in this world. He will demand the believers in the baptism of Jesus, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection to prove that they really have no sin. At that time, we will have no choice but to bear witness of our salvation by our faith in the righteousness of Jesus, testifying that our Lord Savior took upon all the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and sacrificed Himself on the Cross as our propitiation.
Just as our Lord said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 1:8), through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, the Lord bore and washed away all the sins of this world once and for all from its beginning to its end, and with the precious blood He shed on the Cross, He offered the sacrifice of atonement for us. The Jesus Christ who was baptized by John the Baptist and rose from the dead again is our God Almighty. In contrast, human beings live for only around 80 years on average, and no more than 130 years even in the most extreme cases. Knowing our lifespan quite well, the Lord has forever become our Savior for all of us His believers by bearing the sins of mankind once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, shedding His blood on the Cross to be condemned for our sins once and for all, and rising from the dead again. In doing so, Jesus has saved us and cleansed us from all your sins and mine, and even our descendants from their sins, with the Word of the baptism that He received from John the Baptist. And those who believe in this ought to thank the Lord for granting them the Word of baptism that can wash them once and for all from all the sins of this world.
With the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood, Jesus bore our sins once and for all and forever washed them away, from the sins of the people of the past to your present sins and mine and the sins of the people to come in the future. What about you then? Do you believe that your sins have been washed away once and for all with the baptism of Jesus and His blood? I believe that all my sins have been washed away clean once and for all with the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed. By being baptized by John the Baptist and thus bearing our sins once and for all, and by shedding His blood on the Cross and thus paying off the wages of our sins, Jesus has washed away all our sins once and for all.
I believe in this because it is true and factual. Indeed, I have no sin because I believe in the fact that Jesus is my propitiation, for He bore and washed away the sins of this world once and for all by being baptized by John the Baptist. And that is why I am preaching at this hour that Jesus has washed away your sins and mine with the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and why I am urging you to believe in the fact that the Lord is your propitiation.
Jesus has delivered you from your sins by being baptized by John the Baptist and shedding His blood on the Cross. Believe in this salvation exactly as it is.
In today’s Scripture reading, Mary told the servants, “Do as Jesus says.” Mary had accepted the Word of God earlier than the servants. She was a sister who had personally experienced the Word of God. She had conceived the Savior and given birth to Him, believing in the Word of God relayed to her by an angel. Mary knew that Jesus was God Himself, and that He had the power of God and His divinity. So, she was a woman of faith capable of telling the servants at the wedding feast to do as Jesus told them.
Just as Mary was able to conceive Baby Jesus and give birth to Him because she accepted the Word of God into her heart exactly as it was brought to her by the angel, today, we, too, can become God’s children by believing in Jesus as our Savior, who bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and paid off their wages. Mary was with Jesus here, and she was living out her faith to testify the blessed gospel as she believed in her Savior Jesus Christ.
For sinners like us, the Lord bore all our sins and washed them away once and for all with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and His blood, and He has given us this gospel of salvation. By saving all of us who believe in Jesus’ baptism and blood from the sins of this world, the Lord has made us righteous without any sin in our hearts. It is now possible for us to be saved from all our sins by believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus that constitute the Truth of this salvation. Isn’t the sacrifice of atonement that Jesus made the Truth of our salvation? The work of the baptism of Jesus and His blood has made you, a sinner, a righteous person without any sin, and this is the greatest blessing of salvation among all the blessed miracles. What a miraculous gift of salvation the Lord has given us!
As human beings, we could never free ourselves from our sins no matter how hard we tried. It goes without saying that for someone like me, it is absolutely impossible to become a righteous man without any sin before God by relying on my own strength. If Jesus had not borne your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and if He had not shed His blood on the Cross, then our sins would still remain intact in our hearts. And we would face the condemnation of our sins in the end. However, our Lord offered Himself as our propitiation with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the precious blood He shed on the Cross, and this work of the Lord constitutes the gospel of salvation that is more than enough to make our hearts sinless.
