Bethlehem Baptist Church

.hopeinGod.org
612-338-7653

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BETHLEHEM BAPTIST CHURCH

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Baptism

II. Baptism 1234

III. Scripture

IV. Five Reasons Baptists Dont Sprinkle Infants

10

V. Sharing Our Testimony

11

VI. Sermons

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I Baptize You With Water

12

Buried and Raised in Baptism Through Faith

18

What Is Baptism and Does It Save?

23

What Baptism Portrays

29

How Do Circumcision and Baptism Correspond?

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Therefore, it is not fitting that the children born merely according to the flesh receive
the sign of the covenant, baptism.
The church is the new covenant community"This cup is the new covenant in my
blood" (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25)we say when we take communion. The
new covenant is the spiritual work of God to put his Spirit within us, write the law
on our hearts, and cause us to walk in his statutes. It is a spiritually authentic
community. Unlike the old covenant community it is defined by true spiritual life
and faith. Having these things is what it means to belong to the Church. Therefore to
give the sign of the covenant, baptism, to those who are merely children of the flesh
and who give no evidence of new birth or the presence of the Spirit or the law
written on their heart or of vital faith in Christ is to contradict the meaning of the
new covenant community and to go backwards in redemptive history.
The Church is not a replay of Israel. It is an advance on Israel. To administer the
sign of the covenant as though this advance has not happened is a great mistake. We
do not baptize our children according to the flesh, not because we don't love them,
but because we want to preserve for them the purity and the power of the spiritual
community that God ordained for the believing church of the living Christ.
I pray that you will be persuaded of these things, and that many who have been
holding back will be baptized, not to comply with any church constitution, but by
faith and obedience to glorify the great new covenant work of God in your life. Have
you been washed by the blood of the Lamb? Are your sins forgiven? Have you died
with Christ and risen by faith to walk in newness of life? Does the Spirit of Christ
dwell in you? Is the law being written on your heart? Come, then, and signify this in
baptism, and glorify God's great new covenant work in your life.

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Baptism

covenant people and receive the sign of the covenant and the outward blessings of
the covenantsuch as the promised land (Genesis 17:8).
The covenant people in the Old Testament were mixed. They were all physical
Israelites who were circumcised, but within that national-ethnic group there was a
remnant of the true Israel, the true children of God (verse 8). This is the way God
designed it to be: he bound himself by covenant to an ethnic people and their
descendants; he gave them all the sign of the covenant, circumcision, but he worked
within that ethnic group to call out a true people for himself.

Baptism is dipping a person under water in the name of God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, in order to symbolize on the outside a spiritual change on the
inside.
1.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The
promise is for you and your children and for all who are far offfor all who the
Lord our God will call (Acts 2:38-39).

How Is the Church a Continuation of Israel?

Now the question for us is: is the New Testament Churchthe Church todaya
continuation of the larger mixed group of ethnic, religious, national Israel, or is the
Church a continuation of the remnant of the true sons of Abraham who are children
of God by faith in Christ? Are we a Spirit-born, new covenant community with the
law of God written on our hearts and defined by faith? We don't need to guess at
this.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I
have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the
age (Matthew 28:19-20).
Or dont you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into
death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the
Father, we too may live a new life (Romans 6:3-4).

Paul makes the answer clear in Galatians 4:22-28:

(22) For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the
bondwoman [Ishmael, born to Hagar] and one by the free woman
[Isaac, born to Sarah]. (23) But the son by the bondwoman was born
according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the
promise. . . . (28) And you brethren [the Church], like Isaac, are
children of promise.
Now who is "you brethren"? They are the Church. The Church is not to be a mixed
heritage like Abraham's seed. The Church is not to be like Israela physical
multitude and in it a small remnant of true saints. The Church is the saints, by
definition. The Church continues the remnant. As verse 28 says, the Church is "like
Isaac, children of promise."
The people of the covenant in the Old Testament were made up of Israel according
to the fleshan ethnic, national, religious people containing "children of the flesh"
and "children of God. "Therefore it was fitting that circumcision was given to all the
children of the flesh.
But the people of the new covenant, called the Church of Jesus Christ, is being built
in a fundamentally different way. The church is not based on any ethnic, national
distinctives but on the reality of faith alone, by grace alone in the power of the Holy
Spirit. The Church is not a continuation of Israel as a whole; it is a continuation of
the true Israel, the remnantnot the children of the flesh, but the children of
promise.
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Circle the key words or phrases in the following Scriptures.

Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with
him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the
dead (Colossians 2:12).
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were
baptized into Christ has clothed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:26-27).
2.

In the above Scriptures, what do we learn about baptism (answer briefly):

Spiritual change (Acts 2:38-39), outward sign (Matthew 28:19-20), union with
Jesus (Romans 6:3-4), Jesus example (Mark 1:9), importance of faith (Colossians
2:12; Galatians 3:26-27).

3.

Do a verse study using the form on the back of this page.

4.

Memorize Matthew 28:19-20.

Verse Study Form

Using the verse(s) you selected from the previous page, complete this verse study form.

1.

Verse Reference:

2.

List two key words and definte them:

Key Word:
Definition:

4.

So, even though circumcision is described by Paul as a sign and seal of Abraham's
righteousness of faith, it was to be given to his infant sons, and their sons, and even to
their servants who were not Jews by birth.
So, if circumcision can be a sign of faith and righteousness, and still be given to all the
male children of the Israelites (who don't yet have faith for themselves), then why
should not baptism can be given to the children of Christians even though it is a sign of
faith and righteousness (which they don't yet have)?

Key Word:
Definition:

3.

circumcised. . . . (11) and it shall be the sign of the covenant between

Me and you. (12) And every male among you who is eight days old
shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born
in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is
not of your descendants. (Genesis 17:10-12)

What Shall We Say to This?

What does the verse say (paraphrase it in your own words)?

How can I apply the truth of this verse to my life today?

The main problem with this argument is a wrong assumption about the similarity
between the people of God in the Old Testament and the people of God today. It
assumes that the way God gathered his covenant people, Israel, in the Old Testament
and the way he is gathering his covenant people, the Church, today is so similar that
the different signs of the covenant (baptism and circumcision) can be administered in
the same way to both peoples. This is a mistaken assumption.
There are differences between the new covenant people called the Church and the old
covenant people called Israel. And these differences explain why it was fitting to give
the old covenant sign of circumcision to the infants of Israel, and why it is not fitting to
give the new covenant sign of baptism to the infants of the Church. In other words,
even though there is an overlap in meaning between baptism and circumcision (seen in
Romans 4:11), circumcision and baptism don't have the same role to play in the
covenant people of God because the way God constituted his people in the Old
Testament and the way he is constituting the Church today are fundamentally different.
Paul makes this plain in several places. Let's look at two of them. Turn with me to
Romans 9:6-8:
(6) But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not
all Israel who are descended from Israel; (7) nor are they all children
because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac [not
Ishmael] your descendants will be named." (8) That is, it is not the
children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the
promise are regarded as descendants.
What's relevant in this text for our purpose is that there were two "Israels": a physical
Israel and a spiritual Israel. Verse 6b:"They are not all Israel [i.e., true spiritual Israel]
who are descended from Israel [i.e., physical, religious Israel]." Yet God ordained that
the whole, larger, physical, religious, national people of Israel be known as his

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Now what relevance does Romans 4:11 have here? Let me quote from a lettera
very good letter (in spirit and content)that I received from a defender of infant
baptism after I preached my messages on baptism in the spring of 1997. He lamented
that I had not dealt with Romans 4:11. Here's why: "For me Romans 4:11 is the
'linchpin' in the doctrine of paedobaptism [infant baptism]. Pull it out, and the whole
doctrine falls."

