#10 What's A Christian
 

On with the New!
 

. . .buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
(Colossians 2:12)
 

    Some people assume that all you've got to do is be baptized and automatically these spiritual things happen. They want it done as soon as possible to their children. They want to bring infants to church for baptism so that magically, mystically, mechanically, the children get an eternal insurance policy.
    Clearly that's not right. Baptism is significant and important, but it is never a substitute for faith.
    Some people, hearing this, say, "It's obvious, then, that you don= t baptize little children. You wait until people have exercised faith, and then you baptize them on confession of faith. That way nobody gets confused that baptism substitutes for faith.@
  That's sound reasoning, but Paul does seem to suggest a link between circumcision and baptism.
    Israelites were circumcised on their eight day of life, before they could exercise any faith at all. Those who see baptism as the New Testament equivalent of circumcision firmly believes that infants of believing parents should be baptized. They see baptism as a sign that the child has entered into the new covenant in the same way that circumcision signified the entrance of an Israelite child into the old covenant. They know that every child must one day come to faith and show the inner reality of the external symbol. But they insist you should not for that reason deny them the outward symbol.
    No matter which mode of baptism people use, it is never a substitute for heart discipleship. Paul makes this clear in the rest of verse 12, when he insists the key even to baptism is faith: "having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith...@ Baptism unrelated to faith is an empty tradition. Baptism as an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace is profoundly significant.
    So what is Paul saying here? He's saying that, one way or another, your baptism is an outward expression of the inward reality of your identification with Christ. You are united to Christ by faith and have died to all that he died to. You've been buried; you've terminated the old life.
    Can you honestly say that in him you have been buried to the old life and with him you have been raised to newness of life? Can you say that because you have exercised faith in the God who raised Christ from the dead, the power that raised him from the dead is operative in your life, and you are alive in him? Paul says that's what circumcision means. That's what baptism entails.
    What does baptism mean to you?

Father, thank you that the true baptism happens inside and is done by you. Please help me to live in the reality of what you have done in my life, to live in your strength that you have made available to me, Amen.
 

~Stuart Briscoe~