************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 74 ************
Doctrine: Baptism of children
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on August 19, 2001
Q & 69-73
Romans 6:1-14
"Baptism"
Introduction
Water. You tend to think about it when there is too little or too much of it. And, when there is no drought or flood then we give water little or no thought at all.
Water. Whether we have too little or too much of it, we all know and recognize how indispensable water really is. Washing the dishes or the car, doing the laundry, taking a shower or giving the children a bath, cooking a meal, they are all impossible without water. Life itself is impossible without water. Doctors tell us that one can survive for 30 or more days without food but less than 3 days without water.
Water. Even as bread and wine are the elements of the Lord's Supper so is water the element of baptism.
According to the Catechism, in the sacrament of baptism it is water's cleansing or washing ability that we are interested in. You see, the outward washing of baptism symbolizes the inner washing that takes place in believer's lives through Christ's blood and Spirit.
I The Meaning
A Eighteen times the Catechism uses the word "wash" when speaking of baptism. In fact, the central promise of baptism concerns washing. What is this promise? We can summarize it this way: as surely as water washes away the dirt from my body, so certainly does Christ's blood and Spirit wash away all my sins (cf Q & A 69). The Catechism sees this promise as being so fundamental to baptism that it is mentioned six times in five questions and answers.
Either in the hospital or in their home I visit those couples who become parents. Often the conversation turn to the subject of baptism. I have noticed over the years that when these parents are asked about the meaning of baptism they say something like, "Baptism is God's promise that our child belongs to Him." I certainly cannot fault these parents on the correctness of their answer. Yet, I can't help but note that this is not quite the same as the Catechism's answer. I would love it if just once a couple would say, "Baptism is God's promise that Christ's blood and Spirit washes away sin."
Don't forget, baptism is one of the signs and seals instituted by God and used by the Spirit to "make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel." And this gospel promise, of course, is
to forgive our sins and give us eternal life
by grace alone
because of Christ's one sacrifice
finished on the cross.
(Answer 66)
The central promise/meaning of baptism, then, is the washing away of my sins. When I think of my own baptism or when I watch the water sprinkled or poured on a new member of the church, I am reminded and assured that I am clean (see Q 69)! As surely as water washes away dirt, so has God washed me by Christ's blood and Spirit. My baptism tells me I have been washed, and now I am clean (cf Q & A 71; Titus 3:5; Acts 22:16 for Scriptural support).
B Washing, of course, implies dirt, the need for cleansing or washing. No one throws clean clothes into the washer. There is no need for a clean baby to be bathed. The outward washing of baptism becomes a statement, then, about the need for washing. We, obviously, are people who need to be washed and cleansed. By this is not meant that we are caked with mud, dust, sweat, and grime. Rather, we are dirty because of the pollution and filth of sin. Sin is like dirt that covers us from head to toe. As sin-covered peopled we need to be washed clean.
C It needs to be emphasized that it isn't the baptism ceremony that washes us. Baptism is merely an outward washing pointing to or symbolizing an inner washing done by Christ's blood and Spirit. No ritual and no sacrament can ever remove our sins, no matter how holy the people and how solemn the ceremony.
Little Betsy had faithfully attended baptism classes. Her mother, wanting to be sure her daughter understood its significance, asked, "Honey, what does baptism mean?"
"Well, it isn't the water that makes you clean ..." she began.
Smiling, Mother thought, Yes, she understands,
"... it's the soap."
Sorry, Betsy, is isn't the soap either. It is the blood and Spirit – the blood and Spirit of Christ that washes us and makes us clean.
Sacramentalists – like the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalian, and Eastern Orthodox Churches – tend to believe that the ritual of baptism can take away sin as long as the right people do it in the right way. Under this view the administration of the sacrament takes on a form of magic and superstition – they, rather than Christ, are the dispensers of grace.
