I grew up as a Baptist and had always been taught that Baptism was merely a symbolic act, identifying me as a member of the Body of Christ. After making a personal decision to be a believer and to follow Jesus, then you get baptized to make a public confession of your faith.

As I’ve been doing more study of the Early Church, I’ve been learning about what the Church taught during the first couple of centuries of Chrisitianity. (Note: It’s pretty outrageous to think that the vast majority of the Christian Church apostasized within one generation of the Apostles. That puts a lot of weight on what Church leaders had to say during that time, since many were still alive in the first century A.D. and actually learned about Christianity directly from the Apostles.)

Instead of reading everything from a baptistic point of view, which would probably consider this topic as heresy, I’ve tried to set aside any bias, apart from keeping a basic Christianity point of view. I WAS, in fact, taught to take Scripture at face value and to interpret it literally unless the passage was obviously figurative.

So here are some thoughts on Baptism, based on verses from Scripture:

Matthew 28:18-20 is a common passage to discuss this. “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

This passage shows that baptism is supposed to be Trinitarian (invoking all three persons of the Trinity). It also shows rather plainly that making disciples involves people being baptized. “Make disciples” = “baptizing them” + “teaching them.” It’s right there in the text.

John 1:32-34 - “Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.’”

John the Baptist’s testimony is clear. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is also the one “who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” It is obvious from the text that this is in contrast to John’s baptism, which is merely water.

John 3:5 - “Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.’”

From what I’ve read, this not talking about two different births (as I was taught as a kid). Instead it’s two aspects of the new birth. It would be rather redundant to say that a person has to be physically born to enter the kingdom of God. Plus, it would be grammatically easy to make it sound like two different births (e.g., “born of water and born of the Spirit”). Jesus is instead combining water and the Spirit into one act, where water is combined with the Spirit in baptism.

What’s amazing in John 3 is that, in verse 22, we are told that Jesus went out and baptized. It’s the only place in the Bible we read of Jesus baptizing. And it’s right after this discussion of being “born of water and the Spirit.”

Acts 2:38 - “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Be baptized “for the forgiveness of your sins”? That totally flies in the face of what I was taught about baptism, even though I was also taught to take the most obvious interpretation of Scripture.

Mark 16:16 - “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

Here again we read that being saved involves believing and being baptized. It’s also pretty clear.

Acts 22:16 - “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”

After his incident on the road to Damascus, Paul was visited by Ananias who, through the power of God, restored Paul’s sight. Then he tells him that the God of Abraham sent him to meet Paul and he tells him to “be baptized and wash his sins away.” That’s OBVIOUSLY more than just making a public profession of faith. It can’t get much clearer than this.

1 Corinthians 6:11 - “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Paul is talking to the Corinthians about their conversion here and again the obvious interpretation

is that they were washed, sanctified, and justified. Washing always seems to refer to baptism in the New Testament and Paul here says that the Corinthians were sanctified and justified when they were washed.

Ephesians 5:25-27 - “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

This passage (along with clearly stating that Christians are actually cleansed and made holy, not just left depraved and having that overlooked or whitewashed (”snow-covered dung hills”)) shows that when water is combined with the Word of God, the effect is cleansing and making holy.

Titus 3:5-7 - “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”

Again with the washing, which is linked to rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit. It’s still a matter of grace and mercy, not works, that we are saved, but obviously baptism is a key component because that’s how we are reborn and renewed.

1 Peter 3:21 - “And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

So the power of Christ’s resurrection is poured out in the water during baptism, which “now saves you.” I think this verse was always overlooked by any pastors I heard speak on the subject while I was growing up. It’s too conflicting with Baptist doctrines.

Okay, this was kind of a lengthy post, but most of it was Scripture passages. The overall picture is that there is a VERY STRONG Scriptural basis for saying that baptism is more than just a symbol that’s used to “publicly confess” a believer’s identification with Christ and His church.

I’m not putting any kind of ’spin’ on the Bible here. I’m quoting Scripture and letting it speak for itself. I think what I did growing up Baptist was what all good Baptists do: ignore these passages and pretend they don’t exist. Or at least that they don’t mean what they say.

One verse might be something that could be interpreted differently or questioned, but such a large number of verses from Scripture, with ABSOLUTELY NO verses telling us that baptism is merely a symbol, creates a weight of evidence which becomes a very convincing argument. I haven’t even gotten into what the early Christians said about it (even though it was practically unanimous for 1500 years). I’ve only looked in the Bible. And still it’s a very one-sided argument: According to the Bible, baptism is inextricably linked to salvation, redemption, and rebirth. It’s more than just a symbol. It is efficacious.

(For what it’s worth, this is what the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican churches have always taught. Many Presbyterian, Methodist, and Reformed churches teach that baptism is a “sign and seal” of membership in Christ’s covenant community and is equated with circumcision in the Old Testament, but not that grace is conferred through baptism.)

[tags]baptism, religion, Christianity, salvation, regeneration[/tags]