Understanding Baptism

Bobby Jamieson, Jonathan Leeman

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781433688874
• eBook ISBN: 9781433688867
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

What's the big deal about baptism? Jesus commands his disciples to be baptized, and it's a glorious picture of a person's union with Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Still, many Christians feel unclear about the topic, having more questions than answers. This short work provides a biblical explanation of baptism. What is it? Who should be baptized? Why is it required for church membership? And how should churches practice baptism?

CHAPTER 1

What Is Baptism?

What would you do if you were wading in a swimming pool and a friend came up behind you and dunked you under the water? You could simply forgive your friend—a solidly Christian move. You could retaliate in kind. You could even escalate the aquatic conflict, waiting until your friend got out and dried off before shoving him or her back into the pool. So, which will it be?

Take two: what would you do if your friend sneaked up behind you, dunked you, and then said, “Now you’ve been baptized!” Even if you know little about baptism, my guess is you’ll have a strong suspicion that, in addition to being slightly odd, your friend is wrong. You haven’t been baptized; all you’ve been is dunked.

But what would it take to turn this dunking into baptism? It seems obvious that you’d have to lose the element of surprise and participate knowingly and willingly. But don’t some churches baptize infants? Babies don’t consent to be baptized. What about the one doing the dunking? Would your friend have to be a pastor? Would it have to take place in church rather than a swimming pool?

Baptism Is . . .

This chapter answers the question, “What is baptism?” I will first explain and defend a biblical understanding of baptism and then offer a few brief comments about what baptism isn’t. If you’ve been holding off on baptism because you’re not sure what it is, I hope this chapter will sweep away that confusion and clear your way to obeying Jesus’ command to be baptized.

Here we go, then: baptism is a church’s act of affirming and portraying a believer’s union with Christ by immersing him or her in water, and a believer’s act of publicly committing him or herself to Christ and his people, thereby uniting a believer to the church and marking off him or her from the world. Let’s walk through this definition phrase by phrase and see how each part arises from Scripture.

A Church’s Act

Baptism is a church’s act.1 Consider first that baptism is something someone does to someone else. You don’t baptize yourself; there are always two parties involved. And both parties say something to each other and to the world.

People today tend to think that baptism is a symbol that people can simply choose to place upon themselves, like deciding to buy a shirt at the store and then wearing it in public. It doesn’t so much matter who is doing the baptizing, like it doesn’t matter much who the clerk at the checkout counter happens to be. Any Christian can baptize, anywhere, because the focus is not on the baptizer. It’s on the baptizee. You must decide to get baptized, because you want to make a public statement: “I’m with Jesus.” Think of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. The eunuch wants to get baptized. He asks Philip to baptize him, which he does. It’s all pretty simple, right?

In fact, the New Testament presents a fuller picture, and what we find in a passage like Acts 8 is actually the exception to the rule, not the rule. You have to start not in Acts, but back in Matthew 16 and 18, where Jesus gives the keys of the kingdom first to the apostles, and then to local churches. The keys of the kingdom are for binding on earth what’s bound in heaven, and loosing on earth what’s loosed in heaven. This means that the apostles and gathered churches both have the authority to make public a declaration or verdict on Jesus’ behalf. Think about what a judge does when he pounds his gavel. He doesn’t write the law. He doesn’t make the defendant innocent or guilty. Rather, he looks at the law. He looks at the evidence. And then he declares a public—and binding—verdict.

This judge-like authority to make official declarations on heaven’s behalf is something Jesus gives to gathered churches, not to individual Christians. Listen to Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there among them.” Jesus is not talking to small groups here, and his presence among them is not a mystical experience or atmospheric condition. Read the context carefully and you’ll see that Jesus is saying that his heavenly authority belongs to gathered churches (see especially verses 18–19). A church is a regular gathering of at least two or three people who together testify to Christ’s name. And Christ is present with such gatherings to authorize them to speak in his name.

