There Is a Way to Be Free of Sins

By Cao Xin, the United States

Since I was little, I followed my mother in believing in the Lord. As I was growing up, I came to know that the Lord Jesus was crucified to redeem us humanity of our sins, which moved me very much. Besides, after believing in the Lord, I enjoyed His abundant grace, this allowed me to have more faith in Him. Thus, I was determined to follow Him for the rest of my life and bear witness for Him to repay His love.

In 2002, after coming to America, I found a church to have gatherings, where I came to know a brother who involved in the work of preaching. In my eyes, preachers all were pious and loved the Lord, so I often sought from him regarding my issues. But to my surprise, one night, he asked me to go to the church and declared his love to me, and even pawed me. Fortunately, I ran away quickly. After this, I learned that while he had married in China, he got married again in America. And despite this, he still acted toward me this way. This made me see clearly his face of hypocrisy. I thought to myself: As a preacher, he actually did such a thing, acting one way to people’s faces and another behind their backs. Wasn’t this hypocritical? How can this glorify the Lord’s name? This matter came as a great blow to me and I was unwilling to go to the church anymore. But at the thought of the Lord Jesus’ salvation of me, I felt indebted to Him. As a result, I could only go to the church now and then.

Afterward, the situation of the church went from bad to worse. What the pastors preached was repetitious, not bringing us any enjoyment, and was often specifically about donating to the church. The believers either slept or played with their phones in gatherings and all they talked about was a life of pleasure and they lived like unbelievers. Seeing these, I was even more passive and weak. As a consequence, every year, apart from going to the church once or twice to donate, I usually persisted in praying and reading the Bible at home. In the course of time, I felt darker and darker in spirit, and couldn’t feel the Lord by my side in my prayers, and had no illumination from reading the Bible. In daily life, I couldn’t put the Lord’s teachings into practice but always lost my temper with my child and kept arguing with my husband about my child. Although I repented and confessed before the Lord every time after being in a huff, I repeated the same sins later and fell into an inescapable trap of sins. It really pained and depressed me, and also made me begin to doubt: Why has my faith in the Lord become ever weaker? Why does the Lord not hear my prayer? Why can I not be free of sins and change? Am I capable of entering the kingdom of heaven under such circumstances?

Just when I felt miserable and lost, I learned that my mother and my sister-in-law had received Almighty God’s work of the last days, and saw that my mother’s faith in God became ever greater so when my father argued with her, she was able to practice tolerance and patience instead of making a fuss. Her changes caused me to ponder: Could it be that Almighty God’s work is really the work of God? Otherwise, how can my mother achieve these changes? This decided me to examine Almighty God’s work of the last days. With that, my sister-in-law invited brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God to fellowship with me.

During the gathering, Brother Zhang from The Church of Almighty God fellowshiped with me about the reason the churches are desolate: “In the latter days of the Age of Law, that the temple became desolate was, on the one hand, because the Jewish leaders did not lead the Jews to keep God’s commandments but walked their own path, and thus incurred the hatred and anger of God. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus performed new work, but they didn’t keep up with it; rather, they opposed and condemned Him, thereby being eliminated from the stream of the Holy Spirit’s work. This was why the temple eventually became a place that sold livestock and exchanged money. The same is true of the reason why the religious world today is desolate. In one regard, the pastors and elders don’t lead the believers to practice and experience the Lord’s words to achieve understanding the truth and knowing the Lord; rather, they only focus on interpreting the biblical knowledge and theological theory to bring the believers before themselves. As a result, the believers become those who believe in the Lord yet do not know Him, who resist Him. In another regard, God has been incarnated to do His new work and the work of the Holy Spirit has transferred. Only those who follow the footsteps of the Lamb and receive the judgment and cleansing of God’s words can receive the work of the Holy Spirit. Those who refuse to accept God’s work of the last days will be eliminated from the stream of the Holy Spirit’s work.” Hearing these words, I suddenly saw the light, understanding the causes of the desolation in the churches. Thereafter, Brother Zhang also fellowshiped about the method of the Lord’s arrival, said that the prophecies of the Lord’s return has already been fulfilled, and witnessed the return of the Lord Jesus, none other but the incarnate Almighty God, who has expressed several million words to do the work of judging and cleansing man. These fellowships sounded so great and I had gained a lot of spiritual supply. In all my years of faith in the Lord, I had never heard any preaching as good as this. This preaching was far better than that of the pastors in the church. I must listen carefully next.

