“What Does Baptism Do?”
[Matthew 3:13-17]
January 14, 2018, Second Reformed
Church
This Sunday, we remember the baptism
of our Lord. Jesus is about thirty years
old when He goes to John the Baptist at the Jordan and asks John to baptize Him.
Just prior to Jesus ascending back
to His throne at the Right Hand of the Father, we read, “Now the eleven
disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and
said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’”
(Matthew 28:16-20, ESV).
Why did Jesus instruct them – and
all believers – to baptize and be baptized?
Does baptism do something?
I wonder what answers we would hear
if we went around the congregation.
People have said, “We baptize our
children because it’s kind of like we’re dedicating them to the Lord, like
Samuel, so He will care for them.”
“We baptize our children because it
is a way to get the church to see them and teach them how to be moral – how to
be good people – by the time we come back to church for them around their
thirteenth birthday.”
“We baptize our children because
that’s how God saves them.”
No.
When I was in seminary, I took a
class that had about ten of us in it:
eight Methodists, a Nazarene, and me.
And whenever anything debatable came up in class, the eight Methodists
would sit back and watch the Nazarene and me debate.
You may not know that Nazarene
doctrine states that, in baptism, the infant receives salvation.
So, when we were talking about what
baptism does, the Nazarene guy argued that an infant that is baptized receives
salvation and the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and should he renounce
Christ later in life, he would lose his salvation.
I disagreed and said that salvation cannot
be lost, so that is not what happens when an infant is baptized who later
renounces Christ.
So, he asked me what happens to an
infant in baptism if he eventually renounces Christ.
I gave him the wrong answer. It was a funny answer – I said, he gets
wet. But that’s not the right answer.
Baptism does one thing relative to
the infant who never savingly believes in Jesus Alone, and it does two things
relative to the infant who does savingly believe in Jesus Alone.
In our Thursday night study this
week, we saw Paul comfort the Thessalonians by saying if you believe the Gospel
– Who Jesus is and what He did to accomplish salvation – you are one of the
people given to Jesus for salvation, you are one of the elect, you are really
and truly, forever the property of Jesus.
So, what does baptism do?
Let’s begin by asking what John the
Baptist was doing.
John the Baptist was baptizing
repentant people for the forgiveness of their sins.
Matthew tells us in the text just
prior to the one we read this morning:
[John the Baptist said,] “I baptize you with water for repentance, but
he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to
carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is
in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into
the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:11-12, ESV).
John says he baptizes those who come to
him repenting of their sins. John
explains that just as water washes away dirt, the waters of baptism symbolize –
they are a sign – that forgiveness – salvation – is only found through
confession and repentance of your sins to God.
Baptism is a sign of the Gospel. Baptism symbolizes that all humans are
sinners and in need of forgiveness – of being made clean. It symbolizes that forgiveness of our sins is
not something we can do – we must go to Someone Else Who is sinless to have our
sins washed away. We must go to the One
Savior that God has provided to repent of our sins – to ask for forgiveness and
promise to turn around – to not commit those sins again – and that Savior – Who
we know is Jesus – and He Alone – grants us forgiveness through His work, His Merit,
His Authority, His death, and His resurrection.
This is what baptism does for every person
who is baptized – even the person who never savingly believes – baptism puts
the sign on them and before all those who witness it – that you cannot forgive
your own sins – you cannot make yourself clean.
Someone Else has to cleanse you of your sins. And no one who has received this sign can
remove it.
In the TV show, “All in the Family,” Mike
says to his father-in-law, Archie, that he renounced his baptism years ago, and
Archie responds, “Try renouncing your bellybutton.” In other words, Archie rightly says just as
you cannot renounce your bellybutton, you cannot renounce the sign of baptism
once it has been placed upon you. All
who have been baptized bear the sign of the need for a Savior.
But, you can bear the sign and not
believe. Being baptized does not cause
you to believe in Jesus savingly.
Now, we turn back to this morning’s
Scripture, as we notice that John the Baptist doesn’t think it is right for
Jesus to be baptized by him:
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the
Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I
need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let
it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then
he consented. And when Jesus was
baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were
opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming
to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son,
with whom I am well pleased’.”
