Anniversary of My Christian Baptism
On this day thirty-four years ago (30 June 1991) I was baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
At my baptism I was presented with a Strong’s Concordance
(which I have just about worn out. I use another to keep my old one in “good”
condition).
My From Mason to Minister book (though it focuses on Masonic
themes) is essentially the story of my conversion where God majorly uses
Freemasonry in the process.
I was converted by the grace of God towards the end of 1988
while reading the Bible at home in Canada. I wandered around checking out
churches for a spiritual home. All I wanted was a place where the Bible was expounded
and applied to the congregation. I wasn’t interested in great coffee and great
fellowship, great Sunday school for my kids, great music and soft pews, etc., –
just teach me God’s Word from God’s Word.
We left Manitoba at the end of summer 1990 and arrived in
Queensland, the land of “endless summer.” I attended Toowong Reformed Church on
my third Lord’s Day in Australia.
If you are struggling to understand baptism. the following
are a few selections from some Reformed confessions that really helped me come
to grips with the mode and meaning of Christian baptism:
Belgic Confession (1561): Article 34: The Sacrament of
Baptism
We believe and confess that Jesus Christ, in whom the law is
fulfilled, has by his shed blood put an end to every other shedding of blood, which
anyone might do or wish to do in order to atone or satisfy for sins.
Having abolished circumcision, which was done with blood, Christ
established in its place the sacrament of baptism. By it we are received into
God’s church and set apart from all other people and alien religions, that we
may wholly belong to him whose mark and sign we bear.
Baptism also witnesses to us that God, being our gracious Father, will be our God forever. Therefore Christ has commanded that all those who belong to him be baptized with pure water “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”77
In this way God signifies to us that just as water washes
away the dirt of the body when it is poured on us and also is seen on the
bodies of those who are baptized when it is sprinkled on them, so too the blood
of Christ does the same thing internally, in the soul, by the Holy Spirit.
It washes and cleanses it from its sins and transforms us
from being the children of wrath into the children of God. This does not happen
by the physical water but by the sprinkling of the precious blood of the Son of
God, who is our Red Sea, through which we must pass to escape the tyranny of
Pharaoh, who is the devil, and to enter the spiritual land of Canaan.
So ministers, as far as their work is concerned, give us the
sacrament and what is visible,
but our Lord gives what the sacrament signifies— namely the invisible gifts and
graces; washing, purifying, and cleansing our souls of all filth and
unrighteousness; renewing our hearts and filling them with all comfort; giving
us true assurance of his fatherly goodness; clothing us with the “new self” and
stripping off the “old self with its practices.”78
For this reason we believe that anyone who aspires to reach
eternal life ought to be baptized only once without ever repeating it— for we
cannot be born twice. Yet this baptism is profitable not only when the water is
on us and when we receive it but throughout our entire lives. For that reason
we reject the error of the Anabaptists who are not content with a single
baptism once received and also condemn the baptism of the children of
believers.
We believe our children ought to be baptized and sealed with
the sign of the covenant, as little children were circumcised in Israel on the
basis of the same promises made to our children.
And truly, Christ has shed his blood no less for washing the
little children of believers than he did for adults. Therefore they ought to
receive the sign and sacrament of what Christ has done for them, just as the
Lord commanded in the law that by offering a lamb for them the sacrament of the suffering and death of Christ would be granted them shortly
after their birth. This was the sacrament of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, baptism does for our children what circumcision
did for the Jewish people. That is why Paul calls baptism the “circumcision of
Christ.”79
77 Matt. 28:19
78 Col. 3:9-10
79 Col. 2:11
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) Holy Baptism
Lord’s Day 26
Q & A 69
A. In this way:
Christ instituted this outward washing1 and with it promised that, as surely as
water washes away the dirt from the body, so certainly his blood and his Spirit
wash away my soul’s impurity, that is, all my sins.2
1 Acts
2:38
2 Matt.
3:11; Rom.
6:3-10; 1
Pet. 3:21
Q & A 70
Q. What does it mean to be washed with Christ’s blood
and Spirit?
