"Baptism: Believing, Beginning, Belonging"

Jan.12/03 Acts 19:1-7/various

Morning Dip

For two summers during my later teen years, I was a counsellor at Junior Boys' Camp at Frontier Lodge. You would find it on the shores of Lake Wallace, down in the eastern townships of Quebec, practically on the border with Maine. One of the traditions at Frontier Lodge was Morning Dip. Each morning during our two weeks there in late August, the camp bell rang its wake-up call and counsellors roused their campers and herded them down to the shore. Now the water temperature of Lake Wallace was generally OK for swimming later in the afternoon, but first thing in the morning it was - shall we say - bracing. Staff were expected to lead by example and plunge in, no matter what the water temperature was. It wasn't an absolute requirement for campers to submerge themselves, but if they didn't they probably felt like sissies compared to those who did. After everybody had taken their dip or at least had a chance to, the whole herd skittered back to their cabins to change, shaking and shivering, with skin turning various shades of colour.

             Morning Dip served a sanitary purpose, and got everybody roused and alert for the day. It was invigorating. It brought a freshness to sleep-clouded consciousness. It developed maturity and self-discipline, forcing one to make the choice to forego comfort in order to meet the test. It fostered a spirit of unity and camaraderie, having endured this small shock together as a group. But in order to reap the benefits of Morning Dip, you personally had to take the plunge. It was "all-or-nothing" - if your head wasn't wet, you hadn't been properly "dipped"! So at Frontier Lodge, it was inconceivable that a day could get properly started without Morning Dip.

             Christian baptism as the New Testament understands it is a lot like Morning Dip. It involves believing, commitment, a radical decision and willingness to undertake a deliberate course of action, not all of which will be pleasant. It's a beginning, a fresh start, an awakening to consciousness in Christ and life in the Spirit. And it's a sign of belonging, being claimed as part of the group of those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Today, with our congregational meeting coming up in a week about a constitution which formally aligns us with a particular denomination, I'd like to survey with you some of the richness of the meaning of baptism as the Bible presents it. Baptism is not just a ritual you go through to become a member of a church, it's integral to our appreciation of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Baptism & BELIEVING

Morning Dip took a certain amount of commitment, of mental fortitude, you had to steel yourself in your mind and deliberately step off the dock into that shockingly fresh water. So a Christian understanding of baptism must take into account belief, putting one's faith in Jesus Christ, a once-and-for-all willingness to "take the plunge" of becoming His follower. Our Lord gave the primary command for baptism in Matthew 28(18-20), when after His death and resurrection He declared, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Baptism is a response to - a recognition of - Jesus' authority, a submission to His Lordship. He associates it with being made a "disciple", a follower, a loyal devotee of a Master Teacher. Jesus also associates baptism with a teachableness, a willingness to learn and obey everything He commanded. So it's wrapped up with volition, a voluntary action, not something to be done to a passive object or involuntarily.

             Jesus said, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." (Mk.16:16) Believing is the essential element in salvation; baptism is the corollary, what goes along as with as a result and indication of believing. John 3:16 is the landmark verse that promises whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life; but just six verses later we read that after this dialogue with Nicodemus, "Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized." Jesus adapted John the Baptist's ritual. For John it had more to do with repentance, forgiveness, and cleansing in preparation for the coming of God's Agent and judgment; as Jesus presented it, God's Kingdom was now present, and it was urgent that people not only repent but make a commitment to God's enterprise, accepting and believing the "good news" they saw and heard through Christ (Mk.1:4,15).

             Luke's history of the early church in Acts routinely connects baptism with believing. At Pentecost he reports that Peter said to the crowds, '"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.The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off— for all whom the Lord our God will call." With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."' (Acts 2:38-40) To trust the message and be baptized is the fitting response to God's "promise" and "call", the apostles' "pleading". God has resurrected the crucified Jesus and made Him "Lord and Messiah"; baptism is what those who are "cut to the heart" hearing this need to "do" (Ac.2:36f). So believing precedes and leads to baptism as a radical change in one's commitments and priorities, a new allegiance and loyalty that recognizes Jesus' Lordship.