Today, we in North America have entered the post-Christian era. Very few of our neighbors accept and believe the Gospel of Christ. They live thoroughly secular lives. Yet, they insist on getting married in and buried through the church. And, they want their children baptized. Do you realize what is happening? Secular people pin their hopes on the rituals of the church – almost as if they are hedging their bets and covering all the bases. How foolish! Ministers or priests who perform these rituals, who give these secularists a false sense of security, bring dishonor to God and distort the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We had best not feel too smug about ourselves and our baptismal theology and practice. There was a time in the history of our denomination when babies were baptized the first service immediately following their birth, even if that service was on Christmas or New Year's Day. I understand that in many of those baptisms the father would be standing alone at the front of the church building because the mother was still recovering in the hospital or at home. Underlying this practice seemed to be some sacramentalist type of notion that the child must be baptized as soon as possible in order to be saved.
All true believers, with the Catechism, have to admit that no solemn words and no drops or oceans of water can wash away our sins.
D As the Catechism makes clear, "only Jesus Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sins." The water of baptism is symbolic and is meant to focus our attention on Christ's blood and Spirit.
Christ's blood and Spirit – both are necessary for our cleansing and salvation.
To be washed with Christ's blood means that all my sin and the guilt of my sin has been washed away. Baptism shows that all my sins are washed away by the blood of Christ. Not just the sin I was born with, nor just the pollution I inherited from my parents, nor just the sins I have committed, but all my sins have been washed away. Baptism shows that the blood of Christ has washed away all my sins – whether they are past, present, or future; whether they are original or actual; whether they be sins of commission or omission.
To be washed with Christ's Spirit means I have been consecrated to God, made holy. It means I have been born again or regenerated. Baptism shows that I am now a new person. Baptism shows that I have been "set apart." Of the more than seven billion people of this world I am special because I am baptized.
To be washed with Christ's blood and Spirit is like a change of clothing. Being washed with Christ's blood is like taking off the old clothing of sin; being washed by the Spirit is like putting on the new clothing of righteousness. Baptism reminds us and assures us that we have undergone this change of clothing. We are no longer clothed in rags of sin. Rather, we are clothed in robes of righteousness.
E Baptism reminds us and assures us, then, that we "have been washed," and we "have been renewed." These events have happened. They lie in the past. And they mean obligations or responsibilities for the present. My baptism places me under obligation to become more and more "dead to sin" and increasingly to "live a holy and blameless life" (A 70). Baptism reminds me of what has happened already and encourages me to live out, to make real, what I, in Christ, already am: holy and blameless before God.
Paul makes this same point in Romans 6. "Shall we go on sinning ...?" he asks. "By no means!" is his answer, "because you have been baptized." Baptism reminds us that we "have died to sin" and been raised to "live a new life" (Rom 6:1-4). Therefore, says Paul, "count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6:11). Along this same line one of our forms for baptism says that
baptism ... places us under obligation to live in obedience to God ... We must abandon the sinful way of life, put to death our old nature, and show by our lives that we belong to God. (Form 1)
Young People, boys and girls, parents, do you hear the message of Scripture here? People who are baptized should not sin!
II The Method
A The Catechism does not discuss the manner in which baptism should be administered. Yet, both Scripture and church history give us valuable lessons on method – lessons that the Christian Reformed Church has incorporated into her Church Order. Article 55 of the Church Order states:
The sacraments shall be administered upon the authority of the consistory in the public worship service, by the minister of the Word, with the use of prescribed forms.
We notice a number of things are said about the proper method for baptizing. First, we notice by whose authority baptism is to be administered. The Church Order specifies that it be done only "upon the authority of the consistory." That is why an elder is always with me on the platform when I do a baptism – I do it only under their authority and with their blessing. The minister is not the dispenser or the controller of the means of grace.
