To make the blessed truth of Incarnation (the source indeed of all our blessings) to be, not the display of divine life as of God Himself in man, but in that state the medium of communication to others as imparted to humanity, as a reconstructing of it in this form (declaring that rationalism, or the power of the human spirit, is the only alternative), is apostacy from the true foundations of Christian truth and a denial of the real effect of the fall, of the condition of the sinner under it, and of the true need of the death of Christ in order to our participation in life. “Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you,” that is, you cannot be associated with Him living. It is a Savior by means of death that will introduce you to God.
I am aware that it is urged as regards baptism, that by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body. Now, in the first place, the one body into which they are baptized here is the unity of the church; and the truth is that 1 Cor. 12:1313For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13) does not speak of baptism by water but very definitely of baptism “with the Spirit.” “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” (cf. John 1:3333And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. (John 1:33).) This, we know, was accomplished at Pentecost. When Cornelius is called by grace, he receives the Holy Ghost as they did at the first-called baptism of the Spirit (Acts 11:1616Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. (Acts 11:16)), and thereon is baptized or received into the visible church on earth. In 1 Cor. 12 The subject expressly treated of is spiritual power, πνευματικά, the baptism of the Holy Ghost by which, the Head being exalted on high, all are brought into the unity of the same body, and exercise the gifts through the Spirit given to members of the body.
Baptism by water is nowhere spoken of as engrafting into the unity of the body. The Lord's Supper is the expression of this truth though not of this alone. We are all one body, for we are partakers of that one bread (loaf). But no such thought is connected with baptism. It is simply death and resurrection, terms applicable to individuals. We are baptized to His death, buried with Him by baptism to death. It may be the natural consequence of putting on Christ, but the act is individual: the individual puts on, Christ. It is the sign of his regeneration in the death and resurrection of Christ, whereby he is received into the visible church of God on earth. We learn in the case of Samaria that those thus received had not yet received the Holy Ghost, and Simon Magus never did though baptized; as Cornelius receiving the Spirit as the seal of faith was the warrant for his being publicly received by baptism.
Besides then its connection with the fundamental doctrine of the necessity of redemption, and of our total ruin by sin, the truth that death must come in, in order to our union with Christ, is clearly established by the characteristic institutions of the Christian religion. And it is shown that it is not by a rectifying of the old man, in connection with the filling humanity with divine power and grace by the incarnation when Jesus was in the likeness of sinful flesh by which we are regenerate in union with the Lord Christ. It is by the establishment of a new man, of which the pattern in power of life is in Christ risen and glorified, to Whose image we are to be conformed; and that consequent not only on His living in the likeness of sinful flesh (though sinless), but in His being “for sin” a sacrifice for it), so that by His death sin in the flesh was condemned (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)). The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, thus risen from the dead, freed us from the law of sin and death. Hence, having Christ for our life, we reckon ourselves dead and do this one thing—press toward the mark of our calling on high. The effect is the walk of a heavenly man, such as Christ was on earth, because we are in Him Who is in heaven. It is when He was raised from the dead and set in heavenly places, far above all heavens, and filling all things, that He was given to be Head over all things to the church, His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
This is the question:—Is redemption the necessary ground of our living association with the Lord Jesus Christ? Ritualism is merely the old effort of Judaism against the doctrine of Paul—the doctrine of a full salvation through a dead and exalted Savior. The not thus holding the Head, as risen with Christ, is the cause of insisting on ordinances, as though we were alive in the world in connection with the old man, that is “in the flesh,” and not as risen before God in the Spirit. J.N.D.