Friends, family and church members often have questions about why we baptize infants. Here is an audio sermon (mp3) about Christian baptism from Acts 2:36-39. It won’t answer all the questions, but it might be helpful.
If you’re a Christian, you might have noticed by now that you have a tendency to forget the Gospel. Like the people of Israel constantly forgetting the many wonders wrought by the Holy One who delivered them out of Egypt, we too forget the historical work of God on our behalf and in our lives. It’s particularly disturbing when we forget the work of Christ on the cross, and live in fear of God’s displeasure rather than by faith in his love. In fact, I’m frightened by how often I actually forget the Gospel entirely. Is there something wrong with me?
Yes. Terribly. I’m still plagued by sin that dwells in me. That sin is continually resisting God’s authority… and his grace. Grace threatens my sin, it threatens my pride, my self-sufficiency. So somewhere inside of me, some part of me is always trying to forget the Gospel! This is why I (and all Christians) need so desperately to be reminded of the Gospel on a regular basis! We need to be in relationship with other Christians in order to mutually remind and encourage each other with the good news of God’s sacrificial love that we don’t deserve.
There’s a silver lining to this cloud of forgetfulness. I know the Gospel. I understand it. I have rehearsed it for years. I’ve taught it to others. And yet I’m still surprised by it, as if it were brand new, every time I hear it. This could give me a cause for worry, but in fact it reinforces my faith. This situation is entirely unlike any other. I don’t forget other information like this. I don’t need to be reminded by others for my entire life that two plus two equals four, or that the sun is the center of our solar system. These things don’t constantly surprise me. But the Gospel does, because of the resistance of my sin. The only thing that can account for this is the truth of the Christian worldview; there are forces at work within me, and in the world, that want to prevent me from worshiping my Savior and from fully applying the Gospel to my life. Knowing that I struggle with forgetting the Gospel can be discouraging, yes. But it also confirms the reality of the spiritual battles in which we are engaged. And one day these battles will be decisively ended, and we will never again forget the joy of our salvation.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. [Hebrews 11:1]
Assurance is, simply, faith that God’s love for you overcomes any obstacle: not that his love merely has the potential to do so, but that it actually does. Sometimes you’re very conscious of the fact that you’ve put a lot of obstacles between yourself and God. You see your sin, and the guilt and shame can make it hard to believe that God’s love could surmount even this. Again. “Maybe he forgives others who are better at this faith-and-repentance thing, but surely he doesn’t forgive me.” That’s called doubt. The bad news is, doubt is more than just unhelpful when it comes to feeling good about your relationship with God. Doubt is actually insulting to God. Sure, doubt might be genuine, honest, authentic on your part. But your doubt reflects on him, says something about him. How long will you let your doubts declare that God is not trustworthy, not gracious to save you from all your sins?
Doubt, like any other sin, is just another obstacle for God’s love to overcome. The good news is, when Jesus climbed up that hill with the timber on his back, and let himself be nailed up for a spectacle, the message was most clear. Jesus’ own body was like a banner held high for all to see, for all to remember; “God loves you.” The Eternal Father abandoned his Beloved Son to suffer and die so that you would never taste that abandonment, but rather feast forever at the rich banqueting table of his love. He has loved you, and nothing can improve upon it… or undo it. There is no obstacle between you and God’s love—whether in heaven or on earth—that has not already fallen at the foot of the cross. Believe it.
The word “gospel” means “good news.” The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the communication of God’s goodwill toward us in the person of his Son. Jesus spoke the good news. Jesus displayed the good news in all he did. Jesus lived, died, took up his life again, went bodily into heaven, and sent forth his Spirit to accomplish the good news. Jesus is the good news.
The Gospel does not come to us in a vacuum; it presupposes the existence of bad news: bad news about our desires and actions and relationships, bad news about our destinies, bad news about the human condition apart from the grace of God. Nevertheless, the Gospel comes to us in spite of the bad news, overwhelms the bad news, and one day will entirely eradicate the very concept of “bad” from the universe forever.
The Gospel says that God is for us. He always has been, and he always will be. Even though we rebel against him and seek our fulfillment in anything but him, and even though his holy anger burns at the offense of our sins, he loves us and gave his Son Jesus for us. On the cross, Jesus died, suffering the full wrath of God that our sins deserve. By God’s grace, Jesus took our place, and if you put your faith in him, your sins are forgiven and his perfect righteousness is accounted to you. When God raised Jesus from the dead, it was the proclamation that God wholeheartedly received the work of Christ on our behalf. Since Jesus is alive forever, you can be assured that you have eternal life, enjoying communion with God who will never again be angry with you.
Much more could be said about the essence and effects of the Gospel. Thus the website.
Read the Bible every weekday, marching very simply through the Old and New Testaments simultaneously. Download the reading plan here. (I suggest printing this double-sided, folding to the size of a bookmark, and keeping it in your Bible.)
