How Important Is Baptism to the Christian Life?

A certain church is telling me that whenever someone repents, they must be baptized.

Is that true? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. This is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question. Here's the phone number. That's 1-833-843-2673.

And you can also email us with your question at questions at corechristianity.com, or you can post your question on our Facebook page or our Instagram account. Now, we often start this program with a good news story, and we have one for you today. In the small town of Lulu, Georgia, resident Amanda Browning says she came to visit and she never left. Amanda says, I fell in love with this town from the very beginning. And she now owns Amanda's Farm to Fork restaurant, and she says she uses food as a way to connect with others. But Amanda acknowledges that a meal is a luxury that not everyone can afford. So outside her restaurant, she has a blessing box. It works by donations from anybody in the community who can help. Things like canned goods, fresh veggies, toiletries, and socks are inside.

Amanda says it's open 24-7, and anybody can stop and get whatever they need. Oh, that's cool. Maybe you should start a blessing box outside your church in San Diego. Yeah, I think that wouldn't be a bad idea, actually. I mean, those are, I think, ways to be able to minister to the community.

And how cool is she doing this just outside of her restaurant? I mean, thinking about those who maybe don't have the means to be able to come in. Beautiful story. Well, let's get to our first question of the day. And this one is an email that came in from Matthew. He says, I'm concerned about my repentance and whether it is genuine. I've attended church all my life, but only truly understood the gospel and received Christ last year. I know I should hate sin, but there are many instances when I find myself loving the sin that I struggle with. Often I just instinctively run to my sin, especially the ones I've been committing most of my life. Sometimes I also wonder to myself, if I'm truly born again, would I be committing so much sin?

You know, I had that same question that you have, brother. I remember years ago praying to the Lord, crying out to Him. I had been walking with Jesus for probably eight or nine months and just thinking, okay, why is it that I still have these sinful thoughts and ideas? Like, if I'm truly born again, if I'm saved, surely, surely I would not have had that thought.

I mean, it just can't be the case. And I remember I would go, it was sort of embarrassing, but I would go around to the people in my church and just kind of catch them after the coffee. I'd be like, hey, you know, do you ever struggle with sinful thoughts or whatnot? Just to kind of see, like, is this normal?

And I think people thought I was weird. But anyways, I go to Paul's words in Galatians chapter five, where he says, I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. Now, he's talking about your flesh there, my flesh. He's saying we still have these desires, these passions, which are against the desires of the Spirit. He's not talking about your spirit. It's not a battle between your flesh and your spirit. He's talking about the Holy Spirit there. He's talking to believers, to born-again believers, and he says you're still going to have this battle. It's absolutely clear in Romans chapter seven.

I mean, he talks about this there, and he uses himself as the example. He says in Romans chapter seven, beginning in verse 21, so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God and my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am. Matthew, I think we can all say amen to that.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sins. This battle that you're experiencing, Matthew, that you feel, it's the normal Christian life. It's what Paul experienced.

It's what we all feel and experience. So I think the goal is realizing in this, not questioning the fact that you are born again, that you belong to Jesus. If you have faith in Jesus, you belong to him.

You're united to him. That in and of itself is a work of the Holy Spirit. And so you should view yourself, Matthew, as one who is alive from the dead.

And Paul talks about this in Romans 6 through 8. I would encourage you, take some time this afternoon or this week to read Romans 6 through 8, to meditate upon it, to know your new identity in Jesus Christ. That there has been this definitive break between you and sin. Now that doesn't mean that there's not going to continue to be this struggle, this struggle with the flesh.

That's the reality, but here's the other reality. Through a new creation in Jesus Christ, by faith in Jesus, you have been credited with the righteousness of Christ. You are alive from the dead, as Paul says. You belong to God in every part of your body. The members of your body belong to the Lord for his service.

And so we're in this struggle till the day that we die. I was just talking to someone yesterday about this, how historically the church is referred to Christians on earth now, the church on earth now as the church militant. The church militant.

Why? Because we're the church at war against the world, the flesh, and the devil, the sinful inclinations of our flesh, the worldly system that's been taken captive by Satan to do his will. We're resisting that. One day we're going to be the church triumphant, but it's not going to be here right now during this present evil age. It's going to be when we're in the presence of the Lord, Matthew. And so don't be discouraged. Continue to fight the good fight, to cling to Jesus, and to rest in the fact that you belong to him by faith and that day by day he's going to sanctify you.

