Category: Musings on Baptism
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.