I want to draw your attention today to an excellent article written by ACU’s Brad East on the necessity of baptism. The article is titled “Baptism is Not Optional,” and it’s published on the Christianity Today website.

Brad does an excellent job of connecting lots of dots within Scripture and throughout Church history, showing the power of baptism that bestows on us the gift(s) of God’s Holy Spirit; union with Christ Jesus and a participation in his life, death, and resurrection, resulting in our holiness, righteousness, and redemption; death to our old selves and our old ways; and membership in the universal Body of Christ.

The most intriguing angle to me, personally, is Brad’s use of the adoption imagery and language used in Scripture to describe the effects of baptism. Brad begins his arguments for the necessity of baptism by reminding us that not everyone is a child of God. Every single person on the planet is created by God, loved by God, and bears the divine image of God, but we are not born children of God. The good news of the Gospel is that we can become children of God. Those few paragraphs are worth the read.

We are planning our second annual Baptism Sunday here at GCR on April 27. In preparation for that day, I am teaching two classes on baptism on April 6 and 13 for anyone who has not yet received this necessary Christian rite of initiation, and there has been an encouraging amount of interest and registrations. In our materials promoting Baptism Sunday and the classes, I’ve been emphasizing baptism as a divine gift from God. I’ve been stressing what God is doing in us and through us at our baptisms, almost to the exclusion of anything we might be doing. Baptism is not something we do, it’s not a human work; baptism is something God does to us; it’s a gift.

That is also Brad’s emphasis. Read these closing lines from his excellent article:

“Baptism is about what God has done, can do, and will do for me. It’s not about my yes to God, which may be weak or wavering and at any age is sure to lack maturity and knowledge alike. That’s why I’m being baptized in the first place–my lack, my need. Baptism, instead, is ultimately about God’s yes to me. It is about his inscrutable love for godless rebels made manifest through the humblest and most common of elements: water. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

Peace,

Allan