The Gospel
LESSON ELEVEN
BAPTISM
Hymn 936
Scripture Reading:
Matt. 28: 19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
WHAT BAPTISM DOES FOR A PERSON
To believe is to receive the Slave-Savior (John 1:12) not only for forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43) but also for regeneration (1 Pet. 1:21, 23).Those who thus believe become the children of God (John 1:12-13) and the members of Christ (Eph. 5:30) in an organic union with the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). To be baptized is to affirm this by being buried to terminate the old creation through the death of the Slave-Savior and by being raised up to be the new creation of God through the Slave-Savior’s resurrection. Such a baptism is much more advanced than the baptism of repentance preached by John (1:4;Acts 19:3-5). To believe and to be so baptized are two parts of one complete step for receiving the full salvation of God. To be baptized without believing is merely an empty ritual; to believe without being baptized is to be saved only inwardly without an outward affirmation of the inward salvation. These two should go together. Moreover, water baptism should be accompanied by Spirit baptism, even as the children of Israel were baptized in the sea (water) and in the cloud (the Spirit)—1 Cor. 10:2; 12:13. (The New Testament Recovery Version, Mark 16:16, footnote 1).
Baptism is not a form or a ritual; it signifies our identification with Christ. Through baptism we are immersed into Christ, taking Him as our realm, that we may be united with Him as one in His death and resurrection. (The New Testament Recovery Version, Rom. 6:3, footnote 1)
We were born in the sphere of Adam, the first man (1 Cor. 15:45, 47), but through baptism we have been transferred into the sphere of Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:27), the second man (1 Cor. 15:47). (The New Testament Recovery Version, Rom. 6:3, footnote 2)
When we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into His death. His death has separated us from the world and the satanic power of darkness and has terminated our natural life, our old nature, our self, our flesh, and even our entire history. (The New Testament Recovery Version, Rom. 6:3, footnote 3)
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BAPTISM
To believe is to believe into Christ (John 3:16), and to be baptized is to be baptized into Christ. By both faith and baptism we have entered into Christ, having thus put on Christ and become identified with Christ. Baptism practiced in a proper, genuine, and living way puts the believers into the name of the Triune God, the divine name (Matt. 28:19); into Christ, a living person (Gal. 3:27); into the death of Christ, an effective death (Rom. 6:3); and into the Body of Christ, a living organism (1 Cor. 12:13), that the believers may enter into an organic union not only with Christ but also with His Body. Furthermore, baptism brings the believers out of their old state into a new one, terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ that they may live in the Body of Christ, an organism, by the elements of the Triune God. (The New Testament Recovery Version, Gal. 3:27, footnote 1)
References: The New Testament Recovery Version, Gal. 3:27, footnote 1; CWWN, Vol. 48, Messages for Building Up New Believers, ch. 1; The Two Great Mysteries in God’s Economy, ch. 4.
