True Repentance the Consequence of Faith--Original Sin and Actual
Sin--The Work of Redemption--Universal Redemption from Original
Sin--Conditions of Salvation from Actual sin--Baptism, its Object, Mode
and Effect--A New Creature in Christ Jesus.
Faith in God once quickened in the human heart, conscience is awakened
and the mind is self-convicted of sin. Repentance follows as the
consequence. This includes sorrow for the past and determination for
the future. This first of these without the second is not genuine
repentance. It is barren and fruitless, and is therefore unacceptable
to God. Resolutions of future rectitude are naturally accompanied
by grief for past wrong-doing, but regret may exist without reform,
and such is not saving repentance, the virtue of which is in turning
from evil and cleaving to good. Tears, self-reproaches, lamentations,
self-abasement in language or in gesture do not constitute repentance,
no matter how loudly they may be indulged in or how conspicuous they
may appear, but it is evidenced by forsaking things one knows to be
wrong and practising that which one is satisfied is right. Humility is
one of its chief characteristics and this prompts obedience.
As repentance follows faith, so baptism succeeds repentance. For the
wish to work righteousness in future implies a desire for forgiveness
of past guilt, and baptism is ordained for the remission of sins. This
opens the broad questions of sin and redemption and the doctrine of the
atonement.
There are two general divisions of sin, viz., original and actual.
Original sin is that which was committed by the parents of the race,
the consequences of which pass upon all of their posterity. Actual sin
is that committed by each individual and for which he is personally
responsible. Adam and Eve broke the divine law given to them in the
garden, the penalty for which was death, natural and spiritual; the
first being the separation of the spirit and the body, and the second,
banishment from the presence of God. The taint descended to their
offspring. Death is the common lot, and a vail is drawn between man and
his Maker. Thus mankind are prone to do evil, and the consequence is
that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "The wages
of sin is death."
Redemption is rescue from the results of the fall. This can only be
achieved by the raising of the race from the dead and restoring them
to the presence of God. To effect this, Christ came. Doing no sin, He
gave Himself as a ransom for those who sinned. He upon whom death had
no claim gave Himself to death that he might satisfy eternal justice
and give mercy room to act. Death came by Adam, life comes by Christ.
Through one act death entered the world, through one act life will come
to all that death has grasped. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive." Good and bad, believer and unbeliever, male
and female, young and old will be raised from the dead and brought
into the presence of the Eternal Father. This is the work of Jesus of
Nazareth, who shed His blood in this great atonement to redeem all
mankind from the fall.
But this was only part of His work. He died not only to atone for
original sin but for actual sin, and to become the mediator between
God and man. "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of
sin;" this is the law. His blood was shed for the sins of the whole
world. For original sin unconditionally, for actual sin conditionally.
Mankind had no part in the commission of the original sin, they perform
nothing in the redemption therefrom. Its effects came through no acts
of theirs; those effects will be removed without anything they may
do. No conditions are required as preliminaries to redemption from
original sin; it was committed by Adam, it was atoned for by Jesus
Christ. But as each person is guilty of his own sins, so he must comply
with the conditions which will entitle him to the full benefits of
Christ's atonement for his own sins. Among these conditions are faith,
repentance and baptism.
Saving faith must necessarily include the Son as well as the Father in
its objects, because salvation comes from the Father through the Son,
and as Christ died for all, there is no other name but His given under
heaven whereby man can be saved. Repentance, as we have shown, includes
humility, which leads to obedience, and baptism follows, in which
is given to the repentant believer that remission of sins, obtained
through the shedding of Christ's blood in the place of the blood of the
sinner.
Baptism as a part of the gospel is the complete immersion in water
of a repentant believer, by a man having authority to act "in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." All this
is essential to its validity. The candidate must believe and repent.
The administrator must have divine authority. The ordinance must be
performed correctly. There is but "one baptism," as there is but "one
Lord and one faith." Any other kind of baptism is spurious and of no
effect.
The believing, repentant sinner, after making covenant with God to
forsake evil and keep His commandments, is taken down into the water by
the duly authorized and ordained representative of the Lord Jesus, and,
being dead to his old sins by repentance, is buried from his old life
by immersion in the watery grave; and then, raised up again to newness
of life, is "born of the water," and stands on earth a new creature in
Christ Jesus. He is clean before God. He is as pure from guilt as a
new-born babe. Though his sins were as scarlet, he is now washed whiter
than wool, and is prepared for the next step on the straight and narrow
path which leads to life eternal. Happy indeed is he. Joy unspeakable
fills his heart. Peace indescribable dwells in his bosom. Purity shines
in all his nature. He has entered by the door, into the sheep fold, and
is one of the flock of Christ. The load of his past misdeeds is rolled
from his shoulders and he is free. The liberty of the gospel is his.
Henceforth he should be the servant only of the King of Kings, and a
soldier of the cross.
But he has a warfare to fight which will require all his strength,
resolution and fortitude. For he has come out from the world and
the world will hate and persecute him, and malign him, and try to
despitefully use him. The flesh of his own being will be in conflict
with his spiritual nature now brought into actual life. And Satan, the
great adversary of the children of light, with his hosts of emissaries
will take special pains to tempt and try to allure him from the path
of salvation. But God will be on his side, and if he holds true to his
baptismal covenants he will come off more than conqueror over all, and
obtain the full and complete benefits of the atonement wrought out
by the spotless and merciful Savior, who henceforth is his loved and
loving Lord.