Monday, August 28, 2006
Infant Baptism
Genesis 17:1-14
8/22/06 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
We’ve come to the second of the two-part sermons on baptism. I trust that most everyone who heard last Sunday’s message on the meaning of baptism would not have had difficulty with what they heard. Baptism is a sign and seal of the gospel. The four primary elements of the gospel signified are the washing away of sin by Christ’s blood, the union we have with Christ, being identified under God’s covenant, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I had affirmed that baptism does not save an individual but only signifies the inner baptism of the Holy Spirit that actually saves. One other point I made was that baptism served as the opportunity for the individual to publicly profess faith in Jesus Christ. You may recall the image I gave of Jesus drawing a line in the sand and calling his followers to cross over.
All the more reason then, I should have left many of you baffled particularly given the individuals baptized this morning. We did not baptize anyone capable of professing faith, and most of them couldn’t crawl across a line. How can we square the meaning of baptism with the practice of baptizing the very individuals incapable of professing faith nor of demonstrating that the inner baptism of the Holy Spirit has taken place? To answer that question, we need to explore more fully as I promised the concept of being identified under God’s covenant.
Text
It all goes back to Abraham and the story in Genesis 17. Follow along with me:
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
God made with Abraham a covenant. A covenant is a binding agreement that establishes a relationship between two or more persons or parties. God made a binding agreement with Abram that he would be the God of Abram and his descendants and they in turn his people. Abram would have many descendants, indeed, so many that Abram’s name would be changed from Abram (which means “exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”).
Note who all he is to be a father to; this is very important. Both verses 4 and 5 say that he is to be the father of a multitude of nations. In verse 6 God says that he will make Abraham into nations. Again, this is very important because God is making clear that the covenant he is making with Abraham will be extended to other peoples, and not just to the one nation that will come from his bloodline.
Besides lots of people, Abraham gets land as well. It is the land of Canaan that God originally called Abraham to leave his home around the Euphrates to come live in. Even so, what God intends eventually to happen is for the whole earth to be Abraham’s inheritance. The multitude of nations are not going to squeeze into the little land of Canaan. The covenant blessing begins there and then spreads throughout the earth.
What we are speaking of here is the kingdom of God. God is establishing his kingdom with Abraham. It will extend through him to his blood descendants. They will eventually be made into a nation through Moses, and as such are to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6). The Law is given to them for that very purpose, to distinguish them as a people belonging to God. What then? Eventually, from that bloodline of Abraham the Redeemer will come who raises the covenant to a new level. He fulfills all the conditions of the covenant, even taking the punishment due the people for their failure to keep it, and then extends it beyond Abraham’s bloodline to his spiritual-line.
What do I mean by that? I mean that we who believe in Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer are also considered the descendants of Abraham, and that covenant made with him now applies to all those – Jew and Gentile alike – who believe in Jesus. The covenant made with Abraham, and thus to the Jews his descendants, is the same covenant that now includes us. Let’s go on with our text.
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
God gives something for Abraham and his offspring to do. They are to keep the covenant by taking upon themselves its sign. They are to display the covenant on their bodies through circumcision. God has promised blessing; Abraham and his household are to bear testimony to the promise. They are to bear testimony that they believe the promise made.
Again, this is very important. Circumcision bears testimony, first, to the promise made, and, second, to the faith that believes. It is a sign that God has promised to bless Abraham and through him to bless the nations. It is also a sign that Abraham believed the promise and a call for his offspring to also believe. So, generation after generation every Jewish male born is circumcised as a sign of the covenant. Each pair of parents bringing their child forward was being faithful to this command: Remember the covenant. I am your God and you are my people. Teach your children these things and raise them as my people belonging to me.
Who is to be circumcised? Read on.
12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
Who? Every male. When? When they are but eight days old. Why? To bear witness to the covenant and that it is everlasting. How important is this? If he is not circumcised he is to be cut off from his people. Did the Jews understand circumcision’s importance? Consider this: Only once is it noted that they went a generation without circumcision. That was during the forty year period of wandering in the desert. After that, they have a clean record. They are accused of breaking every commandment of the covenant except this one. They are accused of being hypocrites – being circumcised outwardly but not inwardly – but though they are guilty of forgetting the Sabbath, committing idolatry, and neglecting the Passover feast, they do not neglect this one.
New Testament
Let’s move to the New Testament. Jesus Christ has come, the promised Redeemer. The Bible refers to his work as mediating a new covenant. Does that mean God scrapped the covenant with Abraham and wrote a new one with Jesus? No, just the opposite. After the covenant with Abraham, comes the covenant with the Israelites that was made through Moses. That second covenant was simply a way to apply Abraham’s covenant to the nation of Israel. God says to them, “I am your God because of the covenant I made with Abraham. Here is how you are to live as my people.” Then he gives the commandments. With Jesus he does the same thing. He rewrites not the covenant with Abraham, but the one made through Moses. In that sense, Jesus mediates a new covenant. He provides a new way for the covenant with Abraham to be fulfilled.
