Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 30 – April 1976
Our Christian Baptism
Sermon by Rev. N. Hart, BA, B.D. on Lord’s Day 26
Scripture Reading: Leviticus 1:1-9
Text: Romans 6:1-11
Psalter Hymnal: 471; 217; 170; 92:1,2,3,6; 333:1,4; 491
At the time of Jesus’ death, Jerusalem and surrounding Judea was governed by Pontius Pilate. He was a military governor. The Province was considered to be so unruly that only military rule could maintain peace. Peace required a strong firm rule.
However, the only glimpse the Bible gives of Pilate is his indecision, his uncertainty about the fate of Jesus. He paced the pavement of the court of justice, mumbling to himself, “What shall I do with Jesus?”
His wife told him, “Have nothing to do with this just man.’
The crowds were before him clamouring for the death of Jesus.
The Jewish leaders were applying political pressure.
His conscience told him: “This man is innocent.”
Yet, he was not able to make a decision.
His rival, Herod, also was unable to give him a solution.
He offered a bribe – Barabbas.
He offered a concession ― Jesus was scourged.
But nothing got him out of his difficult predicament.
Then he knew a way out. After the tortuous struggle of right and wrong in the conscience of Pilate, we see a happy release. Matthew records it as follows:
When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, HE TOOK WATER AND WASHED HIS HANDS IN FRONT OF THE MULTITUDE. (Matt.27:24a).
An astonishing act…! How can a little bit of water make any difference? How shall washing hands bring to an end the struggle in Pilate’s mind? But it does. Hear what Pilate says. You can almost sense the smile of release on his face.
I am innocent of this man’s blood: see to that yourselves. (Matt.27:24b).
With a little bit of water Pilate declared his innocence of the death of Jesus. By means of a little bit of water, he declared himself free of the guilt of this despicable act.
Did Pilate get out of it? Was it as easy as all that?
This evening, we would talk about Baptism: The public ceremony of washing the forehead of an adult or a child … does it make any difference?
OUR CHRISTIAN BAPTISM
1. What does it mean?
What are your opinions about baptism?
There are a great many different ideas doing the rounds. There is much discussion. Often it is heated discussion, indicating that there is little knowledge, little clarity, in the minds of those who argue about the meaning of baptism.
There are arguments about WHEN it should be done. Should it be done as soon as possible after birth, or should we wait until everyone is able to be present – everyone, that is, grand-parents, aunts and uncles, interested friends of the family. Or is all this quite wrong? Should we follow the example of Jesus and be baptized as adults?
Everyone has a series of Bible texts and ‘sound’, logical arguments.
There are also arguments about HOW it should be done. Should one go into the water together with the minister and be immersed? Or is it sufficient to pour water over the head of the person baptized. Or is it sufficient to sprinkle a little, here and there?
Many make much of the practices of the Early Church. Others lay great emphasis on the term ‘baptizo’ – “to baptize” – as it is used in various places in the Bible. We do not think this is much help, for there are a number of different translations possible. Anyway, it speaks only of the method.
Baptism is important, not because of its WHEN, nor because of its HOW, but because of its WHY – WHY do we baptize?
Baptism is important because it expresses a relationship with God.
Baptism expresses, or symbolizes that relationship.
In the O.T. circumcision expressed that relationship. In the O.T. God commanded Abraham to circumcise his sons as a token of the Covenant God had made with Abraham and his descendants.
This was the Covenant:
“I will be a God unto you and to your descendants after you.” Gen 17:7b
It was because God had said: “I will be your God and you shall be my people” that, in the O.T. times, the people of Israel had the duty to circumcise their sons.
In the N.T. this promise given by God to Abraham is extended to the Church. In Galatians 3:29, the apostle Paul declares that all who belong to Jesus, by faith in Him, have become like Abraham’s children, and, therefore, HEIRS ACCORDING TO PROMISE. That is to say, all who believe in Jesus, whatever their nationality, or race, have inherited the promise:
“I will be a God unto you and to your descendants after you.”
As baptism is applied to the believers and to their children, that is what God declares to them. By it, God publicly claims such persons for Himself.
The businessman who has negotiated a business agreement signs a document, binding himself publicly to the deal. A defeated nation, signing an armistice, publicly declares that it is willing to accept the terms of the peace treaty. A farmer, receiving a calf by its very birth from one of his own cows, brands that calf as a public demonstration that it is his. Parents, naming their children and filing these names with the Registrar, declare that they are the parents of that child so named.
It is obvious that the signing, the branding, and the naming and the filing of that name, do not initiate, establish, begin, this new relationship. On the contrary, only BECAUSE there IS a new relationship can there be a signing, branding, and registering of a name.
Baptism declares publicly that God has established a relationship with believers and their children. He is their God and they are His people. This is, in the first place, what baptism means.
But this relationship means something more than this. By virtue of our existence we belong to God. If it is true as the Psalmist confesses in Psalm 89:11 – and God’s Word is Truth –
The heavens are Thine, the earth also is Thine;
The world and all it contains, Thou has founded them.
then it means that all people and all things belong to God.
But here we have something more than the simple fact of ownership. It is a covenantal ownership. And this extra relationship is presented by baptism into the Name of the Son, in whom this new covenantal – or new testamental – relationship comes to its fullness.
Not the blood of circumcision, but the blood of Christ confirms the New Covenant – the New Testament. Not the death of animals, but the blood of Christ satisfies for our sins. As the apostle John writes in his first letter (1John 1:7):
“The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
It is this cleansing that Pilate wanted. This is what the ceremonial washing was supposed to mean in that strange solution to Pilate’s problem. He wanted to be free from the guilt of condemning the innocent Jesus to death.
