Friday, April 23rd, 2004 - Faith, Works, Baptism

God's been cultivating all these ideas for some time now, and just recently He has brought it all together. The main issue here is faith, concerning two aspects: faith/works, and faith/baptism. I could have made this into two different posts, but since they both concern faith and are intertwined, I have decided to mash them together. As with all of my posts, all verses are NLT unless noted.

Part I: Faith and Works
I am saddened every time (it happens often) that I hear a speaker say something along the lines "faith alone saves you, not works." While there is some truth to this, the wording does great damage to the concept of faith in the view of the listener. I believe that most and probably all of these speakers have the right intentions and ideas from the Holy Spirit, but the delivery often skews the truth for those listening who aren't firm and mature in their faith.

The problem with this statement is that it implies that faith and works are separated. The cliche verse is Ephesians 2:8 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (NIV). Add in Romans 3:30, "He makes people right with himself only by faith...." So it is true, faith alone saves us... but keep reading in those verses!

Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Romans 3:31 - "Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not!" There are countless verses about both salvation through faith and also about God saying "if you love me, obey my commands." I think that not just today, but long ago, many Christians were emphasizing faith in sharing the Gospel (which is good), but were divorcing faith from good works and obeying God's commands. This leads to James.

In James 2:14-26, the writer just goes off for half a chapter on the concept "faith without works is dead." I believe that God led the writer to make an important distinction that Christians at the time were missing - faith is not true faith unless it produces "fruit" or good works. Put another way, true faith includes producing good works in our lives. So many verses emphasize that faith rather than works saves us to warn against the idea that good works are "good enough" to save us. This is important, but let's not swing the other way and say that faith alone, apart from works, is "good enough" to save us. This is exactly what the writer of James is warning about.

The conclusion: faith and works are woven together, and one is not true without the other. Works are meaningless without faith, and faith is not faith without it leading to good works. This doesn't contradict the idea that faith alone saves us - I just hope that everyone is careful not to divorce faith from leading to good works. I believe that there are tons of Christians today who have heard "faith alone" so much that they think it doesn't matter how they live their lives; they don't strive to pray for the recognization of sin and for God to help them rid it from their lives. They go on living in sin because they think that faith without good works is "good enough."

I don't want anyone to take this whole idea to the extreme either and think that to have true faith, we must be sinless. That is not only false, but impossible realistically for everyone ever except Jesus Christ. Rather, the difference is in the heart - the desire to recognize and turn from sin, the desire to produce good works for God and His Kingdom. Don't be discouraged when struggling with sin; through prayer and a desire to crush this sin (which come through faith), God is so faithful to those prayers. When using the phrase "without good works," I'm speaking of those Christians who have no desire to rid sin from their lives, who have a clear conscience in living in sin (often because they've heard "faith alone" and have clutched on that idea).

Part II: Faith and Baptism
The above was probably familiar to most people, but I felt that it had to be said. This section is mainly what God has been showing and convicting me of lately. All instances of the word baptism here are referring to water baptism; some speak of "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" as a second baptism rather than being filled with the Holy Spirit at water baptism, but that's an issue for a whole different post someday, so I won't touch it here.

One important distinction that must be made first is with the idea of being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. I used to think that this was something separate from water baptism, but these terms refer to the same thing. Acts 10:47-48 "Then Peter said, 'Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.' So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." (NIV) clearly shows this to be true; NLT uses just the word baptism, but after looking at the NIV and the NAB translations, it is clear that the Greek meant to refer to water baptism. So, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ is another phrase for water baptism.

This whole study started with the proposal of two ideas about baptism: it saves us (John 3:5, 1 Peter 3:21), and through baptism we receive the Holy Spirit like Jesus did (Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22). Difference on these two issues is largely the main difference between some Christian denominations today - this leads me to believe that differing opinions on this issue are so strong that they would lead someone to break off and start a new church. Pushing all sermons and doctrines that I have heard out of the way, I set off to see what the Bible said - not in just some places, but collectively all together.

In almost every instance in the Bible, a person is baptized because of their turn from sin and new faith in Christ. Right after Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), Peter shares the Gospel for the first time through the power of the Holy Spirit since Christ ascended. His words after this discourse speak the central truth: "Peter replied, 'Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38) and then "Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church" (Acts 2:41). The believers were baptized because of their faith - it is a cause and effect relationship.

