2008 Letter No 05

Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for May 2008:

I love baptisms! They are gloriously happy occasions, and this month we celebrate with Pat her new life in Christ. Baptisms are full of wonderful imagery, so let me explore some of that imagery here.

When someone is immersed in the waters of baptism they are buried with Christ. The apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:4 that we are buried with Christ Jesus through baptism into death. Baptism therefore symbolises death. When I went to the baptism of a friend at another church recently the minister told us that we were attending a funeral service – a joyful funeral, but nevertheless a service involving a death and a burial because a life had come to an end. In baptism our old lives are buried.

But we cannot talk about being buried with Christ without remembering that the tomb was only a temporary resting place for Jesus before he was raised to new life. This is part of the symbolism of baptism as well. Baptism is a celebration of new birth – just as a newborn baby gasps for a first breath of air, so the person being baptised comes out of the waters of new birth and draws their first breath of a new life. Let us quote Romans 6:4 in full: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” We emerge from the waters of baptism to a new life in Christ. Baptism therefore reminds us, not only of death and Good Friday, but of Easter and resurrection. A visiting preacher, who often visited the church where I was baptised, used to say that if God’s only purpose in us becoming Christians is to get us to heaven then we might as well be kept under the water at our baptism. Our sins would be washed away and we would wake up in glory. But we are brought up out of the water because God has plans for us and things for us to do. We have been given a new life in Christ, and we are meant to live it out rather than hide it away.

Another aspect of baptism is particularly appropriate to remember at Pentecost. Just as God the Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit following his baptism in the River Jordan, so he gives us the Spirit in a fresh way when we are baptised. Did Jesus have the Spirit before his baptism? Yes, I believe that he did, but at his baptism he was anointed in a special way for the ministry to which God the Father had called him (Mark 1:9-11). Likewise, we should expect God to meet us and equip us in new ways when we are baptised. This does not mean that we have the Spirit of God under our control – that we somehow have the presence of God at our beck and call. After all, Jesus told us that the Spirit blows where he pleases (John 3:8). But God promises to send his Spirit on those who are baptised (Acts 2:38-39), and we should expect baptism to be an occasion when God is present and active – not a mere spectator while we dutifully follow his commands.

In the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul, the word ‘baptism’ is often used to refer to the whole process of becoming a Christian. So this does not just involve being immersed in water. It involves repentance, faith and receiving the Spirit. Repentance means turning away from an old way of life which does not please God to a new way of life in relationship with him. Faith means placing our trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Receiving the Spirit means just that – receiving the presence of God himself into our lives, who then enables us to live as children of God and followers of Jesus. The Bible clearly presents baptism as the usual way in which a person’s faith in Christ is declared, and through which God places his seal on our new birth in Christ  and our membership of his people (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:4-6).

So when we gather at Pentecost, as witnesses to Pat’s baptism, let us also look back to our own baptisms, renewing our commitment to the way of Christ and seeking to receive from God new strength and resources for the journey. And if you have not yet been baptised then please ask yourselves two sets of questions. First, have I responded to God’s call to repentance and faith and received the promised new life he offers in Jesus Christ? Second, if I have responded to God in faith then why am I holding back on taking this step of obedience in the waters of baptism? It is not an optional extra, but a normal part of the Christian new birth. God longs to meet with people in the waters of baptism. The Father met with his own Son in a special way at his baptism, and he can meet with each of us, but we need to take the plunge!