PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

A World Under Water

When people point to your home or your family and say, "Oh, yes, that is a Christian family; they belong to the Lord!" you will have obtained the joy of knowing that you are a proper testimony. We can never be satisfied that we are succeeding as Christian parents if we merely have children who are respectful to adults, well-behaved, high achievers, or even good "church attendees." Our goal is to be a family that belongs to God and clearly bears His testimony.

This issue of Parenthood, a continuation of the review of the world versus God and His purpose in humanity, is a little different in focus from our usual target of discovering principles for raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Here we are examining the essence of baptism. Our aim in considering baptism is not a doctrinal matter. Rather, we are looking at the meaning of baptism-the escape from the pervasive influence of the world in our lives as believers-with the goal of applying that interpretation to the raising of our children. Our real concern is with the separation of our children from the corrupting influence of a world that is under the domination of God's enemy, Satan. Baptism is the cutting off of the world.

Watchman Nee, in his classic book entitled, Love Not The World, sounds a cry to all the believers that we must be cut off from the world through baptism in order that we may live a life in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Severance from the world in Christian parents, especially in the fathers, has a profound impact on their families. In the sixteenth chapter of the book of Acts, the Philippian jailer asked the question, "What must I do to be saved?" The response of the apostles was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household."

"You and your household" indicates that baptism saved not only the jailer, but also his entire household. Watchman Nee states distinctly that the issue is a question of "whether I belong to an order of things of which Christ is sovereign Lord, or to an opposed order of things having Satan as its effective head." May we all take the lead in our families to choose as Joshua of old, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

And He said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned (Mark 16:15, 16).

A World Under Water

To many of us the form of that second sentence comes as a surprise. Jesus did not say that he who believes and is saved shall be baptized. No, He put it the other way round. He who believes and is baptized, He said, shall be saved. It is only at our peril that we change something that the Lord has said into something that He did not say. Everything He says matters, and He means every word of it. But if this is so, then it must be a fact that only by having faith in Him and being baptized are we saved. Some will be puzzled at this. What do you mean? they will protest. But do not puzzle; and do not blame me! I did not say that; my Lord said it. He it was who laid down the order: faith, then baptism, then salvation. We must not reverse it to faith, salvation, baptism, however much we might prefer it that way. What the Lord said must stand, and it is for us only to pay heed to it.

So I repeat, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Do you mean to tell me, you will now exclaim, that you believe in baptismal regeneration? No, indeed I do not! The Lord did not say, "Believe and be baptized and thou shalt be born again"; and since He did not say that, I have no need to believe in that. His words are: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." What therefore I do believe in is baptismal salvation.

So the question naturally arises: What does this statement mean? And what does it mean when Luke tells us that, in response to Peter's exhortation to "save yourselves from this crooked generation," then they that received his word were baptized?

To answer this we must ask ourselves first what we mean by the word "saved." I am afraid we have a very wrong idea of salvation. All that most of us know about salvation is that we shall be saved from hell and into heaven; or alternatively, that we are saved from our sins to live henceforth a holy life. But we are wrong. In Scripture we find that salvation goes further than that. For it is concerned not so much with sin and hell, or holiness and heaven, but with something else.

We know that every good gift that God offers to us is given to meet and counter a contrasting evil. He gives us justification because there is condemnation. He gives us eternal life because there is death. He offers us forgiveness because there are sins. He brings us salvation-because of what? Justification is in terms of condemnation, heaven is in terms of hell, forgiveness is in relation to sins. Then to what is salvation related? Salvation, we shall see, is related to the kosmos, the world.

(continued on page 2)