The Church’s Admission Ceremony
It’s not unusual to have ceremonies to celebrate someone’s entrance into a special group or position. We have an inauguration ceremony for an incoming president, a wedding ceremony for a bride and groom, a graduation ceremony for those who’ve completed a course of study, and ceremonies for professional athletes who make it into the Hall of Fame.
Is it any wonder, then, that Jesus gave his church an admission ceremony for its members? You may be thinking, “I didn’t know about any ceremony. Did I miss out on something?” But if you’re a member of a church, at some point there was (most likely) a ceremony to inaugurate your entrance into the life of Christ and into the life of his church. When you were baptized, you were inducted into a group far more prestigious than the Hall of Fame, far more important than any earned degree, far more enduring than even marriage, and far more consequential than any President. When you were baptized, you were admitted into the body of Christ.
Baptism Is a Precious Reminder of a Priceless Reality
What do you remember about your baptism? Was it a moment you’ll never forget, or a moment you barely remember? How do you view your baptism? Was there any gravitas in your baptism? Did it carry any weight? Was it a solemn and joyful celebration of your entrance into the eternal family of God? Or was it something you did on a whim as a kid because of pressure from parents or friends?
It seems fair to say, and most of our experiences would confirm, that baptism has lost its weight in the church. But baptism, like a wedding ring, is a precious reminder of a priceless reality. A wedding band isn’t a marriage, but it does point to a marriage. Do you cherish your baptism the way you would cherish a wedding ring? Is it precious, memorable, and irreplaceable?
To ask it another way, did your life change after you were baptized? When you slip on a wedding ring during a marriage ceremony, everything about your life changes from that moment forward. Your life is filled with new joys and new trials, new privileges and new responsibilities. Would you consider your baptism a defining moment in your life, similar to uniting yourself with a husband or a wife?
My Baptism Was Not Wrong, but It Was Unwise
I confess, my baptism was not. I think that I was baptized as a believer at age seven, but I know I was baptized as a believer who understood next to nothing of what a believer was supposed to be and do. I don’t think it was morally wrong that I was baptized at seven. But I do think it was mostly unwise and ultimately unnecessary to have an admission ceremony for someone who had little idea of the weight of the ceremony.
Baptism Linked to Conversion
We’ll come back to the issue of baptizing children, but I want us to begin our discussion of baptism by looking at a text that shows us just how weighty it is (Rom. 6:1-4). After we look at this text, I’m going to address several questions about the nature and practice of baptism.
The main thing I want to draw out from this text is that Paul is linking “baptism” to our conversion to Christ. This text is more about our conversion than about our baptism. Indeed, Paul never comes back to the topic of baptism after verse 4. But because he links the two, he’s showing us how weighty baptism is.
Realm Transfer
In verses 1-2, Paul is saying that life in sin can never coexist with death to sin. Jesus’ death frees us from the penalty and power of sin. As our substitute, Jesus took the penalty that our sins deserve, namely, death. Through his death, the tyranny of sin has been broken in our hearts and we’ve been set free to live for God.
Paul is using the language of “realm transfer” to show us how crazy the idea that a believer could still live in sin in order to increase grace is. The transfer is so radical that Paul uses the language of death and life to describe it. Those in Christ live in a new realm with new rules and new realities. God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). We live with Jesus so we want to live like Jesus.
If you moved to China as a missionary, you’d have to change the way you live in order to live there because you’d experience “realm transfer.” You can’t live by the rules of one realm when you move to another realm. You have to adopt new ways of thinking and living.
This is what happens when you become a Christian. God moves you from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. He brings you into a realm of love and peace and righteousness and justice and joy, so that you aren’t ruled by hate, strife, sin, and shame any longer. Thus Paul’s question in verse 2, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” He’s asking, “How can you live in a place that you don’t live in anymore?”
Being In Christ Means Being Baptized
Then in verses 3-4, Paul says that the reason we know we’ve died to sin is because we’re united to Christ and the way we know we’re united to Christ is because we’ve been baptized. Paul uses the language of baptism to refer to our union with Christ. He says in verse 3 that we’re “baptized into Christ Jesus.” What does this mean?