Jesus is the promise of the covenant with Abraham. He is the one who takes the covenant to that new level I was speaking of, that new level which includes Gentiles who believe on his name. Did God, then, leave us with a sign to bear testimony to the covenant? Yes. Is it circumcision? No. Why? Because Jesus fulfilled that sign by becoming our circumcision. Verse 14 indicates what circumcision means. The one bearing the sign takes upon himself the judgment if he fails to keep the covenant. Just as the foreskin is cut off from the flesh, so shall he be cut off from God’s kingdom. What happened? Everybody, every single member of God’s covenant broke it. Jesus came and on the cross became our circumcision. He took the judgment and was cut off. Colossians refers to Jesus’ atoning work as the circumcision of Christ (cf Colossians 2:11-14). Just as we no longer sacrifice animals because he was our sacrifice, so we do not circumcise (for religious reasons) because he was our circumcision.
What then is the sign of the new covenant? It is baptism. All who are baptized are now bearing witness to the promise fulfilled in Christ and to the faith in Christ of God’s covenant people. Remember, we said this about circumcision, that it bears testimony, first, to the promise made, and, second, to the faith that believes.
Do you see where we are going with this? Baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of the covenant between God and his people. And just as circumcision was applied to the offspring of Jewish parents, so baptism is applied to the offspring of Christian parents.
Did I just make an extra long leap? Remember the objections I raised at the beginning. If baptism is to have the meaning I presented, which can be summed up as the saving work of Christ expressed in the gospel, how then can we apply baptism to infants who can neither profess faith or display evidence of belonging to God’s covenant?
These are fair questions. I think a helpful way to address them is to visualize your asking them to the first Christians who were Jews. In what context would they have understood Jesus and his work? In the context of the covenant. What would they have presumed about baptism? Would it not be to pass the sign of the covenant on to their children? What? Don’t give this sign to our children? Why not?
What would you tell them? Would you tell them that baptism does not save? They knew that, just as they knew that circumcision did not save. They knew the warnings of Jeremiah:
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds” (Jeremiah 4:4).
They understood that being under the sign of the covenant meant cursing rather than blessing for those who bore it and yet did not believe and follow God.
But that’s just it, you might say. Baptism is a sign of faith and babies are incapable of having faith. Remember, though, that circumcision also was a sign of faith. That is what assures us that we are children of Abraham. Listen to Romans 4:9-12:
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Let’s consider this matter of faith using Abraham as our case study. We have already seen that Abraham was circumcised because he exercised faith. If he had not, he never would have been circumcised. That certainly applies to anyone of age to believe. If one is capable of believing but does not believe, it would be a mockery of the sign to baptize him. But then, what instruction is Abraham given? To then circumcise all those in his household, i.e. those for whom he is responsible. The circumcision, then, was not a sign of Isaac’s faith when he was born, but of the faith he was expected to embrace as a member of God’s covenant people.
Let’s return Peter at his famous Pentecost sermon. The people are convicted and ask what they must do. Peter tells them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then he adds: For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself (Acts 2:38, 39).
Now don’t you think that when the Jews heard Peter, his words sounded like those that God said to Abraham? And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. What else would they think except that they are now responsible to include their children in the new covenant sign?
If the covenant of Abraham is the same covenant that we have in Christ; if circumcision was the sign of the covenant before Christ and baptism now the sign after Christ; if circumcision was the sign of faith in the covenant and baptism is the sign of faith in the covenant of Christ; if infants were circumcised because they were children of the covenant, then it seems natural to include our children in baptism.
To think further about this, what would those in the ancient world naturally assume about baptism such as Lydia and the jailer, both in Philippi, whose households were baptized? We have to ask ourselves if the difficulty we have equating households baptized with including young children and infants might have something to do with living in a modern Western culture. Would a first-century Jew or Gentile be struggling with this concept? Would their perspective be closer to ours centuries later whose head of a family says, “As for me, I will serve the Lord; my children will have to speak for themselves”; or would their perspective be closer to Joshua’s centuries earlier, who said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15)? With whom would they identify more closely?
Conclusion
I have laid out as best I can in a short period of time why Presbyterians baptize their infants. I hope you have taken this for what it is – an explanation for our beliefs and not a debate. I think the members of Tenth can attest that however important and convicted both those who believe in infant baptism and those who hold only to believers’ baptism are about this subject, there is a far greater concern that we all share. It is expressed well by the psalmist in Psalm 78:5-7:
He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments…
Whether we include our children or not in the sign of the covenant; whether we regard our children as regenerated or not (a question debated among infant baptists); what we all understand is that our children must set their hope in God. We who believe (parents and all believers in the church) must teach our children not to forget the work of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but to keep the commandment to believe in him and to live for him. They must make their own profession of Jesus Christ, whether you believe that they do so as fulfilling the sign of baptism or that they do so in order to receive the sign. They cannot put their trust in a sign regardless of when they received it if they do not embrace the gospel of Christ. And whether you think failure to embrace the gospel makes them covenant breakers or keeps them outside the covenant, such failure invites the judgment of God.
