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Stage 1: Level 2 - Class 2
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Copyright © 1998 P.F.(Simon) Measures
So you've been born again. You are a new creation. You've experienced such joy in your salvation but now you're becoming aware you've still got problems to deal with. It wouldn't be so bad but you realise most of those problems are with your own self.
Don't be surprised at this. It was your spirit that was made a new creation when you accepted Jesus as your Saviour. Your rebirth hasn't altered your body - it's still the same old one you always had. Your rebirth hasn't brought change to your soul either. Your body has yet to be brought into subjection and your soul has yet to be renewed.
In the meantime God has a point of contact with His miraculous power that will carry you over your problems and forwards in Him. This point of contact is called water baptism and you're going to learn of its miracle in this chapter.
I came to Christ in the mid-Seventies. The young Christians who led me to the Lord and nurtured me in faith were radicals. They had to be. Many of the youths they were dealing with required total deliverance into completely new lives right there and then. Failing this they'd have been dragged back into the darkness by the torrent of sin they'd fallen into.
Jesus Christ was the answer - and He still is today! Not Christ confined to church buildings but Christ received into hearts making men, women and children new creations. New creations; this is what the Bible calls us when we are in Christ.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - NKJV.
I was urged, soon after receiving Christ, to take a new name. (Back then there were radical ideas around!) Why? Because, like Paul in his conversion, I was a new creation.
It is my new creation name that I still use today. It's a name God gave me; a name I received by prophecy. Each time I hear it - think how often I hear my name each day - it reminds me of my calling in Christ, "Simon, Simon...strengthen your brethren!" It also reminds me that I died and was resurrected a new creation.
It's like the time when Jesse Duplantis met up with his old friends immediately after he'd become a new creation in Christ. They were wide eyed and asked, "What happened? You look real different." He was very direct and his answer was immediate, "I died!" How could he say that? Because that's what the Bible says happened.
The Bible declares,
For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:3 - Wuest's Expanded translation.
He died; we likewise died! This is why we can confidently affirm old things are passed away. We also rose again! This is why we can also say all things have become new!
Doesn't that thrill you? It does me! Think of it - "old things are passed away". It doesn't matter what I was - that has all died. All that matters is what I am now. I am now a new creation in Christ! I am risen with Christ.
How many believers today are conscious that they died and old things are passed away? It doesn't look like many to me. It's hard to handle problems of the flesh and of the soul when you don't realise you died with Christ and were raised again with Him to eternal life. Give yourself a break and get permanently conscious of your death and resurrection with Christ by the miracle of water baptism.
In water baptism there is a miracle! It is a miracle of salvation and provision - salvation from inward questionings and fears; provision of the answer of a good and clear conscience before God!
In the Apostle Peter's first epistle we read,
Baptism, which is a figure (of Noah and his family's deliverance), does now also save you (from inward questionings and fears), not by the removing of outward body filth (bathing), but by (providing you with) the answer of a good and clear conscience (inward cleansing and peace) before God (because you are demonstrating what you believe to be yours) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 3:21 - Amplified translation.
Water baptism saves you - not, this time, salvation of spirit but a salvation of soul saving you from inward questionings and fears. Then, when the inward questionings and fears stop, your good and clear conscience is heard giving an answer.
The voice of the flesh has been insistently telling you, "Nothing has changed!" Now your good and clear conscience will be heard answering, "All things are become new. I'm cleansed. I'm purified. There's no blemish or spot on me. The blood of Jesus has lifted away all the sin and all of it's ravages!" (Hebrews 9:14; 10:2.)
By water baptism you demonstrate what you believe to be yours through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. At the time of the Gulf war some American marines did this is a very special way.
They had just received salvation and they knew they needed water baptism. Since they were on board ship they couldn't be baptised in a river or a pool so they came up with a radical alternative. They created their own baptismal by lining a coffin with a body bag and filling it with water! Those reborn marines went down into the water and came up like Jesus from the grave!