Paul isn’t saying that those who’ve been baptized are necessarily united to Christ or that those who haven’t been baptized aren’t necessarily united to Christ. Paul doesn’t teach here or anywhere a sacramental understanding of baptism, or that God’s grace comes to us through baptism. Paul isn’t saying that baptism is the means of God’s saving work, but that it’s rather the occasion for it. For Paul, someone’s conversion to Christ was displayed in the complex of events of faith, repentance, receiving the Spirit, confessing Christ as Lord, and baptism.[1]
Just to be clear, Paul isn’t saying that baptism saves you. His argument is that, if you’re in Christ, you’ve been baptized, and if you’ve been baptized, you’re in Christ. He has no category for an unbaptized believer. Baptism in the early church was never seen as an optional add-on. An unbaptized Christian would’ve been an anomaly.
New Testament scholar Thomas Schreiner explains this well. He says, “The reference to baptism is introduced as a designation for those who are believers in Christ. Since unbaptized Christians were virtually nonexistent, to refer to those who were baptized is another way of describing those who are Christians.”[2]
In other words, Paul is saying that being a Christian means being baptized and being baptized means being a Christian. In these verses Paul is using “baptism” as shorthand to refer to our conversion to Christ and entrance into the church.
Our baptism is a sign that we’re joined to Jesus. Our baptism is a sign of our salvation, a marker of the end of an old life and the beginning of a new life. It’s our public wedding ceremony to Jesus.
The main thing I’m trying to draw out from this text is that Paul is using “baptism” to refer to our conversion and, because he links the two, he’s showing us how weighty baptism is. Water baptism, in Paul’s mind, reveals those who’re in Christ. Have you ever wondered who’s a Christian and who’s not? The Bible’s answer is that those who’ve been baptized reveal those who belong to Christ.
Movement Away From a Regenerate Church
The problem is that the church hasn’t always practiced baptism very well. There are millions of Christians who haven’t been baptized and millions of people who aren’t Christians who have been baptized. Baptism appears to have lost its weight in the church. This is highly ironic because baptism is meant to show us who the church is.
In the earliest days of the church, the church was made up of baptized believers. In the early church, the persecution of Christians resulted in only true believers wanting to associate with the church. Churches had a system of examining someone before they were admitted into the church. There was a time of training and teaching, called catechesis, for those who sought baptism and church membership. The catechesis could last many months and sometimes several years. This ensured that only those who were truly converted were admitted into the church.
After a while, however, infant baptism began to be practiced. After the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in the 300’s, baptism was practiced much less cautiously. Whole armies would be baptized into church membership, whether they had faith in Christ or not. Historian Rodney Stark says of the fourth century church, “The church made it easy to become a Christian – so easy that actual conversion seldom occurred.”[3]
By the end of the fourth century, infant baptism was the norm in areas where the church was already established. On the mission field, whole tribes would be baptized and incorporated into the church. Of course, many of these people were not genuine believers.
The great theologian Augustine even provided justification for this, arguing that the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Mathew 13 meant that believers (wheat) and unbelievers (weeds) should be allowed to grow together in the church. But he overlooked that Jesus plainly says in verse 38 that the field in the parable is the world, not the church. He taught that, at the judgment, God would separate them, but for now the church will be a mixed body.
This was the dominate view for over a thousand years. Even during the Reformation, John Calvin, Martin Luther, and Ulrich Zwingli held onto infant baptism and the idea of a territorial church, meaning that every member of the state, or a specific geographic area, should be baptized into the church, whether they had personal faith in Jesus or not.
Movement Toward a Regenerate Church
It wasn’t until the Anabaptists, and later the Baptists, that the call for a regenerate church was issued. They argued that the church should be composed of believers alone, and that believers were those who’d been marked off through believer’s baptism. It was they who recovered the idea of regenerate church membership, and many of them sacrificed their lives for it.
Baptist churches exercised care in who they allowed into church membership and removed through discipline those whose lives contradicted their professions of faith. A Baptist confession of faith from 1656 captures this principle well: “In admitting of members into the church of Christ, it is the duty of the church, and ministers whom it concerns, in faithfulness to God, that they be careful they receive none but such as do make forth evident demonstration of the new birth, and the work of faith with power.”[4]
At the first Baptist World Congress in 1905, J. D. Freeman said this about Baptists, “This principle of a regenerate church membership, more than anything else, marks our distinctiveness in the Christian world today.”[5]
Baptists Aren’t Good Baptists
But over the last one hundred years, many if not most Baptist churches (especially in America) have fallen away from what their forefathers taught and practiced. Baptist churches have baptized many whose conversions were questionable and refused to discipline those whose lives gave clear evidence of unbelief and lack of repentance. In the denomination that our church is a part of, the Southern Baptist Convention, an average of less than 40 percent of members are present at the Sunday morning worship service.[6]
One study has even shown that a typical SBC church has 233 members, but only 70 at the Sunday morning worship service.[7]
Unfortunately, many churches are proud of large numbers of members rather than broken over the large gap between members and those actually involved in the life of the church. Mark Dever asks, “What does this convey about Christianity to the world around us? What do we understand this to mean about the importance of Christianity in our lives? And what is the spiritual state of those people, if they’ve not been at church for months, or even longer?”[8]
Unregenerate church membership is why so many churches are full of people who live just like the world, people who show no evidence of genuine spiritual life. This brings scorn on the name of Christ and undermines the work of the gospel.
