So you're new in Christ! Great! It's vitally important to remember that you are now "in Christ." IN CHRIST! The instant that you trusted the total Saviorhood of Christ, in His crosswork for you, the Holy Spirit baptized you into a new and permanent union with the Son of God giving you a totally new and wonderful relationship with God for time and eterity. It was a "dry" baptism, a spiritual operation carried out by God Himself without any help from man and without any water. The Baptizer was the Holy Spirit and the "element" inot which you were baptized, or placed, was Christ. There is another "dry" baptism in Scripture which some confuse with this one producing destructive, and sometimes lifelong, confusion. That is the spiritual baptism of Acts, chapter two, where the Jewish Pentecostal "Church" of early Acts was endued with miracle-working and Law-keeping power. That this is a different baptism entirely is clear from the fact that, there, Christ is doing the baptizing and the "element" into which those believing Jews were baptized is the Holy Spirit.

This was a fulfillment of prophecy and in keeping with Israel's prophetic program. Since God continued to deal with Israel throughout the Acts period, some Gentiles received this baptism along with the Jews. But this baptism is not for us; not for the Body of Christ, the "church" of the present era. We have a different baptism, one perfecty suited to our needs, the one YOU received at the moment of salvation. What did it do for you and why is it important? First of all, you and I, before we were saved, were united to our first Federal Head, fallen Adam. All that he could transmit to us was a fallen, sinful nature with one sin attached. That left us spiritually dead, under condemnation, and desperately needing a Savior, and, for that matter a NEW Federal Head, or race-Representative. When you and I were saved the Holy Spirit placed us in eternal union with our new and final Federal Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as we found only condemnation and death in Adam, so we find only righteousness and life in Christ! Our relationship to Adam brought us ruin. Our new and permanent relationship to Christ not only completely rectified that ruin, but brought us into a wholly new position before God--"in Christ," where we are perfectly free forever from any possiblility of falling...of dying spiritually.

If you wish to take a giant step forward in your spiritual growth, study this great truth in the fifth and sixth chapters of ROMANS, the Handbook of Salvation. Also, take a highlighter and highlight every reference in the Pauline Epistles that includes the phrase, "in Christ" or its equivalents, "in Him," "in whom," etc.

The world, the flesh, and the Devil will try to pry you lose from the security of your new position in Christ and your new standing before God. If you value spiritual confidence, emotional stability, and mental health remember: YOUR BEST FRIEND IS SCRIPTURE! Be a SALVATIONIST! Learn what GOD has to say about the nature and magnitude of your new standing before Him and the "proof-texting" of the PROBATIONISTS will not alarm you. "YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM"!!! (Colossians 2:10)