© 07 Colin Melbourne
Part II of II Read Part I
Only ONE Way
Religions push the lie that ceremonial washing in water will take away your sin, but it never does. God has provided the only way to remove your sin.
He Did It All
We are utterly helpless and hopeless. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. That’s why, praise God, He’s made it easy for us. Man wants desperately to do something to save himself, but we can have no part in the work of our salvation. Jesus has done it all for us. Aren’t you glad about that?
We were filthy, spending our lives in sin and rebellion, but He drew near, came in love, and implanted faith in our hearts to believe the Gospel. The moment we each accepted Him, no matter how foetid we were, God washed us clean in an instant.
1 Co. 6:9-11 KJV lists the shocking sins of the Corinthian believers before they came to Christ, and ends with the glorious phrase that gets saints rejoicing in the tenses…
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
You were born again, a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Washed and made holy by the Spirit of God, not by physical water, but by the Living Water. (Jn. 4:10)
Isn’t this too beautiful for human words?
Washed by The Living Word
Eph. 5:25-27 uses water and washing as symbols of Christ the Living Water (Jn. 4:10) and Living Word (Heb. 4:12) washing the church. Symbolic representation of something already performed by God to the believer.
The waters of baptism will never take away your sin. Only heart-faith in the Blood Sacrifice of the Living Word of God will remove your sin.
Saved First: Then Baptised in Water
Pseudo-Christian cults get upset at this, and point to 1 Pe. 3:21, The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us… claiming it means that water baptism saves.
It doesn’t.
It is the Born Again Baptism into Christ that saves, not baptism in water, which merely physically symbolises the spiritual reality that preceded it.
The ICC cult are indoctrinated to say, “What about Acts 2:38? …Repent and be baptized… and ye shall receive…”
Understand that neither the Holy Spirit, nor Peter, was making baptism in water a condition of salvation, because that would contradict the rest of the NT revelation showing salvation comes through simple heart faith in Christ, and confession of Him as Lord. (Ro. 10:8-13).
The Holy Spirit knew full well, that salvation is not dependent upon water baptism, but included it both as a reference to the born again baptism into Christ, and to instruct new believers to follow through testifying of their submission to Christ by baptism in water. It cannot be used to make baptism in water a condition of salvation, because God does not contradict Himself.
Nothing but The Blood of Jesus
So we are left with the only way God has provided for our sins to be washed away.
God came in Christ and shed His sinless Blood to wash away our sins:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Holy Bible Eph. 1:7 KJV
The LORD reconciles us to Himself, Col. 1:20 KJV;
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
The Blood of Christ was ‘typified’ in the Levitical priesthood by the blood of animals, and the Holy Spirit tells us in Heb. 10:3-4 that animal sacrifices were merely an annual reminder of sins,
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
So the question is:
What will wash away your sin?
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
What will take away your guilt?
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
Sinners are washed and made clean in God’s sight only through genuine faith in Christ’s Sacrifice for them once and for all.
1 Peter 1:18-19 reminds believers they have been bought and redeemed from sin by, the precious blood of Christ, not through water in baptism or ceremonial washing, as the Apostle John tells us only, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 Jn. 1:7 KJV
Old John rejoiced, in his final years on Earth, that he was freed of sin, not by water, or baptism, but exhorts us to worship, Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Rev. 1:5b KJV
Are You Washed in The Blood?
Where are your sins right now? Are they covering you, or are they washed away by the Blood of The LORD Jesus Christ, The Living Word of God?
Have you believed the lie that water baptism took your guilt away, or any other rite, ceremony or ‘good deed’? If so you have been deceived, and you need to be washed in the Blood of Christ.
Get right with God, reject ridiculous religion, come to Him the only way He accepts, by the new and Living Way made for us by The LORD Jesus Christ.
Now, wash your sins away… Receive The LORD Jesus Christ as your LORD and Saviour.
© 07 Colin Melbourne