Your Baptism Was Never About You
VideoTranscript
This is the video’s transcript, lightly formatted. Tap a time to jump to that moment.
The story you've been told about the meaning of baptism is partly true, but mostly wrong. Now, that's a bold statement, I know, so let me explain what I mean. When I was baptized, before I was dunked, before I was under the water, I had to answer two questions in front of a huge audience. Now, the first question was about God, but the second one wasn't. It was about an organization, the institution, the cult that I grew up in. I was asked whether I understood that getting baptized meant I was now officially one of them, subject to all the consequences of breaking their rules. Now, I was born and raised in that cult, so I just said yes, because that's what you did, and then I went under.
I was baptized into that group as much as into any person, more so into the group than to anyone else. It took me a very long time to realize that, and I want to show you why. I want you to see what I missed that I now understand. In my last video, I promised you that there was a word that Paul uses for what happens to you in baptism, and that word means grown together. At the communion table, when you partake, Christ comes into you. But in baptism, ah, baptism's different. You go into him.
Now, a lot of us were taught that baptism is a public testimony. It's a way of showing people what's already happened, that you're already dedicated, that you already believe. And that's not wrong. It's just missing a huge part of the meaning of what happens. And if you were ever baptized into a group that you've left, or not that even counted, stay with me here. I've asked that question too, and I want you to see why the answer is what it really is, and you've got nothing to worry about. In this video, we're going to cover a Greek word that only appears once anywhere in the New Testament, a bishop in Jerusalem who told new Christians that they had just been buried, and the day the sky tore open over a river and a voice spoke over Jesus before he had done became famous for and that we know and love him for doing.
But first, a little bit more about the group that I grew up in. So in that group, baptism felt like the finish line to a long race. You had to study, you had to answer a long list of questions before they would let you get baptized, which that in itself is a problem. You had to prove that you understood their teachings. And when you've learned enough that you could pass that test and they felt like you were living right, approved for baptism, at which point you stood up in front of everybody and you said yes to those two questions, and they dunked you under the water. Baptism was the proof that you'd done everything you were supposed to do. Your dedication made visible to the world.
Now, you may have been raised in a church that was different from mine, and if you were, they probably did something similar but with a lot more warmth. But even so, many of us were taught to talk about baptism like it's an outward sign of an inward decision or a step of obedience or going public with your faith. And now here's the thing, all those are true as far as they go, but notice who's doing everything in every one of those statements. You decided, you obeyed, you went public. Baptism was something that you do before God, before people, and you do it for God. And that brings us right back to the theme of this whole series, God over there watching us over here doing something, trying to prove that we somehow deserved or earned, or at least want, his love. But Paul, Paul tells a very different story about the water in that baptism.
In his version, you're not the one doing most of the work. Look at the Greek word itself, baptizo. It sounds like what it means in English, and its basic meaning is to dip or to plunge or to immerse. So the picture that Paul is using here in Romans 6, it's going all the way under the water. You have some people who baptize by sprinkling, but that's not the word that Paul reached for there. He reached for baptizo, going down under the water. Now, Paul brought that up for a reason, because he just finished saying that where sin increased, grace increased all the more, and he's anticipating his audience's objection to him saying that.
What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? And his answer isn't to lay down a new rule, it's not to try harder. What he says is, remember what happened to you in the water. Don't you know that all of us who are baptized Jesus were baptized into his death? Look at the wording there, into Christ Jesus, not for him, not in front of him, into him, the way you would go into the water. Then Paul keeps going, we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death and order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
So when you're baptized, Paul's saying that you're buried with him, and then you're raised with him. And then comes that word that I promised you. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. And there's the word, united. The word united in English, it translates one Greek word, sumfutoi. That word only appears once in the entire New Testament right here in this verse. It's built from soon, together, and that's a verb that means to grow.
Now, the old King James translators, they rendered it planted together. Greek writers use that word for things that grow into one, so like plants that are rooted side by side or a broken bone knitting back together. Two living things become one living thing until there's no seam between them that separates them. You can't tell them apart. Well, that's Paul's picture of getting baptized. Not a branch that's tied onto a vine with a string where it's very obvious that it's been grafted on there. A branch that grew into the tree and becomes a part of it.
It's one life running through both. That brings us back to what Jesus said. Remember the vine and the branches from the last video. Remain in me as I also remain in you. Well, here's Paul telling you when that growing together actually started. So when you get baptized, I know a lot of us are used to thinking about that as showing God something that we've decided, that we really do want to serve him, that Jesus is our Savior. It does mean those things, but we mostly think of it as meaning something that we do is the great majority of its meaning is something that's done to you.
