It’s not too late, yet.

While working on Senior Week activities last year, a discussion arose about a policy regarding a particular school activity and one of the parents said that the school board could set aside the rule in certain circumstances with the principal’s recommendation. While I don’t know that’s ever happened, it would’ve been nice to know about that when my daughters were still in school. Now it’s too late for them. That’s only mildly sad news and it really doesn’t matter what the actual scenario was. I only mention it because it introduces the concept of this article. Still, maybe if I’d asked more questions and studied the school policies more in depth when they were in school something could have been done - more about that later.

It’s never too late to learn the good news about God as long as it’s called “today” because God ensures that all who diligently seek him will find him (2 Corinthians 6:1, 2; Hebrews 4:7; Psalm 118:24; Jeremiah 29:13; Isaiah 55:6). This does more than merely imply that we have responsibilities to attain our own salvation and it is up to us to comply. When the first sermon was preached and the people wanted to be saved, they were told simply to repent (turn away from sin) and be baptized (immersed in water) to have their past sins forgiven (Acts 2: 36-41).

One may wonder what being immersed in water has to do with our salvation. In the same way that we have to get below the surface of the water to reap the benefit of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6:3-5), we must get below the surface of the Bible to understand God’s purposes in baptism. If you’d like to learn more about the place of baptism in our salvation, give me a call (461-4421). We’ll go to the source for the truth.

Back to the school activity question: The student handbook gives the policy, but says nothing about an appeal process for it. So, I asked someone I knew would have the correct information and learned that this particular policy wasn’t an appealable situation, which seemed reasonable to me.

While this situation really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, the matter of baptism does. As long as we live on Earth, we’re still in God’s school and can learn the truth if we want to. Diligent study of God’s word with an open mind to his will reveals that baptism now saves us because it is our appeal (interrogation) to God for a clean conscience (1 Peter 3: 21, Revised and American Standard Versions) rather than the answer, pledge, or response of a good conscience toward God (1 Peter 3: 21, King James and New International Versions, among others). How could the answer of a good conscience now save us?

Don’t wait until it’s too late to understand that truth because in the end, there will be no appeal process and the news will be most sad (Matthew 7:21-23; 25:46).

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan. Contact him at: lmlaur@plauteutel.net