Tuesday, February 24, 2015

BAPTISM


Colossians 2:9-12 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
  
Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ. By baptism a person is solemnly admitted into the visible church. Baptism is also a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of the believer’s engrafting into Christ, of rebirth, of remission of sins, and of the believer’s yielding to God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life. By Christ’s own direction this sacrament is to be continued in his church until the end of the world.

The physical substance to be used in this sacrament is water. The person is to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ordinarily by a lawfully called minister of the gospel.

Dipping the person into the water is not necessary. Baptism is correctly administered by pouring or sprinkling water on the person. Not only those who actually profess faith in and obedience to Christ are to be baptized but also the infants of one or both believing parents.

Although it is a great sin to condemn or neglect this sacrament, baptism is not inseparably connected with God’s grace and salvation. One can be saved and reborn without baptism, and, on the other hand, everyone who is baptized is not therefore unquestionably reborn.

The effectiveness of baptism is not tied to that moment in time in which it is administered. However, by the correct use of this sacrament the grace promised in it is not only offered but actually embodied and conferred by the Holy Spirit to everyone (adult or infant) to whom that grace is given, according to the purpose of God’s own will and in his appointed time.

The sacrament of baptism should be administered only once to a person.

The Westminster Confession of Faith

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