Tradition! - Little Children and Baptism

Traditions seemingly based on Scripture but not taught therein occupy and often dominate Christian thought and practice. A previous book written by this editor[1] examined many of these traditions; there are more that have entangled many over the years.

New book looks at the Vanity of Childish Baptism, Christ's "Little Ones," Are Infants Innocent?, and Rethinking Baptism.

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[1] Tradition! When Men Make Rules. 

Four Baptisms

In the gospel accounts we see three categories of baptism, with different meanings and applications. On category has two types and meanings. There are many examples in Scripture of each, but the following ones reveal them clearly enough for the child of God to see.

Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove His sandals. He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

a.       Baptism with water. This baptism has two types with different significance:

                                i.            John’s baptism unto repentance (Jewish practice)

                              ii.            Christian baptism, of professing believers (Acts 8:34-38)

b.      Baptism with the Holy Spirit

c.       Baptism with fire

Luke 12:50 “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how it consumes Me until it is finished!”

d.      Baptism as a symbol for suffering

As with any word study, context reveals the meaning. There is danger in assuming A definition is the THE definition for a given word. This is true for Bible study and all reading of any literature.

There are many who have stumbled over “baptism” by failing to see all four categories, thinking water baptism is all there is and attaching merit to getting wet. John is quite clear that water baptism he administered was preparatory for the baptisms Jesus would perform – one unto salvation and the second unto judgment and damnation.

All four categories are critical as they show us the symbolic, non-physical nature of baptism; even with both types of water baptism.

1.         John’s baptism is not Christian baptism. Scripture provides clear evidence that John’s baptism is not Christian baptism.

Acts 18:24-25 “A Jew named Apollos, a native Alexandrian, an eloquent man who was powerful in the use of the Scriptures, arrived in Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught the things about Jesus accurately, although he knew only John’s baptism.”

Acts 19:1-5 “While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” “No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” “Then what baptism were you baptized with?” he asked them. “With John’s baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

These passages show water baptism is not sufficient, it cannot replace or supplement knowledge of the Messiah. The symbolism of John’s baptism is, like all baptisms, that it shows the person’s identification with the one into whom he is baptized, even when the baptism is symbolic and not literal (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). Being baptized “into John” was being identified with John, in preparation for the ministry of Jesus. This was transition from the Mosaic Covenant to the New Covenant. Being baptized into Jesus brings one into that New Covenant (Galatians 3:27).

I know of nothing in Scripture that implies John’s baptism was Christian baptism. I know many assert this and assume things not found in Scripture. This is not the way to determine doctrine.

2.      Christian baptism is not salvific. Jesus told His disciples (Acts 1:5) that “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Note that Jesus did not say that what people needed was a different water baptism. What is needed is to be baptized with the Holy Spirit – this baptizes us into Christ Jesus, being united with Him. Even being water baptized in the name of Jesus does not save: Acts 8:16-17 “For He had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” In this passage we see water baptism in the name of Jesus and baptism with the Holy Spirit; the first cannot save, the second cannot help but save.

 This baptism is highly symbolic. portraying the death and resurrection of Jesus and the person’s identification with Him as the person is submersed into the water and then raised up out of the water. It is predicated on having believed on Jesus (Acts 8:34-38), having received the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:47-48; 16:8). To say this water is salvific is to conflate the ordinance of water baptism with the spiritual baptism that DOES save.

When Saul was baptized by Ananias, that water baptism is not what saved him, as some assert. Paul’s own testimony of that event shows that his calling upon the name of Jesus saved him, not the baptism (Acts 22:16). Paul wrote in Romans 10 that savingly confessing Christ comes from believing on Him (Romans 10:6-13); for the bare confession apart from faith is sin (Hebrews 11:6).

3.      Baptism with the Holy Spirit is salvific. Again, the emphasize the contrast in Scripture; baptism with the Holy Spirit is what is held up against John’s water baptism of repentance (Acts 11:16-17); we do not see Christian water baptism contrasted with John’s. This is because baptism with the Holy Spirit is the work of God alone, as Jesus taught in John 3 and the apostle taught in John 1. John wrote, “He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:10-13) This shows that those who become children of God are made such by the will of God and NOT by natural procreation or the will of man.

