Death by Symbol

DEATH BY SYMBOL

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.

-Romans 6:3-4

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Leave it to us to complicate things.  Leave it to us to commit suicide via religious symbol.

Despite the fact that Jesus prayed to the Father for our unity (John 17:20-23) as His Bride, i.e. the Church, and its testimony/witness to a lost world, Christians have historically been more readily identified by our factions and dissensions than our unity.

There can be no unity where there is no love.  So as a dying world “looks in” on Christians, what do they see?  For the most part they see a thin sheen of religious culture that looks more like them (non-Christians). It looks like goofy religious ceremony rather than something personal, unique, beautiful, transformative, and amazing.

Many non-Christians never see Christ incarnate in our lives. They see the Easter posters in front yards, the ‘fish’ on our cars, Bibles in hand, our Sunday best as we scurry off to church; Scurry off as long as our Saturday evening event didn’t keep us out too late, the weather isn’t too sunny, wet, dry, humid, windy, as long as our team isn’t playing, or as long as anything more important doesn’t get in the way.

Take baptism for example. Baptism boils down to identification.  Maybe using the term “boil” in conjunction with baptism isn’t such a great idea. Baptism is about identification. It’s not about water. We need symbols to make things clear and real, but symbols are mere pictures, i.e. shadows of reality.

My wedding ring is neither my wife nor my marriage. Similarly, the waters of baptism aren’t our identification with Christ or Christianity. The truth is we want easy not effective, we desire insurance rather than identification.  We want comfort over conversion.  We want ceremony over obedience and treasure rather than transformation.

Since baptism is a symbol – and not the reality of redemption, sanctification, and identification – it really doesn’t matter if you’re baptized in a kiddy pool or a tub, inside a church building or in a river, in Israel or Iceland, if you’re a child (not infant) or an adult.  Why? Because baptism represents death to self and 100% identification with Christ. The reason why many evangelical Protestant churches perform immersion baptisms is because that symbol -by completely submerged in water- more accurately represents 100% identification. We’re not encouraging people to identify with Christ in limited areas of their lives, but rather 100%. Therefore, immersion more accurately represents the reality than does sprinkling.

Does wearing a wedding ring on your index finger or on a leather strap around your neck change your relationship with your spouse? No. It is merely a symbol. If you take the ring off so that you can flirt with someone then it doesn’t matter what kind of symbol you have. But if you take the ring off for your job, an MRI, to workout, or so you don’t lose it when you go snorkeling the symbol is an accurate reflection of reality - that you are pledged in love and fidelity to another.

Does the symbol change reality? Is marriage more “real” in western culture where people wear rings vs. cultures where couples get tattoos, body carvings, etc.?  The reality of marriage is unchanged by the symbol.  There are lots of people out there wearing wedding rings who fail to demonstrate love, fidelity, compassion, altruism, or “oneness” toward/with their spouse. Are they truly married – united – as one? Or do they simply possess a symbol as proof of a religious/legal ceremony? Is there anything beyond the symbols, shadows, and pictures?

Sadly, in many Christian cultures the waters of baptism are the FULL extent of one’s reality as a Christian. Like the cheating spouse whose heart was never TRULY married, never united in love and fidelity with their spouse, one where they never transcended the symbol and lived the reality of marriage.

Similarly, in the lives of many Christians today people have never TRULY identified with Christ before or after they got wet. The fullness of their life in Christ boils down (oops!) to divination and sorcery, i.e. a magical prayer when they “invited Jesus into their heart.” Then they followed it up with the magical waters of baptism simply because someone told them to - not because they understood the concept of 100% identification with Christ.

Unfortunately for many “Christians” around the globe their only interest is in getting their ticket to heaven punched, and having proof that their “HELL INSURANCE” policy has been purchased: “I said the things they told me to say, and I did the things they told me to do. I’m covered and I have the photos to prove it!”

The proof is in the identification - not the symbols. Did you simply get right back to YOUR life, YOUR plans, fulfilling YOUR desires, making everything about YOU and YOUR self-centered universe of entitlement? Did you leave identification with Jesus along with some dead skin cells at the bottom of a baptistry?

Baptism is a symbol. There are no magical properties in those waters. Baptism is intended to be a public profession of your desire to die to self. Your ego, narcissism, and selfishness, i.e. the “old self” is supposed to be drown in those baptismal waters, and just as Christ rose from the dead, through the glory of God the Father, you were to arise from those waters to walk in newness of life – identified with Christ 100%, His death 100%, His Cross 100%, His obedience 100%, His resurrection 100%, His mission 100%.

How’s that been working out in reality?

Regardless of the manner/method of your baptism, if you have never been blessed by God with the transcendent gift of faith, never been redeemed by Christ’s sacrifice, never been transformed from the outside, never filled by the power of the Holy Spirit, if you’ve never died to self, but are still living for me, mine, my – then it really doesn’t matter what the symbol was or when the ceremony occurred.

Symbols are important because they serve as tangible reminders of a greater reality. Reality is ultimately what matters and reality is determined by God. Have you been identified with Christ in symbol only? Is your sin, your old self, your desires, your entitlement, your comfort, your kingdom, and your comfort all floating drown and dead in those baptismal waters?

Has your career, your family, your time, your treasure, your talents, your EVERYTHING become so intimately identified with Christ that it is impossible for anyone – most importantly God our Judge – to see where you end and Christ begins?

Baptism with water is a symbol.  We talk about and use immersion in water because it conveys a picture of “the old self” being absolutely and totally consumed/engulfed 100%.  If you’re banking on the symbol and ceremony for your salvation rather than the reality the symbol ultimately points to, i.e. 100% identification in Christ our crucified and resurrected LORD, then you are sadly and tragically misled.

That’s the incarnational and missional life Jesus intends for us.  That’s 100% identification – the ultimate reality, which the symbol of baptism points to.

Have you truly been baptized into His death -or- have you been banking on a symbol?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com