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Scripture Reading: Acts 22:16; Rom. 6:3-4
Today we will consider a special subject: the meaning of baptism. We will not spend any time to find out what baptism is and is not. Rather, we will specifically consider the meaning of baptism, the biblical teaching concerning it, and the emphasis in baptism. Why does the Bible tell us that we should be baptized? First, we will ask why a person needs to wash himself in water. He washes because his body is unclean. Because there is dirt on his body or on his feet, he has to wash. No one goes to the water to make himself unclean. Men go to the water to clean themselves; otherwise, they would not go into the water. Therefore, the first meaning of baptism according to the Bible is to be washed clean. If one does not want to be clean, he does not have to be baptized.
Furthermore, when do we throw things into the water? When do we throw a basket of manure or rubbish into the water? We throw them into water when we do not want them, when we want to dispose of them. The second meaning of baptism according to the Bible is to bury, to dispose of, something. When we do not want something, we bury it.
We have just read two passages of the Scriptures. What does Acts say? When Ananias was sent by the Holy Spirit, he saw a clear vision. He was told to rise up to meet Saul of Tarsus and say to him, "And now, why do you delay? Rise up and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name." Why do we have to be baptized? What is the purpose of baptism? The purpose is to wash away our sins.
Many people misunderstand this verse. Some time ago, two brothers from Kiangsu came and asked me about this verse, saying, "This verse tells us to wash away our sins. Some have asked us if their sins are washed away if they are not baptized." Many people have the same misunderstanding. The Bible clearly tells us to wash away our sins, but what does it mean?
The Bible tells us that baptism is not a ritual. It tells us that being baptized is to bear witness before men. What do we do when we go into the water? When we go into the water, we are testifying before God, before men, before the angels, and before the devil that we have believed in Jesus, and that our sins are forgiven and washed away. Baptism is a confession before God, men, angels, and the devil that Christ has accomplished a real, complete, and reliable fact for us. Being baptized is showing and testifying to this fact.
Ananias told Saul to rise up and be baptized. Why did he have to be baptized? It was to wash away his sins. Ananias was not saying that baptism can wash away sins. Baptism itself cannot wash a man of his sins. The thing that baptism testifies of and demonstrates is what washes away man's sins. No water on earth can wash away any of man's sins. But the Lord's blood, testified of and demonstrated by the baptismal water, washes away all of man's sins. Have you believed? If you have believed, you should rise up and be baptized immediately, washing away your sins. The first meaning of baptism is to wash away sins.
Brothers and sisters, no one who is filthy in God's eyes and whose sins are not yet forgiven can be baptized. No one should be baptized who is ignorant of the fact that his sins are washed away and that he has eternal life and is saved. For such a one to be baptized is wrong. Every man who goes into the water must know what he is testifying of. What is a testimony? It is seeing and testifying. In other words, it is testifying what one sees. First one sees and then one testifies. Those who have not seen anything cannot testify. A man must know that his sins are forgiven and washed by the blood of the Lord before he can testify before men that his sins are washed away.
From this we can see that infant baptism is wrong. If a person who is being baptized cannot testify, his baptism cannot be counted as a baptism. Any baptism performed on an unbeliever or on anyone before he believes is unreliable and means nothing. Only those who can testify that their sins are forgiven and washed away are qualified to be baptized. What a man does in the water is to testify to the accomplished works of Christ and that his sins are forgiven.
Last Lord's Day we pointed out that as soon as a person believes, he knows if he is saved. After a man knows that he is saved and that his sins are forgiven, what should he do? He should testify. Where should he testify? The first place to testify is in the water. This testimony is before God, before men, before the angels, and before the devil. It is a testimony that one's sins are washed away. This is the first meaning of baptism. It is also the condition for baptism.
If a person's sins are not washed away, he is not qualified to be baptized. He must fully know that his sins are forgiven before he is qualified to be baptized.
The Bible is most amazing in the way it is written. I have said this before and I will say it again that there are two aspects to sin, and there are two aspects to the way God deals with sin. The Bible tells us that there is a difference between sins and sin; one is before God, and the other is within us. Our sins before God have to be forgiven and washed away, while sin within us must be overcome, and we must be delivered from it. Our sins before God have been borne by the Lord Jesus, but the sin within us can only be removed through reckoning ourselves as dead. For the sins before God, we have the washing of the Lord's blood. For the sin within us, there is the need for the deliverance of the Lord's cross. We need God's forbearance and forgiveness for our sins before Him, and we need freedom and deliverance from the sin within us. These two aspects of sin are entirely different. Today, we can only briefly consider the difference between these two aspects of sin. The Lord willing, we will discuss them in detail later.
