One Baptism

Ephesians 4:5 “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

As I continued in this Bible Study on the Christian Sacraments, this lesson stood out because it directly affected me as my wife and I were required to be re-baptized in order to join the church that we currently attend because we were baptized by a different denomination. This lesson  begins with a story where a local Pastor was scheduled to meet with a young man who had recently been attending the church. The subject was baptism. This young had been baptized in the triune name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as an infant in a church and he did not come to faith in Christ until he was much older. During the meeting, he asked the Pastor, “Pastor, do I need to be baptized again?” An encounter such as this one happens regularly in gospel-preaching churches. He answered, “No.”

There are several reasons why historic theology says that people should be baptized only once, even if the baptism occurred before a person’s regeneration and profession of faith. Remember that “regeneration” is defined in theology as: new birth by the grace of God; that change by which the will and natural enmity of mankind towards God and His Law are subdued, and a principle of supreme love to God and his law, or holy affections, are implanted in the heart. Us humans were created by Almighty God in the trinity of body, soul and spirit. When Adam and Eve sinned, the spirit died. New birth from above regenerates the spirit.

Titus 3:4-6 says, “when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

First, Ephesians 4:5 tells us that there is only “one baptism.” Of course, today’s lesson passage does not necessarily refer to the frequency of baptism. However, when we re-baptize someone, we are implicitly calling into question the legitimacy of the baptism administered by another church that called upon the name of the triune God in that baptism. This raises questions about whether there really is one baptism that unites all Christians.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

More significant, baptism is primarily about God and what He does. Baptism’s efficacy is tied to neither individual involved in the sacrament, recipient or minister, but to the sovereignty and trustworthiness of the Lord in whose name baptism is administered. The validity of baptism does not depend on the individual faith of the one administering the sacrament, for that would make the efficacy of God’s promises dependent on a mere creature He created, as if God were dependent on the faith of the minister to give a new heart to one of His “called” people. The validity of baptism does not depend on its being received after a profession of faith, for baptism conveys God’s promise to give faith to His “saved” children, and God is free to grant faith when He will.

In John 3:6-8, the Lord Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Perhaps most significant, baptism is the sacrament of regeneration—a one-time event. Those who are “born again” and ingrafted into Christ only once, never to be lost. Baptizing more than once may visibly show the misconception that regeneration is repeatable. Salvation is entirely by God’s grace from first to last. God only regenerates the spirit in His faithful people once and He preserves them in that state forever. Water baptism in and of itself does not regenerate us, but it does show forth God’s promise to regenerate us once for all. Let us be grateful for His grace in regeneration and that if we are once regenerated, converts with saving faith will be forever regenerated. And when we see a baptism, let us remember this great truth.

Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”