The beautiful gospel
that allows
the Holy Spirit to dwell in believers
<Isaiah 9:6-7>
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son
is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be
called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne
of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and
justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this.”
What allows the Holy Spirit
to dwell in believers? |
The beautiful gospel
of the water and the Spirit |
In order to receive the Holy Spirit, we need to
have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our Lord is named Wonderful,
Counselor, and Mighty God. Our Lord referred to Himself as the pathway to Heaven.
Jesus Christ presented everybody with the gift of the beautiful gospel.
However, in this world, there are so many people
who still live in darkness. They try to escape from this darkness but because
they do not know of the beautiful gospel, they can never escape from their sins.
Instead they wither away from their belief in false doctrines. In contrast,
for those who seek the truth, they will encounter the beautiful gospel and live
the rest of their lives fulfilled with God’s blessings. I believe it is God’s
special blessing that allows me to help them find the beautiful gospel and cleanse
them of their sins.
Therefore freedom from sin would be impossible
if it weren’t for His blessing. If we have met the Lord and received the Holy
Spirit then we are very much blessed. Regrettably, many people are not aware
that God’s blessing comes from faith in this beautiful gospel.
God’s blessing results from believing in the beautiful
gospel that was given to us by Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. Jesus is
the One who saves us from the sins of the world and blesses us with His mercy.
No one else can save us from our sins and or help us erase the guilt in our
hearts. Who could possibly save himself from his own sins and the pain of eternal
death?
God tells us, “There is a way that seems right
to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 16:25). People establish
their own religions and drive themselves toward destruction and death. Many
religions boast that they emphasize righteousness and show their own ways to
save people from their sins but it is only the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
which our Lord gave us, that can save us from all our sins. Only Jesus is the
Savior who can save sinners from their sins.
In John 14:6, our Lord said, “I am the way,
the truth, and the life.” He gave His own flesh and blood to those on their
way to death. He also referred to Himself as the way to true life. God says
that if one does not believe in Jesus’ beautiful gospel, he cannot enter the
Kingdom of Heaven.
We must believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, be forgiven for our sins and believe that He is our Savior in order
to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Once in ancient Israel!
“Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the
son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and
Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war
against it, but could not prevail against it” (Isaiah 7:1).
Israel was originally one nation. However, Israel
became divided into south and north. The temple of God was in Jerusalem of Southern
Judea, where Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, ruled. Later, Jeroboam, one
of Solomon’s servants, established another nation in the north and so Israel
became divided. From that time, faith in God deteriorated. The deterioration
of faith became the source of today’s heretical religions. Jeroboam thus became
the originator of heretics. He amended the law of God because he needed to keep
his throne and therefore, became the father of heretics. He created a different
religion for His people in Israel, the Northern Kingdom and he even tried to
invade Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Almost 200 years passed by, but the hostile
relations between two kingdoms were unchanged.
However, God spoke through Isaiah, “Because
Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying,
‘Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall
for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel.’ ─ thus says
the Lord God: ‘It shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. For the head of
Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be broken, so that it will not be a people. The head of Ephraim
is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe,
surely you shall not be established’” (Isaiah 7:5-9).
At that time, God prophesized through Isaiah to
King Ahaz, but the king had no faith in Him. Ahaz was merely worried that he
wouldn’t even be able to hold out against Syria’s army, but hearing about the
invasion of Syria and Israel in alliance with one another, he shivered in fear.
But a servant of God, Isaiah, came and told him, “In less than sixty-five years,
north Israel will be broken. And the evil conspiracy the two kings have plotted
will never come true.”
God’s servant told King Ahaz to seek a sign from
God. “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the
depth or in the height above” (Isaiah 7:11). “Hear now, O house of David! Is
it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore
the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and
bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:13-14). This was
His prophecy: That He would save His people from their sins.
Who is the enemy of God?
The enemy of humanity is sin and sin originates
from Satan. And who is the Savior from our sins? The Savior is none other than
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Man has fundamental weaknesses of flesh and therefore
cannot but commit sin. He is under Satan’s power. A great many people still
visit fortunetellers and try to live their lives exactly as these false prophets
instruct them. This is direct evidence that they are under Satan’s control.
