Christian Baptism: Why Baptists are so Persnickety

Text: Colossians 2:11-13

Theme: Only those who have received the "circumcision of the heart" should be baptized, and that baptism should be by immersion.

Who should the church baptize? Why do we baptize? How should it be done? These are questions that the church has struggled with for most of its existence.

Some insist that the physical act of baptism actually regenerates the soul and somehow administers saving grace into the person's life. This is why our Catholic brethren baptize infants. Some, like the Church of Christ, believe that one must make a public confession of faith and also be baptized. If you have a heart attack and die on your way to the creek bank, that's tough. It's straight to hell for you. Some, like ourselves – a people called Baptist – insist on 'believer's baptism' or what some call 'confessor's baptism.' It is the belief that first ya get saved and then ya get baptized. Ya don't get saved, ya don't get baptized. And when you do get baptized, there is nothing efficacious about it. It is merely a symbol of what the Holy Spirit has done in you when you believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and confessed Him as Savior.

When it comes to the way we baptize, some insist that just a sprinkle of water is all that is needed. While others will take a fancy little bowl and pour water over your head (Affusion). Some insist that ya gotta be dunked all the way under. And even those who immerse have their differences! You have those who believe that immersing once in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is all that is required, while others say, "Nope, ya dunk 'em once in the name of the Father, once in the name of the Son, and once in the name of the Holy Spirit." (Seems a little over-kill to me).

Baptists have always been pretty persnickety about baptism. Some would contend that we are being overly fussy about it. I would counter that we’re just being biblically precise about it!

I. THE PROPER CANDIDATE FOR BAPTISM

1. we believe baptism should only be administered to those who have received a 'circumcision of the heart'

“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,” (Colossians 2:11, ESV)

2. there were those who had come to the Colossian church preaching a different gospel than the one that had been first delivered unto them

a. they were told, "Oh, you've believed in Christ? Well, that's a good start, but it's not enough. Let us tell what else you've got to do."

b. false prophets had taught the Colossian Christians that they first had to become Jews before they could become Christians

c. and the way you became a Jew was to be circumcised

1) these folks came to be called Judaizers and they would be the bane of the Apostle Paul's ministry

2) he was constantly countering their influence almost everywhere he went

3. circumcision, if you remember, was the covenant symbol God gave to Abraham to distinguish the Patriarch and all his descendants as the people of God

a. it was a ritual performed on all Hebrew male children 8 days after their birth

b. it signified three things . . .

1) a physical mark given to God's people to show them as separate from the Gentiles

2) a covenant to spiritually point them back to the righteousness of faith imputed to Abraham

3) a symbol to point them forward to the true circumcision of heart that would take place when God Himself would put His laws in the hearts and minds of His people

3. Paul tells the Colossian believers that indeed they have been circumcised!

v. 11 "In him you were also circumcised, ... "

a. it wasn't circumcision of the flesh and obedience to Jewish religious law that made them a child of God

b. it was a circumcision of the heart accomplished by God Himself when He redeemed them in Christ

" ... not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,"

c. Paul’s message is the core of the Gospel ...

1) Christ was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, suffered, died and was buried

2) He bore the punishment of sin and the wrath of God for you

3) you are no longer an object of God's condemnation, but recipients of His justification

d. Paul refers to this spiritual event as the circumcision of the heart and it is the circumcision of the heart done by Christ that adopts us into the household of faith

“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.” (Romans 2:28–29, ESV)

4. what's the point?

A. GOD HAS CHANGED US!

1. Baptists have always believed that salvation is a “God thing”

a. it is not a matter of reciting the right creeds, or performing the right rituals, or participating in the right ceremonies

2. salvation is a supernatural event ... it is the first and most important miracle anyone will ever experience in their life

a. it is wrought in your life by the power of God's Holy Spirit

b. salvation takes place when – irresistibly drawn by God's Spirit – your purposely and deliberately repent of sin and confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord

3. Baptists have been persistent through the centuries in that we will only baptize those who have had this kind of experience with God

a. this means . . .

