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Must I Learn How to Interpret the Bible?

2010-04-03T22:27:13Z

Nsdasa: Entered English Text

By D. A. Carson Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc -

Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation; biblical hermeneutics is the art and science of interpreting the Bible. At the time of the Reformation, debates over interpretation played an enormously important role. These were debates over interpretation, not just over interpretations. In other words, the Reformers disagreed with their opponents not only over what this or that passage meant, but over the nature of interpretation, the locus of authority in interpretation, the role of the church and of the Spirit in interpretation, and much more.

During the last half-century, so many developments have taken place in the realm of hermeneutics that it would take a very long article even to sketch them in lightly. Sad to say, nowadays many scholars are more interested in the challenges of the discipline of hermeneutics itself, than in the Bible that hermeneutics should help us handle more responsibly. Ironically, there are still some people who think that there is something slightly sleazy about interpretation. Without being crass enough to say so, they secretly harbor the opinion that what others offer are interpretations, but what they offer is just what the Bible says.

Carl F. H. Henry is fond of saying that there are two kinds of presuppositionalists: those who admit it and those who don't. We might adapt his analysis to our topic: There are two kinds of practitioners of hermeneutics: those who admit it and those who don't.

The fact of the matter is that every time we find something in the Bible (whether it is there or not!), we have interpreted the Bible. There are good interpretations and there are bad interpretations, but there is no escape from interpretation.

This is not the place to lay out foundational principles, or to wrestle with the "new hermeneutic" and with "radical hermeneutics." [For more information and bibliography on these topics, and especially their relation to postmodernism and how to respond to it, see my book The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism, esp. chapters 2-3 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996).] I shall focus instead on one "simple" problem, one with which every serious Bible reader is occasionally confronted. What parts of the Bible are binding mandates for us, and what parts are not?

"Greet one another with a holy kiss": the French do it, Arab believers do it, but by and large we do not. Are we therefore unbiblical? Jesus tells his disciples that they should wash one another's feet (Jn 13:14), yet most of us have never done so. Why do we "disobey" that plain injunction, yet obey his injunction regarding the Lord's Table? If we find reasons to be flexible about the "holy kiss," how flexible may we be in other domains? May we replace the bread and wine at the Lord's Supper with yams and goat's milk if we are in a village church in Papua, New Guinea? If not, why not? And what about the broader questions circulating among theonomists regarding the continuing legal force of law set down under the Mosaic covenant? Should we as a nation, on the assumption that God graciously grants widespread revival and reformation, pass laws to execute adulterers by stoning? If not, why not? Is the injunction for women to keep silent in the church absolute (1 Cor 14:33-36)? If not, why not? Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again if he is to enter the kingdom; he tells the rich young man that he is to sell all that he has and give it to the poor. Why do we make the former demand absolute for all persons, and apparently fudge a little on the second?

Obviously, I have raised enough questions for a dissertation or two. What follows in this article is not a comprehensive key to answering all difficult interpretive questions, but some preliminary guidelines to sorting such matters out. The apostolic number of points are not put into any order of importance.

(1) As conscientiously as possible, seek the balance of Scripture, and avoid succumbing to historical and theological disjunctions.

Liberals have often provided us with nasty disjunctions: Jesus or Paul, the charismatic community or the "early catholic" church, and so forth. Protestants sometimes drop a wedge between Paul's faith apart from works (Rom 3:28) and James' faith and works (Jas 2:4); others absolutize Galatians 3:28 as if it were the controlling passage on all matters to do with women, and spend countless hours explaining away 1 Timothy 2:12 (or the reverse!).

Historically, many Reformed Baptists in England between the middle of the eighteenth century and the middle of the twentieth so emphasized God's sovereign grace in election that they became uncomfortable with general declarations of the Gospel. Unbelievers should not be told to repent and believe the Gospel: how could that be, since they are dead in trespasses and sin, and may not in any case belong to the elect? They should rather be encouraged to examine themselves to see if they have within themselves any of the first signs of the Spirit's work, any conviction of sin, any stirrings of shame. On the face of it, this is a long way from the Bible, but thousands of churches thought it was the hallmark of faithfulness. What has gone wrong, of course, is that the balance of Scripture has been lost. One element of Biblical truth has been elevated to a position where it is allowed to destroy or domesticate some other element of Biblical truth.

In fact, the "balance of Scripture" is not an easy thing to maintain, in part because there are different kinds of balance in Scripture. For example, there is the balance of diverse responsibilities laid on us (e.g. praying, being reliable at work, being a biblically faithful spouse and parent, evangelizing a neighbor, taking an orphan or widow under our wing, and so forth): these amount to balancing priorities within the limits of time and energy. There is the balance of Scripture's emphases as established by observing their relation to the Bible's central plot-line; there is also the balance of truths which we cannot at this point ultimately reconcile, but which we can easily distort if we do not listen carefully to the text (e.g. Jesus is both God and man; God is both the transcendent sovereign and yet personal; the elect alone are saved, and yet in some sense God loves horrible rebels so much that Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and God cries, "Turn, turn, why will you die? For the LORD has no pleasure in the death of the wicked."). In each case, a slightly different kind of Biblical balance comes into play, but there is no escaping the fact that Biblical balance is what we need.

(2) Recognize that the antithetical nature of certain parts of the Bible, not least some of Jesus' preaching, is a rhetorical device, not an absolute. The context must decide where this is the case.

Of course, there are absolute antitheses in Scripture that must not be watered down in any way. For example, the disjunctions between the curses and the blessings in Deuteronomy 27-28 are not mutually delimiting: the conduct that calls down the curses of God and the conduct that wins his approval stand in opposite camps, and must not be intermingled or diluted. But on the other hand, when eight centuries before Christ, God says, "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hos 6:6), the sacrificial system of the Mosaic covenant is not thereby being destroyed. Rather, the Hebrew antithesis is a pointed way of saying, "If push comes to shove, mercy is more important than sacrifice. Whatever you do, you must not rank the marks of formal religion in this case, burnt offerings and other mandated ritual sacrifices with fundamental acknowledgment of God, or confuse the extent to which God cherishes compassion and mercy with the firmness with which he demands the observance of the formalities of the sacrificial system."

Similarly, when Jesus insists that if anyone is to become his disciple, he must hate his parents (Lk 14:26), we must not think Jesus is sanctioning raw hatred of family members. What is at issue is that the claims of Jesus are more urgent and binding than even the most precious and prized human relationships (as the parallel in Mt 10:37 makes clear).

Sometimes the apparent antithesis is formed by comparing utterances from two distant passages. On the one hand, Jesus insists that the praying of his followers should not be like the babbling of the pagans who think they are heard because of their many words (Mt 6:7). On the other hand, Jesus can elsewhere tell a parable with the pointed lesson that his disciples should pray perseveringly and not give up (Lk 18:1-8). Yet, if we were to suppose that the formal clash between the two injunctions is more than superficial, we would be betraying not only our ignorance of Jesus' preaching style, but also our insensitivity to pastoral demands. The first injunction is vital against those who think they can wheedle things out of God by their interminable prayers; the second is vital against those whose spiritual commitments are so shallow that their mumbled one-liners constitute the whole of their prayer life.

