Yes! There is Good News! March 10, 2022

It seems as though I left our previous article with two separate thoughts that didn’t have an obvious connection. I began by talking about water and its spiritual application to the gospel. I mentioned how this water represented the pouring out of God’s Holy Spirit upon the believer. But then I ended with a Greek lesson on the word “zoe,” the word used in the Greek scriptures to introduce us to the spiritual life we have in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Let’s see how these two ideas are connected.

First of all, you need to answer a couple of questions. Have you received the gift of the Holy Spirit? Do you understand the ramifications of being indwelt by God’s Spirit? God sent His Son to prepare His disciples for a life of Godliness; but He did not leave the disciples (or any of us) all alone to face the problems and trials of this world – He poured out His Spirit into those who would believe in His Son, who would repent of the life they had been leading (as Paul put it, ‘slaves to sin’) and who would make that public declaration of being immersed in the waters of baptism.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4) This is one of the most amazing statements concerning the new life of a Christian.

It is with this statement that we can begin to see the connection between water and life! In Acts 2:38, Peter told the crowd that had gathered to “repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” It is here that we see the progression of water in baptism to the water that is symbolic of the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.

It is the river of John 7:38 that reveals to us the gift of the Spirit that flows from the inner most part of a new believer. “Whoever believes in Me,” Jesus said, “Rivers of living water shall flow from within him.” And now we may connect the differing thoughts from our previous article, ‘water’ and ‘life!!'

Paul tells us that if we have never taken this most precious step of repentance and baptism, we are, “Dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked.” (Eph. 2:1)

But now hear this, “He said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who overcomes will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” (Rev. 21:6-7) This is the remarkable part of the third phase of the gospel – we can have the life of our God dwelling in us!! And it is absolutely free.

Stay tuned for phase four of this “Good News of God.”