Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART LXXVI
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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We have missed two days of posts due to Hurricane Sandy as we do publish this from the East Coast and from the NYC area. There is much devastation here and likely much sorrow at the loss of life and of property by the many who were in her direct path. We have been more fortunate from a physical plane perspective as we have only suffered inconvenience due to lack of power and, for our posts, loss of internet accessibility. Our prayers should go out to ALL that are suffering through this regardless of the True depth of that suffering as this is a purely personal thing which reveals that, like so many things in the Earthly Life of man, there is wide variety and much range in what causes us to suffer. While some can deal with total loss as a bump in the road, others can see having no power as a catastrophe and this ALL can be seen to reflect to some degree the state of spiritual advancement from person to person. Our prayers should be for ALL as the effect in our minds of another’s plight does not change the way that any person may feel. Here is this word prayer is great confusion as who is it that we pray to that will act on behalf of any ONE person or group? For our purposes we should see prayer as positive thoughts of GoodWill for ALL that are feeling afflicted in these times and an invocation of the Good, the Beautiful and the True as forces in this world that can render to the afflicted better feelings and thoughts for themselves. This is a complex subject which we will address in future posts.
For us this is an inconvenience and the bigger part of being separated from power and internet and television is the inability to see the plight of our brothers; but, we do have radio and can imagine what is happening by the verbal description of others. Until today, that is as today we are taking advantage of modern technology by using the cell phone as a modem for this transmission, we have had no ability to communicate and this has bee a personal burden. And, we have yet no place to work from, although we do have a place to stay with some heat, there are no furnishings and little else since we moved from this place to our new home only two weeks ago. So that we are not ignoring our own responsibilities to write and publish, we are today repeating some older essays that were randomly selected; this is a combination of two, parts 212 and 213, which closed out our series on The Miracles of Jesus.
As we continue with our journey through the gospel’ writings about baptism, we should remember that there is little if any agreement on baptism between the various denominations and sects of the church. This should tell us that there is at the same time little real understanding of the words of the Master nor of the apostle writers of the gospels and the epistles on the subject. There are no defining terms regarding baptism except for the words of the gospels calling the baptism of John a “baptism of repentance” which name is then confirmed by the Apostle Paul in making reference to it and by the Apostle Peter in saying telling new believers that they should “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” There is never a statement regarding the ending of the practice of baptism as done by John the Baptist as some of the denominations claim. Their saying that this was no longer valid after the death of Christ and basing their idea on their reading of Acts 19:3-5 seems to us unfounded. Perhaps the confusion comes from the ideas set forth in the various sayings regarding baptism and the Holy Ghost.
There is a large disconnect here between the realities of what is occurring and the thoughts of those who interpret the scriptures into the various doctrines and dogmas of the church. Much of this centers on the performance of the ritual and the technicality of the words or lack of words. Many today believe, as above, that the baptism of John is over yet the same types of baptism are still performed on millions though perhaps with different words and while some baptize in the name of the Trinity others baptize in the name to Jesus alone; there are yet others that do not believe at all in the Trinity. Wikipedia gives this encyclopedic understanding of baptism in the church today which should serve to amplify what we have been saying regarding the multiplicity of views from a secular perspective: Today, some Christians, particularly Quakers and the Salvation Army, do not see baptism as necessary, and do not practice the rite. Among those that do, differences can be found in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite. Most Christians baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (following the Great Commission), but some baptize in Jesus’ name only. Most Christians baptize infants; many others hold that only believer’s baptism is true baptism. Some insist on submersion or at least partial immersion of the person who is baptized, others consider that any form of washing by water, as long as the water flows on the head, is sufficient9. Such is the situation with the ritual practice of the baptism which is likely not the intended focus from the beginning.
We see in the scriptures the same thoughts and words being used by both the Master and the Baptist regarding repentance, the Kingdom of God and how a man should act toward other men.
We also see the word baptize used by both and although in different contexts, likely with much the same intent. We should see here that there is no ending of one’s teaching and beginning of another; both, Jesus and the Baptist are saying essentially the same things.
