Baptism Meditation, April 10

1 Corinthians 12:12-13: ?Even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.?E

Paul?s statement here to the Corinthians highlights two important features of baptism. First, it tells us explicitly that baptism is not a work of man. Paul could, of course, say that he himself baptized certain members of the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 1), and throughout Acts individual apostles and deacons baptized others. But we make a basic mistake if we conclude that there is nothing more to baptism than what we can see. Paul may have poured the water, but it was the Spirit who wed the baptized to Christ as members of His body.

Baptism is God?s claim on the baptized. Through baptism, God places His seal and His name, the Triune name, on a person, and then they belong to Him and not to themselves. Baptism is a promise from God. It is not a human work or an expression of our faith; it is an enacted promise, a promise that God will be God for the baptized. Baptism is a gift of God. It is the gift of membership in the body of Christ, the gift of the Spirit, the gift of the favor of God, the gift of fellowship with the Trinity. As Quinton grows, teach him that he has received such gifts, and train him not to despise them. Teach him to cling to them and to remember always that God baptized him.

Paul?s statement teaches, secondly, that baptism is a kind of ordination. Baptism is not only a promise and a gift. Baptism comes with demands. Paul shows us here that the demand that baptism places on us is not merely a demand for faithfulness to God, though it is that. It is also a call to ministry in the body of Christ. In context, those who have been baptized by the Spirit into one body are all members of one another and are to use the gifts that come from the Spirit for the edification, the building-up, of the body of Christ. Every baptized person is a priest, given a place in the worship of God, and called to assist in the upkeep of the holy house that is the church.

Remind Quinton of this often. He is not his own. He belongs to Christ, and therefore he is called to serve God and others, especially those who are the household of faith. But in reminding him of the demands of his baptism, never separate the demand from the promise, the command from the gift. By the Spirit, he will be equipped to edify the body of Christ. Teach him to do that, in the power of the same Spirit, to the glory of God his Father.