(3) Be cautious about absolutizing what is said or commanded only once.

The reason is not that God must say things more than once for them to be true or binding. The reason, rather, is that if something is said only once it is easily misunderstood or misapplied. When something is repeated on several occasions and in slightly different contexts, readers will enjoy a better grasp of what is meant and what is at stake.

That is why the famous "baptism for the dead" passage (1 Cor 15:29) is not unpacked at length and made a major plank in, say, the Heidelberg Catechism or the Westminster Confession. Over forty interpretations of that passage have been offered in the history of the church. Mormons are quite sure what it means, of course, but the reason why they are sure is because they are reading it in the context of other books that they claim are inspired and authoritative.

This principle also underlies one of the reasons why most Christians do not view Christ's command to wash one another's feet as a third sacrament or ordinance. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are certainly treated more than once, and there is ample evidence that the early church observed both, but neither can be said about foot washing. But there is more to be said.

(4) Carefully examine the biblical rationale for any saying or command.

The purpose of this counsel is not to suggest that if you cannot discern the rationale you should flout the command. It is to insist that God is neither arbitrary nor whimsical, and by and large he provides reasons and structures of thought behind the truths he discloses and the demands he makes. Trying to uncover this rationale can be a help in understanding what is of the essence of what God is saying, and what is the peculiar cultural expression of it.

Before I give a couple of examples, it is important to recognize that all of Scripture is culturally bound. For a start, it is given in human languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek) and languages are a cultural phenomenon. Nor are the words God speaks to be thought of as, say, generic Greek. Rather, they belong to the Greek of the Hellenistic period (it isn't Homeric Greek or Attic Greek or modern Greek). Indeed, this Greek changes somewhat from writer to writer (Paul does not always use words the same way that Matthew does) and from genre to genre (apocalyptic does not sound exactly like an epistle). None of this should frighten us. It is part of the glory of our great God that he has accommodated himself to human speech, which is necessarily time-bound and therefore changing. Despite some postmodern philosophers, this does not jeopardize God's capacity for speaking truth. It does mean that we finite human beings shall never know truth exhaustively (that would require omniscience), but there is no reason why we cannot know some truth truly. Nevertheless, all such truth as God discloses to us in words comes dressed in cultural forms. Careful and godly interpretation does not mean stripping away such forms to find absolute truth beneath, for that is not possible: we can never escape our finiteness. It does mean understanding those cultural forms and by God's grace discovering the truth that God has disclosed through them.

So when God commands people to rend their clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, are these precise actions so much of the essence of repentance that there is no true repentance without them? When Paul tells us to greet one another with a holy kiss, does he mean that there is no true Christian greeting without such a kiss?

When we examine the rationale for these actions, and ask whether or not ashes and kissing are integratively related to God's revelation, we see the way forward. There is no theology of kissing; there is a theology of mutual love and committed fellowship among the members of the church. There is no theology of sackcloth and ashes; there is a theology of repentance that demands both radical sorrow and profound change.

If this reasoning is right, it has a bearing on both foot washing and on head-coverings. Apart from the fact that foot washing appears only once in the New Testament as something commanded by the Lord, the act itself is theologically tied, in John 13, to the urgent need for humility among God's people, and to the cross. Similarly, there is no theology of head-coverings, but there is a profound and recurrent theology of that of which the head-coverings were a first-century Corinthian expression: the proper relationships between men and women, between husbands and wives.

(5) Carefully observe that the formal universality of proverbs and of proverbial sayings is only rarely an absolute universality. If proverbs are treated as statutes or case law, major interpretive and pastoral errors will inevitably ensue.

Compare these two sayings of Jesus: (a) "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters" (Mt 12:30). (b) "...for whoever is not against us is for us" (Mk 9:40; cf. Lk 9:50). As has often been noted, the sayings are not contradictory if the first is uttered to indifferent people against themselves, and the second to the disciples about others whose zeal outstrips their knowledge. But the two statements are certainly difficult to reconcile if each is taken absolutely, without thinking through such matters.

Or consider two adjacent proverbs in Proverbs 26: (a) "Do not answer a fool according to his folly..." (26:4), or (b) "Answer a fool according to his folly..." (26:5). If these are statutes or examples of case law, there is unavoidable contradiction. On the other hand, the second line of each proverb provides enough of a rationale that we glimpse what we should have seen anyway: proverbs are not statutes. They are distilled wisdom, frequently put into pungent, aphoristic forms that demand reflection, or that describe effects in society at large (but not necessarily in every individual), or that demand consideration of just how and when they apply.

Let us spell out these two proverbs again, this time with the second line included in each case: (a) "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself." (b) "Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes." Side by side as they are, these two proverbs demand reflection on when is the part of prudence to refrain from answering fools, lest we be dragged down to their level, and when it is the part of wisdom to offer a sharp, "foolish" rejoinder that has the effect of pricking the pretensions of the fool. The text does not spell this out explicitly, but if the rationales of the two cases are kept in mind, we will have a solid principle of discrimination.

So when a well-known parachurch organization keeps quoting "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" as if it were case law, what are we to think?

This proverbial utterance must not be stripped of its force: it is a powerful incentive to responsible, God-fearing, child-rearing. Nevertheless, it is a proverb; it is not a covenantal promise. Nor does it specify at what point the children will be brought into line. Of course, many children from Christian homes go astray because the parents really have been very foolish or unbiblical or downright sinful; but many of us have witnessed the burdens of unnecessary guilt and shame borne by really godly parents when their grown children are, say, 40 years of age and demonstrably unconverted.

(6) The application of some themes and subjects must be handled with special care, not only because of their intrinsic complexity, but also because of essential shifts in social structures between Biblical times and our own day.

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves" (Rom 13:1-2). Some Christians have reasoned from this passage that we must always submit to the governing authorities, except in matters of conscience before God (Acts 4:19). Even then, we "submit" to the authorities by patiently bearing the sanctions they impose on us in this fallen world. Other Christians have reasoned from this passage that since Paul goes on to say that the purpose of rulers is to uphold justice (Rom 13:3-4), then if rulers are no longer up- holding justice, the time may come when righteous people should oppose them, and even, if necessary, overthrow them. The issues are exceedingly complex, and were thought through in some detail by the Reformers.

But there is of course a new wrinkle added to the fabric of debate when one moves from a totalitarian regime, or from an oligarchy, or from a view of government bound up with an inherited monarchy, to some form of democracy. This is not to elevate democracy to heights it must not occupy. It is to say, rather, that in theory at least, a democracy allows you to "overthrow" a government without violence or bloodshed. And if the causes of justice cannot do so, it is because the country as a whole has slid into a miasma that lacks the will, courage, and vision to do what it has the power to do. What, precisely, are the Christian's responsibilities in that case (whatever your view of the meaning of Romans 13 in its own context)?

In other words, new social structures beyond anything Paul could have imagined, though they cannot overturn what he said, may force us to see that the valid application demands that we bring into the discussion some considerations he could not have foreseen. It is a great comfort, and epistemologically important, to remember that God did foresee them but that does not itself reduce the hermeneutical responsibilities we have.

My God, My God

2010-04-03T21:53:05Z

Nsdasa: Entered English Text

" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?"—Matt, xxvii., 46.

