What is baptism all about?

What is

baptism all about?

 Looking Deeper

 Looking Deeper What is baptism all about?

L

ast Sunday was a special day in the life of Reuben, the son of a close friend of mine. Having turned 15 years old, he decided that it was time he was baptised. Our whole church met at a local swimming pool where Reuben and a few others publicly declared their belief that Jesus Christ paid the price for their sins on the cross and that they wanted to be His followers.

They were then immersed into the water, fully clothed, and came out dripping wet and grinning from ear to ear.

Knowing Reuben, he was probably trying not to smile; but he couldn’t help it. It was a celebration.

I’ve been to a fair few baptisms in my life, but I must admit that the whole thing seems rather odd. It must look pretty strange to an outsider to see a bunch of people dunking other people into water and then celebrating it.

Different churches and denominations practice baptism in slightly different ways, but one way or another, we all do it. But why do we do it? What’s it all about?

What is baptism?

B

aptism is not really explained when we first come across it in the Bible. We are introduced to John the Baptist early on in the gospels, and simply told that people admitted their sin and “were baptised by him in the River Jordan” (Matthew 3:6).

Apparently, the Jews of that day already understood baptism. Judaism had various washing rituals, especially in preparation for temple worship. As well as that, Gentiles who wanted to convert to Judaism were immersed into water as part of the process, symbolising that they were entering a new life—one unblemished by their old beliefs and practices.

We all know that washing in water makes our bodies clean. Baptism is a way of applying that truth spiritually. When people came to John to be baptised they confessed their sins, acknowledging their uncleanness before God. Then John dipped them into the water as a symbol that they intended to give up their old ways and begin a new life with God. At the heart of it, that’s the basic principle.

[2] WHAT IS BAPTISM ALL ABOUT?

Do I need to be baptised?

A

s I stood by the pool during the service on Sunday, I asked my friend Dave, who had given his life to Jesus a few years ago, when he was thinking of being baptised. I wasn’t expecting his answer . . . It was a strange web of excuses and justifications for not bothering with baptism at all. What was the point, when everyone watching was probably already a believer? Why did it need to be public and not something he just quietly did in the bath one day? What was the point of it anyway, as he had already committed his life to Jesus years ago?

Two answers immediately came to my mind: Jesus commanded it, and Jesus Himself did it.

“That probably settles it then!” he said.

At the end of His time on earth Jesus gave a final command to His disciples: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. —Matthew 18:19-20

The teaching seems pretty clear; Jesus expects all of His disciples to be baptised. He included it as part of our mission to the world.

And so baptism appears to be part of our obedience to “everything [Jesus] commanded”. It is all too easy to begin to question the purpose and necessity of Jesus’

DO I NEED TO BE BAPTISED? [3]

commands, as Dave was doing, and worm our way out of simple obedience. But, in the end, that’s just a fancy way of saying “Jesus, you don’t get to make the rules for following you; I do.” It sounds daft when we put it like that, but that’s the point. That’s how it must sound to Jesus when we try to avoid obeying Him in any situation.

Surely, if there was anyone who could justify not being baptised, it was Jesus Himself. In fact, John was the first to argue when Jesus came to be baptised by him: Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptised by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptised by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?” But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” —Matthew 3:13-15 ESV Jesus is perfect, “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1

Peter 1:19), so He didn’t need to be baptised as a symbol

of His repentance and His joining with God—He was already fully one with God! So why did He get baptised?

In one of His sermons, Jesus explained to His disciples, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them” (Matthew 5:17). Jesus’ baptism was an early example of that. God’s law required many washings, and in His baptism Jesus was showing that He upheld the law and was “fulfil[ling]” its requirements. The Bible tells us that none of us live up to God’s good standards (Romans 3:23)— yet Jesus, the God Man, was able to meet those standards perfectly for us, so “through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

[4] WHAT IS BAPTISM ALL ABOUT?

Although neither John nor the Jews could have known it at the time, this baptism by full immersion was also a picture of the sacrifice Jesus was going to make to rescue us. It symbolised his death, burial and resurrection to new life. Jesus was both showing us what was to happen, and indicating (in this symbolic action of surrender) his firm determination to obey the Father.

And finally, as Jesus says in Matthew 3:15, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.”

Jesus’ baptism gives the example for us to follow. Jesus never asks us to do anything He doesn’t also do Himself.

When we follow Jesus, we walk a path He has already led the way along, which includes baptism.

In the words of Dave, “That probably settles it then!”

Jesus’ first disciples certainly seemed to expect people who gave their lives to Jesus to be baptised. At the end of the first sermon Peter preached after the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, he said, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). And then a couple of verses later we’re told, “Those who accepted his message were baptised” (v.41).

Perhaps the question this leaves us with is: do I want to be baptised? The command seems clear–and we ought to strive to obediently follow Jesus in all things. But it is also the case that we can follow Jesus’ commands and example with joy and thankfulness. Baptism isn’t a tiresome duty that we ought to just get sorted so we can move on with our lives—it is a public celebration of all that Jesus has already done for us!

Now let’s take a closer look at what baptism actually represents.

DO I NEED TO BE BAPTISED? [5]

What baptism symbolises

B

aptism is a symbolic act; it is a physical demonstration of a spiritual truth. While there are some different church traditions and ways of thinking about what baptism means, for now let’s simply look at what the Bible has to say about baptism.

It is symbolic of death and new life: Don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 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. —Romans 6:3-4

As we go into the waters of baptism, we are symbolising our joining with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (see also Colossians 2:12).