It's going to be a slow process. It's not always the way we would like it to be, but continue to be committed to Christ, to his word, to being in a good church, listening to preaching, praying, opening up the scriptures so to the Spirit. Do those things that you know are going to bear good fruit, that are going to nourish you spiritually, and continue down that path, brother, and know that the Lord has you. Matthew, thank you so much for your question, and we'll be praying for you too with this struggle that all of us face. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and Adriel, a question came in through our website at corechristianity.com slash radio. This one's from Timothy, and he says, I've been reading through the Bible this year, and right now I'm in the book of Chronicles, and I'm once again struck with all the names that are recorded. Knowing that all scripture is God-breathed and edifying, what can I take away from these lists of names as I read them?

Well, I think they're a great place to get the names for your future children, potentially, or that kind of thing. Well, obviously, God cares about families and genealogy. You see this early in Genesis, you see this throughout the scriptures, you see this at the beginning of the Gospels, and part of this, I think, is tracing that promise that's given in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, where it talks about the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. God cares about the holy family. All of scripture from Genesis to Revelation is tracing that family and ultimately the seed. Paul talks about this in Galatians, being Jesus. And so I recognize that those are those chapters in the Bible that a lot of times we just sort of skip over and we think, okay, there's nothing here for me.

I got a confession the other night. We're reading through the book of Genesis with our kids for family devotions, and I got to that early genealogy in Genesis, and I thought, we're just going to skip over this chapter. So I'm even guilty of this, and maybe I should go back and just say, hey, God cares about family. He cares about his people, and you have that promise given to people way back at the beginning of Genesis that the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent. So I think that's one of the things that we get from those genealogies.

It just depends on which one that we're looking at. You think of the one in the early chapters of the Gospels related to Jesus. And I think one of the beautiful things about those genealogies is you get to see all of the different people in Jesus's background, his family tree, for example. You have some pretty interesting, colorful characters in that family tree, and yet it's that tree from where the Messiah came. So I think there are different things that we can pull from these genealogies, but I don't know that I want to say more than that, so thanks for your question. You're listening to Core Christianity with Bill Meyer and Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and we have a wonderful resource we'd like to tell you about today. Talk about the first question that we received. I think this is going to be a perfect resource for you. It's called Nine Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian.

It's free for you when you sign up for our weekly newsletter. I mean, if you listen to this program, you know we get a lot of calls and questions about salvation. How can I know I'm saved?

How can I be confident? And let me just say, God wants you to be confident. I mean, John talks about it in 1 John, knowing that you have eternal life. Do you know whether or not you have eternal life? In this resource, you will find some biblically-based ways to know you are a Christian when you struggle with doubt and uncertainty.

So head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to download Nine Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian. And of course, you can call us for any one of our offers. Here's the phone number. It's 833-843-2673.

That's 833, the core. Just a reminder that Core Christianity is a listener-supported program. Let's go to another phone call that came in.

This one from John in Denver, Colorado. Question about baptism. I've been hearing a certain church tells me that you have to repent and be baptized. I believe that's in the word. They strongly stress that you must be baptized.

And I witnessed out on the streets of Denver on a motorcycle, on a bike, on a car, and I'm wondering, should I buy a trailer and carry a tub of water with me? Because they're very convincing that you must be baptized. And if you're not, they question your salvation. And now I'm questioning, making sure that right there, right then. And of course, like anyone else, they'll go write the scripture. Well, this is how Paul did it. And you're right. Centurion or the eunuch, whoever. So what's the real deal here?

Let me know. Hey, John, thanks for that question. I'm just picturing you on a motorcycle preaching the gospel with a big baptismal tub behind you.

And it's a pretty cool image. Look, I think today we've really downplayed the importance of things like baptism. We've downplayed the importance of things like the Lord's Supper. You hear us on this program talking about what we call the means of grace. Preaching of God's word, baptism, the Lord's Supper. These are the ways that God communicates his grace to us powerfully by the work of the Holy Spirit, ultimately.

It's so important because I think we live in a day where everybody is saying, I want to have an experience of God's presence. I want to know where I can meet God. And so people go searching in the mountains or in the desert trying to have an experience with God. It's almost like we're playing Marco Polo with the Holy Spirit. You know, like, where are you, God?

I'm trying to find you. And we hear about something happening over here in this corner of the world and we go there and then it's somewhere else and we go somewhere else. No, that's not how we experience God. God has made it so simple. He said, you want to experience my presence, my power, my working.

