God rules over the whole world, and He does not follow after our personal interests. We must follow Him. By coming to know such a God, we have come to understand and firmly believe that there is One whom God loves. Even before mankind existed, there was One whom God loved—He was with God from eternity, and about two thousand years ago He appeared in this world. And what is His name? Jesus.

Jesus is the only One who received God’s love. Throughout all human history, there is only one person to whom God said, “I love You.” And He did not merely say that He loved Him; God spoke clearly to Jesus, saying, “You are My beloved Son.” We must understand what it means to be a Son. What does the word “Son” refer to? Some misunderstand this and think, “If there is a Son and there is a Father, then there must also be a Mother,” and they interpret it however they please—even claiming, “I am the Mother of God.” This is completely absurd. Such misunderstandings arise because they try to understand God with human concepts. In the Bible, the word “Son” does not refer to someone born from a mother’s womb, nor does it mean someone who shares the same DNA. In Scripture, “Son” means “heir.” Jesus is the heir of God.

Every person has some kind of possession, don’t they? Let us think about people who lived in the Middle East four thousand years ago, for God began to work with people from that time. In those days, people drove their flocks of sheep and cattle from place to place. If a master who owned thousands of sheep and cattle died, to whom would he give them? He would give them to someone—and that someone was the son. Then what would happen if he had no son, even though he had great wealth? Whose possessions would those sheep and cattle become? They would become completely someone else’s. Moreover, since these possessions were not land or buildings but living animals constantly moving around, they had to be handed over entirely to someone. But if there was a son, everything would be given to him. If there were a hundred sheep, all one hundred would be given to the son. If there were ten servants, all ten servants would be given to him. Giving everything one possesses to another is what the Bible calls an “inheritance.” The things that must be passed down are the inheritance, and the one who receives them is the heir. And this heir is what the Bible calls the “son.”

So when we say, “Jesus is the Son of God,” it means that there is One who will receive God’s inheritance—all that God created, both visible and invisible; God’s authority, God’s glory, God’s joy; everything the Creator God has made; every creature that displays the splendor of the Most High; His entire realm. There is One who will inherit all of this. He is the Son—the Son of God.

When Jesus came, He testified, “God is My Father,” and He called Himself the Son of God. When Jesus called God His Father, what did the people of that time say to Him? They said, “How can You make Yourself equal with God?” This shows that being the “Son” does not mean being lesser than the Father; it means being equal with Him. Why is He equal? Because the Father gives His inheritance—all that He has—fully to the Son. The Father’s possessions become the Son’s possessions, and the Father’s authority becomes the Son’s authority. Moreover, if there were two sons, then out of one hundred sheep, fifty would go to the older son and fifty to the younger. Then would the estate of the father and the estate of just one son be equal? No, it would only be half. So they would not be equal. But if there is only one Son—an only Son—then the inheritance is the same. It is equal.

So the disciple John said this: “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father”—the glory of the one and only Son, the sole heir. This means, “If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. If you have seen His glory, you have seen the Father’s glory.” Because Jesus is the only begotten Son, seeing Jesus is seeing the Father; beholding the glory of Jesus is beholding the glory of the Father; and witnessing what Jesus does is witnessing what the Father does. Jesus shows the Father exactly as He is. So what do we call Jesus? Because He shows the Father perfectly, He is called the image of the Father. “Image” means He reveals Him exactly. Therefore, the statement that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God is also connected to the truth that Jesus is the image of God. It means Jesus is the heir of God. Because of this, seeing Jesus is seeing the Father. There are not two sons.

When God said to His only begotten Son, “I love You,” that love was a love worthy of an inheritance. It was the kind of love by which God would give Him all things. So this is not the light and casual way people today say, “I love you! I love you all!” No—what God calls love is that He gives everything He has to the One He loves. In the presence of such love, even we feel unworthy to use the word “love.” This is how God loves His Son. And the One who received such love from God is Jesus. There is no one else in this world who has received this kind of love.

