Remember Your Baptism | Theocast

♪♪ This is Justin.

Today on Theocast, John and I have a conversation about baptism. And if you're anything like the two of us, you've thought about baptism as maybe this thing that you do, an act of obedience to Jesus, perhaps, entrance into membership in the church, or maybe where you hail from, it was just something sentimental, and family showed up and clapped, and it was a nice time.

But you're not quite sure what baptism means for you now as you aim to trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, in today's conversation, we're going to look at some scripture and try to help you understand that baptism is not an act we perform, but in fact, it's a gift that God gives to us.

And it is about his faithfulness to us before it is ever about our faithfulness to him. So listen to this episode today.

Be encouraged, believer by your union with Jesus Christ and how baptism signifies that.

Stay tuned. If you're new to Theocast, we know that many people who start listening to us struggle with their assurance.

What does it even mean to walk by faith? Or how do you rest in Christ? So we put together a free ebook called

Rest, and it's where you can learn about the sufficiency of Christ and the differences between the law and the gospel.

And that's an important distinction. If you'd like to learn more, just go to our website, theocast .org. Welcome to Theocast, where we have been doing our awkward poses for our

YouTube graphics, and John just knocked his monitor. And we're gonna ride the wave because as we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we are professional podcasters.

So welcome to Theocast on The Real, where we aim to encourage weary pilgrims to rest in Christ.

And we try to have conversations about the Christian life from a confessional, reformed, and pastoral perspective.

Here at Theocast, we're trying to take the clutter off of the gospel and reclaim the purpose of the kingdom of Christ.

And so if any of that intrigues you, stay tuned for our episode that we have in store for you today that will be hosted by none other than John Moffat, who is the pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

And I'm Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina. John, it's been a topsy -turvy, interesting start to this episode.

Yes, it has. But we're gonna press on, man. We're gonna make it. Yeah, soldiers of the cross or something like that, right?

Yeah. I don't know. As always, you got an announcement or two. People can't make it a week without your announcements.

Yeah, just so. And then you're gonna tell people about the convo today. That's right, that's right. Nah, just, you know, if you're new and you wanna, there's a,

I mean, I got a Theocast shirt on. That's pretty cool and new. And then we got Trust Christ, Calm Down mugs and hats.

JP normally wears a hat, doesn't have his hat on yet, but. Well, you know, I'm trying to, I don't know. But the most important announcement is that -

Well, that white coffee cup is a big thing. Yeah, it's a big one. Black coffee cups alter the taste of coffee for everybody out there.

It's true, it's true. We'll talk about that one day, but not today. We'll talk about that.

That's true. That is the price, I am not lying. Hey, listen, if you want to connect with other people that have like -minded questions and faith, but you don't wanna be on social media, you're tired of social media, or you just kinda wanna take a break, or you wanna be able to go and look at a

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It's called Theocast Community. All of our past episodes, our education material, our articles,

Justin's sermons. I think between the two of us, there's almost 600 sermons on there. You can search.

Yeah, something like that. Five different podcasts. Anyways, hey, listen, it's free. And if you'd like to support us, there's a way to do that as well.

Just go to theocastcommunity .org. Okay, Justin, the reason why we got on the microphones today has nothing to do with that.

I am going to predict that today's podcast is gonna get pretty exciting because you got two guys who are great sinners and love to talk about a great savior.

And baptism is something that we are just swimming in to the deepest parts of the water we can find.

So nope, we love it. And we're Baptists, so we like to dunk them. Sorry, I had to throw it out there.

Now that you've alienated half our audience, but anyway. Yeah, well, you know, anyways. But to begin with -

We're not having the conversation about - No, we are not having the conversation you think we're having. Views on baptism, we're not talking about mode, we're not talking about any of that stuff.

We're talking about the sacrament itself. That's right. The most important part, and listen, those other parts are important too.

And one day, we are working on some episodes on covenant theology and baptism, but not today. Listen, the gift of baptism is something that has become extremely precious to Justin and I in our churches and to our personal lives, but it has not always been that way.

