This audio is a short sermon I gave at our church’s first baptism service. It covers some important ground on what baptism is and what it is about, so I’ve included the audio here, but also a cleaned-up transcript below.
Transcript
What is the Meaning of Baptism? I think it's that’s an important question. It's worth pausing to think about, to ask, as we gather to celebrate this act of obedience to Christ.
Why do Christians practice baptism? What is it about?
The most fundamental reason that Christians, for nearly 2,000 years, have practiced baptism is because it's a command. It's a command of the Lord Jesus.
It's one of the two sacraments or ordinances given by the Lord Jesus himself along with the Lord's Supper. Baptism is one of the two markers, identifiers of being part of the new covenant, of being forgiven by Christ.
Individually
It's a command both for individual believers and a command for the whole church. As it relates to individuals, we can think of a place like Acts chapter 2. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit had just fallen on the 120 believers who were gathered in the upper room. Peter then goes out and preaches to this massive gathering of people in Jerusalem. He preaches to them, saying, “you Jews gathered here - you have been waiting for the Messiah for 4,000 years. You’ve been waiting for someone to come and crush the snake, someone to save you from your sin, someone to be your deliverer.
“And then you killed him.”
The audience is cut to the heart, and ask, “what can we do to be saved?”
38 And Peter said to them, “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. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ac 2:38–39.
Peter is preaching to individuals and he says one of the things that you do if you want to turn from your sins and follow Christ is this: you identify with him in baptism.
Repentance is something that happens on the inside. You hate your sin, you know you can't fix your sin and so you repent of it and turn to Christ for forgiveness. But then the outward piece of that is you get baptized, you publicly identify with Jesus in baptism.
Now Peter makes clear in his first letter later on that baptism isn't like a magical act. It's not the ritual of baptism that saves you. 1 Peter 3 says that baptism saves you not as the washing away of dirt from the flesh (not the physical action), but that it is a pledge to God from a good conscience.
What is a pledge to God from a good conscience? It's the outward sign, the outward symbol of something that's taken place on the inside. When you have trusted in Christ, then you are to be baptized and brought visibly into his people.
About More Than Just You
And that's how most evangelicals think about baptism. It's this public display of something that's happened on the inside, where I've trusted in Jesus and He's forgiven me.
But baptism isn't just a private act of devotion. Baptism is also an action of the Church.
When Jesus gives the Great Commission in Matthew 28, where Jesus actually commands baptism, He's not speaking to individuals. He’s not speaking to the individuals being baptized.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 28:18–20.
The Great Commission basically breaks into three parts.
There's a ground for what Jesus is saying. He has all authority in heaven on earth.
There’s a command. Make disciples of all the nations.
There's a promise. He's going to be with His church to the end of the age.
That second point, the command, is what particularly concerns us. When He commands them to make disciples, to make followers of Him, that verb has three sub-clauses.
a. Go. Wherever the disciples go, they are to make disciples, make followers of Jesus. Jesus is saying that the whole life of the Christian, the whole purpose of the church, is supposed to be about making disciples. That word disciple sounds kind of churchy, but it just means follower. We're supposed to make followers of Jesus, help people follow Jesus.
That starts with sharing the gospel with them.
b. Baptizing. The next aspect that Jesus gives here is baptized, but what's implied in baptism (being named with the name of the triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit), is that you have shared the gospel with them and that they've believed and so they want to be identified with the triune God.
The disciples were supposed to go out and share the gospel, and as people responded they were to baptize them. And baptism was a ceremony, is a ceremony, that celebrates the new birth.
And we see that by the fact that it's a naming ceremony: “baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
What's it mean to baptize in the name of? You're doing this action on behalf of God.
The disciples are the foundation of the church, as Paul calls them. And what the disciples were meant to do, and thus the church is to do - according to Jesus - is baptize people in the name of God. Name them as part of God’s family.
Jesus said in John chapter 3, to Nicodemus, “you must be born again.” And again, that's something that takes place on the inside. The Holy Spirit does that to us and for us. But then that's visibly expressed when you are dunked in the water and are born a second time from the water. You're no longer just a child of Adam or a child of your parents. You're now visibly seen as a child of God.
So in baptism you're named with the name of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit.
