Saved by
"Dry" Baptism
Maurice M.
Johnson
(1893-1979)
DID NOAH GET WET?
Let us look for a moment at the beautiful and very
simple picture of salvation that is given us in 1 Pet. 3:18-21. In
the 18th verse we are told of Christ's having endured the judgment of
God in our place. In the 20th verse we are told how the ark endured
the water judgment of God in Noah's stead. And how clear it is that
the way those "eight souls in the ark were saved by water"
is the "like figure" (or the picture) of the way "baptism
doth now save us ... by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Noah
and his family did not receive a drop of the judgment water from
heaven. The ark took their judgment. Likewise, we saved sinners did
not get a bit of the judgment "baptism" that Christ, our
Ark, "suffered for our sins, the Just for the unjust." And
remember that Christ called His death a "baptism". Luke
12:50. Noah's good conscience answered God's invitation to "come
thou into the ark," by physically stepping inside that physical
ark to be saved from the physical water judgment. And my good
conscience answered Christ's tender invitation, "come unto me
... and I will give you rest". by taking the step of faith into
Christ, my spiritual Ark and His baptismal death satisfied the Judge
of High Heaven, so far as my offenses were concerned. But Christ's
death, alone, could not save any of us. We must be raised from the
dead in order to give us new life. And this entire need He perfectly
met for "He was delivered for our offenses and raised for our
justification." Rom. 4:25. Nor is this glorious message of the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ a New Testament fact, only, for all
who have ever been saved from their sins were saved "by faith
without works". This is exactly what Peter meant when he said to
Cornelius: "To Christ give all the prophets (the Old Testament
prophets) witness that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him
shall receive remission of sins." Acts 10:43. Note, also, that
as soon as Peter said "these words" God saved all of those
gentiles "who heard the word." And they were saved before
Peter had said a word about their being baptized with water, too.
(See also Gal. 3:6-8.)
BURIED "WITH" OR "LIKE"?
Sinners are saved today exactly like Abraham was
saved. Gal. 3:6-9; Rom. 4:1-13. "For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." Rom. 10:9-10. The moment a convicted sinner
calls upon the name of the Lord he becomes saved "for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Of course,
God is the One to determine whether or not the sinner is truly
penitent and sincere in his call. When a sinner thus "believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ" he is "crucified with Christ, ...
buried with Christ, ... raised with Christ" and his new life is
" hid with Christ in God." Gal. 2:20; Col. 2:10-12; 3:1-4;
Rom. 6:1-5. Note very carefully that the Word of God says the
Christian has been crucified WITH Christ, not LIKE Him. Exactly in
the same miracle way in which the believing sinner has been
"crucified with Christ" he has also been "buried with
Christ." No where are we told to be buried LIKE Christ was in
the waters of the Jordan but all Christians have been buried WITH
Christ in His baptismal death. It is, of course, a miracle. And, by
the way, why do not some of our religious imitators, who are so
eagerly seeking to imitate Christ in His water baptism, try to
imitate Him in His crucifixion?
All are only too ready to admit that "with"
means just exactly "with" and not "like" when
Paul says: "I am crucified with Christ," but when he says:
"buried with Christ", then many are eager to get their
sectarian followers to seek to imitate Christ's water baptism. This
they do in spite of the plain fact that the apostle is speaking of
Christ's burial in death and not His burial in the waters of Jordan.
My friends, be well assured of this: Christianity is not our
miserable imitation of the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth as He
lived His perfect life of law-keeping under Judaism, Christianity is
the life we live after we have been created anew in Christ Jesus: the
life of the indwelling Christ who move into all "broken and
contrite hearts" the moment His glorious gospel of grace is
humbly heard and honestly believed. "For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous." Rom. 5:19. In other words, Adam's
disobedience made all of his children like their father, sinners. Now
Christ's perfect, law-keeping obedience with His fulfillment of all
the physical ordinances is passed on to all who receive Him. With His
perfect heart and sinless flesh He obeyed all fleshly tests of
character and then "became obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross." Now, that is good news! It is THE good news! It
is simply the "gospel of Jesus Christ." I have "obeyed
the gospel." That is I have heard with submission, of Christ's
perfect, substitutionary life, death, burial and resurrection. He not
only died for me. He also lived for me. Therefore his law-keeping and
ordinance-keeping obedience is put to my credit as well as His
death-obedience. Thank God, as a new creature in Christ I am
"complete in Him." Col. 2:10-12.
BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST
And how did I get into this glorious place of
salvation and completeness "in Christ?" "With (or by)
one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or
Gentiles, bond or free, and have been made to drink into one Spirit,:
1 Cor. 12:12-13. This is the same two-fold operation of the Holy
Spirit as that referred to in Acts 2:38. The moment a sinner hears
the gospel of Jesus Christ believing in the depths of his repentant
heart, that moment he is "baptized in (or into) the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" and he personally
receives "the gift of the Holy Spirit." Christ is the One
who baptizes him with the Spirit and the Father gives him the
indwelling Spirit. John 14:16-17; Acts 10:38-46; John 1:33. What must
we think any more of those who would say that there is no such thing
any more as the "baptism of the Holy Spirit."? Will not the
honest reading of these passages surely answer them? John 1:28-33;
3:27-30; Acts 1:5; 11:15-18; 1 Cor. 12:12-13 and Eph. 4:4-6; Phil.