1) no babies are to be baptized

2) no one is to be baptized for someone else

3) no one is to be baptized in some empty ceremonial rite that supposedly washes away sin

ILLUS. Ya get saved, ya get baptized. Ya don't get saved, ya don't get baptized. It's as simple as that

4. Who’s the proper candidate for believer’s baptism? – Believers!

II. THE PROPER REASON FOR BAPTISM

1. the only reason to ever baptize someone is because they have experienced the regenerating power of God in their lives

2. we believe baptism symbolizes the believer's new identity in Christ

“having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12, ESV)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

3. when you're born again by the Holy Spirit your essential character changed

a. you’re not the person you were before you were saved

b. before you were saved, you had the essential character of your father the devil

c. but after you were saved, you get the essential character of the Heavenly Father’s Son ... Christ Jesus

4. a believer’s public baptism is an outward symbolic ritual of the inward transformation wrought in your life by the Holy Spirit

a. THAT”S why we baptize people

A. WHEN YOU'RE BORN AGAIN, YOUR ESSENTIAL CHARACTER CHANGES

1. when Jesus comes into your life, God sees you in a whole new light

a. before you were a believer, God saw you as spiritually lost, sinful, and unrighteous

b. now, He sees you as spiritually found, forgiven, and righteous

2. God sees you this way because you have a new identity in Christ

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;” (2 Corinthians 5:17–18, ESV)

ILLUS. The U.S. Government has a procedure it uses to give government informants and witnesses protection from retaliation for helping to put criminals behind bars through their testimonies. It's called the Witness Protection Program. The person is given a whole new identity. They are given a new name, a new address and sometimes even a new look. They must completely assume their new identity in order to remain safe. If they fall out of character, their past may catch up with them and put them or their family in danger. They must really come to believe and accept their new identity.

3. God does the same for us spiritually when we're born again

a. He gives us a new name

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’” (Revelation 2:17, ESV)

b. He gives us a new address

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:20, ESV)

c. He gives us a new look

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV)

d. baptism is a symbol of these spiritual realities

4. What is the right reason for baptizing someone? – In obedience to Christ and as a testimony of their faith!

III. THE PROPER METHOD OF BAPTISM

1. we believe only baptism by immersion can symbolize the believer’s new identity in Christ

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.” (Romans 6:3–4, ESV)

2. baptism is about identifying with a new life, a new way, a new motivation for everything we do

a. the baptism that really changes us is the baptism of the Holy Spirit who comes into the believer's life and performs the circumcision of the heart

b. it is God taking up residence in our life

"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory." (Ephesians 1:13-14, NASB95)

A. A NEW TESTAMENT BAPTISM IS BAPTISM BY IMMERSION

1. you say, “Pastor, how do you know?”

a. because that's what the word literally means

2. the word baptize in the New Testament is not a translation of the original Greek word, but a transliteration of the word

ILLUS. In 1604 the King of England, James 1, called various church leaders together for a conference at Hampton Court. At that conference, Dr. John Reynolds, a Puritan churchman, proposed this resolution: "That a translation be made of the whole Bible, as harmonious as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek; and this is to be set out and printed, without any marginal notes, and only to be used in all Churches of England in time of divine service."

The resolution was applauded and approved. The king appointed a group of 54 men to the task of translating the Bible from its original languages into the English of their day. Everything was going fine until they got to the Greek word baptidzo which means to fully dip, plunge under, or totally submerge.

There was just one teensy problem – the Church of England practiced baptism by sprinkling. This posed a serious dilemma. John is no long "John the Baptist," but "John the Immerser." Galatians 3:27 would no longer read, "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ," but instead would say, "for all of you who were immersed into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."

They solved the problem in a unique way. Instead of translating the word baptidzo as fully dip, plunge under or immerse, they simply replaced the Greek letters with the English equivalent and it came out baptize! It saved the Church of England from a lot of embarrassment and it probably saved the scholars their heads. But it has forever complicated the issue of baptism.