You are planted into Christ and you grow together with him. That's what those words mean. Now, real quick, if this is landing for you, hit subscribe because I have a lot more to cover here. And tell me in the comments, what did baptism mean in the church that you grew up? Was it seen as a requirement, a celebration, a vow that you took, or is this something that you've never even done? And if you want to go deeper into this subject than a short video can, I wrote a whole chapter on this in my book, The Broken Mirror, Rediscovering Our True Nature in Christ. Chapter 15 walks through the whole process, dying with Christ, being buried with Christ, being raised with Christ, because believers are not just pardoned subjects of a distant King.
One reader said it does not read like a strict scholarly paper, but like a campfire discussion. I was really moved by that. I thought that was very nice of them to say. That's what I was going for. The link to the book is in the pinned comment if you want to take a look at it. Now, here's the thing. I'm not the first person to read Romans chapter 6 like this.
The oldest explanation that we have goes even further than I just did. Back up all the way to the 300s after Jesus' death in Jerusalem. Every year at Easter, a crowd of new believers would gather to be baptized. And the week right after that, the bishop of Jerusalem, traditionally thought of to be a man named Saral, sat him down and explained to him what had just happened. Those lectures were recorded and they still survive today. He walks them back through the whole thing. They were led up to the pool.
They confessed their faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as Jesus required. You went down into the water three times. You came back up three times. And he says that was the three days that Christ spent in the tomb. And then he says this to that crowd. At the selfsame moment, you were both dying and being born. And that water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother.
Now, that is quite a phrase, isn't it? Your grave and your mother. But that's Romans 6 in one sentence. The water you went under was a burial. You died in Christ. The water you came up out of was a birth. You were reborn with Christ.
But he's careful about it, and in a way that I really appreciate it. He tells them that they didn't really die in the sense that they weren't nailed to a physical cross. Our imitation was in a figure, he says. our salvation in reality. I like that too. This guy knew how to turn a phrase. So the picture was just a picture, he says, but what it pictured was real.
Back then in that room, nobody thought that all they'd done is make a public statement so everybody else could know what they believe. They thought that they'd been buried and reborn on the same morning. And that's correct. That's what Paul said. So that's what our baptism is like. But even more surprising when it comes to the most important and most famous baptism in history, when Jesus Christ himself got baptized. Look at Mark chapter 1.
Jesus walks down from Nazareth, and he's baptized by John in the Jordan after overcoming John's objections because he didn't feel like he was worthy of doing anything like that for Jesus. And here's what Mark says happened next. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you are my son whom I love, with you I am well pleased. Now look at where that sentence actually sits. It's at the very beginning of that story. Jesus hasn't preached a sermon yet.
He hasn't healed anybody. He hasn't turn water into wine. He hasn't walked on water. None of the things that he's famous for having done in public has he done yet. And yet the father says in this moment, you are my son. I love you. And I'm pleased with you.
He said all of that before the work started, not because Jesus did the work. That's the takeaway here. He expressed his love for his son before his son did anything he would later be renowned for. And right after that, it says, at once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness. For 40 days, he's out in the wilderness and he gets tested by Satan. The voice came first and the testing came after. So he walked into 40 days of testing already knowing whose son he was and that he had God's approval.
That order really matters because it's the same order for you too. But there's something in the Greek that Mark chooses to use here that is not well conveyed whenever you read an English translation. The word for heaven being torn open is schizo. It's a violent word. It means to rip open. Mark only uses it twice in his entire gospel. The second time is at the very end.
You'll probably remember that the moment Jesus dies. the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, schizo. And right after that, a centurion looks at him and says, surely this man was the son of God. So in Mark's telling, it's torn at the beginning and torn at the end. And both times, somebody calls him God's son. Then put that next to what Paul said. In Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith.
for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Stop and think about the implication there. If you're in Christ, well, guess what? You went into the person that God's voice spoke over. You're inside the sentence adopted into it too. You are my child whom I love. With you, I am well pleased.
And God for you, just like for Jesus, says that before you've done anything. said over him before he did anything that we all came to know him for. That's what actually happens at baptism. It's not just you announcing to the world that you're a Christian now. It's God making an announcement over you. Now, there's two common pushbacks that I get whenever I talk about this with people. The first one is a debate and the second one isn't.
Here's the first one. Wait, John, are you saying that the water saves you? But what about babies? My church says only believers.
Let me say up front here that this isn't a debate that I'm trying to settle today. But if you were baptized as a baby, your tradition's been preaching this point for centuries. You didn't do anything, and God called you His anyway. And if your church baptizes believers, well, look at what Paul says in Colossians. You were buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith and the working of God. So no, the water doesn't do it all on its own, and you're not the one doing all the work either. It's God doing the work.