Returning now to the Master’s use of the word baptism in His dialogue with the brothers Zebedee we should be able to see the same ideas flowing forth as we were able to see from the use of the word baptism by John and the Master’s reference to John. We should remember also that Vincent tells us that the use of the preposition that is translated as with in most all of the sayings could as well be translated as in and in the case of “with the Holy Ghost” that it is better translated as “in the Holy Ghost” and this because the article ‘the‘ is absent in the original text (see In the Words of Jesus part 210)4. This Greek preposition en can also be translated as by and it is the translators choice based on his idea of the intended usage. To be clear on this let us look at the King James Version (KJV) usage of the Greek preposition en; according to the lexicon it is used 2782 times in the New Testament and translated thus: in 1874, by 141, with 134, among 117, at 112, on 46, through 37, miscellaneous 3212. The importance for us here is that we use the idea presented by in the Holy Ghost to help to support our interpretation of the thoughts we discussed yesterday regarding immersion as the defining term for baptism as regards the “baptism of repentance” and we seek here to carry this through to the Master’s words to John and James as well as His own comments and the comments of John the Baptist regarding the Holy Ghost. If the idea of in versus with works in the referenced setting of John 1:33, it should work in all similar usage.
Our interpretation is then the same across the uses of the word baptism and that is that it is an immersion; again not in water or any vehicle as that is just the outer ritual effect. When the idea is the ”baptism of repentance” we see this as the immersion of the consciousness into the changes that are required by one who is seeking the spiritual Life, who comes to the Lord for cleansing or remission and for repentance or change. In so coming to the baptism it is understood that the voluntary immersion into the necessary changes is the objective. This is true then with persons coming to the Baptist as they would have gone before to the priest; this was their way of approach to God and we must believe that they came in sincerity and understood the ideas behind the word baptizo. The changes from the teaching of John the Baptist to the Master should be recognized in His teaching and in the teaching of His disciples which is that a person no longer needs to go to the priest but is free to approach God on his own and to do so in sincerity. The ritual was of no real use in the Baptist’s day other than to carry over the custom of the ritual itself, it is the sincerity of the person and his willingness to be immersed in the necessary changes that made one what we now commonly call baptized. The same is true today; the variety of rituals throughout the churches are just that, rituals and it is only the person who is sincere in making the necessary changes, sincere in repentance, that is Truly baptized for he is immersed then in the change.
Carrying these thoughts forward to our subject dialogue with James and John we find the Master speaking about His own baptism, His own immersion and asking them if they too could handle this same baptism, this same immersion. Jesus says: ”Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matthew 20:22). We discussed the ideas put forth by the cup in the last post and should be able to see the relevance of this part of the Master’s question to be one of asking if they, James and John, can, as men, stand up to the trials and the tribulations that are forthcoming; He is asking if they can be strong enough to deflect the wiles of the flesh and remain in the spiritual perspective that will be required. The rest of the question is one of immersion and for the proper context we must look at the nature of the Christ. As Jesus, in the form of man on the Earth, we know that:
- “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matthew 4:1).
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“Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour” (John 4:6).
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“And, behold , there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep” (Matthew 8:24).
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“Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered” (Matthew 21:18).
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“Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:38-39)
We see here our regular human nature, He was tempted, He got weary and He slept, He had hunger and thirst and He grieved about His fate. At the same time however, we must also see that the Master was able to overcome this all:
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“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
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“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross“(Philippians 2:6-8).
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“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
He was “without sin” and “obedient to the death”, obeying the dictates of the Father, His own Spirit, and He was able to say near the end that “ I have overcome the world“. This is the challenge to James and John and likely to them all; could they live in the world as men and yet “overcome the world”? Could they be so immersed in the Spirit as He was that they could, again, deflect the wiles of the flesh and remain in the spiritual perspective that will be required. Note here how the actions are the same in drinking from the Master’s cup and enduring His baptism, His total immersion in the Spirit. And this is the essence of our interpretation of these sayings that the Master was totally immersed and this is the challenge to His disciples then and to His disciples now. All of our terms are here united; this immersion is being in His Kingdom and in His Presence; it is being accounted worthy and it is to be totally focused on the spiritual Life and the Christ Within, the Soul, it is being immersed. This all starts with the baptism of John, the “baptism of repentance for the remission of sin” as a conscious man sincerely wanting to lead a spiritual life.
