When you go back to the Old Testament as justification for a practice, James warns that you can’t just pick your favorite commands. The Old Testament is a package. If you claim justification by one command, you must also accept all other commands. “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law<\/i>” (James 2:10-11).<\/p>\n
Abraham lived under a different covenant that had different terms. Yes, Abraham was justified by his faith, but it wasn’t by his faith alone. “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only<\/i>” (James 2:20-24).<\/p>\n
Let us take one example: Abraham was required to be circumcised. “This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. … And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant<\/i>” (Genesis 17:10-11, 14). It should be clear that Abraham would not have been justified if he had not been circumcised. Yet today, under the law of Christ, circumcision is no longer required. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace<\/i>” (Galatians 5:1-4).<\/p>\n
Notice that Paul applies the same rule James expressed. If you use a part of the covenant, you have to accept the consequences of keeping all of the covenant. But the old covenant of Moses was before the saving sacrifice of Christ. To go back to that old covenant is to reject Christ’s sacrifice; hence, you end up falling from the grace of God’s gift to mankind.<\/p>\n
Yes, baptism did not exist under the old law. But then, neither did Christ’s sacrifice, and without Christ’s sacrifice, you cannot be saved.<\/p>\n
“Corresponding to that,\u00a0baptism now saves you<\/strong>–not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience–through the resurrection of Jesus Christ<\/strong><\/i>” (I Peter 3:21).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: In Romans chapter 4 it talks about Abraham being saved by belief.\u00a0 “For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3).\u00a0 \u00a0Did they baptize in the Old Testament?\u00a0 Nowhere that I have read.\u00a0 Now you might say that baptism wasn’t required in Old Testament days,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[23,52,268],"class_list":["post-2040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-abraham","tag-baptism","tag-old-testament"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38682,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-redemption-in-christ-an-examination-of-romans-319-521\/","url_meta":{"origin":2040,"position":0},"title":"The Redemption in Christ: An Examination of Romans 3:19-5:21","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sean P. Cavender Paul indicted all people, both Jew and Gentile, as guilty of sin before God (Romans 3:19). It is due to man's ungodliness that the wrath of God is revealed, and He will judge all sin as worthy of death (Romans 1:18,32). The reality of sin is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61195,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/works-in-the-book-of-romans\/","url_meta":{"origin":2040,"position":1},"title":"Works in the Book of Romans","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irvin Himmel via\u00a0Truth Magazine\u00a0XXIII: 2, pp. 43-45, January 11, 1979 Frequently Paul mentions works or deeds in his epistle to the saints at Rome. Whatever he means by \"works,\" the term expresses something opposed to grace and faith. He insists that justification does not find its source in works.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14702,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-romans-49-12-indicate-that-we-are-saved-prior-to-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":2040,"position":2},"title":"Does Romans 4:9-12 indicate that we are saved prior to baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you explain why Romans 4:9-12 does not indicate that we are saved prior to baptism? I am not sure how to put the answer into words for an acquaintance that insists that he was saved prior to baptism regardless of clear passages of Scripture. Thank you! Answer: When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20009,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-you-work-to-become-more-righteous-is-it-true-you-are-not-accepting-gods-righteousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":2040,"position":3},"title":"If you work to become more righteous, is it true you are not accepting God’s righteousness?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Jeff, A friend posted this on Facebook. I've read it over and over, and I just can't grasp what is being said. I'm always skeptical when a writer only quotes one Bible verse when he has so much to say. Sounds to me like a false doctrine or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42364,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-justification-through-faith-is-a-sinner-forgiven-when-he-prays\/","url_meta":{"origin":2040,"position":4},"title":"Is justification through faith? Is a sinner forgiven when he prays?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Mr. Hamilton, I was reading your article on\u00a0the NIV\u00a0and I found it very informative! I just want to start off by saying thank you I had no idea there were a few discrepancies I needed to be aware of. With regards to this, I had a question. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15877,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-and-works-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2040,"position":5},"title":"Faith and Works (Sharp)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Sharp The doctrine of salvation by faith alone is fundamental to Protestant theology. The old Methodist Discipline stated, \u201cWherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.\u201d The Standard Baptist Manual, by Edward T. Hiscox teaches, \u201c... the great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}