The Articles of Religion

Article XXVII

Holy Baptism

 

Outline:

1.  History

a.  Jewish Baptism

b.  Christian Baptism

 

2.  The Meaning of Baptism

a.  Scripture

b.  Membership

c.  Regeneration

 

3.  Infant Baptism

a.  History

b.  Value

 

4.  Baptism and Confirmation

 

1.  History:

a. Jewish Baptism:

Ceremonial washing as preparation to approaching God in prayer was a common feature of many  religions.  It was a natural symbol of purification.

Water was used for this purpose by the Jews and is commanded in the Old Testament. [Lev. 8:6;  Lev 14:9]

Jewish proselytes were baptized and said to be born again; a new creature as in II Cor. 5:17.

The baptisms’ of John were preparatory to the coming of the Kingdom.  It was a water baptism of  repentance.  Similar baptisms were performed by Jesus’ disciples during his life on earth

[John 4:1-  2], and would seem to be on a level with Johns.  It would not have been a full Christian  baptism.

 

b. Christian Baptism:

Baptism, already familiar to the Jews, was taken by Christ and made the visible acceptance into the  Christian society. [Matt 28:19] Christ’s own baptism by John consecrated the rite for Christians,  [Matt. 4:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21,22] and gave it a Messianic significance. From the  beginning, the New Testament knows of no other entrance into the Church.

Beginning with Pentecost, the universal practice of all Churches without any debate indicates it was  instituted by Christ. [Acts 2:38]. 

Some writers hold that baptism was first administered in the name of Jesus only  [Acts 2:38 in the  name of Jesus Messiah; Acts 8:16; Acts 10:40; Gal 3:27; Rom 6:3 in the name of Lord Jesus’] It is  possible that the phrases in Acts and the Epistles are not intended to indicate the form used, but  to distinguish Christian baptism from Jewish baptism.  However the trinitarian form was also used.  It is possible that when our Lord spoke of baptism ‘in the name of’ the Trinity He was expressing  the nature of the life bestowed and not necessarily the form of words to use.

St. Paul in II Cor. 13:14, shows he expected all Corinthian Christians to be familiar with the type of  teaching summed up in the baptismal formula.

 

2. The Meaning of Baptism:

a. Scripture:

Scripture gives the meaning as signifying the public acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord and  entrance into the new Israel.  Scripture makes it clear that baptism is not only a sign of profession  but a means of grace.

John 3:1-8; One must be born again “of water and Spirit” before he can enter the kingdom.  Thus  baptism not only signifies cleansing  and a new life but bestows them.  Water is the symbol and  channel of the Spirit.

St. Paul speaks of the ‘bath of regeneration’ [Titus 3:5].  Incorporated into the body of Christ  [I Cor. 12:13; Gal 3:27].  By our nature we are in ‘Adam’: By our new birth we are in ‘Christ’  [I Cor. 15:22]. Now the Christian is to do all things in Christ [Eph. 1:3; Eph 2:6].  Christ is within us  [I Cor. 6:15].  We are the branches, Christ is the vine [John 15:1].  We share Christ’s death and  burial to rise again in newness of life [Rom. 6:3-11; Col. 3:1-3].  As a member we are called to live  as such [I Cor. 6:15; Eph 5:7-9].

Peter stresses the present salvation begun here and now through baptism [I Peter 3:20,21]

 

b. Membership:

The blessings of baptism mentioned in the article are not a number of detached blessings but flow  from union with Christ.

Baptism not only symbolizes a new birth but conveys it since we are made members of Christ.

The Church is Christ’s body.  The metaphor of grafting comes from Rom. 11:17.  Gentiles are like  wild olive grafted onto the ancient stock of the true olive and enriched by its life.

In the New Testament baptism is always ‘unto the remission of sins’; a visible sign of God’s  forgiveness. [Acts 2:37,38; I Cor. 6:11; Eph 5:26].  Those who repent and are baptized have faced  their sin in penitence by coming to Christ to receive from Him a new life. 

It is through Christ that we receive the adoption of sons [Gal 4:4,5].  In Romans St. Paul writes,’But  ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father.”  We are the “elect people of God’  [Rom. 16:13; Eph. 1:4] and are inheritors of His Kingdom.

The meaning of “faith is confirmed: and grace is increased by virtue of prayer unto God.” is  somewhat obscure.  If this has in mind adult baptism only then it is the faith of the baptized that is  confirmed and the grace of the baptized that is increased.  If this refers also to infants then the  simplest interpretation is that the increased blessing is won for the baptized by the prayers of the  bystanders.

 

c. Regeneration:

The Prayer Book means by regeneration simply incorporated into Christ.  All baptized persons are ‘regenerate’ in this sense. 

In a very real sense John’s baptism was a mark of regeneration, of a new birth unto righteousness  in anticipation of the dawning Kingdom of the Christ.  Its background in prophetic teaching is  probably best seen in such a passage as Ezekiel 36: 25-27.  The Prayer Book very clearly intends  that Baptism include regeneration and the new birth.  In the invocation we pray; ‘We call upon thee  for this thy servant that he, coming to thy Holy Baptism, may receive remission of sin, by spiritual  regeneration.”In the Thanksgiving we pray: ‘Give thy Holy Spirit to this thy servant that he may be  born again,’.

Some identify regeneration with conversion. - the spiritual renewal resulting from membership with  Christ.  It includes turning the will towards god and the personal acceptance of Christ.  Renewal of  the soul requires both the gift of the grace of God in baptism and the personal surrender of the will  to that grace.  Regeneration is the work God does in us, in renewing our fallen nature.

