What is baptism?
Baptism is a rite of washing or cleansing in water that is commanded by the Lord Jesus himself to be a sign and seal of the inward washing of all our sins and thus of being counted righteous in God’s sight only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Baptism functions in the New Testament the same way that circumcision did in the Old. Namely, it is a sign and seal of the righteousness that is ours by faith. It is an outward sign that points to an inward reality and marks us out as belonging to the Lord. It is a confirmation that everything Jesus accomplished on the cross is ours by faith in him.
What does baptism MEAN?
There are at least four main things that are signified in Christian baptism. They are:
Washing or cleansing from sin (see Ps 51; 1 Cor 6:9-11; Eph 5:25-26; Titus 3:5)
Spirit baptism (see Acts 1:5; Rom 8:9; Col 1:27).
Union with Christ (see Rom 6:3-5)
Union with other believers (see 1 Cor 12:13, 21).
Although all four are envisioned in the Bible’s teaching about the meaning of baptism., it is cleansing or washing that should be considered the primary meaning intended in Christian baptism a) since water is required, b) because we are not commanded to apply that water in any particular way, and c) because the Old Testament background to baptism points to washing.
Why do we baptize?
The reason why we baptize is because God commanded us to do so. In such passages as Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 2:38, we are instructed by Jesus or his apostles to baptize everyone who repents and puts his faith in Christ.
This means that it is wrong for us to ignore or delay baptism. The sign and the thing signified are intended to go together. When we follow a public profession of faith in Christ with water baptism, we protect the integrity of the sign and the thing signified. But we also protect it when we apply it to the children of at least one believing parent. The sign is linked with the parent’s faith and with the faith that the parent hopes and prays will soon come to fruition in the child.
While baptism is clearly important, it is not necessary in order to be saved. We see this, for example, in the case of the thief on the cross in Luke 23:39-43. Being baptized will not guarantee someone entrance to heaven, and not being baptized will not condemn him to hell.
How should we baptize?
The Bible is silent on the particular mode by which baptism ought to be applied. Therefore, we should not be dogmatic when it comes to mode. We should go as far as the Bible goes and no further.
The mode of Spirit baptism in Acts 2 – which is unequivocally a pouring out on the individual – seems to indicate that sprinkling or pouring is a valid mode for the application of water baptism. Likewise, the fact that the word baptism can mean “immersion” at times and the fact that some of the Old Testament ritual baptisms were immersions indicates that immersion is also a valid mode for water baptism. The important thing is not the mode that the baptism takes but the meaning behind it, which is cleansing or washing with water. This means that the use of water is a nonnegotiable element of Christian baptism (see Acts 8:36).
Who should be baptized?
It is obvious from the New Testament that those who profess to believe in Jesus Christ for the first time, having never been baptized previously, are to receive the outward sign of water baptism. All those who are old enough to profess faith in Christ for themselves, and actually do so, should be baptized.
Should I be rebaptized?
Sometimes people struggle with doubt over whether they have ever been truly baptized. Some feel the need to be rebaptized after making a profession of faith, either because they do not remember their original baptism or because they want to do something to make a public demonstration of their newfound faith. However, this points to a misunderstanding of what baptism is really all about. Baptism is a sign, and by definition, a sign is meant to point to what it signifies or represents. The location of the sign is less important than the presence of it. Christian baptism is a sign that point us in the right direction, toward the washing away of our sins. As long as we stay on the road (even if we do get off course occasionally), we do not need another sign to know that we have reached our destination. This means that we should not look to get rebaptized. Once we have received the sign that points us in the right direction, we do not need to receive it again.
Should the children of believers also be baptized?
To answer this question, we need to begin in the Old Testament.
Relationship between the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant: In Genesis 17:11-13, God commanded the outward sign of his covenant with Abraham and his descendants – that is, circumcision – to be applied to infants and children, even from eight days old. The Abrahamic covenant was made with Abraham and his offspring, his one offspring, Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16). Thus, all who believe and are “in Christ” are the real sons of Abraham, regardless of whether they are biologically descended from him. The Abrahamic covenant and the new covenant are connected. One flows out of the other (see also Romans 4 and Hebrews 11).
Relationship between Circumcision and the Abrahamic Covenant: Circumcision was intended to be an outward sign pointing the people to their need for an inward “circumcision of the heart” (e.g. see Deut. 10:16; 30:6). They needed the uncleanness and rebellion of their hearts cut away. Physical circumcision was not sufficient. They needed to be circumcised on the inside with a spiritual circumcision “made without hands,” to borrow Paul’s language in Col 2:11 (see also Jer 9:25-26). God was interested in outward circumcision only insofar as it was a visible reminder of or a pointer to what needed to take place on the inside. It was a physical sign pointing to a spiritual and inward reality.
Abraham was “justified,” that is, declared to be right with God, by his faith. And the outward sign and seal that was given to Abraham to remind him and to assure him of his standing before God was circumcision. It was a spiritual sign pointing to a spiritual and inward reality.
