p. 89 | THE RELATION OF BAPTISM TO THE LAW OF GOD

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 5, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 6

THE RELATION OF BAPTISM TO THE LAW OF GOD.

By John Nevins Andrews

BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS.

Baptism is a duty peculiar to the gospel of Christ. It is commanded in the New Testament, but is not commanded in the law of God. The gospel is not a part of the law of God, yet the relation between the gospel and the law is most intimate. Baptism is a part of the gospel system, and is no part of the law of God; yet baptism, like the gospel to which it pertains, directly relates to the law of God. This is a fact of great importance, as we shall show. Baptism would never have been necessary if men had not broken the law of God. They are baptized because they have sinned against God.

The gospel of Christ, which is the good news of pardon through his blood, would never have existed had not the law of God been broken. The law contains man’s whole duty as an innocent being, but has nothing to say concerning repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The gospel is not given for the purpose of revealing the duty which man owes to God. This is revealed in the law of God, which requires that men should love God with every power of their being, and this love is shown in the keeping of the commandments. Deut. 6:4–9; Eccl. 12:13, 14; 1 John 5:3. The gospel is not given to enlarge this demand; for the law demands every power of man’s being, and the gospel cannot add to this. The gospel is given to show how men that have broken the law of God can find pardon. The gospel shows how God can maintain his law without punishing those who repent, and how he can be just, and yet justify him that believes in Jesus. Rom. 3:19–30.

The mercy of God desired to save sinners; his justice demanded that they should be punished as the transgressors of his law. This conflict between the attributes of God is spoken of in Ps. 85:10–14. This conflict was settled when Christ decided to die for man. He took the place of the sinner, and was cut down by the sword of divine justice. 1 Pet. 3:18; Zech. 13:7; Gal. 3:13. Then justice could permit mercy to enter and offer pardon to sinners. The law of God demanded the death of the transgressor, in pronouncing a curse upon every kind of sin. Deut. 27:15–26. Christ took this dreadful curse upon himself by dying in our place, and he signified the fact by the manner of his death. Gal. 3:13. Christ died for all, because all merited death. 2 Cor. 5:14, 15. His death magnified the law and made it honorable; for the curse of the law was shown to be just, in that God gave his Son to suffer it. Isa. 42:21. The life of Christ, which was thus sacrificed, was of greater value in the sight of the law than were the lives of all who had broken it.

The law pronounces its curse upon all sinners, but it will accept the death of Christ as the sinner’s substitute. Christ has suffered death for our transgressions. Isa. 53:5–12. When we repent of our sins and believe in Christ, he presents the merit of his death before his Father on our behalf, and it is accepted. Rom. 5:9, 10; Heb. 7:25. Then the law regards us as though the sentence of death had been executed upon us, because Christ, our substitute, has died in our place. Gal. 2:19, 20; Rom. 6:1–3, 7–11. In the sight of the law the sentence of death no longer stands against us, because we have suffered death in the person of Christ, our great sacrifice for sin. His death is accepted in our behalf the moment we truly repent and believe. Now we are counted dead in the sight of the law of God, as though the sentence of death had been executed upon us. The law of God being thus honored, we may receive pardon through the gospel. But the very first public act for the remission of our sins is baptism. Acts 2:37, 38.

We have remission of our sins by virtue of Christ’s blood. Eph. 1:7; Luke 24:47. Faith and repentance apply that blood to our souls. These are the inward acts by which we have remission of sins, but there is an outward act by which all this is expressed to the world. We have broken the law of God and merited death. We have found pardon through the blood of Christ; and because Christ, our sacrifice, has died for us, the law regards us as though its sentence had been executed upon us, and as though we had actually suffered death. Now this fact of our death must be publicly expressed. This is done by the ordinance of baptism. The fact of our death must be attested by our burial. Rom. 6:1–8. Thus baptism is the public, outward act for the remission of sins. Acts 2:37, 38. The law counts us as having suffered death, and no longer holds its sentence of death against us. Rom. 6:8; 7:4; Gal. 2:19, 20. The gospel takes us as dead men and buries us, thus acknowledging the justice of the law of God in its sentence of death against us. Then by the same ordinance it raises us from this burial in baptism, to walk in newness of life. Rom. 6:3–5; Col. 2:12; 3:1.

We have spoken of baptism in its relation to the law of God; we shall next speak of it as the memorial of the burial and resurrection of Christ.