Baptism of the Spirit

Baptism in water

This is why Romans 4:11 is considered by some as the linchpin of the defense of
infant baptism. It defines circumcision in a way that gives it the same basic meaning
as baptism, and yet we know from Genesis 17 that circumcision was appointed by
God for the infants of all Jewish people.
(10) This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you
and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be
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4. New Testament Letters

So you see what that means? If circumcision and baptism signify the same thing
namely, genuine faiththen you can't use this meaning of baptism by itself as an
argument against baptizing infants, because circumcision was given to infants. In
other words, you can't simply say, "Baptism is an expression and sign of faith;
infants can't have faith; therefore don't baptize infants." You can't simply say this,
because Romans 4:11 says that circumcision means the same thinga sign of
faithand it was given to infants.

3. Baptism in Acts

Now why is this important? It's important because it gives a spiritual meaning to
circumcision that is like the meaning of baptism in the New Testament"a sign and
seal of the righteousness of faith." We say that baptism is an expression of genuine
faith and the right standing with God that we have by faith before we get baptized.
This seems to be what circumcision means too, according to Paul in Romans 4:11.
Circumcision is a sign and seal of a faith that Abraham had before he was
circumcised.

Baptism

Then comes the crucial verse 11 which functions as a kind of definition of

circumcision: "He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of
the faith which he had while uncircumcised." So Abraham's circumcision is
described here as "a sign . . . a seal of the righteousness of faith."

2. Jesus Baptized and

Baptizing

Why did he get

The Holy Spirit and
baptized?
baptism
Why didnt he actually
Baptisms are
do baptisms personally?
accompanied by signs
and wondersto
confirm the promise of
God

Now what is it that he and others see here that makes this verse so compelling in
defense of infant baptism? I'll try to explain. Let's look at the text. In verse 9 Paul
reminds us that "Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness." That is, he was
justified and got right with God through faith alone. Then verse 10 points out that
this happened before Abraham was circumcised. "How then was it credited? While
he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while
uncircumcised." The point is that Abraham's justification was not brought about
through circumcision, which came later, but through faith alone.

1. John the Baptist

Prophet
Prepares for the coming
Messiah
Preached repentance
Practiced a baptism of
repentance

Why Is Romans 4:11 the "Linchpin" for Many Who Baptize

Infants?

Mark 1:4 (NASB) John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism
of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 3:3 (NASB) And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Romans 6:4 (NASB) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into
death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of
the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Ephesians 4:5 (NASB) One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
Colossians 2:12 (NASB) Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you
were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who
raised Him from the dead.
1 Peter 3:21 (NASB) And corresponding to that, baptism now saves younot the
removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 3:6 (NASB) And they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as
they confessed their sins.
Matthew 3:16 (NASB) And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from
the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of
God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him.
Mark 1:5 (NASB) And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the
people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan
River, confessing their sins.
Mark 1:8 (NASB) I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit.
Mark 1:9 (NASB) And it came about in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth in
Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Mark 16:16 (NASB) He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but
he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.
Luke 3:21 (NASB) Now it came about when all the people were baptized, that Jesus
also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened.
Luke 7:30 (NASB) But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected Gods purpose for
themselves, not having been baptized by John.
John 3:23 (NASB) And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there
was much water there; and they were coming and were being baptized.
Acts 1:5 (NASB) For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the
Holy Spirit not many days from now.
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resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21). Baptism is "an appeal to God for a
good conscience." It is an outward act and expression of inner confession and
prayer to God for cleansing, that the one being baptized does, not his parents.
5. When the New Testament church debated in Acts 15 whether circumcision should
still be required of believers as part of becoming a Christian, it is astonishing that
not once in that entire debate did anyone say anything about baptism standing in
the place of circumcision. If baptism is the simple replacement of circumcision as
a sign of the new covenant, and thus valid for children as well as for adults, as
circumcision was, surely this would have been the time to develop the argument
and so show that circumcision was no longer necessary. But it is not even
mentioned.
Those are some of the reasons why Baptists are hesitant to embrace the more elaborate
theological arguments for infant baptism. But now here we are at Romans 4:11 and
many of those who baptize infants see in this verse a linchpin for their position. Let me
try to show you what they see and then why I am not persuaded.

Why Do Many in the Reformed Tradition Endorse Infant Baptism?

We are dealing here with a great Reformed tradition going back to John Calvin and
Ulrich Zwingli and other reformers. I do not despise this tradition. And for many years
I have tried to be fair with the arguments, especially since most of my heroes are in
this camp.
The main reason that this great Reformed tradition endorses the baptism of infants of
believers is that there appears to be in the New Testament a correspondence between
circumcision and baptism. Just as circumcision was given as a sign to the "children of
the covenant" in the Old Testament, so baptismthe new sign of the covenant
should be given to the "children of the covenant" today. For example, in Colossians
2:11-12 there seems to be a connection between circumcision and baptism: "In Him
[Christ] you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the
removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with
Him in baptism . . ." So for the sake of the argument, let's grant that there is some
correlation between circumcision and baptism.
What are we to make of this correlation? Well, for 400 years a fairly elaborate
argument has been made that baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of the covenant
and that it should be applied in the church the way it was applied in Israel, namely, to
the children of the covenant membersIsraelites then, Christians now. So for example
the Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God (from 350 years ago) says,
"The seed and posterity of the faithful born within the church have by their birth an
interest [a share] in the covenant and right to the seal of it and to the outward privileges
of the church under the gospel, not less than the children of Abraham in the time of the
Old Testament."
In other words, the children of Christian believers today belong to the visible church
by virtue of their birth and should then receive the sign and seal of the covenant just as
the eight-day-old infants of Israelites did in the Old Testament. That is the main
argument.
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August 29, 1999

Bethlehem Baptist Church

John Piper, Pastor

Acts 2:38 (NASB) And Peter said to them, Repent, and let each of you be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit.

How Do Circumcision and Baptism Correspond?

Romans 4:9-12
Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For
we say, "FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS
RIGHTEOUSNESS." 10 How then was it credited? While he was
circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while
uncircumcised; 11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the
righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he
might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that
righteousness might be credited to them, 12 and the father of circumcision
to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the
steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while
uncircumcised.
I am going to talk today about the relationship between Old Testament circumcision and
New Testament baptism. One of the reasons we are called Baptists is that we believe that
the New Testament teaches us to baptize believers, but not the infant children of
believers.

Acts 2:41 (NASB) So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there
were added that day about three thousand souls.
Acts 8:12 (NASB) But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the
kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men
and women alike.
Acts 8:13 (NASB) And even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he
continued on with Philip; and as he observed signs and great miracles taking
place, he was constantly amazed.
Acts 8:36 (NASB) And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the
eunuch said, Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?
Acts 8:38 (NASB) And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the
water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptized him.
Acts 9:18 (NASB) And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and
he regained his sight, and he arose and was baptized.

Some Reasons Baptists Do Not Baptize Infants

Acts 10:47 (NASB) Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who
have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?

There are many reasons for this conviction. Let me mention five that I will pass over
quickly so that I can come to the main issue in Romans 4:11, where some of those who
believe in infant baptism build their case. I pass over these quickly because I have dealt
with them before in the sermon series on baptism in the spring of 1997. You can get
those sermons and read them or listen to them.

Acts 10:48 (NASB) And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.

1. In every New Testament command and instance of baptism the requirement of faith
2.

3.

4.

precedes baptism. So infants incapable of faith are not to be baptized.

