...the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Rom 10:9-10)
If I did nothing else but read this scripture in front of our congregation, it would make many people uncomfortable and nervous...Why?
In a devotional I gave recently, I listed the FIVE STEPS OF SALVATION (the all caps indicates that this phrase sounds best by the horror/ suspense movie trailer guy...you know, "Coming this summer...are you ready for the...) The point I was making in my devotional is how little we actually DO in these five steps. Hear- pretty passive. Believe-unquantifiable. Repent-very subjective. Confess-just words no real action. Then there's the main point that the whole thing is leading up to; BE BAPTIZED-PASSIVE. I have never heard of anyone baptizing themselves, and as John Risse said, "Unless God meets you there, all you have done is taken a bath." The whole point of the devotional was to point out that our salvation is not something our actions, doctrines, or formulas can achieve. That point was apparently lost on one of our older gentlemen (whom I respect and love dearly), seeing as how he came up to me afterwards and congratulated me on giving the FIVE STEPS OF SALVATION.
The reason I tell that story is because we get really nervous and defensive of our FIVE STEP formula when we see a TWO STEP. It is not because God is being challenged; how could he be challenged by his own Word? It is not because scripture is being challenged; it takes a greater respect for scripture to look at verses like this than to skip over them as we are tempted to do. No, we are defensive because our traditions and interpretations are being challenged.
We are afraid that if we admit the validity of anothers stance on baptism, that we will undermine our own confidence in the truth. After all, if we can't confidently stand on our views of scripture, how can we dare to expect others to take us seriously when we teach on it?
Confidence in our interpretation of scripture is confidence in the flesh.
Confidence that God's love and grace can not only cover over a multitude of sins but a multitude of doctrines as well demonstrates a humble confidence in the one who saves.
To confess that Jesus is Lord means we have to:
Confess that our congregation, denomination, our formulas or doctrines are NOT lord.
Confess that we have fallen grievously short of perfect attitudes, perfect practice, perfect behavior, and perfect understanding of scripture and therefore desperately need salvation.
Confess that we have much to learn from ALL our brothers and sisters who seek the ONE LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.
In a devotional I gave recently, I listed the FIVE STEPS OF SALVATION (the all caps indicates that this phrase sounds best by the horror/ suspense movie trailer guy...you know, "Coming this summer...are you ready for the...) The point I was making in my devotional is how little we actually DO in these five steps. Hear- pretty passive. Believe-unquantifiable. Repent-very subjective. Confess-just words no real action. Then there's the main point that the whole thing is leading up to; BE BAPTIZED-PASSIVE. I have never heard of anyone baptizing themselves, and as John Risse said, "Unless God meets you there, all you have done is taken a bath." The whole point of the devotional was to point out that our salvation is not something our actions, doctrines, or formulas can achieve. That point was apparently lost on one of our older gentlemen (whom I respect and love dearly), seeing as how he came up to me afterwards and congratulated me on giving the FIVE STEPS OF SALVATION.
The reason I tell that story is because we get really nervous and defensive of our FIVE STEP formula when we see a TWO STEP. It is not because God is being challenged; how could he be challenged by his own Word? It is not because scripture is being challenged; it takes a greater respect for scripture to look at verses like this than to skip over them as we are tempted to do. No, we are defensive because our traditions and interpretations are being challenged.
We are afraid that if we admit the validity of anothers stance on baptism, that we will undermine our own confidence in the truth. After all, if we can't confidently stand on our views of scripture, how can we dare to expect others to take us seriously when we teach on it?
Confidence in our interpretation of scripture is confidence in the flesh.
Confidence that God's love and grace can not only cover over a multitude of sins but a multitude of doctrines as well demonstrates a humble confidence in the one who saves.
To confess that Jesus is Lord means we have to:
Confess that our congregation, denomination, our formulas or doctrines are NOT lord.
Confess that we have fallen grievously short of perfect attitudes, perfect practice, perfect behavior, and perfect understanding of scripture and therefore desperately need salvation.
Confess that we have much to learn from ALL our brothers and sisters who seek the ONE LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.
5 comments:
I have heard some great sermons on what you are saying. One was by Andre somebody, who spent the sermon talking about God's action in each of the 5 steps. The other has the same emphasis. You might still be able to find it on the Round Rock website in the Kingdom series.
I've noticed how uncomfortable many people are when we read verses like you have mentioned and we stop there. Without fail, they say something like, "of course you have to be baptized as well." I wonder if they would have done that when Paul said the two steps. I'm sure they wish that all five steps would have been mentioned every time, just so it would be clear to everyone. Good Post. Dennis
I heard a story today about Leonard Sweet being asked by a group of older CoC leaders, how can we keep our kids in church? He said, "Easy. How many of you have grandchildren?" They almost all raised their hands. "How many of you would do anything for your grandchildren?" All the grandparents raise their hands, again. "How many of you are willing to give up your lives for your grandchildren?" Hands up.
"How many of you would give up the music you love in worship so that your grandchildren would stay in church?"
I don't totally buy that this is the easy answer to the question addressed, but it's a great picture of our priorities.
In the sense of being formulaic and stressing too much on the side of being procedural minus the heart of God, I can relate. Yet, loving the Lord means loving "his breath" and studying "his breath" teaches me that in true Bible repentance, one not only turns from the sin, he/she also turns to God through faith and obedience.
There are actually two Greek words in the New Testament that are both translated as "repent" in the KJV: "metamelomai" and "metaneo."
This first word means a feeling of care, concern, or
regret. It expresses the emotional aspect, and it is the word used in Matthew 27:3-5 for saying that Judas "repented himself" (KJV) or "felt remorse" (NASB). To feel "remorse" denotes a deep and painful regret for wrongdoing; compunction.
The second Greek word translated as "repent" is used in such verses as Matthew 3:2, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"; and also Acts 2:38 and Luke 13:5. This word means more than just regretting or feeling sorry for wrong. It means to change or turn, to go in a new direction, to make "an about-face." It is a word of action. The very nature of the latter Greek word and how it is used in "God's breath" tells me that I can't be passive when I repent.
And baptism is my faith response to a gift that I don't deserve and did not earn. But baptism transforms me and transfers my sins onto Christ, yet my active response is necessary for God to clothe me. I too have a disdain for the "traditional police" who insist on the "5 steps," but I can't allow that disdain to blow out God's breath through the inspired Greek words. I hope you receive this with love brother.
Anonymous,
Great thoughts. It's almost been a month since you posted it, but I just now found it. I think you are right on the mark.
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