A Better Idea?

Once upon a time, I was helping a farmer haul grain and he told me how he wanted me to position his truck under the loading auger.  The auger was in tight quarters.  I was to stop on a busy highway, back a 42’ grain hopper into the driveway which was flanked by two big trees, and back around some outbuildings, finally backing underneath the auger.  I usually do as I am told without asking questions, but after repeating this arduous and time consuming method, I had an epiphany. “Why can’t I just drive around the bin and pull underneath the auger forward?  That would be quicker.  It would save enough time that I may be able to get in an extra load today.”   So I decided to try it.  I turned in off the highway, wove my way through the maze of outbuildings, drove ’round the bin and was thinking, “This is a breeze!”  I was also thinking, “This is too easy.  I must be doing something wrong but I can’t for the life of me think what it is.”  With trepidation I pulled slowly into the narrow passageway between the bins and nosed under the auger.  My cab cleared.  And then…...BANG!  I knew immediately that my stack had not cleared.  I had forgotten about that tall stack.  After 25 years of driving, to make a sophomoric mistake like that is insane.  Like Icarus, my wings melted and I plummeted back into the sea of incompetence, affirming my idiocy under my breath. 

  I got out to survey the damage.  They say God takes care of drunks, fools, and children.  I am neither drunk nor child.  Fortunately, the stack was heavy gauge metal and sturdily braced, so it was not damaged.  I had moved the auger a few inches and there was a little scratch on it.  It was old and marred anyway, so I knew it would go unnoticed, and I saw no need to tell what I had done.   There was another bin very close on my left so I couldn’t  swerve around the auger.  I didn’t have the hydraulics to raise it.  Help me Rhonda!!  I had to back all the way ‘round the bin, through the out buildings and out onto the highway, pull forward, and then back in.  I caused a serious traffic jam and not a little road rage.  I don’t know why they put horns on cars.  All they are used for is to blow off steam.  After I backed into the driveway, there was rubber burning and several drivers gave me the Ohio “salute” as they sped by.  My CB radio was filling channel 19 with very colorful epithets ………..so I switched it off.

  No one was around when I did this, so you are the first to know of it.  (And no, Ron or Jeff, it wasn’t when I was in your employ.)  That farmer has probably noticed my tracks going around the back of the bin, and knows that I had attempted an ill advised “innovation”;  but so far he has not mentioned it to me, and I am fool enough to live in denial of his awareness.  Fortunately, he is an easy going chap and I still drive for him occasionally.

 

  “Innovation” is a word that causes my eyebrows to rise slightly.  When a product says “New and Improved”,  you and I both know that the only thing new are the words “New and improved” on the can.  It is always ill advised to innovate with the commands of scripture.  Some of them seem overly complex, and we think we’ve got a better idea.  Such seems to be the case with the ordinance of immersing (baptizing) believers for the remission of sins.  Even as I write this, I know it will offend some, and I am not one to offend over minutia.  I would not sweat this issue at all, were it not connected to the remission of sins.

  Since I have retired, my wife and I have been able to visit around to some of our sister congregations.  When the invitation is given, I have heard the plan of salvation repeated, sans immersion.  I must admit that it is more efficient that way.  The un saved hearer can put his trust in Christ right where he sits in the pew.  He can decide to repent right where he sits in the pew.  Slightly more labor intensive, he can raise his hand in answer to the question:  “Who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?”  These are all convenient.  But when it comes to immersion, well now, that requires some doing.  The believer usually must go to a changing room, take off his clothes, put on a baptismal robe, wade down into some water that may be a bit chilly and get dunked;   come up soaking wet with hair matted and dripping.  Then he must go back into the changing room and dry off and re clothe.  A lot of ladies (and some men) want to do their hair again so we keep a blow dryer, combs, brushes, hair spray (some use enough that they could play football without a helmet), a mirror, etc. in the changing room.  My wife takes the robe and towels home to wash, dry, fold, and replace them neatly.  Then we drain the water, scrub the tank, fill it with another several hundred gallons, and warm it again.  It’s all inconvenient and just a little humiliating to some.

  Perhaps closer to the truth is a reason more insidious.  If we make immersion optional, it makes it more convenient for the person who is coming out of denominationalism to “join” our congregation.  Many denominations immerse believers if it is their desire, but it is optional;  so it makes us seem more homogenous if we are not insistent.  We don’t want to imply that the denominationalist was yet in sin all the years that he was  un immersed.  It makes us seem legalistic and sectarian if we require it.  It may be offensive to him and he may lose interest in us.  (I should mention that the Lord’s Supper also is being increasingly marginalized, for making it the centerpiece of each Sunday worship could offend the denominationalist who may be “checking us out”.  It implies that his former congregation was mistaken in not observing it each Lord’s Day.  It is nowhere commanded to be observed each Lord’s day, but there are strong examples that this was the practice of the early church.  It was the primary reason for their meeting together.  Acts 20:7)

 

