"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Rom 1:16
I've been a Christian nearly 40 years now. It occurred to me how focused I tend to be, perhaps we tend to be, on the subject of baptism - as if baptism is what defines us as Christians. I've come to realize how apologetic I've been, not wanting to offend others, not wanting to disturb others or somehow cause them to stumble, not wanting to be judgmental, etc. etc. etc. etc.... by preaching and teaching baptism.
But then it occurred to me that this seemingly undue emphasis on baptism has been more defensive than anything else - a function of contemporary condemnation and castigation of Christian baptism - denial that's been occurring since the late first century, heretics who denied Christian baptism, heretics denounced by the likes of Tertullian, Cyprian, Irenaeus, et. al. who stood up for Christian baptism.
20 centuries later however, the heresies attacking the early church are still with us today - in fact in greater force, subtlety, and efficacy that only the passage of 2,000 years can explain.
I think I (we?) focus on baptism so much because the devil and his minions have been focusing so hard on denying it for so long - 2,000+ years long.
Why?
My only answer to that is, rightly or wrongly, I Cor 1:13 - "Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" Paul used our identity in Christ to quell divisions in the Corinthian church - our identity in Christ on the basis of our baptism.
Get people to deny, object to, disavow, etc. the role of baptism in salvation and you defraud them of obtaining their true identity in Christ.
Because of this, I'm revisiting how I share my faith with others.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, my wife and I, me and my friends in Christ, rarely talk about baptism - we talk about Jesus, His Spirit, God, God's Word, what they're doing in our lives and the lives of those with whom we're sharing our faith, praying for, serving, etc. Baptism is something we all did, once, many years ago in most cases.
But in the face of such a powerful worldly denial of Christian baptism - we're being driven to talking more about it now because in the attack on our identity in Christ, we're being renewed in our understanding that...
We receive forgiveness of sins after… repenting and being baptized (Acts 2:38)
We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit… after being baptized (Acts 2:38)
We’re “added” [to the church] after being baptized (Acts 2:41)
We’re “judged faithful” [obedient] after being baptized (Acts 16:15)
We’re “in Christ Jesus” having been baptized (Rom 6:3)
We’re baptized into His Death, it is in baptism where we’ve been crucified with Him (Rom 6:3, Gal 2:20)
We’ve been buried with Him in baptism (Rom 6:4, Col 2:12)
We’ll be raised from the dead, as Christ was, because of our baptism (Rom 6:4)
We’ve “clothed ourselves with Christ” in baptism (Gal 3:27)
Having heard, penitent, sins forgiven, Holy Spirit received, to the church added, judged faithful, in Christ, crucified with Him, died, buried, to be raised as He was, clothed with Him – in baptism.
In a very real sense, baptism IS the gospel - and I refuse to be ashamed of that any more.
