Baptism

Introduction

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article VII

Outline

Tonight we are going to focus on paragraph one and looking at:

The Ordinance of Baptism

Ordinances and Sacraments

Historically, Southern Baptists have called them Ordinances.

Ordinance means decree or command.

We refer to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as ordinances because they are decreed and commanded by Christ.

One time I preached a sermon about the Lord’s Supper and I called it a sacrament and not an ordinance.

My dear brother, Charles Martin, who is now rejoicing with Christ with his best friend, Carol, by his side in glory, pulled me aside and said:

“Excellent sermon, Pastor, but please don’t ever call the ordinance a sacrament again!”

However, our earliest Baptist brethren had no problem joining with Presbyterians and Congregationalists and saying that they were sacraments.

Sacrament means an act that conveys grace to the believer.

In 1678, the General Baptists published a document called the “Orthodox Creed.”

The General Baptists believed that God only elected some to salvation, but they did not believe Jesus died for only the elect.

They believed Jesus died for all people.

And yet, they wanted Presbyterians and other Baptists to know that they were still likeminded with them in just about every other way.

So they produced this document.

Listen to what it says:

Those two sacraments, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, are ordinances of positive, sovereign, and holy institution, appointed by Jesus Christ the only Lawgiver.

Orthodox Creed, 1678

Did you notice what those old Baptists did there?

They used Ordinance and Sacrament interchangeably.

Now, I understand why this makes a good Baptist like Charles Martin uneasy.

I believe it makes them think of something not Protestant.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that believers must take the sacraments of the New Covenant in order to be saved.

They have seven of them.

So when some hear the term sacrament, they think Roman Catholic.

But our Baptist forefathers were not saying that someone must do the work of Baptism and the taking of the Lord’s Supper in order to be saved.

They were simply saying that while baptism and the Lord’s Supper are these visible symbols for us—they also convey grace to us as those who have been saved by the worked of Christ.

Technically speaking, “ordinance” refers to that which has been ordained, or put in place, by Christ. “Sacrament” refers to what an ordinance does when blessed by the Spirit of Christ: that is, it acts as a means of grace.

Ryan Davidson

The believer is enriched with grace in the soul as they are united with Christ in baptism.

The believer is enriched with grace in the heart as they commune with Christ at the Table.

YES—the ordinances are the visible representation of the Gospel to us.

But they are more than just a symbol—they are a vehicle for God’s grace to the Christian.

In light of that—our early Baptist brothers and sisters had no issue using the terms interchangeably.

I don’t really either.

But for our purposes tonight, we will stick with the language of the Baptist Faith and Message.

We do this for clarity and so that our brother Charles Martin can rejoice in heaven over us using the O-Word.

But we will return to this idea of the ordinances being a means of grace to the believers as we study each of them.

And what an important study it is.

We’ve been given just two of these ordinances and we must know what they mean.

A man will not contend unless he knows what he is fighting for.

John Owen

We won’t contend for the truth about something until we understand it.

So let us understand the ordinances tonight.

Baptism

1. The Ordinance of Baptism

In order for us to understand baptism and what the Faith and Message has to say about it, I want to give you five statements about baptism.

But before I do,

Baptism is by immersion.

Immersion at Institution

One of the first things the Faith and Message has to say about baptism is that it is to be done by immersion.

Immersion means to put something completely in a liquid.

In the case of baptism, we are talking about taking a person and putting them completely under water.

Submerging them.

Baptizing believers by immersion is an ordinance instituted by Christ in His Great Commission.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The Greek word for baptizing is baptizo.

This means to immerse.

In light of this, sprinkling or partially immersing does not satisfy the New Testament definition of baptism.

That is why if someone is joining our church from the Presbyterian or Methodist tradition and they had not been baptized by immersion as a believer, we would baptize them.

That would not be a 2nd baptism.

That would the first.

Baptism is a picture of the Gospel.

Depicting the Gospel

This is why I believe the Lord has called us to baptize by immersion.

It is so we may paint a picture of the Gospel as we go under the water.

It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article VII

When the believer stands in the water and a pastor looks at them and asks, “Is it your testimony that you have repented of sin and believed in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins,” and they answer, “Yes,”—they are making a declaration with their lips.