             Acts 8(12f) records that when people in Samaria "believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized...Simon [the Magician] himself believed and was baptized." In Acts 16(14f), Luke tells of a merchant named Lydia becoming a Christian. 'The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house."' Baptism again is associated with belief and response. Later in the same chapter, Luke says the jailer in Philippi "and all his family were baptized....he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God-- he and his whole family." In Acts 18(8), many of the Corinthians who heard Paul "believed and were baptized". When the Holy Spirit comes upon Cornelius and others listening to Peter preach, the apostle commands that they be baptized. Faith isn't explicitly mentioned there in Acts 10(44), but talking about it in Acts 15(7,9) Peter says God made a choice "that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us...he purified their hearts by faith." Obviously belief is involved, it's a condition of the heart. Hebrews 6(1f) summarizes the "elementary teachings about Christ" as dealing with, among other things, "faith in God, instruction about baptisms," etc. So very often in the New Testament baptism and believing are closely associated. Baptism is an expected response to coming to believe the news about Jesus.

Baptism a BEGINNING

The birth of a baby is a marvelous occasion. It's preceded by nine months of expectant waiting, full of anticipation, not quite sure when the big day is going to come. False labour is not uncommon; a couple may rush to the hospital, only to end up being sent home to wait a little longer. But there's a sure sign that the time has finally come: the water breaks. You know then that the birth is in motion, you'd better get moving. Similarly, the water of baptism signals a new beginning, a new birth. Paul tells the Galatian church that they are "sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal.3:26). Believing in Jesus (which baptism serves to demonstrate) gives us a "fresh start", we are "new creatures", "the old has gone, the new has come" (2Cor.5:17). John 1:12f shows this new spiritual being is totally independent of human birth: "to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God."

             John the Baptist predicted that Jesus' baptism would be different from his in that Jesus would give God's Spirit. "I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." (Mark 1:8) Jesus said to Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, [ie listen up! take note!] no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit." (John 3:5) Ordinary physical birth is not enough, Jesus implies: to enter God's Kingdom requires a spiritual re-birth.

             So it's not surprising that at Pentecost Peter tells his listeners to "repent and be baptized" and, in the same breath, "you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). It's not just a symbolic bathing to wash away my sins, through the sacrificial blood of Christ, though it is that too; it's a receiving of God's own life and being in my life, the Spirit. We're starting all over again with Christ as our forever companion, our indwelling Guide; Mt.28(20) concludes, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

             One of the best passages about baptism's real significance as a new beginning is Romans 6(2-4), where Paul writes, "We died to sin...don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." It's not a metaphor that's likely to become popular, but baptism is a burial, a putting-to-death of our old self and interests and desires along with Christ who sacrificed Himself on the cross to take away our guilt. This death to the "old man" must precede the "new life" He gives us by the Holy Spirit. In Romans 8(9-11) Paul expands on this spiritual birth aspect saying, "You...are controlled not by the sinful nature [Gk.flesh] but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you...And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." We're under new management, with a new Guide and Counselor inside. In Col.2(11) Paul describes baptism as a kind of spiritual surgery or circumcision, putting off the sinful nature, being buried with Christ, and raised through faith; once we were dead in sins, now though we have been made alive with Christ. The Holy Spirit then inhabits our lives and draws us to our Heavenly Father. "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.'" (Galatians 4:6)

             Baptism marks a fresh start, a new beginning with Christ's own life inside us, His goals motivating us, His Spirit strengthening, equipping, and bearing fruit through us. Martin Luther wrote in his Smaller Catechism, "[Baptism] signifies that the old Adam in us is to be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance, and perish with all sins and evil lusts, and that the new man should daily come forth again and rise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever." It's a new beginning.

Baptism and BELONGING

A short time ago, three of our family arose at three in the morning to take our son to catch his 6:30 am flight from Hamilton airport back out west. When we were standing in line at the WestJet counter, a helpful agent gave us a few baggage identification tags for Keith's luggage. Important to have tags, even though hopefully nobody would ever need to look at them. If all went as planned, the baggage handlers would only look at the coloured airport tag and never open the personal ownership one. But if something went wrong, we'd be able to track the lost luggage thanks to the personalized tag which included address and phone number. The tags were a sign the bags belonged to Keith, they bore his name, they guaranteed eventual arrival at his destination.

