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The work of Salvation

Isa 53:1-12 Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of Jehovah revealed? For He comes up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor majesty that we should see Him, nor an appearance that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as it were a hiding of faces from Him, He being despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken. And He put His grave with the wicked, and with a rich one in His death; although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased Jehovah to crush Him; to grieve Him; that He should put forth His soul as a guilt-offering. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. He shall be fully satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify for many; and He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide to Him with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul to death; and He was counted among the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for transgressors.

Every sinner is condemned .

Since we come from Adam and Eve, we are born stained by the sin of our first parents, a fact that drags us into an eternal separation from God, our Creator, and to suffering in hell the chastisement for our disobediences to the Lord.

What the Father did in Jesus.

God placed in Jesus the sins of all men. It was the only moment the communion (fellowship) between Father and Son was interrupted. When Jesus cries from the cross, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? it was because our sins placed in Him cut the fellowship with His Father.

His crucifixion

Jesus laid His life down; nobody took it away from Him. Although it seemed that He could do nothing to avoid been seized, the fact is that He willingly gave Himself. Because He knew that was the way to save us from an eternal condemnation.

His death

At His death, our sins (which God placed on Him) pushed Him into hell, as they would have done with us. But God called Him to resurrection and hell could not retain Him, because in Him there was no sin.

Our sins remained in hell, and today the Gospel invites us to believe it and to accept Jesus, because as He offered us His death, He also offers us His life.

Rom 5:10 For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

His resurrection

Act 13:30-33 But God raised Him from the dead, who appeared for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we preach the gospel to you, the promise made to the fathers, this God has fulfilled to us their children, raising up Jesus,...

The Gospel is the Announcement (to mankind) of the work done by Jesus.

The following passage is an example.

Philip and the eunuch.

Act 8:26-39 And the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south, on the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is a deserted place.
And he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot he read Isaiah the prophet.
Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go near and join yourself to this chariot.
And Philip ran there to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Do you indeed understand what you are reading?
And he said, How can I unless some man should guide me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
And the content of the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so He opened not His mouth.
In His humiliation His judgment was taken away, and who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth."
And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I beg you, of whom does the prophet speak this? Of himself or of some other man?
Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture and preached the gospel of Jesus to him.
And as they passed along the way, they came on some water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water, what hinders me from being baptized?
Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, it is lawful. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch. And he baptized him.
And when they had come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing.

ABOUT THE BAPTISM IN WATER

Jesus Himself established it. He ordered to do this with the ones that believed.

Mat 28:19 Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,…

Mar 16:15-16 And He said to them, Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to all the creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Because of this order given by Jesus, the preaching of the Gospel includes the Baptism.

In the verse shown below we see that - although the words Philip spoke to the eunuch are not registered - he obviously mentioned the need of being baptized in water, because the Ethiopian, seen waters, asked if the baptism could be carried out there. That wouldn't have occurred to the Ethiopian if it had not been mentioned.

Act 8:36 And as they passed along the way, they came on some water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water, what hinders me from being baptized?

The Holy Spirit drives the believers to desire the baptism.

The same passage shows how after receiving the information about the baptism, the Spirit of God places -in who believes- the desire of fulfilling this mandate of Jesus.

Act 8:36 And as they passed along the way, they came on some water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water, what hinders me from being baptized?

It is necessary for salvation.

It is a requisite. Only to believe is not sufficient.

Mar 16:15-16 And He said to them, Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to all the creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.

The baptism doesn't take away our sinful nature.

Although it is a requisite for being saved, mandatory, this action does not sanctify the person.

1 Pe 3:21 which figure now also saves us, baptism; not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;...

To enter into the Kingdom of God it is necessary to be born again.

He who does these things as God requests them, is saved. That also means he is part of those who dwell in the Kingdom of God.

Let us see more about how to enter the Kingdom of God.

Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

To be born again means that life is received again, for a second time.

