681. V. THE SECOND USE OF BAPTISM IS, THAT THE CHRISTIAN MAY KNOW AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE REDEEMER AND SAVIOR, AND FOLLOW HIM.
This second use of baptism, which is to know and acknowledge the Lord, the Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ, inseparably follows the first, which is introduction into the Christian church and insertion among Christians in the spiritual world. And what is this first use but a mere name unless the second follows? Is it not really like a subject who attaches himself to a king, and yet repudiates the king's laws or those of the country, and yields allegiance to a foreign king and serves him; or like a servant who binds himself to some master, accepting his livery as a token thereof, and then runs away and serves another master in the livery of the first; or like a standard-bearer who runs away with the standard and cuts it in pieces, throwing the pieces in the air or under the feet of the soldiers to be trodden upon? In a word, to have the name of being a Christian, that is, of belonging to Christ, and yet not acknowledging and following Him, that is, living according to His commandments, is a thing as empty as a shadow, as smoke, or as a blackened picture; for the Lord says:
Why call ye Me, Lord, and do not the things that I say? (Luke 6:46, seq.).
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord; and then will I profess unto them, I know you not (Matt. 7:22, 23).