Lesson 2216

(Lesson 2216)(01-02-18) 1 Peter 3:18-22
    “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”

    Today’s lesson relates that Jesus Christ is the ONLY remitter of sins and that it is through His perfect sacrifice that one can access the righteousness necessary to achieve eternal life.
    Sadly, there are many who contend that one must be immersed (baptized or washed) in water to become “clean” enough to enter heaven and use parts of today’s quote to assure that contention. That misrepresentation of scriptural intent is one of the most erroneous and damning notions confronting Christianity today. As Jesus said, “ I am the way, the truth, and the life, no mam cometh to the Father but by me.” If one’s faith is in water baptism for “the remission of sins”, then that one’s faith CANNOT, at the same time, be in the blood of Christ Jesus for that same remission.
    Today’s reference to the saving of Noah’s family simply relates that the eight were lifted up and rescued by the water through Noah’s faith in God. Noah’s faith was exercised by His building of the Ark as God had commanded.
    Baptism does indeed save us, however the baptism (immersion) that saves our eternal soul is NOT a baptism or immersion into water. That baptism is an immersion, by faith, into the perfect body of our Lord Jesus Christ as He was sacrificed for the sins of those who will come to believe in Him.~