Why do Christians dunk each other in water? If I'm a Christian - do I need to get baptized? If so... what should I know about it? Those are all great questions and hopefully this article sheds some light. If you're interested in the early Jewish roots of baptism, check out this article.
It’s Elementary
A lot of Christians get baptized and they don’t know what baptism is or why they’re doing it – they just know that they’re supposed to. Jesus expected his followers to be baptized and most of the time, that’s good enough for us. It should be. That’s not the whole story though. Often, a richer understanding of any activity will give us a greater appreciation for it – so shouldn’t we want to know all we can about Baptism?
The author of Hebrews considered our understanding of Baptism to be foundational to our faith. If we want to take scripture seriously than it’s a responsibility of all Christians to seek to understand baptism.
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so. (Hebrews 6:1)
I love that passage because for most Christians, those topics seem anything but “elementary.” At the very least that should tell us that we’ve got work to do. So let’s get to it. What’s Baptism? Why did Jesus ask His followers to do it?
It’s a Sacrament
Sacrament? There’s a lot of information packed into that word and to make matters worse – it means different things for different people. For Catholics it usually means “An outward sign of an inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification.” For Protestants, it usually means, “An outward sign of an inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification, mandated for all Christians.” It’s that last bit – “mandated for all Christians” where the difference comes into play. As a result, Catholics have 7 sacraments and Protestants have two. It’s not that we disagree, it’s moreso that we use that word differently. So let’s breakdown this Protestant understanding (it’ll be worth it).
1. An outward sign
Sacraments always have elements. For Baptism, the element is water. For Communion, the elements are bread and wine. They’re more than just elements, there’s actions and words and each component creates the ritual. These rituals have deep symbolic meaning. “Ritual” is a scary word for some people but you could replace that word with “reminder” or “drama.” In Baptism we act out a spiritual reality in the physical world. Some (not all) symbols within baptism change depending on how far Christians want to take it but here are a few historical symbols:
Colossians 2:12 and Romans 6:4 both reference Baptism as a sign that we’ve died to self and to sin (as we go down into the water) and to rising again in new life in Christ.
This is an older symbol but some Christians baptized by submersion into the water three different times. Once in the name of the Father, again in the name of the Son, and again in the name of the Holy Spirit. These three “dips” are done in a row and all three symbolize Christ’s three days in the grave.
Augustine once wrote (As noted by Thomas Aquinas)
"Rightly were you dipped three times, since you were baptized in the name of the Trinity. Rightly were you dipped three times, because you were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, Who on the third day rose again from the dead. For that thrice repeated immersion reproduces the burial of the Lord by which you were buried with Christ in Baptism."
Most Christians aren’t baptized by being immersed three times and that’s okay too. Thomas Aquinas goes on to say that being baptized by single immersion symbolizes the unity of the Godhead and being baptized by triple immersion symbolizes the Trinity.
There was a short period of time (and not the earliest practice either) when Christians would baptized naked. This may have been done with undergarments on, in the dark, and with only one gender present but nonetheless we have writings from several Church Fathers that speak of naked baptism.
“Having stripped yourselves, ye were naked; in this also imitating Christ, who was stripped naked on the Cross, and by His nakedness put off from Himself the principalities and powers, and openly triumphed over them on the tree.”
Cyril will go on to discuss how, in that nakedness, they also symbolized “putting off the old garment” and returning to the likeness of Adam and Eve in the garden in which they were naked and felt no shame. It’s a powerful practice and symbol but perhaps not appropriate for most cultures (we can understand why this fell out of popularity, at least).
Water, often seen as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, is essential to Baptism. It was water which cleansed “unclean” objects in the Old Testament that couldn’t be cleansed through fire without risk of being burned. For an in-depth look at water in this regard, you can click here. But water has always been a “washing” agent and Baptism is a sign that we’ve been washed of our past sins and made clean by the Holy Spirit through the work of Christ’s death and resurrection.
2. An inward grace
Baptism is not just a sign that takes place after one receives grace but baptism itself is a means of grace. Baptism is a ritual that we perform in which we receive grace from God. In other words, baptism is an opportunity for God to be at work in our lives. Theologically speaking, some Protestants begin to find some disagreement here. Some prefer to refer to Baptism and Communion as “ordinances” which are seen as reenactments that we’re commanded to observe. It should be noted that this view is outside of what the majority of the Church has always believed.
Today, we’re often satisfied with what some refer to as “The sinner’s prayer” as the main act that makes us a Christian but when we read the New Testament we see that often times Baptism was the sinner’s prayer. The authors of the New Testament felt completely comfortable attributing Baptism to the washing away of our sins. Of course, for many, perhaps that sounds too “catholic” or too “magical” but there’s good reason for us to consider taking the New Testament literally when it comes to what we read in Acts 2:38, 22:16; Rom. 6:1–4; 1 Cor. 6:11, 12:13; Gal. 3:26–27; Eph. 5:25-27; Col. 2:11–12; Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:18–22.