Though Jesus came into this world and appeared, outwardly, as an ordinary man—even a lowly and insignificant man—many people followed Him. Yet among them were many who were sick, uneducated, lepers, and those whom society called “cursed.” Even though Jesus performed miracles, He did not possess what the world calls power or wealth, so those who had worldly status looked down on Him. In the eyes of the world, it was very difficult to believe that He was the Son of God. But when we come to church, what we believe is that He is equal with God. This is our faith. When someone asks, “Why do you go to church?” there must be a clear reason—and we go to church because we believe. And our faith is this: “Jesus is equal with God. Jesus is the heir of God. Jesus is the One loved by God.” This is what we believe.

So when we hear people in the world say, “God loves you,” it is actually very easy to misunderstand it. We are not beings who deserve God’s love. Only those who acknowledge this can come to church and live a life of faith. Before we come to meet God in the church, there is a door we must pass through—the door of repentance. Repentance is not listing out all of our sins one by one; it is acknowledging who we are before God. It is admitting that we have no qualification, no ability, and no condition to receive God’s love. In fact, what kind of people were we? God created all mankind and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, yet we lived without God, denying Him, and acting ungratefully toward Him. Acknowledging this is repentance. I have nothing to boast of. Even if I claim to have distinguished between right and wrong and chosen what is right, before God I am nothing but filth. Acknowledging this is repentance. “I am nothing but a mass of sin. Even though I have listened to my teachers, obeyed my parents, and kept the laws of my country, I am still a mass of sin.”

God has testified to this for a long time. So if anyone says, “I have no sin,” he is making God a liar. God has already said, “You have sin,” but if someone insists, “I have no sin,” he cannot have fellowship with God. How can you walk with Him while saying, “What You said is wrong. What You said is a lie”? In order to have fellowship with God, you must acknowledge, “I am a sinner. I have no qualification to receive God’s love.” This is repentance. And the one who cannot receive His love—that old man—is the one who must be buried. Baptism is burying the person who has no life of God.

But it is not accurate to end everything with the burial. Baptism does not end with the burial. Entering the water is not the end. When we are baptized, we go down into the water—but if everything ended there, the body itself would die. That is why we do not remain there; at most, we stay under the water for about three seconds and are then brought back up. And being brought up also has meaning. It signifies rising again. But when we rise, we are no longer God’s enemies, no longer those who cannot receive His love. When we went down into the water, that person—the one who could not be loved by God—was buried. And when we come up out of the water, we are united with Jesus. We are united with the Son of God. And who is Jesus? He is the Son of God—the heir of God, the One loved by God. We are united with Him. This is baptism. The old man, who was the enemy of God, is buried; and when we come up from the water, we become one with Jesus, the One loved by God. So it is not enough to know only that “the old man was buried.” When we rise out of the water, we are united with the Son of God.

The old man who must be buried is not simply someone who cannot receive God’s love. Because he is ungrateful and nothing but a mass of sin, the Bible calls him an enemy of God. When you suddenly come face to face with your enemy, your heart races. No matter how gentle or rational a person may usually be, when he comes face to face with his enemy, he loses reason and attacks—sometimes even kills. Before God, we were all enemies. No matter how intelligent, no matter how moral, no matter how well we may have lived, the person who refuses to acknowledge this cannot meet God. I myself, when I tried so hard to make myself righteous by my own effort, would not accept the gospel no matter who tried to evangelize me. I thought, “I will become righteous by my own strength. I will reach a certain level. I will become a righteous person.” I thought that was salvation, and I never considered the existence of God. But if God exists, then before Him I am His enemy. If we do not acknowledge this, we cannot meet God. We cannot satisfy the condition to come before Him.