And what does it mean to be a child of God? We know it means that you've received Jesus as your substitute. You've been justified of your sins, forgiven of your sins because of what Jesus did on the cross in your place, in his resurrection. And if you've trusted in him, you're then adopted into his family.
John 1:12, “to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” And when you’re in family, you receive instruction on what it means to be part of the family.
c. Teaching. And the third aspect of this commission, then, that Jesus gives to the church is the responsibility to teach. Discipleship isn't just getting people in the door. It's not merely getting people across the “pray-the-prayer” threshold.
He says that you are to teach them to observe - to obey - all that I have commanded you. And I think there's two really important implications for that.
The first is this: we don't baptize babies. Because this person that's being baptized is committing (we'll get to this more thoroughly in a minute) themselves to receive this teaching. To receive this and to observe it, to obey it. An infant can't make that commitment. They don't understand what's going on.
Unlike being born into your physical family, being born into the family of God is something that you are conscious and aware of, and so taking on the sign of the family, receiving the family name is something that you’re supposed to be conscious and aware of as you do so.
This necessity of conscious and willing belief is also why we don't practice spontaneous baptism. Some folks like the idea of baptizing people just because they say they believe. “I’ve trusted, can I get dunked to show it?” And many churches, camps, or parachurch ministries would answer with an immediate, “yes, of course!”
But there must be a commitment involved in baptism because the church is charged with a duty to teach those who are baptized everything that Jesus commanded. And not only teach them the content, but teach them to obey it!
If there's not a commitment on the part of the person getting baptized to sit under that teaching, to obey what God's Word says, and to consistently be in fellowship so that you can grow, then it would be pastoral malpractice to baptize that person. How could I, as a pastor, baptize someone when I have no clue what their manner of life and commitment to Christ looks like?
There must be a willingness and a commitment on the part of the baptized to be instructed and to keep on growing.
Because otherwise, if the church baptizes those who don't make that commitment, we're just giving people a false assurance.
But really what baptism is meant to do is, with this naming ceremony, is affirming our confidence that this person is saved by Jesus, made new. And how does the New Testament say we can have such an assurance? We know they love Jesus is if they obey his commands.
And so there's a mutual commitment that happens in baptism.
The church is committing to this person to help them grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus. And the baptized must have that commitment and make that commitment to the church.
Objection!
Does this put stumbling blocks in the way of belief? Does it puts stumbling blocks in the way of obedience. Those are fair questions.
It's a point a lot of people bring up, that requirements around baptism make it harder to follow Jesus than Jesus does.
But if that's what you're thinking, then you need to read the Gospels more carefully. Because Jesus actually makes it really hard to follow him.
Luke 14 is a really good example of this.
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 14:25–26.
Now that language of hate, that's shocking to us, and it's supposed to be shocking. Do realize, though, that when he says that, it's a comparative thing.
You don't throw out all the other commands in the Bible to honor and love your wife as Christ loved the church, honor your father and mother. You're not throwing those out. But Jesus is saying in comparison to how much you value and love and treasure him, all those other loves should look like nothing.
They should look like hatred in comparison to how much you love Jesus and are desirous to follow Him.
Verse 27, “27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” And he's not talking about wearing a cross necklace. He's talking about a torture device created by the Romans to murder people methodically in the most painful way possible.
Jesus says, if you don't pick that up to follow me, you can't be my disciple.
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 14:28–35.
Jesus makes clear that there is a price to following him. There is a cost to obedience. Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote a book titled The Cost of Discipleship. Jesus is not saying, “hey, identify with me casually.” Jesus isn't interested in that at all.
These whom he speaks to are in some sense his disciples, his followers, but they're kind of fringy followers. And Jesus says, “I'm not interested in having fringy followers.” He has no interest in people who take on a religious symbol but aren't willing to give up their lives. It's all or nothing.
Price
Salvation is absolutely free. There is nothing you can do to earn it.
And it will cost you absolutely everything. Jesus demands your whole life.
Obviously an infant can't count this cost. You shouldn't do it for yourself in the spur of a moment under the influence of an emotional talk or soul-stirring music.
No, this is something you actually need to think about.
Am I willing to give it all up for Jesus? Whatever he asks of me, am I willing to count the cost? Whether that's relationships that get fractured or people think it's weird or whatever it is - what is the cost for you and is it worth it?
Jesus is absolutely worth it. He's purchased your soul from hell. He's brought you into the family, eternal family of God. Absolutely, he's worth it.
