“The world passeth away” (1 John 2:17).

“The whole world lieth in wickedness (1 John 5:19).

Christians who spend their time and energy in social service, civic reform, programs for the uplift of the community, etc., forget that this world is like a sinking ship. They are wasting their time and energy trying to save the wreck instead of saving individuals from the wreck.

Paul lived in a day when politics were corrupt, when power trampled righteousness under foot, when society was degraded, when purety was laughed at, and immorality was exalted. He saw what was called “art and culture” dragging thousands down as it tempted them from statues that almost lived, and from writings and pictures so vile that they were only surpassed by the actual immorality from Nero’s court down.

Yet you never find him taking part in political campaigns, nor urging social reform. His great aim was to present the Lord Jesus Christ as the One to whom individuals must fly for salvation.

This writer has often been taken to task for his alleged inconsistency in “eliminating” water baptism from God’s program for today while holding to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

This criticism is based upon the unscriptural assumption that baptism and the Lord’s Supper belong together in Scripture and in God’s program for the present dispensation.

Well, do we remember how a startling misquotation of Colossians 2:14 first led us to a study of this subject? A Bible teacher of some note had “quoted” the passage thus: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, that was against us, leaving two, baptism and the Lord’s Supper”!

This is pure—and unscriptural—tradition, for the fact is that the two are never linked together in the Scriptures and certainly not as ordinances for the Body of Christ. True Bereans will search the Scriptures as to these facts and be forever done with the notion that baptism and the Lord’s Supper belong together in the program of God.

Moreover, there are definite distinctions and even contrasts between the two.

Water baptism was an Old Testament ordinance.
The Lord’s Supper is a New Testament celebration.

Water baptism, like all ordinances, was “imposed.”
The Lord’s Supper never was imposed.

Water baptism was required for salvation.
The Lord’s Supper, never.

Water baptism was associated with our Lord’s manifestation to Israel.
The Lord’s Supper is associated with our Lord’s rejection and absence.

Water baptism denotes an unfinished work.
The Lord’s Supper speaks of the finished work of Christ.

Water baptism was a single act.
The Lord’s Supper is celebrated again and again.

Water baptism was not included in Paul’s special commission.
The Lord’s Supper was included in Paul’s special commission.

Suppose it were true that a person once saved could be lost again.

Suppose such a person, to gain heaven, would then have to be saved all over again.

But suppose the person in question never did get saved the second time and, departing this life a lost man, went finally to the lake of fire–after having once been “saved?”

In what sense, then, was he first saved? From what was he saved?

Was he saved from the penalty of sin? No, for he did not escape the lake of fire.

Was he saved from the power of sin? No, for he fell back into sin and died a lost man.

And most assuredly he was not saved from the presence of sin. None this side of heaven have yet been saved from that.

From what was he saved then? The answer is: Nothing at all.

He may have thought he was saved. He may have felt saved. He may have acted as though he were saved. His friends may have thought he was saved. But, in the final analysis, he was saved from nothing.

Salvation, to be anything more than a mere term, must be everlasting. Any person who has been saved has been eternally saved. No one is saved until he is eternally saved. Anyone who dies in a lost condition never was saved at all.

Does this mean we must wait until after this life is over to find out? No. We may be saved now and know it. This is evident from such passages as 1 Corinthians 1:18, where the Apostle Paul refers to “us which are saved.”

The Apostle Paul, referring to the crucifixion, declares that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19).

How could He have shown sinners more conclusively that He desires their good than by imputing their sins to Christ and telling them that He is not imputing their trespasses unto them? Their trespasses will be imputed to them, of course, if they reject God’s provision of salvation through Christ, but for the present it is a wonderful fact that we can go to any sinner and say on the authority of God’s written Word: “Your sins have been paid for; God is not holding them against you. Will you accept His love and receive Christ as your Savior?”

Mark’s record of our Lord’s commission to the eleven clearly states: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). As to unbelievers, baptism, of course, did not even enter into their case, thus the record goes on to say, “and he that believeth not shall be damned [condemned].”

This passage has always presented a problem for Fundamentalists who cling to the practice of water baptism and deny the special revelation committed to Paul for the present dispensation. The result has been that some change the meaning of this passage, while others contend that the last twelve verses of Mark 16 are not in the inspired originals.

To change this passage to read, “He that believeth and is saved ought to be baptized,” is simply to pervert and misrepresent the written Word of God. If a minister in the pulpit can lightly do this to one passage, beware of him; he may do it to others too.

As to the argument that the closing portion of Mark’s Gospel is not in the original, we reply that one cannot look into this contention without concluding that it is part of the inspired text.

First, it must be remembered that we have no original manuscripts of the Bible. Second, the manuscripts we do have contain it in the ratio of 300 to 1. Third, the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts, which do not contain it, leave spaces where it has been omitted. Fourth, we have translations earlier than our oldest manuscripts which do contain it. Fifth, we have the writings of fathers who lived still earlier, containing quotations from this passage.

The most conclusive evidence, however, is that contained in Peter’s testimony at Pentecost. Surely Peter was working under the “great commission” at this time. Surely, also, he was better able to interpret the commission than we are. The Lord had already “opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). With eyes thus opened, the apostles further sat under Christ’s special instructions for forty days before His ascension (Acts 1:3). And to cap it all, we read that “THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST” (Acts 2:4).

