Today marks the anniversary of my baptism. Through this sacrament I was received into the body of Christ at Westminster Orthodox Presbyterian Church, then in Westchester, Illinois, but now located in nearby Indian Head Park, not far from Chicago.
When I was younger I did not treasure this day as I do now. Nevertheless, in the ensuing years I have come to follow Calvin in believing that our baptism, far from being diminished or invalidated by our inability to remember it, is a sign of our union with Christ for the whole of life into eternity. This union is effected entirely by the grace of God, which comes to us even before we are aware of it.
As always, the Heidelberg Catechism puts it very nicely indeed:
Q. How does baptism remind you and assure you that Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross is for you personally?
A. In this way: Christ instituted this outward washing and with it gave the promise that, as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body, so certainly his blood and his Spirit wash away my soul’s impurity, in other words, all my sins.
I can do no better than to end this post by quoting one of my favourite liturgical theologians, the estimable Hughes Oliphant Old:
In the Reformed understanding of baptism, baptism is a prophetic sign at the beginning of the Christian life, which continues to unfold throughout the whole of life. The sign of baptism claims for us the washing away of sins and calls us to newness of life. The sign of baptism calls us to repentance and to the profession of Christian faith. Whenever we confess our sins in prayers of confession or profess our faith by saying the Apostles’ Creed, we are living out our baptism. Baptism is not something that is done once and then is finished and over. It is something that shapes the whole of the Christian life, from the very beginning to the very end. Baptism is a means of grace. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that brings about and fulfills what the sign of baptism had promised. That inward working of the Holy Spirit takes place through the whole of life until at last we die in Christ and are raised in Christ.
Thanks be to God that, by his grace, he made me one of his own!
June 30th, 2010 | 10:36 am | #1
DAVID: This is a lovely post. Thanks for sharing the passages from Hughes Oliphant Old and the Heidelberg Catechism. I grew up in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which lacks the depth and texture of other Presbyterian denominations. In recent years I have been exploring OPC, PCA, and RCA. Even though I already was baptized as a youth, do you think it’s possible to be baptized as an adult now that I have a better understanding of this sign?
June 30th, 2010 | 10:39 am | #2
Congratulations, David! I was Baptized as an adult because I came to Christ as an adult and was not Baptized until I entered the Orthodox Church. It is a day that I will cherish and treasure forever.
And as we Orthodox would say, “Many, many years!” :-)
June 30th, 2010 | 11:25 am | #3
Christopher, you write:
Although I am painfully aware of the differences amongst Christians on baptism (and I prefer not to get into an exchange on the issue here), I would see what you propose to do as a reaffirmation of your earlier baptism, and not another baptism. The efficacy of baptism and the grace of Christ of which it is a sign and seal is not dependent on the level of our understanding of it. There is a profound sense in which we will never fully fathom the mysteries of faith in this life, but we accept them anyway precisely on the strength of God’s promise of salvation. If the life in Christ had to depend on the depth of our own faith and understanding, we would be lost.
No, I don’t remember my baptism, but I don’t remember being born either. Nevertheless, I know it happened because I’m here in this world. In the same way, by God’s grace I am able to confess, with the Heidelberg Catechism, that “I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ,” which is nothing less than “my only comfort in life and in death.”
July 1st, 2010 | 5:03 pm | #4
The non-elect too can receive the sign of baptism and they are not theeby receiced into the body of Christ in Reformed theology.
July 1st, 2010 | 7:04 pm | #5
As someone who grew up w/ “believer’s baptism” who is now joining a Presbyterian Church, infant/child baptism is a bit confusing to me. My 11 y/o daughter wants to be baptized (she was not baptized as a child) and the church we are joining is planning to perform a child baptism (where the parents, godparents, etc stand w/ the child) rather than the baptism they are performing on the adults who want to join the church. At 11 (and a bright 11 at that) my daughter has articulated her belief and it was entirely her idea to get baptized. I’m wondering if I should request that the adult baptism be performed (where, I assume, the one being baptized makes or agrees to a statement of faith) or if she should do the child baptism and then the confirmation process in high school.
I guess old habits die hard and it is strange to me to have someone who is at an age where she can make up her own mind about her beliefs would be baptized in the same way as an infant.
July 1st, 2010 | 8:07 pm | #6
Natalie, I’m not really in a position to offer advice on such knotty questions, nor do I have the credentials. However, if I were in your shoes, I would make the request, recognizing, nevertheless, that the session/consistory of your church does indeed have the authority to make this judgement. I rather think your church session, by wanting to give your daughter a child baptism, is acknowledging that you, as her parents, still have the major responsibility to see that she is brought up in the faith. At what age would she be making a public profession of faith/confirmation? At age 13? That might perhaps have a bearing on the success of your request, as it’s not very far in the future.
July 2nd, 2010 | 9:05 am | #7
Forgive me, Alison, but when I read your comment above, I couldn’t help visualizing the baptism scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding with the inflatable kiddies’ wading pool. I assume they didn’t do this in your church. I’ve never seen an adult baptism in the Orthodox Church, so I have no idea how it’s done.
Thank you for your “Many years” prayer.
July 3rd, 2010 | 1:28 am | #8
[...] 3, 2010 · Leave a Comment David Koyzis shares some reflections on the anniversary of his [...]
July 3rd, 2010 | 6:24 am | #9
David, in the Orthodox Church–or at least in my church–they usually Baptize in a horse trough device! I kid you not, but this allows for full immersion Baptism. I wore white clothes, and then after I was Baptized, I changed, and my priest said a few kind words about me to the people in attendance (I was Baptized on a Saturday night after Vespers and Chrismated the next day–though,as you know, infants are Baptized and Chrismated at church during Sunday Liturgy.) I was very nervous for the Baptism, but by that point, I knew my priest and deacon well–and was fully prepared. I actually like that I was fully aware of the whole experience and could understand the process of my priest blessing the water and then actually being Baptized.
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