Experience The Power Of The Gospel! Should Baptism Only Be A One-time Event?

Experience The Power Of The Gospel! Should Baptism Only Be A One-time Event?

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You know I'm not religious, ritualistic, or legalistic. In fact, my whole ministry is against such things. I've said it repeatedly: living by PRECEPTS keeps us from knowing the PERSON of God. Living by LAW keeps us blind to his LOVE. Living in the GOOD deeds of self keeps us from experiencing God's GRACE.

Having said this, there are two things I've done almost ritualistically for 20 years. This involves the two Protestant 'sacraments': (1) baptism, and (2) communion.

I've been in the process of writing a small book on this now for about 6 months. I thought I'd share the general idea of the book now. It is a sequel to The Power of God for Physical Healing book that I finished in February, 2010, and that I wrote about two weeks ago. This new book is The Power of God in the Two Sacraments (Baptism and Communion).

We most often think of baptism especially as a one-time event.

I thought of it this way too until 1986. We were living in Evergreen, before we took on being pastors of The Evergreen Vineyard Christian Fellowship. We started attending a Baptist church. They wanted us to be baptized again, although we'd been baptized before. We interpreted this as saying that 'only Baptist water is good enough.'

It seemed rather legalistic to us. I mean, WHY do we need to be baptized again? - in Baptist water? I guess they viewed Charismatic water as being of the devil.

MARIAN ASKED US A SIMPLE QUESTION

Our friend Marian asked, "How can it HURT you?" It was one of those 'DAH' questions I sometimes ask just to drive a point home. Maybe I learned it from her, who knows? But it got our attention, and we were baptized again. Plus, it led our young children to want to be baptized with us, which was a blessing - it became 'a family affair.'

The Lord used this in a much bigger way with me!

It started a 'RITUAL' in my life, a few years later, about 1990. As close as I can estimate, I have been 'baptized' a minimum of 2,000 times in my morning shower. If I only did it twice a week for 20 years, that is 2,080 times. I did it a lot more than this for a long time. I still do it. Most would think this is very 'RITUALISTIC.'

You see, it really got hold of me about 1990, when I began coming into revelation knowledge of the gospel of the finished work of Christ. Many things changed in my life at this time, and for the next few years. Today I'm celebrating a 20-year anniversary for many changes in my life. And, being 'baptized' was just part of this (the next tip is about Communion).

WHAT IS BAPTISM?

As I document in the book, baptism is becoming experientially aware of our forgiveness of sin. I don't mean 2,000 years ago. I don't mean when we were born again. I don't mean last month. I don't mean last week. I don't mean yesterday. These are all important, but what is even more important is what it means to us TODAY.

This is what baptism is! It is washing off SIN by submersion, and being raised up in RIGHTEOUSNESS! It is a gospel reality that I experience regularly in my morning shower.

Do we just need this ONCE, or as an everyday experience? (DAH). Paul says it is the means by which we 'put on Jesus.' We DIE: we are drowned in the imperfections of the flesh, and we are raised to transmit the glory of God. This is not something any of us can do. It is outside human ability. We can't even BELIEVE it, most of the time, let alone DO it.

But God does it in us. Many, many mornings when I get in the shower, I thank Abba Father that the water is washing my sin, failure, fear, guilt, and everything else negative from me. Didn't Jesus wash the disciples' feet? He said that's all they needed.

He then told them to continue to wash each others' feet, and that he had given them an example of what to CONTINUE to do. Foot washing isn't magical. It's symbolic. But spiritually at least, it wasn't to be a ONE time event. The belief and divine relationship behind the act is what is most important. Peter said to wash ALL of him. My shower washes ALL of me.

WHAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT HERE?

Is it the baptism water that is important . . . or the foot washing? We know the water also is only symbolic. We know God looks at our heart - he looks at our BELIEF (I Sam 15:7). Later, we'll see this is HEALING to us, which we talked about two weeks ago!

Every morning in the shower, all my SIN is washed away. That's the meaning of baptism. We are told in twice in Hebrews that God doesn't REMEMBER our sin anymore (Heb 8:12, 10:17). He washes it down the drain. Baptism is the reality of this in our life today: submersion, death and resurrection. I need this every single day, even though I don't always do it 'ritualistically.'

GOD'S MERCIES ARE NEW EVERY MORNING

God's mercies are new every morning, as David says. Picture it in a modern way. Every morning God hits the DELETE key on his computer with regard to our lives. Everything that is repugnant to him is 'deleted,' including all of our sin. Then next he hits the 'REFRESH' key.

He creates us as a NCIC (I pronounce it 'Nick') - a brand new creation in Christ. OLD things have passed away, behold, ALL things become new. I get out of the shower 'BAPTIZED' in HIS love, grace, peace, joy, etc. And his glory stays with me (at least much of the time) throughout the day.

Until next time, think of how life would be if you had no more consciousness of sin, as Hebrews 10:2 says - no guilt, condemnation, spiritual failure, or a sense of being less than you should be. Recall that in the New Covenant, we live in the ministry of righteousness, not the Old Covenant ministry of condemnation (II Cor 3:6, 9).

How would it be to be refreshed DAILY - baptized with ALL of God's glory: his love, righteousness, grace, mercy, peace, joy, etc. etc.? Meditate on the fact that Jesus became sin FOR us. This is what baptism, and even foot washing is about.

For me, it's my shower. It's a matter of the focus of my heart early in the morning before I experience the impact of the day. As Jesus says, today is sufficient in itself.

About the Author:
ROGER HIMES, THE GOSPEL COACH Minister, Counselor, Lawyer, Life Coach. http://www.TheGospelCoach.com By gospel coaching, you can live life at least 50% in less than a year -- because of God's enabling power in the finished work of the cross! Email: RogerHimes@TheGospelCoach.com Subscribe to GOSPEL TIPS BY THE GOSPEL COACH. Send email to: SubscribeGospelTips@TheGospelCoach.com. Recent GOSPEL TIPS are available on the website.



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