Saturday, 10/29/2016, 5:30 PM
As I sit, acting as if I’m watching college football, I decided to begin this little treatise. I am still healing, in shoulder, knee, and foot. I must do something more constructive than watch football. Limited physically as I am, my mind still works.
Last Sunday, 10/23/2016, our youngest niece was “saved,” as my brother related by text then by phone conversation. “Saved” is in quotations, not as if I doubt the spiritual transaction that occurred, but that I may elaborate on the concept, scripturally. A week has gone by, but our niece will be immersed tomorrow. Better a week late than never. Of course, I am proud of our niece, for she made the faith commitment, with immersion forthcoming, to be saved.
My purpose is to discuss briefly the biblical act of being saved, by God’s grace, with emphasis on the full faith response of the person who is saved.
The historical backdrop is that I was raised in the Baptist Church but that I was truly “saved” in the Church of Christ. This is not because I could not have been “saved” in the Baptist Church. It is because my Baptist Church experience was more from peer pressure than from the heart. My Church of Christ experience was most definitively from the heart, in that I knew exactly what I was doing and why.
Multiple scriptures teach that we are saved by grace through faith. See, for example, Jn. 3:16, Eph. 2:8-10, etc. What, however, is saving faith? What does it involve?
A study of scripture indicates that saving faith involves active commitment. For example, see Eph. 2:8-10, Jas. 2:14-26, etc. Faith must lead a person to do something. It is not just intellectual consent.
In the New Testament, saving faith always includes repentance (i.e., turning from a sinful to a godly lifestyle), confession of that faith, and immersion. “Faith” does not save unless it includes repentance, confession, and immersion. At this time, I will side step the debate on whether, to be saved, one must understand that immersion is essential to salvation and not what one does after being saved. Since immersion is always included, quite promptly, in the saving faith response to grace, it is essential, regardless of whether one thinks he is saved before or after immersion. The following records of conversion in Acts prove this clearly. Please note that repentance, confession, and immersion are not stated specifically each time. This is as if Luke, the inspired author, assumed saving faith included these.
-- The Jews on Pentecost (Acts 2). Note verses 38, 41.
-- Priests and others “obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).
-- The Samaritans, Simon, and the Ethiopian (Acts 8). Note verses 12-13 and verses 35-38.
-- Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9; 22; and 26). Note 9:18 and 22:16.
-- Cornelius and household (Acts 10; 11). Note 10:47,48.
-- The proconsul and the Gentiles (Acts 13:12,48).
-- Those at Iconium and Derbe (Acts 14:1,20b,21).
-- Lydia (Acts 16). Note verses 14 and 15.
-- The jailer and his family (Acts 16). Note verses 30-34.
-- Those at Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens (Acts 17). Note verses 4,12,30,34.
-- Crispus, his family, and Corinthians (Acts 18). Note verse 8.
-- The Ephesians (Acts 19). Note verse 5.
See also the inspired statements in Acts of Peter (3:19) and Paul (13:39; 15:11; 20:21; 26:20).
Sunday, 10/30/16, 6 PM
Well, I had to stop yesterday, to go with my wife to her parents’ house, for their wedding anniversary supper. Before this hour today, I reviewed and finished the Acts references, which I did not have time to do yesterday. By the way, I drove the car for the first time, this afternoon. I drove my wife, among other nearby places, around the House Mountain parking lot.
So, to get back on point, what is my point? A reading of the Acts texts (above) makes clear that a believer is immersed immediately, with the emphasis on life-changing faith, which precedes immersion. Clearly, immersion is a prompt act of saving faith.
I, therefore, critique both the Baptist Church and the Church of Christ. How? The Baptist Church emphasizes salvation by faith, usually by means of a prayer request for salvation. (By the way, Acts contains no instance of a person’s faith response, to God’s saving grace, to include a prayer! Of course, if the person praying is making the required faith, repentance, confession commitment, then the prayer is just the expression of these, without which the prayer is meaningless. I, however, digress.) The Baptist Church critique is that they wait, a few days, a week, a month, or longer, before the person’s faith response is finalized in immersion. Immersion, and its immediate connection to faith, as Acts indicates (see above), is not honored.
Monday, 10/31/16 (Halloween and our doggy, Molly’s “birthday”)
Now, how about my Church of Christ critique? The Church of Christ so emphasizes that immersion is essential to salvation that it downplays the required faith commitment, which should be obvious in the immersion step. How many times, in the Church of Christ, have I heard and read about someone “being immersed,” “obeying the gospel,” “being added to the church,” etc., without one mention of saving faith or of “being saved?” The consequence of this “rush to immersion” is that some (God knows how many) do not truly make the required faith commitment, which includes repentance, as reflected in how little, if any, their lives are truly changed by what should be (i.e., immersion) an immediate response to a genuine faith commitment to Christ. Immersion without faith just gets one wet.
So, aside from filling the hours of boredom, as I slowly recover physically, what have I accomplished, aside from venting steam? Hum. Well, I suppose that I write this for the benefit of my brother and his family, initially. Further, this thought in writing demonstrates that God could still use me, in his service and ministry, if he would just open a door for me to do so. Scarred spiritually and physically as I am, I would still find life purpose in God’s service, instead of what I have been doing all these years since Mom went to be with Jesus. (Of course, this opens up a far deeper discussion, into which I have delved elsewhere in my Appalachian Irishman writings.)
Of course, I have written to state that no one church (i.e., Church of Christ) is without fault in scriptural understanding. God, however, in his grace, includes in his Son’s church (i.e., the little ‘c’ church of Christ) all those who in genuine faith -- even if mistaken in some areas -- devote themselves to his Son. We are saved by grace through faith, not through perfect doctrinal understanding.
Finally, I have written to honor my brother and his family, as they walk with the Master, as a family, along life’s journey. Perhaps God will be gracious toward them, granting them life peace and fulfillment, without the type of useless sufferings that I have and am facing.
In closing, I will now step directly into what I side stepped earlier: whether, to be saved, one must understand that immersion is essential to salvation and not what one does after being saved. A Church of Christ member tries to “convert” a Baptist -- because the Baptist thought he were saved, before finalizing his faith in immersion -- while not realizing that the Baptist may have a more genuine faith commitment than he does.
A good father tells his son, if he wants a candy bar, to dig up the garden weeds and water the corn. The son, eager to please his father, and get a candy bar, digs up the weeds, accidentally with some potatoes, and forgets to water the corn. The good father gives his son the candy bar, with a hug, then reminds him to water the corn, which the son does promptly. How much greater is our Good Father?
So, “Father, I think that I was saved when I turned from sin and toward you, but before I was immersed, which I did very soon afterward. Is that okay?” “Yes, son, it’s okay. You are my child. Just remember that immersion is included in saving faith, when you tell others.” “Thank you, Father! I will!”
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