GraceSeeker
Senior Member
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Now, shall I go on to confuse you with more....?
Let's begin by just admitting that within Methodism there have been some contradictory views held with regard to baptism. Wesley himself held the sacramental theological views of the Church of England of which he was a priest. He taught that "in baptism a child was cleansed of the guilt of original sin, initiated into the covenenat with God, admitted into the Church, made an heir of the divine kingdom, and spiritually born anew." Say all of that in some United Methodist Churches today and while the bishop might support you, the laity just might tar and feather you.
And yet Wesley was of contrary opinions even with himself also teaching that baptism was neither essential for salvation nor sufficient for it. Rather it was, in Wesley's words, "the ordinary means" that God had designated for applying the benefits of the work of Christ in human lives.
So, on one hand Wesley affirmed the sacramental view of the regenerating grace of infant baptism (in common with Catholics and Lutherans as well), but he also insisted upon the necessity for adult conversion for those who had fallen from grace. Baptism was part of a lifelong process of salvation which included a two-fold experience. In the "normal" process of Christian development (i.e. for those raised in the church) one is baptized in infancy and then later makes a thorough commitment to Christ later in life. Thus salvation included both God's initiating activity of grace and a willing human response.
And here is where I take some personal exception to Wesley. If infant baptism has any real regenerating effect, then that is when salvation occurs. One is not partly saved at infancy and then we finish the process later. So, I view baptism slightly differently myself.
In my view, baptism is a statement made by the church, not the individual. (See how glad I am that no Baptists are lurking around the corner.) In baptism the church affirms the work and grace of God in our human lives. The church affirms that God's grace is active in a person's life even before they are aware of the presence of God, for it is God's grace that actually awakens us to that awareness of his presence. When speaking of grace this way, I am speaking not of regenerating grace, but of prevenient grace. And so baptism is a reminder that God calls us. He calls all of us, and for a child that is going to be raised in the context of that call of God on his/her life, I feel it is appropriate for the parents to bring the child and baptize him/her into the faith in which the child is to be raised. And then, when older, the individual becomes aware of two things seperately. First the individual becomes aware of God and God's grace. This comes as a natural result of being raised in the context of faith. The child naturally understands that the grace the church proclaims which God made available to the world, is available to him/her as well. And the child is taught that in being baptized that s/he was baptized into that faith. Second the child decides that s/he is glad of having been baptized into the faith and decides to declare such a faith as indeed being his/her own faith. In contradiction of his own sacramental theology, Wesley held that without such a personal decision and commitment to Christ the event of baptism in the child's life was nothing more than just so much water.
What I see is that when the child confirms that the statement of faith his/her parents made and baptized him/her into are not just those of his parents but also those that he owns for himself, we can look back and see how it is that this child has always been under the grace of God. Thus in confirmation the child claims his or her baptism. So, baptism is the church's act of claiming that God does not abandon us. Of claiming that instead God graciously and continuously seeks to restore us to that loving relationship for which we were created, to make us into the persons that God would have us be. To this end God acts preveniently, that is, before we are aware of it, reaching to save humand kind. In the act of baptism the church declares that not just to be true in a general sense, but in the life of the child whose baptism we are actively celebrating.
Having diverged above slightly from the way most Methodists think of baptism, I now fall back in harmony with the church's teachings in remembering that baptism is a sign of God's grace. Since God is the initiator and only source of grace in our lives, all grace is in a way prevenient in that it precedes and enables any movement(s) that we can make toward God. Thus it is as appropriate to baptize an infant as an adult. Neither can make a movement toward God unless God moves first toward the individual. In so doing the movement of the God and human being drawn toward one another is intiated by God's own grace being made present in that individual's life. Where can God's initiation of grace be more clearly seen than in the baptism of an infant who is not even capable of responding for him/herself.
Of course it isn't the church's act of celebrating a baptism that initiates God's grace either. That is why I say that baptism is a celebration of the church recognizing what God is doing in the life of the child, and why I view it as entirely appropriate for children raised in the faith, but less so for those raised outside of it.
God's grace comes to us in many ways. It can be seen in the providence of the family one is born into. It can be experienced in the community of others who know God and are living examples of how God works in human lives. These are things that channel God's grace to us. United Methodism shares with other Christian communions the understanding that the proclamation of the Word through preaching, teaching, and the life of the Church is a primary means of God's grace. Indeed there are many "means of grace". And among them are the sacraments.
Now a sacrament is nothing more than a sacred moment when the inward movement of God's grace in the life of an individual is communicated by an outward sign which express what we know God to be doing and to have already done. Holy communion communicates that God seeks to be one with us, and has already accomplished this on the cross. Baptism speaks of God's love that goes before, that while we were yet sinners God still claimed us as his own and then acted to perserve us for himself. An adult who enters into baptism is not claiming God, the adult simply recognizes that God has already claimed him, but it is no less true in the life of the infant and the church recognizes the claim that God places on all our lives including this infant. Thus the water of baptism speaks to us of cleansing and setting apart for service, of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and of our dying to sin and being raised to new life in Christ by our participation in his death and resurrection. All of these are present in any baptism, but the different modes of baptism each convey certain elements of this more fully than other modes. (See Ezekiel 36:25-26, Exodus 29:21, Acts 2:1-4 & 17-18, Romans 6:1-11, and Colossians 2:11-12.)
Thus among the graces that one experiences in baptism are incorporation into the family of God and the body of Christ, the declaration of the forgiveness of sin, the proclamation of the gift of new life in Christ, and a call to holy living under the continued guidance and presence of the Holy Spirit. All of this to lead us on to perfection in Christ. And so we see that baptism, like all new births, marks the beginning of something not its conclusion. If you wait with your children to have them baptized at some future point in time, remind them of the signficance of it being the beginning of their journey with God, not its culmination, not even its highpoint, just the highest point to that point in time is all.
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