Continuing Pastor Kyle’s message, he asks, do you want to know where our own path leads? Our own path leads to Noah’s flood, Jonah’s whale, unnecessary wrong roads in life’s journey and lumps, bumps and bruises along the way that Jesus already paid for. Our path does not speed up anything; if anything, it slows us down, gets us off-track with God and, if not changed, ultimately shuts the door on the Ark of Salvation. Unbelievers may say, “Look at the cruelty of God in allowing all those lives to perish in unbelief”, but in reality, look at the patience of God giving non-believers so much time to repent and choose life before having to say, “that’s enough, let’s move on with the harvest”.
The third trait is that Jesus fought so we could be forgiven and free. The Apostle Peter writes that baptism saves us. Baptism is a physical act that we do, but the appeal to God from our heart is what saves. Why wouldn’t a bible-believing Christian want to be baptized? It is one thing that the Lord Jesus said to do. It is important as a symbol of your faith to all. It is an outward expression of your inward reality of what happened in our heart. The Apostle connected baptism to Noah’s flood for a couple of reasons. (1) we are to think of our old sinful lives like we died and never resurfaced. Every part of that Godless life got buried at the bottom of the ocean, so to speak. During physical baptism, when you go down into the water, it is a symbol that your old sinful life is dead and the new life that you live as you rise out of the water is the life you now live in Christ. Justification by the blood of Jesus in His atoning sacrifice forgives sin, transforms our heart and regenerates our spirit, receives the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide us and reconnected us to God to discern truth and commune in prayer and worship to our heavenly Father as a child in God’s family and a citizen of the kingdom of Heaven. But, we are still in the flesh on this side of glory and the process of sanctification (growing into the holy image and likeness of Jesus Christ) has begun. Those who have been walking with the Jesus for any time quickly learn that the reality of overcoming our sin nature is like unwinding an intertwined knot and takes a long time to grow as we walk in the Spirit. But, the idea that we should have in our head is that our old God-rejecting sinful life is gone, dead and buried.
(2) It’s a reminder of the second chance and the lifeline that is offered to all that repent of their sin and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The eight people in Noah’s Ark, that survived the global flood, were not perfect. But, they had great gratitude that God gave them a second chance at life. That is how we are supposed to think about our lives also, in light of the reality that we have been crucified with Christ and have been risen to new life with Him in His resurrection. We should wake up daily, thanking God for this new day and our second chance at life because He rescued us from our old life that was dead in trespasses and sin. We may not be where we want to be in Heaven for eternity yet, but thanking God that we are no longer who we used to be.
Thank God that we now know the “right” path, the righteous road, and are on it with the Holy Spirit, aligned with God’s perfect Word, Will and Way. The difference between you then and now is that before your repentance, accepting Christ, conversion and transformation, you didn’t know the “right” path. We should thank God for His grace and forgiveness. We should thank God for our freedom that we have in Christ. The Apostle Peter makes sure that we know that we were not just forgiven, but in Christ we are truly free from the bondage of sin.
Baptism is about forgiveness, but it does not stop at forgiveness. God makes sure that you know you can live life with a clean conscience. Some know that they are forgiven, but struggle to find freedom from their past sins against their just and holy Creator Father God. They buried the hatchet, but left the handle sticking out of the ground to come back to. If you are in Christ, you have been forgiven and you have been freed. Today, God offers you freedom and a clean conscience as Christ has paid the sin debt in full.
Jesus suffered so that we could be safe, He is patient when we are on the wrong path and He fought for our forgiveness and freedom.
Psalm 103:11-13 “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him.”
That is our Heavenly Father.
In Christ, Brian
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