We should all be able to say with the parents who brought their children for baptism this morning that we unreservedly dedicate the children of this church to God, and promise, in humble reliance upon divine grace, that we will endeavor to set before them a godly example, that we will pray with and for them, that we will teach them the doctrines of our holy religion, and that we will strive, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that they should set their hope as we do in Jesus Christ.
8/22/06 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
We’ve come to the second of the two-part sermons on baptism. I trust that most everyone who heard last Sunday’s message on the meaning of baptism would not have had difficulty with what they heard. Baptism is a sign and seal of the gospel. The four primary elements of the gospel signified are the washing away of sin by Christ’s blood, the union we have with Christ, being identified under God’s covenant, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I had affirmed that baptism does not save an individual but only signifies the inner baptism of the Holy Spirit that actually saves. One other point I made was that baptism served as the opportunity for the individual to publicly profess faith in Jesus Christ. You may recall the image I gave of Jesus drawing a line in the sand and calling his followers to cross over.
All the more reason then, I should have left many of you baffled particularly given the individuals baptized this morning. We did not baptize anyone capable of professing faith, and most of them couldn’t crawl across a line. How can we square the meaning of baptism with the practice of baptizing the very individuals incapable of professing faith nor of demonstrating that the inner baptism of the Holy Spirit has taken place? To answer that question, we need to explore more fully as I promised the concept of being identified under God’s covenant.
Text
It all goes back to Abraham and the story in Genesis 17. Follow along with me:
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
God made with Abraham a covenant. A covenant is a binding agreement that establishes a relationship between two or more persons or parties. God made a binding agreement with Abram that he would be the God of Abram and his descendants and they in turn his people. Abram would have many descendants, indeed, so many that Abram’s name would be changed from Abram (which means “exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”).
Note who all he is to be a father to; this is very important. Both verses 4 and 5 say that he is to be the father of a multitude of nations. In verse 6 God says that he will make Abraham into nations. Again, this is very important because God is making clear that the covenant he is making with Abraham will be extended to other peoples, and not just to the one nation that will come from his bloodline.
Besides lots of people, Abraham gets land as well. It is the land of Canaan that God originally called Abraham to leave his home around the Euphrates to come live in. Even so, what God intends eventually to happen is for the whole earth to be Abraham’s inheritance. The multitude of nations are not going to squeeze into the little land of Canaan. The covenant blessing begins there and then spreads throughout the earth.
What we are speaking of here is the kingdom of God. God is establishing his kingdom with Abraham. It will extend through him to his blood descendants. They will eventually be made into a nation through Moses, and as such are to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6). The Law is given to them for that very purpose, to distinguish them as a people belonging to God. What then? Eventually, from that bloodline of Abraham the Redeemer will come who raises the covenant to a new level. He fulfills all the conditions of the covenant, even taking the punishment due the people for their failure to keep it, and then extends it beyond Abraham’s bloodline to his spiritual-line.
What do I mean by that? I mean that we who believe in Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer are also considered the descendants of Abraham, and that covenant made with him now applies to all those – Jew and Gentile alike – who believe in Jesus. The covenant made with Abraham, and thus to the Jews his descendants, is the same covenant that now includes us. Let’s go on with our text.
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
God gives something for Abraham and his offspring to do. They are to keep the covenant by taking upon themselves its sign. They are to display the covenant on their bodies through circumcision. God has promised blessing; Abraham and his household are to bear testimony to the promise. They are to bear testimony that they believe the promise made.
Again, this is very important. Circumcision bears testimony, first, to the promise made, and, second, to the faith that believes. It is a sign that God has promised to bless Abraham and through him to bless the nations. It is also a sign that Abraham believed the promise and a call for his offspring to also believe. So, generation after generation every Jewish male born is circumcised as a sign of the covenant. Each pair of parents bringing their child forward was being faithful to this command: Remember the covenant. I am your God and you are my people. Teach your children these things and raise them as my people belonging to me.
Who is to be circumcised? Read on.
12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
Who? Every male. When? When they are but eight days old. Why? To bear witness to the covenant and that it is everlasting. How important is this? If he is not circumcised he is to be cut off from his people. Did the Jews understand circumcision’s importance? Consider this: Only once is it noted that they went a generation without circumcision. That was during the forty year period of wandering in the desert. After that, they have a clean record. They are accused of breaking every commandment of the covenant except this one. They are accused of being hypocrites – being circumcised outwardly but not inwardly – but though they are guilty of forgetting the Sabbath, committing idolatry, and neglecting the Passover feast, they do not neglect this one.
New Testament
Let’s move to the New Testament. Jesus Christ has come, the promised Redeemer. The Bible refers to his work as mediating a new covenant. Does that mean God scrapped the covenant with Abraham and wrote a new one with Jesus? No, just the opposite. After the covenant with Abraham, comes the covenant with the Israelites that was made through Moses. That second covenant was simply a way to apply Abraham’s covenant to the nation of Israel. God says to them, “I am your God because of the covenant I made with Abraham. Here is how you are to live as my people.” Then he gives the commandments. With Jesus he does the same thing. He rewrites not the covenant with Abraham, but the one made through Moses. In that sense, Jesus mediates a new covenant. He provides a new way for the covenant with Abraham to be fulfilled.