More verses show baptism after faith: Acts 8:12-13, 8:37(read footnote), 9:18, 16:14-15 and 31-34, 18:8, 19:4-5, 22:16, Romans 6:2-4, Galatians 3:25-27. This shows me the intention of baptism - those who turn from sin and have faith in Christ are to be baptized. Baptism shows that the person turns from sin and turns instead toward Jesus Christ because of faith in Him and His message. Baptism is for those who have faith, and those who have faith are to be baptized. Like works, baptism goes hand-in-hand with faith. This is the revelation that God showed me: faith in Jesus Christ and baptism in water weren't meant to be divorced or separated.

Once God showed me this, baptism and all the verses about it began to make sense to me. Going back to "baptism saves us" - compare that to all the verses that say that faith alone in Jesus Christ saves us (some are in Part I). How can baptism save us if faith alone does? After the revelation, this shows me even more that baptism is intended only for those who have faith. Baptism saves us because it is for those who are saved by their faith! Baptism and faith are supposed to go together, not be separated. Even in the "baptism saves us" verse (1 Peter 3:21), it says that baptism "is an appeal to God from [or for] a clean conscience" -

As for the other original issue - "the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in a person through baptism, because that is when it happened for Jesus." After all, in Acts 2:38, Peter did say "be baptized...then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." But baptism, as it was intended, happens with faith. Take these instances - Acts 10:47 first and then Acts 8:16/19:5-6. In the first case, the believers received the Spirit before baptism; in the second case, the believers received the Spirit after baptism (when the disciples laid hands on them); and Jesus received the Spirit directly at baptism. This all shows me that baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit aren't necessarily equated; the Spirit can come before, at, or after baptism.

So if baptism isn't necessarily the way that the Holy Spirit comes, how/when does He? Ephesians 1:13 and 1 John 4:15 declare bluntly that it is faith in Jesus Christ. "And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit" (Eph 1:13) and "All who proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God" (1 John 4:15). Scripture continues to show evidence that faith and baptism are completely interconnected. Baptism seems to be when we receive the Holy Spirit because baptism is supposed to be done because of faith in Jesus Christ - which is when we are guaranteed to receive the Holy Spirit.

To wrap all this together, read 1 John 5:1-11. An excerpt - "So we have these three witnesses - the Spirit, the water, and the blood - and all three agree." The water and blood refers to Jesus' baptism and blood shed on the cross. Keep in mind the tie between Jesus' blood and our faith as you pray through this Scripture. I won't comment on what God told me, but I will let Him speak His truth to you through the Spirit.

A Dissenting Opinion
Remember toward the beginning of this section when I said "in almost every instance in the Bible" when speaking of baptism as a result of faith. There are 4 commonly referenced instances that talk of a person being baptized "along with all of their household." These are Acts 16:14-15, 16:33, 18:8, 1 Corinthians 1:16. The point people make here is that it shows that someone can be baptized on behalf of another person's faith. This is the basis for the practice of infant baptism - the infant is baptized on behalf of the faith of their parents, rather than waiting for the infant to be old enough to have faith in his or her own heart.

A Dissension Dissenting Opinion
The important thing to remember here, as with all Scripture, is looking at context. For Acts 16:33, read Acts 16:31-34 - here, and in Acts 18:8, the whole household was baptized because the whole household believed! Now, Acts 16:14-15 and 1 Cor 1:16 don't mention anything about the faith of those who were baptized, so it is possible that some were baptized on the basis of another's faith. But through looking at all these verses and the Bible as a whole and considering the other 2 instances of whole households being baptized, to me it is not plausible that infant baptism was the intention.

To me, the Bible screams that baptism is to be done as a result of faith, and even immediately or as soon as possible afterward. This practice has changed since Biblical times, so that's why I believe that the truth that baptism comes with faith has been lost and has diminished. But yes, I know that God is so much bigger than my understanding, so I can easily accept the small possibility that God would want us to baptize infants. Therefore, I don't condemn this practice, as long as it is done with the right intentions, and I definitely wouldn't consider it a practice that goes against God's Word, as many Christians do.

However, being true to what I believe God intended through His Word, I won't baptize my children as infants. I love the practice that some hold of "dedication" where a child is brought before the congregation of believers, and the parents make a public declaration of raising this child in knowing and following Jesus Christ. I even have a new conviction that I should be baptized as a result of my faith; I have been confused about this for some time because I was baptized as an infant, and I wasn't sure if I should do it again. In pondering why God would convict me so, I think that He wants me to honor the Biblical progression of baptism coming after faith.

In conclusion, it all starts with faith in Jesus Christ. A lot happens at that time - we are to be baptized, we become children of God, we receive the Holy Spirit, to name a few. Through the Holy Spirit's influence of conviction of sin and a growing love for God, good works (or fruit) is produced in our lives, however slow it may be. We often separate some of these aspects from each other, but God has shown me that they are much more interwoven with each other than I used to realize.

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