29th April, 2006

LLOYD HARKNESS

Surely, baptism is a term the majority of people are well aware of, even if they haven't experienced it, so this 'Word' piece will confine itself to the background to baptism.

NEW LIFE: Water is a key element in baptism, representing cleansing. PICTURE: Mario A. Magallanes Trejo (www.sxc.hu) "Quite simply, baptism is about cleansing, fresh starts and a new life."

Quite simply, baptism is about cleansing, fresh starts and a new life.

The Old Testament has two great figurative representations of baptism. The first was Noah and his family who were rescued from the flood and given a new start in a new land. The second was the Israelites passing through the Red Sea. They left behind a life of slavery to take up an abundant life God was offering them in a promised land.

But baptism, as a personal expression of a life committed to God, takes off with John the Baptist. John didn't come up with the idea of baptism. The Jews required Gentile converts to Judaism to be baptised as part of their public identification with and commitment to Jehovah, the Lord God Almighty.

John had no place for religious cockiness. His message was simply that everyone, Jew as well as Gentile, needed to repent and be baptised. John's public baptisms in the Jordan River drew people from all walks of society out of Jerusalem and the surrounding districts. He was preaching good news and it bore good fruit. Repentance and forgiveness is always good news and for the baptised there was also a new authority now at work in their hearts.

Jesus was baptised by John and the first recorded words of Jesus - "Let it be now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15) - pertain to the importance of acknowledging sin (repentance), receiving forgiveness, consecrating your life to God and receiving His Spirit (God's dove of peace alighting on us) so that we can live for him each day. As they say in B-grade American teen movies, baptism is "righteous, dude".

Jesus is our example in baptism, as He is in everything. Jesus, in fact, warns us that living for Him will also involve a baptism (Mark 10:38-9), an immersion in His sufferings and death as well as the release into eternal life with Him. And so Jesus, after His resurrection and as part of His final instructions, tells His disciples to baptise all followers (Matthew 28:19) in water and 'The Way' He calls us to live.

Baptism is like a deed of transfer, signed before witnesses and God, stating our life is now the property of Jesus.

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