How Are We to “Improve Our Baptism”?

The queen once dropped off her son at a birthday party, and thereupon reminded him: “Remember, prince: royal sons have royal manners.”

It is incumbent upon us as Christians to live up to our name as those who belong to the royal priesthood, as citizens of the holy nation of the heavenly King (1 Peter 2:9). Baptism can be seen as a kind of “new birth certificate,” serving as solid testimony that we are sealed with the very name of the triune God (Matt. 28:19).

The Westminster Larger Catechism asks, “How is baptism to be improved by us?” (Q&A 167). To be clear, the name granted to us in our baptism needs no improvement whatsoever, for it is the perfect and all-sufficient name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the believer’s appreciation for and appropriation of the saving power of this divine name can and must grow throughout one’s life.

How, then, are we to improve our baptism?

1. We remember the gift that baptism is.

Baptism is a sign and seal of grace bestowed from the risen Lord to His church. Baptism very much marks a “watershed moment” for those who receive it. In this way, it is parallel to the experience of Israel crossing through the Red Sea on dry ground upon her Exodus from Egypt (see 1 Cor. 10:1–2). For the covenant people to forget a deliverance from such deadly peril should be unthinkable. Similarly, to recall our baptism is to grasp its significance: by faith, we are identified with Christ in His death and in His resurrection (Rom. 6:1–4). To remember one’s baptism, then, is one way to be stirred by the assurance:

I am not my own,
but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. (Heidelberg Catechism 1)

2. We continue to confess our sins before the Lord.

Augustine wrote, “Witness the prayer of the whole city of God in its pilgrim state, for it cries to God by the mouth of all its members, ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.’” As those who are baptized, we are not to buy into the lie that we are without sin; rather, we are to own and to acknowledge those sins with penitence before the Father (1 John 1:8–9).

It is often the case that in carrying out household chores, one does not realize how dirty something is until it comes to cleaning time. How much more with regard to our Christian walk: it is when shining the light of God’s Word upon the nooks and crannies of our hearts that we see how deep our defilement runs. And as we remember our baptism, so too we are comforted by God’s promise in facing the depth of our sins: “But he gives more grace” (James 4:6).

3. We seek to apprehend the sanctifying power of God within us.

There is much talk in our wider culture about a potential energy shortage and the quest to find reliable sources of power for our technological and transportation needs. But with respect to the Christian life, we as saints have the inexhaustible resurrection dynamism and strength of Christ Himself at work within us (Eph. 1:19–20). Truly, remembering our baptism should lead to a boldness and fearlessness in our “fighting the good fight” (1 Tim. 6:12). There is no foe we can possibly encounter before whom we are overmatched. This applies to enemies both visible and invisible, below and above. It is not that we bring our own bulging muscles and martial arts into the ring, but that Christ through His Word (including in our baptism) gives us confidence: “For he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5).

4. We remember that none of us stands or walks alone.

Baptism is God’s act of incorporation: binding us as many members into one body (1 Cor. 12:13). Thus, baptism calls us to value the diverse gifts and functions of others in the church, because each contributes to the well-being and growth of the whole body (1 Cor. 12:14–31). In Shakespeare’s well-known poem, “All the World’s a Stage,” the human life is seen as a play broken down into seven acts, and in each age and season, “so he plays his part.” But baptism casts us into a role not so much of starring but of serving. We are to be keen to “play our part” to support and to edify as we seek the communal good of the church as taking priority over our own individual preferences. This is essential to what it means to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).

Baptism has a vocational purpose in our discipleship, for Christ through it calls us: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).