Have you ever wondered why you can spend eight hours a day with coworkers with whom you share common career interests, and possibly even personal interests, and yet only ever connect on a superficial level with them, and if you were to never see them again you wouldn’t even care? But at the same time, have you ever wondered why you can meet a person that has been newly baptized into your church, or a member of another church of like-faith, and you can carry on a conversation with them for an hour and walk away feeling like you have known them your whole life? The answer to this question is out of this world.
When a person confesses faith in Christ and is dunked in water by a preacher, there is more happening than meets the eye. All we see is a person getting soaked. All we see is that person’s name showing up on the church directory. All we see is that person eating bread and drinking wine with us when we observe the Lord’s Supper. We read of this very thing in Acts 2:41-42: “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42) And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” But as it was in the Jerusalem church back then, so it is today: there is more going on than meets the eye.
Like the servant of Elisha who could only see that “…an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots…” and he “…said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?” (2Ki 6:15), we are only seeing things with our natural eyes, but there is more going on than we see. What Elisha’s servant did not see was that “…the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha…”, but it was not until “…the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw…” (2Ki 6:17) that he realized that there was something going on that was spiritual and not natural.
So it is every time a sinner repents and is baptized by a preacher; there is something spiritual happening that is not seen with the natural eye. It is by the preacher we are immersed in water, but it is “…by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1Co 12:13). If our eyes were opened like Elijah’s servant’s were, we would see that when the preacher is baptizing the sinner, the Holy Spirit is also baptizing him into the spiritual body of the church. It is because of this that “…ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” (1Co 12:27). It is because of this that “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1Pe 2:5). It is by this means that “…God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” (1Co 12:18), and it is because of this that if “…one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (1Co 12:26). So why is it that you can have such a close bond with people that you might not otherwise have anything in common with and who sometimes live many hours away? The answer is that what binds you together is truly out of this world.
