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Periodically on a Sunday morning, the congregation is able to witness an individual’s baptism into Christ. For those of us who have been in church a long time, this seems a natural and celebratory time. However, for someone new to this, or any other church, this act of being ‘dunked’ under water is a bit strange. What in the world is going on? What is the significance for this person, or anyone else for that matter, being baptized?

Why does CCF practice baptism?

The following is a few exerts from the Discover Class manual which explains, in part, what we believe about salvation and baptism:

We believe salvation is a free gift, given by God’s grace and received by faith.

“For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Salvation is possible only because Jesus Christ died for our sins.  His death on the cross fully satisfied the righteous requirement of the law.  Salvation may be thought of as the great exchange—God placed all of our sin on Him and all of the righteousness of Christ on us.

“For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  

We believe salvation is the work of God from start to finish.  Man was and is unable to save himself because he is spiritually dead apart from Christ—it is God who gives us spiritual life. Paul writes, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins…made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1, 5b).  

Furthermore, God did this while we were still in sin and enemies of God: “…in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among who also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Ephesians 2:2-3).  

It is the Father who compels or leads us to come to Christ in the first place. Twice Jesus told His disciples, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at that last day…Therefore I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father” (John 6:44, 65).

Grace is God’s unmerited, undeserved favor. Salvation cannot be earned—it is a free gift.  All who receive Jesus do so through faith—specifically, it is belief or trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. It is believing that Jesus’ death on the cross paid my sin debt, and that His resurrection is proof of God’s satisfaction with His substitutionary sacrifice.

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26).

“Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5).

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confess is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (Romans 10:8-13).

As clearly stated in the above verses, salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ.

And how is such faith manifest? As seen in the above passage, saving faith is made known by confession with the mouth “the Lord Jesus” and belief in the heart that “God has raised Him from the dead.”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

All who believe in Christ are regenerated by and baptized in the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit of God is the agent or means by which a person is saved.

“…not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6).

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

As to the manner of our public profession of faith, this brings us to the subject of baptism.

We believe immersion in water of a professed believer is Biblical mode of baptism. Such baptism is symbolic of identification with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?’” (Acts 8:35-36)

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, ‘Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’” (Acts 10:44-47)

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:3-5).

We believe baptism is an essential step of obedience for any believer in Jesus Christ. The Great Commission of Jesus includes the command: “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). We simply cannot ignore what God has called us to do.  From Romans 6 we learn baptism is symbolic of a believer’s identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

However, as stated before, we believe it is the Holy Spirit of God and not water that gives new birth.  We do not teach, nor believe that baptism affects salvation (this doctrine is called ‘baptismal regeneration’).  Like the bread and wine of communion which represent the body and blood of Jesus, so baptism is a symbol of salvation, not the substance. In many ways, baptism is to a Christian what a ring is to a marriage—a symbol of a relationship that far surpasses a mere piece of metal.

I hope this has been helpful. I know there are many other components pertaining to baptism. If you have any questions about salvation, baptism or any other issue, please give me a call and I would be happy to visit with you.

Blessings,
Jay

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. There were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” (Revelation 7:9-10).

I would like to note two things about the above passage: First, Heaven will be filled and second, it is a multinational multitude that has experienced the salvation of the Lamb. In the parable of the Great Banquet, Jesus declared, “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full’” (Luke 14:23). God wants heaven filled with people from all the nations, and according to the testimony of John in Revelation this desire will be fulfilled. The question is will that great multitude stand before God because of the mission’s ministry of CCF or in spite of our efforts? If we are to be a part of the work God is doing, our primary emphasis must be reaching “every nation, tribe, people and language.”

It is my conviction that when a congregation does not emphasize missions, they are missing their primary calling and purpose.

I believe it is safe to say that nearly every Christian today owes their spiritual heritage, in one degree or another, to a missionary. Somewhere in time past a missionary responded to the call of God and went to a people who had not heard the gospel. We can do nothing less than continue to go and send. Howard Hendricks once said, “A church that does not have an active plan for reaching the nations for Christ cannot justify its existence.” I agree. We must give our whole heart to this commission from our Lord Jesus Christ.

I close with the words of John Stott:

The nations are not gathered in automatically. If God has promised to bless “all the families of the earth,” he has promised to do so “through Abraham’s seed” (Gen 12:3; 22:18). Now we are Abraham’s seed by faith, and the earth’s families will be blessed only if we go to them with the gospel. That is God’s plain purpose.

I pray that these words, “all the families of the earth,” may be written on our hearts. It is this expression more than any other which reveals the living God of the Bible to be a missionary God. It is this expression too which condemns all our petty parochialism and narrow nationalism, our racial pride (whether white or black), our condescending paternalism and arrogant imperialism. How dare we adopt a hostile or scornful or even indifferent attitude to any person of another color or culture if our God is the God of “all the families of the earth?” We need to become global Christians with a global vision, for we have a global God.
So may God help us never to forget his four-thousand-year-old promise to Abraham: “By you and your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”

May the Lord continue to transform Community Christian Fellowship into global church with a global vision for missions.

Jay Foley
January 10, 2008