These are the words of the great Surety of sinners, as he hung upon the accursed tree. The more I meditate upon them, the more impossible do I find it to unfold all that is contained in them. You must often have observed how a very small thing may be an index of something great going on within. The pennant at the mast-head is a small thing; yet it shows plainly which way the wind blows. A cloud no bigger than Q. man's hand is a small thing; yet it may show the approach of a mighty storm. The iwatloio is a little bird ; and yet it shows that summer is come. .So is it with man. A look, a sigh, a half-uttered word, a broken sentence, may show more of what is passing within than a long speech. So it was with the dying Saviour. These' few troubled words tell more than volumes of divinity.

May the Lord enable us to find something here that will feed your souls I

=== I. The completeness of Christ's obedience. ===

==== 1. Words of obedience: ====

"My God, my God." He was obedient unto death. I have often explained to you how the Lord Jesus came to be a doing as well as a dying Saviour, not only to' suffer all that we should nave suffered, but to obey all that we should have obeyed; not only to suffer the curse*of the law, but to obey the commands of the law. When the thing was proposed to him in heaven, he said: ." Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God!" " Yea, thy law is within my heart." Now, then, look at him as a man obeying his God. See how perfectly he did it, even to the last! God says : Be about my business, he obeys : " Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business 1"

God says : Speak to sinners for me, he obeys : " I have meat to eat that ye know not of; my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." God says: Die in the room of sinners, wade through a sea of my wrath for the sake of enemies, hang on a cross, and bleed and die for them, he obeys: " No man taketh my life from me." The niglit before he said: " The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" But perhaps he will shrink back when he comes to the cross ? No ; for three hours ihe darkness had been over him, yet still he says: " My Go !, my God." Sinner, do you take Christ as your surety ? See how fully he obeyed for thee ! The great command laid upon him was to die for sinners. Behold how fully he obeys !

==== 2. Words of faith: ====

" My God, my God." These words show the greatest fnitn that ever was in this world. Faith is believing the word of God, not because we sec it to be true, or feel it to be true, but because God has said it. Now Christ was forsaken. He did not see that God was his God, he did not feel that God was his God ; and yet he believed God's word, and cried : " My God, my God." (1.) David shows great faith in Ps. xlii., 7,8: " Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts : all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord wifl command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." He lelt like one covered with a sea of troubles. He can see no light, no way of escape ; yet he believes the word of God, and says: " Yet the Lord will." This is faith, believing when we do not see. (2.) Jonah shelved great faith : " All thy billows and thy waves passed over me : then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again towards thy holy temple."—Jonah ii., 3, 4. He was literally at the bottom of the sea. He knew no way of escape, he saw no light, he felt no safety ; yet he believed the word of God. This was great faith. (3.) But, ah! a greater than Jonah is here. Here is greater faith than David's, greater faith than Jonah's, greater faith than ever was in the world, before or after. Christ was now beneath a deeper sea than Jonah's. The tossing billows of God's anger raged over him. He was forsaken by God he is in outer darkness, he is in hell; and yet he believes the word of God : " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." He does not feel it, he does not see it, but he believes it, and cries: " My God." Nay, more, to show his confidence, he says it twice : "My God, my God." " Though he slay me, yet will 1 trust in him." Dear believer, rnis is your surety. You arc often unbelieving, distrustful of God ; behold your surety, cling to him, you are complete in him. .

==== 3. Words of love. ====

"My God, my God." (1.) Those were words of sweet submission and love which Job spake, when God took away from him property and children: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb." Sweet, that he could bless God even in taking away from him. (2.) Words of sweet submissive love which old Eli spake, when God told him that his sons should die; "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." (3.) The same sweet temper in the bosom of the Shunamite who last her child, when the prophet asked: " Is it well with thee ? is it well with thy husband ? is it well with the child ? And she answered, It is well." (4.) But, ah! here is greater love, greater, sweeter submission, than that of Job, or Eli, or the Shunamite, greater than ever was breathed in this cold world before. Here is a being hanging between earth and heaven, forsaken by his God, without a smile, without a drop of comfort, the agonies of hell going over him; and yet he loves the God that has forsaken him. , He does not cry out, Cruel, cruel, Father! no, but with all the vehemence of affection, cries out, " My God, my God."

Dear, dear souls, is this your surety? Do you take him as obeying for you ? Ah! then, you are complete in him. You have very little love for God. How often you have murmured, and thought God cruel in taking things away from you ; but, behold your sur^ ty, and rejoice in him with exceeding joy. All the merit of his holy obedience is imputed to you.

=== II. The infinity of Christ's sufferings. ===

—He was forsaken by God; " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" f The Greek Liturgy says: " We beseech thee by all the sufferings of Christ, known and unknown." All the more we know of Christ's sufferings, the more we see they cannot be known. Ah ! who can tell the full meaning of the broken bread and poured-out wine ?

1. He suffered much from his enemies. (1.) He suffered in all parts of his body. In his head ; that was crowned wilh thorns, and smitten with the reed. In his cheeks; for they smote him on the face, and he gave his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: " I hid not my face from shame and spitting." In his shoulders, that carried the heavy cross. In his back; " I gave my back to the smiters." In his hands and feet: " They pierced my hands and my feet." In his side; a soldier thrust a spear into his side. Ah ! how well he might say, " This is my body, broken for you." (2.) He suffered in all his offices. As a prophet: " They smote him on the face, and said, Prophesy who smote thee ? As a priest, they mocked him when offering up that one offering for sins. As a king,, when they bowed the knee, and said, " Hail! king of the Jews." (3.) He suffered from all sorts of men, from priests and elders, from pass'-rs by and soldiers, from Icings and thieves: " Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round"—"Dogs have compassed me"— "They have compassed me about like bees." (4.) He suffered much from the devil: •' Save me from the lion's mouth." His whole suffering was one continued wrestling with Satan ; for he "spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross."

2. From those he afterwards saveH.—How bitter would be the scoffing of the thief who that day was to be forgiven and accepted! How bitter the cries of the three thousand who were so soon brought to know him whom they crucified !

3. From his own disciples.—They .nll forsook him and fled. John, the beloved, stood afar off, and Peter denied him. It is said of the chamomile flower, that the more you squeeze and tread upon it, the sweeter is the odor it spreads around. Ah ! so it was in our sweet Rose of Sharon. It was the bruising of the Saviour that spread sweet fragrance around. It is the bruising that makes his name as ointment poured forth.

4. From his Father.—All other sufferings were nothing in comparison of this : " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" Other sufferings were finite—this alone was infinite suffering. It was little to be bruised by the heel of man or devils; but, an! to 4ie trodden by the heel of God: " It pleased the Father to bruise him."

Three things show the infinity of his sufferings.

