The following is a Herald of Truth radio sermon delivered by E. R. Harper on April 3, 1960. It is Radio Sermon No. 427. - Editor.
“Did Your Baptism Take?” may seem to you a rather foolish subject to discuss, but when you understand my meaning, I feel you will be appreciative of the thought I have in mind. There are two distinct realms in which I shall view this question today. The first is that of acceptance with God; and the second, is its meaning to you when you were baptized. If you, as I shall establish in this discussion, understood that baptism to the penitent was for the remission of sins; if you understood that Christ promised salvation to those who believe and are baptized; if you obey it that you may become His child; added by the Lord to His church, then your baptism was accepted of the Lord and your name enrolled in heaven. You never have to be baptized again. If, however, you were not baptized for the remission of your sins; that you might be saved and added to the church, the house of God; but attempted to change God’s purpose of baptism, and were baptized because you claimed you were already saved; already a child of God, then I fear your baptism did not ‘take with the Lord’ for you attempted to change the purpose of God in giving this command. That kind of baptism is a ‘perverted baptism’ for someone has attempted to change its design. What you need is ‘Bible baptism.’
Now, if you have received Scriptural baptism; if you have been ‘buried with Christ’ in baptism for the remission of sins, for Bible baptism is a ‘burial and a resurrection,’ Colossians 2:12, then the next part of the lesson applies to you; namely, did your baptism take with you; that is, have you, since your baptism, measured up to what God had in mind for you beyond the water’s edge, or have you fallen far short of His expectations of you? This is what I mean by the question, “Did Your Baptism Take?” Since your baptism, have you become what God designed for you as you emerged from its watery grave?
ITS IMPORTANCE ILLUSTRATED
The importance of baptism is sealed by such passages as Matthew 28:18-20 where Christ commands them to “go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” It is further demonstrated by Christ’s command in Mark 16:15-16 where He commands, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Here it is given for every creature in all the world. The importance of baptism is further demonstrated in the fact that three thousand on Pentecost, Acts chapter two, were baptized for the remission of sins; that the ‘eunuch,’ Acts 8:35-39, stopped the chariot and demanded baptism; that Saul of Tarsus, Acts 22:16, was baptized that his sins might be ‘washed away;’ that the jailor, Acts 16:33-34, was baptized the very same hour of the night, midnight. Every person enrolled among the saved from Acts, chapter two through Acts, chapter nineteen, was baptized: Jerusalem, Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia, Macedonia, Rome and Colosse. There is no exception
WHAT WAS IN YOUR MIND WHEN BAPTIZED?
May I ask what was your conception of baptism when you were baptized? Were you baptized with the idea in mind that baptism, to the proper subject, was only for the remission of past sins, that you might be saved? Did you not also understand being baptized bound upon you further obligations and brought to you promises of blessings that the unbaptized person could never enjoy? Now baptism to a penitent is for the remission of past sins, but if this is all one understands or is ever caused to understand, with respect to the design of baptism, no wonder so many fall by the wayside and never bring forth fruit to perfection. If this is all you have ever learned about God’s design for baptism, what an inadequate, insufficient understanding of God’s place of baptism in his great scheme of redemption! The lack of understanding with respect to God’s greater design is but a stepping stone to a greater, to a fuller, and to a more glorious life in the service of our Master.
ROMANS 6:3-7
May I now read to you Paul’s own words found in your Bible as recorded in Romans 6:1-7? “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”
6In this reading is found one of the most profound and one of the most beautiful of all pictures and explanations of God’s purpose for placing baptism in His great scheme of man’s redemption from sin!