I was raised where I can't even remember how many times I've been baptized, maybe two, three times. I remember the last time

I was baptized. But I grew up in an evangelical Baptist church. And to make it the simplest,

Justin, they got the gospel right, but baptism was about my decision to follow

Jesus. I have decided. I mean, you can even see shirts that say that, right? I have decided to follow Jesus, which there is some truth in some of that, but it's not the reasons and purpose for baptism.

And baptism really becomes this one -time event that is emotional and it's a big celebration, but we don't really contemplate it other than it's part of our

Christian resume. It's like, you know what, did I do that thing? Yes, I've done that thing. And, but it's not anything

I really reference. Sometimes I would refer it to like, you know, we like to celebrate our birthdays, but there's nothing significant about your birthday that changes your life other than it's a fun, it's something

Americans do to celebrate, you know, it's a reason to party really. And baptism is really kind of that remembrance of like, yeah,

I did that once. And that's about as far as it goes. And it was an act of obedience. And at times,

Justin, when you hear other people get really teary -eyed and excited about their baptism, you often feel ashamed, like, man, what did

I, I got something wrong here. That's been my experience. And we want to kind of help address that from a biblical standpoint, but I'll let you speak into this as well.

Cause I know you've come from a slightly similar, but yet different background as well. Yeah. When I was young,

I've shared this before, that the church that I grew up in was liberal theologically. It was a

Baptistic church and pretty moralistic culturally. So baptism, I mean, there were only three articles in the statement of faith and baptism by immersion was one of those, interestingly enough.

But baptism for me growing up was, I think me individually in my own soul, just cause the way

I'm wired, it was a big deal to me. But in the church in which I grew up, it was pretty, like you said, it was a sentimental thing.

It was like, it's a day you marked your calendar, you let family and friends know people show up, they clap, you know, and that was about the extent of it.

It wasn't connected to church membership in any way. It was just kind of like this thing that you did. But then, you know, later on in life, in a much more serious minded, better, more sound context, baptism was talked about in these terms, that it's a public profession of faith.

Like this is how you publicly profess your faith in Christ. It is tethered to church membership.

So it's your entrance into the church, into the membership of the church. And then as well, it's like you said, it's something that we do in obedience to Christ.

And on those three points, you know, obedience to Christ, entrance into the church membership and all that, and then a public profession of faith, those things are not untrue from my perspective today, but there is so much more that needs to be said about baptism.

And I think where I would maybe launch us off, John, is I think that the emphasis in baptism, at least where I have come from, has been off.

And I think this is true about the sacraments in general. And then I'm gonna make this comment and then we're off and running.

The sacraments, at least for most of my Christian life, I understood them to be primarily about my faithfulness to God, not his faithfulness to me.

That's right, I have decided, yeah. Yeah, I think that's the common experience of most evangelicals is the sacraments produce some kind of anxiety in them because they have been taught that these are about their faithfulness to God, not

God's faithfulness to them. So what we are trying to do today, as we often do, I feel, on Theocast, is we're trying to invert and kind of reorient the perspective to say, no, the sacraments of, we're not talking about the

Lord's Supper today, but the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Table are God's gifts to us because we're weak and because we need them.

And they are primarily and always about God's faithfulness to us before they're ever about our faithfulness to him.

Well, Justin, I'm gonna go ahead and jump into the theology of baptism so that people can understand what we mean.

Sometimes people think that we're making more out of this than we should. And man, the whole

Bible actually is wrapped up in this sign. It's really fun once you understand the backstory to it.

I'll just start in Genesis. I know, Justin, you preach through this, so we're gonna be able to freely interact between this.

The New Testament writers will, in explaining the relationship between us and the

Father and us and the gospel, they will use Old Testament pictures at times to help us understand.

Now, that's because they were people of the Old Testament. Like, Justin, if we were to be modern -day writers at times, we'd probably pick the most famous,

I guess, TV shows or stories or literature that was available at the time. But to the

Christian, the Jew, this would have been their Old Testament. This is what they knew. And so Peter is talking about baptism and the nature of baptism.