1. Who it was that forsook him. Not his people Israel, not Judas the betrayer, not Peter his denier, not John that Iny in his bosom, he could have borne all this ; but, ah! it was his Father and his God. Other things little affected him compared with that. The passers by wagged their heads ; he spoke not. The chief

£ricsts mocked him; he murmured not. The thieves cast it in is teelh ; he was as a deaf man who heareth not. God brought a three hours' darkness over him—the outward darkness being an image of the darkness over his soul—ah ! this was infinite agony: " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

2. Who it was that teas forsaken: "Me." (1.) One infinitely dear to God. Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world, yet lhou hast forsaken me. I was always by thee; rejoicing always before thee. I have basked in the beams of thy love. Ah ! why this terrible darkness to me ? " My God, my God." (2.) One who had an infinite hatred of sin. How dreadful to an innocent man to be lhrust into the cell of a condemned criminal ! but, ah ! how much more dreadful to Christ, who had an infinite hatred

• of sin, to be regarded by God as a sinner. (3.) One who had an infinite relish of God's favor. When two friends of exalted minds meet together, they have an intense relish of one another's love. How painful lo meet the cold averted looks of one in whose favor you find this sweet joy ! Jiut, ah ! this is nothing to Christ's pain.

3. What God did to him—-forsook him. Dear friends, let us look into ibis ocenn through which Christ waded. (1.) He was without any comforts of God—no feeling that God loved him ; no feeling that God pitied him ; no feeling that God supported him. God wo.s his sun before ; now that sun became all darkness. Not a smile from his Father, not^a kind look, not a kind word. (2.) He was without God ; he was as if he had no God. All that God had been lo him before was taken from him now. He was Godleas ; deprived of his God. (3.) He had the feeling of the condemned, when the Judge says: " Depart from me, yc cursed," "who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." He felt that God said the same to him. Ah ! this is the hell .which Christ suffered. Dear friends, I feel like a little1 child casting a stone into some deep ravine in the mountain side, and listening to hear it fall —but listening all in vain ; or like the sailor casting the lead at »ea, but it is too deep—the longest line cannot fathom it. The ocean of Christ's sufferings is unfathomable.

=== III. Answer the Saviour's why ? ===

Because he was the surety of sinners, and stood in their room.

1. He had agreed with his Father, before all worlds, to stand and suffer in the place of sinners: Every curse that should fall on them, let it fall on me. Why should he be suprised that God poured out all his fury ? " Why hast thou forsaken me ?" Because thou didst covenant to stand in the room of sinners.

2. He set his face to it: " He set his face like a flint." " He set his face steadfastly." God set .down the cup before him in the garden, saying: Art thou willing to drink it, or no? He said : "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" " Therefore it pleased the Lord to bruise him." Why ? Because thou hast chosen to be the surety; thou wouldst not drt1w back:

3. He knew that either he or the whole world must suffer. It was his pity for the world made him undertake to be a Saviour : " He saw that there was no man, and wondqred that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and' his righteousness it sustained him." Why ? Either thou or they ;. hell for thee or hell for them.

1. Lesson to Christless persons. Learn your danger. Wherever God sees sin he will punish it; angels, Adam, old world, Sodom. He saw sins laid on Christ, and forsook his own Son. You think nothing of sin. See what God thinks of it. If so much as one sin upon you unconverted you cannot be saved. Though' thou wert the signet on my right hand; though thou wert the son. of my bosom; yet would I pluck thee thence. Oh, let me persuade yod this day to an immediate closing with Jesus Christ!

2. Lesson. Admire the love of Christ. Oh, what a sea of wrath did he lie under for you ! Oh, what hidings did he bear for you, vile, ungrateful soul! The broken bread and poured'-out wine are a picture of his love. Oh, when you look on them, may your heart break for longing towards such a Saviour !

3. Lesson. Say to all who close with Jesus Christ, he was forsaken in the room of sinners. If you close with him as your surety, you will never be forsaken. From the broken bread and poured-out wine seems to rise the cry: " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?"

For me—for me. May God bless his own Word 1 (Action Sermon )

How God Teaches the Deep Things of His Word

2010-04-03T21:48:01Z

Nsdasa: Entered English Text from Desiering God

The reason Psalm 119 has 176 verses is that the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. The psalmist exults in the multifaceted preciousness of God’s word by taking each letter of the alphabet and writing eight verses of exultation, each verse beginning with that letter. It’s like saying: “The word of God is precious in every way from A to Z—beyond perfection.” (Eight is one more than seven, the number of completeness and perfection.)

Ordinarily in each group of eight verses, the psalmist uses mostly different words that start with the letter for that section of the acrostic. For example, the verses beginning with the letter heth (verses 57-64) use eight different words beginning with that letter. But verses 65-72, that start with the Hebrew letter teth, stand out, because they begin with the same word five times—the word good (tov). This makes us sit up and take notice.

Something really good is being emphasized. What is the good he wants us to see?

Here is my translation in awkward English that lets you see the prominence of the word good.

65: Good (tov) you did, Yahweh, with your servant according to your word. 66: Good (tov) discernment and knowledge, teach me, because in your commandments I trust. 67: Before I was afflicted I erred, but now I keep your word. 68: Good (tov) you are and you cause good to happen, teach me your statutes. 69: Smear upon me lies, so do the proud, but I with all my heart watch your precepts. 70: Gross like fat is their heart, I delight in your instruction. 71: Good for me (tov li) it was that I was afflicted, so that I might learn your statutes. 72: Good for me (tov li) the instruction of your mouth, more than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

These are not random comments about what is good. They are connected. And a specific good is in mind.

Verse 65 says that God did something good. It accords with his word. That means God’s word is designed for our good and that what God does to help us go deep with his word is good. What did he do that makes the psalmist write this?

In verse 66 the psalmist prays that God would give him good discernment because he trusts in God’s commandments. That means God does not bless with discernment a negative attitude toward his word. If we trust that his words are the best counsel in the world, he will give us discernment when we ask.

So the psalmist pleads for a mind and heart that penetrates deep into the word of God and becomes spiritually discerning for all the hundreds of situations that are not addressed directly by the Bible. So, he prays—and we should pray—God, do whatever you must do to teach me your word.

Verse 67 tells us what God did to answer this prayer for biblical discernment: “Before I was afflicted I erred, but now I keep your word.” God sent affliction. And this affliction was a profound teacher. It moved the psalmist into deeper obedience (“Now I keep your word”).

But not only obedience, also understanding. Verse 71: “Good it was for me that I was afflicted, so that I might learn your statutes.” Affliction brought learning. This is the discernment he had prayed for.

So the good that God did (v. 65) was Bible-illumining, discernment-giving, obedience-producing affliction. What was the affliction? It was slander from spiritually hardened adversaries. Verses 69: “The proud smear me with lies, but I with all my heart watch your precepts.”

This is the good the psalmist wants us to see. Verse 68: “Good you are, and you cause good to happen.” The good is the affliction that brings about understanding, discernment, and obedience. “Good it was for me that I was afflicted, so that I might learn your statutes” (v. 71).

How can he call affliction good? It’s because in his value-scheme, penetrating insight into God’s word is more valuable that thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Verse 72: “Good to me is the instruction of your mouth more than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” If God and his word are your highest values—your greatest desires—then whatever helps you know them and experience them deeply will be good—not easy, and maybe not even morally right (like slander from your adversaries), but good in the sense that God ordains it to give you what is absolutely best—the illumining effect of God’s infinitely valuable word.

