Entering into a Covenant Relationship

"All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant." ~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, p. 341

On Sunday as worship was beginning I was asked if I would read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 before Communion.  I agreed to do read, but I also decided to take the opportunity to talk about Communion as Covenant Renewal.  Afterwards, including last night at small group, I was not only thanked for my words, but was also told, "I had never heard that about communion."

I think we have tended to overlook Covenant when it comes to our relationship with God. This means that we have talked about "getting saved" or "having a personal relationship with God," but have missed out on why we can be secure in those things.  Our security comes from the commitment that is founded on God's New Covenant that was ushered in through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So if the security of our salvation as well as the promises and blessings that God has for us is found in a Covenantal relationship, then it is very important for us to ask: "How do I enter into a covenant relationship with God?"  The fact that many people haven't heard that communion is a time of covenant relationship renewal means that many people have never heard how to enter into a covenant relationship with God.

Some time in the next week I want to write a post devoted to Covenant, but right now I want to throw out that it is through baptism that we enter into a Covenant Relationship.  I will make the case for this later on, but for now I want to point out two very important passages.

The first is Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (ESV).

Regardless of your feelings on baptism we discover that according to Jesus baptism is part of the disciple making process.  Jesus establishes baptism as the moment when people are set apart from the world in order that they may follow Jesus.

The second is Romans 6:1-4:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (ESV).

According to the apostle Paul it is through baptism that we are united with Jesus.  It is the moment that we declare ourselves dead to sin and to the patterns of this world and discover that we now possess the life of Christ in our lives.

What I would invite you to do is to take some time and look at all the references to baptism in the New Testament, read the context of the passages, and identify the things of which baptism is a part.  Things like being set apart as a disciple and being united with Christ.  Perhaps that will lay the foundation of why I say that baptism is the way in which we enter into this great Covenant God has established with humankind.

To go along with my initial thoughts on baptism here is an essay by Greg Boyd that further explains my views on baptism: The Case for Believer's Baptism.

Daily Thought: Belonging to a Community of Faith

"Through baptism we are drenched in God, enveloped in God's presence, and brought through death to life.  The water grave is a perfect expression of this reality.  It is both personal and communal.  It declares our individual need for forgiveness and new life, and it binds us to a new community of faith." ~ Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, p. 169

Broken to Surrender

I love to read stories about how God has transformed the lives of people. Consider the story of Basilio Clark.

Any of the old-timers living in Olongapo, Philippines, near Subic Bay (once the home to the American Seventh Fleet), will tell you that Basilio Clark, the warm Baptist pastor who plays his guitar and sings so beautifully, is a different person from the one who terrorized the same city in his youth.

A clue to his background is found in his name--Basilio Clark. Basilio is a Filipino name; Clark, an American name. Basilio’s father was an American serviceman; his mother, a Filipino who met and fell in love with the handsome American. After several children were born, Basilio’s father was killed in an automobile accident. Without enough food at home, the boy began to run the streets, stealing from the sidewalk vendors and shopkeepers in the open markets of Olongapo.

As a teenager, Basilio was the head of a gang who robbed, plundered, murdered, and pillaged at will. Holing up one night with his gang, Basilio slept as police surrounded the hideout. They took him and his companions captive.

The judge, glad to be able to rid the area of such terrors, showed no mercy. Basilio and his eight companions were sentenced to die in the electric chair. They were quickly moved to Bilibid prison in Muntinglupa, just outside of Manila. The massive steel doors of the fortress-like prison closed, ominously signaling the end.

The electric chair at Muntinglupa sends thousands of volts of electricity into a frail body, short-circuiting the heart and stopping life. Basilio and his gang feared death this way and chose rather to die at their own hands.

Mixing insecticide, which had been smuggled into the prison, with paint thinner they were able to steal, the nine of them formed a circle and drank the deadly potion. Of the nine, only one survived: Basilio, and he was blind.

He had failed in life and he had failed in death. While he awaited his appointment with the electric chair, Basilio began to listen to a little radio that Olga Robertson, a faithful prison worker, had given the prisoners. This little radio known as a PM (Portable Missionary), played but one station, DZAS, the voice of the Far East Broadcasting Company. Day after day as Basilio listened, God began to speak to his heart. From there Basilio slowly surrendered his life to Jesus.

Gaining his confidence, Mommie Olga, as the prisoners affectionately called her, began to disciple and teach Basilio the Word of God. Then going from cell block to cell block, Basilio began to tell other prisoners that God had forgiven him and that he had repented of his sins.

