Baptism, Chalk and the Spirit

In the 1980s Mrs Marsh was a household name. She was the Colgate lady who dipped the chalk into the blue water to demonstrate the benefit of a fluoride toothpaste! Even those not alive in the 80s will have heard the phrase, "Like liquid gets into this chalk"! I love those ads—but not for the reason you might expect.

Those ads remind us of the impact of the Gospel on us. When you become a Christian the Holy Spirit enters into you and begins to change you to be more like Jesus. But the change is not instant. It happens in the same way that liquid gets into the chalk. There is an immediate impact but it takes some time for the liquid to make it all the way through.

When someone becomes a Christian, there are instant visible changes. They will start coming to church. They may change the way they speak. But there are always deeper changes that need to take place. Galatians 5 reminds us of the fruit the Spirit bears in us: 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self‑control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

— Galatians 5:22–25

We are urged here to keep in step with the Spirit—to work to produce such fruit and not to thwart the work of the Spirit in our lives.

Sadly, that is often what we do. We don't allow the transforming work of God to penetrate to all the parts of our life. We keep God at arms length because change is hard. Perhaps you have not allowed God to transform the way you treat your family, the way you think about money, the way you use your time. My hope is that the challenge of our Galatians series may spur you on to walk with the Spirit as you are transformed into the likeness of Christ.  

One way many are spurred on is through baptism—being baptised or seeing baptisms! Some people in our church have recently become Christians and on Sunday 23 May we are going to be offering them to be baptised. Baptism is a significant moment for a Christian in which washing with water is used to symbolise the washing away of sin. If you are a follower of Jesus and have never been baptised and would be keen to, please speak to one of your congregational leaders. We’d love to see many people publicly committing their lives to Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and seeking to walk through life in step with the Spirit honouring him.  

In Christ,

Nigel