Word of Salvation – Vol.47 No.8 – February 2002
Baptism As A Sign and Seal of Christ’s Salvation
Sermon by Rev MP Geluk
on Lord’s Day 26 & 27A (Q&A 69-73 Heid Cat)
Scripture Readings: Genesis 17: 1-14; Romans 4: 7-12
Suggested Hymns: BoW 66:1,2; 365; 105:1,5,6; 196
Beloved congregation.
We are turning our attention to Baptism. As we do so, then keep in mind the overall purpose of the sacraments. They do not give us faith. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God, not the sacraments, to put faith in the hearts of men. But God has given the sacraments to also strengthen faith.
Sacraments act as signs and seals and we will now see how that is the case with Baptism. But before we do anything else, let’s be clear how something can be a sign and a seal. When you’re on a road somewhere and you’re not sure it is the right one, then coming to a road sign telling you where to go is very welcome. The sign points you in the right direction. It gives you assurance that you are on the right track.
A seal is usually found on legal documents. Some of you possess an important document, such as your Naturalisation Certificate, and it says that you are an Australian citizen. It has a large round seal on it with a logo and the words ‘Minister for Immigration’. The seal on this document guarantees that it is valid and that you are indeed an Australian.
Now the teaching of God’s Word as summarised in Lord’s Days 26 and 27a is about BAPTISM AS A SIGN AND SEAL OF CHRIST’S SALVATION.
1. Where does the covenant of grace fit in all this?
We must mention the covenant of grace because Baptism is closely connected with it. Many misunderstandings about Baptism are the result of ignorance about the covenant of grace. In Genesis 17 we read about the covenant, or bond, that God made with Abraham. But God did not only make it with him. He also included Abraham’s descendants.
A covenant always contains an undertaking or a promise by the one who calls the covenant into existence. In this covenant between God and Abraham, God promised Abraham that He would be “your God and the God of your descendants after you” (Gen.17:7). To the generations of Abraham’s descendants this became a standard expression, “I will be your God and you shall be my people” (Lev.26:12; Jer.32:38; Ezek.37:27). It was also used of God’s people in New Testament times (2Cor.6:16). And on the new heaven and earth “I will be your God and you shall be my people” will have reached its full potential (Rev.21:3).
When God says “I will be your God” then He declares that He will look after His people. He will care for them and rule over them. All this means that God will be their salvation. But in this relationship God also demands something. He said, “You shall be my people.” And God meant that the people who stand in covenant relationship to Him must obey Him and be blameless. That’s the condition of the covenant. It’s the response God’s people must give to Him.
God also promised Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan. The book of Joshua tells us about the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites and the books of Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, show God’s Old Testament covenant people living in the land of Israel. But the land was theirs also on the condition of obedience to God. When the people became continuously disobedient, then God finally dispossessed them out of the land. He used other nations to conquer His covenant people and take them into exile. This happened because Israel broke the terms of the covenant.
But we called this covenant the covenant of grace. Why is that? Well, Abraham had a sinful nature and, as we just heard, so did his descendants. But God did not allow this disobedience, this breaking the terms of the covenant, to cause the covenant to collapse altogether. God brought His Son into the world and He would do two things. First, He would obey His Father perfectly and make His obedience count for Abraham and his descendants. And secondly, He would also offer Himself as a sacrifice for their sin. By giving Christ His Son, God overcomes the disobedience of Abraham and his descendants and removes their guilt. Now that is pure grace.
But this grace in the covenant is not cheap or automatic. For Christ to save Abraham and his descendants, God wanted them to believe Christ as the only Saviour. And Abraham did so. The Bible describes Abraham’s faith many times. Even though Christ was not born in Abraham’s time, he looked forward in faith to the Saviour who was to come. Because of his faith, God gave Abraham the righteousness of Christ. And anyone among Abraham’s descendants who believed like Abraham did, looking forward in faith to Christ who was to come, was also given the righteousness of Christ.
