Water Baptism | Page 9

repentant thief was born again.[129]
Paul said, as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.[130]
Had Simon put on Christ, his heart would have been right in the sight of God, not in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.
According to Paul's teaching, Simon was not baptized into Christ; but the repentant thief was baptized into Christ and put on Christ.
The bond of iniquity in which water baptism left Simon bound is a poor recommendation to the rite. Has it improved since that early day, or is the gall of bitterness less pungent, or has the sight of God become dimmed?[131]
The New Testament makes no connection between new birth and water baptism.
Baptism, not of water, but of the Holy Spirit, makes the heart right. By resisting this baptism we fail to be baptized into Christ.[132] By yielding to this baptism we become our Saviour's new born children, baptized into Christ and buried with him in baptism.[133] This baptism is freely offered to every son and daughter of Adam.
Those of every land who never saw the Scriptures nor ever heard of Jesus with outward ear may be baptized with this saving baptism and be born again without instrumentality.[134]
There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God.[135] Our Saviour left us not dependent on book, man or water for salvation. His love is universal and unbounded; he tasted death for every man.[136]
This is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds, and in their hearts will I write them.[137]
Paul says, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." This does not imply that this grace has appeared to all men in the same way and fulness, but it does imply that it appears to every conscience with sufficient fulness to bring salvation if listened to and obeyed.[138]
He now stands at every door and knocks; if we open the door he will come in and sup with us.[139] If we love him he will abide with us; but we must heed his gentle knocks, his still, small voice, and open the door.[140]
Churchmen say: The visible church, comprising persons good and bad, saints and sinners, is the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Heaven, and that the door of entrance is water baptism duly administered.[141]
Paul tells the Corinthians, the Gallatians and the Ephesians, each in nearly the same language, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Of fornication, wrath, strife, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, Paul says: I tell you plainly, they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, goodness, temperance, etc. Again, he says the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.[142]
By Paul's whole teaching those who yield the fruit of the spirit--love, joy, peace, &c., are the inheritors of this heavenly kingdom and the unrighteous are rejected.
Again Paul says: Some of those Corinthians who were once unrighteous were washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God. He said they were not inheritors of this kingdom while they were unrighteous.[143]
Membership in the visible church at Corinth did convey this inheritance.[144] They had to be washed, sanctified and justified (not in water, but) in the name or power of the Lord Jesus and in the spirit of our God. They had to be washed in the Spirit of our God before they could enter his kingdom.[145]
In four of Paul's epistles he recognizes the Spirit at the door of entrance to this kingdom. He mentions it seven times in ten verses in this connection, but nothing whatever about water baptism.[146]
Paul knew of no door to this kingdom by way of water baptism or he would have told us of it, for this door and how we may enter is just what Paul was emphasizing.
Our Lord's memorable Sermon on the Mount, which occupies the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew is mostly about this heavenly kingdom, the blessed who possess it, the unrighteous who cannot enter and how we may all attain it, but not one word about water baptism.
This ancient ordinance was far away from the mind of our Lord amid the dim and receding shadows of Judaism[147] when he taught that multitude on the Mount and gave his kingdom to his saints, the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the meek and the merciful, and encouraged us all to seek first this kingdom, which he said those only can enter who do the will of our Father in Heaven.[148] The kingdom of God is mentioned more than sixty times and the kingdom of