There are no explicit instances of infant baptism in all the Bible. In the three
"household baptisms" mentioned (household of Lydia, Acts 16:15; household of the
Philippian jailer, Acts 16:30-33; household of Stephanus, 1 Corinthians 1:16) no
mention is made of infants, and in the case of the Philippian jailer, Luke says
explicitly, "they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his
house" (Acts 16:32), implying that the household who were baptized could
understand the Word.
Paul (in Colossians 2:12) explicitly defined baptism as an act done through faith: ". .
. having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with
Him through faith in the working of God." In baptism you were raised up with Christ
through faithyour own faith, not your parents' faith. If it is not "through faith"if
it is not an outward expression of inward faithit is not baptism.
The apostle Peter, in his first letter, defined baptism this way, ". . . not the removal
of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good consciencethrough the
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Acts 16:15 (NASB) And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us,
saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house
and stay. And she prevailed upon us.
Acts 16:33 (NASB) And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their
wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.
Acts 18:8 (NASB) And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with
all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing
and being baptized.
Acts 19:5 (NASB) And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
Acts 22:16 (NASB) And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash
away your sins, calling on His name.
Romans 6:3 (NASB) Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
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1 Corinthians 1:13 (NASB) Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you,
was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
1 Corinthians 1:14 (NASB) I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and
Gaius.
1 Corinthians 1:15 (NASB) That no man should say you were baptized in my name.
1 Corinthians 1:16 (NASB) Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas;
beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other.
1 Corinthians 10:2 (NASB) And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the
sea.
1 Corinthians 12:13 (NASB) For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves of free, and we were all made to drink
of one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:29 (NASB) Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the
dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?
Galatians 3:27 (NASB) For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ.
John 1:33 (NASB) And I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in
water said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining
upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 3:11 (NASB) As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who
is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals;
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
1 Corinthians 1:17 (NASB) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the
gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made
void.
Romans 6:4 (NASB) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into
death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the
Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Ezekiel 36:25 (NASB) Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I
will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

The most crucial commentary on this truth is Colossians 2:12. Paul says, "Having
been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through
faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." Notice: We are raised up
with Christ just like Romans 6:4 says we walk in newness of life. And there is the
working of God who raised him from the dead just like Romans 6:4 says that Christ
was raised through the glory of the Father. And this happens through faith in the
working of God who raised Jesus from the dead.
So Colossians 2:12 makes explicit what Romans 6:4 leaves implicit - that baptism
expresses our faith in the working of God to raise Jesus from the dead. We believe that
Christ is alive from the grave and reigning today at the Father's right hand in heaven
from which he will come again in power and glory. And that faith in God's working God's glory as Paul calls it - is how we share in the newness of life that Christ has in
himself.
In fact, the newness of life is the life of faith in the glory and the working of God. "I
am crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live . . but the life I live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God." The newness of life is the life of day by day trusting
in the working of God - the glory of God.

Baptism Portrays What Happened to us When We Became

Christians
So let's summarize and come to a conclusion. Baptism portrays what happened to us
when we became Christians. This is what happened to us: we were united to Christ.
His death became our death. We died with him. And in the same instant, his life
became our life. We are now living out the life of Christ in us. And all this is
experienced through faith.
This is what it means to be a Christian - to live in the reality of what our baptism
portrays: day by day we look away from ourselves to God and say, "Because of
Christ, your Son, I come to you. In him I belong to you. I am at home with you. He is
my only hope of acceptance with you. I receive that acceptance anew every day. My
hope is based on his death for me and my death in him. My life in him is a life of faith
in you, Father. Because of him I trust your working in me and for me. The same
power and glory that you used to raise him from the dead you will use to help me. In
that promise of future grace I believe, and in that I hope. That is what makes my life
new. O Christ, how I glory in what my baptism portrays! Thank you for dying my
death for me and giving new life to me. Amen."

Hebrews 9:13 (NASB) For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer
sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,
Hebrews 11:28 (NASB) By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood,
so that he who destroyed the first-born might not touch them.
Acts 22:16 (NASB) And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash
away your sins, calling on His name.
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death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death," Here
is a great truth about us Christians. We have died. When Christ died he died our
death. This means at least two things. 1) One is that we are not the same people we
once were; our old self has died. We are not the same. 2) Another is that our future
physical death will not have the same meaning for us that it would have had if Christ
had not died our death. Since we have died with Christ, and he died our death for us,
our death will not be the horrible thing it would have been. "O death where is your
victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55). The answer is that the
sting and the victory of death have been swallowed up by Christ. Remember from
last week: he drank the tank. Notice the repetition of the word "into" in verses 3 and
4. Baptized "into Christ Jesus," and baptized "into his death" (verse 3), and baptism
"into death" (verse 4a). What this says is that baptism portrays our union with Christ,
that is, we are united to him spiritually so that his death becomes our death and his
life will become our life. How do we experience this? How do you know if this has
happened to you? The answer is that it is experienced by faith. You can hear this in
the parallel verses. Galatians 2:20 makes the connection with faith: "I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, and the life I
now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. . ." In other words, the "I"
who died was the old unbelieving, rebellious "I" and the "I" who came to life was
the "I" of faith - "The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God." And the basis
of all this is union with Christ - "Christ lives in me." And I live in him - in spiritual
union with him. His death is my death and his life is being lived out in my life.

Ephesians 5:26 (NASB) That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word.
Titus 3:5 (NASB) He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in
righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewing by the Holy Spirit.

Another illustration of this would be Colossians 2:6-7a: "As you therefore have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now
being built up in Him and established in your faith." Here again you can see that
faith in Christ is the way you experience union with Christ. You receive him as Lord
and Savior and in that faith you are united to him and walk "in him" and are built up
"in him."
So when Romans 6:3-4a says that we are baptized into Christ and into his death, I
take it to mean that baptism expresses the faith in which we experience union with
Christ. This is presumably why God designed the mode of baptism to portray a
burial. It represents the death that we experience when we are united to Christ. This
is why we are immersed: it's a symbolic burial.
So know, believer, that you have died. The old unbelieving, rebellious "I" has been
crucified with Christ. This is what your baptism meant and means.
2. Baptism portrays our newness of life in Christ.
Verse 4: "We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life." Nobody stays under the water of baptism. We come up out
of the water. After death comes new life. The old "I" of unbelief and rebellion died
when I was united to Christ through faith. But the instant the old "I" died a new "I"
was given life - a new spiritual person was, as it were, raised from the dead.
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Five Reasons Baptists Dont Sprinkle Infants

seriously.
Which non-essentials will be included from generation to generation in defining
various communities depends largely on varying circumstances and varying
assessments of what truths need to be emphasized.

1)

What Baptism Portrays

2)
With that background let's look at Romans 5:20-6:4 to see what baptism portrays, and
only secondarily what implications this has for the mode of baptism. My aim here is to
help you see the glorious reality that baptism points to so that, mainly, the reality itself
will grip you, and that, secondarily, the beauty and significance of the act will rise in
your mind and hearts. Romans 5:20-6:4:

3)

And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 that, as sin reigned in
death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might
increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in
it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have
been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too
might walk in newness of life.

