LENT DAY 3: Baptism's Bond with Faith

 

Day 3 Friday - Feb 24, 2023; Feb 16, 2024; Mar 7, 2025

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. -Mark 16:16

Yesterday we spoke of baptism in relation to the Word, today we look at it in relation to faith. 

When we first got our new dog Monk, he just adored our older dog Pope. Wherever Pope went, Monk wanted to follow. Whenever Monk saw Pope, he just wanted to run up to him and play with him. If you called for Pope, you might as well have called for both dogs because Monk was going to show up too. In fact, if it happened that we saw Pope but Monk didn’t follow, something wasn’t right. 

“Whoever believes and is baptized…” This conjunction tells us that there are two things which rightly belong together: faith and baptism. Wherever faith shows up, baptism ought to show up too. And wherever someone is called to the waters of baptism, they are being called to a life of faith. Something is not right if we have one with no desire for the other. Baptism’s message is the gospel, and the gospel is to be believed. Faith seeks the fullness of the gospel message, and therefore will seek baptism and its graces. No matter which comes first, baptism or faith, we should hardly be surprised that it would lead to the other. Any time you call for one dog, the other has a way of showing up too.

And together, faith and baptism become a formidable duo. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” Jesus declares. Baptism shares the gospel; faith receives it. If the Word makes baptism what it is, faith believes in all that the Word makes it to be. Baptism is our assurances of salvation in Christ, faith is to be assured that we are saved in Christ. Find one, you should find the other.

And when you do, Christ has promised that what really has shown up is his salvation.

Lord, help me to never make it about being baptized or believing, but rather about being baptized and believing. Use my baptism for my faith, that I may believe in your work upon me. Use my faith for my baptism, that I may believe the Word you have spoken over me there. Amen.

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