Someone asked me about Baptism not long ago – maybe this will be of help with the original post:
Why baptize?
The question arises when people focus on the “spiritual side” of Christianity without acknowledgment of the “physical side”. Their focus is on “going to heaven”, “being right with God”, “having Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior”, etc.
• Explanations do not do a lot to solve this focus, because these explanations are assuming that a certain understanding of the “physical side” of Baptism exists with people. But few people in the modern world have an understanding of the “physical side”.
o When the question arises of “How does Baptism save us?” the explanations are something like, "It is not merely water, but a life-giving washing of regeneration (a sacrament) because it is based on Christ’s command and promise and it is performed in his name.
o That, too, is a focus on the “spiritual side” as an explanation of what is spiritually happening within the physical side, but not telling what is really happening on that physical side.
o Basically, people find it difficult to see how a human action of pouring water on me by a priest in a white robe can do anything to save my soul.
• So, what is really happening on the “physical side” of baptism?
o Do you remember how the whole hope and all the promises of the Old Testament were focused on the promise of the Messiah, who would establish an eternal kingdom? “Messiah” means “Christ” in Greek, and it means “Anointed One” in English.
They were waiting for the one whom God would anoint as King to establish a new government that would be on his shoulders, a new nation, a new kingdom - not created by men, as our ancestors did when they used weapons to establish the United States.
The physical side of Baptism began with Jesus being baptized (anointed) as that King –
• The physical activity of John baptizing him was his appointment to the office of King (and High Priest). Jesus became the first citizen of that Kingdom when he was baptized.
• The spiritual side of Jesus’ Baptism was the Dove from heaven, and then the voice from heaven, both confirming what everyone physically saw happen.
Jesus’ Kingdom was ON Earth, but it was not OF men (men did not establish it). It was OF God - God established it. It was a kingdom OF God, not a kingdom OF men.
That is the Gospel – the “Gospel of the Kingdom of God” – it is real, it is here, and you are a citizen of it, as described below.
o Here, then is the physical side of baptism –
Jesus commanded his disciples to make people into new disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit –
• In other words, he commanded his disciples to grant citizenship to people into his Kingdom on earth by baptizing them.
• It is a kingdom with citizens,
• But it is a kingdom with no land (yet), as Jesus said, “Foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (“Son of Man” was the title for the Messiah, the Anointed King, from the prophets of the Old Testament).
• If our King had nowhere to lay his head in his kingdom on earth, then neither do we who are citizens of that kingdom on earth - we are resident aliens on earth, in the human established nations where we live.
The church is the association of people who are citizens of that kingdom on earth.
• Jesus appointed leaders with the command and authority to grant citizenship and teach the new citizens.
• So, the church baptizes people (grants them citizenship) and then teaches them that it is greater than just an earthly kingdom, but has the spiritual side also.
• When you were baptized you became a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom on earth, but he is risen from death; you who are his subjects on earth will also be with him in his spiritual, eternal kingdom.
• All participating in Jesus’ kingdom on earth, by faith also know they are part of a kingdom that transcends earth into the heavens where He sits at his Father’s right hand.
• They know that their baptism was physically “the granting of citizenship into a kingdom on earth”, and they know it was also a washing of new birth into sonship in the heavenly kingdom. Their True Nationality is “Christian”.
o No one is “born” into Jesus’ kingdom by human birth – you were not born a Catholic. Babies are not “automatically” Christians.
People desiring to be in Jesus’ kingdom are accepted in, baptized into citizenship
However, since its beginnings, the Church has always welcomed whole families into citizenship together, baptizing children, teaching them as they grow up about the true nature of the kingdom of God – that they are part of it on earth and will be part of it when their King returns to claim them.
If we do not baptize our children, then we cannot comfort them by saying, “you are Jesus’ brother / sister”, “you are one of his people”, “Jesus chose you and made you his own”, etc. Instead we would have to say to them, “When you are old enough to choose for yourself, then you can be a part of Jesus’ kingdom, but you cannot be a part of his people yet because you cannot think clearly yet until you reach a certain age.”
• That may sound cruel, but the kingdom is here, and it has a physical point of entrance (baptism) – don’t hold back your child / baby from being brought into the kingdom, and then learning to know who their king is.
• Jesus declared the same when people brought babies and children to him (Luke 18:15-17) – his Kingdom belongs to them and all who receive it like they do. Jesus rebuked his disciples for stopping these parents, so since then the Church does not refuse citizenship to babies and children who are brought to Jesus’ Kingdom by their parents. The Church grants this blessing of citizenship to the babies and children by baptizing them, and then teaches them about their King as they grow.
This physical reality bearing the spiritual reality is not present anywhere else in the world.
