Brian Spahr :: Blog :: Grace - Part 2

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Continuing my reflections on baptism and grace from yesterday...Praise God there were around 600 baptisms yesterday.  That truly is something to celebrate, so I hate to follow it with a but, but...  my concern is that baptism, in this case, was presented solely as a public declaration of inner change... a public demonstration of our obedience to God by following his commands.  This is certainly part of what baptism is, but there was no talk of what GOD DOES, or what GOD PROMISES in baptism, and from my perspective, this is the problem.  First and foremost, Baptism is a gift from God.  The fancy way to say it is that baptism is a "means of God's grace."  It is not the only way God conveys his grace upon his people, but it is one way that we are assured he does.  The talk yesterday was about being "biblically baptized", but here are few "biblical" things that were never mentioned... and I think all of these are pretty important: In Baptism, God promises to: 1) make you a child of God, for you are baptized in God's name (Matthew 28:19), 2) wash you clean of sin (Acts 22:16), 3) give you the Holy Spirit, which will enable you to call upon Jesus as Lord (Titus 3:5), 4) make you a member of the body of Christ, the Church (Romans 6:5), and 5) grant you child eternal life (Mark 16:16)Because there was so much emphasis on why YOU should be baptized TODAY, there was no mention of any of this...and I think that was a pretty important omission.  Because Jesus is truly present in this mysterious fusion of water and word (don't ask me how it works...I'll never know how God does what God does)we are assured all of these things.  Forgiveness, healing, wholeness, are all given to us free... not because of my obedience or good behavior or anything else I can do.  It is only by God's grace that we have all been given these things, and again, baptism is one way that God has chosen convey these gifts to us... to offer us a means of assurance that we have recieved these gifts.  To me, this is much more important to consider when we talk about "biblcal baptism" then whether I was a baby or an adult, sprinkled or dunked.  What is most important , in my opinion, is not HOW, but WHO.  YOU are not irrelevant in all of this, but YOU are also not the primary actor in your baptism, GOD is.I am so thankful for the ministry of this local pastor and this local church.  They truly are making a significant impact on the community where my family lives.  Please do not misinterpret these posts as just me being critical.  That is not my intention at all.  As the people of God we are all in this thing together...I really believe that.  It was an experience, however, to which I could not help but respond.  Grace and peace,Brian