Transcript

Three boys were bragging about how great their fathers were. The first one said, “Well, my father runs the fastest. He can fire an arrow, and start to run, and I tell you, he gets there before the arrow.”

The second boy said, “Ha! You think that’s fast! My father is a hunter. He can shoot his gun and be there before the bullet!”

The third one listened to the other two and shook his head. He then said, “You two know nothing about speed. My father works in government. He stops working at 5:00 and he is home by 3:45!”

Speaking of something to boast in, our one spiritual baptism is a truth that each of us can and should glory in.

It is an unspeakable blessing of God to be baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit, which unites us with our Savior and His death, burial, and resurrection, and also with one another in the Church, the Body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:4-6: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

These verses, containing the unity of the Spirit, are what is to unite believers in the Church. There is “one Body,” one singular Church. Though there are many different denominations and countless churches and beliefs of all sorts, there is only one Body.

The one Body is the one true Church, the universal body of believers of this present dispensation of grace. It is made up of anyone and everyone, past and present, who has trusted the gospel of grace and Christ alone for their salvation, that He died for their sins and rose again.

There is “one Spirit,” the Holy Spirit. There is not a separate or different Spirit that indwells the many members of the one Body, but the same Spirit. One Spirit indwells the church as a whole and every individual believer in the Church.

There is “one hope of your calling.” We do not have different hopes in the one Body, we all have the same hope: heaven.

There is another hope held out in the Bible for Israel, of an eternal kingdom on the earth. But our one hope and eternal inheritance in Christ is heaven.

There is “one Lord.” The same Lord over you is the same Lord over me and all of us in the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Head of the Body, our Life, and our All.

There is “one faith.” We don’t follow multiple or different faiths. There is not one faith for one part of the Body, and another faith for a different part of the Body.

There are other faiths and truths to be found in the Bible that were to be followed and obeyed in the past. For 1500 years, Israel was required to trust and obey the law to be accepted by God.

But in the dispensation of grace, there is one faith, one body of truth to trust and follow, the faith and the gospel that was committed to Paul for the Church under grace.

There is “one baptism.” There are multiple baptisms taught in the Bible: the baptisms and washings required under the law, the water baptism of John the Baptist, the water baptism of Peter at Pentecost, and numerous spiritual baptisms.

But today, in the dispensation of grace, there is one baptism. This baptism is the one that saves and unites us with our Savior and one another in the Body of Christ: the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that He performs at the moment of our salvation.

I Corinthians 12:13 says of this baptism: “For 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.”

There is “one God and Father of all” the Body. There is one God in three Persons, each member of the Godhead being in this list, and we all worship and serve the same God.

It’s important to look at, “one baptism,” in light of the list of the other ones. Because there are not multiple Body’s, two Holy Spirit’s, several hopes of our calling; there are not many Lord’s, or numerous faith’s for us to trust and live by under grace, or more than one God the Father’s.

There is only one of all these for us. And likewise, there are not multiple or two baptism’s, but only one for the Church today. And this baptism is spiritual; it is a Spirit baptism.

“In Christ” is a blessed preposition and is stated many times in Ephesians and in Paul’s epistles. How does one get “in Christ”? And the answer is by the Holy Spirit baptizing us, by Him identifying, uniting, and placing us “in Christ” the moment we trust the gospel.

We firmly believe in baptism. But when it comes to the subject of baptism, since there is only one baptism today, the spiritual baptism is what is to unite and be the singular focus of the Church today and what it stands for, proclaims, and also celebrates and rejoices in continually, because the truth this baptism proclaims is an extraordinary blessing.

Colossians 2:11-12: “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”

Colossians 2:10 says that “ye are complete in Him.” In Christ, we are complete and made whole. By faith alone in Christ, trusting His finished work, we lack nothing for salvation. Nothing is missing; nothing can be added. And thus, we don’t need water baptism.

We are not saved by Christ plus something or plus anything. It is not Christ plus water baptism. Christ is all we need, and salvation is in Him ALONE.

But baptism is part of our completeness in Christ as Paul teaches here in Colossians, the one spiritual baptism that is.

Having stated that we are complete in Christ in verse 10, Paul goes on to expound on our completeness in verses 11 and 12. And Paul explains here that a believer has been made complete in Christ through identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Paul wrote that “In Whom,” or “In [Christ],” we are “circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.” Being “in Christ” by our spiritual baptism, means that we share in what was accomplished through His death. We are joined to His death and receive the eternal benefits of His finished work.

In our union with Christ by baptism, being identified with Christ’s death, we were “circumcised.” And this circumcision is “made without hands.”

This is teaching that the moment we believed and were joined to Christ by the Spirit’s spiritual baptism, a spiritual circumcision also took place.

Paul’s explanation of this circumcision is found in the second half of the verse: “in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”

“The body of the sins of the flesh” refers to the sinful, fallen human nature which totally dominates believers before salvation. And “the circumcision of Christ” refers to His death on the cross.

Paul is giving positional truth of our salvation and completeness in Christ here. And what this is teaching is that when we believe the gospel of grace, before God, our old, fleshly, sin nature was crucified and put off by Christ’s death on the Cross.

