Rev. Ronald
Hanko
Rev. Hanko is a minister in the
Protestant Reformed Churches in America and has authored a number of books,
including (among others) the following: Doctrine According to
Godliness: A Primer on Reformed Doctrine (2004), The Coming of Zion’s
Redeemer: Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (2015).
He was also the joint author of Saved by Grace: A Study of
the Five Points of Calvinism (1995) and its
accompanying study guide (all of which can be purchased at http://www.cprc.co.uk and http://www.rfpa.org).
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[Previous
section: “Immersion as a Sign of Judgment”]
One of the reasons we believe the question of the mode of baptism to be so
important is that this sign of baptism, when properly administered by
sprinkling, points us to the truth that salvation is by grace alone. That ought not surprise us, since baptism
symbolizes our salvation and it would be surprising indeed if it did not say
something about salvation by grace.
As we will see in a later section (“Infant
Baptism and Sovereign Grace”), baptism in Baptist thinking really marks our
faith and repentance—i.e., our response to saving grace, and not God’s
gracious work. Put more simply, in the
immersion of adults, almost all the emphasis is on what we do, whereas
in the sprinkling of infants the
emphasis is all on what God does.
Believing that water baptism symbolizes
salvation and that salvation is all of grace, we believe that the sprinkling of
infants is not only biblical, but also a powerful testimony to the gracious
character of our salvation. For this
reason, also, we sprinkle those who are baptized.
Baptism by sprinkling or pouring beautifully
symbolizes salvation by grace alone in that the water of baptism is applied
“from above,” pointing to the heavenly source of grace and salvation. Immersion does not and cannot symbolize this,
and though other paedobaptist writers have pointed this out, it does not seem
to matter to Baptists—probably because they see baptism as marking our response
rather than God’s work.
Sprinkling or pouring, then, point to the truth
that is taught in Isaiah 45:8:
Drop down, ye heavens, from
above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open,
and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I
the Lord have created it.
Indeed, Isaiah 32:15 speaks of the gift of the
Spirit, symbolized in baptism, as a pouring out from on high:
Until the spirit be poured
upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the
fruitful field be counted for a forest.
In the New Testament, this is emphasized as
well. In James 1:17 we read:
Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Thus the many New Testament passages which speak of the outpouring of the Spirit are
emphasizing not only the gift of the
Spirit but also that the Spirit is the Spirit of God who brings salvation as a
gift from heaven and from God. And since
baptism symbolizes this gift of the Spirit, it is appropriate and right that
baptism also be administered in a way that reminds us of the heavenly source of
our salvation.
There are, then, two elements here: (1) the
fact that sprinkling or pouring points to the grace and Spirit who are “from
above,” and (2) the fact that, being administered in this way, baptism points
to the fact that God is the Author of our salvation. This, as we have seen and will see again, is
the proper emphasis of baptism. Baptism
is not a sign of our work, that is, of our response to God’s grace, but
of the work of God Himself in freely granting and bestowing salvation.
All this is beautifully symbolized in baptism
when it is properly administered, that is, not by our being put into the water,
but by the water, which symbolizes the cleansing grace and Spirit of God, being
administered to us from above, that is, by sprinkling or pouring.
Next section: “The Baptism of Christ”
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