So how are we entered INTO Christ such that we may say we are IN Christ?
The Gospel of John who was baptizing is: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"
Upon his beheading, Christ Himself took up the same proclamation...
And after Christ's Resurrection and Ascension, Peter did the same:
"Repent and be baptized every one of you..."
So what does the Bible say about ENTRY INTO Christ?
Gal 3:27
"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ."
And further:
Rom 6:3
"Know ye not, that
as many of us as have been baptized into Jesus Christ
have been baptized into His Death?"
So that it is Biblically pretty unavoidable to deny that Christians are baptized into Christ...
Then, we ask: "WHO is to Baptize us?" The end of the Gospel of St. Matthew provides the answer:
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying:
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and disciple all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:
and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
And clearly here we see that Christ commanded His eleven Disciples to go and baptize all the Nations...
That the Nations should be baptized into Christ, into His very Body, as members and servants of that Body...
That this Baptism INTO Christ is one of the essential features of discipling the Nations...
Only the eleven were Biblically given this Apostolic commission...
Peter in Acts passed it on to the Gentiles via Cornelius...
That is the Biblical teaching...
Arsenios
