Baptism

Acts 2:36-41; Romans 6:1-10
Related Sunday School Lesson, Family Bible Series, June 6

To the uninitiated, baptism is a most peculiar ordinance, especially as it is practiced in our circle of faith. To submit oneself to a public display of humility that requires appearing before a congregation wet from head to toe will seem extreme to some people. But what is strange and extreme to some is for us both the initial and central expression of our faith. What makes baptism so important? This is a challenging question that I fear is not being addressed fully enough in our churches.

This study is the first of two dealing with the ordinances of our faith, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. To the casual observer these may seem benign, but they have been the source of much controversy throughout the centuries. So much so that churches have divided, denominations have risen, and blood has been shed over them. The great debate concerns the nature of these acts. Are they sacramental or are they symbolic?

To be sacramental means that each is an instrument or vehicle of grace. This view holds that each is the means to attaining the grace of God. The symbolic view states that these events do not convey, but merely display, grace. Rather than being a means to grace, each merely demonstrates that grace has already been conveyed. It is this latter view which is held by most in the evangelical camp. Augustine called them “verba visibilia,” or visible words. Each is a marvelous portrayal of our great salvation. We are not saved by them, but by them we profess that we are saved.

The initial ordinance of our faith is baptism. This practice is important in almost every expression of Christianity though not practiced in the same mode and manner. In Baptist life, there are two distinctions concerning our practice that differ from much of the rest of the Christian world. First, we believe baptism is reserved for those whose maturity and development is such that it can be freely chosen. We do not baptize infants, though some churches do baptize children as young as five or six years of age. We do not find biblical precedent to baptize infants. Believer’s baptism is exactly that baptism of those who truly believe.

The second distinction concerns how the act is performed. Taking our cue from the Word itself, we hold that baptism is to be by full immersion. Our word “baptize” is a transliterated, not a translated, word. This simply means that it is a word taken from the Greek language of the New Testament and placed into the English language in essentially the same form. It was a Greek word that meant “to place beneath or within.” It carried with it the idea of dunking or immersing.

Baptism is an act of obedience. New believers are clearly commanded to repent of sin and be baptized. In our focal passage (Acts 2:38), Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost. On that great day 3,000 people believed and were baptized. Peter’s command to be baptized echoed the command Christ had given the disciples in Matthew 28:19 saying, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit … ” Baptism is not an obscure ritual mentioned in the Bible. It is an imperative issued to all believers.

Bible scholars sometimes debate if certain teachings in the Bible are descriptive or prescriptive. If a passage is descriptive, it merely describes what happened in the event at that time. If a passage is prescriptive, it prescribes an action for all time. Clearly, the teaching concerning baptism is prescriptive for all believers for all time. This begs the question, why? What is the reason for this imperative?

Baptism is a public act of identification that both solidifies the decision previously made and portrays the salvation now attained. In other words, baptism declares to both the world and to ourselves that we have trusted the grace of God through Christ for our salvation. When Peter declares that we are to be baptized for the remission of sin, it does not mean that our sins are remitted by the act itself. Rather, having had our sins remitted, we are baptized. A loose paraphrase would be, “Repent of your sins and be baptized so all who see you will know it.”

There is an old preacher’s story about a little boy who comes forward during the altar call and announces to the minister that he has been saved, and he is coming to get “advertised.” There is a measure of truth in that. When we have repented of our sin and trusted Christ as our Lord, we are to be baptized to publicly declare our newfound faith.

It is for this reason that the mode of baptism is significant. In our other focal passage, the apostle Paul describes this act of identification as portraying the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as well as the death and burial of our old life and the resurrection of our new life in Christ. The very act of immersion lends itself to this image. In fact, no other form of baptism quite does the same. Some might ask if baptism in another form should be considered legitimate baptism. My response to that has always been not to question the sincerity or legitimacy of anyone’s baptism just because it was in a different form.

I am quite certain there are many fine Christians who were sprinkled with water or had it poured on them whose profession of faith is just as valid as if they had been immersed. However, this does not mean that we should allow membership in our church without immersion. When asked why someone who has been baptized in another mode should now be immersed, I explain to them the biblical significance of immersion. I then inform them that if they wish to be part of our congregation, they need to identify with the faith in the same way as the rest of the membership. It is through baptism that we identify with both Christ and his Church.