3:3; 2 Cor. 5:16-17.
HOW CAN WE "OBEY THE GOSPEL"?
The Lord Jesus Christ referred to his death as a
'baptism'. Christ was baptized with water, anointed with the Holy
Spirit (Lu. 3:16-22) and then, two or more years later, said "I
have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straightened till it
be accomplished." Lu. 12:50. How does it happen that today when
a preacher announces he is going to speak on "The Baptism of
Christ" it is supposed by nearly all religionists that water
baptism is meant?"
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the 'good news' or
glad tidings concerning what Christ did for the sinner and is not a
system of fleshly commandments as to what the sinner must do for
Christ. Paul said: "I delivered unto you the gospel ... how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was
buried, and that He rose again the third day ... I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth; unto the Jew first, and also unto the Greek
(Gentile)." 1 Cor. 15:1-5; Rom. 1:16. Therefore, to 'obey the
gospel' merely means to trust the perfect, finished work of Christ as
you humbly and gratefully believe God's record that "Christ hath
once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened (made
alive) by the Spirit." 1 Pet. 3:18. Paul wrote the Ephesian
saints reminding them of the fact that they were saved when they
"trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation ... For by grace are
ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 1:12-13;
2:8-10.
CHRIST'S BAPTISM ON THE CROSS
Surely every honest reader is convinced that the
"baptism that saves us ..." does not have a drop of water
in it. It is the miraculous baptism that Christ endured for us and
that is put to our credit when Christ baptizes us with the Holy
Spirit, thereby uniting us to Himself and everything in the way of
law-keeping and ordinance-keeping righteousness, that He fulfilled
for us. If you have not already, will you just here and now throw up
your hands of rebellion and gratefully receive, by faith, the
glorious work the Lord of Glory came to do for us sinners? Just think
of the glorious privilege of being instantly accepted in the Beloved,
of being miraculously clothed with the righteousness of Christ which
is "unto all and upon all them that believe." "He that
believeth not shall be damned." Mark 16:16. "Why will ye
die?"
WHEN WAS CHRIST SLAIN?
As plainly as God can say it we are told that
sinners are saved today exactly like Abraham was. "The
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify (save) the gentiles
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In
thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are
blessed with faithful Abraham." Gal. 3:6-9; Rom. 4:1-12. The
Campbellites and other cults that deny "the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ" ignorantly seek to make the Bible teach two plans
of salvation of the sinner. Their preachers demand the right to act
as "priests" who must baptize the sinner in water and then
and there place him in "The Church of Christ" or - sect.
Since these modern "daughters of Rome" are willing to grant
salvation to Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, David and others who
lived and died before the cross they are forced to manufacture at
least two plans of saving members of Adam's fallen family. By jerking
verses away from their context they are enabled to "deceive the
hearts of the simple" with their "good words and fair
speeches". Rom. 16:17-18. But those who humbly read the two
epistles that are written to give us the great underlying doctrines
of "justification by faith" learn to their heart's delight
that God gave the covenant of salvation through faith to Abraham
'four hundred and thirty years before the "works covenant"
(law and physical ordinances) was given to Moses; and that God
confirmed that "covenant of promise" to Abraham IN CHRIST
nineteen hundred years before Christ actually came to this world to
literally die. In these two "salvation epistles", Romans
and Galatians, water baptism is not once mentioned. (See above
paragraph entitled Buried "With" or "Like"? This
disgraceful "water-salvation" doctrine is but the teaching
of "new gods newly come up." Deut. 32:17. Though sin did
not enter until Adam's disobedience had made the whole future family
"sinners" (Rom. 5:17-19 our Gracious God Who "knew the
end from the beginning" "foreordained from before the
foundation of the world" that Christ as "the Lamb of God"
should appear in the fullness of time to "take away the sins of
the world". Thus it is said that Spirit taught Christians do not
butcher God's plan of salvation by a carnal study of man's calendar
as to the exact date when the body of our Blessed Lord was actually
nailed to the cross for we are taught to "behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sins of world", "slain from the
foundation of the world", "foreordained from before the
foundation of the world." John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8.
ONLY ONE CROSS FOR ALL DISPENSATIONS
Now it is quite true that God has different ages and
dispensations and different programs with people but none of the
dispensational or racial differences in any way affect the "gospel
of Christ" that was foreordained for the salvation of any member
of Adam's family that would "call upon the name of the Lord".
Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:13; Acts 10:43; 15:10-11; 13:38-39.
