Believed in vain? What could that be? Believing that good works can save one from hell. Believing that morality will save one from hell. Some have that faith, but it will not save a person.
Believing that joining a church and using that as the means of getting to heaven is vain faith. It will not save us.
Baptism is very important in our Christian lives. Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. We are not to be sprinkled or have water poured on our heads. Baptism is a burial in water. That shows how, in a figure or picture, that God washes away our sins. Christ did this on the cross in his intense suffering. The water is a symbol of Christ's suffering. It pictures how Christ's suffering washes away our sins.
But the pastor raises us up out of the water. That pictures that we are in Christ, sinless. It represents the resurrection of Christ. Christ's baptism was a symbol of picture of our salvation. Our resurrection out of the water pictures the resurrection of Christ's body being raised from the grave, sinless. So are we, in Christ.
That is not vain faith. It is baptism that pictures the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus' body. Christ was in that resurrected body. He was sinless. In our resurrection from water we picture that we are sinless in Christ. No, we still have sin in our flesh. But the raising up of our bodies from the water pictures the day in our future when we will be sinless in our flesh! Forever!
Have you been buried in water and raised up from water by the authority of a New Testament church by a God called preacher?
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment