BAPTISM IS THE SIGNIFICANT REMINDER

The purpose of washing is to make clean. Baptism is an outward gesture of spiritual significance that has a personal psychological impact. That the part of the body–or all of it–shall get wet and become in those places physically cleaner has no bearing. In one's own baptism, something happens to the soul (or spirit) of the you. The soul is the heaven-sent or God-given center that each individual has, and it is the responsibility of these people to provide for their own souls. For, the soul is eternal and nothing else in a man or woman is. Yet, it is this soul that must be educated and provided for with our very existence and life experiences. Some tend well to their souls; others care not a fig whether they learn and inculcate that which has a true eternity within them.

There is a book titled The Care and Feeding of the Soul. You may think of the soul this way: it's a small child but without its destiny of growing to maturity. For, if the person only thinks during their lifetime that God made certain ones to be heroes (David vs. Goliath, Sampson vs. the Philistines, etc.) and that God watches over us while we sleep, well, that person has a stunted, non-matured spiritual state and, though it’s childlike and perhaps thought of as emulating Christ’s admonition to his disciples to become “childlike to enter the kingdom of God”, the true fact is: this is neglect to own's soul.

Paul the Apostle taught to pray without ceasing; and to Timothy he instructed to (keep on in his studies) “study to show thyself approved unto God.” Others were instructed to let patience have the perfecting work it does until they, as Christians, had become "complete", and lacking in nothing in their spiritual lives and social behavior.

Being “born again” is the personal soul having its awakening, and thereafter it grows to have knowledge of God with ability to praise him, and as an outflow or overflow, this soul has its desire to teach others that which it has learned of God. Also, the soul will seek to to do works of benefit and kindness that God wills a person to accomplish. There is mutual benefit between this enlightened soul and God its Maker. God’s has his kingdom progressing with world-awareness of his power to influence the hearts of his children, and those people in distress or disadvantage have their daily needs met, which is his promise; he is, in fact, The Father.

Born again comes with recognition of the burden of sin that a person has concerning himself or herself, and the soul is wise enough to approach this Father of Jesus to have the merits of his Son’s work at the Cross to remove the painfully conscience-stricken nature by having sins permanently removed. Simultaneously, in the act of cleansing us from our sin, God “awakens”, “gives birth to” the soul that each of us has. From that point on, the soul should be learning, learning, and learning.

Trouble is, Satan comes along. And like the Parable of the Sower states, this seed can get choked out by weeds or scorched (competition with cares of the world to become wealthy, or a persecution by those others of the world who see us growing spiritually and complain over it, and we accept that criticism). We may remember the minimal “basics” if we drop out, that 1) God loves us and 2) we are going to heaven after death; but other than this air-gasping first breath doctrines of a Christian newborn, instead of adding substance and strength to our soul, it remains dwarfed, and this way for the remainder of our lives. The abilities we have as gifts from God to advance his kingdom become as the buried talent of the slothful servant who had nothing of increase to show at the master’s return from a trip to a far off land! And part of Satan’s deception is to tell such neophytes that their conversion never really happened, and that what they thought occurred was just some being caught up in the emotion of the moment. When a person prays for God to enter their entire being (includes the soul) as the Lord of their life, they are saying that they no longer rely on their conscience to guide them–for it got them into trouble nonetheless with the burden of sin–and they now want to have the Holy Spirit directing them into their personal holiness. It is a tall order, but we have a tall God! A marker or memento, a “spiritual souvenir”, is in the ceremony of baptism. Though the devil would have us forget those exact circumstances that surround our individual first prayer for salvation of our soul--being saved--with an outward dramatic event of being baptized as testimony, there is no amount of devilish trickery or our personal slothfulness from that point onward can take that memory away from us. This is a significant impact from baptism, to fix in our minds that we are saved, though in reality we are to also undergo a lifetime of learning God's ways and becoming similar to Christ (Jesus was the example for us and the high ideal--he grew in stature and wisdom before God and man), until the resultant day of our Salvation when our souls are re-united physically with Christ Jesus in that place he has been a-preparing for us all these many centuries.

The Weymouth translation of the New Testament gives a polished summary of our relationship to God, in Ephesians 2:6-10, where Paul is saying: "But God... raised us with Him (Christ) from the dead, and enthroned us with Him in the heavenly realms as being in Christ Jesus, in order that, by His goodness to us in Christ Jesus, He might display in the ages to come the transcendent riches of His grace. For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves. It is God's gift, and is not on the ground of merit--so that it may be impossible for any one to boast. For we are God's own handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works which He has predestined us to practice."

Baptism is not the ticket to heaven that you've purchased with autonomous, independent effort; always it remains that Christ has brought you to whatever your spiritual state is through a willingness on your part to believe and to act. This act of baptism is an obedient act. Jesus always said that his followers were those who hear his words and then do them. That is our "good and reasonable service" and why, in the end, we are apprised by God with the somewhat-formal "Well done, you good and faithful servant." And this is to be heard uniformly by us all. Now, as to the crowns we are to wear, that is significantly different. See "Heaven's Crowns" link at the top of the page.