But then—as they go under the water—they make a declaration with their actions.

The old version of them has died and has been buried with Christ...

BOOM—under the water!

The new version of them is alive and is resurrected with Christ...

BOOM—up from the water!

And then the new version of them walks out of the pool—because they have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back.

This is a beautiful picture of His saving work.

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.

Baptism demonstrates the spiritual reality of Romans 6:3-4 with the bodily action of being immersed.

It depicts the total surrender and transformation that only the saving grace of God can bring.

Final Resurrection

The Baptist Faith and Message also tells us that the ordinance is a testimony to the believer’s faith in a final resurrection of the dead.

We believe that when a believer is laid to rest on this earth, that will not be their final resting place for good.

Instead, by the power of the Lord, their bodies will be resurrected at the 2nd Coming of Christ and they will have new resurrection bodies.

Our old bodies are are patterned after Adam.

Our new resurrected bodies will be patterned after Christ who resurrected first.

When the believer comes up from the water and walks in the newness of life, the implication is that they will not go under that water again.

They have died with Christ by faith, therefore, they will not taste the 2nd death.

They are raised spiritually now and seated with Christ in the heavenly places, but the day is coming when they will be resurrected physically they will dwell on the New Earth with the Lamb forever.

Trinitarian Nature of Baptism

And this glorious Gospel depiction is to be executed in the name of the Triune God.

According to Christ it is to be done in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Why?

Because we are baptized in the name of the Son who died and rose to life, the Spirit who draws the sinner and reveals Christ to him, and the Father who sent the Son and receives the glory.

Salvation was a Trinitarian work.

Therefore the baptism that demonstrates it is a Trinitarian act.

When You Can’t Baptize

I do want to say this—

There may be times where someone cannot be immersed in water for baptism due to a health issue.

In those cases, certainly we do the best we can to find a way to depict the Gospel with them.

And since baptism is a symbol and does not save, there are no concerns about that person’s standing with God.

Baptism is a public confession.

Going Public

Since baptism is meant to be such a picture of the Gospel, it is something that should be done in public.

It is not meant to be hidden away.

In many ways, baptism is meant to be the first sermon the Christian preaches.

It is an announcement to the church and the whole world that:

You were alive to the world and dead to God

You are now dead to the world and alive to God

In Baptism, we are truly outing ourselves as Christian.

We are publicly identifying ourselves with King Jesus and His Church.

His ways and His values.

His Gospel and His Truth.

His people.

In the world of business and stock, if a company goes public, it means they are going from being privately owned, to being publicly owned and traded.

Suddenly, they are fully on the radar of the business world.

Baptism is where a Christian goes public.

They show up on the radar of the Church and the world as a Christ-follower.

Invisible faith is made visible for the all to see.

Baptism is a sign for believers.

Our Name is a Fight

Now—this may seem obvious to you, but that is only because you’ve been Baptist for a while.

But this—along with immersion—are the definitive Baptist convictions regarding baptism.

They are so definitive that they have determined our name.

There are many Christians who believe in what we would call infant baptism or “paedobaptism” (Paedo refers to the Greek word for child).

Paedobaptism is the practice of baptizing infants or very young children.

Our name is an argument with those Christians who practice it.

Quite literally.

The Southern Baptist Seminary President, Al Mohler, preached at the SBCV Homecoming in Hampton, VA a number of years ago and Mohler said, “Our name is a fight!”

Our name represents how we part with those who practice infant baptism.

Infant Baptism

There are many Christians in the world who come from the tradition of the Protestant Reformation, just like us, but they practice paedobaptism.

I want to make sure we understand their line of thinking.

The argument for infant baptism is truly a matter of how God’s covenants and the signs of His covenants are viewed.

God’s covenants are made with His people.

In these covenants, He enters freely into relationship with them.

And He makes terms with them and has promises of blessings and curses, depending upon their obedience.

And these covenants often come with signs that portray the nature of the covenant.

So for example, Abraham had a covenant with God where God promised that Abraham would have many offspring.

That covenant was signified by circumcision.

Abraham was to circumcise all his male offspring.

Do you see how the sign of the covenant corresponded with the promise of the covenant?

