Dear Redeemer Family,

On Sunday, November 6, All Saints Sunday, we will celebrate the sacrament of baptism and joyfully welcome new people into the resurrection family of Jesus. These are always some of my very favorite days of the year. Whether we are baptizing an adult convert, a teenage or college student professing faith for the first time, or a young child born into a Christian family - it is a transcendent joy to witness a soul united with Christ through water.

Traditionally, the church has baptized people on four special Sundays in the liturgical calendar.

All Saints Day (November 6)
Epiphany (January 9)
Easter (April 9)
Pentecost (May 28)

Now, I know that many of you are relatively new to the Christian faith and new to participating in a local church - especially a local church that practices ancient traditions like Redeemer does! So let me say a word about what Christian baptism is:

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. – John 3:5
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. – Matt. 28:19
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. – Romans 6:4
Because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. – 1 Peter 3:20-21

In Christian baptism, a person is united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. We call baptism a Sacrament because it is a physical, tangible, material ritual that is filled with a spiritual, intangible, immaterial grace. Something physical is happening—the person is either being immersed in water or having water poured over their head. Something spiritual is happening—that person is, mysteriously (in a way that we can only barely begin to comprehend), being joined together with the Lord Jesus and, therefore, becomes a part of the church - the body of Christ.

The Story of Baptism spans the entirety of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

The Old Testament prefigures baptism: In the creation of the world, in the salvation of Noah and his family from the flood, in the exodus of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and in the Israelites crossing the Jordan River out of the wilderness and into the promised land. (There are a lot more, but these are the big ones).
Christ commands us to be baptized and to baptize others.
The New Testament authors teach on the centrality of baptism in a Christian’s life.

So who should get baptized?

Any person, young or old, who wishes to put their trust wholeheartedly in Jesus for their redemption.
Any child of a baptized adult Christian who will raise that child in the faith as a part of the church.

Why do we baptize infants as well as adults?

“We start talking to our children not because they understand us, but so that they will. Baptism is God's language whereby he starts talking to his children and initiates a relationship with them. Sacraments are a word after all.”

– Peter Leithart, The Baptized Body

We baptize children, not because we think that an adult profession of faith doesn’t matter (it does, and should come at Confirmation - the other side of the coin to infant baptism), but because we seek to raise Christian children within the church.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them.” We take the Bible at its word that little children can come directly to Jesus, they do not have to grow up first.

For Further Study

I would heartily recommend Peter Leithart’s excellent little book The Baptized Body to anyone who has serious questions about Christian baptism (especially baptizing children) and would like to learn more about it.

If you are a teenager or an adult, have never received Christian baptism, and you would like to - please email me. I would be delighted to get together and talk with you about it.

If you are a parent and your child has not been baptized - same invitation! It would be a joy to baptize your little one.

In the Father’s love,

Redeemer is hosting a baptism class on October 17 for anyone who would like to learn more.