By exploring certain words in the Bible, we have a clearer understanding of how God has dealt with and continues to deal with His creation, MAN. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John 3:12 and said to him, “If I have told you Earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you Heavenly things?” The Heavenly things are the spiritual things of Himself.
The only way we can understand the spiritual or the deeper things of God is by the power that comes from on high, or with the Holy Spirit. We are anointed with the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20) when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). We are baptized with the Holy Spirit when we are baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27). When we submit to having our sins washed away in that watery grave of baptism we are baptized into the death of Jesus (Romans 6:3) and we are buried with Christ (Romans 6:4). Our old self has been crucified with the Lord (Romans 6:6) and we rise up out of that watery grave to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). We no longer follow after our own selfish desires and passions, we live for Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus in John 3:5, He told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” When Paul wrote to the congregation in Rome in Romans 6:4 and said, “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life,” the “newness of life” of which Paul writes is the same thing Jesus said of being “born of water and the Spirit.” It is also the same thing as Paul tells us in Titus 3:4-6 when he calls it the “washing of regeneration.” 4. but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5. He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, 6. Which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. . . . This is why Jesus further told Nicodemus in John 3:7, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’” The transformation is performed by God through the power of the Holy Spirit, and this occurs at baptism. This also explains why John wrote in Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power. . . .” We share in the first resurrection when we share in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ when we are buried with Him in baptism (Romans 6:3-4). Hopefully, you can by now see that our burial with Christ in that watery grave of baptism is also the baptism with the Holy Spirit. They are one and the same.
May the Lord bless you and your family!
The only way we can understand the spiritual or the deeper things of God is by the power that comes from on high, or with the Holy Spirit. We are anointed with the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20) when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). We are baptized with the Holy Spirit when we are baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27). When we submit to having our sins washed away in that watery grave of baptism we are baptized into the death of Jesus (Romans 6:3) and we are buried with Christ (Romans 6:4). Our old self has been crucified with the Lord (Romans 6:6) and we rise up out of that watery grave to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). We no longer follow after our own selfish desires and passions, we live for Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus in John 3:5, He told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” When Paul wrote to the congregation in Rome in Romans 6:4 and said, “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life,” the “newness of life” of which Paul writes is the same thing Jesus said of being “born of water and the Spirit.” It is also the same thing as Paul tells us in Titus 3:4-6 when he calls it the “washing of regeneration.” 4. but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5. He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, 6. Which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. . . . This is why Jesus further told Nicodemus in John 3:7, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’” The transformation is performed by God through the power of the Holy Spirit, and this occurs at baptism. This also explains why John wrote in Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power. . . .” We share in the first resurrection when we share in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ when we are buried with Him in baptism (Romans 6:3-4). Hopefully, you can by now see that our burial with Christ in that watery grave of baptism is also the baptism with the Holy Spirit. They are one and the same.
May the Lord bless you and your family!
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