In the Water and Out of the Water

Last time, we looked at Jesus’ recruitment of His first 5 disciples, watched Him perform His first miracle, and observed Him disciplining people in the proper behavior in the Temple in Jerusalem (see Conversion, Miracle and Discipline).

One night while Jesus was still in Jerusalem, a man named Nicodemus approached. The Bible tells us that he was a ‘Pharisee’ and a ‘ruler of the Jews’ (Jn. 3:1).

Being a ‘ruler’ suggests that he was a member of the Sanhedrin – a type of Jewish supreme court if you will, making judgments on religious and political matters.

The word ‘Pharisee’ is derived from the Hebrew parash, meaning ‘separated.’ The Pharisees were a Jewish religious sect that existed from 536 B.C. – 70 A.D. Afterwards, they would regroup as teachers of Rabbinic Judaism, whose teachings form the foundation of most Judaism today.

These same Pharisees believed that the written laws of Moses required continual ‘updating’ by their members, supposedly through divine revelation. Then the modified laws were handed down orally to subsequent generations. They also believed in life after death.

There was also another major sect called the Sadducees, who did not believe in an afterlife. In opposition to the Pharisees as well, the Sadducees believed only in the strict interpretation of the written Mosaic Law.

Thus, Nicodemus would have been highly trained in both Jewish law and theology. He speaks to Jesus:

“Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.” Jn. 3:2 NLT

I love the way that Jesus always makes the hearer of His responses expand their mental space. He answers:

“I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a person is born again (reborn from above – spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified), he cannot [ever] see and experience the kingdom of God.’ Jn. 3:3 AMP

Jesus was beginning His first ministerial teaching.

Right out of the gate, Christ is going to teach Nicodemus of the reason that He has come to planet Earth – a life-changing truth. He is alluding to the fact that you cannot enter the kingdom of God by way of having high standing in government, society, or religion; or by riches, race, place of birth or by doing good deeds.

In a nutshell then, Jesus is revealing that the entrance into God’s kingdom is only open to those who willingly allow God to birth them anew, by changing what’s in their hearts. Then, the continued presence in that kingdom is assured for those who do their best to live by those changes.

However, poor Nicodemus just can’t wrap his head around what Jesus is saying. He is too busy thinking literally about His words. He asks Jesus how is it that someone can crawl back into their mother’s womb to be reborn (Jn. 3:4).

Jesus expands His concept a little:

“Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Jn. 3:5 CSB

He is explaining what is required for salvation. Water baptismis a requirement from God through Jesus. It is the ultimate way that we can make a public confession of our faith in the Father and the Son:

“I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels. But anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God’s angels.” Lk. 12:8, 9. NLT

This is so important that it was also included in the content of His final words to the apostles:

“Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.” Mk. 16:15, 16. NLT

Water baptism is also a way that we can potentially help bring others to the kingdom, through our example of faith. It is an outward sign that our faith is growing and being reinforced. Without faith, the act of baptism would be worthless.

Water is only water. The connection of the word of God to the water, with faith, fulfills our requirement.

What it is not however, is the way to salvation. It is a declaration of the believer of his or her faith in their salvation, by the Holy Spirit sent by Christ.

Water baptism is a metaphorical demonstration of you being re-birthed as a newly cleansed child of God, freed from the penalty you rightly deserved for your old worldly behavior, now removed by your receipt of divine forgiveness:

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil – the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way…subject to God’s anger…

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. Eph. 2:1 – 6. NLT

How BIG is that? How loving and merciful is our God.

In your water baptism, you are confirming that your worldly self has been buried, (symbolized by the immersion part); and that your spiritual self has been resurrected cleansed from sin, (represented by your rising out of the water).

We must die to the life that we have lived and to the meanings that we brought to it, to be able to live a new life – one that is revealed in the word of God. Water baptism begins with the repentance of the actions of your flesh and ends with the declaration of your faith in the Godhead.

