Rightly Using the Signs and Seals of the Promise of God
Howdy!
The topics in these Tuesday and Thursday posts have centered quite a bit lately around how we are called to forgive one another, and consequently how sin destroys whereas grace builds up. For the Christian, keeping at heart the complete and blessed work of Jesus Christ is the only way for us to rightly respond when people have hurt us, whether intentionally or not. If we by faith can look up at the cross, as ancient Israel looked at the serpent on the pole in the wilderness, for spiritual help in these type of trials we can then experience the fullness of what it means to forgive. To do that we need to live in a constant conversation with our gospel redemption. The only way to joyfully process the difficulties of living in a fallen and sinful world in the days before the Second Coming, or our death, whichever comes first, is to be found resting in the eternal promise that we hold in our hearts, gifted and granted to us by our Father who art in Heaven. We who are held in the arms of our Lord have even more assurance of forgiveness due to the fact our Redeemer is Himself captured in the embrace of the Triune. What is true in the Father is true in the Son is true in the Holy Spirit. This trinitarian blessing is what allows us to sleep at night. It is the beauty of the Christian faith writ large when we see ourselves held dear by the one who made Heaven and Earth. There is nothing which can compare to this glory.
To be sure we can get lost sometimes in the details of our salvation to such an extent that we can forget the majestic 10,000 foot view of what has taken place in Jesus. However, it is likewise important that we never forget them. If there has been a word that has stuck with me this summer it is remember. Seems like the study I did for the talks at our Appalachia mission or the work I’ve put into sermons for July or August as well as some of the prep for our new series on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights beginning soon all have that term continuing to pop back up in my mind, in my reading, and elsewhere.As our Lord is speaking to the Pharisees in John 10 Jesus remembers what was written in the law and uses it to stop the false teaching these Jews were spreading throughout the land. Paul encourages Timothy to remember what he had told him, and what the presbytery had done when they laid on hands on him, especially when the twisted tongues of apostasy began their march through the church. Even in the days of Elijah as we will hear next Sunday at Bethany in our scripture reading, God’s prophet as he is wallowing in his self-pity, all of a sudden we see the LORD come in a whirlwind to cause him to remember that he is not alone in the fight against wickedness.
The Fourth Commandment is about a lot more than just what you are allowed to do and not do on the Sabbath. It is a law grounded on remembering what our great Jehovah has done, and will do, for us, and our response in resting spiritual in the blessed peace of the victory won. There is so much to gain if we would merely remember these gifts.There is one very particular part of the Church and Christian life which is worth considering as we think on this matter. At the very center of a believers covenant membership is our baptism.
As Protestants we understand that there are two sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Misunderstanding the purpose of baptism in the kingdom of Christ is at the heart of much of the discouragement we see today. If the laying on of water is about what you did and not what God did then it is no longer a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, it is a work which contributes to your entrance into heaven. There’s an issue with that. We are granted a place in the celestial city not by what my hands have done, but purely by what Jesus has done. The second we introduce ourselves in the equation we are dealing with another religion. Furthermore, we baptize infants as an act of faith in the promise, and we baptize adults for the same reason. There are not two different meanings depending on the age of the recipient.
In each case what we are saying in the waters poured out onto the body and into the soul is that this individual has been marked out by God Himself as being one of His children. This belonging is what true love is made of.There is much utility for the infant in baptism. We have a hard time believing it because we think there needs to be some kind of action by the individual in order to express faith. Yet as I said in the sermon last Sunday Psalm 8 is in the Bible, big words I know. In that psalm David reminds us that, “ . . . out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”. We sometimes miss the point here because we are thinking exclusively about the noise little ones make. While there is a partial truth in it, the real focus is on the fact that in laying the covenant sign on the child we are marking a giant loss for the evil one. Each child baptized is a soul removed from the account of Satan. Now, I need to be a little careful in that. Psalm 8 does not teach that baptism in itself saves.
We do not believe in what’s called Baptismal Regeneration. Yet, what we mean here is that as the child (or adult) is set apart we are merely recognizing the truth of what God has said in His yeah and amen.
In closing, it is not the water, the preacher, or the parents, or even the baby who speaks, but God who ordains strength in the weak things of the world to shame the strong, especially the one who thinks himself strong. Each time we witness this grand event in the life of the church we are remembering that all things belong to Him who gave them. It is in Christ Jesus that we move and have our being and it is in Him that we can face tomorrow, because that day belongs to Him, as much as the day of our baptism. So much of the Christian life involves our humbly resting on what God has said and it is vital that we remember that as we face the trials and tribulations of this difficult and trying time.
Here’s a last word:
https://gcdiscipleship.com/article-feed/2020/2/21/the-importance-of-remembering
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church
