Recreated in Four Dimensions

Have you ever been to a wedding where the heavens opened and a voice declared the couple “husband and wife”? Few of us have. Beautiful as they are, most marriages are quite mundane. Yet when Jesus talks about marriage, He describes it as something that God does: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6). The voices heard at a wedding are human voices, but when it’s all over, God has created a new family.

Baptism is like marriage in this respect, as in many others. A minister says the words and pours out the water, but when the water dries God has created something new. Baptism is not something we do; it’s something done to us. This is clear from the way baptism is performed. In the Old Testament, unclean Israelites usually bathed themselves to become clean (Leviticus 15:5, 6, 7, 8, etc.). When John began baptizing, however, multitudes went to be baptized in the Jordan (Matthew 3:6; Mark 1:5, 8, 9). Nothing is more important about baptism than recognizing that it is God’s work and not ours.

This might sound mystically spooky, but in one sense it’s a common experience. When a salesman makes a sale, his entire company is committed to fulfill the contract. The salesman’s actions are the actions of the company. A minister baptizes because Jesus commanded it (Matthew 28:18-20), and like the salesman, his actions are the actions of his master. God baptizes when His representatives baptize.

Saying “I do” isn’t “just talking.” Saying “I do” at a wedding obligates a man and woman to a lifetime of faithfulness as a husband or wife. Placing a crown on a man’s head isn’t a fashion statement. It makes him a king. What does a man get when he receives a crown? He gets more than a new piece of headgear. He receives authority, power, a realm, privileges, great responsibilities, and, if you believe Shakespeare’s Henry V, many sleepless nights. He may end up a good king or a bad king, but the fact that he receives a crown makes him a king regardless. In just the same way, baptism is not just water. When God baptizes us, He gives us the gift of baptism, which means the gift of authority, the promise of an inheritance, great privileges, large responsibilities, intense oppositions.

Above all, God gives Himself in baptism. Baptism is in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20). When God marks you in baptism, He commits Himself to be your God. He is no longer God-at-a-distance, or God-in-general. He commits Himself, and all His wisdom, power, authority, justice, goodness, and truth to be God-for-Bill or God-for-Judy. If you are baptized, God has promised to be God-for-you.

When He gives Himself, He gives us a new life. To see how, continue at the Trinity House site.