             So baptism is the "tag" if you will that marks us as belonging to Jesus. By this faith-based ceremony we are "named and claimed" for Christ by His earthly body, the church. Galatians 3(27,29) says, "all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ...If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." In the church at Corinth, spawned under a variety of preachers, some believers were making the mistake of saying, "I belong to Paul" or Apollos or Peter. Correcting them, Paul points out that they were not "baptized in the name of Paul"; they belong to Christ (1Cor.1:12f NRSV; 1Cor.3:21). The New Bible Dictionary notes that Paul here "probably uses a formula familiar in accountancy of the time, where 'in/into the name of' meant 'to the account of'. That is, baptism was seen as a deed of transfer, an act whereby the baptisand handed himself over to be the property or disciple of the one named." Symbolically, you're giving Jesus the exclusive authority to sign the cheque of how your life is spent from now on. You're His to deal with or dispose of as He pleases.

             At Jesus' own baptism in Mark 1(11) we hear God's voice boom, "You are My Son..." Through baptism, voice is given to God's ownership of those who commit to Him. Repeatedly the New Testament speaks of baptism "in (or into) the name of Jesus" - Acts 2(38), 8(16), 10(48), 19(5). The person doing the baptizing says this in the sense of acting as Jesus' representative, on His authority; they're recognizing the candidate as a fellow-Christian on the basis of their publicly professed faith. From now on this person will be associated with the name of Jesus, called to reflect His holiness, their conduct in the world will bring either shame or honour to their Lord. Baptism is the tag that shows we belong to Jesus.

Related Issues: Putting Principles into Practice

Denominations differ on some issues relating to how baptism is carried out in practice. First we'll touch on infant baptism, then the question of mode: immersion or sprinkling. In both cases, it's helpful to remember the maxim of "form follows function": our expression in particulars should reflect the overarching principles and meaning we've just talked about - baptism as believing, beginning, belonging. What methods best reflect the Bible's understanding of the meaning of baptism?

a)Infant Baptism or Believer's Baptism?

             In discussing infant baptism, we should recall Paul's teaching in 1Cor.7(14) in the case of a marriage where one spouse becomes a believerthat "the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband.Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." In other words, a believer's children are already welcome within the faith community of the church (and in some degree in God's sight) on account of their parent's faith, even before they come to profess faith for themselves. Paul doesn't elaborate, but this should help counteract some of the anxiety that crept into the church after St.Augustine's teaching on original sin started to be emphasized. Infant mortality rates were much higher back then, as they are today in the developing world. It was feared that because of original sin an unbaptized baby would be damned, so as a precaution parents started requesting infant baptism; even though as we've seen the essential ingredient in an individual's salvation is faith; that's God's requirement for the new birth, not whether the ritual of baptism is performed.

             Some defend infant baptism on the basis of "household" baptisms mentioned in the New Testament. In the case of Lydia's household in Acts 16(15), she herself notes the significance of being a believer. The Philippian jailer's household was baptized, but Luke notes that "he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God -- he and his whole family" (Acts 16:33 NIV; Gk somewhat ambiguous whether "whole family" refers to rejoicing or believing). Acts 18(8) states clearly that "Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized." Clearly those in the household were old enough to make their own response. In 1Cor.1(16), the baptism of Stephanas' household is in the context of Paul's deliberate priority to "preach the gospel" rather than perform rituals. In all these cases, the setting involves intentional preaching of the good news, with baptism a voluntary response to a communicated message. There is certainly no clear indication that infant baptism is permissible, rather the circumstances would favour believer's baptism.

             The New Bible Dictionary summarizes the matter this way. "In short, the more baptism is seen as the expression of the baptisand's faith, the less easy is it to hold to infant baptism.Whereas the more baptism is seen as the expression of divine grace, the easier is it to argue for infant baptism.Either way, Christians should beware of overvaluing baptism in the way that the Judaizers overvalued circumcision."

             Infant baptism became accepted practice through the centuries not on the basis of Scriptural teaching, but in response to several factors: mortality rates, the teaching on original sin, increased emphasis on the sacramental (even magical) power of the clergy, and formalities of citizenship in countries where there was an established state-church. In some ways, the increasing pluralism of Canadian society offers Christians an opportunity to cut through traditions drained of meaning and recover an appreciation for the real significance of this ceremony Jesus commanded. Do the principles we looked at earlier support or counter infant baptism? "Believing" would argue for believer's baptism as the authentic New Testament pattern. "Beginning" makes more sense when an individual comes to faith at an age of understanding and has some conscious sin to start over from. And as for "belonging" - how many nominal Christians or unbelievers are there out in our communities today who've been "inoculated" against the gospel by their own baptism involuntarily as babies? Again, believer's baptism offers a truer indication of those who have consciously committed themselves to Christ's Kingdom and His Ownership, and endeavour to walk in the Spirit as those who belong to Christ. Thus EMC doctrine is that baptism is administered "to those who have been born again by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and who give evidence of the genuineness of their salvation." (Constitution 5.1.1)