When the words of the Gospel are received and accepted in the heart, that is, when God is believed and the death and resurrection of Jesus are accepted as the only way, God does a work, which although invisible, is true: Our being receives life. .

This time God Himself gives us birth again to a life that is as the life which is in God.

The same scripture allows to understand that before believing and accepting the salvation prepared by God and Jesus for us, we were not children of God.

In different verses of the New Testament we find Jesus' teachings about this, but once Jesus clearly said this to some: You are of the Devil as father. Because they did not receive what He said.

To stop being children of the Devil and become children of God we must be born again. We would have to die and be born again, which, of course, no man or woman can do by themselves.

And because God knows that we can't, He allows us to be born again by faith in His Word (believe in God) and in the work of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection.

Joh 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.

To be born again it is necessary to be "born" from water and to be "born" from the Spirit.

When Jesus teaches about the new birth, he also mentions the need of being born from water. Without that it is not possible to enter the Kingdom of God.

Joh 3:5-6 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

The baptism is our personal expression, before God and the whole spiritual and natural world, the visible and the invisible, that (1) we have recognized the sinfulness in our being and that we don't want it, therefore drawing near to God asking for His forgiveness (repentance) with mourning or pain for the evil that is in us , even if we appear to be good, and that (2) we have believed (faith) that the work done by Jesus is necessary for us if we are to start living a different life, uncontaminated by sin and according to the will of God.

Repentance, faith and the baptism are the three elements, which -when put together- make us children of God, including us in His Kingdom and making us part of the people of God, who are the ones redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God.

First the baptism, then the birth of the Spirit.

Jesus also reveals that the Spirit of God, and this seems to happen at the moment of the baptism, gives birth to the spirit of man.

Joh 3:5-6 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

By fulfilling the FIRST STEP OF OBEDIENCE, thus surrendering to the Lordship of the Christ, the Spirit of God gives us life and we can then enter the kingdom of God. We are saved.

We are not yet sanctified, but we are saved.

This must not be considered as a: We finally made it!, thinking that is all there is.

Really, when the Spirit of God gives us new life we are as babies. Just born, we are at the beginning -of a life that has JUST BEGUN!

Children of God and dwelling of the Holy Spirit (who comes to live in our spirit, which now lives).

The believer who with his baptism declared that he did not want to be anymore as he was, who declared that he didn't want to live a life with sin anymore, initiates now the path of sanctification.

Sanctification (separation from sin) in our lives can only be accomplished walking hand in hand with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, so to all who love God and wish to do His will (the will of God is our sanctification), God arranged that the Holy Spirit be given to them.

Gal 4:6-7 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.

Act 5:32 And we are His witnesses of these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.

He is the guarantee that, if we obey Him, we will walk in God's ways and we will have communion with Him.

With the Holy Spirit we can be as God desires us to be.

Have you been baptized?

Then with full assurance of faith draw near to the throne of grace and ask your Father to send the Spirit of His Son to dwell in you.

SUMMARY:

1. Jesus made a work for salvation.

2. The Gospel announces that work.

3. The baptism is part of the Gospel:

a. Jesus ordered it.

b. The preaching of the Gospel is incomplete if the baptism is not included.

c. The Spirit of God draws the believers to desiring the baptism.

d. It is necessary to be saved.

e. The baptism doesn't take away our sinful nature.

f.To enter into the kingdom of God it is necessary to be born again, which means to receive life a second time.

g. To be born again, the baptisms of water and of Spirit are necessary.

h. First is the obedience and the baptism of water, then the birth of the Spirit.

4. The work Jesus did is for us to become children of God, and holy before our Father.

5. God does not leave his children as orphans, but sends to them His Holy Spirit to guide them into Life.

Check this article for a very interesting comment on the obligation of Baptism: On the Threshold of Death

Objections to the Baptism issue? http://www.missiontoisrael.org/objectionstobaptismanswered.php