New Creation - Water Baptism

As a continuation to my last post, let us go more about water baptism. For simplicity, I mention as baptism in this post further and all the references mean to water baptism unless explicitly specified otherwise. We have seen the basic idea behind baptism is that one acknowledges his faith in Lord Jesus Christ that He accepts Him as his Lord and Savior for his life. Now, we will see the meaning of it further. Before writing anything spiritual, I just want to mention about water and life. As everyone knows, apart from blood, water is the essential content for life. Nothing can survive without water. That's why in extra terrestrial search for life, a planet is first analyzed for water presence. Water is mentioned in the second verse of the Bible before even mentioning about light."And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness  was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Gen 1:2 and no wonder water is linked with Holy Spirit. So, we see the importance of water here. Water constitutes 60% of the human body.

Baptism is the process of getting immersed in water three times (to represent Trinity). Why it is considered a way for born again? Just think about how a baby is delivered. Before the baby has to come out, there needs to be a rupture of amniotic fluid bag in the mother's womb. We could also say that water is an essential element for baby's birth. In same way, to born again, one has to immerse and come out of water by faith in Jesus Christ.

So, what Baptism signifies? Baptism simply means that the individual who is taking baptism is dying to his previous self centered life and he is getting born again in his spirit to live a new life that is Christ centered. Refer Romans 6:3. So, he is a new born person now. This is the simplest meaning. It also means that he is dying to his old habits, worldly things and all the other selfish things that he had been doing before accepting Jesus Christ as the master of his life. Not only it symbolizes the death of the person but it also means he is crucified on cross and then buried with him through baptism and when we get out of water, we are resurrected with Jesus Christ by faith and new man is born and the spiritual man is quickened from the dead. All through faith, nothing is visible process. Romans 6:4-6. Baptism symbolizes all this process and everything happens to the person who undergoes baptism even if he is not aware of all this.

Is that all baptism signifies? Well, it signifies more than that.In last post, I have mentioned a verse from Peter that this is a covenant that is being made between the individual and God. To understand more about the covenant, lets review some of the relevant covenants from old testament. The first one is the God's covenant with Noah. God promised Noah after the great floods that He will not destroy the earth by water again. Peter exactly says that is a like figure. Noah's family of 8 members alone were saved from the entire world by getting into the ark. Baptism is comparable to that in such a way that each one is getting saved out of water through baptism as a new born member of Christ. The ark is comparable to Jesus Christ Himself and taking baptism is again compared to be within the ark (Jesus Christ). Do we have any other example of baptism in old testament apart from the Noah's ark protection on great floods? Yes, the entire nation of Israelites who came out of Egypt after pass over were baptized in red sea. Moses was named after he was taken from waters, his name itself is significant in context of baptism and he lead the entire nation of Egypt through pass over (crucifixion of Jesus) and through pillar of cloud Red sea (baptism). I am not saying this, but people who know the Bible know where this is exactly given. Yes, please go through I Cor 10:1,2.

The second covenant is the one that God made with Abraham where God told Abraham will become a great nation and as a mark of covenant, Abraham and his descendants have to undergo circumcision. The circumcision is a blood covenant as blood spills out of the process and God remembers the covenant. But, actually Jesus has established the new covenant to all who accepts Him by faith and whosoever accepts Him become a child of Abraham automatically. This is a contradiction to Abrahamic covenant as the original covenant was based on circumcision on flesh. To extend this covenant to gentiles, a greater covenant has to be done. But, how a covenant that has been made by God with a man can be abolished or changed. Only by God Himself and exactly that is what Jesus has done on cross. He became a man and stood on behalf for all mankind, shed all His blood on cross to create a new covenant in such a way that old Abrahamic covenant is no longer required. He fulfilled all the Mosaic law and hence He made a blood covenant with God on behalf of humans so that this covenant cannot be broken because Lord had made covenant with God and it is sealed. Now, anyone can enjoy the blessings of God through Abrahamic covenant by simply accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and no need for him to undergo circumcision. I will try to cover more on this in a separate chapter with reference verses. But, to give a hint, the core theme of the epistle of Galatians point to this fact. So, to learn more about old covenant, law and new covenant, please read the epistle of Galatians. The Abrahamic covenant looks a bit out of context with baptism. But, the connection is it was abolished by Jesus Christ on cross so God has made a covenant through Jesus for anyone who accepts Him. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,  even to them that believe on his name. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12,13. But, it is the covenant act of the individual from his end to take baptism by sealing that he is accepting Jesus and surrendering to live a new life pleasing to God through Holy Spirit.

