Garments of salvation!

Consider this prophecy of Christ from Isaiah 61, and how beautiful it is.

"I will rejoice greatly in the Lord,
My soul will exult in my God;
For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness!"

Garments of salvation, imagine that! To make it more vivid, look at this glorious passage : "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." (Gal 3:26-27)

Putting of Christ in baptism and through faith certainly causes my soul to exult in my God! He has wrapped me in a robe of the Most Perfect!

Should I be baptized at a scheduled event?

Baptism in modern Christian denominations is often something that's done as a scheduled event for large groups every so often. It's often an interesting ritual that we wait to see as some "yeah, you're a Christian, guess they did this, too" mark. Ask yourself this: why did early Christians not wait?

How quickly was the Philippian jailer baptized? "And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized." (Acts 16:33)

Paul was asked by Ananias, "Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’" (Acts 22:16)

The Ethiopian himself asked, "Look, water! What prevents me from being baptized?" (Acts 8:36)

God's messenger urged Paul to not delay, and to be immersed immediately, washing away his sins. Why do we do differently today?

Francis Chan and baptism. (Plus video.)

 Francis Chan noted that people often get contentious about baptism. "God doesn't need it." "It doesn't make sense." "Well I believe, but baptism's silly."

An Ethiopian had been worshiping at the Temple and was headed back to his homeland when God sent him Philip to preach the gospel to him. Consider what God was trying to convey in this passage. Look at the ATTITUDES expressed. Why do people sometimes poo-poo baptism? Shouldn't our response be like that of the Ethiopian?

"He preached Jesus to him. As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch *said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” (Acts 8)

 

Foundations—which would you toss out?

God said through Paul, "I...implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called." That sounds pretty important, huh? Well He goes on to say,"being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (All verses from Eph 4:1-6)

That's FOUNDATIONALLY important! So what things is God looking for? Well they're in the next two verses. Which of these are you comfortable telling people, "Eh, God doesn't care about THAT one. You don't have to believe it?"

1.)There is one body

2.) and one Spirit,

3.) one hope of your calling;

4.) one Lord,

5.) one faith,

6.) one baptism,

7.) one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Which one of those are you willing to leave out when teaching someone about God? Are any of them "not that important?"

The eunuch and the worship service.

If you pay attention to Acts 8, you'll notice something that's missing. In this chapter, Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch who is returning home from Jerusalem and Philip preaches Jesus to him (29-35). Pay close attention to this part:

"Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.  And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” (35-37)

The obvious part is that preaching to a person who is not Christian includes Jesus, and the response is belief and a desire for immediate baptism. But the less-obvious part is the missing bit. IMMEDIATELY after this takes place, Philip vanishes and the Ethiopian goes back to Ethiopia rejoicing (39).  Do you know what is missing? Philip never told him how to have a worship service! 

And oddly enough, the concept of the "worship service" is missing from the entirety of the New Testament writings. It exists 0 times. Whatcha think? 

Our response to baptism.

Baptism is so often an uncomfortable subject, and humans like to make Godzilla scenarios to avoid it. "But what if..." At the same time, sometimes people will say, "Well it's being baptized into the knowledge of Christ." When looked at in scriptural terms, this doesn't seem to be the reaction of the first people to follow Christ. Check out these two examples:

"As they traveled along the road and came to some water, the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" (Acts 8:36)

And as Ananias said to Paul, "And now why do you delay? Having arisen, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name." (Acts 22:16)

Apparently baptism was done in water, and it was associated with having sins removed—the very things which separate us from God, and which we need removed. So if we start making strange scenarios, we need to ask, "Why is my response different than the eunuch's?  Than Paul's? Can God not see my desire and provide me a place to be baptized?" 

Unity of what?

So I mentioned that God calls us to the unity of faith and Spirit in Ephesians 4, and that allows for some variance, since it's "the unity" and not "the uniformity." At the same time, though, God does give a list of 7 things that we have to be united on; namely that,

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." (4-6)

From what I can tell, most people will buy into 6 of these, but shy away from baptism. Since they are listed without preference, it seems that God equates denying baptism with the same denying the Spirit, or the one God. I certainly feel free and unafraid saying that I agree with God on all 7 counts!