4)

5)

One of the great things about this text is that it shows that, if you understand what
baptism portrays, you understand what really happened to you when you became a
Christian. Many of us came to faith and were baptized at a point when we did not
know very much. This is good. It is expected that baptism happens early in the
Christian walk when you do not know very much. So it is also expected that you will
learn later more and more of what it means.
Don't think, "Oh, I must go back and get baptized again. I didn't know it had all this
meaning." No. No. That would mean you would be getting re-baptized with every new
course you take in Biblical theology. Rather, rejoice that you expressed your simple
faith in obedience to Jesus and now are learning more and more of what it all meant.
That is what Paul is doing here: he is hoping that his readers know what their baptism
meant, but he goes ahead and teaches them anyway, in case they don't or have
forgotten. Learn from these verses what you once portrayed in the eyes of God, and
what actually happened to you in becoming a Christian.
I am going to deal with only two things that baptism portrays, according to these
verses.
1. Baptism portrays our death in the death of Christ. Verses 3-4a: "Or do you not know
that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His
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there is a picture of a man baptizing in a missionary setting in a river, with this caption
under the picture: "Outdoor services and river baptisms are sometimes the best
vehicles for growth." We simply do not know the whole constellation of reasons God
had in his wisdom for prescribing baptism as a normative way of expressing faith in
Christ and identification with him and his people. We can think of several reasons why
it is a good thing, but we probably cannot come near to thinking of all the good effects
that God intends. In the end it is an act of trust in our Father that he knows what he is
doing and we are happy to act on his command.

PRACTICING OUR FAITH

BY SHARING OUR TESTIMONY
Text:
1 Peter 3:13-16
Theme: What is God doing right now in my life that I am responsible to tell others?
I.

MY JOURNEY OF FAITH

Think of your life experience according to the diagram below, and write out the most
significant matters in each part.

Immersion or Sprinkling?
But today I will try to show from Romans 5:20-6:4 a little more of the meaning of the
act. This will also address the question that some of you have regarding the mode of
baptism - that is, immersion rather than sprinkling. In fact, let me begin with a general
word about the mode of immersion as opposed to sprinkling. There are at least three
kinds of evidence for believing that the New Testament meaning and practice of
baptism was by immersion. 1) The meaning of the word baptizo in Greek is essentially
"dip" or "immerse," not sprinkle. 2) The descriptions of baptisms in the New
Testament suggest that people went down into the water to be immersed rather than
having water brought to them in a container to be poured or sprinkled (Matthew 3:6,
"in the Jordan;" 3:16, "he went up out of the water;" John 3:23, "much water there;"
Acts 8:38, "went down into the water"). 3) Immersion fits the symbolism of being
buried with Christ (Romans 6:1-4; Colossians 2:12).
We won't linger over this, but let me say a word about how we may look at the fact
that our church and our denomination make baptism by immersion a defining part of
membership in the local covenant community (but not in the universal body of Christ).
We do not believe that the mode of baptism is an essential act for salvation. So we do
not call into question a person's Christian standing merely on the basis of the mode of
their baptism. One might then ask: should you not then admit to membership those
who are truly born again but who were sprinkled as believers? There are two ways to
account for why we do not.

BIRTH

A.

B.

C.

TURNING TO
CHRIST

HOW CHRIST
HAS
DIRECTED AND
CHANGED MY
LIFE

BACKGROUND

A. BIRTH TO FIRST RELIGIOUS MEMORIES

B. FROM RELIGION TO A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST

1) Should we call a manmade method of baptism "baptism," if we believe on good

evidence that it departs from the form that Christ inaugurated? Would this not run the
risk of minimizing the significance that Christ himself invested in the ordinance?
2) Local Christian communities, called churches, are built around shared Biblical
convictions, some of which are essential for salvation and some of which are not. We
do not define our covenant life together only by the narrowest possible set of beliefs
one must have to be saved. We believe rather that the importance of truth and the
authority of Scripture are better honored when communities of Christian faith define
themselves by clusters of Biblical convictions and stand by them, rather than
redefining the meaning of membership each time one of their convictions is disputed.
When different Christian communities can do this while expressing love and brotherly
affection for other believers, both truth and love are well-served. For example, the fact
that many of the speakers we invite to the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors could not
be members of this church says that we take love and unity seriously and we take truth
32

C. FROM CONVERSION TO THE PRESENT

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May 4, 1997

Bethlehem Baptist Church

John Piper, Pastor

I Baptize You With Water

May 25, 1997

Bethlehem Baptist Church

John Piper, Pastor

What Baptism Portrays

The Baptism of John

Matthew 3
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness
of Judea, saying, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 3
For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying, "THE
VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, "MAKE READY
THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!'" 4
Now John himself had a garment of camel's hair, and a leather belt
about his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then
Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district
around the Jordan; 6 and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan
River, as they confessed their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the
Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You
brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8
Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not
suppose that you can say to yourselves, "We have Abraham for our
father'; for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up
children to Abraham. 10 And the axe is already laid at the root of the
trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and
thrown into the fire. 11 As for me, I baptize you with water for
repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am
not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and fire. 12 And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will
thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into
the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 13
Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be
baptized by him. 14 But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need
to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" 15 But Jesus
answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him. 16 And after
being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold,
the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a
dove, and coming upon Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens,
saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

Romans 5:20-6:4
And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 that, as sin reigned in
death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might
increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in
it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have
been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we
too might walk in newness of life.
Today is the last message in this short series on baptism. I know there is so much
more to say. I'm sorry if I have left unanswered some of your questions. But we will
have more opportunities in various settings to discuss these things.
Recall that one of our main motives for putting this series here at the beginning of the
summer is that we believe the New Testament calls for people to come to Christ
openly and courageously. We want to see people who have been believers come to
that point of public testimony and we want to see people become believers through
your witness and through the ministry of the word here all summer long.

Why Did Jesus Ordain the Act of Baptism?

Sometimes we might wonder why Jesus ordained the act of baptism. Why is there
such a thing as baptism? If salvation is by grace through faith, why institute a required
ritual or a symbol to act out that faith? That is a question the Bible does not answer.
But experience teaches some interesting things.

Today we begin a brief series on the Biblical teachings concerning baptism. There are
several reasons for this. One is that in almost seventeen years I have never preached a
series of messages on the Biblical meaning of baptism. This is a gaping hole in our
treatment of the whole message of the Bible for our time.

For example, after my first message three weeks ago a former missionary to the
Philippines came up to me and expressed her appreciation for the series and then said
why. She said that in the Philippines, where there is a good bit of nominal and
syncretistic Catholicism, converts were tolerated and scarcely noticed by their family until they came to be baptized. Then the Biblical predictions of hostility and
separation came to pass. There is something about this open ritual of new-found faith
that makes clear where a person stands and what he is doing. In other words, in many
cultures today the situation is a lot like the situation with John the Baptist. He came
preaching a baptism of repentance and those who thought they already had all they
needed were often enraged.

Another reason is that Jesus made baptism part of his ministry and part of our mission.

That same week this missions magazine (The Dawn Report, May 30) came. On page 7

Baptism : part of Jesus' Ministry and Part of our Mission

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through the work of Christ. But you receive that salvation through calling on the name
of the Lord, by trusting him. And it is God's will all over the world and in every culture
- no matter how simple or how sophisticated - that this appeal to God be expressed in
baptism. "Lord, I am entering the ark of Christ! Save me as I pass through the waters
of death!" Amen.

Baptism is not man's idea. It was God's idea. It is not a denominational thing. It is a
Biblical thing. It started with John the Baptist at the beginning of our gospels. He
came, verse 11 says, to "baptize with water for repentance." It continued in the
ministry of Jesus himself. John 4:1 says, "Jesus was making and baptizing more
disciples than John," although it was the disciples, not Jesus who did the actual
immersing (John 4:2). And the practice was picked up by the church not because of
their own wisdom, but because of the command of the Lord. At the end of his
earthly ministry Jesus said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Matthew
28:19). So Jesus made baptism part of his ministry and part of our mission.

