Bulletin
Salvation
He was bent toward the idea that baptism is not essential to salvation in Christ. He knew that in this Saturday morning Bible study that most in the room disagreed with him. But he read, “… for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 9:9-10). But if I asked my friend, “does a person have to repent”? He would say “Yes”. So this passage doesn’t include all you have to do? “Yes”, he would agree reluctantly.
In fact, he would say, “if a person really believes, they will repent of their sins”. So he obviously has read Jesus enough that Jesus taught a person must repent of sins or they will perish. (Luke 13:3). Believe. Confess. Repent. He would agree. But has he considered that Paul had already talked about repentance and baptism in Romans? Believe and confession in Romans 10, but repentance and baptism in chapter 6. Why not take all of what Paul wrote and all of what the New Testament teaches? Why exclude chapter 6 from chapter 10 of the book of Romans? Notice three key ideas [repentance]… [baptism]… [if]… .
“Rom. 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? [repentance] 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? [baptism] 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 6:5 For if [if] we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,”. If you have been baptized correctly, it is dying to sin and raised up to walk “in newness of life”.
The apostle Paul assumes you have read through chapter 6 before you get to chapter 10. Then putting the key ideas together, Believe, Repent, Confess, and Baptism are all necessary for salvation. “Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5). The water is baptism, per Jesus (John 3:22-26, 4:1-3). Being born of the spirit is the newness of life as coming up out of water (Romans 6:2-5). The act of baptism is an act of faith, “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” (Col. 2:12). Let us put all the passages together. “The sum of Your word is truth, ” (Psa. 119:160). Add all the passages together, the “sum” is truth. Dan Peters
- Salvation_WORD.docx (9.15 kB)
