Mind-Bloggling!

Great Commission

Matt. 28:19-20: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

The one command by Jesus here is, "Make disciples," then three participles are used to modify the apostles: going, baptizing, teaching.

The means by which the traveling apostles were to make disciples of Jesus were 1) baptism and 2) teaching them to obey all of His commands. One implication of this is that anyone who is a disciple of Christ should be baptized; it is part and parcel of being a follower of Christ. If a person claims to be His disciple, but is not sitting under the teaching of His commands, something is amiss. Likewise, if a person claims to be a disciple and yet has not been baptized, something has been neglected. Both are expectations of all who follow Christ.

While this text does not prove the order of baptism and teaching, it may be noteworthy that Jesus listed baptism ahead of teaching.

Mark 16:14-16: And afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."

Assuming this text to be inspired, Jesus places belief and baptism in conjunction with one another. Some take this too far and, in contradiction to other texts, assert that faith is not enough for salvation. They say that a person must believe and be baptized to be saved. No baptism, no salvation. Others don't take it far enough and miss the fact that Jesus does bring faith and baptism together. If baptism is seen as a believing individual's profession of faith (or the initiation rite of faith, much like a wedding ceremony), then the problems of faith and baptism dissolve. Baptism does not save anymore than a wedding makes a couple married, but they are both the expressions of what the persons are committing to. The assumption that Jesus is making is that a person who believes also has been baptized because, as we shall see, baptism was the immediate response of individuals who believed the gospel in the early church. We struggle with this because we typically put baptism somewhere down the line after a person has been a believer for years.

Category: Musings on Baptism

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:14-17)

Here, baptism into Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit are not concurrent events. Not until the Apostles laid hands on them, did they receive the Spirit. This would indicate that there is not [was not] a cause/effect relationship between baptism and the Spirit's descent.

But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Arise and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.) And he arose and went; and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot." And when Philip had run up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: "He was led as a sheep to slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He does not open His mouth. "In humiliation His judgment was taken away; Who shall relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth." And the eunuch answered Philip and said, "Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of someone else?" And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptized him (Acts 8:26-38).

According to v.35, Philip preached Jesus to the eunuch, and he must have included baptism in his gospel presentation because as soon as they came upon water, the eunuch asked to be baptized. We notice that Philip did not say, "Look, baptism doesn't save, it's just a public celebration of God's grace in our lives. Why don't we wait until we get you home, then you can join a church and the next time they have a baptismal service you can do it in the presence of many others. Remember, this doesn't save, and it's really a community event." No, Philip stops the cart and baptized the eunuch right there and then.

This would suggest that baptism is not a public ritual. Not that it is wrong for the body to join together for the event and celebrate it in fellowship. But, the purpose of baptism is not for the church, but for the individual. It is his profession of faith, his appeal to God for cleansing (we'll see this again in 1 Peter).

And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us (Acts 16:14-15).

A woman named Lydia heard the gospel, and by God's sovereign grace (He opened her heart) she believed it. What does she, and all in her household who believed, do immediately? They were all baptized. No delay, no waiting for a time when the whole church could gather. They did it right then.

And when the jailer had been roused out of sleep and had seen the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here!" And he called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household (Acts 16:27-34).

A pagan jailer recognized his sin and that he stands condemned before God. He pleaded with Paul to tell him whether there was anything he could do to be saved from God's punitive wrath. Paul says, simply, "Believe in the Lord Jesus" (v.31). Now, was that really all that Paul said? In v. 32, Paul, "spoke the word of the Lord to him," and this extended gospel presenation must have included baptism because that very night he and his household were baptized. Why didn't Paul wait and allow the jailer to learn about baptism at another time. He believed, and that's all that mattered, right? (Maybe not.)

Category: Musings on Baptism

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ,  having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 1:1-11).

Baptism is here pictured as unification of the believer with the death and resurrection of Christ. When we are plunged into the water, we are buried with Christ; when we rise out of the water, we are resurrected with Him. His new life is to be a model for ours.

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, that no man should say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:11-18).

Lest we give baptism efficacy, as though the water itself can do something apart from faith, Paul distinguishes between baptism and the gospel. This does not undo everything the New Testament says about the importance and urgency of baptism, but it does keep us from going beyond the Scriptural boundaries. Baptism by itself has no power.

Paul declares that Christ did not send him to baptize, but to preach the gospel. We should be careful not to take him out of the context of this passage, nor neglect the rest of the New Testament's teaching. Paul did baptize. As we have seen, he made sure that those who believed his gospel were immediately baptized. In general, Christ did send him to baptize because responding in baptism was part of the gospel he preached.

What Paul is doing here is trying to rid the Corinthian church of disunity caused by people devoting themselves to one or other of the Apostles and other leaders. Paul was happy that he didn't baptize many of them, not because baptism was unimportant to him, but because he did not want them to take pride in having been baptized by him. We should not miss the fact that Paul's assumption was that everyone in the church had been baptized. Their problem was not that they placed too much empasis on baptism, but on who had done their baptism. They forgot that they were baptized into Christ. He is their Lord and Savior, not Paul or Apollos or Peter.

Category: Musings on Baptism

For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (Col. 2:9-15)

More of the same illustrative benefit of baptism. Our burial in water at baptism signifies our joining with Christ in His atoning death; and our coming out of the water is our resurrection with Him. But again, so that we do not give power to the act of baptism, Paul teaches that the means of our death and resurrection with Christ is not baptism, but faith (v.12).

We should note that the circumcision spoken of here is explicitly called, "a circumcision made without hands" (v.13). Our Reformed brothers who appeal to this verse for a proof text for equating circumcision and baptism are all wet because Jewish circumcision was most certainly down with human hands.