If you will be near West Palm Beach Florida next week, you are cordially invited to be our honored guest at the North Haverhill Road Church of Christ annual lectureship. Each year we offer a four evening series leading up to the regular Lord’s Day services of Gospel messages from selected guest speakers.

Mark Broyles, from Kansas City Missouri, and Ralph Walker, of Tampa Florida will be the speakers this year. The general theme is Jesus Still Changes Lives. Both men will speak each evening beginning at 7PM on August 4th and continuing each night through Saturday August 7th. Come early or come late, but come if you can!

On Sunday, August 8th both men will again speak during the morning  and evening services. We will begin at 9:30 AM superseding Brent’s regular study, and that will be followed by the regular Lord’s Day service allowing each speaker audience. The final two lessons will be offered Sunday evening beginning at 6:30 PM.

What better source to listen to when it comes to how to live our life than the One who created us?

The building is located at 4236 N. Haverhill Road in West Palm Beach. you can find a map and more information at the church’s website: www.WestPalmBeachChurchOfChrist.com. A live link to the website can be found at the bottom of every CMS page.

Won’t you join us?

If some skeptic should ask what they should do to work the mighty works of God, we might reply, this is the work of God – that you should believe on Him who He has sent into the world (John 6: 29), or with some similar instruction to start things off. If some completely untaught and religiously ignorant person should ask what he or she must do in order to be saved, we should probably take the time to tell them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16: 31), imparting to them the simple steps of the Gospel of Christ in understandable detail just as Paul and Silas had. And if already sincere seekers should ask what they must do to be saved, to be amenable to Christ and God, we should probably repeat what Peter and the other eleven apostles said to those penitents who were not yet in Christ at that long ago Pentecost assembly: Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you, and to your descendents, and to as many as are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call (Acts 2: 38, 39). Finally, if some other person who has not yet been immersed but is nonetheless penitent and fearing God, might ask what they must do to finish things off and to become acceptable to the Lord, we ought to read to them Acts 22: 16, Mark 16: 16, Matthew 28: 19, or any other of a number of passages related to relieving that condition.

The situations listed above are based upon some of the best and most complete examples found in the NT of conversions. For the safety of souls, is it even possible to offer anything better than that? Isn’t it true that the closer our conversions have come to emulating these and the others given in God’s Word – the better and safer for our souls? While the farther away from these our conversions may be – the more danger we are likely in.  Have you ever thought about that?

Noting these things; I would offer a few simple questions for consideration. Why would anyone believe it is the business of mankind to pick and choose between the elements given in the examples of conversion and from what is taught and commanded within God’s Word? Why would we think it reasonable to hold to just a part of the Word of God? And why would we want to hold to some things to the exclusion of others? Where would we go to find authority for that?

Why would we feel secure in leaving any of it off or in modifying any of it? Why would we think that we might have some latitude to choose between the various elements of the given examples of conversion for any reason?

What process would tempt us to leave out parts of God’s Word or His plan? What authority would have us to add things to it? Under what authority would we be serving?

Are not all of these types of examples listed found within the Word of God? Do not all of these examples contain the same common elements? Have you ever noted a detailed example of conversion in the scriptures that leaves off any of these elements, or that appeals to some others? Where is an exception clause found concerning salvation or its particulars  in any scriptural argument or in any letter within the OT or NT?

Does this exercise not take into consideration several of the various stages where amenable persons have found themselves, according to their own needs and by their own particular religious condition? Is God’s Word complete for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3: 16), or does it somehow lack something? Have we been left with a partial plan on how to please God and how bring ourselves to Christ? Do we need to fill in the blanks? Better yet, do we have a blank page on which we then may write the prescription?

Of the nine detailed examples of conversions found in the NT (located in Acts 2, 8, 9 and 10, 11, 16, 18 and 19 – considered along with the complementary details of Paul’s conversion found in Acts 22 and 26, and several other less detailed descriptions, some already alluded to) — do all of these not contain the same elements? Is there some reason because some point, element, or duty is not mentioned directly in every place, that we have then been granted authority to exclude or strike it out when giving instructions in righteousness and as to how to save someone today?

Why would we believe that we could leave out this duty or that element, thereby exercising control over the Word of God, and by doing so not end up being condemned for judging Christ’s precepts as arbitrary and unnecessary? Have you never read the warnings for adding to or leaving off from God’s instructions or for not doing as we have been commanded? Do you not know of places in the scriptures where persons made assumptions, presumed, acted on their own or left off altogether doing what God had instructed, and what happened to them when they did? Are we to be exempt if we do the exact same things and follow the exact same lead?