We need to see the same ideas in this other saying by the Master: “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). Much like the thoughts above regarding the Greek preposition en we have in this saying the Greek word deuteronomy which is a conjunction that can be translated in a number of ways depending on the usage and the translator. The lexicon tells us that it is translated as: but 1237, and 934, now 166, then 132, also 18, yet 16, yea 13, so 13, moreover 13, nevertheless 11, for 4, even 3, miscellaneous 10, not translated 3002. Beginning this saying with and or moreover or nonetheless gives to it a different feel and better separates it from the previous thoughts. In this light we can see the greater relevance of our interpretation of immersion as well and here we should be able to see a kind of combination here of the ideas above regarding the cup and the baptism. Remembering Vincent’s thoughts on straitened in this verse as being better as constrained4 and the KJV use of pained in its footnote plus the idea of distressed from other translations, we can see that the Master speaks here of His total reliance on His immersion in the Spirit to quell the anxieties that His fate has placed upon Him as a man in form.
We have come quite far now in our look at the idea of baptism as it is used in the gospels and to some degree in the epistles but we are not yet finished. Although we have touched upon it, we have yet to see the Baptist’s and the Master’s intent in speaking of the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the additional ideas concerning fire. We will get to these things in the next post.
It is hard to understand how after nearly 2000 years so much much of the church is still encumbered by the rituals and the rites that were established by the early Church Fathers based on the scant writings of the Apostles. It is also difficult to understand how, over the centuries, that the changes wrought by each new denomination are merely changes in the how, the what and the why of doing a thing rather than the gaining of a Truer understanding of what is behind the ritual that they practice. Such is the case with baptism and such is the case with so much of the Master’s teaching where only the outer ideas, as preached through the doctrines of the churches are espoused, are given to the people thereby leaving it to them, as it was to us, to seek a deeper meaning on their own. There is oft times little clarity in the pronouncements of the Great Commission that we are discussing here as the Quote of the Day for several days now and on which we have been rather stuck on the ideas and the reality of baptism as it is intended in this passage. To get to this understanding we have been exploring the use of the word by John the Baptist, the Master and His apostles and we have come away so far with the single idea of immersion which in and of itself is not a unique perspective. However, the outer immersion is not of concern to us but the inner ideas of immersion which is not the inherent part of the teachings of the churches.
In the baptism of John we find the idea of one’s immersion into the changes that are to be wrought out in one’s life and for this reason it is called by them in that day the Baptism of Repentance. We have discovered that in this immersion comes also that part that enables one to manifest these changes and that is the remission of sins. In both the Gospels of Luke and of Mark we read it this way: that John the Baptist did “….preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Luke 3:3, Mark 1:4). We find that this is reiterated for us clearly after the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Master by the Apostle Peter who when speaking to new believers says: ”Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). We should remember the meaning of remission as regards forgiveness and especially self-forgiveness and we should remember the Master’s words regarding this as an action. First we see from the lexicon that remission means: release from bondage or imprisonment; forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty2 and we need to see this from the multiple perspectives. Self-forgiveness is that release that allows us to move forward in the Light of the Soul, the Christ Within; its opposite, which is self-condemnation, can be a severe hindrance to that Light. Second is our forgiveness of others, all others, and for all things, which is the commandment of the Christ and the price for our own forgiveness, self-forgiveness included; the Master tells us this:
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“…..if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).
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At the end of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (In the Words of Jesus part 91), the Master, speaking about the lack of forgiveness that the one servant had toward another even though he had been forgiven much by the master, says: “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses” (Matthew 18:35).
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At the end of that infamous saying by the Master that “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them“, He adds this on forgiving: ”And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:24-26).
