J. M. Frost - 1916
J. M. Frost. Alabama Baptist, Birmingham, Ala., Dec. 1, 1915.
”Those matters which have been fulfilled among us” (Luke 1:1). ’After that he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen . . . appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:2, 3). ”The faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).
”Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in you all.” - Eph. 4:3-6
THE term evangelical faith is sufficient for present purpose, though not uniform or definite in its general meaning and use. In some respects the words mark a base line of agreement between certain denominations, but they also set a line of division including some, excluding others. That base of agreement for the most part, as cardinal in the evangelical faith, is the doctrine of the Lordship of Jesus and such other doctrines as it implies in New Testament faith and practice. With a foundation and scope as strong and safe as this, the term, though not of scriptural origin and also of comparatively recent date, should yet represent the best of modern Christian thought and life.
It is better, however, if we can, to get back to the New Testament, for even the evangelical faith would prove further division if followed out in definition, each one speaking for himself and each people speaking for themselves, as to what is evangelical. And in the last analysis we must come to the Scriptures for the final word, in belief and practice, and to the expression of inspired writers for a statement of evangelical truth to which we can commit ourselves. But to do this we must take account of the great ordinance of Christian baptism, which, however, is thought by some to be a disturbing element among the followers of our Lord, but which must have recognition and standing in the evangelical faith.
For the ordinance is inevitably and inseparably connected with the Lordship of Jesus, involving in its connection and didactic power his authority, his work of atonement and his very nature itself. Baptism at its very heart means the deity of Jesus, his giving himself on the cross for sin, and his resurrection from the tomb for human redemption - all of which is written large in New Testament life and literature. And if baptism were removed from all the creeds of Christendom by mutual consent in ”the interest of a broader fellowship,” we still must face it in the New Testament, with a bold and commanding position in the life, practice and teaching of the apostles and of our Lord himself. We cannot be loyal to him and set it aside. And whatever else may be true, we may be sure that his prayer for oneness of believers, and the apostle’s great word for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, did not contemplate its abolishment or its marring or the minifying of things commanded.
It is, however, significant, that evangelical Christians, excepting individuals more or less numerous in the several denominations, have shown no purpose or wish to eliminate baptism from their belief and practice. They differ as to its nature, purpose and meaning, varying all the way from symbol to a means of salvation, but it holds prominent place in their formulas of belief, and not one of them would vote as a body to count is no longer an ”institution of the church.” This is worthy of emphasis, for baptism even in its perversion has historical value as testimony running back through the centuries for historic Christianity. There could be no false if there had not been the true; no counterfeit if there had not first been the genuine and original. But the nearer our views come to the New Testament view of baptism, in the simplicity of its spirit, form and purpose, the more valuable will be that testimony for evangelical truth, the greater also will be the honor for the people who resolutely and loyally walk in the way of the Lord - a baptized people following a baptized Saviour, in the standard and ideal which he set at the Jordan; ”Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”
This is the meaning in part at least of the great scriptures at the head of this article for its direction and undergirding. The word faith has a twofold meaning in the New Testament - ”Faith and the faith.” The first, faith in Christ which saves, the vital process of the soul in commitment of itself to him as Saviour - an experiential saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. This is Paul’s ”one faith” which unites to the ”one Lord,” and expresses itself in the ”one baptism” as an act of joyous obedience. It gives to believers oneness of saving experience, and is the basis of a common brotherhood in Christ, and of oneness of fellowship in him. And this faith in Christ readily passes on to larger things concerning him, merging itself into believing with the heart that God hath raised him from the dead and believing with the heart unto righteousness.
And thus out of faith comes the faith-things believed, more or less systematized, and at once the basis and expression of doctrinal character and life. There is no necessary conflict between life in Christ and doctrine concerning him, as there is no conflict between the fountain and its stream, between the tree and its fruit. This is the faith of the New Testament. It came to be the faith of the disciples and of succeeding generations through the process of teaching and learning. With the teacher it is doctrine then and now, but with the learner it becomes his faith-the things which he believes - as he incorporates the teaching into his own thought, character and life. And so the faith is propagated and projected. And the faith with the disciples becomes the faith with us, our having, of course, enrichment and spiritual power from personal knowledge of Christ and personal experience of his saving grace.
So the faith has its succession, somewhat even in the form of sound words, and with an unimpeachable and impregnable base, and is a better phrase for use than evangelical faith. What was surely believed among the disciples as things established, what they saw and heard with many infallible proofs, what they learned from Christ as he taught concerning the kingdom of God and gave commandments through the Holy Spirit, became for the disciples and succeeding generations, through due processes and in the fullness of its scope and sweep, ”the faith once for all delivered unto the saints;” and in large measure is specified in Paul’s ”seven unities” with baptism included as a Christian institution.
In the ”one baptism,” therefore, he not only gives the ordinance a place in the New Testament system of faith, but with the greatest significance he counts it among the Christian unities, in one of the noblest utterances in all his writings. He was not indulging in rhetoric and phrase-making, as someone had the hardihood to suggest, but spoke from his own rich experience as in Romans 6:3, 4, was in harmony with the remarkable origin and history of the ordinance, and under inspiration was thinking God’s thoughts after him and speaking the word God would have him speak. One body - one Spirit - one hope of your calling - one Lord - one faith - one baptism - one God, even the Father of all - this is august company for the word baptism with what some call its homely method, and even more for the great ordinance with its lofty thought and commanding character. So much so, indeed, that some expositors are embarrassed and puzzled in their efforts to interpret the text without assigning too large a place and honor to a ”mere externality in religion.”