Have you ever thought about any of this? Have you ever seriously studied any part of it? Do we in fact believe what we read? Do we understand and believe that what we possess is truly the Word of God? Is it something less than that? For if it is not that, I would suggest that, to appropriate the quote of the Apostle; we are among men most miserable. We must certainly be caught up in some silly fantasy.

Can someone out there pose a scriptural argument offering a legitimate reason to support any of this? To what purpose were the scriptures left to us? Was it to do as we please?

As you read the passages below, ask yourself, “What did Jesus teach and what did the disciples teach and do every single time?” Ask yourself if God’s Word is consistent. Well, is it? Did Jesus or his Apostles teach the same things to everyone or did they modify it for this group or that one as they went along their way and from day to day?

 ~

I know that whatsoever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it; and nothing taken from it. And God does it so that men should reverence Him. (Ecclesiastes 3: 14)

~

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”Then he consented. (Matthew 3: 13-15)

~

An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come down to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in the chariot, he was reading Isaiah the Prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake the chariot.” So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the Prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”And he said, “How can I, except someone guide me?” and he asked Philip to come and sit with him. The place in the scriptures where he read was this:

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So he opened not his mouth.

In his humiliation his justice is taken away, And who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.”

 So the eunuch answered and said, “I ask you, of whom did the prophet say this, of himself or some other?”

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this scripture, preached Jesus to him.

 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptize?”Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him.  (Acts 8: 26-38)

~

Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing, believed and were baptized. (Acts 18: 9)

Whatever it is – I won’t get away with it.

God has said that I cannot divide my time between serving Him and myself. There are only two sides – God’s and the World’s. The Lord of Hosts said You will have no other gods before me. Jesus said No one can serve two masters. I can’t be the servant of God doing that. And it simply does not matter what comes in second; I am told that I cannot give in to or fall to the enticements and inducements being pitched. You cannot serve both God and Mammon. That was what Judas Iscariot had going on; wasn’t it? Do we suppose we can have some other “king” than riches in our lives, and manage to skate around God’s Word and still end up in Paradise with life everlasting? Ah, rationality: another gift that just never stops giving!

The Apostle Peter said publicly of Jesus, There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.

Therefore, in religion it’s a two dimensional world. Both sides are clearly marked and identified. Satan has me if I ignore that, and I am then bowing before the god of this world. The same is true when I let anything else take over my life and supplant the truth of the Word of God – to do so smacks of unbelief and rebellion. I’m told that if I put on that cloak, and lose sight of what it is all about, things will not go well for me when I go off into eternity’s night.

So, if I don’t spend time with the Word of God, I won’t know what to do to save my own soul. And if I supplant the Word of God with anything else: I’m done for. I then cannot tell good from bad. If I flatter myself or deceive myself that I am serving God while doing something outside of his will – I lose.

On the good side: God gave us the answers to the test. How simple is that? However, most of us completely ignore the information. Jesus’ Apostles pointed out that we should save ourselves. But, we don’t seem to be able to figure out how to do it. Along the line, God has said His will has been completely revealed — the mystery has been revealed so that we can save ourselves. All we have to do is follow the instructions. Yet most will choose to follow somebody else’s instructions. Mike Schmidt pointed out in a lesson a few weeks ago that the bumper sticker has the order wrong. “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” should be “God said it, that settles it, I believe it.” Do we have things in the proper order?

So how is it that we can believe something we refuse to recognize? If we don’t revere the authority of the Word, and don’t read the Word of God, how could we ever say that we “love Jesus?” Jesus said If you love me, keep my commandments. How will we ever decipher the good from the bad, the required from the imposed? I suspect that you know there are a good number of the followers of the false religion of Islam who have their little book set and loaded into their memory. We have the truth and pay it no mind.

God is in the details. And God has also said that he will not overlook the details.

If we never spend a minute actually seeking the Word and identifying what it is we have been told to do, and diligently getting it done: no matter what the investment in time and energy in surrogate things – we will fail. Do we believe that?

How can we know both what God demands and what he would give to us, if we are continuously spinning and thinking but never getting around to doing what we have been told? How would we ever get to the finish line, or rid ourselves of our own sinful leprosy?

But Naaman became furious and went away and said, “Behold, I thought that the prophet would surely come out to me, and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

And his servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash and be clean?’” (2 Kings 5: 11- 13)

God through Elisha, His Prophet, told Naaman exactly what he must do, just as through Jesus, His Son, he has told us exactly what we must do. Can we not see that? Naaman figured it out.

