SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/9/2024 9:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-6 “Obedience”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
28:19-20a
Message of the verses: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;”
In my last SD I looked at the “first requirement
that the church is not to wait for the world to come to its door, but that it
is to go to the world. Now in today’s SD
I want to look at “The second requirement for making disciples is that of baptizing
them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now I am going to use a quote from my Online
Bible dictionary for the word baptize that I find very interesting and hope
that all who read this will too.
907 βαπτίζω baptizo bap-tid’-zo
from a derivative of 911; verb; TDNT-1:529,92; {See
TDNT 123 }
AV-baptize (76), wash 2,
baptist 1, baptized + 2258
1; 80
1) to dip repeatedly, to
immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk)
2) to cleanse by dipping or
submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, bathe
3) to overwhelm
Not to be confused with 911, bapto. The clearest example
that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician
Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C. It is a recipe for making pickles and is
helpful because it uses both words.
Nicander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first
be ‘dipped’ (bapto) into boiling water and then ‘baptised’ (baptizo) in the
vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution.
But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable,
produces a permanent change.
When used in the New Testament, this word
more often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water
baptism. e.g. Mr 16:16. ‘He that
believes and is baptised shall be saved’. Christ is saying that mere
intellectual assent is not enough. There
must be a union with him, a real change, like the vegetable to the pickle!
(Bible Study Magazine, James Montgomery Boice, May 1989).
Now I am going to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary
as he writes about baptism. “To baptize
literally means to immerse in water, and certain forms of baptism had long been
practiced by various Jewish groups as a symbol of spiritual cleansing. The baptism of John the Baptist symbolized
repentance of sin and turning to God (Matt. 3:6). As instituted by Christ, however, baptism
became an outward act of identification with Him through faith, a visible,
public testimony that henceforth one belonged to Him.
“The initial act of obedience to Christ after salvation is to submit to baptism as a testimony to union with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection. ‘Do you not know,’[ Paul asked the Roman believers, ‘that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life’ (Rom. 6:3-4).”
Now please pay special attention to the following quote
as MacArthur continues: “Immersion is the only appropriate mode
of baptism, not only because the Greek word behind it connotes
immersion but even more important because that is the only mode that symbolizes
burial and resurrection.”
Now
there are some who believe that baptism has to do with salvation, that baptism
can save a person, and there is no truth in that. Baptism has absolutely no saving or sacrament
benefit or power, it is commanded by Christ of His followers. MacArthur writes “The only exception might be physical inability,
as the case of the repentant thief on the cross, a prisoner who is forbidden
that ordinance, or a similar circumstance beyond the believer’s control. The person who is unwilling to be baptized is
at best a disobedient believer, and if he persists in his unwillingness there
is reason to doubt the genuineness of his faith (see Matt. 10:32-33).” I will now look at these verses and then go
back to quoting from MacArthur’s commentary.
“"Therefore everyone who confesses Me before
men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 “But whoever
denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”
“If he is unwilling to comply with that
simple act of obedience in the presence of fellow believers, he will hardly be
willing to stand for Christ before the unbelieving world.”
Now
as mentioned earlier baptism has no part in the world of salvation, but it is a
God-ordained and God-commanded accompaniment of salvation. Let us now look at what Jesus said in Mark
16:16 “"He who has believed and has been
baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” Now I have written when I studied the gospel
of Matthew that certain parts at the end of it, which ends in chapter 16, as I
have learned were added, but I have also learned that these things that were
written are true, but probably were not written by Mark, so with that said I
have confidence that Mark 16:16 is truth.
Jesus has made it clear that it is disbelief, not failure to be
baptized, that precludes salvation; but He could not possibly have made the
divine association of salvation and baptism more obvious than He does in that statement
of Mark 16:16.
I
will end for today, but there is more to be written about baptism and Lord
willing in my next SD I will be beginning to write about what Peter has to say
about baptism.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Obedience is something that I desire to do as
I serve the Lord, and there are times when I am not always obedient to what He
has called me to do. In my earlier SD that
I posted this morning on my other blog there was a statement from the book of Nehemiah
that I want to use here, “because the good hand of my God was on me.” This statement
is used a number of times in both Ezra’s writings and Nehemiah’s writing to
show that they were obedient to the Lord in what He desired them to do. It is my belief that even in times of me
struggling to be obedient to the Lord that I still desire to do what I believe
that the Lord has called me to do for the cause of Christ and that is to write
my Spiritual Diaries and then post them onto my blogs. I have a passion to do this.
My Steps of
Faith for Today: I trust that the Holy Spirit will use the
Spiritual Diaries that I post onto my blots for the glory of Jesus Christ, who deserves
all glory.
11/9/2024 10:02 AM
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