Christ's Suffering, Our Growth, and the Ordinances

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship [κοινωνιαν] of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).

I love the ordinances commanded to the Church by its only Lord and High Priest, Jesus Christ. I am passionate about them, and am convinced that by minimizing them for more flashy and entertaining pursuits, we have robbed ourselves of a blessing the Head of the Church Himself has given us for our spiritual benefit.

Today’s Southern Baptists identify the ordinances as one of the marks of a true Church:

• “A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers...observing the two ordinances of Christ” (Baptist Faith & Message 2000, VI).
• “Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour [sic], the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming” (BF&M 2000, VII).

While we typically read passages like Philippians 3:10 (“the fellowship of His sufferings”) as a reference to persecution (see also Matthew 20:23; Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 2:11; 1 Peter 4:13), I believe the ordinances to be a regular and consistent liturgical means by which the Lord brings His Church into conformity with His own “sufferings.” I don’t deny that for the apostle Paul (and countless believers in the past and today) these passages speak of a literal experience of Christian suffering, but given what else Paul says on the subject, I would suggest that we shouldn’t limit his language to these persecutions. Instead, there is a way in which biblical Christian liturgy makes these realities a regular experience of the gathered Church for our spiritual growth and sanctification. Let’s consider the language the apostle Paul uses in other places concerning the ordinances.

Concerning baptism: “...do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:3-13). Baptism is “an act of obedience symbolizing” union with Christ’s suffering, but Paul certainly takes it beyond just symbolic act in his teaching on this ordinance. “...we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death...our old self was crucified with Him...we have died with Christ...” This is strong language connected with the ordinance, and we would do well to take it seriously! So when Paul speaks of “the fellowship of His sufferings” and conformity “to His death” to the Philippian church, it is not necessarily limited to persecution and martyrdom. Paul’s own language to the Romans shows us that the ordinance of baptism brings us into this experience which should produce profound ethical/moral fruit in our lives. Let’s look at the Philippians passage again: Paul counts all things (both his sin and his own personal righteousness) as loss, so that he may have a righteousness “which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (3:9,10). Justification (being proclaimed righteous) by faith in Jesus Christ is followed by a union with Christ which includes “the fellowship of His sufferings” and conformity “to His death” as experienced in the ordinances.

In addition to baptism, Paul speaks of the Lord’s Supper as an ordinance which brings us into this “fellowship” and “conformity.”

“Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing [κοινωνια] in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing [κοινωνια] in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16,17). Just as the doctrine of baptism should have spiritual fruit in a believer’s life, so too does the Lord’s Supper have powerful implications for unity in the Church and dedication solely to Christ (read the rest of chapter 10 through the end of chapter 11...and truth be told, probably through the end of chapter 14!).

We need to continually remember Paul’s confession “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). We must remember it so that we “do not nullify the grace of God” (2:21) – a continual temptation for every believer. The ordinances are an instrument of this grace and sanctifying work in our lives.

Early in ministry, a wise deacon (now in Glory) once told me that humans never stay in the middle of a position/opinion/doctrine, but are continually swinging back and forth to extremes. My dear Baptists, I fear that in this day we have gone so far on the ordinances that they are barely there in the life of the Church. May we consider the testimony of the Scriptures and carefully, thoughtfully, and purposefully begin moving the pendulum back to a more faithful view of the ordinances which grants them the central place in Christian liturgy that the Scripture itself gives them. The promised fruit of Scripture concerning the ordinances and what they represent is freedom from sin, service to God’s righteousness, unity, and faithfulness to Christ. Sound like something needed in the Church today? All these things come from union with Christ in His death and resurrection – the very reality the ordinances lead us to walk in together.

For by them we regularly “may know...the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that [we] may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Pentecost and Baptists

The deepest, most impactful, and assured fellowship with God through His Son has always occurred in the context of His Word. Reading it, meditating on it, and teaching/preaching it has always brought me into intimate fellowship with God (through the Person of His Holy Spirit) and other believers. This is perfectly reasonable since the Author of the Word indwells the believers who read that Word.

I’ve wondered about Acts 2:39 several times over the years. What did it mean that “the promise” (the Holy Spirit) was not just for the elect from the Jewish people, but their children, as well? I had always suspected it to be connected to Paul’s “Jew first” statements in Romans (1:16; 2:9,10). There was a sort of “priority of opportunity” for the Jewish people in relation to the Gospel because of their history with the covenant God all the way back to Adam, Seth, and so forth. However, the other day I was listening to some fellow believers (I was running, they were podcasting), and one of them alluded to this passage as a defense for pedobaptism. It was a good podcast – I appreciated their emphasis on the similarities between Reformed credobaptism and pedobaptism. But hearing this passage read aloud by someone else helped it “click” for me.

The inclusion of the “children” in this passage isn’t because they were to receive the “promise” through their parents, but because of who they were: old covenant Jews. Peter is teaching them that, under the new covenant, their children’s old covenant sign (circumcision) wasn’t going to be valid. They needed the new covenant sign and seal, baptism.

“Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language...Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: ‘Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem...men of Israel, listen to these words...let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ - this Jesus Whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.’ And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation!’ So then, those who had received his word were baptized...’” (Acts 2:5,6,14,22,36-41).