In Martin Luther’s meditation on these verses he said that trials (Anfectungen) were one of his best teachers:

I want you to know how to study theology in the right way. I have practiced this method myself.... Here you will find three rules. They are frequently proposed throughout Psalm [119] and run thus: Oratio, meditatio, tentatio (Prayer, meditation, trial).... [Trials] teach you not only to know and understand but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s word is: it is wisdom supreme.

As soon as God’s Word becomes known through you, the devil will afflict you... and will teach you by his temptations to seek and to love God’s Word. For I myself... owe my papists many thanks for so beating, pressing, and frightening me through the devil’s raging that they have turned me into a fairly good theologian, driving me to a goal I should never have reached. (What Luther Says: An Anthology, 1359-1360)

Lord, incline our hearts to your word and not to gold and silver. Make us cherish your word so much that we embrace whatever it takes to give us understanding and good discernment and faithful obedience.

And when it comes, give us the grace to say, “Good you are, and you cause good to happen.”

What Is Baptism and How Important Is It?

2010-03-29T15:00:49Z

Nsdasa: Added quotes and sub headings.

'''Colossians 2:8-15''': "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. In our three-part series on baptism and church membership, we focused last week on the meaning and importance of church membership. And today we focus on the meaning and importance of baptism. The note I want to strike immediately—the tone and the truth that I want to set first and foremost—is that baptism gets its meaning and its importance from the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in our place and for our sins, and from his triumph over death in the resurrection that guarantees our new and everlasting life. Baptism has meaning and importance only because the death and resurrection of Jesus are infinitely important for our rescue from the wrath of God and our everlasting joy in his glorious presence. That’s the note that must be struck first. We are not mainly talking about religious ritual here. We are not mainly talking about church tradition here. We are mainly talking about Jesus Christ and his magnificent work of salvation in dying for our sins and rising for our justification. Talking about baptism means talking about how Jesus taught us to express our faith in Jesus and his great salvation. So don’t have small thoughts as we begin. Have large thoughts. Great thoughts about great reality—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified to bear the sins of millions and raised to give them everlasting life in the new heavens and the new earth."

 

=== '''What We Believe About Baptism''' ===

To answer the question What is baptism and how important is it?let’s read again what the elders of Bethlehem joyfully affirm in theBethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith (Section 12.3, PDF), and then look at some of the biblical foundations for it:

''"We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people of God, the true Israel, and an emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin. Let’s take five parts of that affirmation and look at the biblical basis for them."''

==== '''1. Baptism Is an Ordinance of the Lord''' ====

First, “We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord . . .” What we mean by this is that the Lord Jesus commanded it—he ordained it—in a way that would make it an ongoing practice of the church. We find this most explicitly in Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

“Make disciples” is the main verb: “Having gone, make disciplesof all nations.” The defining participles are “baptizing them” and “teaching” them. So the church is commanded to do this for all disciples. Making disciples of all nations includes baptizing them. And the time frame is defined by the promise of Christ’s help in verse 20: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The promise of help is for as long as this age lasts. So the command he promises to help us with is as long as this age lasts. So baptism is a command, and ordinance, of the Lord Jesus to be performed in making disciples until Christ returns at the end of the age.

==== 2. Baptism Expresses Union with Christ ====

Second, baptism “expresses union with Christ in His death and resurrection.” The clearest teaching on this is Romans 6:3-4.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. In the wider context of Romans, I think it would be a mistake to say that water-baptism is the means of our being united to Christ. In Romans faith is the means by which we are united to Christ and justified. But we show this faith—we say this faith and signifythis faith and symbolize this faith—with the act of baptism. Faith unites to Christ; baptism symbolizes the union. An analogy would be saying, “With this ring I thee wed.” When we say that we don’t mean that the ring or the putting of the ring on the finger is what makes us married. No, it shows the covenant and symbolizes the covenant, but the covenant-making vows make the marriage. So it is with faith and baptism. So similarly Paul is saying, “With this baptism you are united to Christ.” And the point we are focusing on here is that we are united to him in his death and burial and resurrection. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” So the imagery of baptism is death, burial, and resurrection. Christ was buried and raised to new life. In baptism, by faith, we are united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism dramatically portrays what happened spiritually when you received Christ: Your old self of unbelief and rebellion and idolatry died, and a new you of faith and submission and treasuring Christ came into being. That’s what you confess to the world and to heaven when you are baptized.

==== 3. Baptism Is Immersion in Water ====

Third, we believe this expression of union with Christ in death and resurrection happens “by being immersed in water.” The clearest evidence for this are the words of Romans 6:3-4 which describe the act of baptism as burial and rising from the dead. This is most naturally understood to mean that you are buried under water and then come out of from the water to signify rising from the grave.

The word baptism in Greek means dip or immerse. And most scholars agree that this is the way the early church practiced baptism. Only much later does the practice of sprinkling or pouring emerge, as far as we can tell from the evidence. There are a few other pointers to immersion besides the meaning of the word and the imagery of death and burial. In Acts 8:37-38, the Ethiopian eunuch comes to faith while riding with Philip in his chariot and says, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” Philip agrees and it says, “He commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.” That they “went down into the water” makes most sense if they were going down to immerse him, not to sprinkle him. Similarly it says in John 3:23, “John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there.” You don’t need plentiful water if you are simply sprinkling. You just need a jar. So there is really very little dispute that this was the way the early church baptized. They did it by immersing the new believer in water to signify his burial and resurrection with Jesus.

==== 4. Baptism Is in the Trinitarian Name ====

Fourth, baptism means doing this immersing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This means that not just any immersing is baptism. There is a holy appeal to God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to be present in this act and make it true and real in what it says about their work in redemption. There is no salvation without the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When we call on their name, we depend upon them and honor them and say that this act is because of them and by them and for them.

==== 5. Baptism Is for Believers Only ====

Fifth, baptism is an expression of faith and therefore only for believers. The key sentence in the Bethlehem Elder Affirmation says, “We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection.” So our understanding of the New Testament is that the meaning of baptism includes the fact that it is an expression of the faith of the one being baptized. It is not something that an unbeliever can do. It is not something than an infant can do. That is why we don’t baptize infants.

There are several passages that have had the greatest influence on me over the years in persuading me of the Baptist view. One of the most important is Colossians 2:11-12. In him [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ [so Paul speaks of circumcision in “made-without-hands” terms. Circumcision today has meaning for the Christian, not as a physical act, but as a spiritual act of Christ in which he cuts away the old sinful body and makes us new. It is virtually synonymous with the new birth. Then he speaks of baptism], having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. So the image of spiritual circumcision is closely connected with the image of baptism: “You were circumcised . . . having been baptized . . .” The old “body of flesh” was cut away in conversion; you died and rose again in baptism.

=== The Argument for Infant Baptism ===

It’s probably right, therefore, to say that baptism has replaced circumcision as the mark of being part of the people of God. In the Old Testament men were circumcised to signify membership in the old-covenant people of God, and in the New Testament menand women are baptized to signify membership in the new-covenant people of God.

That has led many Christians to assume that, since circumcision was given to the male children of the people of the old covenant, therefore baptism should be given to the male and female children of the people of the new covenant. That’s the gist of the argument.

