QUES. 1.-Please explain Acts 22:16, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord."

ANS.-Men may and do individually forgive sins. Bodies of men-corporations, nations, etc.-may also forgive an offender through their appointed agents. The Church of God also forgives offending saints in God's behalf; but all forgiveness from men has to do only with time. The Lord Jesus, and He alone, has authority to forgive sins for eternity. He has the right to do this because He has shed His blood for the remission of our sins. His atoning sacrifice on the cross reaches unto all eternity, and alone therefore cleanses from sin unto all eternity. This being so, He baptizes with the Holy Spirit every one whom He has forgiven, because His forgiveness makes that person forever perfect before God. The Holy Spirit is the seal of that perfection.

Baptism was a practice of the Jews before Christianity began. It was well understood by them as expressing divine authority. See John 1:19-25. John the Baptist used it as the sign of his authority to call the Jewish nation to repentance, and to announce the arrival of the Messiah. Christ has admitted it into His house as the sign of the authority which He has for what we have said above, and for much more. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13). Why? Because the Lord has authority and power to save.

The Jewish nation had rejected the authority of Christ over them. They had crucified Him, and Saul of Tarsus was madly pursuing the same course. The Lord, from heaven, had arrested him however. And now shall he resist further, or shall he surrender? Accepting or refusing baptism will determine that. He accepts. He surrenders to Christ. He "calls on the name of the Lord," and thus washes away his sins.

All is simple as possible. It is Christ alone who saves. Baptism is the sign of submission to Him, and had its fullest force in the beginning of Acts, where it is the Jews, who have been in open rebellion, that are in question. Making this rite a means of salvation is pure superstition. Making overmuch of it at all is Jewish. What it expresses is blessed, glorious beyond our fathoming.