ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM – PART 1
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: EEN HERE, EEN GELOOF, EEN DOOP – DEEL 1
Someone asked me if I would talk about “the baptism with the Holy Spirit."
So what I read between the lines is that the person probably wondered when, after you accepted Jesus in your life, one receives the Holy Spirit and how will you be able to see that you have the Holy Spirit in your heart.
This is how I understand it according to the Word:
Just remember that I am referring to Christians who has truly accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer.
For unfortunately it is true that in the world where the Christian faith is in the majority, the majority of Christians are just Christians in name.
Just to give an example that most of my readers knows, well because like me, they are South Africans, but it is to some extent the case in all the countries around the world.We’ve heard that 80% of people in South Africa are Christians but we know that a large percentage of this 80% of Christians are just so in name, we can see this by just looking at the crime statistics.
This is how I understand it according to the Word:
We read that:
EPH 4:4 There is one body [of believers] and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when called [to salvation]
EPH 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
This is how I understand it:
* One Lord, (and it is His Spirit that lives in us)
* One Lord, One faith (there is just one true faith that can save us from hell, that is faith in Jesus Christ)
* One Lord, one faith, one baptism (there is just one Christian baptism that we find in the Word, and in this baptism I received everything that the Lord wants me to receive in order to make it through this life.)
In my accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour and in the baptism, I received forgiveness and cleansing of all my sins and I received the Holy Spirit.
I have been baptised with the one baptism that Ephesians 4:5 refers to.
Concerning my inner man, I am now a new creation:
2 COR 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Saviour], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].
A beautiful example of how Ephesians 4:5 works in us is Acts 2:38:
ACTS 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In summary:
When Ephesians 4:5 becomes a part of my life, the Holy Spirit will live within me.
EPH 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Then someone asked me:
Will there be something in my life according to which people and myself will be able to see that the Holy Spirit is a part of my life and lives within me?
Yes, there will certainly be and no – it is not exclusively the speaking in tongues as some denominations proclaim.
I write in detail about the "speaking in tongues” in my writing from the Word called:
* Speaking in tongues
As well as the writing:
* There are gifts that are more useful than speaking in tongues.
However before we continue, I just want to point out:
I myself received the gift of speaking and praying in tongues, but I know of many Christians who, according to me, are much better than me when it comes to living Christian lives, who have never spoken in tongues.
In my next writing I will share with you about some of the features of someone who has our Lord's Holy Spirit residing in him or her, according to my understanding of the Word.
But for now I will leave you with the following:
I cannot think for a moment that after I’ve repent and have been baptized and so have the Holy Spirit of our Lord living in me that I will never sin again.
I myself can testify with my great hero Paul:
ROM 7:15 For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity].
Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, for example when a car driver does something stupid in front of me, or if I bump my shin, I might do or say something that I normally wouldn’t do or say, but because the Holy Spirit is in me and I hear His voice, I immediately regret the horrendous sin that I’ve done that I didn’t really want to do.
ROM 7:15 … but I am doing the very thing I hate.
However, a person who has the Holy Spirit living within them will never be able to indulge their sins.
For example, with our Lord's Holy Spirit in me, I will never argue that “this is just the way that I am and I will just accept it.”
I will always fight against that sin in my life because it will be an awful thing to me.
If I keep indulging in my old sinful / horrendous ways, the following from the Word will happen in my life:
2 PET 2:22 The thing spoken of in the true proverb has happened to them, “The dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “A sow is washed only to wallow [again] in the mire.”
What a true Christian will never be able to do is to continue with sin (what is indicated as sin according to the Word) and accepting the sin as a norm in their lives.
If you repent and have been baptized and your way of life hinders you – Praise the Name of our Lord – You still hear His Holy Spirit who pleads with you to change your life with Him and again He says to you:
1JOHN 1:9 If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].
Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, writes the following about what I have just shared with you:
ROM 6:1-4
1 What shall we say [to all this]? Should we continue in sin and practice sin as a habit so that [God’s gift of] grace may increase and overflow?
2 Certainly not! How can we, the very ones who died to sin, continue to live in it any longer?
3 Or are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 We have therefore been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory and power of the Father, we too might walk habitually in newness of life [abandoning our old ways].
Greetings,
Sakkie