Quote:
Originally Posted by mizpeh
These verses from Romans 6 are the symbolic picture of what Acts 2:38 represents to an obedient believer. |
That's an important application. However, we still must recognize that it was "Him." He died. He was buried. He rose again.
That doesn't just "open a door" for me to symbolically copy the mode of His suffering and death. What He did gives me life in the first place.
I know that no one is denying that. It's just that we so often have left that as an unspoken assumption that other people don't understand our message at all. How do you think the "charge" of
Christianity Without the Cross became so popular? It's because after listening to us talk and preach, many people simply came away with that impression.
And, from my own experience among Apostolics, this has been the case as well. When I began to start to get a hold of the importance of Jesus Christ and the Sovereignty of God in securing my salvation I was stirred. I began to really preach Jesus, and Him crucified.
Sadly, in my own church my pastor and others would sometimes interrupt my preaching to "provide balance." I was preaching, "It's All in Him..." and not just "the fullness of the Godhead," all our hope, all our dreams and all of our salvation. It's all in Him!
That's not a popular message. I really thought that I was carrying out Brother Hall's and Brother Bernard's advice. But I soon learned that this was a message that was not welcome entirely among us.
I gotta go. I have a "UPC gig" this week and some down time coming up. My wife's after me to finish packing. God bless you all.
