"Discuss the rite of Baptism. How might its meaning be explicated in a secular society?"

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522549                                                                        May 2004Dr. M. Felderhof “Discuss the rite of Baptism. How might its meaning be explicated in a secular society?”         The primary purpose of Christian baptism is to sign an everlasting union with Jesus Christ.  Alternatively, through Christian baptism the participants sign the death and resurrection of Jesus whom they choose to pledge their allegiance and follow.  Baptism is the action Jesus and the disciples chose which would best convey the atonement actions of Jesus on our behalf, that is, his death and resurrection.          It is important that we should not narrow the symbolism of baptism. Baptism does not symbolise any section or part of salvation, but the whole of salvation. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for instance, do not divide the field between them, each symbolizing one element in the broad process of salvation or one exercise in the complex enjoyment of salvation. They are two ways of symbolizing salvation as a whole. Salvation is cleansing, salvation is ransoming. Baptism represents it from the one point of view, the Lord's Supper from the other. Baptism therefore symbolizes not merely the “cleansing of our sins but our consequent walk in new obedience”[1]. This, let us never forget, is not only symbolized for us but sealed to us, for baptism is given to us by God as an engagement on his part to bring us safely through to the end. In receiving it, we receive upon our persons the seal of his covenant promise.        Moreover, one source which demonstrates the meaning of the rite of baptism is the sixth chapter of Romans.  After having presented a lengthy discussion that it is by faith in Christ that people are redeemed, Paul admonished the Roman Christians to live as though they were indeed redeemed.  Paul cited their baptism as a picture of their union with Christ.  He wrote: “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united
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with him in his resurrection”[2]  Spiritual union with Christ is that which believers experience when they invite the Spirit of Christ into their lives by faith and prayer.  That union is symbolized in the baptismal act.  The actions of immersion and submersion in water symbolize the dying and death of Jesus as the atonement for the sins of all who trust in him by faith.  The action of emergence from the water symbolizes the rising and resurrection of Jesus, a physical picture and foreshadowing of the resurrection promised for believers at the second coming of Jesus; “having been buried with ...

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