LENT DAY 21: Baptism's Flood

 Day 21 Friday - Mar 17, 2023; Mar 8, 2024; Mar 28, 2025

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ -1 Peter 3:21

The “this” which Peter says baptism corresponds to was Noah’s Ark, where “a few…were brought safely through water” (1 Peter 3:20). Noah’s Ark can be a troubling story, especially from a bird’s eye view of things. You can see all those people and animals that perished. But from the Ark, it is a story of salvation.

Baptism can feel that way too. We’ve already touched on this. When we are outside baptism looking in, or above looking down and noticing all the people who are unbaptized we wonder about their fate. We worry for them. Maybe we even shutter a bit at the thought that maybe God would condemn a person for being unbaptized.

As we said before, baptism should not be seen as a burden. Nor should we believe that God cannot save a person outside baptism or automatically condemns the unbaptized. But we should say all the more that the viewpoint is the wrong viewpoint to have. The story of Noah’s Ark is not about the people who perished. It was preserved to tell the story of the people God rescued. It was their story. And so it is with baptism. It’s saving power, its majestic promises, its entire meaning is really meant for and understood best when we have received it. It was not given with those who refuse it or do not get a chance to receive it in mind. It was given and its promises are spoken with the baptized in mind.

There is a theory - that I think is rather good - that 1 Peter may be a baptismal address. And when you hear that, connecting Noah’s Ark to Baptism is like saying to those getting baptized “Welcome aboard!” It’s impact is meant to be the sweet relief of getting inside the boat, where the waters that surround it become the story of your salvation. 

When you’re baptized, Peter says it saves you. You’re in God’s saving boat. Its waters will always be your great story. And the name of this boat: The Church. The name of the story: The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What a wonder, Lord, to be in your Church by baptism. What a gift to know that your gospel is the story of my salvation. What a joy to realize that I’ve been brought safely through water to the glorious new world you are making. Thank you, dearest Jesus, for baptism. Amen.

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

LENT DAY 20: Checking Jesus' Pulse

 Day 20 Thursday - Mar 16, 2023; Mar 7, 2024; Mar 27, 2025

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. -Romans 6:3-4

This is arguably the hardest and at the same time most important passage in the Bible about baptism. As we mentioned already, this is the passage our catechism ascribes to the daily significance of baptism. What is more, it is explicit in what we have been saying: that baptism joins us to the death and resurrection of Jesus. On top of even that, Chapter 6 as a whole shows us how much this passage is meant to mean something for our lives (hence our catechism using it to speak of daily significance).

If that is the weight of its importance, here is the rub: it is so easy to take the words lightly. We immediately want to make them a metaphor. We want it to symbolize more than signify. The two are very similar yet loads apart. That is, we want its significance to be entirely symbolic. After all, it says we died to sin and were buried with Christ? I look down and I see my hands moving. It is cold outside as I write this, I could step out and even see my breaths. It sure seems to me like I’m not dead. Thus this death must be symbolic.

But it’s not. The problem is we go looking for its significance by looking down at our body and checking our own pulse. But what we should be doing is checking Christ’s, and when it came to the cross and grave (because that is precisely where this passage takes us) he was not just symbolically dead. Jesus did not metaphorically die so we would live differently. He actually died. And he didn’t do that so we would make a metaphor of his death. He did that to take us from death to life. When I lie in my coffin, I sure don’t want a metaphorical resurrection. I want to know that Christ actually rose and that this new life is actually mine.

In baptism we are directed to Jesus. When he dies, we die. That’s how much baptism joins you to Christ. No matter how many signs of life you check yourself for, when you are taken to the cross you die there because Jesus did. This is why (as we mentioned last time we looked at this passage) Paulson says baptism is an attack on the sinner. It’s because Jesus bore you on the cross. That’s why he died there. Not for himself, but for you.

And that’s why you actually have a way to life apart from sin. That’s why someone new has been raised up within you. Because Jesus really did rise from the grave, and baptism has joined you to that reality just as much.

In short, the only way we understand how this passage actually affects our lives is to see how much it is about Christ’s life, and how much baptism knits the two lives into one story.

Kind heavenly Father. I forget sometimes that your Son actually died for me, and that his story is so much mine that I died there too. This Lent, give me the eyes of your Son as I gaze upon the story of the cross, that I might know what it is to be my story too. Amen.

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

LENT DAY 19: Abusing Baptism

 Day 19 Wednesday - Mar 15, 2023; Mar 6, 2024; Mar 26, 2025

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? -1 Corinthians 1:13

This comes from one of the oddest passages on baptism. It is so odd because Paul speaks so negatively of the sacrament. He even goes so far as to be glad he hardly baptized anyone in that church (1 Corinthians 1:14-16). If baptism is this great thing we’ve been talking about, why would he say that?

