Can Sin-Soiled Souls Be Dry-Cleaned?

A man was speaking with a friend and said, "I was standing in the park wondering why Frisbees get bigger as they get closer. Then it hit me." That God’s plan to save man includes water baptism has never "hit" some people. Millions proclaim a waterless plan for forgiveness of sins that would "dry clean" the souls of sinners. But that won’t wash. British theologian and Bible commentator John Stott noted in his commentary on ROMANS that baptism in the New Testament "means water unless in the context it is stated to the contrary." A sampling of passages follows. In Matthew 3:16, after Jesus had been baptized at the hands of His forerunner John the Baptist, Matthew records, "When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water." Jesus had no sin on His soul, but to "fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15b), He was nevertheless baptized in water. In John 3:23 we read that John "was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there." No ambiguity there. Beginning at Acts 8:26 Philip the evangelist encountered and preached Christ to "a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the Queen, who had charge of all her treasury (v 27)." Philip "preached Jesus to him" (v 35). A close examination of the record in Acts 8 reveals that Philip began his sermon about Jesus in Isaiah 53:7-8 where it was prophesied Jesus would die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Beginning there Philip explained the gospel to the eunuch. Then, in the very next verse in Acts 8:36, the Bible said, "Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water.’ What hinders me from being baptized?’" Philip didn’t hinder him, and he didn’t teach him to say "the sinner’s prayer," or just "believe and receive and pray Jesus into his heart." Rather he simply told him in verse 37, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." After the eunuch confessed Jesus as the Son of God, "both Philip and the treasurer went down into the water, and he baptized him," and then they "came up out of the water." Not a hint here that Philip believed or taught the widespread modern twist on the gospel plan that baptism is only a "an outward sign of an inward grace." Symbol or not, the apostle Peter slams any notion that sinners can be dry-cleaned without water baptism. In 1 Peter 3:20-21 he discussed Noah and the flood and said that "a few, that is eight souls were saved through water." He goes on to say, "There is also an antitype which now saves us – baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good consciecne toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

Someone objects, "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." Right you are. But exactly when does the blood of Jesus save? Romans 6:3 provides the Bible’s answer – "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" Christ’s blood was shed at His death on the cross. To benefit from His death, we have to gain access to His blood. The New Testament does not teach sinners to be dry-cleaned. It teaches the blood of Christ washes our sins away. And it teaches baptism is where we reach that blood. "And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16). Why not think about it?

--Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN