Q: Is there anything wrong, if I did receive the gift of the Holy Ghost? I had always believed in God, I went to an alter and earnestly repented, I was forgiven by god and as I prayed in tears, I spoke in an unknown language to me, for what I was told was 15 minutes. Having some previous Christian knowledge and want to fill the template of death by repentance, Burial by baptism, and resurrection by Holy ghost... I went and got totally immersed and baptized in the name of Jesus.... I wanted to follow the apostolic model set forth in the bible. If all that really worked for me, is there anything wrong with what I did or the template I followed. Thanks God bless.
A: Thank you for your question. You have touched on a lot of topics that could take a long time to address. However, I will try to focus on one area that holds the key to all the other subjects. You have to know what is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no "template" to follow. There is only an understanding of your condition and acceptance of God's provision. All the things you described doing, including getting baptized and speaking in an "unknown language," do not have anything to do with being saved. You admit receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. If that is the case, then you did all that is necessary for salvation. Salvation is the restoration of the life of God. The life of God is the Holy Spirit. I briefly mentioned your needing to understand your condition. You, me and all mankind are born into this world spiritually dead to God in sin. Genesis 2:7 says, "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." When God breathed His Spirit into Adam, he became spiritually alive to God. However, God gave Adam a warning. In Genesis 2:17, God told Adam, "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 3:6 records that Adam disobeyed God's command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, Adam died spiritually the moment he ate the forbidden fruit. The life of God, His indwelling Holy Spirit, was removed from Adam.
Since Adam did not have any children at this time, any children he would have would be born spiritually dead to God. Genesis 5:3 says, "When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth." Contrary to popular belief mankind does not enter this world in the image of God. Adam was "created" in the image of God; spiritually alive to God with God's life indwelling him. However, we are all "born" in the image of Adam; spiritually dead to God in sin. That is the condition all of us come into this world under. The condition I hoped you recognized about yourself. There is no "template" to follow that restores to us what only God can provide. And God's provision is Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Out of His great love for us and desire to indwell us as He did back when He created Adam, God took it upon Himself to make that happen. God wanted to indwell us again, but before He could indwell us, He had to deal with the sin that caused Him to remove His life from us in the first place. It was John the Baptist who said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)!" The Bible tells us that the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23) and that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). However, no man or woman has ever had a life to give that would satisfy God as payment for our sins. Our sins are so terrible that only the death of God Himself would be sufficient as payment. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is the only Man born with a life to give for our sins.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, His last words were, "It is finished (John 19:30)." These words literally mean "paid in full." The debt of sin we all owed God was paid once and for all when Jesus died (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27; 9:12). The sin issue is now over between man and God. With this accomplished God was now able to restore His life to man again, as a free gift, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is why in 1 Corinthians 15:22, it says, "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." The one and only provision of God is Jesus Christ! For anybody who has put faith in Him, they have come alive to God. Another way the Bible describes coming alive to God is by saying "born again." In John 3:3, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Birth is life. We are all born physically, but when we accept Jesus Christ by faith, we are born again spiritually. The life of God has come to indwell us forever. That is why the the life we have is called an eternal life. There is no sin that can take that life away, as it did when Adam sinned, because God is no longer counting our sins against us. Romans 4:8 says, "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." We are now free to approach God with confidence in our time of need to receive His grace and mercy (Hebrews 4:16). Furthermore, we are now able to serve others in love because we are the recipients of the unconditional love of God meeting the deepest desires of our heart.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is sin, death, forgiveness and the restoration of the life of God. When you understand your condition of spiritual death and God's provision of forgiveness and life through faith in Jesus Christ, all these other subjects become insignificant. For example, you mentioned "burial in baptism." John the Baptist said, "I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8).” Later in Ephesians 4:5, the Apostle Paul wrote that there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism..." If there is only one baptism and John the Baptist mentioned both water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which one is necessary? It is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is a one time act done at the moment of salvation by Jesus Christ, Himself. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is being born again by having the life of God restored to you. Water baptism is a great picture of this spiritual truth, but nothing more. It is not required for salvation or as a first act of obedience after salvation. The moment you accepted Jesus Christ by faith, you were made alive to God for eternity. Everything else you mentioned are the things that man has added to the faith because of his misunderstanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And what we add to the Gospel is usually what we emphasize. Rather than focusing on water baptism, speaking in an "unknown language," which is not in the Bible, endlessly repenting at altars or trying to follow some "apostolic model,"rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ and mature in the knowledge of the reality of His resurrected life in you. Then you can begin to get to know your God and not stay focused on yourself and the "templates" of men. May God continue to reveal to you the blessings you already have received in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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