Because we have now accepted into our hearts the sacrifice of atonement that Jesus made by bearing your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and being condemned for these sins once and for all, we have become sinless in God’s sight. How else could we have become righteous? Looking at our own acts, we know that even if we were somehow living without sin one morning, we would have no choice but to live as sinners by the afternoon. We are such that it is simply impossible for us to be freed from our sins by our own acts, and therefore we can be saved from every sin only if we know and believe that Jesus is the Lord who offered Himself as our propitiation through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross.
By bearing our sins through His baptism, being condemned on the Cross for them, and rising from the dead again, Jesus has now given us His believers new, everlasting life. Unless we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior who came to this earth by the water and the Spirit, it is impossible for us to make ourselves sinless, and therefore we must believe that Jesus is our propitiation.
Everyone should realize and believe that no one can keep even one jot or tittle of the Law of God. If we break the Law of God, we must be condemned for this sin, and we must face the punishment of hell according to God’s justice. Let’s say that you were to live for 85 years in this world. If you break the Law of God in the morning of your last day, just half an hour before passing away, then you are a sinner who must be punished for this sin even if you didn’t commit any sin throughout your entire lifetime until this moment. If you do or think anything that deviates from God’s purpose, you are a sinner. We were all sinners breaking the Law of God and its statutes. If we break even just one statute of the 613 statutes of God, we are to stand before God as guilty sinners.
Therefore, if God were to judge our sins according to the statutes of His Law, we would be convicted as sinners in His eyes, and ultimately, we would have no choice but to face the punishment of hell. The Law of God says, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). This means that if anyone has any sin in his heart, the punishment for this sin is hell. “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Having come to this earth as our propitiation, the Lord Jesus bore the sins of this world once and for all through His baptism, shed His blood and suffered on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby become the Savior who has delivered those who believe in this Word of salvation from all their sins. We must never forget that we can receive the remission of sins by believing in the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ our propitiation as our salvation.
Even though we were sinners, for such people like us, the Lord bore our sins and washed them away once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, paid off the wages of our sins with the blood He shed on the Cross, and has thereby saved His believers. When we believe in this true gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Lord will make us His believers righteous and accept us as God’s own children. This is the love of the Lord our Savior.
It Is Through Jesus That We Can See God
No one has seen God, as the Bible says in John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Who, then, is the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father? He is Jesus Christ the Savior, who is the God of the Word. Even though we have not seen God, Jesus revealed Himself to us as our Savior by being born on this earth, bearing the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist as the Savior of mankind, and being crucified.
If the Lord had not revealed Himself to us like this, it would have been absolutely impossible for us to know who Jesus Christ was. However, even though we have not seen Jesus in person, who came by the water and the Spirit, through the written Word of the Bible, we can meet Jesus our Savior who bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shed His precious blood on the Cross. This is the Word of God written for thousands of years, and this Word is now revealing to us the Jesus who came to this earth by the water and the Spirit.
When Jesus’ disciples saw Him turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, they could realize that He was the Messiah whom the Old Testament had prophesied to send to them. Seeing Jesus’ miracle that turned water into wine, we, too, can be saved by believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior who, like the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament, bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Is there anyone here who can turn water into wine? Even if we could do this, we cannot be baptized by John the Baptist, be crucified, or rise from the dead again to save mankind from sin. However, Jesus is God Himself who created the heavens and the earth with His Word, and by bearing your sins and mine through the sacrificial offering of the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed when He came to this earth, He has washed away our sins once and for all and become our true Savior. That the water turned into wine in today’s Scripture reading reveals that the Lord bore your sins and mine once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross, and that He has thus given the salvation of the washing of sins once and for all to those of us who now believe in this Truth. By being baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus Christ forever took upon our sins and washed them away once and for all, and He has become the everlasting Groom to those who have truly been washed from their sins by believing in Him. And Jesus Christ has accepted as His brides all those who believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that He has given them.