If we fail to follow the simplicity that is in Christ, and over which the Son of God was murdered — what do you suppose will be the outcome? We need to be both shaken and stirred. Shaken by a fear of God and stirred to drop the doctrines of men and to follow His precepts to the exclusion of everything else.

Will someone please tell us to stop being stupid, to follow the instructions and be healed?

~

Here is water. What stops me from being immersed? (Acts 8: 36)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5: 10)

The one who rejects Me and does not receive My Words has a judge; the words that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. (John 12: 48)

 And the common people heard Him gladly. (Mark 12:37)

Let he that stole, steal no more. If we are a thief, a plunderer, a pirate or a pilferer we’re to stop what we are doing. God does not approve. And by the way, neither does society or most of our neighbors. The command doesn’t say a thing about getting even with the boss, or ignoring what we “borrowed” from next door. It’s indiscriminant as to whether any ill gotten stuff came from little old ladies, empty houses, from off the floor where it was left by a careless hand, or out of large accounts in escrow. The Apostle simple wrote steal no more. If you’re stealing; you already know what it means.

But rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good. I don’t believe that the Apostle left off thinking with our minds and our applying it to gain honest wages. The point is that he said to do it yourself.  As we can, we should do our own work, mind our own business, and keep our hands in our own pockets and not outstretched or in someone else’s. We are to work the thing that is good. That is the only qualifier.

But, we are to do all of that so that we can be ready to help others. I have had to ask for help when things weren’t so good and when I couldn’t meet the imposed demands. So have others. Many are forced to do that right now; and it is not condemned here or anywhere else in the Bible. Quite the contrary, the Apostle wrote that we should work and profit so that we may have (something) to give to him that is in need. We need to set something aside, and this is not speaking about the collection for the assembly, but to assist others aside from that.

The Word tells me that I personally need to help my family, (and if need be) my brethren, and anyone else I might see that may need assistance. As I may choose. I am not to just walk on by. The charity of the church is not my charity, and it exists to assist for the needs of the saints. So it is reasonable to expect that different levels of requirements were set by God for it than for me. The treasury of a church is to be used for that assembly to dispense to meet their own needs and obligations, and in aiding other Christians that may have need if they can. It is not some general charity. Churches do not exist as mission societies or soup kitchens in their neighborhood or as a general dispenser of monies to all who may come through the door with their hand out; that all comes closer to being part of my duties.

Like everything else we discuss here; to get this right requires thought, work and preparation.

However, you can’t help anyone if you can’t help yourself. And you’ll never help anyone (self included) without planning how you will set it up to be in a modest position to be of help.

More often than not we are not guilty of doing too little, but rather of doing nothing at all. We often neglect what we are supposed to do. And I suggest it’s exactly that way with helping others – with work, giving and assisting. It’s hard to get set up to be able to help at all. Then it’s sometimes hard to part with what we have. That’s called avarice. We’re told to avoid that too. So, we end up rationalizing, and like John D. Rockefeller we’ll give them a dime when their needs are altogether different. Or we’ll just not have the time and resources, and do nothing at all.

Our daughter recently told us she wasn’t going out on a limb for anyone again. I responded that if that had been everyone’s attitude; she never would have made it this far. She has been dependent upon her parents and friends for all sorts of things and upon the largesse of others throughout her life. Some of the positions she found herself in had been hard for all to bear, but we were there and offered what was needed. I also suggested that it is not good to neglect others; and that it is a sensible thing to position yourself, if at all possible, to be able to help as you have ability. We should set aside funds exactly for that purpose. Prudence tells us that we must set our own house in order and pay our bills. Then we should set aside something to help ourselves in times of personal need. We must also set aside as commanded for the church, and then you should set aside another amount to use to help others when things don’t go so well for them. (If this was easy the Lord and his Apostles would never have spent any time on it.)

It is rightly called charity. You can’t neglect it and be safe. Most of us wouldn’t be here without it. And it only requires being careful and planning, and giving back a small part of what has been given to us. In Ephesians 4: 28 it’s what is called giving to him that is in need. Who is not now, or has not at some time been in that group, or as we cannot see that, may be there in the future?

We can all hope that each of us will never be in the position to need the help of others. But isn’t it nice when things haven’t gone well, when someone unexpectedly makes an offer to help? It certainly is appreciated. It is such a blessing.

 ~

 If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give it to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.

(Matthew 19:21)

(This essay was based on a series by Michael Schmidt and a lesson by Henry Glaus.)