==== Why It Does Not Work ====

But textually and covenantally, it doesn’t work. Look carefully at Colossians 2:12: “. . . having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith . . .” The wordsthrough faith are all important on this issue. Paul says that when you come up out of the water signifying being raised with Christ this is happening through faith. Verse 12: “. . . in which [baptism] you were also raised with him through faith.”

Baptism as a drama of death and resurrection with Christ gets its meaning from the faith that it expresses. In baptism you are “raised with him through faith.”

==== Through Faith! ====

Paul shows the same way of thinking about baptism and faith in Galatians 3:26-27: “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.” We become sons of God through faith and no other way. Then he says, “for”—connecting this way of becoming sons of God with baptism—“for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

That explanation with the word for only makes sense if baptism is understood as an acting out of faith. “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.” Or to turn it around: Since you were baptized into Christ, therefore we know that in Christ you are all sons of God through faith. Why? Because that is what baptism means: You were baptized into Christ by faith. Baptism without faith was inconceivable to Paul.

=== New-Covenant Membership by Spiritual Birth ===

So when the shift happened in redemptive history from the old covenant to the new covenant and from circumcision to baptism, there was a shift from an ethnic focus on Israel and only males being given the sign of membership in the people, to a spiritual focus on the church of all nations with both male and female being given the sign of membership in the people, namely, baptism.

Membership in the new-covenant people of God is not by physical birth, but by spiritual birth. That new birth happens by the word of God, the gospel (1 Peter 1:23-25). Therefore, the church should be composed not of the believers and their infants, but believers only. And the sign of membership in the new covenant people is not a sign for infants but a sign for believers. Membership in the Local Church

So we can see how the meaning of baptism is woven together with membership in the people of God. And since the local church is an expression of that people, baptism is closely connected to membership in the local church. In the New Testament, being a Christian, being baptized, belonging to the new-covenant people of God, and being a member of a local church were linked together. If you tried to pull one of those out (not a Christian, or not baptized, or not in the new-covenant people, or not a member of local church), it would have made no sense. They belonged together.

So baptism is important. It was uncompromisingly commanded by the Lord Jesus. It was universally administered to Christians entering the early church. It was uniquely connected to conversion as an unrepeatableexpression of saving faith.

=== May God Grant Us Wisdom ===

So now after two sermons, we have two things that are important. Baptism is important. And the nature of the local church as a sacred expression of the universal body of Christ is important.

Failing to be baptized is serious. Excluding genuine believers from the local church is serious. There are godly, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting, God-centered followers of Jesus who fail to see the dreadfulness of not being baptized as a believer. And there are godly, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting, God-centered followers of Jesus who fail to see the dreadfulness of excluding such people from church membership. The question we should ask is not only hard to answer, but it is hard to formulate. Perhaps the Lord in his mercy will show us how to do both in a way that will cut this knot for his glory. May the Lord grant a wisdom like Solomon’s or, even better, a wisdom like the One who is greater than Solomon. Amen.

 

''© Desiring God Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: [http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/23/3037_What_Is_Baptism_and_How_Important_Is_It/ desiringGod.org]''

What Is Baptism and How Important Is It?

2010-03-29T14:56:40Z

Nsdasa: Fixed table of contents

Colossians 2:8-15: "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. In our three-part series on baptism and church membership, we focused last week on the meaning and importance of church membership. And today we focus on the meaning and importance of baptism. The note I want to strike immediately—the tone and the truth that I want to set first and foremost—is that baptism gets its meaning and its importance from the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in our place and for our sins, and from his triumph over death in the resurrection that guarantees our new and everlasting life. Baptism has meaning and importance only because the death and resurrection of Jesus are infinitely important for our rescue from the wrath of God and our everlasting joy in his glorious presence. That’s the note that must be struck first. We are not mainly talking about religious ritual here. We are not mainly talking about church tradition here. We are mainly talking about Jesus Christ and his magnificent work of salvation in dying for our sins and rising for our justification. Talking about baptism means talking about how Jesus taught us to express our faith in Jesus and his great salvation. So don’t have small thoughts as we begin. Have large thoughts. Great thoughts about great reality—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified to bear the sins of millions and raised to give them everlasting life in the new heavens and the new earth."

 

=== '''What We Believe About Baptism''' ===

To answer the question What is baptism and how important is it?let’s read again what the elders of Bethlehem joyfully affirm in theBethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith (Section 12.3, PDF), and then look at some of the biblical foundations for it:

We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people of God, the true Israel, and an emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin. Let’s take five parts of that affirmation and look at the biblical basis for them.

=== '''1. Baptism Is an Ordinance of the Lord''' ===

First, “We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord . . .” What we mean by this is that the Lord Jesus commanded it—he ordained it—in a way that would make it an ongoing practice of the church. We find this most explicitly in Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

“Make disciples” is the main verb: “Having gone, make disciplesof all nations.” The defining participles are “baptizing them” and “teaching” them. So the church is commanded to do this for all disciples. Making disciples of all nations includes baptizing them. And the time frame is defined by the promise of Christ’s help in verse 20: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The promise of help is for as long as this age lasts. So the command he promises to help us with is as long as this age lasts. So baptism is a command, and ordinance, of the Lord Jesus to be performed in making disciples until Christ returns at the end of the age.

=== 2. Baptism Expresses Union with Christ ===

Second, baptism “expresses union with Christ in His death and resurrection.” The clearest teaching on this is Romans 6:3-4.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. In the wider context of Romans, I think it would be a mistake to say that water-baptism is the means of our being united to Christ. In Romans faith is the means by which we are united to Christ and justified. But we show this faith—we say this faith and signifythis faith and symbolize this faith—with the act of baptism. Faith unites to Christ; baptism symbolizes the union. An analogy would be saying, “With this ring I thee wed.” When we say that we don’t mean that the ring or the putting of the ring on the finger is what makes us married. No, it shows the covenant and symbolizes the covenant, but the covenant-making vows make the marriage. So it is with faith and baptism. So similarly Paul is saying, “With this baptism you are united to Christ.” And the point we are focusing on here is that we are united to him in his death and burial and resurrection. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” So the imagery of baptism is death, burial, and resurrection. Christ was buried and raised to new life. In baptism, by faith, we are united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism dramatically portrays what happened spiritually when you received Christ: Your old self of unbelief and rebellion and idolatry died, and a new you of faith and submission and treasuring Christ came into being. That’s what you confess to the world and to heaven when you are baptized.

=== 3. Baptism Is Immersion in Water ===

Third, we believe this expression of union with Christ in death and resurrection happens “by being immersed in water.” The clearest evidence for this are the words of Romans 6:3-4 which describe the act of baptism as burial and rising from the dead. This is most naturally understood to mean that you are buried under water and then come out of from the water to signify rising from the grave.

The word baptism in Greek means dip or immerse. And most scholars agree that this is the way the early church practiced baptism. Only much later does the practice of sprinkling or pouring emerge, as far as we can tell from the evidence. There are a few other pointers to immersion besides the meaning of the word and the imagery of death and burial. In Acts 8:37-38, the Ethiopian eunuch comes to faith while riding with Philip in his chariot and says, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” Philip agrees and it says, “He commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.” That they “went down into the water” makes most sense if they were going down to immerse him, not to sprinkle him. Similarly it says in John 3:23, “John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there.” You don’t need plentiful water if you are simply sprinkling. You just need a jar. So there is really very little dispute that this was the way the early church baptized. They did it by immersing the new believer in water to signify his burial and resurrection with Jesus.

