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NASB | 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]. |
Subject: why is baptism important |
Bible Note: I agree that they do not contradict. The problem is that we are trying to separate elements that are inextricably bound to each other. James does not say we are saved by works, just that faith without works is dead. Faith alone is not true faith, if you will. As I posted in a reply to Nolan this discussion is perhaps getting tired. My final argument -- Take it or leave it -- is this. 1. To be saved you must be "in Christ" 2 Cor 5:17. John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.'" Only Christ can save and to take advantage of that salvation you have to be "in Him". 2. -- Rom 6:1-11 "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been BAPTIZED into Christ Jesus have been BAPTIZED into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through BAPTISM into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (NASB emphasis mine). This very clearly shows a process. a. you die to sin (Believe and Repent) b. you are burried with Christ in BAPTISM (Immersion in water) Note: Paul says that we are baptized INTO Christ (v. 3) so that is how we get in! c. you THEN rise (from the water) to live in newness of life. 3. Since it is in Christ that we find salvation, and since it is BAPTISM that puts us into Christ, we have to conclude that BAPTISM is an essential element of SALVATION. This in no way denies that we are saved by faith since it is our faith that leads us to the waters of baptism. God said it I believe it That settles it I rest my case In Christ Tim |