I've attached my promises to my word, to these ordinances that I have instituted. Jesus has instituted baptism, the Lord's Supper. Now, those things are very ordinary. Water, bread, wine, preaching. We're tempted to despise those things, to not think they're that special.

We want something that's more exciting, more sexy, if I can use the word. And the fact of the matter is, God meets us in these ordinary ways. He communicates his grace to us, the power of the Holy Spirit.

You want to experience the presence and power of God, of Jesus in your life. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, we have communion with the body and blood of Jesus in the Lord's Supper. Baptism is so important. Now, it sounds to me, John, like you're talking to maybe some people who are part of Church of Christ or something like that, that are saying, look, unless you're baptized, you're not saved. Unless you're baptized in this way and they baptize in the name of Christ, then you're in big trouble. No, we baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said in the Great Commission, and we recognize what baptism is. Baptism is this sign, this sacrament, this means of grace that really conveys to us, exhibits to us in a powerful way, the gospel, the washing away of our sins. It's more than just an outward sign of my inward faith, what we often hear today in the church. It's actually God speaking his promises to his people.

I want to be a God to you and to your children. I think that's why we can't downplay this. We need this visible word, this visible gospel that's given to us. Now, does that mean that if a person isn't baptized, they have faith in Jesus and they get hit by a car all of a sudden and they die and God says, well, I'm not going to let you into heaven because you didn't complete the deal by getting baptized?

That's not the case at all. Baptism in and of itself without faith doesn't save anyone. It communicates in a vivid, objective way the promise and power of the gospel, and yet we lay hold of that promise by faith. Baptism, the Lord's Supper, should lift our eyes up to Jesus, the Savior of the world, the one whose blood washes away all of our sins. And so we don't want to have a view of baptism that makes it the thing that saves, and so it's like I'm putting my trust in my baptism.

No, through baptism we're to put our trust in Jesus. And so I would say as you're out preaching the gospel, and good for you, I think that's awesome. Come preach out here in San Diego. As you're out preaching the gospel, help people get plugged into good churches. Help them realize that they need to be in a good church and that they need to be baptized. Baptism is a part of discipleship. It's the first part of discipleship. Go into all the world and make disciples.

How? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And so, John, we don't want to have a superstitious view of baptism, but we also don't want to treat it as meaningless. We want to preach the gospel to people and encourage them to obey God's word, to be baptized, to be a part of local churches where they're going to continue to hear the gospel and be built up in their faith. Thanks for your question and for your ministry, brother. You know, that reminds me, Adriel, of the importance when we are evangelizing, whether it's doing street ministry or any form of evangelism, to always encourage someone to get plugged into a solid Bible-believing church. If we just go through the four spiritual laws with them and then have them make a commitment, but there's no follow-up, they're just kind of left dangling in the wind.

Yeah, you're exactly right. And when we're united to Jesus by faith, guess what else we're united to? His body. I mean, Jesus is the head of the church. The church is his body. If you're in Christ, if you have a personal relationship with Jesus, well, you're also united to the body of Christ, brothers and sisters. And so it would make no sense.

And I know I'm speaking to someone right now. If I'm speaking to you and you say, I have a personal relationship with Jesus, but I don't go to church, I don't need a church, well, there's something really wrong. The individual members of the body are not going to grow and be able to function if they're severed on the side of the road. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 that we are all members of the body of Christ. You might be a hand or a foot or an eye or a nose or something or other, but the body is only as healthy as we are together in Christ, using our gifts for the building up of the body together. You see this also in Ephesians chapter 4. And so you can't say, I have a personal relationship with Jesus, but I just don't really care about the church.

There's something really wrong with that. There's a malfunction in our understanding of what God has said. And so I would encourage you, if you know Jesus, if you love Jesus, you need to be in a solid Bible believing church. You need it. And it's going to be a blessing to you. And that's where Jesus is going to continue to minister to you and encourage you through His word and through other believers and where your gifts can continue to be cultivated. And you can serve the body of Christ for the good of the whole. Seek it out. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

And if you have a question for us, feel free to call at 833-THE-CORE. Maddie posted on Instagram and she says, if repentance is necessary for Christians and repentance means to turn from sin, then does that make repentance a work that is necessary for our salvation? If so, how does this agree with the claim that we're saved by free grace through the body and blood of Christ? How do we know if we're truly repentant if we continue to commit the same sins? Can someone be truly repentant but perhaps not even fight against certain sins?