Where it is written not of the will of man, this refers not narrowly to those trying to save themselves but to mankind in general. Some who claim water baptism saves point out various passages wherein the one baptized is the one acted upon – he doesn’t baptize himself. Therefore, his will is not involved. Those who baptize are exercising their will, their flesh in the conduct of the water baptism. By no will of the flesh or will of man does anyone become a child of God!

In John 3, Jesus told a teacher of Israel that he must be born from above to even see the kingdom of God (vs 3). Nicodemus misunderstands (vs 4) and “Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”” (John 3:5-8)

Some teach that verse 5 refers to physical birth (water) and spiritual birth (Spirit). The birth in verse 5 is a singular birth, not two births. Water is used in many places to describe the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit: Ezekiel 36:25 “I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.” This is the work of God in cleansing His people from their sins, not washing dirt of their bodies. Eph 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.” This is another act of God cleansing His people of their sins, “washing of water by the Word” to make us holy and blameless. To be born of water and Spirit is to be made clean (freed from the power of sin) and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

The balance of this short passage reinforces this new birth as something entirely directed by God in such a way man cannot even detect it until he sees evidence after the fact. Again, how does this comport with the idea that men can baptize in water another and have that act of man effect salvation? To claim this brings to mind the papist practice of “calling down Jesus” to “be the water and the bread” in the papist mass. Both posit man as being in command of the application of the saving grace of God. This is what makes both such an abomination.

Paul shows in 1 Corinthians 12 that this baptism with the Holy Spirit is what unites to Christ and one another. “But one and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as He wills. For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body — so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:11-13) We were baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. This is salvation, something water baptism cannot impart. This is the same message we read in Galatians 3:26-27 “for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ like a garment.”

4.      Baptism with fire refers to judgment, not to special gifting to certain Christians by the Holy Spirit. Nowhere do we read that this type of gifting comes with fire. From old, when God reigned fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah to the end of the Bible where final judgment is portrayed as the lake of fire; fire is consistently used to portray judgment from God. In Matthew 3 and 7, every tree that does not bear fruit will be thrown into the fire. Weeds are thrown into fire (Matt 13), branches that do not abide in the vine are thrown into the fire (John 18),

The one place where a case can be made is Acts 2:1-4 “When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. And tongues, like flames of fire that were divided, appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit gave them ability for speech.” If Pentecost takes place again, then I would expect the apostles to gather in a house and the Spirit come upon them. This passage gives no refuge to those who think every Christian or “special” Christians can claim supernatural gifts because of this event. This is not characterized as a baptism; it was a demonstration of the Spirit’s gifting of known languages for the purpose of declaring the gospel to Parthians, Medes, Elamites; those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. “When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were astounded.” If some claim to have visited by tongues of fire they better be able to speak foreign languages unknown to them in order to make the gospel known.

5.      Baptism serves as a symbol of suffering. This is a two-fold symbol, wherein Scripture uses a cup and a baptism as examples of judgment that Christ suffered – both of which describing the wrath of God poured out on Christ Jesus during His crucifixion.  This is explicitly stated by Jesus as He describes what will take place at the end of His ministry:

Mark 10:33-38 “Listen! We are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death. Then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock Him, spit on Him, flog Him, and kill Him, and He will rise after three days.” Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached Him and said, “Teacher, we want You to do something for us if we ask You.” “What do you want Me to do for you?” He asked them. They answered Him, “Allow us to sit at Your right and at Your left in Your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup I drink or to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

The Son of Man will be flogged and condemned to death, being raised up after three days. This is described as the cup He must drink and the baptism He must suffer. When Jesus was being arrested and Peter cut off the ear of a slave, Jesus responded: “Sheathe your sword! Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given Me?” (John 18:11) His trial and death were the cup Jesus was given. This is also shown in Matthew 26:37-42, where the wrath of God is in the cup.

Note also, in Mark’s passage above, the suffering of Jesus and that of His disciples is portrayed as a baptism. In this one passage, both metaphors are tied to the suffering of Jesus as He stood in the place of elect sinners.

