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NASB | John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:5 Jesus answered, "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot [ever] enter the kingdom of God. [Ezek 36:25-27] |
Subject: Verses where water alone means baptism? |
Bible Note: Tim In this context what is work? To most it is anything you have to do. Let us use the addiction to pornography. To repent of it all you have to do is stop looking at it. However to some that is nearly impossible for them. They have to 'work' at it. As to the question about Eph 2:8-9. Here we have a text that says we are saved by grace and not of works that any should boast. Does that mean no effort on our part or does it mean we can't 'earn' our salvation. I think it means the latter not the former. We are entirely too hung up on this tension between grace and works. Absolutely there is no way to 'earn' salvation however to be saved there are things we 'must do'. We must believe, we must repent, we must serve God, we must forgive, we must love our neighbors, we must make disciples, we must obey Jesus' commandments, we must love God we must have faith. All these things are "musts" in the Bible. All of these are work. Now what happens if your truly saved and you died before you made a disciple would you still be saved? Yes but that does not remove the requirement for us that live to make to disciples. If you were truly saved and you didn't have time to forgive your neighbor are you saved? Yes but that does not remove the requirement for us that live to forgive our neighbor. To me scripture is clear you must be baptized for the remission of sin. Does that mean the thief on the cross was not saved because he was never baptized? No! however that does not remove the charge for us to be baptized. The message is getting distorted. We are like a bunch of lawyers hunting through a document, in this case the Bible, for "loop holes". The result. There are far too many in the church today that believe they have to do nothing. All they have to do is confess Jesus as Lord and they are saved. They sit and watch as bemused spectators as God’s servants go about the task of serving the Lord. People are dying and going to hell because no one ever lived Christ before them and they were surrounded by "Christians". Like I said you guys argue your answers I already have mine. EdB |