Matthew 3:1-12
God is righteous, good and holy. So, injustice, evil and unholiness are contrary to His divine character. God sent man His righteousness through the law. The purpose of sending the law was not for him to keep it in order to be set free from sin and be saved by living keeping it well; but to realize his sin through it and to meet Jesus Christ. Whenever the Israelites, who received God's law, broke the law and committed sin, He forgave them when they offered a sacrifice to Him. They killed an animal and brought Him its blood instead of their own. Because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). However, it is impossible for the blood of animals to take away sins. The blood is a symbol of Jesus Christ who was going to come into this world in order to die to take away the sin of the world and save it (Hebrews 10:4-7, 9:11-12). Sin leads man to eternal hell but the Word of God leads him to eternal heaven. The Word of God lets him realize his sin and that Jesus Christ has already solved it by His own death. If you want to live in heaven, you can only meet Jesus Christ by repenting. Be free from your sin and become holy and receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37-41, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22). In today's Scripture, John the Baptist said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Many people went out to him, confessed their sins and were baptized. Baptism is a symbol which means, “I should have died like this”. They realized that they had to give all of their sin to Jesus. But many of the Pharisees and Sadducees didn't receive baptism even though they were sinners, too. They thought they had been keeping the law of God well, so they thought they were righteous and didn't try to find their sin. Likewise, many people who come to church don't repent from their sin. Why? Because they don't try to find it through the Word. If you think you don’t have any sin, you have no hope. It means that you reject the working of Jesus’ blood on the cross. Then why do you attend the service? You are a hypocrite and merely a churchgoer. You regard sin as nothing and don’t even know what it is. Or even though you know what sin is, you never repent and just think, “God is love. Will He condemn me? I don’t think so.” Without repenting, we never meet the working of the blood of Jesus, and our sin remains, so we should go to hell because of the wage of sin. If you don't repent before God even though you know the law and hear that you should repent through the Word of God, the blood of Jesus has nothing to do with you. Our faith life is to change our misunderstandings about God's righteousness. Repenting means changing our misunderstandings about God’s law. When the Pharisees said they didn't have any sins, Jesus Christ pointed out their sin (Mark 5:17-24, 5:26-30, 5:38-48). They didn’t have Jesus' blood and only an eternity in hell is waiting for them. Faith life without repentance can't save your soul. You have no part with Jesus Christ or faith. Jesus said to Peter, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me." (John 13:8). Repentance is the only way to have a part in Jesus Christ. We have to agree with His love and His will to get out of eternal destruction and to live in heaven. God asked Adam, "Where are you?" and to Cain, "Where is your brother, Abel?" Don't make an excuse about your sin before God. Only by repenting can you possess Jesus' blood. Many of the prophets, Jesus' disciples, the first believers, and pastors today are preaching about repentance. It's the voice of Jesus' blood to win the dying souls.