David and other Psalmists described their deep sorrows as a kind of burial beneath the billows and waves of the Almighty. In Psalm 42:5 & 7 we read, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” In this sorrowful lament with his soul, he describes his afflictions in terms that point to baptism – “Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.” Three images of water: waterfalls, breakers, and waves; all communicate the idea of a cascading waterfall pummeling the poet, with the brutal breakers and waves of an angry ocean violently washing over his head. These terrifying metaphors of his torment and anguish wash over him, drowning him in his sorrows. Carried along by the Spirit of God to write these things, perhaps the Psalmist knew not that he prophesied of the promised Messiah, but his words were given to him by God's Spirit and anticipate the predestined sufferings and death of Christ as a kind of baptism. The word for deep in the psalm is used as a synonym for sheol, connecting to the death of Christ as a submersion into the deepest waters of the place of the dead. And the water metaphors in this psalm undoubtedly describe the suffering servant of God – “As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”” (Psalm 42:10) This is widely recognized as prophecy of the Lord's sword-pierced side and the cruel mockery of those who blasphemed while He hung on the cross. (this paragraph is taken from chapter 2 of my first book, Captive to the Word of God)

Baptism is a hotly debated topic, but my experience is most do not even take the time to define what baptism they are discussing. Most assume water baptism is all there is; it is what natural man can see and touch. Christian baptism in water has a place in the ongoing life of the people of God, reflecting the baptism of Christ’s suffering for His people and the baptism with the Holy Spirit that brought new life to the one being baptized into water. Without the baptism of Christ’s suffering, without the baptism with the Holy Spirit, no amount of water can bring peace with God. All that remains is the baptism of fire, from which there is no hiding place. 

The Resurrection Foretold and Fulfilled.

 Part two of this short series. What does Scripture say?

The Danger of Formalism

This lesson was titled "The Origin and Significance of Infant Baptism." I should have titled it "The Danger of Formalism."

Perhaps the biggest problem facing the professing saints throughout history is the tendency to drift into a religious formalism, replacing the Spirit-filled Christian life to a spiritually weakened or dead life filled with rote traditions, denying the inspired instructions for how we are to walk as children of the light. With the doctrine of baptism, it is easy and disastrous to emphasize water baptism to the degree it displaces spiritual baptism. And replacing biblical water baptism with sprinkling water on the face of infants removes the mystery of the gospel scene and substitutes a religious rite that warms the hearts of parents.

What Does it matter that we are Baptists?

 

Water Baptism

You Can Listen to this Sermon Here

There are some comments and teaching in the audio not contained in the notes below.

Water Baptism

Baptists baptize believers – by submersion. We're in the minority. Denominations that practice "infant baptism" include Roman Catholics, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, some Nazarenes, the United Church of Christ (UCC), Moravian Church, Metropolitan Community Church, Wesleyans, and Episcopalians. There are some who believe baptism is salvific – Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and those who hold to Federal Vision.

Baptists used to be called “people of the book,” resting on the sure foundation of Scripture and submitting to the authority of Scripture. If we are not tenacious in this matter, we are vulnerable to smooth sounding arguments that end up becoming traditions that cannot be questioned. Just as has happened for those who sprinkle little ones. I do not want to spend much time explaining why the paedobaptist view on baptism is wrong, I will appeal to a few of their finest theologians to tells us they are wrong.

John Calvin: “John and Christ administered baptism totins corpore submersione, by the submission of the whole body … The very word 'baptize' … signifies to immerse entirely, and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient church.”

Martin Luther: “The Greek word baptizo means 'immerse' or 'plunge', and the word baptisma means immersion.”

Ulrich Zwingli: “Immersion of the whole body was used from the beginning, which expresses the force of the word 'baptize', whence John baptized in the river. It was afterward changed into sprinkling, though it is uncertain when or by whom.”

And the great B.B.Warfield: “It is true that there is no express command to baptize infants in the New Testament, no express record of the baptism of infants, and no passages so stringently implying it that we must infer from them that infants were baptized.”

These four giants of the Reformation and the development of Presbyterian theology unabashedly tell us their position is not based on the Scriptures. It’s what I call “white space theology” – derived from the spaces between the words in the Word; what they call "good and necessary inference." When did this great controversy over baptism start? If believers' baptism is what the Bible teaches, why and when did people start baptizing babies? History records the creeping ignorance and superstition that led to this practice and the religion which institutionalized it. In the 3^rd century, some people in the church became convinced that baptism was meritorious and had a magical power to help save the soul. At first, people only baptized infants who were sick – as an insurance policy. Quickly, all infants were baptized, sprinkled instead of dipped – for their physical health. Church men began to argue over when the infant should be baptized – saying on the 8^th day? Others argued it ought be delayed as long as possible so that more sins would be covered. Such was the case with Constantine, who refused to be “baptized” until he was on his death bed. Lack of knowledge and trust in the Word of God leads men astray, to trust in the imaginations of men. Something that divides people for centuries, shedding no little blood, ought to be based on clear teachings from Scripture - not inferences needed to support that which is not found clearly taught.