Second, we are told the place or locale. Baptism should take place "in the public worship service" – at least in all normal circumstances. [See the Historical Note (pt 5.) under Art. 56 of the Church Order for those exceptional circumstances when baptism may be administered outside of the congregational setting.] Private baptisms by the kitchen sink are foreign to the very nature of baptism. According to the Catechism, baptism is the ritual by which people become members of the church (cf A 74). In fact, no one is a church member unless or until they have been baptized. Therefore it should take place while the church is assembled.
Third, we observe who is to administer the sacrament of baptism. It is to be administered only by those whom the church authorizes – namely, the minister of the Word, or an evangelist or elder if there is no minister of the Word (cf C.O. Art. 58). Since baptism means incorporation into the body of Christ, the church, then it has to be administered by someone authorized by the church.
Fourth, we see a rule that is peculiar to the Reformed family of churches – namely the use of liturgical forms during baptism. Originally, the forms were written to educate congregations that were mostly ignorant about the meaning of baptism. The reading of the forms is a good rule. The church must guard the right understanding of baptism. Sometimes, however, the rule has been followed to slavishly – in churches where baptism occurs frequently, the reading brings more boredom than education. You see, when it comes to baptism the main task of the church is not to read forms but to make certain that those who request baptism understand its meaning.
B The word "baptism" comes from the Greek word "baptizo" which means to "dip, immerse, wash." This means that by definition, as well as by meaning, baptism cannot be done without water.
I remember the time in the last church I served when I dipped my hand into the bowl and it came up dry. I was sure there was water in there – because I could see the ring from the water (turns out there was a ring around the bowl from those times the water had been left for a couple of weeks). I had already started the baptism by saying "I baptize you in the name of the Father ..." so I proceeded to do a dry baptism. After thinking about it I decided the baptism was not really done properly – so an elder and I talked to the parents and redid it a couple of days later.
Baptism is defined as "to dip, immerse, wash." And, it symbolizes our cleansing by the blood and Spirit of Christ. Water is the prescribed element. A baptism without water is like a car without an engine or wheels or brakes – it is incomplete and lacking.
Although all Christians agree that the Lord requires us to use water in baptism, we don't all agree whether this means immersion or merely sprinkling. Reformed Christians approve of both methods and don't believe that the method used is all that important as long as it is done with water. However, I must say that sprinkling makes far more sense for the baptism of infants, the elderly, or the disabled. Immersion, on the other hand, is certainly a more dramatic form than is sprinkling, better representing to the senses the totality of our cleansing and renewal in Christ.
C Lastly, in Matthew 28, the Lord requires that all baptism be done in the name of the triune God: "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19). I remember the time in my home church when a minister, distracted by my baby cousin's sudden screaming, baptized him only in the name of the Father and of the Son. Toward the end of that service an elder walked to the front and informed the minister of the mistake. The mistake was explained to the congregation, my aunt and uncle were called to the front again, and this time my cousin was properly baptized in the name of the triune Godhead. There was also a time in the Netherlands when some pastors baptized recipients in the name of "faith, hope, and love." This, certainly, transgresses what has been laid down by the Lord. [cf stipulation in Church Order Art. 58 that a valid baptism is one administered in the name of the triune God.]
Conclusion
Topic: Baptism
Subtopic:
Index: 756-760
Date: 1/1999.3
Title: The Jordan
Most of you realize that the River Jordan flows southward through Israel. For the most part it is neither beautiful nor peaceful. It's 25 percent mud and plunges downhill at a furious pace, falling nine feet per mile.
The 158-mile river begins in the snows of Mount Herman at a point 260 feet above sea level. By the time it empties into the Dead Sea, at a point 1,287 feet below sea level, the water has reached the lowest point on earth.
Ironically, the river that has inspired thousands of hymns sung by millions the world over, the river in whose waters the Lord Jesus Himself was baptized, today serves as a thirty mile barrier between the hostile nations of Israel and Syria.
Throughout the ages, I am afraid, this has been an image for baptism. Something that should bring unity and peace and love ends up being a dividing wall, a source of contention and hostility.