The last several issues of our newsletter have considered baptism.
The use of water imagery in baptism provides us with an invitation for some sanctified speculation. By obeying Christ’s command to be baptized, believers memorialize several things in one single act.
Baptism pictures a Christian’s cleansing from the impurity of sin.
Baptism symbolizes the union that believers have with Christ and with each other in the “one baptism” for all (Ephesians 4:4–6).
Baptism symbolizes receiving life-giving Spirit,
Baptim invokes God’s imagery of creation and chaos, marking how believers have passed through the tribulations of this world and the judgement of God in order to experience a new creation with the blessing of his presence.
Baptism reenacts Old Testament stories of water crossing
Abraham’s leaving idolatry for true worship,
Israel’s leaving deceit for encountering the living God,
Moses’ leaving slavery for freedom,
Joshua’s leaving the wilderness for the promised land.
Baptism announces a believer’s identity in Christ
Baptism launches the believer into Christ’s mission
Isaiah 32:2 describes Godly leadership “like streams of water in a dry place.”
Interestingly, Jesus pictures the Christian ministry in terms of pulling people from the chaos of the seas. Christ used the imagery in his teaching, comparing the kingdom of heaven to “a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind” (Matthew 13:47–50). This is perhaps the most obvious reason he called men like Simon Peter and Andrew, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John to be his disciples (Mark 1:16–20). They were fishermen, accustomed to the disordered work of sailing in the chaos of the water and drawing life up from the tumultuous sea.
Baptism is the way Bible’s describes our union with Christ: tying together his first baptism of identity and ministry with his second baptism of death and resurrection.