And in 1 Peter, he makes reference to Noah. So before I even read what Peter has to say,

I just wanna talk about kind of what the story is, right? So God looks upon the world, and he says there's none that does righteous.

They all have evil coming out of them. The thoughts and inclinations of man's heart is on the evil continuum. That's right,

Genesis 6. And so his conclusion is to bring judgment. And I think it's really important that the judgment -

That mankind deserves. That mankind deserves, that's absolutely right. And he says in verse six, sorry, that's in Romans.

But in Genesis, he says, for verse seven, sorry, I will blot out man whom

I have created from the face of the land. And blot out, what means does he use?

He uses water to do so. And so what you can conclude from this, and we'll learn this in multiple stories, is that water is a sign of judgment.

And it's really been a sign of judgment multiple times in Scripture. But from Genesis, it's being used as a sign of judgment.

And then how does Peter then utilize this sign of judgment in contrast to the ark?

The ark is what? The ark is the means of salvation. So when we look at, this is gonna be 1

Peter chapter three, and give me a second, sorry, I lost it here for a second, here we go.

So he says that baptism, which corresponds to this, meaning that the ark is what

Noah, so God waited patiently while the ark was built. And Noah and his family are brought safely through water by means of the ark.

That's right, so by means of the ark. So he says, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So go ahead. I was gonna say, that's a contrast between like an Old Testament baptism of repentance and cleansing in that regard versus what is now true in Christ in the new covenant.

That's right, so he's using the idea of, okay, well, this is what baptism would have looked like, or this is an illustration of baptism.

And those who were in the judgment of God did not make it through the judgment waters, but those who were in God's appointed vessel and by God's means, by his sovereign means, brought it through.

And how does he correspond to it? He corresponds it directly with Jesus because he says it's through the means of Christ and his resurrection, which means

Christ went through the judgment waters, and how did we get through it safely? Well, we know he comes through safely because he raises from the grave.

And how does it, we know we get through safely because we are in Christ. Our ark is Christ.

Exactly, while we're here, yeah, the contrast I was depicting was it's not just this external cleansing.

It's not even just this kind of, even a Hebrews 9 idea, it's not even that you're being purified under the law and you're now ceremonially clean.

It's that, no, your conscience and your sins have been remitted. And this is a real thing.

Talking about being in Christ, of course, just screams Romans 6. We're brought safely through the waters of judgment in the ark who is

Christ. And so Paul's language, of course, in the early verses of Romans 6, where he is spilling ink on our union with the

Lord Jesus, he says, do you not know, this is Romans 6 .3, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life.

And so one of the first things that I always want to communicate here in my local church with our people when it comes to baptism, what is baptism?

It is this sign of our union with Christ and that we have been grafted, to use the language even of our confession, that we have fellowship with Jesus in his death and resurrection, that we have been grafted into him.

And we'll get to this maybe more in a moment. And it's a sign of the remission of our sins. And so the union with Jesus, peace, man, is epic.

Like, and that at the end of the day too is a comment we can make about the sacraments holistically. Because what is the

Lord's table about? It's like, it's our ongoing nourishment in the Lord Jesus via our union with him as we feed on him by faith, right?

But brother, maybe before we hammer the remission of sins thing, I want to make sure I don't trample on you.

Yeah, no, I just wanted to, going back to the union with Christ part that you're making here, I think Peter, when he says baptisms, which corresponds to this,

I think it's important because it says now saves you. It's not the baptism, right? It's the vessel.

It's of course Christ. It's the vessel of the baptism, right? It's Christ. And it's so, it's wonderful.

Because even if you fast forward to Moses, what does Moses put into the, the word ark is only used twice in the

Old Testament as far as that Hebrew word. It's called, it's used, translated as basket in Exodus chapter two.

