05 Aug Celebrating the Love of Christ

May 26, 2001 is a date that is etched in my heart. Aside from the day Jesus saved me, it is the most important date in my almost 45 years of living. It was the day I slid a ring onto Melissa’s finger, made my covenant vow to love her with a never stopping, never giving up, unconditional, sacrificial love. It was a day that we celebrated our commitment to one another in the presence of our family and friends who were cheering us on and standing with us in faith. A little over 21 years, and 4 kids, later, the celebration continues for us.

You know, love is funny like that. In any relationship, there are major defining moments that we celebrate to mark the commitment and love experienced between us. Our relationship with Jesus isn’t any different. In the same way, I awaited my wedding day with an excitement that was previously unmatched, so Jesus longs for the day He gets to celebrate His love for us as we step into our committed and covenant relationship with Him. The celebration of that moment is what we commonly refer to as water baptism.

Water baptism is the wedding ring of Christianity–the sign, or symbol, of the covenant relationship we enter into with Jesus when we confess Him as Lord and put our trust in His life, death, and resurrection for redemption and reconciliation of our relationship with God. Baptism is a picture of what that relationship is all about as it points us to three different historical moments in Scripture:

1. The Exodus. God delivered Israel from its slavery in Egypt through the blood of an innocent lamb, the parting of the Red Sea, and the destruction of the Egyptian military as the waters came back together. Likewise, through the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, we have been delivered from the slavery of sin, and the power of sin over us has been destroyed through Christ’s resurrection. Water baptism is a declaration of that aspect of our relationship with Jesus as the water parts beneath the body of the one being baptized and comes back together with the surface tension of the one being baptized. It declares that though we were once slaves to sin, we are now ruled by righteousness through the sacrificial love of Christ.
2. Circumcision. When God called Abraham out of his homeland of Ur and promised to give him a son through whom God would rescue the world, God formed a covenant relationship with Abraham. The sign of that covenant was circumcision. This may seem like a strange ask from God until you realize what exactly God was calling Abraham away from. Ur was known for its worship of Nanna, the moon god. The primary way the Chaldeans of Ur would worship their god was through temple prostitution. So, God telling Abraham to circumcise himself, and all the men in his camp, was His way of saying to Abraham, “that part of you that you’ve given to those false gods will now belong to Me.” Paul tells us in Romans 2, that water baptism is a circumcision of our hearts, not done by human hands, but by the hand of God. In other words, water baptism is also a symbol that the desires of our hearts that used to draw us towards false gods, now draw us to the heart of Jesus.
3. Burial & Resurrection. In Colossians 2, Paul says we have been buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Him in His resurrection. Jesus went into the tomb having taken on our sin and condemnation. When His body was laid to rest, our sin and condemnation were laid to rest with Him. When Jesus rose again that Sunday morning, He walked out of the tomb as the first fruits of New Creation, not only leaving His grave clothes behind, but our sin and condemnation with them. Water baptism is a picture of this reality as the believer is buried under the water and raised again. In Christ, our sin and condemnation have been put to death, and we have been raised with Christ to live as New Creation people reflecting God’s Kingdom design out into the world.

So, when a believer is baptized in water, it is the celebration of his or her uniting with Christ in a covenant relationship through which he or her has been set free from the slavery of sin, given a new desire to love Jesus back, and live in light of the new creation that His resurrection has ushered into our present-day reality. This saying “I do!” to Jesus is then witnessed and celebrated by the family and friends in attendance as the love we experience with Jesus is put on display for the world to see. It is a beautiful picture of God’s heart for His people, and for our desire to love Him back as we repent of our sins and declare our commitment to Him.

If you have entered into that kind of relationship with Jesus, but have never been water baptized, then I would love to talk more about that with you. We will be holding a short class this Sunday with some of the children from mKids who have vocalized their desire to be baptized. All children are welcome to join.  If you want to get baptized, you can sign up on our baptism form to let us know. We will follow up with you to have that conversation!

Love is something we all long to celebrate, and there is no greater celebration than when we celebrate the love of Christ, together, through water baptism. We are so excited to celebrate that love with you as a family of believers.

Sincerely,

Brett