A sacrament, like every other good thing God has given us, is something we are very much able to misuse. We can take the gift of a child and turn that little babe into an idol. We can be entrusted with a vocation that is meant to be a blessing to our community, and use it to embezzle, cheat, or in some other way wrong our neighbor. We can take the name of God and use it to wage war, justify genocide, and disown our children. There is a reason Jesus teaches us to pray “hallowed be thy name.”

And when it comes to baptism, we are most definitely entrusted with God’s name and expected to use it rightly. Paul reminds them of this: were you baptized in the name of Paul? In the church in Corinth, divisions had arisen and one of the ways people were dividing was over baptism: which pastor did your baptism? Who will you side with then? To Paul, this was an abomination and an absurd distinction to make. It was Christ who died for you and his name you were baptized into. We cannot make baptism into something of an elite club. We cannot make it about what church denomination it happened in, what age we were when we were baptized, the way we were baptized (were you sprinkled or dipped?), or what pastor performed it. When the church starts using baptism to divide itself, then we like Paul should want as little to do with those baptisms as possible.

In verse 17 Paul puts it all out there: he says, “Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel…”. Paul never baptized people for baptism’s sake or to make a group of Paulites who would always follow him. Paul was an apostle, sent on behalf of Christ. And he was sent to proclaim his gospel. That’s the only reason he ever baptized. The minute we start baptizing for another reason, we’ve started misusing it.

The good news with baptism is this: if you have been using baptism for the wrong reason, you can start believing in it for what it is now! This is what Paul was asserting to them. While they were dividing over baptism, later he proclaims to them “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). The very thing they were dividing over proclaimed a wondrous unity! It’s time to start believing that.

Help me, Holy Spirit, to use my baptism rightly. Gather and enlighten me into your one holy church with the entire communion of saints. Use this sacrament to unite by proclaiming to us the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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

LENT DAY 18: The Labors of Jesus

 

Day 18 Tuesday - Mar 14, 2023; Mar 5, 2024; Mar 25, 2025

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless  one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ -John 3:5-7

Now I’m no mother, but one thing I know is that birthing particularly takes its toll upon the one giving birth. Children do not brag about how long it took them to be born, but mothers often remember how long they were in labor. And rightly so; it was, afterall, their suffering, hardship, and labor that brought the child into the world. Maybe that’s why we call it labor!

The same is true of our new birth. This time, it is Christ who acts as the mother to you: he suffers all the pain and hardship to bring about this new life. It is his labors that wrought your salvation. It can become easy to think of the time we converted, the things we repented of, the journey of Sunday School to confirmation all the way to church council president. Yet none of that brought about your new birth. 

This is why baptism is, properly speaking, God’s work and not ours. Like birth itself, we participate in it. But it is not our labor. Like the child brought forth from the womb we may have experienced much. It may have been a hard transition. But it is God’s doing. 

You must be born again. That is why Jesus came, suffered, and died. And that is why he gave you baptism, that the labor of his cross might bring you into his kingdom.

Thank you, Lord. I know my birth into this world is a gift that came by my mother enduring much. And similarly my new birth at baptism is a gift that came by you suffering and dying. This Lent, focus me on what you have done for my sake. Let me boast of nothing but your cross for me. Amen.

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

LENT DAY 17: A Passive Activity

 Day 17 Monday - Mar 13, 2023; Mar 4, 2024; Mar 24, 2025

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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. -Acts 2:38-39

Every now and then we can catch an important detail in the grammar one uses. A person for example who only speaks of a loved one in the past tense may be indicating that this person they are speaking of has died. There is a grammatical piece to notice about baptism too: you always receive it passively. Biblically, you don’t go baptize yourself. Instead, you get baptized. 

Even here, when the men of Jerusalem ask the Apostles “what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) Peter replies “Repent and be baptized…” Your part in baptism is always to receive it. This should even tell us how repentance, though something we do, is more something we participate in. The most fundamental characteristic of true repentance is not your sorrow for sin or intent to improve, but faith in God’s forgiving and sanctifying grace in Jesus Christ. Faith is passive, like in baptism itself, God is the chief actor and we are the recipients of his work. When there is a baptism God baptizes while we are baptized. When we repent, God is forgiving while we are forgiven. 

Because these things happen in our life - the change of repentance, the act of baptism - it can be easy to forget that we are not the ones making them effective. We are rather the ones they are affecting. 

All glory belongs to you, O God, in all things. Already at my baptism you were handling everything. Help me to trust you to the very end, and when I want to control more or struggle with the things in life I cannot control, grant me faith enough to let you do your work on me still. Amen.