But Moses is saved from judgment of Pharaoh in the Nile through -

In the ark. In the ark. And then what does Paul say about, about in 1

Corinthians, what does Paul say about Moses that Israel was baptized into Moses and sometimes we don't understand that.

But what it means is Moses was the representative. He was the mediator between God and men. And so because of the representation of Moses, these people were saved from the judgment waters of the

Red Sea. Go ahead. Which screams of how we are united to Christ in baptism.

And we'll talk about Jesus' baptism, I trust, here in just a second. We are. Where he's baptized by John. That's right.

But the, Paul is making the reference there excuse me,

Paul is making the reference there, I'm trying to find the actual passage here in a second, where the representation is

Christ for us. Oh yeah. Yeah, Romans 6 .3. Do you not know that all of us, no that's not it.

Where's the one about, I have it in my notes here and I just can't seem to find it here in a second. Oh here it is right here.

1 Corinthians 10. For I do not want you to be unaware brothers that our fathers were also under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

So the idea of representation, it's so important, it expands the idea that baptism is not the sign of you being cleansed.

It's the sign of, first of all, Christ is the ark by which brings you through the judgment water and he's the mediator between God who is bringing wrath and you.

And so because you are under the mediation of Christ, because you are in Christ, you were baptized in his name, that means you are receiving the benefits.

This is going back to union with Christ. So these pictures between Noah and Moses, and we can talk about Joshua and Jonah here in a minute, but these are all

Old Testament stories that one, move the ark of God's, or the story ark, the moving the story of God's redemptive nature, but then tying it to your sign of baptism.

Yeah, absolutely. And I wanna hammer a little bit of the remission of sins part two, that baptism is a sign of the remission of our sins.

And speaking as a couple of Baptists on the pod, I wanna say, how many Baptists have you ever heard talk like that? People are terrified to speak in these terms.

And like our confession, the Second London Baptist Confession in 29 .1 says that, that baptism is a sign of this.

It is significant of these things. And so if I'm gonna talk to a person in our local church who is placing faith in Christ and is desiring to be baptized, desiring to join the church, the two things that I lead with are this sacrament that you will receive.

By the way, you are passive in it. You will not baptize yourself. You will be baptized, right?

No matter what your tradition is. It will be done to you, which is also something that should teach you about salvation.

That's right. You don't save yourself. You receive it from the Lord. It's what Christ has done that you receive by faith.

You will also passively receive baptism. And so as that's happening, the two things in the forefront of your mind should be your union with the

Lord Jesus Christ for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. And then the fact that your sins have been forgiven and that that is what this sign means for you.

And so when you are thinking about it, and we're just gonna go ahead and use this phrase, when you're five years, 10 years, 20 years from now if the

Lord tarries, and you're struggling mightily with sin or you're doubting your legitimacy as a Christian, one of the things that we're gonna look at you and say is, brother or sister, remember your baptism.

Because it's a tangible punctiliar reminder that you have been united to the

Lord Jesus Christ and that you've been sealed to the day of salvation and you will not be lost because Christ is your mediator and you are in him, right?

And so that is all kinds of comforting and assuring and it puts wind in the sails and propels us forward even in the

Christian life. And we should talk about baptism that way. Hey guys, real quick, some of you are listening to this and it's encouraging to you, but you have questions.

So where do you go? How do you interact with other people who have the same questions and share resources? We have started something called the

Theocast Community. We're excited because not only is it a place for you to connect with other like -minded believers, all of our resources there, past podcasts, past education materials, articles, all of it's there and you can share it and ask questions.

You can go check it out. The link is in the description below. So Justin, when you say that, remember your baptism, for people, they're kind of like, yeah,

I guess remember the day I made a decision to follow Jesus. I guess remember the day

I was saved. I'm not sure how that's beneficial to me because I think I really wanna focus on who

Christ is and what he's doing and that's the disconnect we're making. And that's what we're trying to help you understand is that there are these images that,

I mean, the one we were trying to help you understand is first of all, you're being rescued and united to Christ.

That's the first symbolism. But the second thing you have to remember is that you have been renewed in Christ.

