Commentary on Acts 10:48

By Bob Myhan

⁴⁸And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.

“Be baptized” is the last command given to an alien sinner. By “alien sinner” is meant one who is yet outside the kingdom of God, having never been born again (John 3:3-5). Jesus told Nicodemus that a man cannot enter the kingdom without being “born again … of water and the Spirit.” In giving the Great Commission,

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16)

In the first gospel sermon preached after the descent of the Holy Spirit, Peter commanded more than 3,000 believers to

"Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38).

That they were not already saved before the command, “be baptized,” was given is evident; two verses later they still needed to be saved.

 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." (Acts 2:40)

When Saul of Tarsus saw the Lord on the road to Damascus, the following conversation took place.

So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Then the Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."  (Acts 9:6)

Three days later Jesus sent a man named Ananias to tell Saul what he “must do.” Do you want to guess what he told him? That’s right!

“Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there,  came to me; and he stood and said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And at that same hour I looked up at him.  Then he said, 'The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth.  For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.  ‘And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’” (Acts 22:12-16)

It is clear also that Saul was not saved when he was commanded, “arise and be baptized,” because he was still in his sins and was told what he “must do” to “wash them away.” Of course, the blood of Christ is “what” washes us from our sins (Rev. 1:5); but baptism is “when” the blood of Christ does it. This is the only way to make sense of the following passages.

 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,  that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word  (Eph. 5:26).

How was the church sanctified—set apart, and cleansed–forgiven? It was by the “washing of water by the word.” The word commands baptism for the washing away of sins, the forgiveness, the remission of sins or “the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,” all of which refer to the same “operation of God” (Col. 2:11-12, KJV).

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb. 10:19-22)

When would they have had their “bodies washed with pure water” if not when they had been baptized?

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-5).

In view of all the above verses, how can “the washing of regeneration” be anything other than what happens when one is “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins”?

 When Peter used the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:19) to let the Jews in, he commanded “be baptized.” (Acts 2:38) And when he used the keys of the kingdom to let Gentiles in, he again commanded “be baptized.” (Acts 10:48) Thus, “be baptized is one of “the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”

(To be continued)

Is It Just Semantics?

By Bob Myhan

If we are going to do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names let us do it. Words have meaning. We are not limited to just those words found in the Bible but we are limited to the ideas represented by the words in the Bible. More often than not, when concerned brethren try to warn others about this or that rising error, the response is something like, “It’s just semantics.” While this may be true in many cases, it is not true in every case. Please consider the following short article.

“Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers like words, phrases, signs, and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotation. Linguistic semantics is the study of meaning that is used for understanding human expression through language. Other forms of semantics include the semantics of programming languages, formal logics and semiotics. The word semantics itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to the highly technical. It is often used in ordinary language for denoting a problem of understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of understanding has been the subject of many formal enquiries, over a long period of time, most notably in the field of formal semantics. In linguistics, it is the study of interpretation of signs or symbols used in agents or communities within particular circumstances and contexts. Within this view, sounds, facial expressions, body language, and proxemics have semantic content, and each comprises several branches of study. In written language, things like paragraph structure and punctuation bear semantic content; other forms of language bear other semantic content.”

One example of a true semantics disagreement would be when one person says “He who believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (KJV) and another person says “He who shall believe and be immersed shall be saved” (Living Oracles). Both may be saying the same thing since baptism is immersion. However, if the first person thinks there are three “modes” of baptism, they are not saying the same thing, at all, because the first is not using the word according to its original [and biblical] meaning.

Another example would be one man saying baptism is “for the remission of sins” (KJV) while another says baptism is “unto the remission of sins.”

But when one says “be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins” (ASV) and another says “be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to show that you have received forgiveness for your sins” (NLT), this is not semantics. They are not saying the same thing at all. It is not a matter of “your saying po-TAY-to and my saying po-TAH-to!” One of them is wrong! According to the first the people on Pentecost needed to have their sins remitted. Hence the command to be baptized “unto the remission.” But the second implies that the people had already received forgiveness for their sins. But notice what Peter says just two verses later.

“And with many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2:40 NLT)

Thus, the people had not been saved and could not have already received forgiveness for their sins.

Another example of a disagreement that is not merely semantics is the disagreement over the Penal Substitution Atonement Theory. First it is called a theory for a reason—it originated in the mind of man NOT in the mind of God!

Now, either Jesus died on the cross as our substitute or He did not. The implication of His dying on the cross AS OUR SUBSTITUTE is that it was originally OUR PLACE to die on that cross. But dying on a cross was NEVER instituted by God as punishment for sin. The punishment for sin is spiritual death not physical death. This realization has led many who hold the above theory to state that Jesus died spiritually prior to dying physically! This is NOT semantics! It is ERROR plain and simple.

In a recent Facebook post, a certain woman preacher was called a heretic for teaching that Jesus became sin. And so she is! And yet some among churches of Christ now teach the same thing! Why are they not heretics? Is it permissible to teach heresy just because one is a member of the Lord’s church?

Calvinists would not agree with our brethren in everything, of course, but Calvinists do not always agree among themselves. There are Calvinists who insist on immersion and Calvinists who allow sprinkling and/or pouring water upon the subject. But they are no less Calvinists for this disagreement.

Yes, some are now preaching that Jesus suffered the penalty for sin. But did He receive the wages of sin? If not, how was He then our substitute? If it is argued that Jesus was our substitute like the Levites were a substitute for the firstborn of Israel and like the ram was a substitute for Isaac, it should be remembered that (1) the firstborn ones already belonged to God because he had passed over those houses where the blood was applied and (2) Isaac was the son and sacrifice of the one offering him up. If a sacrifice is necessarily a substitute for whom or what was Isaac a substitute? One should remember as well that Jesus was God’s Lamb not ours. And, if He was a substitute for us, whose sacrifice were we? Were we God’s first choice? If so, why was He going to offer us up? The truth is, Jesus was the Lamb of God from the beginning—not a substitute. &