Correspondence: Household Baptism; The Camp

 •  4 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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Question: Referring to Acts 10:47, 4847Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? 48And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. (Acts 10:47‑48), I thought baptism did not carry us as far as the assembly, but into the kingdom on earth. The baptizing of a household could not put them into the assembly, could it? A.
The house of God is therefore larger than the body of Christ, and because entrusted to man, becomes corrupted, and answers somewhat to the kingdom of heaven in its mysterious form. It is now likened to “a great house” (2 Tim. 2:2020But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. (2 Timothy 2:20)), nevertheless God dwells in it, and will dwell in it till the Lord takes all His people home.
In Acts 10 it had not taken that character, so we can speak of it as the house of God into which they were baptized. They had been sealed the moment they believed.
Baptism does not introduce anyone to the Lord’s Table; nor is it exact to speak of our little gathering as the assembly of God, but that we are only a few—two or three—gathered where, or how, all of Christ’s members should be gathered. In that way only can we speak of ourselves as God’s Assembly.
Answer: It is significant that this scripture is in the Epistle to the Hebrews where Christ Jesus supersedes all that was of the Levitical economy, and is more in contrast with it than comparison. We find Christ in His personal and official glories far above all that was of the law. He is now crowned with glory and honor at the right hand of the Majesty on high; yet He was rejected and crucified by the Jews down here on earth.
At His crucifixion the vail of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom, signifying the setting aside of temple worship, for it was done by the hand of God; from the top where no human hand could reach, to the bottom. When Israel as a nation is restored, temple worship will again be resumed under the reign of Christ. But in Christianity, the place of worship is in the Holiest of all where the Christian enters by a new and living way (Heb. 10:19, 2019Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; (Hebrews 10:19‑20)), and his position on earth is rejected with Christ, who is, with man, still the rejected One.
Read carefully Galatians 2:19, 2019For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19‑20), and notice that Paul there is dead to the law by the body of Christ. He is crucified with Christ, and in the power of the new life in Christ, he now lives. His motive the love of Christ, “who loved me and gave Himself for me.” The Christian shares in Christ’s victories, and goes inside the vail to worship, and shares Christ’s place in rejection, and this leads him outside the camp with Christ who suffered without the gate.
The profession of Christianity, which bears the name of Christ, has in principle gone back into Judaism, and puts man under the law to produce righteousness. It recognizes man in the flesh, as if good could be found in him, when Scripture says, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6). His ceremonies, his associations, his rules, his musical entertainments are all of the camp.