You're a new creature. I mean, just even listen to how 1 Peter describes who you are in this new baptism.

He says, baptism which now, this is 1 Peter 3 .21. Baptism which now corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which means that thing that causes shame and doubt and fear and you just walk around with a dark cloud around you.

He's saying, no, it removes that, not just creating a clean conscience where there's nothing there.

He says a good conscience. It's not just empty. It's not removed of sin. It's replaced with righteousness.

It's replaced with that which is good. So your conscience that used to scream at you says, yeah, you were guilty and shamed, but baptism brings to you not only the removal of sin, but also you are now in union with Christ.

You are being given something that is above. I mean, this goes back to, Justin, when we were talking about John's baptism,

I'll go and introduce it now and we can talk about it, but another Old Testament baptism would be when

John chapter one, he's baptizing Israel for the repentance of their sins.

You know, returning back to the Messiah and Matthew three. And what does he say in John one, behold, the

Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world before he gets into the baptismal waters. Now, just to help you understand from a narrative standpoint,

John's been baptizing people metaphorically. Their sins are being washed away in the water and they're getting out of the river.

But then what does the pure Lamb of God who has no sins, he comes into the water where the sins of Israel is and he is baptized into that water, which means he's contaminated by us.

But what do we learn that when Christ is on the cross, what does his blood do? It washes us, right?

It washes our sins away. And what does that do? It removes, but there's almost a double picture there where we're receiving the righteousness of Christ and he is receiving our sins.

What's that double imputation? The great exchange. Exactly. He takes our sin, we get his righteousness.

And one more comment on the baptism of Jesus. I trust this has struck the listener before. Jesus did not need baptism for his own sake.

He was righteous. He was perfect. Which is what John says. He was clean. Right, I mean, this is why John, exactly.

In Matthew three in particular, John is warped out of his frame. It's like in John chapter one, two.

Yeah, you should baptize me. This should be going the other way. And what does Jesus say in Matthew three? He says, no, it's right that we do this so that all righteousness might be fulfilled.

So Jesus is doing it for redemptive purposes, not for his own sake directly, but for the sake of all whom he represents.

That's right. And that can't be missed, right? No. And then of course, right after that in Matthew's gospel is the temptation narrative where it's very plain that Jesus is the representative of us all, just like Adam was, right?

And he's the representative of everyone who's united to him. So yeah, beautiful imagery of Christ taking our sin and fulfilling all righteousness in our place so that we receive his righteousness by faith.

And so when you say the phrase - This is just straight gospel stuff, go ahead. Remember your baptism, you're being reminded that because of what

Christ has done, I now have been given a good conscience, a clean conscience that is, but good because it's representative of what

Christ is, right? I was washed in his righteousness, he was receiving my sin.

That's all the symbolism of baptism that's important because there are times, Justin, when we do fall short of God's glory, we do disobey him, which is a daily practice for us, not because we want to.

We can then run back into the Father's presence asking for forgiveness. Why? Because we remember our baptism allows us to be there.

And this will kind of lead me to the next one, unless you wanted to go back on this, but which is - Go ahead.

Let me briefly comment and then I will lead you to where I think you wanna take us. So I'm gonna just read a few words from the liturgy that we use in our church when we baptize somebody.

That's good. And then this will lead you to your comment, I think. So we will say so -and -so like,

John, I'm just gonna use that name. John comes today to be baptized as a sign of his union with the

Lord Jesus Christ, as a sign of his union with him and his life, death, and resurrection, as a sign of the remission of his sins, as a sign of his being raised to walk in newness of life in Christ, as a sign of his being sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit, and as a sign of God's pledge to keep him unto salvation. Then we ask,

John, do you trust Christ alone as your Savior and as your righteousness before God? I do. Enter the water.

John, God grants repentance and faith. And based upon your profession of faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, I now baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the

Holy Spirit. John, go. Yeah, yeah. So that last part,

Justin, I think is often lost. When you remember your baptism, I think one of the most powerful things that you can remember is that Christ's name was proclaimed upon you in the judgment waters.

