eddybear

A while ago, I wrote some thoughts on Communion. Now, I want to post some thoughts on the other sacrament common to all Christians, baptism. This is something where my thoughts have been changing a lot over the last year or so, and a comment in a recent thread has made me decide to post.

I was not baptised as a child. When I came to faith in 1990, aged 19, I knew I had to be baptised, and indeed I wanted to be baptised. I started going to an Anglican church, and the way they do things, I had to wait, and attend classes, along with others who were being confirmed. It worried me that I had not been baptised, especially reading John 3. (This was the passage that largely caused me to turn to Christ in the first place, but it referred to water and the Spirit, and that bothered me). When the day came, it was a very special time for me..... but more on that later.

After a few years in Anglican churches, I moved to Colchester, and went to a free evangelical church for many years, followed by a New Frontiers church, and then nowhere for a year and a half. I believed that baptism is only symbolic. But....

Last year, I started going to an Anglican church again. At Communion, the Nicene Creed is sometimes said, and that contains the line "We believe in one baptism for the remission of sins". That bothered me, because I thought, actually, I don't believe that, yet that is what virtually every church considers a basis of faith. Did that mean I was a heretic?

I decided to look again at the scriptural passages relating to baptism. It was in a study Bible, with commentary underneath. I read Mark 16:16 "Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved" ..... and the commentary made the point that it is only symbolic. Odd, I thought, it doesn't sound symbolic. Then there was Acts 2:38 "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."

Moving on to Paul, and particularly Romans 6:3
"don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" Paul uses the phrase "baptized into Christ" ..... and the commentary said it is symbolc. Paul goes on, that we are united with Christ in death through baptism.....and the commentary said it's symbolic.

Further into the epistles, and there was Peter in 1 Pet 3:21, "....baptism that now saves you also....." And guess what, the commentary said it was just symbolic.

You can probably guess where I am headed with this. Time after time I saw the Scriptures using language that says baptism actually does something, but each time it did, the commentary said it was just symbolic.

Earlier in this blog, I said I would get back to my own baptism. This last year, I have struggled with doubts, big doubts, especially about my salvation. That may seem strange, after 18 years of being a Christian, but I have. And in the midst of one struggle, I felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit, "Remember your baptism". A bit later, struggling again, I felt the same prompting. Another time, and the same thing happened: I was walking back to my car from the train station after a business trip to London, and this time, I thought "OK, I will", and in my mind I started to replay my baptism. I went up to the front of the church and knelt on the steps up to the altar area. I affirmed my faith in answer to the 3 questions put to me by the Bishop. He then poured water over my forehead, saying "I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit". And then he took some water, and made the sign of the cross on my forehead. I can't remember the exact words used, but as I recalled this.......it hit me. I belong to Christ. I belong to Christ! And I know I belong to Christ, because I have been baptized into his Name. The doubts vanished, destroyed. I have been marked with the sign of the cross. I belong to Christ!


I don't have a theology of baptism all worked out. But this I do know, I have been baptized into Christ, and for that I will be forever grateful.