|
There
is probably nothing in the Bible taught any more plainly
than the subject of baptism. We plead with people to
accept this clear revelation from God. |
Baptism
Is Essential
by Max Patterson
Churches of Christ have stood
almost alone on the essentiality of baptism. Because we have
said that the Bible teaches that baptism is a condition of
salvation, we have been charged with voiding the grace of God.
However, it was God's grace that gave us his plan of salvation
in the first place. Saying that man must respond to this grace
hardly negates it.
It was in the period of the 1520s that Zwingli fostered the view
that baptism was not the time when God bestowed salvation. John
Calvin, a follower of Zwingli, and others, spread it throughout
Protestantism. It is extremely sad that in our own time some in
the Lord's church have accepted Zwingli's view, and have
rejected what is plainly taught in the Scriptures. However, the
sincere truth seeker has little difficulty in understanding the
marvelously and wonderfully simple teaching of God's plan to
save.
The New Testament clearly teaches the essentiality of baptism in
the following passages:
Matthew
28:18-20
In this passage our Lord has
commanded us to make disciples of all the nations. In the
process of doing this, we are commanded to baptize and teach
them. "Baptizing" and "teaching" are present
tense participles which represent action taking place at the
same time as the leading verb. This means, since "make
disciples" is the leading verb, that the
"baptizing" and the "teaching" is a part of
making disciples (since it takes place at the same time) and is
not a subsequent action. Therefore, "baptizing" and
"teaching" are the means by which one is made a
disciple. According to the grammar of this verse, one cannot
become a disciple without being baptized, and without being
taught to observe the commandments of the Lord. How, then, can
one even claim to be a disciple and not comply with what the
Lord said was necessary to make one a disciple?
Mark
16:16
In Mark's account of the great
commission is found one of the strongest statements in the Bible
for the essentiality of baptism. The first half of verse 16 is a
complex, declarative sentence with two clauses, one an
independent, and the other a dependent clause. The independent
clause is "he shall be saved," with "he"
being the subject, and "shall be saved" the verb. This
independent clause does not tell us who will be saved. That is
the purpose of the dependent clause. The dependent clause (or,
subordinate clause in some grammar books) acts as an adjective
and describes who it is that will be saved, i.e., he "that
believeth and is baptized." The old time preachers had it
exactly right when they preached belief plus baptism equals
salvation. Another approach to understanding what is said in
Mark 16:16 is an argument based on the original language. In the
Greek "believeth" is an aorist active participle and
"baptized" is an aorist passive participle. The rule
of Greek grammar states that "the aorist participle denotes
action prior to the action denoted by the leading verb, whether
the action denoted by the leading verb is past, present or
future."' The aorist participle is never used for
subsequent action (action that follows the action of the leading
verb). In other words, the action of "believing" and
"being baptized" must take place before the verb
"shall be saved." Therefore, it is absolutely
impossible to conclude anything else, strictly on the basis of
what our Lord said, but that one must believe and be baptized to
be saved. What men need to do is not to spend time trying to
figure out a way to get around doing what the Lord said, but
rather to submit to the final authority of our Lord. The Lord
himself said, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not
the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46).
Acts
2:38
Peter commanded those people on
Pentecost who were wanting to know what to do to be saved,
"Repent and be baptized ...for the remission of sins."
Notice that both "repent" and "be baptized"
are for the same purpose. Whatever repentance is for in this
verse, so is baptism. The preposition "for" takes the
accusative case, which denotes motion toward, and therefore
means "in order to," "unto," and never means
"because of." The identical expression occurs in
Matthew 26:28, "For this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Surely
no one would argue that Jesus died because men's sins were
already forgiven; rather Jesus died in order that men's sins
might be forgiven. Therefore, those people on Pentecost were
commanded to repent and be baptized for, in order to, the
forgiveness of their sins.
In an attempt to set aside the
force of the argument in the preceding paragraph, some have
ventured to use Matthew 12:41 to try to show that eis (Greek
word "for") means because of. Jesus said, "The
men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and
shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of
Jonas;... " In this verse, the word "at" is
translated from eis. The conclusion is that the people repented
because of the preaching of Jonas, and therefore, we have an
example of the word eis meaning "because of." Such
reasoning reflects on the grammatical ability of the one using
such an argument. In the first place, the word
"preaching" is a noun, not a verb. This word does not
refer to the act of preaching, but to the message. So, the
people of Nineveh repented into, or turned to, the preaching, or
message, of Jonah. It is interesting to note that William's
translation (Williams was a renowned Baptist scholar) reads,
"The men of Nineveh will rise with the leaders of this age
at the judgment and condemn them, for they turned to the message
of Jonah." Williams obviously understood what the
preposition meant, even when many of his own brethren do not. It
is a fact that eis occurs about 1700 times and is never
translated "because of." There is no reputable scholar
in the world that would claim that the preposition looks
backward. Acts 2:38 still teaches that baptism is in order to
obtain the forgiveness of sins.
Galatians
3:26, 27
An analysis of this passage shows
that baptism is the way the Lord designed for men to get into
Christ. In verse 26, Paul claims we are children of God by faith
in Christ, i.e., in the sphere or location of Christ.
Furthermore, he claims that the means by which that was
accomplished was the faith, i.e., the gospel of Christ. (The
definite article is before the word "faith" in the
original language indicating that this is the objective body of
truth under consideration, and not our subjective faith.) So, we
are taught by the faith, and we become children of God in the
body of Christ. We are not children of God out of the body of
Christ.
Verse 27 shows how we came to be
in the body of Christ. "For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ." The
"for" at the beginning of this verse denotes the
introduction of a reason. Paul explains how we got into Christ.
He teaches that we are children of God in Christ, not out of
him, and the way we came into Christ was to be baptized into
him.
Additional
Thoughts
Think of the
consequences of claiming that baptism is not essential:
1. One makes Peter's command of Acts 2:38 non-essential.
2. One voids Christ's promise of Mark 16:16.
3. One can be saved and reject the counsel of God (Luke 7:30).
4. One could, on the same basis, declare no Bible command or
statement essential. Yet, the Bible declares otherwise (Rev.
22:14; Matt. 7:21; Heb. 5:8, 9).
If one is
saved before baptism one is saved:
1. Outside of Christ
(Gal. 3:27).
2. Sooner than promised (Mark 16:16).
3. Before Saul was (Acts 22:16).
4. Before being born again (John 3:3-5).
In the
Scriptures baptism stands between:
1.
Teaching and salvation (Matt. 28:19, 20).
2. Faith and salvation (Mark 16:16).
3. Repentance and forgiveness (Acts 2:38).
4. Confession and rejoicing (Acts 8:37- 39).
5. A sinner and being saved (I Pet. 3:20, 21).
6. The kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God (John 3:5; Col.
1:13).
7.
The penitent believer and the blood of Christ (Rom. 6:3, 4, 17,
18).
Time and space prevent us from
examining many other passages that teach that baptism is
essential to salvation. There is probably nothing in the Bible
taught any more plainly than the subject of baptism. We plead
with people to accept this clear revelation from God. If we
truly love God, we will keep his commandments (John 14:15).
J. Gresham Machen, New Testament
Greek For Beginners (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1955), p.
116.
Max Patterson preaches for the Hillcrest Church of Christ in
Neosha, MO.
Article courtesy of: The
Spiritual Sword www.spiritualsword.org
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