One possible approach to this subject would be to simply expound the scriptural references to baptism and its use. If time allowed this approach would have much in its favour. But in order to cover the ground, we can only suggest some avenues of thought to be pursued.

Certain preliminary consid­erations need to be established.

• Firstly, baptism is a means of grace, not an automatic vehicle of grace. We reject any thought of automatic blessing tied to a physical act, what Rome calls ex opere operato. Rather, God blesses his elect by his Spirit enabling them to lay hold of the truth of the written Word.

• Secondly, the sacraments are linked to the Word. They are God-given because instituted in the written Word of God. The sacraments bring to our senses the same truth as is contained in the written Word. Thus the sacraments have sometimes been called the visible words of God.

• Thirdly, the sacraments are used correctly when we are en­abled by the Holy Spirit to lay hold of the truth set forth in them and to apply it in a Biblical manner to ourselves.

What, then, are we to learn from baptism? What is its mes­sage? How are we to apply that message? The subject naturally divides into three: the message to the Christian of his own baptism; the message to the Christian parent of the baptism of his children; and the message to the growing covenant child of his own baptism. The first of these is the subject of this article: the message to the Christian of his own baptism.

Baptism Brings an Ongoing Message from the Lord⤒🔗

Ultimately it is the Lord who baptises. He has instituted bap­tism; he tells the elders of his church in his Word who are to be baptised; he enables them to faithfully follow his directions and he in his providence brings about this faithful administra­tion of the ordinance by a par­ticular minister. In 1 Corinthians 1:12-17, Paul is somewhat dis­missive of who baptised par­ticular people. The reason is that the ordinance is the Lord's and it derives all its significance from him. Baptism was appointed by the Lord as a visible message.

The message of baptism is not limited to the time of its administration. Paul refers back to his readers' baptism and ap­plies it to the present.

Marcel puts it thus: This reception by faith of the sacrament of baptism is not bound to a precise mo­ment depending on external circumstances; it depends on the state of the soul of the believer, for whom the baptism bears fruit on each occasion he refers back to it in faith.The Biblical Doctrine of Infant Baptism, p.169

It is not like an unim­portant memo that is read and then thrown away but rather like a letter containing valuable information or a love-letter that is pulled out often for reference.

The message of baptism does not depend on one being able to remember its administration. As it is with the beginning of saving grace, so it is with its symbol and sign. Some Christians can remember when they were first apprehended of Christ. Others can never remember a time when they did not trust the Lord, be­cause regeneration took place so early.

Likewise, with this sign and seal when administered in in­fancy. It is a message written to us when we were too young to read or understand, but it has great meaning for us later on. I remember a postcard that my grandfather had sent to my father when he was a little boy, during the First World War. When that card was sent, it perhaps meant little to one so young, but in later years he would refer to it and understand more fully the ex­pression of love within it.

Paul appeals to the fact of our baptism, not to personal remi­niscences of its administration. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death?" (Romans 6:3). "For as many of you as have been bap­tised into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27).

No doubt for the Galatian converts the joy of having come to faith in Christ and their re­ception of Christian baptism were closely linked in their memory, but Paul does not ap­peal to that. He does not say, "Do you remember how you felt when you were baptised?" He simply refers to the significance of the fact that they had been baptised.

We can compare this with the circumcision of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham would remember his circumcision as would adults who later joined Israel, but Isaac would not re­member the administration of circumcision to him. But the Old Testament writers refer to the fact of their circumcision often in the context of the lack of the thing signified (for example, "Circumcise the foreskin of your heart" (Jeremiah 4:4). Whether they remembered its admini­stration does not alter the basis of his appeal.

The Message of Baptism Itself←⤒🔗

The essential meaning of baptism is union with the Lord and cleansing from sin and all that it entails. This takes in all the benefits of salvation. It in­volves:

a. Union with Christ and the Triune God←↰⤒🔗

This is basic. Circumcision signified that un­ion summed up in the covenant refrain, "I will be your God" (Genesis 17:7-8). Baptism like­wise signifies union with the Lord. We are "baptised into Christ" (Galatians 3:27) and we are baptised "into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). Union with the crucified, buried and risen Saviour is fundamental to the meaning of baptism (Romans 6:1-5).

b. Cleansing from Sin←↰⤒🔗

Both circumcision and baptism signify cleansing from the guilt of sin, that is, the blessing of justification (Romans 4:11, Acts 2:38). Both circumcision and baptism signify cleansing from the presence and practice of sin Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 4:4, Romans 6:1-5, Colossians 2:11-15).

c. The Union Signified is a Permanent Union←↰⤒🔗

The Old Testament sign was not only an act, but also left a permanent physical mark. So, circumcision was not only a past act but a continuing condition.