Baptism : Universal in the Early Church

Another reason for the series is that the practice of baptism was universal in the early
church. It was not just for converted Jews or converted gentiles, or any one specific
church. It was practiced for all converts in all the churches. We know of no
unbaptized believers (except the thief on the cross, Luke 23:43). For example, in
Romans 6 Paul says to a church that he has never visited (in answer to a question
whether Christians can sin that grace may abound), "How shall we who died to sin
still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus have been baptized into His death?" (Romans 6:2-3).
In other words, he bases his argument that Christians can't go on willfully sinning on
the fact that we have all died with Christ, as baptism shows. Dead men don't sin. He
assumes that the Roman believers were all baptized, and he was simply reminding
them what it stood for. It was a universal, defining experience in the early church. If
we are to be in sync with the entire New Testament and the entire early church we
must take baptism seriously and practice it faithfully.
Finally, there is a reason for this series that relates to our situation today at
Bethlehem. We believe that we have been remiss in not calling for a more forthright
and public declaration of faith in response to the ministry of the word. Most
American evangelicals are familiar with what Billy Graham does at the end of his
preaching, calling people to walk to the front. Sometimes these are called
"invitations." Sometimes "altar calls." When you look for something like this in the
Bible there is no clear example. But what is clear is that when Paul preached the
word, say in a synagogue or on the Areopagus, he got connected with those who
believed (Acts 17:4,12,34).

The Decisive, Public Way of Taking a Public Stand

And if you ask what the decisive, public way of taking a Christian stand was in the
New Testament, the answer is, baptism. The message Peter gave in Acts 2 ended
with the words, "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 2:38).
Our renewed conviction is that we need to regularly offer baptism as the decisive
public way for people to respond publicly to the gospel. But to do this we felt we
needed a clearer understanding as a church of what baptism is. Hence the series on
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15

baptism.
Then, in a step of faith and hope in God's saving power among us through the
summer, we are planning to have baptism and testimony services every Wednesday
evening beginning in June, with some of them being off-site in lakes and pools. Our
thought is that God has been and will be at work among us to bring people to faith
and readiness for baptism, and that the guests and families that come to baptisms need
to hear the testimonies of how God brought people to himself and what it means to be
a Christian.
David Livingston is planning Sunday morning baptismal classes throughout the
summer that will prepare a person in two weeks for following through on their
profession of faith in baptism. We want to keep the time between the profession of
faith and the baptism fairly short, because that is the way the New Testament did it,
and because then the symbol feels more like a declaration of the new reality of faith.

Beginning with John the Baptist

Today we begin our series with the baptizing ministry of John the Baptist. This is the
New Testament origin of Christian baptism. There is a close continuity between
Christian Baptism and John's baptism. John began baptizing, Jesus continued
baptizing, and he commanded the church to keep on with the practice : though now
the act would be done in his name. So there are crucial things to learn about baptism
from the baptism of John.
The most important thing to learn is that when a Jewish person received John's
baptism, it was a radical act of individual commitment to belong to the true people of
God, based on personal confession and repentance, NOT on corporate identity with
Israel through birth.
This is one of the main reasons I am a Baptist, that is, this is one of the main reasons
that I do not believe in baptizing infants, who cannot make this personal commitment
or confession or repentance. John's baptism was an assault on the very assumptions
that give rise to much infant baptism. Let me try to explain and show you what I
mean from Matthew 3.
First of all, get the picture. According to verses 1-2, John comes into "the wilderness
of Judea, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" He is in Judea and
he is preaching to Jews, God's chosen people. He is the promised prophet who would
come and prepare the way of the Lord : make things ready for the Messiah. It's
important to realize that John's ministry was to Jews, not primarily to Gentiles.
The reason this is important is that the Jews are already God's chosen people in an
outward, ethnic sense. So this means that John's radical call to repentance was being
given to Jews who were already part of the historic people of God. These are the
people John was telling to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.
These were people who were part of God's covenant and they had the sign of the
16

baptism. In verse 19, Peter reminds the readers that, in the spirit, Jesus had gone to
preach to the people in Noah's day, whose spirits are now in prison awaiting judgment.
(I don't take the position that verse 19 refers to Jesus' preaching in hell between Good
Friday and Easter.) But there was tremendous evil and hardness in Noah's day and only
eight people enter the ark for salvation from the judgment through water.
Now Peter sees a comparison between the waters of the flood and the waters of
baptism. Verse 21 is the key verse: "And corresponding to that [the water of the flood],
baptism now saves you - not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God
for a good conscience - through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Now there are some
denominations that love this verse because it seems at first to support the view called
"baptismal regeneration." That is, baptism does something to the candidate: it saves by
bringing about new birth. So, for example, one of the baptismal liturgies for infants
says, "Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate, and grafted
into the body of Christ's Church, let us give thanks."
Now the problem with this is that Peter seems very aware that his words are open to
dangerous misuse. This is why, as soon as they are out of his mouth, as it were, he
qualifies them lest we take them the wrong way. In verse 21 he does say, "Baptism
now saves you" - that sounds like the water has a saving effect in and of itself apart
from faith. He knows that is what it sounds like and so he adds immediately, "Not the
removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience - through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ." (Or your version might have: "the pledge of a good
conscience toward God").
But the point seems to be this: When I speak of baptism saving, Peter says, I don't
mean that the water, immersing the body and cleansing the flesh, is of any saving
effect; what I mean is that, insofar as baptism is "an appeal to God for a good
conscience," (or is "a pledge of a good conscience toward God"), it saves. Paul said in
Romans 10:13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord - everyone who appeals
to the Lord - will be saved." Paul does not mean that faith alone fails to save. He
means that faith calls on God. That's what faith does. Now Peter is saying, "Baptism is
the God-ordained, symbolic expression of that call to God. It is an appeal to God either in the form of repentance or in the form of commitment.

What is Baptism?
Now this is fundamentally important in our understanding of what baptism is in the
New Testament. James Dunn is right I think when he says that "1 Peter 3:21 is the
nearest approach to a definition of baptism that the New Testament affords" (Baptism
in the Holy Spirit, p. 219). What is baptism? Baptism is a symbolic expression of the
heart's "appeal to God." Baptism is a calling on God. It is a way of saying to God with
our whole body, "I trust you to take me into Christ like Noah was taken into the ark,
and to make Jesus the substitute for my sins and to bring me through these waters of
death and judgment into new and everlasting life through the resurrection of Jesus my
Lord."
This is what God is calling you to do. You do not save yourself. God saves you
29

him life. "Having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit." This
means, at least, that God was satisfied with Christ's substitution. Which means that if
you will cherish it as the foundation of your life, God will be satisfied with you, in
Christ. God gave Christ life in at least two senses: one is that God gave him life in
the spirit during the three days while his body was in the grave. We know this
because Jesus said to the repentant thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in
paradise" (Luke 23:43). Today, not in three days, but today. The other way that God
gave Christ life is that he raised his body from the dead, and transformed it into a
"spiritual body" - a new kind of body without the limitation of the old "flesh" - a
body suited for the spiritual realm that "flesh and blood" cannot inherit (1
Corinthians 15:50). So God gave a mighty YES to Christ's substitution by raising
him from the dead.
That's the top of the sandwich around the teaching of baptism: "Christ has suffered
for sins once for all the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God." Welcome
home, are the sweetest words in the world, when God speaks them to our soul.