The Lord gave Isaiah evidence of salvation, saying
that a virgin would give birth to a Son and name Him Immanuel. It was God’s
plan to send Jesus in the likeness of sinful flesh of a man and have Him save
sinners from Satan’s oppression. In accordance with the prophecy, Jesus came
into this world as a human being born of the virgin Mary.
If Jesus had not come to us, we would still have
been living under the reign of Satan. But Jesus came into this world and was
baptized by John and died on the Cross in order to give us the beautiful gospel
that would save all sinners from their sins. Therefore, many people believed
in the beautiful gospel, received forgiveness for their sins and became children
of God.
Even nowadays, many theologians argue as to whether
Jesus Christ is God or man. The conservative theologians say “Jesus is God,”
but some New Theologians retort by arguing that Jesus was Joseph’s illegitimate
child. What a lamentable assertion this is!
Some New theologians say that they cannot believe
that Jesus had the ability to walk on water. They say, “Jesus actually walked
on a low hill over the horizon and His disciples, seeing Him from far away,
thought He was walking on water.” Present-day doctors of divinity who belong
to the schools of the New Theology aren’t all great men of theology. Most of
them choose to believe only what they can comprehend in the Bible.
To give another example, the Bible says that Jesus
fed 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of breads. But they remain very
skeptical regarding this miracle. They explain it in the following terms. “People
were following Jesus and were starving to death. So Jesus asked His disciples
to gather together all the leftover food. Then a child gave Him his meal voluntarily,
and all the other adults were touched and took out their own food. So after
they had gathered all the food together and eaten, twelve baskets were left
over.” These kinds of theologians simply try to make God’s words fit their own
very limited understanding.
Believing in God’s truth is simply having faith
in the beautiful gospel God gave. Faith does not mean believing one thing just
because it seems to make sense but failing to believe in something else because
it doesn’t. Whether we can comprehend it or not, we must trust Him and accept
His words as they are written.
The fact that Jesus came to us as the Son of Man
means that He was sent to save us from all our sins. Jesus, who is God, came
to this earth to save us. Isaiah had prophesied that He would come to us as
the Son of Man, born of a virgin.
In Genesis 3:15, the Lord God said to the serpent,
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and
her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” This
means that God had planned to send Jesus, in the appearance as a man, as our
Savior to save mankind from their sins.
In the Bible, it is written, “O Death, where
is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:55-56). The sting of death
is sin. When a man sins, death makes him its slave. But our Lord promised, “The
seed of the woman shall bruise your head.” This means Jesus would destroy the
sting of the sin that Satan brought.
Jesus came into this world, was baptized to take
away all the sins of the world and was crucified and judged for them. He saved
from their sins all those who believe in the beautiful gospel. When Adam and
Eve sinned, God promised to save mankind from Satan’s power. In the modern world,
the enemy of God is those who do not believe in the beautiful gospel.
Why was Jesus born in this world?
God gave us the law and the beautiful gospel to
save us from our sins. Under the law of God, people became sinners in His presence.
Likewise, the law was given so that people could come to know their sins. When
people became slaves to sin and to the law itself, our Lord came into this world
to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law.
Jesus was born under the law. He was born in the
age of the law. The reason people needed the law was that they needed to know
their sins in order to receive forgiveness for them. People clean the dirt from
their clothes only when they realize they’re dirty. Likewise, in order to recognize
their sins, people should know the law of God. If there was no law, there wouldn’t
be any sense of sins, and Jesus would not have had to come into this world.
If you know the law of God, then you have a chance
to meet Him. We knew of the law and therefore were able to learn about our sins.
Only after we knew of our sin did Jesus Christ bring the beautiful gospel for
us to believe in. If God did not grant us the law, then we would not be sinners
and judgment would not exist. Thus, God gave us the law and presented us with
the beautiful gospel to save all sinners from their sins.
