Transformatum

The call to worship at our church on Sunday began with the celebration of baptism. Pictured above is Ethan Philip, who you might remember from this post. People often think of infant baptism as something the parents and the congregation are doing. This view is especially prevalent here in the South, where churches that hold to believer’s baptism still conduct infant “dedications.” Nurturing responsibilities notwithstanding, something greater is taking place in the sacrament of baptism. On a side note, I am not going to address paedobaptism vs. credobaptism in this post, but you can find several well written articles on both viewpoints at Threshold.

Yesterday I came across an article by Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn of Faith Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, WA, titled Baptism in Worship. After first addressing how baptism fits into a corporate worship service, Rayburn discusses what is happening to the recipient of the baptism.

American evangelical Christians, including those of the Reformed type, have a greater difficulty with ritual than other Christians have and do. We have been taught a highly intellectualized view of faith and a profoundly voluntarist view of the Christian life (voluntas is the Latin word for the human will and so “voluntarist” refers to views that emphasize the exercise of the human will). Because in the baptism of infants the person being baptized is not thinking anything, doing anything, or willing anything, we find it hard to see how it can be of any great importance. In the case of adult baptism, on the other hand, in order to make it more significant evangelicals have subtly transformed baptism into less what God does to and for someone and more what the person does for God.

In other words, with infant baptism we tend to take our focus off of the child and put it on the parents. With believer’s baptism we put that focus on the person being baptized. The danger therein is the exact same one that we run into when we fail to understand the doctrine of grace—resting on our own merit instead of the righteousness of Christ. Just as salvation is determined by God and God’s grace alone, baptism is, according to Rayburn, a demonstration in which “something is done to [you] and for [you], not by [you].”

Said another way, baptism is a visual representation of Sola Gratia. However, it is a picture that we can only see with eyes of faith. Think for a moment about the Lord’s Supper. The classic reformed view is that communion is not simply a commemoration. Taken by faith it results in a real spiritual benefit. While the bread and wine are unchanged, they communicate to the senses the grace of God in Christ and the blessings of his covenant. Preaching makes the gospel audible; sacraments make the gospel visible. Yet the power of both word and sacrament to spur us on spiritually rests in the faithfulness of God.

What then should our eyes of faith reveal to us as witnesses to baptism? If you could put on special glasses, like a spiritual equivalent of what you wear at a 3-D movie, yesterday you would have seen the roof of the building being ripped off, the Spirit of the living God reaching down, placing his hand upon little Ethan and saying, “He’s mine. Don’t touch. This is my property.” Is that not an amazing thing? It is important, however, to note that the story does not end here. Baptism is only the beginning of a life of faith. We must be careful to remember that as a sign and seal of God’s covenant promises, baptism does not in itself save. Rayburn makes this point clear, saying…

…The danger of Christian ritual, even those appointed for us in Holy Scripture, is the possibility of it being considered and practiced apart from living faith. Just as parents must bring their children in faith, give answer to their children’s baptism by raising them in faith; just as the children must in due time “improve” their baptism by the practice of their own faith; just as the adult convert must follow his baptism with a life of faith, so a Christian congregation must exercise her faith as she witnesses baptisms Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day. We do this not only by seeing the Lord by faith as he acts in baptism, but by taking that great moment to heart for ourselves: giving thanks for the promise of salvation so wonderfully and solemnly given, joining our hearts in love to that newest member of the church, remembering our own baptism and that of others, and consecrating ourselves once again to that salvation signified and sealed to us when we were baptized.

Rayburn echoes the reformer Martin Luther, who would often say to people, particularly those in distress or difficult situations, “Remember your Baptism.” When he himself was faced with similar circumstances, Luther would utter the phrase, “I am baptized. I am baptized,” over and over as reminder of who he was—a child of God, sealed and delivered. Do you remember your baptism?