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Christian baptism is one of the most controversial subjects in the church. It doesn’t feel that way on a day-to-day basis. But so many of the various denominations in the church today are rooted in different ideas about baptism.
Many, many churches identify their view of baptism in their church name. Any church that has “Baptist” in the name is one of these. It might be a
But the name of the church is telling you they hold to the baptism of believers only. Or, at least, the people who founded the church believed that.
Grace Brethren Churches are now called Charis Fellowship. Their practice is what they call “triune immersion.” They say that in order to identify as disciples of the Triune God, “we therefore encourage the practive of triune immersion,” once for each member of the Trinity.[1]
The Greek Orthodox Church Archdiocese of America practice infant baptism for children of parents in their churches. But they immerse the child three times.[2]
If a church practices infant baptism, they don’t put that in their church name. Not because they’re trying to hide the fact. But because their tradition comes out of a time when almost all churches baptized infants. In that era, saying you baptized infants wouldn’t separate you. So, you needed to identify yourself in another way:
After the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, the believer’s baptism of the early church largely disappeared.
In the 1500s when the Protestant Reformation was spreading throughout Europe, the main branches all held to the baptism of infants. They divided over other issues—like the Lord’s Supper or church government—but not baptism.
But as people wrestled with their Bibles, that began to change. Slowly at first.
There were Baptists in the 1500s, especially in Switzerland with Ulrich Zwingli. Because at that time churches were also state churches, infant baptism unified entire societies. Believer’s baptism was seen as a rebellious act against the state, not just a theological error.
In Switzerland, eventually the law made believer’s baptism a capital crime and baptists were martyred in huge numbers.
It was in the 1600s that Baptists came on the scene in England who were both Baptists by conviction but also Reformed in their theology. They held to almost every paragraph of the Westminster Confession of Faith, but they also believed the New Testament teaches the baptism of believers only.
They were a persecuted minority in 17th century England. One estimate is they were 4% of the population at the time. Baptists like John Bunyan were jailed for their convictions. But their movement grew in England, the US, Europe.
In some ways we follow that tradition of Reformed Baptists. But really, we’re spiritual “mutts,” pulling from various traditions.
Today our focus is on believer’s baptism, the baptism of believers only. We’ll look at baptism in four ways: (1) The sacrament of baptism, (2) the meaning of baptism, (3) the recipients of baptism, and (4) the context of baptism.
Pray
We begin with baptism as a sacrament. In the New Testament, the elaborate ceremonial system of the Old Testament disappears. In the worship of the New Testament, there are no ceremonies involving candles or curtains or sacrifices or altars.
The sacrifice of Christ brought about a permanent change to that whole Mosaic system. You could argue that it changes at 3pm on a Friday afternoon outside Jerusalem:
And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. (Mark 15:37–38)
Tearing the curtain was a sign that the whole temple and tabernacle system was now “obsolete and growing old,” “ready to vanish away” (Heb 8:13).
Even the practice of circumcision instantly became “obsolete.”
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. (Gal 6:15)
But even though these Old Testament practices disappeared with the crucifixion of Jesus, not every ceremony goes away. Jesus left for us two specific ceremonies we are to practice as his people: baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
First he instructs us to keep the Lord’s Supper. Right before his death, he says:
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:19–20)
The bread and the cup represent Jesus’s sacrificed body and blood. We are to eat and drink “in remembrance” of Christ.
And then after his resurrection he instructs us in the second ceremony we are to keep, baptism:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matt 28:19)
As “disciples,” we are to be baptized and take the Lord’s Supper. In terms of particular ceremonies, these are the two that Jesus gave to us to practice.
There are two terms we use to describe baptism and the Lord’s Supper: sacraments and ordinances.
You can hear this in our Trinity Catechism:
Q89. What is a sacrament, and what are the sacraments of the church?
A. A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, which is a visible sign of an invisible grace and a seal of the covenant of grace. The two sacraments are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Trinity Catechism
“Sacrament” is a word that speaks to it being sacred in a unique way. “Ordinance” is a word that speaks to it being ordered(ordained) by Christ himself.
We don’t invent sacraments, but we regard as sacraments those few, particular things ordered by Christ.
Since Augustine, the church has described sacraments as “visible signs of an invisible grace.”
Baptism is a “sign” that we are born again by the Spirit and united with Christ. That’s the “grace” it points to.
The Lord’s Supper is a “sign” that we are those who share in the crucifixion of Jesus, his body broken for us and blood shed for us. That’s the “grace” it points to.