For now, I will not mention the difference in the nature of sin and sins; we will only consider the difference in the effect of these two aspects. First, let us consider our sins before God. Our sins before God give us no peace in our conscience. Whenever we think of judgment, hell, death, and questions related to man's end, we feel that we have sinned before God. Whenever we think of God's holiness, righteousness, and His ordination, we become fearful. Today, those who are sitting here who have not received Jesus as their Savior surely have this kind of experience. If they do not have this experience, I feel sorry for them because this means that they are ignorant, insensitive, and unaware of their own danger. Anyone with a little thoughtfulness will feel at a loss and not have peace when they consider Hades, death, hell, eternity, God's judgment, or sin. The reason for this is that they are sinners before God, and as long as their sin is not removed, they will not dare to think about these things. Once they consider these things, they realize that they will go into the lake of fire and suffer eternally. They fear and have no peace. This tells us that we are sinners before God. Our sins before God cause us to have no peace and to be afraid to think about such things as judgment, end times, and death.
But man not only has sins before God, he also has sin in himself. A seminary student once said to his teacher, "I have found one new thing in the Bible today, which is the doctrine of sin. Of course, the Bible mentions it. But I did not see it until today." The teacher said, "Have you only discovered the doctrine of sin from the Bible today? I found that out from man's heart long ago." There is no need to go to the Bible to find the doctrine of sin; we can find it easily from man's heart. Everyone can testify that sin is not only before God but is also within us.
We may lose our temper easily. We may think that outward things are causing us to lose our temper. Actually, all the outward things do not give us our temper, but a burning within causes our temper to burst out. We may try to suppress it by force. But we cannot do it; as soon as there is an opportunity, the temper will burst out again. When there is an explosion, we cannot blame it all on the sparks of fire; there must first be explosives. Sins issue from within. Many people think that the reason their thoughts are unclean and filled with sins is that they have read unhealthy books which entice them to sin. But many times when the environment is clean and excellent, and there are no temptations anywhere, is our heart clean? A young man said that he had read too many novels and that his mind was filled with evil and unclean thoughts. He asked if there was any way to cleanse his thoughts. Can we get rid of the unclean things within us just by shaking our heads? Can that be done? I can tell you that nothing will shake these things out from you.
Sin dwells within man. It has roots, and they cannot be removed. Many sinners like to gamble or smoke opium. Certain outward factors are not seducing them into such acts, but an inward sin is pressing them to act this way. Sin has its punishment before God and its power within man. It causes us to do things we are not willing to do. Even if we try to suppress it with all our power and will to keep it from breaking out, when an opportunity is there, it breaks out just the same. This is the true condition of man. Sin reigns within man. We are its slaves. It has the power to snatch us away and cause us to do that which we are not willing to do.
Since there are the two aspects of sin, the aspect before God and the aspect before men, there are also two aspects of deliverance. There is the punishment of sin and the power of sin. Therefore, there are two aspects of deliverance. This does not mean that there are two deliverances; it means that there are two aspects of deliverance. The Lord delivers us from fear, punishment, the condemnation in the conscience, and all unrest. At the same time, He delivers us from the power of sin. The Lord's deliverance is complete. He saves us from God's punishment and from the power of sin.
How did the Lord die to deliver us from the two aspects of sin? The Bible tells us that a sinner has to die. The Lord bore the punishment of death for us. He shed His blood to redeem us and wash us of all our sins before God. The Lord's blood cleanses us. It is amazing that the Bible never tells us that the Lord's blood cleanses our heart. Who can find a verse that says that the Lord's blood cleanses our heart? Some may say that Hebrews 9:14 says that the Lord's blood cleanses our heart. But it says that the blood cleanses our conscience, not our heart. I can honestly tell you that there is no place in the whole Bible that says that the blood cleanses our heart. It only says that the blood cleanses our conscience. What is the conscience? The conscience is the part within us that condemns us, that tells us that we are wrong and deserve to perish. The Lord's blood only cleanses our conscience from condemnation and brings peace. The Lord's blood shows us that even though our sins deserve punishment, the Lord has died for our sins and accomplished God's righteousness. However, through the cleansing of the Lord's blood, we cannot become moral and sin no more or be released from sin. The Lord's blood can only cleanse us before God and remove the condemnation in the conscience; it does not cleanse our heart. It does not make our heart clean or rid it of sins. The Lord's blood is objective; it is not subjective. It does not cleanse our heart; it only cleanses our conscience.
