Have
You Been Brought to Life Again Together
with Jesus Christ after Being Crucified
with Him?
The Apostle Paul said
in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified
with Christ; it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me.”
If we believe in this
Word that we have been crucified with
Christ and that Christ lives in us,
(brought to life again with Him,) we
are already dead men in Christ (toward
all our sins) and the Lord already lives
in us. The Lord had taken all the sins
of the past, present and the future
that we committed on this earth by the
baptism received from John the Baptist,
blotted out all those sins by dying
on the Cross, and resurrected. Now our
Lord lives in our hearts and He is leading
us with the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord is working in
our hearts with the Holy Spirit. And
our Lord is saying that He truly blotted
out all our sins. We believe in the
Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts.
Our Lord took all our sins we committed
before and after the remission of sins
through His baptism, and blotted them
out by dying on the Cross and being
resurrected from the dead. He prevents
us from falling down from the sins we
commit, which are caused by our weaknesses,
when we have faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. This is why
our Lord saved us from all the sins.
What
Do We Need?
Galatians 5:6 says, “For
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision avails anything,
but faith working through love.”
This passage means that we need to have
only the faith that believes the Lord
has blotted out all our sins out of
His love. Whether we want it or not,
our deficiencies have to be revealed
while we are living on earth. So, by
seeing our weaknesses, we are prone
to tie ourselves up, saying, “I am so
far from saving others from sins and
even my own faith is unsteady. How insufficient
I am to preach the gospel.” When we
look at ourselves, we tend to fall down,
and we sometimes find ourselves tied
up like the enshrouded Lazarus.
However, what did the
Lord speak of in this part? Galatians
2:20 states, “I have been crucified
with Christ; it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me.” We truly
live with Christ by the faith of believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
You are not your old selves anymore
by believing the baptism and the Cross
of Jesus. It is because, if we believe
that our sins have been passed to Jesus
Christ when He was baptized and crucified
for us, then we have been crucified
with Christ and He lives in us. From
now on, we are new creatures in Jesus
Christ.
If we truly believe that
He blotted out all our sins with the
gospel of the water and the Spirit,
we can also believe our Lord lives in
us. Such faith is the very faith that
enables us to be born again. If we have
this faith, we can also be like the
Apostle Paul who preached the gospel
of God and took care of the souls. We
can be the workers of the gospel. It
is written in Galatians 5:6, “For
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision avails anything,
but faith working through love.” If
our Lord has died on the Cross with
all our sins that were taken by the
baptism, you have also died with Him
at that very place by passing all your
sins. And let’s say that if He is resurrected
from death, we, too, are brought back
to life again by the faith of believing
in Jesus Christ and that the resurrected
Lord lives in us now. Now, we became
the ones who were freed from all the
sins of the world by the faith of believing
in the love of Jesus Christ, who saved
us from all our sins with the gospel
of the water and the Spirit.
We are actually committing
sins on this earth everyday. It is not
possible for even the people who received
the remission of sins by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit
not to have deficiencies. We all have
our own insufficiencies. There are always
deficiencies, whether we see ourselves
or others see us. When we see ourselves,
we recognize that we have so many faults.
What is worse is that we cannot expect
any improvement from our flesh itself.
Therefore, we are tied up with our own
deficiencies. We are tied up with despair,
saying, “It is evident that I received
the remission of sins, but when I see
myself, I am helpless. It is horrible
to feel like this after receiving the
remission of sins!” Then, the thick
and injurious fogs come out from our
hearts, and we fall into doubt, worries,
and confusion. Our hearts become void
and chaotic as it is written in Genesis
1:2, “The earth was without form,
and void; and darkness was on the face
of the deep.” If we are tied up
with our weaknesses and deficiencies,
our hearts will be void and without
form.
When we profess to believe
in Christ, it means that we believe
in Jesus Christ who received the baptism,
died on the Cross and resurrected, and
who now lives in us. When we believe
in Him as such, then our sins will surely
be blotted out, and the Lord lives in
us. The Lord is living in us, who believe
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Because our Lord came on earth and took
all the sins of the world through the
baptism He received from John the Baptist
and died on the Cross, the saying that
the Lord is living in us means that
He blotted out all our sins once and
for all. Accordingly, we are saved by
the love of salvation that our living
Lord blotted out all our sins and by
believing in Him as our Savior. We are
not tied up with our weaknesses anymore,
but we live with the faith of believing
in the Lord and are liberated from all
our insufficiencies. The Lord is living
in us. When we conclude that the Lord
blotted out all the sins of our lifetime,
we can have a concrete faith in this
Truth in our hearts. So, the love of
the Lord, which saved us from the sins,
also liberates us from our deficiencies.
