Christian Orthodoxy Understanding: The Sacrament of Baptism: (Part 3, one of two)
May 29, 2017 09:09:26 #
05/15/2017 On The Sacrament Of Baptism: Part Three
Henry Karlson
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/on-the-sacrament-of-baptism-part-three/
This is the third post from a series on the sacrament of baptism.
On The Sacrament of Baptism: Part One
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/on-the-sacrament-of-baptism-part-one/
On The Sacrament Of Baptism: Part Two
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/on-the-sacrament-of-baptism-part-two/
The Sacrament of Baptism: (Part Four, Conclusion)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/sacrament-baptism-conclusion/?
Baptism of Rus by Viktor Vasnetsov
Those who have come to be included into the body of Christ, those who have put on Christ, that is, those who have found themselves washed and regenerated by baptism are called to share that grace with others.
They are expected to act in the world as members of the body of Christ by bringing the fruit of the resurrection to all who would welcome them.
This is because, like Christ, they are to follow the path of love, to love others in and through their love for God.
For they see them as those whom God loves. Anyone God loves, they will also love for the sake of God, for the sake of their beloved, and so they will love others as themselves because God loves them like God loves them.
Christ handed over to the church, those incorporated into his body and participate in and through him with the holy things of God, his ongoing mission to spread the grace and love of God throughout the world.
Christians are expected to go out into the world, to be vehicles of God’s grace, not to distance and hide themselves from the world as if it were something to be abhorred.
Thus, the church offers the grace of baptism to all, so that anyone who seeks spiritual healing can find the means by which they can be made anew by the work of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Christ has given the church a commission, the means by which the church knows for herself as the normal means by which she offers the regenerative grace which he has handed over to her:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you;
And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Mt. 28:19-20 RSV).
The grace of regeneration comes in baptism, and so is known as baptism.
This is what the church knows as the name given to the grace which comes from above to enable those who receive it to be born again.
Thus, when speaking of baptism, it can refer to the act of baptizing someone, or the essence of the sacrament, the grace which is offered by its practice.
Christ told us that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must be born again;
Christ, in his death and resurrection, has opened the way for that grace to come into the world.
He has told the church the means by which those called to him in the new covenant relationship, those who have come to know and follow him in the church, can work with him in spreading that grace to others.
It is in baptism, and that baptism is to be done in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.[1]
It is baptism when someone is put under water, whether if it is a little as if being sprinkled by water, or as much as being covered by a body of water while given the invocation of the words of baptism established by Jesus
(Baptism in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit), with the express intent of baptism and no express desire to hinder the grace of baptism by the recipient.
Thus, it is not merely the touching of water which makes baptism valid, nor the words as if they work by magic, but there is the need for the Holy Spirit to bring the grace in baptism.
And that must not be stifled by anyone involved with the baptism itself.
Merely saying the words, and putting someone under water, is not baptism, for baptism has to be done with full intentionality.
This is why there is possibility of an accidental baptism ever taking place, such as would happen if intention was not necessary.
For then those who play-acted a baptism would find themselves actually engaging the sacrament itself.
Only when one person baptizes another, with intention of baptism.
Using water and invoking the proper words of baptism over someone who is not opposed to the baptism itself, does the Holy Spirit come in place and render the grace of the sacrament.
If either the one baptizing does not intend to follow Christ in baptizing someone else (they do not need to know Christ’s intention for baptism.
As long as they believe they should do it out of obedience to Christ with the intention to grant wh**ever Christ grants with baptism).
Or the one being baptized intentionally rejects baptism, then it is of no avail.
This explains why infants, who give no intentional rejection of the sacrament, are able to be baptized and be received into the body of Christ.
Which should not be surprising, for in pre-Christian times, infants were able to be received into a covenantal relationship with God through other means, like circumcision for the children of Israel.
Baptism regenerates and makes one born again, born with the grace of the Spirit of Life.
Nonetheless, after we are baptized, we remain free after to reject God, to reject the grace given to us, to turn away from God and sin again, cutting ourselves off from the grace which God has offered in baptism.
We can risk losing our proper relationship with God, and end up among the damned.
This is why Jesus warned us that those who do not believe can perish even as those who believe and are baptized can be saved:[2]
Those who believe will hear the whole gospel do all that Christ said should be done.
Believers will cooperate with the grace given to them, allowing it to perfect them, so that there can come a time, either in their temporal life are sometime thereafter.
When they can cast off all that remains of sin and death from their person and fully embrace eternal life with the barrier sin places upon them which keeps them from the beatitude they desire.
