Among the Old Covenant ceremonies that foreshadow the Christian’s covenant with Christ is the water of purification. Consider how this ritual pre-figures Christian baptism.
Category: Salvation
Baptism by immersion was practiced by first century Christians. Their burial in water connected with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
John records a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee, Nicodemus. Jesus reveals to this esteemed teacher how one must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.
John the Baptizer introduced the concept of baptism prior to the arrival of Jesus. What made John’s baptism different from the baptism later taught and practiced by the disciples of Jesus?
Ceremonial washings were found in both pagan and Jewish rites. What makes Christian baptism different?
When Paul met the disciples in Ephesus for the first time, he asked, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit?” Amazingly, these disciples of Jesus had never heard of the Holy Spirit. Paul then asked, “Into what were you baptized?” What does baptism have to do with having the Holy Spirit?
I’m a Kansas City Royals baseball fan which means I have watched a lot of bad baseball for the past 25 years. Like many of my fellow KC seam-heads, I thoroughly enjoyed their return to relevance in 2014-17. What made the Royals’ championship in 2015 especially satisfying was their emphasis on tried and true baseball principles — speed and defense — combined with exploiting a facet of the game undervalued by the market: an outstanding bullpen. The Royals reminded an industry dominated by saber-metrics that there are multiple ways to reach the same goal.
In the previous two posts we established that everyone has sinned. We also determined that our sin has significant consequences. It leads to spiritual death, and it causes us to be separated from God. The key is that by sinning we have entered into an inescapable situation. We cannot save ourselves! Some claim that a righteous deed will erase a bad deed. But that simply is not true. Isaiah 64:6-7 reads; “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
What are the consequences of Sin?
In the previous post we determined that Sin is a transgression of the Law and that everyone has committed sin. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Except Jesus I Peter 2:21-25) In this post I would like to consider the consequences of Sin.