The Way of the Cross - Baptism and a Transformed Life.
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Modern Christianity can be a little complicated to say the least. There are around 33,000 protestant denominations in the world, and then the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The common question is, ‘which one is the correct one?” And everyone one of them including us claim to be correct. Honestly that is a bit confusing if you ask me.
Paul, the Apostle of Jesus and author of ¾ of the NT saw things a little less complicated.
For Paul the Christian faith was about being transformed into the image of Jesus: a restoration or re-creation into a humanity that is stamped with the unbroken image of God Himself.
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
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For Paul, this process of becoming like Christ was not complicated at all, it was simply a matter of following the Rabbi.
For Paul, this process of becoming like Christ was not complicated at all, it was simply a matter of following the Rabbi.
And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
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Paul gives us a 3-step process to following Jesus and being transformed into a new kind of humanity.
Paul gives us a 3-step process to following Jesus and being transformed into a new kind of humanity.
3-step process to following Jesus and being transformed into a new kind of humanity.
Our lives as followers of Jesus will be a journey made up of these three life changing steps.
Our lives as followers of Jesus will be a journey made up of these three life changing steps.
The 3 Steps are:
The 3 Steps are:
Death, Burial, and Resurrection
Death, Burial, and Resurrection
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Jesus took these steps before us and for us.
Jesus took these steps before us and for us.
He rescued us from sin and death for us by taking on Himself our sin and their penalty.
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
He restored our relationship with God as father.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
2 Cor 5:
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The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is our path to freedom!
The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is our path to freedom!
We enter the accomplishment of His work through faith.
And we are transformed by following Him into His death, burial resurrection.
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Our first step is faith in what He has done for us!
Our second step is being initiated into His death, burial and resurrection, through baptism.
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Baptism is a sign that we accept His work through his death, burial, and resurrection.
And that we will follow Him into a life of repeated death, burial, and resurrection.
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.
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Baptism is a sign to the world that we have:
Baptism is a sign to the world that we have:
Died and will continue to die to the ways of the world.
Died and will continue to die to the ways of the world.
As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.
Gal
That we have been buried into his death to this world and buried into a new family!
That we have been buried into his death to this world and buried into a new family!
When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
1 Cor 12
Finally, that we have been spiritually resurrected to a new way of life!
Finally, that we have been spiritually resurrected to a new way of life!
Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
There is a reason Jesus taught BAPTISM as the first step of being his follower.
There is a reason Jesus taught BAPTISM as the first step of being his follower.
Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Baptism is a beautiful picture of what Jesus has done for us.
It is also a beautiful picture of the life He calls us to live.
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Jesus has given us the way of being transformed:
Death to the world
Buried into a new family -The body of Christ.
Resurrecting to a new life.
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This process is repeated over and over again as the Spirit of God works the garbage and death out of our lives.
And the first step of this process starts with baptism.
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If you are ready to take that step in following Jesus towards a transformed life then I want to invite you to be baptized next Sunday.
But only if you are ready to follow Him and to leave behind the ways of this world for the ways of His Kingdom!
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Death, Burial, and Resurrection
Death, Burial, and Resurrection
These are the core of the Christian faith and the cornerstone to Christian Spirituality.