Those were just a string of words that have floated in and out of my head since my childhood days at church..I'd never bothered to process them outside the context of an infant baptism, to me it looked more like the parents of the infant being baptised were the ones exhibiting the outward sign of their inward and spiritual grace .. but the question should always be, are souls saved?baptism is not a requirement of salvation, in fact there is not a thing we can do ourselves to be saved because Jesus already did it for us:
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." - Jhn 19:30
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:" - 1Pe 3:18
all we need do is believe these things.....
"That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:15
baptism is symbolic, it symbolizes death/burial of the old "self" in that you are "buried" in the water, and then rise up out of it as a new person "in Christ".
"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." - Rom 6:4
baptism serves to make public a proclaimation of ones' true conversion by renouncing the "things of the world" and claiming the things of Christ. For the Christ follower, the world is not "home" anymore. It is said that we become like aliens, or strangers in a strange land, a land where the inhabitants can't and usually don't want to understand the things of God, because the light of Gods word is painful to eyes used to the dark, to the lies they've been infused with all their lives. Christ can change that.
"How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land? - Psa 137:4
that's where faith enters.. I am not saying anything here that can not be accounted for right there in scripture, the bible is the only place from which we must always snap the first plumbline.
anyway, when I finally decided to give up my self to God through Jesus Christ, taking part in this "outward sign" was simply the natural thing to do.
7/29/07..I did it, I finally crossed the line and I'm never looking back.
all we need do is believe these things.....
"That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:15
baptism is symbolic, it symbolizes death/burial of the old "self" in that you are "buried" in the water, and then rise up out of it as a new person "in Christ".
"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." - Rom 6:4
baptism serves to make public a proclaimation of ones' true conversion by renouncing the "things of the world" and claiming the things of Christ. For the Christ follower, the world is not "home" anymore. It is said that we become like aliens, or strangers in a strange land, a land where the inhabitants can't and usually don't want to understand the things of God, because the light of Gods word is painful to eyes used to the dark, to the lies they've been infused with all their lives. Christ can change that.
"How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land? - Psa 137:4
that's where faith enters.. I am not saying anything here that can not be accounted for right there in scripture, the bible is the only place from which we must always snap the first plumbline.
anyway, when I finally decided to give up my self to God through Jesus Christ, taking part in this "outward sign" was simply the natural thing to do.
7/29/07..I did it, I finally crossed the line and I'm never looking back.
..and so did my son, daughter-in-law, and my husband :))
~
