So if eternal life is gained by obedience, what is the salvation gained by grace through faith? Why is it that God offers two salvations in the new covenant? It is not insignificant that Jesus fulfilled the old covenant without destroying it. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said, “Think not that I have come to destroy the law, I came not to destroy but to fulfill.”
By leaving the old covenant intact, Jesus created a two part salvation. Gentiles must submit themselves to the law first, acknowledging that God’s definition of righteousness is correct and right and that they are unable to keep it, before they can enter the new covenant. Lost souls must receive the salvation of the old covenant before they can enter the new covenant.
By living up to the standard for righteousness prescribed by the Father, and then dying as one guilty of transgressing all the law, Jesus provides a permanent righteousness to all who accept His death on the cross as payment of sin. All who exercise faith in Jesus are clothed with Jesus’ righteousness and are then called Christians. By providing a permanent righteousness, not dependent on behavior but dependent on faith, Jesus provided a fulfillment of the old covenant law, leaving the law intact for all to pass that way.
The new covenant is not made with lost souls. While Jesus’ death on the cross provides a path to righteousness to all men, the new covenant was made with a select group of people, namely those wearing Jesus’ righteousness, the Christians. Thus, we are faced with a two part salvation.
The salvation of the old covenant is the salvation spoken of by Ephesians 2:8. It is by grace because “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;” while we were in the world without God, God reached out to us and provided us with a salvation we don’t have to work for. All we have to do is believe. It is completely free. It is by grace, which is God’s unmerited favor. We were the enemies of God when Christ died for us and did not merit God reaching out to us to provide salvation.
The new covenant is a completely different covenant made with those who wear Jesus’ righteousness. Romans 10:10 is perhaps the clearest verse in the New Testament: “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Righteousness is the salvation of the old covenant, but, having received righteousness; it is incumbent on Christians to confess the Lord Jesus, Romans 10:9.
Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was confused by that statement. He could not grasp the meaning of Jesus’ words, and he asked, “Does a man have to re-enter his mother’s womb?” To Nicodemus there was only one definition of the word, “born.” Jesus goes on to define, born, differently.
Jesus says, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” It is all a matter of context. The word, born, means to bring forth, thus when a woman brings forth a child of her womb, the child is born, but when anyone taken out into a body of water, is dunked under by a deliberate act and brought forth again, the person is born of water. The significance of this baptism with water is found in the first salvation.
If you acknowledge that God’s definition of righteousness is true, vis a vis the Ten Commandments, and acknowledge an inability to keep God’s standard, by then accepting Jesus’ death on the cross under penalty of sin, you are then cleansed of your sin as you receive Jesus’ righteousness. To be brought forth of the water is to be made clean in God’s sight.
However, Jesus said it is not enough to be made clean in God’s sight. While most every Bible preacher and teacher will tell you that to receive Jesus’ righteousness is all that is required to go to heaven, Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The word, and, indicates two events.
Moreover, both events are not one-time, been there, done that, affairs. The righteousness obtained through faith in Jesus’ death requires an ongoing faith. In that the righteousness is obtained by placing oneself in the death of Christ by faith, the righteousness is maintained by an ongoing similar faith. As long as the believer “reckons himself dead in Christ” by faith, the righteousness is maintained, but to judge yourself guilty of sin defined by the law and to repent is to say you are no longer dead in Christ and that righteousness obtained by faith is no longer yours.
Jesus said, “You cannot enter the kingdom of God by being born of water alone. You must be born of water and the Spirit.” So what does it mean to be born of the Spirit? As we have learned, the word, born, and the word, baptize, are synonyms; having the same meaning in this case. To be born of water is to be baptized with water and to be born of the Spirit is to be baptized with the Spirit.
Ok, so now we have some context. Jesus mentions a baptism with the Spirit again in Acts 1:4-5 when He commands His fledgling Church to wait for it and when the Church is baptized with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues is pouring out of their hearts. Now it seems as if the whole world has tried to relegate the gift of tongues to some kind of less than status but the definition of “born of the Spirit,” presented by the scriptures is that of having the gift of tongues pouring out of your hearts. Whose opinion should we relish, God’s or that beloved pastor/ teacher?
While all the world is telling us the gift of tongues has nothing to do with salvation and the only thing you need is to believe Jesus died for you, Jesus said you must be born of water AND the Spirit before you can enter the kingdom of God. To be born of is to be baptized and neither is a one-time event. Both require an ongoing commitment.
It makes me angry. I’ve been a Christian my whole life and received a baptism with the Spirit the first time when I was 21, some 40 years ago now. All my life I’ve been told the gift of tongues has nothing to do with salvation and it was not until a day when I realized the most gifted teacher I had ever heard had huge gaps in the theology he taught, that I started to study on my own the most basic truths of God’s Word. It was then that I began to realize the fallacy of my beliefs.
Jesus said, “That which is born of Spirit is Spirit.” Or, in other words, we attain to eternal life by keeping ourselves saturated with the Holy Spirit. Those who are born of the Spirit, baptized, are sons of God. And if you are not continually saturating yourself with the Spirit of God, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.
