What About Baptism?

The enthusiasm of a new believer, Jacob, now seeking to be baptized, helped me relive the joy of my own baptism. The question is, which one? My baptism as an infant, or my believer's baptism as an adult?

Like Jacob as a Catholic, I underwent infant baptism as a Lutheran. Even though it happened long before I would ever be able to have any memory of it, it was nonetheless meaningful to me as I was reminded of my own baptism every time I saw another infant being baptized while growing up.

My baptism as an infant also happened long before I could ever have any choice in the matter, and that is exactly why it was very special to me as it reminded me that God chose me long before I could ever choose Him, and God’s church had committed itself to raise me up in the Christian faith long before I could commit myself to serve the church.

It was for these reasons that, after becoming involved with a non-denominational church, I wrestled with the idea of believer’s baptism as an adult. I fasted and prayed about it for weeks, because while believer’s baptism seems to have much more scriptural support for it than infant baptism, I somehow felt like I was turning my back on something so special that God had done in my life.

I also knew that solid Christian leaders and, in fact, whole denominations have been unable to come to an agreement on this issue for centuries. Who was I to think I could settle the issue either way?

In the end, I felt God leading me to undergo believer’s baptism as an adult through a rather unusual Bible passage found in 2 Kings 5. It was the story of Naaman, a military commander from Syria, a gentile nation and enemy of Israel. Naaman was suffering from leprosy, and his servant girl from Israel told him that there was a prophet in Israel – Elisha – who could heal him.

Naaman went to see Elisha, who insulted him by refusing to meet with him personally, but simply sent a message that he was to go dip himself in the Jordan river seven times and he would be healed. At first Naaman refused, because his sense of dignity was threatened in front of his delegation: “But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.”

In the end, one of Naaman’s more sensible soldiers convinced him to perform this simple and strange act of obedience. Naaman did as Elisha told him, and was immediately healed.

As I struggled with the issue of adult believer’s baptism, I recognized myself in Naaman. I realized I was being commanded to do a strange and simple act of obedience, one that could threaten my sense of dignity, especially since I had been baptized as an infant already.

Yet in adult baptism I also saw special meaning. It gave me a chance to take that simple “first step” of obedience (though I had already been a believer for years) – a step that confirmed myself as a disciple of Jesus, willing to live under his authority and follow his commands no matter how strange or insignificant they might seem, and in so doing to follow him through death and resurrection.

It also affirmed for myself and all to whom I might share the Gospel that we indeed have life-changing decisions to make, that we all need to take steps of obedience, and that we may not always know why or where those decisions will lead. These are decisions that appear to be of our own free will, but are put before us and made with God’s sovereignty in mind.

So was my infant baptism or my adult believer’s baptism the correct one? I really can’t say, just as I can’t solve the age-old debate between God’s sovereignty and man’s free-will. All I know is, I have believed, and I have been baptized; that both of these facts are not of myself but are wonderful gifts of God, and that’s good enough for me.