Good morning:
A little white pill. How can it possibly help when every joint aches, your head pounds, and just walking to the bathroom takes every ounce of strength you can muster? Most of us don’t understand how antibiotics work. Reason would argue that one tiny pill can’t possibly make any difference at all in how I feel. Yet we trust that doctors understand what we do not when they prescribe medication. We take the pills and often soon recover from whatever “bug” we suffered from. What would happen, though, if we refused the medicine because we didn’t understand how it could help? We would miss the benefit and stay miserable. Who would be that foolish?
As it turns out, there are many when it comes to what the loving God prescribes for the pain, heartache, and eternal death which sin brings into our lives. God doesn’t enjoy seeing people suffer. He is not willing that any should perish eternally. He wants all to be saved and to live with Him in heavenly peace and joy forever. To accomplish that, Jesus came and took all the punishment for sin upon Himself. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:20). Jesus is the perfect and complete cure. He promises, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mk. 16:16). Ananias told the notorious persecutor of believers, Saul, “Now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16).
How can a little water combined with the Word do away with a lifetime of guilt? How can it get rid of the sin we inherited from Adam? How can we be sure it washes us clean from the filthy thoughts that have crossed our minds already today and the lost opportunities of the past week to meditate on God’s Word and put Christ’s love into practice?
We will never be able to explain God’s love in Christ by examining it under the microscope of reason. It’s far beyond human logic. But we don’t have to understand, just trust that in the water of baptism we are cleansed so completely by Jesus’ saving work that we are righteous before the holy God and welcomed by Him as children and heirs of heaven.
Nothing makes a greater difference in how we see our past, live our present, and anticipate the future. Spend some time today recalling the details of your baptism, whether it was 10 years ago or 90. Thank the Lord for His miraculous “cure” which is just as effective now as ever. Look forward to praising Him for it tomorrow as we observe our annual Baptism Sunday.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor
Just one service tomorrow—9:30 a.m. No Sunday school or Bible class.
