Baptism of Repentance
This morning we had a good group of men for our 5 AM Bible Study even though it was Memorial Day. We had a good discussion of John the Baptist and his baptism of repentance in Luke 3. I think repentance is something we need to think about more today.
In John the Baptist's day the Jews had drifted far from the Lord and His Word. They were proud of being "sons of Abraham", but they did not have the faith of Abraham. They were lost in religious rituals. They were not serious about living a righteous life according to God's law. They followed their own oral traditions. It was a terrible situation, so John came to call them back to God's way, so they would be ready to receive Christ.
That is where the baptism came into play. It was a humbling experience for a Jew to be baptized like a Gentile who was becoming a Jew. They looked down on the Gentiles as dirty sinners. The act of baptism was to show how many sins they needed to have cleansed by God. Now, John was calling the Jews to the same type of baptism, and he was telling them that they had to do works to prove their repentance. They could not just say they were sorry. They had to live it out.
In many ways we need much the same thing today. We need to be called back to holiness. We need to be warned against just going through the motions of religion. We need to exhort believers to bear fruit by trusting God to work through them in their actions. It would be a radical adjustment for many people, but it would lead to a much better life.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Chronicles 28-29 and John 9:24-41.
In John the Baptist's day the Jews had drifted far from the Lord and His Word. They were proud of being "sons of Abraham", but they did not have the faith of Abraham. They were lost in religious rituals. They were not serious about living a righteous life according to God's law. They followed their own oral traditions. It was a terrible situation, so John came to call them back to God's way, so they would be ready to receive Christ.
That is where the baptism came into play. It was a humbling experience for a Jew to be baptized like a Gentile who was becoming a Jew. They looked down on the Gentiles as dirty sinners. The act of baptism was to show how many sins they needed to have cleansed by God. Now, John was calling the Jews to the same type of baptism, and he was telling them that they had to do works to prove their repentance. They could not just say they were sorry. They had to live it out.
In many ways we need much the same thing today. We need to be called back to holiness. We need to be warned against just going through the motions of religion. We need to exhort believers to bear fruit by trusting God to work through them in their actions. It would be a radical adjustment for many people, but it would lead to a much better life.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Chronicles 28-29 and John 9:24-41.