“I had done with the world on the
day when my Nautilus plunged for the first time beneath the waters.”
- Captain Nemo, “Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea” (Jules Verne)
Waking up with the Captain and
coffee on the mind...read through the N.T. passages on baptism, including: “For
Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He
might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in
the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in
prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the
days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is,
eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that,
baptism now saves you - not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal
to God for a good conscience - through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Who is
at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities
and powers had been subjected to Him” (1 Peter 3:18-22).
And: “Now when they heard this, they
were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren,
what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and
for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.’ And
with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying,
‘Be saved from this perverse generation!’” (Acts 2:37-40).
And: “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”
(Romans 6:4).
And: “...having been buried with Him
in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the
working of God, Who raised Him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12).
His promise in baptism is sure in
Christ, no matter what the world throws our way, Church.
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