Jesus is the promise of the covenant with Abraham. He is the one who takes the covenant to that new level I was speaking of, that new level which includes Gentiles who believe on his name. Did God, then, leave us with a sign to bear testimony to the covenant? Yes. Is it circumcision? No. Why? Because Jesus fulfilled that sign by becoming our circumcision. Verse 14 indicates what circumcision means. The one bearing the sign takes upon himself the judgment if he fails to keep the covenant. Just as the foreskin is cut off from the flesh, so shall he be cut off from God’s kingdom. What happened? Everybody, every single member of God’s covenant broke it. Jesus came and on the cross became our circumcision. He took the judgment and was cut off. Colossians refers to Jesus’ atoning work as the circumcision of Christ (cf Colossians 2:11-14). Just as we no longer sacrifice animals because he was our sacrifice, so we do not circumcise (for religious reasons) because he was our circumcision.
What then is the sign of the new covenant? It is baptism. All who are baptized are now bearing witness to the promise fulfilled in Christ and to the faith in Christ of God’s covenant people. Remember, we said this about circumcision, that it bears testimony, first, to the promise made, and, second, to the faith that believes.
Do you see where we are going with this? Baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of the covenant between God and his people. And just as circumcision was applied to the offspring of Jewish parents, so baptism is applied to the offspring of Christian parents.
Did I just make an extra long leap? Remember the objections I raised at the beginning. If baptism is to have the meaning I presented, which can be summed up as the saving work of Christ expressed in the gospel, how then can we apply baptism to infants who can neither profess faith or display evidence of belonging to God’s covenant?
These are fair questions. I think a helpful way to address them is to visualize your asking them to the first Christians who were Jews. In what context would they have understood Jesus and his work? In the context of the covenant. What would they have presumed about baptism? Would it not be to pass the sign of the covenant on to their children? What? Don’t give this sign to our children? Why not?
What would you tell them? Would you tell them that baptism does not save? They knew that, just as they knew that circumcision did not save. They knew the warnings of Jeremiah:
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds” (Jeremiah 4:4).
They understood that being under the sign of the covenant meant cursing rather than blessing for those who bore it and yet did not believe and follow God.
But that’s just it, you might say. Baptism is a sign of faith and babies are incapable of having faith. Remember, though, that circumcision also was a sign of faith. That is what assures us that we are children of Abraham. Listen to Romans 4:9-12:
Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Let’s consider this matter of faith using Abraham as our case study. We have already seen that Abraham was circumcised because he exercised faith. If he had not, he never would have been circumcised. That certainly applies to anyone of age to believe. If one is capable of believing but does not believe, it would be a mockery of the sign to baptize him. But then, what instruction is Abraham given? To then circumcise all those in his household, i.e. those for whom he is responsible. The circumcision, then, was not a sign of Isaac’s faith when he was born, but of the faith he was expected to embrace as a member of God’s covenant people.
Let’s return Peter at his famous Pentecost sermon. The people are convicted and ask what they must do. Peter tells them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then he adds: For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself (Acts 2:38, 39).
Now don’t you think that when the Jews heard Peter, his words sounded like those that God said to Abraham? And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. What else would they think except that they are now responsible to include their children in the new covenant sign?
If the covenant of Abraham is the same covenant that we have in Christ; if circumcision was the sign of the covenant before Christ and baptism now the sign after Christ; if circumcision was the sign of faith in the covenant and baptism is the sign of faith in the covenant of Christ; if infants were circumcised because they were children of the covenant, then it seems natural to include our children in baptism.
To think further about this, what would those in the ancient world naturally assume about baptism such as Lydia and the jailer, both in Philippi, whose households were baptized? We have to ask ourselves if the difficulty we have equating households baptized with including young children and infants might have something to do with living in a modern Western culture. Would a first-century Jew or Gentile be struggling with this concept? Would their perspective be closer to ours centuries later whose head of a family says, “As for me, I will serve the Lord; my children will have to speak for themselves”; or would their perspective be closer to Joshua’s centuries earlier, who said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15)? With whom would they identify more closely?
Conclusion
I have laid out as best I can in a short period of time why Presbyterians baptize their infants. I hope you have taken this for what it is – an explanation for our beliefs and not a debate. I think the members of Tenth can attest that however important and convicted both those who believe in infant baptism and those who hold only to believers’ baptism are about this subject, there is a far greater concern that we all share. It is expressed well by the psalmist in Psalm 78:5-7:
He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments…
Whether we include our children or not in the sign of the covenant; whether we regard our children as regenerated or not (a question debated among infant baptists); what we all understand is that our children must set their hope in God. We who believe (parents and all believers in the church) must teach our children not to forget the work of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but to keep the commandment to believe in him and to live for him. They must make their own profession of Jesus Christ, whether you believe that they do so as fulfilling the sign of baptism or that they do so in order to receive the sign. They cannot put their trust in a sign regardless of when they received it if they do not embrace the gospel of Christ. And whether you think failure to embrace the gospel makes them covenant breakers or keeps them outside the covenant, such failure invites the judgment of God.