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

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT: In the Place of Sinners

Third Sunday in Lent - Mar 12, 2023; Mar 3, 2024; Mar 23, 2025

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. -Matthew 3:13-15

John’s baptism scene really plays out like a game of spiritual haves and have-nots. Flocking to John are all kinds of sinners. Even Romans and tax collectors were coming to him (Luke 3:12, 14). You don’t have to read too much of the Bible to know that in the eyes of most folks, they were the spiritual have-nots. That’s the type of people he attracted, the spiritual “scum”. 

Then a group of the “haves” show up: Pharisees and Saducees. These were the religious leaders of the day. VERY spiritual. But when the haves show up, John sends them away. “You brood of vipers!” he yells at them (a pretty strong insult in those days). “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” he finally tells them (Matthew 3:8). They don’t seem to come for repentance, so John says they’ll have no part in his baptism until they do. It’s a strange thing then: the haves in fact have nothing. Meanwhile, the have-nots are getting baptized and forgiven.

Then Jesus shows up. Is he a have or a have-not? He’s not a have-not, in fact he is the truest of the haves. John doesn’t tell him to get to repenting and then come back, he says that he should be baptized by Jesus. Not only is Jesus not like those spiritual have-nots, he’s not quite like the other spiritual haves either. Then things get weirder: he says that John should baptize him in order “to fulfill all righteousness.” What is happening? Why would a “have” get the baptism of the “have-nots”?

Jesus is siding with the spiritual have-nots. He is stepping already into the place of sinners. He is doing precisely what he will be doing on the cross. The truth is we’re all spiritual have-nots. Even those Pharisees and Saducees, they just hadn’t realized it yet. That’s why John sent them away until they bore the fruits of repentance. But Jesus, the only true person to ever fit the team of the spiritual “haves” goes and plays for the have-nots. He takes the baptism of sinners, and later he’ll take the cross of sinners.

Thus baptism is not so much the place where we say we’re siding with Jesus, but where he is siding with us, dying for us, and fulfilling all righteousness in us.

Fulfill in me, your righteousness, Lord Jesus. May I, in the moments where I see my spiritual poverty, remember it was for me that you were baptized and died. Thank you for taking a stand for my sake in the river Jordan, and on Mount Calvary. Amen

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

LENT DAY 16: Waters of Forgiveness

Day 16 Saturday - Mar 11, 2023; Mar 2, 2024; Mar 22, 2025

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. -Acts 22:16

There is a strong connection between our order of confession and forgiveness at the start of each church service and our baptism. As we have already talked about, baptism is closely tied to repentance. Thus, each week we confess our sins and return to the Lord we are living out the baptismal life. And every time we receive forgiveness, we are reaching into our baptismal grace. As Lathrop and Brugh put it in The Sunday Assembly, “The order of confession and forgiveness itself may be seen as the Christian assembly’s return to the gift of baptism.”

Paul himself was told to be baptized and wash away his sins, sins which we know were many. This is the guy, after all, who called himself the “foremost” of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). “But I received mercy,” he went on (1 Timothy 1:16). And baptism was a way in which it was clear that he did. Paul received the same mercy as a little baby who is baptized in our church. Paul - the foremost sinner who persecuted the church and killed the saints - that Paul received mercy. And one of the ways he did was he received baptism. It is a great equalizer and proof of God’s will to show mercy with each and every one of us - be it a foremost sinner who persecuted the church of God or a little baby who everyone thinks is just perfect.

Next time you hear a word of forgiveness shared with you, like in our confession and forgiveness on a Sunday morning you can rejoice that this word of mercy is true, and your baptism has declared its truth. Indeed, many times we announce the forgiveness in church “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” just so that you might remember that this forgiveness is yours by the very name you were baptized with; indeed, that name and forgiveness that have been yours ever since!

I thank you Lord for choosing Paul to receive such abundant mercy. Through him you have shown that your forgiveness is greater than our sin. I thank you for choosing to forgive me too. And I thank you that my baptism has to shared this wonderful grace with me and all the saints. Let all of us who are baptized believe that your mercy is as real as the water of baptism. Amen.

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

LENT DAY 15: All About Jesus

 

Day 15 Friday - Mar 10, 2023; Mar 1, 2024; Mar 21, 2025

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. -Galatians 3:27

I once was in a conversation around baptism with a couple guys who come from a church that view baptism very differently than our own. As I talked of the reliability of my baptism, even though it happened when I was a baby one of them accused me of putting faith in baptism instead of Jesus. Without hesitation I had one simple reply: that would be true if not for the fact that baptism is all about Jesus!

This scripture was one of the ones I then brought forward for our discussion. To be baptized is to be clothed in Christ, the entire thrust of baptism’s power, significance, and promise was based entirely upon Jesus. In what way can you look at a passage like this and ascribe to it a significance other than through Jesus? Indeed, it is hard to find passages about baptism that are not about Jesus or spoken by Jesus. We must learn then that baptism is all about Jesus.

