BAPTISM;
BORN AGAIN IN BAPTISM.
BY;
MILLICENT DIANG'A
Jesus
planned to communicate divine life to man and woman through baptism, before his
resurrection he gave his disciples a clear command, …..'Go make disciples of
all nation, baptise them in the name of the father ,the son, and the Holy
Spirit, and teach them to observe all
the commands I gave to you.” (Mt 28 19)
What
is baptism then?
The
word baptism mean cleansing.
Did
the baptism which Jesus commanded to his disciple the same with what John gave
him?
John
himself confirms that the baptism Jesus would confer would carry far greater
power than his own. But as seen in the baptism Jesus established, does
resembles John because it consist of external washing, it is also a sign of
determination to abandon sin and start a new life.
John
himself said........ ‘I baptise you with water but the one who follows me is
more powerful than I am....he will baptise you with the holy spirit (Mt.3;11).
He
meant that in accepting my baptism, you express your determination to start a
life of holiness, get ready to receive messiah, and a baptism you will receive
from Him will work more radical change than the one I give.
Jesus
explanation of baptism he commanded to his disciple was …....“unless one is
born through the spirit and water, he cant enter the kingdom of God. He adds
that what is born of flesh is flesh what is born of spirit is spirit, one must
be born from above.
In
Jesus explanation we see clearly that he was talking of two lives; life of a
body natural life; the life which God communicated to us through our parents.
And....
The
divine life; which the spirit communicate to us through water, and this is
obtained through baptism,which is called life in the spirit, since
according to Jesus it is the spirit who gives it to us.
Water
symbols
In
the bible we see that water and spirit are mentioned together for the first
time......and Gods spirit hovered over the water(gen 1;1-2)this emphasizes that
there was nothing in the beginning but water and Gods spirit
This
new divine life will not at all replace the first life one received from the
flesh but it will make such a tremendous change in ones life
Baptism
makes us the children of God, since we are, a divine life is communicated to us
by God. known as life in the spirit, our parents too are not the ones who gave
us the natural life though they claim us to be their children. They are
instruments which the spirit make use of to communicate divine life.
Water
is so essential to our lives, in real sense it sustain and maintain life. God
used water to express his love and
generosity for their people,he led his people from slavery through the waters
of red sea, the church always regard this as the perfect symbol of baptism,
which led people away from slavery of sin to freedom of the children of God.
Moses from the apparent rock he gave to people water to drink through Gods
power.
According prophet Ezekiel....... shall pour clean water
upon you.......i shall clean you of all your defilement and all your
idols. Ezekiel 36;25”.
He
also saw a vision of a stream gushing out of the temple,this symbolized that
there was no heart so wicked that the
spirit is unable to change when communicating in his divine life.
Jesus
also connected the symbol of water at Jacob's well when he was talking to the
Samaritan woman’.........anyone who drinks the water i shall give will never be
thirsty again...................welling up to eternal life (John 4;16)
He
also said that if one is thirty let him come to me and drink and believes in
me.......from his breast shall flow fountains of living waters, (jn7;37-38)
Finally
when they speared Jesus, came out the blood and water.
BAPTISM; SET FREE AND BEING CLEANSED.
In
this episode we are going to look in to details what life in the spirit brings
to those who have been baptised, I would like to focus on the wonderful
transformation which takes place in a person at the moment he is possessed of
the life in the spirit.
It
makes us ready to be Gods children, and through this the spirit through baptism
set us free from the slavery to the devil.
·
Through baptism our sins are cleansed
·
The spirit adorns our soul with a beauty
beyond description;
·
It gives us faith; through faith we adhere
firmly to Christ
·
brings hope; hope for eternity, for the
rewards stored up for us in heaven, a great conviction that Christ will not
fail us.
·
it kindles true love in our hearts, Gods
love. it leads us to love God as our father, here it leads us to love people
the way God loves us.
BAPTISM;
BECOMING GOD’S CHILDREN.
We
now have no doubt who is a child of God ,as the previous sessions we already
knowN that through baptism we become Gods children The question comes along
...what does it mean to affirm God’s child ?.
We
become children of God even outside the Christian faith, devoted and well
meaning people of the past often declared all men and women in the world children of God. This is just a
figurative use. According to John he says that the title children of God is not
only words but the realities due to the extra ordinary change we experience
which takes place in the moment we receive baptismal, We are Gods children not
by adoption but by truly sharing God s love. Gods treats us not as his servants but as his own children, whom he
shared with the life in the spirit God's very life starts flowing from God to
us, in John where Jesus himself acknowledge that am the vine and you are my
branches (jn 15;5)
He
affirms to us that ....”as I who am sent by the father, myself draw life from
the father,”
so
who ever eats me will draw life from me. This is to say that there is a flow of
life from the father to Jesus and from Jesus to us; this life is non other than
the life in the spirit The life by which both father and son themselves lives.
