CHRISTIAN BAPTISM
I desire, dear brethren, to say a word as to Christian baptism, for as we no doubt know, there is much going about at the present time in various parts which suggests that the formula which the Lord lays down in Matthew 28 can be dispensed with. It is important that we should see clearly that that is not the truth. And if the enemy is seeking to bring in what is contrary to the truth, he not only has in mind to unsettle us in regard of that particular feature of the truth and to bring in divergence among the brethren, but we may be sure that he has in mind to attack or weaken something else; that is, it is not only the particular matter that he has in view but something beyond. And that is why we need to be particularly careful in regard of anything that is brought forward that is not in keeping with the truth as we have it in the Scriptures.
As we know, in chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles, when there was conviction as the result of Peter’s preaching and those affected said, “What shall we do, brethren?”, Peter said, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. And then in chapter 10, when the Gentiles were brought in, the Holy Spirit falling, as Peter was still speaking, upon Cornelius and those with him, Peter commanded that they should be baptised “in the name of the Lord”. And here in chapter 19 it says, “when they heard that, they were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus”.
One can well understand that on the day of Pentecost, Peter would stress that they should be baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ was the test for the moment. He had been crucified in that city only a short time before and the test was whether He was to be recognised and acknowledged as the Christ or not, and so we can understand that that would come forward prominently. When we come to chapter 10 it was a question of the Gentiles, and Peter commands them to be baptised in the Name of the Lord. We are not told what formula was used; he just said that they were to be baptised in the Name of the Lord. The Name of the Lord is to be brought into it, for “he is Lord of all”. It was not a Jewish position, it was a position involving the Gentiles and He is Lord of all. When we come to chapter 19, Paul says, when they said that they had not even heard whether the Holy Spirit was come, “To what then were ye baptised?” It would seem that he had in his mind that if they had been baptised with Christian baptism they would certainly have heard of the Holy Spirit; they would have been baptised to the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They say they had not even heard whether the Holy Spirit was come. He says, “To what then were ye baptised?” as though he could not understand that they had not heard of the Holy Spirit. They say, “To the baptism of John”. He says then, “John indeed baptised with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him that was coming after him, that is, on Jesus. And when they heard that, they were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus”. Now that is a statement of fact; that is not stating in so many words what formula was used in the baptism. “They were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus”.
We read in the epistle to the Romans that as many of us as have been baptised to Christ Jesus have been baptised to His death; that is, we are committed to death. It determines our position in this world, committed to death. You may say, How are we going to get through if we are going to be true to our baptism? The answer is the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is there for the support of all those who accept Christian baptism. We are baptised to His death, committed to death. He has died. He has died unto sin once and He lives to God, and we are to reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. If we take that up in a practical way it becomes a real test, if we are true, as to how we are going to get through in a world like this, and the answer is the Lord Jesus. We are baptised to the Name of the Lord Jesus. He is there in power and authority to support everything that is of God, and to support all those who stand for the truth of God. And so in our baptisms we bring in the Name of the Lord Jesus because we need His protection, we need His support, we need His authority for what is done, and therefore we baptise in the Name of the Lord Jesus or to the Name of the Lord Jesus. If we baptise in the Name of the Lord Jesus it seems to me that involves also being baptised to the Name of the Lord Jesus, because in the Name of the Lord Jesus involves that we have His authority for what we are doing, and if we have His authority, we shall certainly have His support in that which we do with His authority3.
But then that is not everything. The Lord in Matthew 28 gives this formal commission to the disciples saying, “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. What a blessed Name that is, dear brethren! And the Lord is seeking to help us more and more into the fulness of what is involved in that Name. The Name of the Father, the name of grace, the name of tenderest affection, the name of all power, for the Lord says, “as the Father raises the dead and quickens them, thus the Son also quickens whom he will”, John 5: 21. And so He connects the thought of resurrection with the Father. The Lord, I know, raised the dead, but in doing that He was doing His Father’s works. He says so, that in all that He was doing He was doing His Father’s works, and therefore the Father comes before us as the One with whom resurrection is connected. He is the great source of a world of glory and blessing in resurrection; He has brought it to pass for His own pleasure. Christ Himself is the standard of what is to mark that world, and all that Christ has brought in and will bring in characterises that world: the blessed knowledge of God known in the Name of the Father, and sonship in all its glory and dignity set out in the Person of the Son, and the power of the Spirit as the power in which these things are apprehended and in which we move in response to them. Is not this something glorious? Everyone who is baptised with Christian baptism is baptised to this glorious system in which God is known in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Think of the glory of knowing God in the Name of Father, and then the Son, the Person of the Godhead who has come into Manhood in order that He might be the Mediator of God and men, in whom God has drawn near to us and we have been brought near to God, and not only brought near to God, but brought near to God in the holy dignity and wondrous liberty of sonship as set out personally in Christ, and then the Holy Spirit taking possession of our hearts and bringing these things into them in power, becoming in us the power to move in response to them. All this, beloved brethren, is glorious and it is what enters into Christianity; it is what everyone who is baptised is baptised to, and we must not in any sense belittle the glory of this Name to which they were commanded to be baptised.
The Lord says this. I believe, beloved brethren, that in what has been going about—and it has been voiced in this city—as to dispensing with this Name, what the enemy has in mind is to weaken the whole matter of the response to God as known in His fulness. The very point to which the Lord has been seeking to lead us, that we should know His Father as our Father and His God as our God, and that the Name of His God should be upon our foreheads, the very thing the Lord has been seeking to bring us into is, I believe, the point of attack at this present time. It is for us to recognise the truth and to seek help from the Lord that we may enter into some of its fulness, so that we not only stand by the truth, but know why we are standing by it and prove the blessedness of it more and more.
Then I read that verse in Isaiah because it has a voice to us at all times. It says, “thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit”. In Isaiah 66 it says, “to this man will I look: to the afflicted and contrite in spirit, and who trembleth at my word”. But this it seems to me is even greater. It is not a question of looking at someone at a particular time, so to speak, it is a question of dwelling conditions, with this man I dwell He says, “with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit”. Well now, one would say to oneself and to each one of us, let us all seek to cultivate a contrite and humble spirit, for if we do it God will be dwelling with us. As Scripture says, “God sets himself against the proud, but gives grace to the lowly”, James 4: 6. We can always afford to be humble. The Lord says, “learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart”, Matt 11: 29. That does not mean that we shall let the rights of God go or that we shall compromise with evil. The Lord never did. So God says here that He dwells “with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones”. At times of conflict, and these are times of conflict, all sorts of things arise that test our spirits, all sorts of things arise by means of which the enemy has in mind to unsettle us and to bring in divergence. Let us be aware of the enemy’s tactics, let us be concerned to walk in the truth and stand in it and to stand in it together, shoulder to shoulder, and if we would be kept let us see to it that we cultivate and maintain this contrite and humble spirit; every one of us, old and young alike, let us maintain it, for as we do, we shall have God with us as dwelling with us. May the Lord help us in these things, for His Name’s sake.
LONDON
12th September 1961
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Addendum
Further consideration of this matter suggests the desirability of formally bringing in “to the name of the Lord Jesus” first in the ordinance of baptism, then “and to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, and concluding with “in the name of the Lord Jesus” in accordance with Colossians 3: 17. It is perhaps worthy of note that the full “name” as given in Matthew 28: 19 is preceded and followed, in verses 18 and 20, by that which speaks of the authority and powerful support of the Lord.
A.J.G.
From Ministry of the Word, 1961
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