It is important that we never lose sight of this or we will put our faith in baptism instead of Christ. One must learn to trust in Christ through your baptism. One must learn that the only trustworthy thing about baptism is what Jesus makes it to be. It is because he gave it to the church, commanded it be done, put his own name into it, sealed it with his own death, pours the Spirit out in it, and is the content of its promises that we have any reason for baptism to belong to faith and the gospel. What age I am, faith I have, church I am a part of, person I pick to baptize me - these things are not the substance of the act, just circumstances around which it happened. But in those waters is Christ. And just as those waters wash over you, so does he - clothing you with a righteousness that is not your own.

So when you think about your baptism, let it always make you think about Jesus.

Holy Spirit, you have come to take everything of my Lord Jesus and teach it to me. Keep him always on my mind, in my heart, and working in my life. Let me, through my baptism, believe all the more in his power, his presence, and his salvation. Cover my whole life with Jesus; by my baptism clothe me in the life he lived for me and the death he died for me. In Jesus' name I ask this, Amen.

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

LENT DAY 14: How Free Is the Grace of God?

 

Day 14 Thursday - Mar 9, 2023; Feb 29, 2024; Mar 20, 2025

See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized? -Acts 8:36

What’s stopping you? That’s probably a good question for a Christian to ask herself. What stops you from doing _____? Insert whatever you need: going to church, helping this person, praying more, listening to the sermon, reading the bible, take your pick. An interesting way to expose the sinner in us who just loves to not love God and neighbor is to ask what is stopping you, and often finding how often you don’t really have a good answer - certainly not one that would stand up to God.

While we sometimes put hindrances before ourselves and God, baptism shows us how much God removes the roadblocks to get to us. Here is this Ethiopian Eunuch who hears the word of Jesus, and he asks not himself but Philip - the man who has been sharing Christ with him - what’s stopping me? What would prevent me from receiving Jesus further through the Sacrament of Baptism? What he’s really asking is “what’s stopping God?”

The answer was nothing. Immediately they come to a halt and Philip baptizes him. Two chapters later, Peter likewise is in the home of the Gentile Cornelius and he is forced to confess “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). Nothing was holding God back. And when the Spirit fell on the men in that house, Peter asked, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people” (Acts 10:47). Baptism would be the sign that nothing is stopping God.

And so it is with you. Your baptism means nothing is stopping God from getting to you.

How many things there are that stop me, Lord, but nothing stops you. So great is your searching that you have sought me out in baptism. Whatever might have been raised that day to stop you from doing it, you baptized me anyway. And here I am, now your sinful child forever. With so much stopping me, yes Lord, the only way to salvation is that there's no stopping you. Amen.

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

LENT DAY 13: The Gospel According to Baptism

 

Day 13 Wednesday - Mar 8, 2023; Feb 28, 2024; Mar 19, 2025

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

That baptism belongs to the gospel becomes clear when we see it is not a check-list item for salvation. Jesus doesn’t say it is a failure to get baptized that condemns us, but unbelief. Even in John 3, where we’ve already seen that Jesus says no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit, he also says “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already” (John 3:18). Baptism will not condemn us, unbelief does that. But it would be absurd to suggest one believes but has no desire to be baptized. How can one say they believe the gospel but yet will not heed its call to baptism or desire the promises therein? As R.C.H. Lenski puts it, “By believing he clings to the gospel, and part of that gospel is baptism…As he believes the Word, so he will demand all that the Word promises in baptism and thus the baptismal act itself. He who claims to believe but refuses and rejects baptism most surely deceives himself about believing…”

Our attitude about baptism should be our attitude about the entire gospel itself. It is to be believed, we should receive it with joy, and we should understand its working as the working of God by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Too often baptism is just the start of the journey, an afterthought in a busy life, a ritual for babies, a family tradition, etc. Too often people of faith move baptism to the periphery as if it was not given to us by Jesus and did not hold his promise of salvation to all who believe. 

A lot of mystery novels hinge on realizing that one obscure detail is actually quite central. If you can catch that, the whole mystery becomes clear. If not, you could miss the answer to the story completely. Sometimes you notice it when it first happens, but other times it takes new revelations to help you look back. You might not even remember your baptism, or you might have considered it a minor part of the story, but you can read a verse like the one today and see just how important it is and just how much it goes to the very heart of the gospel. Because when baptism proclaims salvation to those who believe, what else is it doing than proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Keep baptism from being an afterthought in my life. Let me see it for what it is: a sharing of your gospel, and let me never make an afterthought of that! Rather let my whole life be one of faith in you, Jesus. To that end, let me keep the fact that I am baptized close to my heart. Amen.

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