Category Archives: Sacraments

1 Cor 6:11 The next passage in 1 Corinthians we should consider is not necessarily a baptism passage — (1Co 6:11 ESV)  11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in … Continue reading →

1 Corinthians has more references to Christian baptism than any other New Testament book. We find there — (1Co 1:12-18 ESV) 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or … Continue reading →

We now turn to the Pauline epistles to see what Paul has to say about baptism. I count 12 verses containing an explicit reference to baptism, eight of which are in 1 Corinthians. The other four are in Romans, Galatians, … Continue reading →

According to John’s Gospel, how is someone saved? (John 1:12-13) Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human … Continue reading →

A hendiadys? Now, Morris’s idea that “water and Spirit” means something like “spiritual seed” is more possible that it appears at first glance. He is arguing for a figure of speech known as a hendiadys — where two adjectives or … Continue reading →

Nicodemus Born or begotten? We considered Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in the “before” post. But we need to consider Nicodemus further. He’d never read a Gospel or Romans. The only baptism he knew was John the Baptist’s, if he knew … Continue reading →

We don’t usually think of this as a baptism passage. And maybe it’s not. But there are good reasons to think that baptism is at least in the background. (John 4:7-15 ESV) 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw … Continue reading →

[This is taken from Born of Water, my book on baptism. It’s edited, but not greatly changed. But after I loaded this into the blogging software, I re-thought my position. And so I thought it might be helpful to post … Continue reading →

Lydia and Crispus (Act 16:13-15 ESV) 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had … Continue reading →

Samaria Phillip the Evangelist, the deacon, not the apostle, went to Samaria and made the first Christian converts there. But there was a problem — (Act 8:14-17 ESV) 14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received … Continue reading →