Exulting in the Subjection of Christ's (and our) Enemies

The bottom part of the sandwich is verse 22: "Christ is at the right hand of God,
having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected
to Him." Here we see the other effect of the death and resurrection of Christ. First
was a substitution for our sins, now we see a subjection of his enemies. First
substitution, then subjection. (Kids, ask mom and dad at lunch today, "What were
the two words that started with "s" to describe the work of Christ?)
Now don't miss this: we saw the very same thing last week in Colossians 2:15. When
Christ died and rose again, all the evil angels, and authorities and powers were
subjected to him in a new way. From the beginning of creation he was sovereign
over them. That's not new. But now he has nullified the one thing that they could use
to destroy us, our sin. It's as if the demonic world had many weapons to harm us, but
only one great tank of poison that could destroy the children of God. And when
Christ went to the cross, he drank the entire tank.
O there is much to contend for here, but for now, this morning, let us simply exult in
this. Let us commune with our God in this. Let us revel in this reality. That the
substitutionary death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ subjected angels and
authorities and powers to him, meaning that in him the elect of God cannot be
destroyed by these enemies. Our great enemies are subjected to the will of the one
who died to save us, and he will save us. He will not let his work of substitution or
subjection be done in vain.

Does Baptism Save?

Now sandwiched between these two great truths about Christ (substitution for
sinners and subjection of enemies) are the words about baptism. I preached on this
text September 25, 1994. So I send you to the file cabinet if you want more, but I
only have time here to go straight to the point at issue, namely, the meaning of
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covenant : at least the men did : namely, circumcision.

Confess Your Sin, Repent, be Baptized

To these people, who were ethnic Jews, part of God's covenant people, having the sign
of the covenant, circumcision, John said, in effect, "Confess your sins, repent, and
signal this with baptism, because God's wrath is hanging over you like an axe over the
root of a tree." Look at verse 6: "They were being baptized by him in the Jordan River,
as they confessed their sins." This is why his baptism was called "a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4). He called for the Jews to admit that
they were sinners and needed to get right with God, and to admit that being Jews was
no guarantee of being saved. In other words baptism was a sign that they were
renouncing their old dependency on ethnic Jewishness and were relying wholly on the
mercy of God to forgive those who confess their sins and repent.
You can see this even more clearly in verse 7: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned
you to flee from the wrath to come?'" That's the issue : the wrath of God. Not just on
the nations who are uncircumcised, but even on God's own people. In other words,
Jewishness was no guarantee of salvation. Being born into a covenant family was no
guarantee of being a child of God. Baptism is John's new sign of belonging of the true
people of God : not based on Jewishness or being born into a covenant family, but
based on radically personal, individual repentance and faith. They got baptized one by
one to show that they were repenting as individuals, and joining the true people of
God : the true Israel, not simply the old ethnic Israel, but the true remnant of those who
personally repent and believe. Merely traditional Jews were become true spiritual Jews
through repentance : at least that was John's aim.

"We Have Abraham as our Father"

We see even more deeply into John's position when John responds to the Pharisees and
Sadducees. He says in verse 8, "Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance."
And then he reads their minds, it seems, and says in verse 9, "And do not suppose that
you can say to yourselves, "We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you, that God
is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham." Now what were the
Pharisees and Sadducees really saying with the words, "We have Abraham as our
father!"? They were saying, "Don't talk to us about the wrath of God. Wrath belongs to
the gentiles, not to the descendants of Abraham."
In other words, they were saying that physical descent from Abraham guaranteed the
security of their salvation. There was no threat of wrath! "We have Abraham as our
father!" What was their reasoning? Well, John shows us by the way he responds. In
verse 9b he says, "I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children to
Abraham." In other words, what they were thinking was that God had made a promise
to the children of Abraham that they would be blessed, not just with temporal blessings,
but with eternal blessings (he would be their God and they his people) and that God
would always be for them as his covenant people. Since God cannot lie, the children of
17

Abraham are safe, no matter what, because if God destroyed his own people, then there
would be no one left of fulfil the promises to, and he would prove to be a liar. So they
use the faithfulness of God as their warrant for security.
To this John has a stunning response: he says, you are right about the faithfulness of
God, but you make a terrible mistake in thinking that, if you perish in his wrath, he can't
fulfil his promises. He can, and he will. God can, if he must, raise up children to
Abraham from these stones (or from Gentiles!). In other words God is not boxed in or
limited, the way you think he is. He will be faithful to fulfill his promises to the
children to Abraham, but he will not fulfill them to unbelieving, unrepentant children of
Abraham. And if all of the children should be unrepentant and unbelieving, he would
raise up from stones children who would believe and repent.

God Can Raise up Children Who Believe and Repent

Now what does all this tell us about baptism? Three things:
1. It tells us that John's baptism is not simple continuation of circumcision. This is
important because those who defend infant baptism often appeal to circumcision as the
old sign of the covenant and say that baptism is the new sign. The one was given to
infants and so should the other be. Circumcision was the sign of belonging to the Old
Covenant people of God. Every Jewish male received it. If you were born Jewish, you
received the sign of the covenant as a baby boy. So at least some of the Pharisees and
Sadducees came to see circumcision as the sign of God's favor and of their security as
the covenant people. But John's baptism was a radical attack on this false security. He
infuriated the Pharisees by calling the people to renounce reliance on the sign of the
covenant that they got when they were infants, and to receive another sign to show that
they were not relying on Jewish birth, but on the mercy of God received by repentance
and faith. A new people within Israel was being formed, and a new sign of a new
covenant was being instituted. It was not a simple continuation of circumcision. It was
an indictment of a misuse of circumcision as a guarantee of salvation. Circumcision
was a sign of ethnic continuity; baptism was a sign of spiritual reality.
2. John's baptism was a sign of personal, individual repentance, not a sign of birth into a
covenant family. It is hard to overstate how radical this was in John's day. The Jews
already had a sign of the covenant, circumcision. John came calling for repentance and
offering a new sign, baptism. This was incredibly offensive, far more offensive even
than when a Baptist today says that baptism is not a sign to be received by infants born
into a Christian home, but a sign of repentance and faith that a person chooses for
himself, even if he already has been christened as an infant, the way the Jews were
circumcised as infants. John's baptism is the beginning of the radical, individual
Christian ordinance of baptizing those who believe.
3. John's baptism fits what we are going to see in all the rest of the New Testament, and
indeed in all the first two centuries of the Christian era until A.D. 200 when Tertullian
mentions infant baptism for the first time in any historical document, namely, that all
baptism was the baptism of believers, not infants. And the reason was that baptism was
the sign of belonging to the new people of God who are constituted not by birth or
18

First, the greatest problem in the world, the greatest problem in your life and mine, is
that we are cut off from God. We have no right to approach him. We are alienated
from him. You see this behind the words of Peter when he says that the aim of
Christ's suffering was "that he might bring us to God." Now if Christ had to die that
we might be brought to God, it is clear that we are alienated from God without
Christ. This is the big issue. Not floods, and not cancer, and not crime, and not war,
and not our job or marriage or kids. The big issue is that we are cut off from God,
our Maker. And if that problem does not get solved, then the anger of God will rest
on us and our eternity will be miserable.
2. It is sin that alienates us from God.
Second, we see what the problem is that alienates us from God, namely, sin. Peter
says, "Christ suffered for our sins . . . that he might bring us to God." It's our sins
that cut us off from God. This is true legally and it's true emotionally - as we all
know. Legally, God is a just judge and does not simply pronounce the innocent
guilty and the guilty innocent. He is holy and does not relax in the living room with
rebels. Every sin is serious and pushes him farther away. And emotionally, we know
that as our consciences are defiled by sins we feel so dirty in the presence of God
that we can't lift our faces.
3. God substituted his Son for us.
Third, God has taken the initiative to overcome this alienation from him by offering
Christ to suffer in our place. You see this great reality of substitution in the words,
"Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the just for the unjust." Here is the great
ground of our hope, that we really can and will come home to God. O let us exult in
this above all the works of God - that he has substituted his just Son in our place.
This is the great gospel. This is what holds us late at night and early in the morning
when sin and Satan assail us with their accusations and say, you can't pray to God,
much less go to heaven. Look at you! You're a sinner! To this we say, "Yes, but my
hope does not lie in not being a sinner. It lies in a substitution of the Just for the
unjust."
4. The substitution was once for all.
And to add to the glory of it, in the fourth place, Peter, just like the book of Hebrews
(7:27; 9:12; 10:10), says that this substitution of the Just for the unjust was "once for
all" - once for all time. It need not be and cannot be repeated, because it was perfect
and complete the first and only time it was done. The debt for all my sins - past,
present and future - was paid in a single sacrifice for all time. O the glory of an
objective, finished, once-for-all gospel performed by God in his Son outside of me
apart from my psychological fickleness.
5. God was satisfied with Christ's substitution.
And fifth, after he had offered himself once for all the Just for the unjust, God gave
27

