Adult Baptism:
"Be Baptized, Every One of You..."

As to the effects of baptism on the person baptized, there is a great deal of disagreement both in history and in our own century. There are believing Christians in every conceivable camp as to the benefit, if any, which is bestowed by baptism. 

In the period immediately following the apostles, the view of "baptismal regeneration" (salvation by baptism) was widely held, as it is in our own generation. It was argued that baptism washed away all of one's sins up to the moment of baptism. The ceremony was often referred to as "the washing of regeneration." No man could be saved without it except martyrs who went through a "baptism of blood," it was argued. 

A considerable amount of debate was raised over whether the Christian so washed in baptism could find any forgiveness for a sin or sins committed after baptism. Surely such people conceived of sin as blasphemy, adultery, and the like. Many said no, on the basis of Hebrews 6: 6 and similar verses. Others, who were more in touch with the pastoral realities of human frailty and, no doubt, the Biblical reality of sin's pervasiveness, made exceptions. The anonymous Shepherd of Hermas allowed one lapse after baptism for which one might gain forgiveness. It seems as if he was considering only (or primarily) the sin of fornication. He was branded by that paragon of strictness, Tertullian, as "The shepherd of the adulterers" for his leniency. Of necessity, exceptions had to be made even by those who had a very narrow and external definition of sin. In time, theologians, who were more pastoral than they were Biblical, invented a method for forgiveness of post-baptismal sins, such as the taking of monastic vows and the rigors of purgatory. The first offered the penitent an activity which gave him a measure of hope in this life. The second offered him the fearful alternative of purging away his sins in the next life in an existence stranded half way between heaven and hell. 

Nevertheless, by the fourth century we read of numerous instances of baptism delayed until one's deathbed or at least until after the likely indiscretions of youth were past. Both Jerome and Ambrose were not baptized until they were adults. Augustine was hastily baptized in his youth but then only when his parents thought he was about to die. Constantine, shrewd in his religion as he was in his politics, delayed his baptism until the year of his death, presumably on the grounds that the risk of sudden death was smaller that the inevitability of "the weakness of the flesh." 

One wonders what terrors the thought of sudden death must have held for those who sincerely held to the absolute saving quality of baptism but also postponed it due to a prudent concern for their own inability. 

Of course, this seems like so much nonsense to the typical American evangelical Christian who thinks that, while baptism is a nice ceremony to go through, it certainly is by no means a condition of salvation or necessarily connected to it in any way. Such a casual view is characteristic of the whole mentality about the sacraments which leaves no room for a work of grace in the performing of the ordinances. They are seen as merely external recognitions of something spiritual and internal. The Lord's supper becomes merely a ritual feast where mutual friends remember Christ together in much the same way a dearly beloved individual is remembered at a public event after his death with a moment of silence. Baptism becomes a charade of the individuals death, burial and resurrection which he acts out as a testimony. 

The middle ground between these two extremes was the most common belief in the sixteenth century reformation. It is most commonly associated with the Swiss and its most eloquent advocate, Calvin. It was by no means exclusively his view, however. It was the majority view of the reformation and often called "reformed" for that reason. 

In this view, salvation can never be conditioned upon an external ordinance, much less brought about by one, for "we walk by faith and not by sight," and we are "saved by grace through faith." (II Corinthians 5: 7; Ephesians 2: 8) Salvation is a matter of faith, not external ordinances and our conformity to them. The profound spirituality of the New Testament idea of salvation is repelled at the thought of sins being washed away by water. Yet, it is true that, in the New Testament the sacrament is in some sense connected with the thing it symbolizes. In fact, on the surface the New Testament might seem in some places to support the idea of baptismal regeneration. For example, Paul is told to "rise, be baptized and wash away your sins." and baptism is said to save the believer. (Acts 22: 15; I Peter 3: 21) We ought to note that the first of these references does not really prove salvation by baptism since the parallel passage in Acts 9: 17 makes it clear that Paul was at this point a regenerate man. Acts 9: 17 says that he was "filled with the Holy Spirit" previous to his being baptized. However, the close identification of baptism with salvation should be noted. There is an identity of the thing symbolized with the performance of the sacrament in a way which is hard to explain if baptism is merely an outward dramatization of a spiritual reality. The seemingly universal belief by the early church in some form of baptismal regeneration is best explained by the fact that there is more to the ordinance than mere symbolism. They wrongly understood the connection between salvation and the ordinance but they correctly understood that it was no mere ceremony. 

