As we continue talking about baptism (I’ll get back to Acts 2:38), there is something important that needs to be said. The Bible wasn’t written to tell God what he has to do. Whether it’s about salvation, end times, heaven/hell, or the sun rising in the east, God continues to be God.
Specifically, God will have mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy. He will have compassion on whom he will have compassion. When someone asks, “Can a person in ___ condition be saved?”, answer is always yes. They can be saved. God is still God.
God has revealed to us that he cannot lie. He also does not change. But he does “repent” from punishment. It’s the story of the book of Jonah. He also forgives sin when the heart is right. Isn’t that the story of Aaron’s sons Eleazar and Ithamar? God can accept those who don’t meet all the requirements, like when David ate the showbread or when Hezekiah prayed for the people who weren’t ritually clean and God allowed them to participate in the Passover.
We need to remember how God described himself in Exodus 34:
“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6–7)
Slow to anger. Quick to forgive.
And also a God who punishes. Even as we recognize the right people have to throw themselves on God’s mercy, we have no right to preach the exceptions. Jonah preached doom in Nineveh, despite being convinced that God would show mercy. We don’t get to decide when God will extend mercy beyond what he has revealed. God retains that right. Will he do it at times? Most probably. But only when he chooses; not when I choose.
The Bible wasn’t written to tell God what he has to do. Human logic doesn’t have that power either. In the end, we have to let God be God.
Tim, your position is the same as that of J.W. McGarvey who wrote the following that was published in the December 12,1895 issue of the Gospel Advocate: “I have as little doubt that many unimmersed persons will be saved in the final day. It is not necessary, in order to contend for scripture teaching on the subject of baptism, to take the ground that God has tied his hands and put it out of his own power to grant mercy to any who have been misled in regard to that ordinance. He has bound us, but he has not bound himself, except that he is bound to do what he has promised. He has not bound himself to do no more than he has promised. Don’t injure the cause of truth by taking positions which rob God of the power to be merciful.” This is all the more meaningful given that it would be difficult to find anyone in our history who emphasized baptism more than McGarvey especially in his commentary on the book of Acts. The way I have viewed baptism for some time now is that in baptism we receive God’s assurance that our sins are forgiven and that we have received the Holy Spirit as a gift.
Well said, Tim. An illustration: I obey traffic lights. Red means stop. Yellow means caution. Green means go. However, when a real life traffic policeman in the flesh is standing in the intersection waving me through despite the red hue of the light above, I go through. In the intersection, he has authority over the signals. In a similar way, I believe the NT mandates baptism and that believers should obey the Lord in baptism. While I claim no authority to change God’s terms, I realize that there may be people or situations where He may see fit to trump the terms (at least in our perception) for special circumstances that may not seem all that special to us. He sees beyond what we see. God is the ultimate author of salvation with ultimate authority to save. He has given us His word but not His throne. He can still save who He wills as the final judge who is just and merciful at a level above my ability to grasp. We answer to Him, not He to us.
That’s a great quote, Gary. Thanks.
Joel, that’s pretty much what I believe as well.
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