Tilling and Planting

Tag: Salvation

  • Baptism in the Bible

    Baptism in the Bible

    Intro

    Reading through the four gospels and the book of Acts reveals that baptism was important to Jesus and the early church. As a result, baptism became a fundamental part of the church throughout the centuries. But despite that, some people question baptism and its importance. And others put a greater importance on it than the Bible does. Even though baptism is of great importance, there seems to be a growing lack of knowledge behind the “why” and some of the basic concepts of baptism. My goal in this post is to explain what baptism is and what it meant to Jesus and the early church. I plan to tackle the other end of the spectrum that gives greater importance to baptism than its due in a later post (or posts – there’s a lot of material to cover there).

    What is Baptism?

    At its core (notwithstanding the “dunking under water”), baptism identifies us with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

    Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:3-4 (NIV)

    For the Christian, baptism publicly announces to the world that we have a personal faith in Jesus Christ and commit to following Him. It also historically served as an initiation into the Christian faith. And this makes sense since in the early church (and a long time after), baptism occurred immediately after a person made that decision to confess Jesus as Lord. They didn’t schedule a time for people to come and witness it, they just grabbed the nearest body of water (public bathhouses included) and did it.

    Why is it Important?

    Because Jesus command it. End of story. Except…why? John baptized Jesus and Jesus commanded His followers to baptize people in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). John called people to repentance. Then he baptized them as a symbolic act. Baptized also serves as a test of our faith. Or at least it did back then when all baptisms were performed in a public setting. (Rich people with personal private water holes excepted.) People walking by the river would notice and could see all who got baptized. So, if you claimed faith and shied away from baptism, did you really believe in the first place? Because faith in Jesus would not fear what man may say. Jesus also said, “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15). So, by refusing baptism, you brought into question your claims to love Jesus.

    And the fact that Jesus allowed Himself to experience baptism should be enough. After all, He’s the creator of the universe who chose to become one of us and relate to sinful man in order to bring us back into right relationship with Him. That’s astounding. So, yes, it’s enough for me that Jesus commanded it.

    Why Jesus?

    A lot of people ask the question, why was Jesus baptized? After all, John’s message was one of repentance. Jesus had nothing to repent for. Jesus never sinned. Makes no sense. However, rest assured, Jesus’ reason isn’t as mysterious as it may look on the surface.

    Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. Matthew 3:15 (NIV)

    Jesus gave His reason for His baptism as “to fulfill all righteousness.” That’s great, but what does that even mean? What “righteousness” is Jesus trying to fulfill here? To answer that, let’s look at a couple more passages.

    Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 (NIV – emphasis mine)

    Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Matthew 5:17 (NIV)

    Looking at these two verses, we see that God (and Jesus by extension) held the law as righteous. And Jesus came to fulfill the law – not abolish it. So, we can conclude that Jesus’ baptism fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law. But what part of the law did He fulfill? Searching the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament) leads me (and many others) to believe that He fulfilled the requirements of the High Priestly inauguration. I’m going to show the parallels below.

    The Priestly Requirements

    • Had to be 30 years old
      • OT Requirement: Numbers 4:3, “Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work at the tent of meeting.” Admittedly this seems an odd passage for supporting this requirement, but if you had to be 30 simply to work in the tabernacle (precursor to the temple), it stands to reason that all priests were of that same age range.
      • NT Fulfillment: Luke 3:23, “Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.”
    • Washed with water
      • OT Requirement: Exodus 29:4, “Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water.”
      • NT Fulfillment: Matthew 3:16, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.”
    • Annointed with oil (an OT representation of Holy Spirit)
      • OT Requirement: Exodus 29:7, “Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.”
      • NT Fulfillment: Matthew 3:16, “At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.”
    • Verbal Blessing/Confirmation
      • OT Requirement: I struggled to find concrete Scriptural basis for this one. Even though when I did my original research on this years ago, I found something that supported the idea that someone gave a verbal blessing or affirmation about the new high priest.
      • NT Fulfillment: Matthew 3:17, “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

    Other Reasons

    While I think this gives enough reason for Jesus’ baptism, I also wish to point out a couple of other simple reasons. First, in all things, Jesus related to us. Tempted in every way, experienced hunger, experienced all the emotions, etc. Therefore, it makes sense to relate to us by water baptism. After all, if He’s commanding His followers to be baptized, then He should get baptized as well. Secondly, John the Baptist came from the lineage of Aaron. And preparing sacrifices was a big part of the priestly jobs. So, one could see this encounter as the initial preparation for Jesus’ sacrifice.