Baptism does not leave a permanent mark, but the idea of a sign of something that takes place and results in a continuing change is nevertheless present. The concept of "being baptised into" indicates this. We not only have been baptised in the past, but we are baptised people now. When we look at a blue wall, we can say, "It was painted blue", meaning that at some past time someone took a tin paint and painted it blue. But we can also say, "It is painted blue", de­scribing its continuing state. So it is with baptism. We can say, "he was baptised on such and such a date". We can also say "he is baptised", that is, he is a baptised person. As Marcel puts it, baptism is "a mark that cannot be effaced". This is because the union of which it is the sign is a permanent one.

d. Baptism Symbolizes a Union yet to be Perfected←↰⤒🔗

Our union with Christ is not per­fected, nor is our deliverance from sin yet complete. We will not be fully delivered from the presence of sin until we are in heaven, nor from the bodily and cosmic effects of sin until the resurrection day. Only then will the covenant reach its fullest realization:

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them, and be their God'.Revelation 21:3

This means that no-one has all that baptism signifies at the time of his baptism. This needs to be kept in mind continually. Even in the case of the regenerate, it is a sign of a union begun but not yet perfected, and of cleansing not complete in terms of the presence and the effects of sin.

The Use of Baptism←⤒🔗

There is no part of God's covenant blessings to us that is not connected with the meaning of baptism.

a. The Past←↰⤒🔗

With thank­fulness, we should look back upon the past blessings symbol­ized in baptism. We look back to the fact that, when we were called out of darkness, justifi­cation was a blessing bestowed and our deliverance from the guilt of sin was total from that point onwards. We look back also to the new birth as the be­ginning of the process of sanc­tification, a process which, by God's grace, has continued to the present. We can say with John Newton that we are not what we should be and we are not what we will be, but neither are we what we were, but by the grace of God we are what we are.

b. The Present←↰⤒🔗

We are to acknowledge our contradictions of what baptism signifies. The cleansing signified not only in­dicates what we will be, but what  we should be in holiness of life. So the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 1:13 pinpoints what is incom­patible with the Christian's un­ion with the Saviour — the ex­altation of man rather than of Christ, into whose name the Corinthians had been baptised.

Again, we are to take en­couragement from the abiding promises. The Galatians had to be reminded that they were heirs according to promise (Galatians 3:27). Baptism reminds us that the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses and goes on cleansing from all iniquity (1 Peter 3:21). Our awareness of sin is to be accompanied by a re­newed embrace of the promises of mercy. Marcel states this point very clearly while also appealing to the views of John Calvin,

Baptism is not simply given us for a time that is past in such a way that we have need of other remedies if we are to be cleansed from sins committed after  we have received it. The perfection of baptism, which extends even to death, is improperly restricted to one day or to one moment of time (Calvin Institutes IV, XVI, 31). No matter when we were baptised, our baptism is the sign and seal that we have been jus­tified by the blood of Jesus Christ and this blood cleanses for the whole of our life.

So Calvin says, Let us es­teem highly the testimony which has been granted to us in baptism so that we may be able to oppose every temptation and doubt with which Satan confronts us in order to unsettle our faith ... This, then, is the way in which we ought to esteem our baptism: we should use it as a shield for repelling all the doubts which overtake us and which will hinder us from praying to God and having our whole refuge in Him, were it not that we had come to Him.

Baptism, since it signifies the initial work of the Spirit in re­generation, must also stand as a witness to our need of the con­tinuing work of the Spirit in order to be purified from sin and to be made holy unto the Lord.

Moreover, our responsibility to actively pursue holiness is set forth in baptism. Romans 6:3-11 indicates that baptism reminds us of our obligation to mortify sin in our daily lives. In de­pendence upon divine grace we are to pursue that holiness and cleansing from the practice of sin which is part of the sym­bolism of baptism. This appar­ently explains the practice of Luther when tempted to sin in touching his forehead as a re­minder of his having been baptised. This may not be our way, but the idea of reminding our­selves that we are baptised is evidently scriptural when we consider not only Colossians 2:11-13, but the apostle's refer­ence back to these verses in chapter 3:1 where we read,

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

c. The Future←↰⤒🔗

Since no-one at baptism has all the benefits of salvation signified in the ordi­nance, it must have a prospective reference. We are to anticipate the promised completion, that we shall indeed be "kept by the power of God unto salvation". We look forward and haste unto the day of God, the day when Christ will come a second time without sin unto salvation.