Just how man can read this and then declare baptism to be a sprinkling or pouring; just how can man read this and then brand baptism as nonessential, telling people they do not have to be baptized to enjoy all blessings mentioned here, is a mystery to me that I just cannot explain. In the absence of a single passage in all the New Testament of either a command for, or an example of, sprinkling for baptism, knowing the Bible plainly says, “Therefore, we are buried with him by BAPTISM into death,” I just cannot understand why man arrogates to himself the right to so change God’s order of things and substitute his own. Our question now is, what blessings and obligations follow this “burial” in baptism? This understood correctly and all doubt of baptism’s being essential to man’s salvation, should forever be settled.
QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION
I should appreciate hearing from you preachers who may be listening to me today; hearing your explanation concerning the questions I am to ask just here, for in the answer to these questions, is found the answer to the importance of baptism, and our blessings beyond our resurrection from this watery grave.
1) Question One: What does it mean to be “baptized into Christ”?
2) Question Two: What does it mean to be ‘baptized into the death of Christ”?
3) Question Three: What does it mean to be “baptized into death”?
4) Question Four: What does the expression “he that is dead is freed from sin,”in verse seven, mean?
These questions answered correctly and there looms upon our horizon of religious dogmas a truth so beautiful that man shall wonder how and why he was so deceived concerning the importance of this most beautiful and sacred command of God. This is one thing to remember in our study of this lesson: The blessings in all four of these questions are to be enjoyed only AFTER BAPTISM, and only by the person who has been “buried” in the act of baptism, as stated here in our lesson of Romans chapter six and verses two through seven.
WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
I shall now take these questions, one by one, to ascertain their meaning and to correctly arrive at the truth concerning the all-inclusive importance of God as attached to man’s being baptized. Baptism, as most of us know, is one of the religious battle grounds upon which has been and shall continue to be fought many battles. Much of the religious world [and even some in the Lord’s church –BFV] is declaring that man does not have to obey God’s command in His world-wide commission to be baptized, though it came from the very lips of our Savior. We of the church of Christ shall continue to believe and teach what the Bible says, that baptism is essential to man’s enjoying the blessings promised in the Great Commission of Mark 16:16 where it declares “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” and of his enjoying the blessings spoken of by Paul, recorded in your Bible here in Romans 6:2-17. We believe and respect the Bible as God’s word and His commands as binding upon man today, else why would He have given them? The Bible is our guide! We intend to be governed by it or by nothing at all, in the field of religion. It is either God’s orders to man, for man to follow; or it is not. Believing it to be God’s revelation to man, I cannot do otherwise than obey it and teach my fellow man to do the same. If this is not safe, then please tell me what is safe? Why have your Bible? Why try to make people believe we are governed by it and that we accept it, if we are not going to change it, mutilate it or substitute for its commands our commands, for its laws, our laws? We shall not!
BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST
Now in verse three Paul says plainly, “they,” were “baptized INTO CHRIST.” No efforts to change this or make it read otherwise than [what] is stated here by Paul, shall ever be able to make Romans 6:3 read any other way, other than “Know ye not that so many of us as were BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST, were baptized into his death.” Hence, man, to enjoy the blessing of being “in Christ,” whatever this may mean, has to be baptized, for it specifically declares they were all “baptized into Christ.” Object to it; try to explain it away; declare to the world they may enjoy the blessing without baptism, if you care to, but when all is said and done, your Bible will still read, “baptized into Christ.” Why not just believe God’s word and obey it that you may be certain of the blessings therein promised?