So what Paedobaptists say is “look—God has a covenant with Abraham and with all of his offspring.”

That covenant has a sign —circumcision.

Now—in the New Covenant, there is a new sign—baptism.

They draw a straight line between the two signs.

And they say that the Old Covenant and New Covenant are both folded into God’s covenant of grace.

They say that God has one covenant of grace with His people that has been expressed in two administrations—Old Covenant and New Covenant.

Under the Old—circumcision was the sign for the offspring of the believer.

Under the New—baptism is the sign of the offspring of the believer.

And they look at a text like Acts 2:38-39, which says:

Acts 2:38–39 ESV

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

And they say—See, FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN.

So you baptize the infant as a sign that they are in the church.

They are a part of the visible covenant community, just like the circumcised male child.

And if they remain in the community, it is evidence of God’s saving grace at work in their lives.

If they leave the community, it shows they were never truly a part of it to begin with.

Our Response

Our response to this is that there is nothing in Acts 2:38-39 or any other Scripture that gives actual instruction for baptizing infants.

There is nothing explicit saying infants were baptized or should be baptizes.

To be sure, there is no explicit mention of infant baptism in the New Testament.

Kevin DeYoung, Moderator of the 51st PCA General Assembly

Our response is that the argument for infant baptism must be implied and inferred because it is simply not explicitly taught in the Word.

Furthermore it has inconsistencies:

Why are you baptizing infants, but you won’t give them the Lord’s Supper?

Why are you baptizing girls when only boys were circumcised? Are these things equivalent or not?

Why do we assume that God’s covenant of grace began way back in the Garden or with Abraham and not with Christ?

After all, if the Old Testament is the Covenant of Grace and it contains the Mosaic Law, are we saying the Mosaic Law is truly a part of the Covenant of Grace?

Because we don’t want to say that.

The Law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ and grace comes to us through Christ in the New Covenant.

And then furthermore, when we read the Old Testament prophecies about the coming New Covenant in Christ, is there really anything indicating that unbelievers will also be recipients of the benefits of the covenant?

Which by the way—they have to be if you are baptizing them into the Covenant community of the church!

This is a very, very quick overview of the complications you run into when you start accepting paedobaptism as a practice.

The Case for Believer’s Baptism

Defining Credo

We do not believe in paedobaptism. We believe in believer’s baptism or credobaptism.

Credo is where we get our word creed from.

It refers to believing.

We affirm believer’s baptism. Credobaptism—not paedobaptism.

Our belief is that in order for someone to baptized into the church, they must be a Christian.

They must be someone who has come to a realization of their sin.

They have turned from their sin.

They have turned to the crucified and resurrected Savior in faith.

By the blood of Christ, they have been brought into the New Covenant.

The old is gone and the new has come.

Now that they are in the New Covenant by faith in Christ, they are baptized INTO the covenant community of the church.

And the baptism itself is communicating the reality of how the person was dead in sin and now they are alive in Christ.

Comparing Presby and Baptist

The Presbyterian says, “We are only baptizing them into the visible, physical community of the church. NOT the invisible, spiritual community of the church.”

The Baptist responds and says, “Why make such a distinction? Why not only baptize those who are Christians into physical church—symbolizing how they are already a part of the spiritual church by faith?”

This practice of believer’s baptism is quite explicit in the Scriptures.

It is even the sort of baptism that Jesus modeled for us.

There is no need to make an argument from inference or implication.

You can make it from the explicit words of Scripture.

Church History

In fact, you have to wait until about two hundred years into church history to see infant baptism being talked about and even then, the first mention comes from Tertullian who is speaking out against it.

What this means is that Baptists are not trying to do something NEW with Believer’s Baptism.

We are reforming and seeking to return to what the Scriptures taught from the start.

We are seeking to be obedient to God’s revealed Word because the Scriptures are our authority.

Baptism is a means of grace.

Finally, we also want to say that God’s grace comes to us in the act of baptism.

Now I want to be clear about what I am saying and not saying.

How Baptism IS a Means of Grace

Let me start with what I am saying:

When we observe baptism, WE ALL are observing baptism.

