Rethinking Baptism: Part 2

So, Why Get Baptized?

Let’s look to the source of Jesus’ command, found in Matthew 28:18-21

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This has been broken down many times before, so I am not going to labor in completely deconstructing this popular passage. It does involve this: Jesus’ power and presence; going (really “as one goes along in life”); making disciples; baptizing, teaching.
I believe that when asking this question of baptism and why we are to do it, it comes directly from this passage and also from Jesus’ baptism found in the gospels.

After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him,
and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 3:16-4:1

What I want to direct our attention to is those who say, “We get baptized because Jesus did it?” The question comes in “Why was Jesus baptized and how does it relate to our baptism?”
This is the thrust of this paper.

1. We are baptized to show our new identity, as Jesus was

Jesus, from what we can gather from the Scriptures, was known merely as Joseph’s son, the carpenter’s son (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3), few (Luke 2:25-34) knew him to be the coming Messiah, or God’s son. When Jesus came out of the water, God spoke this:

“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

This both speaks to a new, revealed identity (I am not saying Jesus wasn’t God’s Son before this, but this is where he is identified as such) and also to the fulfillment of Scripture that spoke of the coming one, the coming Messiah.

“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Psalm 2:7

“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen one in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the nations.
Isaiah 42:1

The same is said of us. We are now new creatures with a new identity. Instead of being a son of Adam, we become a son of God. Instead of being a servant of this world, we become a servant of the risen King. Instead of being filled with the power of our flesh being sent to fulfill the kingdom of the world, we are filled with the Spirit and become a sent one of the Kingdom of God.

We see this as we are given a new name in Matthew 28. We have a new Father, we have a new King, who is the Son of God and we have the new Spirit of God with his power abiding within us. So, as we are now disciples of Jesus, we are now sons & daughters, servants and sent ones. Baptism reveals this new identity.

2. We are commissioned to make disciples with this new power, as Jesus was.

Notice what happens in Jesus’ baptism. The Spirit of God descended upon him. We know that Jesus wasn’t “saved” at this point, nor was Jesus now officially deified, but why did the Spirit come down upon Jesus? I believe it is important to note what happened directly after this. After his baptism, the Spirit led him to the wilderness. Jesus’ public ministry started. He was now commissioned to make disciples. It was important for Jesus to start by resisting temptation (although he had been doing this in all the years leading up to this point as well), because he wasn’t making disciples of another, but of himself. So, part of his ministry was perfection for our sake so he could be our perfect high priest. After being led to the wilderness, Luke mentions this:

And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:14-21

You could say that he let the cat out of the bag. Luke starts this passage with, “in the power of the Spirit…” For whatever reason, after Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit descended and his ministry of making disciples started.

This is what I believe we’ve been missing from the reason we are to be baptized. When one repents and believes and then is baptized, something miraculous happens. It is not that they are saved, because upon belief they are sealed inwardly by the Spirit (Romans 6; Eph 1:13; 4:10) but the commissioning of making disciples under your new name and under your new power is established. Notice that Matthew 28:18-21 is bookended by Jesus’ authority and him always being with us as we go.

One might ask the obvious question, “But I know many who make disciples without ever being baptized, what is the consequence?” I’m not sure that we’ll ever know the consequence of not understanding this commissioning aspect of baptism. It is like asking the question, “If one believes that women shouldn’t be elders, yet the church is growing, where’s the consequence?” Sometimes these questions of disobedience aren’t so quick to reveal the consequences, but might be better understood as what would happen if the command and deeper truth was realized in that person’s life. It’s like one saying they are satisfied in looking at pictures of Hawaii, yet have never stepped foot on her beaches.

What I believe about baptism is that we should do it because:
- We are commanded
- Jesus did it
- It is a proclamation of our new identity

But, I also believe there is a deep connection of the Spirit’s power, because of the authority of Christ, for us to be commissioned to make disciples of our King.

This speaks clearly of why we see every instance of baptism of new disciples happening so quickly after they repent and believe. Those that repent and believe, those that are now followers of Jesus, given a new name, should be now baptized to receive this enormous gift given to us through baptism with water because they now have a new power and a new purpose.
So, yes, we are to be baptized because Jesus was, but if we miss why Jesus was baptized, we miss out on the fullness of us following in the ways and purposes of Jesus.

