Passage of the Day - December 24, 2012

Matthew 3:11

¹¹ “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

II Corinthians 1:21-22

²¹ Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, ²² who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

Ephesians 1:13-14

¹³ In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Romans 8:14-17

¹⁴ For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

I Peter 2:9-10

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; ¹⁰ for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

It is evident from these passages of Scripture that baptism is a means of grace to place God’s seal of the Holy Spirit upon us as proof that we are adopted as sons into His kingdom and are fellow heirs of our anointed King, Jesus Christ.  We have fallen into the trap of believing that baptism is somehow all about us and our proclamation that we have signed the contract to be on God’s team.  That is not how it works.  Baptism is all about God and His adoption of His chosen people.  We bring nothing to the table and the focus of baptism should never be upon the one being baptized, rather the focus should be on God and the works that God will now do through the one being baptized.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)