All men are corrupt. With the Lord's blood, there is forgiveness of sin and no more punishment. But the Bible does not tell us that the blood can remove the power of sin. That is another matter altogether. On the one hand, the Bible tells us of the Lord's blood. On the other hand, the Bible tells us of the Lord's cross. The blood signifies death, and the cross also signifies death. The blood relates to punishment; it deals with our sins before God. The cross deals with the power of sin within us. The cross cleanses our heart and enables us to overcome sin.
Now we have to consider the difference between the cross and the blood. The Lord's blood removes the sins before God, while the cross deals with the sin within man. Please remember that the cross does not crucify the inward sin. We have to understand this. Many people who preach the doctrine of sanctification are wrong in this matter. The Lord's cross has not crucified sin. We cannot find one verse in the Bible that says that the cross has crucified sin. Who can find a verse that says that the cross has crucified the sin within us or outside of us? No one can find a verse on that point. Then what has the cross crucified? The Lord was crucified there. Some have said sin was also crucified there. But who has said this? The Bible tells us that the old man has been crucified, not sin. Powerful sin was not crucified but the old man who loves to be directed by sin was crucified. The root of sin — the sin that acts as the root — was not eradicated, but the old man — the one which cleaves to the root of sin — was crucified by the Lord on the cross. I will tell you a gospel word today. When the Lord was crucified, He was not crucified there alone. We, who are corrupted beyond measure, who sin, and who are defiled, were also crucified with Him on the same cross! We have been crucified with Him!
Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves." Please remember that it says that our old man is crucified with the Lord. It does not say that sin is crucified with Him. Brothers and sisters, have others told you that sin can be crucified on the cross, and that the root of sin can be eradicated? There is not such a thing.
In this verse in Romans, we can see three things: (1) the old man, (2) the body of sin — the body that commits all the sins, and (3) sin. This verse tells us three very important things: (1) that our old man has been crucified with Him on the cross, (2) that the goal is to annul the body of sin, and (3) that the result is to cause us, our person, to become no longer a slave to sin. When the old man is crucified, we can no longer sin and will no longer sin. However, sin itself has not died; it is still living.
Let me illustrate these three things — the old man, sin, and the body of sin — by an example. Sin is like the master; the old man is like the steward, while the body is like a puppet. Sin has no power to direct the body of sin or cause it to sin. Sin directs the old man. When the old man agrees, the body becomes a puppet. Therefore, when our old man is alive, it remains in the middle. The body is outside, while sin is inside. Inward sin tempts the old man and stirs up the lusts in the old man. This causes the old man to give an order to the body to sin and practice all kinds of evils. The body is weak; it will do whatever it is told to do. It does not have power over itself; it cannot do anything by itself. It can only act when it is directed by the old man. In delivering us, the Lord does not kill the body or eradicate the root of sin, but crucifies the old man, so that the old man becomes crucified with Him.
Of the three things in Romans 6:6, only two are left. The body is outside, and sin is inside. In the middle another one, the new man, has been raised up to take the place of the former old man. When inward sin tries to induce the body to sin, it tempts the new man and tries to stir up any lust. However, the new man will not listen to it or yield to its proposals. Formerly, the old man's mind was set on sin; he loved to sin and craved sin. But the new man does not go along with sin; he ignores sin and refuses to answer the demands of sin. Therefore, the body is not able to sin.
Please read Romans 6:6 again. We have only explained this verse briefly. The verse is clear enough. We know that sin is very evil, and we all hope to remove sin from our body. But we do not realize that the existence of the root of sin, like the existence of the devil himself, has nothing to do with the fruit of sanctification. What is evil and bad is our old man. The reason we can be tempted to exercise our lust or commit outward sins is that our old man is still alive. However, the Lord has crucified our old man with Him.
What is the purpose of the old man being crucified? The purpose is "in order that the body of sin might be annulled." The word "annulled" may be translated as unemployed. This means that without the old man, the body of sin cannot do anything. Formerly, the body of sin followed the direction of the old man in our daily living; sinning was its profession. All it did was sin and nothing else. The old man loved sin very much, it craved sin, and it loved to do all the sinful things. This is why the body followed it to sin, making it the body of sin. Now the old man has been dealt with by the Lord; it has been crucified. Therefore, the body of sin has become unemployed; it has lost its job. When the old man was alive, the body of sin practiced sin as its profession and job. Although sin still remains and still wants to be the master, we are no longer its slave. Although sin tries again and again to stir up the body to practice sin, the new man, through the reigning of the Holy Spirit, will not permit this to happen. As a result, sin cannot cause the body to sin. Therefore, the Bible tells us that the result of the crucifixion of the old man and the unemployment of the body of sin is "that we should no longer serve sin as slaves!"
