Q71. Where does Christ promise that we are washed with his blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of baptism?

The words employed by Christ in the institution of baptism, which are recorded by Matthew and Mark, embody the proof of the definition, and principal ends of baptism which we have already explained, "Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Math. 28:19. Mark 16:16.) These words require a short explanation.

"Go ye, and teach all nations:" as if he would say, do not confine your instructions to the posterity of Abraham, or to particular nations; but go and teach the whole world. Christ here removes the wall which had hitherto separated the Jews from all other nations, and makes a distinction between the sacraments of the Old and the New Testament. The Old were instituted for the Jews only, but Christ here declares that baptism was not for the Jews only, but for all nations.

"Baptizing them:" that is, all those who come unto me through your teaching, and are made my disciples. The children, also, of such as come unto Christ, and are his disciples, are included amongst the number of those who are proper subjects of baptism; for these are also disciples of Christ, being born in the church, which to infants is the same as a profession of faith. The order which Christ here lays down must be observed. He commands that they should first be taught, and afterwards baptized, because he speaks of adults who might be converted to Christianity, and declares that the sacraments should not be alone, but joined with the word. The word ought to precede, and the sacraments follow in the case of adults.