  When God told Moses how to build the tabernacle, He was very detailed and complex.  I’m sure there were some ordinances that must have puzzled him, yet Moses was faithful and followed the commands, right down to the last tiny detail.  How thankful I am that he did!  I remember how we built a model of the tabernacle in vacation bible school.  Our teacher, Thelma Miller, explained to us the symbolism expressed in the placement of the furnishings and the structure itself.  The tabernacle was a foreshadowing of our spiritual journey under the New Covenant.  The outer court, the altar, the laver, the holy place and it’s appurtenances, the veil, the holy of holies, the ark of the covenant covered by the mercy seat;  all of these were rich expressions of our experience under the lordship of Christ.  My understanding took a giant leap and I was saved a short time later after that VBS;  saved according to every requisite to salvation mentioned in the scriptures.  I doubt that Moses knew that his meticulous attention to detail would help a denim clad country boy walk the sawdust trail some 3400 years later; squishing all the way home with heavy, soaked blue jeans and a considerably lightened heart.  I doubt Moses knew that his compulsions would bear the fruit of every good thing in that boy’s life.

  The laver of the tabernacle represents immersion.  One had to wash in that laver before he could enter the holy place, which represents the church.  Immersion is such a clear picture.  My old sinful man is killed and buried beneath the waters.  I am now covered with the blood of Christ in God’s estimation.  Immersion in another sense is the “womb” from which the new creature emerges.  I am “born again” as I come out of that fluid, not by the water, but by the Holy Spirit that was installed as I was plunged.  I am born as a new creature;  I am resurrected to walk in a newness of life.  Immersion is every bit as demonstrative as the Lord’s Supper.  God knew there would be some NASCAR fans who couldn’t read words (sorry Bubba), so He drew them “pichers”.  Oh, how He loves us all!  Please; let us not mess with His “pichers”.

  Many denominational churches used to require immersion for the remission of sins, but the non denominational congregations are about the only group that still does, and there are some of these churches that have begun to make it optional.   The Devil fears the blood of Christ like Superman fears Kryptonite.  He is stricken impotent in it’s presence.  Is it not curious that the two prominent elements of doctrine that refer most plainly to the blood:  Immersion and the Lord’s supper;   are the ones being suppressed in our practice?   Oh how subtle is our adversary!  He makes men go around feeling that they are saved when actually, they have never met the blood in Christian immersion.  Perhaps they will be part of the crowd that hears these awful words:  Matt 7:22-23 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works ?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

 

  In times past, I have striven mightily to study my way around the necessity of immersion.  I loathed being perceived as a cult leader because I taught it.  I feel, and am, ostracized from the “main stream” of evangelicalism.  Try as I might, there is no way to ignore the plain scriptural inferences, examples and mandates.  Among all the obligations of the sinner who wants to become a Christian, immersion is one most prevalently exemplified.  Of late, I have quit loathing my lot and have embraced it.  God has plopped my tonnage squarely in the path of dozens of good people who have obeyed the gospel according to a denominational plea.  They have never been encouraged to complete the obedience of immersion.  I needn’t have worried that they would be offended if I urged it upon them.  Because they were truly submissive to God, they readily complied with scriptures that they had not previously given serious attention to.  Had they been indignant, I would have suspected them disingenuous.  I now see my role as “Boz the Baptist”.  They have been taught the gospel except for the necessity of this one obedience, so that’s where I come in.   I’m OK with that. 

  Exodus 4:24,25:  The Lord was ready to kill Moses because he had not circumcised his son, Gershom.  Moses had probably neglected this to keep the peace with his wife, Zipporah of Midian.  She obviously did not share an affinity for these detestable Hebraic customs.   She hastily circumcised Gershom herself, but did so with disgust.  Notwithstanding Zipporah’s attitude, Moses’ life was spared because the Lord’s requirement was satisfied.  Although circumcision is not a foreshadowing of baptism, it does serve to illustrate the point that not every aspect of faith is metaphysical.  If no concrete obedience, either mental or physical is required, we are left with universal salvation (or damnation) and the church is rendered superfluous.

 

     The necessity of immersion is so obvious to me that I can’t understand why others don’t see it.  I have even thought that I must be crazy.  100 people in a room see a red light and everyone but me says it is green.  How can that be?  What is wrong with me??  I have thought, “perhaps it is just a compunction engrained in me by years of tradition.”   I don’t think that is true.  I fear human tradition that becomes obligatory.  I fear it so much that I probably have wounded “the weaker brother’s” conscience with my irreverence toward it.  I believe compulsory performance of human tradition is a part of the “leaven” of the Pharisees that Jesus warned against;  therefore I carefully avoid it.  