Thank you for that question. Sounds like you've really been thinking about this is really clear question the way that you've asked it. Repentance and faith are saving graces. We're called to repent and believe the gospel. And there are different ways that people have defined repentance.

In one sense, we can think of it as the negative aspect of faith. So repentance is turning away from my sins and faith is turning toward Jesus and laying hold of him. So in repentance, what we do is we essentially and this is what the word the Greek word metanoia means repentance to change your mind.

It's a change of mind. I'm realizing that this thing that I'm doing, this life that I'm living is sinful and I'm admitting that I'm confessing that to God. I'm saying, God, I need your help. I'm turning from my sins.

I'm turning to Jesus to lay hold of Jesus. That's repentance and faith. Now, we also throughout the entire Christian life are going to continue doing that. Continue repenting because God is in a reveal to us areas of our lives that still need to be put to death where we're still struggling with the flesh and our repentance and our faith.

This side of heaven, Maddie, are not ever going to be perfect. It's not that we're saved because our repentance is perfect or our faith is perfect. It's that we're saved because of who our faith clings to.

Jesus, the perfect one, the strong one. That's the hope that we have as Christians. Now, you asked some other questions related to repentance. How can we know if our repentance is true or false? I actually wrote an article over at corechristianity.com called True and False Repentance.

What's the difference? I think that might be helpful for you because there is such a thing as false repentance. People who just have this sort of remorse that they've been caught, they really don't care about sin and that they've sinned against God. They're just upset that they're caught and so they have this sort of external sorrow. But they're not really turning to the Lord.

They're just sort of wallowing and being upset that they've been caught. That's not repentance. True repentance is a grace that God gives to us whereby we see our sin for what it is and turn to Jesus. We can hold to the reality that we're justified by faith alone, that we're saved not by anything that we do, and yet at the same time we know that the entire Christian life, Maddie, is one of repentance. One of repentance and faith where we're continuing to trust in the Lord, to look to Him. And that doesn't mean that our salvation is contingent upon how well we continue to do in the Christian life. No, we're already saved, but we're going through this continued process of sanctification, of growing in grace, of putting to death those sinful deeds that God continues to bring up. Look to Jesus, chase after Him, setting our eyes on Him through the preaching of the gospel, through the means of grace that He's given to us, and resting in the promise that He's given to us as well. So you can be truly repentant and still struggle with sins, yes.

We can say, Lord, I know that this is a sin, turn to Him, and still an hour later, a day later, have those same temptations, have that same struggle, and you know what we do? We say, Lord, I confess it to you again. Have mercy upon me. Forgive me.

Help me. By the grace of your Holy Spirit, sanctify me. That's the Christian life, sister, and as you cling to Jesus, you can rest in Jesus, knowing that He holds you.

God bless you. You know, Adriel, you mentioned the term godly sorrow, and I'm wondering if you could sort of help us differentiate between, and this is in 2 Corinthians, godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow, because there's a distinct difference. Yeah, and that's exactly, I mean, that article that I referenced on corechristianity.com, that's really what I try to get into there. Worldly sorrow doesn't want accountability. It's unwilling to submit to church accountability to brothers and sisters in the Lord. We still want to cling to our sins, so we don't really want to bring it into the light. We've been caught, potentially, and we're upset that we've been caught, and we're mad about the consequences of having been caught, but we don't really want to part ways from our sin, because we don't hate our sin. We don't see it as bad as it really is, and so I think true repentance recognizes sin for what it is.

It will kill me. We have to cut it off, depart from it. Now, again, like I said, we don't do that perfectly.

We just can't. We have that battle with the flesh, but we turn to Jesus, and we abominate our sins. We say, God, help me. That's what repentance does.

It's turning to Jesus. It's saying, I'm not just going to wallow in sorrow about my sin. That's another thing that we need to understand. Sometimes I think we fail, and we think, okay, now I have to go through this process of self-flagellation and beating myself up before I feel like I can come into the presence of God.

Well, in an odd way, think about it, we're trying to atone for our sins. Realize that. Realize that maybe your focus hasn't been the heinousness of your sins and the beauty of your Savior.

Maybe your focus has been the fact that you're just upset that you're caught and that you want to still hold on to this. Well, confess even that to the Lord and say, God, help me to have the desire to repent. Give me the grace to turn to you, to turn to your Son, Jesus. And God is merciful, and we call upon Him, recognizing that we've been living a lie. He embraces us in His Son, Jesus. And click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.