When we look at ourselves, we always appear very kind. We look very right. And we remember only the things that make us look right. Even between husband and wife, you often hear this: “You only remember what works in your favor! You think you’re the only good one!” But sometimes the other person is being far more patient than we are. Yet we still remember only what benefits us. I have heard this from my wife many times. And I admit it. We are all sinners. But through baptism, that sinner has already been buried. Now look—we sinners stand before God today and dare to worship Him. In the old days, if a criminal wanted to stand before a king, he could not come dressed in shabby clothes, tied with ropes. To stand before the king, he first had to receive pardon. Criminals were not allowed to meet the king of a nation. First, the king granted a pardon. Then the person was washed clean and given a certain rank before being allowed to appear before the king. Otherwise, a filthy sinner could never enter the palace. And to stand before the king inside the palace, he had to be given that rank. In the same way, we now come before God, worship Him, call on His name, and even boldly ask Him for things. How is this possible? First, we have received the forgiveness of sins. Our old man has been buried. Therefore, that old man is no more.

And why does God receive us when we come before Him like this? It is not simply because we have been cleansed—rather, the “old me” is gone. That old me has disappeared, and when God looks at me now, whom does He see? He sees Jesus. We said earlier that being baptized means being united with Jesus. We have become part of Him. Only Jesus can stand before God and receive His love. And I come before God as Jesus.

Understanding what it means to be united with Jesus can be difficult. So let me explain it in a way that is easy to grasp. It is like receiving a transplant. If a finger is cut off, you need surgery. As soon as the finger is severed, you must wrap it quickly and rush to the hospital. In factories, accidents like this happen often. When a finger is cut off, you must wrap it well, put it in ice, and run to the hospital immediately. If a surgeon is available, they can begin the surgery right away, and if they operate quickly, the finger can be reattached. But what if too much time passes? There are not many surgeons who can perform transplant surgery. And what if several transplant cases have piled up so your surgery is delayed? If too much time passes, the severed finger can no longer be attached. But suppose there happens to be another finger available for transplant. You can receive that one. Let’s say someone has just died and donated their body, and the doctor attaches that person’s finger to your hand. But then you find out—that person was your enemy. Imagine it. You now have your enemy’s finger attached to your hand. Still, you continue living. And now the finger moves freely. Let’s say you travel abroad. You finally go to Hawaii, the place you’ve dreamed of, and you want to swim in the Pacific Ocean. But you simply cannot take this finger with you—because it belonged to your enemy. It would be your first time going, and yet you would have to bring your enemy’s finger with you? Should you cut it off with a knife before you leave? Of course not. Once the finger is attached to your body, it no longer matters whose finger it originally was. From that moment on, whose is it? It is yours. It receives the same nutrients you receive. And when the finger is pricked by a thorn, you feel the pain. The finger becomes “you.” Imagine someone bites your finger. When you talk about it afterward, you say, “That person—or that dog—bit me!” You do not say, “He bit my finger, but it has nothing to do with me.” No one talks like that. Everyone says, “He bit me.” If someone hits you on the street, you say, “Why did you hit me?” You do not say, “Why did you hit my left shoulder?” The shoulder is part of you. When your arm is struck, you are the one struck. That is why you can become angry, and with your other hand you may even strike back.

We have been transplanted into Jesus like this, so we become part of Him. We are simply Jesus. And this is why we can come before God today and receive His love. What did we say Jesus is? He is the heir—the Son of God. Jesus receives everything from God, and we receive it as well. We inherit what belongs to God exactly as it is. Why? Who are we? Jesus. We have become part of Him. It feels awkward, doesn’t it? Saying, “We are Jesus,” feels strange. But it should not feel strange. It must become something that no longer feels strange to us.

When your finger says, “I am Ki-Taek Lee! Don’t hit me! I am Ki-Taek Lee!” it does not feel strange at all. In the same way, when the devil attacks us, he is not merely attacking us personally—he is attacking Jesus. He is attacking the body of Jesus. And when someone attacks the church, they are attacking the body of Jesus. That is why Jesus steps in. We use the name of Jesus. We use what belongs to Jesus. In Jesus’ name, we command angels, and they come to help us. When we pray, the angels come and minister to us. Whose angels are they? They belong to Jesus. Yet the angels who serve Jesus also serve us. Why? Because we are part of Jesus.