Mk
1;11. during baptism In river Jordan God spoke to Jesus ..’One more thing we
should keep in mind is when we are baptised we become Gods children but we DONT
become exactly like Jesus, Jesus is Gods
son by nature he is always so, He shares his Fathers life in full..The life in
that spirit renders us God –like but not divine.
“you
are my dear son” We start being Gods children only after baptism is when we
become Gods children and shares Gods life in a limited way, that is only as
much as we are capable of sharing, there fore life in spirit does not makes us
God or divine, but it renders us.
Hence
·
Baptism makes us truly Gods children
·
It is not a question of God merely
adopting us as children,or treating us as such.
·
We truly becomes Gods sons and daughters
the very moment he communicate divine life to us/just as we become our parents
children when they communicate to us our life as human beings
·
When communicating to us the life in
spirit,God takes us into his family,or as Paul puts it; we start forming part
of God’s household
·
It was Jesus who made divine life
available to us,He obtained it at a price of his blood.
BAPTISM; LIVING TEMPLES OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT.
God
communicates himself to us in Baptism he dwells in us He chooses us as His
Temple; we cannot exactly say what it means Baptism turns me into Gods temple.
On receiving divine life, I truly become the temple of the Holy Spirit. Temples
are that houses where God is suppose to dwell in, we refer to our church building
the temple when the Eucharist is kept in them. Materially how big the structure
is it has no life, because we are living
beings then we are living temple.
God
wants to be worshipped first and foremost from within the heart of man and
woman
When
we vividly recall the episode of the Samaritan woman in John 4;5-26.
1.
First Jesus lets the woman know that God has a gift to offer for her, here
Jesus wanted her to know that the spirit is the Gods gift to us. The grace gift
which encloses all the other gift.
Sometimes
called grace of life...that is living gift. when applied to the spirit the gift
that gives life. finally in order to prepare her to accept his message in full,
Jesus faces the woman with her own sinfulness.
The
living water he has been talking about is the Holy Spirit if accepted he would take possession of a man’s heart and
change it radically.
It
was Jesus longing that the worship going on within him should be repeated in the hearts of each and every
Christian Jesus loved the Jerusalem Temple
as a sign of his father love to the people of Israelites. When the temple was
turned to market place Jesus could not
bear it, he drove them away due to
anger. The angry businessmen ask him why he did so, he replied ....”destroy
this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up. People could not understand him, John went
ahead translating that he was speaking of sanctuary which is his body. Human
Beings should aspire to nothing greater or holier than to become temple. He
promised us to ask the father and He will give us an paraclete to be with us
for ever. (jn14;16-17)
Ignatius
of Loyola loved to call himself theophous, a name which means bearer of God,
one who bears God whenever he goes, On his judgement day the judge called him
devil, with great dignity Bishop Loyola said ….let no one call devil the bearer
of Christ, Then the judge boasted saying that ….let Ignatius who calls himself
a bearer of Christ be sentenced to become the food of wild beasts in Rome.
·
The spirit carries within us a wonderful
work
·
it enlightens us to discover Gods plan
of love for us
·
He leads us in prayers
·
He gave us the affirm assurance that we
are Gods children
·
He gives us light and strengthen us when
persecuted
·
He brings peace and joy help us to
patient, to forgive offences received and to love every one without
distinctions.
·
Indeed in all we do, in order to do what
God wants us to do,we must allow ourselves to be guided by the spirit.
Sin
is the greatest enemy of spirit ,Though there is no power at all that can
destroy the spirit we got in baptism,, only the persons on his own will can
chase away the spirit one do this through sins. Paul says to the Corinthians
...did you not realise that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God
lives in you. 1Cor 3;16, he added that if anyone destroys the temple of God,
He will destroy him because the temple
of God is sacred and we are the temple, and not just our souls but our bodies
too.
BECOMING
ONE WITH CHRIST AND WITH THE BROTHERS AND SISTER
We
have seen how and when one becomes a child of God ,now we want to see clearly
on when one belongs to the family of God Mary was the first creature to be
incorporated into the family of God,she receive the favour right when he was
conceived. Gods family grow from pentecost
trough apostles.
The
church is the family of God in the church there is no discrimination, old and
young, learned and unlearned, the only people left out of the Lords house are
those that on their own free will has rejected the gift of the spirit. Only in
heaven we will know what a wealthiest and noble family we have made on earth
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