The Plunge of Faith

On Sunday, July 16, at 6:00 p.m., we’ll be gathering by the water’s edge at Marsh Creek State Park for our summer Baptism and Church Picnic.  It will be a great time!  Mark your calendar and plan to come—bring a friend, bring the family.

I want to challenge anyone in the Goshen family who’s following Jesus but hasn’t been baptized by immersion to take a stand through this public plunge (i.e., older children, teens, or adults).  The next step would be to attend our baptism class this Sunday, June 25 (9:00 a.m., Library) or on July 9 (9:00 a.m., Prayer Room)—sign up in the lobby.

Why practice baptism?  Because Jesus told us to do so in his Great Commission:  “Go and make disciples among all the people groups, baptizing them…” in God’s name (Matthew 28:19).  It’s a command.  And his commission is in force “until the end of the age” (28:20).

The idea is that when people trust in Jesus (i.e., become “disciples”), baptism follows as an outward sign of their inward heart change:  “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38).  Repentance is the flip-side of faith:  we turn away from self-serving sin (i.e., repent), and turn toward Jesus in humble trust (i.e., faith).

Baptism is a visible symbol of our belonging to Christ.  Yes, we’re saved by faith alone (Eph 2:8-9), but true faith needs to be lived out.  Being baptized is one vital way of doing just that.  Baptism is a kind of dying and rising with Jesus (Romans 6:3-4); in this act we say we cherish all that God accomplished for our salvation by the death of his Son, and that we trust in him for the hope of resurrection life.

So, have you stepped into the water grave yet?  If you’ve put your trust in Christ but haven’t been baptized by immersion, let this be the time. After all, Jesus doesn’t command us to practice baptism just so we can then step back, ponder the idea, and ask ourselves whether we’d like to do it or not!  That’s not how discipleship works.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).