THE HYPOCRISY OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS
When it comes to baptism, you, leaders of religions say, “Christ gave us an example to follow”, and so you get yourselves “baptized”. But when it comes to living a life like Christ had lived his (1Jo2:6), when it comes to doing the good work that God had intended for you (Eph 2:10), like the Son of God had done the good work that God had intended for him (Jo 18:37), when it comes to enduring the sufferings for that good work(1Pe 2:20), like the ones the Lord had endured for his (1Pe 2:21), and, when it comes to bearing your own yoke to its completion (Mt 10:38), just like the Son of Man had borne his yoke to completion (Jo 17:4; 19:30), you say to yourselves, “Christ had done them all for us, we do not have to do them anymore. Our own good works will not save us; the finished work of Christ is enough. We have been saved after we have repented and accepted Christ.”
Hypocrites! Didn’t Christ say, “A slave is not greater than his master” (Jo 15:20)? But you, leaders of religions, being wise in your own eyes, you hold yourselves greater than the one you proclaim as your Lord! You have unwisely convinced yourselves that Christ does not require you to do good works anymore. Yet you know that Christ’s disciples and the prophets themselves, endured the sufferings for the yoke of good works that God had given them to bear.
Hypocrites! Didn’t Christ say, “Go in through the narrow gate”, for that is where you shall find the cramped road that leads to life (Mt 7:14)? But you, leaders of religions, blind guides that you are (Mt 15:14), you enter through the wide gate where the broad and spacious road leading off to destruction is found (Mt 7:13), and with conceited jubilance you take the blind ones with you (Mt 23:15).
Hypocrites! Didn’t Christ say, “I leave you a pattern to follow” (Jo 13:15; 1Pe 2:21)? But you, leaders of religions, presumptuous guides that you are, you set your own pattern and do not subject yourselves to God’s pattern for righteousness (Ro 10:3), yet you proclaim yourselves followers of the Christ.
CHRIST NEEDED TO BE BAPTIZED, NOT AS RELIGIONS DO IT, BUT AS GOD REQUIRES IT
Do you think the Christ went through baptism just to give you an example, and that it does not have any real effect on him if he went through it or not? No indeed. The Christ went through baptism because he needed to! Baptism is God’s requirement for righteousness (Mt3:15) for the Christ, as well as for the ones he shall send forth after him (Jo 17:18). Not the baptism as religions do it, but the baptism as God prescribes it.
When Christ says, “Repent”, he does not mean of your sins only, as you foolishly believe and teach. He is calling you to turn around from doing your will, to doing the Father’s will (Jo 6:38). God, through the Christ, is requiring you to enter into a covenant with Him (He 8:8) so He can set you apart, not for what you have determined is good work, but for what God has decided is good work (Eph 2:10).
THE BAPTISM THAT GOD PRESCRIBES
This is the baptism that God requires. It is not an immersion in water as religions do it.
1. It is the promise you make to God (1Pe 3:21) to surrender your will to do His will. It is dying from doing your own will, in order to live henceforth, doing God’s will.
2. It is the commitment you give to God to be born-again (Jo 3:3), not only from an old life of sin, but especially from an old life of disobedience, to a new life of obedience to the will of God.
3. It is the Sabbath rest (He 4:10) that those who surrender their lives to God (Jo 15:13) enter into, to rest from doing their own ways and from finding their own pleasure (Is 58:13) in order to work in doing God’s ways and in finding God’s pleasure (Is 58:13).
4. It is the circumcision of the heart (De 30:6; Ro 2:29) that is required even of the Christ and of all of his followers that will come after him, to cut away the disobedient part of the heart (Ez 36:26) which is their own will, to become obedient to the will of God (Ez 11:20).
5. It is the new commandment (Jo 13:34) of Christ that his disciples must follow, to surrender their lives for their friends (1Jo 3:16) as Christ had done so for them (Jo 15:13).
6. It is the baptism by which God shall empower you (Php 2:13) through the spirit that He shall bestow, to “sell” your will in order to immerse yourself in the work of Christ (Mt 19:21), that you might become perfect (Mt 5:48) to get into the kingdom of God.
7. Finally, baptism is the covenant of faith that you must enter into to commit yourself to do the will of God (He 10:7) that He shall write in your heart and in your mind (He 8:10), as Christ had also entered and committed himself to do the will of God (He 10:7; Mt 26:42). You make a promise to obey the will of God, and in return, God promises to fulfill His end of the covenant to make you His people, His special possession (Ex 19:5; 1Pe 2:9).
That, is the baptism that Christ needed to go through to set everything right according to the requirement of God (Mt 3:15), before he can begin to do the good works that the Father has prepared in advance for him to walk in (Eph 2:10). All these illustrations point to the one and only baptism (Eph 4:5) that God requires for righteousness. Water is merely a symbol.
This kind of baptism is spiritual not physical, as the New Covenant is spiritual in contrast to the Old Covenant which is physical. You need not be immersed in water by anyone. What you simply need is a humble heart ready to turn around to surrender your life (Jo 15:13) to the will of God in a one-on-one covenant with the Father (He 8:10; 10:7, 9).
As a sign of approval, the spirit of the Father descended upon Christ after his baptism. That anointing of God’s spirit (Mt 3:17) was the confirmation of Christ’s authority to deliver the Father’s good news to the world, the work that the Father has anointed His only-begotten Son to do (Jo 18:37). This work has laid the cornerstone foundation for the succeeding work of the apostles and prophets that would follow (Eph 2:20). Anyone else whom the Father shall send forth (Ro10:15) afterward must be anointed with the spirit, through the same baptism (Mt3:11), to receive the same authority, to partake of the same good work (Eph2:10), of getting under the same yoke (Mt11:29) of bearing witness to the truth (Ac1:8; 2:17) as with Christ their Lord (Jo18:37).
HOW YOU MUST BE BAPTIZED
If this is not how you were baptized, you do not have the authority to proclaim the good news, neither do you have the permission to do any good work for Christ because you have not done, first of all, God’s requirement for righteousness (Mt 7:21-23). And because of it, you have not been sealed with the holy spirit as the mark of God’s elect, who are sent forth to bring good news to the poor in spirit (Ro 10:15). Thus, any work that you think is good, is work that you can boast of. It cannot be counted as righteousness, because it is done through your own effort, instead of through the authority of the holy spirit that should be doing the good works through you (Php2:13).
If this is not how you were baptized, you have not truly become one with Christ (2Cor5:17), therefore, you do not belong to Christ (Ro 8:9), and so to begin with, Christ never knew you at all (Mt 7:23).
Let the lost sheep of Christ listen and take heed.
-The End-