WHAT IT MEANS
Now just what does it mean to be “baptized into Christ”? There must be some sensible explanations to this or the Holy Spirit, through Paul would never have written it. To be “in Christ” is to be a “new creature.” In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul, this same writer, says, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” This new creature has the same meaning as a “new creation;” a new-born child. It is the same as John 3:3-5 where man has to be “born again” to enter into the “kingdom of God.” When one is “born again;” when one becomes a “new creature;” when one becomes a “child of God,” it is then he partakes of the “divine nature.” Peter says in 2 Peter 1:4, “Whereby are given unto US exceeding great and precious promises: that by these YE might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Man “out of Christ” cannot partake of this divine nature. This we must all admit! We become His children; we become this “new creature;” we become “partakers of the divine nature” that we might become conformed to the image of God’s dear Son. Paul, this same writer, says of this in Romans 8:29, “ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Friends, man out of Christ cannot become “conformed to the image” of Christ. Again, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul declares, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” – that is, in Christ. Out of Christ, man cannot be the righteousness of God. Now all these blessings are “in Christ Jesus.” We must conclude therefore that when Paul says these at Rome had all been “baptized into Christ,” he was pointing out to them the utter futility of trying to go back under the yoke of sin, from which, now having been “baptized into Christ,” they have been freed. Dear friends, can you be saved without becoming a new creature? Can you be saved without being conformed to the very image of God’s dear Son? Can you be saved without being “in Christ” where all of these are found? If not, then baptism stands between you and all these blessings, for your Bible plainly and specifically declares we are “baptized into Christ” where we become all the things that I have read to you.
DID IT TAKE?
I am now ready to ask you, Did Your Baptism Take? By this I mean have you actually become this new creature? Or are you still living as you were? Have you become a partaker of the divine nature of our Lord? Or are you still living after the nature of the world, as before? Are you truly being “transformed into the image of God’s dear Son?” Or are you still retaining the image of the old man? Have you truly become the “righteousness of God” or are you still living the life you lived before you became a Christian? THIS, is what I mean by my subject today: Did Your Baptism Take? The blessings to be enjoyed by baptism, look not just back to the remission of our past sins only; to our salvation from the guilt of sin only; its design and purpose do not stop here; the blessings of baptism likewise look “forward,” to what we are expected to become “after” we have obeyed this beautiful and sacred act, as pictured here by Paul with this all inclusive design of baptism. The failure to be baptized, therefore, deprives you of both the forgiveness of your past sins, and the future joys and blessings of being conformed to the image of God’s dear Son. You cannot be saved, if either of these blessings are not yours to enjoy. Yes, again I say, if your only conception of baptism, when you entered the water, and since coming from the water, was the forgiveness of past sins and membership in the church of the Lord, I fear your baptism did not “take on you,” as it should. Our failure to understand God’s full and all inclusive purpose of baptism is one of the great reasons why so many are today unfaithful; who now live in cities and towns and communities, dead to the Lord and His church. After baptism they never became like the “image of God’s son;” they never became truly the “righteousness of God;” the “divine nature” of the Lord was never allowed to grow up into a full and complete man in Christ. Your Bible places all these blessings beyond the water’s edge. If you can be saved without these blessings, then pay no attention to your Bible, but since you must have them to be saved, then do what these in Rome did, for they obeyed their Lord. That they were buried with their Lord by baptism is one thing we know.
If you have never been baptized, then these blessings are not yours to enjoy, though you may lay claim to them, based upon your feelings. They come only to those who have done what these in Rome did. Again, if your baptism is not a scriptural baptism, these blessings cannot be yours to have. You must be baptized scripturally!
CONCLUSION
I close this lesson today by saying to you that Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians was not to convince them that baptism was essential to salvation; this they already knew! He, therefore, was but calling to their attention this fact that he might get over to them his lesson against sin. After having been “baptized into Christ,” they were trying to go back into the bondage of sin. Paul is pleading with them not to go back into that way of life, knowing now, that they had been “baptized into Christ;” that they had been “raised to walk in newness of life;” and are now “partakers of his divine nature.” Yes, baptism was the line of demarcation between their old life of sin and this new life of righteousness in Christ Jesus. Will you not come today as one who believes in Christ, repenting of your sins and be buried with your Lord in baptism, that you, like these at Rome, may walk in newness of life; may be in Christ where you may be conformed to the image of God’s Son; where you may become the righteousness of God in Christ, is my prayer in the name of Christ our Lord.
The Informer
Vol. 68 Nos. 25, 26, 27
April 5, 12, 19, 2015