Volume 47   Number 5                                                         January 2005

Satan does not want you to be saved. Throughout all history, starting from Eden down to this present time, the great Serpent has been coiled to not only strike at those already saved (2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:12, 13), but to also sink his fangs into those who are trying to enter the Kingdom! Since our Adversary is poised for your spiritual murder (John 8:44), doesn’t it make sense that his workers would creep in unaware to deceive the religious into thinking they are saved, when in reality, they have never even obeyed the gospel?

When the glorious gospel is preached, an honest soul readily accepts the wonderful story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if Satan finds such a person moving towards God by faith, he slithers over quickly to intercept them before they can be baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27). The father of lies has been instrumental in many spiritual abortions by suppressing the truth about baptism. Just as he lied to Eve about what God required in the beginning, the Evil One beguiles the penitent soul today by offering more convenient and attractive ways of salvation. But serpentine stories are no substitute for transforming Truth!

The ‘pious’ snakes that would poison water baptism and render it meaningless with the venom of ridicule must be a kind of desert species, for they seem to have an aversion to water. Just like the demons who were cast out by Jesus and entered the herd of swine (Mark 5:13), maybe they know that the watery grave only spells doom, as it did for Pharaoh’s Army when they attempted to cross the Red Sea (I Corinthians 10:2). Satan is responsible for causing many cases of spiritual hydrophobia through his clever perversions of water baptism!

Yet water is where God brings forth new life! In the beginning we find water over the face of the entire planet before the quickening Spirit (Genesis 1) created a life-sustaining atmosphere from that same water, and then made dry land rise up from the deep for vegetable, animal and human life! When God judged the world the first time in the days of Noah, it was the great waters of the flood that served the Divine Will as they washed away the world ‘that then was’ and replaced it with a renewed dwelling place for man (1 Peter 3:20,21). And was it not a watery womb inside your mother where God secretly fashioned you before you emerged a new person on your birth-day? (Psalms 139:13-16)

Why then should it be an abhorrent thought that God saves us through a liquid grave in order to bury the old man and be raised up a new creature in Christ? “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Titus 3:5). You can see from the Bible that God gives water a place in the new birth, not just the Spirit. (John 3:5)

Salvation is not only for your unseen soul; it is for your visible body as well! “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Thessalonians 5:23; See also Romans 8:23.) Here we see that it is the body, not just the spirit and soul that is to be ‘sanctified’, or ‘set apart’ for the Lord. Before conversion, the body is identified as a ‘body of sin’, employed in sinful practices, toiling with hand and foot to work all manner of unrighteousness: “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.” (Romans 7:5) Being ‘saved’ means there has been a change in employers, and the body must be ‘set apart’ for the most important work of all! (Hebrews 10:22)

If you are tired of working for Satan, you need to quit your job! “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:6) The phrase ‘might be destroyed’ literally means ‘to render entirely idle or useless.’ In order to get your new job at the LORD plant, you don’t give Satan a ten-day notice – you have to die to be free from sin and its wages! The old man needs to be buried, and God has chosen immersion in water as a most suitable grave for that old unemployed former servant of Satan! (Romans 6:3-12)

The Gospel not only shows us that the soul of man is important to God, it has also brought to light how valuable the body is to God. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1Corinthians 6:19,20) The body of the child of God is also a member of Christ: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? ” (1Corinthians 6:15a; Read also Romans 6:13-19) The Lord wants His Temple to be new and washed from sin before He will dwell therein! (Acts 2:38; 5:32)

Picture it this way: The Gospel contains the great facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Not only must we believe this to be saved, we must also obey this eternal Word (2 Thessalonians 1:8). Just as Christ was put to death, buried, then raised again, we also must follow the form by repenting and being baptized so that God can raise us to new life in Christ! How simple the plan! (Read also Romans 6:17) Have you been to the water, friend? Satan wants in between you and being immersed in water in the Name of Jesus Christ. But really, only you can keep yourself from obeying the gospel. Put your faith in Jesus and do not be afraid to be buried with Him in baptism so your sins can be washed away!