Our Lord exists in us
as the Holy Spirit. Does the Lord dwell
in you, or not? He is alive. Are our
old selves dead, or not? Your old selves
are already dead, and you are brought
back to new life in Jesus Christ. The
Lord is alive in the hearts of those
who believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and our old selves are
completely dead (to perfection). When
we are saved by the faith of believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
we are liberated from the sins of our
whole lifetime as well as all our deficiencies
and flaws. This truth is evident. Therefore,
we cannot thank the Lord enough for
blotting out all our sins once and for
all with the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. If we believe that our Lord
lives in us, then we are saved from
all our deficiencies. So, we become
the workers of God by believing in Him.
We
Are the Ones Who Belong to the Lord
Galatians 5:16 says, “I
say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Because the Lord lives
in our hearts, our desire to live according
to the Holy Spirit arises in our hearts.
This is called the lust of the Holy
Spirit, that is, the desire of the Holy
Spirit. “I want to work for the Lord,
I want to preach the gospel, and I want
to serve the Lord.” These desires occur
in the hearts of those who have received
the remission of sins. For our Lord
lives in us, He provokes the desires
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
comes to the hearts of the people who
received the remission of sins; this
Holy Spirit provokes the desire to serve
the gospel of the Lord, to love the
souls, to preach the gospel to other
souls, and to serve the gospel in several
aspects. Then, we come to walk in the
Holy Spirit. This is why today’s Scripture
passage says, “I say then: Walk in
the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill
the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
“I have been crucified
with Christ; it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
Remembering this passage, we have to
believe that our old selves have already
died on the Cross with Christ. We have
to believe that the Lord blotted out
all our sins. He blotted out all our
original sins; the sins we commit during
our whole lifetimes, and the sins caused
by all our deficiencies and flaws. And
now, the only thing left for us is to
live with the faith of believing that
the love of God has saved us, as it
is written, “Only faith is working
through love.”
What
Is the Right Faith Like?
What is the outline of
today’s Scripture passage of Galatians
chapter 5? The Apostle Paul preached
the gospel in the Galatia region. But
the believers of this place were bounded
by themselves. When the believers of
the churches in Galatia saw themselves,
they became heavy-hearted because they
felt so deficient, saying, “I surely
believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior,
however, I am too weak to follow Him.”
Hence, they came to make up their minds
to receive the physical circumcision
to finally be accepted as God’s people.
They also wanted to be circumcised physically
after believing in Jesus Christ. They
might have thought, “I will have a firm
belief in my mind by being circumcised.”
Thus, the believers of the churches
in Galatia volunteered to be circumcised
because there were people who lured
them into physical circumcision.
This made the Apostle
Paul distressed. “You were supposed
to die for the sins that you committed
according to the Law, but Christ has
saved you from all your sins by taking
them through the baptism and being crucified
and resurrecting from death. So don’t
you know that you saved by believing
in Jesus Christ? Are you tied up again
by the rituals of Old Testament?” The
Apostle Paul was so distressed that
he changed his tone with them. Changing
tone here means that he thought, “I
respected you as the people of God,
but you are not the people of God anymore.
You are now the people of Satan.” Put
differently, he thought, “I cannot trust
you anymore. I have doubts about you.”
Now the Apostle Paul continued
to admonish them saying, “Every man
who becomes circumcised is a debtor
who keeps the whole Law. You who attempt
to be justified by Law need to keep
the Law 100%. Well, try it. For in Christ,
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
avails anything, but only faith works
through love. We are truly saved by
the good love of God through the water
and the blood. Then we are saved by
believing that Jesus Christ is in our
hearts. Since faith is the only thing
needed, what is the importance of circumcision
or uncircumcision? What’s the use of
performing the rituals following the
Law?”
For that reason, the Apostle
Paul said to the Galatian saints, “For
I have been crucified with Christ, aren’t
we dead with Christ? Do you really believe
in Jesus? If you really believe in Jesus,
believe that you have been already dead
when Jesus had died for your sins instead
of you. I have been dead, and so have
you. Have we truly been dead with Christ
or not? If you say yes by believing
in the Truth, then, Christ now lives
in you. You don’t need to be under the
Law if the Lord has died, been resurrected,
and lives in your heart as the Holy
Spirit. You don’t have to be bound for
what you have done. Your old selves
have already died. All the sins are
remitted in Christ, and all your sins
and deeds are already judged with Christ.