Basics. Who’s speaking? Peter (2:14). To whom is the apostle speaking? Old covenant Jews. He is not speaking to the Church – it is the Church which is speaking (not just Peter, but all those who had received the Spirit, 2:4,7,11,15). He is speaking to those still living under the old covenant. Under the old covenant, those male “children” had received the sign of that covenant at eight days old (Genesis 17:12; Leviticus 12:1-3). Peter, in his Pentecost message, teaches discontinuity between the old and new covenants in regard to the sign.

While under the old covenant the “children” would have been included in the covenant by a sign administered to them on the eighth day of life, the new covenant required repentance prior to the administration of the covenant (Acts 2:38; the repentance is the result of the effectual call of God, 2:39, which manifests in a believing reception of the Word, 2:41). Baptism follows effectual calling, believing reception of the Word, and repentance. This is a discontinuity between the old and new covenant, and so Peter tells those who had an old covenant understanding that their “children” would receive the “promise” not in virtue of their being “children” (“circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel,” Philippians 3:5), but as a result of effectual calling resulting in reception of the Word, repentance, and baptism.

Children are included in Peter’s exhortation because they had received the seal of the old covenant (circumcision), but now needed to receive the new covenant seal (baptism), which came through a reception of the Word resulting in repentance.

So, the Jews and their children (under the old covenant) and Gentiles (“all who are far off,” 2:39) all come into the new covenant the same way, and that way is not as they came into it under the old covenant. Peter is teaching discontinuity.

Hear the Word of Christ. Believe. Repent. Be baptized, and enter the new covenant community of the Holy Spirit.

Peter, when he addresses “you and your children” in Acts 2:39, is not speaking to Presbyterians. He is speaking to old covenant Jews who need to understand the differences between the old and new covenant signs and how/when they are received. He’s telling them they need to become Baptists (I’m speaking tongue-in-cheek, but only partially) – hear, believe, be baptized.

Another thought came to me on this run. Presbyterians pose the question to Baptists about our children. If they aren’t “covenant children,” are they no different than the children of unbelievers? How horrible is that? Under the old covenant, children had covenantal status, but under the new they’re just run-of-the-mill pagans? How is the new covenant an improvement if this is true? Under the old covenant, of course, the circumcised were still required to hear, believe, and obey the Law when they reached the “age of accountability” (the existence of which I have no trouble affirming, cf. Deuteronomy 1:39; Isaiah 7:15,16). We Baptists assert that the “children” of the new covenant are spiritual children, since the covenant is not bound to one ethnicity (extended family), but all peoples.

What about the biological children of Baptists? Yes, they are unregenerate until they hear, believe, and are baptized. Do they have an advantage over children of unbelievers? Yes, and there’s a New Testament category of person who is comparable: the old covenant Jew.

“Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans 3:1,2). Does this “advantage” make them part of the new covenant? No. “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God” (Romans 2:28,29).

The children of Baptists have an advantage in that they are made familiar from an early age with the Word of God (an advantage the children of unbelievers do not have). “...from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).

The status of Jews in the New Testament informs us about the status of unregenerate children of believers. They know of God and the Word, but are not yet reborn.

Now, I’m not trying to enter into debate about this with my pedobaptist brothers and sisters. We haven’t resolved this between our “tribes” in four centuries, and I don’t expect an anonymous and insignificant blogpost to change the status quo. But, last week, a Presbyterian quoted a passage, a Baptist heard it, and a light came on for the Baptist concerning that very passage. And the Baptist finished his run pretty excited about his confession. God is good, and His Church is beautiful (even in her differences).

Congregationalism and the Head of the Church

“Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord” (Baptist Faith & Message 2000, VI).

I was thinking about our congregational polity this morning in the shower (don’t judge!). Two brief flashbacks came into my mind:

• First is that of being grilled by a Presbyterian professor in a DMin seminar. “Isn’t that just mob rule?” he asked me (he was a pretty aggressive guy...the most aggressive of any professor I’ve had). I wasn’t sure how to answer that honestly...because I’ve seen decisions made by congregations that certainly seemed that way.
• Second, a few years ago we were in the process of hiring an associate minister. This congregation where I serve had a conflict in its past between ministers. Several people came up to me and said, “be careful not to hire anyone who will want your job.” Honestly, that statement amused me – because we have congregational polity! I was hired by a majority vote from the congregation, and it would take a majority vote of the congregation to remove me and replace me! I’m not sure the ambitions of a potential new staff member should be my greatest concern if I was worried about job security (which I was not).

Congregational polity’s an interesting thing. While it seems – on the surface – to put a heavy emphasis on the free will of man, a biblically accurate understanding of Christ as the Head of the Church (Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; Colossians 1:18) means that it lifts up the sovereignty of God as He manifests it through the free decisions of human beings! We say things like, “the Lord speaks through the majority vote.” A dubious assertion (how many understand it), but still a common one.

