Posted on 08/21/2022 7:31:01 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
I was born into and grew up in a very legalistic church — so legalistic, in fact, that it claimed to be the one and only true church. All other professing Christians were viewed as deceived pagans who were destined to Hell, and rightfully so because they did not agree with us on our “plan of salvation.” That plan was also often referred to as “the five-finger exercise” because it consisted of five points which our preachers would always count out on five fingers of one hand. The five points were: 1) Hear, 2) Believe, 3) Repent, 4) Confess, and 5) Be Baptized.
Some particularly zealous preachers would sometimes add a sixth point: obedience to all New Testament commands. Over and over, I heard it declared that “God had done His part, and now we must do our part.”
This, of course, amounted to salvation by good works, in direct contradiction to Ephesians 2:8-10 where the Apostle Paul specifically stated that we are saved by grace through faith and “not as a result of works.”
Baptismal Obsession
The really BIG point in our plan of salvation was baptism. Yes, we believed in what theologians call “baptismal regeneration.” We thought that baptism magically washed our sins away. Our preachers even had a saying that “you meet the blood of Jesus in the water.”
Accordingly, while I was growing up, I heard sermon after sermon on baptism. I learned that my salvation depended upon being baptized in the right way by the right person for the right reason.
Specifically, I had to be totally immersed by a preacher of my church for the purpose of being saved. The Baptists were constantly attacked from our pulpits because they believed baptism was simply a public manifestation or proclamation of one’s salvation. Our leaders openly scoffed at such an idea, calling it “unbiblical.” The purpose of baptism could only be in order to obtain salvation.
Sermons in the Book of Acts
My turnaround occurred while I was in college. The Holy Spirit led me one day to start reading all the sermons recorded in the book of Acts, and I noticed that they focused not on a mechanical Plan but on a divine Man and His glorious resurrection from the dead.
For example, in the first gospel sermon ever preached by the Apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost, he focused from the beginning to the end on proving that Jesus was indeed the long-promised Messiah of God. The entire sermon reveals how Jesus fulfilled Bible prophecies about the Messiah, leading up to the climax of the Resurrection.
As I read sermon after sermon recorded in the book of Acts, I noticed that the Resurrection rather than baptism was the central point that was stressed over and over again:
> On the Day of Pentecost, Peter declared that Jesus was raised from the dead, and therefore the Jewish people could know for certain “that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:32, 36).
>When Peter was hauled before the Sanhedrin Council for healing a man in the name of Jesus, he called Jesus “the Holy and Righteous One” whom they had put to death but whom “God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:14-15).
>When Peter was arrested a second time for proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus on the Temple grounds, he declared to the chief priest and the rulers and elders that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10,12).
>In Acts 4:33, we are told that all the apostles “with great power were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”
>In the first sermon to a Gentile group, Peter, speaking to the household of the Roman soldier Cornelius, concluded his remarks by asserting that “God raised Him [Jesus] up on the third day” (Acts 10:40).
>We are told in Acts 17:18 that the Apostle Paul spent his time in Athens “preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” In fact, Paul concluded his sermon with these words: “He [God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man [Jesus] whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Paul summed up the central message in these sermons and others in the book of Acts when he wrote these words in his letter to the Romans: “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
The Biblical Concept of Salvation
God’s true plan of salvation focuses on a person. It was revealed in the Old Testament in the book of Joel, where the prophet wrote: “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Joel 2:32 NKJV). In Old Testament times, that name was Yahweh; in New Testament times, it became Jesus (Yeshua) — both being divine beings who are part of the Triune God.
In addition to studying the sermons in the book of Acts, I discovered a definition of the Gospel written by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:
“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”
A Summary
In summary, the Gospel is the good news that Jesus came to the earth, died for our sins, and was resurrected from the dead, proving that He was God in the flesh and that those who put their faith in Him will be saved. It is not a matter of God doing his part and us doing ours. No! Baptism is not even mentioned. Jesus did everything necessary when He died for our sins on the Cross.
