We generally tend toward extremes.
In our day it is very much seen and felt…everything is polarized. If you believe “A” then you most certainly believe “B” and “C”…yet the person who admittedly believes “A” but not necessarily “B” or “C” says of the person who believes “X” that they also hold to “Y” and “Z”.
Within those assumptions and extremes can also be found the mentality that if you do in fact believe differently just on one point of an issue that your two views can have nothing in common.
In other words we as people tend toward pendulum swings. If you believe in A, B, & C but I disagree only with C then I want to distance myself from you in both the extreme and in the entirety of everything else pertaining to that.
If we see an error in one part then we rush away head long, not for a more balanced view, but for whatever is furtherest from the other persons convictions.
Baptists on the Baptism Pendulum
As I mentioned in my first post, these three (yes only three…this is the last) is not intended so much to declare what we should believe regarding baptism, but to provide some questions and thoughts for us to consider regarding what we confess to believe.
By way of furthering the idea of reevaluating I want to present us with an idea that will also help us move forward to the conclusion of this topic of baptism: Sempre Reformanda (Always Reforming….our beliefs that is)
The reader and student of the Bible must humbly allow for the reality that our fallen and finite mind is prone to misunderstanding. We can pursue a correction in misunderstanding generally by:
- humbly realizing a false idea we have held, OR
- humbly reviewing what we believe, and WHY we believe it (this is where we will camp out regarding baptism).
I wish for us to consider a common phrase connected to believer’s baptism within Baptist circles and see how it squares with Acts and Peter’s teaching.
An Outward Demonstration of an Inward Reality
Let’s quickly evaluate Acts and the apostle Peter:
At the end of Peter’s great sermon in Acts 2 he is interrupted:
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 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.
Acts 2:37-38
At the end of Acts Paul recounts the days of his conversion shortly after his vision on the road to Damascus. He shares with us the message given him by Ananias:
And he [Ananias] said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you [Paul] to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
Acts 22:14-16
Let’s reflect on the bold print. To follow Calvins counsel we ought first to note and holdfast to what is stated along with the commendation of baptism:
- “Repent” (2:38)
- baptism is “in the name of Jesus Christ” (2:38)
- “calling on the name of the Lord” (22:16)
These verses in Acts do not call for baptism apart from repentance and appeal to the authority of Christ.
Bible teacher Darrell Bock notes how the pursuit of true baptism, as seen in Acts 2, should be thought of as follows: “It is not the act but the attitude behind it [baptism] that has the efficacy of yielding forgiveness.” (more on the “yielding” in a moment). In Acts neither Peter nor Ananias speak of baptism as a maverick work that yields forgiveness, but it is always named with something greater in God’s system: repentance and Christ’s authority.
Thoughts from John Calvin
In his commentary on Acts 22:16 Calvin speaks of the true causes of our salvation along with the instruments that God uses to press grace into our lives. He also notes how people tend to respond in one of two extremes:
Surely, as Christ’s blood is the only means by which our sins are washed away, and since it was shed once for this purpose, the Holy Spirit is continually making us clean by sprinkling it upon us through faith. We cannot apply this to the symbol of water without doing open injury to Christ and the Holy Spirit; experience teaches how prone people are to this superstition. Therefore, many godly people, not wanting to put their confidence in the external symbol, underestimate the power of baptism. But they must keep within bounds, so that the sacraments (baptism/lord’s supper) are kept in their proper place. The sacraments must not obscure Christ’s glory, and yet they must not lack their own efficacy and value.”
“Therefore we must hold, first of all, that it is God alone who washes us from our sins by the blood of his Son; and in order that this washing may be effective, he works by the hidden power of his Spirit. Therefore, when it is a question of the forgiveness of sins, we must look for no other author but the Heavenly Father; we must imagine no other material cause but the blood of Christ; and when it comes to the formal cause, the Holy Spirit is main one, though there is a lesser instrument in the preaching of the Word and baptism itself.”
Calvin, Crossway Classic on Acts (p.357)
Baptism cannot be optional for it is a work in the name of Christ upon the believer. It is not the primary or great cause for the work of the triune God is the great cause of redemption. Yet God in working through “means of grace” further establishes our faith. God “yields” a stronger faith.
By the word read and preached God works. And by the gospel displayed and participated in by the sacraments of Baptism and The Supper we are further established in the grace that has already redeemed us.
Baptism cannot be left as an option but should be seen and taught to be an opportunity. It testifies to us in a unique way that God has ordained to grow our faith. But there is another thought I bring in closing.
Final Thoughts:
As baptists we must ask, “Why have so many believed that baptism played a fundamental role in forgiveness?” True that the wide testimony of scripture declares forgiveness by faith alone. However, does that mean that we can gut baptism of its gracious effects on the Christian life? Do we really have grounds to say: “This is merely an outward demonstration of an inward reality?”
Let us confess that the Roman Catholic church and other branches of protestantism have truly given too much power to baptism, yet have we taken too much from it? Have we swung the pendulum?
These thoughts are presented for your consideration. As originally stated, my goal is not to give “the answer” but to present thoughts with which I have wrestled with for a few years in hopes that it stirs you up to think over what you have heard and come to believe regarding the activity of baptism.
The Reforming Raker 