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Rethinking Baptism: Part 1

Before I start, I should begin by letting the reader know that I have always been a believer of credo baptism, or believer’s baptism. Meaning, I believe that baptism is administered only to those who repent and profess faith in Jesus because of his sinless life, his perfect death and powerful resurrection. So, this paper will not involve the discussions that have led to divisions between the paedo (child) and credo baptism crowd. This paper is to discuss the reasons why someone should be baptized and importance of it.

When growing up and seeking to understand baptism I was told many things about baptism and why we administer it within the church. Some of these reasons were this:

It’s a public proclamation of one’s faith
It’s a picture to show on the outside, what happened on the inside
We do it because Jesus did it and he commanded it and we want to be like Jesus
It’s to bring someone into the Christian community

I guess I want to question some of these and then add something I believe that has been missing from our thoughts on baptism, or at least missing from the communities that I have hung around in the past.

Public Proclamation

Many I know of believe that all baptisms should be done in the public of some sorts. What I find interesting is that it’s not public that they desire, but it actually happens within the church walls, where very little of the unbelieving public gather. What I find to be more consistent in the Scriptures is not that it had to happen in public, but it happened immediately with the one who repented and believed. We aren’t sure how much of the “public” were at some of these places (i.e. households, eunuch by his chariot, Lydia by the river with other women), but the seemingly solid stream of evidence points more to the immediacy of baptism, not the place or those present. So, while it may be a proclamation of sorts (so are many other things we do), I’m not sure this is the fullness of the “why” in getting baptized.

It’s A Picture

Although this might be true, there just isn’t a great deal of evidence that points to this fact. We can try and connect some dots between baptism in water with the baptism of the Spirit shown to us in Romans 6, but the actual evidence of this being the reason for water baptism, seems to be lacking. I believe the two are connected, but as you will see below, I believe they are connected much deeper than a mere picture.

We do it because Jesus did it and commanded us to

I don’t believe this is good enough, and as you speak to a postmodern world, they won’t believe this is good enough either. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do what God tells us to do, but as we explain baptism, we shouldn’t merely say, “Do it because God said so.” Our God is one that usually explains things to us, instead of “because I said so.” Now, I know that our parents have conditioned us to just do things because they said so, but this usually isn’t how God operates. There might be times where we do things God calls us to without knowing fully the “why” but most of the time, God operates as a Father who desires for his children to know the reason why he has a command, not merely “do what I say and deal with it.” Because of this, maybe we should ask the “why” Jesus did it and why he commanded it.

It’s to bring someone into the Christian community

I agree to an extent with this statement, but I believe it to be much fuller than this. Meaning, if one believes that you should be baptized so you can be in a new community, this seems to lack in argument for why someone should desire this. If we are dealing with God and his ways, this has to be larger than a particular culture and a particular time we live in. The reason I say this is the mere fact that most don’t have to be baptized to be in community today and most understand within Protestant circles that baptism doesn’t save you. Because of this, if this is the reason why we get baptized, few will be persuaded. Most will show you the Christian community that they are in and have never been baptized. Although they might be kept from some membership rosters, few will care and actually be glad that they aren't considered members of particular churches, because it gets them out of going to business meetings. Not only that, but the Eunuch in Acts 8 didn’t return with Philip but continued in the life and occupation that God had given him to live. So maybe this is deeper than a mere physical community.

Next time we'll get into, "Then, why get baptized?"

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The Regulative Principle and Infant Baptism

Inspired by the blog 22 Words by Abraham Piper.

People who hold to the Regulative Principle and believe in infant baptism should be called Sola Oxymoronics.

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My Son's Story of Redemption: The Beginning

The story has only started, especially when one thinks of eternity, of my son's redemption. Of course we don't know when God started to pierce his heart inwardly, but outwardly, we have had two distinct times that we have noticed, one being when he turned to God for redemption.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Mark 1:15

My son is only 7 years old (as of January 30) and I never thought that he would start to understand and be affected by his sin at such a young age. Of course, understand and affected, are subjective terms that can never be fully realized until at the feet of our Saviour. But, about 4 months ago, my wife told me that my son, Caleb, was weeping over his sin. Not really sure what to think about this, my wife prayed with him, held him close and spoke to him about the gospel.

Fast forward a couple more months and about 6 weeks ago.

