Baptism, the Curriculum for Teaching

Go...Baptizing...Teaching

Jesus commissioned His church, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:18-20.

In what way are the activities of administering water baptism and biblical and theological teaching unto obedience connected in the Great Commission?

DA Carson, New Testament man out of Trinity Divinity School, takes baptism and teaching as what shapes, what characterizes responsible disciple making. He says … “baptism and teaching are not the means of making disciples, but they characterize it. Envisaged is that proclamation of the gospel that will result in repentance and faith, for matheteuo (“I disciple”) entails both preaching and response. The response of discipleship is baptism and instruction…[to show more about this idea of what characterizes disciple-making, Carson finishes]… it would certainly misconstrue the text to absolutize the division between discipleship and baptism-instruction…”

I think Carson is reminding us of the church’s task, I think that’s his point. Other passages in the New Testament will tell us more about the means and ingredients of discipleship growth, etc. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commissions His church setting forth the task at hand.

But note that baptism and teaching hang together. They work together making up the church’s task, which is shaping, forming, building and crafting disciples.

Christian parents bring their young children to be baptized and then instruct them in the ways of Christ. Evangelists and pastors baptize and instruct the many, who were once outside of the church and apart from the sound of the message of mercy, and these servants as well carry out the command to make disciples.

Many have rightly seen baptism as the first-step in discipleship; it’s the initiatory step. Then what follows is instruction. John Calvin and others along the way have taught that disciples are to understand their baptism, to know it, to know its significance, and to live it out. Baptism is the rudder of the Christian faith and life—it signifies and seals the promises of God’s work for us in Jesus Christ. We’re in-grafted into the Lord, and thereby, dead to sin and alive to Him, and that directs us unto the whole, full way of life, and calling and eternal destiny.

Faithful disciple-making instruction aims to open up the full curriculum of baptism. Discipleship is the life-long task and experience of learning of the significance of our baptism. Life in Christ, life together, life for the world, life against the world—it’s a life-long walk.

Baptism and leaning unto obedience work together, they hang together in the disciple-making process. They sound like the happy dialog between the cello and viola sections of an orchestra.

G. Mark Sumpter