Surely, under such conditions Peter could not have misinterpreted his commission. And are the terms laid down in Mark 16:16 omitted from his offer of salvation, or does he change or minimize them aught? Indeed not! He emphasizes them as he says to his convicted hearers:

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).

Surely, Spirit-filled Peter, taught for forty days by Christ, with his understanding opened to God’s revealed plan, would not have demanded water baptism for the remission of sins if he had not been instructed to do so. Those who would seek to eliminate Mark’s record of the commission to the eleven (later twelve) have this further fact to face. Sad to say, some also misrepresent these words of Peter’s by substituting three periods or an “etc.” for the words “for the remission of sins.”

Peter interpreted the rest of the Mark commission correctly too, for as it says, “these signs shall follow them that believe,” and he promised that “the gift of the Holy Spirit” (for miraculous power) would follow repentance and baptism.

Unless Fundamentalists are ready to interpret and proclaim the message of Mark 16:15-18 as Peter did, they should acknowledge that we are to labor, not under the so-called great commission given to the eleven, but under that much greater commission given by the ascended Lord to Paul and to us (2 Cor. 5:14-21); that commission in which water baptism has no place, but the all-sufficiency of Christ and His finished work is the theme.

In “the gospel of the grace of God” we find a striking paradox: God Himself condemning the righteous and justifying the wicked; forsaking the perfect and helping evildoers.

Behold the spotless Lamb on Calvary as He cries, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”  Judas kisses Him in base betrayal; wicked men spit in His face, mock Him, smite Him, scourge Him, crown Him with thorns and nail Him to a tree!  And God, the Judge of all, does nothing to stop them!  Indeed, He Himself unsheathes His sword and smites the one Person in all history who could truly say, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God.”

And this is not all, for on the other hand God saves Saul of Tarsus, Christ’s bitterest enemy, “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious,” his hands dripping, as it were, with the blood of martyrs.  To him God shows “grace…exceeding abundant” and “all longsuffering” (1 Tim. 1:13-16).  Indeed, He sends him forth to proclaim openly to all men that:

“To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).

How can all this be right?  The answer is that the One who died in agony and disgrace at Calvary was God Himself, manifested in the flesh.  There, at Calvary, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2 Cor. 5:19).  It was the Judge Himself, stepping down from the throne to the cross to represent the sinner and pay for him the full penalty of his sins.

And who will say this is injustice?  Injustice?  It is perfect justice and more.  It is grace!

Under the terms of the Law we find God “showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments” (Ex. 20:6).  But grace is infinitely more: it is the riches of God’s mercy and love to “the children of disobedience…the children of wrath” (Eph. 2:2-7), paying the penalty for their sins Himself in strictest accord with perfect and infinite righteousness!

THE RESULTS OF DISOBEDIENCE

The Church, even the true Church of believers in Christ, is doubtless larger today than it has ever been. Yet it is weak and sick, confused and divided.

Many feel that the causes of the Church’s low spiritual state are: failure to live separated lives, lack of prayer, indifference toward the lost, etc. These, however, are the effects, not the causes. The cause is the Church’s departure from God’s message and program for our day, as revealed through the writings of the Apostle Paul. There lies the root of the trouble, though few as yet recognize or acknowledge it.

With Israel it was the departure from Moses’ law that constantly got her into trouble; with us it has been the departure from Pauline truth. For, remember, as surely as the dispensation of the Law was committed to Moses, so surely was the dispensation of Grace committed to Paul (Eph. 3:1-3), and those who have lapsed or backslidden from his day to ours, have done so, not so much by departing from the Word of God in general as by departing from the Word of God through Paul in particular.

Toward the close of his life Moses urged the people of Israel not to take the riches of Canaan for granted. Indeed, he warned them that if they did this they would soon “utterly perish from off the land” which they had gone to possess, and would be scattered among the heathen.

Likewise Paul, also, warned believers that they would lose the blessings intended for them if they departed from the truth and the program made known to them. Some, indeed, had already begun to depart, and the loss of blessing had become evident. The Galatians are a striking example of this and a lesson to us.

How they had rejoiced when Paul first came to them with “the preaching of the cross” and “the gospel of the grace of God”! As they heard him preach, and noted the difficulty, and perhaps pain, he experienced with his eyes, one said to another: “I wish I could give him my eyes! I would gladly do without them. He needs his sight so badly, and think of the joy and blessing he has brought to us!”

Soon after his departure, however, they were taken in by the Judaizers who “zealously affected [courted]” them to draw them away from Paul and his message (Gal. 4:17). And now Paul had to write them:

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (1:6).

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched [charmed] you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently [plainly] set forth, crucified among you?” (3:1).

“WHERE IS THEN THE BLESSEDNESS YE SPAKE OF? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me” (Gal. 4:15).

Gone was the blessedness! Those who had rejoiced so greatly in the riches of God’s grace proclaimed by Paul, had now turned back to Moses and the Law.

In Paul’s epistles we find both the tendency on the part of believers to depart from the path of blessing and God’s diagnosis of the particular cause of the trouble. In every case the cause is rebellion against Paul’s God-given authority and departure from his God-given message and program.