Two Commands, One Gospel
Jesus left His churches very few rituals. He built no temple, set up no altar, and appointed no priests to offer sacrifices. He gave His people a Gospel to preach and two simple things to do: to baptize those who believe, and to eat the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of Him.
Baptists call these two acts ordinances, and the word matters. An ordinance is something Christ ordered. We keep it because He commanded it, and it pictures what He has already done. A sacrament, as the word is commonly used, is a rite that imparts the grace it signifies. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are not sacraments. Scripture never teaches that saving grace reaches a sinner through a rite.
This study stands beside two others. Believer's Baptism by Immersion explains who should be baptized and how. The Lord's Supper explains what the Table means and how to come to it. Here we ask a different question: why does a Baptist church keep these two, only these two, and why does it call them ordinances?
A practice Christ commanded and delivered to His churches, kept in obedience until He comes. It pictures the Gospel and does not give saving grace. The two ordinances are baptism and the Lord's Supper.
A religious rite regarded as imparting divine grace. Roman Catholics count seven, and most Protestants count two.
If you had trusted Christ alone and had never been baptized or taken the Lord's Supper, would you be saved? And now that you know what He commanded, would you want to obey Him in both?
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For Deeper Study
- 40 Questions About Baptism and the Lord's SupperAmazon John S. HammettA clear, readable Baptist guide to both ordinances, including who should receive them and how they relate to church membership.
- Baptist Distinctives and New Testament Church OrderAmazon Kevin T. BauderA book for church members (2012) by a fundamentalist Baptist on the convictions that shape New Testament church order.
- Manual of Church OrderAmazon John L. DaggA classic Baptist work, first published in 1858 as A Treatise on Church Order, on baptism, the Table, and their order.
- Baptist SacramentalismAmazon Anthony R. Cross and Philip E. Thompson, eds.Baptist scholars in Britain and North America argue for recovering sacramental language (2003). We differ, but it is the best place to hear that view from its own advocates.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Believer's Baptism by Immersion
Baptism is for those who have believed, by immersion, picturing the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It follows salvation; it does not cause it. Infant baptism is a later departure from the New Testament.
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