Bible Study

Personal Salvation and Evangelism: Session Five

As the Apostle Peter sets forth the matter in Acts 2, it appears that baptism should ordinarily follow closely on the heels of faith and repentance.

Differing Practices of Baptism

Through the centuries, Christians have differed sharply in their theory and practice of baptism, and those differences remain with us.

When we go out to lead people to Christ, their preconceived notions about baptism are likely to reflect one or more of these traditions. Probably they will at least partly hear us through their preconceived notions. We need to be aware of this as we teach what the scriptures actually say.

Scriptural Background for Christian Baptism

Within Judaism prior to the emergence of the events recorded in the New Testament, water was used in several ways. Water was used for symbolic washing away of ritual uncleanness. Water was used as a symbol of the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. Water baptism was sometimes used as one of several rituals that marked the transition in the lives of people coming from other faiths to Judaism.

A new dimension was brought by John the Baptist. Saying that he was preparing the people of God for the coming of the Messiah, John appeared in the wilderness across the Jordan River from Judea offering a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:1-11; Matthew 3:1-17; Luke 3:1-22; John 1:6-8, 15, 19-34; 3:22-36). I believe that people would go out to John across the Jordan, repent of their sins, and symbolically re-cross the Jordan, being immersed as they did so, so that they might re-enter the Promised Land as a people cleansed and prepared for the coming Messiah, whom John said would come baptizing not just with water, but also with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The fire represented God’s holy judgment against sin and evil. We can imagine that John may have thought that, for the prepared, it would be a purifying fire, but, for the unprepared, it would be a destroying fire (Matthew 3:7-12; Luke 3:7-9, 15-18). In any case, it seems that John ended up surprised by Messiah Jesus’ gently redemptive approach (Matthew 11:2-6; Luke 7:18-23).

John’s baptism differed from previous practice in that it was not just for non-Jews coming to Judaism, but also for Jews, even the elite Pharisees, if they would humble themselves to receive it.

In an astounding move, Jesus, although without sin, submitted to John’s baptism, explaining to a reluctant John that it was fitting for him to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:13-17). How did Jesus’ baptism fulfill all righteousness?  This is more than simply obeying the will of God in a single matter. This is bringing to fullness God’s perfect will. Jesus does this by resolving the basic human problem of sin. He identifies with sinful humanity, atones for their sins, and brings them within the kingdom of God. He does this in fulfillment of all the scriptures (See Luke 24:25-27, 32, 44-47). The single scripture to which commentators on this passage most often refer is Isaiah 52:13—53:12, especially 53:5-6, 10-12. In his water baptism Jesus is binding himself to a calling and ministry on behalf of sinners, a calling that will lead to his sacrificial death as the Suffering Servant. Indeed, Jesus later used the term baptism as a figure of speech for the cross he was to endure (Luke 12:50; Mark 10:38). Jesus’ baptism fulfilled all righteousness because it bound him to his mission of redeeming sinners through his death on the cross.

When Jesus was baptized, three things immediately happened: (1) the heavens were ripped open (Isaiah 64:1), which is to say that God was actively entering the human arena through the One who had just been baptized; (2) the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove, or, in other words, Jesus was filled with the Spirit who would guide and empower his ministry; and (3) a voice came from heaven, identifying Jesus as the Royal Son of  Psalm 2:7 and the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 42:1-4 (and the following Servant Songs).

Christian Baptism

Later Christian baptism designates all baptized believers as simultaneously royal children and dedicated servants of God. We are empowered, but we are vulnerable. We have a guaranteed victory, but we may be persecuted even to death.  This is what it means to be a royal priesthood in this sin-infested world. The dual role that Jesus received at his baptism is also passed along to us at our baptism. In Christian baptism, we receive all God’s promises of victory, and, in baptism, we commit ourselves fully to faithful witness, no matter the temporary cost.

At the cross God gave his “Yes” to all who believe in Jesus, and he made Christian baptism the sign of the new covenant that is based on the cross. We solemnize our “Yes” to God and to the new covenant when we receive baptism. In baptism God’s gracious “Yes” meets our faithful “Yes.” Baptism signifies that our salvation is by grace through faith, not one without the other, but both together. Salvation is by grace. It is not by faith. So when we are speaking of what we are saved by, we are saved only by grace. God saves us. We do not save ourselves. In that sense, baptism is not necessary to salvation.

But salvation is through faith. God gives the gift, but we must receive it. We receive it through faith. Baptism is the act by which we make our faith concrete. It is more than an outward sign.