We should all be able to say with the parents who brought their children for baptism this morning that we unreservedly dedicate the children of this church to God, and promise, in humble reliance upon divine grace, that we will endeavor to set before them a godly example, that we will pray with and for them, that we will teach them the doctrines of our holy religion, and that we will strive, by all the means of God’s appointment, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that they should set their hope as we do in Jesus Christ.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Baptism
Acts 2:37-41
8/20/06 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
In the church spiritual health survey taken last March, you will recall the first section of questions addressing doctrine. The result was rather impressive. All the subjects received no less than 92% agreement with the church, except for one – infant baptism, which 64% affirmed. And so that is my purpose for preaching on the subject of baptism these two Sundays. Today I will be giving a general introduction to the sacrament of baptism. It is next Sunday that the specific subject of infant baptism will be addressed.
I should make two comments before we get started. One, the elders of Tenth do not measure spiritual health by one’s view of infant baptism. Commitment and spiritual maturity are not equated with equated with this doctrinal position. Secondly, let us remember that this morning we have gathered to worship God. I am called of God to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is what you are to be listening for.
Let’s begin with the morning text:
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Surely this text shows the importance of baptism in the life of the church. The first instruction given to those who would turn to Christ is “Repent and be baptized.” What then is the meaning and role of baptism?
The Sign
Baptism signifies the gospel. This is the promise for you. Though it is a simple act, it communicates the comprehensive message of the gospel. There is the washing away of sin through the atonement of Christ, our union with Christ, our entry into God’s covenant, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
The Atonement of Christ
First, there is the washing away of sin through the atonement of Christ. This is the clearest message conveyed in this sacrament. The answer given to Question 69 of the Heidelberg Catechism expresses this well: “Christ appointed this external washing with water, adding thereto this promise, that I am as certainly washed by his blood and Spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away.”
This concept of washing or cleansing from sin originates in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 36, God promises the house of Israel that he will restore the exiles, bring them back to their land, and…"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you" (25).
This concept of sprinkling was ingrained in the Jewish conscience as a symbol of cleansing or sanctifying. Worshippers bringing a sin offering would be anointed with the blood of the sacrifice to make atonement for sin and the altar sprinkled with that same blood (Leviticus 4:6, 17; 14:16, 27). When Aaron and his sons were set apart as priests of the Lord, they were sprinkled with blood (Leviticus 8:30). When David prayed to God in Psalm 51:7, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow,” he was thinking of the ritual of being sprinkled with the sacrifice’s blood by use of a hyssop branch. Sprinkling with water was also known. When the tribe of Levi was set apart for the Lord, the Levites were sprinkled with water (Numbers 8:7).
Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 shed light on connecting these rituals with the cleansing work of Christ’s blood:
"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (9:11-14).
After further discussion of the necessity of the shedding of blood for removing sin and how Christ’s sacrificial work is far greater, the writer beckons believers to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, saying, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (10:22). Do you see the connection here? Physical baptism (our bodies washed with pure water) corresponds to the inner baptism of being cleanse from sin (our hearts sprinkled clean).
Our Union with Christ
Secondly, baptism signifies what the Westminster Confession refers to as our “ingrafting into Christ.” The outer sign represents the inner grace of union with God the Son. Galatians 3:27-28 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Because we are baptized into Christ; because in that baptism we have put on Christ, our identity is now found in him through our union with him.
Consider what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 6:3-5:
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."
Note the phrases “baptized into Christ Jesus,” “buried therefore with him by baptism into death,” “united with him in a death like his,” and “united with him in a resurrection like his.” Outer baptism signifies this inner baptism of union.
Next Sunday when Dr. Ryken baptizes the children brought to him, he will pronounce the name of the child and then say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We get that formula from Jesus’ command: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The preposition “in” is the same Greek preposition – eis – translated “into” from the above verses. Thus, the minister baptizes the individual not only on behalf of the Trinity, but into the Trinity, i.e., into communion with the triune God.
So baptism is a statement that the recipient is in the family of God. The redeemed of Christ have been brought into Christ, and because they have been brought into Christ, they abide in the Father and Spirit as well. Regarding the Father, Jesus says, “If anyone loves me…My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). Regarding the Holy Spirit he promises to send the Counselor who “lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).
Entry into God’s Covenant
Baptism, furthermore, signifies entrance into the New Covenant to which we belong, viz., the covenant of grace in Christ. God has made a covenant with us to be his people. As the writer of Hebrews explains, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15).
For that "first covenant" God gave circumcision to Abraham as its sign. Now as circumcision signified the covenant made with Abraham for his descendents, so baptism signifies the covenant made with Christ for his. But here is the key difference: Christ through his body bore the guilt incurred in the first covenant and he ratified the second covenant. Thus, when we enter God's covenant, our baptism signifies the work that Christ has already done to fulfill its conditions. It is a sign that points us to the finished work of our Redeemer. I will leave for next Sunday a fuller explanation of baptism as a sign of the covenant.
The Sanctification of the Holy Spirit
One other sign of baptism is the anointing of the Holy Spirit who applies Christ’s redemption and begins his work of sanctifying us. The water signifies not only the cleansing blood of Christ, but the anointing of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 1:2 speaks of the Holy Spirit sprinkling the blood of Jesus Christ.
