Why Don't Other Churches Do It This Way?

Interesting thing yesterday ... a young man in his mid 20s with a strong churched background, but new to HCC watched how we handled the baptisms last night (we have had a lot of baptisms lately), as two young ladies committed themselves to Christ.

He said to me, "at first I thought, why does Harpeth Community Church emphasize baptism the way they do" ... now, after experiencing what the church does, I only have one question, "why don't other churches do it this way?"

Cool... He understands now, through experience, what the bible describes (Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21) and the early church practiced (Nicene Creed of 381 A.D.).

It is all about a covenant relationship with the Lord ... think about it this way ...

Relationships come first with God. The word “covenant” is the favorite Bible word to describe the establishment of a formal relationship with God. A covenant is an explicit agreement and commitment between two parties. God offers himself to us through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross for our sins. By faith, human beings receive God’s promises. Faith is both trust and submission – it is personal trust in God and his promises in Jesus Christ and submission of the mind, the heart, and the will to follow him. This is what the Bible means when it teaches that we are “saved by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8-9). In this covenant relationship, God is the primary initiator, provider, and sustainer – in Jesus Christ he gives us his love and Grace as he died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins – and by his Holy Spirit, God draws us to himself and provides us with the will and the ability to follow him. But we must receive and embrace God’s offer of a relationship with himself, on our part, by active faith.

The baptism ceremony is the formal means given to us by God, as a provision of his grace, so we can place our faith in Jesus Christ, pledge ourselves to him as a formal commitment, and receive his promises.

The commitments made in baptism have many similarities to commitments made in a wedding ceremony. Both ceremonies are the formal means of entering into a covenant relationship. In a wedding ceremony, the focus is the heart, as formal promises and pledges are made. The marriage covenant ceremony provides the formal means for expressing the internal commitment of the heart through verbal confessions, signatures on the wedding license, and the exchange of rings. Afterward, the one presiding over the ceremony can formally and with full confidence introduce the couple as “husband and wife.”

Likewise, in a baptism ceremony, the focus is the heart, as God’s promises are received and the pledge of faith and loyalty is made. God made his promises in advance: He will give us complete forgiveness of all our sins, the empowering presence of his Holy Spirit, and the shear joy of a future with him in eternity. We respond by verbal confessions with our mouths that we believe what Jesus did for us on the cross and by committing ourselves to follow him by faith. The confessions are then made physically concrete when we re-enact our faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus through being fully immersed under the water and then rising up out of the water, as our sins are washed away by God. In the spiritual realm, we simultaneously experience the promise of an immersion in the Holy Spirit that results in the Holy Spirit’s ongoing presence with us. Afterward, the one presiding over the ceremony can formally and with full confidence introduce the person as “forgiven and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.”

The way I started this blog could sound prideful. I truly do not want to come across that way. It is just so wonderful to see people come to understand this Biblical teaching. It makes me want to say, "yeah God!"