Their baptism dramatically demonstrated what every baptism is ordained to demonstrate. It visibly said to them and all who witnessed it, "These men have died with Christ, now they are risen with Him. For them old things have passed away, all things have become new. These men are new creations in Christ!"
New believers by their water baptism are provided with a permanent memorial in their flesh to their death and resurrection with Christ. By water baptism you can have a lasting reminder of what has ceased to be and what you now have become in Christ!
You need this permanent memorial to your death and resurrection with Christ. Without this memorial - this demonstration of what you believe to be yours through the resurrection of Jesus Christ - it's a struggle to break your body and soul free from your old life.
Water baptism visibly demonstrates exactly what took place inwardly by the Holy Spirit's baptism when you were born again. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul tells us,
You must be well aware that all of us who have been baptized into union with Christ have by that baptism been united with Him in His death. Through this baptism, which united us with Him in His death, we were buried with Him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too should live a completely new kind of life. If we have been so united with Him that we died a death like His, we shall also be so united with Him that we shall experience a resurrection life like His.
Roman 6:3-5 - Barclay's translation.
So you see how water baptism demonstrates the Spirit's work at the time you received your new life; a resurrection life like His. You were placed or immersed into His death by the Holy Spirit so that you could then by the same Holy Spirit be raised up with Jesus to walk in newness of resurrection life.
This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which the Spirit baptises you into the Body of Christ (the church).
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.
1 Corinthians 12:13.
In the book of Acts we read the first accounts of the awesome event of men and women being born again as new creations. We read in the second and third chapters that new creations were being born into the world by thousands on a daily basis.
What was happening? Jesus had become the first-born from the dead in His resurrection - now here were His brethren being manifested to the world! Men and women were being baptised into His death by the Holy Spirit and, by the same Spirit, being raised again with Jesus to walk in newness of life. (Colossians 1:18; Ro.8:29.)
In the Early Church we see the disciples baptising in water all those who accepted Christ. This baptism in outward appearance looked like John's baptism. However, John's was a baptism of repentance whereas theirs was a powerful, miraculous baptism - a believer's baptism.
One of the best examples in the New Testament of a believer's baptism is that of the Ethiopian eunuch whom Philip baptised. After Philip had preached Christ to him from the scriptures in the book of Isaiah the Ethiopian eunuch asked,
See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? Then Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 8:36-37 - NKJV.
This is the only condition you have to fulfill for your water baptism - do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?
In the book of Acts each believer was water baptised as soon as he was saved. This is wonderfully brought out in the salvation of Cornelius, his family and close friends.
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
Acts 10:44-48 - NKJV.
Cornelius and his household were born again as they heard the word preached! Peter and all those present with him knew they were because immediately they were all filled with the Holy Spirit as was evidenced by their speaking in tongues. Right there and then they were baptised in water.
Believers in the early church were baptised in water the moment they were born again - whether they had already received the complete infilling of the Holy Spirit or not. As we saw in the account of the Ethiopian eunuch's baptism the complete infilling of the Holy Spirit is not a precondition for water baptism.
You read of this again in Acts 19:1-7. There Paul came across believers in Ephesus who knew nothing of the Holy Spirit or of the believer's baptism. In their case they were water baptised and then they were filled with the Holy Spirit when Paul laid his hands on them.
It's never too late to be baptised or too early. The only condition for your water baptism is: do you believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?
What kind of believer are you? Are you acknowledging your old man is dead? Are you recognising you've been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life?
When I took my new creation name there was a deep acknowledgement and recognition of this within me. You can have this too through the act of water baptism! Be baptised!
Copyright © 1998 P.F. (Simon) Measures
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This class is part of High Impact Christianity - now available as a five part book series!
Next class: Set Free! - a lesson on redemption.
Previous class: Your Father's Care - a lesson on angelic protection.
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