Go back to Ezekiel 36. We read verse 25, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” Let’s keep reading in verses 26 and 27: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Make the connection: the Holy Spirit does the work that the water signifies. He cleanses the heart and causes the individual to walk in God's statutes.
Christ’s own baptism signified the anointing of the Holy Spirit who descended upon him as a dove. That same Spirit that came upon him is the Spirit sent to dwell within us and give us a new heart and new spirit. This entering of the Holy Spirit into us is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that truly saves us and sprinkles our hearts clean. It is this inner baptism that unites us to Christ and connects us to his one body. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is spoken of in the Nicene Creed in the clause, “we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.”
Does Not Save
Now is the time to make clear that water baptism does not save. Consider Peter’s remarks again. When asked what to do by his hearers, he says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). This verse seems problematic. Clearly Peter is speaking of water baptism, and he seems to say that such baptism, coupled with repentance, achieves forgiveness of sin. Furthermore, he notes that the gift of the Holy Spirit will come as a result, not before.
If this was all we had of Peter’s preaching ministry, we might conclude he intended that water baptism was necessary for salvation and receiving the Holy Spirit. But consider his message to Cornelius’ household and the result in Acts 10. He concludes his message by saying, “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (43). Peter makes no mention of water baptism as necessary for forgiveness. The next two verses report, “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles…Then Peter declared, ‘Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (44-48).
What is the role of water baptism in this case? It is serving to signify and to give a divine seal outwardly what has happened inwardly. The water baptism marks these Gentiles as belonging to God just as Peter and his fellow Jewish believers belong. Listen to Peter’s explanation before a church council.
And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way? (11:16-18)
Stand in the way of what? Of administering God’s sign and seal of his work in the Gentiles.
How then do we square Peter’s comments on the Day of Pentecost and in Cornelius’ home? Answering that question leads to understanding the role of the person being baptized. Baptism is a confession by the believer that he is identified with Jesus Christ. Think of it as Christ drawing a line in the sand and then commanding those who profess faith in him to cross over and receive his mark upon them in view of the world.
No go back to Pentecost. Peter says to the people, “Repent.” Sure, no problem. Preachers are always telling them to do that. Peter says, “Be baptized.” Again, no problem. There are dozens of purification houses in front of the temple that worshippers use to purify themselves before presenting their sacrifices. (By the way, that’s how 3,000 could get baptized in Jerusalem.) The real challenge before them lies in Peter’s sermon conclusion: Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified (36). That is when they were “cut to the heart” and asked what to do. Well then, repent (turn from sin), be baptized (seek to be cleansed from sin), but do it in the name of Jesus (i.e. make public profession that Jesus is both Lord and Christ).
This is why water baptism is critical. If a believer will not confess Christ before others, how then can it be said that an inner baptism has taken place? There is no such thing as a private faith in scripture. Baptism calls the believer out of the world and into the kingdom of God, and he or she must step forward. As Jesus said, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed…(Mark 8:38).
What then of the gift of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit comes as he comes, not as we command him. However, it seems evident that the “gift” in these Acts passages is not the baptism of the Spirit by which he gives faith to the believer, but rather the affects we experience after making profession.
When are we actually born again? Who knows? A few seconds before we confess Christ? An hour before? Years before? Who knows the mystery of God’s working in his elect? What we do know is what we experience after confessing faith in Christ, which is the Spirit sanctifying us, making us fruitful, and granting us spiritual gifts.
But there is one other text that seems teach that water baptism saves. It is 1 Peter 3:21:
“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” In this context Peter is speaking of water baptism. It is a sign that corresponds with the salvation of Noah through the flood. Note his careful addition. The salvation of baptism is not from the water applied, but from the appeal to God for a good conscience, i.e. for a righteous standing before God. And that appeal is made on the basis of Christ’s resurrection. Theologians debate the fine points of the process of salvation, but let it suffice for now to say that it is when a person makes his appeal, his confession, his calling upon the Name of Jesus Christ that he then experiences the fruit of salvation.
Conclusion
Again, it is not the application of water that saves us. But also understand at a deeper level that it also not our confession that saves us. It is Jesus Christ who saves us. It is the baptism that he underwent on the cross that cleanses us from sin. It is his rising from the dead that gives us the same victory over death.
Do you remember that image of Christ drawing the line for us to cross over? In baptism he is not merely calling us to show whose side we are on. He is calling us out of the world into his kingdom, and saying to us, “You belong to me. I am with you. Are you worried that you are not strong enough to keep your promise to follow me? Well, you are right. You are not. But I am. And I put my mark on you as a sign of what I have accomplished for you. You crossed this line only because my Father drew you. And I put my mark on you as a seal that you belong to me, and I will keep my promise that whomever the Father has drawn to me and has given faith to believe in me, I will raise up on the last day!" (cf John 6:35-40)
When your faith gets weak; when you get anxious about making it to the end, remember your baptism. Remember the sign and seal placed upon you that you belong to God who drew you and gave you faith. And whether you have been immersed, sprinkled, or poured on, that water is to remind you that you have been baptized into Christ Jesus who will never let you go. The promise spoken 2,000 years ago on the Day of Pentecost remains true for you.
