DOES BAPTISM SAVE?……Bill Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 17:9-11

⁹ God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 

¹⁰ This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹ And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.

I was born in 1936.  This was the year of the great Jesse Owen’s Olympics.  This allows me to always know the exact year of the Olympics.  I will be four years older.

I mention this because when I was 16 it was time for the Olympics.  And what I remember most is the excitement of the Pole Vault event.  The impossible bar for pole vaulters was an assault on what was thought to be an impossible height.

This illustration is intended to give a picture of an impossibility.  Dr. George Sayles Bishop wrote that Acts 13:48 was the bar to the denial of Sovereign election.  I find that justification of Abraham is an absolute bar for any who would intend to assault that bar raised against works in his conversion.

In Genesis 17:10, circumcision is named as the covenant, “This is my covenant…every male among you shall be circumcised”, but in 17:11 circumcision, described as the requirement, is repeated and in this instance it is called a sign, “It shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.”  There are two very important truths to be learned here.  One is what is known as “sacramental union”, and the other is exactly what part circumcision had in the justification of Abraham.

In the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 27, paragraph 2 sacramental union is defined, “There is, in every sacrament, a spiritual relation, or sacramental union, between the sign and the thing signified: whence it comes to pass, that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.”

There is an extremely important truth stated here that is necessary to understand certain Biblical statements and to understand Reformed statements about the sacraments.  It is “that the names and the effects of the one are attributed to the other.”

Look back to Genesis 17:10, This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.  If you stop here you will attribute everything in the covenant to be a result of the act described.  But if you continue to read Genesis 17:11, And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.

We are not left to ourselves to understand the meaning.  Paul in Romans four gives us the correct understanding.  We read in Romans 4:10-12  How then was it credited?  While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; 

¹¹ and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,

¹² and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.

Paul is brought to this explanation by men’s unceasing attempt to claim a part in his righteousness. 

  

Then what becomes of our boasting?  It is excluded.  He returns to this problem in Romans 4:2-3

² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

He has by the illustration of Abraham’s justification proved that it happened for him without human contribution from circumcision.

Let us fast forward to January, 2014.  When we read Acts 22:16^, Ananias tells Paul, Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.  Does this not say that sin is removed in baptism, “Rise, be baptized, and wash away your sins”.  What could be clearer?  But let us go back and apply what we have learned.

The conversion of Saul happened at the appearance of Jesus.  There is certainly wide general agreement to this.  John Dick, in his commentary on Acts writes, “The conversion of Paul, like the creation of light was accomplished in an instant.  He who but a moment before breathed threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of Jesus, lies prostrate before Him, and says ‘Lord what will thou have me to do?’”, John Dick, Lectures on Acts, page 385.

What is the meaning of the statement in Acts 22:16?  This, as in Genesis 17:10 is an instance of “sacramental union”, the sacrament is named for that which it is a sign and seal.  Because sins are forgiven, because guilt is removed, because righteousness is imputed to the needy, because God is gracious and Jesus is almighty to save, because salvation is a finished transaction, baptism is administered.

Question 72 in the Larger Catechism is crystal clear.  It should leave no doubt about what is needed for justification, faith in Jesus alone saves us.

Question 72: What is justifying faith?

Answer: Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assents to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.