And when we think about, anytime Jesus uses the word in, he's talking in the approval of, like he says, you can come to the

Father and ask whatever you want in my name, under the approval of my name, you can have that.

You're coming in me. You're coming under my blood and righteousness, effectively. That's right. And so what does

Jesus say in Matthew 28? All authority has been granted to me, which means I have the right to do what I'm about to do.

And he says, go into the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, Holy Spirit.

And I think it's vitally important that we just don't kind of think that's the formula or that's the magic saying.

He's like, no, these disciples are receiving a sign and that sign is a name change.

It's forever having the name stamped upon them that they belong to God. I want to read this to you.

This is from Sinclair Ferguson. I found it to be just, I don't know how to improve it because it's just so good. So it's in reference to Numbers 6, 24 and following where it says, the

Lord bless you. I think most people know this. Aaron's benediction. Exactly. And so Ferguson says this, this is what baptism is.

It's the Lord, the Lord, the Lord who's Father, the Lord who is Son, the Lord who is

Holy Spirit putting his name on us. And that doesn't do anything within us, but in fact, it does something to us.

When my parents said to the city register question, who is this child? They said, we're putting this name on him,

Sinclair Buchanan Ferguson. That did absolutely nothing within me, but it did something to me.

I meant that this is what the name to which I would respond to for the rest of my life.

Yes, I could repudiate it just as Israel could repudiate the Aaronic blessing, just as people do repudiate their baptism, but nevertheless, that name marks us for the rest of our lives because it summons us to believe in the

Trinity, to trust in the Savior and live in the fellowship with God. It's powerful because baptism is a naming ceremony.

It's where God puts his name, and God would not put his name on anything he would not approve, right?

He's like, don't take the name of God in vain, which means if he's saying, dear child, I'm putting my name on you, that means you belong to me and I approve.

There are times, Justin, we need to remember that because we don't feel that way, do we? No, I mean, and to be reminded that God is pleased with us.

It's right. It's like he approves and he's pleased. Yeah, that can't be said enough to the believer, and for you to look back to your baptism and apprehend that truth is a very powerful thing to use your language.

And I think this is why Reformed Christians through history have seen baptism as a means of grace.

And the reason why we observe it as a church, the way that we do in my context and I know the way that you do in yours, is because we understand that the

Lord is present with us to minister, not only to the person being baptized, but to minister to us all, even as we all observe and participate in this thing along with the person receiving the sacrament.

Because this is the stuff that's being communicated to us yet again, the cleansing waters of baptism, union with the

Lord Jesus Christ, raised to walk in newness of life in him, in the name of the Father and of the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Like you, this name change, this adoption thing, like this is a signing in one sense of the adoption papers, right?

Where, and those are signed with the blood of Christ, you've been united to him, and nothing's gonna change that.

That's right. And yeah, it's sad. It really does mark us off. We don't think about it marking it off, but it does, it's like there's a spiritual and psychological marking off of us, that like, hey,

God has pulled us aside and he's putting his name on us. And it's like almost like a wedding ceremony where there's this precious moment.

I look back to my wedding day and I think about how my life changed from that day on. It really did change, right?

I went from living alone to being one with another human being. And now every decision

I make, Justin, I make in light of my union with my wife. Even when

I am tempted to be dishonoring to her, I stop and go, but I can't, right?

She has made this commitment to me. She's been faithful to me. I made this commitment to her. And because I love her,

I'm not going to allow myself to go this way. And that's how Paul addresses it in Romans six, does he not?

He goes, hey, don't go back to living like you aren't in union with Christ because you are because of your baptism.

I mean, the whole argument in that chapter, as we've said before, is the objection that's raised to the gospel.

Like if you talk like this, and if you say that the law was given to make sin worse, if possible, to increase the trespass of Adam, but yet where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more through the free gift of righteousness in the

Lord Jesus Christ so that we might reign with him forever in eternal life. If you keep talking like that, then

I guess we should just sin so that grace might abound all the more, right? Like we should just sin. And his answer is by no means.

