Immersed Believers
Notes
Transcript
Last week, I preached a very familiar text that teaches a very important truth: we are saved by grace. It’s God’s grace, His kindness expressed in Christ Jesus, that saves a person. Grace and faith are the gift of God.
Salvation, from beginning to end, is all of grace. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.
This is the belief that makes a person distinctly Christian.
There are, according to other belief systems, many ways to make oneself right with God.
Participate in religious activity or be part of a certain religious body.
Be a good person.
You know: be kind and polite. Plant a tree. Adopt a puppy. Hold a door open for the elderly. Support a charity. Consider the ethical ramifications and the sourcing of the coffee you drink. Help whoever you can. Feed the homeless.
There’s only ever been one thing justifies; only ever one thing that makes a person right with God.
Faith. We are:
Justified by Faith
Justified by Faith
We are justified (pardoned from the punishment and condemnation of sin) and brought into relationship with God by faith in God’s grace alone.
We see this clearly all throughout the Bible, expressed clearly to Abraham way back in Genesis.
God made a promise to Abraham, that through His offspring, all peoples on earth would be blessed (of course, we know, that means all the peoples on earth would be blessed through Jesus Christ who would come from Abraham’s lineage; read Galatians if you wonder).
A few chapters and a few years after God makes this promise to Abraham, we read this:
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Against all hope and rational expectation (at his age and considering Sarah’s barrenness), Abram believed [had faith] and it was credited to him as righteousness.
It’s faith.
Paul picks up the story of Abraham in Romans and uses Abraham as a sermon illustration.
We’re going to track Paul’s thought and make our way to baptism and its place in the life of the Christian and the church.
Paul says this, in what is the crux of the book of Romans:
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
Righteousness comes through faith in Jesus to all who believe.
God justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
A person is justified by faith.
There is only one God. And this God will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
>In Romans 4, Paul brings Abraham into the discussion:
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Abraham was justified by faith, not circumcision. He was justified before the outward sign of circumcision.
For anyone who trusts God—the One who justifies the ungodly—their faith, like Abraham’s, is credited to them as righteousness (verse 5).
Paul continues using the example of Abraham throughout Romans 4. It’s Abraham’s faith, Paul contends, referencing Genesis 15:6 several times.
23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Just like Abraham and every other person who belongs to God, we belong to Him by faith. We are justified by faith. Because of our faith, God credits righteousness to us.
This is what Jerry Bridges refers to as “the great exchange”.
Jesus taking our sins and paying the price for them. And if that isn’t amazing enough in its own right, Jesus also credits our account with His righteousness.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Paul is relentless in making this point: WE HAVE BEEN JUSTIFIED THROUGH FAITH!
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
Jesus came to redeem those lost in sin along with Adam. And guess what? Justification comes through Jesus and His grace, His mercy, His death:
16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.
One righteous act resulted in justification!
Whether one is justified is NOT the result of their goodness, their religious activity, or their deeds.
We are justified THROUGH FAITH!
Paul spills a lot of ink to make the point of justification by faith. It’s a vitally important truth.
It’s what got Martin Luther excommunicated from the Roman Catholic religion, his belief in justification by faith. It’s the reason we’re Protestants, the chief difference between Christianity and works-based belief such as Catholicism.
We are justified (pardoned from the punishment and condemnation of sin) and brought into relationship with God by faith in God’s grace alone.
It’s a glorious truth. We have keep ourselves tethered to this truth, and never waver or start to believe something besides faith justifies.
To be justified means we’re given a new life in Christ, by faith.
And this is symbolized by baptism:
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Justified by faith, saved by grace alone. Thus, we are:
Baptized as Believers
Baptized as Believers
Baptism is a beautiful symbol of our union with Christ. It’s a picture of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.
Baptism is a sticky-wicket. There are probably more debates in church circles over baptism than any other topic.
I’m not interested in arguments concerning baptism. They are hardly ever fruitful.