The old man is dead. This is why we can overcome sin completely. The Lord's blood was shed and has delivered us from our sins before God and stopped our conscience from condemning us. By the blood, we know that we will no longer perish, we have peace, we are reconciled to God, and we have rest. But if we only know this aspect of salvation, we are still living a suffering life. We may know that sin is forgiven, but we may still practice sin as our profession; we may not have any victory over sin practically and may not be bearing the fruit of sanctification. We may still be forced to sin every day. We will find that we still do not have peace, and our fellowship with God is cut off. Although we know that we are saved and have eternal life, our daily sins have robbed us of the joy of salvation. Thank God that the Lord's salvation is not a halfway salvation. The Lord shed His blood to cleanse us from our sins, and His cross has removed our old man and delivered us from the power of sin.
Please remember that a believer does not die by killing himself or by committing suicide. Some have preached that Christians ought to put themselves to death so that they will no longer sin. This is wrong. We were crucified on the cross when the Lord Jesus was crucified there. Let me ask: have we died? Thank the Lord that the old man, who is so hard to deal with and dies with so much difficulty, has been crucified on the cross by the Lord! Thank and praise Him! Hallelujah!
Do we realize that we are evil beyond measure? I know that I am most evil and detestable. Many times when I was under the oppression of the power of sin, I wished that I could have died. But unfortunately, I could not make myself die. Later, I saw that when the Lord was crucified on the cross, my old man was crucified with Him, so that my sinning body no longer would be a slave to sin. How happy I was! Because of the Lord's work, sin is now under my feet; it has no more power over me. Thank and praise the Lord!
Our sin cannot be removed by prayer, Scripture reading, godliness, worship, asceticism, or sufferings. We are delivered from sin by the Lord crucifying our old man with Him on the cross. Remember that the blood deals with the sins before God, while the cross deals with the old man.
What then should be our attitude towards sin? Read Romans 6:11: "So also you, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus." Some have changed this verse to read, "Consider yourselves to be dead to sin," thinking that by just considering, sin would die. But there is no such thing. Some have said that the root of sin can be eradicated. Others have said that we can consider sin to be dead. But I must tell you that it is not a matter of considering sin to be dead, but a matter of reckoning ourselves as having been crucified.
The Lord has crucified our old man on the cross; the body of sin has been annulled, and we should not be a slave to sin any longer. But many people do not understand why their experience does not match these facts at all. They are still sinning and not able to come out of sin's domination. The body is still busily motivated by sin. Why is this the case? The reason is that while the Lord has accomplished a full salvation for us, we have not accepted His work and believed in what He has accomplished. We have not applied His victory by faith. He has crucified our old man, but we do not believe that our old man has been crucified in a definite way. We still consider our old man to be alive. This is the reason that after we are told the fact in Romans 6:6, verse 11 tells us what we should do. Romans 6:6 tells us that our old man has been crucified. Verse 11 tells us that since the Lord has crucified the old man, we should reckon it as dead so that it no longer can make us sin. We can therefore say to sin, "Our old man is dead, and I am no longer your slave." If we want to wait to find out if sin is dead and the lusts are gone, we will never find them dead. Sin is more alert than we are; it is more alive than we are. As soon as an opportunity comes, it will seize us. It will not die. But this is all right because our old man has died. We cannot overcome sin. The way is not to consider sin as being dead, but to believe in the accomplished work of the Lord, which is to reckon our old man dead.
Romans 6:11 says that we should reckon. How does one reckon? Two plus two is four. Why do you reckon that it is four? It is because two plus two is indeed four. Therefore, the meaning of reckoning ourselves dead is not that we are not dead but we try temporarily to consider ourselves dead, deem ourselves dead, and think that we are dead. It is not to say to ourselves that the old man is gone. The death of the old man is something that God has accomplished. This is why we can reckon it as being true. Reckoning means that God has counted us crucified; the fact is reckoned on God's side, and we reckon ourselves dead as a consequence. We reckon two plus two to be four because two plus two is four and not three or five. God said that we are crucified. We believe this and acknowledge that we are dead. To believe is to say that since God has declared our sins forgiven, we also declare our own sins forgiven. God says that we are dead, and we acknowledge ourselves as being dead. Christians must stand daily on the ground of Romans 6 before we can overcome all sins. I am not boasting, but I can say that no sin is too hard to overcome because the Lord has crucified our old man on the cross. This is why we can overcome all sins.
