III. BELIEVE AND BE BAPTIZED
In the blog posted on March 2, 2013 on
Salvation, Repent and Believe, the following was stated: “To believe in Jesus
Christ is one act – it is not turning from
something to something, but a turning
to something from something … to
turn to Jesus Christ is one act
joined together with believing; one cannot turn to Jesus, (change of mind –
repent), without believing and
one cannot believe (that is
have faith) without first receiving the
ability to believe - (faith) – from the Holy Spirit by grace. In order for one
to have a change of mind that person must believe, but to believe the person
must have a change of mind and turn to Jesus Christ – but neither will happen
without the Holy Spirit. One (repentance) does not go without the other
(belief), and then it is a gift, one cannot work for it, cannot go after it and
obtain it – it is all the work of God.”
Today in the Sunday school classes the subject
was John the Baptist from Matthew chapter 3.
In one of the classes there was
discussion concerning the word repentance. It would have interesting to have
heard the various comments. But here I wish to cover briefly believing and
being baptized. John, as recorded in
Matt. 3:2, 5, 6, would preach “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand . .
. Then
went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and the entire region about the Jordan,
and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” We see in Luke’s documentation he writes in
what is chapter 3:3, “… and he went into the entire region about the Jordan,
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” When discussing the word baptism, bαπτιxv, as
used in the New Testament we need to see that this one word represents two different
things, a real baptism and a symbolic ritual; The real baptism being of the
Holy Spirit where the believer is joined in union with Jesus, the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, and the ritual baptism with water. John makes clear the
distinction between the two types when he states, as recorded in Chapter 3 of
Matthew and Luke and chapter 1 of Mark, “. . . I baptize you with water but one
is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” There is an affiliation between the two
baptisms but as Paul writes in his letter the Ephesians, (4:5), “there is one
Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
Jesus appeared to the eleven remaining disciples and after “scolding”
them he said, “…And he said to them, "Go into the entire world and preach
the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized [emphasis
is mine] will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned,” (Mark
16:15, 16). Which baptism is being referred to here? If it is baptism by water,
then water baptism is essential for salvation. Yet we read in Ephesians that there
is but one baptism, and Paul when was speaking at Ephesus and learned that the
disciples there had been baptized by John yet never heard of the Holy Spirit
and Paul laid hands on them and, “. . .
the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied,”
(Act 19: 6).
Believing and repenting is one act one cannot be done
without the other, and neither can be done without the Holy Spirit. The moment
the Holy Spirit moves the individual to believe/repent there is a new relation
to Jesus Christ of being in Him and this is brought about by the Holy Spirit’s
baptism which is accomplished, to say it in this term, the instant one
believes/repents. Those saved have been
saved apart from the ritual of baptism.
The ritual of baptism, however it is administered, is not a condition
that has to be added to believing as a necessary step in or for salvation.
