Lessons from Matthew - Repent and Be Baptized

This morning finds me on my latest journey into the New Testament and obviously that begins in the Gospel of Matthew. Several things stand out this morning, as I begin to study the narrative of the life of Jesus and His ministry.

First of all, we find that John the Baptist has come forward to prepare the way for the public arrival of Jesus. The message that John preached was a simple one; Repent. Why? Because the Kingdom of God is at hand. John was preparing the way by telling the people that if they want to know the Messiah, they will be required to change. The message of the Gospel is no different today. When Jesus calls us to new life, our hearts will be forever changed. We must turn away from how we view our behaviors and confess our sins. We must repent.

It is popular to tell people today that you don’t have to clean yourself up before coming to Christ, and while that is true, that does not mean you won’t be getting cleaned up. True salvation experiences always involve immediate change. While certainly sanctification, the process of becoming like Christ, is a life-long process, there will be evidence of conversion when one becomes Born Again. Simply saying you believe in Jesus and yet, demonstrating no change at all, ought to raise an alarm in the lives of those who claim Christ. John calls us to repent. The first words of Jesus as He began His public ministry were the same.

Matthew 4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Not only did John prepare the way by preaching repentance and baptizing people as they confessed their sins, Jesus also came on the public scene by getting baptized. Why would Jesus need to be baptized? He was without sin. There are several things to understand about why Jesus had John baptize Him.

First, the baptism of Jesus was not a baptism of repentance as John was doing with the people. It was a baptism of identification. Having came from Heaven as a man, Jesus was identifying Himself with us in the sense that would find Himself tempted in all ways, just as we are, (See Hebrews 4:15). By allowing John to baptize Him, Jesus was also identifying Himself as one who is fully obedient to the will of the Father as expressed in John 6:38 saying, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” The root of repentance is that we have changed our minds, we have turned from our desire to please our self and are seeking to please God.

The second reason I believe Jesus was baptized is found in the tension of Him being both God and man. There are those who argue the theology behind the incarnation of Jesus as to how His Deity was dealt with while on this earth, but I find no evidence that at any time He wanted to, Jesus could not choose to exercise the full powers of being God. But in His baptism, He had the full power of the Holy Spirit come upon Him. This was to be an example for us.

Matthew 3:16
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

By being baptized Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit. This was to show us that we can live for Him through the power of God as we move by the work of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus did. We are not to serve God by our own efforts, our own strength, or anything of our flesh; we are to serve God and walk this life in His power as the scriptures have declared.

Ezekiel 36:27
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Acts 1:8
 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Romans 8:11
 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Though many Christians may differ on how the Holy Spirit comes upon us, all must agree with God’s Word which tells us that all true believers have the Holy Spirit indwelling them.

Romans 8:9
 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

I don’t know what you’ve been taught, but the scriptures are clear.

1 Corinthians 3:16
 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

All Christians have the Holy Spirit indwelling their hearts and He is the power that changes us and the power that drives us when we serve God. If you gain nothing else from this writing, see the truth of the indwelling of the Spirit in your life. And what does that mean to you today? Again, we turn to God’s Word.

Galatians 5:16
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

I close for now with this truth; We must repent, and we must live in and by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we have no desire for that, then we are not His. But if we are hearing the voice of God calling us to come to him, then we must simply follow the words of Peter as recorded in the Book of Acts.

Acts 2:38
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter also said this in 2 Peter 1:10
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

Today is the day of salvation. Repent and be baptized.

Freed From the Slavery of Sin - Romans 6

As we move through the Book of Romans we find out quickly that we are all sinners in need of a savior. Paul doesn’t mince words as he tells us the bad news of our personal sinfulness. The bad news of our sin, revealed through God’s law, threatens to send us straight to hell but Paul also gives us good news in the midst of the bad. Through faith in Jesus who paid the penalty for our sins we are justified in the eyes of God. As our exterior decorator God has made us holy in His eyes having cloaked us with the blood of Christ. Thus we can enter into His presence through Jesus. But the work doesn’t stop with an exterior decoration of our outside; there is still work to be done. By the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in all believers, we are being sanctified, made holy and separate, through the process of sanctification. In Romans 6 Paul begins to talk about our interior decoration.