Infant Baptism Is Not Biblical Baptism
Baptists have historically believed, taught, and practiced believer’s baptism. As Baptists we believe that the Bible teaches that those who baptize infants are baptizing those who aren’t regenerate and therefore are adding unregenerate people to the church. Infant baptism is not, therefore, biblical baptism.
Let me give you four reasons why infant baptism should not be practiced. First, there are no clear examples in the New Testament of infant baptism. Second, there’s no clear teaching on infant baptism in the New Testament. Third, the New Testament nowhere teaches a parallel between physical circumcision and physical baptism. Colossians 2 parallels the spiritual circumcision of our hearts with physical baptism, which supports the idea of only baptizing those who give evidence of being born again (Col. 2:11-12). Fourth, historically, not only is infant baptism not in the New Testament, but it’s also not in the Didache – an early second century guide for Christian worship. Infant baptism does not appear with any certainty until the third century.
The biblical evidence for believer’s baptism by immersion is overwhelming. Let me give you four pieces of evidence for believer’s baptism. First, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist (Matt. 3:13-17). Second, Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize those who become his disciples (Matt. 28:19). Third, the examples in Acts are of new believers being baptized by immersion (Acts 8:35-39; 9:17-19). Fourth, Paul assumes that those who’ve been baptized have received new life (Rom. 6:1-4; Col. 2:11-15).
What Baptism Is and Is Not
If infant baptism is wrong and believer’s baptism is right, what exactly is believer’s baptism? Believer’s baptism is how a follower of Jesus publicly identifies with Jesus and with Jesus’ people.
Baptism is how someone declares publicly that they’ve placed their confidence in Jesus and his gospel, that they’ve given their lives to follow Jesus as King. It’s our way of saying, “I’m with Jesus now – I’m trusting in his death, burial, and resurrection for my salvation.”
When a person is baptized, they “go public” with their faith.[9]
Their baptism is their public announcement that they’re done living for themselves and loving their sin, and that they’re “all in” with Jesus.
Baptism is also our way of publicly identifying with the church, with a local community of faith. It’s our way of saying, “I’m with Jesus and I’m with Jesus’ followers.” It’s our public announcement that we’re giving our lives to follow Jesus with other Jesus followers.
Our baptism means that the church, if necessary, can say to us, “Hey, you were baptized, you made your public commitment to follow and obey Jesus so you can’t live that way anymore. You’re dead to sin and alive to God. You’re a new person, so stop living like the old person. You were baptized into the family name of the triune God, so please stop harming the family name. Remember your baptism.”
Baptism is our marriage ceremony with Jesus and with Jesus’ church. Believer’s baptism shows the world who’s married to Jesus. It makes the invisible visible. It clarifies who the church is.
Does A Person Have to Be Baptized to Join a Church?
Let me go through several questions on the practice of baptism. First, does a person have to be baptized to join a church? There’s no command in Scripture about church membership only for those who’ve been baptized. But throughout church history, baptism has been viewed as “the rite of entry” into the church by both Catholics and Protestants. This is supported by the order of events in Acts 2:41, where people are baptized and then “added” to the church. If church members must be Christians, and if Christians must be baptized, then it follows that church members must be baptized.
Does A Person Need to Be Baptized before Taking the Lord’s Supper?
Second, does a person need to be baptized before taking the Lord’s Supper? Again, there’s no clear command on this, and so I don’t think that it’s necessarily sin if you do. But the pattern of the New Testament is clear. When a person hears the gospel, repents of their sin, believes in Christ and is baptized, they’re then allowed to take the Lord’s Supper with the church.
Throughout church history, the Supper was only offered to those who were baptized. Early Christian worship services were divided into two parts: the service of the Word and the Lord’s Supper. The first part of the service was open to anyone, but the second part was only open to baptized believers, everyone else had to leave. This is how seriously the early church took the Lord’s Supper.