I get asked about how we are supposed to reconcile the sovereignty of God and the free will of man at least once a month (usually more), and all the while our congregational polity (as we ideally confess and understand it) is a picture of that theological reconciliation. I’m assuming here that congregationalists don’t think they are the head of the church through their democratic voting...I’ll speak to these “practical atheists” in a moment.

Christ is the Head of the Church + congregational polity = a strong understanding of the providence of God! Who knew?!

“Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, Who is the First Cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly; so that nothing happens to anyone by chance, or outside His providence [including democratic church votes], yet by His providence He orders events to occur according to the nature of second causes [including democratic church votes], either necessarily, freely, or contingently...as the providence of God in general reaches to all creatures, so, in a more special manner, it takes care of His church, and governs all things to the good of His church” (1689 Baptist Confession 5.2,7). God the Son manifests His sovereignty (the First Cause) through the democratic votes (the second causes) of His Church to their ultimate good.

Anything less than this understanding seems to place the decisions of the congregation above (or, at best, on equal footing) with the authority of Christ the Head of the Church! A church member casting a vote outside of a prayerful, Scripture-searching, fear-of-God, Kingdom-centered attitude is a rebellious insurrectionist against the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ! Think about that next time you’re grumbling that the vote on carpet color didn’t go your way!

What about the votes that are wrong (and by that I mean that my view ended up being the minority)? That happens, I know. It’s happened to me a few times (in a congregational polity the pastor only gets one vote, too, you know). Well, I have a high view of the sovereignty of God and understand that He uses second causes (like votes) to accomplish His purpose – even if that purpose is to discipline a congregation for its narrow-minded worldliness or to humble a pastor who thinks his influence over the people is bigger than it is. So often He confounds us to humble us, teach us, correct us, or draw us closer to Himself (and further away from our stubborn desire to be in charge). Let me switch gears a little by way of illustration. It’s always fascinating and amazing to me how God assembles this congregation. We’ve have emergent types come (voluntarily) to sit for years under the teaching of this Reformed Baptist preacher. Folks have joined who are more politically-active than I am, like church programs more than I do, prefer different music, have different eschatological views, are non-Calvinist, etc. I’m never threatened by them, and don’t insist Darth Vader-style that they join me on the dark side or anything. When folks very different from myself willingly and even joyfully sit under teaching they shouldn’t like at all for long periods of time (and maybe even join the church), I ask God, “what are you teaching me in this season? How are they guiding us as a congregation into more perfect Christ-likeness?” You see, I trust His sovereignty. When an emergent, or politically-passionate, or dispensationalist is brought by God into this covenant community, I look to the Head of the Church for wisdom, guidance, and vision. He’s building His Church, and His sovereignty shines especially when she’s not made up of clones of myself! I’m not going to compromise my preaching/teaching to accommodate these different flavors, but I’m not going to argue them into submission, either. I’ll keep preaching/teaching the way I have been and trust the power of the Spirit through His Word. He is the Head of the Church. I am not. He – through the democratic vote of a richly varied congregation – has placed me in the pulpit for this season of the life of this congregation, and I will serve Him with as much faithfulness to His Word as I possibly can, being the chief of sinners in this family of faith.

Let me say this about those who think votes don’t require prayer, Scripture meditation, consistent attendance in corporate worship or Bible studies, Kingdom focus, or submission to Jesus Christ the Head. You may have a right to vote, but I don’t condone it or respect it. Your opinion on the state of things and the direction we should be going is merely that: your little opinion. When I called you a “practical atheist” or “rebellious insurrectionist” above, I meant it fully. Be warned: God may use your godless vote to discipline or mature His people for His glory, but He’ll still judge you for your paganism. The Bible’s full of examples of how God’s used this double-edged means of working through second causes. I don’t know of any specific examples of this in our congregation these pleasant days of unity, but for anyone else out there, the warning’s been issued. You are "responsible and accountable Christ as Lord," and He loves His Bride enough to die for her. He is wholly dedicated to her holiness (Ephesians 5:27). Don't think you can use her to build your own little kingdom without consequence.

I’m glad to hear the congregation vote on things. Recently my “Sunday afternoon” congregation 98 miles south of here voted to be far more generous to our state convention’s children’s home than I would have ever suggested. I rejoiced and marveled at their willingness to be more generous than myself. I wasn’t resistant to the idea – I just wasn’t thinking as big as they were and needed to get a larger vision! That sort of thing happens often. God fills His congregations with people and then speaks through them in ways, approaches, ideas, and visions greater than those I have as a limited little man. And I give Him glory and thanks every time it happens.

Congregational polity. Just like the democratic process in this country, it’s easy to unceasingly complain about those in office (elected by the majority of our neighbors!) and the current state of things. Unless you look to Who’s actually in charge. May we in democratically-guided congregations learn to be teachable, humble, and thankful to the First Cause Who is working through the second-cause votes, even when they seem to run counter to His revealed wisdom at first glance. The voice of the glorified Jesus speaks in Revelation 2-3 to problem congregations, and we benefit from the warnings...but He also speaks to congregations right on track, and we benefit from their examples. Christ the Head speaks to and through His Church. Are you prayerfully seeking Him in the minutes of the business meeting? He’s speaking. It’s either encouragement and vision or warning and correction, but He’s speaking.