An Evangelical Theology Of Baptism

The evangelical tradition is not monolithic in its understanding of water baptism. Furthermore, the importance that the Protestant Reformers gave to baptism seems to be diminished if not absent among many evangelicals. This diminished importance is perhaps due to revivalistic theology that supplanted the significance of baptism with the individual's conversion experience, which often occurred outside the church. The following article will note the divergences and the commonalities among evangelicals.

As with other traditions, baptism in the evangelical tradition is related to the beginning of the individual's Christian life and the believer's initiation into the church (both the universal invisible church and the local visible church). It is performed and received as an act of obedience to Christ who exemplified the practice in his own life (Matt. 3:13) and commissioned his followers to baptize all people (Matt. 28:19). Baptism must always be connected with faith and repentance (see Acts 2:38), though unlike the latter two it is not indispensable to salvation nor is it a means of regeneration. Though some Christians understand baptism to be a regenerative act, evangelicals tend to offer alternative explanations for passages such as Mark 16:16, John 3:5, Acts 2:38, Titus 3:5, and 1 Peter 3:21. What troubles evangelicals in this regard is that if baptism is regenerative, it is difficult to see how salvation is by grace through faith alone. Thus, salvation is possible without baptism, and baptism is an act that expresses one's faith. The water signifies that one has been cleansed from sin (Titus 3:5). The biblical locus of the meaning of water baptism is Romans 6:1–11. Baptism symbolizes the believer's own death and resurrection. This union is made possible through the work of the Holy Spirit. In this way, baptism is a visible sign or representation of the objective reality of Christ's saving work that makes possible the believer's own death and resurrection, resulting in the individual's rebirth, the forgiveness of the individual's sins, and the individual's consecration to a new life of holiness and service. In this sense, the act of baptism seals or cements the relationship that God has established with the people of God. The evangelical tradition embraces a range of opinions with regard to the candidate for baptism. Evangelicals in the Reformed tradition, for instance, who emphasize the covenant into which the baptized is placed, have argued that infants should be candidates for baptism on the basis of (1) the two different administrations of the one covenant (circumcision in the Old Testament and baptism in the New Testament), (2) the precedent of household baptisms at which infants might have been present (see Acts 11:14; 16:15, 33; 18:8; 1 Cor. 1:16), (3) and the invitation of Jesus to children (Matt. 19:13–15; Mark 10:13–16; Luke 18:15–17). Since evangelicals do not subscribe to the Roman Catholic ex opere operato position, which bases the sacrament's efficacy on the working of the sacrament itself, Reformed (and Lutheran) evangelicals insist that faith must accompany the infant's baptism, either through infant faith or through the vicarious faith of the sponsors. But this position has not been popular with the majority of evangelicals (even including some in the Reformed tradition such as Karl Barth), particularly since the scriptural evidence is not conclusive and since the requirement of faith for baptism seems inadequate. Evangelicals have tended to insist that the proper candidates for baptism are believers who have reached an age of understanding and responsibility, and are baptized as active participants. Evangelicals also have not been in total agreement on the mode of baptism. They have preferred immersion due to the literal meaning of baptizing ("?to dip, to immerse?"; also see Mark 1:10 and Acts 8:38ff), and due to the symbolism of death and resurrection in Romans 6. Immersion involves the threat of drowning, from which one is delivered and raised to life. Baptism is to be done in, for, and by the church (though there are some Baptists who baptize privately). The act is a reminder to the church that the church itself is constituted by the Word of God as it is proclaimed to the eyes in baptism. The baptized person becomes an active member of the people of God. These people are characterized by their confession of loyalty to Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection is the sign under which they have been placed. For this reason, baptism is also a political act. It symbolizes the new identity of each believer who is now in Christ, in the church that does not arrange people in a hierarchy based on their sex, race, or socioeconomic status. Baptized individuals are expected to assume their responsibilities for Christian service on the basis of the gifts and tasks that the Holy Spirit assigns to each member of the church (Eph. 4:1–16).