the notion that the expression refers to the Church, whether visible (according to the
Roman Catholic view) or invisible (according to c ertain Protestant writers).79 'The
Kingdom of God,' or Kingly Rule of God, is an objective fact . The visible Church can
only be the subjective attempt at its outward realisation, of which the invisible Church is
the true counterpart. When Christ says,80 that 'except a man be born from above, he
cannot see the Kingdom of God,' He teaches, in opposition to the Rabbinic representation
of how 'the Kingdom' was taken up, that a man cannot even comprehend that glorious
idea of the Reign of God, and of becoming, b y conscious self-surrender, one of His
subjects, except he be first born from above. Similarly, the meaning of Christ's further
teaching on this subject81 seems to be that, except a man be born of water (profession,
with baptism82 as its symbol) and the Spirit, he cannot really enter into the fellowship of
that Kingdom.
79. It is difficult to conceive, how the idea of the identity of the Kingdom of God with the
Church could have originated. Such parables as those about the Sower, and about the Net
(St. Matt. xiii. 3 -9; 47, 48), and such admonitions as those of Christ to His disciples in St.
Matt. xix. 12; vi. 33; and vi. 10, are utterly inconsistent with it.
80. St. John iii. 3.
81. in ver. 5.
82. The passage which seems to me most fully to explain the import of baptism, in its
subjective bearing, is 1 Peter, iii. 21, which I would thus render: 'which (water) also, as
the antitype, now saves you, even baptism; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the inquiry (the searching, perhaps the entreaty), for a good conscience towards God,
through the resurrection of Christ.' It is in this sense that baptism is designated in Tit. iii.
5, as the 'washing,' or 'bath of regeneration,' the baptized person stepping out of the
waters of baptism with t his openly spoken new search after a good conscience towards
God; and in this sense also that baptism - not the act of baptizing, nor yet that of being
baptized - saves us, but this through the Resurrection of Christ. And this leads us up to
the objective aspect of baptism. This consists in the promise and the gift on the part of the
Risen Saviour, Who, by and with His Holy Spirit, is ever present with his Church. These
remarks leave, of course, aside the question of Infant-Baptism, which rests on another
and, in my view most solid basis.
In fact, an analysis of 119 passages in the New Testament where the expression
'Kingdom' occurs, shows that it means the rule of God;83 which was manifested in and
through Christ ;84 is apparent in 'the Church;'85 gradually develops amidst hindrances ;86
is triumphant at the second coming of Christ87 ('the end'); and, finally, perfected in the
world to come.88 Thus viewed, the announcement of John of the near Advent of this
Kingdom had deepest meaning, although, as so often in the case of prophetism, the stages
intervening between the Advent of the Christ and the triumph of that Kingdom seem to
have been hidden from the preacher. He came to call Israel to submit to the Reign of
God, about to be manifested in Christ. Hence, on the one hand, he called them to
repentance - a 'change of mind' - with all that this implied; and, on the other, pointed
them to the Christ, in the exaltation of His Person and Office. Or rather, the two
combined might be summed up in the call: 'Change your mind', repent, which implies,
not only a turning from the past, but a turning to the Christ in newness of mind.89 And
thus the symbolic action by which this preaching was accompanied might be designated
'the baptism of repentance.'