Who Christians are Also Known As

Children of God: I became a child in the Thetford household by natural birth. I became a child of God by Spiritual birth. When I was born, nobody asked if this baby would be in the Thetford household. No one had to ask what my last name would be - because they already knew. When Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, he was very confused, but then Jesus told him he must be born of the water and spirit. This is baptism. Notice the passage of scripture: Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3-5).

If you want to know what the new birth is, look at the practice of the inspired apostles as they taught and practiced the new birth under the great commission. This is found in the Acts of the apostles. To the Galatian brethren, Paul said: “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27). Some say the new birth is affected by faith only. Jesus said one must be born of both water and spirit. To say “water” here refers to natural birth from the mother's womb is nonsense and Jesus did not talk that way. That is why when Nicodemus responded to Jesus’ question concerning the new birth, thinking that one must literally be born again of woman, Jesus made sure that he understood that it is only through the water and spirit that one can enter into heaven. Have you been born again? If not, you will not get to be with Jesus in eternity. Why not put Christ on in baptism before it is everlastingly too late.

Saints: When you hear the word saint, what comes into your mind? There is a popular idea that a SAINT is one who has served well in life and has been honored in death. He is “canonized” and so honored. One can travel to the Vatican and see statues of such men circling the famous St. Peter’s square. But on close examination of the Bible, I find no such idea for the word “saint.” Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth addresses Christians as SAINTS. Yet he found many evils in the lives of these living saints. A saint is a Christian, a child of God, and carries the idea of his holiness or godliness. But how did these Corinthians become saints? In Acts 18 Paul preached in Corinth on his second tour, and in verse 8 the record says, “Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.”

We can look to the Bible and find many other occurrences on how one becomes a saint. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, Peter preached to the Jews, and they were pricked in their heart because they knew for sure that they had just crucified the Son of God, Jesus Christ. They asked: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them” (Acts 2:38-41). We can learn from this passage of scripture that when a person is baptized, he is baptized into Christ, his sins are forgiven, and he becomes a saint, or a Christian.

Members of the Body: In 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, the apostle Paul compares the church to a physical body. Members have a definite relationship to the head. The spiritual head is Christ. Paul writes: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free-- and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.”

As the arms, legs and eyes, etc., take orders from the head in our bodies, so the members of Christ’s body takes orders from Christ. How does one become a member? The Corinthians were members of the body. How did they get that way? We read where they were “all baptized into the one body.” Note two things: First to get into the body, baptism is necessary. It is absolutely irresponsible to speak of getting into the body by faith only. It is contrary to this passage of scripture. Next, he says there is one body. There are not hundreds of churches, or bodies, as the religious world says, but only ONE. He says, “but now there are many members, but one body.” Nothing can be plainer. One body, and that one body is the church says Paul in Ephesians 1:22-23.