What I am interested in is what the Bible has to say about baptism.
Baptism is important.
But baptism is not what saves you.
The belief that baptism is what saves you is called “baptismal regeneration” and it’s way on the fringes of the Christian belief (I’d say it’s out-of-bounds with orthodox belief).
If we actually believed that baptism is what saved a person, we would construct a large baptistery on wheels, fill it with water, push it around town, and dunk every person we could get our hands on (young and old).
That would be our outreach program; we’d get everyone saved!
What the Bible makes clear is that baptism follows faith in Jesus Christ.
Faith in Jesus is what saves/justifies.
It’s not the act of being immersed that saves; there’s no power in the water.
Bob Russell, the former minister of Southeast Christian Church, writes this:
“The Bible makes it very clear that we are justified by faith in Christ. The blood of Jesus cleanses our sins, not the water of baptism.”
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
We are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Baptism is not the reason anyone is saved. Only the precious blood of Christ saves.
It’s faith in Jesus that saves; this is why we only baptize believers—those old enough to make a personal decision, those who have themselves repented and believed, those whom God has called—believers respond in baptism.
Baptism comes after a hearing and believing the gospel, repentance (turning from sin and turning to God), and profession of faith.
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Those who accepted (apodekomai), that is, those who reacted favorably toward the message about Jesus and considered it right and proper, responded in baptism.
The reception of the message comes first; it has to. Reception of the message by the individual—this isn’t something someone can do for you.
Personal belief precedes baptism.
In the book of Acts, we see, over and over and over, the response to belief/faith in Jesus: baptism.
Faith in Jesus Christ is expressed visibly through baptism (among other things).
By climbing into the baptistry (or lake, pond, swimming pool) in front of other believers, you are expressing your faith in Jesus.
You are telling those who are witnessing your immersion that you have repented of your sin and turned to Jesus.
You, a believer, a Christian, are expressing and proclaiming your saving faith in Jesus—and, in baptism, you’re expressing your union with Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection.
Baptism is the natural response of the believer professing faith in Christ.
The gospel is preached. You hear the Word. The Holy Spirit convicts and draws you. Like with Lydia in Acts 16, the Holy Spirit opens your heart and you respond.
The response to God’s effectual call is faith in Christ, confession that He is Lord, repentance of sin, and being baptized/immersed.
Romans 6 makes clear how baptism is supposed to look. We are:
Immersed
Immersed
To speak about “the mode of Baptism” is to describe how we are to baptize. To understand this, we need to understand the word “baptism.” This sounds more boring than it is, I promise. Etymology is a hoot!
We get the word baptism from a Greek word: βαπτίζω
“Baptism” is a transliteration of the Greek word. That means “baptize”/ “baptism” is not a translation of the word.
If the translators of the Bible had translated the word instead of transliterating it, the translation would be: “immersed” or “dunk”.
Ask any Greek-speaking person today the meaning of “βαπτίζω” and they’d say, “Dunk” or “Immerse” or “Dip under.”
Baptism by immersion illustrates the spiritual reality that takes place in a person’s life when they believe.
They die to the old self, to sin. They, having died with Christ, are buried. And then, just as Christ was raised, so, too is the believer raised to new life.
Sprinkling or pouring doesn’t communicate these truths, not does it accurately get at the meaning of the word, baptism.
The mode is clear, especially when you consider what baptism is a symbol of: being united with Jesus in His death, His burial, and His resurrection.
This is why we are careful to say: “believer’s baptism by immersion”
If you were sprinkled, you weren’t baptized.
If the priest or minister poured water over your head, you weren’t baptized.
More importantly, if you didn’t make the decision yourself, if you didn’t place your faith in Christ personally, the whole thing is moot. It was a religious activity, a child dedication, but not baptism.
I know this whole conversation has the potential to bring up some strong emotions.
