Community Identity: Baptism

This weekend our church had a “spontaneous” baptism. A few people had signed up to be baptized, and the whole thing was not exactly spontaneous — the teaching at all three services was about baptism, in fact. We wrestled with the truths of baptism; particularly repentance and identification. We repent from trusting in our selves, turning from sin to embrace Jesus as Savior and Master, committing to follow Him for the rest of our lives and beyond into the next life. We repent from false views of God (Acts 20:28), to begin learning who the self-revealing God of the Scriptures is, and all He is for us in Christ.

We identify ourselves publicly with Him, before all these witnesses, just as Jesus at His baptism identified with His Father and the Spirit (Matthew 3:1-12). He certainly did not have to repent! But we do, and we must each choose Christ (continually). We can choose Him — and take on a new identity in His Kingdom — because He first chose us (John 15:16).

Dozens of people were baptized this weekend (more than five dozen actually!), in full street clothes, and it was a joy to celebrate new life with them. As we explored the doctrine during the sermon, we re-learned that no one can be saved through their baptismal work. It’s not our works that save us; it is Jesus’ finished work. It’s not our obedience, but His.

Baptizo, the common Greek word that we’ve transliterated into English as “baptism,” was used in a variety of ways in literature, both in the New Testament and outside of it, even in everyday writings (like a recipe for making pickles!). The word can literally mean dunk, dip, immerse, soak, wash. In the NT sense baptism has always been a public sign of repentance, a symbol of turning away from an old life. Whether or not you think Romans 6 is a “wet” passage, the picture remains: baptism identifies us with Christ in His sacrificial death, burial and glorious resurrection. His new life becomes ours through believing in Him, and we make this reality known to the world publicly through baptism. (I was baptized twice in my life, once at a few weeks old, and after I repented and began following Christ two decades later. The first was the choice of my parents; the second was mine.)

This identification always brings the family element of the church front and center. This weekend hundreds of onlookers been participants with those being baptized. We were encouraged, challenged, even convicted as we said, “welcome to the family!” Each individual had to get baptized on his or her own. Yet, we do not belong to ourselves. The happy tension of “I” becoming part of “us.” A child of God among the people of God. That’s because church is not an event or place we attend, but a people we are and become, the called-out ones, sent on mission by our King, Jesus. We can’t go it alone.