NOT TO BAPTIZE, BUT TO PREACH.

In the book entitled “When Critics Ask” Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe wrote: “Paul separates baptism from the Gospel, saying, “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel” (1 Cor. 1:17). But it is the Gospel which saves us (Rom. 1:16). Therefore, baptism is not part of what saves us.” (Geisler et al., 2004). 1 Corinthians 1:17 has been used by the faith only advocates to teach that baptism is not part of God’s scheme of redemption.

However, the question that is often asked is what does 1 Corinthians 1:17 really teach? It will be right to remind ourselves that – a text out of its context is a pretext.

1 Corinthians was written by Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to correct the schisms that troubled the church of Christ at Corinth.

In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul said, “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” The party lines were drawn around preachers and those who baptized them. “Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” 1 Corinthians 1:12-13.

In the midst of rebuking this divisive practices, Paul said, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.” 1Corinthians 1:17. There are two issues that the faith only teachers overlook when it comes with the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 1:17.

Firstly, if baptism is not part of the gospel of Christ, then Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15-16 does not belong to Holy Writ. For in Matthew 28:19, Jesus sent His apostles (Paul included), “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” In Romans 6:3-4, the Paul who is misrepresented as divorcing baptism from the gospel said, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”(cf Colossians 2:12). Paul stated that baptism is a re-enactment of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

Secondly, Paul is talking about the one doing the dipping and not the act. His point is, he (Paul) is not charged to personally immerse people. After preaching someone can do the baptizing. The word translated ‘baptize’ in the text is from the word ‘baptizein’ which literally means ‘to be dipping’. In the Word Pictures of the New Testament, A.T Robertson translated this verse as – ‘For Christ did not send me to be a baptizer.’ So the emphasis in the passage is on the man doing the act and not the act itself. Paul clearly is saying that the emphasis is not one doing the baptizing but the act of baptism.

The Baptist theologian G.R Beasley-Murray correctly observed, “Baptism is secondary to the proclamation in that it depends upon it and embodies it; but as it is the God-ordained mode of faith’s appropriation of the gospel and of God’s appropriation of the believer, it can never be said to be second rate importance. It is therefore a caricature of Paul’s teaching to place baptism on a level with “the wisdom of words.”” (Beasley-Murray, 2006)

When we allow the Bible to have its complete say, baptism is perfectly woven in the fabric of God’s scheme of redemption.

WORKS CITED

Geisler, N.L. and Howe, T.A. (2004) in When critics ask: A popular handbook on Bible difficulties. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, p. 428.

Beasley-Murray, G.R. (2006) in Baptism in the new testament. Eugene, Or., New York: Wipf & StockPublishers, pp. 180–180.