The Holy Spirit Doesn't Waste Words

# 770 - Today's Du-votional comes from: Mr 16:"He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” Such a simple verse to understand and yet so many people just don't want to deal with it. We look for all sorts of loopholes to justify delaying baptism or denying its power. But the Holy Spirit doesn't waste words. “All Scripture is God-breathed,” (2 Tim 3:16) He could have just as easily said here, “he who believes will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.” End of story. But he didn't! He added the condition of baptism to the salvation equation. Then, as if forseeing the possibility that some people will think that their baptism alone is enough to save them, He adds the latter part of the verse, which could be restated, “He who does not believe will be condemned even if they are baptized. Baptism and faith are forever linked together in this verse. Any separation of the two results in condemnation. In one sense, baptism is like circumcision. It's irreversable. You can't become uncircumcised, and you can't become unbaptized. It's one and done for both. There is never any need to be “re-baptized.” But it is possible to lose your faith! There can be times when the baptized need to be “re-faithed” if you will. They need to come back to Jesus. We call that repentance., a turning back to faith or personal revival. Jesus emphasizes this necessity of remaining in the faith in the latter part of this verse. “He who does not believe (baptized or not) will be condemned.” Be baptized and believe and be saved, but if you don't remain in that faith you will be damned! It's that simple.