Sadly, many of Abraham’s physical descendants did not believe like Abraham and their unbelief cost them the covenant promises of God. God ceased to be their God because of their lack of faith. God therefore no longer cared for them, nor ruled over them. They lost the land of Israel when they went into exile and they also lost the right to be called children of God. But even in exile God sent His prophets and those who repented and believed in the promised Saviour became the ‘remnant’. God returned them to the land of Israel when the period of their captivity was over. The rest who did not believe remained scattered outside Israel.
Then Christ came and the gospel of grace and forgiveness is now proclaimed in all the earth. Anyone, from whatever nation, who believes in Christ as the Saviour from sin, who trusts that only Christ can make the sinner right with God, all those have become the children of God. All such believers, whatever their race or nationality, have become members of God’s covenant of grace. God’s promise to Abraham, “You will be the father of many nations” (Gen.17:4), has come true.
The Jews are Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh. But all believers in Christ, whose faith is like Abraham’s faith, are Abraham’s spiritual descendants. They are now the true Israel. They are found among all nations, tribes and languages. This new Israel also includes Jews who believe in Christ. And the Promised Land for them will be the new heaven and earth.
In Old Testament times God required Abraham and his descendants to be circumcised. That became the outward visible sign of belonging to God’s covenant. But after Christ’s death all such rituals involving blood were done away with. In New Testament times Baptism became the new sign of belonging to the covenant. But only the sign changed, not the covenant of grace itself.
2. How Baptism is a sign and seal of belonging to the covenant of grace and thus also of having received Christ’s righteousness.
The sign in Baptism is water. It points to Christ’s blood, which He shed in order to save sinners. Water cleans dirt from the body and so it was made a symbol of Christ’s blood that cleanses the believer from his sin and guilt. Christ’s shed blood refers to His death and by His death the believer is made right with God. It also means that such believers are in the covenant of grace. And Baptism as a sign points to all this.
But the Bible also speaks of Baptism as a seal. Romans 4:11 speaks of Abraham’s circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith. Baptism replaced circumcision. So how does Baptism seal the believer’s standing with God, which is righteousness through Christ by faith? A Naturalisation Certificate guarantees Australian citizenship. How does your baptism guarantee that God has this wonderful relationship with you because Christ is your Lord and Saviour?
Well, one the first things that we must say is that Baptism is not a bit of magic. Nothing mysterious happens when a person is baptised. Baptism does not in some invisible way make a person a child of God. Baptism does not make anyone a member of God’s covenant of grace. Baptism does not remove sin. What Baptism does is give a visible message that is exactly the same as what the gospel of Christ gives.
We know what that is. We have already spoken of it in our first point when we said that Christ by His sacrifice on the cross paid for sin and opens the way for God to declare us right with Him. Answer 69 of the Catechism speaks of it when it says that Christ’s blood and through His Spirit “wash away my soul’s impurity, in other words, all my sins.”
And again, in the whole of Answer 70 where it says, “To be washed with Christ’s blood means that God, by grace, has forgiven my sins because of Christ’s blood poured out for me in His sacrifice on the cross. To be washed with Christ’s Spirit means that the Holy Spirit has renewed me and set me apart to be a member of Christ so that more and more I become dead to sin and increasingly live a holy and blameless life.”
Now that is the heart of the gospel of salvation. And baptism does not say or do anything in addition to that. It’s totally useless to trust in your Baptism as such. By itself it does not give you any ground to regard yourself as saved. To be saved you need a living faith in Christ. Let me show you from church history what terrible mistakes were made when people were made to think that they were Christians on the basis of their Baptism.
Missionaries from the Roman Catholic Church came on the heels of the colonisers to Asia and the Americas. They often baptised whole villages or even a whole tribe. The gospel would have been taught in some fashion but in many cases the local inhabitants had little or no idea what the gospel was all about. But because they were baptised, they were regarded as Christian. Yet many were not followers of Christ; many simply continued their pagan practices. The colonial power urged on by the church put a stop to their worst pagan practices. But in their hearts the native people had not abandoned these practices.
