Our Baptism Matters
This past Sunday, a baptism took place during the Southside Church worship gathering. After confessing faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, Tim was immersed in water as a believer. It’s always a wonderful occasion to see someone surrender their life to Jesus Christ in the waters of baptism.
Baptism is a sacramental act, a means by which God’s grace is received. It’s participation in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As the apostle Paul writes:
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.1
To be clear, baptism is not a human work. The believer is simply submitting to the redemptive word of God, who is raising the believer unto new life in Jesus Christ. This is why baptism is an essential step in living as followers of Jesus Christ.
Because baptism is an act of surrender where, by faith in Jesus Christ, we die to our old life and are raised unto new life in Christ, baptism has everything to do with discipleship. We’re baptized not just for the forgiveness of sins, but in the name of Jesus, with the promise of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:38). Being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ means we acknowledge and submit to the authority of our Lord. Baptism is a commitment we are making, a declaration that says our allegiance is now with Jesus Christ.
In Acts 19, there are twelve disciples whom Luke describes as believers, people who are Christians. They’re seeking to follow Jesus Christ just like anyone who believes should. The problem is that they’ve only received the baptism of John the Baptist and have never heard about the baptism of Jesus Christ. Because of this, they are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and then receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 19:5-6). Receiving the baptism of Jesus was their identification and commitment to the way of Jesus, the new life that is only received by laying down their lives. As Jennings writes, Paul invited these disciples “to baptize their discipleship in Jesus, and thereby join their lives to his in such a way that they will lose their life in the waters only to find it again in the resurrected One.”2
“Our baptism matters because it signifies our commitment to living as followers of Jesus Christ. It’s a commitment that ought to change the way we operate in the world.”
Baptism has never been just about receiving a ticket to heaven. It’s not our “get out of jail” free card. Baptism is our initiation into a new way of life in which we live in the name of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is our commitment to living as witnesses of Jesus Christ, leaving behind all the ways of the old creation, so that we can live as God’s new creation—Gospel Portraits. Because we’re baptized, we embody the gospel by conforming to the beliefs, values, and habits of Jesus Christ.3 It is the reason why Paul, back in Romans, brought up baptism as the reason why we shouldn’t continue sinning.
Baptism matters. When we were baptized, it mattered. When we witness others receiving baptism, it matters. Our baptism matters because it signifies our commitment to living as followers of Jesus Christ. It’s a commitment that ought to change the way we operate in the world.
I wasn’t around in the 1960s. So I don’t know what life was like in America during those turbulent years. I know the Vietnam War was unpopular and that there were a lot of protests during those years. The assassinations of President Kennedy, Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy were terrible and only made matters worse. But in the twenty-four years since 9/11, the United States of America has become increasingly polarized, filled with vitriol, and violence.
Sadly, this is the USA. As I write, the nation is sinking deeper and deeper into an evil pit, with people becoming so accustomed to it that they no longer recognize the madness. I’m not saying this to point fingers because everyone, including us, is a sinner. But what the nation needs from us who follow Jesus Christ, whether or not people recognize it, is for us to remember our baptism and live accordingly. Nobody needs us to be liberals or conservatives. What they need is for us to be the body of Christ, to remember our baptism, and be the people Jesus has taught us to be.
Our baptism matters because it signifies our commitment to living as followers of Jesus Christ, which is how people will be saved from all the madness. But as a pastor, I am concerned that too many Christians are forgetting their baptism and the commitment their baptism demands. We live as followers of Jesus Christ so that we serve as a portrait of the gospel, not so that we can make America great or build up the nation. There are plenty of people to do the nation’s business, but only the church can serve as witnesses to the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ in baptism, not just to receive the promise of salvation, but so that we will live as witnesses of that salvation.
So remember our baptism because it signifies our commitment to living as followers of Jesus Christ. Let’s go live accordingly!
1Romans 6:3-4; Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
2Willie James Jennings, Acts, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017, 184.
3K. Rex Butts, Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God, Euguene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2022, 56.