So whatever your tradition says, the question isn't how impressive your vow was or how much you'd done in advance of being baptized. The point I'm making here is whose work it was that makes this all possible, and it's God's, not yours. second objection, which isn't really an objection, it's a question that I get. I was baptized into a group that I no longer believe in and so I left because I feel like they were wrong. Or I was baptized as a kid and I didn't understand it or mean it. Or I've never been baptized at all. Does any of what you're saying actually apply to me?
Those are all excellent questions and they deserve of a good answer. And I do understand the question because I went under the water with an organization's name as part of my answer. I had to say yes to saying that I belong to that. So here's what I can tell you. Being grown into Christ, that's not your work. You didn't do that. That's God's work.
He does it. The branch doesn't grow itself into the vine. You don't have to have gotten the vow just right for it to matter. But whether or not you should get baptized again, while that's a legitimate and real question, it's not one for me to answer for you. It's one for you and a church that you trust to work through yourself. It's not something I can settle here on screen for you. There are plenty of people who leave groups like the one I left, and because they're like, you know, I didn't really understand it, and I don't think it was right, I'm going to get baptized again now that I've found a church that I feel like I belong in.
And that's fine and good. There's nothing wrong with that. But just remember, you're not fixing God's mistake when you do that. If you were sincere when you got baptized, God's doing the work, not you. But if you choose not to get baptized again, that's also fine. If you recognize that, okay, I had my doctrine wrong and I don't agree with that group or organization anymore, but my sincerity was there.
baptized, so I feel like God already did that work and I wasn't getting off on a technicality. If that's how you feel, I don't have an objection to that either. And if you've never been baptized at all, well, then this is an invitation. It's not some requirement that you've failed. There's a vine and there's plenty of room here for you to get attached to it too. Now, one of the benefits of being baptized is something that Martin Luther said that I really like. Martin Luther taught what to do whenever they get struck by guilt.
It happens to all of us, right? We make a mistake, we feel guilty. Well, he wrote in his large catechism that when our sins and conscience oppress us, we strengthen ourselves and take comfort and say, nevertheless, I am baptized. I love that. Nevertheless, I feel what I feel. I did what I did. Nevertheless, Nevertheless, Luther's not inventing something there.
He's actually referencing Paul. A few verses after the Grown Together verse, Paul says, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. You can count yourself. It's the word for reckoning an account, making sure the books match up. You're not making it true by counting. You're just writing down what's already true. So when you make a mistake, just remember, nevertheless, I am baptized.
That's not who you are. It's a thing that happened. You have to deal with it. You might need to apologize or make amends for it, but it doesn't mean you're not worthy and it doesn't mean you're not accepted or loved by God. So here's this week's practice. I call it nevertheless. Nevertheless, when that old voice starts working on you, the one in your head, the one that says that you're behind or you're a fraud, I know that one all too well.
It tells you you're not good enough. It tells you that you're never going to make it. Whatever negative self -talk is ringing through your brain, answer that with your own version of what Martin Luther said. Nevertheless, I am in him. You're not arguing or debating with your feeling. You're just telling it where you Nevertheless, I am in him. And if you've never been baptized, hold on to that anyway.
Use it anyway. When you're ready, the river's going to be there for you. And if you know someone who's been wondering whether their baptism even counted or if they've invalidated or nullified it some way, send this to them. You don't have to say anything. Let Paul tell them how it really is. At the Jordan, the Father spoke out loud for everyone to hear who was present.
up a question, does God still speak? Does he speak to you? And how would you know if it was actually him or someone else or something else in your head? Well, that's what I'm going to cover in my next video, how to actually hear God's voice. It's not in the earthquake and it's not in the fire. It's in something an old prophet heard on a mountain that the Hebrew calls a sound of thin silence. So meet me on the mountain in the next video and let this be our prayer.
Abba, Father, thank you for speaking over your Son before he ever did any of the things we know him for, his teaching, his prayers, his miracles. And thank you for bringing us into him. Forgive us for all the time we believed that baptism was a show, an act we had to perform so others would know that we believe, a vow that we thought we had to get right to be accepted by you. Thank you that our baptism was always your work. You buried us with Christ and you raised us up with him too. You had us grow into him until there's no separation and we are forever basked in the bond of your love for all of us. When that old voice echoes in our head, help us to answer with the new voice, your voice, the one that you've given us.
You are our father. We are your children. We love you. We reflect you. We are yours.
name, Amen.