When Christianity was legalized, the church, already suffering from an unhealthy view of “holy clergy”, saw infant baptism as an effective way to number the people so they could be taxed and controlled. And to convince the ignorant masses, these compromised churchmen played up the false notion that baptism plays a part in saving one's soul. This is called Sacerdotalism – using a sacrament (a religious rite) as a means of conveying God's favor to the people. When the Reformation broke out, some were called Magisterial Reformers – they maintained the close connection between church and state. One of these, Zwingli, was stuck between his belief that the Bible commands believers' baptism and his practice, which was more than a thousand years old, the union of church and state and control of the people by infant baptism. So he persecuted those who did not practice what the state commanded because he feared the people. Such is the power of our unexamined presuppositions and the influence of the culture. We must be people of the book!

In the early 17^th century, the Puritans fled England in search of religious liberty. They had been persecuted because they believed in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone and they were persecuted because the state church held to a sacerdotal view. Yet they, like Zwingli, failed to escape the trap they fled – they brought it with them, just like Lot did when he fled Zoar. Baptists also fled to the New World to escape religious persecution. In a report, Ill News from New England, early American Baptist John Clark records how he, Obidiah Jones, and John Crandall were arrested because they had discussed baptism over dinner at a boarding house. These three were hauled before the court in Boston, found guilty of not honoring the state religion. They were beaten, fined, and thrown in prison. The Puritans had established state churches in the colonies and they persecuted those who did not agree with their religious views – just like the Church of England which persecuted them. Our theology affects how we live, just as it did these Puritans and these Baptists.

With that brief historical backdrop, I want to explore the deepest meaning of this ordinance. Why is baptism – baptism of believers – important? What does it signify?

We know what Romans 6:4 says, we rightly hear it every time a child of God gets baptized - We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. This gives us a picture of what has been done to us, that as the Lord Jesus was put to death and raised up, so are we. This is an important truth that we must never forget. But I hope we open our eyes to the greater meaning of this simple ordinance and pray that we see together what a glorious picture has been given to us by our great and gracious Lord.

As with most important truths from Scripture, the spiritual significance of what God has revealed is far, far greater than we at first comprehend. Unless we dig into the Word and pray for wisdom, we may not get to the place where we see more and are given even more reason to humbly thank our God, in awe of Who He is and what, in truth, has been done.

I highly recommend a small book by Baptist Pastor Hal Brunson, titled The Rickety Bridge and the Broken Mirror, a book of parables about baptism, which is most helpful.

The metaphor in Romans 6:4 gives us the active or present reality of the meaning of Christ's death, that introspective reality of the first resurrection, when we die to sin and are raised to new life. But this verse and the act of baptism also point back historically to the death of Christ and prophetically forward to the physical resurrection of all the saints when He returns to judge all flesh. Baptism is a multifaceted word picture that ought to remind us of far more than the glorious change wrought in the life of the redeemed sinner. One aspect of baptism that baby sprinklers cannot lay claim to is baptism as a picture of submersion into great waters, portraying the great waters of Divine judgment. We see in Scripture several passages where great waters are graphic symbols of God's judgment and wrath against sin – which Christ took upon His body as the Lamb sacrificed for our sin. He was submersed into the ocean of God's wrath on our account, and raised up on the third day. There are at least four major word pictures used in Scripture that describe baptism.

1. The flood of Noah.
2. The sorrows of David, described as “great waters”.
3. Jonah being cast into the sea.
4. Jesus' understanding of His death.

The Apostle Peter points to this great flood of the entire earth as a vivid picture of the believer's baptism as well as a figure or type pointing to the suffering of Christ. In proclaiming (1 Pet 3:18) that Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, Peter then alludes to the flood and how only 8 persons were saved in the ark, brought through the great waters of God's judgment against sin. And Peter goes on in his first letter to tell us that baptism corresponds to this – the flood of Noah, the outpouring of God's wrath in judgment and the only refuge being in the ark which is Christ. In 2 Peter, the flood is listed with another well-known symbol of God's wrath against sin – Sodom and Gomorrah. God's wrath against sin is real, it is certain, it is final. We need a savior, One Who can bear up under this wrath, One Who has no sin of His own to atone for. Not only did Christ provide refuge from God's wrath, He was buried in God's judgment as payment for sin. He is worthy of our praise.

