Why We Must Be Tested: God's Sufficient Grace

Let's face it: The trials and tribulations of life that God sovereignly brings into our lives (those which He has ordained before the foundation of the world) are not fun. In fact, they are not pleasant, meaningful, exciting, and, in our carnal minds, we wonder just what is going on and if God has deserted us. The trials and tribulation are so severe sometimes that we find ourselves crying out in despair, unable to eat or drink, and are often so incapacitated by them that we are unable to respond to our families and friends. (See the Old Testament book, Job)

And yet, it is about the trials and tribulations of life that God in His inerrant Word commands us to count or regard as joy when we encounter what can seem to us overwhelming trials of life.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” (James 1:2-3; NKJV)

Faith never grows so well as when we are under various trials and tribulations. This is a biblical fact and no matter how much we kick and scream against the goads, it is true whether we like it or not. It is the storms of life when the winds are blowing at tornado speeds and wreaking destruction, when the floodwaters rise up to our necks, when faith is the most disciplined and enlightened.

It is often because of the degree of our arrogance that the degree of our tribulation is the greatest. Think about it: The Bible tells us we are but “earthen vessels” all frail, delicate, breakable and yet upon whose sufficiency do we depend to get through life? Our own. Why then do we moan and cry out so when our own sufficiency fails us and we are in trouble as the result? Do we not make it worse when we try to claw our way out of tribulation rather than “count it joy” and depend upon that “treasure” we have in our “earthen vessels” to sustain us?

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10; NKJV)

[May I humbly suggest that the “this treasure” in the above text is the “Grace of God” via the ministry of the Holy Spirit.]

We never regard ourselves so weak, much less as earthen vessels, until we find ourselves in circumstances that knock the wind from our self-sufficient sails. What do earthen vessels do? What can they do but sit around until someone comes along and plants a pretty flower in them or knocks them off the shelf. It is when the earthen vessel hits bottom that the realization of just how weak and fragile it is becomes apparent. It cracks up and breaks.

Don't you see that getting knocked off the shelf is exactly why God not only gives us trials but also often does so in such degree so that we can see just how weak and frail we really are apart from His enabling Grace? We never would confess our sinful self-dependence and reliance apart from being rendered weak from the tribulations that God sends us. We never would know how weak we are apart from the trials and tribulations of life. And it is exactly in the position of weakness where God wants His children because that is when we learn to depend on the power and strength of the Grace of God in the middle of trouble. That's why and how we can “count it all joy when you encounter various trials...”

“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; NKJV)

Easy-Believism: Who Gets The Glory?

In thinking more about Decisionalism or Easy-Believism salvation, the plague that has infected Evangelicalism, I began to wonder just who do these proponents of this error think they are glorifying in teaching that “God has done His part, now it is up to you to do your part?”

With the Bible being crystal clear that salvation is “not of yourself lest any man boast,” just how do they explain this? Are these Easy-Believism advocates saying that when you get down to brass tacks, it is man's fallen volition, a will that is dead and enslaved to sin, that is the final determiner in bridging the gulf that separates God and man?

I would suggest that this is straight from the fallen will of man. It is a direct response from man's hideous total depravity to say, much less think, that man has some island or spark of righteousness left in him that enables him to respond favorably to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is an attempt to glorify himself. It is taking away from God the glory when He acts to save His people or His elect.

In discussions with Easy-Believism proponents, I have actually been told that the reason someone is saved while his neighbor is not is that the saved one made the right decision. If that is so, then is it not of works that a professing believer comes to faith and trust in Christ? Is it not then the result of a good work that the professing Christian is saved? To believe unto salvation certainly is not a non-work or a bad work, is it? Therefore, in the minds of those who believe this error, that which makes the difference between them and their lost neighbor is that they make the good and right decision whereas their lost and hell-bound neighbor did not.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."(Ephesians 2:8,9)

I can't begin to count how many people have told me they are “born-again Christians” and yet they are very publicly ensconced in lives that would, in some cases, make the Devil cringe. A young man who is on his second or third sexual lover told me he is a born-again Christian. His mother told me the same thing about herself, that she is “born again,” and she lies every time she opens her mouth, pirates satellite signals for free, and makes sexual advances toward men other than her husband. A woman in our church is 44 or 45 years old and tells everyone she is 27. She makes no connection between her profession of the Gospel and telling the truth.