His death is our death. His life is our life. But what does that mean? Romans chapter 6 goes on to say: We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. —Romans 6:6 This passage is teaching us that our old sinful selves died when Jesus died. And (as it said earlier in verse 4) just as Christ was raised from the dead, we [6] WHAT IS BAPTISM ALL ABOUT?

are now able to live new lives for and with God. That is what baptism symbolises; that we have died and been raised to a brand new life with Jesus. The old ‘us’ was crucified and we now live a new, Holy Spiritempowered life.

It is symbolic of our inclusion in God’s family: Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. And so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

—1 Corinthians 12:12-14

When Dave asked me why he should bother with baptism if everyone watching would probably already be Christians, I reminded him that by doing it, we are still making a statement to them. We are saying, “I want to be included in this family. By entering into the Baptism same baptism as you, you are now my brothers and sisters, symbolises and I am yours.” It is a powerful that we have picture of our bond with them.

We are opening ourselves died and been raised to up to every other follower of Jesus, and making ourselves a brand new accountable to them. We are life with Jesus. saying that we are all on the same page; we all choose to join

WHAT BAPTISM SYMBOLISES [7]

ourselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus. We all Baptism shows have the same Holy Spirit. we are all saved We are all members of one body. There is something in exactly the wonderfully equalising about same way—by the symbolism of baptism.

Whether we are rich or poor, joining ourselves smart or uneducated, from to Jesus. any part of the world, or carrying any kind of baggage, baptism shows we are all saved in exactly the same way—by joining ourselves to Jesus.

In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

—Galatians 3:26-28

Jew, gentile, slave, free, male, female . . . none of those things make us more or less crucified with Jesus. Whatever our roles within His family, and whatever church we go to, we are all of equal value and importance: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. —Ephesians 4:4-6 [8] WHAT IS BAPTISM ALL ABOUT?

When should I do it?

I

was baptised as a child. My family had been atheists/agnostics until my father dramatically gave his life to Jesus just days before my first birthday. My parents began going to a church which, rightly or wrongly, was keen to break away from religious symbolism and tradition to rediscover what it really meant to follow Jesus. One of the things that came out of this was that, for them, only people who had deliberately chosen Jesus for themselves should be baptised. So, as a determined six-year-old, I was baptised because I begged my parents to let me.

Here’s the thing—the only reason I begged was because my nine year old brother had just done it, and I was jealous of all the attention he got. We had both prayed a prayer to ask Jesus into our hearts, and my parents felt that we were ready to be baptised. The unfortunate reality was that neither my brother nor I had actually met Jesus in a genuine way; we’d simply repeated the set prayer which we were told would make us Christians. I was seventeen when I genuinely gave my life to Jesus. That left me with a dilemma: did I need to be baptised again?

A lot of people have very strong opinions about this subject, and I don’t wish to start a theological debate. For me, I decided that I didn’t think I needed

WHEN SHOULD I DO IT? [9]

to be baptised again. I went on in my walk with Jesus for years, and then all at once, while sitting in church nearly twenty years later, I had a strong impression that I should be baptised. I had already been teaching the Bible, serving in church leadership and doing other things in the church family for years; the last thing I expected was to have to go back to such a basic requirement. I firmly resisted the idea, thinking of how odd it would look to be baptised after so many years of Christian service! I talked about it with my husband who encouraged me not to dismiss the leading of the Holy Spirit. I still wasn’t convinced.

The more I resisted being baptised, the more God pressed it upon me. Eventually, I gave up fighting, spoke to the leaders of our church and made the arrangements. They were all predictably shocked, but supported me and the way it seemed God was leading.

And so I was baptised again.

I knew that it was controversial, and I knew that some people (including my parents) would disagree with Part of what I had done. What comforted me was the actual meaning of joining to baptism: death to self, and new Jesus’ death life in Jesus. Part of joining to means dying Jesus’ death means dying to people’s opinions, rather than to people’s being driven by them. And living for Jesus means simply living in opinions. obedience to what God tells us [10] WHAT IS BAPTISM ALL ABOUT?

to do. I had to die to the significant embarrassment of being baptised as a church leader. I have to admit, baptism now has a new significance for me.

I’m sure that every Christian has a different story to tell. Some will have been baptised as children and will have never felt the need to repeat it as their faith in Jesus became more certain in adulthood. One guy I read about has been baptised four different times in various ways because he’s been to all kinds of churches with various teachings about it. That seems a bit odd to me, but there are so many different opinions and traditions out there about baptism, it’s not surprising that he got a bit confused.

Each one of The point is that each one of us who wants to us who wants follow Jesus needs to submit to follow Jesus ourselves to His command to be baptised. It isn’t a question needs to submit of denomination, church or ourselves to His even personal preference; it is command to the teaching of Scripture and a part of our personal joyful be baptised. response to Him.

WHEN SHOULD I DO IT? [11]

The amazing symbol of baptism

I

gave our young friend Reuben a card on Sunday, in which I drew a little doodle. First, there was a little stick man (well, it’s the best I can do) under the waters of baptism. Next to the little man, I wrote, “As each part of your body goes under the water, you are publically declaring that it no longer belongs to you, but to Jesus.” Then I drew the stick man coming out of the water and said, “This represents your new life, where every part of you is to now live for Jesus: your feet go where He wants you to go, your hands touch what He wants you to touch, your mouth speaks what He wants you to say.”

This is the wonderful truth that baptism represents: we are joined with the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are His—and we live, and will always live, because He does! We can never be separated from Him. The old ‘us’ has died and now we can grow in our relationship with Jesus, letting Him be the centre of who we are as He lives His life through us and we submit to Him more and more. Baptism is a celebration of this truth that’s already in place because of all that Jesus has done for us!

And now what are you waiting for?

Get up, be baptised. —Acts 22:16 [12] WHAT IS BAPTISM ALL ABOUT?

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