So disappointingly I’ve received no baptismal testimonies
other than the one my friend Pete shared a couple of weeks ago – but on the
bright side we will be living out some baptismal stories this Sunday. After
months of concerted prayer and many an impassioned plea from the pulpit we are
experiencing a veritable boon of baptisms. In the last three weeks we have gone
from one Baptismal candidate, to two, and then very quickly to four, and then
just yesterday to five! On top of that in a related but independent blessing we
also have four people pledging themselves to church membership this Sunday as
well – two of our baptismal candidates and two others who have been baptized in
the past. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this upcoming Sunday.
Unfortunately, with the boon of people following Christ
through baptism I’m not going to have any time in the service this Sunday to do
any substantial teaching on the subject so I’ve decided instead to put my
thoughts to paper (or whatever sort of material the Internet is made of) and
share with you my musings on this central Christian rite in this blog post.
What is Baptism? It’s a discussion I’ve been having on
and off with some friends and colleagues of mine as we try to come to an
understanding of what significance it has biblically, theologically,
historically and locally within the tradition of the Christian and Missionary
Alliance, of which EAC is a part.
Biblically –
Baptism is a rite of repentance. John practiced Baptism in the Judean
wilderness for the express purpose of “repentance for the forgiveness of sins”
(Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3). It has an inextricable link with the ideas of cleansing
and purification. The naturally understood function of water is for washing –
cleansing us from our past sin (we sometimes refer to this as justification) and purifying us for holy
living (we often refer to this as sanctification).
John’s Baptisms emphasize the first aspect primarily – but he prophesies of one
who will come and perform the second part of the cleansing (Matthew 3:11, Luke
3:16) baptizing not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus’ own
baptism (among other things) sets a pattern for our own need for baptism as he
received the Holy Spirit poured out upon him to empower him for the task and ministry
set before him – and the great baptism of Pentecost (Acts 2) fulfills the
second part of John’s prophecy when the infant Church is baptized by Christ
with the Holy Spirit and (tongues of) fire.
Throughout Christ’s earthly ministry Baptism is an assumed
an essential part of discipleship (John 3:22-26, 4:1-2), in his post
resurrection teaching it is at the core of his instructions to the church
(Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16), and after the birth of the church at
Pentecost is becomes the standard practice of initiation into the community of faith for all who profess Christ
as saviour (Acts 2:41, 8:16,36-38, 9:18, 10:47-48, 16:13-15,31-34, 18:8,
19:4-7, 22:14-16). You simply can’t speak of a New Testament believer who given
the opportunity to be baptized – was not. The paradigm of an unbaptized
Christian simply doesn’t exist in the canonical chronicles of the early Church.
Theologically – When we look to the Scriptures to construct
a theological framework for our understanding of baptism (speaking in contrast
to simply an observation of practice which we just dealt with) we see that
baptism is indicative of a larger movement of God in the life of the believer.
First
and foremost, when speaking about baptism in the theological sense we must
first acknowledge that baptism is primarily a work of God and not the work of
the believer (Colossians 2:11-12), and it is in this work of God that we find
ourselves connected to Christ (Romans 6:3-7) and by extension with his Body,
the Church (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). In doing so we must also acknowledge that
in Baptism the fullness of the Godhead participates in the model of what we see
at Christ’s own baptism. In that account we that the Son obeys, the Spirit
empowers and the Father declares (Mark 1:10-11) and in a similar way all three
are involved in the believer’s baptism too. The Son initiates and invites us
into union with himself, the Holy Spirit empowers the believer through the
mysterious rite and the Father declares us to be children of God (Galatians 3:26-28)
– in right standing before the Father by the appropriated work of Jesus Christ
on the cross.
Theologically
we must also speak of what baptism accomplishes and what role it plays in the
grand drama of salvation. It must be acknowledged at the outset of any such
discussion that on such matters the church has been in disagreement for quite
some time (and strong disagreement since the reformation of the sixteenth
century). For some traditions baptism is itself a means of grace, that is to
say that it confers what it signifies. In these traditions the model of John’s
baptism “for the forgiveness of sins” in emphasized and it is believed that the
act of washing that is symbolized in the rite, by the power of God, actually washes away our sins. For
others baptism is a promise of grace to be fully realized in a future
understanding and confession by the believer (we will explore this a little
further in the Historical section below) and still for other traditions (of
which the Christian and Missionary Alliance is one) baptism is not a means or a
promise of grace but rather the evidence of grace in the life of the believer.
For this third group it is the fruit that is produced by the work of God in
salvation, and the evidence therefore of a life transformed by, and submitted
to the will of Christ (Luke 6:43-45, James 2:14,17). Baptism therefore neither
accomplishes something ex opera operato
(from the work having worked) nor is merely an empty symbol or ritual without
vital importance to the salvation of the believer.
As for
the specific role baptism plays in the grand drama of salvation – baptism is
associated with God’s work of justification
as a symbol for the cleansing of our sins; with the work of regeneration (new birth) as an evidence
of being “born again” (John 3:5-6) and living a new life in Christ (Ephesians
2:4-5, 2 Corinthians 5:17); and with the work of sanctification whereby the Holy Spirit fills and empowers us for
holy living and ever increasing christlikeness. Baptism therefore is important
to all aspects of our salvation as Christians.