3. when you get right down to it, the word baptize means "put 'em under till they bubble"

4. can you imagine how it would change Baptist life if we actually translated the word correctly?

a. we wouldn't be Baptists anymore ... we would be Dippers

b. we wouldn't be the Missouri Baptist Convention, but instead would be the Missouri Dippers Convention

c. I guess that would make our church the 1st Dipper’s Church of Linn

5. some would argue, "What makes they way we baptize so important as long as we baptize? Who cares whether we sprinkle water on 'em, pour water over 'em, or hold 'em under 'till they really repent?"

a. this is obviously a point of contention between us and almost all other denominations

ILLUS. Our own Missouri history shows that the mode of baptism was a point of contention in the early woodland spiritual warfare between Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians 190 years ago on the Missouri frontier. At the periodic frontier Camp Meetings, Christians of all denominations would come together for worship. The Methodists sang this song: "We've searched the laws of Heaven throughout the sacred code; Of baptism by dipping we've never found a word." To which the Baptists would respond – I'm sure in a rousing tune – "Not at the river Jordan, but in the flowing stream, stood John the Baptist when he baptized Jesus. John was a Baptist preacher when he baptized the Lamb, thus Jesus was a Baptist and thus the Baptists came."

b. our Baptist forefathers believed that – for the sake of the local church – we should only receive members from other churches of like faith and order

1) both are important

ILLUS. Historically, Baptists have rejected the baptisms of other churches as invalid. Our Baptist forefathers held, for instance, that the Methodist and Presbyterian churches were true churches because they held to the true gospel – they preached faith in Christ and the new birth. Thus they were of like faith. But these churches were in disorder because they practiced infant baptism, by which they allowed unregenerate persons to join the church.

On the other hand, we have those congregations that we consider of like order, but not of like faith. Some sister denominations practice baptism by immersion, but they see it as quasi-sacramental ritual. The Christian church is in this category. You must be born again, but you must also be baptized. Thus, we consider them as having like order, but not like faith.

When Christians seek to join a Baptist Church and they’ve been baptized by sprinkling as professing believers in a Presbyterian or Methodist church, Baptists require them to receive baptism by immersion before admission. Some will reject this idea of "re-baptism." But our Baptist forefathers did not consider it re-baptism, but merely true, biblical, New Testament baptism. This practice does not endear Baptists to our fellow evangelicals. Our forefathers regretted this, but felt bound by Scripture.

c. it comes down to this – the church should not be so desperate for members that it willingly abandons what we clearly believe the Scriptures teach

6. What's the right way to baptize? – It's by full immersion as a symbol of God’s saving faith in the believer’s life

IV. THE PROPER AUTHORITY IN BAPTISM

1. over the centuries the church has debated the question, “Who has the authority to baptize people who have come to faith in Jesus Christ?”

a. some have argued that only the clergy or an officially recognized minister

b. some have argued that any individual Christian has the right to baptize another believer

2. Baptists have maintained one simple answer – the local church has the authority to authorize baptism and they can authorize whomever they want be it lay person or minister

a. we believe this for two reasons

1) baptism in not merely a convert’s public profession of his or her faith, but also an identifying with the congregation as a community of believers

2) baptism is not purely an individual act – there is a reciprocal responsibility to the convert to the congregation and the congregation to the convert

b. what concerns the local church, the local church has the authority to regulate

Some of you are wondering, "How does this message apply to me? I've heard all this before and have believed it all my Christian life."

Let me ask you a question: "Are you still trying to be the person that your baptism claimed you to be?"

In the first-century Church baptismal candidates approached the baptistry pool wearing old cloths. These were stripped off as they entered the waters of baptism, and on surfacing they were clothed in a white robe. The old clothes represented the old life, while the new cloths characterized the new life and its accompanying change of behavior.