This horrid and damnable false doctrine creates the idea in the heads of its advocates that to have forgiveness of sin they think their volition wrought for them means that there is no obligation to obey the commandments of God. This horror creates in their minds a license to sin and to sin freely.

I was listening to a YouTube video in which a famous Reformed Baptist preacher was telling the story of one of his parishioners who admitted to him in a counseling session that she was involved in a long-term sexual affair with a married man. She herself was also married. She saw nothing wrong with this. The preacher told her she would go to hell if she did not stop this. Her response was that she was heaven-bound and that God had to forgive her of this sin because of the decision she made twenty years prior. “Once saved, always saved” is what she chanted to him.

Some take 1 John 1:9 as a kind of permission to sin and get away with it. They have chronic sin practices in their lives but believe as long as they confess it they can get it forgiven and get by with it.

“In the Bible, to know someone includes close communion and love. To “know Christ” means to keep His commandments. This knowledge of Christ is called a “perfected” love of God (v.5), not because it makes us perfectly sinless, because it is irrevocably established in those who live by it. Anyone who presumes to have received forgiveness from God but spurns the gift of obedient love as unnecessary is a “liar.” Instead of receiving “Jesus Christ the righteous” as Savior, such a person manufactures a false christ , a savior who is indifferent to righteousness.”¹

Easy-Believism glorifies man's totally and absolutely depraved nature. This theological system is man-centered and makes man's fallen will the final determiner in salvation. It is not the salvation of the Bible and is, in the long run, rank and file heresy.

1  New Geneva Study Bible; NKJV; Nelson Publishing; pg. 1987; 1 John 2:1-6 footnote

Immutability: God Never Changes

The thing that sustains me through the trials and tribulations of life is the fact that my Lord and Savior never changes. No matter what horribleness is thrown into the path of my life, no matter how hard life is and gets, no matter how painful it seems, the one unmovable constant in my life is that His immutability is there for me to cling to.

I hate change. Some people actually like it, I know. However, I am talking about the death of loved ones, getting fired from a job, or the car breaking down. That is what I am talking about: the many things that can go wrong and rock you from your secure little perch. I know I can spend so much time trying to get my life on a tranquil plane of existence and just when I think I have made it, boom! The rug is pulled out from underneath me and my prideful self takes a heavy fall.

But, everything eventually changes, does it not? Disease strikes you or a loved one and death is sometimes the result. Loved ones grow old and die. Friends and family have tragic events and accidents. Creation itself, its very existence, is not forever without decay reaching its doorstep eventually. There is only One who is immune to the inevitable change of mortality.

It is that One to whom we must cling in this tribulation-filled world as the only unchangeable Anchor for our lives on this earth and for our souls in eternity. His forever-unchangeable person is where we have to rest when changes vex us so.

With Christ there is not nor ever can be any rotating or changing variables. Eternally constant, He is the anchor in which our souls find stability, comfort, and peace in the stormy seas of change. His eternal attributes dwell not just in the heavenly realm but are also here now in the weary hearts of His chosen to sustain us today with His eternal unchanging (immutable) power, wisdom, love, comfort, and peace.

The unchangeable Christ is the irrepressible and invincible fortress to shelter His elect in the day of changing problems and trials.

“I am the Lord; I change not,” (Malachi 3:6)

Rejection: Easy-Believism

If you've been reading my blog, you will no doubt understand that I do not believe in what has come to be called, “Easy-Believism.” This is a doctrine of salvation (soteriology) that teaches a sinner can get right with God (saved from his or her sin) by giving a mental assent to the doctrines described in the Bible about Jesus. This idea of “Easy-Believism” is also called “Decisionism.” By whatever name it is called, I reject it.