The law that must exist between the Creator and
His creation is God’s law of salvation. This is the law of love. God told man,
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat”
(Genesis 2:17). This was the law God granted us, and the law became the basis
of the love with which God saved us all from our sins. The law of salvation
had its foundation in the forgiveness of our sins. God tells us that He is our
Creator and that everything came to exist according to His will. This means
that God is the Absolute Being and that people should believe in the law of
salvation that was accomplished through the beautiful gospel.
The Absolute God is absolutely good. God’s love
for this world prompted Him to sacrifice His only begotten Son, who became the
Savior of all sinners. If God made us and did not give us the beautiful gospel
to save us from our sins, we would have raised complaints against Him. But God
wanted to save us from our own destruction and therefore established the law
of salvation. Because of the law, we were able to realize our sins and by looking
at them directly, start to believe in Jesus’ beautiful gospel. When we violate
God’s word, we are manifested as sinners before the law, and after all we sinners
kneel down to beg for His mercy of forgiveness of sin before God.
Jesus was born of a woman and came into this world
to save mankind from sin. Jesus came into this world as a man to fulfill God’s
plan for us. We believe in His beautiful gospel. Therefore, we praise the Lord.
Some complain, “Why did God make me so fragile
that I fell so easily into sin and have suffered so much for my wrongdoing?”
But God never wanted us to suffer. He allowed us to suffer because we were skeptical
of Jesus’ gospel. God gave us both suffering and the beautiful gospel so that
we would have the same power as Him as His children. This was His plan.
But the demons say, “No! No! God is a dictator!
Go ahead and live as you wish. Be independent! Make your fortunes through your
own efforts!” The demons also try to block mankind’s belief in God. But those
who choose to live apart from God are barriers to His plan for salvation. Jesus
came into this world and called those who are under the power of Satan to renounce
their sins. We should not live apart from God.
Man is born a sinner who is destined to Hell
There is no truth on this earth that does not
change. But the beautiful gospel of Jesus is the unalterable truth. Therefore,
people can depend on that truth and be delivered from the power of Satan. Mankind
inherited the sins of Adam and Eve and without Christ’s intervention would be
doomed to the fires of Hell. Instead, thanks to His sacrifice, man was blessed
with the power to become a child of God. “Nevertheless the gloom will not
be upon her who is distressed” (Isaiah 9:1). God sent His Son to this world
and glorified those who believe in the beautiful salvation.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen
a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them
a light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2). Today, this word comes true to you and
me. By believing in the beautiful gospel, we were blessed with eternal life,
which we cannot have on this earth. Jesus Christ saved mankind from all the
sins of the world and to those who believe in the beautiful gospel, He gave
eternal life and the Kingdom of Heaven.
He shed the beautiful light of the gospel on those who were
hopeless
Man, like a fog, exists in this world for a while
but soon disappears. His life is like that of annual plants and grass. Grass
retains its life force for only a few months during the year and disappears
according to the Providence of God. All is vanity in our lives as meaningless
as this grass. But God gave the beautiful gospel to our exhausted souls and
with His righteousness, made us His children. What an amazing grace this is!
Our meaningless lives became eternal lives thanks to God’s love and we were
also blessed with the right to become His children.
Here is the confession of a soul who was blessed
with God’s grace by believing in the beautiful gospel.
“I was born in a family that did not believe in
God. Therefore, I was brought up thinking it beautiful for my mother to pray
to the gods of heaven and earth for the well being of my family every morning
with a bowl of water in front of her. As I was growing up, I did not know of
my value or the reason for my existence, which made me believe that it really
didn’t matter whether I lived or died. Because I was unaware of my worth, I
lived in solitude.
This kind of life exhausted me and so I rushed
to get married. My married life was a good one. I had nothing to wish for, so
I lived a quiet and serene life. Then I had a child and from that time I found
that love started to appear in me. I began to lose my selfish desires but I
also feared the loss of those closest to me.
Thus, I began searching for God. I was fragile
and incapable and therefore, needed an Absolute Being to keep watch over my
loved ones. So I started to attend church but my faith was little different
from that of my mother as she prayed in front of the bowl of water ─ my
prayer was only based on vague fears and hopes.
Once, I attended one of the small meetings held
at the local church and while I was praying, tears started to fall from my eyes.