We need all this to understand what’s happening in Matthew 28’s Great Commission. First, Jesus reminds us he’s the one with all authority in heaven and earth (v. 18). Next, he authorizes his disciples to baptize and to make disciples in the name of the Father, himself, and the Spirit (v. 19). Then he tells them to teach everything he has commanded, which is fulfilled in the ongoing teaching ministry of the local church (v. 20a). Finally, he reaffirms that his authoritative presence is there in that church: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (v. 20b). Matthew 28 very much has the stipulations and authorizations of Matthew 16 and 18 in the background. Jesus didn’t forget what he said back there, and neither should we.

So the question is: who has the authority to baptize? Any Christian? Well, if you’re on the missions frontier, where no other Christians exist, then you have no choice. Yes, you baptize. Since no local church yet exists, you are the church in that place. And Acts 8 provides a precedent for you if you are ever in this situation. At the same time, recall that Jesus explicitly ties his authoritative presence to churches—to two or three people (or two or three thousand) gathered in his name. Ordinarily, therefore, it is local churches who have the authority to baptize. Since baptism is performed by an individual, the church acts through a representative. But baptism is still a church’s act.

This doesn’t mean a church has the authority to deny baptism to someone who gives evidence of being converted (see Acts 11:17–18). But it does mean that, ordinarily, a church’s consent should be involved because it’s not just the baptizee who makes a public statement. The baptizer also makes a public statement or verdict. They “go on record” on earth for the kingdom of heaven, which brings us to the next point.

Of Affirming and Portraying a Believer’s Union with Christ

What exactly does the church say in baptism? In baptism a church affirms a believer’s profession of faith in Christ. It affirms that someone who claims to be united to Christ in his death and resurrection, so far as they can discern, is. It sets a visible, public seal to an invisible, spiritual reality.

Faith unites us to Christ so that we experience all the benefits of his death and resurrection. Baptism signifies this union. Consider the following passages:

Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life. (Rom. 6:3–4)

But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ like a garment. (Gal. 3:25–27)

Baptism is a sign of the gospel’s application. It is a sign that this person has turned from sin and has been united to Christ by faith. But baptism doesn’t just affirm these realities; it also portrays them. Think of Christ dying, being buried, and rising again. Baptism publicly pictures someone’s union with this death, burial, and resurrection. A person is physically plunged under water and raised out of it.

And because baptism pictures our union with Christ, it also pictures the benefits of that union. Through Christ our sins are forgiven and cleansed; baptism signifies both. Peter said to the crowd at Pentecost, “Repent . . . and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). And Ananias told the newly converted apostle Paul, “And now, why delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins by calling on His name” (Acts 22:16). Further, through Christ we experience a new, Spirit-powered life, and baptism’s symbolic resurrection signifies this life (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:11–12). In baptism a church affirms that someone who professes faith in Christ is in fact united to Christ, and it dramatically depicts that union and all its benefits.

By Immersing Him or Her in Water

How does a church affirm and portray a believer’s union with Christ? By immersing him or her in water. The Greek word baptizō, on which our word “baptize” is based, means to dip or plunge something in water, typically resulting in complete submersion. The New Testament consistently portrays baptism as immersion. John the Baptist baptized “in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there” (John 3:23), and there’s no indication that the baptisms performed by Jesus’ disciples required any less water.

Further, when the Ethiopian eunuch came to faith in Christ while riding in his chariot with Philip, he said, “Look, there’s water! What would keep me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:36). And we read, “Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But he went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:38–39). Baptism apparently ...

Table of contents

• Church Basics Series Preface
• Chapter 1: What Is Baptism?
• Chapter 2: Who Should Be Baptized?
• Chapter 3: What about Infant Baptism?
• Chapter 4: Why Is Baptism Required for Church Membership?
• Chapter 5: When Is “Baptism” Not Baptism?
• Chapter 6: How Should Churches Practice Baptism?
• Notes