Then for whom was heaven prepared? It was not prepared for me. Heaven is a place prepared for Jesus. Many Christians mistakenly think that heaven is a place God prepared for human beings. No. Heaven is the place God made for His Son, Jesus. Even if no human ever entered heaven, the Son could live there in eternal joy. But we are allowed to enter it. Why? Because we have become part of Jesus. We enter heaven as those who belong to Him—not because we have become impressive or worthy. This is why I am so grateful, so moved, so joyful, and so amazed that God did not create heaven for someone like me, but created it for Jesus. If heaven had originally been made for human beings like you and me, what would be there? If heaven existed to make people like us happy, what would it need? A house? A large apartment? Or, if we wanted a little more, maybe a two-story house with a swimming pool? Many rooms in the house? A car for every family member? We would be satisfied with that. We are such small, trivial beings that we would think that is enough to enjoy forever. But heaven is not that kind of place. The Son of God rejected all the glory of the kingdoms of the world when the devil offered it to Him. Even when Satan whispered that He could have all the wealth and power on earth, Jesus had no interest in it. Why? Because what is in heaven is far greater. Heaven was not made for small-minded human beings. Heaven is the place God prepared for Jesus, who is equal with God, and it is where God gives everything He has—one hundred percent—to His Son. So what will it be like when we enter heaven? Our mouths will fall open in awe.

Have you ever seen a military parade? When I was living in China years ago, I happened to be at Tiananmen Square on China’s National Day. I remember feeling almost disappointed that I was not Chinese. The majesty was overwhelming. An endless line of soldiers marched past; tanks rolled by; fighter jets split the sky; and countless people shouted the same chant and moved as one. Watching it, chills ran through my whole body. On TV it may seem like nothing, but when you are actually there, the intensity is incredible. Now think about this: heaven is filled with angels. The heavens—far greater than the universe—are filled with the glory of God. And we will one day enter that place. When the Son of God enters heaven, every angel will shout. Back then, when Jiang Zemin, the Chinese chairman, arrived in his car, all the troops would lift their voices, shouting, “Long live Chairman Jiang! Long live! Long, long live!” It was stunning. Now imagine the Son of God entering heaven. All the angels in heaven will shout, “Glory! Glory! Glory to the Lamb of God! Power and honor and majesty belong to You!” The shouts of countless angels will fill the heavens. That is the glory of heaven. And who will enter and share that glory? Those who are united with Jesus—us. That is what heaven is like. And we are the ones who will go there.

Even now, we make use of some of the angels. When we pray, they come and help us. The authority given to Christians is this astonishing. This is why Christians can cast out demons. Because we possess the authority of Jesus, the demons tremble and flee. Believing in Jesus means believing at the level of the Son of God—and that means we are raised to the level of God. Human beings, who once lived like beasts, do not merely rise to a human level, but we are raised to God’s level. This is the difference between beasts and God. Before, we lived like beasts, saying, “There is no spirit! There is no God!” But now we live by God. This is why the Scripture says, “He called them gods, to whom the word of God came.” We are equal with God. The difference between “God” and “god” is only a matter of uppercase and lowercase letters—there is no separation in meaning. They are the same word. Those who receive the word of God become like God. This is truly a joyful thing.

To be united with Jesus—to be united with the Son of God—that is baptism. I bless you in the name of Jesus that, as you are baptized and begin your life of faith, you will experience this astonishing spiritual reality of being united with the Son of God.

God our Father, we truly thank You for granting us such great authority. It is amazing that we can enjoy this greatness by being baptized in the name of Jesus. However, to accomplish this, Your Son obeyed to the point of death and endured the suffering of the cross. Please help us to follow the command of Your Son, be baptized in His name, and live a life like You, our God, ensuring that Your sacrifice is not in vain. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.