Conversion ii / Baptism
… you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
(I Cor.6:11)
In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self, ruled by the flesh, was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
(Col.2:11-12)
Over the years at MIE I’ve preached, spoken and written several times about why infant baptism is entirely Biblical, why sprinkling is at least as valid a form of baptism as immersion (if not actually more so, Biblically speaking) and why our baptisms aren’t somehow made more valid if I have previously confessed faith in Jesus, or perhaps already been a Christian for several years (this in spite of oft repeated claims to the contrary from certain sectors of the Church). Rather than rehearse the arguments for ‘who?’ and ‘how?’ again here, I want to focus more on the question of ‘what?’. We tend to be so engrossed in the former two questions that we often forget to ask the third except at the most superficial levels.
The imagery of baptism is not limited to the idea of ‘washing’ or ‘cleansing’ (though it certainly includes this as we’ll see later, though also Acts 22:16, I Cor.6:11, and likely a poetic parallel in Acts 16:33). It embraces our inclusion in the Church (I Cor.12:12-13); our ‘ordination’ into the priesthood of all believers (Heb.10:19-22, with all its evangelistic connotations, Rom.15:16); new birth (Jn.3:5); the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Matt.3:16, Acts 1:5, I Cor.12:13); judgement (Mk.10:39, Matt.3:11); unity (Eph.4:3-4) to name but a few. But underpinning them all and making them all valid is the deeper reality pointed to: identification with, or better, union with Christ. Baptism signifies, exhibits and proclaims the truth that at regeneration we are engrafted ‘into’ Christ, and through Him into the other members of the Godhead (thus Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48 are not at odds with the fully Trinitarian ‘Name’ of Matt.28:19).
What this means in real term is that a relationship is forged and established with the One into whom we are baptised that is so profoundly intimate that it becomes our defining identity (hence Gal.3:27-28, ‘…all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’). It defines our history, our present and our future.
When we become Christians, we aren’t simply ‘let off’ our sin. Baptism gives us a profound insight in to the mechanics of salvation. We are united with Christ in His judgement, in His death (Rom.6:3), in His burial, and thus in His judgement. The point is not that we ‘escape’ judgement for sin, but that in Christ we have already been judged, and having passed through that experience, we are now anticipating a (bodily) ‘resurrection like His’ (Rom.6:5). As Paul goes on to explain, because we have already (spiritually) died we are no longer under the power or the condemnation of the Law. This is the basis of his later appeals for assurance and holiness in the Epistle to the Romans. We have died to sin and so variously we are no longer slaves to it, but are freed from it, and cannot continue to live in it any longer! We are to remind ourselves (and each other) of this colossal reality, and to think of ourselves constantly in these terms (Rom.6:11). Paul is not espousing some form of ‘positive thinking’, or advocating that if we think it we become it. Rather he is reminding us of the truths conveyed in our baptism! This is the reality of who and what we are. We are reminded of this every timed we see a baptism in Church, or every time we remember we are baptised.
It was this awareness of the import of baptism that led Martin Luther, when he was aware he was being tempted, to carve into his desk ‘Baptizatus sum’ (Latin, I am baptized). Note that this is in the present tense, it is an ongoing state of being, not merely a historical event. He repeatedly counselled his congregation in a similar vein: ‘The only way to drive away the Devil is through faith in Christ, by saying: ‘I have been baptized, I am a Christian’’. It was also Luther who captured the sense of union with Jesus: ‘For that purpose Christ instituted holy baptism, thereby to clothe you with his righteousness. It is tantamount to his saying, My righteousness shall be your righteousness; my innocence, your innocence. Your sins indeed are great, but by baptism I bestow on you my righteousness; I strip death from you and clothe you with my life’.
Questions
Why do you think the crossing of the Red Sea in the Exodus was seen as a baptism (I Cor.10:2)? Can you think of other baptisms in the OT?
Why do you think John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptised, and why does Jesus insist He must be (see Matt.3:13-17)?
How important do you think Baptism really is? Is it possible to be a Christian without being baptised? What would you say to someone who said they were a Christian, but had never been baptised?
Read I Peter 3:18-22
What is going on in I Peter 3:19-20?!? Who do you think Jesus preaches to?
How does the water of the flood symbolise baptism (v.21)?
Does Baptism always mean what Peter says it means (v.21)? What happens if someone is isn’t a Christian, or who doesn’t become one, is baptised?
Why is a ‘clear conscience towards God’ so important (v.21)? Do you think this is an experience that should be enjoyed by every Christian?
What does it mean to say that ‘It (i.e. the water of baptism) saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (v.21)?
Why does Peter now introduce the Ascension of Christ, and His rule over ‘angels, authorities and powers’ (v.22)? What has that got to do with baptism?
How does Peter’s teaching on baptism lay the groundwork for his teaching on a godly attitude to suffering (3:13-18 & 4:1-2)? …and for living ‘for the will of God’, rather than ‘evil human desires’ (4:2)?
Memory Passage:
[W]hen the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7
For further reflection:
The living God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, or to use the language of the creed, ‘of all things, seen and unseen’. We have a propensity to forget this, and to relegate our faith to the ‘spiritual’ realm. There is something about sacraments that help us to remember that the physical and spiritual (better: seen and unseen) aspects of creation belong together, and that the Spirit doesn’t bypass the ‘physical’ in His work, but embraces it and works through it. He uses tangible, external elements to teach us and spiritually nourish us.
He teaches us to take certain physical actions seriously because when they are met with faith, they become, by the Spirit, the arena of the Church’s encounter with Jesus. Those physical actions are ordained in the life of the Church by Jesus. Augustine said there were countless ‘sacraments’ in that all aspects of the physical world function – at least potentially – to exhibit the truth about Jesus. But in the unique context of corporate Christian worship, we restrict ourselves to those commanded by Christ, and by them life, meaning and truth are conveyed to us. We are understandably sceptical about those who see nothing but earthly things and who assume they have total significance, but there is an equal danger in treating earthly things as if they had no significance at all.
But as we celebrate sacraments in the life of the Church we are given a much more sophisticated vision for the truly Spiritual nature of the physical.We hear a whisper of how the seen and unseen aspects of creation will be re-integrated in the renewal of all things (Matt.19:28).What we do with physicality matters.It is as much a part of our reality – present and future – as the spiritual dimensions.