While baptism is a one-time act for the person being baptized, baptisms are acts we see again and again in the church as new believers come through the waters.

So as the person is lowers into the water and then are raised back up, we all see that symbolism.

We all are able to reflect on the saving power of God in the Gospel

We are able to remember the day of our baptism

We are able to celebrate once more that God is a Savior and a Giver of Life.

We are able to cheer, knowing that the saved and baptized, will soon trample Satan under their feet

In that holy moment, the person in the water is experiencing the grace of God in their hearts as they obey Christ.

But more than that, the WHOLE church is experiencing the grace of Christ through the baptism as well.

So then, we do not hesitate to say that when the ordinance is blessed by God it is really a sacrament that becomes a vehicle for God’s grace to come to His Church.

How Baptism is NOT a Means of Grace

So then what we can say is that God’s sustaining and sanctifying grace comes to us through the ordinance of baptism.

However, we do NOT say that God’s saving grace becomes present in the person THROUGH the baptism.

This would be the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, which is taught, for example, by the Roman Catholic Church.

The movie The Godfather starts with a Roman Catholic wedding and it ends with a Roman Catholic baptism.

Michael Corleone stands there as the priest baptizes his son, Anthony.

And according to Roman Catholic doctrine, when the Godfather’s little son is baptized, saving grace is imparted to him.

This is what the Roman Church means when they call baptism a sacrament.

That through the baptismal water, the child is regenerated spiritually and united to Christ and His Church.

We out of hand reject this.

We may say that the ordinance is a means of grace, but we would never say it gives saving grace.

In that scenario, the Roman Catholic is saying the infant need not express faith or even express consent for the baptism to do its job.

This is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

To believe this would be to be out of step with the New Testament understanding of salvation.

So YES—the Baptism is a means of grace in the fact that God uses the ordinance to sustain us and sanctify us.

But baptism does NOT save.

Conclusion

The final thing I want to point out tonight is what the Baptist Faith and Message says at the end of the first paragraph of Article VII.

Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article VII

I think most Southern Baptists would be surprised to find this in their confession.

I think most Southern Baptist churches are probably failing to emphasize this.

But I close with it tonight for two reasons.

One—it sets us up for our next time together where we talk about the Lord’s Supper.

But secondly, I want to close with it because it is the logical conclusion of everything we have been saying.

If baptism is a symbol of the Gospel for believers and through obedience to it, they enter into the church, then baptism HAS to be a prerequisite for membership and the Lord’s Supper Table.

In the case of membership, baptism is a prerequisite because:

It draws a line between the believer and the world

It binds the believer to the church body

It adds the believer to the public company of God’s people

Without baptism, there is an ambiguity about where the person stands.

Without baptism, there is a lack of unity in that the believer does not share the same baptism as the rest of the church.

And without baptism, the believer is not identifying with the church.

Therefore, there can be no membership unless there is a baptism INTO the body.

In the case of the Lord’s Supper—the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance for believers, as we will talk about next time.

How do we know who belongs at that Table?

It is those who have entered in through the front door of the church by going public with their faith in baptism.

Next time we are together, I will talk about how who comes to the Lord’s Supper Table tells us how we know who remains in the church.

Well baptism is how we know who belongs to it in the first place and who should be taking Communion.

Think of it this way:

Baptism is the sign that you are in covenant with God and a part of His people.

The Lord’s Supper is a renewing sign where we come and demonstrate that covenant with God and His people again and again.

How can you participate in the renewing sign if you never had the initial sign of baptism to begin with?

How can you renew an oath you have not made?

How can you eat the family meal if you haven’t entered the household through the front door?

This is why we say Baptism is a prerequisite for the Table.

This is why you will hear us say the following on a Lord’s Supper Sunday:

If you are a baptized believer in good standing with this local church or another, you are welcome at the table.

Get Baptized

So you can’t be a member and you should not really be taking the Lord’s Supper unless you are baptized.

You know what that means—you need to get baptized!

You need to do it because Christ has commanded it.

But you also need to do it because of all the blessings and benefits it communicates to the believer and to the whole church.

Don’t miss out on the joy of baptism.

If you are a believer who has not yet been baptized, let’s talk.

God wants you in that water.