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BAPTISM
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4.
During the first ministry of the apostle Paul, baptism by water was practised (1 Cor. 1:16), but baptism never
held the place in Paul's commission (1 Cor. 1:17) that it did in that of Peter (Acts 2:38). Peter could never
have said: `Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel' as Paul did.
Baptism during the early ministry of Paul:
(a)
united the believer by burial with the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3,4).
(b)
united Jew and Gentile making them `all one in Christ and Abraham's seed' (Gal. 3:27-29).
(c)
baptizing these believers into one body, with particular reference to the exercise of spiritual gifts (1 Cor.
12:13). The structure of 1 Corinthians 12 and its teaching is set out at large in the article entitled
MIRACULOUS GIFTS.
5.
After Acts 28, and the revelation of the Mystery we enter into a calling where shadows give place to the
reality of the fulness of Christ (Col. 2:17).
Baptism in the epistles of the Mystery is either that which unites the believer with the death and Resurrection of
Christ (Col. 2:12) or by which the believer becomes a member of the Church which is His body (Eph. 4:5).
Owing to the failure on the part of expositors and teachers to discern the change of dispensation consequent upon
the setting aside of Israel at Acts 28, there has been a failure to discern the extreme difference that exists between
baptism as taught in the earliest part of the New Testament, or even in the earlier epistles of Paul and as it is taught
in the epistles of the Mystery.
The following diagram may help the reader to visualize the movement observable throughout the New
Testament in connection with this subject of baptism.
John Baptist
Acts Period
Mystery
Galatians 3:19 asks a question: `Wherefore then serveth the law?' and the answer is: `It was superadded'
(prostithemi). The Galatians were turning back to the weak and beggarly elements of the ceremonial law. `Now
that this law was not promulgated in the first instance to the Jewish people, but was a superaddition to the
antecedent moral law is a matter of universal notoriety. It is well-known (says Whitby) that all these ancient fathers
were of the opinion, that God gave the Jews only the Decalogue, till they made the golden calf, and afterwards He
laid the yoke of ceremonies upon them'. `The law was superadded (assuming the translation which is most suitable
to Charin) in behalf of transgressions being ordained in the hand of a mediator' (Glynn).
The Christian Church has fixed its attention so much upon these superadded carnal ordinances and have
modelled their doctrine of baptism so much upon these things which were imposed until the time of reformation that
they have given little or no place to the one great baptism, which was not added because of transgressions but was
an integral part of the Redemption of the nation, namely the baptism of the whole nation unto Moses at the Red Sea.
That is the type that remains for us today, all others are carnal ordinances that have no place in the present economy
of pure grace.
The baptism of Colossians 2 is not likened to anything that was introduced into the Aaronic priesthood or
tabernacle service, it is likened to the initiatory rite of circumcision. Now in Colossians 2 this circumcision is the