Then Brother Zhang fellowshiped with me: “We all have experienced that though believing in the Lord, we still cannot help but often commit sins and are unable to extricate ourselves from living in sin. This is because we are deeply corrupted by Satan and all have satanic natures such as arrogance, deception, selfishness, greed and so on. These satanic natures have already become our life. Directed by them, we not only have no true patience or tolerance for each other, and tend to get angry whenever there is something that is not in accordance with our meaning, but are often devoured by jealousy and hatred. In order to defend our own interests, we often lie to and deceive each other, and can also conduct transactions with God in our faith and so on. The root of our sinning like this is our satanic natures, and they, if not resolved, will make us continue sinning and resisting God even though our sins have been forgiven. Then, what qualification do we have to enter the kingdom of heaven? So the Lord Jesus said He would come back. Actually, His coming is to do the work of thoroughly cleansing and saving mankind.

Next, Brother Zhang read two passages of God’s words: “At the time Jesus’ work was the redemption of all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed.” “Before man was redeemed, many of Satan’s poisons were already planted within him. After thousands of years of Satan’s corruption, man already has within him a nature that resists God. Therefore, when man has been redeemed, it is nothing more than redemption, where man is bought at a high price, but the poisonous nature within has not been eliminated. Man that is so defiled must undergo a change before being worthy to serve God. Through this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within him, and he will be able to completely change and become clean. Only in this way can man be worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as refinement, man can cast away his corruption and be made pure. Rather than deeming this stage of work to be that of salvation, it would be more apt to say it is the work of purification.”

Brother Zhang fellowshiped: “God’s words show us that the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption at that time, and that He took upon Himself the sins of humanity through crucifixion, so when we sin again, as long as we confess and repent before the Lord Jesus, we will be forgiven, and no longer be convicted by the law and sentenced to death. Although the Lord absolved our sins, it doesn’t mean that we are not sinful and are not impure. We still have the corrupt disposition of Satan, which can cause us to sin and to resist and rebel against God anytime and anywhere. The Bible says: ‘and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14). As you can see, if we live in sin and are not cleansed, we are unworthy of seeing the Lord, because He is holy. So, we can only enter God’s kingdom by getting rid of sinful nature and achieving purification. To get rid of our sinful nature, we must experience God’s work of judgment and chastisement of His words in the last days. Only this way will we know our own corrupt disposition and cast it away under God’s guidance, and then live out the likeness of a real man and become people who obey God and revere God. Only thus will we be saved into the kingdom of God.”

I nodded in agreement and said to Brother Zhang: “Brother, what you say is true. Despite believing in the Lord for many years, I can’t stop myself from sinning. Although the Lord taught us to be tolerant and patient, I couldn’t practice His words but always exposed hot blood, and afterward, I prayed and repented my sin to the Lord, but it was useless. Now I’m clear on this. The Lord Jesus only did the work of redemption and we gain only pardon of sins when we believe in Him, but our sinful nature remains. Therefore, we can’t resist sinning and opposing God.” “Yes.” Brother Zhang continued: “Now we understand that believing in the Lord only allows us to be forgiven of our sins. If we want to cast off our sinful nature, we still need God to carry out a stage of the work of judgment and purification in the last days, and only thus can we be saved from sin completely.

Hearing Brother Zhang once again mentioned God’s work of judgment in the last days, I asked: “Brother, you just said God will come to do the work of judgment in the last days. I’m not very clear about it. If the Lord does come to judge man, won’t it be a frightening scene? Then how can it be said that God comes to save man?” When hearing my words, Brother Zhang smiled and said: “We think that the scene of God coming to judge man must be very scaring and that when God judges man, man will be condemned. In fact, all of these are our notions and imaginations. Let’s read two passages of Almighty God’s words and we will know how God does the work of judgment.”

Then, Brother Zhang read us two passages of God’s words: “The ‘judgment’ in the words previously spoken—judgment will begin at the house of God—refers to the judgment God passes today on those who come before His throne in the last days. Perhaps there are those who believe in such supernatural imaginings as that, when the last days have arrived, God will erect a big table in the heavens, upon which a white tablecloth will be spread, and then, sitting upon a great throne with all men kneeling on the ground, He will reveal the sins of each man and thereby determine whether they are to ascend to heaven or be sent down to the lake of fire and brimstone.” “In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, expose the essence of man, and dissect his words and deeds. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out the normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God, and so on. These words are all directed at the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, those words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with just a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes it over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth that man does not possess at all. Only methods of this kind are deemed judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his own rebelliousness. The work of judgment allows man to gain much understanding of the will of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that are incomprehensible to him. It also allows man to recognize and know his corrupt substance and the roots of his corruption, as well as to discover the ugliness of man. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the substance of this work is actually the work of opening up the truth, the way, and the life of God to all those who have faith in Him. This work is the work of judgment done by God.”