 I.   Immersion or Sprinkling?

             There is also the question of mode of baptism, whether by immersion (going under the water) or sprinkling/pouring. Lest we become hyper-dogmatic, let's remember that baptism is the sign, not the substance. The tag on the baggage is just a tag, it's not the actual baggage which is the really valuable thing. Or as a booklet by District Superintendent Phil Delsaut states: "The sign on the post as you enter town identifies the town, but take the sign down and the town is still there. The sign is important but it is not the town. So it is with baptism. It is important as the appointed outward sign for the inward change, but it does not cause the change, and it is not the change."

             Still, we're left with the question of God's intention for authentic Christian practice. Are there any clues from the word itself? "Baptism" is actually a transliteration of the Greek term which means "to immerse, submerge, sink, overwhelm". The Titanic was "baptized" in the literal sense - it went down in, it didn't just have a shower. Greek has perfectly good words for sprinkling, pouring, washing, and dipping, but these are not used for the Christian rite of initiation. The Eastern church (Greek Orthodox), unlike the Roman church which spoke Latin, spoke Greek and still speaks Greek. Baptizo is a Greek word that means immerse; so the Eastern church has always immersed and still immerses. If we couldn't use the transliterated Greek word "baptism" we would have to use the English word that translates it, so we'd speak of Christian "immersion".

             In Mark 10:38, Jesus speaks of a kind of baptism that doesn't involve water. He said to those who wished the privilege of being seated right beside Him in glory, "You don’t know what you are asking...Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" He's referring to His death on the cross - not a little dip or brush with death, but being overwhelmed by it, totally engulfed.

             About 150 AD, the widespread church document Didache (teaching) permitted baptism by pouring in exceptional circumstances. We can infer from this that immersion must have been the norm, and pouring was used only where immersion was not possible.

             Consider this issue again in light of our basic principles: which way better illustrates the Scriptural truth about baptism? As for "believing", it's more humbling to undergo (literally!) baptism by immersion than by sprinkling. As for "beginning", immersion is a fuller illustration of Paul's teaching about burial with Christ, Luther's "drowning" of "the old Adam in us". With regard to "belonging", the thoroughly drenched appearance of someone who has been immersed marks them definitely as having "taken the plunge" just as you could easily identify the junior boys who had (or hadn't) gone in for Morning Dip at Lake Wallace.

             The EMC stance is that baptism is administered "preferably by immersion"; yet there is some pastoral sensitivity. The Christ at the Centre document says, "We are immovable in our stand that the new birth is essential, and we are convinced that the Biblical teaching is believer's baptism by immersion upon profession of faith.We also recognize that some godly, passionate Christians have roots in other traditions where baptismal practice differs.We are, therefore, persuaded that the timing and mode of water baptism ought not to prevent born again believers from being accepted into membership of our churches and our denomination.We want to receive all whom Christ receives." Personally, my intention is to be baptized by immersion and encourage others who haven't had "believer's baptism" to do the same, out of reverence for Christ; the phrase He used to John the Baptist, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." (Mt.3:15) There may be those who can be convincing that they classify as "exceptional circumstances" as the Didache recognizes, for example frailty of health. Nevertheless, for the sake of unity, any member should be able to explain the symbolic advantages of believer's baptism by immersion and support its use as the norm in our congregation. But the "bottom line" in all this is still Romans 10:9: "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

             Philip Henry was the father of Matthew Henry, a famous early American Christian. These words he wrote for his children became their baptismal statement. Notice how many times the word "all" is used - baptism is a total commitment, taking a plunge:

"I take God to be my chief end and highest good.

I take God the Son to be my prince and Saviour.

I take God the Holy Spirit to be my sanctifier, teacher, guide, and comforter.

I take the Word of God to be my rule in all my actions

and the people of God to be my people under all conditions.

I do hereby dedicate and devote to the Lord all that I am, all that I have, and all I can do.

And this I do deliberately, freely, and forever." Let's pray.