Baptism Reminds Us of "Who We Are" and "Whose We Are"!

Luke 3 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

Reading Luke 3 might get confusing as baptism is mentioned in a couple of different ways and is different than the Holy Baptism the church has administered since the time of Jesus' resurrection and the birth of the Church.  First it says John came out of the wilderness preaching a "baptism of repentance" with water.  John's baptism was similar to the one Gentile converts underwent to become a Jew and be received into the community.  The water was symbolic of the cleansing from their sin.  For a Jew to submit to this kind of baptism was to say, "I'm as much of a heathen as these Gentiles."  It was very humbling.

Because of this the people started thinking John might be the Messiah.  But he quickly denied it and said he was not even worthy to untie Jesus' sandals. In Jesus' day, a teacher could ask his disciples to do just about anything except untie his sandals.  That would be demeaning.  Yet, John is saying he is not even worthy to untie Jesus' sandals.  John made it unmistakeably clear he was not the Messiah.  

But when he does talk about the Messsiah, he says that the He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.  The word for baptism in the Greek means to "immerse" or "completely cover".  So in this case Jesus would immerse or cover people with the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit was predicted to come upon people in the Old Testament in places like Ezekiel 36:25-26.  Jesus would fulfill this prophecy when the Holy Spirit came upon him in His own baptism, and then later when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. When they laid hands on new converts to the church, they also received the baptism and in-filling of the Holy Spirit. 

But these two baptisms are not be confused with the "one baptism" Paul talks about for the forgiveness of sins in Ephesians 4:5.  This is the baptism "into Christ" which Paul talks about in Romans 6:3 and Galatian 3:27.  This is the one baptism John refers to in the Great Commission when he instructs the disciples to make disciples by "baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit". 

Today when we baptize a baby in the church, we baptize with water as a sign of cleansing and rebirth, and lay hands on the baby for them to receive gift of the Holy Spirit.  You can see this is deeply biblical.  Baptism is God's gift to us which is received by faith.  In Holy Baptism we are born again and made children of God.  As a child grows in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, they continue to be filled and renewed by the Holy Spirit.  There is no separate baptism to receive the Holy Spirit.  

Hopefully this gives some clarification to what a Christian baptism is.  We are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to show we are completely covered in all of who God is, and we will be His forever.  It is good for us to remind ourselves often that we are "baptized", where God saved us and did for us that which we could never do for ourselves. Crossing one's self is a good way to remember that we are baptized in God's holy name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It is not just a religous rite but can be meaningful if one remembers why they are doing it.  Reminders are important and crossing one's self can help them to remember what God did for them in their baptism.  As we teach our confirmands it reminds us "not only who we but whose we are".