8/20/06 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
In the church spiritual health survey taken last March, you will recall the first section of questions addressing doctrine. The result was rather impressive. All the subjects received no less than 92% agreement with the church, except for one – infant baptism, which 64% affirmed. And so that is my purpose for preaching on the subject of baptism these two Sundays. Today I will be giving a general introduction to the sacrament of baptism. It is next Sunday that the specific subject of infant baptism will be addressed.
I should make two comments before we get started. One, the elders of Tenth do not measure spiritual health by one’s view of infant baptism. Commitment and spiritual maturity are not equated with equated with this doctrinal position. Secondly, let us remember that this morning we have gathered to worship God. I am called of God to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is what you are to be listening for.
Let’s begin with the morning text:
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Surely this text shows the importance of baptism in the life of the church. The first instruction given to those who would turn to Christ is “Repent and be baptized.” What then is the meaning and role of baptism?
The Sign
Baptism signifies the gospel. This is the promise for you. Though it is a simple act, it communicates the comprehensive message of the gospel. There is the washing away of sin through the atonement of Christ, our union with Christ, our entry into God’s covenant, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
The Atonement of Christ
First, there is the washing away of sin through the atonement of Christ. This is the clearest message conveyed in this sacrament. The answer given to Question 69 of the Heidelberg Catechism expresses this well: “Christ appointed this external washing with water, adding thereto this promise, that I am as certainly washed by his blood and Spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away.”
This concept of washing or cleansing from sin originates in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 36, God promises the house of Israel that he will restore the exiles, bring them back to their land, and…"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you" (25).
This concept of sprinkling was ingrained in the Jewish conscience as a symbol of cleansing or sanctifying. Worshippers bringing a sin offering would be anointed with the blood of the sacrifice to make atonement for sin and the altar sprinkled with that same blood (Leviticus 4:6, 17; 14:16, 27). When Aaron and his sons were set apart as priests of the Lord, they were sprinkled with blood (Leviticus 8:30). When David prayed to God in Psalm 51:7, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow,” he was thinking of the ritual of being sprinkled with the sacrifice’s blood by use of a hyssop branch. Sprinkling with water was also known. When the tribe of Levi was set apart for the Lord, the Levites were sprinkled with water (Numbers 8:7).
Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 shed light on connecting these rituals with the cleansing work of Christ’s blood:
"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (9:11-14).
After further discussion of the necessity of the shedding of blood for removing sin and how Christ’s sacrificial work is far greater, the writer beckons believers to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, saying, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (10:22). Do you see the connection here? Physical baptism (our bodies washed with pure water) corresponds to the inner baptism of being cleanse from sin (our hearts sprinkled clean).
Our Union with Christ
Secondly, baptism signifies what the Westminster Confession refers to as our “ingrafting into Christ.” The outer sign represents the inner grace of union with God the Son. Galatians 3:27-28 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Because we are baptized into Christ; because in that baptism we have put on Christ, our identity is now found in him through our union with him.
Consider what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 6:3-5:
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."
Note the phrases “baptized into Christ Jesus,” “buried therefore with him by baptism into death,” “united with him in a death like his,” and “united with him in a resurrection like his.” Outer baptism signifies this inner baptism of union.
Next Sunday when Dr. Ryken baptizes the children brought to him, he will pronounce the name of the child and then say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We get that formula from Jesus’ command: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The preposition “in” is the same Greek preposition – eis – translated “into” from the above verses. Thus, the minister baptizes the individual not only on behalf of the Trinity, but into the Trinity, i.e., into communion with the triune God.
So baptism is a statement that the recipient is in the family of God. The redeemed of Christ have been brought into Christ, and because they have been brought into Christ, they abide in the Father and Spirit as well. Regarding the Father, Jesus says, “If anyone loves me…My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). Regarding the Holy Spirit he promises to send the Counselor who “lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).
Entry into God’s Covenant
Baptism, furthermore, signifies entrance into the New Covenant to which we belong, viz., the covenant of grace in Christ. God has made a covenant with us to be his people. As the writer of Hebrews explains, “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15).
For that "first covenant" God gave circumcision to Abraham as its sign. Now as circumcision signified the covenant made with Abraham for his descendents, so baptism signifies the covenant made with Christ for his. But here is the key difference: Christ through his body bore the guilt incurred in the first covenant and he ratified the second covenant. Thus, when we enter God's covenant, our baptism signifies the work that Christ has already done to fulfill its conditions. It is a sign that points us to the finished work of our Redeemer. I will leave for next Sunday a fuller explanation of baptism as a sign of the covenant.
The Sanctification of the Holy Spirit
One other sign of baptism is the anointing of the Holy Spirit who applies Christ’s redemption and begins his work of sanctifying us. The water signifies not only the cleansing blood of Christ, but the anointing of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 1:2 speaks of the Holy Spirit sprinkling the blood of Jesus Christ.
