"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him
will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven" (Matt.
10:32). This is the language of Jesus. In it is couched the
secret to eternal life. There are many ways in which one may confess
Jesus Christ and because we do not here discuss all of these ways it
is not to be understood that the importance of any confession the
Bible reveals is to be underestimated. Our present study, however,
deals with baptism. Perhaps baptism as taught by Christ and the
apostles is seldom thought of as a confession, but such we believe
it to be. In fact, there is no phase of baptism that is not a
confession. In one instance may be seen the person who confesses.
From another view is seen the object of the confession Jesus Christ.
1. Baptism is a confession of faith.
He who is baptized confesses not only his personal conviction
concerning the person and identity of his Lord but he acknowledges
his faith in the system of faith revealed in and by Jesus. "Go -
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned"
(Mk. 16:15,17). Confidence in the gospel as the means by
which saving faith is validated is here set forth as a necessity for
him who is subject to the gospel. Since baptism is a condition the
gospel demands the sinner to meet in order to be saved by the
gospel, when the sinner is baptized he thereby acknowledges his
faith in the gospel and in Him who is its author.
2. Baptism is a confession of one's faith in
the death of Jesus.
It is a declaration not only of a belief that Jesus actually lived
upon this earth but that He died and that His death was for the
purpose revealed in the Scriptures. It is a testimony to His dying
"for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3) and the apostle's reference to
it in Romans 6:3 so declares: "Know ye not, that so many of
us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?"
Since they had not been and could not be baptized into the literal
death of Christ, the evident meaning is that they were baptized into
the benefits procured by His literal death on the cross. Thus when
they were baptized they recognized in the death of Jesus the payment
for sin which was not possible by any other man or any animal. So
does any sinner when he is baptized.
3. Baptism is a confession of faith in the
burial of Jesus.
It is a denial of any humanly devised plan for the faking of His
resurrection. The proofs of His resurrection are made strong by the
emphasis placed upon the nature and absolute certainty of His burial
in a new tomb, hewn out of solid rock, sealed with a Roman seal, and
secured by a Roman watch. From the human viewpoint the Lord's
absolute entombment was the climax of the schemes of the Jewish
leaders to ascertain the certainty that His cause was forever doomed
and His purposes forever thwarted. The baptism of the believer
declares his faith in the fact of the Lord's burial and witnesses to
his confidence that his own old man of sin has been destroyed by the
power exercised by Christ while His body was in the tomb and His
spirit in Hades.
4. Baptism is a confession of the disciples
faith in the resurrection of Jesus.
His emergence from the watery grave bears witness to his confidence
that the body of sin has been left in the tomb and that through the
power by which Jesus rose from the dead he also is raised as a new
creature in Christ. "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 in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he
liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon also yourselves to be
dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord" (Rom. 6:4-11). Apart from the resurrection of Jesus,
baptism has no meaning whatever. The believer's willingness to come
forth from the waters of baptism is a living witness to his faith in
the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
5. Baptism is a confession of the believer's
faith in the operation of God.
"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from
the dead" (Col. 2:12). He who understands the Bible's
teaching on what God does in baptism comprehends that a divine
operation is performed in it. It is the circumcision of the heart.
There is a "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Jesus Christ" (Col. 2:11). Baptism is the act
in which this operation is performed, and he who is scripturally
baptized believes that God performs this operation in baptism; thus
he confesses it when he is baptized.
6. Baptism is a confession of the authority of
Jesus Christ.
The deity of Jesus is declared by His resurrection from the dead
(Rom. 1:4), and His authority grows out of His deity and is
established by it. If Christ has been raised to die no more, there
is more than humanity in Him for men by nature even raised from the
dead again saw corruption. Not so with Jesus, and hence His
resurrection declares Him to be of God in a sense different from any
other man's being of God. He was and is God. Being God, therefore,
He possesses the right to all authority. It was in connection with
His declaration concerning this authority in heaven and on earth
that He commanded baptism (Matt. 28:18-20). Apart from the
authority He has baptism is nonsense. A recognition of the authority
of Jesus Christ makes sense out of baptism to the believer though it
may appear foolishness to the unbeliever. Baptism, then, stands as
an open avowal of one's confidence in the authority of Jesus Christ.
7. Baptism is a confession of Christ as
Savior.
Instead of men looking to the water they look to Jesus when they are
baptized. This is evidenced by the instruction Ananias gave Saul of
Tarsus: "And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16).
If Saul followed the direction of Ananias he called on the name of
the Lord. He looked to Jesus to save him, not to the water. Yet by
virtue of the very authority which commanded him to be baptized he
could not expect the washing away of sins without doing what the
authority of Christ commanded. His calling upon the name of the Lord
in baptism reveals his confession of faith in Christ to save him;
hence baptism is a confession of Christ as Savior.
8. Baptism is a confession that man is a
sinner.
The design
of baptism as stated by Jesus in Mark 16:16 and by Peter in Acts
2:38 forever settles this point. That apostle declared, "Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins." As certainly as repentance in this passage
declares man a sinner and in need of repentance so it declares man a
sinner in need of baptism for the same reason. "Remission of sins"
is an absurdity if there are no sins to be remitted. Both the
apostles and the Jews on Pentecost understood the subjects of
baptism to be sinners and therefore the inquiry "What shall we do?"
was answered by Peter and his command was gladly received by the
murderers of Jesus.
9. Baptism is a confession Of the sinner that
he cannot save himself.
In Galatians 3 the apostle shows the purpose of the law of
Moses, i.e., to bring the Jews to Christ that they might be
justified by the faith (gospel): "Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by
faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a
schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus" (Gal. 3:25-26). The faith in verse 26 evidently
refers to the system of faith, the gospel, revealed in Christ. Then
the Holy Spirit declares how this faith is made effectual to the
sinner: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). This passage not only locates
salvation in Christ; it also shows the sinner's helplessness without
Him. Outside Christ the sinner was hopeless. Galatians 4:1-5
declares this with reference to the Jew, and Romans 1:16
shows the Gentile in the same condition. Only by being Abraham's
seed could either Jews or Gentiles be heirs according to the promise
and this was possible only in Christ (Gal. 3:28,29). But
since salvation is in Christ (2 Tim. 2:10) and is by the
grace of God without the works of man's making (Eph. 2:8,9),
and since the sinner is baptized into Christ and, therefore, into
salvation, it follows that his submission to baptism denies his
ability to save himself. Baptism then is a confession by the sinner
of his own inability to save himself.
10. Baptism is a confession that the kingdom
of God exists.
To Nicodemus Jesus said, said, "Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (Jn. 3:5).
As certain as the "water" of this passage refers to baptism, that
certain it is that the kingdom exists for baptism puts one into the
kingdom. It stands between the alien and the citizen. It is the last
step in the "naturalization process." Unless baptism is a reality,
citizenship in the kingdom is a farce. But since it exists in fact
and stands as the door into the kingdom, the kingdom exists and can
be entered. Destroy baptism and the kingdom is removed for the
kingdom is composed of citizens and citizens are those "born of
water and of the Spirit." Baptism then, is a confession that the
kingdom of God exists.
11. Baptism is a confession that the church of
Christ is the one body.
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1 Cor.
12:13). The one body is the church of which Christ is head
(Eph. 1:23). To be baptized is to enter the one body, the
church. Since there is "one body" (Eph. 4:4) and "but one
body" (1 Cor. 12:20), there is one church of the Lord and but
one church. But baptism puts one into the one body, therefore, it
declares there is but one church belonging to Him who is the Head of
the body, even Christ.
--- Guardian of Truth - January 15, 1987