Here is a dialogue as narrated by a pastor between him and a pastor of
another denomination:
Pastor 1: “Baptism
must be received by adults who should be able to believe in Christ and confess their
faith”.
Pastor 2: “Pastor,
do you believe in Grace of God?”.
Pastor 1 : “Yes, I
certainly believe in the Grace of God”.
Pastor 2: If only
adult baptism right, where is the grace of God? We then are giving importance
not to the Grace but to the person. When we baptize children, we commit them into
the Grace of God.
I don’t know what really these pastors shared each other.
But Bible- on faith and doctrines or sacraments and observations, does not confuse
us; though pastors with their denominational bias and agendas do.
Ephesians 2:8-9 New International Version (NIV)
8 For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
8 For by
grace you have been saved through
faith; and [a]that not of
yourselves, it is the
gift of God; 9 not as a result of
works, so that no
one may boast.
Ephesians
2:8-9
International Standard Version (ISV)
8 For by such grace you
have been saved through faith. This does not come from you; it is the gift of
God 9 and not the result of
actions, to put a stop to all boasting.[a]
There is not a topic
like this that denominational leaders debate about. Those who practice
immersion and adult baptism will not accept the practice of infants’ sprinkling
in the name of baptism. Those who practice infant’s ‘baptism’ goes even to the
point of arguing that every baptism mentioned in the Bible are not talking
about water baptism, (Its true) but when it comes to the Great Commission, they
will say, the Baptism mentioned here is certainly identification with Christ,
not really water Baptism.
Is Baptism a command
or a sacrament? If it is a command, is it the foremost one?
Is Baptism essential to
become a believer of Christ and to enter heaven?
What was the baptism
of Jesus? Did Jesus baptize people or only His disciples? Before the death and
crucifixion of Christ, what was the meaning of Baptism that Jesus/Disciples
administered?
The Word of God is
written for ordinary people, and its teaching and history can be understood,
literally, culturally, historically and spiritually by any ordinary persons who
are interested to study or meditate on it. Read all the accounts or instances
of Baptism and all the sayings or writing about it in the Bible with an open
mind and the Spirit of God will lead you to all truth when you depend on Him.
Here are a few of my
observations from the Bible. You may read it for yourself and understand it and
if you follow the principles of Biblical interpretation you would be able to
help others by interpreting it rightly, as God’s Word does not contradict
itself as we do.
Entering into God’s
Kingdom:
Jesus Christ taught
much about who enters to His Kingdom.
1. Being
born again- spiritually born
3 Jesus replied to him, “Truly,
I tell you[a] emphatically;
unless a person is born from above[b] he
cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 International Standard Version (ISV)
As God’s family is
Spiritual family, one is born into God’s family through a spiritual birth, made
by faith by one’s own acceptance of God’s Salvation through Christ. Natural
birth can by the choice of parents and with God’s blessings, but not so with
spiritual birth.
2. Obeying the teaching of Christ as found
in Matthew 5-7 After teaching – on the mount (sermon
on the mount, Matthew chapters 5-7), Jesus said:
21 “Not
everyone who keeps saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom from[a] heaven,
but only the person who keeps doing the will of my Father in heaven. 22 Many
will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, drove out
demons in your name, and performed many miracles in your name, didn’t we?’ 23 Then
I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who practice
evil!’”[b] Matthew 7:21-23
Jesus further
illustrates this with the case of a wise builder and the foolish builder. The teachings
of Christ are compared to the rock which is the foundation; and the house, to our
deeds/life. The house that stands again the rain and flood is compared to
eternal life.
3. Without holiness, no one will see God, says the writer to the Hebrews.
“Pursue peace with everyone, as
well as holiness,without which no one will see the Lord”.
Hebrews 12:14
There are numerous
teachings on how one receives eternal life. Nowhere Baptism is mentioned.
[ A Rich Man Comes to
Jesus ] Then an official asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to
inherit eternal life?”
so that everyone who believes in
him would have eternal life.
“For this is how God loved the
world: He gave his uniquely existing Son so that everyone who believes in him
would not be lost but have eternal life.
The one who believes in the Son
has eternal life, but the one who disobeys the Son will
not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
Where do we place
Baptism as to salvation; and Grace of God in the act of sprinkling on a Child in
the name as an act of Baptism? Salvation is the gift of God, and it can be
achieved only by faith not by acts. But faith without works is dead!
Words have meaning in
people. A word has its meaning in the context and the context of other words
used along. We should not try to build a theology out of a word taken out of
context. What is ‘faith’ then and what is ‘grace’? In the Bible, faith is
referring to faith in the son of God, His atoning sacrifice, remission of sins
that He offers freely; and accepting Him through repentance and by confession
of sins.
If a child is old enough
to understand this, he/she can have faith in God and be born again. A ‘water
baptism’ administered either to an adult or to an infant cannot give them any
faith or grace. But one who has the faith here can witness his/her faith
through water baptism. In the light of the Bible we need to think if we
consider Baptism as a means to faith/salvation or as expression of one’s faith.
We also need to think if an infant can witness its faith in Christ or an infant
‘baptism’ leads to the shower Grace for salvation! We should not miss out the
Salvation of God while majoring on minor and minoring on major!
