Sunday School Class // February 18, 2024
View Series
This is a lesson I prepared for a Sunday School class and is based on the video series “The Basics of the Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson | Ligonier Ministries” (Lesson 6)
Romans 6:3 (ESV)
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
These “Means of Grace” are not instruments we use to obtain grace. They are instruments that God uses in order to bring us into fellowship with Himself and to know him. In this lesson, we will look at the foundational truths of the sign of baptism, the importance of the baptism of Jesus, and how baptism shapes our identity. This lesson is not about the controversies that people tend to focus on in a discussion about baptism. We want to think about the sign of baptism itself and better understand why God gave us this sign and how it relates to our day-to-day lives.
Fundamental Lesson
To properly understand baptism (and the Lord’s Supper), we must first understand how God has used signs throughout the Bible. Whenever we think about baptism, we often simply focus on the areas of controversy that cause division. It would be better for us to have a firm foundation of exactly why God chose to have a sign in the first place. God often reveals himself with promises and covenants. These promises are then given a sign as confirmation: God’s promise to Adam had an associated tree, Noah’s promise had a sign of the rainbow, and Abraham’s promise had the sign of circumcision. There are more promises and signs to be sure, but in each case, the sign is given to remind us that God remembers his promise.
We often miss this point and we appropriate the sign of the promise as a sign of our faith or response, but this is not the case. The sign of the promise is the gospel drawing from us the response of faith. The sign is the means we use to communicate and enter into the reality it represents. It has a real ongoing function in our present life to communicate and remind us of the spiritual realities that have been accomplished through Christ.
The Baptism of Jesus
When Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized in the River Jordan, John rightly understood that this was a baptism of repentance symbolizing the washing away of our sin and guilt, of which Jesus had no need. It’s as though the River Jordan came to represent the accumulation of all the people’s sins and guilt. It was into this that Jesus needed to be baptized. The baptism of Jesus by John was the representation of Jesus being baptized with the waters of judgment and was a picture of his future baptism on the cross where he became sin and suffered the wrath and punishment of God. On the cross, Jesus took on our sins and in baptism, we take on his name. When we are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit we are taking on the name of the family of God. We are now identified with Jesus Christ.
Naming Ceremony
Baptism as a naming ceremony is of vital importance to us as we need this continual reminder of our new identity in the family of God. Your family name determines the course and parameters of your life. Your name identifies you with your family and your faith responds to this reality as it informs your understanding of who you are in Christ. Baptism is a significant means of grace in truly grasping the present reality that we are now identified with Christ and are children of God. Just like any sign of God’s promise it is not meant to exalt or accentuate anything we of ourselves do. It is there to remind us of the saving work of Jesus on the cross and all that he accomplished. Our baptism is a reminder that we have been brought into the family of God and our identity as a child of God is secure. Our sins have been paid for. We have been forgiven. Now, we are called the children of God. For that is what we are and one day Jesus will return and bring all of his children to his heavenly home.