The purpose of this lesson: to stress that coming to God through Jesus involves BOTH internal motives and external acts. A conversion response to God as surely involves the conscience internally as it involves the physical act of baptism externally.
For almost 200 years in the American restoration movement, congregations of the Church of Christ typically place an enormous emphasis on baptism. That emphasis began primarily for two reasons. The first reason: baptism was emphasized in scripture (the New Testament Christian movement) as one of the important elements involved in the forgiveness/salvation process. The second reason: baptism was ignored or de-emphasized in most mainstream Christian movements of 1800s America.
Reassure your students that this lesson is not an attack on the importance of the physical act of baptism. It intends to be an affirmation of the importance of the conscience in conversion, as scripture emphasizes.
Help your students realize that situations have changed significantly in religious movements in the past 200 years. Whereas the popularly known movements tended to de-emphasized baptism as an act of conversion 200 years ago, many religious movement groups stress and practice immersion for the forgiveness of sins today. An emphasis with its assumptions about people 200 years ago have changed. Do not assume that a person does not believe in an internal and physical response to God in conversion unless he/she tells you so. Listen and learn before you interact or respond in a discussion.
What began as an attempt to include a fuller Bible emphasis in the pursuit of New Testament Christianity in 1800s American became an identifying mark of the congregations of the Church of Christ. As an important identification mark, the emphasis on baptism underwent some subtitle but significant changes.
Beware of becoming judgmental of another person's immersion in his/her response to God through Christ! Some of the subtle but significant changes include (1) who baptized you; (2) at what location were you baptized: (3) what words were said when you were baptized; (4) where did you worship following your baptism; etc. Christians need to be very careful in determining "faithfulness" because people meet human [as opposed to biblical] criteria before they accept an immersion into Christ as "an acceptable, correct response."
Everyone baptized into Christ needs to grow spiritually, to develop spiritually, and to mature spiritually. Because a person needs to grow and develop after baptism does not of itself mean the immersion was improperly motivated or incorrect.
Those changes included four things. (1) Baptism being the exclusive rite of transition from the status of lost to saved. (2) Baptism assuming a role and significance that was superior to faith in what God did in Jesus' death and resurrection, or the repentance of the candidate for baptism. (3) The demotion of baptism to a process, a ritual. (4) Baptism existed as an expression of terror rather than an expression of faith.
The Bible says that faith in God's accomplishment in Jesus' death and resurrection and the person's repentance [the determination to redirect life in a biblical manner] are essential in conversion. Baptism is not a mystical rite that has a spiritual power simply because it occurred. It is the response of an individual to the initial forgiveness God offers in Jesus Christ. The conscience of the person [internal motivation] is as critical as the physical act. It must be an expression of faith in God's accomplishments and promises in Jesus AND the desire to redirect life as the person's desires to live for God.
To illustrate the subtle but significant transition, consider illustration one: in many congregations of the Church of Christ, commonly the primary question is, "Has he/she been baptized?" The question means, "Has he or she been immersed in water as a teen or an adult for the remission of sins?" Rarely will anyone inquire, "Does he/she have faith in what God did in Jesus' death and resurrection? Rarely will anyone inquire, "Does he/she want to redirect his/her life [repent]?"
If the person has submitted to the physical act of baptism, we as the church often feel bound to accept him/her into fellowship regardless of the circumstances, often without asking any other questions. It is as critical that the person be a penitent person of faith in God as it is for the person to be baptized. Just as faith and repentance are incomplete without baptism, so is baptism incomplete without faith and repentance. It is not a matter of steps. It is a matter of whole person response to God through Christ--internally and externally, conscience and act.
Many ministers and elders in congregations of the Church of Christ know that faith in Christ and a desire to redirect life [repentance] are assumed to occur if the person has been baptized as a teenager or adult. Most of those ministers and elders know that it is [at best!] a weak assumption. People often are baptized to enter the Church of Christ, not to respond to God's initiative in Christ, not to redirect life. While there certainly are people who were baptized because of godly motives, there are also people who are baptized for ungodly motives. Those ungodly motives include (1) the desire to "get away" from the pressure of an aggressive family member; (2) the desire to appease a spouse; (3) the desire to do what important people expected him/her to do; or (4) the desire to escape the advances of an aggressive evangelistic person. Those with such motives are not declaring faith in God's work in Jesus or expressing an earnest desire to redirect personal life.