These sacraments are also “seals.” A “seal” can be used in two ways. It can be like a “seal of approval,” a stamp that indicates, “The Genuine Article.”
It can also be like something that “seals” the wrapping of a package so it doesn’t come undone. You wrap something and then put the seal on it, so it doesn’t unravel. You seal it shut.
Baptism is like that. It’s a “seal” that says, “This is a Genuine Christian.” And it’s also a seal that brings us assurance that “I’m a Christian. I’m in God’s hands, and he won’t ever let me go.”
***Since, baptism is the sign of entrance into the Christian life, and the Lord’s Supper is a regular sacrament of the Christian life, baptism should be first. The NT order is Baptism first, then the Lord’s Supper.
***And since baptism is the entrance into the Christian life, and the Church is comprised of Christians, we require baptism for membership.
What does it mean, though, to be baptized? What does it symbolize?
Three passages convey the meaning of baptism. Romans 6:3–4:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Rom 6:3–4)
We talked about this passage last week. Being “baptized into Christ Jesus” and “buried therefore with him by baptism into death” are not statements about what the water of baptism does.
They’re statements about what happens to us when we become Christians. But in the early church, the conversion moment was assumed to be closely followed by baptism in water. So, faith and repentance and water baptism get talked about as if they are simultaneous.
Water baptism, especially by immersion, is a “sign and seal” of this union with Christ, where we have died with Christ, been buried with Christ, and then been raised with Christ.
Baptism symbolizes that we have died with Christ, been buried with Christ, and been raised with Christ.
But, of course, that doesn’t happen until we believe in Christ. It is when we believe in Christ that this all becomes true of us personally and experientially.
You can really see that in our next passage, Colossians 2.
Colossians 2:11–12:
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Col 2:11–12)
Once again you see that “buried with him in baptism” idea, like in Romans 6. But now we see when this happens. It happens “through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Interestingly, in this passage Paul compares water baptism for the believer to “a circumcision made without hands.”“Without hands” means it’s what the Old Testament calls “circumcision of the heart” (Deut 10:16; 30:6; Rom 2:29). When you’re heart changes and you go from unbelieving to believing, from unrepentance to repentance, you’re experiencing “circumcision of the heart.”
What Paul is saying here is that you shouldn’t be baptized until you’ve experienced the “circumcision of the heart.” That’s the same thing as being “born again” (John 1:12–13; 3:3, 5).
But the key is the way he’s connecting faith and baptism. Baptism and faith go together. “Faith in the working of God” is first, then is baptism.
Baptism again is a sign that we have been buried with Christ and are now raised with Christ. This happens through faith, but baptism symbolizes the reality.
A third passage is 1 Peter 3:21–22.
1 Peter 3:21–22:
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (1 Pet 3:21–22)
He has just talked about the flood of Noah and the way “eight persons, were brought safely through water.”
Then he says, “Baptism...corresponds to that.” Baptism pictures that you’re saved from the waters of judgment.
That sounds like the water of baptism itself saves you. He quickly clarifies. Not about the water itself—“a removal of dirt from the body.” It’s the “appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Just like in Colossians 2, baptism and faith go together, here baptism and “an appeal to God” go together. That’s what faith is, appealing to God for salvation in Jesus Christ.
Baptism represents the way God cleanses our consciences. Like water can remove dirt from the body, the water represents the way God cleanses us of our sin and guilt.
***The summary: Baptism symbolizes that we believe in Christ, and so we are united with Christ, our conscience is cleansed, our sins are forgiven, and we are born-again.
From everything we’ve said, it’s probably clear that we believe the recipients of baptism are to be believers. And that’s true. It’s modeled in Acts 3:14:
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:41)
The gospel is preached and the message is believed. Faith is where you “receive the word” preached. Those are the ones who should be baptized. Just like in Colossians 2 above, where baptism was joined to “faith in the working of God.”
A lot of the Reformed world practices infant baptism. This is tied to their view of the covenants in the Bible. They would argue that there is one covenant of salvation throught out the Bible, the covenant of grace. And this covenant is most clearly revealed in the Abrahamic covenant.
The logic of paedobaptism:
Such covenant children aren’t being called Christians or the elect. They’re just part of the church community, the covenant community. Hopefully they become Christians, but nothing is being said about their faith.
