Why were the baptisms required for Israel?

Why were the baptisms required for Israel?

Exodus 19:5 Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all the people, for all the Earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Exodus 19 is when Moses begins to give the Old Testament law to Israel, and he tells them right up front, God's intention with Israel is to make them a kingdom of priests.

Lev 21:16-21 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, (17) Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. (18) For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, (19) Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, (20) Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; (21) No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.

According to Leviticus 21, there were some obvious requirements placed upon the priests who were to approach to offer the offerings of the Lord. They had to be a perfect physical specimen.

As grace believers, what is our primary objective? (Part 4)

Paul’s Encouragement to Increase in Knowledge and Understanding

Start this series of posts with: Part 1

Paul’s letters are full of statements that encourage one to learn, to increase in one’s knowledge of God’s Word, and to gain understanding of it, so that it embeds in one’s heart and becomes part of the outflow of one’s life, in thinking, reasoning, speech, and actions. You cannot go far in Paul’s epistles and not read statements that encourage growth and increasing in knowledge and understanding.

In Romans, the foundational epistle that establishes us in ‘the faith’, Paul immediately starts to fire up our minds, compelling us to think upon things, or to know things, coercing our learning and understanding. Have a look at the following statements that we encounter so early in the mystery curriculum,

As grace believers, what is our primary objective? (Part 2)

As grace believers, what is our primary objective? (Part 2)

Start this series of posts with: Part 1

In the first part of this series, I motivated the fact that the single most important thing to do, after getting saved, is to spend time in the Word of God and gain the knowledge of the Word rightly divided. In upcoming parts, I will also deal with points instructing why this is important, what happens when we do, and God’s will and purpose for us in doing this.

In this post I want to focus on what is milk and what is meat. As previously mentioned, a babe in Christ cannot be fed meat. So, it becomes really important to know what milk is in the Word, and where we will find the solid food. In this regard, we will find that God’s Word is so perfectly designed. As with the nine Hebrew epistles, Hebrews to Revelation, Paul’s nine church epistles to the Gentiles are also arranged in a form of curriculum, starting with Romans to 2-Thessalonians. It shouldn’t be surprising to note that these Gentile letters, for us in this dispensation of grace, start with a letter called Romans and the Jewish letters, for the Jewish believers in the tribulation, start with a letter called Hebrews. God could not have made this distinction clearer.

The Glory and Power of God’s Word within Us

The Glory and Power of God’s Word within Us

Paul provides some valuable insights into what will happen at our transition from these earthly ‘tents’ (flesh bodies) to our heavenly ‘building’ (spiritual, eternal bodies), 2Cor 5:1.

First, we must know that there are bodies for different purposes, for different environments, and which emit different levels of glory. Read the following passage to get the context,

1Co 15:39-43 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: