It does something
I’ve been very curious about the efficacy of baptism lately and it has caused me to think back on my conversion. A man, named Mike, on the college campus I was going to had been talking to me frequently about Christ and my need to believe the gospel. I wanted none of it, but he was persistent. But never in our conversation did he ask me to “pray the prayer”. He would show me some prooftexts and say, “Do you believe this?”. Which I would respond, “Well, it’s all very probable so . . . ya. I believe it.” Upon hearing this he would become very excited and ask me to be baptized. Naturally I recoiled at this because of all that this implied. It is easy to say you believe a list of presuppositions but then to be baptized is to acknowledge that you identify with these people who believe these presuppositions.
Mike did not follow the modern evangelical route of getting me to pray the prayer but followed more closely to the bible and once someone believes he is then baptized. This follows the words of Jesus when he said, “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.” Jesus did not say, “make disciples of the nations by asking them to come forward for an alter call” or “getting them to sign cards at a youth rally” or even to pray a prayer. Jesus calls us to baptize those who profess a belief in God. Therefore, if this is the prescribed mode that God calls for in the discipling of the nations then we shouldn’t be so caviler with casting it off as being a mere detail of the Christian life. I assert that it is essential.
Mike was right in telling me to be baptized if I believed and I was equally right in denying the baptism if I disbelieved. Why? because the sacrament isn’t just a bare naked symbol. Over and over again when the writers of the bible speak on baptism it is doing something. It is either uniting us to Christ (Rom 6), cleansing us (Eph. 5), forgiving us of sin (Acts 2, 22), giving the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), signifies us as buried and risen with Christ (Col. 2), clothes us with Christ (Gal 3), justifies and sanctifies (1 Cor. 6), and saves (1 Peter 3). How can it do all this and yet still be a mere symbol? The modern evangelical church thinks it has the Holy Spirit in a box and that they can pull it out whenever they want to. “Just do these 4 laws and pray this prayer and hocus-pocus your saved.” We even go as far as calling these laws ‘spiritual’ as if that makes it a more sanctified formula. But when the people leave do we have any assurance of their salvation? Do we know that they really meant it when they prayed those words. I mean after all we did coach them through the whole process.
Not only did we have no assurance of their union with Christ but these people have nothing biblical to harken back to when they are confronted with sin. John Calvin wrote in his Institutes, “Therefore, as often as we fall away, we ought to recall the memory of our baptism and fortify our mind with it, that we may always be sure and confident of the forgiveness of sins. For, though baptism, administered only once, seemed to have passed, it was still not destroyed by subsequent sins.” I had a low view of church when I was converted and thus waited 6 months before I was baptized and through my waiting I was able to do it in the presence of my family. The witness that this was to my family cannot adequately be expressed, but it did have an impact.
Growing up in Jr. and Sr. High school I hated Christians. I found their arguments ridiculous and their mythology more fanciful than my own. Yet, once I was converted I accepted all that I thought Christians were and believed and all that I thought Christians believed. Christians are creationists therefore even though I was an evolutionists and all my evidence pointed to that I was now a creationist. Also, Christians read the bible. The bible had both the new and old testament therefore it all was applicable. Since it is a book I read it from the beginning and where Israel was mentioned I put myself. Why did I do this? Because I saw that in baptism and in my belief in Christ I was identifying with the people of God. These Jews were the covenant people of God therefore how God deals with them applies to me.
Now not all of this did I formulate arguments for nor did I fully understand what I was doing. God, in his providence, put enough skepticism in me to inherently disbelieve everything that Christians told me. Whether that be a preacher or some guy on campus. I always went back to the bible to see if they were right. I think this kept me out of much of the modern evangelical thinking. Still, no matter how strong an oak is if it is immersed in water it will get wet. Yet, despite all this modern inherently Arminian evangelicalism, once I was presented with the ideas of Calvinism I told the person that presented them to me that this is what I have always believed from the beginning of my conversion. I have never not believed that God had everything to do with my salvation and that without Him I would never have wanted to follow Him. Much less continue to follow. I did not do anything to save myself, such as make a decision for Him, nor do I do anything to maintain my union with Him. He does it all from beginning to end. He is the author and finisher of my faith. My salvation was and is by faith and not of works therefore I boast in Christ and not myself. Eph. 2.8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that no of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one can boast For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” 1 Cor. 1.30, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
So all this to say baptism does something more than just identify us with Christ for ourselves and for some witnesses. The bible doesn’t necessarily leave it at that. There is far more that is communicated with the sacrament than can be put on a blog, but the bible is an exhaustive work and it is in there that it is the most fully expressed.
Mike did not follow the modern evangelical route of getting me to pray the prayer but followed more closely to the bible and once someone believes he is then baptized. This follows the words of Jesus when he said, “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.” Jesus did not say, “make disciples of the nations by asking them to come forward for an alter call” or “getting them to sign cards at a youth rally” or even to pray a prayer. Jesus calls us to baptize those who profess a belief in God. Therefore, if this is the prescribed mode that God calls for in the discipling of the nations then we shouldn’t be so caviler with casting it off as being a mere detail of the Christian life. I assert that it is essential.
