作者： Kim Riddlebarger 译者：寇正华
在我们的主耶稣升天之前，他给他的门徒留下了以下命令：“所以，你们要去，使万民作我的门徒，奉父、子、圣灵的名给他们施洗。凡我所吩咐你们的，都教训他们遵守，我就常与你们同在，直到世界的末了”（太28:19-20）基于大使命的这些话，现在是基督教会的使命，即进入世界、宣讲福音并使万民作门徒。我们如何使人作门徒？我们奉三一神的名给他们施洗。
虽然今天许多认信的基督徒很奇怪地漠视于一般的圣礼，尤其是洗礼，但新约却对那些信耶稣基督但没有受洗的人一无所知。虽然这个的特例是在十字架上的强盗，因为为他施洗是不可能的（参见路23:40-43），新约非常清楚洗礼作为一个人认信耶稣的标志和印记的必要性（参见罗4:9-12）。不仅耶稣在大使命中命令他的门徒要通过给信耶稣的人施洗来使万民作门徒，在彼得的五旬节讲道中以如下要求来结束“你们各人要悔改，奉耶稣基督的名受洗，叫你们的罪得赦，就必领受所赐的圣灵。因为这应许是给你们和你们的儿女，并一切在远方的人，就是主我们神所召来的”（徒2:38-39）。在使徒行传一书中，那些家庭的头因认信基督而受洗，但这些相同的个体也使他的整个家庭包括他们的儿女受洗（参见徒16:14-15；31-33；徒18:8）。
为什么所有信耶稣基督的人要受洗，有几个重要的原因。首先，洗礼是新约的标志和印记，并因此取代了旧约的标志和印记即割礼（创17:1-14；西2:11-12）。但即使圣约的记号从割礼变为洗礼，所指代的事并不变——神作我们的神并且我们作他的子民的圣约应许（徒2:39；加3:14）。这就是为什么改革宗信徒认为信徒的儿女要受洗，因为信徒的儿女与他们的父母一起都是恩典之约的成员（林前7:14）。如果我们的儿女确实是恩典之约的成员，那么这约的标志和印记怎能被剥夺呢？这与耶稣对那些作为天国成员的小孩子的态度相符合（路18:15-17），并且说明在新约中存在一家人受洗（参见徒16:15;33，林前1:16）。
其次，在洗礼中，我们与耶稣的死和复活认同。在罗马书6:3-5中，保罗写道，“岂不知我们这受洗归入基督耶稣的人，是受洗归入他的死吗？所以我们借着洗礼归入死，和他一同埋葬，原是叫我们一举一动有新生的样式，像基督借着父的荣耀从死里复活一样。我们若在他死的形状上与他联合，也要在他复活的形状上与他联合。”同样在加拉太书3:27-28中，保罗将洗礼和我们与基督的认同相联系。“你们受洗归入基督的，都是披戴基督了。并不分犹太人、希腊人、自主的、为奴的，或男或女，因为你们在基督耶稣里都成为一了。”受洗就是披戴基督，如同一个人披上了新衣服，并且洗礼使我们联合于基督的死和复活。
第三，我们必须区分标记（水）与所指代的事（赦罪）。圣经确实把洗礼说成是“重生的洗”（多3:5），并与“赦罪”联系在一起（徒2:38及以下；22:16），而没有教导说洗礼的水是重生的工具。重生在每个地方都归功于圣灵的主权工作（约3:3-8；多3:5；林前2:14），而不仅仅是标记本身（水的洗礼）的存在，好像标记以某种方式神奇地捆绑神来行动似的。话虽如此，我们必须非常小心不要将洗礼简化成仅仅是外部的记号，也不要完全否定作为标志和印记而加给受洗者的任何事情。通过信心来宣称神的圣约应许，我们全心地相信受洗的成年人或者信徒的孩子确实是重生的并且已经被基督的血所洗，以赦免罪恶。
其中对于圣经在洗礼中所应许我们的最好的概括，在改革宗教会所使用的用于洗礼的形式的话语中能找到。这些话是对我们刚刚考虑的那些应许的最好的概括。
我们是奉圣父、圣子和圣灵之神的名受洗。因为当我们奉圣父的名受洗，父神向我们见证并保证，他与我们立了永恒的恩典之约，并收纳我们为他的儿女和后嗣，并且因此将所有的美事提供给我们，使我们避开所有的邪恶，或者将其转变为我们的益处。
当我们奉圣子的名受洗时，圣子向我们保证，他以他的血洗除我们所有的罪，吸纳我们成为他的死和复活的成员，使我们摆脱罪恶并在神面前被称义。
同样，当我们奉圣灵的名受洗时，圣灵通过这圣礼使我们确信他将住在我们里面，并且使我们成为圣洁作基督的成员，使我们得知自己已经在基督里，也就是洗除我们的罪恶并每天更新我们的生命，直到我们最终在永恒的生命中毫无瑕疵地站立在选民的聚会当中。
Basics of the Reformed Faith:
Baptism
Kim
Riddlebarger
Before
our Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, he left his disciples with the following
command: “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 behold, I am with you always, to the
end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20) Based
upon these words of the Great Commission, it is now the mission of Christ’s
church to go into the world, preach the gospel and make disciples of all
nations. How do we make disciples? We baptize them in the name of the Triune
God.