After reading, Brother Zhang fellowshiped: “We can see from Almighty God’s words that the work of judgment isn’t like we imagine: God will erect a table in the heavens, and with all men kneeling on the ground, He determines their outcome according to whether their deeds are good or evil, punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. If God truly judges men like this, then none of us will survive based on our actions. Actually, God does the work of judging and cleansing us corrupt mankind in the last days by using various truths to judge and reveal the satanic nature and all sorts of wrong intentions and conceptions within us. When reading Almighty God’s words, we will feel that God is judging and exposing us face-to-face and that His words, like a double-edged sword, expose our nature, making us see clearly the truth of our corruption by Satan, and that we have already lost the likeness of a genuine human being. We therefore feel deeply ashamed, and can’t help falling down before God, and repenting to Him. We begin to despise ourselves, curse ourselves, no longer willing to live in our corrupt disposition. At the same time, we also see that God’s righteous disposition cannot be offended and His holiness cannot be besmirched. And we cannot help but develop a heart of reverence for God and we dare not to sin to disobey God and rebel against God again, but start to forsake the flesh and put the truth into practice. Then our satanic corrupt disposition begins to change and we become willing to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements and perform our duty as created beings to repay His love. This is the effect achieved by God’s work of judgment. In our experience, we see that only if we receive God’s work of judgment in the last days can our satanic disposition be thoroughly purified, and can we be qualified to receive God’s approval and enter the kingdom of heaven. As for those who can’t accept God’s work of judgment, they are unable to attain purification and transform and will fall into God’s punishment at the conclusion of His judgment work.”

After listening to God’s words and the fellowship of Brother Zhang, it struck me that my prior understanding of judgment had in fact come from my conceptions and imaginations. Actually, God’s judgment doesn’t mean condemnation; rather, it’s to cleanse our corrupt disposition. God uses His words to do the judgment work of the last days so that we can, through His words, know our own corrupt nature and the various corrupt dispositions within us, can develop a genuine loathing for them, and thus practice the truth and shed our corrupt disposition. This turns out to be the way God does the judgment work. I felt God’s work is really practical. I thought of myself living in sin in my many years of faith in the Lord. When dealing with others, I failed to put the Lord’s teachings into practice and frequently lost my temper. I felt distressed because of this. But now, I have found the way to get rid of sins.

During the subsequent meetings, Brother Zhang fellowshiped with me about truths concerning how to tell the difference between true and false shepherds, the principles of searching for the true way, and the mystery of God’s incarnation and so on. His fellowship really benefited me a lot and I felt that I understood more than I had done in my faith in the church for over 30 years. After a period of investigation, I have established that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus because only God can disclose all the mysteries and tell us all truths. This fulfills the prophecy of the Lord Jesus: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). The reason why the Lord Jesus kept many mysteries from man when He did His work was that at that time, man’s stature was too lacking and could not bear them. So God came to express the whole truth of saving mankind in the last days and only by receiving His judgment work of the last days can we be saved into His kingdom. Praise God! I am really blessed to have a good fortune to follow the footsteps of the Lamb.

Afterward, once I had time, I would read God’s words, and the more I read them, the more I was attracted to them. I felt that God’s words were so great that they helped me understand a great deal of truth I had not known before. Additionally, the content on The Church of Almighty God website was also very wonderful. Whether they are the dance and song videos or gospel movies, they all conveyed various aspects of truth. After watching them, I had a better understanding of God’s work.

Up to now, it has been more than three months since I accepted Almighty God’s work. In the past, when I interacted with my family, I was apt to lose my temper with them, which caused both my family and me suffering. Yet, this problem defied solution. Now, through reading God’s words and fellowshiping with brothers and sisters in gatherings, I gradually came to understand that my getting angry was because of the control by my arrogant nature. I always wanted my husband and child to listen to me so that when I saw their words and actions were disagreeable to me, I would vent my anger on them. This was Satan’s corrupt disposition. Now, God’s words showed me that God requires man to live out the likeness of a real person and that there is no way to be free of the corrupt disposition if man does not pray to God but rely on himself. With this in mind, when I was about to flare up again, I asked God in silent prayer to protect me and lead me to practice His words. Gradually, I could control my temper to some extent. When my daughter disobeyed me, I was able to communicate with her calmly. Through my own experience, I see that only by receiving God’s judgment work of the last days can our corrupt disposition be changed and can we be purified and receive God’s salvation. Now I have too little experience and knowledge and there remain many corrupt dispositions within me. So I need to read more of Almighty God’s words and experience the judgment and chastisement of God’s words so that I will be able to cast off my corrupt disposition and live out the likeness of a genuine created being to glorify God.