Monday, August 21, 2023
BEING BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST – Pastor Chris
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
The first thing that happens when you come to Christ or receive eternal life is that you are baptized or immersed into Christ. Paul captures it vividly in 2 Corinthians 5:17, when he said, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Therefore, to be in Christ or be born into Christ is to be recreated; you’re now a new person in Christ. This first experience is when the Holy Spirit receives you into Him, just as the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free….” This is the new birth—being born again.
The second part of the verse refers to the second experience “…and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” This is receiving the Holy Spirit to dwell in you to become one with Him in the same body (1 Corinthians 6:17, John 7:37-39).
Receiving Him is a separate experience that follows the first experience. On the day of Pentecost, for example, the disciples were born again and also received the Holy Spirit to dwell in them on that same occasion.
The same experience happens to many people today; immediately they’re born again, they receive the Holy Spirit. But this isn’t always the case. In Acts 19, for example, the Apostle Paul encountered some disciples in Ephesus and asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit since they believed.
They replied that they hadn’t even heard that there was a Holy Spirit. So, for some individuals, there might be a period of waiting, maybe due to a lack of knowledge about the Holy Spirit and His ministry in the saints, like these disciples Paul encountered in Ephesus.
The Apostle Paul Himself received Christ and was born again on the road to Damascus, but received the Holy Spirit after three days when Ananias, a disciple of Damascus, came to him and laid hands on him (Acts 9:9-11,17).
So, being born again is actually being baptized into the Holy Ghost, into Christ, and into God. John refers to it as “being in God” and distinguishes that from “He in you” (1 John 4:15) much as Paul the apostle distinguishes ‘being in Christ’, which begins at the new birth, from ‘Christ in you’, which evidently is initiated when you receive the Holy Spirit into you (2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 1:27).
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CONFESSION
I’m inseparably one with Christ, for in Him I live, move, and have my being! I’m the embodiment and expression of His glory and divinity. Glory to God!
FURTHER STUDY: 1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 17:28; Galatians 3:27
1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 1 Corinthians 6 & Psalms 119:1-112
2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN Luke 18:1-8 & 1 Samuel 7-8