The above is just a example of the ideas of the Master regarding forgiveness and its importance, there are many others and some that are more directly related to one’s interactions with others. These however should give us the proper ideas as to the overall importance of the act of forgiveness and its integral part in the ideas inherent in the phrase ”the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins“. In this we should understand that this forgiveness is a tool that is required to be used in order to manifest those changes in one’s Life that brings him to God and these two ideas, remission and repentance, are indelibly linked together. Before we move on here we should understand that the phraseology is a matter of language and it is often difficult to translate the ideas of one into the words of another, especially those from ancient languages whose word use is at best uncertain. Saying this we bring our attention to the preposition for in the saying that we are addressing; in the order of the saying one can get the impression that the remission is after the repentance which is contrary to what we are saying above and over the last several posts. To help us understand this let us look at the lexicon and the understanding it gives us on the use of the Greek preposition eis which we see translated here as for. First we should know that this word used 1774 times in the New Testament and is translated as into 573, to 281, unto 207, for 140, in 138, on 58, toward 29, against 26, miscellaneous 3222. Strong’s tells us of eis that we should see it as: to, toward, into; for. Spatially: movement toward or into an area (extending to a goal); logically: a marker of purpose or result; of time: extending to or up to a certain time3. Can we yet see the idea here of the order of things being dependent on our use of this word for? Although they do so for a different reason, the lexicon also gives us some additional help in understanding the order of things saying of eis that it means: into, unto, to, towards, for, among; “For” (as used in Acts 2:38 “for the forgiveness…”) could have two meanings. If you saw a poster saying “Jesse James wanted for robbery”, “for” could mean Jesse is wanted so he can commit a robbery, or is wanted because he has committed a robbery. The later sense is the correct one. So too in this passage, the word “for” signifies an action in the past. Otherwise, it would violate the entire tenor of the NT teaching on salvation by grace and not by works2. Note the reasoning that they use and note also that the subject verse is the same as we use above, the saying of Peter, but from a different bible version that translates the word remission that we see in the King James Version (KJV) as forgiveness.
This is the baptism of John, ”the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins“. Moving on then to the use of the word baptism by the Master where we still have that same idea of immersion but of a different although much related kind. John is preaching an initial contact with God or the Christ, and the Christ Within as is the Apostle Peter using the same idea preaching to what becomes three thousand new believers. John and Peter are preaching immersion in the idea of change, of repentance, while the Master is referring to His own total immersion in the Spirit and is asking James and John “can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Mark 10:38). We have noted here that the Master is here asking His disciples if they can be as He is, so totally immersed in the Spirit that the wiles of the flesh have none effect on Him. We noted also the intimate relationship between the ideas of the cup and the baptism as they both require that total immersion; that no matter what comes by, be it good or be it bad, be it the lures of worldly Life or the pangs of death, the man will stand strong in conscious union with the Soul, the Spirit, the Christ Within. This is the mark of the True disciple of the Christ and, after His question and the answer by the brothers, the Master affirms that they can and, as we know from history, they do.
We ended yesterday with the Master’s words saying: ”But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:50) and in this we said that the same idea of immersion is to be seen but from a slightly different angle. Jesus is saying that He must remain immersed in the Spirit throughout the distress and the pain of knowing what is going to be. While this overall saying is likely in reference to the suffering and the death that He must endure, the word baptism is not so directly related. We said in the last post that this phrase is a kind of combination of the ideas of the cup and the baptism from our prior saying and this is so but this should be seen in the entirety of the phrase and not as much in the meaning of the words. The baptism is still the immersion and in this context, as in the last, it is immersion into the Spirit alone and away from the thoughts of the suffering, the pangs of His own death. The baptism provides the way for the Master and for us to look away from the world of pleasure and pain.
We move on here to the only other reference, other than the Great Commission and Jesus questioning of the Pharisees, by the Master to the word and ideas of baptism and this from after His resurrection: ”And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” (Acts 1:5). Now the words here mean the same thing and that is that they will be immersed in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God’s manifested action in this world. For us the Holy Spirit should be seen as the action of the Christ Within, His power in this world as for us these names are but aspects of the One God and there is no real separation into different entities. Before we go further on this we should say that it is a difficult thing to understand, this story from the Book of Acts regarding what happens to the apostles and disciples at Jerusalem, and we will not venture too far into this here today except to say that this can be seen much like the ideas that we put forth regarding the intercession by the Lord and His agents that are intended to help ensure that the Great Plan of God moves in His desired way. Here that Plan is the beginning of the church as it was intended to begin.