It quickly became obvious that this was no longer the tough youth who had terrorized Olongapo, but a changed man whose eyes no longer saw--but they did shed tears over his fellow prisoners. Something had happened! Something big.

Eventually, the president of the Philippines issued a pardon to Basilio Clark, and he was released. Going back to his home a changed man, Basilio continued to share his faith.

While it would be easy to give the credit to Basilio’s transformation to the voices he heard over the radio and the discipleship of Olga Robertson, the reality is that they are just vehicles God used to connect with Basilio. God was the one who worked the miracle--and what He did for a thug and gangster He can do for you. Changed lives are what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. Paul was right, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). (Harold Sala, Profiles in Faith, pp. 71-74)

Many of us have lives that are broken by sin. They are broken by the sin which we struggle with and by the consequences of the sin of other people. The only way we can have lives that are transformed, like the transformation Basilio Clark experienced, is to surrender our lives to Jesus. Surrendering isn’t a one time act, but the constant giving away our lives to the will of God.

In Acts 2 we read about the beginnings of the Church. I hope that you take that time to read it, but because of space I will summarize what happens. The disciples of Jesus, lead by the 11 apostles, are in Jerusalem. It is the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the crucifixion and around a week since Jesus ascended into heaven. The disciples receive the power of the Holy Spirit and begin to preach to the crowd, which is large because of the festival. At some point Peter becomes the chief speaker, and his words center on Jesus, which prick the hearts of the listeners. They cry out; “What must we do to be saved!’ and Peter answers that they must repent and be baptized. On that day 3,000 men were added to the number of Christ Followers.

Not only did they become members of the Church, but their lives began to change as the devoted themselves to the teachings of Jesus, as taught by the apostles, to fellowship, to pray, and Communion. These new disciples were community focused and served and helped one another as they committed themselves to Jesus.

From the historical account found in the book of Acts we can make several observations about surrendering to Jesus. The first observation is: surrendering is the result of understanding God’s Word.

“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
(Acts 2:36-37; NLT).

The people listening to Peter’s sermon had experienced the events that took place 50 days before (the death and resurrection of Jesus). They had talked about what happened and maybe even debated who Jesus was, but it was the result of hearing the Word of God preached that God was able to connect with their hearts.

Similarly we are often moved to repentance and surrender when we are convicted in our hearts by the Word of God. We will not surrender our lives to Jesus until we have an understanding of our situation apart from Jesus Christ. If we think we can get by or if we can change our lives on our own then we will not bow a knee to the Lord of lords. Scripture, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is the main tool God uses to convict people of their brokenness. When we are brought face to face with our broken lives the only thing left for us to do is to give our lives to the One who can make us whole.

Second, surrendering requires repentance and baptism. When the listeners of this first Christian sermon became convicted of their brokenness they cried out for help; “What should we do?” (Acts 2:37,) And Peter’s response is quite clear; “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38). If we are going to surrender to Jesus then we need to repent and then we need to be baptized.

What exactly is repentance? I think the best way to describe repentance is with the word defection. Repentance means that we have been part of the kingdom of Darkness and we defect and join the Kingdom of Light. We decide to no longer side with God’s enemies and instead we become one of His allies. Repentance is the changing of our minds, wills, and loyalties. This was at the heart of Jesus’ message. Jesus proclaimed; “The time promised by God has come at last! The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”(Mark 1:15; NLT). This is what Jesus is saying: “Believe God’s Word and join His Kingdom!” Through God’s Word we are made aware of our broken condition and through repentance we leave the kingdom of sin and death to live in the Kingdom of Light.

How does baptism fit into all of this? Baptism is part of the physical action that we do to demonstrate our surrender to Jesus Christ. Malcolm Smith had this to say about baptism:

“But in baptism, we are passive; it is something we submit to;it is a rite that is done to us by another. It is the dynamic action of faith by which we helplessly present ourselves to the Holy Spirit for God’s acceptance through the cross and resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (The Lost Secret of the New Covenant; pg. 149)

Baptism is something that we submit to in faith as we helplessly put ourselves in a position to receive the mercy of God. The apostle Paul wrote; Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? (Romans 6:3; NLT) In baptism we lay aside our agendas and wills and die to self in order to become the people God created us to be. That is what it means to surrender.

Surrendering demands that we change the way we live. How did the 3,000 new Christians respond after they surrendered their lives to Christ Jesus? According to Acts 2:42ff. they demonstrated their surrender to Jesus by changing their lives. Surrendering isn’t a one time event, it is the constant aligning our lives to God’s will. If our lives are not changing then we have not surrendered our lives to Jesus.

But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:20-24; NLT).

