Faith Basics: Baptism

This episode explores the meaning and practice of baptism, focusing on believer’s baptism as a public declaration of faith, repentance, and inclusion in the church. Dan Jarms and Joe Swanson discuss its biblical basis, symbolism, and practical importance for individuals and the church community. They emphasize baptism as a step following a credible profession of faith, and make distinctions from the practice of infant baptism. Plus, they offer guidance on preparing individuals, especially youth, for this significant act of commitment.

• Automated Transcription

• Dan Jarms 0:00
  Today on faith matters, we are picking back up in our faith Basics series, and we're going to talk about baptism, eventually, we're going to talk about the Lord's Supper. And I have in the studio with me today, Joe Swanson,
  
  Dan Jarms 0:19
  I'm Dan Jarms, and you're listening to faith matters a podcast to help update you on matters of faith, Bible Church, as well as equip you in matters of the Christian faith.
  
  Dan Jarms 0:38
  Hey, Joe, how's
  
  Joe Swanson 0:39
  it going? Dan,
  
  Dan Jarms 0:40
  Joe is our children's director, and we're going to talk about baptism today in a little bit bigger series, baptism and the Lord's Supper. I've got Joe with me because as the family director pastor, he interacts with a lot of families with this so when we get to the end of all of these, I'm going to bring Joe back in the studio with Mark and Brian, and we're going to talk about how we helped our families through these processes. For now, let's get a little overview, Joe. What are the major views of baptism? I
  
  Joe Swanson 1:13
  think the three main views that I have seen is believers baptism, infant baptism, and then the Roman Catholic baptism, how they baptized babies?
  
  Dan Jarms 1:25
  Yeah, so we're going to talk about reformed views on infant baptism, which is different than Roman Catholic. But in the Roman Catholic tradition, the priest, sanctioned by the church baptizes, and that actually infuses a grace into a baby. It overcomes their original sin. They so they think and it and it's it starts them down the conveyor belt belt to heaven. So it's actually a work performed on them. And since the 1500s Protestants have rejected any special work of baptism. So baptism is not a magic ritual that gives you points, that gets you into the kingdom of God, and that's really all we need to say about that. Let's talk about what baptism in the Bible means. What is baptism? What does it mean? Well,
  
  Joe Swanson 2:19
  it's a public proclamation of an inward reality, yeah, yeah. That is, is going on,
  
  Dan Jarms 2:24
  yeah? You'll, you'll hear any elder step into the tank and say it's a outward expression of an inward reality? Yeah, absolutely. So you have a really good quote by Bobby Jamison in his little baptism book. Do you want to read that? Because I think that can help families a lot, you bet
  
  Joe Swanson 2:40
  he says baptism is a church's act of affirming and portraying a believers union with Christ by immersing him or her in water, and a believer's act of publicly committing him or herself to Christ and His people, therefore uniting A believer to the church and marking off him or her from the world?
  
  Dan Jarms 3:04
  Yeah, excellent. So that's a pretty dense, dense statement. We summarize it Joe with three eyes identification imagery and inclusion.
  
  Joe Swanson 3:17
  And I think those are really helpful identifiers for believers, because when we look at identification, we are identifying with Christ, and Christ of the Bible, not somebody that we are imagining, but truly a historical figure that died on the cross for our sins, and we are identifying as Christ followers when we are baptized. The second part is imagery, and that, as when a believer goes into the water, he is signifying, he is turning away from the world, and he is identifying with Christ, and He is repenting from his sin. And as he comes out of the water. He's a new, new creation. But it's not a salvific act. It's, it's a public portrayal of someone that is turning away from their sin. And the last part is inclusion, and that as a body of Christ, we want to know who the believers are and who as elders, we want to minister too. And so that's an identification for believers to say, Hey, you're one of us. And there's some accountability piece with that as well.
  
  Dan Jarms 4:31
  What's your go to? Verse or verses for these?
  
  Joe Swanson 4:34
  Yeah, I love Matthew. 28:18-20. It says, And Jesus came and said to them all, authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded to you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. And I think that is just a great commandment from the. Lord that we are once a believer has put his faith and trust in Christ to be baptized.
  
