"Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?"
In today's quote, Paul berates the Galatians for their seeming desire to return to the bondage of the Law from which the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ had eternally freed them if they would simply put their faith in Him.
Those who today claim to represent the true Christian doctrine should carefully revaluate what they are teaching to be sure it is not been tainted by man made demands that take away from the ultimate, and simple, aim of the gospel of Christ. A requirement that one must be 'baptized' in water in order to be saved is one such man made requirement that is not backed up by New Testament scripture.
The doctrine that Jesus taught concludes that eternal salvation comes by the grace of God the Father through faith in the life and actions of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. Nothing else is required to achieve eternal salvation. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
There is no way one can deny that participation in the ritual of water baptism is a 'work', it is NOT a "gift" of God. If one places his/her faith in water baptism instead of in the life, death, burial, and ultimate resurrection of Jesus Christ, that one may as well have placed his/her faith in a golden calf.~
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