Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #31 |
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JESUS calls US to be |
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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
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After reading Viewpoint Study #2, a brother wrote,On July 13, a brother wrote,
Ray, I used to think of steps of salvation: faith, repentance, confession, baptism, and POP, you're now a Christian. But more recently, from much study, I have come to the conclusion that it's simply faith in Christ and what He has done, and is doing that makes us a part of God's family.
Now, that being said, our faith in Christ is the root of all we do in following Him. Everything else is what grows out of faith. My repentance is God working in me. My confession is God working in me. In my baptism, it is God's working that raises me to a new being in Christ, because of my faith.
And because of my faith in Christ I continue to walk after Him, while giving every effort to be like Him in all that I see from what I learn of Him. So in this sense, I would have to agree with ATP.
Serving Christ by Serving You...
[These comments by Ray Downen are in reply to
the note above which is a response to a reading of Viewpoint #2 sent out as an e-mail note ...]You realize as we all should that what saves any sinner is faith in Jesus as the unique Son of God. Jesus saves. The question is, from our standpoint, HOW does Jesus save me individually? What do I DO to BECOME saved? Am I brought into salvation by faith ALONE?
That's the question Peter answered on Pentecost in Acts 2. We dare not assume that he gave BAD advice, as some do who would rather answer be saying that there's nothing we CAN do to receive salvation by Jesus. By omission, they amend God's answer. Peter spoke of repentance and baptism. They omit both, then instruct ones they say are already saved that they should THEN repent and be baptized in order to join the church "of their choice."
The answer given by my friend from Texas (ATP), is that we're saved entirely by our faith. Peter knew as well as we do that salvation starts with faith in Jesus as Lord. It mustn't end there. Faith is not repentance. Faith is not baptism. Faith is believing, not acting on that belief.
Peter, without doubt, with no chance of contradiction, points us correctly to repentance and baptism as leading to (that's LEADING TO) remission of sins and receipt of the Holy Spirit. Why then would anyone who knows what Peter was inspired to say in Acts 2 insist that any sinner is saved PRIOR TO repentance and baptism? Only if we question Peter's inspiration, and Luke's accuracy in reporting what Peter said, would we want to give any inquiring sinner some different answer than Peter gave those who first asked, "What must we DO?"!
It may well be that God takes note of the change of mind which occurs, (He knows the exact instant when it does occur), that changes a non-believer to a believer in Jesus. But others can't know of the change until words and actions inform us.
God makes abundantly clear to anyone who searches the Word for light on the Way to salvation what those who want to be saved CAN and MUST do in order to walk in new life. And that's not to ONLY believe. It's to trust AND OBEY. And the primary obedience is easily seen by anyone who wants to see it -- it's in Acts 2:38 et al. It's spelled out in Galatians and in Romans 6.
The moment of salvation is not when the mind is changed, but when the STATE is changed, when the sinner is buried and the saint is raised up to walk in new life with Christ.
I'm sorry if your "much study" has led you to incorrect conclusions so that you now imagine that every normal "new birth" INTO CHRIST is concluded prior to repentance and immersion. That conclusion is dead wrong. James spells it out plainly -- faith ALONE is dead.
Faith which leads to OBEDIENCE brings us to life with Christ in God. One brother asks me to realize that James was speaking TO ones already in Christ. I do realize that. Who will affirm that faith alone brings us INTO Christ when faith alone can't KEEP us in Christ?
One Bible teacher is willing to ignore or contradict Acts 2:38 and set aside what is taught there and in many other clear teachings of the Lord. That teacher writes, "One could ... argue that we come in contact with the blood when we believe [faith only], since God cleanses us by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7) and we read of people whose hearts were cleansed by faith before baptism (Acts 15:8,9; 10:43-48)."
That is exactly what the teacher said. And it's exactly wrong!
We should be slow to take any man's word for it that these two passages in Acts contradict Acts 2:38 et al. In fact NEITHER passage teaches what this teacher asserts is there found.
