Water Baptism Part 6

Our Lord's memorable Sermon on the Mount, which occupies the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew is mostly about this heavenly kingdom, the blessed who possess it, the unrighteous who cannot enter and how we may all attain it, but not one word about water baptism.

This ancient ordinance was far away from the mind of our Lord amid the dim and receding shadows of Judaism[147] when he taught that mult.i.tude on the Mount and gave his kingdom to his saints, the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the meek and the merciful, and encouraged us all to seek first this kingdom, which he said those only can enter who do the will of our Father in Heaven.[148] The kingdom of G.o.d is mentioned more than sixty times and the kingdom of Heaven twenty times in the New Testament but water baptism is never once named nor alluded to in any of those eighty texts.

This silence impressively suggests that water baptism is entirely foreign to this kingdom and must belong to another dispensation.

Plainly no door of entrance to this kingdom by way of water baptism had been discovered at the time the New Testament was written. Jesus said that he himself was the door to this sheepfold and that he is a thief and a robber who climbs up some other way.[149]

We read that John baptized with water but Jesus should baptize with the Holy Spirit, and with fire;[150] and again: Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of G.o.d; and again: Except a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdom of G.o.d.[151]

This birth from above; this birth by water and the Spirit; and this baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire are all three plainly one and the same divine operation and there is no water baptism either mentioned or implied: Yet man who is p.r.o.ne to subst.i.tute the letter which killeth for the spirit which giveth life, long ago perverted this testimony of Christ to Nicodemus by construing "born" to mean "baptized"

and thus by changing one Scripture word he would close the kingdom of G.o.d against his fellow man who would not come to him and be baptized with water.[152]

But we trace through history from the beginning a seed or remnant who constantly protested against such sacramentalism and by legions sealed their testimonies with martyr's blood.[153]

With the Bible, which was long forbidden, now open to all, how can we of this enlightened day still adhere to such idle dogma or ever quote these words of Christ to Nicodemus as authority for any water baptism?[154] By this whole context and by all of Christ's relevant sayings upon the Mount and elsewhere he had no allusion to water baptism. Had he meant baptized he would have said baptized and not born.

Just as Christ said: We must surely be born of water and the Spirit and we must just as surely be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire, but we shall no more be born of material water than we shall be baptized with material fire.[155]

Neither is Christ's fan material nor his axe at the root of the tree, nor are the waters which he said should flow from the bodies of believers, nor the waters which he promised should be in them a well of living water springing up unto everlasting life;[156] nor the living fountains of water, where G.o.d shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.

Neither shall we be tried and refined literally as gold and silver; nor purged literally as a fuller purges with material soap.[157]

These fires, fountains, births, baptisms, waters, &c., are all spiritual. The purifications are symbols of our spiritual regeneration and preparation for the kingdom of G.o.d which the unrighteous shall neither inherit nor enter.[158]

Like those Corinthians we must be washed, sanctified and justified in the name or power of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our G.o.d; be saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewings of the Holy Spirit shed upon us abundantly by Jesus Christ our Saviour.[159]

We must be circ.u.mcised and crucified as well as washed and baptized.

We must be crucified upon a cross which we may often carry but with outward eyes can never see. We must be circ.u.mcised in Christ and buried with him in baptism. We must be baptized into Christ. Put on Christ. We must be circ.u.mcised of heart in the Spirit by the circ.u.mcision of Christ.[160]

As instructed by Scripture we accept this circ.u.mcision without hands, and this baptism and washing without water, and do most firmly believe that our Saviour never commanded nor intended any other.[161]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 115: Mat. 3.11; Mark 1.8; Luke 3.16; Jon. 1.26, 33; Acts 11.15, 16; Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 11.16]

[Footnote 116: Eph. 4.5]

[Footnote 117: Col. 2.14; Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 2.1, 3; Acts 11.16]

[Footnote 118: 1 Peter 3.21]

[Footnote 119: 1 Peter 3.21]

[Footnote 120: Acts 1.4, 5; Acts 11.16]

[Footnote 121: Acts 10.45; Acts 4.31; Eph. 5.18; 2 Cor. 1.22; Acts 2.17, 18; Joel 2.28]

[Footnote 122: Nelson R. Boss on the Prayer Book P. 102]

[Footnote 123: Rom. 6.3; Rom. 6.6; Gal. 3.27]

[Footnote 124: Gal. 5.24; Gal. 6.14]

[Footnote 125: What is Christ's Church? Hammond P. 177, P. 278]

[Footnote 126: Acts 1.5; Acts 11.16; Jon. 3.3, 7]

[Footnote 127: Luke 23.39, 43]

[Footnote 128: Acts 8.13; Acts 8.23; Acts 8.21]

[Footnote 129: Acts 8.13]

[Footnote 130: Gal. 3.27]

[Footnote 131: Acts 8.21, 23]

[Footnote 132: Gal. 3.26, 27]

[Footnote 133: Rom. 6.4]

[Footnote 134: Acts 2.16, 21; Acts 10.34, 35; Joel 2.28, 29]

[Footnote 135: 1 Cor. 12.6]

[Footnote 136: Heb. 2.9]

[Footnote 137: Heb. 8.10, 13]

[Footnote 138: t.i.tus 2.11]

[Footnote 139: Rev. 3.20]

[Footnote 140: Jon. 14.23]

[Footnote 141: What is Christ's Church? Hammond P. 31, 71, 86]

[Footnote 142: 1 Cor. 6.9, 11; Gal. 5.21; Eph. 5.5; Gal. 5.21; R.v.

Margin; Gal. 5.22; Rom. 14.17]

[Footnote 143: 1 Cor. 6.10, 11; R.v.; 1 Cor. 6.9]

[Footnote 144: 1 Cor. 6.11]

[Footnote 145: 1 Cor. 6.11; R.v.]

[Footnote 146: Rom. 14.17; 1 Cor. 6.11; Eph. 5.9, 18; Gal. 5.16, 25]