I was embarrassed and tried to stop crying, but the tears continued to fall.
The people around me laid their hands on my head and congratulated me for receiving
the Holy Spirit. But I was bewildered. I wasn’t even familiar with God’s words
and my faith in Him was only vague, so I had no confidence that this force was
of the Holy Spirit.
The church that I attended was associated with
the Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement, and many had experiences like me and almost
everybody spoke in tongues. One day, I was invited to a revival meeting led
by a pastor who people said had been filled with the Holy Spirit. The pastor
gathered numerous people at the church and said He would heal someone’s sinusitis
as it was in his spiritual powers to do so. However, I thought sinusitis was
an illness easily healed in hospitals, so I was more interested in how he had
received the Holy Spirit. But after the pastor appeared to succeed in his attempts
at healing, he began to boast that he could predict whether a high school student
would succeed in his or her university entrance exam or not. A lot of people
praised his powers as if they were God’s.
But I could not understand him. And I could not
say that whatever power the pastor had, had anything to do with the Holy Spirit.
I didn’t think it was important whether he could heal sinusitis or forecast
someone’s success on an exam. So, I could not take his apparent miracles as
the works of the Holy Spirit.
The power and love of God that I had in mind was
different from what I saw. For that reason, I stopped attending that church
and avoided the people who believed in the pastor’s powers. After that, I attended
a quieter church, which I chose because I believed it dealt more with God’s
words. I learned of the law and through it that I was very unrighteous. God
became the object of my fear and I learned that I could not look honorable in
His presence and that His Spirit appeared to be neglecting me.
In Isaiah 59:1-2 it is written, “Behold, the
Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it
cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your
sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” This appeared
to fit my situation. It was impossible for me to become His child and receive
the Holy Spirit because everything I did or thought was sinful.
I feared God and so consistently gave prayers
of repentance. No one told me to do so, but I wanted to stand honorably in front
of God. Because I was sinful, I earnestly offered even more prayers of repentance.
But these prayers failed to wash away my sins. All I did was show Him my thoughts
and sincerity so my sins were still in me. From that time, I began to issue
complaints against God. I wished to be perfect in His eyes but I couldn’t be
perfect right away, so my complaints and sins piled up.
During this time of religious confusion, my father
had a stroke. He suffered for 40 days in operating rooms and hospital beds before
he passed away. But I could not once pray for my father. I was a sinner, so
I thought that if I prayed for my father, his pain would only worsen. I was
distressed at my lack of faith and I wished to follow God but couldn’t, so I
continued to complain and at last turned away from Him. My religious life ended
like that. I thought if I believed in Him, His Spirit would dwell in me and
I would find peace, but that was not the case. After that, my life became even
more meaningless and I lived in fear and unhappiness.
But the Lord did not desert me. He caused me to
encounter a believer who had truly received the Holy Spirit through God’s words.
I learned from this person that Jesus had taken our sins through His baptism
by John and that He had been judged for them on the Cross. Therefore, all the
sins of this world, including mine, were all forgiven. When I heard and came
to understand this, I could see that all my sins were cleansed. God helped me
receive forgiveness for my sins, gave me the blessing of the Holy Spirit and
granted me a peaceful life. He silently led me, gave me a clear understanding
of good and evil and endowed me with the power to overcome the temptations of
this world. He answered my prayers and helped me live a righteous and worthwhile
life. I truly thank God for giving me the Holy Spirit.”
Every one of us is blessed with the Lord’s grace
and is capable of receiving the Holy Spirit. I thank the Lord for giving us
His beautiful gospel. God blessed the righteous with such happiness. The hearts
of the righteous are joyous. The Lord granted us eternal happiness. We know
how precious God’s salvation, love and grace are and we are thankful for them.
The Lord gave us happiness through the beautiful gospel of Heaven. This is something
that cannot be bought with money. God sent us the Holy Spirit as well as the
beautiful gospel in order to make us jubilant and upright. The beautiful gospel
is what makes our lives blessed. The Lord gave us the beautiful gospel and He
is happy that the righteous ones enjoy a blessed life.
