Baptism, Cleansing and Regeneration

And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

(Genesis 8:21) NKJV

God renewed the ground so that it would bear fruit again. The promise that God made to Noah. Noah’s flood washed away the salts and toxic compounds that had accumulated. Earth was baptized.

Reason

Baptism, cleansing and regeneration is a central theme in the broad narrative of scripture. It’s the day-to-day process whereby we work out the purpose of creation at a personal level in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. It’s the reason for creation.

The reason for creation is the manifestation of sentient life with free will.

– The Reason for Creation

Purpose

God said, let there be light, and the lamb was slain at the foundation of the world as nucleosynthesis produced a universe where light (protons) and darkness (neutrons) are combined in the heart of every atom. Light and dark have to be separated because they were initially combined in order to manifest free will. This is the physics behind the truth that Jesus Christ became sin for us, who knew no sin. This is what has to be resolved, the universe was created for the purpose of bringing this about.

The purpose of creation is to bring about the permanent physical separation of light from darkness, day from night, good from evil.

– The Purpose of Creation

Why?

The light and dark will be separated. Our life is our opportunity to respond to God’s revealed truth and choose light or darkness. This is the answer to the question that we ought to be asking when we try to resolve the character of God as benevolent and kind with the world of chaos and destruction that we see around us.

Why did God create the universe?
The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything:

God created the universe so that sentient beings with free will could make a choice between light or darkness, life or death.

– The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything

Regeneration

We also see this broad theme described using the doctrines of sanctification and refinement. We’re being tried, refined and sanctified, this is the work of our lives.

1. A word often used in the Bible for purify is sanctify or sanctification.
2. A word used for the process of purification, or the refinement that applies to precious metals, is tried.
3. When the process of purification is applied to people it’s referred to as cleansing.

However the final step can only be accomplished through Jesus Christ. We can’t take the atoms out of our bodies and remove all of the neutrons, but that’s what’s going to happen. Those of us who are redeemed will be given new bodies made from a series of elements which don’t have any neutrons.

The pattern of regeneration and rebirth is repeated throughout scripture. It’s a broad theme and the work of Christ but it has to happen for each of us on a personal level, this is the reason why baptism through immersion is the first step that we should take after getting saved.

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