Discover His heart: He calls us to go public with our testimony of faith
Several years ago I had the privilege to witness a water baptism service take place in the Jordan River. As scripture was read, I imagined the scene centuries before when John the Baptist was baptizing in this river and the Lord Jesus came to be baptized. It was a moving experience for me and caused me to reflect on my own water baptism.
I was part of a group of four children baptized in our church baptismal tank one Sunday morning. I was five years old. We entered the tank together where our pastor was waiting for us; and to this day, a hundred years later, I remember an indescribable presence of the Lord to where the water was stirring even though we stood still and my lips were stammering even though I wasn’t cold. Little did I understand at the time that the Holy Spirit baptizer was there with us. My water baptism experience was a glorious encounter with the living God that I will never forget. I doubt at the age of five that I understood all the ramifications of my submission to water baptism, but really, does anyone?
@ Matthew 3
“In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, ‘Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near’… People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.” (1-2,5-6) The Pharisees and Sadducees who came to watch were not welcomed by John who called them a brood of snakes (help) because they claimed to be repentant of their sins but didn’t live like it. (7-8) Obviously, water baptism for John was not just something to do on a sunny afternoon.
Paul described it this way to the Romans, “For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” (Romans 6:4) Water baptism is our public declaration to the world that we have died and buried our old way of life through our repentance of sin and have risen to live a walk that is committed to our new life.
“We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives.” (Romans 6:6) Water baptism doesn’t save us. Water baptism is our testimony to the world of the salvation we have received. And as John was saying to the Pharisees, if we’re not committed to living like a believer, we certainly should not give testimony that we are one.
Water baptism usually comes early in our walk with the Lord, and we rarely know at that time how our public confession of faith will be tested, how we may be ridiculed, ignored or even persecuted or how strongly we may be tempted to fail. In all of that, we would do well to remember our water baptism, our public declaration that the old man is dead and buried and the new man is alive and well on planet earth. It just might give us the boost we need to, “Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)
Moving Forward: Today I’m remembering, once again, the day I publicly confessed that I died to sin and rose to walk in newness of life. I just may need to find someone and go public once again with my testimony.
Tomorrow @ Romans 5-6
Phyllis Benigas 