Imagine that, at a wedding, the minister says to the groom, “You may kiss the bride,” and the groom replies, “Kissing is merely an outward sign of my inward love. It is not necessary to our marriage.” The groom may be technically correct, but I doubt that one of us would advise such conduct on his part. In fact, we might suspect that something was not looking good for this marriage. We might suspect that the groom did not truly love his bride. Baptism is certainly a more authorized practice associated with the beginning of life in Christ than kissing is as part of the beginning of a marriage. We would rightly wonder whether a person who had been thoroughly instructed in the faith and yet declined baptism when the opportunity presented itself had in fact entered into salvation.

There is no doubt that God can save us without our being baptized. The thief on the cross is the frequent example to prove this point. All he did was to call on Jesus to remember him when he entered his eternal kingdom, and Jesus answered, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”  (Luke 23:39-43). At the time the thief called on Jesus, Jesus had not yet died and been raised, and so even the thief’s faith was not complete. By calling on Jesus, the thief demonstrated an anticipatory faith that Jesus chose to count as sufficient to carry the thief into Paradise.

The Letter to the Hebrews  tells us that those with anticipatory faith will be brought to completeness only through “us,” by whom I think he means those who have believed the full gospel of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 11:30), but, nevertheless, there is no doubt that the thief with his anticipatory faith and lack of baptism was saved.  God (using the term to cover the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is free to save whom he wills, with or without baptism. God honors some who have only begun the journey because God knows how the journey would turn out with further opportunity. God also knows some who have said the words of faith and who have gone through the motions of baptism who will not be saved (I Corinthians 10:1-13) because they have not made the decisive turning toward Jesus.

Nevertheless, baptism is important.

Baptism is commanded as part of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). It is part of our mission and method of bringing people to Jesus.

Baptism was practiced on the first day of the church’s public ministry (Acts 2:36-42).

Baptism was used for Jews who beleived the Christian gospel: the Pharisee Saul/Paul, the eloquent rhetorician Apollos (implied), and former followers of John the Baptist (Acts 9:18; 18:24-26; 19:1-7). It is important to note that the baptism of John (a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins) was not considered sufficient. Baptism was into Christ, not just into a prepared heart or into a reformed life.

Baptism was also part of the moving of the church beyond the boundaries of Judaism: Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch, and people present in the houses of the Roman centurion Cornelius, the Thyatiran businesswoman Lydia, and the Philippian jailer (Acts 8:12-16, 35-38; 10:44-48; 16:14-15, 30-34) were all baptized on the basis of their faith in Jesus.   

Paul teaches that baptism marks a moral turning in which we die with Christ to sin and come alive to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-11).

Paul also teaches that baptism is into the body of Christ, that baptized believers are united across all social barriers and across the religious/cultural barrier between Jew and Gentile (Galatians 3:23-29; Ephesians 2:11-22; Colossians 2:11-15; 3:9-11—two of these passages do not mention baptism directly, but I believe they assume it or refer to it nonetheless).

Peter teaches that baptism involves our identifying with the risen/exalted Christ and being clothed in his righteousness (1 Peter 3:18-22).

Is baptism an ordinance? Yes. Jesus and the apostles commanded it.

Is baptism a sacrament? Yes. When we receive it with faith, it helps solidify our entrance into life in Christ and his church.

Is baptism necessary for salvation? No. God is free to save whomever he will. But properly instructed believers, granted the opportunity, will be baptized or the reality of their saving faith will be doubtful.

Varying Practices Regarding the Appropriate Recipient of Baptism

Who is the proper subject for baptism? My prejudices as part of the believer’s baptizing segment of the church will be apparent in what follows, but I also will attempt to be fair. Clearly, believers are expected to be baptized. There is no clear statement in the Bible of pre-believing children being baptized, but the possibility is there in at least one instance.