And he's like, how can you who died to sin now live in it? Because don't you understand that you've died with Christ?

You've been united to him. And yeah, let's just say this again. Like Paul does not respond to the objection of lawless living on account of the gospel with law.

He doesn't say if you're a legitimate, serious Christian, then this is how you'll live so that you prove yourself to not be a faker.

That's not how he talks. He says, no, you've been united to Christ. You've died with him, meaning you died to sin's guilt, right?

And you are now freed from sin's dominion. You've become obedient from the heart. And so, oh, and oh, by the way, when you were sinning, what good did it do for you?

Nothing. And so remember that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God in the

Lord Jesus Christ is eternal life. And so live like who you are now, right? That's the emphasis.

And so, man, what a joyful way to think about it. You've been renewed, you've been renamed. It's beautiful.

All of that. Sometimes people don't think about, Tim Chester really has a great chapter on his book,

Trues You Can Touch. So we'd recommend that with this box. Totally. And in there, he talks about how we don't think about the future ongoing active realities of our baptism.

And this is what we're talking about now, in that because I've been baptized and I've been marked off and I have this special union with God in Christ by the means of the spirit, it changes.

So remembering your baptism literally means remember the covenant of grace that's been made with you.

Like you're in it by God's means. By the way, sometimes, Justin, people can be confused.

I wanna create a clarity here just in this moment so people understand. We're not saying the act of being put into the baptismal waters is the moment of salvation.

We've always said that this is a sign, but we're trying to expand the sign.

Like some people just think, oh, it's just a sign of me being cleansed. No, no, no. It's far more than that. So be clear, the

Holy Spirit comes and does these works and then God gives us the sign as a grace to us, saying as surely as you went into the waters of judgment and you came through it is the way you did that is you went in with Christ and came through his resurrection and these are all the benefits.

You have newness in life. You have a new name. Remember these as you seek to obey going forward.

So there are signs representing what happened to us spiritually, but the actual physical sign does not save us.

Just in case someone might be confused on what we're saying. Yeah. A couple of other comments just along these lines talking about the covenant of grace and the new covenant and the promises that God makes around that covenant.

Think Jeremiah 31 language, like this new thing that God is doing. What's the real crescendo note of that promise and that covenant?

It's that I will forgive their sins, right? The forgiveness of sins. Which they got so upset about with Jesus. Sure.

And so in our union with Christ, his death is counted as our death, right? So in him, we died to the law.

It is as though we too have endured the curse of the law. So justice has been administered.

His righteousness is our righteousness. So it's as though we've been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for us.

And his resurrection is our life. I mean, he says this, I am the resurrection and the life.

I mean, so there is absolutely an element in which baptism is telling us that in being raised with Jesus, he is now our eternal life.

When it comes to the remission of our sins, the new covenant, like I just articulated, established in Christ, accomplished through Christ, and founded on the blood of Christ is for the forgiveness of sins.

And baptism is the sign of that covenant. And so you're getting, you're receiving that, that Christ has made satisfaction for our sins and all of our sins have been washed away.

And so when you enter the baptismal waters and the Lord, you receive this sacrament, this gift from God, that is what it signifies.

And this is why we say cling to it. Remember it. It's like we assure people like you every week in your church, we every week in our church, we have a corporate confession of sin, right?

Or occasionally like a lead prayer of confession where someone will confess on our behalf, but there's always an assurance of forgiveness, right?

There's the pronouncement of pardon that saints on account of Christ, your sins are forgiven.

And we need that word. All the time. And baptism preaches that word mightily. That's right.

And to add to all of this, I think we only opened the box and talked about the introduction to you.

Sure. There's so much more to this. And that was kind of our hope and our desires to introduce this subject to you, because the signs, you know, when you think about it,

I'll just talk about this for a moment and then I'll hand it to you Justin and we can close it down. But God always gave a sign with his promises.

