Baptism
“Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” – Acts 8:36
The church father Gregory of Nazianzus once said that baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift. Baptism, after all, is the ritual enactment of the entire gospel, immersing us into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism is an ordinance (from “order”) that stems from Jesus’ order or command to believe and be baptized. But it is also a grace-filled sign that uses an embodied expression to make inward grace visible and tangible. Indeed, it’s a beautiful and magnificent gift.
First.
Baptism accomplishes three things: First, it initiates us into the Christian faith. Christian initiation is a dynamic process that takes many forms, including the form of infant baptism preceding mature Christian commitment. While we do not practice infant baptism at Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, we believe that God is present and active in all baptisms that invoke the Triune name, regardless of the candidate’s age or the ritual’s “mode.” We gladly affirm the baptism of all members who come from non-Baptist traditions, meaning we do not require anyone to be rebaptized.
Second.
Second, baptism commits us to a life of discipleship. As the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans, baptism unites us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, effectively mapping our lives onto the trajectory of his ministry. This is why, prior to being immersed, a baptismal candidate confesses that “Jesus is Lord.” Such a confession acknowledges that our sinful and selfish strivings are “buried” in the watery grave, and we are raised as a new creation conformed to the image of our Lord and King. Baptism is therefore a testimony of personal faith and commitment, involving an intentional choice to follow Christ. For this reason, believer’s baptism continues to be our normal practice.
Third.
Third, baptism binds us to the Christian community. When we are baptized, we become members of Christ’s universal body, of which the local church is a small iteration. Baptism is therefore a covenantal act in which we promise to practice forgiveness, reconciliation, communal discernment and care for the spiritual and material needs of our brothers and sisters. In other words, baptism makes us citizens of God’s holy nation, where being a citizen involves robust obligations to our fellow pilgrims.