Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

 Baptism:

             Baptism saves you through the resurrection of Jesus:

 

1 Peter 3:21

21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

 

            Some Christians believe that you must be water baptized in order to be saved. (Remember that we’re assuming that whatever is needed to get to Heaven has or will be done by you.) This verse and the verse in Mark 16 that says “whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved” seem to say that you must be water baptized to get to Heaven. But is it talking about the “born again” experience? After all there are three aspects to salvation: spirit, soul, and body. This verse says that baptism saves you … through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the death of Jesus that saves us spiritually. It is His resurrection that ensures we can live the Christian life (He was delivered up because of our transgressions. He was raised up because of our justification.) Let’s leave it there for now.

            When we are born again, all of our sins are forgiven. Our new man didn’t do them. It was our old man. Therefore, our conscience is clear. We wash away the sins of our old man through baptism as it says in Acts. They no longer have a hold on us. The devil can’t come after us condemning us for something we did before we became a Christian. They are forgiven and washed away.

 

If you could hear God speak to you, I believe this is what He would say:

            "I have washed you, My children. I have set you free from your past. There is nothing that you have done that is too great for what I accomplished at Calvary. There is nothing that cannot be forgiven you when you turn to Me. You are Mine. You are washed in My blood and cleansed as no cleansing agent on earth can accomplish. Trust in Me. Do not listen to Satan as he tries to bring up things of the past. They cannot affect you in My love. You are Mine, and you are washed clean.”

 

            34. My conscience is clear. Everything my old man did wrong has been forgiven and washed away.

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit

 Died for sins to bring us to God:

 

1 Peter 3:18

18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

             

            Thank God that Jesus does not have to die every time we sin. Nor did He have to die for each of us separately. He died one time for all people for all sins. Jesus didn’t deserve to die. We deserved to die (“in the day that you eat of the fruit of the tree, you shall die.”) We have all eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We did it through our “father” Adam, and we fulfilled it ourselves by doing “our own thing”.

            Because He was willing to die in His fleshly body for our sins, He was made alive in the Spirit. We too, when we accept His work on the cross on our behalf, are made alive in the spirit. We are spirit-beings walking around in fleshly “earth-suits”.

 

If you could hear God speak to you, I believe this is what He would say:

            "There was nothing that you could ever do to bring yourself into My presence. It was for Me to bring you into My presence. You could never become good enough nor do enough good things to make you worthy of My Kingdom. It was His sacrifice that brought you near to Me. You can never repay His sacrifice nor would He want you to.”

 

            33. Jesus died for me that He might bring me to God and make me alive in the spirit.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

                                                                         Chapter 3

 

Jesus

  

            Who is this Jesus and what does He mean to us? What does He have to do with our destiny? What if He hadn’t come? Could we still live the Christian life?

            Jesus is the Son of God. He came to earth to show us the way to live a perfect life and then die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Without Him, we would have no destiny that was good. Our destiny would have been eternal separation from God. We could never live the Christian life without Him.

            The Father had a plan for our destiny. He sent the Son to prepare the way for us to fulfill our destiny. The Holy Spirit helps us to accomplish the destiny the Father had planned for us.

 

What His death accomplished:

 

            Propitiation for our sins:

 

1 John 2:2

2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

 

1 John 4:10

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

            What does this big word, propitiation, mean? The people living during the Old Testament days believed that their gods had to be appeased. Something had to be done by the people to get their gods to change their minds about doing something nasty to the people. So, they sacrificed something … sometimes even their own children. This they hoped would cause their gods to look down with favor upon them.

            In the Tabernacle, the mercy seat upon the ark was also known as the Propitiatory. When the High Priest sprinkled blood on the mercy seat once a year, God propitiated … changed His mind … about what He wanted to do to the children of Israel. In fact in the Septuagint, in certain places where The King James says that God repented, the Greek word is the one used for propitiated.

            We deserved to be condemned to eternal separation from God. He wanted to wipe us out. Something had to be done to get Him to change His mind. That something was for His only begotten Son to die in our place. It wasn’t good enough to sacrifice a sinful individual. The Sacrificial Lamb had to have lived a sinless life. When Jesus died on the cross, God’s justice was appeased and He propitiated … changed His mind … about what He wanted to do to us.

            Our destiny was the Lake of Fire, but Jesus’ death changed that destiny into one of eternal life.

 

If you could hear God speak to you, I believe this is what He would say:

            "My Son died for you. He took your place. It should have been you, My children, who died; but He desired to take your place … to be your sacrifice to bring you into My presence. It is not for you to question why, but to enjoy the benefits He obtained for you. He did it all that you might have life everlasting. It was not His desire that you have to suffer like He did. He felt that it was better for Him to suffer once for all rather than all having to suffer as He did.”

 

            32. Jesus died on the cross for my sins so that God would change His mind about what I deserved. Instead of death I might have eternal life.

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 Cleanses our conscience from dead works:          

             

Hebrews 9:14

14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

            It wasn’t through the blood of an animal that was physically perfect which was offered for our sins. It was through the blood of the spiritually perfect Son that we were cleansed. The Jews tried to come to God through works, but that was not what He wanted. It isn’t enough to come before God. There had to be the death of someone who had never sinned in order to pave the way for us. Because of that, we don’t have to “do” anything to come to God. Jesus did everything necessary to bring us into the presence of Almighty God. Our conscience is clean. Our old man did the deed. We are new creatures in Christ.

            We do serve the living God in a living way. We do works, not to gain acceptance, but because we have been accepted by Him.

 

If you could hear God speak to you, I believe this is what He would say:

            "You cannot become good enough to come unto Me. You cannot do good enough to come unto Me. You can come unto Me because of what My Son accomplished for you. You can walk in My ways and talk in My way as you allow Me to control your life. You will accomplish much for Me if you will allow Me full access to your life. I will guide you into the paths of glory for My Name’s sake. You can do much in Me. You cannot do anything worthwhile outside of Me. No matter how much you try, it is all in vain when it is outside of Me.”

 

            31. My conscience is clean through the blood of the perfect Son and I can serve God in the Spirit because I want to please Him.       

     

 

            We have such a special relationship with our Father God. We are truly His children and as we grow in Christ, we take on more and more attributes of our Heavenly Father. We behave like Him because we become like Him. We have nothing to fear from our Father and we can be certain that He will keep and take care of us. It is our destiny as His children. We can have no other life than that of His pleasure.