To continue the survival theme...
I want to delve into what I term the baloney-ology of some of the water baptism teaching we've had in the past. We called the circumcision made without hands a cutting away of our flesh, our fleshliness as we termed it so we could be spiritual-now we's spartchule!
Our baptisedness determined our station in the pecking order of life; we sought to do away with the deeds of the flesh which Paul enumerated in scripture. This carving-up of God's creation has always puzzled me-Paul wrote of a war that raged in his members. Yet he never ceded a portion of himself to the opposition, his was a civil conflict. I remember being taught about the dead man we were dragging around that would kill us our carnality that we needed to remove his carcass from our spiritual selves. Troubling for me was why did Jesus allow Himself to be baptized? He had this done over the protests of his cousin John at the outset of His ministry. This Jesus who called Himself the "Son of Man" cast Himself as the quintessential human, the prototype of humanity in the flesh. He spoke of His flesh at the communion table as a part of His sacrifice in which remembrance was required. "In Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily" again in scripture.
Jesus told Niccodemus he must be born again; we call ourselves as modern Christians-"Born Again Christians". "Should I crawl back into my mother's womb? How far back do I unlearn?" asked Niccodemus. Jesus told this Pharisee that he must un-learn his religion and in so doing see the kingdom before him-Jesus the Messiah. Jesus the first born of many brethren invites into this table of fellowship, of familial relationship, baptism the sign of the irrefutability of birth, once your out, your out. In Jesus we're invited and indeed adopted into family and sovereignly made a part of that family never to be undone, never to be repented of by the Father.
Finally for today, the whole of your being was baptized flesh, spirit, soul or as the say in Texas "Horns, Hooves an' all" He saw that it was good.
Our baptisedness determined our station in the pecking order of life; we sought to do away with the deeds of the flesh which Paul enumerated in scripture. This carving-up of God's creation has always puzzled me-Paul wrote of a war that raged in his members. Yet he never ceded a portion of himself to the opposition, his was a civil conflict. I remember being taught about the dead man we were dragging around that would kill us our carnality that we needed to remove his carcass from our spiritual selves. Troubling for me was why did Jesus allow Himself to be baptized? He had this done over the protests of his cousin John at the outset of His ministry. This Jesus who called Himself the "Son of Man" cast Himself as the quintessential human, the prototype of humanity in the flesh. He spoke of His flesh at the communion table as a part of His sacrifice in which remembrance was required. "In Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily" again in scripture.
Jesus told Niccodemus he must be born again; we call ourselves as modern Christians-"Born Again Christians". "Should I crawl back into my mother's womb? How far back do I unlearn?" asked Niccodemus. Jesus told this Pharisee that he must un-learn his religion and in so doing see the kingdom before him-Jesus the Messiah. Jesus the first born of many brethren invites into this table of fellowship, of familial relationship, baptism the sign of the irrefutability of birth, once your out, your out. In Jesus we're invited and indeed adopted into family and sovereignly made a part of that family never to be undone, never to be repented of by the Father.
Finally for today, the whole of your being was baptized flesh, spirit, soul or as the say in Texas "Horns, Hooves an' all" He saw that it was good.
John
posted by John R. Jones at 8:14 AM
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