Conversation 5
Mr. Waters—Well, here we are, Neighbor Wright, ready to hear your comment on Acts 22:16. Mr. Works told me last evening that you would be sure to have some kind of explanation.
Mr. Wright—The Bible is its own interpreter. When explanations are given that harmonize with all other texts of Scripture, we may rest assured that we have the Biblical interpretation. For example, there is a text which says, “There is none righteous, no not one.” (Romans 3:10) Then, the Scriptures speaking of Zacharias and Elizabeth say, “And they were both righteous before God.” (Luke 1:6) If we let the Bible explain itself, there will be no confliction between these texts; but whenever a man applies Romans 3:10 to all men, he puts his doctrine out of harmony with Luke 1:6 and many other texts. For that reason, Romans 3:10 cannot be Scripturally applied to all men.
Mr. Truman—This is pretty good; Mr. Waters made that very application of that text this morning while we were on our way over here.
Mr. Waters—Well, the Bible is a difficult book to understand anyway.
Mr. Wright—No, my dear friend, not when it is rightly divided. You know that Paul said to Timothy: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 3:15) If a school teacher were to acknowledge before his class that the arithmetic was a difficult book to understand and that he was unable to make its statements harmonize, he would feel much ashamed, don’t you think?
Mr. Waters—Yes, sir; I. should think he would be in an embarrassing position.
Mr. Wright—Pardon me, but if a teacher of the Scriptures confesses that his textbook is difficult to understand and that he is unable to harmonize it, he has some need to be ashamed. Let me ask you a question: Do you not believe that a sinner must have his sins forgiven, or washed away, before he can become a Christian or get to the world of eternal rest?
Mr. Waters—Certainly I believe that, and the text I gave you says that water washes away sins.
Mr. Wright—I admit that water washes away sins just as baptism saves and as the water saved Noah and his family. You have been baptized, have you not?
Mr. Waters—Certainly.
Mr. Wright—Did the water wash away your sins?
Mr. Waters—It certainly did.
Mr. Wright—Have you sinned since you were baptized?
Mr. Waters—Why of course I—but say, you are not explaining the text I gave you. Paul had his sins washed away. If baptism does not wash away sins, please explain that text.
Mr. Wright—I will explain it—but answer my question. Have you sinned since you were baptized?
Mr. Waters—Let me give you another text that proves baptism to be a saving ordinance.
Mr. Wright—I want you to answer my question first. Have you sinned since you were baptized?
Mr. Waters—I see where you are trying to get me. Of course we all sin more or less perhaps every day, but God knows we are weak and merely human; and He does not regard the wrongs we do after we have been baptized, become members of His church, and have taken upon us the duties and profession of a Christian.
Mr. Wright—Pardon me again, but I must say that this must be some of the vain philosophy Paul wrote to Timothy about. Sin is always sin. Being baptized, my brother, or making a profession of Christianity does not change the nature of sin nor make it in the least degree less offensive to God.
But we have come to the explanation of the text. It requires but few words. It is the blood of Christ that washes sin from the soul as the text I quoted you in our last talk stated. Then, we read in Revelation 7:14, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” The washing of the soul from sin is by the blood of Christ.
Before telling you what is meant by the words of your text, I should like to give you a Bible picture of the wonderful efficacy of the blood of Christ with the hope that you shall see it and appreciate it as you have not heretofore.
Mr. Truman—I wish you would. If you will allow me, Mr. Waters, I will tell what I heard one of your preachers say.
Mr. Waters—Be free to tell it. I feel that you brethren are speaking in the spirit of love, and I want to assure you that I will take no offense.
Mr. Truman—Thank you. What I am going to tell is almost too shocking to repeat. Speaking with reference to a present experience of soul-cleansing from sin, he said that there is no more power in the blood of Christ to cleanse sin from the soul than there is in the blood of cock robin.
Mr. Waters—He was one of our preachers, and he believes that baptism is a representative act, which God accepts in the place of what the blood of Christ can do for the soul when it is separated from the body, or at death. He believes that the blood of Christ has no efficacy, really, until the judgment; that baptism is a kind of representative act, and that all who are baptized here in water are taken into God’s church because the blood will cleanse them at the judgment. Then, some of our preachers believe that Christ forgives sins only in the act of baptism.
Mr. Wright—What do you believe?
Mr. Waters—To confess the truth to you, I hardly know.
Mr. Wright—Let me give you some of the Word of God. I will give a text that has already been quoted— “Unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” (Revelation 1:5) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) This cleansing is by the blood of Christ, as is explained in verse 7: “And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7)—not that it will cleanse us at the judgment, but it cleanses now. I will read you Jeremiah 2:22: “For though thou wash thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.” Niter and much soap could not wash away the marks or stains of sin. Now, let us read Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us reason together, saith the LORD; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
The stains of sin had blackened my soul
As black as the darkest night;
But the blood of Christ pervaded the whole,
Making it white as the light.
The blood of Christ can take away the scarlet and crimson stains of sin, while niter, much soap, and water baptism cannot do it.
Mr. Waters—It is now twenty-seven years since I was baptized and joined the church. I am satisfied to go on the remainder of my days just as I have been going. It is of no use to tell me that all these good preachers and men and women we have among us are not going to heaven.
Mr. Wright—It is not my business to say who is going to heaven and who is not. It is my business to teach the Word of God and then leave every man to settle his account with Him.
Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) It is sin that brings guilt, condemnation, and unrest to the soul. Salvation by grace through faith removes sin from the soul and brings the rest that Christ has promised. The soul that is saved by grace has entered into rest—sweet, calm, blessed rest. Being baptized in water does not bring rest to the soul.
Mr. Waters—I said that some of our preachers believed that Christ forgives us our sins in the act of baptism. If that be true, then we should find rest to our souls through Christ in the act of baptism.
Mr. Wright—Can you give me one text that even implies that Christ pardons a guilty soul, giving peace in the act of baptism? No; we do not receive forgiveness of sins through an act of baptism but through an act of faith, which does bring peace. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” (Romans 5:1)
Mr. Waters—I see that you are too well read in the Scriptures for me to contend with; but if I had some of our preachers here, they would soon put you in a corner.
Mr. Wright—It is difficult to put truth into a corner. But I see you are preparing to go; I want you to come again. There are other texts I want to explain to you.
Mr. Waters—There are a number of texts that I have heard our preachers use when preaching on salvation by baptism, but I cannot quote them, neither do I know where to find them. I will go over to our preacher’s and get him to find them for me, and then I will come again.
Mr. Wright—Mr. Truman, how are you getting along? Do you not want the soul rest that Christ promised to give?
Mr. Truman—I certainly do; I believe I am getting nearer the kingdom; I want to hear this talk a little further.
Mr. Wright—God bless you.
But, Mr. Waters, I have not yet explained your text. It means that sins are washed away, but the water washes them away only in a figure. Paul’s sins had already been washed from his soul by the blood of Christ, and then he was to arise and have them washed away figuratively, as a testimony to the world of what the blood of the Lamb had wrought in his once sin-stained soul.
Come again, both of you. Good evening.