When we believe, we are baptized and identified with Christ’s death and triumph over sin, and we are freed from sin and freed from the old, sin nature and its dominion over us.

As Paul wrote in Romans 6:3,6, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?…Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

The baptism of the Holy Spirit places us in union with Christ and His death, and the death of Christ puts off and removes the body of the sins of the flesh, or the old man.

And thus, by virtue of our union with Christ and His Cross, we are now a new creation in Christ, and we are wholly His, and we “are complete in Him.” We are in Christ by the one baptism and in Him we are absolutely complete.

Verse 12 is not speaking of physical water baptism any more than verse 11 is speaking of physical circumcision.

When verse 12 says, “Buried with him in baptism,” this baptism does not mean water, and water baptism does not picture this truth.

The word “baptism” does not mean water. It means identification and union. Paul uses the word baptized in this way in 1 Corinthians 10:2, when he wrote that Israel was “all baptized unto Moses.” That is, Israel was identified with Moses and the law.

In Acts 1:5 our Lord told His apostles, “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”

There are two different baptisms taught in this verse. Again, “baptized” does not mean water, otherwise, the Lord would have been saying that John watered with water.

The Lord was teaching that John “baptized,” or identified believers with the water of cleansing and purifying which placed Israel into their national priesthood.

And the Lord further taught that the apostles and believers would be spiritually “baptized” or identified “with the Holy Ghost” when He was sent by the Father on the day of Pentecost and indwelt them.

When Paul teaches the Church that we are “Buried with [Christ] in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him” he is speaking of a spiritual reality and identification concerning us being joined to Christ’s burial and resurrection by the Holy Spirit.

And only the Holy Spirit could accomplish such a work as this, to transcend time and space, and supernaturally place one who lives in the 21st century in the tomb of Christ and spiritually join us with His burial, so that the believer can be said to have been crucified with Christ, to have died with Christ, to have been buried with Christ, and then to have been raised with Him.

The word “with” describes our connection to Christ. “With” is a word of connection and union; it is our lifeline to Christ by the Spirit.

The Bible says when He died, we died WITH Him. When He was buried, we were buried WITH Him. And when He was resurrected, we were resurrected WITH Him.

Our death with Christ is no less a reality than His death. Our burial with Christ is no less a reality than His burial. And our resurrection with Him is no less a reality than His resurrection.

Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is the complete, all-sufficient payment for sin. And by the Spirit, the moment we believe, we are spiritually baptized and joined to His perfect, victorious, finished work by spiritual baptism, and we are complete in Him.

This baptism saves us, and by it, we are raised with Christ to new life and life eternal in Him. When Christ came out of the grave victorious over death, by the Spirit’s baptism, we were raised with Him.

We are resurrected in Jesus Christ, victorious over death in Him, and we are alive unto God, alive forevermore in Christ, and now we can walk in this newness of life.

And all this causes us to echo Paul’s words, “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And all of this is as Paul puts it, “through the faith [or faithfulness] of the operation of God.” The “one baptism” today under grace is not by the operation or instrumentality of man; it’s the operation of God. God performs it. God is faithful to carry out our baptism spiritually for us when we believe Christ died for our sins and rose again.

Man doesn’t have anything to do with it. It is all of God by His grace. Baptism is entirely His operation today.

We walk by faith and not by sight under grace. This spiritual baptism is not something we can see that takes place instantaneously at our salvation.

It is something the Spirit has revealed to us in His Word, and we are called to accept and know by faith that God does our baptism for us today.

And when we rest in it, grow in our understanding of it, and rejoice in it, we give honor to God and His work of baptism under grace.

Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

When Paul wrote, “I am crucified with Christ,” this refers to the “one baptism,” the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This statement has past, present, and future ramifications.

The believer being crucified with Christ is a past event. By the Spirit’s baptism, we are so identified with Christ by this baptism, that His death is our death. When He was crucified, I was and am crucified with Him.

The “I” that begins this verse is the old self, the old man, the evil “I,” you could say. This “I” was crucified with Christ and therefore no longer has a valid claim on our life, because we are no longer in Adam but in Christ.

When we became a believer by grace through faith, in the eyes of God, there was a decisive crucifixion and death of the old, sinful, rebellious self.

God wants us to move forward in the Christian life with this knowledge by faith, so that we don’t live by the old man, which still resides in us. God doesn’t want us to allow it to have power and dominion over us when it doesn’t need to. Rather, we are called to allow Christ to reign over and direct our steps.

Thus, “I am crucified with Christ” is also a present experience. This phrase in the original Greek is in the perfect tense, indicating a past event with present, ongoing effects. This baptism in Christ, His death and our death with Him, is to have an abiding effect on our Christian life.

The positional death of the old man at the Cross is to cause the believer in their daily practice to “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” as Romans 6:11 challenges us.

Living by faith in light of our power over sin and the old man, and then moving forward in our new life in Christ is what it means to be crucified with Christ as a present experience.

And “I am crucified with Christ” also secures our future. As Romans 6:8 reminds us, “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”

Having died with Christ, we are free from sin and are complete in Christ, and we WILL live with Him, and live with Him eternally.

