LENT DAY 2: The Word of Baptism

 Day 2 Thursday - Feb 23, 2023; Feb 15, 2024; Mar 6, 2025

Go therefore 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 observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

What is baptism? 

“Baptism,” replies our catechism, “is not simply plain water. Instead, it is water used according to God’s command and connected with God’s word.” And if you wanted to know what word we meant particularly, our catechism would then take you to this passage in Matthew 28. This is the “Great Commission” where Christ institutes the Sacrament of Baptism. It is why we always do baptisms “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We were commanded to do it that way.

And when baptism is done this way, we say a baptism has truly happened. It is no longer “just plain water.” Why? Well, because we bank everything baptism is on the Word of God. We don’t give baptism its meaning, God does. Therefore, so long as it is done according to the Word, then everything the Word says about baptism must be true.

This means that even if you were baptized in another church, be it Methodist, Catholic, or Baptist it would not matter. You are still baptized! This means that even if people involved in your baptism were not the best people - a pastor who eventually fell into scandal, Godparents who later avow their atheism, parents who were cruel and abusive - none of them could delegitimize your baptism. This means that even if you were an infant with no discernable faith, or an impulsive teenager who believed so hard one week only to hardly care the next, a fringe Christian who has fallen in and out of the church, a devout person who realizes how much more you now know than you did then, or an age old person who simply reflects on how long it has been since your baptism - none of that can delegitimize the word of promise. Baptism is what it is not by faith, but by the command and word of God. God put his very name into it so that we might realize on whom baptism’s power truly rests. And God’s Word has no expiration date. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Tomorrow we will talk about the important role of faith in regards to baptism. But for today, we begin with the Word, because that is where faith always begins. And when our faith for baptism is in the Word given in baptism, then it will always be just as sure today as when we first believed it.

Thank you, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for letting me stake my baptism on your good name. You are faithful, and your love endures forever. Give me a confidence that my baptism cannot fail me because you will not fail me. Today you open my lips to proclaim your praise: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.