Historically – To be honest and true – most Christians
throughout history have been Paedobaptists
– that is to say that they have practiced the baptism of the Children of
Christian parents as a guarantee of salvation that will be confirmed in a
future confession (usually after a rigorous season of catechism or teaching of
the doctrines of the church) and as an initiatory rite into the fellowship of the
Church (which for many of these
traditions are the same thing). Some paedobaptists will understand the rite
in an extreme sense as a means of grace, whereas many others (including
virtually all protestant paedobaptists) will hold onto it only as a guarantee
of salvation to be personally actualized when the believer can fully understand
and articulate their own faith in Jesus Christ. In the fall out of the
protestant reformation however, many groups started to emerge that advocated
for a believers (or more accurately, confessional) baptism whereby a person
is only baptized after a real and personal understanding of what Jesus Christ
has done for them, and out of personal desire to obey him and show evidence of
their decision by participation in the baptism rite. These groups (of which we
are one) will argue from Scripture that there is no explicit reference anywhere
in the New Testament to children being baptized and that a person’s decision to
follow Jesus must be grounded in a personal faith and not works done on one’s
behalf (their opponents will counter though with the largely unanswered issue
of the whole household baptisms in Acts 11:13-14, 16:14-16, 32-34 and 18:7-8).
As a
denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance has always practiced a
confessional baptism, going so far as to hold it out as a requirement for
membership in our family of churches. At the same time is has always been
recognized and affirmed that the baptism practiced in C&MA churches is a
baptism into the larger Body of Christ – and not a baptism into the C&MA or
its particular flavour of Christianity. Sometimes this can be confusing because
of its strong connection with church membership – but baptism and church
membership are not the same thing, nor does being baptized affirm your
allegiance to or affiliation with the Christian and Missionary Alliance or with
Estevan Alliance Church.
Locally – At Estevan Alliance Church we have mostly
erred on the side of baptism being a largely (if not completely) symbolic rite,
whereby the believer is celebrating a coming out party of sorts – revealing
with a ritual what should have already been evident by their verbal confession
and life of piety – namely, that they are a Christ-follower and desire to be
obedient even in this water ordinance that they (and often the church) don’t
fully understand. For expediency we’ve leaned on the idea that Christ said it,
so we do it, and don’t confuse us with any of the reasons why. This pragmatic
approach to baptism (which echoes some of the historic values of the C&MA
in approach) has at times served us well as it has allowed us to sound the call
and reap the harvest of many souls through this rite of obedience to Christ –
however I wonder if by painting baptism in overwhelmingly symbolic colours that
we have diminished some of the very real spiritual benefits for the obedient
believer? Have we de-emphasized the functionality of baptism to such a degree
that we have cast it in the light of an optional endeavour of faith? Have we
created a culture where baptism is something nice for the “really committed”
people to go through, but by no means necessary for authentic Christian
discipleship?
In light
of what I’ve already discussed about the biblical, theological and historical
nature of baptism is it appropriate in the local sense to actually speak of
baptism as being separate from the work of salvation? Or more appropriately is it proper to speak of salvation apart
from baptism?
Now
before anyone rushes to brand me a heretic of any sort, I’ll unpack what I mean
by that question: While we do understand that salvation is appropriated by
faith in Jesus Christ and his freely given gift of grace to us, and not by
works (Ephesians 2:8-9) and that certainly we have evidence of salvation apart
from baptism with the account of the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43) we have no
record anywhere in the New Testament of a Christian rejecting the call to
baptism, or even of delaying (indefinitely or otherwise) the call to be
baptized into Christ or into the Christian community. Baptism is joined at the
hip to making disciples in the great commissions of both Matthew and Mark, it
always follows conversion in the book of Acts and serves as the initiatory rite
into the community of faith for most of recorded church history. If these
things are indicative of normative Christian practice then why do we treat
baptism as an optional upgrade on our Christianity rather than the crucial
evidence of salvation that the Bible and Church history make it out to be?
If James
is right and faith without accompanying works is indeed dead (James 2:17) then we
need to ask the tough question about baptism that James asks, “Can such faith
save?” (James 2:14). This is a difficult, but crucial question that we need to
wrestle with as a church when we consider baptism in light of what God ordained
it to be. For this reason we need to treat baptism with a renewed seriousness
in our church family and understand it to be as central to the Christian faith
as Scripture attests it to be. And that is why I am so excited this weekend to
be seeing five saints walking through the waters of baptism in obedience to
Christ.
So as
you watch these baptisms this Sunday, and celebrate with those who are taking
this step of faith take the time to ask yourself the question: If I have been
baptized before, what did my baptism mean to me? What has it accomplished in my
life? How am I living differently as a result of that obedience? And If I
haven’t yet been baptized – why not? What is holding me back from walking in
obedience to Christ? And (most sobering of all) what am I really saying about
what I believe about Jesus by refusing to follow his command? What am I saying
about the church by refusing to identify with it in this initiatory rite? And
what does this say about the veracity of my faith if it is not supported by the
work of God in my response through baptism?
Tough
questions to be sure – but questions that we can ill afford to ask if we want
to really follow Jesus.
See you on
Sunday.
As an addendum I must express my gratitude for the input and consultation of several of my ministry colleagues who, as I was preparing this essay, sent me some of their own work and also took time to review and critique it. Thanks to Jon, Aaron and Waylon for your help. And particularly to Bernie Van De Walle who's working paper on Baptism for the Western District of the C&MA in Canada was a strong influence on this work.
