What is baptism?
I was a Baptist for forty-some years. When asked, the boilerplate answer given to this question was something like "Our first act of obedience to God" or "A public profession of faith in Jesus Christ".
Trouble is, for being very Berean in their approach to doctrine, Baptists totally miss what the bible plainly says about baptism, and instead spend vats of ink, decades of time, and billions of electrons trying to make the bible mean something it plainly doesn't.
Why? Because they see any kind of sacramental view of baptism to be a violation of Sola Fide. They say, if you're putting you're faith in baptism, then you're not putting your faith in Christ. Let's ask another question.
What is a sacrament?
The word 'sacrament' comes from the Latin word 'sacramentum' that can be translated as 'oath' or 'promise'. In ancient Rome, in particular, the sacramentum was an oath of allegiance sworn by those entering into the military or other form of service to the state. Like our oath of office today.
So does that mean that in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism we are making an oath or a promise to God to have faith in Christ and to trust him for our salvation? Does it mean that we are promising and demonstrating that we will be obedient to God?
No. In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism it is God who is making the promises to us. And God always keeps his promises.
Baptism is not just being washed in water, it is water included in God's command and combined with God's Word.
What is God's command? (All scripture quotations are from the ESV)
Matthew 28:19 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,
What is God's Word?
"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"
In baptism, God acts by placing his Name on us, claiming us for his own. It means that God welcomes the baptized one into a relationship with him, making us part of the family of God. This becomes even more clear when we consider all the other verses dealing with baptism.
Because it is God who is acting in baptism, through the water and the Word, then there is no law or requirement as to whether a person can consciously assent, or to what method of application of water is used. Anyone can and should be baptized because it is meant for "all nations" with no stipulation as to age or condition. In Acts we see whole families and households being baptized, with no mention of excluding infants and children.
Knowing that it is God who is acting through the water and the Word frees us from any notion that this is some how an act of obedience to Law, but a gracious application of the Gospel through water and God's Holy Word.
What does baptism really accomplish?
Through baptism, God forgives our sins.
That may sound absolutely blasphemous to a Baptist's ears, yet it is what the bible plainly states. To immediately address the classic misunderstanding, it is not the one unique way that God forgives our sins, but is one way of several that the bible plainly teaches that our sins are forgiven. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also salvation and eternal life.
Acts 2:38 Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
Acts 22:16 Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away.
Through baptism, God unites us in Christ, rescuing us from death, the wages of our sin.
Rom. 6:3, 5 Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ... If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.
Gal. 3:27 All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Because God forgives our sins through baptism, he also works salvation.
Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.
1 Peter 3:21 This water [of Noah's flood] symbolizes baptism that now saves you also. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Titus 3:5 He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Strictly Sola Gracia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus.
Jesus Christ won forgiveness for all our sins for our salvation by his death on the cross. That salvation is freely given to us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But how do we obtain that grace?
Baptism is a means of grace.
A means of grace is a method through which God reaches out to us by physical means to distribute his grace to us. The Gospel is the message of grace. God saves us through his eternal, powerful, efficacious, creative Word. He declares us righteous through our faith in Christ which he himself gives us as a free gift by grace. Means of grace are ways God uses to deliver that supernatural Word to us in physical forms that we can apprehend in our physical state which produces in us a spiritual change.
The Gospel, you may assert, is not delivered to us by physical means but by spiritual means.
Romans 10:13-14, 17 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
How do we hear the Word? How do we hear any other message? By the physical mechanisms of sound waves striking our ears, our physical hearing mechanisms so magnificently designed by our Creator, linked to our physical brain that processes what we hear ... The delivery system is 100% physical.
In the same way that speech mechanisms, sound waves, and hearing mechanisms are physical means by which God delivers his spoken Word, and in the same way that paper, ink, computer equipment, and our sight mechanisms are equally physical means by which God delivers his written Word, the sacraments are other physical means by which God has promised to deliver us his Word.
The sacraments (Lutherans have only the two instituted by Christ - communion and baptism) are not merely the physical element, but the Word of God and his promise combined with the physical element and received in faith. The physical element (water of baptism) is understood to be the visible means through which God's grace is delivered to us. We sometimes refer to the sacraments as the visible Gospel.
What is baptism, then, according to the bible?
Baptism is one way that God graciously gives us saving faith.