Mike was right in telling me to be baptized if I believed and I was equally right in denying the baptism if I disbelieved. Why? because the sacrament isn’t just a bare naked symbol. Over and over again when the writers of the bible speak on baptism it is doing something. It is either uniting us to Christ (Rom 6), cleansing us (Eph. 5), forgiving us of sin (Acts 2, 22), giving the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), signifies us as buried and risen with Christ (Col. 2), clothes us with Christ (Gal 3), justifies and sanctifies (1 Cor. 6), and saves (1 Peter 3). How can it do all this and yet still be a mere symbol? The modern evangelical church thinks it has the Holy Spirit in a box and that they can pull it out whenever they want to. “Just do these 4 laws and pray this prayer and hocus-pocus your saved.” We even go as far as calling these laws ‘spiritual’ as if that makes it a more sanctified formula. But when the people leave do we have any assurance of their salvation? Do we know that they really meant it when they prayed those words. I mean after all we did coach them through the whole process.
Not only did we have no assurance of their union with Christ but these people have nothing biblical to harken back to when they are confronted with sin. John Calvin wrote in his Institutes, “Therefore, as often as we fall away, we ought to recall the memory of our baptism and fortify our mind with it, that we may always be sure and confident of the forgiveness of sins. For, though baptism, administered only once, seemed to have passed, it was still not destroyed by subsequent sins.” I had a low view of church when I was converted and thus waited 6 months before I was baptized and through my waiting I was able to do it in the presence of my family. The witness that this was to my family cannot adequately be expressed, but it did have an impact.
Growing up in Jr. and Sr. High school I hated Christians. I found their arguments ridiculous and their mythology more fanciful than my own. Yet, once I was converted I accepted all that I thought Christians were and believed and all that I thought Christians believed. Christians are creationists therefore even though I was an evolutionists and all my evidence pointed to that I was now a creationist. Also, Christians read the bible. The bible had both the new and old testament therefore it all was applicable. Since it is a book I read it from the beginning and where Israel was mentioned I put myself. Why did I do this? Because I saw that in baptism and in my belief in Christ I was identifying with the people of God. These Jews were the covenant people of God therefore how God deals with them applies to me.
Now not all of this did I formulate arguments for nor did I fully understand what I was doing. God, in his providence, put enough skepticism in me to inherently disbelieve everything that Christians told me. Whether that be a preacher or some guy on campus. I always went back to the bible to see if they were right. I think this kept me out of much of the modern evangelical thinking. Still, no matter how strong an oak is if it is immersed in water it will get wet. Yet, despite all this modern inherently Arminian evangelicalism, once I was presented with the ideas of Calvinism I told the person that presented them to me that this is what I have always believed from the beginning of my conversion. I have never not believed that God had everything to do with my salvation and that without Him I would never have wanted to follow Him. Much less continue to follow. I did not do anything to save myself, such as make a decision for Him, nor do I do anything to maintain my union with Him. He does it all from beginning to end. He is the author and finisher of my faith. My salvation was and is by faith and not of works therefore I boast in Christ and not myself. Eph. 2.8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that no of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one can boast For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” 1 Cor. 1.30, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
So all this to say baptism does something more than just identify us with Christ for ourselves and for some witnesses. The bible doesn’t necessarily leave it at that. There is far more that is communicated with the sacrament than can be put on a blog, but the bible is an exhaustive work and it is in there that it is the most fully expressed.
3 Comments:
Baptism ... It does something
We evangelicals are awfully afraid to quote 1 Peter 3:21 (Baptism now saves us) because it might be misunderstood. And certainly we don't want to ignore the whole of Scripture on the subject of salvation in order to teach a baptismal regeneration which denies the bulk of Scripture. But to deny the existence of this verse is also troubling.
Thanks for bringing the issue up. It is one of many that modern Protestants need to wrestle with (which paleo-Protestants probably understood thoroughly).
"Whether that be a preacher or some guy on campus. I always went back to the bible to see if they were right. I think this kept me out of much of the modern evangelical thinking."
We ought always to take everything back to the Bible and see what the Lord is saying about those things. Even if we have always agreed with a person before, we should put those thoughts and beliefs next to the Word and see where it falls. Thank you! I have been discussing this with someone else a little and like what you have to say. Being wisely skeptical keeps us from being distracted from the Lord by any and every idea.
I am curious though...Why did you hate Christians so much? Was it their ideas, or their attitudes, or a little of both? I would enjoy hearing what it was that you disliked, and what made you change your mind. What did the Lord use to show you the truth?
I hated Christians because I was a fool. I thought their beliefs were ridiculous and they were unwilling to believe my stupid ideas about God. I saw Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart and those faith healers on T.V. and thought they were the definition of Christianity. Clearly it was God who changed me. I wouldn't have wanted Him had he not given me repentance (Phil 1) and faith to believe Him.
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