Hebrews 4:12 tells us of the ability of God's Word to divide soul and spirit. Verse 13 further explains that God's Word opens everything in our lives to Jesus' eyes. Nothing is hidden from Him. He need only speak His Word and His voice will remove any cloak. The Word, then, makes the individual naked. If Jesus' righteousness does not clothe us, we are not profiting ourselves by cloaking our nakedness in order to hide from His eyes as with a fig leaf, which Adam used to cover his shame. God looked upon Adam and seen beyond the covering of the fig leaf apron.
After clothing himself, Adam felt satisfied that his invention of the apron had solved the problem of his newly-realized nudity. Flesh could not see beyond the fig leaf. God, however, still considered him naked. God saw beyond the fig leaf.
Similarly, only a believer who is "in Christ," as the Bible puts it, is presentable as standing as clothed before God. The righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, like a covering garment, provides proper covering. The Lord sees the nakedness regardless of any other attempts of hiding which we might imagine.
The Lord removed the human product of a covering, made by Adam, and used His own incomparable ability to make one. He fashioned a covering of animal skins for the man and his wife.
There is a primary step we all must take to stand fit before God. We must move to stand in a position where we can view our relation to Him as He views it. We must see ourselves as he sees us, and not in the manner we would like to think we are seen. He desires us to realize the hindrance that "flesh" poses against our spirituality. However, simply standing under the scrutiny of God does not help our situation. God can see all whenever He chooses. We must, however, willingly allow the Lord to do something about what He sees. We must let Him perform His operation upon us. If we do not willingly ask Him, He will not impose Himself against our power of choice. This will leave us unchanged, and no further ahead. We will remain naked.
Adam had to utilize his own free will to remove himself from the bushes which hid him. He then had to face God so that God could work.
God requires a willing submission to His Spirit. Each of us must choose to serve the Lord and thereby "expose the heart" to Him. The Lord uses His words of truth to expose the heart. Adam's perception of God's voice in the cool of the day figuratively portrays this.
Before darkness enveloped the light at the end of that fateful day, God approached man with a mission to help. God questioned Adam about the man's absence. He asked, "Adam, where art thou?" The answer to this question was not meant to provide God with information. God asked the man this question so that Adam might realize something. Adam had to learn of the seriousness of the predicament he put himself into. Adam would learn the full result of his act of sin. He would learn it through God's request for him to confess his position.
Repentance is the act which removes a person from behind the bushes, and brings one before God. It is an admission of the individual of the sad position that individual is truly in without God. The individual is then in the position in which God can perform a beautiful operation upon the heart. God will remove the fig-leaf apron -- the fleshly veil. And He will clothe the heart with the covering from another life that was sacrificed for this purpose. This sacrifice must be suitable in God's eyes for this purpose. This covering will not leave us naked as did the apron. When God looks upon this covering He views us as fully clothed. The "old man" is replaced by the "new man," which is Jesus Christ's righteousness. God does not see our nakedness beyond the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills God's operation. God removes the false covering of man's design through this operation. Let us examine the wonderful work of God in the individual's experience of baptism, by first looking at Adam.
Adam was "the son of God" in Luke's account of Jesus' lineage (Luke
3:38). Jesus Christ is widely known to be God's Son. God made
Adam in the "image of God" according to Genesis 2:27. Jesus Christ
is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). The predicament of
Adam clearly reveals that Adam lost his great position. He was the
image of God. According to Romans 8:29, Christ is now God's image.
And we read of the need for the Word to conform us to that image of Christ.
Therefore, if we must be conformed to His image, we are not the full image
of God at this point. The image of God Adam once had was not
his to hand down to his children. Adam fell into sin before any of
his children were born. They inherited something other than God's
image. The Bible says Seth was born in the image of Adam, and not
God (Gen. 5:3).
Adam was given dominion over the earth at his creation. Adam
had power and authority. What God is in the spiritual realm,
Adam was in the physical realm. Had Adam not fallen, there would
have been no need for Jesus Christ to come. The Bible calls Jesus
Christ, "the last man Adam." This title reveals that He came to reinstate
the dominion over the world under a Son of God. The first Adam lost
that dominion by choice, and thus lost God's image.
Had Adam won over sin, he would not have sold us under sin. The forfeiture
of world dominion put all of mankind under a bondage.
It's as if a country's leader had a choice. He could either bow his
knee before another man and lose his authority, or remain in power over
his country. He would have the choice. The citizens, however,
would not have that choice. If the king chose to bow down and surrender
his leadership, his decision would force the citizens to live under the
new leader's power. This was exactly what Adam, lord over the earth,
managed to do.
You and I were born in the position Adam placed himself under.
