Page Header

For church information contact Marv Walker ~ 706 816-7190

Click Here For The Monticello Church Of Christ Index Page

Mom's Recipe Problem

The building was packed with lingering family and lifelong friends at my mother's memorial service a couple of weeks after she died. As we gathered for hours celebrating her life the sentiment that was expressed the most was about her cooking. She was a superb cook.

People would tell how they were never able to get her recipes to turn out the same way they did for them the way they did for her if she wasn't standing over them as they cooked. There was even a good natured comment or two along the lines of, "I think she would sabotage the recipe to keep her better cook title."

Mom was scrupulously honest about her recipes. She made no attempt to sabotage them. When she gave you a recipe it was her recipe beginning to end. It was an exact copy of the one in her head. Write it down, take it to your kitchen and invariably it would be different than hers.

They were usually simple recipes with simple directions; a smidge of this, a dash of that, stir a bit, cook until it looks done, and so on.

Mom was an instinctive cook. Her smidges and dashes, her bits and cooking until it looks done were different than the smidges, dashes, her bits and cooking until looks done of the hopeful recipe borrowers.

How much is a smidge? A dash? A bit? My smidges, dashes, and bits are likely different than yours. There is no standards for smidges and dashes, and bits, etc., they can be whatever you want them to be.

How much is a teaspoon? A cup?

If the recipe calls for two teaspoons of some ingredient I know exactly how much that is. Any more is too much, any less is not enough. In Washington DC there is a protected and preserved standard of what a teaspoon is. A legal teaspoon in New York is the same exact size as a legal teaspoon in Texas.

Mom's recipes would have been more dependable if she had used standard measurements instead of her intuitive measurements.

Here is the Biblical recipe for eternal life...

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. (John 5:39 NKJV)

Eternal life is found in a written out recipe, not in one someone tells you. Their understanding may be different than the Biblical recipe.

John 3:16 is probably the most often quoted verse of the Bible.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 NKJV)

If you read the first fifteen verses of John 3 you'll see verse 16 is a summation of what Jesus told Nicodemus twice in verses three and five, one MUST be "born again."

Being "born again" is an ingredient in the everlasting, or eternal life, recipe.

Notice the words "believes in Him" in John 3:16.

Belief in Jesus is an ingredient in the eternal life recipe.

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16 NKJV)

Notice one must believe in the gospel AND be baptized to be saved. Here are more ingredients in eternal life recipe, believing the gospel and being baptized.

We need to know what the gospel is before we believe it...

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, (I Corinthians 15:1-4 NKJV)

The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. The gospel is what saves, which is what Romans 1:16 says.

Now, let's look at this passage...

7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, (I Thessalonians 1:7-9 NKJV)

Jesus will take vengeance on those who do not obey the gospel.

How does one literally obey the death, burial and resurrection of Christ?

Let's look at Mark 16:15-16 again...

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16 NKJV)

See the words gospel and baptized in the passage? Now, let's look at Romans 6:3-7...

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:3-7 NKJV)

Do you see the "born again" Jesus twice told Nicodemus about in John 3 in the passage above in the words "newness of life?"

And now we have come full circle back to the original recipe...

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16 NKJV)

Here is the finished dish...

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (I Romans 8:1 NKJV)

How does one get "into Christ Jesus?" We read it before in the Romans 6:3-7 passage, it is in verse 3...

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (Romans 6:3 NKJV)

Friends, no matter what anyone tells you no one will be saved by any form of the so called "Sinner's Prayer" or anything other than Biblical gospel obedience set forth in Mark 16:15-15, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, I Peter 3:21 and other scriptures.

If you have not obeyed the gospel by being "baptized for the remission of sins" in obedience to the gospel of Christ (Acts 2:38, etc.) you are still in your sins. Baptism for ANY OTHER REASON is spiritually worthless.

Don't trust a preacher. Test EVERYTHING you hear by the Word. Your salvation depends on it.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24 NKJV)

If we can be of assistance in any way, feel free to contact us.

Back To Top

For Further Information Contact Marv Walker 706 816-7190
Questions, comments or suggestions
Back to Monticello Church Of Christ Index Page

web stats