I reject to the core the teaching that salvation can be accomplished by the intellectual acceptance of a few biblical facts about the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and then for the person to go forth living life like everyone else on the planet as though nothing has happened.

I know many people who profess Christ. What I mean is that they call themselves Christians and yet they live like the devil. Their “salvation experience” had no sense of the crushing weight of their own sin, which should cause them cry out, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13) Yet, they point to a time in their past in which they prayed a prayer, walked an altar-call aisle (went forward), or raised their hand in a revival meeting and call themselves Christians though their lives show no evidence of being New Creatures in Christ (Gal. 5:17).

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was not, nor is not, just a call to receive “fire insurance” from the damnation of hell. Rather, it was (is) a call to be saved from the penalty and power of sin. Did you see that last phrase: “...from the power of sin?” Someone who truly is born again, has been brought by the Holy Spirit to faith in the finished work of Christ, is saved not only from the wages of sin, but is saved from the rule, dominion, control, or power of sin in their lives. That is why John wrote in 1 John 2:6:

“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”

In fact, to come to faith and trust in Christ puts the professing believer on alert that if truly a Christian, one cannot have sin in any form reigning in his or her life.

Romans 6:12-14

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. ”

The Romans 6 text shows that when someone comes to faith and trust in Christ, he or she is united in the likeness of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The death Christ died to sin, we in Him also died. The resurrection of Christ from the dead, we in him were raised from being dead in our trespasses and sin SO THAT we might walk in newness of life and not like we did before we were saved.

Someone who is truly a Christian CANNOT live as they did before:

“...according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. “ (Ephesians 2: 2,3)

Note carefully what this is saying: As a non-Christian, you lived like everyone else did on the planet. You walked according to the dictates of the devil. You were a son or daughter of disobedience. (Living a righteous life was not in your plans.) You lived your life in the lusts of your flesh and sought to satisfy your sinful flesh and mind. Your nature, your very core, was a child of wrath just like all the rest of the world.

That’s the not-so-pretty picture of who and what everyone born in the world is like. And, this is what the “Easy-Believism” crowd thinks you can remain like when you “pray to receive Christ.” “Obedience,” I was once told, “is preferred but is not necessary.”

This is a horrific nightmare that modern-day evangelicalism will accept ANYONE who professes to know Christ and yet has a life that is not any different than those who “walking according to the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air (Satan), and are sons of disobedience.”

This is NOT the gospel. It is false and dangerous.

In the simplest of terms: the gospel call to faith presupposes that sinners must repent of their sin and yield to Christ's authority (John MacArthur)

What does the Bible teach?

The Bible teaches that the Gospel is a call to repentance: Acts 2:38, 17:30, 20:21; 2 Peter 3:9.

The Bible teaches that repentance is a true change of heart and behavior: Luke 3:8, Acts 26:18-20

The Bible teaches that repentance is NOT man's work but all of God's grace: Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25

The Bible teaches that the faith to believe is also NOT a work of man but instead is a gift from God: Ephesians 2:1-10

The Bible teaches that true faith will never be compromised: Philippians 1:6

(The Easy- Believism crowd believes you can actually stop believing in Christ and still be saved—see 1 John 2:19.)

The Bible teaches that Christ Himself is to be the object of our faith and not facts about Him: “and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor. 5: 15)

(Did you catch the point of that verse? The context in which this verse occurs is speaking about being reconciled to God, or in other words, salvation. Those for whom Christ died (God's elect) are not to live for themselves but for Christ who died for them. That is salvation!)

The Bible teaches that if you are Christ's sheep, you will follow Him. (John 10:27, 28) You not only will not live as you did before but if you are one of Christ's sheep (in other words a believer), you will follow Christ.