   

  It only takes one bullet to kill, but bear with me as I “overkill” here:

 

Matthew 28:19,20     Mark 16:16     John 3:3-5     Acts 2:36-39     Acts 8:35-38     Acts 10:44-48     Acts 16:14,15     Acts 16:30-33      Acts 18:8     Acts 19:1-5     Acts 22:16     Romans 6:3-5     Galatians 3:27     Ephesians 5:26     Colossians 2:11,12     I Peter 3:21

 

  Read these passages.  Study the context around them.  If you can deny what these clearly communicate about immersion, then forgive me if I fear the whole of scripture has become a little too pliable in your hands.  I am aware that you can call upon John 3:16 or Acts 16:30 and say I am wrong.  What you are saying, then, is that verses that only command belief are contradictory to the ones enjoining baptism.  God forbid!  We must take EVERYTHING that the Bible says about a certain subject into account to make a determination of the whole truth.  The verses I mentioned are not contradictory to those that only mention belief.  They are complementary.  Some passages are not fully prescriptive concerning the remission of sin without the others.  Good hermeneutics (principles of interpretation) require that we take everything the Bible has to say on a certain subject into account before we draw our conclusions.  I am skeptical of “nutshell” summations.  There is no single verse in the Bible that sums it all up.  We can’t redact the scripture to only those verses we like and ignore those we don’t.  If we do, the scripture ceases to be dynamic.  It ceases to “use” us and becomes used (perhaps abused) by us.

  Genesis 22:1-20:  Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac, his miraculous son of promise.  Do you suppose he would have been blessed by God if he had arisen early and saddled his ass, and stopped there?   That would have shown an intent to obey.  Do you suppose that if he had made the three day trip to the mount which God had shown him and stopped there, that God would have blessed him?  You get the picture.  Abraham didn’t stop until God stopped him.  He split the wood, took fire and a knife, laid the wood upon his own son, marched up that mountain, laid his son upon the altar, and put that knife to his own son’s jugular before God intervened.   In so doing, Abraham’s actions present a beautiful picture of what God was going to do with His own Son.  Hebrew 11:17ff elucidates the reason that Abraham was blessed.  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:  Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;     Abraham did the “faith walk” completely, and furthermore, he was anxious to do it.  He wasted no time.  I believe we are remiss when we conjecture that Abraham was hesitant and obeyed with reluctance.  Neither should we forestall the obedience of immersion.

  I’m sure God knew Abraham would do as he did.  Why, then, did God test him?  For our sakes, brother!  Along with a picture of the atonement, we needed the picture of what faith is.  God knew Abraham would paint every last brush stroke of it;  and He inspired Moses to include the story in Genesis.   Should we, then, stop at belief?  Hah!  Even the devils believe and tremble!  (James 2:19)  Should we stop at trusting in Him, at confessing, at repentance?  It is not until we are immersed that we can consider ourselves “in” Christ.  Even then, immersion is only the birth.  The Spirit, from that point, leads us into further obedience;  however, it is no more the obedience of a sinner yet needing salvation.  It is the normal behavior of one whose flesh has been dealt a mortal blow and buried, and who is now but a vessel, carrying the Spirit and being animated and manipulated by Him.

 

  Where would we be if Jesus had stopped His obedience before He scaled the gruesome face of Golgotha?  Would He have been able to say “It is finished”?  Phil 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.    John 10:18  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.    In similar fashion, when it comes to that which is commanded, but is inconvenient and humiliating;  can we stop short and yet say truly, “It is finished”?   

 

   Those of you who teach sinners how to get rid of the penalty of sin; do you tell the whole story;  or do you have a better idea than God?  To those of you who love Christ but have not been immersed;  if I were on my deathbed and you came to visit me, my last words to you would be:  “Get yourself under the water!”. 

  Don’t misunderstand.  Let no man say I am advocating “baptismal regeneration”!  There is no power in the water itself.  The power is in the mind of God as He changes His verdict about you.  If there were efficacy in the water alone, my time as an evangelist would be better spent at the local swimming pool.  Having procured a vial of holy water, made so by the incantations of the local priest;  I should surreptitiously pour some into the pool and pronounce baptism by the authority of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as each oblivious diver went off the board.  They would then, like unknowing babies, be made a part of Christ’s church;  righteous in the sight of the Almighty.  No!  It is your desire to practice faithful obedience as a result of your trust in the wisdom of God and acceptance of the Lordship of Jesus that causes immersion to be the point at which God changes His mind about you.  Figuratively speaking, it is what causes God to consider that tank, that pond, that river;  to be a “fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins.”  Immersion, per se, has no talismanic effect.  It is not a human work that merits salvation.  Neither can your belief, repentance, nor any of the good things you do before or after you become a Christian, merit salvation.  The water is only the place God has commanded us to go to get THE WORK OF CHRIST applied to us;  and CHRIST’S work is the ONLY work that merits salvation for all who will accept it!  Everything we “do”, to accept salvation or after we are saved, is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit.  Your only responsibility is to slacken the reins, click your tongue, and hang on for dear life. 

 

 

  The Mona Lisa is far inferior compared to God’s artistry;  but imagine the horror should we blow a hole in her face with a 12 gauge slug!    Joyful sojourner, I beseech thee, don’t exclude the water!  When God has an idea, we haven’t a better one.