The view that I will propose is that sacramentally the ordinances do what they symbolize doing if they are used properly, that is' if they are used as external accompaniments to a believing acceptance of God's Word and promises. When one believes in the salvation of the Lord through faith in the work of the Savior and receives baptism, he is able to experience physically what God has done for him. A receipt is a commercial device for giving verification that a sum of money or its equivalent has been received. The baptism is, to use an anology, God's receipt which is given to the individual. It is a formal and external record of the actual transaction between the individual and God. In the earthly analogy, the thing that makes the receipt meaningful is not the receipt itself but the word and reputation of the person who gave it and its non-fraudulent use on the part of the person who received it. 

In the ordinance of baptism when it is given to adults, God is saying something of inestimable importance and value. He only gives this message to those who properly receive the ordinance, that is, by faith in Jesus the Lord and Redeemer. God clearly says: "I accept you; I wash your sins away forever and remove you transgressions as far as the east is from the west. I declare that you are clean as a result and accept you into my holy presence. You are now 'family' and dear to me as Jesus Christ is dear to me." 

The commonly held parody of this truth is that God, like Will Rogers, likes everybody and wishes all men to know he is impartial to everybody, baptized and unbaptized alike. The correctly understood Gospel message is that only as a result of God's imputation of the believer's sins to Jesus and Jesus' righteousness to the believer does God accept the sinner. To use the external ordinance while not believing in the Lord is like using a receipt which is fraudulently used, originated or altered. 

On the other hand, the individual says something to God in his baptism. He, by his baptism, vows before the assembled witnesses that he repents of his sin, pleads the atonement of Christ and lays his sins and sinfulness on Jesus the Redeemer. He also vows that he will follow Jesus whatever the cost. This latter theme of commitment is probably involved in the description of baptism in I Corinthians 15: 29 as being "baptism for the dead." It is likely that the primitive Christians considered that in their baptism they laid down their lives and so were considered "as good as dead", as the modern expression goes. 

It is good to have as a part of the baptismal service itself, some voluntary movement, such as kneeling or stepping forward in answer to a question about the candidate's acceptance of the terms of the baptism. For some years I have asked two questions of candidates for baptism. The first has to do with acceptance of Christ as their Savior and a belief in His atonement for their sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness. The second concerns their willingness to follow Jesus in persecution, hardship and deprivation. When a positive response is given, I answer with the invitation: "Then receive the sign and seal of His covenant, for behold he takes your sins away." And thus the individual is baptized. Too few modern Christians count the cost of discipleship until long after the time of their baptism. 

While we are not allowed to insist that there be a public ceremony of baptism in every case (see Acts 8: 38), the very nature of the ordinance as an act of covenanting with God would normally demand the presence of witnesses. We must regard the private baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 as an exceptional case where there could be no believing community of Christians to participate in the ordinance. 

What adults have a right to be baptized? The great commission to baptize all nations (Matthew 28: 19) might seem to imply that the church should baptize every person who would receive the ordinance. The meaning of the ordinance, however, would restrict the number of people to be baptized. The question about the efficacy of baptism helps us to decide. If one believes that the waters of baptism take away sins, one would be inclined to think that even forced baptisms would be a favor to the unwilling individuals. However, if baptism is only efficient when it is used as an external accompaniment of faith in the Saviour and in God's promise to save, then we understand that when administered to adults, it should be administered only to those who are wholeheartedly believing in the salvation of the Lord. Calvin's eloquent description of a worthy use of the Lord's table is an even better description of who is a worthy candidate for baptism: We must, with firm heartfelt reliance, regard the Lord Jesus as our only righteousness, life and salvation, receiving and accepting the promises which are given us by him as sure and certain, and renouncing all creatures, so that distrusting ourselves and all creatures, we may rest fully in him and be contented with his grace alone. 

A difficult issue has been the one of preparation for baptism over a waiting period from a few weeks to as much as a year. The custom became universal after the political and numerical triumph of Christianity in the age of Constantine. It seems to have been widely practiced even earlier than that. Our present Pentecost Sunday, or Whitsunday, as it was called was the major day for baptisms and confirmations. It was called the latter name because candidates for baptism or confirmation wore white robes for the occasion. Churches which are a part of the reformational movement have observed the custom of postponing adult baptism until instruction is given. There does not seem to be precedent for this in the practice of the apostles who regularly appear to have baptized people immediately (Acts 2 :41; 8: 12, 38; 10: 47-48; 16: 15; 16: 33) or soon after (Acts 9: 18-19) their conversion. One would gather from this that baptism must not be delayed needlessly. We remind ourselves, however, that people mentioned in Acts as being immediately baptized, were either Jews or Jewish proselytes or else had experienced an extraordinary amount of preparation in their former religious association. Thus, they were, in a sense, already "catechized: in many of the things it was important for them to know. The fact that immediate baptism has produced a host of baptized non-converts has led many to insist upon instruction in the faith as the usual preparation for baptism.