True Believers vs False Professors:
The baker was asked to print 1 John 4:18 on a 10th wedding anniversary cake. He forgot, and instead printed John 4:18. John 1:4:18 read, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
John 4:18 on the other hand reads “For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.”
Winning the whole world was never implied by Paul. In Acts 15, even James had to agree that God was using Paul to go to the Gentiles. What was the expression that James used?
Calling out a people for Jesus name. No way is he implying 99 or 100%. True Christianity is received by only a few.
Christ said, Matthew 7:13, “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Acts 2:38, “…and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost,”
Question, what’s was the prerequisite in this verse for receiving the Holy Spirit? Repentance and baptism. That is the first part of the verse, but look at it again:
Acts 2:38, “…Repent, and be baptized every one of you (Jews) in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
No mention here of the death, burial, and Resurrection? No mention of the shed blood for atonement? Not a word. But only in the name of Jesus Christ. Again, Peter does not mention death, burial, and Resurrection.
Question, what were the Jews to put their faith in? Answer, who Jesus was. He was The Christ, their Messiah, and they had him killed, but the Father raised Him from the dead.
They were to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and then they would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. In Acts 10, we have Peter at the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, seven years after the Cross. No Gentile’s had been saved. In Acts 2, the Jews had to repent and be baptized, then they could receive the Holy Spirit.
Now look at Acts 10:
Acts 10:44, “While Peter yet spake (he hadn’t come to the end of his message) these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. “
And we know they all believed. Had they been baptized yet? No, they were Gentiles who knew nothing of the Law. But the moment they believed Peter’s message the Holy Spirit came down, and the amazing thing is God had to prove to Peter and the other six Jews that God was doing something new, that was to save Gentiles! Not on the basis of repentance and baptism, but the moment they heard the word and believed.
Peter himself was still tied to that Jewish economy, so when he sees what is happening he commands these Gentile believers to be baptized after the fact instead of before as we saw in Acts 2:38:
Acts 10:47, “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have (past tense) received the Holy Ghost as well as we?”
Chapter 10 is not contradicting Chapter 2, but there was to be a change of events. Chapter 10 is Gentile and chapter 2 is Jew. Acts is a transitional book, so we must be aware that what was good for the Jew under that Jewish economy seems like a contradiction, but it’s not, it’s only God changing the program. The moment we believe for our Salvation the Gospel of Grace, that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit baptizes us and we are saved.
We are not to put the message that Peter preached and the message that Paul preached in a blender then expect to understand it. God was changing the program when he sent Paul to the Gentiles.
God never changes, but His program has. We Christians rest on the finished work of the Cross. Peter hasn’t been told about this yet, Peter is still on Covenant ground. So, he was still proclaiming a repentance and baptism, and then the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look at Ephesians 1. Ephesians is one of Paul’s later epistles. You will see things in these prison epistles that he doesn’t even allude to in his earlier writings. Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians are higher ground and deeper water so far as doctrine is concerned. This is where the steak and mashed potatoes of the Word is.
Ephesians 1:12,13, “That we (believers) should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”
It doesn’t say repented and baptized, but rather first trust in Christ. “In whom ye also trusted, after (notice the progression) that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation (I Corinthians 15:1-4): in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. “
Do you see the order? Every child of God has to come from a place of being a sinner, a son of Adam, condemned already. As soon as we realize that we are a sinner, we heard the Gospel and the Holy Spirit opened our understanding and we believed it.
The moment we believe the Gospel the Holy Spirit comes in, and seals us, He becomes the very power of God within us, and we are not under Law but rather Grace, but Grace is never a license to continue in sin. We are now led and guided by the Holy Spirit of God. This is part and parcel of the whole Salvation experience, and that is what makes true born-again believers so different from false professors.
Phillip Laspino www.seekfirstwisdom.com