Several people have been sprinkled in other churches, either as infants or older—including one of the elders of the church:
Joe’s Testimony:
I was grew up in the Foster Methodist Church and was sprinkled as a symbol of my acceptance of Jesus. Sprinkling was the way they did things in the Methodist Church I attended. I considered myself saved. My mother and other family members were sprinkled, and I considered them to be saved. When I began to attend this church, I struggled with the idea of immersion because I thought if immersion was necessary to be saved, that thinking left the baptism and salvation of my mother and others I cared about in question.
In this church we believe in immersion. This church had become my home, and I wanted to join fully with this church as a member and a leader. Immersion was required by this church to be a member. I still struggled for a while but made the decision to go forward and be immersed as an outward sign of my joining with this church and my full submission to Christ’s will in my life.
I do not regret my decision. I have been blessed by my decision. I have a new understanding of the love of Jesus and unity of the church as the body of Christ.
Baptism is a ritual, an expression of my faith in Jesus, a submission of my will to His will, a joining into His death and resurrection through burial by water and rising up from the water to new life in Christ.
Sloshing around in a funny bathtub and letting a balding guy in waders and a wet T-shirt dunk you under the water may seem like a strange way to show others you have accepted Jesus into your life. Maybe so. But, Jesus was my example, and I have decided to follow Him.
Maybe, like Joe, you were sprinkled or christened in another church.
Many people have loved ones who were sprinkled at some point in their lives. The subsequent questions are understandable.
“Are you telling me my mom wasn’t saved because she was sprinkled when she was a teenager? She loved and believed in Jesus!”
I would say, to borrow a phrase: “It’s an invalid baptism, but it’s faith that justifies.”
“My grandpa was a faithful believer, but wasn’t baptized by immersion. Does that mean he’s not in heaven?”
I would remind them: “Baptism isn’t what saves a person; we are justified by faith.”
It’s difficult, and I get it, to admit that you had a misunderstanding about baptism, what it was, what it’s supposed to look like. It’s harder still to believe that your parents, grandparents, family were mistaken or that they had misunderstood—or had been led to misunderstanding.
Good old Ben Merold, a retired pastor from St. Louis, shares this analogy:
A third generation butcher shop received an inspection from the USDA and the inspector revealed to the butcher, “Your scales are off by a quarter-pound. It happens over time. Who knows how long you’ve been shorting customers.”
To this, the butcher replied: “Are you saying my grandparents were cheating customers or that my parents were stealing from their patrons?!?!”
“Not at all,” replied the inspector. “I’m sure they were simply unaware. But you—now you are aware. And you are responsible for what you know.”
We are responsible for what we know. There are several people in our congregation who have been immersed years after they’d been sprinkled because they became convinced that the Bible was clear on the mode of baptism and they wanted to act in accordance with what they knew.
It’s not a critique on anyone else. It’s not a comment on the salvation or heart of any other believer.
We don’t believe baptism saves you anyway. It’s faith that justifies. We only want to do Bible things in Bible ways and that means doing what the Bible says how the Bible says to do it.
We decided we probably needed to preach about baptism because it’s part of what we practice and believe, and there is difference among churches/denominations and what some people have experienced.
You will hear us plead for believer’s baptism by immersion. We need to use all of those words, because those words define what we mean by “baptism.”
Ask someone if they’ve been baptized and they’ll respond, “Oh sure. I was baptized when I was a baby,” or “My parents had me baptized when I was a toddler.”
Often times, we’re talking about two different things, using the same word.
So you’ll hear us plead for believer’s baptism by immersion.
No one else can make the choice for you. It’s not your parents’ faith. Your friend at church camp can’t drag you to the lake and baptize you if there’s no personal faith/repentance/conversion on your part. You must be a believer to follow the Lord in baptism.
And, to follow the Biblical mode, it’s immersion: a symbol of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It’s a rehashing of the gospel which brings life; it’s an expression of your union with Christ.
More than anything, we want for you to follow Christ, to be His disciple, His student. If you have questions about following Jesus, I’d love to speak with you, as would any of the elders or members of this church.