Does immersing anybody in water automatically baptise them into Christ? Assuredly not. Would an unbeliever

who was being baptised in water be baptised into Christ? Certainly not. But these believers were baptised into His

death. There is a great stress in this context of being linked with the Lord's death. Look at verse four "we are

buried with Him by baptism unto death". The figure changes in verse five, "we have been planted together in the

likeness of His death", and then it changes again in verse six, "we have been crucified". Our old man was, (not is

crucified as in our English version) it was crucified with Him. That is to say, when the Lord Jesus Christ was

crucified, our old nature, the old man, was crucified then in God's plan and purpose. Now there is not the slightest

doubt that this verse is taking us back to Calvary. Nobody could possibly teach with truth that when someone is

immersed in water, at that moment their old nature was crucified with Christ. But when we take the whole of the

context we see the great stress of the link of the believer with Christ in His death, in His burial, in His quickening, in

His raising. Here you have something God has done, not what men choose to do. We cannot believe for one

moment that when someone decides on a certain day, at a certain time, they will be baptised by a minister, at that

moment when they choose to do it, all these things suddenly become true. These truths are only effectual when a

sinner comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and accepts Him as his Saviour. Then what happens? He learns from

Scripture that God has linked him with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, His burial, His quickening and His

raising. That is truth. Whether he goes through some rite to make it evident or not externally is quite another

Coming along further, let us turn to the Epistle to the Ephesians chapter four. Some of us are rejoicing in the

glories of this Ephesian Epistle and we know in chapter four, three great unities are stressed. Each of them is

seven-fold; the unity of the Spirit; the unity of the faith; the unity of the Body. First of all unity of the Spirit which

God has made. No believer is asked to make it or could make it. God has made it, and all we are asked to do is to

guard it faithfully, and it is described for us in verse four. There is one Body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in

one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is above all and

through all and in you all". You see "one" is the important word stressed all the way through. There is one baptism.

Now is this God's baptism or man's baptism? If you accept what God has said you cannot make it two baptisms. I

know that some people try to do so, but if they do that why not have two bodies, or two Holy Spirits or two Lords or

two Gods and Fathers? We have one God and Father, one Saviour, one Spirit and we have only one baptism.

Now then which is it going to be of all we have already considered? The reality of the Spirit linking us with the

Saviour, or the external type of water? Is it going to be the shadow or will it be the substance? This is what people

who are exercised about what they call "believers baptism" have got to face. Ephesians stresses one baptism. This

cannot be made into two, so we must choose which it is going to be out of all that we have seen in this study. Will it

be the reality which God Himself accomplishes with each of His redeemed children, or is it going to be the external

type of water immersion? Let us now turn to Colossians 2;12, "Buried with Him in baptism". This verse is often

quoted by those who are trying to prove that a believer should be immersed in water. But consider the context. First

of all please note the tremendous statement which ought to be the joy and rejoicing of every believer who belongs to

the Body, the Fulness of Christ "For in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in

Him" (verse 9). How many of God's children apprehend this for themselves? How many know that in Christ they

are complete they are as the Greek says filled full; not partially filled so that something else can or should be added!

One cannot have degrees of completeness. We are either complete in Christ or we are not. Now if we are complete

in Him, nothing can be added to that completeness without spoiling it. If one rite or one type or shadow, or even all

of them are added, then the glorious fact is being ignored that we are all sufficient in everything in Him. That is

point number one. The next fact is this; in verse eleven we have a circumcision made without hands. So it is not

literal circumcision that is meant, but the spiritual equivalent. When the Apostle wrote to the Church at Philippi he

said, "we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh". (Literal

circumcision can add nothing to a member of Christ's Body;) We have now the reality of what immersion stood for,

whether a believer has submitted to it or not, if we belong to this company redeemed by His Grace neither water

baptism adds anything to the Church which is His Body, or any other type or shadow.

Coming down further in the chapter there are other types and shadows, the foods and the drinks of the

ceremonial law that God gave to Israel, which were very important at the time the law was given. Are these binding