=== 4. Baptism Is in the Trinitarian Name ===

Fourth, baptism means doing this immersing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This means that not just any immersing is baptism. There is a holy appeal to God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to be present in this act and make it true and real in what it says about their work in redemption. There is no salvation without the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When we call on their name, we depend upon them and honor them and say that this act is because of them and by them and for them.

=== 5. Baptism Is for Believers Only ===

Fifth, baptism is an expression of faith and therefore only for believers. The key sentence in the Bethlehem Elder Affirmation says, “We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection.” So our understanding of the New Testament is that the meaning of baptism includes the fact that it is an expression of the faith of the one being baptized. It is not something that an unbeliever can do. It is not something than an infant can do. That is why we don’t baptize infants.

There are several passages that have had the greatest influence on me over the years in persuading me of the Baptist view. One of the most important is Colossians 2:11-12. In him [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ [so Paul speaks of circumcision in “made-without-hands” terms. Circumcision today has meaning for the Christian, not as a physical act, but as a spiritual act of Christ in which he cuts away the old sinful body and makes us new. It is virtually synonymous with the new birth. Then he speaks of baptism], having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. So the image of spiritual circumcision is closely connected with the image of baptism: “You were circumcised . . . having been baptized . . .” The old “body of flesh” was cut away in conversion; you died and rose again in baptism.

=== The Argument for Infant Baptism ===

It’s probably right, therefore, to say that baptism has replaced circumcision as the mark of being part of the people of God. In the Old Testament men were circumcised to signify membership in the old-covenant people of God, and in the New Testament menand women are baptized to signify membership in the new-covenant people of God.

That has led many Christians to assume that, since circumcision was given to the male children of the people of the old covenant, therefore baptism should be given to the male and female children of the people of the new covenant. That’s the gist of the argument.

=== Why It Does Not Work ===

But textually and covenantally, it doesn’t work. Look carefully at Colossians 2:12: “. . . having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith . . .” The wordsthrough faith are all important on this issue. Paul says that when you come up out of the water signifying being raised with Christ this is happening through faith. Verse 12: “. . . in which [baptism] you were also raised with him through faith.”

Baptism as a drama of death and resurrection with Christ gets its meaning from the faith that it expresses. In baptism you are “raised with him through faith.”

=== Through Faith! ===

Paul shows the same way of thinking about baptism and faith in Galatians 3:26-27: “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.” We become sons of God through faith and no other way. Then he says, “for”—connecting this way of becoming sons of God with baptism—“for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

That explanation with the word for only makes sense if baptism is understood as an acting out of faith. “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.” Or to turn it around: Since you were baptized into Christ, therefore we know that in Christ you are all sons of God through faith. Why? Because that is what baptism means: You were baptized into Christ by faith. Baptism without faith was inconceivable to Paul.

=== New-Covenant Membership by Spiritual Birth ===

So when the shift happened in redemptive history from the old covenant to the new covenant and from circumcision to baptism, there was a shift from an ethnic focus on Israel and only males being given the sign of membership in the people, to a spiritual focus on the church of all nations with both male and female being given the sign of membership in the people, namely, baptism.

Membership in the new-covenant people of God is not by physical birth, but by spiritual birth. That new birth happens by the word of God, the gospel (1 Peter 1:23-25). Therefore, the church should be composed not of the believers and their infants, but believers only. And the sign of membership in the new covenant people is not a sign for infants but a sign for believers. Membership in the Local Church

So we can see how the meaning of baptism is woven together with membership in the people of God. And since the local church is an expression of that people, baptism is closely connected to membership in the local church. In the New Testament, being a Christian, being baptized, belonging to the new-covenant people of God, and being a member of a local church were linked together. If you tried to pull one of those out (not a Christian, or not baptized, or not in the new-covenant people, or not a member of local church), it would have made no sense. They belonged together.

So baptism is important. It was uncompromisingly commanded by the Lord Jesus. It was universally administered to Christians entering the early church. It was uniquely connected to conversion as an unrepeatableexpression of saving faith.

=== May God Grant Us Wisdom ===

So now after two sermons, we have two things that are important. Baptism is important. And the nature of the local church as a sacred expression of the universal body of Christ is important.

Failing to be baptized is serious. Excluding genuine believers from the local church is serious. There are godly, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting, God-centered followers of Jesus who fail to see the dreadfulness of not being baptized as a believer. And there are godly, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting, God-centered followers of Jesus who fail to see the dreadfulness of excluding such people from church membership. The question we should ask is not only hard to answer, but it is hard to formulate. Perhaps the Lord in his mercy will show us how to do both in a way that will cut this knot for his glory. May the Lord grant a wisdom like Solomon’s or, even better, a wisdom like the One who is greater than Solomon. Amen.

 

''© Desiring God Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: [http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/23/3037_What_Is_Baptism_and_How_Important_Is_It/ desiringGod.org]''

What Is Baptism and How Important Is It?

2010-03-29T14:54:59Z

Nsdasa: What is Baptism, and how important is it? English

Colossians 2:8-15: "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. In our three-part series on baptism and church membership, we focused last week on the meaning and importance of church membership. And today we focus on the meaning and importance of baptism. The note I want to strike immediately—the tone and the truth that I want to set first and foremost—is that baptism gets its meaning and its importance from the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in our place and for our sins, and from his triumph over death in the resurrection that guarantees our new and everlasting life. Baptism has meaning and importance only because the death and resurrection of Jesus are infinitely important for our rescue from the wrath of God and our everlasting joy in his glorious presence. That’s the note that must be struck first. We are not mainly talking about religious ritual here. We are not mainly talking about church tradition here. We are mainly talking about Jesus Christ and his magnificent work of salvation in dying for our sins and rising for our justification. Talking about baptism means talking about how Jesus taught us to express our faith in Jesus and his great salvation. So don’t have small thoughts as we begin. Have large thoughts. Great thoughts about great reality—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified to bear the sins of millions and raised to give them everlasting life in the new heavens and the new earth."

 

=== '''What We Believe About Baptism''' ===

To answer the question What is baptism and how important is it?let’s read again what the elders of Bethlehem joyfully affirm in theBethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith (Section 12.3, PDF), and then look at some of the biblical foundations for it:

We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people of God, the true Israel, and an emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin. Let’s take five parts of that affirmation and look at the biblical basis for them.

=== '''1. Baptism Is an Ordinance of the Lord''' ===

First, “We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord . . .” What we mean by this is that the Lord Jesus commanded it—he ordained it—in a way that would make it an ongoing practice of the church. We find this most explicitly in Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

“Make disciples” is the main verb: “Having gone, make disciplesof all nations.” The defining participles are “baptizing them” and “teaching” them. So the church is commanded to do this for all disciples. Making disciples of all nations includes baptizing them. And the time frame is defined by the promise of Christ’s help in verse 20: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The promise of help is for as long as this age lasts. So the command he promises to help us with is as long as this age lasts. So baptism is a command, and ordinance, of the Lord Jesus to be performed in making disciples until Christ returns at the end of the age.