In Acts 15, at the Jerusalem conference considering whether Christians needed to be circumcised before becoming a Christian, in the passage cited, Peter is pointing out exactly what Paul states as true in Ephesians 2:8 -10 -- that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus rather than by works. Neither Paul nor Peter claims (in opposition to Acts 2:38 et al) that salvation in Christ PRECEDES baptism into Christ. The point in each case is that it's based on FAITH rather than any kind of WORKS.
In the 10th chapter, Luke is reporting how the first Gentiles were saved. Luke in this passage gives no comfort to the theory that salvation precedes baptism into Christ. Citing the passages does not make them teach what the writer claims that they do teach. We who have read Acts 2 should know that Peter taught the NEED of repenting and being baptized in order to be saved. We also see that PRECEDING repentance and baptism is the requirement that the person must "hear" and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the unique Son of God who alone can save.
Those who DO believe are immediately told of the next steps to take toward salvation. In the Bible, we never read that they are told they ARE saved because they believed or because they prayed. The "steps" following faith are repentance and baptism INTO Christ. Peter did not say that those who ONLY believed were saved. Neither should WE say so!
Who has never read Paul's words in Galatians 5:26,27? He clearly spells it out -- " ... For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." He says that it's AT baptism that we enter into a saving relationship with Christ so that our sins are covered by His righteousness.
Those who believe in salvation by faith ONLY have no choice but to deny what inspired men clearly teach in many passages. They feel obliged to do so, even when they admit that those passages DO exist and do clearly teach that baptism is INTO Christ and that baptism DOES wash away sin. They both admit and deny these truths, for their theory of salvation by faith alone contradicts them.
They'll have no defense for their false teaching when called before God's judgment seat. They will no doubt plead that they vigorously taught that part of the Word which speaks of salvation through faith. They surely do this. Then they contradict it by demanding that ones who want to be saved must repent (which is not believing facts, but acting upon facts). Their clear teaching of salvation through faith ALONE is in obvious contradiction to Bible passages which they choose to either never mention or which they explain away as if they did not say what they DO say.
True doctrine is that being cleansed by the blood of Jesus is a result of a NEW BIRTH of water and spirit. That new birth, as is evidenced by Paul's free use of the expression of "putting on Christ" by having been BAPTIZED INTO HIM, includes faith in Jesus which leads the person to DO what Jesus calls for sinners TO do.
It's clear to all who will read and believe ALL the Bible teaching on the subject that Acts 2:38 is a simple expression of the sequence of events. Baptism is the point at which the blood is applied. Sin is washed away, but NOT at the instant a person gives mental assent to the fact that Jesus is Lord.
That's WHY in early days, every convert was baptized right away. And the only time any voting intervened between faith and baptism was when the very first Gentile converts were miraculously shown to be worthy of entering the body of Christ. And all that was voted on was whether or not GOD had approved their being baptized into Christ. He had. Those present saw He had. They said so by agreeing that indeed Gentiles also could be baptized (in water) into Christ.
The first Gentile converts were not saved by God's sign which repeated the external appearance of what the apostles had received on Pentecost.
Back at that first Pentecost after the resurrection, Peter had made it clear that baptism IN WATER of a penitent believer was required in order for any sinner to be saved. Which is why the immediate action of baptism into Christ was taken as recorded by Luke in Acts 10.
It's a shame that any Bible teacher would cite these two passages to prove what they do NOT prove!
You do well to have realized that steps (any steps) not based on FAITH in Jesus are not steps toward life. One who has not repented of sin, who still loves sin and wants to walk in sin, could be baptized daily and never be in tune with God. One who accepts immersion in Jesus' name but who does not believe that Jesus is God's unique Son, will gain no merit from the act of baptism. As the word "sacrament" is used, baptism is not a sacrament which confers grace upon any unbelieving receiver.
It's stated well in Ephesians 2 that we are saved by (God's) grace through (our) faith... But saving faith is sure to lead the one who now believes to inquire, "What must I DO...?"