Roman Catholics were not the only ones to make such mistakes. Protestants also made them. When the Reformation spread in Germany and Switzerland in the 16th century, then often a whole province or city declared itself either Roman Catholic or Protestant. It usually depended on the inclination of the governing authorities, either a single ruler or a ruling council. And often their choice for either faith was based on political considerations.
For example, when John Calvin came to Geneva, the city council asked him to teach the new faith but he had a big problem on his hands. The whole town was officially Protestant because that’s what the Council had decided. But the people had been Roman Catholic and the children were already baptised and the adults were confirmed in the Catholic faith. Those confirmed were now communicant members of the new Protestant church. Whilst initially only a handful of people came to church to hear the gospel preached, thousands more were officially members and had the right to come to the Lord’s Supper and have their children baptised. Yet many of these church members lived pagan lives. Calvin saw them drunk and frequent the brothels. There was fighting and swearing and other kinds of un-Christian behaviour. But they regarded themselves Christian and assumed they were going to heaven.
In today’s society with its Christian past, we still have a number of people who regard themselves as Christian because they have been baptised and are on the membership roll of a church somewhere. But they seldom attend church and often their lives do not show consistent Christian living. They need to hear that Baptism does not make them right with God. All Baptism does is reinforce the message of the gospel. It is a visible sign and seal only to the believer of what the Word of God teaches regarding the cleansing from sin through the blood of Christ. Baptism assures the believer that as surely as water washes dirt from the body, so also does Christ’s blood wash away sins. Without a living faith Baptism means nothing.
In fact, the Word of God has to explain to us the meaning of what we see in Baptism. When we see a Baptism, our own or someone else’s, then the Holy Spirit makes our minds see more than just the outward ritual. The Spirit reminds the believer what the blood of Christ can do for a sinner. But the Spirit will only do this to those who have learnt from the Word about the blood of Christ. Seeing a Baptism and remembering what it symbolises, we are assured that salvation in Christ is a real thing and a great blessing to us. Baptism strengthens our faith and we are reminded to live Christian lives. Through Baptism the Holy Spirit seals to us the significance of Christ’s salvation.
3. Using your Baptism to help you grow strong in the faith
Probably all of you have been baptised. If you were baptised as an adult because you entered into God’s covenant of grace as an adult, then you will remember your Baptism. If you entered God’s covenant of grace because your parents were Christian believers, and you were baptised when still a baby, then you won’t remember your Baptism. But you have over the years seen a number of Baptisms, especially in a larger church. When you saw a Baptism, what did that do to your faith? What does your own Baptism do for your faith? You have to know how Baptism strengthens your faith.
Let’s think first of the baptised members in this church who are not yet communicant members. Most of these are children and teenagers. As a teenager you may sometimes doubt if the Bible is really true. Or if you have no difficulty in accepting the Bible as the Word of God, then you may sometimes struggle with some of its teachings. That may cause doubts with some things about God. And maybe you cannot say that Christ is as important to you as He ought to be. You may even wonder if God will want you as His child, especially when you are into things that you know He disapproves of. There could be a number of things that you don’t like about yourself. But it’s not so easy to change yourself and become what God wants you to be.
Now what does your Baptism tell you? Well, it does not say that you are a Christian. Only your faith in Christ as Saviour will tell you that. Nor does Baptism automatically seal your salvation. It does not guarantee in itself that your sins are forgiven. And it does not say at any time that you are a genuine believer. Baptism is not a sign of anything in you.
But your Baptism does tell you that God has established a relationship with you – a relationship that says you are in that covenant of grace which God has established between Himself and believers and their children. Your Baptism says that God has undertaken to be God to you. That He has promised to look after you, care for you and rule over you. It means that He loves you. Your Baptism is a sign and seal of that wonderful promise. It is in that sense that you belong to God.
