28.2 The Sacraments: Commission by Christ

Table of Contents

• The Text
• The Chapter
• The Confession

The Text

Matthew 28:19 (CSB) Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

1 Corinthians 4:1 (CSB) A person should think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God.

The Chapter

These holy appointments are to be administered by those only who are qualified and thereunto called, according to the commission of Christ.

The Confession

A couple of years ago, my two youngest kids, professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. LOOK AT GOD! And we had ample time to discuss what that looks like and what baptism in water looks like.¹

On our church's baptism Sunday in May--Memorial Day weekend, the weekend before summer. Some reason, it dropped to 64ºF. I told my kids, "if it is too cold, we can do this in August." Neither brother nor sister gave him--this deal was getting done.

And because I grew up Evangelical, non-denomination, I naturally assumed that I would be the ones baptizing them.

Ah, it was not so. My pastor simply said, "It must be the ministers." And although, I got to stay in the pool with them, I was not the one baptizing them. And I got to say, it hurt my heart a lot.

But it wasn't until I saw the Scriptures and knew that it is God that appointment not just anybody but certain men to give baptism and to give communion. Qualified men who are in high moral standing. They do not need to fit the qualifications of the elder or deacon but they can't be too far off the mark.

Also, we must consider baptism and communion--it is literal God giving you and doing for you what you cannot do for yourself. At all.

Communion is you coming absolutely empty handed but with your sins to God and what does he give you? His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in his body as bread and blood as wine.

In the exact same way, baptism is the visible representation of God washing away your sins. Can you wash away your sins? Can you dunk yourself and raise yourself up from the water? Baptism the visible representation of Romans 6.

Romans 6:6-10 (CSB) For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

And looking back on that day, I am glad it was not their dad that baptized them--to lest anyone thinks you can be born into the right family and be saved. But it was a minister of God--the same ministers who give communion and the same ministers who preach Christ and him crucified every Lord's Day are the same ministers who baptizes you in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.