You are saved. Therefore, do not be
entangled with your weaknesses. The
only thing you need is the faith working
through love. Do you really believe
in the Lord? Do you really believe in
the Lord as your Savior?”
We should only answer
by saying, “Yes, I do believe.”
“Do you believe that the
Lord has taken all your sins? Do you
believe all your sins passed onto Him
when He was baptized? Do you believe
that Jesus has died on the Cross bearing
all the sins of mankind which have been
taken through the baptism and that He
resurrected?”
“Amen. I do believe so.”
We have the faith that
believes in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Only the faith of believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
is right. This faith brings you to new
life, enables you to be liberated from
your deficiencies, and allows you to
win the praise of God. This is the true
faith, the genuine faith!
The Apostle Paul cried
this out. How about you and I? We do
not always follow the flesh. We sometimes
follow the flesh, and sometimes the
Spirit. Then, how about you? Are you
entangled in your deficient parts when
your deficiencies are revealed while
following your flesh? You might entangle
and judge yourself like this: “It’s
been so long since I’ve received the
remission of sins, and I am still the
same. Oh, how foolish I am! You fool!
Stupid! That’s wrong.”
Dear fellow believers,
we swing between the work of the flesh
and the work of the Spirit: I mean to
say that we are strolling between the
lust and the Spirit in our daily lives.
This is always true.
But then, there are people
who constantly stay on one side. The
people who lack faith live constantly
in the lusts of flesh as the ones who
are not related with the Lord, but the
righteous usually swing between the
Spirit and the flesh. Do you offer prayers
of repentance everyday in order to cleanse
your daily sins? Like the Galatian saints
who were circumcised to feel convinced
that they were God’s people, according
to the rituals of circumcision in the
times of the Old Testament, are you
trying to remit your sins by offering
prayers of repentance? It is like going
back to the bondage of the Law.
Dear fellows, the Lord
said that what is needed for us is the
faith working through love. We are saved
by the faith of believing in the fact
that the Lord has taken all our sins,
died on the Cross, and resurrected.
How, then, are you still trying to be
sinless by offering prayers of repentance?
We need to admit our original
nature when our deficiencies are revealed
before God. You have to show your nature
as it is, instead of saying, “I am not
like this by nature.” Because the nature
of the flesh is like that, we cannot
but do act in certain ways. You would
feel undeserving because you might think
that you are not like that by nature,
when in actuality, you were always like
that. You would feel mortified by thinking,
“I am not like this by nature, and this
is just a mistake, but they all regard
me as such a person.” However, that
is your true selves and your real nature.
I hope you admit your
true nature, which is a bit different
from your self-evaluations. Dear fellow
believers, we receive salvation and
become new creatures by being liberated
from all our present deficiencies and
admitting our evil natures. By believing
that we have died with Christ and He
now lives in us, He has blotted out
all our sins and liberated us.
How then do we have to
live if we are liberated from all our
deficiencies? Now, it is needed to live
in accordance with the desires of the
Spirit. As I mentioned earlier, this
desire of the Spirit is the holy will
of God. The more we work for God, the
more desire we have to work for Him.
Those who are serving the Lord feel
like serving Him more and more. It is
difficult for them to serve the Lord
at the beginning, but they feel the
desire to more. It is difficult for
the evangelists to preach at first,
but while preaching the gospel, the
desire to evangelize rises. This is
called the desire of the Holy Spirit.
We need to live in accordance with the
desires of the Holy Spirit.
From now on, we don’t
have to be entangled in our sins and
deficiencies. We are saved by faith.
It is written, “Only the faith is working
through love.” What is left for us to
do if we are saved by faith? Living
in accordance with the desires of the
Holy Spirit is the only thing left for
us to do.
Circumcision is the ritual
of cutting off one’s foreskin. Can you
become a child of God and be a righteous
person by cutting off your foreskin?
Try to cut as much skin as you can.
You would not be a righteous person
even if you cut all your fingers, toes,
and ankles off. Even you put yourself
into a fire, your soul would not become
righteous.
Then, how can one be a
righteous person? We can be righteous
by believing in the salvation that Jesus
Christ, who works through His love,
has fulfilled with the water and the
Spirit.
