It was REALLY great to have a baptism in our church last Sunday. Individuals from different backgrounds and situations were baptised, all of whom had become Christians and wanted to take this step. Of course, they had been sharing the fact that they had become Christians for some time, but it was a real privilege to be involved as they made a very public declaration of their faith by being baptised.
It’s a pretty dramatic thing to do – to literally ‘dunk’ someone in water, and it’s often misunderstood! So before baptising them we took the time to think-through the symbolism that the New Testament refers to when someone is baptised. Like the other specific ordinances commanded by the Lord Jesus (for example, the Lord’s Supper), baptism carries with it practical helpful reminders of ideas and concepts that would be much harder to describe but which, with physical acts, are easily remembered:
– Who can miss the ‘picture’ painted of death, burial and resurrection that is so dramatically re-enacted when someone is baptised? As the apostle Paul described in Romans ch 6: 1 – 11, baptism is a great memory for a Christian – it reminds us so very clearly that by becoming Christians we have died to our previous lives and behaviour and now live looking forward to a wonderful hope! When we are tempted to revisit old priorities or tempted to behave in ways that are just plain wrong, so the memory of what Christ has done in His death to save us and the hope we have in His new life, was etched into our memories by the water!
– Or when we find our consciences dogged by those things of which we are ashamed and we cringe inside that we could ever have thought that way or behaved like that, so baptism reminds us that through faith in The Lord Jesus we have had both our sin and its penalty washed away! (Acts 2:38 – 41). When we fail we are reminded that it’s all been dealt with (1 John 1:9).
– Or when we find ourselves tempted to take pride in our high status or if we feel rather overlooked, as Paul describes in Gal 3:26-29, baptism is the great equaliser! Every Christian walking obedient to Christ’s command is to have been put through the water and identified with the Saviour.
Yet, there is something else that’s being shouted by this act: in the so-called ‘great commission’ of Matt 28:16-20 the Lord Jesus is very specific that all disciples are to be baptised “…in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” Why? Firstly and most obviously because all disciples are to identify with and benefit from the ‘pictures’ painted in own souls as above! But the reference to the Trinity casts this in an even greater light: To be baptised in the name of the Trinity is surely to be drawn-in by the love of the Trinity, to identify with and benefit from the contentment of the Trinity, to have fellowship with God who loves us, not because He needs us, but because He has chosen to! As John puts it in 1 John 1:3 “Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Baptism is therefore not just an experience that Christians have and forget, but rather it is a joy to treasure, a physical reminder of all that has been done for us, a memory to rejoice in!