    What About Infant Baptism?

    Some denominations practice infant baptism (more like infant sprinkling, but I digress). Is this Biblical and should it be practiced? The short answer to the first question is “No”. The Bible doesn’t say anything about infant baptism. In fact, the Bible infers in multiple places that baptism takes place after one believes in Jesus and confesses Him as Lord. Obviously, infants can’t do that. For this reason alone, I question it.

    But should it be practiced? I don’t see a much of a problem with baptizing infants in the mindset that once that child makes up their own mind to follow Jesus, they’ll choose baptism in the traditional way. The problem comes from when the church in question teaches that infant baptism gives them a guaranteed ticket to Heaven. I’m aware of churches that teach that and it’s damaging. It creates false hope for people. Frankly, I lean toward avoiding it largely because of the roots in the belief of the necessity of baptism for salvation. Unless, as I mentioned earlier, the church correctly teaches that it does not save the child and is just tradition.

    Multiple Baptisms?

    Most people and churches see baptism as a one-time event. Just like Jesus’ death and resurrection occurred once for all time. After all, baptism symbolizes that event, so it makes sense. However, many churches these days believe that at times a second baptism makes sense. Some of those reasons I consider quite legitimate.

    • Infant baptism. After infant baptism, many people choose a second baptism later after making their personal decision to follow Jesus. This makes sense since the first time the person had no choice in the matter.
    • Rededication. Imagine a person chooses to follow Christ, but later strays far from God. And I mean far. Drugs, alcohol, the works. Now imagine that they repent and come back to God. And this person chooses a second baptism as a testimony to the radical life change that occurred.
    • A greater understanding. Some people get baptized pretty young before they fully grasp what baptism is. They treat it very flippantly and do it because “that’s just what Christians do”. After some years, they may come to a greater understanding and want to honor the symbolism and holiness of that moment.
    • Radical faith change. People who fall into this category would be those who switch denominations and feel that their previous baptism occurred out of ignorance or believing incorrect teachings of the Bible. So, they choose a second baptism to demonstrate their changes in their faith.

    I believe all of these reasons stand up to the Bible. The Bible doesn’t address this subject and doesn’t infer anything against it, so it really comes down to personal conviction. I know people who fall into a couple of these categories.

    Wrapping Up

    By now I hope you understand what exactly baptism is and why Jesus commanded it be performed for all of His followers. As mentioned earlier, there are people who put a greater emphasis on baptism that they should. This doctrine claims that baptism is required for salvation – called Baptismal Regeneration. I aim to talk about this in one or more future posts. I already have a lot of material covering this specific topic and it might bleed into multiple posts. If that’s the case, I intend to release them quicker than what my normal release cycle has been. So, please, if you have not subscribed to my email notifications, do so. That why you’ll know for sure when my next post comes out. It may be sooner than the 25th.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • What Age?

    What Age?

    Intro

    If you’ve been around the Christian community long enough, you’ve likely heard the term Age of Accountability. And even if you never heard it put that way, I’m sure you’re familiar with the idea. The basic idea stems from the question, “When are you old enough to be accountable for your sins and thus need Jesus as your savior to go to Heaven?” But where does the innocence that starts at birth end, 5, 10, 12? Let’s take a look.

    The Question

    Most people would agree that infants would have no business going to Hell because they don’t have the ability to grasp simple concepts let alone complicated ones such as theology. This naturally leads us to wonder what happens to infants and other very young children who die. And when they cross that line to needing a savior. As always, we shall turn to the Bible for guidance, but be forewarned, the Bible doesn’t discuss this topic directly. So, we won’t have clear-cut answers.

    Too Young

    I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “Too young to die.” Whether in a movie or real life, it’s pretty common. And for us as Christians, it creates the question that we need to be ready to answer: What happens to infants and toddlers and other young children when they die? Many a sobbing mother and father have asked some form of this question. And God called us to mourn alongside those who mourn (Romans 12:15).

    God gave us the Bible to lead and guide us along life’s journeys. And to answer our questions about life. So, we should first turn there when we have questions to see what it says. In this case about where these young children go, there isn’t a lot in the Bible that is explicit. But don’t despair! There is hope. There is evidence in the Bible that young children go to Heaven when they die.

    David’s Son

    When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and got her pregnant, God told David that the child would die. And he did. Look at what David said after that.