What about the sorrows of David? This man after God's own heart knew of his own sin and the despair of trusting in any mortal man for reconciliation with Holy God. David and other Psalmists described their deep sorrows as a kind of burial beneath the billows and waves of the Almighty. In Psalm 42 we read, Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? In this sorrowful lament with his soul, he describes his afflictions in terms that point to baptism - Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. Three images of water – waterfalls, breakers, and waves – all communicate the idea of a cascading waterfall pummeling the poet, with the brutal breakers and waves of an angry ocean violently washing over his head. These terrifying metaphors of his torment and anguish wash over him, drowning him in his sorrows. Carried along by the Spirit of God to write these things, perhaps the Psalmist knew not that he prophesied of the promised Messiah, but his words anticipate the sufferings and death of Christ as a kind of baptism. The word for deep in the psalm is used as a synonym for sheol, connecting to the death of Christ as a submersion into the deepest waters of sheol. And the water metaphors in this psalm undoubtedly describe the suffering servant of God - Psalm 42:10  As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” This is widely recognized as prophecy of the Lord's sword-pierced side and the cruel mockery of those who blasphemed while He hung on the cross.

David's description of his soul's suffering in deep water takes us more deeply into the sufferings of Jesus. As did the high priest of Israel, we are brought through the first veil, the holy place of Christ's impeccable flesh, gazing upon His physical sufferings; and then through the second veil into the holy of holies, to the very heart of Christ, where we see the spiritual anguish of the Lamb being under the rod of God's wrath. In Psalm 18, David wrote about his persecution at the hand of Saul – but the eternal message of redemption contained in all of Scripture here portrays the Savior's passion, not David's sorrow; death and hell as the persecutor of Christ, not Saul chasing David. The king of Israel describes his trials in terms of sorrow and death and hell which have a human and a divine cause, stark images of his soul's baptism into the lesser sea of man's wrath and the greater ocean of God's wrath. David is immersed in human wrath, Saul's rage is real. But David's words tell of God's judgment on sin and care for His people. Psalm 18:7-17 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.  Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

But as God did not leave David's soul in torment, neither would He suffer His Holy One to see corruption, as Christ was not left buried beneath the sea of God's wrath and the ocean of His judgment. As David cried out in his distress and called upon the Lord from beneath the deep waters of his sufferings, so also the Savior, as it were, from beneath the burning waters of the cross, (Matthew 27:46) Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As deep calls to deep, the Almighty heard the voices of David and David's seed, and thus He bowed the heavens and came down, riding on a cherub and flying on the wings of the wind; God answered the cry of His Son and sent from above and drew Him out of many waters.

The sorrows of David and other psalmists resonate with all who suffer, but they point us to the One Who suffered what we deserve, to bring many sons and daughters to glory. The love of God for His elect caused the Son of God – David's promised seed – to submit to the baptism of His Father's wrath, so we who are called by His name would be reconciled to our Father and not be left to our just deserts.

When we baptize a new convert, we are not drinking His cup, but we bapize in remembrance of what He did – to cut the New Covenant in His blood to reconcile sinners to Holy God. Paul asks, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (Rom 6:3) And further he tells us, (1 Corinthians 12:13) For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Oh, the Savior’s love for His Father – and all those He chose to redeem in Christ! Baptism – it's an ordinance which shows how spiritually dead people have been raised to new life in Christ. But, oh my dear brothers and sisters – it is much, much more than that. I pray you got a glimpse of a better picture of the grand and glorious sacrifice of our Lord and Savior was prophesied and pictured in various ways as a baptism into God the Father's judgment. The price He paid and the suffering He took as He drank the cup of wrath due us, summed up the submersion and emersion as one is plunged beneath the waters of baptism and raised up from the deep as did our Savior. Let us never see baptism as only the celebration of a new-born brother in Christ, and not ever the mere sprinkling of water over a little one who knows nothing and fears not the sprinkled water. Let us always remember the One Who was baptized in a way you and I could never survive. Christ paid the price we could not pay. He drank the cup and underwent the baptism we could never do. Every time we see this ordinance, let us think on His sacrifice, His obedience, His submission. And let us be thankful we have a faithful God Who did not allow His Holy One to see corruption – that we would have the firm hope of life eternal. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. It is a glorious picture of our Redeemer, but we won't know that if we are not people of the book!