Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n
What if I told you that Baptism now saves you? How would you react? Would you call me a heretic? Would it make you nervous? This is the thought experiment I ran this week online. Of course as people act so often online, I was immediately accused of being everything from a Lutheran to a compromiser of the gospel. Now, when I said, \u201cbaptism now saves you,\u201d such a statement certainly needs further explanation. The sad part however, was that many did not realize that I was simply quoting Scripture, or maybe even worse, some did and still rejected that language. As a pastor, I know Brandon and I both feel this way, we desperately want you all to be mature Christians that have no problem passages in the Bible – meaning you ought to have no passages that require you to explain them away, but you accept them all, regardless of how the culture might dislike them. And we want you also to have zero qualms with the language the Bible itself uses. What I mean is that we ought to be totally okay with the language, verbiage, phrasing, etc. that the Bible itself uses, and have no desire or need to change the way that the Bible talks about any particular thing. If the apostle Peter says that baptism now saves you, we should respond by saying, \u201cyes Lord,\u201d and then seek to understand it asking questions of the text, like \u201cwhat does Peter mean by \u2018save?\u2019\u201d and \u201csaved from what?\u201d Because if we start having little problems with the way the Bible talks about this subject over here, and the words that it uses over there, we have begun the slide to great compromise and have elevated our sensibilities over the Word of God.<\/span><\/p>\n Hear this: if we are afraid of what other Christians will think or say about us if we use the language of the Bible concerning baptism, or predestination, or something like that, then we may or may not be far from being afraid of what unbelievers will think or say about us when we talk like the Bible talks concerning things like homosexuality or the reality of hell. If we have a problem with the language of the Word of God, then we have a problem with the Word of God. I want you all to be so committed and submitted to the Word of God that you have no problems with anything in there, and you have no embarrassment about any text or teaching. You may not understand everything, but you must be committed to believing it, whatever it means.<\/span><\/p>\n I say all of this to set the table for our subject today, as we are in the third week of our series on Baptism, in view of implementing elder administration of baptism. So this afternoon we will be looking at Baptism as a means of grace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now, before we go any further, I\u2019d like to say one other thing. Not only do I want you all to be prepared to have no problem passages in Scripture, but I also want you to have no church history problems. Here is what I mean: there are two extremes when it comes to church history. On the one hand you have those who just totally reject church history, they don\u2019t care about it, they don\u2019t care what was taught and believed throughout history, they think everyone was wrong, and no one was saved until the founder of the denomination was born 100 years ago. We want to avoid that kind of thinking. We want to honor and respect our fathers in the faith who came before us and recognize that we are here today because of them, we are standing on their shoulders, as it were. But then there is the other extreme. I have seen people who were raised or converted in a modern evangelical context, which is largely ignorant of church history, I have seen them read and encounter things from church history for the first time. They will read things from the era of the early church fathers and encounter things that are so different from modern evangelicalism and it shakes them. So many of them end up converting to the Eastern Orthodox Church, or Roman Catholicism.\u00a0 They will do so, not because those traditions can be defended by Scripture, but they will do so because out of an anachronistic view of history and a reaction to shallow modern evangellyfish. The issue of Baptism is one of those subjects which you will find things throughout Church history that are quite different from modern evangelicalism. I am not going to spend time going into all the different historical views, but my point is just to say that when we read things in church history that are very different on baptism, or other subjects, when we read great church fathers, and come across things that don\u2019t sound very Reformed Baptist, we need to be totally okay with that. I love Athanasius and Augustine and so many others, but they were not Reformed Baptists, and that is okay. We need to be able to recognize and rejoice in the great sea of unity we have with the church throughout history, and not be shaken when we see disagreements. We don\u2019t need to force everyone in history to fit our mold, because they can\u2019t. Let them be them, learn from them, disagree with them. And don\u2019t be fooled into believing that at such and such a point in church history, everyone believed x, y, or z. Such a reading of history is not an accurate one. There has always been disagreements and different views from the earliest moments of Church history on. Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox will often try to force you into that view, it\u2019s not an honest perspective. So all that to say, when it comes to anything, and for our consideration today – baptism – we should have no problem passages, and no church history problems.<\/span><\/p>\n So, what we believe: Baptism is a means of grace. Back in 2019 we taught on the Lord\u2019s Supper as a means of grace, but it\u2019s been a while and we\u2019ve got some new faces since then, so I will begin defining what we mean when we say Baptism is a \u201cmeans of grace.\u201d And then I will walk you through several different passages of Scripture to show you and make the case.<\/span><\/p>\n So, saying that Baptism is a means of grace, means that it is not merely a public profession of faith. It certainly is a public profession of faith, and I don\u2019t want to diminish that aspect, but it is not only that. It is also, equally, if not more so, a means of grace. What is a means of grace? It is that which is ordained by God to bring real spiritual nourishment and fellowship with Christ. It is a means of sanctification and perseverance. It is that in which we commune with Christ. So a means of grace is not a special or a different type of grace. We are not saying that the water itself has magical powers. A means of grace is a vehicle, through which we receive from God, spiritually, and by faith. So again: a means of grace is that which is ordained by God to bring real spiritual nourishment and fellowship with Christ. Now there are lots of different things that are a means of grace. Reading the Word, prayer, Christian fellowship, those things are a means of grace to us – they bring us spiritual nourishment and communion with Christ. But Baptism is not only that. Baptism is one of the two ordinances, it and the Lord\u2019s Supper, which belong specifically to the Church. So Baptism is an ordinance and a means of grace.<\/span><\/p>\n 1 Peter 3:21<\/b><\/p>\n So the first text I\u2019d like to look at is 1 Peter chapter 3, let us read verse 18-22.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So of course the focus of our attention is on verse 21 which says, \u201cBaptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to god for a good conscience\u2026\u201d What is it that baptism corresponds to? Well, it is verse 20, the typology of Noah and his family being brought safely through the water. So baptism is like that. Noah was saved through the water, so also are we. You will notice that Peter quickly adds, \u201cnot as a removal of dirt from the body,\u201d so as to not put the significance on the water itself. So he is saying, like Noah, we are saved through water, but it\u2019s not the water. It is not something outward, it is not an outward ritual that saves.<\/span><\/p>\n So I think there are two different levels of meaning here in 1 Peter concerning baptism now saving. The first is that in the days of Noah, God baptized the world, as it were, the ungodly were drowned, the righteous were preserved through it. So in one sense, like Noah set apart, and distinguished from the world and the ungodly, and thus by being separate, was preserved through the judgment; likewise the Christians of this immediate first audience, were also saved from God\u2019s judgment. What do I mean? Jesus promised that judgment would come upon Jerusalem and the temple, and the apostate Jews who rejected Him, and He said Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed and tribulation would come on that generation. And Jesus instructed the early Christians that when they see the judgment about to come, to flee Jerusalem. In other words, Judaism was about to be judged by God in that first century. So in one sense, people were saved from this judgement of God by coming out of Judaism and entering into Christianity, which would have been initiated through Christian baptism. \u201cRepent and be Baptized,\u201d was the apostolic exhortation in their preaching. To be baptized into the Christian faith was to leave Judaism and be preserved from the judgment of God that was quickly coming upon them.<\/span><\/p>\n Now the other level of meaning, which concerns our topic today the most is this: Peter says, \u201cBaptism…now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience\u2026\u201d So Peter says baptism is not about the water removing dirt from your body, but it is about something spiritually that happens in baptism. When we are physically baptized, there is a spiritual reality there. So how is Peter saying baptism saves? Not in the sense of justification or eternal life, but Peter defines what he means here: \u201cBaptism…now saves you…as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ\u2026\u201d So what does he mean, that baptism saves us as an appeal to God for a good conscience? Well how is that we can have a good conscience? How can our guilty conscience before God be made free and clear? By having our sins washed away. The forgiveness of sins! As Peter says, it\u2019s not the water that does this, it\u2019s the spiritual reality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Do you realize this is the language of the Nicene Creed, from the 300\u2019s? One of the last few lines says, \u201cWe acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.