Now, having gone through the foreshadows, meaning and spiritual importance of baptism, let's see what is the right approach for baptism. Many churches give the practice of infant baptism. Is it right to baptize the baby? As per the above explanation, it is wrong to baptize the baby because it is a covenant between an individual person and God and the person has to decide it, not the parents or guardians of the infant. The baby doesn't know what is good or bad or what is sin. But many denominational churches follow this practice. So, what is the right time for a person to take baptism? Let's look at our role model, Jesus Christ. Luke 2:23 says Jesus was about 30 years old when he took baptism. I would also say 30 is the perfect age for a person to take baptism unless otherwise he comes to Christianity in an older age. Because, a person would be completely matured and probably married by 30 years of age and he knows how to live a family life. So, in my opinion, 30 is the perfect age but it could be few years earlier or later depending upon the faith of the individual. So, why churches have infant baptism? My guess is during the evolving of church there could be a confusion that if a person die in young age before taking baptism, whether he goes to heaven or hell as per the verse of John 3:5. To know more about that check the wiki page of infant baptism at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_baptism. But, I believe dedicating a baby during naming is the right approach rather than baptizing because baptism is just a basic qualification and we cannot assure everyone who takes baptism to reach the kingdom of God. It is just a starting point. So, I believe in cases of death in young age before baptism, still the child could enter kingdom of God by faith based on the discretion of God.

So, the right approach should be followed and only the matured adults should take the baptism and then only the new creation would have a real meaning and purpose in the life of the person who takes baptism. One who takes baptism should clearly know the truths about sin and salvation by grace through faith in Lord Jesus Christ and he or she has to believe in that. Try to read the incident of Philip baptizing minister of Candace queen and the condition is if you believe with all heart that Jesus Christ is son of God, you may take baptism. Acts 8:26-39 focus on verses 36-38.

I think I covered most about baptizing by immersion in water and I might have left out something. it has already been a bigger one. In my next post, I will cover about another important process of baptism by Holy Spirit and baptizing by fire. May all glory, honor and praise to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who promised to make us a new creation. Amen.

New Creation - Born again

As I have mentioned at the end of the last post, the next step in new creation is the process of getting born again. There was a conversation between Jesus and a jewish officer named Nicodemus in John 3. It is one of the most important conversations in the entire Bible as Jesus plainly put forth the basic condition to see the kingdom of God. Later, Jesus quotes the most popular verse in 3:16, about God's love that forms the crux of the Christian faith, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.". But, let's focus on the process of born again for this chapter. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, probably he doesn't want other pharisees or scribes to see him with Jesus (I am just guessing). Just to give an overview about Nicodemus, we could read about Nicodemus in 2 other places in John, one is where he tries to defend Jesus in John 7:50 and finally we see that he does the final rituals of Jesus after His crucifixion along with Joseph of Arimathaea in John 19:38,39 and at both places Nicodemus was identified as the one who came to Jesus in an earlier night.

The conversation starts as Nicodemus appreciates Jesus by saying "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." John 3:2. But, Jesus never cared about his praise but directly responded to Him by telling something totally irrelevant to the context but it is the most important stuff and basic eligibility to see the kingdom of God. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 So, Nicodemus asked Jesus again, what He actually meant by born again, whether one can enter his mother's womb second time to born again. Jesus explains again saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:5

The above is the process of born again, that is to born again of water (Baptism) and of the spirit (New creation). This is the second step after salvation. As we saw in last post, salvation is the very first process that one believes in Jesus, confess his sins and accepts Him and declares that Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Born again is a two stage process because there are two persons involved in born again of every individual. One person is God and the other is the individual. The first step should be from the individual to get baptized by water thereby publicly acknowledging that he or she is accepting Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior. The second step is from the Lord to baptize the individual with the Holy Spirit there by acknowledging his faith towards Him. This is a kind of getting into mutual agreement or covenant (covenant is the right word). That's why Peter explains, "The like figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:" I Peter 3:21. The original translation says it is the covenant of a good conscience with God. So, if one takes baptism it actually means that he is entering into covenant with the living God to become His child by accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Why Baptism is required? We read in James 2:17 that "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone". So, we learn that if we have faith in Jesus, we have to show that through our works. The first work probably one should do after being saved is baptism because it is the act that Jesus Himself had gone through. So, we should acknowledge our faith by action publicly by taking the baptism by water. I will write more about the meaning of baptism in my next article.

Let's see the second part of it. God waits for one to acknowledge Jesus through baptism before He starts his works in us. Once we have done the first step, we can be sure that God always hold on to His word to send His Holy Spirit to the person who takes baptism. Though the person may not aware of this fact, this is a 100% sure thing that happens in him. Some people realize this and some don't. But, it doesn't mean that because a person doesn't feel a difference or he doesn't realize, it is not happening. If you are truthful and sincere to acknowledge Christ as your Lord by taking baptism, it is doubly assured that Holy Spirit started to live in you from that moment onwards. It is one hundred percent true that God acknowledges those who acknowledge Him. I could quote many verses for this but limit that to few examples.

Let's start with Jesus who made himself a role model for others to follow. Jesus took the baptism in river Jordan through John Baptist and once when He entered the shore, we could read God acknowledging Him in Matthew 3:16, 17. "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:, And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.". What a wonderful scene that would have been? When David was anointed by Samuel, we read that "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward." I Samuel 16:13. The Lord spoke to Eli through a prophet and said "for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." I Samuel 2:30 and when you are baptized with Holy Spirit, you have started to live a new life in Jesus Christ and this is all about the starting of new creation.

