In Matthew 28 Jesus tells His disciples to make more disciples by baptizing and teaching all nations. Jesus says, "[Baptize] them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
What does it mean to do something "in the name of" someone else? It means that this thing is being done by one person on behalf of another -- on behalf of the one in whose name it is being done. And when a pastor says, "I baptize you in the name of..." we are supposed to understand that he is not the principal actor in this drama. Instead, he is doing the work God sent Him to do on God's behalf. In other words, the Word of God tells us in no uncertain terms that we are to receive baptism as if God himself had come to us in His flesh and applied the water with His own two nail-scarred hands.
Many of you think of your baptism as a God-given means whereby you confessed your faith in Christ. Where do you get that idea, and how do you reconcile it with Matthew 28:19? When God so clearly says that baptism is an instrument He places in the hands of His disciples to use on His behalf, how do you turn it into an instrument of your own?
1 comments:
Eric, you ask very powerful questions. However, you would be well served to be aware that Matthew actually writes “into” rather than “in” the name of. The word is “eis” rather than “en.” Jesus says, “Having gone, therefore, disciple all the ethne (nations), baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to guard all-things whatsoever I have enjoined to (commanded) you-all, . . .”
St. Paul writes the same to the Galatians, saying, “For as many as into Christ have you-all been baptized, Christ you-all have sunk into.” (Galatians 3:27)
In both cases the activity on the part of the one being baptized is passive. The baptism is done by one commissioned or commanded to do so. And while the one baptizing is doing so from within the name of God so that it is in God’s name and in the power of God’s name, the person is actually being placed into so as to be engulfed by or clothed with the name of and the very being of Christ.
The reason that people choose to imagine this as their own action is that they do not believe that faith truly is God’s gift and work rather than something that they give and work for themselves. They refuse to count Baptism as the means of their regeneration, as Jesus teaches in John 3:5 and as St. Paul teaches in Titus 3. They refuse to acknowledge that Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins and the means of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as St. Peter teaches in Acts 2:38-39. They refuse to acknowledge that “Baptism saves you” as is plainly and boldly written in 1 Peter 3:21.
When people truly acknowledge and believe that faith is God’s gift and work alone, when they truly confront their own total depravity and hopelessness, then they also gladly confess that Baptism is God’s gracious work by which they are caused to enter into God’s kingdom. This cannot happen while people cling to the false notion that they have some goodness in themselves and some power or desire to draw near to God. Only when they are humbled to acknowledge that God draws near to us in love through the ordained means of grace can they let go of their own works and trust Him as their only Savior. Until then they continue to cry, “But I must . . .”
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