Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Sometimes it is the simple that makes the most impact. Last night’s class we spoke on why repenting, confessing, and baptism is our believing response to the gospel. We repent because we believe the the gospel is Jesus dying for our sins. We confess because we believe the gospel is Jesus is the Son of God. We are baptized because we believe the gospel is His death, burial, and resurrection. All our actions of faith are reenacting the gospel. But there is more simplicity. We repent because repenting is a change of mind, and it is our mind, our way, our wants that makes us need a new character. We confess Jesus as the Son of God because we are submitting to a new mind, a new way, a new set of wants because we need a new character and submitting to a new Lord is the key. We are baptized because we are killing self, and only God can remake us into a new mind, new way, new set of wants, by giving us a new character through resurrection. After Jesus lived the gospel, He ascended into heaven into the presence of God. When we relive the gospel, we can enter into the presence of God. If we make all of this just commands, we are missing the Christ and missing the character altering method of God. We repent, confess and are baptized because we believe the gospel which includes we are need to change everything about us. We repent, confess and are baptized because of what Jesus did and what we want to become. It’s simple, but not easy.
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