So, whilst you may be unsure about yourself, your faith in God, your commitment to Christ, and the genuineness of your desire to break with sin, you can be absolutely sure about God. Absolutely sure that He is always willing to be a caring, loving Father to you and always willing to have Christ wash away all your sins by His blood. Baptism says that God promised you all that. Now that should strengthen your faith. Look at God. He is dependable, He is utterly reliable. What you need to do now is to respond to God with faith and obedience. Your Baptism calls you to do that. It reminds you to make your membership in God’s covenant of grace a real and living thing. In short, Baptism calls you to believe in God and begin following Christ.
Sometimes a baptised person responds to God in faith and obedience whilst having connections with a church that does not believe in baptising children of believers. Such a church demands Baptism before it declares a person a member of the church. This is where some people are re-baptised. The church where they are baptised again says of course that their first Baptism was invalid. But children of believers also belong to God’s covenant of grace and what God has said to them in their Baptism holds true for all time. The sign and seal of Baptism doesn’t become invalid just because a church doesn’t understand the biblical teachings of the covenant. Baptism does not become invalid because the person baptised is made to think it was nothing. Baptism holds true for all of life because it is God who speaks in Baptism. He had made it into a sign and seal. To accept another Baptism is saying to God that you don’t believe anything of what He has said to you in the covenant of grace. And that is a serious mistake. Serious, because it denies things which God has done and said.
Those of you who are communicant members of this church will have realised, I think, that all of what I have just said to the baptised members applies to you as well. We don’t have a Baptism for children and teenagers and another Baptism for adults. There is only one Baptism.
Your Baptism can also be a wonderful comfort to you when you may happen to experience a depression. Yes, even Christians can experience depression. Don’t listen to those people who say that Christians are always on the mountaintops of faith. It often takes time to come out of a depression and whilst you are in it and feeling down and unworthy, then remember what God is still saying to you in your Baptism. He continues to reassure you that He has this covenant relationship with you.
If we cannot undo what God has done, then the way we feel when we are depressed can’t undo God’s relationship with us either. Your Baptism continues to say to you that God is always there for you and you can always come to Him with all your needs and struggles. As your heavenly Father He will continue to love, care and rule over you. Not a hair will fall from your head without your heavenly Father knowing about it. Nothing comes by chance but all things are under His Fatherly hand. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He has said in your Baptism – I will be your God and you shall be one of my people.
So whenever you think of your Baptism, then remember how it points to Christ: that He has fully paid for all your sins with His precious blood; He set you apart from the tyranny of the devil. Baptism is such a strong sign and seal of all what Christ is to His people. Sometimes it seems as if the Bible just says – your Baptism saves you. It does that in 1 Peter 3:21. Of course, Baptism by itself does not do that. But God really wants us to believe Him in what He says in Baptism.
If someone gave you a cheque of a hundred dollars to save you from starvation this week, then everyone knows that the cheque by itself can’t save you. It’s only a piece of paper. It’s not actual money. Yet it’s an important piece of paper because it’s a sign that the money is there in the bank for you to use. In the same emphatic way does God say – here is your Baptism. It’s Christ’s salvation for you. Baptism is not that really. It’s only a sacrament. But it’s important because it is a sign and a seal that Christ’s salvation is real and you may believe it.
Then finally, Baptism is also a warning not to fool around with God. There are those who have been baptised but continue not to be serious about God and remain indifferent about Christ’s sacrifice for sin. They may follow more the ways of the world than Christ. To all those who refuse to act out their faith, their Baptism will be held as evidence against them that they scorned God’s wonderful offer of salvation. God never did you any harm. On the contrary, He called you to repentance and faith so that you may not die but live. But if you, whilst in the covenant, reject God’s offer of salvation then God will told you responsible for closing the door against the blessings of Christ.
We have heard then about Baptism as a sign and seal of Christ’s salvation. We first of all saw how Baptism is tied up with the covenant of grace. Secondly, we saw how Baptism is a sign and seal of belonging to the covenant of grace and thus also of having received Christ’s righteousness. And finally, we saw how you can use your Baptism to grow strong in the faith and not be indifferent about it.
May the Lord continue to make your Baptism a blessing to you.
Amen.