This is the meaning of the wedding of the groom and the bride in Cana. Jesus Christ is the Groom, and the brides are you and I who believe in the baptism the Lord received and the blood He shed. There, only the righteousness of Jesus Christ our Groom shines brilliantly. What the Lord is saying to us in today’s Scripture reading is this: even though we were sinners, the Lord bore the sins of this world, which are your sins and mine, and was condemned for them with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the sacrifice of atonement He made with His blood; and Jesus Christ has made those of us who believe in this Word His brides.
It is not just with the Word of the Cross that the Lord has saved us from the sins of the world, but He has brought salvation to those of us who believe that the Lord bore our sins and washed them away once and for all with the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed to deliver us from the sins of the world. Jesus is our God. He is the Creator and the Savior of sinners. We believe in the Jesus who bore the sins of this world through His baptism as our Savior and our Groom. Jesus Christ is our Savior who came to save from all the sins of the world those who believe that the Word of the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the Cross constitutes their salvation. Those who have now become our Lord Jesus Christ’s brides by believing in this Truth of salvation are sinless in their hearts, righteous, God’s workers, and His children.
The Lord has become the Savior of His believers by bearing all the sins of mankind once and for all through the baptism He received, enduring the suffering of the Cross, and rising from the dead again. He is the Savior who bore your sins and mine and washed away the sins of this world with the baptism He received from John the Baptist. If you now want to become sinless by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that the Lord has given you, then you can be washed from your sins by believing in this Word as it is, and such people will become Jesus Christ’s brides.
My heart is heavy. Why? It’s because a billion Christians still remain as sinners despite professing to believe in Jesus, not knowing this gospel of His baptism and the Cross. My heart is heavy because I must also preach to them the Word that Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. And I must also spread the Word of salvation to the 8 billion people living on this planet earth, preaching to them that the sins of this world were passed on to Jesus once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist. Moreover, I must teach them of their theological errors, and this makes it all the harder.
Today, just because someone is a pastor, it does not mean that this pastor is someone who believes in Jesus as his Savior who bore our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and the blood He shed on the Cross. We know that such pastors are extremely few. A long time ago, when I was residing in the countryside by the sea, I met a pastor who was leading a group of students from a certain university. He was the senior pastor of a church, and he was also ministering to the students from this university. One day, he visited one of my missionary acquaintances and wanted to debate him over theology. So I told him, “How about discussing it with me? This missionary did not study theology, but I did, so let’s discuss.” After having a few conversations, he suddenly asked me, “You say that Jesus was born from the body of the Virgin Mary, but how is it biologically possible for Jesus to be born of someone who did not know any man?” He said that if I could explain it to him scientifically, he would believe in Jesus.
So, I said to him, “Aren’t you already a pastor? How can you say such things when you are a pastor. You want me to explain it now? I can explain it scientifically, and I can also explain it spiritually. In the Bible, God made the universe, the heavens and the earth, and He sent His Son to this world, for He had a plan of salvation for mankind. To save mankind from the sins of the world, Jesus the Son of God bore them through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, suffered on the Cross, and rose from the dead again. And now, by believing in this Jesus Christ, we can be saved from all our sins. For us who now believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the Lord has become our Savior. Jesus Christ is the Lord who bore our sins and blotted them out once and for all with the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and we can be saved from all our sins by believing in this Lord as our Savior. It is God the Father who had His Son Jesus be born on this earth from the body of Mary. Because God is the God of the Word, for us who believe in the Word of salvation that He prophesied and fulfilled on this earth, He could work on us as our Savior.” I then explained to this pastor, saying, “Since you are a human being, you were born of a human being. Just as God brought all things in the universe into existence by commanding them to exist with His Word, God the Father sent His Son to this earth through the body of Mary.”