Changing the way we live is an essential part of surrendering to Jesus. It is the part of surrender that we have to do each day for the rest of our lives.

Here is the truth I want you take away today: Wholeness is the result of surrendering our lives to Jesus. We will never be the people God created us to be until we surrender the broken pieces of our lives to Jesus. He can take the broken pieces of our lives and create a masterpiece. All we need to do is give Him a chance.

Saturday Link: What Baptism Requests

I am back from my 40 day internet fast. I will be sharing my thoughts on my time away on Monday. Today I want to get back into the swing of things and share with you a link that I hope will get you to think.

Baptism can be a difficult issue to discuss. There are different views on the mode and the importance of baptism, but most churches practice some form of baptism. I think John Weartherly wrote a very practical article on the subject for the March 8, 2009 issue of the Christian Standard. This is part of what he writes:

In the early church baptism brought together the core of the gospel message. It declared Jesus as the divine Lord who forgives sins in fulfillment of God’s great promises. At Pentecost Peter began his sermon by quoting Joel 2:32: “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21). At the end of the same sermon, he declared, “Repent be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). The Lord who saves is Jesus Christ, from whom in baptism sinners request cleansing from sin, what they desperately need but cannot accomplish themselves.

I encourage you to read the rest of the article: What Baptism Requests Let me know how this squares with your belief about baptism.

Thoughts on Baptism

Mark Moore shared a few thoughts on baptism and then concluded:

However, given these five blessings of baptism, it boggles my mind why anyone would be contentious in refusing such a gift directly from the hand of Jesus, especially when it models the self-abnegation he enjoined on his disciples.

You should go read what he says the blessings of baptism are.

United with Jesus

The Christian has a special relationship with God because of Jesus Christ. Our relationship with God is not based on anything that we have done, not by our merit, but solely on what Jesus has done. We are able to enjoy a relationship with God because we have been united with Jesus.

The first part of Romans 6 reveals three areas in which we have been united with Jesus:

1Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness? 2Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him? 4For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was. 6Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life. 9We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God. 11So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus. ~ Romans 6:1-11; NLT

First we see that we are united with Jesus in His death (verses 1-3). This is made possible through baptism. This is one of the passages in the New Testament which remind us that the ritual of baptism was a very important part of the believer’s life. So what does this mean? Why do we want to be united with Jesus in His death? Jack Cottrell commenting on this passage wrote:

“Since Jesus died for the express purpose of taking our guilt upon Himself and paying the eternal penalty for our sins, when we are united with Him in his death our guilt is removed and our status before God is such that our penalty is considered paid. The blood that He shed in His death is applied to our guilty souls and becomes our shield to protect us from the deserved wrath of God. Thus because of this union with Christ we are forgiven or justified” (Baptism: A Biblical Study; p. 81).

It is this union with Jesus in His death which guarantees that our sins are taken care of. We have put our faith in Jesus and His death to cleanse us from our sins.

Second we see that we are united with Jesus in His resurrection (verses 4-6). Jesus may have been crucified and killed, but He did not remain dead. The power of Jesus is ultimately seen in His resurrection, not His death. The death of Jesus means nothing without the resurrection.

When we are united with Jesus in His resurrection means that we have a new life. Whoever we were before our baptism no longer exists, and now we have a new life. Even though we still live in the flesh, when we follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and live a life of faith, our lives change. It is a process that continues to happen as long as we live in our current bodies, but our hearts shift from being selfish to selfless, and we begin love God with our entire beings.

Not only are we given new lives, but being united with Jesus in His resurrection also guarantees that when we die, physically, that we will be raised to spend eternity with God. When we are united with Jesus we have hope of eternal life.

Third we see that we are united with Jesus in His freedom (verses 7-11). Sin no longer has control over us. We now have a choice on how we will live. Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life wrote; “On the path to spiritual maturity, even temptation becomes a stepping-stone rather than a stumbling block when you realize it is just as much an occasion to do the right thing as it is to do the wrong thing. Temptation simply provides the choice” (p. 201). No longer do we have to follow our sinful desires, but we have a choice. Now we have the option to follow where Jesus leads.

The commands of God are not restricting, rather they help us to avoid the enslaving nature of sin. Jesus understood this freedom during His time on earth. He was perfectly obedient to God’s will, and thus Jesus escaped being enslaved by sin. When we are united with Jesus we are given the opportunity to experience the freedom from sin as we live a life of faith and obedience.

Christians are united with Jesus and this gives us a special relationship with God. Since we have been given this wonderful opportunity we need to take advantage of it and discover the life God has planned for us. We need to live a life which will reflect the glory and love of the One who has given us so much.

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