When Peter, less than a week later, stood before the multitude gathered on the temple grounds, that glorious morning, he noted many things. Among those, he said that Jesus had been glorified and had been received into heaven. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you now see and hear. (Acts 2:33)

Notice carefully what the apostle had said. The exalted Lord, upon his return to heaven, received the promise of the Holy Spirit, which had been promised to Him upon his resurrection and accession.

So, Jesus received the promise of the Holy Spirit from His Father, and because of His obedience and in His position as the glorified Son of God; He then poured the presence of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh. That corresponding outpouring is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

On this prestigious date The Holy Spirit was poured out first upon Israel, just as promised by God and Christ. Later in Caesarea, it would be poured out on the gentile believers, in complete fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel, Isaiah, Joel, John the Baptist and all of the rest of the prophets.

What was poured out that day, according to Peter and the eleven, was this which you now see and hear.

They had all been witness to the heralding in of the Kingdom of Heaven that day.

It had nothing to do with being overtaken by the Holy Spirit in some form of power. The only persons listed to be in that position were those same twelve men chosen by Christ to bring the Kingdom of Heaven back out into the light of day. The text is quite clear on this. Only those who choose to ignore these things and the clear imprint of the text as it has been delivered by the Holy Spirit, are capable of finding other events and other persons overtaken by miraculous power at this stage in the proceedings and in these images.

Twelve holy men stood before the multitude speaking in languages hitherto unknown to them. That is exactly what the text indicates. The same sign later accompanied the heralding of the Kingdom to the nations. This is what the scriptures state, and nothing more; the rest are improper assertions and misappropriations of the text.

Peter then said this (and this was rightly noted in a comment to the last post): Repent and be baptized. Upon immersion, then each participant, each believer, received remission of his sins and had received the gift of the Holy Spirit: the gift of God, which has already here been identified. It has nothing to do with an overtaking within each person, or the granting of undue rights to perform miracles. But it is the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh – the granting of salvation through Christ and the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven with mankind.

The only true mystery is why God has been so merciful to us in our willful ignorance of His Word.

~ 

Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all the ones far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.

And with many other words he earnestly testified and exhorted, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation’. Then those who gladly received his words were immersed. And about three thousand men were added that day. (Acts 2: 38 – 42)

 ~

 …The eunuch said to Philip, ‘I ask you, and of whom does the prophet speak; of himself, or about some other person?’ And opening his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, Philip preached Jesus to him.

And as they were going along the way they came on some water. And the eunuch said, ‘Behold, water! What prevents me to be baptized?’ And Philip said, ‘If you believe from all the heart, it is lawful.’ And answering he said, ‘I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God.’

And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. (Acts 8:34 – 38)

Paul D. Wegner, Using Old Testament Hebrew in Preaching: A Guide for Students and Pastors (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2009), 68–9.

Absolutely right. I wish more would preach the text and tell less stories that have no bearing on the message of the scriptures. Study the scriptures, then make applications and illustrations. Do not start with an illustration or an application and then try to find a scripture to fit it.

Because if you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation…

For everyone “whoever may call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

(Romans 10: 9 – 10, 13)

One occurrence had taken place at a work site, the other occurred a few days later at a funeral. The first came with an appeal toward the end of days. The Kingdom of Heaven, with world headquarters to be located in Jerusalem, was now (once again?) on the verge of being established in time worn Palestine, I was told. This would occur in the next year or two at the very most. The second came during the now obligatory spontaneous memorials at a funeral, in the instruction of two women, both friends of the deceased. The intriguing part was that all three protagonists claimed to spend a lot of their time reading the Will of God. They had each arrived at the same places, but with differing explanations of some of the details. I somehow arrived somewhere else through my own reading.

These well meaning people, like many others, had all managed to reduce the Word of God down to a single principle located in just three short sentences. One quotes the prophet Joel: For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

In the same Bible these three persons use, is found the conversion of Paul, told once through other eyes and twice through Paul’s quoted testimony before governing authorities and as recounted by witnesses. Paul was unique in that he was the only person to see the Lord once Jesus had ascended and again taken up His rightful place on the Throne of Heaven, as both Lord and King.

