QUITE A VARIETY OF RELIGIOUS UNDERTAKERS!

QUITE A VARIETY OF RELIGIOUS UNDERTAKERS!
Pastor J. C. O’Hair


It is interesting to note that Ephesians 2:5 and Colossians 2:13 mention people who had been ‘DEAD IN SINS’. Then Romans 6:2 mention people who are ‘DEAD TO SIN’. The Lord Jesus said, “if you believe not that ‘I AM’, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8:24). The Lord said, “the ‘DEAD’ shall hear His voice and ‘LIVE’”; that they pass out of ‘DEATH’ into ‘LIFE’ by believing. (John 5:23 and 24 . . . 11:25 and 26). In Romans 6:23 we learn that the wages of sin is ‘DEATH’: that the free gift of God is ‘ETERNAL LIFE’ through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In Colossians 2:12 and 13 and Ephesians 2:5 and 6 we learn that Bible Christians were ‘DEAD IN SINS’ before God made them alive. Hear his most interesting and important truth
“BURIED with Christ in BAPTISM, wherein also ye are raised with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Christ from the dead: And you, having been ‘DEAD IN YOUR SINS’, hath God ‘MADE ALIVE’ together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses.”

“Even when we were ‘DEAD IN SINS’ hath God ‘MADE US ALIVE’ together with Christ (by grace ye were saved): And hath ‘RAISED US UP’ together, and made us ‘TO SIT DOWN TOGETHER’ in the heavenlies in CHRIST JESUS.”

Are Christians really ‘SITTING DOWN TOGETHER WITH CHRIST’ in the heavenlies? The Bible answer is, ‘YES’. Christ was ‘CRUCIFIED’ . . . Christ ‘DIED’ . . . Christ was ‘BURIED’. . . Christ was ‘RAISED UP FROM THE DEAD’. Christ showed Himself ‘ALIVE’, after His ‘DEATH’ and ‘RESURRECTION’, by many infallible proofs. (Acts 1:3). Christ ‘ASCENDED’ far above all heavens and sat down in the highest heavens. (Ephesians 4:7 to 13 . . . 1:19 to 23) .

Christians are identified and unified with Christ (Ephesians 5:31 and 32), in ‘CRUCIFIXION’ (Galatians 2:20), in ‘DEATH’ (Colossians 2:20 . . . 3:3 . . . II Timothy 2:11), in ‘RESURRECTION’ (Colossians 3:1 to 3 . . . Ephesians 2:6 . . . Colossians 2:12). Christians are to show by many infallible proofs, that they have been ‘RAISED UP’ together with Christ. (Colossians 3:1 to 4). Christians are ‘SITTING DOWN’ with Christ in the heavenlies.

How does the Christian’s ‘BURIAL’ fit into this picture? Should the Christian be ‘BURIED’ before or after he sits down in the heavenlies? We read in Ephesians 2:4 to 6 that God makes a person ‘ALIVE’ and God ‘RAISES UP’ that person from death. Then this question, “who BURIES that person with Christ?” It is a ‘JOINT�BURIAL’ by a ‘JOINT�OPERATION’. A ‘BURIAL’ that is not ‘WITH CHRIST’ is worse than worthless.

Let us now read Romans 6:2 to 4:
“HOW SHALL WE THAT ARE ‘DEAD TO SIN’, LIVE ANY LONGER THEREIN? KNOW YE NOT. THAT SO MANY OF US AS WERE BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST WERE BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH? THEREFORE WE ‘HAVE BEEN’ ‘BURIED’ ‘WITH CHRIST’ (‘SUNTHAPTO’) BY BAPTISM INTO DEATH; THAT LIKE AS CHRIST WAS RAISED UP FROM THE DEAD, EVEN SO WE ALSO SHOULD WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE.”
Think of this! “BURIED BY BAPTISM INTO DEATH.” Then note, in verse 13, that all who have been ‘BAPTIZED’ into the death of Jesus Christ, and have been ‘BURIED WITH CHRIST’, are said to be ‘ALIVE FROM THE DEAD.’ These ‘BAPTIZED’, ‘BURIED’, ‘RAISED FROM THE DEAD’ people can walk in newness of life, because they are ‘NEW CREATURES’ in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17). They are God’s ‘WORKMANSHIP’, ‘CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS’, ‘UNTO GOOD WORKS’. (Ephesians 2:10).

