YOU’RE NOT DOING IT; IT’S DONE TO YOU.
Key scriptures from Heaven: Not my words.
Matthew 28:19
Mark 16:15-16
Acts 2:38
Acts 8:36-39
Acts 22:16
Romans 6:3-5
1 Peter 3:21
Galatians 3:27
Colossians 2:11-12 ***
Revelation 22:14
Being baptized in water for the forgiveness of sins is not an attempt to be saved by a system of works; water baptism does not require any physical effort on the part of the one being baptized. One who is being baptized is physically passive, allowing himself to be lowered into the water and brought up out of the water by the physical effort of another. The baptizer is doing all the physical work. However, while one who is scripturally baptized is physically passive, he or she is actively trusting in “the powerful working of God” at this moment. Notice what apostle Paul wrote to the church at Colossae on this matter.
"In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:11-14)
God Operates In Baptism:
Thus, what Paul by the Holy Spirit is saying, what spiritually occurs in water baptism in the name of Jesus is not the weak working of a man seeking to save himself by his own effort but “the powerful working of God”, who in that moment in time is saving the individual forgiving his or her sins by grace through one’s faith.
We all agree that God must operate, act, or work for a sinner in order to be saved. If God acts or works for our salvation, we must recognize this as his grace; we contend salvation is the result of his unmerited favor. The question is: Is this salvation wholly his work without our submission to his name in baptism? Paul here says that God operates or works! But he tells us that God operates on the sinner “in baptism.” If God’s operation on sinners is necessary for salvation, so is baptism! The passage says this work of God, not man takes place in water baptism by faith!
One cannot eliminate baptism and still have the operation of God. And if baptism is necessary for God to operate in the salvation of sinners, so is baptism essential for the sinner to become a receiver of God’s grace. Salvation is offered by grace; but initial salvation offered by grace is given in the working of God in baptism to cleanse sins; therefore, the grace of God is not invalidated by baptism but accomplishes its design from heaven. One is “made alive together with Christ” when he or she is scripturally baptized into Christ by “faith” in the working of God.
Have you been properly baptized into Christ? Have a blessed day, Eric Johnson.