John Owen on Controversy

ethnic identity, but by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

So controversy is essential in this fallen world, and controversy is deadly in a fallen

world. We must do it and we must tremble to do it. A wise counselor for us in this is
John Owen, the Puritan pastor from 340 years ago. He was involved in many
controversies in his day - theological and denominational and political. But he never
ceased to be a deep lover of God and a faithful pastor of a flock. He counsels us like
this concerning doctrinal controversy:

The way of salvation is repentance and faith in Christ, not ethnic identity or birth to
Christian parents. God calls us today, no matter who our parents were, and no matter
what ritual we received as infants : God calls us today to repent and believe on Christ
alone for salvation and to receive the new sign of the new covenant of the people of
God : the sign of repentance and faith, baptism. So I call on every one of you who has
not followed Christ in this way, "Repent and be baptized" (Acts 2:38). This is the call
of God. This is the path of obedience and life.

When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth
- when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us - when not the sense of
the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the thing abides in our hearts - when
we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for - then shall we be
garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.*
I think that was the key to Owen's life and ministry: he didn't just contend for
doctrine; he loved and fellowshipped with the God behind the doctrine. The key
phrase is this one: "When we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend
for - then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men."
In other words, we must not let disputation replace contemplation and exultation.
I am keenly aware that this series of messages on baptism is more controversial than
usual. I am also eager that this pulpit avoid two great errors: losing truth in the quest
for exultation; and losing worship in the noise of disputation. So let us all pray that
in our lives and in our church we walk the tightrope balanced by the necessity of
controversy on the one side and the dangers of it on the other.
The Bible itself is a great help in this because it teaches about baptism, for example,
in contexts that are so rich with good news that it makes it relatively easy to exult as
we deal with this practice of baptism. In fact, baptism itself is meant, like the Lord's
Supper, to point to realities that are so great and so wonderful that. over all the
controversy, we must hear the music of God's glorious goodness and grace.

Exulting in Christ's Substitution for us

So it is here in 1 Peter 3:18-22. Sandwiching the teaching on baptism in verses 19-21
there are the same great truths about Christ and his death and resurrection that we
saw last week in Colossians 2. Let's get these before us for the sake of exultation
before we look between for the necessary disputation.
Verse 18: "Christ also died [literally: suffered] for sins once for all, the just for the
unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh,
but made alive in the spirit." Now here is something worth exulting over. Put it in
five parts.
1. We are cut off from God.
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19

May 11, 1997

Bethlehem Baptist Church

John Piper, Pastor

Buried and Raised in Baptism Through Faith

Colossians 2:8-15
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty
deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the
elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 9
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in
Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and
authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in
which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of
God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in
your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you
alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14
having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against
us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way,
having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and
authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over
them through Him.

Does Christian Baptism Parallel Old Testament Circumcision?

This is the second in a four-part series on Christian baptism. Let me tell you a bit about
how I am choosing the texts to preach from. I discovered in my seminary and graduate
school days that my old ways of defending believer's baptism were not compelling. I
used to spend time pointing out that all the baptisms described in the New Testament
are baptisms of believers and that all the commands to be baptized are given to
believers. I used to point out that infant baptism is simply not mentioned in the Bible
and that it is questionable to build a crucial church practice on a theological inference,
without explicit Biblical teaching when all the examples go in the opposite direction.
But I discovered that those who baptize infants ("paedobaptists") were not swayed by
these observations, because they pointed out that, of course, we only see believer's
baptism in the New Testament since we are dealing in all these settings with first
generation evangelism, not with second generation child-rearing. Everybody agrees
that the only adults that should be baptized are believing adults. The issue is, what
happens when these baptized Christian adults have children?
So they pointed out that all my statistics are irrelevant and the question boils down to
one of theological inference. Specifically, does Christian baptism parallel Old
Testament circumcision as the sign of those who join the covenant people of God, and
if so, should not the children of Christians receive baptism the way the sons of Israel
received circumcision?
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May 18, 1997

Bethlehem Baptist Church

John Piper, Pastor

What Is Baptism and Does It Save?

1 Peter 3:18-22
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in
order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the
flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made
proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were
disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of
Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight
persons, were brought safely through the water. 21 And
corresponding to that, baptism now saves you - not the removal of
dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who is at the right hand of
God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and
powers had been subjected to Him.

Controversy is Essential and Deadly

Let me begin today with a brief introductory word about controversy. The main
thing I want to say is that doctrinal controversy is essential and deadly. And the
attitude toward controversy in various groups of Christians depends largely on
which of these two they feel most strongly. Is it essential or is it deadly? My plea is
that at Bethlehem we believe and feel both of these. Controversy is essential where
precious truth is rejected or distorted. And controversy is deadly where disputation
about truth dominates exultation in truth.
The reason controversy is essential in the face of rejection and distortion is that God
has ordained that the truth be maintained in the world partly by human defense. For
example, Paul says in Philippians 1:7 that he is in prison for the "defense and
confirmation of the gospel." And Jude 3 says that we should "contend earnestly for
the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." And Acts 17:2-3 says that
Paul's custom in the synagogue was to "reason" from the Scriptures and "explain and
give evidence" that Jesus was the Christ. So the preservation and transmission of
precious truth from person to person and generation and generation may require
controversy where truth is rejected or distorted.
But controversy is also deadly because it feels threatening and so it tends to stir up
defensiveness and anger. It's deadly also because it focuses on the reasons for truth
rather than the reality behind truth, and so tends to replace exultation in the truth
with disputation about the truth. This is deadly because thinking rightly about truth
is not an end in itself; it's a means toward the goal of love and worship. Paul said in
1 Timothy 1:5 that "the goal of our instruction is love." And he prayed in Philippians
1:9-11 that our "love . . . abound in knowledge . . . unto the glory and praise of
God." Controversy tends to threaten both love and praise. It's hard to revel in a love
poem while arguing with someone about whether or not your sweetheart wrote it.
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without hands" by God. They are being raised from the dead by God. And baptism is
a sign of that, not a repetition of the Old Testament sign. There is a new sign of the
covenant because the covenant people are being constituted in a new way : by
spiritual birth, not physical birth.

