Lowered and Raised

Posted on by Ekko Church

“I’m a little concerned… about your salvation and stuff…” he leans on the bathroom door. His eyes squint, “Why have you not been baptized?”

“Because I never got around to it, okay,” Steven quips, “I don’t know why you’re always judging me, because I only believe in science.” As Steven angrily crunches on a sliced cucumber, Ignacio quietly comes behind him and smashes his face into water, effectively “baptizing” him before their important duel in the ring as undercover luchadores. In his eyes, he’s securing his partner’s salvation and ensuring that God will be behind them, guiding them to a swift victory.

This scene in the comedic film, Nacho Libre, paints a satirical portrayal of baptism. A light-hearted demonstration of the fictitious notion that one’s salvation can be obtained by immersing someone in water. As if being baptized — whether intentionally or not — means that one is (or isn’t) saved. It’s viewed as a transaction or an obligation of sorts.

So, if this isn’t the case, why do we get baptized and what does it symbolize?

Baptism is a public, embodied symbol of an invisible work of God already being done in us by the power of the Holy Spirit through the blood of Jesus.

It’s a celebration of new life.

When we obey Jesus’ command to baptize and be baptized¹, we are proclaiming to our tribe, and to ourselves, that God has brought us out of our chaos, our sin, our old way of life, as we step into new creation life.

In his piece about baptism, Pastor Bryan, one of our founding pastors writes, “New life isn’t possible without a Savior. Baptism is the celebration of God’s intervention, God’s compassion, God’s wisdom.”

Baptism is our response to what God has done and is doing.

It is not in the act of baptism that makes us new, rather baptism is a testimony that we are already made new.²

Hillsong Church explains it this way: baptism is like wearing a wedding ring.

If you are unmarried, simply donning a wedding ring doesn’t make you married, and vice versa, if you are married, but don’t wear a wedding ring, it doesn’t alter your marital status. But if you are married and you choose to wear your wedding ring, you are publicly and symbolically showing your commitment and faithfulness to your covenant partner.

Like wearing a wedding ring, baptism is a powerful sign to all around us that we have chosen to love our God in covenant love. “Baptism is a statement to everyone who sees it that we have trusted in Christ for our salvation and we are committed to living for Him.”³

“When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.”

— Romans 6:4-5 (MSG)

For us, baptism is also the opportunity to rehearse our salvation story visibly in the community of believers. Going under the water is the burial of your old life and coming out of it is a resurrection. 

As we take our first gulps of air after being immersed under the surface of the water, we take our first breaths like Jesus did as He broke the grip of death. 

Baptism is not a destination.

Baptism represents the beginning.

When we forget this truth, baptism can become routine. A religious obligation. The crashing of a face into a bowl of sink water.

But when we take time to remember, we celebrate the immense sacrifice our God made. We remember that because He rose again, we are reconciled with our Maker. Because He rose again, we can live as new creations without fear and shame.

Baptism Service invites us to remember the commitments that we have made to our Savior at the start. The public promise of faithfulness. And it brings to mind once more what God has done and is doing in our lives and communities so that we can live with hearts brimming with gratitude and joy.

As witnesses to our brothers and sisters that will be baptized this Baptism Sunday, may we celebrate their commitment with full hearts and take this opportunity to respond to God’s stunning display of mercy.

“Baptism is then a loud ‘thank you’ to God’s saving work and bold ‘yes’ to God’s invitation to a life proclaiming that Jesus, not Caesar, not Pharaoh, and not even we, are Lord,” Pastor Bryan writes, “And to this, we say, Amen.”

šMatthew 28: 19-20

²Millard J. Erickson writes in Christian Theology, “The act of baptism conveys no direct spiritual benefit or blessing. In particular, we are not regenerated through baptism, for baptism presupposes faith and the salvation to which faith leads. It is, then, a testimony that one has already been regenerated.”

³Hillsong Church, What is Baptism