  Dan Jarms 5:07
  Yeah, so there's the identification in the name of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38, Peter is asked in the middle of his sermon, what should we do to be saved? And Peter says, Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, repent to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And there Peter is saying the repentance has got to be there. And then you're showing your identification. That's what baptism is. So you're showing your faith and your identification with Christ, and it's your repentance and your faith that saves you. Sometimes you'll read 2:38 and somebody will say, does that mean I have to be baptized to be saved? But what he is saying is that there's a faith there at baptism, that at salvation, that we're representing, and it's for the forgiveness of sins. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's identification imagery. You could go to Romans 6, three through four, about being baptized into Christ. And there's an imagery of of going down in the water, coming out of the water. You have been baptized into his death, baptized into His resurrection. And there is an inclusion, or a union. So there's an imagery of union, practically the background of baptism in Jewish and even Greek culture was an initiation, right, where you were leaving something old behind and you were starting something new. And that's the way John the Baptist talked about it. You got to leave the world behind. You've got to come into the community of Messiah, and you've got to repent. So there's this symbolism of baptism that's really, really precious to watch. It's like its own, I often say it's its own sermon about the gospel, going down into the water, coming out of the water, going down dirty, coming out clean. Like it's it's got a Scott sermon to preach. Why is it important for the church to do this? Why is it important for the person being baptized? Why is it important for the person
  
  Joe Swanson 7:07
  watching baptism? Is important for the people sitting in the pew? Then they know who is part of the body and who is not? Yeah, for accountability, as far as elders go if they now they know, okay, we have certain requirement, biblical requirements, to help that individual, guard them, shepherd them, help them grow. Makes
  
  Dan Jarms 7:34
  this clear for the elders. Since we're we're charged in first Peter five, to shepherd the flock of God among us, who's the flock, right? So if you're not baptized, we're not sure, are you one of our are we evangelizing you, or are we or are we shepherding and caring for you? Who are we responsible for? Not that we wouldn't love anybody the same, but but it really clarifies for the church and for the elders, what does it do for the believer? As they essentially say, I'm signing up for life in the church. What does that do for them?
  
  Joe Swanson 8:04
  Well, there's an accountability for them as well, that they can't look like the world and still show up on Sunday like nothing changed. Yeah. There's a real, real accountability, and if a friend sees them acting like an unbeliever, they're going to confront them in love and say, Hey, remember when you got baptized? This what you're doing now doesn't reflect the body that you got baptized into.
  
  Dan Jarms 8:33
  Yeah, that's good. We've been walking through the meaning of baptism, and you can kind of tell that we are pro believers baptism. And we're describing what baptism is, in a sense, from a believers Baptist perspective. Joe, why are we a believers baptizing church?
  
  Joe Swanson 8:55
  Well, I think practically speaking, when we look at Scripture, there is no examples in scripture of infants being baptized. Every example is that of an adult or young person making the choice to follow Christ and repent from their sin and follow Christ in that way. So I think that's a really helpful beginning place.
  