Paul anticipates a question we might be tempted to ask after we learn we are saved from the fires of hell.

Romans 6:1
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Paul’s answer is clear.

Romans 6:2
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul goes on to explain why we cannot just live out our lives doing whatever we want comfortable in the knowledge that we are already saved. The answer Paul gives is rooted in understanding what baptism really means. Few Christians understand a very important concept about baptism that isn’t often taught. Take a look at Paul’s next question to us. After the question he explains.

Romans 6:3-11
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

As I alluded to before let us take a quick look at what baptism really means. To do so we must read another scripture that speaks about a baptism.

1 Corinthians 10:1-2
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

Certainly the word baptism, from the Greek baptizo, means to immerse and suggests water is involved. This is why baptism by immersion in water is the preferred method as we see it was performed in scripture. But in 1 Corinthians there is something different occurring to all those baptized into Moses in the OT. The most accurate understanding of baptizo is that it means to be identified with something. This lines up with the figurative use of immersion as we often say someone is immersed in their work. Obviously their work isn’t water. Dr. J. Vernon McGee explains in his Thru The Bible Commentary on 1 Corinthians 10.

“Now baptizo means to "identify." In fact, water baptism has that meaning, as it speaks of our identification with Christ. We are buried with Him by baptism -- by the baptism of the Holy Spirit -- that is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. He identifies us with the body of Christ -- He puts us into the body as a member. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1Cor. 12:13). Paul will deal with this in chapter 12.”

“But here we have the statement that they were "baptized unto Moses." How were they baptized unto Moses? Don't try to tell me that Moses had a baptismal service at the Red Sea and baptized them because, actually, they did not get wet at all! The record in Exodus tells us that they went through the sea on dry ground. When God dried up the Red Sea for them, He dried it up -- they didn't get wet at all. They went over on dry land. The folk who really got wet were the Egyptians. They were soaked through and through. So obviously when it says they were baptized unto Moses, he is not talking about water. Neither is it the baptism of the Holy Spirit because it says they were baptized unto Moses. Well, it simply means that they were identified with Moses. Hebrews 11:29 says, "By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." The children of Israel were identified with Moses. By faith they passed through the Red Sea. Whose faith was it? It wasn't their faith. They had none. Read the story in Exodus -- they wanted to go back to Egypt, and they were blaming Moses for bringing them out into that awful wilderness. It was Moses who had the faith.”

So the best description of what baptism is would be to say that we have been identified with Christ and it symbolizes death, burial, and resurrection. We are raised up out of baptism to new life, which is a new life in Christ. This new life is what Paul is talking about in the rest of Romans 6.

Romans 6:4
 

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Paul carries this idea on in the rest of Romans 6. He tells us we are now dead to sin and alive to Christ. He tells us to not let sin reign in our bodies any longer. He tells us sin no longer has dominion over us. He talks about us being slaves to sin previously and that we are now to become slaves to righteousness. He says we have been set free from sin and now are slaves to God.

Chapter six ends with a well-known verse.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So where does this leave us? Most of us have not attained this act of being a slave to God and we still tend to look as if sin is our master. But the point to get here is this; we are free not to sin. The chains are broken; we just haven’t walked away from it yet. Remember, sanctification is a process that continues on through the rest of our lives. What Paul is trying to get through to us is that we are free and we do have the power to not sin. We have to yield ourselves to God. Back up to Romans 6:19 where Paul says, “I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” We have no part in our justification, that was all God, but we are called to participate in our sanctification.

So today if you are struggling with sin, maybe an addiction or a certain attitude, have hope. Through the Holy Spirit we can overcome our old self. But we must start with faith. We are free not to sin. We are empowered not to sin. I leave you now with this scripture in which all of us can find a sure hope.

Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.