The logic goes like this: If the Lord’s Supper is for Christians, and a Christian is someone who’s believed the gospel and been baptized, then the Supper is only for those who’ve believed the gospel and been baptized. This is why, before we take the Lord’s Supper, I say something to the effect of, “If you’re a baptized follower of Jesus and a member in good standing at a gospel preaching church, you may take the Supper with us.”
Who Should Baptize?
Third, who should baptize? The New Testament doesn’t give us a clear answer. However, if a person is baptized into the church, then it would normally be prudent to have someone who represents the church as a whole perform the baptism. This is why a pastor or elder is usually the one who does the baptizing, as they represent the congregation as a whole.
How Is Baptism to be Done?
Fourth, how is baptism to be done? It must be done with water! Immersion, or going all the way under the water, is the mode that should be practiced, rather than sprinkling or pouring. This was the apostolic practice. It most fully conveys what baptism displays, namely, our participation in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. And it’s what the Greek word baptizo literally means, “to dip or put under.”
Baptisms should normally be done in the context of a church gathering because it is after all the admission ceremony into the church. Following Jesus’ command, a person should be baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). This reminds us of the Trinitarian nature of our confession. At our baptism, we’re giving a new family name, the name of God himself.
How Quickly Should Churches Baptize New Believers?
Fifth, how quickly should churches baptize new believers? Should they be baptized immediately, or should there be a waiting period? All the examples we have of baptism in the New Testament is that it happened as soon as someone came to faith (eg. Acts 2:38-41, 10:47-48, 16:14-15, 30-34, 19:1-5). But if baptism is linked with church membership, then delaying one’s baptism while you discern their fitness for membership seems like a wise thing to do. This allows time for the baptismal candidate to think carefully about what they’re getting into, and for the church to get to know the candidate.
At Pentecost, it was clear what the first Christians were getting into. They were signing up for a whole new life with the persecuted band of Jesus’ followers. Today, things are not usually so clear, especially in the Christianized West and the Bible Belt of America. Becoming a Christian in this culture many times has nothing to do with submitting to the Lordship of Jesus and nothing to do with a local church. So taking some time to clarify these things seems wise, for the new believer and the church.
This means that big events where people can go down front and be baptized immediately, on the spot, with no commitment to church membership, are probably not a good idea, since they allow the person who gets baptized to quietly go their own way and disappear back into the crowd. Those being baptized need to understand that they’re signing up to live under Jesus’ leadership with a specific group of Christians seeking to do the same.[10]
This is why I ask those being baptized these two questions right before I baptize them: “Do you now publicly confess your allegiance to Jesus Christ, believing that God raised him from the dead, and with God’s help, intend to obey his teaching and follow him as Lord? And do you now publicly commit yourself to the church, the body of Christ?”
Should Children be Baptized?
Sixth, should children be baptized, and if so, when? The best way to answer this is, “Maybe.” Our goal is to baptize those who’ve been converted. This can be difficult to discern among children. Parents should discuss the meaning of conversion with their children and provide an opportunity for a pastor to ask the child questions about their understanding of conversion in order to discern whether or not their profession of faith is credible.
Historically, Baptists have seen believer’s baptism as belonging to adults, rarely baptizing children. It used to be normal to not baptize until the mid to late teen years or early twenties.[11]
In the U.S. the acceptable age of baptism has gone steadily down. Some churches suggest that the age should be anywhere from seven to eighteen, with many churches suggesting no minimal age.
The Bible doesn’t give us a command to obey, but given all that we’ve learned thus far, it seems wise to not rush a child’s baptism, and even to delay it until they reach a measure of maturity. A good question to ask is: At what age can a child start living out the church covenant? Baptism should probably occur at an age when a child can start living out the covenant.
Delaying a child’s baptism may discourage the child and the parents. But the greater danger seems to be the danger of deception that leads many to be wrongly baptized at an age when they’re more prone to make decisions that, though sincere, are not well-considered and often short lived. This is why we all know people who were baptized as kids but now show no evidence of following Jesus today.
Do You Need to Be Baptized?
Seventh, and finally, do you need to be baptized as a Christian? Perhaps you’re a member of our church but you know you were baptized before you became a Christian. Perhaps you want to follow Jesus and join with other followers of Jesus, and it’s time to take your faith public.
Baptism, like a wedding ring, is a precious reminder of a priceless reality. Our baptism doesn’t convert us, but it marks us off as those who’ve been converted. It signifies those who’ve been saved. It’s the ceremony that reveals the bride that Jesus died for. It therefore deserves more weight and more serious reflection in the church.