  Dan Jarms 9:24
  Yeah, I think of John the Baptist, was the first person we see baptizing in the New Testament. We don't see baptism in the Old Testament. And he's calling on people to repent. And when they show up to be baptized, he says, Show fruit in repentance. So people who weren't going to change what they were going to do, and he could tell he'd say, no, no, we're not going to do this. And then, but if they were going to bear fruit, then he said, then good, come on in. So from John the Baptist all the way through, it's it's for believers. If we back up the truck a little bit, we'd say the new covenant that was. Promised in Jeremiah 31 where the law is going to be written on the heart, or the stony heart is going to be removed and a fleshy heart is going to be put in. In Ezekiel 36 those verses talk about the new covenant, actually bringing on a change. Everybody in the New Covenant community has a new heart. So you can't always tell everybody who's a believer, even if they've been baptized. Some people can get baptized say all the right things and look good for a while, but end up not being a believer. That is true, but it's never designed to be a community of believers and unbelievers. Like Old Testament, Israel had believers and unbelievers. It was a mixed community under the new covenant. The new covenant community is all believers. So that's where you're look. You're just following the verses through. And yeah, there are households who are baptized in Acts. But it doesn't mean that there were babies there. Fact, one of the classic references in Acts 16 about the jailer Philippian jailers family, some people say the whole household was baptized, but it also says all who believed so the the family was all old enough to accept the gospel and believe what's what's our response to people who do baptize babies, and I'm not talking about the Roman Catholic version, just talking about the good old Protestant version. What they're saying is that the covenants across the Bible are just one overarching theme. There's a covenant of redemption from eternity, a covenant of grace. And that, that covenant of grace that goes through from Genesis three, all the way through, is for one people. Abraham received a version of that covenant with His promise, and then he was, he was commanded by God to circumcise his sons. And all Israel did that. They their eight day old boys were all circumcised. So they would look at this new covenant, and they would look at a verse like Acts 238, and 39 this is for this is for you and for your children, thinking, Well, yeah, just like Abraham, he's he, he circumcised his sons. Now it's for sons and daughters. That's the only difference. It's now we have a new new thing. It's baptism, and it's for sons and daughters. And if you would continue on in that same passage, it's going to be talking about all who call on the Lord. So even in that passage, you have people who are called by God and who are going to call on the name of the Lord. So there's always demonstratable faith with it. So what did I do? I was I was baptized three times, quote, unquote, baptized as an infant. I have a picture of me in this adorable little baptism outfit. Is a Presbyterian or Methodist Church. Obviously, I don't remember, with my biological mom, and then I we, we became Catholic when I was about 10, my mom was raised that my my stepmom, my real mom, was raised Catholic. She takes me to Catholic Church. I go through catechism, and at 10, I was baptized, which was cool, because I got godparents, which meant I got a lot of gifts later on, I mean, but then I got saved, and I got saved in college, and I was, it took me a long time to be willing to get baptized because, like, it's happened, but I had it in my mind that baptism was a right performed on me, and as long as the right had happened, then that was all good. And of course, that's, that's the Catholic mentality, that's a right performed on a person. And I had to wrestle with the idea that, actually, I was never baptized. I just got wet twice. So that that's all that had happened. I got wet twice, and people had good religious intentions for it. So I would say, if you, if you were baptized as an infant, and then you became a believer, which is, you know, that's why we're having this conversation. You should get baptized, Joe. Let's, let's help somebody do that. Let's the finish it out by you saying somebody expresses to you, Mr. Swanson, I want to get baptized. You know, let's say you got a sixth grader. How are you walking him through the process?
  
  Joe Swanson 14:21
  First of all, I say that's awesome. Let's talk about it. First, I'm looking for a credible profession of faith. I want to know if that young person is able to articulate the gospel and they completely understand what they are saying yes to and who they are following. Is it the Christ of the Bible, or is there some parts of it that they're not completely understanding? And the second part is there testimony? Is it a credible testimony? Is there a fruit from repentance? Is there a changed life? And the parents have a critical part to play in that. Are they saying the same things? As far as, yeah, you know, Billy was a piece of work, but you know, he's, he's saved, and I can see the fruit of repentance in his life. That's,
  
  Dan Jarms 15:19
  a really good, succinct way to describe it. Can a person really share the Gospel? If, if I get the baptism meeting and we're gonna have an interview about baptism, I usually email out these two questions, be ready to share the gospel with me in five minutes. And then the second one is, talk to me about how you've come to trust Christ. Some people have dramatic changes. Some people have heard it their whole life and have believed it their whole life, but are coming to grips with the implications. That's normal for a kid who's grown up in the church. You might get a lot of those kids Joe, where somebody's like, yeah, I grew up at the church. I've always known that I was a sinner and needed a Savior, but now God's working in them so that they really see it. So those are the practical things. So we would encourage you, if you want to be baptized, you hear it say, Yeah, I want to be baptized. Easiest thing to do is reach out to an elder or a pastor and say, I want to be baptized. We'll set up a meeting with you. If you're younger, we'll set up at the meeting, a meeting with you and your parents, and we'll walk through these things. We don't have an age requirement for baptism, but there's a natural maturity requirement for baptism. We're going to get to that next one. The next one I'm really excited about is discipling toward baptism. So we're going to we're going to walk through counting the cost versus how do we go from evangelizing, your Matthew 28 verse that you were reading from from evangelizing to now we, we think we have a credible profession and testimony to discipling and and there's a discipling process in that. So I'm looking forward to that parents might be interested in dialing in for that and how we help people think through that in their faith. So join us next time as we talk about this, one more time.
  
  Joe Swanson 17:11
  All right, thanks, Dan, you.

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.

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Joe Swanson

Joe is director of Children's Ministry at Faith. He also supports and disciples missionaries and those training for missions.

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