IT IS NOT THE WATER, INDEED, THAT PRODUCES THESE EFFECTS. Water alone cannot wash away sins. Yet the water of baptism is necessary, because Christ has commanded its use, and has connected the promise of salvation with it.
BUT THE WORD OF GOD WHICH ACCOMPANIES AND IS CONNECTED WITH THE WATER.[[13]]
[Footnote 13: The story of Naaman the leper (II Kings 5:8-14) illustrates how water, the Word of God, and faith can produce great effects. It was not the water of the Jordan that cured Naaman; yet he could not have been cured without the water, because the promise of healing was connected with its use. When he believed the Word of promise and used the water as he was commanded, he was healed. So the water, the Word, and our faith, which trusts in the Word, cleanse us from the leprosy of sin.]
IT IS A GRACIOUS WATER OF LIFE, because the Word and promise of God, which are connected with it, give it power to bestow life and salvation on all who believe.
AND A "WASHING OF REGENERATION" in the Holy Ghost, because it is the means through which the Holy Ghost causes us to be "born again," as God's children.
QUESTIONS.—1. What does God do for us through baptism? 2. What may every baptized person say? 3. What benefits does baptism confer? 4. Who has acquired these benefits for you, and how? 5. Why do they become yours through baptism? 6. What has faith to do with the reception of these benefits? 7. How do we know that baptism confers all these benefits on all who believe? 8. What is to be said about those who are baptized but do not believe? 9. What is to be said about the permanence of baptism? 10. Why has baptism power to confer such great benefits? 11. Why is it a "gracious water of life," and a "washing of regeneration"?
SCRIPTURE VERSES.—Gal. 3:26, 27. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.
Acts 2:38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Rom. 6:3. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Numb. 23:19. God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?