Acts 19:1-5
"And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?' So they said to him, 'We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.' And he said to them, 'Into what then were you baptized?' So they said, 'Into John's baptism.' Then Paul said, 'John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.' When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus."
Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. God is really not interested in the path you may have decided on to base your eternal destiny. According to God's plan, the name of Jesus is the only way for anyone to live in his righteous presence. All other paths to eternity come up short, even those which have all the religious trappings of Christianity, but not claiming the name of Jesus.
At Ephesus, Paul encounters a group of people who had recognized their need for salvation, but had not received the baptism of the Spirit. While they had gone through water baptism under the preaching of John the Baptist, they had not professed faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, they had not even heard of Jesus. Yes, they were sorry for their sins and had repented of them, but they needed the touch of the Holy Spirit to be marked as one of God's own. This touch comes by claiming Jesus as Lord.
Today, people try to get right with God through various means. They pursue selfless service. Some participate in religious services such as baptism, communion, the blessings of a church, or prayers to saints. Others take religious journeys, go from religious faith to faith, and pursue the spiritual. But all the paths come up short. God only has one way, and that is through the baptism of the Spirit which comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
When someone tells me they are a Christian, I'm interested in knowing the basis for their claim. Unless one claims a saving faith in Jesus Christ and the abiding presence of the Spirit, the person still needs to be born again.
Often times, Christians are unfairly accused of being narrow-minded by claiming Jesus as the only way to a relationship with God. Of course, this is a misfounded belief, since Jesus opened the way to everyone to come to faith in God. We only have to come the way God has laid out for us in Christ.
LORD JESUS
Lord, I thank you for your clear path to salvation through faith in Christ. Amen.
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