Passage of the Day

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Passage of the Day - January 7, 2013

Malachi 1:2-5

²“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; ³but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.” ⁴Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins”; thus says the Lord of hosts, “They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever.” ⁵Your eyes will see this and you will say, “The Lord be magnified beyond the border of Israel!”

Then the paedobaptist runs into this passage. The fate of Esau was decided before he was even born as seen in Genesis 25:23. If the fate of our children is decided before they are even born, then how will we know they will remain faithful to the Lord? What efficacy does baptism really have on an infant? What does it actually do? If Esau can forsake his birthright, can our children do the same? Can we? Can we who are reborn forsake the privileges our rebirth brings us? Is eternal security even true? When you dig deep into one theological area, it often opens Pandora’s Box.

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/)

Passage of the Day - January 6, 2013

Mark 2:14-17

¹⁴As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.
¹⁵And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. ¹⁶When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This verse adds quite a bit of spice to the topic of infant baptism. This passage shows us that the focus of Christ’s ministry is the wayward unbelievers, not the children of believing parents (who have already been instructed how to handle their children in Deuteronomy). Since the focus of Christ’s ministry is wayward unbelievers, then it should not surprise us that the Bible focuses on the conversion of wayward unbelievers.

Passage of the Day - January 5, 2013

Deuteronomy 6:1-15

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, ²so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. ³O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! ⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. ⁹You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
¹⁰“Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, ¹¹and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, ¹²then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹³You shall fear only the Lord your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. ¹⁴You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, ¹⁵for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

Over and over again we see throughout Scripture the importance of children to God and our responsibility as parents to disciple them. The longevity of a people, a nation, or a church depends on the diligence in handing down its heritage. Is our individualism superseding our heritage? I often wonder if what we believe about Christianity is polluted by our individualism. If we weren’t as individualistic, would there be a question about infant baptism?

Passage of the Day - January 4, 2013

Psalm 22:9-10

⁹Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.
¹⁰Upon You I was cast from birth;
You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

This passage comes from the great prophetic poem of David that had much prophecy regarding Christ. However, David still wrote this poem.

When are we God’s? From the beginning.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Passage of the Day - January 3, 2013

Ezekiel 36:22-32

²²“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. ²³I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. ²⁴For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.
²⁵Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. ²⁶Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. ²⁸You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. ²⁹Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. ³⁰I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations. ³¹Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. ³²I am not doing this for your sake,” declares the Lord God, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel!”

Does this passage refer to the Church or a yet to be restored nation of

Israel

? As far as the topic of baptism is concerned, I’m not sure it matters. Look at what God is promising in this passage and what baptism does. Isn’t it amazing that the purpose of baptism is so well explained in the Old Testament?

You will also notice that the water was sprinkled.

Most importantly, however, all of this was for God’s sake and His Name. This is something that must be remembered in baptism, as well. As I stated in earlier posts, we have a tendency to make baptism all about us joining the team as opposed to the grace God is giving. This holds true post-baptism as well. We all need a reminder that our whole purpose is to serve God and glorify His holy Name.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Passage of the Day - January 2, 2013

II Samuel 7:8-17

⁸“Now therefore, thus you shall say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel. ⁹I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. ¹⁰I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly,
¹¹even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. ¹²When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, ¹⁵but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’” ¹⁷In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

Here is another covenant of God. God made a covenant with David that the house of David will always be the royal line of Israel. Israel may have had a civil breakdown, been enslaved to other nations, have a parliamentary democracy now, but no one has ever overthrown the Davidic line to become king of an independent Israel. In fact, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem as King. Jesus, a legal descendent of David, came to Jerusalem and within a week was killed and rose again. Of course, His kingdom cannot be overthrown and He will come back to claim which is His.

You will note that, once again, this covenant applies to David and his descendants.

Through the covenant with Noah, God chose mankind. Through the covenant with Abraham, God chose His people. Through the covenant with Moses, God chose His nation. Through the covenant with David, God chose His royal line. Through Christ, God established His Church and His Kingdom. Through baptism, God expands His territory.

Passage of the Day - January 1, 2013

Exodus 24:1-8

Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. ²Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.”

³Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!” ⁴Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord.
⁶Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” ⁸So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

After delivering His people via the Ten Plagues and saving His people via the water of the Red Sea that was parted, God established another covenant with His people. FYI, those who the Red Sea was parted for are the ones this covenant was applied to. This includes the children and infants who were carried through by their parents.

This covenant involved the shedding of blood and the blood being sprinkled on the people as a sign of being covered by, committed to, and a part of the covenant.

Through the covenant with Noah, God chose mankind. Through the covenant with Abraham, God chose His people. Through the covenant with Moses, God chose His nation.