Nathan Brewer
Have you ever thought about the sin that Adam and Eve committed? All they did was eat some fruit, yet they died spiritually and God banished them from paradise.
God had told them that they could eat the fruit of every tree in the Garden of Eden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17).
If Adam and Eve couldn’t eat the fruit, why did God even allow the tree in their midst? Because God allows man to be tempted to sin, even though He does not want us to sin.
But what was so special about that fruit that God didn’t want them eating it anyway? It was just fruit. If eating fruit is not inherently wrong, why did Adam and Eve lose fellowship with God just by taking a bite?
Because God said not to.
It has never been enough for man to just believe in God. We have to believe what He says. We have to take Him at His word.
God tested Adam and Eve’s faith. They failed the test, and it cost them their association with God.
What about today?
Jesus says that believers have to be baptized in order to be saved (Mark 16:16). Peter says believers have to be baptized to have their sins forgiven (Acts 2:38).
Sometimes people will ask if God would really allow someone who believes in Jesus to be lost forever just because he had not been baptized.
That’s like asking if God would really allow someone to be lost just for eating a piece of fruit.
Because we’re human, we tend to grade each other, and ourselves, loosely. But God has higher expectations. On Judgment Day, we won’t be graded based on our own standards—we’ll be judged in righteousness (Acts 17:31), based on the word of Christ (John 12:48).
Jesus paints a frightening picture in Matthew 7:21-23 of believers being turned away from heaven. Could these be people who thought believing in Him was enough, but who didn’t believe what Jesus actually said about how to be saved?
I may not know exactly why God wants sinners to be baptized in order to be saved, but that’s what He says. Do you take Jesus at His word? Don’t wait until Judgment Day to find out that it really mattered.