Although
many professing Christians today are strangely indifferent to the sacraments in
general and baptism in particular, the New Testament knows nothing of someone
who comes to faith in Jesus Christ but who is not baptized. While the exception to this is the thief on
the cross for whom baptism was not possible (cf. Luke 23:40-43), the New
Testament is very clear about the necessity of baptism as the sign and seal of
one’s profession of faith in Jesus (cf. Romans 4:9-12). Not only does Jesus command his disciples in
the Great Commission to make disciples of the nations by baptizing those who
believe in Jesus, the Pentecost sermon preached by Peter ends with the
following charge–“Repent and be baptized every one of you 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 for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our
God calls to himself” (Acts 2:38-39).
Throughout the Book of Acts, heads of households are baptized upon a
profession of faith in Christ, but these same individuals also present their
entire households, including their children, for baptism (cf. Acts 16:14-15;
31-33; Acts 18:8).
There
are several important reasons why all those who come to faith in Jesus Christ
are baptized. First, baptism is the sign and seal of the new
covenant, and as such replaces circumcision which was the sign and seal of the
old covenant (Genesis 17:1-14; Colossians 2:11-12). But even as the covenant sign changes from
circumcision to baptism, the thing signified does not change–God’s covenant
promise to be our God, and that are we his people (Acts 2:39; Galatians
3:14). This is why Reformed Christians
contend that children of believers are to be baptized, since the children of believers
too are members of the covenant of grace, along with their parents (1
Corinthians 7:14). If our children are
indeed members of the covenant of grace, how can the sign and seal of that
covenant be denied to them? This fits
with Jesus’ attitude toward children as members of the kingdom of God (Luke
18:15-17), and explains the presence of household baptisms in the New Testament
(cf. Acts 16:15; 33, 1 Corinthians 1:16).
Second,
in baptism, we are identified with Jesus Christ in his death and
resurrection. In Romans 6:3-5, Paul
writes, “do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death? We
were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life. For if we have been
united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.” Similarly in
Galatians 3:27-28, Paul ties baptism to our identification with Christ. “For as many of you as were baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
To be baptized is to put on Christ as one puts on new clothes, and
baptism unites us to Jesus in his death and resurrection.
Third,
we must distinguish between the sign (water) and the thing signified (the
forgiveness of sin). The Scriptures do
speak of baptism as “the bath of regeneration” (Titus 3:5) and tied to the
“forgiveness of sin” (Acts 2:38 ff; 22:16), without also teaching that the
water of baptism is the means of regeneration.
Regeneration is everywhere attributed to the sovereign work of the Holy
Spirit (John 3:3-8; Titus 3:5; 1 Corinthians 2:14) and not to the mere presence
of the sign itself–the water of baptism, as if the sign somehow magically binds
God to act. That being said, we must be
very careful not to reduce baptism to mere external sign, or deny that anything
at all is signified and sealed unto the one baptized. Claiming God’s covenant promise by faith, we
believe with all our hearts that the baptized adult or child of a believer is
indeed regenerate and has been washed in the blood of Christ for the
forgiveness of sins.
One
of the best summaries of what Scripture promises us in baptism is found in the
words of the form for baptism as used in the Reformed churches. These words are a fit summary of these
promises we have just considered.
We
are baptized into the Name of God, the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. For when we are baptized into
the Name of the Father, God the Father witnesses and seals to us that He makes
an eternal covenant of grace with us and adopts us for His children and heirs,
and therefore will provide us with every good thing and turn aside all evil or
turn it to our profit.
And
when we are baptized into the Name of the Son, the Son seals to us that He
washes us in His blood from all our sins, incorporating us into the fellowship
of His death and resurrection, so that we are freed from our sins and accounted
righteous before God.
Likewise,
when we are baptized into the Name of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit assures
us by this holy sacrament that He will dwell in us, and sanctify us to be
members of Christ, imparting to us that which we have in Christ, namely, the
washing away of our sins and the daily renewing of our lives, until we shall
finally be presented without spot among the assembly of the elect in life
eternal.