Caleb was having some issues and we sent him to bed after dinner because of his behavior. I prepared my grand sermon to give him and headed up the stairs to his room to allow him to hear my amazing wisdom. As I entered, I laid next to him in his bed and we started to talk, me looking for an opening to enter into my diatribe.

I just opened with, “How are you?” At this point, my son started to weep loudly. He asked me, “Dad, why do I keep sinning when I don’t want to sin? Why do I keep being so stupid when I know that I should obey?”

Taken back, I went to Romans 7. But, before I could, he said, “Why don’t you just tell me what you think, why do you always talk about the Bible and what it says?”

I simply asked him, “Who knows all things?”

Caleb: God

Me: Does daddy know everything?

Caleb (quickly responds): No.

Me: Isn’t it better to hear what God says about things instead of daddy?

Caleb: Yes.

Me: Where does God tell us about things?

Caleb: The Bible

I proceeded to tell him about Paul’s dilemma in Romans 7, and that the only reason that Paul had any hope was because he repented and believed in Jesus.

Caleb then stated, “But I really hate my sin!”

Me: Who else hates sin, even more than you do?

Caleb: God

Me: What did God do because he hated sin so much? Who did he send for us and what did He do?

Caleb: He sent Jesus to die on the cross

Me: Exactly

Caleb: But, why would God send Jesus who never sinned to die for me when I sin all the time?

Me: We aren’t completely sure why, but we do know that God loved us so much that he did. We also know that God did it because it glorified him most. Isn’t that amazing news? That you don’t deserve Jesus to die for you, but that God loved you so much that Jesus did die for you?

Caleb: Well…yeah!

Me: Speaking of your sin and you wanting to do good instead of sin, can you do anything apart from Jesus?

Caleb: No.

Me: Is your heart dirty or clean?

Caleb: Dirty. But, I want it to be clean!

Me: Do you want to ask Jesus to clean your heart?

Caleb: Well yeah, but tomorrow I will just sin again…am I supposed to just keep praying every day that Jesus would clean my heart and forgive me?

Me: Exactly. Caleb, know that a prayer won’t make you perfect. Is daddy perfect?

Caleb: No.

Me: Right. Daddy asks for Jesus to forgive his sins all the time and asks for Jesus to give him power over sin, but I still sin. We aren’t perfect, but with a clean heart given to us by God, through Jesus, we can then have the power by the Holy Spirit to do good things that please Jesus. But, the cool thing is that when we sin, we can go to Jesus and we can ask him to clean our heart and forgive us.

Would you like to thank Jesus for dying for you and ask him to clean your heart?

Caleb: Yes, should we do it right now?

Me: Yes. Go ahead, I’ll just listen…you can pray to Jesus and talk to him

At this point, Caleb thanked God and Jesus for all that they had done. He asked Jesus to clean his heart. In all, Caleb and I spent a little over an hour speaking about the things of God and the cross of Jesus Christ.

A couple of weeks ago, our church announced that they would be doing a baptism and said that if anyone else desired to be baptized that we should get in contact with them. I ended up meeting with one of our pastors and told him about Caleb. I told him that in past churches I have attended that they would never allow, or be very skeptical, of a 7 year old saying that he repented and turned to Jesus.

He simply asked, “What are we waiting for in baptism? Are we going to wait until we see enough good works before they get baptized? That’s not grace, that’s legalism. In the Bible, they never wait to see good works, but they based the baptism on the profession of faith because of grace, not on the good works of the individual.”

I completely agree. We cannot withhold baptism because we haven’t seen enough good works. We must understand that to withhold because of works, we don’t portray the goodness of the gospel, but the gracelessness of moralism.

My son even mentioned, “I shouldn’t get baptized because I am too young.” He then mentioned our previous church (this is not mentioned to be hateful to my last church in anyway...this is jus what my son picked up) and said, “They wouldn’t let me get baptized, so I’ll just wait until I am older.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and how much he had caught on. I quickly corrected him and we spoke of the gospel and then we read passages concerning baptism and I asked him, “Do you want to be baptized?” He quickly responded, “Yes.”

The past week, my son at the age of 7 was baptized. He professed, through his tears (probably my fault as I cried while introducing Caleb) his faith in his own words and we celebrated. My wife asked him what he thought and he said, “I’ll never forget this day.”

