Redemption Recipe
Feb 13, 2012 Posted in Featured, So That!
Acts 2:37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Food / cooking shows are ridiculously popular these days. One of the reasons is people love to see transformation and the process of “Before & After.” That’s in each of us (Ecc. 3:11). There’s a latent question that every person has hard-wired: Luke 18:18(ESV) And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” In other words: What’s the recipe for redemption; how does one cook a Christian?
Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Biblical repentance is essentially synonymous with belief. Repentance is not the fear of consequence but rather the love of holiness and virtue. It is glimpsing His grace and glory and goodness and recognizing that I deliberately rebelled against it. And now there is nothing I can do to undo what I did. That’s what hell is, the eternal and infinite regret of not embracing the Son. My only recourse is to repent and rethink my thinking. He’s not just a carpenter’s son from Galilee, He is Lord and Christ (2:36) and I participated in His humiliation & execution (Zech. 12). So now I want to abandon every aspect of my former mindset and pursue Him.
Water baptism is not saving, but it is a demonstration of the conversion that has taken place. It is because of the forgiveness of sin. It is identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:11-12). We are literally raised to walk in newness of life “in Him.” Water Baptism is supposed to make it impossible to be a secret disciple. One who desires secrecy has still not re-thought their thinking and internalized the reality that He is Lord and Christ.
Then, we are entered into one Body. We do worship, discipleship, ministry, mission, fellowship. Church essentially consists of doctrine and fellowship; praying and “breaking bread” together are expressions of fellowship. This is God’s plan for this age.
Many of us still need to reorient our thinking and build our lives around what God is doing in the world. We claim Christ as King, but in reality He is not making the decisions. The Jews had to abandon their affiliation with Judaism as a primary identity and be identified with someone who had been branded a blasphemer. They risked social, economic, and even physical ostracism. People who have identified with Christ need desperately to come together to commune and share the experiences of participating in “the rightful King’s campaign of sabotage” (C.S. Lewis).
So what’s the recipe for redemption? Rotate (repent), Hydrate (baptism), Congregate (Church). It takes a Church to raise a Christian. May we mix well.