It may not be Biblical, but it is sure Baptist

Galatians 2:15-16

I was Baptist before I was born, my dad was a deacon and mom was in the WMU and anything else that was offered.  If my math is correct, I was in a Baptist church at least 108 days, before I was born.  Often, mother would tell us children that being a Baptist would not get you to heaven, that at some point in our life we would be convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit and at that point we must, by faith, trust in Jesus as our Savior.  I grew up in small Baptist churches and most Sundays the message was on how to be saved, though most of the people there were professing Christians.  It is also a fact that when an evangelist came to preach some of those regular folks got saved for the fourth or fifth time.  Now that was confusing to a young boy who by the age of six understood right from wrong, and believed mother and daddy when they said, “Once Saved always Saved”.  Why put your trust in a God who is not big enough to keep you.

As I got older and had joined the Baptist church but was void of any relationship with Jesus, I began to understand that Baptists were not the only ones who were trying to get to heaven, there were Methodist, Presbyterians, and Catholics, just to name the short list.  One of the young men I worked with enjoyed telling me this little riddle; “It may not be biblical, but it is sure Baptist” and I understand how he could have come up with that notion.  I’ve heard people say I have always been saved, I grew up in a Baptist church, and it makes you wonder, if they had grown up in a barn, would they be a tractor?  I also hear a few say; “I’m Baptist right or wrong.  By this point, if you are one of those Baptist, “Who has always been saved” I hope you stick with me for a while longer.  You see the early church was dealing with some of the same problems.

The main reason the apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia was to defend the doctrine of justification by faith, and warning them not to return to Judaism.  On the other side of the coin were the false teachers, who were saying; the observance of the ceremonial laws was an essential part of salvation.  They were teaching, “Faith – Plus” and listen to what Paul is telling us, “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

Is the apostle Paul saying, “One door and only One” and it isn’t a Baptist door, that door is faith plus nothing, not even one little act, of some man made rule.  The sad news is, many who are Baptist will bust hell wide open because they try to earn justification by their works, or they put faith in what some one said and not in seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ by grace through faith.  In Paul’s letter to the churches in Ephesus he wrote the following, “For it is by grace you have been save, through faith  - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice