Celebrating the Gospel Through Baptism
This past Sunday we had another Baptism gathering. Praise God it’s our second one in a month, baptizing another nine this week. We believe God is doing something in our community, and we can see it in our children and youth programs, as they continue to grow and hearts are being turned to Christ by the power of the Gospel. In keeping with that theme, Nick preached from Romans, where Paul repeatedly points out that the Gospel is the only thing with the power to save souls. And what is the Gospel? Let’s look first in Romans 1:16-17 where we started on Sunday:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
It is the Good News that the requirement of righteousness for salvation doesn’t have to be heaped upon our backs as an unmovable burden if we would turn to Christ in faith. This is “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom. 10:9).” God wants to reconcile us to Himself, and to renew us by regenerating a new heart and mind within us through faith in His Son and the working of the Holy Spirit then indwelling in us.
This Good News is the story of the Bible as a whole, that God is working out His rescue plan for us from our sin, and it’s repeated several times in Romans. As Nick reminded us on Sunday, Romans 7 shows the struggle of sin and our fallen flesh against God’s law and how we can’t measure up, but Romans 8 comes in with v1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” What a relief that the requirement of faith removes the weight of sin under the law that we cannot hold up ourselves. Then chapter 8, likely the most important Gospel filled chapter in the Bible, ends with this:
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is what we were celebrating Sunday as a church, new life, regenerated hearts, proclamations of faith, testimonies of life change, going from darkness to light, and thankfulness that Jesus paid it all, and nothing can separate us from His love.