So, on February 14th, 2010, my son preached his first public sermon in the proclamation of what Jesus did on his behalf both in words and in the visual of baptism. From this day, I will continue to seek out what it means to be a repentant person in Christ and instill that in my son.

My wife and I have been praying for this before Caleb was born and entrusted him to Jesus. This entrusting doesn't end here, as we don't truly know if he is saved (as we as humans don't know who is truly a part of the invisible church), but continues from here and our job is to nurture his growth in grace through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The verse that Caleb read at his baptism, that he asks to read every night before bed (which has caused him to memorize it on "accident") is found in 2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

Soli Deo Gloria.

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Can a Woman Baptize People?

Last night I taught on water baptism and then I opened it up for questions. We had many good questions about baptism but the one that struck me was the question of, "Is there anything wrong with a woman who baptizes someone?"

From my studies on baptism I noticed one thing that was apparent in Paul's ministry. He did not put much attention on the one doing the baptism. So much so, that he made sure to condemn those who were caught up and bragging about who baptized them.

Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
1 Corinthians 1:12-17

Paul is trying to explain that the person who baptized you is not the most important, but as he says in verse 17 speaks of, the gospel is of the utmost importance, not baptism. Paul says that Christ sent him specifically to preach, not baptize. This does not mean that baptism is not important, but the gospel is of first importance.

In my old churches that I have spent time in it was always the lead pastor who baptized people, which is fine, but he is not the only one who should be allowed to baptize. We find in the Scriptures that Philip the deacon baptized the Eunuch in Acts 8 and that in all probability Ananias baptized Paul (even though we do not know for sure). Ananias was just called a "disciple" meaning he was no more than a mere Christian in the early church and yet he was commissioned to baptize someone who was going to write most of the New Testament.

The point is that those who we find baptizing people were not only elders in the New Testament. We also find no where in the Scriptures that forbids the woman baptizing anyone. What we do find is that those who lead the person to a faith in Christ was more than likely the one who would baptize someone. Because I have no issue with women teaching Sunday school, sharing the gospel and being on the mission field, there would be many instances where someone would feel compelled to have that woman baptize them.

In the end, I have never seen a woman baptizing another, but as long as she is humble, like any man should be when baptizing, I find no Scriptural basis on why a woman couldn't baptize someone.

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Sealed: Holy Spirit and Circumcision

We had a great discussion, and I stress discussion, over at Theology Online about paedo baptism vs credo baptism. I thought that Lance Roberts brought out a great point so I thought I would stress it in blog form. The paedo baptist would contend that our children, children of the covenant, are to be baptized in the same way that a child was circumcised in the Old Testament. We as credo baptist would believe that baptism is only given to believers as a sign of what the Holy Spirit did on the inside when He baptized us internally (Romans 6). Please do not get this confused with the second baptism of the Spirit that charismatics speak of.

The real question though is what is the role of baptism? I will say this to make sure all understand. I used to think that paedo baptist had no reasoning for their thought process and just did it from tradition of the Catholic Church that carried over to Calvin, Luther and then to the newly found Presbyterian Church of long ago.

Again, go to either Lane's blog or Josh's to get a better understanding of the paedo baptism stance on the issue at hand. Here was Lance's thoughts and I find them interesting:


The seal for the faith of Abraham was circumcision and our seal in the New Testament church is the Holy Spirit. Here are the proof texts:

How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while
circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of
circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while
uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without
being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,
Romans
4:10,11

Here is the other texts referring to us as the New Testament saints:

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your
salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit
of promise,
Ephesians 1:13

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30

This thought of the Holy Spirit being our "circumcision" would make a lot of sense as well. This would also make sense being that the Israelites were told that their hearts must be circumcised.
We find this in Jeremiah 4:4; Deut 10:16; 30:6

Further, Ezekiel 36:26 states:

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I
will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and
you will be careful to observe My ordinances."

I know this is a lot of Scripture references but here is the last one that seems to point that the Holy Spirit, when He regenerates, He gives you the circumcision not made by hands:

and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in
the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
Colossians 2:11

But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
Rom 2:29

So, it seems through this process that the Holy Spirit, when He regenerates, circumcises, then our obedience would be to follow this inward circumcision with our outward observance of that through baptism. Since only the believer is baptized with the Spirit and circumcised by Him, only those who believe should be baptized, not the children.

Acts 2:38
Repent and be baptized

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