Do you believe on the Son of God? Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And the man said, Lord, I believe.
"Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Christ appears and says to Thomas, "...be not faithless, but believing." Thomas then believed and Christ continued, "...because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." The author of John continues, "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."
When one has such a faith begin to exist in his heart he has been "obedient" to the Gospel. Any action subsequently engendered BY this faith in the Gospel is not faith but an "act of faith" like those mentioned in Hebrews 11.
Mimicking the Gospel message by being baptized is not obedience to the Gospel. Baptism is an "act of faith". It is not "obedience" to the Gospel. We are to repent and believe the Gospel message. We are to return to God by trusting in the Gospel of our salvation. Returning to God through acceptance of this Good News is the obedience of faith. Those who are obedient to the Gospel message, i.e., those who accept it with a trusting heart, are subsequently baptized to externally manifest the reality of their heart having become unified with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Baptism externally dramatizes the heart's unification with the Gospel.
Nothing cloudy here, Ferd. God bless, good to see you again.
So then you would feel comfortable saying that baptism is nothing more than outward sign of an inward grace?
I would think words like faith, belief, and trust would be nouns.
Words like believe and trust would be verbs.
This is quite funny. (not that I am trying to argue with you are anything)
But I had a fellow in my Sunday school class that was raised Episcopalian. He went to a church run college and took Greek. The Episcopalian teacher at this seminary said the best way to understand the word was to see it as a verb. That the word lends itself to action. It is not a passive description.
Now I don’t know anything about Episcopalians I don’t know much about Greek. But is sure is funny to me that this guy sees it more like I do than you guys when your theology is closer to him than mine!
LOL! Anyway, that sure is funny to me.
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!