In our first meditation, we dwelt on the fact that baptism is not optional for the believer - it comes as a command from the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't need to pray about whether it is right for us (as a believer) or not - we just need to obey Him. We even challenged believers who have not been baptized by asking them what they were waiting for.
This time, we want to see that this challenge has Biblical warrant of the highest order. Our passage contains an extract from the testimony of the Apostle Paul concerning his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, as a result of which he became a believer. For three days he remained in Damascus, blinded following his meeting with Jesus, eating and drinking nothing. We can't imagine what was going on during this period inside the heart and mind of this man who had loathed the Name of Christ and had sought to exterminate all who followed Him. His world was turned upside down in a moment. How wretched he must have felt to have been so wrong and to have acted as he did. How humbled from his former Pharisaical pride. How amazed that Jesus should deal so graciously with him.
The day arrived when Ananias, commanded by the Lord, was directed to Saul and laid hands upon him. His sight was restored and he was commissioned as the Apostle of Christ to the Gentiles. But something was still lacking following Saul's new birth. He still needed to obey what is essentially the first command of the Savior to His newborn children - Saul had to be baptized. And see the urgency of the matter as Ananias ministers to Saul. It was only three days since his encounter with Jesus on the road. It was only minutes since Paul had regained his sight and learned of the task to which the Lord was calling him. He had hardly had a great deal of time to put off the matter, yet that is the accusation that comes to him from Ananias. There is a hint here that Saul was undecided and was delaying his obedience unduly. "What are you waiting for?" says Ananias, or "Why do you delay?". And we read from the account in Acts 9:18 that Paul got up and was baptized immediately.
What can we learn from this account? Several things are clear:
- If we know with certainty that the Lord commands us to do something, we must obey. It is not clear in what sense Christ has become my Lord if I do not do what He commands me to do.
- If the Lord clearly commands us to do something, we should see to it that our obedience is not partial or easily postponed. We shouldn't begin to ask why we should have to do the thing commanded - the command is full justification for immediate compliance on our part. Again, in what sense is Christ my Lord if I know His will but find reasons to delay my obedience, to question the command, or only to obey in part?
- Our passage provides further confirmation from the life of a prominent Apostle of Christ that baptism is not optional for true believers. "Get up and be baptized" came as an imperative from Christ through Ananias to Saul. Saul recognized that, and was baptized straight away.
- If baptism is indeed a command from the Lord, and Saul was chided for delaying his obedience after only three days as a believer, we can have no good reason to procrastinate in this matter. - our obedience should not be delayed but we should be baptized at the earliest opportunity.
As those who were baptized as believers reflect on their own baptism, they should be able to draw lessons from it as an act of obedience to Christ. How prompt was their obedience? Did they (perhaps like Saul) procrastinate, or were they enabled to obey swiftly and unquestioningly? Whatever our case may be, though, let's resolve from this meditation and by the grace of God not to make the same mistake in this or another area of our Christian walk, but to obey our Lord cheerfully and immediately.