From Jim McGuiggan... Baptism: Water that divides

From Jim McGuiggan... Baptism: Water that divides

Baptism: Water that divides

Not too long ago an author wrote a book on baptism called The Water that Divides. The title is appropriate given today’s religious climate with some people talking as if it were the most important thing in the Bible and others who think it should be carried out but if it isn’t there’s no great loss. Some dismiss it altogether as not worthy of discussion. Some insist that baptism is part of God’s bringing the sinner into saving union with Christ (I am one of those who believe that) and others that it’s an ordinance you attend to after you have entered Christ but if you don’t attend to it there’s no great loss. In light of the New Testament and 2,000 years of church history this is an astonishing stance for believers in the Christ to take.

Some think because salvation is altogether by God’s generous grace (and it certainly is!) that baptism can safely be ignored. They don’t get this from the New Testament, which strenuously and tirelessly proclaims that salvation is altogether of the gracious God and still calls all nations to be baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 29:19 and see Acts 2:38, 19:5 and 22:16).

Some think because salvation is entirely by grace that baptism can’t be part of the coming to Christ to be saved. But the New Testament insists that salvation is entirely by God’s grace and it still says to people who want to be saved, “Be baptized!” for the forgiveness or washing away of sins and it still insists that baptism initiates the trusting and penitent sinner into the Christ (Romans 6:3 and Galatians 3:27).

There is no need to and it is profoundly false to make baptism all-important (only God is all-important) but the New Testament offers no such dilemma. Baptism’s importance is no more and no less than the New Testament shows it to be. Anxious to prove their point some people talk of nothing else but baptism and that’s tragic. The New Testament talks about it easily and often but it doesn’t make it the be-all or end-all of proclamation or even the sinner’s response. It doesn’t apologize for calling people to submit to it who want to belong to Christ but then it didn’t need to. Those who wanted to find peace with Christ asked what to do, they were told and they did it and everyone rejoiced in the saving grace of a generous and forgiving Lord.

Part of the reason there is no heavy argumentation on baptism in the New Testament is because nobody ever dreamed of arguing about it. If people didn’t argue about it today we could talk about it and call for it as part of the coming to Christ as easily and naturally as they did in the New Testament. I confess it irks me more than a little to hear baptism stressed to the point almost of tedium. But it annoys me a bit also to hear people dismiss God’s command and wonder why others talk about it so much. If there was more humble submission to an explicit command of God that the New Testament relates to forgiveness, salvation and union with Christ maybe we’d hear less going on and on about baptism.

It should make us ponder our belief and practice when a gentleman understandably feels the need to write a book on baptism called The Water that Divides when in point of fact Paul saw it in a precisely opposite way. He saw it as water that unites. In Galatians 3:26-27 he assures the Galatians that they were all children of God by faith because (for, the Greek gar) when they were baptized they entered by faith into Christ and clothed themselves with Christ so that there was no longer anything to divide them. The distinctions that were used to keep them apart, sexism, racism, elitism had all been neutralized in Christ Jesus.

So, in Paul’s teaching, and he knew more about grace and God’s generosity than anyone before or since, baptism didn’t divide, it protested everything that did divide us one from another. The man or woman, girl or boy that by faith is baptized into the reconciling Christ defies all those social and ethical differences that work to keep us apart. We can imagine what it felt like to Paul when he personally on one of those perhaps rare occasions baptized someone into Christ. Looking at it with his eyes, God at that moment, via Paul and the person now coming to Christ, was once more denouncing all that keeps humans apart from him and from one another. When he baptized someone into Christ Paul was tearing down partitions and rehearsing the truth that in Christ walls stronger than granite were destroyed.

He could have said that without mentioning baptism (he said it in other places without mentioning baptism) but the fact is that he mentioned baptism here! The Bible and life teaches us that our life with God is inlaid with many rites and actions that we don’t fully understand. And there’s something fearfully high-handed about puny little preachers whose life is a vapor and whose learning is fragmentary at best urging people to pay little or no attention to God’s word on this matter. I’d urge anyone who wants to give their life to Christ or anyone who has loved the Christ always but hasn’t yet been baptized as the New Testament lays it out to prayerfully reflect on the scriptures about this matter of baptism and act accordingly.

I’m acquainted with a godly man that has loved the Lord for many years. He has not submitted to a believer’s baptism and in fact has said he doesn’t need to. Speaking of that fine man a writer said, “Can you imagine anyone saying he needed to be baptized?” The writer’s response was that this lovely man didn’t need to do it. I think this is a silly thing to say and I think it is high-handed, especially in light of Matthew 5:19, because Matthew 28:19 gives no one the right to refuse.

I’m acquainted with a godly, prayerful and God-centered man in the New Testament who received God’s personal word of approval. God sent him a preacher who would inform him how he could come to God in and through Jesus Christ. The preacher began to speak and God interrupted the proceedings by sending the Holy Spirit on the man and his whole family. If there was ever a man who didn’t need to be baptized there we have him. But that’s not how Peter saw it. He commanded Cornelius to be baptized in the name of the Christ and he insisted that it was Cornelius’ privilege as well as due response. The whole story’s in Acts 10 and into 11.

How dare we say to God-loving and Christ-believing people that they don’t need to be baptized in his name? Who do we think we are? God?

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com.