But why should they balk at this? The place of baptism in this beautiful summary, though exalted and commanding, is no greater than its place in the commission where it is closely and significantly related to the three Persons of the Godhead, even as Paul connects it here with the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God - even Father of all. And nothing greater, moreover, than its place with the wonders of Pentecost, in some respects the most signal day in Christian history, where baptism may be seen in practical service, fulfilling its ceremonial function and symbolizing the great evangelical truths of the gospel. And all this is fully matched, perhaps overmatched, in the concrete case, when on the august occasion Jesus came to John to be baptized of him in the Jordan, and was immersed in the historic river - the heavens opening in its honor, the three Persons of the Godhead being present and sharing in the service, and the Father giving his approval before men and angels.
Having such history and prestige the great ordinance then came easily and by right to its place among the ”seven unities,” was in full accord with them, taken separately or in unit, and shared with them in the fullness and richness of their meaning. It should be heralded as they are heralded, and like them make its appeal to a divided Christendom for ”the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” We should accord it this distinction and honor in our thinking, and so gain a more adequate view of its symbolic character in the Christian system, and of its ceremonial worth in Christian experience and service. ”The Scriptures must be allowed to say what they want to say,” in rating and giving rank to the ordinances of the Lord’s house. It is worth our while to learn how; with open heart and mind to be at ease with the great words, the noble phrases and even the mysteries of the Scriptures, and with joyous willingness to follow where they lead.
The apostle in his ”one baptism” was not, as this article is not, making plea for immersion as against ”other modes of baptism.” For at that time there was no question of ”other modes,” these having risen centuries later, according to the best authorities in modern scholarship and learning. But in the order and sweep of his thought, the apostle was emphasizing the one baptism in the sense of the same baptism, common to all believers everywhere, and the one external symbol of their brotherhood and fellowship. Precisely, indeed, as they had the same faith in the one Lord, the common experience of grace through the one Spirit, the one hope of their calling, and the same glorious relation with the one God even the Father of all.
This was with him the one glorious bond of union for the brotherhood of believers, and the one baptism was the common badge or uniform of its distinction. On the other hand, however, this glorious view of baptism and this great emphasis of its spiritual meaning, manifestly could not change its physical restriction and requirement. For the ordinance, though larger in meaning than the physical act of baptism, cannot even in its loftiest conception be separated from that word or the word’s meaning as immersion. This comes first and is basal to all else that may be said. Whether we think of baptism as ordinance, ceremonial service, institution of the Christian system, figure or symbol, monument or memorial, or whatever else, we must come back to this as the one form of the one baptism, essential always to its observance and right administration. The Bible itself in its wonderful character and content of meaning, like its ordinances, is first a piece of mechanical handiwork of type and print and binding-the physical containing the spiritual and making its expression possible. So the physical form of baptism is essential to its spiritual meaning.
Without this there can be no baptism, as there cannot be an immersion without immersion, and without this as our base we cannot interpret what it means. Even the ”one baptism,” in the glory of its company with the Christian unities, must, first of all, carry within itself the physical meaning of the word as the physical act of immersion - a physical act with spiritual meaning as with John and Jesus in their sublime but physical act of baptizing and being baptized in the Jordan. And so in the unities of Ephesians, as in Romans and Colossians, the apostle, in the sweep and rapture of his great experience, would count his baptism a burial and resurrection. Immersion and emergence make the one symbol of his having died with Christ and been raised up with him as a man risen from the dead-the emblem of the ”one hope” of his calling in Christ Jesus.
The ordinance of baptism, moreover, as set out in the New Testament, requires and is large enough for both its physical act and spiritual meaning. The absence of either vitiates and sets it aside in its lofty character and purpose. Its teaching power for the most part is in its form, and it contributes largely through its form to the defense and propagation of the evangelical faith - nearly every one of the great doctrines of grace having illustration and emphasis by virtue of its symbolic power. And the Greek church never abandoned the form of immersion, but the Roman Catholics, claiming the right to make the change, substituted first pouring and then sprinkling for immersion. This was the undoing of the ordinance so far as they were concerned, and with the going of the original form went also its spiritual meaning and beautiful symbolism. A fearful train of evils followed both in practice and doctrine. It was Rome’s break with the faith of the apostles, and with New Testament simplicity, standards and ideals. Against this the contention ever since has been for baptism as it was, not for the form per se, but for the form as holding its great meaning and as essential to its observance. To have it as Christ left it is safer and more loyal.
This article is a plea for its larger, loftier character, and for its closer relation and better recognition in the evangelical faith. With this place and function which it has by Scripture right, and with its original form and didactic purpose, baptism would give greater emphasis to evangelical truth, would contribute to its evangelistic power, and become itself an evangel for ”unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” It was not the cause or even the occasion at the first for dividing the followers of our Lord, but the great ordinance, beyond what we dare think, may yet be a future messenger for bringing them into the oneness for which he prayed, and for the enlargement and enrichment of the evangelical faith. Its mission has been great in the past, but may be even greater for the future.
Its monumental evidence for past achievements of grace has been glorious, but baptism has a further prophetic voice for the final and triumphant consummation. Symbols abound in nature, art and literature for death and immortality, but baptism, bolder and richer in its figure, goes further, and speaks its word for burial as symbol of defeat, but also for resurrection power and glory - the mightiest and most triumphant of all achievements. Its voice, as a song sung in joyous hope, is for the redeemed, washed in the blood of the lamb, with white robes and palms of victory. It is the foreword and foregleam of the great day, when ”in the ages to come God shall show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” - angels powers and principalities attending to do him honor and crown him Lord to the glory of God the Father.