Every person, who has been created in Christ Jesus unto good works, and raised up with Christ from the dead to walk in newness of life, should join with Paul, who said, “that I may know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.” (Philippians 3:10).

When the Lord Jesus foretold His sufferings and death on the cross he said, “I have a ‘BAPTISM’ to be ‘BAPTIZED’ with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). Christians then are to know Christ in the fellowship of the ‘BAPTISM’ which He suffered on the cross. When they know the full meaning of that ‘BAPTISM’ of Christ, they will say with Paul, “God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom I have been ‘CRUCIFIED’.” (Galatians 6:14). When Paul said, in Galatians 2:20, “I have been ‘CRUCIFIED WITH’ (‘SUS�TAUROO’) Christ,” he added, “I LIVE.” In II Timothy 2:11 Paul declared that Christians have “DIED WITH CHRIST.” (Colossians 2:20 . . . 3:3). And we learned, in Ephesians 2:5 and 6, Colossians 2:12 and 13, and Romans 6:4 and 13, that Christians have been ‘RAISED UP FROM THE DEAD’ ‘WITH CHRIST’; and that Christians are ‘SITTING DOWN TOGETHER WITH CHRIST’ in the heavenlies. ‘BURIAL’ comes between ‘DEATH’ and ‘RESURRECTION’. This is the order in Romans 6:3 and 4, ‘DEATH’ . . . ‘BURIAL’. . . ‘RESURRECTION’.

Undertakers are not supposed to cause the death of a person. Their work is to take care of people after they have died; to prepare them for ‘BURIAL’, including their grave-clothes, and then ‘BURY’ them. Without a doubt the same Person and Power, in Romans 6:3 and 4, that ‘BURIED’ the people, caused them to die and raised them from the dead. So ask yourself this question, who is the undertaker in Romans 6:4? If there we have the act of a human, religious undertaker ‘BURYING’ a person in water, that undertaker caused the death of the person and also raised that person from death to life. The ‘BAPTISM’ of Romans 6:3 and 4 changes a ‘DEAD SINNER’, ‘DEAD IN SINS’, to a ‘LIVING SAINT’, ‘DEAD TO SIN’. If there is water baptism in Romans 6:3 and 4, then there is magic, marvelous, transforming, regenerating power in the combination of religious undertaker and water.

Every week thousands of the human beings on this earth have to answer the question, “TO BE or NOT TO BE?” “TO BE or NOT TO BE BAPTIZED IN OR WITH WATER?” Then the next questions: “WHY SHOULD I BE BAPTIZED BY A HUMAN BEING?” “SHALL I BE BURIED IN WATER OR SPRINKLED WITH WATER?” “SHALL I BE SPRINKLED BY A ‘METHODIST SPRINKLER, A PRESBYTERIAN SPRINKLED A LUTHERAN SPRINKLER, AN EPISCOPAL SPRINKLER, OR A ROMAN CATHOLIC SPRINKLER?’ All of these five religious sprinklers are disagreed as to the significance and benefits of the sprinkling.

Then this question, “IF I AM TO AGREE WITH THE RELIGIOUS UNDERTAKES, THAT MARK 1:5, JOHN 3:23, ACTS 8:36 to 39, ROMANS 6:4 and 5 PROVE THAT ONLY A BURIAL ALL THE WAY UNDER THE WATER IS VALID AND ACCEPTABLE UNTO GOD, SHALL I BE BAPTIZED BY A CHURCH OF CHRIST UNDERTAKER, A CHURCH OF GOD UNDERTAKER, A PENTECOSTAL UNDERTAKER, A NAZARENE UNDERTAKER, A CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY ALLIANCE UNDERTAKER, A MORMON UNDERTAKER, A DUNKARD�BRETHREN UNDERTAKER, A PLYMOUTH BRETHREN UNDERTAKER, A SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST UNDERTAKER, A JEHOVAH WITNESS UNDERTAKER, OR BY A BAPTIST UNDERTAKER SOUTH OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE, OR A BAPTIST UNDERTAKER NORTH OF THE MASON AND DIXON LINE?”





Posted By – Cecil Spivey




The One True God - YESHUA (Jesus)
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