Jesus don’t say, “He that is not baptized shall be damned.” Suppose he
does not. Baptism is a commandment. To do a commandment is an act of
obedience. To refuse to do a commandment is to refuse to do an act of
obedience. The Lord will take vengeance on them who know not God, and
_obey not_ the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But our friend says,
“I believe if a man willfully and stubbornly refuses to receive the
ordinance of baptism, that man will be lost.” What, then, of all those
people who have the Bible in their houses, printed plainly in their
mother tongue, and know that baptism is commanded, or may know it, as
certainly as they know their names, and will not be baptized? And what
of the preachers who encourage them in it? The Lord’s will is that they
should obey—be baptized. They refuse to do this. They _know_ his will
and _do it not_. Will they be saved?
But there are cases in which baptism is impossible. There are cases
where the gospel can not be administered. Where the gospel can not be
administered, we can not have the promise of the gospel. But will they
not be saved by the _atonement_? The atonement is the reconciliation,
and reconciliation is by the Mediator, or by the belief and obedience
of the gospel. But what of those who can not hear the gospel? They are
not gospel subjects. The gospel can not be administered to them. What
will you do with them? Nothing. Where the gospel can be made known
preach it to the people. Where they can believe and obey it, urge
them to do it, that they may be saved. Gospel salvation is the only
salvation we have anything to do with. It is freely and graciously
offered to men who believe and obey the gospel. The work of the
preacher is to preach the gospel to all and exhort all to obey it,
showing that “God commands _all men everywhere_ to repent,” and that
this repentance is in view of the judgment.
But what of infants? Gospel salvation, or the salvation of the
commission, is salvation from sin, or remission of sins. Infants have
never sinned, and need no remission of sins. They need nothing only
precisely what a saint needs—to be raised from the dead, changed,
immortalized and glorified.