Had Adam won over sin, we would have been born in a kingdom under Adam's
leadership. And since Adam did sin we are born, instead, into
bondage. This bondage is that which Adam placed himself under while
he was in the garden.
His name would have meant power and authority over the earth, but instead
it stands for bondage under sin. We are born under the position
Adam put himself under. So, we are born "in the name of Adam".
The name always stands for the position of distinction in which one stands.
A person with a good name is a man that has gained a distinction of
good standing. A leader's name implies the distinct position of power
and authority. And a leader who has lost dominion to become
a servant has a name that implies bondage. We are born in the name
of Adam - under a position in which we are bound. Mankind stands
as a failure in God's eyes. And because Adam was leader of the human
race, the ill repute of his name describes us all.
Picture Adam successfully prevailing over sin and overcoming
the offer to surrender his dominion. In such a scenario, we would
be heirs to his dominion. We could exercise authority "in the name
of Adam". Satan would obey a rebuke in Adam's name. Our
birth under the kingdom of Adam would provide us authority due to our citizenship.
Such a situation would have left Adam in union with God. And union
to God would maintain the power he was first given.
Being born in the name of Adam today, however, does not benefit us in any way. In fact it hinders a human relationship with God.
The element that brought Adam's downfall was his independence of God. God desired to unite man to the His eternal life. Consumption of the fruit from the Tree of Life would have placed God's own Spirit of eternal Life within Adam. The act of going to the forbidden tree was an attempt at gaining higher position independently of God's will. God pronounced death upon the individual who would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This declaration was not carried through in the form of punishment. We must see this as carried through as an obvious result of his action. Death would occur due to separation from God. And if you leave God, you are actually leaving Life. All that can entail such an act is death.
We are born with the inadequate clothing of Adam's independence. So the Bible says we are born dead in sin (Eph. 2:1).
This state of humanity would have all men lost without hope, had not God provided a plan for man's redemption. God's plan redeems man from the position Adam threw him into. Then God is able to begin fully conforming each believer into His image. The work of Jesus Christ made this possible.
Jesus Christ gained the authority over the world which Adam lost. In a garden, He resisted sin. Adam succumbed to sin in a garden. Jesus chose the tree God desired instead of reject the will of God as Adam rejected it. Our Lord chose the tree of Calvary. His name now means power over all. His distinction is His position of dominion.
God requires man to come out from under Adam's name to move away from Adam's domain of servitude to sin. Man is then able to enter Jesus' kingdom - Jesus' name. Man can take upon himself the name of Jesus Christ.
The manner of accomplishing this might appear a mystery to some. God's Word, however , wonderfully displays it.
In Matthew 28:18 Jesus told His disciples that all POWER was given to Him. And with that topic of conversation in mind He commanded them to go forth and teach this to all nations. He said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..." "Therefore," means, "due to this reason." They were to baptize willing candidates in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost for the preceding reason. After hearing that all power is in Jesus, the disciples would baptize people in response to this truth.
A name signifies a distinction of reputation. And all power was given to Jesus. By seeing these points we clearly realize that the baptism in Matthew 28:19 is in Jesus' name. This makes it a response to the truth of Jesus' almighty power. The issue in this portion of Scripture is power as introduced by verse 18.
Imagine that Jesus was merely a second person. Why would He reveal His position of having all power, and then tell people to respond to that truth by being baptized in the power or authority of Himself, and two other persons? If He has all power we need only immerse ourselves into the name, or power, of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it only stands to reason that the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost be Jesus. There can be no multiple personalities within the Godhead according to these verses.
If Father, Son and Holy Ghost were three persons, Jesus would have said, "All power is the Father's, mine and the Holy Ghost's." And the "therefore" would follow this with the command to baptize in the "names" of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Jesus, however, clearly defined all power as belonging to Himself. Baptism is the act which a minister performs with a person after teaching that person the truth of Jesus' Lordship. The person must then admit the lordship of Jesus. The individual must agree with Jesus' statement, "All power is given unto me." Romans 6:6 tells us that God removes the old man as the minister baptizes the individual "into" Jesus Christ. So, baptism casts away the name of Adam. The old man is Adam. It is the fleshly hindrance we have inherited from our citizenship in Adam. It is human dominion over self. Adam gained self-government over himself as he chose to follow his own will. He was supposed to follow God's will.
His power was given him due to his submission under God's power.
What comes to mind at the mention of Adam's name is his independence of God. One thinks of his error in choosing the tree from which he would feed. The name Adam reminds us, finally, of Adam's attempt to cover his nakedness with a fig leaf apron. The fig leaves represent all of Adam's failure. Therefore, we can say the casting away of Adam's name is the removal of the covering of fleshly making. We require removal of a fig-leaf apron. Paul alludes to this covering in his teaching. He explained the need to remove the veil from the heart of unbelievers.