The Master is here telling His apostles that they “….ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” which, in our interpretation is simply immersed in the Spirit. Now it is likely that these men are already close to or perhaps even in this state of being but, as we have seen in previous posts, they can still find reason to doubt and to fall away from their charge as they did while He was with them before and after the crucifixion. Many things happened, most notably to Peter of whom we have testimony to read; they witnessed great miracles and even performed some of their own but yet they were never so immersed in the Spirit that they could totally deflect the wiles of the flesh. We discussed these things in the beginnings of this series on The Miracles of Jesus which started at In the Words of Jesus part 189 and it should be clear to those who been reading this that the apostles were at that point where they believe on the Master, which we know as following Him and keeping His words, but they were not yet to that place of immersion, that place where they would doubt not to the degree necessary to be considered baptized as the Master. We must remember here our understanding that the idea of to believe and to doubt not is covered in our word to KNOW and it is in this reference that we should see that place where the Master asks if we can “be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?“. So, with the help of whatever intercession there will be, these apostles and assembled disciples will come to this point, by degree, where they doubt not in their conscious personalities because they are sufficiently immersed in the Spirit. Somewhere in this dynamic is found that place where one will KNOW as that grain mustard seed and will be able to move the mountain as well.
Can we see in the intermingling of the words and the thoughts and ideas that all of this is speaking about the same things and that it starts with believing on the Master, following Him and keeping His words which we can liken to the baptism of repentance and that from this point it grows by degree. Can we see too that it is by degree that the Apostles were able to heal and to cure many of the people’s afflictions and it is perhaps by a greater degree that they could raise the dead and by yet a greater degree that they could heal by their proximity as did Peter after this intercession noted above and after the promise of the Master that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. In our saying from Acts above we find also that idea of the “promise of the Father” which we should see as the a promise of and from our Spirit selves and, in the context that we have here, the promise is the baptism. It is to this end that these men have worked and labored in their time with the Master and it is for this purpose that they are there with Him. We must remember that there are no accidents and that the careful planning of this Great Drama brought these Souls to Jesus in the outward form of the apostles and likely in such a way that they do not completely understand. They are still in that place where they must continue to overcome the flesh. Hence the promise of the Master and hence the intercession, the insurance of the working of the Plan, and hence the working out of that Great Plan. Vincent tells us this about the word promise in this context: ”the promise” that it is signifying a free promise, given without solicitation. This is the invariable sense of the word throughout the New Testament, and this and its kindred and compound words are the only words for promise in the New Testament. Vincent then shows the Greek words that would imply a promise in response to a request noting that this word does not occur4 in this context. Can we see that the promise is the free flowing power of the Christ Within filling their consciousness and immersing them in this power which is the Holy Spirit?
We come now to our final point regarding the Great Commission and the act of baptizing. Using our understanding above we should see that the intent here is that the baptism of John will be used, ceremonially if necessary, to bring new disciples into the ranks. This instruction is clear but the idea of what is a disciple is sorely misplaced and the voluntary action of wanting to be immersed in the change of one’s Life, away from the carnal and toward the spiritual, is many times lacking. However, it is a start, this ceremonial baptism, that may encourage one to think more of the spiritual Life and to allow the Christ Within to be heard and from this perspective the practice is of value. This value is lost however if the ideas of the reality of baptism are not taught nor understood by those doing the baptizing; the act become much like the washing of cups and pots; a ceremony of little or no meaning. Is there much difference between the Master’s rebuttal of the practice of washing, called baptizing, of cups and dishes and the strictly ceremonial baptism of persons? Can we see how the placement of these discussions into the theme of the Miracles of Jesus is appropriate insofar as it is through both of these baptisms that the disciples, and us, can come to that point where we can do what it is that we can believe we can while no doubt concerning those things?
We realize that this has been rather lengthy but seeing that we did miss two days, it is worth the reading.
We hope to continue our normal writing in the next post.
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
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9 Wikipedia contributors. “Baptism.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 23 Jan. 2012.
