Baptism and Submission to God the Holy Spirit

So lately I have tried to be more responsive to the Spirit of God in his promptings in my life. This is as opposed to being dismissive outright or just not engaging in thought on the topic. In my life (as is common to many) I have struggled with assurance of salvation. I prayed the prayer “just in case” but generally knew of course that didn’t save me. I settled the issue of assurance mostly during college, when I had heard someone say that if the struggle results in wanting to commit to God, then it’s probably conviction of God; if it’s merely of guilt and despair, it’s probably of Satan. That resonated with me. I also made a profession of faith when I was very young, and it’s hard for me to remember a whole lot about it. I further realized that, whether that conversion was real or not (if it wasn’t, it is hard for me to point to one specific place that I was), I am converted: I am trusting in Jesus Christ, his finished work on the cross, that he is God the Son, lived a perfect life, died for my sins and was raised the third day. I further want to follow him and have seen evidence of the Spirit’s work in my own life. I may have prayed the prayer a hundred times, but none of those prayers have ever saved me; none ever could.

In any case, I had occasionally wondered if I was saved at the time I had my baptism as a child. If you made me guess, to this day, I’d probably say 60-40 that I was. However, I wasn’t sure. In times past, I had really not entertained it much, and just dismissed it out of mind. However, this time, I knew that God wanted me to reach out to a member of the pastoral staff at my church.

So I crafted an email to one of the pastors and explained my situation. We determined we would meet up at church to talk about it briefly. I told God my responses to the three possible outcomes: 1. If he told me I should undergo baptism, I would gladly submit. 2. If he told me not to worry about it, then I wasn’t going to worry about it. 3. If he told me it was up to me, I would pray about it for a week and get back to him. I honestly expected him to go the route of (3), or maybe (2). So I was surprised when he said, “Let’s do it!” For a moment, I worried about what people would think. Then I realized that it doesn’t matter; what matters is that I follow God and do what I told him I would do, in response to how I believed he was working things out.

So this past Sunday (Easter!) I was baptized. There’s a chance (see above) that I was just “getting wet,” but let me explain the idea. If this was my baptism, then I was being obedient to the Lord. I obviously have no regrets about that. If this wasn’t—that is, if I was saved when I was baptized as a child—then my testimony is one of being willing to follow God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as they lead, and being willing to submit to the authority of my local body of believers (the church). It may even resonate with others in the church. I obviously have no regrets about that!

In any case, it is by no means my mission to make someone doubt whether they are saved or have been properly baptized. That would be to miss my point. My point is that whatever the Lord is asking you to do, don’t ignore it. Let the Holy Spirit have his work in you, so that you will be the kind of person he wants you to be: conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Some Thoughts on Baptism

Baptism is an interesting subject. Much could be written about it, but I only intend to discuss a few points from Matthew 28:19, which states, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” First, the command was given by Jesus to his disciples. It’s generally agreed that this command is not confined simply to the eleven who happened to be there, but rather to any follower (disciple) of Christ. Therefore, what follows can plausibly be applied to every believer.

Second, baptism is most plausibly believer’s baptism. There is certainly debate about the issue, but the passage clearly teaches the message of the Gospel, and then baptism from those who would learn. The debate need not be explored here, since the point of the article is what follows from these things.

Third, if the command was given to every believer, then, at least on the surface, every believer may baptize other believers (who have not yet been baptized). This would mean ordinary laymen could perform baptisms, or even women. I mention this because throughout my church tradition, only ordained pastoral staff baptize people. However, there is nothing biblically precluding this, and moreover there is nothing inherent in biblical pastoral duties stating only they may baptize (in fact, Philip was not even functioning as a pastor when he baptized the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8).

Now this is not to say church’s traditions should be overthrown or directly challenged. After all, it may be somewhat odd to start having 11-year-olds baptize people in front of the congregation. There’s a distinct sense in which baptism ought to be done within the purview of the local church, and there’s a good practical argument to be made for pastors and deacons to be the primary baptizers. There may be considerations for women baptizing other women, or whatnot. The point is just to say that perhaps baptism should not be restricted quite as much as it is. What do you think?