HOLDING THE HIGH
MORAL GROUND ON
BAPTISM
A Study By
Gary Ray Branscome
"I acknowledge
my sin unto Thee, and my
iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto
the Lord; and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. (Psalm 32:5)
It is a great
comfort to know that our salvation does not rest on what we do, but on
what Christ did for us. Without that knowledge we would either live in
constant fear, never knowing if our works were good enough, or would
lull ourselves into a false security by denying our own sin. Therefore,
we must never allow the truth of forgiveness in Christ to be watered
down, or compromised. Our doctrine should be exactly what the Bible
says, and nothing that we teach about baptism should contradict what
the Bible says about faith in Christ (Isaiah 8:20, Galatians 3:22).
THE
IMPORTANCE OF RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD
The key to
understanding what the Bible says about baptism is found in the third
chapter of Galatians. In short, we have access to every promise of
God’s grace (including those connected with baptism) through faith in
Christ alone (Galatians 3:22). Those who fail to understand this, often
assume that the ceremony conveys forgiveness automatically (ex opere
operato). Nevertheless, the Bible makes it clear that we have access to
God’s grace through faith (Romans 5:2, Galatians 3:22, 2Corinthians
1:20).
The ceremony of
baptism simply presents God's promise of forgiveness to the one being
baptized, in the same way that a good sermon presents God's promise of
forgiveness to those who hear. Therefore, just as “the Word that is
preached will not benefit a person unless he believes it, neither will
being baptized and taking Communion benefit any one without faith” (Law
and Gospel, by C.F.W. Walther, pg 351)
God has connected
forgiveness with baptism in order to make it clear that we can only
enter His kingdom through forgiveness, and Christ is the source of that
forgiveness (1John 1:7, Acts 4:12). Therefore, the purpose of baptism,
is to point people to Christ, and that purpose is undermined when
people are given the impression that forgiveness comes to us through
the rite (ex opere operato). Furthermore, without an emphasis on
Christ’s sacrifice, churches can degenerate into moral clubs, and
morality (works righteousness) never saved anyone (Romans 3:10-20). In
fact, whenever the unsaved come to view Christians as people who think
that they are better than others, they tend to close their minds to
what we have to say.
Those who view
baptism as an “act of obedience” find it impossible to understand the
relationship of faith in Christ to baptism. They cannot see how baptism
can “also now save us” if salvation is “not of works” (2Timothy 2:15,
1Peter 3:21, Ephesians 2:9). However, it is really very simple once we
understand the difference between receiving a promise, and receiving
the thing that is promised. God uses baptism to give us His promise of
forgiveness in Christ, but only those who believe that Christ died for
their sins have that forgiveness. In short, the promise is only meant
for those who trust in Christ. [Luke 3:3, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, 1Peter
3:21, 2Corinthians 1:20, Romans 5:2, Galatians 3:22.]
[In order to better understand the
distinction between receiving a promise and receiving the thing that is
promised, suppose that someone promised you one million dollars if you
would just stop by to pick it up. Can you see that there is a
difference between being promised the money, and actually picking it
up?]
HOLDING
THE HIGH MORAL GROUND
We should never
place ourselves in a position where we feel compelled to explain away
what the Bible says in order to defend our theology. Those who explain
away what the Bible says have lost the high moral ground and placed
themselves in opposition to God's Word, which is strong evidence that
they have a spirit of error (1John 4:6).
Those who assume
that baptism is a work that brings salvation, wind up explaining away
the passages that tell us that salvation is not of works (Ephesians
2:9, Romans 11:6). Those who assume that baptism is a work that cannot
save (because works cannot save) wind up explaining away the passages
that connect forgiveness with baptism (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16). In
contrast, those who see baptism as a means by which God gives His
promise of forgiveness in Christ to those who repent, have no need to
explain away what the Bible says. God uses baptism to give us His
promise, we receive what is promised through faith in Christ (Galatians
3:22).
