the right way - bubba garner

The Right Way

by Bubba Garner
Southside Church of Christ
Pasadena, Texas

I have no sense of direction. There—I said it. It took me years of faking it, pretending I knew where I was going, refusing to ask for directions, but I am finally able to admit what Melissa has known since we first met. In fact, she always tells me that if I just go the opposite of what my instincts are, that will most likely be the right way. And then I’ll say, “but it just seems that we should be going the other way.”

Two times in the book of Proverbs, Solomon wrote, “there is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12; Prov. 16:25). The ways of man are constantly at war with THE way of God. Our path seems right; His path is right. His way leads to eternal life, our way to self destruction. Anyone who seeks another path to heaven, even though it may seem right to them, will only end up lost.

Concerning salvation from sin, Jesus, the Way, said “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). Notice how such a simple statement, that which is right, can easily be altered into that which seems to be right.

“He who believes and is baptized SHALL NOT be saved.” In other words, you can believe whatever you want to believe, you can be baptized as many times as you can hold your breath, it won’t matter in the end. There is no God, there is no heaven or hell, there is no salvation or sin. This way seems right to many men because it means that they’re not accountable to anyone nor do they have to conform to any moral standard of right and wrong.

But God is the giver of life and of life eternal. Just as He set the whole world in motion, He authored a plan by which men can be saved from their sins. And the wise man’s conclusion about man’s whole duty while on the earth is to “fear God and keep His commandments” (Eccl. 12:13-14). There is no greater commandment to keep that to obey Jesus’ words of salvation.

“He who DOES NOT believe and is NOT baptized shall be saved.” Seem right? Sure, if you think that God doesn’t care what you believe or what you practice. Since everyone is going to be saved, since everyone is going to heaven anyway, why worry about what He said in the Bible?

God does desire all men to be saved. But the same verse says He desires all men “to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3). The truth of God, the gospel, tells us what is right. Any other gospel, even if it seems right, is wrong.

“He who DOES NOT believe and is baptized shall be saved.” Some people are baptized because it “seems right” to do it. They might do it to satisfy their parents or to get the preacher off their back or to please their spouse. But Jesus said that baptism must be done out of faith, what Peter called “an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1 Pet. 3:21). Any other way is just turning a dry sinner into a wet sinner.

“He who believes and is NOT baptized shall be saved.” If we went down to death row and told the prisoners, “he who admits to their guilt and writes a letter of apology will be pardoned,” do you think there would be any confusion or misunderstanding or misinterpretation? Why then, when we are sentenced to die in our sins, do we not believe and obey Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell (Matt. 10:28)? Leaving out any part of the commandment turns it from something that is right into something that seems right.

“He who believes and is SAVED shall be BAPTIZED.” It just seems right for some to put salvation before baptism. But that’s not the way Jesus said. That’s not the order Peter put the words in either (Acts 2:38). Baptism was the point at which Saul’s sins were washed away (Acts 22:16). Baptism is what puts us in connection with the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3).

You can change the words, but it doesn’t change the fact that He said them. What you can change is your will and the way that you’re going. It’s the right thing to do.