Churches that practice baptism of pre-believers make seven points: (1) God’s grace comes to us before we are able to respond in faith, and, no matter at what age we are baptized, our faith continues to grow after baptism (true, but that does not say that baptism should precede initial faith); (2) that baptism parallels circumcision as an initiation rite, and circumcision was practiced on infant males (but we ought not ignore the substantial differences between the Old Covenant that was partly based on racial, national, and ethnic identity and the New Covenant that is based on faith); (3) that Jesus welcomed little children and told the adults that they must receive the kingdom in the way that a little child does (I believe that the point of comparison to children is that they are socially weak and cannot claim to have earned anything; I believe that it is pushing things a bit far to see Jesus’ welcoming of children and his using their powerlessness as an example as an indication of who should be baptized); (4) there are three instances of whole households being baptized (but, it is clear in the case of Cornelius’ household that the baptism is offered to those who have believed and received the Holy Spirit, and in the case of the Philippian jailer’s household that the “entire household” rejoiced in the new faith, implying that they were old enough to understand what was happening. This leaves the household of Lydia as the one example in which children were possibly included); (5) scriptural examples took place mostly in the first generation of Christianity when all Christians are converts and therefore cannot be used as the example for what to do with the offspring of believers; (6) that the church formed through baptism is not just a collection of saved individuals, but is a saved community, that salvation is corporate (but it is quite clear in Revelation  2--3 that Jesus distinguishes within church fellowships between individuals who have a saving faith and individuals who do not); and (7) by the end of the second century A.D., baptism of pre-believers was wide-spread and there is no evidence that this created a problem for the church at the time.

Churches that baptize pre-believers tend to state that the process that is begun in baptism must be  confirmed by a profession of faith as soon as the person reaches the age of accountability.

Churches that practice baptism of none other than professed believers tend to associate baptism with the new birth that is necessary for entering the kingdom. These movements pointed to the corruption of churches that identify their members by their citizenship or family membership. Desiring a converted church, they made spiritual awakening a condition of membership and associated it with baptism. Historically, they have emphasized dying to being defined by race, nation, culture, etc., and, instead, beginning to draw one’s life from Christ. In their early days, believers baptizing groups tended to emphasize separation of church and state, of faith and national citizenship, and some still do. Churches that practice baptism of only professed believers tend to base most of their arguments on scriptural authority, but they also note that The Didaché, a late first century or early second century A.D. instruction manual for the church, seems to assume believer’s baptism as it calls for those preparing for baptism to fast.

Churches that do not agree with limiting baptism to believers point out that believer’s baptizing practices tend to degenerate into baptizing pre-teens or early teens as part of peer groups, many of whom have very little clue of what they are doing—so it amounts to little other than pre-believer baptism anyway.

Varying Practices Regarding the Appropriate Mode of Baptism

What is the proper mode of baptism? The word baptism implies immersion, and this is a powerful symbol of dying with Christ and being raised with Christ. Churches that baptize pre-believers tend to add sprinkling and pouring as options. Churches that baptize only believers tend to practice baptism by immersion, except that they may come up with alternate practices for the baptism of people who cannot be immersed without damage to their physical or emotional well-being (some simply move to pouring or sprinkling; a more conservative approach is to use a wet sheet to convey the idea of immersion). Even many churches that practice baptism of pre-believers and hence use the mode of sprinkling are beginning to recommend that any baptisms of believers be done by immersion.

Christian Unity

I believe that it is wrong to elevate questions of the proper subject and mode of baptism to matters that divide the church. The importance of baptism into Christ and his church is an essential of the faith, but understandings of how and when to baptize vary among sincere, Bible-believing Christians. Holding what turns out to be an incorrect opinion on how and when to baptize is not a matter on which salvation turns. We need to keep our emphasis on matters essential to salvation, and then follow that with our best biblical understanding about secondary matters while remaining aware of the room for sincerely differing opinions on these secondary matters. Founders of the Restoration Movement (Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell) offer an example here: coming from Presbyterian background in which pre-believer’s baptism was the norm, they switched as adult religious leaders to practicing only believer’s baptism. While they could defend their switch ardently and eloquently, they refused to condemn the saving faith of those who held to pre-believer’s baptism, and consequently were able to work respectfully alongside Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. Unfortunately, not all of Stone’s and Campbell’s followers retained that tolerant attitude.

Whatever our views of how to practice water baptism, we need to keep in mind the more important points:

(1) Baptism is into Christ, into his status as a beloved royal child and vulnerable servant of God, into his death and resurrection, into his righteousness and reign.

(2) Baptism is into Christ’s body, the church, cutting across lines of race, nation, and culture.

(3) Baptism is associated with faith in Christ, either confirming it, expressing it, or pointing ahead to it. 

(4) Water baptism is closely connected with Spirit baptism, generally preceding it and opening the way for it, but occasionally following it.  We will talk more about Spirit baptism in Sessions 7-10.

Discussion Questions

1. What does your church teach about baptism?

2. How have you been baptized? If you have children, what policy of baptism have you followed with them?

3. How does your practice of bapism conform to scripture?

4. Is there something you can learn from a practice of baptism other than the practice of your own church?

5. Can believer’s baptizers and pre-believer’s baptizers unite in one local church fellowship? What practices of baptism would enable them to do so? Would this be advisable?

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