(Easy-Believism teaching says that giving an assent to the facts of the Gospel is all that's necessary and that no following of Christ is required. I actually heard this once in an evangelism meeting in which the preacher told the crowd that all one had to do to be saved is believe that Christ died on a cross and nothing more would be required of you.)

The Bible teaches that the faith wrought by the Holy Spirit in you to believe unto salvation produces a “New Creation” (2 Cor. 5:17) in the inner person that can do nothing other than bear fruit of repentance.

The Bible teaches very plainly that we can know that we have come to know Christ if we keep His commandments (1 John 2:3). And, if someone who does not obey Christ's commands and claims to be a Christian, that profession is false. In fact, the Bible calls that person a liar (1 John 2:4).

“Whoever says, “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” -1John 2:4 ESV

The Easy-Believism bunch believes most sincerely that obeying Christ's commands is an issue pertaining to a “second-level commitment,” ¹ which sounds suspiciously like another gospel to me.

Galatians 1: 8

“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”

1 John MacArthur

Does the Apostle refer to baptism in water or baptism in the Spirit here?

One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Eph. 4:5 (NKJV)


Many credible scholars claim that "baptism" in the Eph. 4:5 text is referring to water baptism. Though most of their arguments are sound, I want to take the opposite view in which "baptism" in this specific text is not referring to water but to the Spirit baptism. If Paul meant "water baptism," one of the church sacraments, why did he not also mention the other sacrament, "The Lord's Table?" Why didn't he say, "One baptism, one cup, one bread?"

This text of scripture occurs in the context of supernatural "unities." The context speaks to unity in the Body of Christ. He is talking in the context of supernatural or immaterial things. Water baptism is not supernatural, but material. It is done by one man to another.

Water baptism does not unify but has historically divided many Christians as to mode and meaning. Paul addressed the disunity concerning baptism in 1 Corinthians 1:13. Ephesians was written after First Corinthians. This would not be contextually consistent with the "unities" theme of the Eph. 4:1-6 text.

If the sacrament of water baptism were the point in this text, why exactly would Paul have ignored the other sacrament? I suggest it is that the sacraments, both baptism and the Lord's Table, do not fall within the "unities" emphasis of the passage.

There is the absence in this text of any baptismal prescription. Water baptism in the Gospel of Matthew 28:19 clearly prescribes that we are to be water baptized in the "name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." This is obviously missing from the Eph. 4:5 text in its immediate and remote context.

Lastly, the one ministry of the Holy Spirit that brings us into an organic unity with Christ and His body is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This would be consistent with the theme of the Eph. 4 text referring to the unity in Christ's body. It is also consistent with 1 Corinthians 12: 1-13 in which Paul wrote, "we are all baptized into one body by one Spirit." Here, Paul uses the same language as in Eph. 4:1-6: the word "one" signifying unity.

Two-Step Plan of Salvation Part III

In parts one and two of "Two-Step Plan of Salvation," I attempted to answer the question, "what's wrong with this picture," and that picture being the idea presented to my wife and I by a friend that she got saved by "making a decision based an act of my will."

I tried making the point that this theological error, decisionism salvation, amounts to another Gospel and therefore Paul's warning in Galatians 1:8-9 applies:

"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8-9 NKJV)

Salvation is not the result of an act of one's fallen will. Salvation is being regenerated, made alive, or quickened, so that, or in order, that you might "confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead." (Romans 10:9)

As I pointed out in the part one, my friend elucidated what she meant by the Gospel by adding that first she "made a decision based an act of her will," then she said that part and parcel to her salvation experience was years later being "baptized in the Spirit evidenced by praying in tongues."

First part of what's wrong with this picture is that our friend thinks she is saved on the basis on something "she has done," i.e. making a decision based on an act of her will. Second part of what's wrong with this picture is that she thinks there is a second part to salvation, a second work of grace, if you will, to be sought after her first "decision based on an act of her will." Salvation is a "Two-Step Plan" for her and for literally thousands of professing (false) believers all over the world. They are false because they teach, preach, and believe another Gospel. To correct this second part of the "Two-Step Plan of Salvation," we have to take a look at what the Bible says about the "Baptism of the Spirit."