"Through Faith"
And one of the clearest evidences for this is the little phrase "through faith" in verse
12. Watch this carefully. This is what held me back from paedobaptism through
years of struggle, until I saw more and more reasons not to join up. Verse 12 links
the New Testament spiritual circumcision "without hands" in verse 11 with baptism,
and then links baptism with faith:
Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with
Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
If baptism were merely a parallel of the Old Testament rite of circumcision it would
not have to happen "through faith" since infants did not take on circumcision
"through faith." The reason the New Testament ordinance of baptism must be
"through faith" is that it represents not the Old Testament external ritual, but the
New Testament, internal, spiritual experience of circumcision "without hands."
Those two words : "through faith" : in verse 12 are the decisive, defining explanation
of how we were buried with Christ in baptism and how we were raised with him in
baptism: it was "through faith." And this is not something infants experience. Faith
is a conscious experience of the heart yielding to the work of God. Infants are not
capable of this, and therefore infants are not fit subjects of baptism, which is
"through faith."
So I urge those of you who have not yet come to faith in Christ to consider the
rainforest of good news in these verses: that Christ died and rose again to cancel our
debt with God and to triumph over Satan; and that he raises spiritually dead people
from the grave and circumcises sinful hearts : he does all this through faith. He
brings us to trust him, by showing us how true and beautiful he is. Look to him and
believe.
And then he bids us to express that faith in baptism. If you want to prepare for this
step of obedience, you can come up after the service, or you can check it off on the
worship folder leaf, or you can come to the baptismal preparation class starting next
Sunday for two weeks.
May the Lord draw many of you to the enjoyment of this full obedience "through
faith."

For example, the Heidelberg Catechism was written in 1562 as an expression of the
Reformed faith. It is said by some to have the intimacy of Martin Luther and the
charity of Philip Melanchthon and the fire of John Calvin : three great Reformers in the
16th century. At the end of the section on baptism, question #74 asks, "Are infants also
to be baptized?" The answer goes like this:
Yes; for since they, as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God,
and both redemption from sin and the Holy Ghost, who works faith, are through the
blood of Christ promised to them no less than to their parents, they are also by
Baptism, as a sign of the covenant, to be ingrafted into the Christian Church, and
distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old testament by
Circumcision, in place of which in the New Testament Baptism is appointed.
Now this has been the standard understanding of baptism among Presbyterians and
Congregationalists and Methodists and many others for hundreds of years. Lutherans
and Catholics defend the practice of infant baptism differently, putting more emphasis
than these other churches have on the actual regenerating effect of the act.

Are New Truths Revealed in the New Covenant?

So one of the most crucial questions you must face as you ponder the New Testament
command to be baptized is whether you think this parallel with circumcision settles the
matter. That is, is it the will of God revealed in the New Testament that Baptism and
circumcision correspond so closely that what circumcision signified, baptism signifies?
Or are there new truths about the creation and nature of the people of God in the New
Covenant that point toward a discontinuity as well as continuity between circumcision
and baptism?
Well, in my struggles with this issue over the years, especially the years in graduate
school when I was studying mainly with paedobaptists, three or four texts, more than
any others, kept me from embracing the argument from circumcision. One is
Colossians 2:11-12. Another is 1 Peter 3:21. Another is Romans 9:8. And another is
Galatians 3:26-27. I will take the Colossians text today and build on the others in the
weeks to come.
But first let's make sure we don't miss the forest for the trees. This text (Colossians
2:10-15) is a virtual rain forest of strong gospel timber. Get a bird's eye view of it with
me. It's all about what God has done for us (in history, objectively through Christ), and
what he has done in us so that we will indeed inherit what he purchased

What God Has Done For Us

Take first the objective, historical, external work of God in verses 14-15. In essence,
what these two verses tell us is that our two greatest enemies were defeated in the
death of Christ. Nothing more powerful than the death of Christ has ever happened.
The first enemy defeated was the "certificate of debt" that was filed against us in the

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21

courtroom of heaven. In other words, because of our sin and rebellion, the laws of God
had become a deadly witness against us and we were in such deep debt to God that
there was no way out. Verse 14 says that Christ canceled that whole debt by paying it
all on the cross. "[He] canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against
us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to
the cross." So the great enemy of our sin and guilt and debt, Christ defeated. That
happened in history, objectively, outside us.
The second enemy defeated was the host of evil spiritual beings : the devil and his
forces. Verse 15: "When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public
display of them, having triumphed over them through Him." It's true that we must still
"wrestle with principalities and powers" (Ephesians 6:12), but if we wrestle in the
power of Christ and his shed blood, they are as good as defeated, because the blow he
struck was lethal. Revelation 12:11 says that believers "overcame [the devil] because
of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not
love their life even to death." We must fight. But the battle belongs to the Lord and the
decisive blow has been struck at Calvary. Satan cannot destroy us.

its use of the body for sin. And that way, Paul is saying, God makes a person his very
own.
So we have seen two pictures of what God does for us, objectively, historically,
outside ourselves to save us: he defeats the enemy of sin and the enemy of Satan. And
we have seen two pictures of what God does in us to make us part of that salvation: he
raises us from the dead spiritually and he circumcises our hearts and strips away the
old rebellious self and makes us new.

Baptism and Circumcision

Now, in that forest of glorious good news, here's the question about the tree of
baptism: is water baptism the Christian counterpart to Old Testament circumcision? Is
the continuity such that, just as circumcision was given to the children of God's
covenant people then, baptism should now be given to the children of God's covenant
people?
The key verses are verses 11-12. Notice the linking of the two ideas of circumcision
and baptism:

What God Has Done in Us

Now besides these two great objective, external, historical triumphs over our worst
enemies (the debt of sin before God and the devil's hosts on earth), this forest also
describes what God does in us : not just for us and outside of us but in us so that we
benefit from what was done outside of us.
He uses two pictures: one is circumcision and the other is resurrection. Verse 13
focuses mainly on our resurrection:
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He
made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.
So you see what he does in us: we were spiritually dead, and he made us alive. This is
the miracle of the new birth. You were saved because God spoke a life-giving,
resurrecting word into your heart (2 Corinthians 4:6).
The other picture of what God does in us is the picture of circumcision. Verse 11:
In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the
removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
Now this is harder to understand because the ideas are more foreign to us. Paul
compares the saving work of God in us with the practice of circumcision. He says it's
like that, only this is a circumcision made "without hands" : it's a spiritual thing he is
talking about, not a physical one. And he says that what is being cut away is not the
male foreskin, but the "body of the flesh." In Paul's language that's probably a
reference to sin-dominated, ego-dominated use of the body. What is cut away in this
spiritual circumcision "without hands" is the old unbelieving, blind, rebellious self and
22

. . .in Him [Christ] you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without
hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having
been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through
faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
It's clear there's a link here between baptism and circumcision. But it isn't, I think,
what many infant baptizers think it is. Notice what sort of circumcision is spoken of in
verse 11: it is precisely a circumcision "without hands." That means Paul is talking
about a spiritual counterpart of the Old Testament physical ritual. Then baptism is
linked in verse 12 to that spiritual counterpart to the Old Testament circumcision. This
is extremely important. Try to get it.
What is the New Testament counterpart or parallel to the Old Testament rite of
circumcision? Answer: it is not the New Testament rite of baptism; it is the New
Testament spiritual event of the circumcision of Christ cutting away "the [old sinful]
body of the flesh." then, baptism is brought in as the external expression of that
spiritual reality. That is precisely what the link between verses 11 and 12 says. Christ
does a circumcision without hands : that is the New Testament, spiritual fulfillment of
Old Testament circumcision. Then verse 12 draws the parallel between that spiritual
fulfillment and the external rite of baptism.
Notice what verse 11 stresses about the new work of Christ in circumcising: it is a
circumcision "without hands." But water baptism is emphatically a ritual done "with
hands." If we simply say that this New Testament ordinance of baptism done with
hands corresponds to the Old Testament ritual of circumcision done with hands, then
we miss the most important truth: something new is happening in the creation of
people of God called the church of Christ. They are being created by a "circumcision
23