Baptism is a response to God, not a request for church membership. If a person is baptized simply and primarily because "the church expects me to do this," he/she misses the point of response to God and immersion into Christ. One does not serve in a role of congregational leadership long until he realizes faith and repentance cannot be assumed to exist because baptism occurred. There are lots of motivations for being baptized that have little or nothing to do with responding to God.
There was a time when it was commonly assumed that a baptized person would function on Christian values. In many places, that time has faded into the past. Increasingly, baptized people may function on the values of local society rather than God's values. Increasingly, baptized people may justify the way they act rather than realize their behavior is ungodly. Increasingly, members in congregations of the Church of Christ are bewildered by the behavior of baptized members who live and function as Christians by following the same values that controlled their lives prior to baptism.
Increasingly, the lifestyle and personal behavior of baptized people do not change. This is not the suggestion that those recently baptized need to conform to the expectations of other people. It is the suggestion that the recently baptized person wants responsibly to understand and respond to God's values in living. Repentance results in a commitment to learn God's values expressed in Jesus Christ's life and teaching. When the person recently baptized follows the same lifestyle and values after baptism that he/she followed prior to baptism, there is little or no understanding of repentance.
Peter wrote a statement about baptism to Christians who existed in an idolatrous world. After stressing the precious value of being in Christ (1:3-12), after stressing the responsibility of being in Christ (1:13-25), after stressing the transformation of conversion (2:1-10), after urging them to be Christian in their life roles--whether citizen, servant, wife, husband, or just ordinary person (2:13-12), after affirming the value and motivation for a radically different behavior (3:13-20), Peter reminded these people that their baptism occurred for two reasons: (1) it was a conscience appeal to God, and (2) it was a response to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Note this statement was written to Christians [people who had been baptized into Christ]. Note the statement came after numerous emphases on Christian growth and responsibility. Note this reminder from Peter called these Christian's attention to the fact that their baptism definitely included internal motives--a conscience appeal to God and a personal reaction to the meaning and significance of Jesus' resurrection.
Your attention is specially called to Peter's declaration that the conscience is involved in the conversion process. The person realizes his/her past behavior insulted God--whether or not he/she intended to be insulting! The person realizes the forgiving God who raised Jesus from the dead can resurrect him/her to a new life, a new existence. In these realizations, the person is moved [personally motivated] to respond to God's accomplishments in Jesus Christ.
The conversion process is not a mechanical process! In conversion, the conscience of the person cannot and must not be removed from the physical act of baptism. The conversion process is an individual's decision to surrender to God. He/she becomes God's servant because of this decision to surrender. The conscience surrenders to God internally. Baptism declares the person's surrender in an external act that BEGINS [not concludes!] the person's existence as God' servant.
The act of baptism is much, much more than submitting to a religious ritual. It is much, much more than escaping the attention of some pesky people. It is a surrender to faith in God's achievements in Jesus Christ. It is a desire to redirect life. It is a determination to escape the destructiveness of past behavior by joyfully accepting God's forgiveness in the resolve to redirect personal life.
The act of baptism is powerful only when it expresses the faith and repentance of the individual.
Just like the ark functioned to (1) rescue Noah and his immediate family and (2) to take them to a new existence, so baptism exists to (1) rescue the person and (2) take him/her to a new existence.
The parallel between what the ark meant and did for Noah and his family, and what baptism means and does for the penitent person of faith who surrenders to God, is striking.
For baptism to serve the purpose God intended, it must be a conscience response as well as a physical response.
Remember the external act of baptism is significant and powerful only when it expresses the internal surrender of the person to God.
Stress again the importance and value of a godly conscience.
Thought and Discussion Questions
Primarily congregations of the Church of Christ. [There is also a part of the Christian Church that continues an emphasis on baptism.]
The discussion can center on (1) baptism as the exclusive rite of transition from lost to saved; (2) baptism assuming a role that is superior to faith and repentance; (3) the demotion of baptism to a ritual; and (4) baptism as a terror response rather than a faith response. However, other subtle changes surely may be discussed also if the class wishes.
The emphasis placed on baptism to the exclusion of faith and repentance can be used as an illustration.
They realize that faith and repentance in the person cannot be assumed because the act of baptism occurred.
Two godly motives are (a) a feeling of guilt because of rebellion again a good, gracious God and (b) the desire to serve the good, gracious God.
The discussion should include the fact that Peter told Christians to remember their conversion was the result of internal motivation [conscience] and external act [physical immersion].
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 11