"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free-and have all been made to drink into [a] one Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 NKJV)

So, we see the Bible does teach there is a baptism by (one) Spirit. But what does this mean?

"The baptism of the Holy Spirit may be defined as that work whereby the Spirit of God places the believer into union with Christ and into union with other believers in the body of Christ at the moment of salvation." (http://www.gotquestions.org/Spirit-baptism.html)

Another text with which to demonstrate this doctrine is seen in Romans 6:1-4:

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (NKJV)

The 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 text tells us that the Holy Spirit is the agent of baptism into one body (the body of Christ) and the Romans 6:1-4 text tells us what else is involved in this Spirit baptism.

1. We were baptized into Christ Jesus, which made us partakers of His death to sin.

2. Therefore, we are united in the likeness of his burial through this baptism into death.

3. And, in the likeness of Christ's resurrection, we are co-raised in Christ that we might walk in newness of life. (see Romans 6:5-12)

Both of these texts of Scripture show that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit accomplishes the following and no more or no less:

1. It puts us, or unites us, into the Body of Christ.

2. It unites us in the likeness of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection so that we can say:

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20 NKJV)

If you want power to live the Spirit-filled life, look no further than your conversion experience and to your co-crucifixion, co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection in Christ. Therein is the power of God unto salvation from the penalty and power of sin.

Two points obliterate this error that there is a second work of Grace one must seek after getting saved (if they are really saved at all).

1. The 1 Corinthians 12 text shows clearly that all Christians have been baptized by the Spirit into Christ. "We were all baptized," says Paul, "into Christ just as all have been given one Spirit to drink (the filling of the Spirit in Eph. 5:18)."

2. There is no text in Scripture where we are told to be baptized in, by, or with the Spirit.

"Experiencing the one Spirit baptism serves as the basis for keeping the unity of the church, as in the context of Ephesians 4:5. Being associated with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection through Spirit baptism establishes the basis for our separation from the power of indwelling sin and our walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-10; Colossians 2:12)." (http://www.gotquestions.org/Spirit-baptism.html)

This, too, the second part of the "Two-Step Plan of Salvation" our friend shared and I mentioned in part one of this series, is another gospel. It is not the Gospel of the Bible, it is not the Gospel of Jesus, and it is not the Gospel of God. It is heretical.

To say that something more is required to experience the power of God unto salvation is not only error, it is blasphemy. To say what Christ bought for us with his death, burial and resurrection was insufficient is to deny the Doctrine of Christ (2 John 9). The redemption from the penalty of sin and the deliverance from the power of sin that we might walk in the newness of life was purchased at the Cross. At Calvary you got the whole deal.

You want to live a life that shows that you are a Christian? You want to live life walking worthy of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? You want to walk in a manner worthy of the calling in which you have been called?

Then the Apostle Paul would tell you three things:

1. In light of your co-crucifixion, your co-burial, your co-resurrection, reckon yourselves indeed dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus.

2. And, because of the truth of point #1, or therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.

3. You can do this because sin has no dominion over you because in Christ, you are not under law but under Grace. (Re-read Romans 6)

Beloved, don't trust anyone who presents you a decisionalism salvation. To do so would be to your peril. And, do not accept anyone who tells you what Christ purchased with his death on a Cross was not sufficient and that you need some "second blessing."

Believe the simple Gospel for redemption from the penalty of your sin and for freedom from sin's dominion and power in your life.

"And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."" (John 6:35-40 NJKV)

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"I've Got The Holy Spirit; Why Be Baptized?"