1 Cor. 6:11 You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Titus 3:5-7 He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
I was a Baptist for forty-some years. When asked, the boilerplate answer given to this question was something like "Our first act of obedience to God" or "A public profession of faith in Jesus Christ".
Trouble is, for being very Berean in their approach to doctrine, Baptists totally miss what the bible plainly says about baptism, and instead spend vats of ink, decades of time, and billions of electrons trying to make the bible mean something it plainly doesn't.
Why? Because they see any kind of sacramental view of baptism to be a violation of Sola Fide. They say, if you're putting you're faith in baptism, then you're not putting your faith in Christ. Let's ask another question.
What is a sacrament?
The word 'sacrament' comes from the Latin word 'sacramentum' that can be translated as 'oath' or 'promise'. In ancient Rome, in particular, the sacramentum was an oath of allegiance sworn by those entering into the military or other form of service to the state. Like our oath of office today.
So does that mean that in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism we are making an oath or a promise to God to have faith in Christ and to trust him for our salvation? Does it mean that we are promising and demonstrating that we will be obedient to God?
No. In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism it is God who is making the promises to us. And God always keeps his promises.
Baptism is not just being washed in water, it is water included in God's command and combined with God's Word.
What is God's command? (All scripture quotations are from the ESV)
Matthew 28:19 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,
What is God's Word?
"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"
In baptism, God acts by placing his Name on us, claiming us for his own. It means that God welcomes the baptized one into a relationship with him, making us part of the family of God. This becomes even more clear when we consider all the other verses dealing with baptism.
Because it is God who is acting in baptism, through the water and the Word, then there is no law or requirement as to whether a person can consciously assent, or to what method of application of water is used. Anyone can and should be baptized because it is meant for "all nations" with no stipulation as to age or condition. In Acts we see whole families and households being baptized, with no mention of excluding infants and children.
Knowing that it is God who is acting through the water and the Word frees us from any notion that this is some how an act of obedience to Law, but a gracious application of the Gospel through water and God's Holy Word.
What does baptism really accomplish?
Through baptism, God forgives our sins.
That may sound absolutely blasphemous to a Baptist's ears, yet it is what the bible plainly states. To immediately address the classic misunderstanding, it is not the one unique way that God forgives our sins, but is one way of several that the bible plainly teaches that our sins are forgiven. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also salvation and eternal life.
Acts 2:38 Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
Acts 22:16 Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away.
Through baptism, God unites us in Christ, rescuing us from death, the wages of our sin.
Rom. 6:3, 5 Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ... If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.
Gal. 3:27 All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Because God forgives our sins through baptism, he also works salvation.
Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.
1 Peter 3:21 This water [of Noah's flood] symbolizes baptism that now saves you also. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Titus 3:5 He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Strictly Sola Gracia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus.
Jesus Christ won forgiveness for all our sins for our salvation by his death on the cross. That salvation is freely given to us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But how do we obtain that grace?
Baptism is a means of grace.
A means of grace is a method through which God reaches out to us by physical means to distribute his grace to us. The Gospel is the message of grace. God saves us through his eternal, powerful, efficacious, creative Word. He declares us righteous through our faith in Christ which he himself gives us as a free gift by grace. Means of grace are ways God uses to deliver that supernatural Word to us in physical forms that we can apprehend in our physical state which produces in us a spiritual change.
The Gospel, you may assert, is not delivered to us by physical means but by spiritual means.
Romans 10:13-14, 17 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
How do we hear the Word? How do we hear any other message? By the physical mechanisms of sound waves striking our ears, our physical hearing mechanisms so magnificently designed by our Creator, linked to our physical brain that processes what we hear ... The delivery system is 100% physical.
In the same way that speech mechanisms, sound waves, and hearing mechanisms are physical means by which God delivers his spoken Word, and in the same way that paper, ink, computer equipment, and our sight mechanisms are equally physical means by which God delivers his written Word, the sacraments are other physical means by which God has promised to deliver us his Word.
The sacraments (Lutherans have only the two instituted by Christ - communion and baptism) are not merely the physical element, but the Word of God and his promise combined with the physical element and received in faith. The physical element (water of baptism) is understood to be the visible means through which God's grace is delivered to us. We sometimes refer to the sacraments as the visible Gospel.
What is baptism, then, according to the bible?
Baptism is one way that God graciously gives us saving faith.
1 Cor. 6:11 You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Titus 3:5-7 He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