John’s baptism is a baptism for sinners
who recognize that they are sinners and repent of their sin and want to be
forgiven and know they need to look outside of themselves for forgiveness.
So, Jesus comes to His cousin, John, and
asks John to baptize Him. Jesus comes to
John, who was filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb and jumped up and down in
the womb in pure joy at recognizing Jesus, the Savior, in the womb of Mary.
This is John who exclaims and explains:
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward
him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because
he was before me.” I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came
baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ And John bore
witness: ‘I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on
him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said
to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who
baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I have seen and have borne witness that
this is the Son of God’” (John 1:29-34, ESV).
John certainly understood more after
Jesus’ baptism, but he understood enough that when Jesus comes to him and asks
him to baptize Him, John says, “You are the only One Who doesn’t need to be
baptized – You have no sins to forgive – I need You to baptize me.”
How does Jesus respond?
“Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
What does that mean?
What is “righteousness”?
Righteousness is being morally perfect,
sinless, having kept all of God’s Law.
How does being baptized by John help Jesus
to be morally perfect, sinless, having kept all of God’s Law – remembering that
Jesus is sinless, and baptism is only for sinners?
It may help to remember that we read
earlier that Jesus said that we are to go out, preaching the Gospel, baptizing
in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin explains that there are at
least four things happening in Jesus’ baptism – in His fulfilling all
righteousness:
First, in being baptized, Jesus fully
obeys His Father.
We remember from our study of the Gospel
of John that Jesus did not come to do His own will but the Will of the
Father. Jesus came to save the people
the Father gave Him by obeying and submitting to everything the Father commands.
Jesus says, “but I do as the Father has
commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. …” (John
14:31a-b, ESV).
Even to the end, Jesus prays, “My Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but
as you will” (Matthew 26:39b, ESV).
Second, in being baptized, Jesus submits
to God’s Law.
As we have already seen, Jesus says we are
to be baptized. Since Jesus has to be
like us in every way – excepting sin – to be our Substitute, He also is
baptized.
Third, in being baptized, Jesus consecrates
and institutes baptism as a sacrament.
This we see in the Great Commission.
And fourth, in being baptized, Jesus makes
baptism a seal of the believer’s salvation.
Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism
into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4, ESV).
And now we understand the two things that
baptism does for the believer: first,
baptism is a sign on and to the believer that Jesus lived a righteous life and
died to pay for our sins, and second, baptism is a seal of that salvation of
and to the believer.
The
Heidelberg Catechism explains what the sacraments are:
66. Q.
What are the sacraments?
A. The sacraments are holy, visible signs
and seals.
They were instituted by God
so that by their use
he might the more fully declare and seal
to us
the promise of the gospel.
And this is the promise:
that God graciously grants us
forgiveness of sins and everlasting life
because of the one sacrifice of Christ
When Martin Luther was feeling accosted by
the devil with temptation, he would respond, “I have been baptized. I am a Christian.” (https://yinkahdinay.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/luther-baptizatus-sum-i-am-baptized/)
In other words, I have been baptized – I
bear the sign of the work of Christ that justifies and makes righteous all
those who believe in Him. And I am a
Christian – and that baptism is a seal of my salvation because I am a believer
in Jesus Christ Alone for salvation.
What does baptism do?
For everyone who is baptized, it is a sign
of what Jesus did – that He lived a perfect life under God’s Law, died for the
sins of everyone who would ever believe, and physically rose from the dead, and
ascended back to His throne.
And for the believer, baptism is that sign
as well, but it is also a seal – a confirmation – an assurance – of that
salvation. So we can look back on our
baptism and remember, as Paul says in Romans 6, that we who believe savingly in
Jesus have been buried with Him through baptism and have now been raised to new
life, which can never be lost or stolen away from us.
So let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for the
sacrament of baptism that Your Son instituted while He was on earth. We thank You that baptism is a visual representation
of the Gospel – it is a sign that says what Jesus did to save His people. We thank You that it is also a seal of the
Gospel – that all we who have believed savingly in Jesus can look back on our
baptism and what it symbolizes and be assured of our eternal salvation through
the work of You Son. And we thank You
for sending God the Holy Spirit that He would cause us to believe in Jesus
Alone for salvation. For it is in Jesus’
Name we pray, Amen.
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