“Thank You, Lord Jesus, that the understanding of baptism leads to realising that this is the core gospel message. We must die with You, be buried with You and we must rise with You. We pray that we will constantly live out the Gospel. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 2:38-40 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (39) For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (40) And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”
We continue to dwell on the matter of baptism. We realise that baptism is the non-negotiable core Gospel message
I Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, (2) by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (3) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
We are saved by the Gospel. This infers that every person who comes to Jesus must die with Christ, must be buried with Christ, and must rise with Christ. This is what constitutes salvation.
Yes, when we came to Jesus, we crossed over from death to life. We judge that the Gospel is not just a once-in-a-lifetime encounter. We constantly and continuously live out the Gospel. The Gospel is a current reality. We are being saved.
Jesus spoke to Nicodemus that he must be born again.
John 3:5-7 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (7) Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
We are born again of water and of the Spirit of God. Baptism is about being born again of water and the Spirit of God.
The Gospel being outworked in our lives is by His grace and mercy. Titus 3:5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
The Lord longs for us to be washed and cleansed of our sins and be in an intimate relationship with Him. Jeremiah 4:14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, That you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
The Lord longs for us to be His own people and He longs to be our God.
Ezekiel 36:25-28 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. (26) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (28) Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
This washing, which is a continuous daily encounter is by God’s word. Ephesians 5:26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
The remission of our sins is what is addressed in baptism. It was sin that separated us from God.
Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
The writer to the Hebrews shows us how this remission of sins takes place in us.
Hebrews 9:13-15 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, (14) how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (15) And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant by means of His death. In baptism, we have died with Christ and in doing so, we have appropriated His blood on us, which is without spot and that is what cleanses us / gives us remission of our sins / is the washing of regeneration.
This ties up with the prophecy of Ezekiel. As Peter shared to his Jewish audience that it was Jesus who was the one who gives them remission of their sins, we can imagine the impact that his words would have had on them.
The Holy Spirit was mightily at work to bring God’s message to this audience and He works in us in the same way.