As it is recorded in Luke, Mary said, “For
with God nothing will be impossible… Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let
it be to me according to your word”(Luke 1:37-38). The moment Mary believed
in the beautiful words God, as spoken by His angel, Jesus was conceived. Likewise,
through their faith, the righteous conceive the beautiful gospel in their hearts.
“For You have broken the yoke of his burden
and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian”
(Isaiah 9:4). Satan caused all the distress, illnesses, and oppression in
our lives but we are far too weak to overcome him. But God loves us and so He
fought against Satan and defeated him.
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son
is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be
called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne
of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and
justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
God promised to glorify us as His children through
the beautiful gospel that Jesus brought. He defeated Satan in accordance with
His promise and delivered us from the power of Satan.
The Lord came to the earth and with His power
promised to take away all the darkness of sin. So we also call our Lord, the
Wonderful one. He has done many wonderful things for us. God’s decision to come
to this world as the Son of Man was mysterious. “Come now, and let us reason
together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
The Lord promised to save us from our sins and
give us eternal forgiveness. Jesus is referred to as the Wonderful one and,
accordingly, He has done miraculous works for us. “His name will be called
Counselor, Mighty God.” God, as our Counselor, planned our salvation with
the beautiful gospel and carried out His plan to save us eternally from our
sins.
The foolishness of God is wiser than man. It was
His wisdom for Jesus to be baptized by John and to die on the Cross in order
the save us from all our sins. This is mysterious work that He did for us, but
it is the law of love that saved us from all our sins. The law of love is the
gospel of truth that leads us to receive the Holy Spirit through the water and
His blood.
The Lord says in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased
the LORD to bruise Him; he has put Him to grief.” Jesus made His soul an
offering for sin in order to do the will of God. He passed on the sins of the
world to His Son, Jesus Christ, and had Him suffer the pain of crucifixion in
order that He would be judged for them. This is the beautiful gospel that saved
mankind from their sins once and for all. Christ offered His life for us, paid
the wages of sin and blessed us with salvation.
The sacrificial system of God
How many sins did Jesus take
through His baptism by John? |
Past, present and future sins from the time
of the beginning to that of the end |
The Bible speaks of an offering that once resulted
in forgiveness for a day’s sins. A sinner had to bring an animal without blemish
and lay his hands on the animal’s head in order to pass on his sins. Then he
had to kill the sacrifice and hand its blood to the priest. And the priest took
some of the animal’s blood and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings
and poured the remainder at the base of the alter.
In this way, he could be forgiven for a day’s
sins. The laying on of hands was the way for a sinner to pass on his sins to
the sacrifice. Those who offered their sacrifices in accordance with the sacrificial
system could receive forgiveness for their sins. The sacrificial system was
the way we atoned for our sins in the time before Jesus took away all sin.
God also had appointed the Day of Atonement so
that the people of Israel could make atonement for the sins committed over the
course of an entire year. The sacrifice took place on the tenth day of the seventh
month. God appointed Aaron, the high priest, as the one who passed on the year’s
sins of all Israelites to the scapegoat. The ritual was carried out in accordance
with God’s plan. The forgiveness of sins came from His wisdom and love for mankind.
This is His power.
“The horns of the altar of burnt offering” stands
for “the Books of Judgment” (Revelation 20:12), where the sins of mankind are
recorded. The reason the priest put the blood of the sin offering on the horns
of the altar of burnt offerings was to erase the names and their transgressions
written in the Book of Judgment. The blood is the life of all flesh. The sacrifice
took away the Israelite’s sins and the scapegoat was killed to pay the wages
of sin. God had them kill a sacrificial animal to accept the judgment for their
sins. This was a sign of His wisdom and love for us.
Jesus Christ came to this world as an offering
for sin in order to accomplish God’s plan. Jesus took away the sins of the world
through His sacrifice. If we look at the words of this promise, we see, “Yet
it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; he has put Him to grief” or “He took away
the sin of the world.”
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son
is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be
called the Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne
of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and
justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
The mysterious and wonderful promise was that
Jesus would carry out God’s will and give all believers peace by taking away
the sins of the world. God’s promise was a promise of love, by which He planned
to bring peace to all mankind. This is what God promised us, and this is what
He did.
