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Articles
"Skip"
We had an interesting bible study at the Nursing Home the other evening. We were studying on the plan of salvation. We looked at some of the verses about baptism such as Mark 16:15-16, Acts 2:38. Then one of the residents asked a question if somebody was going on their way to be baptized and died, what would happen to them? I asked, had she ever known anybody that this had happened to? She said "No." Then she said it seemed to her that God is a loving God, and that if someone "skipped one of these things, that God would allow them to go to heaven anyway." We read Matt.7:21, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." We asked, "Do we have to do the will of God?" "Yes" was the response. So how can we "skip" God's commands and still go to heaven? Jesus said that the one who will enter into the kingdom of heaven is "he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." It did not say that the one who will enter into the kingdom of heaven is "he that skips the will of my Father which is in heaven." If we can "skip" baptism and be saved, can we "skip" repentance? Could we "skip" confessing the name of Jesus, Rom.10:9-10? Could we "skip" believing in Jesus, Jn.8:24 and still go to heaven? If people were more earnest about doing the will of God, they would not have time to vainly reason about which commands they can "skip" and still make it to heaven. "Though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation," Heb.5:8-9. Jesus is the source of salvation to all those that obey him not to all that "skip" obeying him. Let us not think to "skip" or omit, overlook, leave out, exclude, ignore the will of God, but let us in full assurance of faith strive to do the will of the Father!
