Matthew 28:18–20 “Jesus came
and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the
age.’ ”
Continuing in my biblical
lesson of the “Sacraments”, my next lesson states that the Roman Catholic
church has seven holy sacraments, but during the Reformation, Protestants
examined Scripture’s teaching on the sacraments and found that the church was
wrong to have any other sacraments besides baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The
sacraments, they argued, were directly instituted by Christ, and in the New
Testament only baptism and the Lord’s Supper were instituted by our Savior. Baptism,
the sacrament of initiation, is ordinarily the first sacrament a believer
receives.
The Great Commission passage
(above) records for us the institution of baptism, and the context in which it
is given demonstrates the importance of this sacrament. Before ascending to
heaven, Jesus commissioned the Apostles and the Church that follows them to
teach the nations to observe all that He had commanded them. Since baptism into
the name of our triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is one of the things
that Jesus commanded, a church is not following its commission if it does not
baptize people (the Great Commission is a Commandment, not a suggestion) or if
it treats baptism lightly or vainly. Moreover, we are in direct disobedience to
Christ Himself if we refuse to be baptized. It is sacred and had serious
consequences.
Romans 6:3-5 “Do
you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried
with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His
death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness
of His resurrection.”
Matthew 28:18-20 reveals
that the only valid method of baptism is baptism in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. True, the book of Acts records early Christians as being
“baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (for example, Acts 2:38; 10:48), but
Luke, the author of Acts, certainly does not want us to understand such
statements as endorsing a Jesus-only baptismal formula. His remarks are
shorthand for Christ’s fuller command in Matthew 28:18–20, and they emphasize
the newness of the new covenant era in its explicit identification with Jesus.
In addition to being
commanded by Jesus, the formula whereby we baptize people into the one name of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is also a vehicle for teaching. It provides a
quick summary of the Christian doctrine of God, and our doctrine of God
controls every other aspect of our theology. Protestant Reformer John Calvin
comments on today’s passage, “We perceive that God cannot be truly known, unless
our faith distinctly conceive of Three Persons in one essence; and that the
fruit and efficacy of baptism proceed from God the Father adopting us through
his Son, and, after having cleansed us from the pollution of the flesh through
the Spirit: creating us anew to righteousness.”
Finally, Jesus does not give
us a specific mode for baptism. The Greek word for “baptize”—baptiz —has to do
with water but it does not refer exclusively to immersion, dipping, pouring,
sprinkling, or any other means of applying water, though different
denominational and non-denominational Christian churches perform one or another
method usually. Jesus said “baptize them” but not the physical method, because
when it comes to an outward expression of an inward decision of faith, all are
lawful modes of baptism. God looks at the heart. Bible Commentator Matthew
Henry comments that, “baptism is into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;
this was intended as the summary of the first principles of the Christian
religion, and of the new covenant.” If a baptism is not administered in the
triune name of God, it is invalid. But all who have been baptized in the name of
the Holy Trinity have been validly baptized and should not fear that their
baptism is not according to Christ’s command. Are you baptized?
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