SOME ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH FROM ITS BEGINNING – WHAT IS MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH? - PART 4
MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH
The membership of the universal Church is through salvation and baptism, but which baptism? This is not baptismal regeneration; just that baptism followed salvation as water baptism, but it is the baptism of the Spirit that places one in the Church. There are two baptisms in the New Testament churches and they ought to apply today. We will look at both.
[A]. BAPTISM BY IMMERSION AFTER RECEIVING JESUS AS PERSONAL SAVIOUR.
There is not one case of an unbaptised believer in the Acts and a careful reading will see every one of these believers baptised in water after being saved. From all the examples I will select this one case – {{Acts 16:29-34 He called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household,” and they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. He took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, AND IMMEDIATELY HE WAS BAPTISED, he and all his household, and he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.}}
Paul and Silas, beaten and humiliated and thrown in prison, were part of a miracle that broke their chains, and the jailer was deeply overcome. He fell before Paul asking how to be saved. I think that night he was listening to the singing that contained the gospel. The gospel was then shared with the whole household by Paul, and all these pagans were converted.
Now of great interest is to see what followed on then. Firstly, the jailer washed the wounds from all the lashes the men had received from the demonic agitators. THEN, immediately, the jailor’s household was all baptised in water. Next, food was brought to Paul and Silas; everyone rejoiced, and God placed His mark on Philippi.
Baptism (immersion) is of great importance for believers being saved, and it amazes me why the churches today disregard it. Sprinkling babies is NOT biblical baptism. Sprinkling or christening was practised by the Roman Catholic church so they would have the hold over the person all its life. It was sad that this practice was transferred from the Roman church to children in Reformation days, but in the Reformation, the churches did not get back to the practice and truth of believers’ baptism.
I need to add a caveat here. An unbaptised believer is still saved and part of the universal Church, the Body of Christ. I will also say that an unbaptised believer is missing out on the joy and strength that baptism by immersion provides. The fault does not lie with the individual but with the church denomination and the leadership. If every single believer in the New Testament churches was baptised, why is this being rejected by churches for the past few centuries?
THE TIMING OF BAPTISM WAS MOST IMPORTANT AS IT ALWAYS FOLLOWED SALVATION (as part of it, but not the saving part). There was no delay in being baptised, no “baptismal classes” as some Baptist churches like to have; no “probation” time like some Baptist and Brethren like to have to see if the person continues in the faith. That is so wrong. The public declaration of faith in baptism AT THE TIME OF CONVERSION, is the greatest strengthening a newly converted Christian can have.
NOW, WHAT IS THE TEACHING OF BAPTISM AND ITS RELEVANCE TO CHURCH MEMBERSHIP?
Let us look at one important teaching. {{Romans 6:1-7 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it, or do you not know that ALL OF US WHO HAVE BEEN BAPTISED INTO CHRIST JESUS HAVE BEEN BAPTISED INTO HIS DEATH? Therefore we have been BURIED WITH HIM THROUGH BAPTISM INTO DEATH, IN ORDER THAT AS CHRIST WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD THROUGH THE GLORY OF THE FATHER, SO WE TOO MIGHT WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE, for if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin.”}}
There is an important teaching here about baptism. Believers’ baptism shows in a practical way the change brought about by conversion. Baptism is a picture of death, being baptised into Christ's death. Verse 6 throws much more understanding on all this. When a person is baptised he goes under the water matching being buried. The old life in the flesh, that sinful flesh is dead. Then the person is raised up from the water as the picture of resurrection in a newness of life with the Christ nature.
Baptism is the public statement that the old self has been put to death and now the person walks in a new (resurrected) life. It is a most beautiful symbol of the transaction of conversion. Once I was dead, but now I am alive in Christ.
One more important thing – the teaching on baptism from these Roman verses is truly applicable just after/with conversion, not weeks or years down the track. Baptism testifies as to what happened, THEN, spiritually – being born again. How can churches refuse to teach and practise believers’ baptism when the bible is so clear about it? It really is dishonouring to God (I think). If any Christian reads this and has not been baptised through immersion, then seek out a place that will share this with you. Having been sprinkled as an infant is NOT believers’ baptism. Baptism is a step of obedience, in fact, the first step in the new Christian life.
Going right back to the heading for this section called “Membership of the Church” we are speaking of Christ's Body, the universal Church, not a local church, which is another issue. One becomes a member of the CHURCH, the Bride, the Body of Christ, through being born again (and baptism was always part of it in the New Testament).
Just before we leave this and move to Part B, I will say this about official membership of a LOCAL church, a big subject I will do at another time. In the New Testament there was no such thing as official membership or signing doctrinal statements or being entered into some church roll or being voted on by others in the church. That was not the scriptural pattern in the early church.
[B]. BAPTISM BY THE HOLY SPIRIT AS MEMBERSHIP IN THE CHURCH (BODY OF CHRIST)
The “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is controversial subject among denominations and it is not my purpose to enter into that today. Again, it is left for another time. I want to concentrate on the baptism of the Spirit in regards to Church membership, Body of Christ, and exactly what the bible says about this.
There is one very important verse here where Paul speaks of the universal Church again, meaning it applies to everyone who is saved – {{1Corinthians 12:12-14 “Even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, ARE ONE BODY, so also is Christ, FOR BY ONE SPIRIT WE WERE ALL BAPTISED INTO ONE BODY, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were ALL MADE TO DRINK OF ONE SPIRIT, for the body is not one member, but many.”}}
The Greek tense in verse 13 “we were all baptised into one Body” (AV = “are we all baptised into one body”) is the aorist tense meaning it was operation in the past, one and only, once, and finished. It does not need repeating or amending or adding to, and there is no other baptism of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit is WHOLLY for the membership of the Body of Christ; the unifying and binding operation of the Spirit that unites all members of Christ's body into one. In verse 13 water baptism is NOT what is being spoken of. This is the work of the third Member of the Trinity to bring all believers into the one Body. It is the unifying work of the Holy Spirit.
And we do have an Old Testament type for this – {{1Corinthians 10:1-4 “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were ALL under the cloud, and ALL passed through the sea; AND ALL WERE BAPTISED INTO MOSES IN THE CLOUD AND IN THE SEA, and ALL ate the same spiritual food, and ALL drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.”}}
In that Old Testament type, the whole congregation of the Israelites was unified after straggling out of Egypt in so many groups, rather disorganised, as they fled from the Egyptians. After they passed over the sea, the Lord brought them together and unified them. That, Paul sees as the equivalent of the Spirit’s baptism, as they “in type” were baptised into Moses.
[C]. THE SUMMARY
Thus we could summarise what puts a person into the CHURCH making him and her a member of the BODY of Christ, the BRIDE. Firstly there must be conversion that the bible would term being born again, regenerated, redeemed, reconciled, justified, and more also. ALL those ones saved have been baptised by the Holy Spirit right at the moment of conversion, every single one of them, to be made members of the universal Church.
Also there is another operation that happens exactly at the same time and it is the sealing of the Holy Spirit, that beautiful kindness of God to us who did not deserve it. {{Ephesians 1:13 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, YOU WERE SEALED IN HIM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”}} The Holy Spirit seals us as a pledge of a future great blessing, the inheritance that waits for us. It is like the engagement ring, which is a pledge of a marriage union. Indeed, the Church will have a marriage union mentioned in Revelation 19.
I have only brushed over these things but I trust it was meaningful as we looked at what the membership of THE CHURCH is, membership in the universal Body of Christ that is way over any membership in a local church.
Part 5 will follow on and it will deal with the Church’s elevation; its elation when it is transported to glory.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
