Today the passages in the lectionary focus on Baptism, and this has not been without controversy within church history. There are whole theologies based around baptism: and I think that is an error. We base our faith on Christ.
Not on ourselves or our acts. Not on how we do the act. But on Christ. For in hom we have trust: the rest of us are fallen and in all our teaching there are errors. Including this passage taken from a megachurch with multiple branches.
Baptism is a symbol of Christ’s burial and resurrection. Our entrance into the water during baptism identifies us with Christ’s death on the cross, His burial in the tomb, and His resurrection from the dead.
“Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross.” Colossians 2:12-14 MSG
It is a symbol of your new life as a Christian. We bury the ‘old life’ and we rise to walk in a ‘new life’. Baptism is like a wedding ring, it is the outward symbol of the commitment you made in your heart, a commitment that has to be followed through and lived out on a daily basis.
Here is one simple way to explain baptism:
Baptism is a symbol. It’s meant to show the world that you love, trust, and have put your hope in Christ. It’s like a wedding ring…
Let’s say I’m not married right now, but if I put a wedding ring on my finger, would that make me married? No, of course not. Similarly, I can be baptized in a church, but that doesn’t make me a true believer in Christ. Imagine that I really was married, though. My husband and I really did go through the marriage ceremony, but I just didn’t have my ring on my finger. Would that mean I wasn’t married? No way, of course I would still be married. Similarly, I can be a believer in Christ, but not baptized, and my sins are still paid for and forgiven by God. But imagine that I truly was married and I really, really loved my husband. Would I wear my wedding ring? Of course! I would love my husband and want the whole world to know it! In the same way, if I have trusted Christ to save me from sin, and He is the lord and joy of my life, then I’ll want everyone to know about it. So baptism is a statement to everyone who sees it that I have trusted Christ for my salvation and I’m committed to living for Him.
I would say the error here is to call it a symbol. Symbols themselves have no power. They are sighs of allegiance. But if God is involved, if he is part of the ceremony, it is a sacrament. The Reformed would argue that at communion and at baptism we are turning deliberately to commune with God: at other ceremonies, such as marriage, we ask for the blessing of God, but the ceremony is between each other, including the selection of elders and sending of workers into the world.
But baptism involves God. It is no mere symbol. If it was, the world would not subvert it, try to destroy it, or redefine it. And here the Hillsong teacher got it correct. Without God, it is not real.
Nothing unusual. For without God, nothing was made, nothing was real. God created. God set up the parameters of this world. And it was good.
1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
1While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. 2He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.” 4Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied — 7altogether there were about twelve of them.
The analogy that the teacher had with marriage is not quite true, because the outward symbols we have can be debased. But this is true about both. We are exclusive in our worship. I am married to Robyn. I am not married to another woman, or women in general, nor a man, nor some poor gender confused bastard. I am married to her.
And she wants all my affection, as I want all of hers.
The analogy about marriage is that this occurs with or without a ring — and God is similarly exclusive. He wants us to have no other Gods, but him alone. He does not want us to appease the world, he wants us to confront it.
And baptism is a time when we say that we have sinned, and there is no healing in us. We turn to the waters of baptism and the investing of the holy spirit that comes with belief because we can not deal with our habitual sins, and our inherent weaknesses. We are all broken. We are all fallen. And we break and corrupt others.
The cure to this is to speak truth. This is the new revolutionary act.
Last week, myself and a few friends of mine came in contact with this sort of herd-mentality-as-morals invective, and DeGroot writes here of exactly how to respond to it.
It is why I have stopped apologizing for speaking True things. (That everyone knows are True but won’t say). The society itself depends on men doing exactly this. That is, telling the Truth, sometimes throwing in a little diffusing humor, but never falling prey to the enormous pressure from the mob to “apologize.”
Apologizing is a crappy facsimile of something the Bible calls repentance, and I just don’t do it. Repentance is good, apologizing is false virtue. The kind of apologizing they want you to do is appeasement to the God of political correctness that ultimately can never be appeased because apologizing is not designed to heal the temporal and eternal relationships like repentance is. It is cheap, comparatively and ultimately just churns you through the PC machine.
Baptism was given to us by John for the repentance of sins. It was used by Christ to inaugurate his ministry, when he taught repentance. We are commanded to preach his words, making disciples of Christ, and baptising them.
But first, we must repent.
And this means we will have to speak truth and shun the lies of this time. The truth is now feared by the elite. Do not be them. Do not be like them.
Acts 2:38
That is all you need to know.