Essay 21

 

BAPTISM: SYMBOL OF ASSURANCE

 

It is common for Christians to be unsure of their salvation. Even committed, longterm believers often equivocate when asked if they are confident they will go to heaven. They hope so, but they think it presumptuous to be all that sure. Some say something like, "Yes, if I'm found faithful." This may only compound the problem, for how faithful does one have to be to go to heaven? So long as we think in terms of "doing our part" we will never be sure about our eternal destiny, for we will always wonder if we are sufficiently doing our part.

 

  In his mercy the God of heaven anticipated this problem by giving us a sign or symbol whereby we can know we are saved. To be buried with Christ in baptism in the likeness of his death, and to be raised with him in the likeness of his resurrection (Rom. 6:4-5) is a symbol of our salvation. It is like the wedding ring. The bride wears "proof" -- a symbol -- on her finger that she is married.

 

  Or it is like the naturalization certificate signed by the judge whereby the alien knows that he is a citizen. If he has doubts about his citizenship -- could it have been only a dream? -- he has the proof in a frame hanging on the wall. "See," he can say to his friends, pointing to the certificate, "I have proof that I am a citizen."

 

  That's one of the purposes of baptism -- "the answer (response) of a good conscience toward God" (1 Pet. 3:21).  To have a good or clear conscience is to have assurance. To those who doubt their salvation we can say, "Did you not go down to the river to pray, and were you not baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins?" If she can answer yes, then we can say, "Then you have the assurance of the forgiveness of sins and salvation." While certificates of baptism may not be necessary, they are appropriate in that they certify for all concerned that an initiation has taken place -- initiation into Christ and the community of faith. And it provides the same kind of confirmation as a wedding or naturalization certificate.

 

  If there weren't such a symbol as baptism -- an outward sign of what has happened within -- we'd have to invent something. We have such signs of assurance all around us. How do you know you've graduated? The diploma is your symbol of assurance. How do you know you've left Pennsylvania and are now in Ohio. The sign says, "Entering Ohio." So you know where you are.

 

  How do you know you're saved? You've been to the river and been baptized! That is the sign that God has ordained -- hear it! baptism is an ordinance of God, not our invention -- whereby you can know you're saved. It is my conscience's response to what God has done for me. I hear his testimony that baptism is for the remission of sins. I obey him, so I have the assurannce -- a symbol of assurance.

 

  I can be as certain that I am saved as I am that Christ rose from the dead. I have the testimony from God that he raised Christ from the dead, so I know. I also have testimony from God that when I was baptized -- as a believing penitent -- he formally forgives my sins. So I know.  That is the problem in not being baptized. One may be saved, but he does not have the sign of assurance.

 

  We can now understand why Luther would talk back to the pope the way he did. "The pope can't talk that way about me, for I've been baptized just as he has." Luther had his baptismal certificate on the wall, so he knew he was as much a Christian as the pope or anyone else. He submitted to the act that God has ordained whereby he can know he is saved. No equivocating, no uncertainty. I've been baptized, so I know.

 

  All this talk that this makes baptism a work on our part -- and we're not saved by works -- is sheer nonsense. Tell that to Peter. He not only said that believers were to "Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins" (Acts 2:38), but that baptism is "the answer of a good conscience toward God" (1 Pet.3:21). Tell Paul that baptism is a work on our part and he will say, "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" (Titus 3:5).

 

  Paul here makes it clear that baptism is not regeneration, but it is the washing or bath of regeneration. Regeneration or rebirth takes place within through faith and repentance, the bath (baptism) is the outward act that gives witness to the inward reality. That is when one knows he has been reborn -- he has been washed, the symbol or sign of his regeneration.

 

  This is the assurance that Paul gave the Corinthians, some of whom had been guilty of very grievous sins. After naming several ugly sins, the apostle tells them, "But you were washed" (1 Cor. 6:11). They were once idolaters, adulterers, and sodomites, but they were baptized into Christ for remission of their sins. They are now saved, and they can know it. Baptism is their symbol of assurance.

 

  This is an appropriate encouragement to a sister or brother burdened by feelings of insecurity -- Have you forgotten that you were washed clean when you were baptized into Christ?

 

  Paul also gave the Colossians this kind of assurance. After referring to circumcision of the flesh -- a sign that one was truly a Jew -- he refers to "the circumcision made without hands" which was "the circumcision of Christ" -- a reference to the renewal of heart and mind. He goes on to say, "buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Col. 2:11-12).

 

  The Jews had a sign identifying who they were -- literal circumcision. Christians too have a sign -- circumcision of the heart by Christ -- which is formally expressed in being buried with Christ in baptism and being raised with him through faith.

 

  This passage should put to rest once for all the mentality that baptism is a work we perform to be saved, or "doing our part." Here Paul makes it clear that baptism is a work of grace -- "the working of God" as he puts it. In baptism we do nothing except to respond to God's grace. It is something done to us. It is in the middle voice -- we do not act, we are acted upon by the work of God.

 

  That baptism is a sign or symbol of assurance is seen even in our Lord's certification as the Son of God. Jesus was into his 30s before he was openly declared to be divine -- and this is when he was baptized, not before. He may have had some insight all those years as to who he was, but it was not "officially" certified until his baptism. Both Mark and Luke have the assurance given in the second person, to Jesus himelf: "Then (coming up from the water) a voice came from heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased'" (Mk. 1:11). In Matthew the announcement is in the third person, to those standing by, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mt. 3:17).

 

  Jesus knew for sure who he was -- at his baptism. We know for sure who we are -- at our baptism. It is a gracious sign of certainty. We know when we have left one state (darkness) and entered another (light) -- the sign says so!

 

  Unfortunately, there are those believers who dismiss baptism as only a "church ordinance" and unrelated to salvation. In many a pulpit baptism is denigrated as marginal at best -- "Baptism won't save you," they like to say. That can be challenged, for an apostle says in so many words, "baptism now saves you" (1 Pet. 3:21). There must be some sense in which baptism saves, or an apostle would not have said that it does. It is, of course, Christ who saves; it is the grace of God that saves. But the Bible says that baptism saves! We have seen that it at least saves in the sense that it is the formal sign or symbol of forgiveness of sins.

 

  We can only conclude that those who dismiss or neglect baptism do not have the assurance of salvation. This is not to say they are not saved. But they do not have the formal sign of assurance that God has ordained. They may seek assurance in other things -- perhaps their feelings or their experience, iffy as they are. What deprivation! They are like a bride without a wedding ring.

 

  This is not to say there are not other assurances beside baptism that we are indeed children of God. But these are the ongoing assurances of our relationship with God once we have the initial assurance in baptism. For example, 1 John 3:24 names two ways we "know" that Christ abides in us -- by keeping his commandments and by the presence of the Holy Spirit. And 1 John 3:14 says it is our love for each other that gives us assurance that we have passed from death to life.

 

  In Romans 8:16 we have this assurance: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." Peter finds assurance in the "exceedingly great and precious promises" which make us partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

 

  If we identify our life in Christ as "the Way" -- which the Bible does --- then it is baptism that places us on the Way. It provides the sure sign that we are in the Way. Along the uneven journey -- with all its difficulties -- there are facts to be believed, commands to be obeyed, promises to be enjoyed. Admonitions and warnings keep us alert. These are assurances of our ongoing salvation, which is kept by God's faithfulness and our humble response, however imperfect. It is all grace.

 

  The apostle Paul speaks for us all: "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day" (2 Tim. 1:12).