Wednesday, August 26, 2026
“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Psalm 119:9 KJV).
If our physical posterity could augment its spiritual dexterity, exactly what would that entail?
Saul/Paul was water baptized because all prior believers in Jesus Christ had been water baptized. Ananias, a believing Jew, expected him to be water baptized as a sign of cleansing (Acts 9:15-18; Acts 22:12-16): Ananias was unaware of any dispensational change, having no idea Saul/Paul really did not need a water baptism. Saul/Paul had not yet heard from the Lord about water baptism being needless, so he did not object to his water baptism. Actually, that water baptism was useful many years later when appealing to unsaved Israel with his sermon of Acts chapter 22 (Acts 22:16). No absence of water baptism could be used to discredit him or make him seem to be an unbeliever to them.
Indeed, Paul water baptized some converts (Acts 16:14,15,31-33; Acts 18:8; Acts 19:5), but we emphasize that this was the exception rather than the standard procedure. He water baptized Lydia and her household, the Philippian jailer and his household, the Corinthians, and roughly a dozen Jewish men in Ephesus. Remarking on the Corinthians, the Apostle actually expressed thanks to God he had not water baptized them all (1 Corinthians 1:13-17). Their petty partisanship or devotion to cliques was silly because Christ did not send him to water baptize anyway! Water baptism was only something Paul underwent and did during the Acts transitional period.
The Lord through Paul never commands us to be water baptized or to water baptize anyone. Rather, at the end of Acts, his provoking ministry to Israel over, he writes how “one baptism” is all that we need (Ephesians 4:5). This is the “baptism” of 1 Corinthians 12:13, the only baptism that God recognizes today and the only one that counts for eternity. Nevertheless, denominationalists mindlessly cling to Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Acts 8:36-38, Acts 10:47,48, and so on—as though these are the Dispensation of the Grace of God committed to our Apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:2). Why? Their churches simply could not survive unless they keep using verses from the prophetic program. How comfortable they are with their traditions of men, their non-rightly-divided Scripture, their imperfect understanding of God’s will for them….
333 Words of Grace 