Of course, the sheer number of verses as well as our commitment to scriptural authority ought to be good enough but there’s another line of reasoning that I find to be helpful. Christianity has always valued the physical world – we recognize that it’s fallen but we don’t consider it to be bad or evil. In fact, God made the world and He called it “good.”
On the other hand there was a religious cult or philosophy at the time of the early church called Gnosticism. Gnosticism taught that the physical world was evil and the spiritual world was good. This line of reasoning would result in two different responses. Either adherents would reject physical pleasure as evil and try their best to abstain from any physical desires OR they would gratify all physical desire because they believed that what happened in the physical realm didn’t really matter.
Why do I say this? Simply because we tend to be gnostic too. We value the spiritual realm over the physical realm. We downplay the importance of physical baptism and instead we focus on the importance of an invisible (and often silent) prayer. We “connect” on social media and texting rather than going to someone’s house and speaking face to face. We even attend church on a livestream or watch a pastor preach on a screen from a satellite campus. Some churches have begun to experiment with virtual reality small groups. We’re becoming more and more detached and it’s not wonder that we struggle to value the physical.
Here’s the last thing I’ll say about this – is it hard for you to imagine that reading your Bible is a means of grace? Is it hard for you to imagine that reading God’s word is an opportunity for you to receive grace? That’s a physical act, right? Why should baptism be different?
Once you’ve accepted that Baptism is a means of grace, it only becomes natural for us to view God as the primary actor in Baptism. God is the one that draws us to Baptism. God (in Christ) is the one that commanded Baptism. God (in Christ) is the one the empowers and authorizes the Church to Baptize. It’s God’s triune name through which Baptism happens. It’s God who enables us to repent and to accept Him as our Lord and Savior and it’s God’s grace at work that makes baptism worthwhile.
3. Instituted by Christ for all Christians
It was Jesus’ last words to the Church:
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
First of all – we all know that our last words are important. If you have limited time, you’re only going to say the most important message you can think of. That’s what Christ does here. Before he ascends to heaven He reminds His Church of His mission. Secondly, look at how Christ prefaces His command – he reminds the Church that He speaks with complete and total authority. Why? Because He wants us to make sure we’re listening. He wants us to be aware that this is a divine command. This is of utmost importance.
What’s the command? To Go and make disciples and to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything that He’s commanded. Baptism was instituted by Christ for all Christians.
So far we’ve shown that Baptism is Elementary and we’ve explained what we mean when we say that it’s a Sacrament. I know we’ve said a lot already but we need to press on. Remember – this is foundational stuff. Don’t neglect it.
It’s an Initiation
We’ve mentioned that Baptism was a ritual but it’s not a ritual that we do multiple times. In fact, it’s supposed to only happen once in a believer’s life. Why? Because it’s an initiation ritual. It’s an act which symbolizes your entrance into the community of believers.
1 Corinthians 12:13 says
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Under the Old Covenant, it was circumcision which signaled one’s initiation into the people of God. Under the New Covenant, a new ritual was needed. New wineskins for new wine. This idea, of connecting circumcision with baptism isn’t new and wasn’t lost on the early church.
We read about it in Colossians:
11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
It’s Unifying
I love that verse from 1 Corinthians 12:13. We were baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body. Often times when we think about baptism we think of it as our initiation into a local church and while it’s celebrated by our local church – it’s the church universal that we join (mediated through the local congregation).
Churches can sometimes be guilty of missing this vital truth. Some churches require leaders or members to be baptized by their particular local congregation (even if that person has already been baptized at a separate church). While this is a good and necessary practice in the case of cults – it demeans the unifying effect of baptism when we rebaptize Christians from legitimate faith backgrounds.
It’s a Big Deal
Consider all that we’ve discussed so far and it should be obvious that baptism is a big deal! So here’s a few implications that come of this:
Baptism isn’t something we do primarily for fun. It’s not uncommon for Christians to participate in “tourism baptism” where they might travel to the middle east and then get baptized in the Jordan because they want the experience of it. This might seem nitpicky but I would caution against trivializing baptism.
In the same vein, baptism isn’t something we do more than once. I had a student at my last youth ministry ask if I would baptize them. The trouble was, they had already been baptized multiple times. When I asked why they wanted to get baptized again they told me that a spiritual mentor had once encouraged them to get baptized often because: “You can’t have too much of a good thing.” That sentence itself is actually Biblically untrue (Proverbs 25:16).
Lastly, we should check our motives for baptizing and for being baptized. This mostly applies to churches. Do we want to put on a show? Increase statistics? Gain momentum? Or are we baptizing out of a desire to honor Christ and glorify God?
There ya have it: Baptism is elementary, it's sacramental, it's an initiation, it's unifying, and it's a big deal.