The Sacrament of Baptism: (Part Four, Conclusion)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/sacrament-baptism-conclusion/?
Henry Karlson
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/on-the-sacrament-of-baptism-part-three/
This is the third post from a series on the sacrament of baptism.
On The Sacrament of Baptism: Part One
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/on-the-sacrament-of-baptism-part-one/
On The Sacrament Of Baptism: Part Two
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/on-the-sacrament-of-baptism-part-two/
The Sacrament of Baptism: (Part Four, Conclusion)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/sacrament-baptism-conclusion/?
Baptism of Rus by Viktor Vasnetsov
Those who have come to be included into the body of Christ, those who have put on Christ, that is, those who have found themselves washed and regenerated by baptism are called to share that grace with others.
They are expected to act in the world as members of the body of Christ by bringing the fruit of the resurrection to all who would welcome them.
This is because, like Christ, they are to follow the path of love, to love others in and through their love for God.
For they see them as those whom God loves. Anyone God loves, they will also love for the sake of God, for the sake of their beloved, and so they will love others as themselves because God loves them like God loves them.
Christ handed over to the church, those incorporated into his body and participate in and through him with the holy things of God, his ongoing mission to spread the grace and love of God throughout the world.
Christians are expected to go out into the world, to be vehicles of God’s grace, not to distance and hide themselves from the world as if it were something to be abhorred.
Thus, the church offers the grace of baptism to all, so that anyone who seeks spiritual healing can find the means by which they can be made anew by the work of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Christ has given the church a commission, the means by which the church knows for herself as the normal means by which she offers the regenerative grace which he has handed over to her:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you;
And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Mt. 28:19-20 RSV).
The grace of regeneration comes in baptism, and so is known as baptism.
This is what the church knows as the name given to the grace which comes from above to enable those who receive it to be born again.
Thus, when speaking of baptism, it can refer to the act of baptizing someone, or the essence of the sacrament, the grace which is offered by its practice.
Christ told us that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must be born again;
Christ, in his death and resurrection, has opened the way for that grace to come into the world.
He has told the church the means by which those called to him in the new covenant relationship, those who have come to know and follow him in the church, can work with him in spreading that grace to others.
It is in baptism, and that baptism is to be done in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.[1]
It is baptism when someone is put under water, whether if it is a little as if being sprinkled by water, or as much as being covered by a body of water while given the invocation of the words of baptism established by Jesus
(Baptism in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit), with the express intent of baptism and no express desire to hinder the grace of baptism by the recipient.
Thus, it is not merely the touching of water which makes baptism valid, nor the words as if they work by magic, but there is the need for the Holy Spirit to bring the grace in baptism.
And that must not be stifled by anyone involved with the baptism itself.
Merely saying the words, and putting someone under water, is not baptism, for baptism has to be done with full intentionality.
This is why there is possibility of an accidental baptism ever taking place, such as would happen if intention was not necessary.
For then those who play-acted a baptism would find themselves actually engaging the sacrament itself.
Only when one person baptizes another, with intention of baptism.
Using water and invoking the proper words of baptism over someone who is not opposed to the baptism itself, does the Holy Spirit come in place and render the grace of the sacrament.
If either the one baptizing does not intend to follow Christ in baptizing someone else (they do not need to know Christ’s intention for baptism.
As long as they believe they should do it out of obedience to Christ with the intention to grant wh**ever Christ grants with baptism).
Or the one being baptized intentionally rejects baptism, then it is of no avail.
This explains why infants, who give no intentional rejection of the sacrament, are able to be baptized and be received into the body of Christ.
Which should not be surprising, for in pre-Christian times, infants were able to be received into a covenantal relationship with God through other means, like circumcision for the children of Israel.
Baptism regenerates and makes one born again, born with the grace of the Spirit of Life.
Nonetheless, after we are baptized, we remain free after to reject God, to reject the grace given to us, to turn away from God and sin again, cutting ourselves off from the grace which God has offered in baptism.
We can risk losing our proper relationship with God, and end up among the damned.
This is why Jesus warned us that those who do not believe can perish even as those who believe and are baptized can be saved:[2]
Those who believe will hear the whole gospel do all that Christ said should be done.
Believers will cooperate with the grace given to them, allowing it to perfect them, so that there can come a time, either in their temporal life are sometime thereafter.
When they can cast off all that remains of sin and death from their person and fully embrace eternal life with the barrier sin places upon them which keeps them from the beatitude they desire.
The Sacrament of Baptism: (Part Four, Conclusion)
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/henrykarlson/2017/05/sacrament-baptism-conclusion/?
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.