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NASB | Mark 16:16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Mark 16:16 "He who has believed [in Me] and has been baptized will be saved [from the penalty of God's wrath and judgment]; but he who has not believed will be condemned. |
Subject: believeth and is baptized |
Bible Note: Dear lightedsteps, It has been interesting reading your comments, and this last post particularly. I was thinking tonight about this phrase "trivializing of baptism." I think I am starting to understand your point. (Perhaps my own origins, as you suggested, do help in that respect after all. Thanks for your persistence in clarifying what you mean.) I keep thinking of the Waldensians and later the Anabaptists, in reaction to the sacerdotalism of the Roman Church, did everything they could to shift thinking in the opposite direction. Just as you see their thrust as a trivialization, they would regard your emphasis as ritualization or ceremonialism. I can see each antipodal position entrenching more deeply and uncompromisingly, while correspondingly growing in antipathy. (Of course, all of the difficulties are compounded because this sort of thing would apply to all of the ordinances (sacraments), making the entire discussion serious enough theological points for which men would live and die.) Not to denigrate anyone, I tend to think that both sides have missed the point. Walking an aisle, reciting a prayer, eating a wafer, being sprinkled from a font, being immersed in a river, etc. etc. are empty, even superstitious, activities without the underpinnings of the prior work of our Triune God in redemption. Frankly, the Anabaptist pastor's symbolism or the Pope's absolution are worse than irrelevant if a person's life is not radically and permanently changed. Tonight I was reading through some of my notes from Thomas Watson's book, "The Christian Soldier or Heaven Taken by Storm." What he says below, hits right to the point I'm trying to make: "To exclude all glorying in the creature. Faith is a humble grace. If salvation were by repentance or works, a man would say, 'It is my righteousness which has saved me!' But if it is of faith, where is boasting? Faith fetches all from Christ -- and gives all the glory to Christ! "God's believing people are a humble people. 'Be clothed with humility.' God's people shrink into nothing in their own thoughts. David cries out, 'I am a worm, and not a man!' Though a saint, though a king -- yet a worm! When Moses' face shined, he covered it with a veil. When God's people shine most in grace -- they are covered with the veil of humility. Abraham the father of the faithful, confesses, 'I am nothing but dust and ashes.' 'God resists the proud.' Surely, God will not take to be with Himself in glory, such as whom He resists. "God's believing people are a willing people. Though they cannot serve God perfectly -- they serve Him willingly. They do not grudge God a little time spent in His worship. They do not murmur at sufferings. They will go through a sea and a wilderness -- if God calls. 'Your people shall be a willing people.' This spontaneity and willingness is from the attractive power of God's Spirit. The Spirit does not force -- but sweetly draws the will. This willingness makes all our services acceptable. God sometimes accepts of willingness without the work -- but never the work without willingness. "God's believing people are a consecrated people. They have 'holiness to the Lord' written upon them. 'You are a holy people to the Lord your God.' God's people are separated from the world -- and sanctified by the Spirit. The priests under the law were not only to wash in the laver -- but were arrayed with glorious apparel. This was typical, to show that God's people are not only washed from gross sins -- but adorned with holiness of life. They bear not only God's name -- but His image! Holiness is God's stamp; if He does not see this stamp upon us, He will not own us for His believing people." In Him, Doc |