The problem for Pilate was that he could not set himself free in this manner. The Jews were not allowed to execute anyone. Pontius Pilate HAD to give the verdict CRUCIFY HIM. No amount of washing could take that responsibility away from him. He remained guilty. His situation was like that of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play, who, when she had brought about the murder of King Duncan, declared in her sleepwalking:
Here’s the smell of blood still:
all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
Oh, oh, oh! (Act V, scene i)
But the blood of Jesus IS sufficient. It was sufficient for the murderer on the cross; it was sufficient for Paul, the apostle, who had brought so many to an untimely death for their faith. It is sufficient for us – each one of us. God’s Word declares it to be so.
“Jesus, the righteous One is the covering for our sins.” (1John 2:2).
This is the NEW thing that is declared by the NEW Testament: Matt.26:28
“This is my blood of the covenant,
which is to be shed on behalf of many
for forgiveness of sin.”
As we said before, baptism does not DO the washing, the cleansing. We are not CLEAN because we are BAPTIZED: we are BAPTIZED so that it might be publicly declared that in the blood of Christ we are CLEAN.
Baptism, with respect to our sin, means that we have been set free from it. It looks back upon the event of Christ’s death. In baptism we are identified with the death of Jesus. But baptism also looks forward to the future. That is what is meant by baptism into the Name of the Spirit.
When Peter preached the Gospel to Cornelius, the centurion, those who believed in Jesus were strangely influenced by the personal presence of the Holy Spirit. They, as Gentiles, went through the same experience shared in by the Jewish believers. God, the Holy Spirit, by this outward sign, demonstrated to Peter that His indwelling presence had begun a NEW LIFE in them. On the basis of this Peter says: “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, since they have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?” (Acts 10:47). They were BAPTIZED because they had received THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Historically, divine ownership, cleansing and renewing presence are separated from each other in the events of creation, crucifixion and Pentecost. But in the Baptismal Formula they are one: Jesus says:
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19)
He does not say, ‘in the name of the Father, and in the Name of the Son, and in the Name of the Holy Spirit.’ No, it is in the NAME of the Triune God. And as God is ONE, so is DIVINE OWNERSHIP, CLEANSING, and RENEWAL ONE. Three distinct stages? No! Three dimensions, three aspects, three characteristics, three WHATEVER of the ONE COMPOSITE FACT:
“I will be a God unto you and you shall be My people.”
2. What does it confirm?
So far, we have tried to present to you the meaning of baptism: it speaks of divine ownership, cleansing, and renewal. But all this it says about ANYBODY’S baptism. They are general comments. To remain at that point makes our reflections an exercise of the mind: it would not lead to a strengthening of our faith. In this connection we may never lose sight of the intent of the Catechism expressed in Question and Answer 65:
Since, then, we are made partakers of Christ
and all His benefits by faith only,
whence comes this faith?
From the Holy Spirit, who works it in our hearts
by the preaching of the holy gospel,
and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments.
That is why, we believe, the first question of the Catechism presently studied by us asks: “How is it… sealed unto YOU…?” And the answer is equally pertinent:
That I am washed with His blood and Spirit
as certainly as I am washed outwardly with water…!
The Catechism wants to speak personally with respect to this sacrament, because the Holy Spirit speaks personally in this sacrament. This personal dimension is not easily understood.
In the O.T. times ritual participation in the sacrament of the Passover as well as in the sacrifices brought in the Tabernacle and, later, the Temple was of great importance. The people who brought the sacrifice took part in the ritual. The sharing in the Passover is well known. We will not deal with that further at this point. But the sharing in the act of the sacrifice is instructive. In Leviticus 1:4 we read that the person bringing the sacrifice had a duty to fulfil:
“And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering,
that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.”
If the sin involved the whole congregation of the people of Israel, then the representative elders were to fulfil this duty (Lev.4:15), but in every other case there was a personal identification.
In the shedding of blood there is atonement for sin, but only if there is a personal identification is there a personal benefit. The explanation given in Leviticus 1:4 is “that it may be accepted for HIM to make atonement on HIS behalf”.
It would have been inconceivable for Pilate to have ordered one of his servants to wash his own hands. Pilate’s hands had to be washed by Pilate, himself, for this ceremony to have meaning.
Baptism speaks to us personally. It declares to the person receiving and having received baptism that just as water normally washes away the filthiness of the body, so the Blood of Jesus washes away the pollution of my sin. This baptism tells me that I belong to God in a new and living way. He has established with me a NEW COVENANT, a NEW TESTAMENT in the blood of Jesus. This baptism tells me that because of this I am enabled to LIVE A NEW LIFE by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Would it not be meaningless for the Israelite under the O.T. to have brought a sacrifice and to have identified himself with that animal and then to doubt the cleansing of his sin when the priest shed its blood? The very act of personally laying his hand upon that animal served as a reminder that it had truly happened – HIS sins were forgiven.
The very act of baptism confirms THERE IS A NEW LIFE. No temporary estrangement from God can deny this truth –
“I am your God and you are my people.”
Although none who are estranged can experience that certainty in their hearts.
No act of sin, however gross, can undo that sacrifice.
Although none who are living in sin can know the comfort of that truth.
No attitude of rebellion against God’s way of life for us can snuff out that new life in the Spirit.
But those who quench the Spirit will not have the assurance within them that they have moved from darkness into light.
Baptism stands as a DECLARATION of God’s triune and eternal love. Baptism stands as a CONFIRMATION of God’s love to those who look to Him in faith.
At the entrance to the Wollongong Harbour stands a lighthouse. The lighthouse is not the harbour: it is its signpost. Blessed are those who in the storm-tossed sea look to that lighthouse in faith. Believing what it declares – THERE IS SAFETY HERE – they shall find a harbour. Blessed INDEED are those who look to the signpost of baptism for they shall find NEW LIFE IN THEIR GOD.
Amen.