Give
‘Repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are far off,
every one whom the Lord our God calls to him’ (Acts 2: 38-39)
Dear Cooper:
We have used two verbs – identify and wash – to think about
what the Bible says about Baptism. Today we will use one more: Give.
In the Bible, Jesus’ cousin John told us he baptized with
water, but Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 3: 11). So why do
we still baptize with water? That’s a good question. I really don’t know what
to say, other than there must be something more going on! Jesus said to Baptize
and His friends and people that knew Jesus kept on using water. Even during
Jesus’ three-year ministry in Israel His disciples kept the water Baptism going
… Jesus must have had a purpose for these actions. Right?
A guy named John Stott gave this some thought and he
wondered if maybe what God is up to as we Baptize with water is the Spirit
Baptism that John talked about. Or maybe the water thing marks physically what
God has done, is doing or will do in His infinite spiritual place? The Bible
clearly tells us there is a pouring out of the Holy Spirit and a receiving of
the Holy Spirit. Isaiah said the Holy Spirit would be given to us (he actually
said ‘poured out’ on us (Isaiah 16) to restore us to God’s blessing. So in
Baptism, somehow God is showing us that He is giving Himself (God the Holy
Spirit) to us.
So that, by-the-way, is why some Baptisms pour water (called
‘affusion’) on the person being Baptized instead of ‘immersing’ them in water.
This is like in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost where there was a pouring out of
the Holy Spirit (among others). So affusion is another great image to represent
something the Bible tells us happens in Baptism.
So there is a question. Is immersion or affusion the right
way to Baptize? How about we leave that for tomorrow?
t HE
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
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