Living Letters – Chapter 1 – Salvation and Baptism

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Living Letters: A Christian Legacy

Chapter 1 — Salvation and Baptism

Review • Our lives are letters of Christ, known and read by others. • A Christian legacy includes the faith others lived before us and the faith we now live before others. • We began naming the people whose lives helped shape our faith.

Lesson Focus • God used His Word and faithful people to bring us to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. • Baptism publicly identified us as followers of Christ. • We will map the people, Scriptures, and events God used in our salvation and baptism.

The First Chapter

In the previous lesson, we began with Paul’s words to the Christians in Corinth:

2 Corinthians 3:2–3 — Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Paul called them living letters because people could see what God had done in their lives. The same is true of us. People learn what we believe by watching how we live.

We also talked about legacy. Our faith has been shaped by people who taught us about God and lived out their faith in front of us. Now our lives are influencing the people who watch us.

Today we begin Chapter 1: Salvation and Baptism. This is where our Christian lives began. To understand this chapter, we need to look back. Who first taught us about God? What made us begin thinking about sin and eternity? When did we understand salvation? When were we baptized, and what did baptism mean to us at the time?

Charles Spurgeon’s First Chapter

Charles Spurgeon’s story gives us a good example. Both his father and grandfather were pastors. He grew up hearing the Bible, reading Christian books, listening to sermons, and attending church. Yet he later said that he did not understand how he could personally be saved.

Spurgeon knew that the Bible said to believe on Jesus Christ, but he did not understand what it meant to believe. He knew he was a sinner. He wanted his sins to be forgiven. What he could not understand was what he needed to do.

He began visiting different churches and chapels, hoping someone would explain it clearly. On Sunday morning, January 6, 1850, fifteen-year-old Spurgeon was on his way to a place of worship when a snowstorm became so severe that he could go no farther. He turned down a side street and entered a small Primitive Methodist chapel.

The regular minister did not arrive that morning. Spurgeon thought the snow had kept him away. Another man stood and preached from Isaiah 45:22:

Isaiah 45:22 — Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

The preacher explained that looking was simple. A person did not need an education, money, strength, or special ability to look. Even a child could look. The important question was where the sinner was looking.

He told the congregation that looking at themselves would not give them hope. Then he pointed them to Christ, His suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and place at the Father’s right hand. Near the end of the sermon, he noticed Spurgeon sitting under the gallery and called upon him to look to Jesus Christ.

That was when Spurgeon understood. He later wrote, “I had been waiting to do fifty things.” He had been trying to discover what he needed to do. Isaiah 45:22 turned his attention away from himself and toward Christ. Spurgeon wrote, “I saw at once the way of salvation.”

Spurgeon trusted Christ that morning, but many people and experiences had helped bring him to that moment. His family had taught him about God. Ministers had preached the Bible to him. His conviction of sin made him search for an answer. Then a snowstorm changed his plans, an unknown preacher explained one verse, and Spurgeon understood that he must look to Christ.

A Similar Story in Scripture

Spurgeon’s experience has a clear parallel in Acts 8:26–39. The Ethiopian eunuch had traveled to Jerusalem to worship and was reading from the prophet Isaiah as he returned home. He had a real interest in God and Scripture, but he did not understand what he was reading.

Acts 8:30–31, 35 — Philip said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, Howcan I, except some man should guide me? … Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

The eunuch then believed and was baptized. Spurgeon and the eunuch came from different backgrounds, but God used some of the same things in both lives. Each was searching for an answer. Each had been exposed to Scripture. Each needed someone to explain how the Scripture pointed to Jesus Christ. After the gospel became clear, each personally believed and was baptized.

Their stories help us recognize the same pattern in our lives. God may use family members, pastors, teachers, friends, circumstances, and many years of biblical influence. Salvation becomes personal when we understand the gospel, repent of our sin, and place our faith in Jesus Christ.
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Who Helped Bring You to Christ?

Timothy could look back and name people who had shaped his faith. Paul wrote:

2 Timothy 1:5 — When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

Timothy had seen real faith in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. They had lived it in front of him and taught him the Scriptures.

2 Timothy 3:14–15 — But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Notice the two things Paul told Timothy to remember. He was to remember what he had learned, and he was to remember the people from whom he had learned it. Timothy had known the Scriptures since childhood. Those Scriptures pointed him to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

The same is true in our lives. Some people were raised by Christian parents who prayed, read the Bible, and took them to church. Others had one believing parent, a grandparent, sibling, relative, or friend who taught them about God. Some first heard the gospel from a pastor, Sunday School teacher, coworker, or neighbor. Others had little Christian influence during childhood and heard the gospel clearly later in life.