(Please honestly read these.) Though all penitent believers in Christ
have His death baptism and His burial and resurrection put to their
credit, I believe the Scriptures teach that only since Pentecost
(Acts 2) have believers been baptized by the Lord "with one
Spirit into one body." 1 Cor. 12:13. The difference between
salvation from the penalty of sin and the rewards held out for
faithful Christians, is another difference that none of the
"water-salvation" cults observe. I will give but one text
here. 1 Cor 3:11-15.
CHRIST'S LIFE WAS "THE
RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW"
How plain this is to every unspoiled mind that the
only good works that a human being can possibly do always follow his
being "created anew in Christ Jesus." Water baptism is
either a righteous act or it is an unrighteous act. In Matt. 3:15
Christ calls water baptism an act of righteousness. (See Titus 3:5)
Now, all Bible students who have any intelligent conception of
"rightly dividing the Word of truth" know that Christ's
earthly life was "Made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law." Gal. 4:4-5; Rom. 15:8. Likewise,
Bible students who have any clear conception of God's different
dispensations know that Christ lived for thirty years as a private,
law keeping Jew for He said: "Think not that I am come to
destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to
fulfill." Matt. 5:17. Oh how few people seem to recognize that
no one but Christ ever did keep the law with its God-given system of
physical ordinances, its "meats and drinks and divers washings
(different baptisms), and carnal ordinances, imposed on them (Jews)
until the time of reformation." Heb. 9:8-10. And it was because
Christ was born of a Jewish virgin under the law and the Jewish
ordinances and came to "fulfill' them that His Heavenly Father
never publicly endorsed Him until He had fulfilled ALL of the DEMANDS
of that system of "meats and drinks and baptisms." You
remember that it was immediately after Christ was baptized in the
River Jordan that the voice came from heaven saying: "This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Matt. 3:13-17.
In other words, when He had gotten John to baptize
Him with water, Christ had "fulfilled" the very last
righteous act demanded by the law and its physical ordinances. John
the Baptist was the foreordained one to thus baptize Christ so that
Israel would know their Messiah and King. And don't forget, that is
exactly why Christ was baptized in water, namely, "to fulfill
all righteousness" and in order to "be made manifest to
Israel." Matt. 3:14-17; John 1:31. When we thus clearly see that
Christ's life for thirty years (Lu. 3:23) was lived in, perfect
obedience to the law and its physical ordinances we can then begin to
see what we have when we, by faith, receive Christ. We have nothing
less than the perfect "righteousness of the law" for
"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every that
believeth." Rom. 10:1-3. Thus, it is that, without our having
taken one single step in our vain efforts to keep the law or fulfill
its physical ordinances with our weak and sinful flesh, we have put
our credit every righteous act that Christ performed during those
thirty years of his righteous life lived in perfect, sinless flesh.
"For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit." Rom. 8:2-4. There it is. The repentant sinner, by
believing the gospel of Christ, has a miracle performed in his heart.
All of the "righteousness of the law" that Christ lived in
His perfect flesh and blood life is instantly put to the credit of
the trusting sinner without his making any effort whatsoever to "walk
after the flesh," or try to keep any fleshly tests of character.
ALL JEWISH RELIGION EXTENDED BEYOND
THE CROSS
The God-given commands for testing the corrupt flesh
of Adam's race were allowed to continue long after Christ had
fulfilled them all, [see The Transition in Acts] however, for though
Christ had nailed fleshly tests to the cross as He died for us
law-breakers (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:6-17), still it pleased God to allow
the Jewish temple to be left standing in Jerusalem and to allow even
the Christian Jews to continue practicing all of the Jewish religion
including circumcision, head-shaving and blood sacrifices along with
the "divers baptisms." Acts 16:3; 18:18; 21:18-26; 1 Cor.
9:19-22. Apparently, God allowed this system of Jewish ordinances to
be practiced about thirty years after Christ fulfilled it because, in
His patience, God only gradually showed the Jews how it was that His
program was changing. But, as careful spiritual students have
noticed, about the time Paul wrote his second letter to the
Corinthians, God was "closing the books," as it were, on
all fleshly tests (physical ordinances. How clear this is from 2 Cor.
5:16-17: "Henceforth (from now on) know we no man after the
flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh (we knew
Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, the properly circumcised Jewish
law-keeper, etc.), yet now henceforth, know we him no more.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things
are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Thus it was
that after God had slowly led the Christians out of Jewish religion
He and Paul finally write these glorious, liberating truths. "Let
no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an
holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a
shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Col.
2:10-17.
et us who are saved remember well that water baptism
is an act of righteousness that Christ fulfilled. Matt. 3:15. And
that the righteousness is put to our credit when we receive Christ as
our personal Savior and Lord. Rom. 10:4. "For not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy hath he
saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Spirit ... But, let us who ARE saved be careful to maintain good
works ..." Titus 3:5-8. This we should do out of love and
gratitude to Him Who has so wondrously saved us and made us righteous
in Christ.
(Please remember that this study does not pretend to
take up the entire question of water baptism.)
How
God Saves Men
Believing
Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing
Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read
Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4
(A
10 Minute Video)