\u201d To that I say amen. Now, a statement like that could be taken a few different ways if you wanted to make it say certain things. But we would understand as in agreement with our confession, the 1689 London Baptist Confession, which says in Paragraph 1 of ch. 29, \u201cOf Baptism,\u201d: \u201cBaptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of sins; and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life.\u201d So the confession says Baptism is a sign of the remission of sins. And as a sign of the remission of sins, it is a means of grace to us. Therefore Baptism now saves you as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n Listen to what Calvin says on this passage in 1 Peter 3: \u201c…let us not tear away the thing signified from the sign. …what then ought we to do? Not to separate what has been joined together by the Lord. We ought to acknowledge in baptism a spiritual washing, we ought to embrace therein the testimony of the remission of sin and the pledge of our renovation, and yet so as to leave Christ his own honor, and also to the Holy Spirit; so that no part of our salvation be transferred to the sign.\u201d He goes on to say about the phrase, \u201cas an appeal to God for a good conscience,\u201d: \u201cFor in those words he teaches us that baptism in its main part is spiritual\u2026\u201d So essentially he says there, in all of that, \u201cacknowledge the spiritual nourishment in the sign of baptism, yet acknowledge it as coming from Christ.\u201d That is baptism as a means of grace. God has ordained to give us spiritual nourishment through the sign and means of baptism. Yet, it is not the water, but Christ. We don\u2019t conflate the sign with the substance. This is an important distinction to hold on to as Baptists who embrace baptism as a means of grace: we don\u2019t conflate the sign with the substance. Baptism is the sign that points to the substance, which is Christ. So we acknowledge that it is Christ that nourishes us in baptism.<\/span><\/p>\n Romans 6:1-5<\/b><\/p>\n The next passage I\u2019d like to look at is Romans chapter 6, verse 1-5.<\/span><\/p>\n So there are two aspects of this passage that show us baptism as being spiritual, and thus baptism as a means of grace. The first is the discussion of being baptized into Christ. Verse 3: \u201c…all of us who have been baptized <\/span>into<\/i><\/b> Christ Jesus were baptized <\/span>into<\/i><\/b> his death\u2026\u201d Verse 4: \u201cWe were buried therefore <\/span>with <\/i><\/b>him by baptism <\/span>into <\/i><\/b>death\u2026\u201d Verse 5: \u201c… if we have been <\/span>united with <\/i><\/b>him <\/span>in <\/i><\/b>a death like his [that death being what verse 4 said, \u201cbaptized into death\u201d], we shall certainly be <\/span>united with <\/i><\/b>him in a resurrection like his.\u201d So what we see here is that in baptism there is a communing, a fellowshipping, a uniting in Christ. What we see here is that baptism is a means through which we experience our union with Christ, and have a real spiritual fellowship with Him. Isn\u2019t that much more Christian and Christ exalting, than saying \u201cNo, my baptism is all about my public profession of faith, there is no spiritual fellowship happening with Christ.\u201d That\u2019s very unchristian, to say that it is all about what you are doing, that it is only outward, and not spiritual and Christ-centered. It\u2019s carnal in a lot of ways.<\/span><\/p>\n Again, this union with Christ in baptism is what our confession says as well, this passage in Romans 6 actually being cited in the confession. It says, \u201cBaptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So again, as a sign, baptism is a means of grace. And as a sign, it is not only a sign that tells <\/span>us <\/i><\/b>to look to God; but it is also a sign in the other direction, communicating Christ to us. So it\u2019s not only a sign that says, \u201cthis is what I am doing for Christ.\u201d It is also a sign that says, \u201cthis is what Christ is doing for me.\u201d I am dying to self and rising to follow Christ, <\/span>and <\/i><\/b>Christ died and rose again for me. I am identifying myself with Christ in the sign of baptism <\/span>and <\/i><\/b>Christ is identifying Himself with me in the sign of baptism. Now that is not to say that this fellowship happens automatically in baptism even to one who is not converted. No. It only happens by faith and in a credobaptism. It\u2019s not about the water, it\u2019s about the reality. If the reality of union with Christ has not happened, the water won\u2019t do it.