Author's Preface
1. Accepting Or Uniting
   
2. Who Is A Christian?
   
3. "Why Don't You Leave The Church of Christ?"
   
4. The Iniquity Of The Fathers
   
5. Our Judicial System
   
6. "You Are My People Now"
   
7. Serving "Otherwise Than As Prescribed"
   
8. Does Baptize Really Mean To Immerse
   
9. Our Relationship Through Baptism
   
10. Those Gospel Meetings
    
11. A Prelude To Worship
    
12. Worshipping In Spirit And Truth
    
13. The Forbidden Prayer
    
14. "I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray"
    
15. Communion Prayers
    
16. Communion With Bread, Wine, And Money
    
17. Thursday Is The Lord's Day Too!
    
18. Not Forsaking The Assembly
    
19. Acts 20:7 One More Time
    
20. Our Father Who Art Where?
    
21. Does Nature Reveal God's Love
    
22. Copyrighted: All Rights Reserved
    
23. Don't Pour Water On Them
    
24. The Remaining Restriction For Women
    
25. Some Questions About Revelation
    
26. Must One Fully Repent Before Baptism?
    
27. Nicodemus In Context
    
28. Our Respected Myths Of Religion
    
29. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

Please stay with me through one more discussion of baptism. This can be a profitable exercise because so many partisan viewpoints have confused us in our search for truth.

On one extreme, baptism is viewed as a necessary sacrament through which life is given to the sinner, while at the other extreme, it is looked upon as a nonessential rite which is often spoken of with disdain. The first concept developed through legalistic interpretation of the will of God. Reformers, reacting against any idea of necessary works of law or merit, attributed justification to faith apart of any acts of acceptance, thus developing the latter belief. With no middle ground of agreement, the polarized dogmas developed.

As I have expressed in my books, I consider that the scriptures present a balance between those extremes. Life begins when one is begotten by the gospel through faith, and baptism confirms and transposes that life rather than giving it. Although life begins at conception, it cannot continue without a birth. Just as birth initiates life into a different stage of development, so baptism becomes an essential initiation into fuller life. It is an entrance into a spiritual relationship with God and all of his redeemed. If a believer refuses the initiation, he is refusing the fellowship.

In saving man, God uses faith to change the heart, repentance to change the life, and baptism to change the state or relationship.

After reading the preceding chapter concerning immersion, Col. Ray Willcox, a friend who is an elder stationed at Shalimar, Florida, wrote offering some good insights. He commented, "I reasoned (based in large part on having become freer, if not free in Christ) that it is the heart/attitude/motivation of the candidate undergoing baptism that is of prime importance rather than the rite itself." Then he adds, "So what is the benefit of baptism? Well, I'm obviously out into the shallow water of human reasoning, but the main benefit is that finite man operating in finite space and time can participate in a rite of initiation that signifies in physical terms a spiritual transaction that is infinite. In other words, I can put a mark on the calendar and say, 'That's when I became a child of God.' It gives me physical symbols that represent spiritual realities. And since I cannot see spiritual realities, I need the symbols."

While we deny that baptism has saving powers, we do not deny the need for the ritual. We are not inclined to limit God's extension of grace. He can save whomever he wishes, including the pagan who has the law written on his heart and the pious unimmersed who are innocently uninformed. He may accept the newly begotten learner in the earliest stage of belief, if he so wills. But as the disciple learns of Christ's desire for him to be baptized, if he refuses to comply, he will cease to have the heart of a true disciple. Even though I do not begrudge that God may give special dispensations of his grace, I must teach the message that is meant for all learners. In being true to my calling, I must teach you to comply with the plainer, general rule rather than relying upon the more vague exception.

Although many of us of the StoneCampbell heritage have held an extreme position on baptism, others of us have been calling disciples in all the churches back to a scriptural balance. Our aim has been to show that the salvation by grace through faith is accepted and appropriated by obedience to the gospel which includes baptism. In this symbolic ceremony one identifies with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, which is the basis of our salvation.

For the remainder of this discussion, I will use a lesson that I have presented many times through the years with the aid of a chart which is duplicated in part here. Please note the expressions listed and encircled: IN CHRIST, IN THE BODY, IN THE CHURCH, SINS REMITTED, SAVED, NO CONDEMNATION, RECONCILED, NEW CREATURE, BORN AGAIN, CHILD OF GOD, IN THE KINGDOM. Beside these terms are listed scripture references with connecting lines between each reference and the expressions that relate to it.

Even though all of those terms are not synonymous, each of them relates to the disciple's state or relationship. To enjoy one of those relationships is to enjoy them all! To illustrate, to be in Christ is the same as to be in the body, in the church, etc. on down the list.

To be in God's favor means to be in the proper state, or relationship with him. By sin we become separated from God (Isa. 59:2). How may this fellowship with him be restored?

We are accepted in Christ, the source of all spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3). Salvation is in no other (Acts 4:12), for no one comes to the Father but by him (John 14:6), and our access to the Father is through him (Eph. 2:18). (For the sake of brevity, I will not give full quotations. You are invited to read these references giving study to their interrelation.)

Belief does not establish that relationship in Christ without baptism, "for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:26f; See Rom. 6:3f).

In being baptized into Christ, we are baptized into the one body, which is the church (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:4; Col. l:18). So you cannot have fellowship with Christ, the source of all spiritual blessings, without also being in his spiritual body, which is the church (the universal congregation, assembly).

One of the purposes for baptism is for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16). Jesus promised that those who believe and are baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16). So we are forgiven, or saved, by the same process that establishes our relationship in Christ in his church.

Out of Christ, one is still condemned, but for those who have been baptized into Christ for the remission of sins, there is no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). In taking away our sins, our alienation is no more. We are reconciled to God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:18f). That reconciliation is in one body (Eph. 2:6). And that body is the church. All the reconciled are in the church. The church does not save, but it is the saved, for the same procedure that saves us puts us into his saved group.

Being reconciled to God, we are in fellowship with him. That fellowship with God is shared with all whom he has forgiven.

We are baptized into Christ, and "if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). Each new creation/creature received this newness of life upon arising from baptism (Rom. 6:3f). A person in newness of life is the one born of the water and the Spirit (John 3:35). In this rebirth of the water and the Spirit one becomes a child of God entering the Kingdom of God (See Gal. 3:26f again).

Now, please answer these questions for yourself. Are we saved by faith apart from any action on our part? Are we saved by praying? Are we saved apart from the church? Will meeting Bible requirements put one into a sectarian group? Will meeting manmade requirements put one into the Lord's church? Does God add the saved person to the church of his choice? Do the saved have an option about being in the Lord's church?

After reading and relating each of these references, can you deny the importance of baptism? Without baptism to change his state or relationship, can you honestly declare that one is in Christ, in the body, in the church, in remission of sins, saved, free from condemnation, reconciled, a new creature, born again, a child of God, and in the kingdom of God? These references give God's answer!

If you were hopelessly in need and someone gave you a check that could pay your every debt, would it do you any good if you neither accepted or appropriated it? Would you earn it or deserve it because you accepted it, took it to the bank, cashed it, and appropriated the money? Would you be benefitted if you just believed that the check was good but did not accept it?

Baptism is not a work of obedience to law, as though we are under a legal code. It is not a work of merit, as though in baptism we are performing some deed that puts God in our debt. It is an expression of our faith in accepting the blessings offered by God through the gospel. No gift benefits unless it is accepted and appropriated. God's grace is in vain for the person who is unwilling to receive it on the terms offered.

Having come into fellowship with God by our having accepted his grace through faith, "let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity..." (Heb. 6:1).