Paul says, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." This does not imply that this grace has appeared to all men in the same way and fulness, but it does imply that it appears to every conscience with sufficient fulness to bring salvation if listened to and obeyed.[138]
He now stands at every door and knocks; if we open the door he will come in and sup with us.[139] If we love him he will abide with us; but we must heed his gentle knocks, his still, small voice, and open the door.[140]
Churchmen say: The visible church, comprising persons good and bad, saints and sinners, is the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Heaven, and that the door of entrance is water baptism duly administered.[141]
Paul tells the Corinthians, the Gallatians and the Ephesians, each in nearly the same language, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Of fornication, wrath, strife, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, Paul says: I tell you plainly, they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, goodness, temperance, etc. Again, he says the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.[142]
By Paul's whole teaching those who yield the fruit of the spirit—love, joy, peace, &c., are the inheritors of this heavenly kingdom and the unrighteous are rejected.
Again Paul says: Some of those Corinthians who were once unrighteous were washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God. He said they were not inheritors of this kingdom while they were unrighteous.[143]
Membership in the visible church at Corinth did convey this inheritance.[144] They had to be washed, sanctified and justified (not in water, but) in the name or power of the Lord Jesus and in the spirit of our God. They had to be washed in the Spirit of our God before they could enter his kingdom.[145]
In four of Paul's epistles he recognizes the Spirit at the door of entrance to this kingdom. He mentions it seven times in ten verses in this connection, but nothing whatever about water baptism.[146]
Paul knew of no door to this kingdom by way of water baptism or he would have told us of it, for this door and how we may enter is just what Paul was emphasizing.