Jesus teaches that baptism is a condition to being saved;
John 3:3
**Jesus answered and said **to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, **no one can see the kingdom of God **without being born 3 from above.”
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Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”
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**Jesus answered, "Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God **without being born of water and Spirit. 6
What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.
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Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’
The scriptures confirm that baptism saves you NOW.
1Peter 3:20
who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water.
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This prefigured
baptism, which saves you now.
From the sacramental graces that come upon the believer from the baptismal waters allows the saved to enter and see the kingdom of God.
Once one has entered the kingdom of God without spot or wrinkle is joined to Christ in a personal living relationship from the biblical principles as bride to husband. This intimate personal relationship of marriage is consumated in the Eucharist when the bride and husband become one flesh. Mystically speaking during communion with Jesus at the altar in heaven witnessed on earth, “on earth as it is in heaven”, Jesus consumes us to himself, not vice versa.
Ephesians describes this personal relationship;
Ephesians 5:23
For the husband is head of his wife just as
Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body.
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As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
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Husbands, love your wives, **even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her **
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to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
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that **he might present to himself **the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
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So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
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For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it,
even as Christ does the church, **
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because we are members of his body.
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"For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." **
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**This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. **
It is here were we grow in love and knowledge of him, when the saved begin to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”, for one cannot begin this path of salvation without first being saved by water and the Word = baptism.
Philipians 2:12 So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, **work out your salvation with fear and trembling. **
As another poster posted, you can’t get more intimate in a relationship with Jesus when you become one flesh with His in the Eucharist.
This is just an introduction
Peace be with you
