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30th June 2024
SundayReflection
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Interview with John Piper
Founder & Teacher, desiringGod.org
'Why Is Baptism Important?'
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When we say that it's an ordinance, it is that the Lord Jesus commanded it; he ordained it.
The word ordinance comes from "he ordained it."
He planned it. He said we should do it in a way that gives it an ongoing practice in the church.
Second, baptism, we believe, expresses union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
And the clearest teaching on this is found in Romans 6:3-4, where it says this:
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?"
I think it would be a mistake to say that water baptism, the actual going into water, is the means of our being united to Christ.
In Romans, it's faith in Jesus - faith, the Holy Spirit-given ability to love and trust and treasure Christ.
It's faith that is the means by which we are united to Christ and justified by him.
I'm a Baptist.
I believe that we should immerse people in water.
Baptism is an immersion, as opposed to sprinkling water on the head.
Romans 6 is my reason for that, and there are others.
By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.
.....Romans 6:4
The word baptize in Greek, baptize, means "dip" or "immerse."
Fourth, baptism means doing this immersing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19:
"Go...make disciples...baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
This means that not just any immersing is baptism - like, diving into a swimming pool is not baptism.
Fifth, baptism is an expression of faith, and therefore only for believers, which is why we don't baptize infants, who are not able to believe.
When I was in Germany, studying with nothing but Lutherans - in all my classes I was the only Baptist - at the University of Munich, we went away on a retreat and talked about baptism, and they all turned to me and said, "So, why don't you baptize babies?"
And I took them to Colossians 2:12.
"Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith..."
Did you get that now?
Burial and resurrection in baptism, the symbol of baptism there, is "through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead."
That's what baptism is.
It is a demonstration of the burial and resurrection with Jesus, which happened through faith.
And so, we should only do it to those who can believe.
So, baptism is very important.
It was uncompromisingly commanded and ordained by the Lord Jesus until he comes.
It was universally practiced and administered by Christians in the early church, and has been all through the centuries.
We're only justified once; we only die and are united to Christ once and permanently.
And one last comment: it was closely connected to being a member of a local church.
In the mind of the apostles, to be united to Christ by faith through baptism was to be united to the body of Christ.
To be a Christian, therefore, is to belong to a local church.
It's right and fitting that you belong to a church.
Baptism wasn't a fun climax to beach evangelism with everybody going their separate ways with no reference to the church.
Baptism was a sacred expression of faith, a faith that unites you to Christ and his people - a particular people, in a particular church, where you could be nurtured and held accountable as the New Testament teaches.
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This is an extremely edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
John Piper
is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy.
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