Matthew 3:13-17
Suggested further reading: Acts 6:30-34
Our Lord highly esteemed water baptism! When a Jewish priest began his office at the age of thirty, he was washed with water. When our great High Priest began His greater work, He was publicly baptized. Jesus honored and obeyed the Father by being baptized.
No subject has so divided the church as the ritual of water baptism. We have debated whether it is a sacrament that imparts saving grace, or an ordinance, a symbol of that which saves. We have debated its mode, when it is to be administered, and even why. Some have even denied that it should be practiced at all (like Quakers and ultra-dispensationalists)! But what our Lord submitted to and commanded His church to do must never be treated as merely a theological topic for debate as much as it is a command to be obeyed.
Yes, baptism is a command that every believer should obey. Baptism symbolizes cleansing from sin, identification with Christ, and a commitment to obey Him. But one becomes a child of God when one receives the Holy Spirit (that which determines whether one is a child of God) at the moment of faith, not at the moment of baptism.
The Apostle Peter says that baptism saves. It does, in the sense that it is the external symbol of that which truly saves, the baptism of the Holy Spirit that unites us with Christ.
Baptism was graciously intended by our Lord to be a help to His church and a means of grace and, when rightly and worthily used, we may confidently look upon it for a blessing. But let us never forget that the grace of God is never tied to any ritual. An outward baptism in water is devoid of any grace without that inward work of the Holy Spirit given at faith.
Lanny Tanton is the Pastor at The Bible Church of the Lakes in Horseshoe Bay, Texas – just outside of Marble Falls. Pastor Tanton welcomes you to our website and hopes that you’ll enjoy reading these insightful blog posts. Please contact us if you have further questions!!