    But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me. 1 Samuel 12:23 (NIV)

    Notice the phrase “I will go to him”. Here David acknowledges that he will see his son again someday. David was a man who frequently looked forward to the Kingdom of God and eternity with Him. And here David is confident that he will see his son in that eternity. And we have reason to trust David’s faith since he frequently spoke prophetically through the Holy Spirit.

    God’ Character

    Another solid reason for believing in children going to Heaven when they die, is the character of God and His compassion. All throughout Scripture we see God and Jesus loving on children. In various places, God refers to young children as “innocents” (see Jeremiah 19:4-5 for an example). God’s tender mercies and compassion lead to these children being safe in His arms since they cannot understand or comprehend sin.

    Jesus also displayed immense love for children. The most famous example comes from the story of the disciples’ rebuking children and their parents for getting too close to Jesus. And Jesus rebuked His disciples and blessed the children instead.

    Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. Matthew 19:14-15 (NIV)

    Furthermore, also in Matthew (18:14), Jesus makes this statement “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these littles ones should perish.” Clearly Jesus and His Father have great love and compassion for the children. And the loving hand of God is the safest place one can be.

    Condition For Salvation

    Yet another reason we can know from Scripture what happens to young children: the condition for salvation. What does Romans say we must do to be saved? We must believe in our heart God raised Jesus and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9). Thinking about an infant, they haven’t even learned their own name yet, so how could they confess Jesus as Lord? No, children that are too young to even comprehend simple things are too young to be held accountable for their actions.

    When talking to the Pharisees in John 9 Jesus put forth a truth that can be easily applied here and sums up this position very well.

    Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” John 9:41 (NIV)

    In other words, if you don’t have the capacity to understand or recognize sin, you are not guilty (or held accountable) of it. This applies very well to infants and other young children who haven’t quite grasped right from wrong or the ideas of Heaven and Hell.

    What About the Unborn?

    How about those who haven’t been born yet? Not to worry! The unborn children fall into the same reasons already listed above. How do I know that? Jeremiah says that God formed him in his mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5) and Psalm 139 declares that we were “knit together” in our mother’s womb and are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and God saw our “unformed body” (vs 13 and on). From these passages and more we can confidently declare that God sees the unborn as human children – even in a physically incomplete stage of life. Therefore, they fall under all the same protections and rules laid out before. This is a great comfort for anyone who has had a miscarriage or an abortion that they regret.

    What About the Mentally Disabled?

    Many people who ask the question about where young children go when they die also ask similar questions about those who have severe mental disabilities, such as Autism and Aspergers and other similar disorders. Personally, I believe that they are covered by all the same things I’ve already talked about. When you think about it, these people have the same mental capacity as very young children and often display those same behaviors. Their ability to grasp complex concepts are severely limited. Consequently, God would grant them the same grace, mercy, and compassion He grants to the children. As someone who has interacted for many years with a couple of different people on the severe end of the spectrum, this brings comfort to my heart.

    The Accountable Age

    So, ultimately, there is no definitive age. It can vary from child to child when they reach the point of understanding and choose to reject God and knowingly choose to do wrong despite knowing and understanding what’s right. While that can sound difficult to hear since some of those kids can still be young, is it any different when that child is all grown up? Every person is a child to someone. No matter the age, a parent has a hard time losing their child.

    Wrapping Up

    Hopefully I answered some of your questions by reading this. Let us remember that one of our chief duties on earth is to spread the message of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Salvation Defined

    Salvation Defined

    Intro

    I’ve mentioned several times the concept of salvation. Especially in my last two posts about Heaven and Hell. At the time I said that I wasn’t going to get into the details about salvation and what it means, etc. However, since I teased it so many times and since it is a foundational concept in Christianity, I think now is the time to address it.

    The Basics

    When it comes to the word, salvation. What does that mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word salvation means “preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss”. To be saved from drowning is deliverance from death and the preservation of your life. And when it comes to Christianity and Biblical salvation, it is deliverance from sin, Hell, and oppression from Satan. And it is an eternal preservation of your spirit to dwell with God in Heaven. Now if that were all, this would be a very short post. But there is so much more to salvation. Especially the questions of “Who’s saved?”, “How are you saved?”, etc. So let’s get started.

    Why Do I Need Salvation?

    The first question to answer is why. Why does mankind need salvation? I hinted at it before in my definition of salvation from a Biblical perspective. But I’ll expand upon that here.

    To put it simply, we have sinned. Mankind lives in open (and closed) rebellion to God and His commandments. The Bible teaches that all have sinned. Nobody can make the claim that they have not sinned.

    If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8 (NIV)

    And being a holy and just God, He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. The punishment for sin is death and eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire.