It seems that Paul was not in good enough mental shape to be able to distinguish that he had just been saved when he first believed and confessed Jesus as His Lord (which occurred while he was prostrate outside of the walls of Damascus in response to the overwhelming display that had been set before him).  That sure sounds like a confession and subjection to the power evidenced before him. Paul had already asked the identity behind the voice, and his question had been answered succinctly. Jesus then told him, Go into the city and you will be told what you must do. What in fact did he then do? There were no options offered. Do you suppose that at this very moment Paul didn’t quite get that Jesus was in fact who he had claimed to be while he had been on earth? Was Paul hesitant? Was he holding out for more information and a seat in a new convert’s class? Do you believe he thought it was a trick?

Three days later Paul said he was baptized to wash away (his) sins. The prophet had asked him, Paul, what are you waiting for? Apparently Ananias felt that proof of Paul’s faith had already been established and was in plain view. Get up and be immersed and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord. If Paul’s first confession had not been heard, Ananias just told him to call upon Jesus while he was going through baptism.

Reading this I sense some urgency; how about you? And as I told the first person of these three mentioned; it is about sin and obedience. So, around the Vandagriff household we wash the dirty stuff: clothes, people, pets, dishes, etc. etc.

Hearing, belief, repentance, confession and immersion into Christ - and continued obedience to His Word. That is what I have found the Word of God defines as calling upon the name of the Lord. Is there really a simplfied version of three sentences and just two single duties?

In the Words of Jesus, How does it read to you?

~

Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, so also shall we be in the resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we no longer serve sin.

(Romans 6: 3 – 8)

I wonder. Do you suppose the Savior of mankind, the Holy Son of God either sometimes did not mean what he said, or occasionally did not say what he meant? Did He at any time fail to state things clearly or concisely?

Now I know that there are a good number of folks who believe they are following God and who say they don’t have to worry about the outcome. Some believe that the power of God is on display through them. But more importantly, they believe they are altogether safe and heaven is just waiting for them to come on up. They have a view that once they have been saved they cannot fall, or that they are predestined, never having to worry about any consequences, and just need to wait to dance in through the pearly gates. This is what they have been taught and it is what they believe. Unfortunately, they are utterly clueless as to what God’s Word teaches. They simply could not find what they practice within a thousand yards of a Bible.

But, that was also the prevailing view of most of the folks who were listening that day on that hillside in Judea. You see they were the descendants of Abraham. The Law of Moses was the business of the priests and lawyers; and they already knew what the outcome would be in the long run. It was literally cast in stone; or so they figured. It was what they had heard and had been taught since they had been pups.

There is just not much difference when you examine what the Jews of that day believed against what the mainstream in this day trusts. About the only major difference is that the people Jesus spoke to that day were not quite as good pretenders as the likes of which we might have to deal with today. Some of them knew exactly what it meant to cast out a demon, and what it was to both see and recognize those mighty works that violated physical law. That was a time of miracles. You can read in the NT about some of their contemporaries who could and did do some of those powerful things. However, nothing at all like that is going on today. This is not that time. It appears that some could cast out demons and heal.

Today we might observe a person overcome with emotion and spouting gibberish and somebody then says a sign or a miracle is playing out. Then some shaman, with one hand moving after the poor soul’s wallet, smacks them on the forehead with the other and knocks the daylights out of them. The evil is supposedly dispatched and they wind up being told they just received the Holy Ghost. What they got was something less than a headache. And all of this is done in Jesus’ name. How pitiable and shallow.

And what did Jesus actually say about all of that?

With my simple way of seeing things, hadn’t He stated that if that was your belief and what you thought served God, that God had developed a plan especially for you?

 ~

Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many works of power?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!’ (Psalms 6:8)

 Therefore everyone who hears these Words from Me, and does them, I will compare him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain came down, and the rivers came up, and the winds blew, and fell against that house; but it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and who does not do them, he shall be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain came down, and the rivers came up, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.

And it happened, when Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were astonished at His doctrine. For He taught with authority and not as the scribes.

 (Matthew 7:22 -29)

I didn’t produce the above statement. It came from Alexander Campbell, the founder of Bethany College, and dates to 1830. I do think that he got it right about the excesses of human thought, though. We won’t spend much time on a plain explanation, preferring convoluted examinations and high handed hypotheses. We often have too much time on our hands. We will spin and manipulate elements and thoughts, sometimes defying both meaning and logic.

Brent, I and the other occasional contributors and writers here have written about regeneration or have been quoted on the subject many times. When we have mentioned the words baptism, immersion, or the phrase the washing of regeneration, and the like, it typically prompts an immediate response. Most of the time we only quoted scriptures or posted a comment or two; but you might think we had invented something completely different, or were teaching something we made up on the spot. When considering Christianity, nothing stands higher on the list of things that have been turned over by excess than the topic of regeneration. It seems that few people have a clear scriptural view these days.

