THOUGHTS ON BAPTISM

This Sunday, we will baptize fifteen people. At GCF, we celebrate Baptism every third Sunday of the month, and Communion every second Sunday.

I love how we incorporate the Christian ordinances (sacraments), particularly, baptism, in our worship celebrations because the congregation gets to witness the powerful and moving testimonies and the outward symbol of following Christ altogether. In turn, the congregation is encouraged to see others coming to faith in Christ, join them in celebrating their new life in Him and be able to reflect on their on experience of baptism. An additional benefit to such a practice is that people who are have not yet made a decision to follow Christ in baptism get encouraged to take a step of faith in going "public" with their faith!

Baptism is an ordinance given by Christ to the Church be done to people who have decided Him. While there are a number of modes (manner) espoused by different Christian denominations, GCF, as a Baptist congregation practices full immersion because the word baptizo means "to dip." Baptists believe that baptism is only for those who can understand and profess their faith, and is an external symbol of an inward reality. This is called believer's baptism.

However, I remember a couple of instances when the baptismal candidates were too sick to be immersed- and I'm not talking about flu or cold, but really sick, with open wounds and tubes sticking out of their bodies- so the Senior Pastor opted to perform a "waterless baptism!" In a friendly theological discussion some of the other pastors, myself included, mentioned that we were him, we would have have performed aspersion or sprinkling on the forehead! So, if you're smart, in that statement, you SHOULD have figured out my personal view on the modes of baptism!

In the Orthodox and Catholic tradition, baptism is believed to have salvific (saving) effect.

In Reformed/Presbyterian churches, baptism is the visible sign of entrance into the New Covenant and therefore may be administered individually to new believers making a public profession of faith. Babies are baptized in this tradition with the understanding that baptism extends the Covenant to the households of believers which typically would include children, or individually to children or infants of believing parents. In this view, baptism is thus seen as the functional replacement and sacramental equivalent of the Abrahamic rite of circumcision and symbolizes the internal cleansing from sin, among other things.

Romans 6:4 tells us that baptism expresses our faith in the working of God to raise Jesus from the dead. We believe that Christ died on the cross, buried and rose from the grave and reigning today at the Father's right hand in heaven from which he will come again in power and glory. And that faith in God's working - God's glory as Paul calls it - is how we share in the newness of life that Christ has in himself. In baptism, we profess that we join in the life of Christ.

Baptism portrays what happened to us when we became Christians. This is what happened to us: we were united to Christ. His death became our death. We died with him. And in the same instant, his life became our life. We are now living out the life of Christ in us. And all this is experienced through faith.

This is what it means to be a Christian - to live in the reality of what our baptism portrays: day by day we look away from ourselves to God and say, "Because of Christ, your Son, I come to you. In him I belong to you. I am at home with you. He is my only hope of acceptance with you. I receive that acceptance anew every day. My hope is based on his death for me and my death in him. My life in him is a life of faith in you, Father. Because of him I trust your working in me and for me. The same power and glory that you used to raise him from the dead you will use to help me. In that promise of future grace I believe, and in that I hope. That is what makes my life new. O Christ, how I glory in what my baptism portrays! Thank you for dying my death for me and giving new life to me. Amen."