Daniel Denham
The statement above is found in 1 Corinthians 1:17, and was penned by the apostle Paul. It has often been abused by some to try to “prove” that baptism is unessential to salvation. In his debate with V.E. Howard, Julian Pope, a Baptist preacher, maintained, for example, that Paul taught here that baptism was not in any sense part of the Gospel, which is God’s power unto salvation, and therefore baptism was not essential to salvation.1
But is that really the case? Is that what Paul had in mind when he penned this passage?
An Axiom in Biblical Hermeneutics
God’s word is truth (John 17: 17). The Bible must be harmonious with itself. The law of non-contradiction will not permit contradicting propositions to both be true at the same time and in the same relationship. The application to biblical hermeneutics is obvious. If the Lord taught that one must be baptized in order to be saved, and that this is true for the entire gospel age and for every accountable person, then neither Paul nor any other inspired writer teaches to the contrary. God cannot lie (Heb. 6:18). Neither does His word teach contradictory doctrines.
Any view of the Bible, or any interpretation of it, which implies a self contradiction must of necessity be false. If the Bible affirms that baptism is essential to one’s salvation under these parameters, then it must be the case that 1 Corinthians 1:17 does not teach to the contrary. In Mark 16:15-16 and Matthew 28:18-20 water baptism is presented by the Lord as part of the gospel and its message. Their constructions show that water baptism precedes salvation. Acts 2:38 couples repentance and baptism together with a coordinating conjunction and points each to the same stated purpose— “the remission of sins.” It is obvious that one cannot be saved without having his sins forgiven. Water baptism, like repentance, is essential to one’s salvation.
The preaching of the gospel involves preaching water baptism. The Bible in Acts 8:35 declares how Philip preached Jesus unto the Ethiopian eunuch. The query of the eunuch about baptism in the very next verse implies that Philip had preached about it! If baptism is not a part of the Gospel, then Philip sinned. If Philip did not sin, then baptism must be a part of the Gospel.
The Case of the Corinthians
Paul teaches that the Corinthians had been begotten through the gospel (1 Cor. 4:15). Luke’s record says of tlie salvation of the Corinthians that, when they “heard” the word (Gospel), they “believed, and were baptized” (Acts 18:8, emphasis mine, HDD). They obeyed what they heard. How else would they have learned about baptism, if Paul had not preached on it? Paul, thus, was not saying that baptism is not apart of the Gospel in any sense, but rather he was contrasting the preaching of the Gospel and the act of baptizing.
Despite the fact that Paul did not baptize all of the Corinthians, but only a few, the fact still remains that all of the Corinthians who believed were baptized, and that Paul did baptize some of them himself! The implication is that someone else did the baptizing of those whom Paul did not personally baptize. Silas and Timothy were present with Paul at one point during the work at Corinth (Acts 18:5ff.). Some of those whom Paul did baptize could have also aided in performing the baptisms of others (1 Cor. 1:14-16).
The Text in Question
If baptism were not at all a part of the gospel, then why did Paul baptize some? Such a position implies that Paul knowingly violated the restriction that he enjoins! It has him doing something lie was commanded not to do! Paul did baptize some. Did he sin in doing so? Did he teach them about baptism, and if not, then how did they learn about it, and why did he baptize them anyway, if they were not even to be taught about it as part of his preaching?
Paul employs in 1 Corinthians 1:17 a figure of speech from a form of litotes known as meiosis, where one thing is lessened in order to emphasize the greater.2 The preaching of the Gospel is greater than the act of baptizing in that without the former the latter would be powerless toward one’s salvation. One could be dipped a thousand times, but without faith in the Gospel message while being baptized, he would still be lost! His obedience to the Gospel, however, is consummated in the act of baptism. One cannot be saved without obedience to the Gospel (Matt. 7:21-27; Heb. 5:8-9; 1 Peter 1:22-23; Rev. 22:14). Baptism’s validity depends upon the Gospel message and the other obligations which precede baptism. Paul, therefore, is not denigrating baptism, as some assume, but is stressing the need for the preaching of the Gospel.
The apostle, contextually, was dealing with the division that was prevalent at Corinth. The “party spirit,” wherein various members were saying, “I am of Paul, or I am of Cephas (Peter), or I am of Apollos, and so on” had a strong hold on many. Paul’s response was to point out that no one was baptized “in [his] name.” The Greek preposition here is eis, “into.” New Testament baptism is “into” (eis) the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28: 19). It involves, therefore, the entering “into” a special relationship with the Godhead through the door of baptism that heretofore the individual has not enjoyed. Baptism is also administered “in (en) the name of Jesus Christ” meaning “by the authority of Jesus Christ” (cf, Acts 2:38). Those who are thus baptized are now identified with him (cf., Acts 8: 16 where eis is used of this change of relationship relative to Christ)—they wear His name (hence “Christians”). They have “put [Christ] on” in baptism (Gal. 3:26-27), and they are buried and raised in relation to his own death, burial, and resurrection through that same act (Rom. 6:3-5; Col. 2:12). Paul stresses the Gospel’s importance by showing that baptism was not administered in his name, and that, in fact, he had baptized very few (though he had baptized some and others had baptized the rest). This latter point shows that it was folly for the Corinthian brethren to be professing that they were “of Paul,” when in reality they should all have gloried in being “of Christ,” the central figure of the Gospel!
Conclusion
1 Corinthians 1:17, then, is a text that explicitly proclaims the importance of the preaching of the Gospel, and that implicitly teaches the necessity of the right kind of baptism.
End Notes
1 Julian Pope, The Howard-Pope Debate, (Delight, AR: Gospel Light Publishing Co., 1954), p.2 1.
2 Daniel Denham, “Euphemism, Litotes, and Pleonasm,” Rightly Dividing the Word: Volume II -Special Hermeneutics, edited by Terry M. Hightower, (San Antonio, TX: Shenandoah Church of Christ, 1991), pp.269-270