When we go back to Noah and after the judgment waters came, which was, can you say pretty traumatic because the whole world died.

And you know, Noah is now there with his family and God says, Noah, I want you to know

I'm not gonna do this again. Not until Christ comes, we know this and then there'll be a set, but I'm not gonna flood the world again.

So if you see rain, I'm not gonna do it again. And here's how you're going to know. He put a sign in the sky, right?

And he put that sign in the sky called a rainbow, obviously. And what's interesting about that sign is that that sign isn't for God.

No. But God sees it in the way in which. And remembers. And that's important for us too.

When we see the sign, we can remind ourselves that God sees the sign too and what we remind ourselves is that God is faithful to keep his promises.

The reason why we should go back to Noah in baptism is that God has been faithful to keep his promises, even with the flood and then the promises of Israel.

And he gave physical signs there. He's always given signs to symbolize his faithfulness.

And so for us, he said, child, I'm giving you not a sign of a rainbow, but I'm going to give you the sign of baptism.

And you can look at that sign, reminding yourselves of your baptism and God in his kindness knows for the rest of eternity, we're going to be baptizing believers because more and more people are coming to him.

And every time we see that sign, we remind ourselves of God's faithfulness.

Not I decided to follow Jesus. God decided to put his love upon me. And I am a new,

I've been, I have a new conscience. I have, I'm a new creation and I have a new name and I need to remember this because it's the only way

I survive in a dark world that lies to me about who I am every day. It's the only reason

I would ever open my mouth to tell other people they too can be baptized if they come and hear the gospel and they can receive the gift of the promise of Christ in his baptism, if you let me share with you the gospel.

It's a wonderful truth. And this sign, it's not just something to put on a t -shirt, it's something to put on your heart every single day.

And whenever God looks at his signs that he gives us and he remembers, that's not just him recalling to mind something that like escaped his mind as though he's remembering something he forgot.

Like, oh yeah. Whenever God remembers, that is him acting on the promises that he's made.

And I think baptism, it corresponds here too in that like all the language we've used, union with Jesus, remission of sins, being raised to walk in newness of life, but then being sealed to the day of salvation with the promised

Holy Spirit, right? It is God's pledge to keep and to save and to sanctify and to raise from the dead now spiritually, but one day bodily, right?

And so we're looking to this sign that God has given us as a reminder to us that God remembers and that God acts and that God keeps his promises, right?

One last observation that I think may encourage the listener out there from even the Genesis account like you were talking about with Noah.

At the end of Genesis eight, when they're off the ark finally and Noah makes a sacrifice to the

Lord, but then in verse 21, the Lord smells the pleasing aroma and the Lord says in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.

Illustration is this, God's promise that he makes to Noah and the whole world through him and the sign that he gives is not based upon a change in man.

It's based upon the faithfulness and the grace and the mercy of God. And so even there, as you're baptized into Christ and you are a new creation in him and you're raised to walk in newness of life, don't ever get it twisted to think that your assurance and your peace before God is grounded in the way that you've changed.

It's not, it's grounded in the mercy and the grace of God and the promises that the Lord himself has made to you.

So trust Christ, fix your gaze on him, remember your baptism. We hope that the episode today has been encouraging, has been to me and I trust to you as well,

John. We're grateful for all of you out there who would choose to listen to two guys talk about the

Lord Jesus Christ and Christ for us and baptism and all of these things. We are, along with you, weary pilgrims, eager to make it to the homeland that we've been promised.

And we understand that we will make it there solely because Christ has us. Because of the ark, by which we find ourselves in.

Because we are in Christ, we are secure. And so rest in that good news today, beloved, and we'll talk with you guys again next week.

We look forward to it. Hey everyone, before you go, Justin and I first wanted to say thank you. And if this has been encouraging to you in any way, please feel free to share it.

But we also need your support. And it's when you give that it really helps us financially reach more people.

So the next time you consider giving to a ministry, we hope that you would pray about Theocast and partner with us as we share the gospel around the world.