FourFifteen

Hebrews 6:1-3 " Therefore,  leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ,  let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of  repentance from dead works  and of  faith toward God , of  the doctrine of baptisms , of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. " If you've been following along, we've already laid two of these five foundations: 1 - Repentance from Dead Works and Faith Toward God 2 - Baptisms (All three of them) Now we're going to transition to the third elementary principle -  the laying on of hands . Simply put, this is when one person places their hand on another person ( usually on top of the head )  by faith  and transfers some spiritual thing into them. Old Covenant Principle Transferring a  spiritual substance  by the laying on of hands is not something that the early church created out of nowhere. Actually, ...

Hebrews 6:1-3 " Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection , not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God , of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement. And this we will do if God permits. " Let's continue laying our second foundation - the doctrine of baptisms. We've already looked at the first two baptism mentioned in the New Testament: The Baptism in Water The Baptism in the Holy Spirit Each of these should be elementary to a believer. There's a third baptism that is also foundational to the spiritual walk of every Christian - it's t he Baptism in Tribulation. Water baptism is the easiest of these three to understand. Because of that, we have seen that it sets the pattern for the other two. I encourage you, if you haven't read the previous post on water baptism to go ba...

Hebrews 6:1-3 " Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection , not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God , of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement. And this we will do if God permits. " Let's continue laying our second foundation - the doctrine of baptisms. Once again, let me remind you - there is an " s " at the end of "baptisms". Being dunked in water is not the only baptism that you need. There are three baptisms that we go through as believers ( or at least, we should ): The Baptism in Water The Baptism in the Holy Spirit The Baptism in Tribulation Water baptism is the easiest of these three to understand. Because of that, it sets the pattern for the other two. I encourage you, if you haven't read the previous post on water baptism to go back and read i...

Hebrews 6:1-3 " Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ,  let us go on to perfection , not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God , of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement. And this we will do if God permits. " After the foundations of repentance and faith have been laid, now we come to the doctrine of baptisms. Did you notice the " s " the first time you read this passage ( baptism s )? Would it surprise you to know there's more than one baptism we need to go through? As a matter of fact, there are three  distinct baptisms mentioned in the New Testament - all of them crucial for a believer to submit to. If all three of these baptisms are part of the foundation for our whole spiritual walk, would it be wise for any believer to stop with just one ? What are these three baptisms? The Baptism in Water The Bap...

Hebrews 6:1-3 " Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection , not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement. And this we will do if God permits. " Now that we've already looked at what it means to "repent from dead works" , let's move on to the foundation of " faith toward God. " The reality is, these are two parts to the same teaching. Turning from a dead work and putting your faith in God is actually the same action. Now, we can't go back and cover all the teachings on faith in this one post. But it's important for you to have this basic understanding: Everything you do now MUST be done in faith . Saved through Faith Ephesians 2:8 " For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of ...

As we've seen already, God wants His people to grow up. He wants us to grow stronger in our faith...being built upon the foundation that He's laid in His word. But before we can move on to that, we must first make sure this foundation is in place. In Hebrews 6:1-3, we see the description of the foundation God wants to have. This foundation comes from five doctrines ( or teachings ) that we need to be settled on in our own lives. After these things are firmly in place, THEN we're free to grow and move past the repetitive discussion of them. Hebrews 6:1-3 " Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement. And this we will do if God permits. " A word of caution from verse three: We can clearly see that God  is the one ...

Hebrews 6:1-3 NKJV " Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection  [literally 'maturity'] , not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement. And this we will do if God permits. " Are you aware that God wants you to go further than you are right now? He wants you to grow and become spiritually mature believers. He wants you to graduate from  elementary school  - so to speak - and move onto deeper and higher things. But that has to be intentional on your part....it isn't simply a process  of time . There are a lot of gray-headed infants in churches across America today. People who have been "saved" for decades, but haven't grown up at all. I don't want you to be like that! I want you to become a full-grown, fully-mature son or daughter of God! I d...

If you haven't been following along with this series up to this point, so far we've discovered:  - The Gospel of being "in Christ" carries the power of salvation.  - Sin is no longer an issue in our lives...not in power  and not in penalty .  - We were raised up to a brand new life when Jesus rose from the dead.  - We now have an immediate and eternal hope .  - We've been raised up and glorified with Jesus.  - We now have a joint identity with every other believer on earth. We've learned about who we are  in Christ. Now let's take a look at what we have access to  in Christ. Ephesians 1:10-11 " ...that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ , both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him . In Him also we have obtained an inheritance... " Look at the way Paul says this: "All things in Heaven? They're in Christ." "All things on earth? Tha...