=== 2. Baptism Expresses Union with Christ ===

Second, baptism “expresses union with Christ in His death and resurrection.” The clearest teaching on this is Romans 6:3-4.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. In the wider context of Romans, I think it would be a mistake to say that water-baptism is the means of our being united to Christ. In Romans faith is the means by which we are united to Christ and justified. But we show this faith—we say this faith and signifythis faith and symbolize this faith—with the act of baptism. Faith unites to Christ; baptism symbolizes the union. An analogy would be saying, “With this ring I thee wed.” When we say that we don’t mean that the ring or the putting of the ring on the finger is what makes us married. No, it shows the covenant and symbolizes the covenant, but the covenant-making vows make the marriage. So it is with faith and baptism. So similarly Paul is saying, “With this baptism you are united to Christ.” And the point we are focusing on here is that we are united to him in his death and burial and resurrection. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” So the imagery of baptism is death, burial, and resurrection. Christ was buried and raised to new life. In baptism, by faith, we are united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism dramatically portrays what happened spiritually when you received Christ: Your old self of unbelief and rebellion and idolatry died, and a new you of faith and submission and treasuring Christ came into being. That’s what you confess to the world and to heaven when you are baptized.

=== 3. Baptism Is Immersion in Water ===

Third, we believe this expression of union with Christ in death and resurrection happens “by being immersed in water.” The clearest evidence for this are the words of Romans 6:3-4 which describe the act of baptism as burial and rising from the dead. This is most naturally understood to mean that you are buried under water and then come out of from the water to signify rising from the grave.

The word baptism in Greek means dip or immerse. And most scholars agree that this is the way the early church practiced baptism. Only much later does the practice of sprinkling or pouring emerge, as far as we can tell from the evidence. There are a few other pointers to immersion besides the meaning of the word and the imagery of death and burial. In Acts 8:37-38, the Ethiopian eunuch comes to faith while riding with Philip in his chariot and says, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” Philip agrees and it says, “He commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.” That they “went down into the water” makes most sense if they were going down to immerse him, not to sprinkle him. Similarly it says in John 3:23, “John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there.” You don’t need plentiful water if you are simply sprinkling. You just need a jar. So there is really very little dispute that this was the way the early church baptized. They did it by immersing the new believer in water to signify his burial and resurrection with Jesus.

=== 4. Baptism Is in the Trinitarian Name ===

Fourth, baptism means doing this immersing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This means that not just any immersing is baptism. There is a holy appeal to God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to be present in this act and make it true and real in what it says about their work in redemption. There is no salvation without the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When we call on their name, we depend upon them and honor them and say that this act is because of them and by them and for them.

=== 5. Baptism Is for Believers Only ===

Fifth, baptism is an expression of faith and therefore only for believers. The key sentence in the Bethlehem Elder Affirmation says, “We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection.” So our understanding of the New Testament is that the meaning of baptism includes the fact that it is an expression of the faith of the one being baptized. It is not something that an unbeliever can do. It is not something than an infant can do. That is why we don’t baptize infants.

There are several passages that have had the greatest influence on me over the years in persuading me of the Baptist view. One of the most important is Colossians 2:11-12. In him [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ [so Paul speaks of circumcision in “made-without-hands” terms. Circumcision today has meaning for the Christian, not as a physical act, but as a spiritual act of Christ in which he cuts away the old sinful body and makes us new. It is virtually synonymous with the new birth. Then he speaks of baptism], having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. So the image of spiritual circumcision is closely connected with the image of baptism: “You were circumcised . . . having been baptized . . .” The old “body of flesh” was cut away in conversion; you died and rose again in baptism.

=== The Argument for Infant Baptism ===

It’s probably right, therefore, to say that baptism has replaced circumcision as the mark of being part of the people of God. In the Old Testament men were circumcised to signify membership in the old-covenant people of God, and in the New Testament menand women are baptized to signify membership in the new-covenant people of God.

That has led many Christians to assume that, since circumcision was given to the male children of the people of the old covenant, therefore baptism should be given to the male and female children of the people of the new covenant. That’s the gist of the argument.

=== Why It Does Not Work ===

But textually and covenantally, it doesn’t work. Look carefully at Colossians 2:12: “. . . having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith . . .” The wordsthrough faith are all important on this issue. Paul says that when you come up out of the water signifying being raised with Christ this is happening through faith. Verse 12: “. . . in which [baptism] you were also raised with him through faith.”

Baptism as a drama of death and resurrection with Christ gets its meaning from the faith that it expresses. In baptism you are “raised with him through faith.”

=== Through Faith! ===

Paul shows the same way of thinking about baptism and faith in Galatians 3:26-27: “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.” We become sons of God through faith and no other way. Then he says, “for”—connecting this way of becoming sons of God with baptism—“for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

That explanation with the word for only makes sense if baptism is understood as an acting out of faith. “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.” Or to turn it around: Since you were baptized into Christ, therefore we know that in Christ you are all sons of God through faith. Why? Because that is what baptism means: You were baptized into Christ by faith. Baptism without faith was inconceivable to Paul.

=== New-Covenant Membership by Spiritual Birth ===

So when the shift happened in redemptive history from the old covenant to the new covenant and from circumcision to baptism, there was a shift from an ethnic focus on Israel and only males being given the sign of membership in the people, to a spiritual focus on the church of all nations with both male and female being given the sign of membership in the people, namely, baptism.

Membership in the new-covenant people of God is not by physical birth, but by spiritual birth. That new birth happens by the word of God, the gospel (1 Peter 1:23-25). Therefore, the church should be composed not of the believers and their infants, but believers only. And the sign of membership in the new covenant people is not a sign for infants but a sign for believers. Membership in the Local Church

So we can see how the meaning of baptism is woven together with membership in the people of God. And since the local church is an expression of that people, baptism is closely connected to membership in the local church. In the New Testament, being a Christian, being baptized, belonging to the new-covenant people of God, and being a member of a local church were linked together. If you tried to pull one of those out (not a Christian, or not baptized, or not in the new-covenant people, or not a member of local church), it would have made no sense. They belonged together.

So baptism is important. It was uncompromisingly commanded by the Lord Jesus. It was universally administered to Christians entering the early church. It was uniquely connected to conversion as an unrepeatableexpression of saving faith.

=== May God Grant Us Wisdom ===

So now after two sermons, we have two things that are important. Baptism is important. And the nature of the local church as a sacred expression of the universal body of Christ is important.

Failing to be baptized is serious. Excluding genuine believers from the local church is serious. There are godly, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting, God-centered followers of Jesus who fail to see the dreadfulness of not being baptized as a believer. And there are godly, Bible-believing, Christ-exalting, God-centered followers of Jesus who fail to see the dreadfulness of excluding such people from church membership. The question we should ask is not only hard to answer, but it is hard to formulate. Perhaps the Lord in his mercy will show us how to do both in a way that will cut this knot for his glory. May the Lord grant a wisdom like Solomon’s or, even better, a wisdom like the One who is greater than Solomon. Amen.

 

====== ''© Desiring God Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: [http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByTopic/23/3037_What_Is_Baptism_and_How_Important_Is_It/ desiringGod.org]'' ======