<\/span><\/p>\n This brings me to the second aspect of baptism as a means of grace here in Romans 6:1-5.\u00a0 What is the context in which Paul brings up our baptism? Look at verse 1 and 2<\/span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n He\u2019s talking about the grace of God and then asks if grace should cause us to continue in sin, and of course it should not. Then he starts reasoning from our baptism.<\/span><\/p>\n So he basically says here, \u201cwe were baptized into Christ, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead, we too might be raised to walk in newness of life.\u201d Now this is not a discussion of conversion. What is it to walk in newness of life? What is it to not continue in sin? It\u2019s sanctification. Paul has gone from a discussion of justification and conversion in Romans chapter 5, to a discussion of sanctification in chapter 6, with baptism as part of that transition. So what I\u2019m seeing here is a connection between baptism and sanctification. We are converted, we are baptized, and we are sanctified. Baptism professes to all that we have repented and trusted Christ, and it gives us grace for our journey of sanctification. So Romans 6:1-5 shows baptism in Christ as beneficial for our sanctification.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So when people say, \u201cWhat do you mean baptism now saves you?\u201d I say it helps preserve me with sanctifying grace. So often when we hear the term \u201csalvation,\u201d we automatically think \u201cjustification.\u201d However, the Bible uses the term \u201csalvation\u201d in different ways depending on the context. Our salvation includes our sanctification.<\/span><\/p>\n Other Texts<\/b><\/p>\n There are three other passages that I will not spend as much time in, yet I want to at least read them to you, so you can again see the connection between baptism and a spiritual reality, and see that it consistently brought up in a good number of different places.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul has the discussion of the spiritual participation and spiritual realities that we have in the Lord\u2019s Supper, but there is also a mention of baptism along with it, in the beginning of the chapter. <\/span>Read 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.<\/span><\/p>\n So again, I just want to point out there the association of spiritual realities with baptism.<\/span><\/p>\n Next passage: Galatians 3. <\/span>Read Galatians 3:23-29.<\/span><\/p>\n So again there we have baptism as a means of communion and identification with Christ. Being baptized into Christ and thus putting on Christ, there is a spiritual reality going on there that is not merely baptism as a profession only of faith.<\/span><\/p>\n Next passage: Colossians 2. <\/span>Read Colossians 2:11-13.<\/span><\/p>\n So again, \u201cburied with him in baptism.\u201d There is the engrafting into him, as the confession puts it. And then once again we are reminded that it is not the magical powers of baptism because Paul turns around and says in baptism, \u201cyou were also raised with him through faith\u2026\u201d So we can say here, that the efficacy of baptism depends on whether it\u2019s done in faith or not.<\/span><\/p>\n If we are struggling with any of this, struggling with accepting it. We need to recognize that God has chosen to sanctify us, give us grace, commune with us, and nourish our souls through ordained means. Oftentimes the people in our day who don\u2019t like to think of baptism as a means of grace will turn around and talk to you about how God spoke to them in some subjective way, just something about how the sun was shining on the pond water as the frogs were frogging. So you think that is a means of grace, and not one of the two ordinances of the New Testament Church that has been specifically ordained by God? Creation declares the glory of God, yes and amen. Baptism preaches the gospel to us by the Holy Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n Well what about the fact that we only get baptized once and often we are young enough that we don\u2019t fully understand how baptism is a means of grace? Did we miss our chance to understand the communion with Christ we were having? No, this is one reason why baptism is to be done in the setting of corporate worship, the gathered body of believers: baptism is a means of grace to the one being baptized, it is a means of grace to the minister who is administering it, and it is a means of grace to the baptized body of believers who are present and observing this baptism, as they think upon the significance and substance of this sign. The whole body is nourished as one member is observed being buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. I was listening to Richard Barcellos, a living Reformed Baptist talk about this subject, and he brought up the fact, that so often when people come up out of the baptismal waters, there is a smile on their face, the congregation is smiling, often they cheer or clap. There is a real joy that comes in baptism, both being baptized and the congregation, and the minister smiles. Now, obviously