In my next post, I will write more about Baptism by water and what is the core meaning of it, what is the right way of doing it.  All honor, glory, praise to the almighty God through our all sufficient savior Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

New Creation - Salvation by Grace through Faith

Paul wrote in his second epistle to Corinthians, "if any man  be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor 5:17. Holy Spirit inspired me to write a series of articles on this new creation and this is my third post. In this post, we will see the basic building blocks or bricks (or the beginning steps) of this spiritual process, New creation. We have seen in first post that each Christian is expected to live a life pleasing to Christ, i.e. living life in Christ's way and we have seen about creation of human being and what constitutes a human in my last post.

The very first process of the new creation is salvation and it is not just a one time process and it happens throughout the life. We could say that whoever accepted Christ have been saved, are being saved and will be saved eternally. But, let's see the context of salvation that happens to a believer for the first time. I don't think any man can accept or come to Christ by himself. He should have been identified by God. One may be a Christian by birth but that doesn't mean he has gone through salvation automatically. So, we should understand, if anyone is truly a Christian, he had been through salvation not by himself but because he has been chosen by God even before the foundation of the world. Jesus said "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37. In same chapter, He also told "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." John 6:44 and again in verse 65.

So, how does one get salvation? what one has to do to get the salvation? The gift of salvation is available to everyone and it is free. It is God's grace. But, for an individual to receive the salvation, he should have faith on Lord Jesus Christ and what he had done on cross for the mankind. Faith is the first step in order to receive salvation. The definition of faith is given in Hebrews 11:1 as "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In this context, we haven't seen Jesus shedding blood on cross, or we haven't seen Father accepting Jesus sacrifice for sins of mankind, but we are believing through scriptures that Jesus has paid ransom for our sins in cross. This is what faith is all about. The second step is declaring our faith through our mouth, accepting that we are sinners and we cannot save ourselves and instead we accept God's provision for salvation, which is through the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ. We will see more on God's provision with couple of old testament examples. But, the above entire process is written in Romans 10:9-11 - "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

Think the grace of God as a huge water reservoir like a dam or a huge river. We can go and see the dam and the water. But, to get the water from the dam, you need to have a vessel. You should have a vessel to get water for yourselves. Just seeing is not enough. So, going to church, giving offerings and doing other church activities are like seeing the waters. But, having faith in Lord Jesus is the vessel to get the grace for ourselves. How big the vessel is that much amount of water we can draw. That's exactly why Paul writes in his letter to Ephesians, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9

Let's see the examples for God's provision. When Adam has sinned, the entire mankind has been fallen short of glory and became unrighteous and unholy in front of holy and righteous God. In last post, we have seen the fig leaves were not sufficient to cover the nakedness but God has provided clothes made of skin to cover Adam and Eve. It became very clear that God has to provide a way of salvation when it comes to restoration of mankind back with God and any other solutions that man offers won't be approved in God's presence. The first example is the incident of God's calling of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. When Isaac asked Abraham, where is the lamb for a burnt offering?, Abraham by faith knows God will provide an alternative for His son and even if he has to sacrifice Isaac, he believe God will rise Isaac from dead because God promised Abraham through Isaac, his seed will multiply. Heb 11:17-19. So, he gave a wonderful answer to Isaac that "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering". Gen 22:8. Finally, as Abraham said, he found a ram and he called God as Jehovah-Jireh, in the mount of the LORD, it shall be seen. Gen 22:14. How true in the mount of Golgotha, the solution is provided. Praise God. John Baptist introduced Jesus as "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29

The second example is the pass over in Egypt. When the Israelites applied the blood of the lamb on their door posts, they were saved from the plague that killed all the first born of Egyptians. The door post symbolizes the cross and all the households of Israelites who were behind those door posts were saved and they were delivered from Egypt that night. If you believe that Jesus dies for your sins on cross in your heart and confess through your mouth that He is your Lord and Savior, you are behind the door post where the lamb's blood has been sprinkled and you are saved. You are saved eternally from condemnation, hell, the clutches of devil. Not only that, you are partaker of the blessings of the Lord. As I heard in one of the sermons, the difference between mercy and grace is, mercy is the act of relieving from the eternal punishment but grace is along with relieving from eternal punishment (mercy), extending the blessings of God in such a manner that we haven't sinned at all.

Salvation is just the first step, just like a baby steps and this is essential step in a Christian life. Just remember, because as you were born Christian never meant that you were saved. One must realize and accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Faith is the first step required in us and this faith has to be started by God Himself. So, if you are touched by this post and haven't gone through salvation, it means that God Himself worked in you to realize the truth. Jesus Christ, our Lord is the author and finisher of faith. So, He has already started faith in your heart. In invite you to believe that Jesus died for you on cross, He shed His blood on cross for the remission of your sins and confess your sins and declare that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior from now on. You will see your life changing even if not immediate gradually or at some point.

We will move on to the next process of new creation which is being born again. I will explain that in my next post. All glory, honor, praise to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the holy lamb that bore of the world in Himself and created salvation through Himself. Praise God for His unspeakable gift, Lord Jesus. II Cor 9:15. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32 Amen.