So what is the kingdom of God and what is its significance? We started by talking about the old covenant and the new covenant. By fulfilling the law yet leaving it intact, Jesus established a two part salvation. All who sell themselves into slavery to the law by acknowledging God’s definition of righteousness to be correct are then eligible to receive Jesus’ righteousness. By that act of faith they are saved from their sins, providing they continue in the fact that Jesus took the penalties of their sin on the cross, that they being dead as far as sin is concerned, should live as righteous people (though in their hearts they know they are not).
These people are then called Christians and are members of Christ’s Church. They have not yet entered the new covenant however, which was not established until after the cross. Christians must exercise a second act of faith. Jesus died as the Christ on the cross but was not raised from the dead as Christ. He was raised as Lord. The Kingdom of God is the kingdom the Father established with the old covenant. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the Father took off the title, Lord, and bestowed it on Jesus; giving Jesus all power in heaven and earth and with this new authority, Jesus established the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven has replaced the kingdom of God.
When lost souls receive Jesus’ righteousness, they enter the kingdom of heaven but if they do not practice the keeping of the covenant, they cannot access the blessings of the new covenant. It is the same as with the old covenant Jews. When they kept covenant with God they enjoyed the benefits of the covenant but when they failed to keep covenant, they failed to receive the benefits of being in covenant with God even though they lived in the kingdom of God.
Jesus was once asked if John the Baptist were a prophet. His answer is very enlightening. Jesus said, “Of those born of a woman, there has not arisen one greater than John. Howbeit, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.” So John, being a son of the old covenant, was born in the kingdom of God, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John because to be born into the kingdom of heaven is to be wrapped in the righteousness of the Christ.
In Acts 2 we find a curious verse. Peter, quoting David, said, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Again, David lived under the kingdom of God and his Lord was the Father. “The Lord,” is Jesus and in 1Corinthians 15:24 we learn, “Then comes the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.”
So Jesus, right now, is attempting to put all things under the Father’s feet, and when He has accomplished His goal, He will give the kingdom of heaven to God and we will be under the kingdom of God for eternity. So when Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Unless you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God, He is saying there will come a time when those who are only born of water will find themselves lacking the credentials to go into eternity.
This is the same thing said by Hebrews 5:9, “He gives eternal life to those who obey Him,” and Romans 10:10, “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” and John 15:10, “If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
It is also the same concept reflected in Revelations 22:19. “If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.” It should be clear names are written into the book of life when lost souls accept the Father’s definition of righteousness as correct and repent and accept Jesus’ death on the cross as payment of those sins. That’s when they enter the kingdom of heaven. However, at the end, when all things are placed under the Father’s feet and Jesus hands His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, over to the Father, those who have not lived the baptism with the Spirit will not be allowed entrance to the kingdom of God.
Those who do not obey Jesus’ commandments will not receive eternal life, Heb.5:9; those who do not confess the Lord Jesus will not receive salvation, Rom.10:10; and there is no way to abide in Jesus’ love if you do not keep Jesus’ commandments, Jn.15:10. You can live in the kingdom of heaven and not benefit from the new covenant and you can receive Jesus’ righteousness and not enter the kingdom of God.
By interpreting the commandment of Acts 1:4 to be a personal commandment to eleven men and no others, men have taken the importance of the gift of tongues to salvation clean out of the scriptures and many thousands of Christians will find their names removed from the book at the end of all things because they did not heed God’s Word but relied on the wisdom of men. Jesus said, “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Now, if you like I, was deceived into believing you had no obligation to keep the commandment of Acts 1:4-5; if you were told by men and women you respected and trusted to tell you the truth of God’s Word that speaking in tongues had nothing to do with salvation, there is an easy remedy. First, hastily repent of your error, then, if you have ever received the baptism with the Spirit before; begin to keep yourself saturated with the Holy Spirit by allowing the gift of tongues to flow out of your mouth daily. Jesus said, “He that believes on me, rivers of the gift of tongues will pour forth from his heart,” John 7:36-39.
If you have never received the baptism with the Spirit, tell the Lord Jesus you are sorry for this disobedience against His commandment and seek to be baptized with the Spirit with all that is within you. In my 40 years of experience, I have known people who have received this baptism in almost every way imaginable.
I once knew a lady who was in the habit of sitting in the middle of her bed singing songs of praise to the Lord. On one such occasion a strange language came out of her mouth. She had never been exposed to the gift of tongues before and didn’t know she had been baptized with the Spirit. She obeyed the commandment without realizing there was a commandment.
I know another lady who read over a pamphlet and prayed the prayer written in the back for the baptism with the Spirit. She received two syllables just in her mind’s eye but she spoke those two syllables out by faith. It was months later that she received a complete language but she was faithful to speak what she had all that time.
It would seem that Paul had a special dispensational gift that allowed him to lay hands on people and them receive. I don’t doubt there are some among us today with this gift and I know many people who received this way. Others have received while in the company of others speaking in tongues. There is no set way to receive the baptism with the Spirit and the importance is not in how you receive but in the fact that you do receive and practice obedience.
Obedience is counted in two ways. Those who keep themselves saturated with the Holy Spirit are certainly obeying the commandment to wait. You see, it takes time for the Holy Spirit to pour out of your heart, saturating your whole being as He does, and thus you must wait for it to happen. Each individual judges him or herself saturated. Paul said, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” because eternal life is gained by saturation. The second way obedience is counted is by repentance. By repentance, you are acknowledging that saturation is the correct behavior and thus your repentance is counted as obedience.