To be
baptized upon the name is to be baptized on the confession of that which
the name implies: on the ground of the name; so that the name Jesus, as the
contents of the faith and confession, is the ground upon which the becoming
baptized rests. In the name (ἐν) has reference to the sphere within which alone
true baptism is accomplished. The name is not the mere designation, a sense
which would give to the baptismal formula merely the force of a charm. The name,
as in the
Lord's Prayer ("Hallowed be thy name"), is the expression of the sum
total of the
divine Being: not His designation as God or Lord, but the formula
in which all His attributes and characteristics are summed up. It is equivalent
to His person. The finite mind can deal with Him only through His name; but His
name is of no avail detached from His nature. When one is baptized into the name
of the Trinity, he professes to acknowledge and appropriate God in all that He
is and in all that He does for us. He recognizes and depends upon
God the
Father as his Creator and Preserver; receives Jesus Christ as his only Mediator
and Redeemer, and his pattern of life; and confesses the
Holy Spirit as his
Sanctifier and Comforter.
He now solemnly commissioned the apostles and his ministers to go forth among
all nations. The salvation they were to preach, is a common salvation; whoever
will, let him come, and take the benefit; all are welcome to Christ Jesus.
Christianity is the religion of a sinner who applies for salvation from deserved
wrath and from sin; he applies to the mercy of the Father, through the atonement
of the incarnate Son, and by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and gives up
himself to be the worshipper and servant of God, as the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, three Persons but one God, in all his ordinances and commandments.
Baptism is an outward sign of that inward washing, or sanctification of the
Spirit, which seals and evidences the believer's justification. Let us examine
ourselves, whether we really possess the inward and spiritual grace of a death
unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, by which those who were the
children of wrath become the children of God. Believers shall have the constant
presence of their Lord always; all days, every day. There is no day, no hour of
the day, in which our Lord Jesus is not present with his churches and with his
ministers; if there were, in that day, that hour, they would be undone. The God
of Israel, the Saviour, is sometimes a God that hideth himself, but never a God
at a distance. To these precious words Amen is added. Even so, Lord Jesus, be
thou with us and all thy people; cause thy face to shine upon us, that thy way
may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. - Matthew Henry
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