— 1 John 5:6
We believe in the gospel of water and spirit because it is the only way of peace. Without this complete gospel, there is no true peace with God or peace in our hearts.
"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation."
"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
This is the message of reconciliation - God reconciling the world to Himself through Christ. The water and blood of Jesus made this reconciliation complete and perfect.
"Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation."
"Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God."
"And by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight."
"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."
This is the message of redemption - we were bought with a price, redeemed from sin and death. Jesus paid the full price through His water baptism and blood sacrifice.
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."
"Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace."
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree')."
"And they sang a new song, saying: 'You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.'"
This is the gospel which Jesus Himself, God, proclaimed - the message of the new kingdom and the way to it. Jesus came preaching the kingdom of heaven and showing the way through water and blood.
"From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!'"
"Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.'"
"But He said to them, 'I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.'"
"Jesus answered and said to him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?' Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.'"
"Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people."
We believe because there is no other way - Jesus is the only way, the truth, and the life. His Words are life, and He only has the words of eternal life. He is our God.
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
"But Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.'"
"Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."
"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus."
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
We believe because we accept our sinful nature and didn't have any other way to find peace. We were being tormented by our sins daily, but when we heard the way of peace, we believed it because it's the only way of peace and hope.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
"O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find."
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me."
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
We who have accepted our sinful nature, we searched for the doctor because our disease was only sin. Jesus is the Great Physician who came to heal the sick and save sinners.
"When Jesus heard that, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.'"
"Jesus answered and said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.'"
"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."
"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."
"Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?"
Just like in the creation story of the third day, the waters were gathered to create dry ground and seas. On the dry ground, plants and trees were created. God exposed our sinful nature and then He planted the seed of life - because the ground was fertile, the seed grew.
"Then God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth'; and it was so."
"Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God."
"Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever."
"But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."
"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
"Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures."
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase."
"And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.'"
The gospel of water and spirit is not just a doctrine - it is the only way of peace, reconciliation, and redemption. It is the message Jesus Himself proclaimed, the only way to the Father, and the cure for our sin-sick souls.