But you have to be there yourself in your head and your mind and your heart. You've got to realize this could cost me and it's absolutely worth it.
Romans 6
Which brings us to Romans chapter 6, the first four verses. Paul has spent Romans 5 talking about the great freedom of salvation in Christ. That just like Adam, through his sin, condemned the whole race: so Christ, through his righteous life and sacrificial death in our place and his resurrection, has given freedom and life for anyone who would trust in him. There's nothing you can do to earn it, there is no work you can do, there is no symbol, there is nothing that earns you God's salvation. You just have to trust in Christ. And where your sin abounded, God's grace abounded all the more.
No matter how sinful you are, you can trust in Jesus and He will forgive absolutely all of it.
But then there's an objection Paul anticipates.
“Well, I mean, if God's willing to forgive all my sin, no matter how much there is, shouldn't I just sin a lot so God looks really great?”
And he says here in verse 1, “what then shall we say then: are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” May it never be! If you'll pardon the expression, this is a super intense expression - he's saying, “hell no! You cannot live like hell and think you're going to heaven.” That's not how it works! “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, and we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
And this is the spiritual reality that baptism is meant to picture.
This is one of a couple of reasons why I think it's important to baptize by immersion. (Part of it is just literally the word baptizing in Greek means to immerse, that's what the word means). But beyond that, this imagery of when we are baptized, we're joining Christ in his burial. Just as he died for our sin, paid for it all on the cross, he said on the cross, “it is finished.”
There was nothing more to do. And so he was buried in the ground. So we too, when we are buried in baptism, the picture is: I have nothing more to do to earn God's favor. I have nothing more to do than to be identified with Jesus.
Union
We talk a lot in modern Christianity about having a personal relationship with Jesus.
And there's nothing wrong with that language. It describes part of what salvation means. But it's not the language of the New Testament. The New Testament talks about union with Christ.
Now that includes like a personal relationship, right? I have a union with my wife and that wouldn't be possible if we didn't have a personal relationship. You can't be united to someone you don't know. But there's so much more than just a friendship here, or even than there is in a marriage.
Christ's death, for those who believe in Him, it is our death. Our death is taking care of what we owed to God. Death for our sins.
Already taken care of.
Already paid for.
Jesus took it.
And so when we're buried in the waters of baptism, what that's symbolizing is that those waters of judgment, just like the waters in Noah's day, they flooded the earth, and killed everything there, they have already swallowed us - by swallowing Christ.
And our sin is dead with Jesus' death.
But: That's not all that happens.
We are then raised from the waters of baptism, picturing our risen-ness with Christ in His resurrection.
We are free now from sin.
That sin is buried.
It's gone.
Of course, we still experience it. We still feel it, but it doesn't have the power that it had. It doesn't have the power over us that it had when we were still living in it. If you have trusted in Christ, been buried with Him and raised with Him, you have Holy Spirit power over our sin.
And it's a power the world doesn't know.
Jesus says in John 8 that those who practice sin are slaves to it. But the Christian who's been buried with Christ and raised with Him is no longer a slave to sin. And that's how we're able to then learn to obey all that he's commanded. We won't get there perfectly in this life, but we will continue to grow and grow and grow in conformity to him.
And that's the desire that every Christian should have.
Baptism functions as our visible initiation into this life. Sometimes we say things are just symbols, but it's a really important symbol. It's really important to do it publicly in a way that says, “I want everyone to know that this is what has happened to me.”
And as the church, when we baptize someone, it's us saying, “we are so excited that this has happened for you and we commit to you that we're going to help you grow. We're going to do everything we can to help you grow in conformity and love to Jesus Christ.”
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 6:15–23.
Prayer
Father God, we thank you that you will bring everyone who trusts in you and your son Jesus Christ out of death and into life. You will set them free from sin and make them slaves of righteousness - and what a joyful slavery that is.
We ask that you would bless the obedience of those receiving baptism here this morning - and would you make us faithful as a church to walk with them and help them grow as much as we can in the days, months, and years to come.
Father, we thank you for your goodness to us in Christ.
Help us to grow, all of us, in our sanctification as it leads to life and makes us shine as lights in a dark world.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You can find more sermons from our church at the Remsen Bible Substack:
The Meaning of Baptism