2 Corinthians Chapter Three speaks of a veil that covers the heart of those who have not turned to Christ. When one turns to Christ the veil is done away with (vv. 15,16). Until God removes the veil, the individual's heart cannot receive the light of God's glory. The veil blinds the mind. This glory that shines forth is in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:4-6).
Paul described his personal ministry as "ministration of Spirit" as opposed to the old covenant of "ministration of condemnation". He compared his ministry to the illustration of Christ writing an epistle. The pen was the preacher and the author was Christ. The ink Christ uses is the Spirit. The material the writer writes upon is the heart of man. Having received Words of Truth applied to the heart by God's Spirit, we stand as an epistle of Christ. All who see the individual's life can read it as a letter from God.
Paul explained that the Lord is that Spirit that he ministered. We find one of the purposes in undergoing baptism in Jesus' name here. It exposes our hearts to Jesus' glory. We must expose the heart to the Spirit that the Spirit might write upon it. Baptism removes the old man, or the veil, from off the heart. This causes the heart to be open to Jesus' Spirit. Paul told us, "the Lord is that Spirit." We discover that baptism is a means of applying the Lordship of Jesus Christ over one's life.
One must obviously recognize Jesus' lordship so one might willingly expose oneself to the Spirit of the "LORD". That is what baptism accomplishes. It is an act which shows the surrender of independence. Baptism is an answer to the Lord from a good conscience. A person who does not attempt to continue hiding behind useless, manmade aprons of isolation from God has a good conscience. Without admission of one's sinfulness as one remains hidden from God, one will have a guilty conscience. Baptism is the answer of a good conscience towards God (1 Peter 3:21). The individual's choice made all right.
Paul distinctly notes "the Lord is that Spirit". This infers Jesus Christ's authority. It is accepting the lordship of Jesus Christ in exchange for the dominion of self over one's life. It is casting away the old name of Adam and having God clothe one with the name of Jesus Christ. Authority is the point of concern in the issue of baptism.
As a believer in Jesus' name baptism I am not my own any longer. When I was under the name of Adam, I was in the independence Adam chose to enter. Adam became independent of God. Self ruled my life, as Adam chose to rule his life. When a minister baptized me in Jesus' name I left a self-ruled life and submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. His victory distinctly characterized His name as the name belonging to One having all power and authority. Therefore, I accepted that authority over my life when a minister baptized me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Baptism in Jesus' name freed me from the veil of Adam's name. That name hindered the light of God from penetrating onto my heart. It was outright rebellion against God's authority, when I remained lord over my own life. Adam's name speaks of self-dominion. This paradoxically led him to bondage.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. There is liberty in Jesus' name, or His authority, as opposed to bondage in Adam. Jesus is Lord, and that means He rules. He is no servant of bondage, as was Adam. Since I am in His name, and His Name implies all power, I am in His Kingdom. His name, or position, implies not servitude, but Kingship. Therefore, I am in His kingdom when I am in His name. Adam was a sinner. So, by being in Adam's name it can be said that I am in sin - not in a kingdom.
Once I was born into Adam's "kingdom of bondage". Now I can say I've been born a second time into Christ's true kingdom of liberty. You cannot separate baptism in the name of the LORD Jesus from this truth.
His glory can shine upon our hearts once baptism in Jesus' name frees us from the veil. Your heart recognizes Him as your Lord.
Any idea of Him, separate from His Lordship, will not allow God to expose your heart to His glory. He demands you to recognize His lordship. Only by leaving self-rule and turning to Jesus will God remove the veil.
Paul said, "which veil is done away IN CHRIST." Notice the term, "in." Baptism in Jesus' name puts you "into Christ". The Bible shows baptism to be the means of removing the veil. Observe these scriptures that follow.
"For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST have PUT ON CHRIST." Gal. 3:27 "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ..." Romans 6:3a
If the veil is done away "in" Christ. And baptism is the means of putting one "into" Christ. Therefore, the veil is done away through baptism. Now that God has exposed us before Jesus' Spirit, we are receiving the light of His glory. This light is actually changing us into the same image of the invisible God which He portrayed upon the earth (2 Cor. 3:18). His authority comes forth from my life the more I receive light from the Word. And as long as I remain submitted to His lordship, the Spirit will continue to make me more like Him from glory to glory! And all the thanks goes to the opportunity Jesus gave me to have a minister baptize me in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank the Lord for the provision He has made for us to enter into the Kingdom of God. This Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached to all nations as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-19. The Gospel of the Kingdom is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is the declaration that all power is given to Him, alone!