True salvation, (your having been made righteous from the cleansing blood of Christ), comes when you ask God for your Spiritual rebirth by petitioning Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Then, you have become related to Jehovah in the most intimate way, becoming His child for all of eternity if you continue to live a godly life to the best of your ability. Christ will fill in the gaps.

(Don’t get caught up in the beliefs of some people, who say that you must have a physical supernatural manifestation of your conversion (e.g., speaking in tongues). You may not feel anything. Yet God guarantees that when you make your request for salvation, He will fulfill it instantly.

Jesus knows that being ‘reborn’ is a difficult concept for Nicodemus to grasp.

Indeed, He was bringing this new heretofore unknown concept, (only alluded to in the Old Testament), to the entire world, and Nicodemus was the first to hear it. Jesus offers him additional clarity:

“Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” Jn. 3:6 – 8. NLT

Our spirit and flesh are separate from each other. The flesh houses no spirit; yet it is animated by it. Our spirit is our very own piece of God. When we are born again, the Spirit changes us inwardly, from sinfulness to holiness, so that we can enter the presence of God.

Just like the wind, even though we can’t see it, we can sail ships and create power by it. So it is with the Holy Spirit, invisible and unexplainable, but always successful for the willing recipient – renewing their spirit.

“Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will make breath enter you so that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make your flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and I will put breath in you so that you may come alive, and you will know that I am the LORD.’” Eze. 37:5, 6. AMP

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4:6 NLT

But it is up to you to make your best efforts to walk with God to keep your spirit untarnished.

For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. Rm. 8:7 NLT

Again, being ‘born again’ is a necessity because prior to doing so, you are spiritually dead, morally corrupt, and living on borrowed time. So, get yourself prepared for eternity:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance – an inheritance that is kept for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 1 Pt. 1:3 – 5. NLT

Either you are born again as a child of God, or you can deny His call, and become a child of the devil by default.

Well, poor old Nicodemus is beside himself, unable and unwilling to see what Jesus is revealing (Jn. 3:9):

…people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 1 Cor. 2:14 NLT

Jesus admonishes him, telling Nicodemus that such a learned theologian as him should be able to understand what He is explaining (Jn. 3:10 – 12). Then, as Jesus does, He throws him another spiritual curve ball:

“No one has gone up to heaven, but there is One who came down from heaven, the Son of Man [Himself – whose home is in heaven].” Jn. 3:13 AMP

The Son of God is revealing Himself. He adds more:

“Just as Moses lifted up the [bronze] serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross], so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life [after physical death, and will actually live forever].” Jn. 3:14, 15. AMP

This is referencing Nm. 21:4 – 9; an incident during the Hebrew exodus from Egypt, whereupon the people rebelled against God. Out of righteous judgment, Jehovah sent a plague of poisonous snakes. Yet, in His mercy, He cut their punishment short by having Moses construct a bronze image of a snake, mounting it on a pole, and raising it high in the air.

All who gazed upon that image were cured of their poisonous bites. God saved His children from the curse that they brought upon themselves, through the image of their curse.

Similarly, Jesus is saying that He must be crucified to become the healing for our sins, purchasing our salvation with His own life for those who look to Him:

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. 2 Cor. 5:21 NLT

…Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. Gal. 3:13 NLT

Finally, Jesus paints the BIG picture for Nicodemus:

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” Jn. 3:16 – 18. NLT

Jesus just declared that without a doubt He is the Son of God, and that the Father willingly and lovingly sent Christ to be our instrument of salvation for all of eternity.

God loves you so much, but He cannot abide with your sins. He would have no one die. It is all on you to accept the Gift that He has given and live accordingly.

This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 Jn. 4:10 NLT

…God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. 1 Tim. 2:3, 4. NLT

“As surely as I live,” says the Sovereign LORD, “I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live.” Eze. 33:11 NLT

Christ is the only reason salvation is possible…

Goodnight and God bless.

