Our Attitude in Baptism

.... In most of our churches today, a candidate for water baptism will receive appropriate instructions in advance. He'll be told what baptism means in relation to the gospel, and he'll be told to bring a towel and a change of clothes. But baptism is also referred to as the ‘answer of a good conscience toward God,’ so more should be said about searching our hearts in our preparation (1 Peter 3:21).

.... To demonstrate this concept, let’s consider the example of the penitent thief, who was crucified along side of Jesus:

.... "Then one of the crimi- nals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’."

(Luke 23:39-43)

.... The penitent thief recognized Jesus as Lord, and humbly called on Him for mercy (Romans 10:13). In the fear of God, he repented of his sins; he knew that he was the one worthy of death, rather than Jesus, and he confessed his sins to Him. In fact he did all of this publicly, taking his stand for the Lord before the entire world – and in so doing, he obtained the promise of eternal life. In this story we are actually seeing a complete response to the gospel message. But what about the thief's water baptism? That is the most interesting facet of all:

.... We know that water baptism is symbolic of a spiritual reality: that we have been joined with Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. And that is exactly what the thief was doing through the promise he obtained. For this man could have said quite literally:

.... "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

(Galatians 2:20)

.... And when the prophet foretold this thief, by mentioning him in passing, he said that Jesus would "make His grave with the wicked." The important point was that they made their grave together. So again, in his story, we find the literal application of Biblical symbolism that we are ‘buried with Him through baptism’ (see Isaiah 53:9; Romans 6:4).

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.... Since water baptism is symbolic of the thief’s reality, we may argue that he had no need of the symbolic version. Rather than going through death alone, he made his grave with Jesus and would now be joined with Jesus in His own death and resurrection -- and in this manner he would pass from death into life with Him (John 5:24).

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.... Should not this man's experience speak to us all about our own attitude and thoughts in water baptism? For in that sense he becomes a model for us all. Therefore let all baptismal candidates consider his example wisely and in like manner reckon themselves dead indeed to sin, but alive to God, through their faith in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the act of our joining together with Him, for the Scriptures say we were baptized "into Christ" (Romans 6:3,11).

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Daily Bible Reading: Matthew 19