Matthew 1:18 says, “Now the birth of Jesus
Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before
they came together, she was found with child of Holy Spirit.” “Jesus” means
Savior, the one who will save His people from their sins. “Christ” means the
King Anointed, King. Jesus had no sins, and He is our King and Savior who was
born of a virgin in order to save His people from their sins.
“‘And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall
call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.’ So all this
was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the
prophet” (Matthew 1:21-22).
Jesus took all the sins of the world along with Him through
His baptism
It is written in Matthew 3:13-16, “Then Jesus
came from Galilee to John at Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to
prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’
But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had
been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens
were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
alighting upon Him.”
John the Baptist appears in this passage. Why
did Jesus have to be baptized by John? Jesus had to be baptized in order to
take on all the sins in the world, and take them all away according to God’s
plan.
“The Government will be upon His shoulder”
(Isaiah 9:7). Here “the government” means that Jesus is the One who has
the authority and power as the Master of Heaven, as the King of the world. This
is the authority granted only to Jesus Christ. Jesus did a wonderful thing to
take away all the sins of mankind. This wonderful thing was for Him to be baptized
by John. What Jesus meant by saying “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill
all righteousness” is that taking away all sins of the world was right and
fitting.
Romans 1:17 says, “For in it the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith to faith.” God’s righteousness is revealed
in the gospel. Does the true gospel of the water and the Spirit really reveals
God’s righteousness? Yes! The true gospel is that Jesus Christ took away all
the sins of the world through His baptism and crucifixion. The gospel of the
water and the Spirit is the beautiful gospel in which the righteousness of God
is revealed. How did Jesus take away the sins of the world? He took away all
the sins of the world when John baptized Him in the Jordan River.
“All righteousness” is “pasan dikeosinin” in
Greek. This means that Jesus took away all the sins of mankind in the most just
and wonderful way. It means that Jesus’ cleansing of all the sins of the world
was absolutely just and fair. Jesus had to be baptized by John in order to blot
out the sins of the world.
God knew that Jesus’ baptism was absolutely necessary
in order to bring peace to mankind. Jesus could not have become our Savior,
if He hadn’t been baptized by John and shed His blood on the Cross. Jesus served
as the sin offering in taking away all the sins of the world.
God says in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way. And the LORD has
laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus had to accept all the sins of
the world in order to do God’s will. This is the reason that Jesus came as a
sin offering in the flesh of a man and was baptized by John.
Jesus had to accept all the sins of mankind and
be judged for them so that He could fulfill God’s plan and express His undying
love. When Jesus emerged from the water after His baptism, God said, “This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
A baby was born unto us
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son
is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder and His name will be
called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”
(Isaiah 9:6). Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the God of Creation who
created the whole universe. Not only is He the Son of the Almighty God, He is
also the Creator and the King of Peace. Jesus is the God who gave happiness
to mankind.
Jesus is the God of truth. He took away all our
sins, saved us, and gave us peace. Is there sin in this world? No, there is
no sin. The reason we can confidently say that there is no sin is that we believe
in the beautiful gospel, which says that Jesus washed away all the sins of the
world through His baptism and blood on the Cross. Jesus did not lie to us. Jesus
paid the wages of sin with His baptism and blood. He let everyone who believed
in this become His child and gave peace to us all. He made us live as His sanctified
children in faith for eternity. I praise the Lord and give thanks to Him.
Behold! The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world!
John 1:29 says, “The next day John saw Jesus
coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world!’” Jesus Christ appeared again in front of John the Baptist
the day after He took away all the sins of the world through His baptism. John
the Baptist bore witness to Jesus by saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world!” He bore witness again in John 1:35-36,
“Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at
Jesus as He walked, he said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’”
Jesus was the Messiah who came as the Lamb of
God, just as God had promised in the Old Testament. The Messiah Jesus Christ
came to us as the Wonderful One, Counselor and Mighty God, and was baptized
to save us from all our sins. A baby was born unto us. He accepted all the sins
of the world through His baptism by John, paid the wage of sin, and became the
Prince of Peace who gives us peace and remission of all our sins. “Behold!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”
People once had no other choice but to die for
their sins. Humans were destined to commit countless sins due to their sinful
natures and eventually be condemned to Hell. They led miserable lives; not one
of them could enter or even dream of the Kingdom of God due to their weaknesses.
