Acts 22:16 — ‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’
1 Corinthians 12:13 — For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Colossians 2:12 — having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
We are reflecting on the fact that baptism is a seal and we have already seen that it marks out those who are God's possession, separated from the world in order to belong to Him.
We want to think more deeply this time about the way baptism is an outward seal that confirms the validity of the spiritual promises that it signifies. We will look at these promises in more depth when we turn to consider how baptism functions as a sign. In short, though, as we mentioned before and as the Scripture texts above indicate, these promises concern the complete cleansing from sin, the reception and indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a close union and identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. These are great and precious promises, and we want to see again that there is great value for all, believers and unbelievers, baptized and unbaptized, in reflecting on these things.
The believers' soul, being awakened to a deep awareness of unworthiness and sin, might well be tempted to doubt that he or she could ever be the possessor of such great blessings. Indeed, if we could only look to ourselves for any merit that might attract such gifts from God, we must come away from that view in despair and dismay. That is why this temptation may find such a firm foothold in our souls. "I am not worthy" we say to ourselves - and we are absolutely correct! The truth is that Jesus is worthy and these blessings were won for us on the basis of His merits and awarded to us entirely due to the abundant graciousness of our God.
So, are we left to flounder in growing helplessness when this temptation comes upon us? Not at all. We can look to our baptism. We can reflect on all that is symbolized and promised in it and we can find comfort and grace to believe that we are washed from our sins, that we have the Spirit within us and that we are joined irrevocably to the Lord Jesus Christ. In reflecting on our baptism, these blessings are sealed and confirmed to our souls by the Spirit of God.
If we are not believers, baptism that we may have undergone, or that we witness in church still confirms the validity of the promises of God's graciousness to all who will come to Christ, and it calls us to submit to His rule and experience the truth of the promises directly for ourselves - we will be washed, we will have the sanctifying work of the Spirit within, we will be brought into an indissoluble and close union with Jesus Himself.
Once again, in reflecting on baptism we are struck by the condescending grace of God in making such promises and then in providing a means by which they are further sealed and confirmed to our weak and unbelieving souls!