That is why Apostle Paul
said, “I have been crucified with
Christ; it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
And He told us in today’s Scripture
passage, “Walk in the Spirit.”
You might think that there is something
extraordinary when you are told, “Walk
in the Spirit,” but, that’s not
the case.
To follow the desire that
arises in your mind for the gospel is
none other than “walking in the Spirit.”
That is the lust of the Spirit. The
desire of the Spirit is not a grand
greed, but a mere wish to live for God.
Then, it is just enough for you to follow
that greed. Christians who live in accordance
with the desires of the Spirit for God
and live spiritual lives will be A+
Christians. God approves such believers.
Despite the fact that we are swinging
between the Spirit and the flesh, we
will be perfect Christians if we live
in accordance with the Spirit by believing
that our Lord has saved us from all
our sins. This is what Apostle Paul
is saying.
That is why you have to
cast away your wrong thoughts. Do you
worry like this? “How can I live for
others, for God’s Church, and for the
gospel while my situation is this bad?”
Do you worry about yourself, thinking,
“I cannot even take care of myself”?
But, you would see that your son is
doing well even if you were thinking,
“How can he cope with his life in the
military when he does not even know
how to clean his room?”
You are the same way.
Even though you are that insufficient,
if you acknowledge your fundamental
nature as it is, and if you believe
that the Lord has blotted out all the
sins of the world, then you can do well
in your life of faith. The Lord knew
beforehand that you were going to sin,
and He blotted out all your sins. If
the Lord took only the original sin
or some amount of personal sins, He
could not be the Lamb who took the sins
of the world. And He would not have
been able to say, “It is finished.”
However, John the Baptist left a very
specific testimony in the Bible about
Jesus saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.”
By believing in the written Word as
it is, our sins have passed onto Jesus
through the baptism, and He died on
the Cross and resurrected. We are the
righteous who have been born again through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Do you have sins, or not?
No, we do not have sin. How do you feel
when you believe that you have passed
all your sins onto Christ, have died
with Him, and been brought back to new
life with Him? There are no sins, but
the faith working through love. My fellow
believers, we now became the children
of God by faith, and we are sinless
by faith. Because we do not have sin,
we want to do the works of God by faith.
So, from now on, you have to be liberated
from all the bondages by realizing and
believing that there is no sin in your
heart. You have to walk in the desires
of the Spirit even though you are deficient.
It is not possible for us to follow
the desires of the Spirit all the time,
but we can follow Him with our hearts.
As a dog still follows its master while
turning its attention to the garbage
on the way, we are the saved people
who follow the Lord to the very end,
even though we frequently swing from
here to there.
We have to live in accordance
with the desires of the Spirit as sinless
people even though we are deficient.
If you are faithful in a very little
thing for the Lord, or if you are faithful
with the works that the Church entrusted
to you, the Lord will give you more
desire to work for Him. I said earlier
that if you have your mind set to serve
in this way, and if you live in accordance
with that mind, you will be right Christians
before God.
My beloved brethren, people
who are not born again do not understand
these words. "What does that mean
on earth? It sounds useless. It's ridiculous."
It is nothing special that they talk
this way.
God gave us freedom, not
the yoke of bondage. The Lord made us
follow Him voluntarily, joyfully, and
serve Him with joy by liberating us
from all bindings. He saved us with
the gospel of the water and the Spirit
so that we would not be entangled to
sin and judgment. I am going to conclude
my sermon with this last point.
People of Paul's days
tried to fill their deficiencies by
being circumcised. As such, believers
of this present time try to remit their
sins by offering prayers of repentance.
Is this faith right? It is not a true
faith in Jesus if we do not believe
that the sins of the world have passed
onto Jesus through His baptism, that
we died with Jesus when He was crucified,
and that Jesus died for us. If we truly
believe in this Truth, we would not
try to remit our sins by offering prayers
of repentance. Among today's Christians,
those who try to receive the remission
of sins by offering prayers of repentance
are the ones who have become estranged
from Christ and shall be judged under
a curse. They are the ones who do not
believe in Christ. If you are true Christians,
you would thank God in spite of your
deficiencies because of your faith in
the Lord. We have to admit ourselves
as it is and be thankful to God.
My fellow believers, we
should live a thankful life of faith
by believing in Jesus Christ. We should
not be like the pitiful people who are
entangled in their deficiencies and
end up dying. It is your true nature
that wishes eagerly to go out into the
world, buy nice dresses, see fun things,
and so on. If you can’t bear it anymore,
try to buy a new dress. Is it a sin
to buy a new dress? I just hope that
you will not fall into fleshly desire,
and that you will not believe it is
the whole you. That is just a part of
you. Deep inside your heart, your wishes
are to follow the desires of God. You
are the righteous though you are deficient.
