The Corporate Blessings of the Sacrament
How God's People Benefit From Other People's Baptisms
Howdy!
As we Continue to talk some more about the sign and sacrament of baptism the Westminster Directory of Public Worship over the next few weeks is going to flesh out some of the ways in which the instructions of the minister are to help those gathered understand what is taking place. It is important for all in the service to benefit from the event. The nature of a corporate blessing is that while one person is receiving the water all are receivers of the means of grace offered in the preacher’s baptizing work, though obviously in different ways. As we go through the first half of the suggestion this morning it is our purpose to show how this is the case. We often miss out on the point when we make it only about the one under the spotlight, and that goes for a lot of other things in the worship of God’s people, not just baptism. The more we comprehend the unity of the body of Christ in everything that happens on a Lord’s Day morning and evening we can’t then but grow in our love for one another and for our Savior and Redeemer.
Here's the initial part we will read through:
Before baptism, the minister is to use some words of instruction, touching the institution, nature, use, and ends of this sacrament, shewing:
“That it is instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ: That it is a seal of the covenant of grace, of our ingrafting into Christ, and of our union with him, of remission of sins, regeneration, adoption, and life eternal: That the water, in baptism, representeth and signifieth both the blood of Christ, which taketh away all guilt of sin, original and actual; and the sanctifying virtue of the Spirit of Christ against the dominion of sin, and the corruption of our sinful nature: That baptizing, or sprinkling and washing with water, signifieth the cleansing from sin by the blood and for the merit of Christ, together with the mortification of sin, and rising from sin to newness of life, by virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ: That the promise is made to believers and their seed; and that the seed and posterity of the faithful, born within the church, have, by their birth, interest in the covenant, and right to the seal of it, and to the outward privileges of the church, under the gospel, no less than the children of Abraham in the time of the Old Testament”
The first order of business is that the DPW is not giving a rote order that the pastor is to read and which is to be the same in every church under heaven. The beauty of not having a restricted book of common worship is that there is freedom to apply local concerns to local needs. If you are overseeing a congregation where there are a lot of credobaptists attending who may not fully agree or understand what we believe about baptism it may be necessary to expand more on the connections between the Old and New Testaments. It may be the case that the people know all that, but are struggling with assurance about the power of their own baptism and the minister will need to use this time to encourage the wayward or the weak of conscience that they might leave that worship service with a strengthen spirit and greater love for Christ and His promises.
I do not think we can emphasize enough that the sacraments of the New Testament while restricted in their form, purpose, and call (and number) are not tied down to a rubric and have the liberty to use the word of God to effect to help all who are present be fed both by the sign and what the sign signifies. To that end you will notice in what you read above that the writers of the DPW are concerned that the pastor express to the parents, the child, and the congregation that first of all the sacrament was instituted, that is authorized, by Jesus Christ alone, who is the only one granted the right to declare how we are to worship how we witness His grace in the signs of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. As much as I have talked about freedom in this help, we are not free to make up our own sacraments nor give power to activities or parts that are not explicitly given to us in the Holy Scriptures. Part of our faith is resting in the way God has ordained His people to receive the sign of the covenant and thereby witness their love for Him in this act.
One of the other things worth noting is that as Presbyterians sometimes our brothers in the faith in the other magisterial Protestant traditions (Anglicanism and Lutheranism) charge us with sometimes falling into a Zwinglian (though whether that is a fair representation of Heinrich Zwingli is another matter) memorialist camp where we do not think anything actually happens in baptism. On the contrary if you read the description in the DPW above we are very clear to teach that the act of placing water on the celebrant does in fact show the seal of the covenant of grace is really and truly ingrafted and is to be a symbol for the rest of our lives of our hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The DPW uses the language of symbol because we are given in the sacrament a visible representation of an inward, spiritual work that is guaranteed to the elect and is thereby the ground of our hope and peace in both this life and the life to come. Does that mean then we are saved by baptism? That is no, we are not saved by the symbol but by what the symbol signifies and points us to, which is the shed blood of the lamb, the irrevocable promise of the covenant (Gen. 17), and the certainty we should have in the life we are giving to God almighty as much as if we were offering up our firstborn unto Heaven.
In closing, my hope is as we think more deeply about the act of baptism and we see that while faith is inseparably attached to the sacrament to the point that we cannot ever say that one is brought unto the kingdom without it, in other words no one gets to the blessings of the streets of gold without expressing that faith (Acts 16:31), we do believe in the power of the promise we lay on the infant, the toddler, the young person, the adult, etc... because that assurance is not of us, it is not of the minister, but of God who rules the earth and shows mercy in and through the signs of His blessed grace, which begins with baptism.
Here is another word:
https://gentlereformation.com/2019/04/25/the-efficacy-of-baptism/
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church