The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Confessor Baptism by Immersion
I have argued covenant gospel membership is the foundational Baptist distinctive, and I believe this is true. Nevertheless, I think it’s obvious that confessor baptism by immersion is the most visible of our convictions. Confessor baptism, more commonly called believer’s baptism, is simply the idea that baptism should only be applied to individuals who bear credible testimony to personal faith in Christ. Baptists argue confessor baptism by immersion is the closest contemporary practice to New Testament baptism because the word baptizo literally means “to immerse” and because there is no evidence of a known unbeliever being baptized in Scripture. (Of course some professing Christians later turned out to be false believers.)
When our pedobaptist friends argue that believers and their children should be baptized, Baptists typically respond that any attempt to argue infant baptism from the New Testament is an act of eisegesis—reading your convictions into the text rather than allowing your convictions to arise from the text. In fact, as a church historian, I would also point out that pedobaptists cannot agree among themselves on a theology of infant baptism. I know of at least four or five different reasons that different groups sprinkle babies and call it baptism. To me, this indicates infant baptism is a practice in search of a theology to support it.
Contrast that with confessor baptism by immersion. Virtually every group that immerses professing believers does so for the same reason, whether the church is Baptist, nondenominational, Pentecostal, Mennonite, or whatever. Immersion is almost always a symbolic depiction of the gospel, an outward sign of the spiritual transformation within the life of the new believer.
In the New Testament, baptism is tied to the gospel in at least two different ways. First, baptism is tied to the meaning of the gospel. The key passage is Romans 6:1–11:
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
According to Paul, baptism symbolizes important gospel realities like union with Christ, the washing away of sin, regeneration, sanctification, and the resurrection from the dead. While some of this imagery could be represented by sprinkling babies, only the immersion of professing believers captures all of this biblical gospel imagery.
Not only is baptism tied to the meaning of the gospel, but it’s also tied to the proclamation of the gospel. The key passage here is the famous Great Commission of Matthew 28:18–20:
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
According to Jesus, part of what it means to evangelize the nations is to make disciples and baptize them. The goal is not a mere decision, but a whole-life transformation that is in part evidenced through baptism. The gospel doesn’t merely win adherents—the gospel changes lives. Baptism marks the public beginning of a life changed by the good news.
I would summarize the relationship between baptism and the gospel as follows: baptism visually depicts the gospel, it is the public, personal owning of the gospel, and it openly identifies a believer with the community created by the gospel in both its local and universal manifestations. Baptists cannot retreat one inch from our commitment to New Testament baptism—the baptisms we administer say something about the gospel we announce.
——————–
Note: This is the sixth post in an ongoing series on the relationship between the gospel and Baptist identity. Earlier posts in this series include:
The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Introduction
The Gospel and Baptist Identity: What is the Gospel?
The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Pondering Baptist Identity
The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Four Categories of Baptist Beliefs
The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Covenanted Gospel Membership
2 Responses to “The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Confessor Baptism by Immersion”
Leave a Reply
Nathan A. Finn serves as Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Baptist Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He's a husband, father, elder, baseball enthusiast, and Broadway musical fan. He's still trying to figure out why we drive on parkways and park on driveways.
Nathan,
Thanks for this series. Your summary statement at the end is oh so helpful and I think pastors do well to remind our folks of these three main purposes as often as we have opportunity to practice the ordinance.
Michael
[...] “The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Confessor Baptism by Immersion,” by Nathan Finn on the One Baptist Perspective blog, with the fourth in his series on Baptist identity, with thoughts on believer’s baptism. [...]
I like your summary statement at the end as well. Would have liked to have said it that way this morning.
[...] The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Confessor Baptist by Immersion [...]
[...] The Gospel and Baptist Identity: Confessor Baptist by Immersion [...]
[...] Confessor Baptist by Immersion [...]