Beloved, it's been a while. Happy New year to you. Hope you celebrated well? I want to apologize for choosing to discuss this topic before the one I was supposed to treat titled "shal we continue to live in sin that grace may abound" I decided to put today's topic first because some are still asking the question on what, how, and when can it be said that one believes in Jesus. As a result, I decided to address the issue once again. Thanks for your understanding.
For you to believe in Jesus correctly, you must believe in all the procedures he went through to achieve your forgiveness of sins. That is to say you must not believe one or two living out the other, rather you must believe in the three processes, of baptism, his death and resurrection. These things are what you need to believe about him and how to believe in him. Most Christians believe in his death and resurrection but have not known about his baptism to also believe in it. So when you believe the other two living out his baptism your faith in him is incomplete and at such, you can never fully taste what it means to be born again. Infact, the first thing to know about him and believe about him is his baptism.
John 3:3-5 says "Jesus answered him(Nicodemus), verily I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again . How can a grown man be born again? Nicodemus asked. Certainly,he cannot enter his mother's womb and be born a second time. I am telling you the truth replied Jesus, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit"
1 John 5:7 says "Jesus Christ is the one who came by the water of his baptism and the blood of his death. He came not only with the water but both the water and the blood and the spirit himself testifies that this is truth. There are three witnesses, the spirit, water and the blood and all three give the same testimony"
Now, the water here is simply pointing to the baptism of Jesus. He was simply trying to communicate to Nicodemus that unless he believes the testimony of John the Baptist about him( Jesus) he cannot see his kingdom. You know you have been thought that Jesus accepting to be baptized was a sign of humility but far from that was what Jesus did with his baptism. The baptism of John was the baptism of repentance. Jesus had no sin in himself as a result had nothing to repent of. So why accepting to be baptized?
He came to be baptized by John that you and I may know that he is the son of God, the lamb (as in the old testament) chosen and sent by God that took your sins away and not only your sins but the sins of the whole world. This was exactly the testimony of John after baptizing Jesus.
John 1:29-34 says " the next day , he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared , here is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is the one of whom I said after me comes a man who ranks before me. I myself did not know him but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel. And John testified, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain is the one who baptized with the holy spirit. And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the son of God"
With his baptism Jesus became the carrier of the sins of every one born in this world. That is to say that he accepted to carry your sins on himself. He beared all your iniquities. As a witness to this, John declared after baptizing Jesus the next day saying " behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" without this testimony by John you and I would not have known that he was the lamb chosen by God to bear our sins, receive judgment over those sins that we may obtain eternal life. So the work of John the Baptist was to lead us to believe in Jesus.
John 1: 6 says "there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to the light( Jesus) that all might believe through him"
What is that we ought to believe about Jesus through John? that he is the lamb provided by God to carry our sins instead of us. This is the first thing you must believe about Jesus to receive the remission of your entire life sins. You must believe that Jesus bore your iniquities upon himself. This is what the water is all about. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that for him to enter the kingdom of God, he must believe that he has taken away his sins through his baptism. But Nicodemus couldn't understand him because Jesus was communicating spiritual truth to him.
I Peter 3: 18- 21 says" for Christ died for sins once and for all, a good man on behalf of sinners, in order to lead you to God. He was put to death physically but made alive spiritually and in his spiritual existence he went and preached to the imprisoned spirits. Those were the spirits of those who had not obeyed God when he waited patiently during the days that Noah was building his boat, eight in all were saved by water, which was a symbol pointing to baptism which now saves you. it is not the washing away of bodily dirt but promise made to God from a good conscience. it saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ"
Peter was saying here that the baptism of Jesus is like the water during the time of Noah and it was only 8 persons that believed and were saved. He says, this water is similar to baptism that now saves us not the washing of bodily dirt but a promise to God for a good conscience. People today have refused to believe the testimony of John regarding the baptism of Jesus that he is the lamb that has taken away their sins. They doubt and say how possible is it that Jesus carried all my sins away yet am sinning and the world is full of sin and refuse to believe this truth. Just like it was only 8 people that was saved by the water during Noah's time, only few people believe today that their sins have been taken away by Jesus. These are people who know they can't help themselves from sinning and therefore depends entirely on Jesus who came for that purpose and has taken their sins away. Peter went further to say that this water pointing to baptism gives us a good conscience before God. How is this thing true? It is true in that what defiles a man is not things on his outside but on his inside and sin comes out from inside of a man. We therefore have guilty Conscience as a result of the sins in our hearts and we commit every day. So this water purifies our hearts of sin and gives us a good conscience in that believing that Jesus has taken away those sins, makes you rejoice and your heart becomes free from such burden of being a sinner since Jesus has claimed ownership of those sins you committed. This knowledge makes you approach God with boldness and not fear. Peter also said, it saves us through resurrection of Jesus Christ. This means that his baptism has saved us all the way through his death to his resurrection.
It is only when you believe this, that his death on the cross starts making meaning to you. How could Jesus die when he did not commit any sin? Yes! he committed no sin but on your account he took all your sins upon himself. It was this sins of the world he was carrying that brought about his death . This is the first thing to believe before considering his death.
Now he had to go to the cross to pay for our sins he was carrying. With his death and blood he atoned and received forgiveness over the sins of everyone including yours. you must have to believe also that with his death, he paid the price for your sins and have received forgiveness over them all.
You also have to believe in his resurrection. If he did not resurrect, all his efforts in his baptism, and death on the cross would have come to naught. They would have ended in the grave and that would have meant no new life for us. But because he resurrected, you have a new life in him as a result of his bearing your sins and paying for them which ended up in bringing forgiveness over your sinful life thereby bringing back the good relationship between you and God which was lost by Adam. Jesus is our perfect saviour. He has already saved us. You have to believe in the resurrection too because that is now life for all those that believe.
You see, these three things pointed out here are the things you must believe in your heart regarding what Jesus did for you before you become born again. If Jesus did not receive baptism by John he would not have shouldered all our sins. If he had not carried our sins, his death on the cross would have been meaningless, and if he died without resurrecting, there would have been no forgiveness of sins and a new life for us. You can't believe in one leaving out the rest rather you must believe in the three. For you to have said you believe or have faith in Jesus is to say that you believe he has taken all your sins away, paid the price with his blood achieving forgiveness for you and has given you a new life through his resurrection. When you believe this way, he himself sends his spirit into your heart by which you cry Abaa Father. A sign that God has adopted you as a son having amended the broken relationship between you and God. We have such a Gracious God who loves us much that he now call us that believe his children. All I can say is thank you Lord for such a great salvation I did not work to achieve. What about you? See you soon!
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