Go back to Ezekiel 36. We read verse 25, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” Let’s keep reading in verses 26 and 27: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Make the connection: the Holy Spirit does the work that the water signifies. He cleanses the heart and causes the individual to walk in God's statutes.
Christ’s own baptism signified the anointing of the Holy Spirit who descended upon him as a dove. That same Spirit that came upon him is the Spirit sent to dwell within us and give us a new heart and new spirit. This entering of the Holy Spirit into us is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that truly saves us and sprinkles our hearts clean. It is this inner baptism that unites us to Christ and connects us to his one body. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is spoken of in the Nicene Creed in the clause, “we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.”
Does Not Save
Now is the time to make clear that water baptism does not save. Consider Peter’s remarks again. When asked what to do by his hearers, he says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). This verse seems problematic. Clearly Peter is speaking of water baptism, and he seems to say that such baptism, coupled with repentance, achieves forgiveness of sin. Furthermore, he notes that the gift of the Holy Spirit will come as a result, not before.
If this was all we had of Peter’s preaching ministry, we might conclude he intended that water baptism was necessary for salvation and receiving the Holy Spirit. But consider his message to Cornelius’ household and the result in Acts 10. He concludes his message by saying, “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (43). Peter makes no mention of water baptism as necessary for forgiveness. The next two verses report, “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles…Then Peter declared, ‘Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (44-48).
What is the role of water baptism in this case? It is serving to signify and to give a divine seal outwardly what has happened inwardly. The water baptism marks these Gentiles as belonging to God just as Peter and his fellow Jewish believers belong. Listen to Peter’s explanation before a church council.
And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way? (11:16-18)
Stand in the way of what? Of administering God’s sign and seal of his work in the Gentiles.
How then do we square Peter’s comments on the Day of Pentecost and in Cornelius’ home? Answering that question leads to understanding the role of the person being baptized. Baptism is a confession by the believer that he is identified with Jesus Christ. Think of it as Christ drawing a line in the sand and then commanding those who profess faith in him to cross over and receive his mark upon them in view of the world.
No go back to Pentecost. Peter says to the people, “Repent.” Sure, no problem. Preachers are always telling them to do that. Peter says, “Be baptized.” Again, no problem. There are dozens of purification houses in front of the temple that worshippers use to purify themselves before presenting their sacrifices. (By the way, that’s how 3,000 could get baptized in Jerusalem.) The real challenge before them lies in Peter’s sermon conclusion: Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified (36). That is when they were “cut to the heart” and asked what to do. Well then, repent (turn from sin), be baptized (seek to be cleansed from sin), but do it in the name of Jesus (i.e. make public profession that Jesus is both Lord and Christ).
This is why water baptism is critical. If a believer will not confess Christ before others, how then can it be said that an inner baptism has taken place? There is no such thing as a private faith in scripture. Baptism calls the believer out of the world and into the kingdom of God, and he or she must step forward. As Jesus said, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed…(Mark 8:38).
What then of the gift of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit comes as he comes, not as we command him. However, it seems evident that the “gift” in these Acts passages is not the baptism of the Spirit by which he gives faith to the believer, but rather the affects we experience after making profession.
When are we actually born again? Who knows? A few seconds before we confess Christ? An hour before? Years before? Who knows the mystery of God’s working in his elect? What we do know is what we experience after confessing faith in Christ, which is the Spirit sanctifying us, making us fruitful, and granting us spiritual gifts.
But there is one other text that seems teach that water baptism saves. It is 1 Peter 3:21:
“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” In this context Peter is speaking of water baptism. It is a sign that corresponds with the salvation of Noah through the flood. Note his careful addition. The salvation of baptism is not from the water applied, but from the appeal to God for a good conscience, i.e. for a righteous standing before God. And that appeal is made on the basis of Christ’s resurrection. Theologians debate the fine points of the process of salvation, but let it suffice for now to say that it is when a person makes his appeal, his confession, his calling upon the Name of Jesus Christ that he then experiences the fruit of salvation.
Conclusion
Again, it is not the application of water that saves us. But also understand at a deeper level that it also not our confession that saves us. It is Jesus Christ who saves us. It is the baptism that he underwent on the cross that cleanses us from sin. It is his rising from the dead that gives us the same victory over death.
Do you remember that image of Christ drawing the line for us to cross over? In baptism he is not merely calling us to show whose side we are on. He is calling us out of the world into his kingdom, and saying to us, “You belong to me. I am with you. Are you worried that you are not strong enough to keep your promise to follow me? Well, you are right. You are not. But I am. And I put my mark on you as a sign of what I have accomplished for you. You crossed this line only because my Father drew you. And I put my mark on you as a seal that you belong to me, and I will keep my promise that whomever the Father has drawn to me and has given faith to believe in me, I will raise up on the last day!" (cf John 6:35-40)
When your faith gets weak; when you get anxious about making it to the end, remember your baptism. Remember the sign and seal placed upon you that you belong to God who drew you and gave you faith. And whether you have been immersed, sprinkled, or poured on, that water is to remind you that you have been baptized into Christ Jesus who will never let you go. The promise spoken 2,000 years ago on the Day of Pentecost remains true for you.
