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Baptism
The bible is full of stories of people going through water in order to rescue them from something or someone or to bring them into a new experience of God. The three big stories about this are:
1. The Flood, where Noah and his family are taken through the flood in the ark and rescued from the judgement that was coming on mankind,
2. The Exodus, where the people of Israel were delivered from slavery under the Egyptians and
3. The Crossing of the Jordan, where Israel were brought out of the wilderness and into the promised land.
Baptism catches up the symbolism of these three stories amongst others but speaks of the even greater deliverance from death that Jesus brought about through going through death itself and out the other side into resurrection life.
When we baptise people we identify them with this great story. They stand, before baptism under judgement – like Noah, in slavery to sin – as powerless as the people of Israel in Egypt, wandering in futility – like Israel in the wilderness. They go into the water, identifying with Jesus’ death which is the only way to deal with sin and judgement and pointlessness and then come out again identified with him into a new life in the power of the resurrection. In order to really tell this story you need to get really wet. The word baptism comes from a Greek word meaning to immerse so we do just that – push them under the water and then drag them out again!
On the day when the Holy Spirit came on the church (talked about in Acts chapter 2), thousands were baptised into Jesus. They understood that a great new exodus had happened and they needed to get on board, to be identified with this by going into the water and coming out again. In our culture we don’t have so many of these acts but in baptism we become part of a great history going back over thousands of years originally pointing forwards to Jesus and since Jesus putting ourselves back there with him knowing that as he died, so did we and as he came through into resurrection life so one day we too will live free from all the effects of turning against God. |
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Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
(Romans Chapter 6 verses 3 & 4) |
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