BAPTISM

WHAT IS IT AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

The elders of Mercy’s Door affirm the following statement on baptism:

Mercy’s Door Statement on Baptism
We believe that baptism is an ordained sacrament of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in his death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This means of grace is a sign of belonging to the new people of God, and an emblem of burial, cleansing, and resurrection. It signifies death to the old life of slavery to sin and unbelief, purification from the pollution of sin, and new life in Christ by grace through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When we focus on the meaning and importance of baptism, we want to emphasize that baptism derives its significance from the death of Jesus Christ in our place and for our sins, and from His triumph over death in the resurrection that guarantees our new and everlasting life.

Baptism has meaning and importance because the death and resurrection of Jesus are infinitely important for our rescue from the wrath of God and our everlasting joy in eternal life.

Baptism is not primarily about religious rituals or church traditions. It is about Jesus Christ and his magnificent work of salvation in dying for our sins and rising for our justification.

Baptism is a practice that Jesus taught us to express our faith in Him and His great salvation. It is about the Son of God, crucified to bear the sins of millions and raised to give them everlasting life in the new heavens and the new earth!

Let’s consider the Mercy’s Door Statement on Baptism in parts, and look at the biblical basis for them.

1. Ordained by Jesus

First, "We believe that baptism is an ordained sacrament of the Lord.." What we mean by this is that in Scripture, the Lord Jesus commanded and ordained baptism in a way that would make it an ongoing practice of the church.

We see this in Matthew 28:19-20: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

"Make disciples" is the main verb in the Great Commission, and the defining participles are "baptizing them" and "teaching them". So Jesus is commanding the church to do this for all disciples. Making disciples of all nations includes baptizing them.

The time frame is defined by the promise of Christ's help in verse 20: "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." The promise of help is for as long as this age lasts. And it continues today. So, baptism is a command and ordinance of the Lord Jesus to be performed in making disciples until Christ returns at the end of the age.

2. Union with Christ

Second, baptism "expresses union with Christ in His death and resurrection." The clearest teaching on this is Romans 6:3–4, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."

In the wider context of Romans, it would be a mistake to say that baptism in water is how we become united to Christ. In Romans, Paul makes it very clear that faith is how we are united to Christ and justified. And faith is a gift given to us by our baptism in the Holy Spirit, not our baptism in water.

However, we show, say, signify, and symbolize this faith with the act of water baptism. Faith unites us with Christ; baptism symbolizes the union.

Just as putting on the wedding ring is not what makes a person married, baptizing a person with water is not what makes her Christian.

Baptism is a sign and symbol of the covenant into which Jesus has saved the Christian.

Paul is saying, "With this baptism, you are united to Christ." This statement is much like, "With this ring, I do thee wed."

The point we are focusing on here is that we are united to him in his death, burial, and resurrection. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." So the imagery of baptism is death, burial, and resurrection. Christ was buried and raised to new life.

In baptism, by faith, we are united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism dramatically portrays what happened spiritually when we received Christ. Our old self of unbelief, rebellion, and idolatry died, and a new creature of faith, submission, and treasuring Christ came into being.

That's what we confess to the world and to heaven when we enter baptism.

3. Immersed in Water

Third, we believe this expression of union with Christ in death and resurrection happens "by being immersed in water."

One evidence for this is Romans 6:3–4 which describes the act of baptism as burial and rising from the dead. This description is most naturally understood to mean that you are buried underwater and then come out of the water to signify rising from the grave.

The word "baptism" in Greek means "dip" or "immerse". And most scholars agree that this is the way the early church practiced baptism. Only much later does the practice of sprinkling or pouring emerge, as far as we can tell from the evidence.

There are a few other indications in the Scripture that we properly perform baptism by immersion. In Acts 8:37–38, the Ethiopian eunuch comes to faith while riding with Philip in his chariot and says, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" Philip agrees and it says, "He commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him." That they "went down into the water" makes most sense if they were going down to immerse him, not to sprinkle him. Similarly, it says in John 3:23, "John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there." You don't need plentiful water if you are simply sprinkling. You just need a jar.

These are a few of the reasons that Mercy's Door baptizes by immersion. We believe that evidence strongly indicates that this was the way the early church baptized, including in the New Testament Scriptures. They baptized by immersing the new believer in water to signify his burial and resurrection with Jesus.

4. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Fourth, baptism means doing this immersing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This means that not just any immersing is baptism.

There is a holy appeal to God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to be present in this act and make it true and real in what it says about their work in redemption. There is no salvation without the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When we call on their name, we depend upon them and honor them and say that this act is because of them and by them and for them.

5. Expression of Faith

Fifth, baptism is an expression of faith and therefore only for believers. A key sentence in the Mercy’s Door Statement on Baptism says, “We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in his death and resurrection.” So our understanding of the New Testament is that the meaning of baptism includes the fact that it is an expression of the faith of the one being baptized. It is not something that an unbeliever can do. It is not something than an infant can do. That is why we don’t baptize infants at Mercy’s Door.

There are several passages that have a great influence on our persuasion of this view. One of the most important is Colossians 2:11–12:

“In him [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.”

Paul speaks of circumcision in “made-without-hands” terms. Circumcision today has meaning for the Christian, not as a physical act, but as a spiritual act of Christ in which he cuts away the old sinful body and makes us new. It is virtually synonymous with the new birth. So the image of spiritual circumcision is closely connected with the image of baptism: “You were circumcised… having been baptized…”

The old “body of flesh” was cut away in conversion; you died and rose again in baptism.

Infant Baptism

It’s probably right, therefore, to say that baptism has replaced circumcision as the mark of being part of the people of God. In the Old Testament, men were circumcised to signify membership in the old-covenant people of God, and in the New Testament, men and women are baptized to signify membership in the new-covenant people of God.

That has led many Christians to assume that, since circumcision was given to the male children of the people of the old covenant, therefore baptism should be given to the male and female children of the people of the new covenant.

But textually and covenantally, it doesn’t work. Look carefully at Colossians 2:12: “…having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith…” The words through faith are all-important on this issue. Paul says that when you come up out of the water signifying being raised with Christ this is happening through faith. Baptism as a drama of death and resurrection with Christ gets its meaning from the faith that it expresses. In baptism you are “raised with him through faith.”

Paul shows the same way of thinking about baptism and faith in Galatians 3:26–27: “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” We become sons of God through faith and no other way. Then he says, “for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Spiritual Birth

So when the shift happened in redemptive history from the old covenant to the new covenant and from circumcision to baptism, there was a shift from an ethnic focus on Israel and only males being given the sign of membership in the people, to a spiritual focus on the church of all nations with both male and female being given the sign of membership in the people, namely, baptism.

Membership in the new-covenant people of God is not by physical birth, but by spiritual birth. That new birth happens by faith in the word of God, the gospel (1 Peter 1:23–25). Therefore, the church is composed of believers. And the sign of membership in the new-covenant people is a sign for believers.

So we can see how the meaning of baptism is woven together with membership in the people of God. And since the local church is an expression of that people, baptism is closely connected to membership in the local church.

Baptism is important.

It was uncompromisingly commanded by the Lord Jesus. It was universally administered to Christians entering the early church. And it was uniquely connected to conversion as an unrepeatable expression of saving faith.

If you belong to Jesus Christ, if you have been united with Him by faith, if He alone is your hope for salvation, then He calls you to be baptized!

Ready to take this step of obedience?