Now let us come back to our main subject. Why do we have to be baptized? On the one hand, it is because our sins are washed away. On the other hand, it is because we have died. We should be baptized because our sins are washed. Baptism testifies to the fact that our sins are washed. We should be baptized also because our old man is dead. Baptism testifies to the fact that our old man is indeed dead. What is the first thing that we should do to a man who is dead? Will anyone try to leave a dead man on display for more than a few days? After a few days, the body begins to stink, and worms attack the skin. Last year a sister died. We loved her very much, but there was no way that we could keep her for more than a few days. Once a man dies, there is no use for him anymore and the first thing to do is to bury him. The act of burial is a testimony that the one who is being buried is dead. Suppose there is someone whom we love dearly, as dearly as we love ourselves. She is dying of an illness, but there is still a pulse and still a little breath within her. While she lies there motionless and speechless, would we put her into the coffin? We would surely not do this because we do not believe that she is dead. When do we bury our dear father, mother, wife, or friends? We bury them when we know for sure that they are dead and they can live no longer. As long as there is a little hope of life, we would never bury our dear father, mother, wife, or friends. When they have died and the situation becomes hopeless, we bury them. We cannot bury a person before he is dead; nevertheless, the first thing we do to a dead person is to bury him.
The Bible tells us that since we are crucified, we are buried with the Lord. The meaning of baptism in the Bible is not just a washing but a burial. This is why we must be baptized. This means that we believe we are dead persons. This is why we ask others to bury us in the water. We do this because we believe that we are dead and that we will not change. If a man does not believe that he is dead, he cannot be baptized because to do so would be to bury someone who is alive. It is wrong to bury a living person. Those who are baptized must believe that they have been crucified with Christ. How do we show that we have believed? How do we testify to the accomplished work of Christ? We testify through baptism. When we are buried in water through baptism, it shows that we believe that the Lord's blood has cleansed us from our sins and that His cross has crucified our old man with Him. We are baptized because we believe in these facts; baptism proves that we are already cleansed and already dead.
Therefore, there are two conditions for baptism. The Bible tells us to rise and wash away our sins. This means that we believe God has redeemed us from sin and has washed us, so we testify to this by means of baptism. The Bible also tells us to rise up and be buried in the water by baptism through believing that we are dead. Not only are our sins washed away, but our person is buried. Sins are washed away, and the person is also washed away. This is the meaning of baptism. This is the testimony of baptism.
Friends, can you give such a testimony? I do not have to exhort you to be baptized. Those among us who have not believed in the Lord Jesus do not have their sins forgiven, and I hope that you would believe right away. If you have believed and do not know that you can overcome your sins fully because you are still losing your temper, sinning, and committing evil, you should realize that the Lord has crucified you with Him on the cross. Now nothing should cause you to sin. You can overcome all sins. Please exercise your faith to stand on the ground of Romans 6, believing that you are dead. What can sin do to you? A believer must stand on the ground of Romans 6:6 and 11 before he can overcome sin. Otherwise, he can piously pray and read the Bible, but it will not avail anything. He must first reckon that he is dead before these other things can be added to him in a useful way.
If anyone sitting here has believed that the Lord's blood has cleansed him from his sins and that He has crucified our old man with Him on the cross, he should rise up and be baptized and hand himself over to the burial.
Here I would say a word in passing. The proper baptism is to be immersed. No other baptism can be considered a baptism. Please consider one thing. If I remember correctly, the first instance of burial in the Old Testament is in Genesis 23:8: "And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me." What is the meaning of burial? It is removing the dead out of one's sight; it is causing the eyes not to see the dead one. If you are not immersed in water, it cannot be considered a burial. Being buried is not seeing the old man any longer.
Today I am not telling you what is a baptism and what is not a baptism. I am telling you the two meanings of baptism. The first meaning is the washing away of sins, and the second is the reckoning of our old man as crucified and buried. May we all be able to testify that the Lord has delivered us from sin and that not only are our sins forgiven, but that we ourselves are dead. May we not only be able to testify this with our mouth but in our daily walk as well. May we all believe in the accomplished work of the Lord so that we can receive the peace and joy of forgiveness and be liberated, freed, and overcoming persons. Amen!