THE
VISIBLE WORD OF GOD
On the day of
Pentecost, Peter used the ceremony of baptism to proclaim the good news
of forgiveness in Christ. In order to understand what he said, you need
to realize that to be baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins” is to be baptized believing that there is
forgiveness in His name (Acts 2:38). Therefore, when Peter called upon
his listeners to “Repent, and be baptized… in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins” he was calling on them to come to baptism
believing that there is forgiveness in Christ. And if you come to
baptism believing that there is forgiveness in Christ, the ceremony
gives you God's promise of forgiveness and your faith in Christ accepts
that promise (Galatians 3:22). In short, baptism saves the same way
that John 3:16 saves. It saves when the promise it conveys is accepted
through faith in Christ (1Peter 3:21, Galatians 3:22, 2Corinthians
1:20).
To understand the
role that God intended for baptism to play, consider the story of the
Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:10-14). In that story we are told
that the Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men, while the
Publican cried out, “God be merciful to me a sinner”. We are also told
that the Publican went down to his house justified, because his sins
were forgiven. However, the publican had no way of knowing that his
sins were forgiven. It is common for people in that situation to have
doubts. Therefore, God instituted baptism as a way of telling those who
repent that their sins have been forgiven. God wants new converts to be
comforted by the message of forgiveness that baptism conveys. However,
if similar worries crop up after someone has been baptized, he should
not be rebaptized because forgiveness is not in baptism but in Christ
(Ephesians 4:5). Having received God's promise of forgiveness once, he
does not need to receive the promise again. What he needs is a stronger
faith, and we build such faith by pointing him to Christ and His
finished work, not baptism. In other words, his problem is not lack of
faith in baptism, but lack of faith in Christ! If we urge such people
to take comfort in their baptism, we are making baptism the object of
their faith, when they need to be pointed to Christ.
THE
WASHING OF REPENTANCE
David gave us a
beautiful example of repentance when he said, “I acknowledge my sin
unto Thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my
transgressions unto the Lord; and You forgave the iniquity of my sin”
(Psalm 32:5). God instituted, “the baptism of repentance” as a way of
assuring those who repent that they have forgiveness in Christ (Mark
1:4, Luke 3:3, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16). The fact that some churches
pervert baptism does not stem from some problem with baptism, but with
the human heart, and the deceitfulness of sin that would see salvation
reduced to a system of works (Jeremiah 17:9).
If someone who has
a repentant heart comes to baptism without really understanding the
significance of Christ’s death on the cross, their lack of
understanding does not make their baptism any less valid. The ceremony
gives us God’s promise of forgiveness in Christ, our faith in Christ
receives what is promised. Therefore, while it would be better if
everyone who came had a perfect understanding, our faith does not make
baptism valid, it just receives what baptism offers, namely forgiveness
in Christ. Therefore, in a certain sense, you could say that faith
completes baptism, for it is only through personal faith in Christ that
we receive the inner washing of forgiveness (1John 1:7).
Because those who
do not understand the relationship of faith in Christ to salvation, can
easily be led to believe that salvation depends upon both faith and
works, we need to work with them helping them to understand (Galatians
3:3 and 1:6-9). However, they should never be made to feel that their
salvation depends upon their ability to understand. Faith in Christ is
the important thing! There were many things that both the Publican and
the thief on the cross did not understand, yet they both acknowledged
their sins and placed their trust in God’s mercy (Psalm 32:10, Psalm
13:5).
CONCLUSION
The promise of
forgiveness that God has connected with baptism, is in full accord with
the truth of salvation through faith in Christ alone, for baptism was
instituted to point us to Christ as the source of forgiveness, and that
forgiveness belongs to all who trust in Him (Galatians 3:22).
Therefore, if you presently explain away what the Bible says, because
some statements of Scripture do not square with your theology, you need
to change your theology in order to bring it into accord with the Word
of God (Romans 12:2, 2Corinthians 10:5, Isaiah 8:20).