Declaring Your Faith in Jesus

It is glaringly apparent that the world is becoming increasingly hostile to Christians. That should come as no surprise, as Jesus warned us of this very thing:

“Brother will betray brother to death, and the father his child; and all children will rise up and rebel against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by everyone because of [your association with] My name, but it is the one who has patiently persevered and endured to the end who will be saved.” Mt. 10:21, 22. AMP

The world hates us just because we follow Christ. Why? Because if we do our best to emulate Him, we are vicariously heaping judgment upon it as He did:

“…it (the world) does hate Me because I denounce it and testify that its deeds are evil.” Jn. 7:7

AMP

“For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” Jn 3:20 NKJV

And so it is with us:

“…and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.” Mt. 24:9 AMP

All you have to do is pick up any issue of the Huffington Post to validate that. Indeed, we are entering tumultuous times, where we will see both persecution and a falling away of many of the faithful:

“At that time many will be offended and repelled [by their association with Me] and will fall away [from the One whom they should trust] and will betray one another [handing over believers to their persecutors] and will hate one another. Many false prophets will appear and mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, the love of most people will grow cold. But the one who endures and bears up [under suffering to the end will be saved.” Mt. 24:10 – 13. AMP

The time will come when Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats. You definitely want to be in the sheep crowd. (Mt. 25:31 – 33.)

Sometimes, Christians are their own worst enemies, by letting their flesh take precedent over their spirit. For example, you have people playing with snakes, denying their children medical care, protesting outside of military funerals, killing abortion providers, advocating war over peace and putting politics over the kingdom.

We all have our human side, and fall repeatedly. This is where we must stay humble in the face of our sinful nature, take Jesus by the hand, and get up over and over to once again try our best:

“…he who comes to the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” Jn. 3:21 NKJV

And we mustn’t lose sight that Jesus is depending upon God’s children to spread the gospel message for the salvation of the world:

“You are the light of [Christ to] the world…Let your light shine before men is such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Mt. 5:14 & 16. AMP

“What I say to you in the dark (privately), tell in the light (publicly); and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops [to many people].” Mt. 10:27 AMP

So, it is both what we say and do for the kingdom that matters; and the more that we can do that publicly (teach the word, evangelize, volunteer, etc.) the larger the net we will cast for Christ.

Our public outreach begins humbly, but powerfully, with our first public declaration of our faith – our baptism. Why is that an important deed to undertake?

“I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a person is born again [reborn from above – spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified], he cannot [ever] see and experience the kingdom of God.” Jn. 3:3 AMP

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Jn. 3:5 NKJV

This was Jesus’ first ministerial teaching – laying out the entire reason that He came, i.e. that there is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves that will get us into the kingdom of God. It is only open to those who allow God to birth them anew by changing what is in their hearts. Then, the continued presence in that kingdom is assured for those who do their best to live by those changes.

Water baptism is a requirement from God, through Jesus – not only for ourselves, but we are also called to help facilitate the baptism of as many people as possible:

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” Mk. 16:15, 16. ESV

When we get baptized, our example of faith in God and our obedience to His word can potentially draw others to do likewise. It is an outward sign that our faith is both growing and being reinforced. Without the faith, the act of baptism would be worthless. The water is just water. It is the connection of the water to the word of God, by faith, that fulfills our requirement.

Water baptism by itself however, is not the way to salvation. It is a declaration of one’s faith in salvation through the Spirit. Baptism in water is a metaphorical demonstration of being re-birthed as a newly cleansed child of God, through the forgiveness of sins – confirming that your old ’worldly self’ has been buried (symbolized by your immersion in water) and that your ‘spiritual self’ has been resurrected and cleansed from the stain of original sin (portrayed by your rising out of the water).

The act of water baptism begins with your repentance of the actions of your flesh and ends with the declaration of your faith in the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.

True salvation (having been made righteous from the cleansing blood of Christ) comes when you ask God for your Spiritual new birth by petitioning Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit – changing you into a new child in Christ. Only then, does God provide kingdom guidance and eyesight so that you can walk in His ways.

This is so BIG:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Pt. 1:3 – 5. ESV

Declare…