And God's answer is that the birth process includes repentance and baptism. God's answer will lead to renunciation of self in favor of making Jesus LORD in the life of the believer, so that daily acts always are done with intention of acting as Jesus acted and with desire to please Him by the actions.
Faith in Jesus leads to a life dedicated to Him as Lord. If our repentance and baptism are based upon genuine faith in Jesus, then we have been born again and have in baptism received the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
God may choose to save someone in some other way at any time. He surely can do so if He chooses. But that's the way HE said we are to go. I'm on my way as directed. I wish every Christian also knew and chose to follow the truth!
You have read Romans 6. How can you possibly believe that the new birth of John 3 is completed prior to our being raised into new life?
8/16/97 -- Some seem determined to believe that our response to the gospel starts and ends with faith.It's as if the devil blinds such persons to anything which points out that faith MUST lead to faithful actions in order to become faith which brings the believer into life. The brother whose note we have read above remains convinced that everything the believer does is itself faith, so therefore it's true that we are saved by faith alone.
I'm sure that faith CAUSES actions, but the action is not the faith itself. No person can be saved without faith. Yet faith ALONE saves no person. Proper deeds which are NOT done in faith will not save. But faith which is not demonstrated by proper deeds is not SAVING faith. It's GOD who sees the faith and the deeds and gives life -- our peers cannot see our faith except as our words and deeds demonstrate what we believe.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS --
1) Does not the Word teach that we are baptized INTO Christ? (Galatians 3:26,27). Note, please, as I do, that this verse immediately follows considerable teaching in which Paul makes clear that we are saved BY FAITH rather than by LAW-KEEPING. He was not opposing salvation by faith. He certainly was opposing salvation by faith ONLY when he pointed out that it was in baptism that our STATE was changed from sinner to saint.
2) Is it not taught that at baptism we PUT ON Christ? (Galatians 3:26,27). If when we first trust in Jesus we are saved (by faith alone), then how can it possibly be true that at baptism we PUT ON Christ? One or the other is true, but not both.
Since it's very clear that faith is to PRECEDE and CAUSE the baptism which brings us into Christ, we who rightly divide the word are not denying that we are saved by faith. Those who call on us to believe in faith-ONLY salvation are asking that we forget or ignore that at baptism we PUT ON Christ, that at baptism we are brought into His body (1 Corinthians 12:13).
3) Is it not AFTER we are raised from baptism's water that we walk in new life? (Romans 6, particularly verse 4, and Colossians 2, particularly verse 12). What do you think the circumcision by Christ is if not accompanying our baptism? Is it when we pray a prayer or sign a card?
By ignoring repentance, baptism and living for Christ, as being part of God's plan for man's salvation, an OVEREMPHASIS on faith implies that we are saved by faith ONLY. Salvation by faith ONLY is an unbalanced doctrine. Our choosing to ignore these passages cited above implies that we think them unimportant or incorrect. Yet they are part of the discussion.
Questions differ from statements. The questions above, which really are questions, are simple questions. If you know the correct answers, you pass this test. Others will teach salvation by faith-only when that is NOT what the truth of God is. Trusting (having faith) is not the same as obeying (putting faith into action). If we trust Jesus we WILL obey Him, but the trust is not the obedience.
And this response letter was received 10/18/98 -- >From: "Steve W. Taylor" <bible@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Viewpoint Study #31
Date sent: Sun, 18 Oct 98I commend your sound doctrine on how one becomes a Christian. If we will simply read the Bible, what you wrote on baptism and salvation will become so easily and readily apparent. Why is this so difficult, and why must we belabor the obvious, the simple, the foundation? The problem is in the heart. No humility, no fear of God before their eyes, and pride that goes before destruction.
It is truly sad that we must keep presenting the elementary teachings about repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of instruction about baptisms, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. Alas, the whole religious world is under the spell of neo-Gnosticism.
Brief Bible Study #31 from Ray Downen. To go back to Viewpoint's first page, click < here. Or here to go on to Viewpoint Study 32.
For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.
