Yesterday I completed a four-sermon series on understanding baptism. (You can listen here).
When it comes to practicing baptism with joyful care, I fear we might roll our eyes with a “so what?” attitude. After all, baptism is not necessary for salvation, so why give it attention? Churches and believers vary in their view of baptism, so why wade into the waters of controversy? The answer is: Because baptism is important.
The potential for controversy is not an adequate reason to evade conviction and care about Jesus’ commands. Jesus has commissioned his church with this mandate: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19). He has also defined love: “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Jesus has commissioned his church to represent him and exercise the keys of the kingdom—baptism & Lord's Supper—recognizing what the Lord in heaven has bound and loosed (Matt 16:18-19; 18:17-18). Therefore, we glorify the Lord when we practice baptism with biblical wisdom. Here are four reasons why:
1. Though the ordinances do not regenerate, they reveal WHO God’s people are. Jonathan Leeman explains that a local church is created when a group of Christians gathers, someone explains the gospel, everyone agrees to it, and they mutually affirm one another’s agreement through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These ordinances show us where a church is, and a church shows us where the Christians are.[1]
2. Alongside faithful preaching of the Bible, the ordinances keep the gospel of Jesus front and center in the church. Baptism and Lord's Supper promote the WHAT of the gospel. Bobby Jamison highlights that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are what knit a church together. They make the church visible, they tell us where the church is, and how we can join. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper inscribe the gospel into the very shape and structure of the church.[2]
3. The ordinances mark the line between the church and the world.
The ordinances remove any fuzzy line between who's inside and who's outside the church. Like lines on a playing field allow a football game to be played, so too the ordinances make evangelism and missions possible. Apart from faith in Jesus Christ, a person stands outside the circle of Christ. The good news is that the line between the world and the church is dotted, like a road lane division! Anyone who receives the grace of God responding in repentance and faith crosses over into the church. Therefore, when practiced joyfully and carefully, the ordinances can be an antidote to cultural Christianity. It may feel awkward at times to draw a line between the world and the church, but such a distinction is vital. Baptism gives new believers a clear path of response to the gospel and entrance into the church.
4. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper remain biblical ways we provide encouragement and assurance to one another. The assurance of salvation is important for every believer, but can, at times, be hard for sinners like us to receive. The ordinances provide a way to know and be known by a local church family. A church family affirms a believer’s initial profession of faith in baptism and ongoing profession in the Lord’s Supper. These ordinances are like road signs to tell you you're going the right direction as we march together toward glory. These ordinances are ongoing assurances that we see in YOU the marks of someone who is genuinely born again!
These four reasons help us to see why the Lord is glorified by our church’s joyful and careful practice of believer’s baptism. By God’s grace and for his glory, let’s make disciples among all nations, unapologetically baptizing them.
For His Glory,
Pastor Thomas
[1] Leeman, Baptist Foundations, 3-4.
[2] Quoted in Leeman, Don’t Fire Your Church Members, 82.