Like this, there are extremely few people in this world who bear witness of the baptism and blood of Jesus to testify how sinners are washed from their sins before God. The Lord Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, went to the Cross, shed His blood, rose from the dead again, and has thereby made those who now believe in this Truth of salvation His people. Were it not for God’s great grace, it would absolutely not be easy to preach the Word that Jesus bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist.
Those of us who now believe in the fact that our sins were passed on to Jesus through the baptism He received from John the Baptist have become Jesus Christ’s brides. Since the Lord has saved you and me from our sins once and for all by bearing them through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shedding His blood on the Cross, by our faith in this gospel Word of salvation, we have now been saved from our sins. If we realize that Jesus washed away all your sins and mine with the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and we accept this gospel Word into our hearts, our sins will be passed on to Jesus, and Jesus will give us the believers new life, for He shed His blood on the Cross while shouldering our sins and rose from the dead again.
My fellow believers, do you now understand how the gospel of the water and the Spirit makes it possible for us to be washed from all our sins? God the Creator of this universe was incarnated in the flesh of man, bore the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist at the age of 30, and suffered on the Cross. Jesus Christ has thus become our Savior now, and if you believe in Him with your heart, you will be saved once and for all. In short, salvation from all our sins is reached when we lean on the Word of the baptism and the blood and believe in this Word of God with our hearts.
The etymological origins of the word “faith” are “to rely on” and “to lean on.” When we say that we believe in someone, it means we are relying on this person. How much faith we have in anyone depends on how much we can rely on him. The faith that saves us from our sins is to believe that the Jesus Christ who bore our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist is our Savior. We come to rely and lean on the Lord, convinced that He is our trustworthy Savior. This is what it means to have faith in God and His Word. It is all about believing in the true Word of the baptism of the Lord, that Jesus bore the sins of this world once and for all through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and washed away all our sins once and for all.
Because the Lord bore the sins of this world through the baptism He received from John the Baptist and shed His blood on the Cross, we now believe that our sins were passed on to Jesus as well as condemned. Because the Word says that the Lord came to this earth, was baptized by John the Baptist to take upon all our sins, and bore their condemnation with the blood He shed on the Cross, and because this Word is the Word of God, we are saved by believing according to this Word. Our sins were passed on to Jesus once and for all through His baptism and blood. Since it is written in the Word of our Bible that Jesus bore our sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, suffered on the Cross, and rose from the dead again, we ought to say to the Lord, “Yes, Lord, since it’s the Word of God, I can believe in it with my heart. If it were just mankind’s word, I couldn’t believe it, but if it is the written Word of God, I can believe in every Word with my heart. The Bible writes that Jesus bore all the sins of this world and all my sins through the baptism He received from John the Baptist, and I believe in this Word as my salvation. I have received the remission of sins into my heart by my faith in Your written Word. I believe wholeheartedly that I am one of Jesus’ redeemed people.” Like this, when we accept into our hearts the Truth of the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist, our sins are passed on to Him. I am God’s worker whose task is finely dissecting His Word and feeding it to you by faith.
I am preaching to you the gospel Word of the baptism of the Lord in His place, lest you remain sinful in both body and soul and be cast into hell. On my own, there is not much that I can do for you. Those who work to save souls like me are Jesus’ workers. God’s worker is someone who does what his Master tells him to do according to His will. By believing in the Word of the Lord that He has washed away my sins with His baptism and blood, I have received the remission of sins and become God’s worker, and words cannot express just how grateful I am for this. I am also grateful to you, for you are my co-workers serving and preaching the Word of the baptism and the blood together with me. Together with you, I will preach this Word of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world. We give our thanks to our resurrected Lord. We thank Jesus Christ for giving the remission of sins to His believers through the baptism the Lord received and the blood He shed. We give thanks and glory to the Lord who has made us Jesus Christ’s everlasting brides. Hallelujah! May God bless you all!
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