Danny Hickman

The answers and comments to this question show how confused the world (and church) are about the gospel.
Here's the list of requirements being touted here for salvation: Lifestyle, baptism, works, faith, parental covering. Curiously missing but often accredited: Church attendance, church service, sacrificial giving.

Jesus said 'you must be born again.' John 3. He didn't add anything to that in any of His sermons. He explained it. He said 'unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.' Then He explained that statement: "That which is born of flesh (water) is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In summary: There must be a new birth of the spirit of a man, a physical birth as a Hebrew isn't enough, the way Nicodemus had been taught. If Jesus meant 'you must be baptized,' He would have said it somewhere in His three years of preaching. Peter, John, James, Jude, Paul, Timothy, Barbabas, Silas, SOMEBODY would have said it if it was a requirement.

Jesus said there is nothing amazing about being born again. He said it's like the wind blowing wherever it chooses to. He's talking about the Spirit regenerating the spirit of a man so that man can believe the gospel.

Eph 2:8 says, By grace you are saved through faith; that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
That verse doesn't seem to settle the matter for some of us. The faith we have is due to being born again OF THE SPIRIT. It doesn't come from being baptized.

May 27 2020 • Report