different personalities will show joy in different ways, you may not be able to see it as obviously on everyone\u2019s face, and that\u2019s okay. But would we dare to attribute this joy to our own carnal flesh\u2019s reaction? Is it not the Holy Spirit who gives us joy during a baptism, as we are reminded of the forgiveness of sins? That\u2019s one of the things signified in baptism, the remission of sins. And what does remission of sins bring us? Joy! Psalm 32 says, \u201c<\/span>Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity\u2026\u201d This is the Spirit\u2019s doing, when we are happy during a baptism. There is spiritual nourishment happening in the whole body right there. And if we are not experiencing that, then it\u2019s our own fault for not looking in faith, or letting ungodly thoughts enter our minds at such a time.<\/span><\/p>\n Even as we think about baptism today and read these texts, we have pictured the baptismal waters in our minds, maybe we\u2019ve thought about our own, or one that we have witnessed together, and have we not been nourished, in thinking upon it? Why is that? It is because it is not the waters that are magical, but the act and the visual observance is a sign through which the Holy Spirit points us to Christ and His benefits. So if we are thinking about baptism rightly, that\u2019s what we\u2019re thinking about. We\u2019re thinking about the fact that our sins have been forgiven. We are thinking about the fact that we will rise from the dead. We are thinking about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. That makes me so happy! That gets me pumped!<\/span><\/p>\n Applications<\/b><\/p>\n So Church, as we consider these things, I want to leave you with three applications: I believe the fact that baptism is one of the two ordinances of the Church and is a means of grace, necessarily implies that it is to be administered by the elders of the Church. Baptism is not merely an individual publicly professing what they believe and nothing else. There are spiritual realities present in baptism for the entire congregation. There is real nourishment and feeding taking place. This fact of baptism being an ordained means of grace, means that we should approach the administration of it with all care and diligence to administer it as properly and ideally as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n Second, remember your baptism. This is something you hear most in paedobaptist circles, but I think there is certainly a place for that in our thinking. Credobaptists actually have a baptism they can remember, if you know what I mean. Obviously, if we are looking to our baptism and banking on that, apart from the substance, apart from faith in Christ, then you have no baptism to remember. But if what we mean by \u201cremember your baptism,\u201d is remember who you are, your identity, remember that your sins are forgiven, remember that you have been raised to walk in newness of life, remember Christ, then that is a good thing. And in some sense baptism is God\u2019s sign that He has put on you. This one has been marked with trinitarian baptism. This one has been washed. This one has been set apart with the people of God. Remember God\u2019s work in you, that He has communed with you, by faith.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, there may be someone here who has not been baptized. I am not telling you to come and be baptized. The Bible does not invite you in that way. The preaching of the apostles was always, \u201crepent and be baptized!\u201d If you have not been baptized and are not seeking to be baptized, you need to repent and come to Jesus Christ. If that is you, is not your conscience ridden with guilt? Do your sins not haunt you in the night? There is only one way to have your sins forgiven and conscience cleared. It is only by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, the one who was buried into the earth, but broke the surface rising out of the dead and passing through the heavens to the right hand of God. You can have an appeal to God for a good conscience by faith in Christ, because Christ is there at the right hand of God, interceding and advocating for His people. There is none who can condemn those for whom Christ advocates. You have absolutely no good reason to delay or put off coming to Jesus Christ. If you do, death and judgement will sweep you away quicker than you can imagine. Instead of being saved through baptism, you will be washed away and drowned in a deluge worse than that of Noah\u2019s day, it will be a deluge of fire and of the wrath of God toward you, a guilty conscience sinner. Like those in Noah\u2019s day drowning and pounding on the shut doors, it will likewise be too late for you. But you are here now, and today is the day of salvation. Come to Jesus Christ today and have your sins washed away. If you do not repent, you will only sink down into the waters of death. But if you repent and come to Jesus Christ, you will rise out of death to walk in newness of life. It can be yours today.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n