Making Your Baptism Great Again

By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

How We Use Our Washing With Water For Today

Good Morning,

When the Divines open the next question of the catechism by saying, “The needful but much neglected duty of improving our baptism . . . “ you know what they are going to talk about is important to them. Because if it was an issue in 1647, the Lord knows it is something we should probably be thinking about in 2024. Though before we get into all those negative vibes it will be helpful to first define what they and we mean by improving baptism.

To improve something is to make it better, to move it forward. Baptism is the sign and seal of the new covenant found in Christ Jesus. When you put those together you get what Solomon is speaking about in Proverbs 16:16, “How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” We educate our children primarily out of a concern for vocational stability. We want them to have good jobs, feed and house themselves, and take care of their families, thereby not living off us past a certain age, the younger the better. Or at least that is how our educational system actually operates, even if it believes itself to be actively engaged in more important work. Hence the focus on either trade or college.

Without resorting to a Jesus Juke at this juncture it is certainly the case that this is not really how we should understand what the Westminster Larger Catechism is teaching concerning growing in your baptism. It’s not asking questions about how to make your baptism work for you, but how do we as believers in God benefit spiritually from time spent meditating on what the symbol of covenant membership means for our day-to-day lives. Folks are highly interested in the practical aspects of the Christian faith. Nothing is more practical than what is highlighted in the Q/A for this morning. Let’s get to it:

Q. 167. How is our baptism to be improved by us?

A. The needful but much neglected duty of improving our baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others; by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made therein; by being humbled for our sinful defilement, our falling short of, and walking contrary to, the grace of baptism, and our engagements; by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed to us in that sacrament; by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace; and by endeavoring to live by faith, to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness, as those that have therein given up their names to Christ; and to walk in brotherly love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.

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