For a Reformed paedobaptist, in the church there’s a mixture, then, of people: Some believers, some unbelievers. Some elect, some not elect. Just like with Abraham and his children: There’s Isaac, but also Ishmael. There’s Jacob, but also Esau.
Most Reformed paedobaptists believe the spiritual status of the infant is unknown, so he shouldn’t take the Lord’s Supper.
So, the infant is “in the covenant” but not necessarily a Christian, so they should not take the Lord’s Supper.
We would say, no. That’s not what the New Testament teaches. Remember Jesus said his blood was the blood of the “new covenant.” His blood inaugurated a “new covenant.”
“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20)
Jeremiah 31:31–34 speaks this new covenant promise:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer 31:31–34)
Notice the series of promises there: (1) “my law within them”; (2) “They shall be my people”; (3) “they shall all know me”; (4) “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
These are promises that aren’t fulfilled with a physical ceremony like baptism. Or by being physically connected to a church or having Christian parents. These promises are fulfilled when you’ve been given a new heart by the Spirit.
The new covenant says it’s not physical birth that makes you a member of the covenant (Matt 3:7–10) but spiritual rebirth.
Each person must repent and believe and turn to Christ. That’s what makes you a spiritual child of God. That’s what makes you a spiritual son of Abraham.
You can hear that in Galatians 3:
In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:25–29)
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are new covenant sacraments. They are to be applied and practiced by someone who has experienced the transformation made in the new covenant.
One thing about baptism and the Lord’s Supper is that they are not individualistic sacraments. We don’t practice them on our own—like prayer or meditation or reading our Bibles. The sacraments are church events, not private ones.
When the apostle Paul is teaching about the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, he uses the verb for “come together” 5 times. It’s to be taken when the whole church “comes together.” Not as a family, not as a small group.
Baptism involves the church in a slightly different way. You don’t baptize yourself. Someone else baptizes you.
Ultimately, who baptizes a person is the church. Jesus commissioned the church to make disciples of all nations and to bapize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19–20).
This reminds us that baptism is not just a person publicly professing their faith. It is also the church making a statement about that person. The church is saying, “This person is a Christian, based on their profession of faith.”
One of the most important roles of the church is this responsibility to state who is and who is not a Christian. Church discipline fits into that responsibility. In church discipline, the church will sometimes go to the last step of excommunication. In that case, they’re saying, “The lifestyle of this person is so contrary to what is required of Christians, that we can no longer say he is a Christian. So we are removing him from this church.”
Baptism is the opposite. Baptism is a statement by the church that “this person is professing faith in Christ and submission to Christ’s lordship, and there is nothing that makes me question this profession.”
Baptism is not a statement the person is perfect or that the person is a mature Christian!
It’s a statement he understands what it means to believe in Christ and follow Christ, and he does believe in Christ and is submitted to Christ’s lordship.
Sometimes in our church, a father baptizes his child. Yet, even when that happens, the father is acting on behalf of the church. We’re not simply witnessing a family moment. The father is acting as a delegate of the church.
In our church, part of the responsibility we have as elders is to affirm and oversee the baptisms that happen. In this case, we’re not the church itself, but we’re acting on behalf of the church to approve of baptisms.
In a missionary context, “the church” might be a single Christian baptizing.
Our basic process is to have someone read our book, Believe and Be Baptized. Or she goes through it with her parents.
Then the person talks to an elder. It’s a discussion and an interview—not an interrogation. A conversation to determine whether the profession of faith is genuine—as best as we can tell.
When it does seem genuine, we schedule the baptism and go ahead with it.
What is seen on a Sunday morning is the end of a process the church has conducted. Like with so many parts of our church life together, we think a lot about ways to change or improve our process, but that’s the process currently.
Baptism at Cornerstone:
1. Read Believe and Be Baptized
2. Talk to an elder
3. Schedule the baptism
A few things as we close.
If you haven’t been baptized, consider being baptized.
If you were baptized before you became a Christian and now you’re a Christian, consider being baptized. Recently we had someone who had been baptized as an infant, long before they became a Christian. She decided to be baptized and join Cornerstone. If you were baptized before you became a Christian and now you're a Christian, consider being baptized.
Believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper reminds us that God wants his gospel to be at the center of our lives throughout the whole of our lives. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ aren’t just helpful add-ons to our Christian lives. They are central to the living of the Christian life. We don’t just GET IN through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. We live by faith in the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
Baptism is a triple statement being made about a person:
Amen.
[1] See https://charisfellowship.com/baptism-and-communion/.
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