We should be both regenerated and converted.  Regeneration is the work of God, accomplished in  a moment.  Conversion is our work in conjunction with God; it calls for effort and self-surrender.  It  may be either rapid or slow.

 

In the Calvinist view, since God’s grace is irresistible and given only to the elect, it follows that        sacraments cannot in any real sense be ‘means of grace’.  Rather they are pledges or seals of  blessings already belonging to the recipient as a child of grace.

 

3. Infant Baptism:

History:

The practice of infant baptism dates from Apostolic times.  Parents who were baptized would never  thought of entering into a religion by themselves but would have had the whole household  baptized.  Child proselytes to Judaism were baptized.

            There is no positive mention of infant baptism in the New Testament.  There is also no age limit.  Silence on the subject can be looked on as proof of infant baptism.

  Whole households were baptized [Acts 16:15; I Cor. 1:16] St. Peter bids men to be baptized “for to  you is the promise and to your children”.  Paul speaks of children “in the Lord” [Col. 3:20; Eph. 6:1]

            Infant Baptism was practiced in the early Church.  Tertullian objects to infant baptism but not on  doctrinal grounds.

 

Value in Practice:

            Children receive from God the best they are capable of receiving in baptism.

            Faith and repentance are necessary for baptism.  But spiritual life is the free gift of God and if there  is no disbelief or sin to oppose God’s mercy, then faith is not required for them to receive it.  Also,  faith is provided for them by their Godparents by proclaiming their faith in the name of the child.  The Lord blessed children small enough to be incapable of faith [Mark 10:13-16].  Faith is always  required to receive God’s blessing, where faith can be expected.  But Christ invited children to  come to Him.

            Infant baptism embodies a spiritual principle; That religion stars with what God does for us.  God’s  love and His free gifts come first.  “We love Him because He first loved us.”  When children are  baptized,  their baptism remains as a ground of appeal later on if they do wrong.  We do not judge  them to be good first and then baptize them.  They are Christians and must live like Christians.

            Baptized infants not only receive the power of new life but are placed in the Church where this new  life can be progressively developed.  A baptized child needs food and nursing for his soul to grow  up spiritually sound.

            Godparents are necessary in order to see that the child is taught all that his life means, in the name  of the Church.  Baptismal regeneration should not be separated from the thought of the Church as  God’s family.  It is doubtful that we should baptize children indiscriminately, with no real security  that they will  be brought up as the Prayer Book directs.

            The parents, Godparents and other sponsors of the child should be baptized members of Christ’s  Church.  They promise three things in the name of the child:

(1) The child is repentant and renounces all sin;

(2) The child has faith in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost; the  forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and salvation;

(3) The child will keep God’s holy will and commandments all the days of his life.

 

4.  Baptism and Confirmation:

In Apostolic times baptism appears to include the laying on of hands [Acts 19:6;  Heb. 6:2], and  possibly anointing with oil [II Cor. 1:21,22; I John 2:20,27].  There was also baptizing with water  alone [Acts 8:38; Acts 9:18].  In Acts 8:12-17, baptism is distinctly separated from the laying on of  hands with its gift of the Spirit.  Phillip possessed only the authority to baptize - the Apostles came  to lay on hands.          In the custom of the early church, baptism, unction and the laying on of hands  formed a single sacrament.  Confirmation is a late title and purely western.  Only Bishops could lay  on hands and they could not always be obtained.  Thus the two ceremonies for baptism and  confirmation.

In early times confirmation was part of a single ceremony of initiation into the Church;  The candidate  was transformed from life in this world to the life of the Church; cleansed from sin;  made a member of Christ; anointed with the Holy Ghost and sealed unto the day of redemption.  It was a once-for-all ceremony.  By the 3rd and 4th centuries, confirmation was said to bestow the Holy  Ghost.  Side by side with this view the Fathers also speak as though baptism with water was of sole  importance.  At the reformation, the Church of England retained the separation of infant baptism  and confirmation but:

(a) Including in confirmation the renewing of Baptismal vows, and

(b) re-affirmed that admission to Holy Communion was restricted to the confirmed.

            In the Greek Church baptism and confirmation are still one.  Infants are baptized and annointed  with oil specially blessed by the Bishop.  Anglicans have dropped unction and the Romans the  laying on of hands.  It is doubtful that unction or the laying on of hands can claim any higher  authority than the custom of the Church.  In Heb. 6:2, the laying on of hands is included among the  first principles of Christ.

 

            Three views on Confirmation: While we have a desire to maintain the traditional Anglican practice,  there is a theological question of the relation of the gift in baptism to that in confirmation.

(1) Persons baptized in infancy, explicitly take on responsibility for obedience for vows taken  in their name.  Through this personal act of faith and responsibility, baptism comes to its  fulfilment and the confirmation service is blessed by the Church.  This view has a  continuous history from the 16th century.

(2) In confirmation, the laying on of hands takes on a more sacramental character and is the  means of a special gift of strengthening by the Holy Ghost.  This view receives  considerable support from the Prayer Book.  In the Baptismal service we pray “give the  Holy Spirit to this infant that he may be born again.”  In confirmation, the Bishop prays that  the confirmed  “may daily increase in the Holy Spirit.”

(3) A third view regards confirmation as a sacramental act begun in baptism and bestows the  gift of the Holy Spirit.  Thus baptism as a sacrament is incomplete until confirmation.  The  prayer (from the Gelasian Sacramentary) which precedes the laying-on of hands appears  to imply that the seven-fold gift is now o be given for the first time.  Also persons baptized  as an adult are not dispensed from confirmation.

 

Taken from The Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England by  E. J. Bicknell

  Third Edition revised by H. J. Carpenter

LTS March 2000