# 375 Baptism

The Book of Genesis

Day 375

Ge 41: 32 "And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

When God repeats things, He is merely underlining or highlighting them for us. He gives them an extra sense of urgency. This spiritual truth is especially driven home to us in the Gospel of John where the phrase, “verily, verily,” is repeated 24 times!

Today we will turn our attention to Joh 3:3-5, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?  5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Wow! We get two “verily, verilies” here!  This born again stuff must be very important!  What does it mean to be “born again?” Simply stated, our first birth takes place when we pop out of the womb, and it is a physical birth. Our second birth is the spiritual birth that declares us to be a child of God!

All of us, come into this world physically tainted by the original sin of Adam. Unless this sin problem is taken care of we cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nothing contaminated can enter the kingdom of God. We must put on the uncontaminated Son of God in order to get into the kingdom.

Jesus spoke to this in Mt 22:11-13 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.  12 "So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless.  13 "Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take

 him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

The man was speechless! He had no defense! The Word of God speaks often of the necessity of putting on Christ, but he ignored it!

So the question begs to be asked, How do we put on Christ? How does this second birth through water and the Spirit come to us? It comes to us through baptism, and it’s pure grace!  Ga 3:27 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

This under dressed wedding guest should have paid more attention to the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, who upon having the full gospel explained to him by Phillip, slammed on the brakes as the first sign of water and asked to be baptized! The improperly attired guest should have carefully read Mr 16:16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

And instead of poo pooing the efficacy of baptism, maybe he should have answered the question that Jesus once posed to the religious leaders of his day: Mt 21:25 "The baptism of John--where was it from? From heaven or from men?" (Mt 21:25)

If baptism is something man does, it is a work, if it is something God does, it is grace, and grace knows nothing of age or reason. That’s why Peter said this about baptism in Ac 2:38,39, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

It’s also why the Philippian jailer had his whole household baptized! Ac 16:31 So they (Paul and Silas) said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."  32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.  33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.

Notice what happened here: In verse 32 Paul and Silas spoke more fully the word of the Lord to the jailer and his household, and what’s the first thing they did? They put on Christ in baptism.

So much more could be said here about the necessity and urgency of  baptism, but we’ll just leave it with the emphasized Word of Jesus spoken to Nicodemus: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.