A. To be washed with Christ’s blood means that God, by
grace, has forgiven our sins because of Christ’s blood poured out for us in his
sacrifice on the cross.1
To be washed with Christ’s Spirit means that the Holy Spirit
has renewed and sanctified us to be members of Christ, so that more and more we
become dead to sin and live holy and blameless lives.2
1 Zech.
13:1; Eph.
1:7-8; Heb.
12:24; 1
Pet. 1:2; Rev.
1:5
2 Ezek.
36:25-27; John
3:5-8; Rom.
6:4; 1
Cor. 6:11; Col.
2:11-12
Q & A 71
Q. Where does Christ promise that we are washed with
his blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of baptism?
A. In the institution of baptism, where he says:
“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.”1
“The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the
one who does not believe will be condemned.”2
This promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism “the
water of rebirth”3 and the washing away of sins.4
1 Matt.
28:19
2 Mark
16:16
3 Tit.
3:5
4 Acts
22:16
Lord’s Day 27
Q & A 72
Q. Does this outward washing with water itself wash
away sins?
A. No, only Jesus Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit cleanse
us from all sins.1
1 Matt.
3:11; 1
Pet. 3:21; 1
John 1:7
Q & A 73
Q. Why then does the Holy Spirit call baptism the water
of rebirth and the washing away of sins?
A. God has good reason for these words. To begin with,
God wants to teach us that the blood and Spirit of Christ take away our sins just
as water removes dirt from the body.1 But more important, God wants to assure
us, by this divine pledge and sign, that we are as truly washed of our sins
spiritually as our bodies are washed with water physically.2
1 1
Cor. 6:11; Rev.
1:5; 7:14
2 Acts
2:38; Rom.
6:3-4; Gal.
3:27
Q & A 74
Q. Should infants also be baptized?
A. Yes.
Infants as well as adults are included in God’s covenant and people,1 and they,
no less than adults, are promised deliverance from sin through Christ’s blood and
the Holy Spirit who produces faith.2 Therefore, by baptism, the sign of the
covenant, they too should be incorporated into the Christian church and
distinguished from the children of unbelievers.3 This was done in the Old
Testament by circumcision,4 which was replaced in the New Testament by
baptism.5
1 Gen.
17:7; Matt.
19:14
2 Isa.
44:1-3; Acts
2:38-39; 16:31
3 Acts
10:47; 1
Cor. 7:14
4 Gen.
17:9-14
5 Col.
2:11-13
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) Chapter 28: Of
Baptism
a. Mat 28:19.
• b. 1 Cor 12:13. • c. Rom 4:11 with Col
2:11-12. • d. Rom 6:5; Gal 3:27.
• e. Titus
3:5. • f. Mark 1:4. • g. Rom 6:3-4.
• h. Mat 28:19-20.
II. The outward element to be used in this sacrament is
water, wherewith the party is to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the gospel lawfully called
thereunto.
a. Mat 3:11; 28:19-20; John 1:33.
III. Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary;
but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the
person.a
a. Mark 7:4; Acts 2:41; 16:33; Heb 9:10, 19-22.
IV. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and
obedience unto Christ,a but also the infants of one or
both believing parents are to be baptized.b
a. Mark
16:15-16; Acts 8:37-38. • b. Gen 17:7, 9 with Gal 3:9, 14 and Col
2:11-12 and Acts
2:38-39 and Rom
4:11-12; Mat 28:19; Mark
10:13-16; Luke 18:15; 1 Cor
7:14.
V. Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this
ordinance,a yet grace and salvation are not so
inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved
without it,b or that all that are baptized are
undoubtedly regenerated.c
a. Luke 7:30 with Exod
4:24-26. • b. Acts 10:2, 4, 22, 31, 45, 47; Rom 4:11.
• c. Acts
8:13, 23.
VI. The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of
time wherein it is administered;a yet, notwithstanding,
by the right use of this ordinance the grace promised is not only offered, but
really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or
infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God’s own
will, in his appointed time.b
a. John 3:5, 8. •
b. Acts
2:38, 41; Gal 3:27; Eph
5:25-26; Titus 3:5.
VII. The sacrament of baptism is but once to be administered
to any person.a
a. Titus 3:5.
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