I was raised in a very conservative Church of Christ in Texas. The church was small, and most of its members older. There are things I love about that background. For instance, I know my way around my Bible. I never need the table of contents to help me find Zepheniah. I memorized the entire chapter of Isaiah 53 when I was about 10 (this was for Sunday school). I was instilled with a deep sense of dedication to meeting times at church. You were there or you were very sick or out of town. Things were very black and white. It was either right or wrong (and most of it was wrong, let me tell you). I often feel pity for the Pharisees when Jesus rebuked them. It's as though I used to be one.
Did you know that if you Google "steps for Salvation", the search engine automatically tries to tag "church of christ" on the end? I haven't done my research on this topic--I don't know EXACTLY where or when those steps were first put together. I don't know if the steps are exclusive to the church of christ (although, I've never heard them anywhere else). I came to the Lord by hearing, believing, repenting, confessing, and then being baptized. And I don't regret a single step because that was where the Lord in all His infinite grace met me. In the waters of baptism, my 12 year old body became the Holy Temple of God. The Spirit rushed in with the breath of the Most High God. I felt nothing (except embarrassment because my baptismal gown clung to my wet skin in an uncomfortable way). It's funny and glorious how the Spirit is described as a mighty rushing wind. For me, it was like a gentle, warm exhale. My conscience was awakened as never before. It was no longer a rudderless ship tossed about on the sea of my tween emotions. There was evidence--for the first time in my life--of a higher purpose. A real direction to travel in. I began to feel compelled to let go of the wheel. I looked down at my hands and realized there was no wheel. What had I been gripping? I could still feel the ghost of the wood grain pressed against my palms...
"Do you know brothers--for I am speaking to men who know the law--that the law has authority over a man as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." Romans 7:1-6
I knew the law before I was saved. I knew scripture, I knew how to be a nice person. I knew how to act like a Christian. I knew the importance of showing up to church. I KNEW ALL OF THIS. But when I got saved by Jesus, it began to slowly dawn on me that it wasn't that I knew, it was that I was new. I was owned. The wood I had been gripping had pressed into the back of my Savior as He suffered on the cross. Blood had run down it in rivulets until my grip slipped. I was FREE!!!!
"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!" John 8:36
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