Outward circumcision was intended to be a pointer either to what had already happened on the inside (in the case of adults such as Abraham who were circumcised on the inside first and then on the outside) or to what they hoped and prayed and anticipated would happen on the inside (in the case of infants who were circumcised on the outside at eight days old, even though sometimes those who received outward circumcision were never circumcised on the inside).
Relationship between Circumcision and Baptism: In Colossians 2:11-12, Paul takes up the spiritual and inward aspects of circumcision and connects them with the spiritual and inward aspects of Christian baptism: “In [Christ] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
For New Testament Christians, physical circumcision is no longer required (see Acts 15). But what physical circumcision was intended to represent and point to – an inward circumcision of the heart – is still every bit as important for us today. Physical baptism has now replaced physical circumcision in the life of the New Testament Christian (see Col 2:11-12; Acts 15; Matt 28:19; Acts 2:38). In Colossians 2, Paul applies what physical circumcision represents (spiritual circumcision of the heart) and what physical baptism represents (spiritual baptism by the Holy Spirit, who unites us to Christ) to the individual believer. The Christian will be the one who has been circumcised spiritually and inwardly and baptized spiritually and inwardly but only necessarily baptized physically and outwardly (i.e., not necessarily circumcised, because circumcision is no longer required in the new covenant). Colossians 2 shows us that baptism functions in the same basic way the circumcision did in the Old Testament.
Bearing all these things in mind, we would expect that if God commanded Abraham to apply the outward sign of the covenant to his biological children, even from eight days old, then we should be doing the same thing for our biological children, unless there were specific instructions in the New Testament that we should not.
What do the “household” baptisms teach us?
In the New Testament, when at least one head of a household believes in Christ, the entire household is entitled to receive the outward sign of God’s covenant (e.g. see Acts 16 and 1 Cor 1). The head of the household receives baptism as a sign pointing back to the profession of faith that he or she has already made. The household receives it as a sign pointing ahead to the profession of faith that the head of household hopes and prays will come in the future as a result of the influence and the spiritual seasoning that is introduced into that household by his or her newfound faith.
Outside of the household baptisms, we can also point to Jesus’ attitude toward little children during his earthly ministry. In Matthew 19:14, Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is demonstrating that these children are entitled to all the privileges of the kingdom of heaven in the same way that children had been entitled to all the privileges of the covenant community of God ever since the time of Abraham.
Ever since the time of Noah in Genesis 6-7 and the time of Abraham in Genesis 17, the children of believers were seen as different. They were not like the pagan adults living in the nations all around Israel. And they were not like the pagan children of those pagan adults. They were in a kind of relationship with God. They had access to God. They had the privilege of hearing about God and listening to his Word and watching it being lived out in the lives of their parents up close and personal. They were children of the covenant.
Why should parents consider embracing infant baptism wholeheartedly?
Baptism establishes the family as the primary community for Christian discipleship. Just as circumcision in the Old Testament marked out the households of God’s people as belonging to the Lord, so baptism does in the New Testament. Every household with at least one believing parent is a household in which the principle of new life exists. Children who grow up in these households have a unique opportunity. They get the privilege of seeing and experiencing the reality of their parent’s faith up close. They are exposed to prayer and to the fruit of the Spirit. And they are discipled and instructed in the way they should go and held accountable to it as they grow and develop.
Baptism establishes God’s “household” (see 1 Tim 3:15) – which comprises many individual households – as a corporate community of Christian discipleship. Baptism is the rite of initiation into this “household” (the external covenant community). All who are a part of God’s household are to take responsibility for those who enter, and to disciple them and direct them in the way they should go. Baptism establishes this relationship.
Baptism visibly proclaims the doctrine of salvation. B.B. Warfield once said, “Every time we baptize an infant we bear witness that salvation is from God, that we cannot do any good thing to secure it, that we receive it from his hands as a sheer gift of his grace, and that we all enter the Kingdom of heaven therefore as little children, who do not do, but are done for.” When we baptize an infant, we proclaim the sovereignty of God in salvation and the complete inability of man to save himself or to do anything to contribute to his salvation.
Baptism conveys a real blessing to parents and children alike. Time and time again, the Scriptures indicate that there is something special about the children of believers. We know that “something special” is not a guarantee that the children of believers will necessarily be in heaven - that is saying too much (see for example, the story of Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac). But there does seem to be a general promise that the children of believers will themselves be believers who are in a right relationship with God. That seems to be the basis of David’s hope in 2 Samuel 12. Furthermore, Proverbs 22:6 promises that if believers will “train up a child in the way he should go,” then ordinarily they can expect that when that child “is old he will not depart from it.” Baptism is the sign of this special privilege. It marks out the children of believers as being recipients of it.
The above has been adapted from the book Baptism: Answers to Common Questions by Guy M. Richard (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2019).
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