Paul wrote the following to the Corinthians: I am jealous for you with a great jealousy, because I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ. But, I am afraid lest somehow, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

And this to the Galatians: I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel; which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

We should wonder about those same things. The shadow cast by the twin towers of modernism and worldliness can block our vision so that we lose sight of the truth.

Mr. Campbell suggested that where the scriptures draw from known figures in the natural world, we ought to note the application. When Christ stated that he …is the vine and that you are the branches, he was not speaking of future collective assemblies but rather to individuals. The branches derive sustenance from the vine and its roots. While some folks expand the interpretation beyond what is given, linguistically speaking the direction is clear: you are the branches. Where he said, if the tree does not bear fruit it should be cut down and cast into the fire. There is work to be done to serve God. And Jesus was issuing a warning to individuals that they were to be careful not to lean on any preconceived notions about what might please God, but were to lend themselves to the given duties which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

When Nicodemus questioned the figure employed by Jesus concerning regeneration, he did not get the point. Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. The phrase born again, also correctly rendered born from above, is found only in John chapter four and First Peter one. It relates to origin and species. Further, in another blinding glimpse of the obvious, the first is not equivalent to the second. It is a conjunctive clause.

The following consideration is also inescapable. Born of water means just exactly what it says, as does born of the Spirit. Mr. Campbell noted, “Let us consider the figure: In the natural world, a man is born of that from which he proceeds, and of that by which he is begotten.” So, he concluded: we, as Christians, must be the same, proceeding from water and begotten by the Spirit — born of water and the Spirit.

If you have been reading any of my posts, you know that I don’t see any direct action of the Holy Spirit of God in any of this. His duty was concluded while he was here. Our duty is to pay attention.

We are the fruit of the Spirit of God, and his work here, which was completed in the publication of the Word. The Lord of Hosts conceived the plan of salvation, Jesus Christ executed it, and the Holy Spirit finalized and published it. Christ had said …it is the Spirit that is alive. The words that I speak to you, they are the Spirit, they are the life. However, all of this I might note, can be understood irrespective of any view as to the inclusion of uppercase or lowercase letters or any arguments that may impose.

Mr. Campbell concluded his exercise noting that “…in the natural world a child cannot be said to be born of his father, until he is first born of his mother; so in the spiritual world, no one can be said to be born of the Spirit until he has first been born of water…” It seems one should naturally beget the other.

“What shall we say of those who profess to believe, and actually persuade their hearers, that a child must be born before it is begotten?” That it should be born of water before it is capable of being born of the Spirit?

Or, what shall we say of those who would teach that we must be born of the Spirit, while being born of water is completely unnecessary?

Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. While we may understand the second, we turn and twist against the first. But the lesson is that one cannot exist while excluding the other.

~

Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.

 (1 Corinthians 18: 8)

While preaching through Romans, I found the NET to have a fantastic rendering of Romans 12:1-2.

Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice — alive, holy, and pleasing to God — which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God — what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2; NET)

The first point that I really like was the change away from “living sacrifices” to “a sacrifice — alive, holy, and pleasing to God.” The NET translation notes explains that there is no reason to move “living” or “alive” to be in front of the sacrifice. I think it slightly changes the force of what Paul was saying. Typically, most understand a “living sacrifice” to be in contrast to the dead animals that were sacrificed under the old covenant. While this observation is still useful, the NET’s rendering shows that the greater point may be that being a sacrifice means we are alive to God and live for God, a point Paul made earlier in this letter (Romans 6:12-14). It is striking to notice how word placement can cause one to see things differently. Paul is not just saying that live our lives as sacrifices to God but everything we do must show the world that we have been made alive by God and live to God. We belong to God because he has made us alive.

The second point is the NET’s choice of going with the rendering “reasonable service,” a choice most modern translations avoid except the NKJV. Most translations choose “spiritual worship.” While the rendering, “spiritual worship” has its merits, I think we should not ignore that Paul’s point could very well be that based on the mercies of God, it is logical, rational, and reasonable for us to give our bodies as sacrifices to God.

The third difference in the NET that I believe is useful is in verse 2, “that you may test and approve what is the will of God.” A number of translations have some funny renderings for this, but I think the NET does a great job giving the thrust of the meaning. The NIV and TNIV use the same combination of “test and approve.”

I wanted to give some praise to the NET as a very good translation that is worth having and using for study. You can use the NET Bible and its translation notes for free online:

http://net.bible.org/bible.php