Having been in the faith for more than 41 years, I think I have heard just about every objection to obeying God and His Word. I once was told by a fellow male member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church we were attending in the States that he "didn't work-be gainfully employed- to support his family because he was afraid his sons would grow up not knowing who he was if he was gone to work all the time." That was an easy one. However, every now and then something comes along that takes me by surprise, like the theme of this essay: "A member of your cell group/congregation tells you that because he already has the Holy Spirit he does not believe that baptism in water is necessary."

Perhaps the root of this distorted view of the biblical doctrine of the sacraments is merely a misunderstanding or an ill-taught view of what baptism is and why we, as Christians, should be baptized. If so, then a small examination of the Scriptures would do nicely to set this person's view back on track and, hopefully, direct him to obedience in baptism.

Though the word "sacrament" is not in the Bible, it is an interesting word, which finds a highly appropriate application to what baptism (and the other church sacrament: communion) is all about. It was a word used in ancient Roman times as a sign of a soldier's military pledge to serve faithfully his commanding officer. It was sign, indeed a seal, representing the promise to faithfully execute his commander's standards and a sign of the promise not to desert him.

This excellent description of a sacrament applies to baptism in that when we are brought to faith and repentance in Christ, we, too, are listed in the service of the "Captain of our salvation" (Hebrews 2:10 KJV). Our standard, the thing to which we pledge ourselves through faith in Christ, is to take up our cross daily, denying sin within us, and follow Him in obedience.

Some early church fathers saw the sacraments as "solemn badges" worn by Christians metaphorically as a means to distinguish believers from the rest of humanity. As circumcision was a sign and seal of the righteousness and faith (Romans 4:11) under the Old Economy, under the New, the same distinction corresponds to the New Testament sacraments. What baptism represents is Christ's death, burial, and resurrection and how this benefits the believer (Romans 6:1-12). It is the outward expression (sign) of the believer's New, Inward Nature. In every sacrament, there is a spiritual reality between the sign and what it represents.

Baptism is not only a New Testament sacrament, the sign and seal of the New Nature in Christ (Galatians 3:27; Col. 2:11,12), but it was also ordained by Christ Himself. In the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19), believers are commanded to baptize in the fulfillment of the discipleship process. To be baptized is to obey Christ's word.

"In baptism you were raised up with Christ through faith-your own faith, not your parents' faith. If it is not "through faith"-if it is not an outward expression of inward faith-it is not baptism." (John Piper)

In I Peter 3:21, reveals that: 1) Baptism is not the removal of dirt from the flesh (the water is not the object); 2) Baptism is an appeal to God for a good conscience; 3) Baptism is the outward demonstration or expression of a changed heart and mind in Christ. This, therefore, is a nail in the coffin for infant baptism.

If baptism is a Christ-ordained sacrament for the New Testament, and if there can be no discipleship without it, (New Testament, first-century Christians were baptizing and baptized Saints), then let me suggest five reasons why someone who claims to be a believer refuses baptism.

One is that they just do not know. They truly came to faith in Christ and were not taught to take the sign and seal of the New Covenant through baptism.

Two is that once they learn of baptism and its meaning, they are ashamed to admit they've never been baptized.

Three is that they are apathetic. Once they are taught and understand that baptism is an issue of obedience, they can't be bothered. I have encountered this with the elderly.

Four is that they are rebellious. They have been living a spiritually duplicitous life, and they know it, and if they were to suddenly come forward in obedience and be baptized, they would be found to be a spiritual fraud.

Five is that they are not really Christians after all. Church attendance is all the spirituality they need and is the extent of their meaningless profession of faith or lack thereof.

The waters of baptism are not what save you. Faith in Christ, because of Grace, and through the instrumentality of Faith, is what saves you. But, just as the Old Testament saints received circumcision as a sign and seal of their Covenantal relationship with God, so, too, do New Testament saints receive the sign and seal of the New Covenant through the waters of baptism. It is a command of Christ within the salvific purposes of God. And did not Jesus say,

"If you love Me, you will keep my commandment?" (John 15:14 NASB)