There were two things that Jesus ordained for the believer. These ordinances were water baptism and communion, or the Lord's Table, as it is also called. We practice communion regularly and it is beautiful, meaningful and richly symbolic. But we don't see baptisms all that often.
Baptism is ordained to be the public profession of faith that the new or rededicated believer makes. By submitting to baptism, the believer is symbolically burying his old self and then bursting forth into a new life. This is an exciting and celebratory event that complements the introspection of communion.
Baptism is a one-time event in the believer's life, because our conversion to God-follower is a one-time event. We don't keep being "born again", because once is enough. So, there is no need to profess publicly our new birth time after time. After our baptism, we grow and mature in our spiritual life just as we do in our physical life.
Communion, on the other hand, is a time of remembrance of the sacrifice that Christ made for all of us, so it is fitting that we remember it regularly.
Both ordinances are wonderful in their own way. Baptism is a "first step" for the new believer and an opportunity to celebrate for the body of believers. Communion is a holy time of reflection and appreciation for Christ and a time to remember how he gave himself for all believers.
I enjoy them both. Let's all encourage the new believers in our church body to take the next step of baptism and let's look forward to celebrating the Lord's Table on Easter evening.
2 comments:
Randy,
Thanks for addressing yourself to this matter. Unfortunately, those of us in the Pentecostal-Charismatic tradition do this too rarely and to our own hurt.
Baptism is, as you said, a "first step" for new believers, and it has been from the beginning. From the first, the followers of Christ have marked their commitment by this rite. Even where it is continually practiced, baptism has been rendered to secondary importance by modern American Evangelicalism. Instead, we emphasize the altar call moment of "asking Jesus into your heart." This, I believe, is a catastrophic error. Not that asking Jesus into your heart isn't important. That private exchange between oneself and God is like a "yes" to God's offer of marriage; it signals an engagement, so to speak. But baptism signals the actual wedding.
A few problems follow from this. First, by identifying the private prayer of "repentance" as decisive, we privatize and individualize Christianity, as if the life of faith was something just between "Jesus and me." Second, we break with the ancient Christian tradition, as if the church was located only in our time and space. This, it seems to me, is grossly arrogant and naive.
We should make baptism central to our liturgy, and emphasize, in as many ways as possible, the sacredness of the rite. We should encourage people to continue their "personal relationship" with God, of course. But we must not let them think that is the sum of the matter. We can't be Christians alone, and baptism, because it is a traditional rite and because it cannot be performed alone, helps us to keep this fact before our hearts and minds.
On another front, I would say Communion is more than symbolic, though it certainly isn't less than that. But that discussion is for a different time.
Thanks for the comment, Chris. I know that you have done extensive study on the ordinance of communion and I would be interested to hear more of your thoughts concerning it. This thread may not be the best place, but maybe a "guest post" or something like that.
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