Take a moment and begin mapping the road God used to bring you to Christ.

Write down the names of the people who belong in this part of your story. Beside each name, write what that person taught you or showed you about God.

What Is Salvation?

As we map the people and events God used in our lives, we also need to be clear about what salvation is.

Acts 20:21 — Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Repentance and faith belong together in our response to the gospel.

The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Our sin made us guilty before God and placed us under His judgment. Jesus took the judgment we deserved when He died on the cross. He rose from the dead, and He offers forgiveness and eternal life to everyone who repents and believes.

Repentance begins when we agree with God about our sin. We stop defending it, excusing it, or treating it as unimportant. We turn from our sin and turn to God.

Faith means trusting Jesus Christ to save us. We place our confidence in His death and resurrection instead of our religion, good works, family background, baptism, or anything else we have done.

Remembering a date and place can help us identify when we made a profession of faith, but those details alone do not tell us what we understood or believed. As we examine our salvation, the important question is whether we understood the gospel and responded with repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.

Some people can name the exact date when they trusted Christ. Others remember the time in their lives but cannot name the day. The date can be helpful, but our assurance rests upon Jesus Christ and the promises of His Word.

Have you personally repented of your sin and trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior?

What Is Baptism?

After Spurgeon trusted Christ, he faced another important decision. He had been christened as an infant, and both his father and grandfather practiced infant baptism. Spurgeon began examining what the Bible taught for himself.

His study convinced him that repentance and faith should come before baptism. This placed him in disagreement with people he loved and respected. He wrote to his parents, explained what he believed, and asked for their blessing. He wanted to honor them, but he also believed he must obey what he saw in Scripture.

On May 3, 1850, Spurgeon walked to the River Lark and was baptized by immersion. People watched from the riverbanks and nearby boats. Spurgeon was no longer only saying privately that he believed in Christ. Through baptism, he publicly identified himself as a follower of Jesus Christ. The first chapter of his Christian life was now “known and read” by others.

We see the same order in Acts 8. Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch believed, and then he asked to be baptized. Philip and the eunuch went down into the water together, and Philip baptized him. Baptism followed the eunuch’s personal faith in Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist also confronted people who came to his baptism without showing repentance. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came, he told them:

Matthew 3:8 — Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.

John did not treat their interest in baptism as enough. He called for evidence that their repentance was real. Baptism could not take the place of repentance.

Romans 6:4 — Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Baptism pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When a believer is lowered beneath the water, it pictures burial with Christ. When the believer is raised from the water, it pictures Christ’s resurrection and the new life the believer now has in Him.

This is why immersion matters. Immersion presents the picture Scripture gives us: burial and resurrection. Baptism does not save us. Jesus Christ saves us when we repent and believe the gospel. Baptism follows salvation as an act of obedience and publicly identifies us as followers of Christ.

Now think about your own baptism.

Some were christened as infants. Some were baptized because their family expected it or because friends were being baptized. Some trusted Christ later but never followed Him in baptism. The Bible calls every believer to take this step of obedience. If your baptism did not follow personal repentance and faith, or if you have never been baptized by immersion, consider obeying Christ in baptism soon.

The First Chapter Is Being Read

Paul said the Corinthians were letters of Christ, “known and read of all men.” Their lives showed that God had worked in them.

Salvation is where your Christian life began. God used His Word and people to bring the gospel to you. You came to understand your sin, repent, and place your faith in Jesus Christ.

Baptism brought that faith into public view. By being baptized, you identified yourself as a follower of Jesus Christ. You declared that the old life was buried with Christ and that you had been raised to walk in newness of life.

That was the beginning of the first chapter, but people have continued reading. Your family, friends, church, neighbors, and coworkers see how you live. They compare what you say you believe with the choices you make.

Does what you say match what they read in your life?

This Week

Complete your map of salvation and baptism. Write down the people, Bible verses, sermons, conversations, and circumstances God used to bring you to repentance and faith in Christ. Then record when and where you were baptized, who baptized you, and whether your baptism followed the pattern you have seen in Scripture.

Coming Up

In the next chapter, we will examine transformation: the change salvation makes in a life. If salvation began your Christian story and baptism announced it publicly, what evidence of that new life can people now see?