I hope you are the children of God who
know their identities and live with
faith. You are the children of God who
are saved by the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, even though you are
deficient. I wish for you to praise
the Lord by believing that you are righteous
before God, the holy saints, the possessors
of eternal life, the workers of God’s
righteousness, and His precious people.
We have to truly believe in this.
In fact, the messages
of Galatians must be applied to every
Christian of today. People who are not
born again consider this Galatians very
difficult. But for the people who are
born again, Galatians as well as Hebrews
and Leviticus is considered as the Word
of easy and clear truth. People who
believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit comprehend the Word of God
easily, accept it as the truth, and
make it as the bread of faith.
Some theologians speak
on the Word without a clear understanding
of it, saying, “There were circumcisionists
in the churches of Galatia, but who
were they?” But it is not important
what the definition of a circumcisionist
is. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians
that people cannot become righteous
because of their physical circumcision,
but instead, they become the children
of God by the faith, which works through
love.
For God so loved us, He
sent His Son to this earth, let Him
to take all the sins by receiving the
baptism, and had Him die on the Cross
instead of us. So, if we profess to
believe in Jesus, we also believe that
all our sins have passed onto Jesus
when He was baptized, and that we have
died when He was crucified, and that
we have been brought back to new life
when He was resurrected. For God so
loved us, He gave His Son to be judged
for all our sins. We are saved by believing
in Jesus Christ. We can follow the will
of God by faith from now on because
our souls are saved by the faith. Our
insufficient behaviors are no longer
problematic.
At this present age, there
are many Christians who are like those
of the churches in Galatia, who compelled
the Galatian saints to be circumcised.
We are the righteous whose sins are
remitted. Then, do you still think that
you need to offer prayers of repentance
whenever your deficiencies are revealed?
Those who have not yet been born again
pray, “God, please forgive me. I have
committed a sin. Please cleanse it.”
Whenever they commit even small mistakes,
they offer prayers of repentance because
they feel an irresistible impulse to
offer such prayers. But you cannot be
remitted of your sins no matter how
fervently you ask for the clearance
of your sins. You can be remitted of
your sins by believing in the salvation
of Jesus, which was fulfilled about
2000 years ago. There was the salvation
that Jesus saved you with the gospel
of the water and the Spirit about 2000
years ago, and because the Word of Truth
is in your hearts, you are without sin,
even the sins you just committed. You
are even saved from your future sins.
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The worldly pastors just
keep on saying in strange tones, “Do
you believe? Hallelujah!” if they run
out of their sermons. There is no other
way but to make it loud if they have
no content. To collect more money without
really preaching, the make people lose
their minds by inspiring their emotions.
They shout incomprehensible sounds like,
“Fire-fire-fire-fire! Hallelujah-lelujah-lelujah-lelujah!
Assarubijah!” They make people give
offerings while they have no ability
to reason because they are so inspired.
The believers who are so inspired do
not hesitate to offer all their money,
along with watches and even jewelry.
The truly born again Christians are
led by the reasonable desires of the
Spirit and think, “Ah, I want to serve
the Lord like this.” But the worldly
Christians do whatever the swindlers
make them do, not according to their
reasons, but to their emotions.
We are the righteous,
though we are deficient. We have been
crucified with Christ, and brought back
to life again. No matter how deficient
we are, we are the children of God,
the righteous, and the workers for His
righteousness. We only need to live
in accordance with the desires of the
Spirit. The desires of the Spirit arise
when you work for the Lord. The desires
of the Spirit arise when you stop living
in the flesh and listen to the Word
at the Spirit-inspiring place, and although
you are in unity with the work of God,
you are still a bit deficient. If you
have even the tiniest desire to work
for God, do not ignore it. Continue
to follow that desire while uniting
with the church of God and His servants,
and that tiny desire toward God will
increase steadily like a big snowball.
You will then get to work more and more,
and you will be a great worker of God
without even noticing.
God has given us the Holy
Spirit in our hearts, and He became
our Savior by dwelling in us. He gives
us the desires of the Spirit to do the
blessed works, no matter how deficient
we are. I thank God for allowing us
that kind of mind. I wish for all of
you to live in accordance with the desires
of the Spirit.
