The Gospel According to the Baptists

Galatians 5:1-13; Mark 12:28-34

          The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees our religious freedom, something we must never take for granted.  It states that the U. S. Congress cannot make any laws respecting an establishment of religion.  In other words, Congress cannot favor one religion over another.  It also says that Congress cannot prohibit the free exercise of our religious beliefs.  They cannot meddle in the affairs of our church or of our hearts.

It wasn’t always this way.  There was a time when kings and popes dictated the religious beliefs of the people.  The masses were mostly uneducated and ignorant.  So bishops and priest thought for them, interpreted the Bible for them, and prayed to God on their behalf. It was on this day, October 31, in 1517 that a young monk named Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, calling for radical reforms in the Church.  Luther insisted that his conscience was not captive to the dictates of the king or even the pope.  His conscience, his said, was captive only to the Word of God.  Luther’s actions lit a fire that swept across Europe, igniting the passion of the Protestant Reformation.  The people rose up from their pews and demanded reform.  Like Luther, they insisted that their conscience too was captive only to the Word of God.

          It was near the end of the Reformation that Thomas Helwys, one of the first Baptists, said this: 

For men’s religion to God is between God and themselves. The king shall not answer for it. Neither may the king be judge between God and man. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews or whatsoever it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.

          It was another Baptist, Isaac Backus, who said this: 

Religious matters are to be separated from the jurisdiction of the state, not because they are beneath the interests of the state but, quite to the contrary, because they are too high and holy and thus are beyond the competence of the state.

          Yet another early Baptist, John Leland, spoke these words: 

Every man must give an account of himself to God, and therefore every man ought to be at liberty to serve God in that way that he can best reconcile it to his conscience. If government can answer for individuals at the day of judgment, let men be controlled by it in religious matters; otherwise let men be free.

          Please indulge me with one other.  George W. Truett, a Baptist champion of religious liberty, spoke these words in 1920 standing on the East Steps of the U. S. Capitol:

Baptists have one consistent record concerning liberty throughout all their long and eventful history. They have never been a party to oppression of conscience. They have forever been the unwavering champions of liberty, both religious and civil. Their contention now, is, and has been, and, please God, must ever be, that it is the natural and fundamental and indefeasible right of every human being to worship God or not, according to the dictates of his conscience, and, as long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others, he is to be held accountable alone to God for all religious beliefs and practices. Our contention is not for mere toleration, but for absolute liberty.

          Our Baptists forefathers and mothers were driven by a passion to be free before God.  They were convinced that the human conscience is accountable to God alone.  Therefore, civil authorities had no business arresting people whose religious beliefs were not orthodox.  People had a right not to belong to the state sponsored church, even to be an atheist if they truly were.  They believed that heavy-handed clergy should not interfere with the individual and his or her relationship with God.  They believed that for faith to be real it had to be freely chosen.  Forced religion, they maintained, was no religion at all.

          Fellow Baptists, that is the spiritual cradle that rocked Baptists.  Dissent.  Floggings in the town square.  Prison. Struggle. Demand for freedom of conscience.  Insistence on genuine spiritual experience.  Regardless of the consequences—including death—they sounded a call for freedom in Christ before God Almighty led by the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  That is so fundamental to Baptist identity we could call it the gospel according to the Baptists, and we today are a part of that honorable lineage.

          It is appropriate to ask where this passion for freedom came from.  It came from their personal experience with the Bible.  The invention of the Gutenberg press put the Bible in the hands of the people in languages they could read and understand.  Finally, the faithful in the pews could read and interpret the Bible for themselves.  They found a message in the Bible that was different from the one given to them by the priests and bishops.  They read these words of Jesus spoken to a group of Jewish people who knew what it meant to be enslaved in Egypt and then enslaved to the Law:

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

          Then they turned to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, considered by many to be Paul’s greatest defense of freedom, and read these words:

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

          Paul was addressing one of the first heresies to face the early church.  A group of itinerate preachers came through Galatia preaching a gospel different from the one Paul preached. These itinerate preachers likely were Jews who had converted to Christianity and carried into Christianity their commitment to the Law of Moses.  To be a good Christian, they taught, you also must be a good Jew.  So, if you were a Gentile, like the people of Galatia, and you wanted to be in the church, you had to convert to Judaism first.  Males had to be circumcised. They had to keep the Jewish festivals and holy days. They had to keep the Law of Moses.  In chapter two, Paul calls these itinerate preachers “false brethren.” He says they secretly came in to “spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us.”  This is what Paul wrote to the Galatians: “we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.” 

          And what was the truth of the gospel that Paul wanted to remain for them?  It is this: that a person is saved by grace through faith, not by obedience to the Law.  Paul had already been down that road of salvation by works.  He learned painfully that he couldn’t be good enough to be good enough.  He knew there was no end to the demands of the Law.  So Paul reminded them of the message that stands at the center of our faith: “For freedom Christ has set us free.”  And then Paul cautioned them, “Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  Don’t go back to what didn’t work.

          That is what the early Baptists read when they opened their Bibles.  John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, who founded the first Baptist church in 1609, and others were beaten, imprisoned, and died for that freedom in Christ.  When Helwys was cast into Newgate Prison, John Murton became the leader of the Baptist church.  He too was tossed into Newgate.  He died there in 1626. 

The story of Baptists in those early days reads like a horror story.  Beatings.  Imprisonment.  Death.  It looked like the Baptist voice might be snuffed out.  But not so.  By 1650, just twenty-four years later, at least forty-seven General Baptist churches existed in England.  In 1639 Roger Williams started the first Baptist church in “ye wilderness,” as they called America. I have worshiped in that church; it’s in Providence, Rhode Island. There would be no silencing the Baptist voice, and here is why: the human conscience longs to be free.  God made us free.  Christ set us free.  And Baptists died to remain free.  They would say that nothing less than the gospel itself is at stake.

We are living in a different time now.  Smyth and Helwys would not recognize some of the practices that carry the name Baptist today.  I feel certain they would disavow the legalistic, manipulative, and creedal expressions of Baptist faith today.  They would have nothing to do with Baptists who try to force their faith on others.  And they would cringe when they hear us say, “I’m embarrassed by the name Baptist.”

A great challenge is placed in our lap today.  We have a heritage to be proud of.  Blood just like yours and mine has been shed to forge a Baptist identity of freedom in Christ and respect for the honestly held convictions of others.  I wonder how many of our forefathers and mothers died in prison for that?  I wonder what that cumulative number of years in prison would be?  I wonder how many were flogged in the town square. How many had possessions taken away?  How many were run out of town or disowned by family?  Those numbers are now lost to history.

On this Reformation Sunday, let us all resolve to be informed Baptists and authentic expressions of our Baptist heritage.  We are Christians first, yes.  Let there be no mistake about that.  But we are Christians who have chosen a tradition named Baptist to express our faith.  It is characterized by dissent, imprisonment, struggle, demand for freedom of conscience, and insistence on genuine spiritual experience.  Regardless of the consequences, let us sound a call for freedom in Christ before God Almighty led by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. For that is the gospel according to the Baptists.

Closing Prayer

 Lord, we are humbled when we consider the sacrifices of those who have gone before us.  For us, freedom is taken for granted.  Remind us that treasures not guarded can become treasures lost.  Amen.