Baptisms

Before we hit the road to come home, I want to show you the baptisms we did yesterday. Four of our students hadn't been baptized as believers in Jesus Christ: Julia Capper, John Blackwell, Travers Pinkerton and Garrett Cannell. At Christ Chapel, we believe the Bible commands that everybody who has trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is to be baptized.

So, we gathered around the pool and I addressed the students a bit about the meaning of baptism. I read from Colossians 2:8-14. The Colossians were very spiritual and philosophical people. They were into personal power and techniques for finding strength. They built this into their identity as they pursued this power. But Paul tells them, "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." So, how is it that he can tell them to put aside all the things that used to mean so much? I mean, isn't that asking too much? Why can't they have their spiritual techniques and philosophies and ALSO bring Jesus in alongside those things that have meant so much?

The answer comes in Colossians 2:9-10, "For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority." See that? Jesus possesses the fullness of God in Him! He is God in the flesh. He is fullness and they are filled in Him. So the Colossians are crazy to try and conjur up their own spirituality. Everything that is promised by any other philosophy or way pales in comparison to the fullness and power of having Christ. In fact, it would be a great insult to Christ's fullness to keep pursuing those things. It would be like a king giving his entire treasury to a man to rescue him from utter poverty, but the man hangs onto the filthy, rotting rags that he used to own; bragging that he is rich because of them. The heart of Christianity is that if a man is in Christ, he is as close to God as Jesus is. Our great treasure and only boast is "solus Christus”: Christ alone! Because of Jesus’s infinite value, nothing can bring us closer to God and nothing makes us more acceptable. To add to it is to actually take away from it! (Galatians 3)

So, we want to find our whole life in Him. That’s what baptism symbolizes: as we go under the water we are dying to what used to define us. We are “buried with him in baptism.” Let others look down on me for not loving everything they love: endless material things, American success, popularity, philosophical sophistication and self-earned righteousness. When I come up out of the water, I am showing that I am raised with Him through faith: made alive, cleansed and forgiven, I am His and He is fully mine. That’s what baptism symbolizes for us.

I also talked a little about the communal aspect of baptism. We are making a public profession in front of and alongside fellow believers. In essence, we are saying, “I am identifying myself with Christ now. I need you, who witnessed my baptism, to help me in my pursuit of Christ. I beg you to call me out when I am out of step and I want you to grow with me in community.”

So, the baptism service was amazing. Pastor Abraham of Alfa y Omega Church and some elders came and witnessed the baptisms and prayed for us afterward. We all rejoiced as our friends entered the waters of baptism to proclaim these truths boldly, finding our all in the fullness of Christ. Our baptism waters were in the tail of a shark-shaped pool, just like in the book of Acts.

Congratulations to Garrett, John, Travers and Julia.


Kirk Joseph, a fellow believer from Aledo, TX happened to be in Santiago as well (small world!) and wanted to baptize his son, so he joined us to baptize Conner.