    For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NIV)

    Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20: 14-15 (NIV)

    Can’t Save Ourselves

    In addition to pointing out the main problem, I also need to point out that we are wholly unable to save ourselves. No amount of good works or money or whatever can save us. The Bible declares that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) and all “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). It doesn’t matter what we do, we can never measure up to the holiness of God – which is the only standard that can get us into Heaven. Only perfection gets us into Heaven. And I think we all can agree that none of us are perfect.

    Now that I’ve established the problem, let’s take a look at God’s solution.

    The Plan of Salvation

    The Bible says that before the foundations of the world were laid, Jesus was chosen to die (1 Peter 1:19-20). That means that God knew that mankind would sin and reject Him and He still created us. All because of His great love. That alone is mind boggling. But God also planned out how to buy us back from the devil.

    The What

    God’s plan entailed coming to Earth as a human being (Jesus) (John 1:1), living a perfect life (2 Corinthians 5:21), and sacrificing Himself to satisfy the righteous requirements of God to cover all sin for all humans for all time – past, present, and future (Hebrews 10:10). The fact that He lived a perfect life is key. Because of that, Jesus did not deserve to die. He deserved to live forever. However, because He died a willing, sacrificial death, God could place upon Jesus the sins of all people from the past, the present, and the future and consider all of them atoned for. And God demonstrated His acceptance of the sacrifice by raising Jesus from the grave. Furthermore, His sacrifice and resurrection defeated death, Hell, the grave, sin, and Satan.

    The How

    “That’s all well and good, but what do I have to do to ‘get saved’?” The process is very simple. While Jesus did all the heavy lifting, He does ask you to do one thing. Believe. Yep, that’s it. In Acts 16, a man asked Paul what he must do to be saved, and Paul responded with “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31 NIV).

    Many religions have lists of things to do in order to get to their version of paradise. Biblical Christianity says, “God already did it, just believe.” God only requires that you have faith in Him and His sacrifice. After you’ve prayed a prayer of faith to receive salvation, the righteousness of Jesus covers all your sin and brings your spirit back to life and places Holy Spirit within you. After that, you are a new creation, and you will find yourself living a new life. A life pleasing to God.

    And before you ask, God offers salvation as a gift. He doesn’t force it upon anyone who doesn’t want it and won’t receive it. Think about a gift for a minute. If you give someone a gift, they have to open their hand and accept it in order to benefit from it. That’s why Jesus’ sacrifice didn’t automatically make everyone saved for all time. Everyone can still choose for themself whether they want to accept the gift or not.

    This actually leads into a heresy that I wish to briefly address.

    Universalism

    I don’t intend on spending a lot of time on this topic, but I do feel like I need to address it. And that’s this idea of Universalism. Universalism claims that all people will go to Heaven. No matter which religion you subscribe to, you end up going to Heaven. People come to this belief usually through one of two ways. To some, the thought of people being tormented for all of eternity makes them uncomfortable and search for an alternative. Or they emphasize God’s love and goodness while downplaying His righteousness and justice. But the Bible clearly teaches that people go to Hell when they die. And they will ultimately be thrown into the lake of fire for all of eternity (see my post on Hell for Biblical evidence of that).

    I agree that God is full of love and compassion. In fact, 2 Peter 3:9 reveals that God doesn’t want anyone to perish. But God cannot allow sin into His presence so the sin must be covered. And that’s where Jesus’ sacrifice come into play. For that love and compassion drove God to send Jesus (and made Jesus willing to go along with it) to Earth to die so that we may live. Jesus declares in John 14:6 that “no one comes to the Father except through me.” Time and again, the Bible reveals the exclusivity of the road to Heaven. It’s a narrow path and few find it. The way to Hell is broad and many more walk that path.

    From this, we can conclude that Universalism doesn’t exist as a Biblical truth. It’s a dangerous heresy that we must not fall for and must be ready to demonstrate – in love – the truth of the gospel.

    Wrapping Up

    I did my best to explain in simple terms what salvation is. I hope you find it useful as you explain to others the wonderful news of the gospel. It’s especially important to understand salvation when talking to the lost. A lack of understanding leads to people not actually being saved but believing they are. That’s a bit scary to think about.

    One last note, the Bible doesn’t talk about a “salvation prayer”. The Bible says to “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead” (Romans 10:9) in order to be saved. So, we do need to open our mouths and profess to God that we believe and accept His sacrifice. How that prayer looks varies. The specific words don’t matter so much as the heart behind them.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!