My complete deliverance from baptismal salvation came when I discovered a verse about baptism that I had never heard read aloud in the church of my youth. That verse is 1 Corinthians 1:17. It is a verse that literally jolted my spirit. In it, Paul boldly asserts that “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…” The gospel is not baptism; it is the joyful news that Jesus loved us enough to come to earth to pay the penalty for our sins, making it possible for us to be reconciled to God.
The focus of all Christian preaching should be a divine Man, Jesus, and not a humanly-devised plan. We should be proclaiming to all humanity that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus, and not by works of any kind (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Hallelujah!
In summary, the Gospel is the good news that Jesus came to the earth, died for our sins, and was resurrected from the dead, proving that He was God in the flesh and that those who put their faith in Him will be saved
I would add to your thoughts the following:
What did the prophets preach?
What did John the Baptist preach?
What did Jesus preach?
What did the Apostles preach?
I will let the reader reflect on those questions. But without an understanding of that, the Good News does not have full flavor.
The really BIG point in our plan of salvation was baptism.
But what does God really want? Nearest I can tell, He wants a relationship. Why only He knows.
If that is true, who directs the relationship? God or man.
Folks, get your Bibles out and find out about that relationship. The Creator of the Universe invites us to call him Father.....................................
Do we desire to know everything we can about Him and desire to please him?
A relationship with God is a wild ride. CS Lewis states it well, “Aslan is not a tame lion.”
There is a baptism. It is a spiritual baptism in which the soul is washed of the burden of sin by the living blood of the Lamb. This baptism comes freely from Christ when the penitent surrenders completely to the hand of God.
There is no other life than in Christ. This is no work. Surrender is the opposite of work. It is the recognition that nothing I can do can save me from the torment of my sin.
Nothing, not confession, not baptism by water, not the rite of communion, not priesthood, not becoming the bride of Christ, not great works, nothing I can do leads to salvation.
Unless we become helpless, as a baby in its mother’s arms, only then can we receive the blessing of God’s eternal love for us.
Life in Christ is release from the curse of sin into the glory of life in the Messiah. The living blood of the risen Christ purges and releases the spirit from its enslavement in sin and we are born, a second birth, in the spirit.
The answer to all: Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Deliverer
BTTT
Bingo! You allowed Him to lead you to the truth, which was available all along.
100% Amen!
Like everyone else who has been born of man on this earth from the time of Adam to now with the exception of Jesus Christ alone I am a sinner. There is a divinely appointed punishment ascribed to sin, in the Garden of Eden Adam was told what the punishment is, it is death and separation from God. There is a debt for sin and Adam paid like the rest of us will pay that price. Christ being God however has power over death. He could be punished for my sin by torture and death yet live again by His resurrection. Unlike you and me He did not need Grace of anyone to live again, He being God had the power and still does. He demonstrated that power even before His crucifixion by raising Lasiurus and the daughter of Darius.
Jesus Christ by grace offers us to allow his undeserved punishment to be a payment for our debt. It took someone wholly without sin to be able to pay the price for someone else. We will stand before Him one day and He will decide whether or not our actions qualify us for His Grace. Whether or not our debt will have been paid by Him. No matter what you do in life, no matter how good you or the world think you have been. No matter what good works you think you have they are meaningless if you haven’t given your heart to Jesus Christ and tried to the best of your ability to follow Him.
Yes, those who follow Jesus Christ will have good works, no doubt but they are only evidence of who they love and follow. Grace is not a get out of jail free card as so many believe. Grace is Jesus Christ accepting our love of Him and applying his suffering to our debt so that we can stand before Him clean and sin free. I will always be in debt to The Savior as will any and all that follow Him. I like the way the Apostle James said it best, “faith without works is dead”. No one will get to Heaven with dead faith.
Good questions.
I learned recently that rightly dividing the Bible is crucial. I think it’s important to know who did the talking, when they delivered their message and the intended audience.
Example: To me it’s not clear that gentiles are included in the Gospel message until after the resurrection of Jesus. The books credited to Paul are very important.
Good questions.
Rightly dividing the Bible is important. Knowing who delivered the message, when delivered and the intended audience is huge.
The Gospel message to gentiles becomes clear to me not until the important writings of Paul.
Great post!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.