Jesus Christ, who is our God, accepted all their sins when He was baptized by
John in the Jordan River and was crucified in judgment for their wrongdoing.
Upon His death, Christ said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). This was
the cry of His witness to the fact that Jesus saved all mankind from their sins
and death, and that He absolutely delivered anyone who believed in the beautiful
gospel.
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world.” Do you know where all the sins of the world are? Aren’t
they on the body of Jesus Christ? Where are all the sins and trespasses that
humble us in this world? They were all transferred to Jesus Christ. Where are
all our sins? They are in the flesh of the One with the principality upon His
shoulder; they are in the flesh of Almighty God.
All the sins from birth to the grave!
We commit sin throughout our lives. We committed
sins from the day we were born until the day we turned 20. Where did all of
those sins committed for 20 years go? They were transferred to Jesus Christ’s
flesh. The sins that we committed between the ages of 21 and 40 were passed
on to Jesus too. No matter how many years a person lives, the sins he committed
from the beginning of his life until the end were transferred to Jesus Christ.
All the sins that mankind committed, starting from Adam to the last person on
this earth, were transferred to Jesus. Even the sins of our children and grandchildren
were already passed on to Jesus. All sins were transferred to Jesus at the time
He was baptized.
Are there still sins in this world? No. Not one
is left. There is no sin left in the world because we believe in the beautiful
gospel that Jesus Christ gave us. Do you have sin in your heart? No. Amen! We
believe in the beautiful gospel that says Jesus Christ saved us from all our
sins. We praise Almighty Jesus for doing this wonderful work for us.
Jesus Christ restored our lost lives to us. Now
we believe in the beautiful gospel so that we are able to live with God. Even
the people who were enemies of God – the sinners who had no other choice but
to hide in the dark forests – can now be saved from their sins by believing
in the beautiful gospel.
The beautiful gospel teaches us that the Lord
washed all our sins clean when he was baptized by John, crucified and resurrected.
We became sanctified children of God by believing in Jesus’ gospel. Jesus offered
His own body as the offering for our sins. He, the Son of Almighty God, who
never committed a single sin in this world, took away all the sins of the world
and saved everyone who believes in Him. Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.”
Jesus took away all the sins of the world, including
both original sin and actual sins and left out not a single transgression. He
paid the wages of sin with His death on the Cross and thereby saved us from
all our sins. Jesus washed away all the sins of the world through this beautiful
gospel. We have found new life through Jesus. Those who believe in this beautiful
gospel are no longer dead in spirit. We now have new and eternal life, for Jesus
paid all the wages of our sin. We have become children of God by believing in
the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ.
Want
to know more about the Holy Spirit? Please click
the banner below to get your free book on the Holy Spirit. |
 |
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God? Do you also believe that He is your Savior? I do.
Jesus Christ is the Life to us. We found new life through Him. We
were destined to die because of our sins and trespasses. But Jesus
paid the wages of sin through His baptism and death on the Cross.
He delivered us from our slavery to sin, from the power of death,
and the bonds of Satan.
The Lord is the God who saved us from our sins
and became the savior of everyone who believes in Jesus. When we look at Hebrews
10:10-12, 14 and 18, we can see that the Lord sanctified us so that there was
no further need to receive the remission of sins. We enter the Kingdom of God
by believing in Jesus. We were destined to die for our sins and trespasses,
but we are now able to enter Heaven and enjoy eternal life by believing in Jesus’
baptism and blood.
“The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep”
(John 10:11). Our Lord came into this world in order to save us from the
sins of the world through His baptism, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection.
He also gives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to those who have received the
remission of their sins by believing in this truth. Thank you, Lord. Your gospel
is the beautiful gospel, which can give believers the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. Hallelujah! I praise the Lord.
Back
|