Speaking of living, we have not only been spiritually baptized into Christ’s death, we are also identified with His life and resurrection.

The old sinful “I” is crucified with Christ, but as Paul says, “nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” The old, rebellious “I” is crucified and dead in God’s eyes, and now the new, righteous “I” lives.

And God desires this truth of the exchange of the old life for the new life in Christ, which takes place at salvation, to redirect the entire course of our lives, so that we live in our new life in Christ and leave the old behind.

Because of our uniting baptism with Christ, we are in Christ and Christ is in us, and “Christ liveth in me.” We are one with Him. I Corinthians 6:17 says, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”

And now that we live in Christ and Christ lives in us, the believer’s life is really the life of Christ being lived out through us.

As His life is lived through us, our lives become less self-centered and more and more Christ-centered.

This life lived through Christ living in and through us is now not a life for just pleasing the flesh, but a life lived by the Word to bring honor to God.

It is a life lived “in lowliness of mind” esteeming others better than ourselves, looking not on our own things, but also on the things of others (Phil. 2:3-4).

And this life, which we now live in the flesh, we “live by the faith [or faithfulness] of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” I know that some translations change this to “faith IN the Son of God,” and it is true that we are to live by faith in Him.

But I believe the King James Version has it put correctly here when it reads that we are to “live by the faith OF the Son of God,” or by His faithfulness.

Our faith rests on God’s faithfulness. The Christian life is not lived in our own strength, but by Christ’s faithfulness. And He is always faithful to us.

He lives in us and is always there for us, wanting us to turn to Him for His grace, wisdom, and strength to live the Christian life.

And His faithfulness to us never wavers, and this encourages us to trust Him more and know that we can rely on Him always and always to a greater extent.

And we are motivated to yield our lives to Him, and allow Him to live through us in response to the love He exhibited for us when He gave Himself for us at the Cross.

The life we live in the flesh we live now for Him, because “He loved me,” past tense, at the Cross, “and gave Himself for me,” willingly dying for me personally, giving everything for me that I might live eternally, giving His life when He died for all my sins.

His gift of salvation was personal and individual. His death at the Cross drives us to live for Him. His death was a voluntary self-surrender motivated by His love and concern for each of our eternal destinies.

And this great love for us constrains us to live for Christ by His faithfulness and life and to voluntarily surrender our lives to Him.

Galatians 3:27-28: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Here we see another benefit of “the one baptism,” in how it unites us with one another.

At the moment of trusting the gospel of grace, we are “baptized into Christ.” This is not water baptism. Paul doesn’t speak of being baptized into water, but baptized into Christ, and only the Holy Spirit can put a person into Christ.

Paul is referring to the one spiritual baptism, by which we are placed into a perfect and permanent union with Christ, and we are forever identified with Him.

And Paul states that those who have been spiritually baptized into Christ, “have put on Christ.” The words “put on” mean to array or clothe oneself. Being in Christ, before God, we are clothed with Christ’s salvation, life, and righteousness.

The baptizing work of the Spirit unites us to Christ, and it also places us into the Church, the Body of Christ. As I Corinthians 12:13 tells us, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free.”

The ONE Spirit, by His ONE baptism, places us into the ONE Body and makes us ONE in Christ.

And in the Body of Christ, Paul wrote there exists “neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female.”

Paul wrote of the most well-defined distinctions of society in his day, where sharp lines and high walls of separation were set up between people. He wrote of these sharp distinctions to contrast how this kind of thing doesn’t exist in Christ.

Every believer in the Church stands on an equal footing in Christ.

Outside of Christ, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all who are saved and become members of the Church, the Body of Christ, do so exactly the same way: by grace through faith alone in Christ and His finished work.

And in the Body of Christ, none is superior or inferior to another. A believing Jew is not more privileged before God than a believing Gentile; a believing slave is not inferior to a believing free person; a believing man is not superior to a believing woman.

Instead, as Paul wrote, “for ye [who believe] are all one in Christ Jesus.” The one spiritual baptism unites us and makes us one in Him. We all share a common spiritual life and the same privileges in Christ.

Henry Morris wrote the following about this passage: “[Paul] is not writing about a unity that comes about as a result of human achievement. He is saying that when people are saved by Jesus Christ they are brought into a marvelous unity, a unity between the saved and the Savior and a unity that binds together all the saved.”

The person who becomes one with Christ through the one baptism also becomes one with every other believer in the Body of Christ. As Romans 12:5 puts it: “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”

In the Body of Christ, no one individual is more needed than the other. No one is more important than the other. No one is higher or lower, superior or inferior.

All are members one of another, each with their own particular calling and function to fulfill in the Church. Each is dependent on the other.

And this oneness is to cause the church to have “the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (I Cor. 12:25-26).

God’s revelation concerning baptism today is that there is “one baptism”, and that it is spiritual and performed by the Holy Spirit. And this one baptism, which is all by God’s grace, is extraordinary.

It saves us, unites us with our Savior, and makes us one with Him and with His death, burial, and resurrection. It also places us into the Church and unites us together and makes us one in the Body of Christ.

May we glory in this baptism and take a stand for it and tell others about it!