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The Amish Voice 4
QUESTIONS:
1. What is a person’s relationship to God before he is saved?
2. Can you be a child of God without having faith in Christ?
Why or why not?
3. Why does God accept only our faith when He adopts us?
4. What good works have you done that convinced God to
adopt you into His family?
A CLOSER
L
OOK
:
(3:27)
Baptism
: note the reference to
baptism
instead of
belief
:
“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put
on Christ” (v.27).
Why did Paul switch from using the word
believe
to the word
baptism
? Why did he not say:
“For as many of you as have believed in Christ have put on
Christ”?
Is Paul saying that a person is
saved by
baptism? Any thinking and
honest person knows that there are thousands and thousands of
people who have been baptized, and yet they live like the devil
himself. Therefore, Paul could not mean that it is baptism that
causes God to clothe a person with Christ.
Similarly, any honest and thinking person knows that there are
thousands and thousands of people who
profess faith
and yet live
like the devil himself. Therefore, Paul could not mean what the
general public means by faith.
What Paul is saying is what Scripture declares: a true believer
fulfills all the righteousness of Christ which includes baptism. The
believer lives for Christ, and living for Christ includes the ordinance
of being baptized, for baptism pictures his faith. Baptism (and
repentance) is the
first and immediate
evidence of faith; therefore,
faith and baptism are closely linked, so closely that Paul can speak
of baptism as faith.
QUESTIONS:
1. Why is baptism important?
2. Why do some people think that baptism saves them? What
does the Scripture say?
3. What is the relationship between faith and baptism? Do you
think that it is possible to have a meaningful relationship
with God with only one of these? Explain your answer.
3. FAITH IN CHRIST MAKES US ONE: ELIMINATES ALL
DISTINCTIONS AND PREJUDICES (v.28).
How do we know that we are justified by faith rather than by the
law and by doing the best we can? Because faith in Christ makes us
one, eliminating all distinctions and prejudices.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus” (v.28).
This is a startling truth: Jesus Christ is the answer to all the
prejudice, bitterness, hatred, oppression, and inequalities of the
world. How can He solve the divisions among men? Note the
phenomenal statement: “Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” What is
there about Jesus Christ that makes us one?
1. Every believer stands on an equal footing before Jesus Christ:
the footing of faith. No person is accepted for any reason other than
faith. All persons who come to Jesus Christ come because...
they are ever so short of Christ
they are ever so different from Christ
they are ever so imperfect
Yet, Jesus Christ accepts them. Jesus Christ reaches out to
embrace all believers despite their being so much less and so
different from Him. Therefore, when we look at another believer
who differs from us, we do just what Jesus Christ did for us. We
love, accept, and embrace him; differences do not matter. All that
matters is love, acceptance, and brotherhood in Christ.
2. Every true believer loves and stands
in Jesus Christ
.
Therefore, when we look at another believer, we see him
in Christ
.
We are not to see the believer but to see Christ covering the
believer. We are to pay no attention to his color, nationality, sex,
social status, or any other differences. Differences just do not
matter. All that matters is that we all grow into the image of
Christ—love, accept, and become more and more the brothers and
sisters of God.
“For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek:
for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon
him” (Ro.10:12).
ILLUSTRATION
:
If we walk with Christ, we will notice that petty things that
divide us will fade away. How is this possible? By the cross. At the
foot of the cross, all the ground is level. Listen to this humorous, yet
sad discussion between two brothers.
Comedian Emo Philips tells this story:
In conversation with a person I had recently met, I asked,
“Are you Protestant or Catholic?” My new acquaintance
replied, “Protestant.” I said, “Me too! What franchise?”
“He answered, “Baptist.”
“Me too,” I said. “Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”
“Northern Baptist,” he replied.
“Me too!” I shouted.
We continued to go back and forth. Finally I asked, “Northern
conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region,
Council of 1879 or Northern conservative fundamentalist
Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912?”