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‘Deliver Us From Evil’ Retreat. Mannum 2006. I Am Baptised!
What Does This Mean For Us? Pastor Mark Blackwell. Introduction
Mark tells us that as soon as Jesus was Baptised “the
Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert for forty days,
being tempted by satan” (Mark 1:9-13).
Nothing is different for us. In
2006, whenever a person is Baptised, satan, that great deceiver, is at their
heels trying to tempt them with whatever will work. Why is this? Why does
this happen? Simple. The devil knows all to well the power,
comfort and blessing of Baptism so he will do all he can to stop us from living
in the grace and power of it. This should in fact be no surprise to us. In John’s Gospel our Lord prays to His
Father. And what does He say? Does He cry to His Father begging that He
would take us from this valley of tears?
No. Rather Jesus says, “my
prayer is not that you [Father] take them out of the world but that you protect
them from the evil one” (John 17:15).
Our life is one that is lived in the desert. But for too long, I believe, the Church has treated the newly
Baptised as people still on the mountaintop rather than people in the
desert. At the Transfiguration Jesus
had a mountaintop experience (Luke 9:28-36).
This mountaintop experience revealed Jesus and Moses and Elijah in
glorious splendour and their clothes were as white as lightning. And yet, before Peter could even begin to
put up one ‘tent’ let alone three, it was all over! This flash of heavenly glory was over. Jesus then continued the way of the cross. When He was Baptised (Matthew 3:16-4:11)
heaven was opened. The Spirit descended
on Jesus like a dove and the Father said, “This is my Son, whom I love, with
him I am well pleased.” But then,
as soon as this had happened, the mountaintop experience was over and He was in
the desert being tempted by the devil. Often as a Church we Baptise people and then falsely
lead them to believe that they are still on the mountaintop rather than
hungering in the desert of life. Yes,
Baptism is a wonderful gift. Yes, it
does have great power. Yes, in the
water and words we receive forgiveness of sins and deliverance from death and
the devil. But yes it is also true that
our life is one lived in the desert. We
are not little Elijah’s! We are not
taken up into heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11) removed from the snarls of
life. Rather we are little Christs –
people who carry their cross and continue their journey in the desert,
hungering for Christ and being tempted by the great deceiver himself. When we are Baptised it is a mountaintop
experience. The Triune God comes to
us. We receive the blessings of Christ
crucified, we receive the Holy Spirit and the Father looks at us through His Son
and says that we too are His child whom He loves, and that now through Christ,
He is well pleased with us. But then,
just as happened to Christ, we are led into the desert. The mountaintop experience is over. Now the journey in the desert is just beginning. This paper is not an attempt to be a dogmatic summary
on the doctrine of Baptism. Rather it
is an attempt to explore Baptism through the lens of the title of our retreat –
‘deliver us from evil.’ The
endeavour here is to support Baptism as a comfort to believers as they face the
flaming arrows (Eph 6:16) of the evil one.
It will explore just what Baptism is, what it now means for us as we
walk in the desert of life and just what a comfort and blessing it is to us in
our daily living. The
God Of Opposites
“In Baptism God forgives sin, delivers from death and
the devil, and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what He has
promised” (SC IV, 2). Notice who is the giver and doer in these
words. In Baptism GOD is the one who
gives. He rescues us from these tyrants
of sin, death and the devil. We do not
come and present a holy and wonderful work to Him rather He comes and gives us
the victories of Christ. Wouldn’t you
think though that God, the very creator of all that is, would have chosen a
much better way to shower us with such wonderful and powerful blessings? To our way of thinking we may respond with a
resounding, “YES!” But God often works
in opposites. When we read of God entering the world how did He
choose to do this? Was it in a palace
and was there much fanfare and celebration?
No. Rather God entered the world
as the baby born in Bethlehem to a carpenter and a young woman who weren’t even
married! What an opposite! When Jesus trampled over satan was it in a
big fight with lots of chariots and warriors?
No. Rather He trampled over the
evil one through the wood of the cross, abandoned by His followers and despised
by the people. Where we see weakness
there is in fact great power. The
Orthodox, in their Lenten liturgies, grasp this in one of their prayers when
they say, Hail! Life giving cross, invincible banner of pure religion, gate of paradise, strength of believers, defence of the Church. By you the curse has been undone, destroyed, the power of death devoured, and we have been raised from earth to heaven. Unbeatable weapon, demonic powers’ foe, martyrs’ glory, boast of holy monks, salvation’s harbour, from you the world receives great mercy. (Wybrew: 59-60). The Work Of Christ
Colossians (2:15) triumphantly proclaims that Jesus “having
disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross.”
It also states how God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). Hebrews (2:14-15) is also a great comfort to
Christians when it proclaims: Since the children have flesh and blood, he [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Jesus Christ, as revealed to us in Holy Scripture, is
the one who has defeated sin, death and the devil. He stands victorious. He
claimed this victory on the cross when He cried out, “it is finished”
(John 19:30). The job has been
completed and accomplished. The victory
has been won. Nothing more can be added
to it. Sharing The Victories
We read in the Bible how Jesus has done all this for
us. But now the question stands, ‘how
do these victories become mine? How do
I share in the spoils of His work?’
And, as revealed in Scripture, we are told that we receive these gifts
in Holy Baptism. Galatians (3:27) states that “for all of you who
were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” The Triune God is one who continually
provides for His people. In Genesis
(3:21) God clothed Adam and Eve. He
provided them with clothing that was much stronger and sturdier than the feeble
attempts of Adam and Eve who tried to clothe themselves with fig leaves! In Holy Baptism the Triune God comes and
clothes us and gives us so much. We are
people who can live knowing we have the Holy Spirit because we know we have
received it as a gift in Baptism (Acts 2:38-39; 1 Cor 12:13). In Baptism we are clothed with Jesus
Christ’s victories over sin, death and evil.
Christ has won the victory and now through the water and words of
Baptism we receive it all. And because
we have received it all as a gift (Ephesians 2:8) we now know that we are
saved. As Baptised children of God who
live and walk in the valley of the shadow of death we fear no evil for the Lord
is with us and His rod and His staff (His Word and His Sacraments) will comfort
us (Ps 23). The Apostle Peter tells us
the power of Baptism when He says, “Baptism now saves you” (1 Pet
3:21). The reason it saves is because
we are clothed with Christ. We are
brought from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We are clothed with Christ. We are clothed with His righteousness and we
wear His victories over sin, death and the devil and because we now, today –
this very moment, are ‘clothed’ in these triumphs we are saved. On being clothed with Christ, Luther writes: In Baptism, then,
it is not the garment of the righteousness of the Law or of our own works that
is given; but Christ becomes our garment. But He is not the Law, not a
lawgiver, not a work; He is the divine and inestimable gift that the Father has
given to us to be our Justifier, Lifegiver, and Redeemer. To put on Christ
according to the Gospel, therefore, is to put on, not the Law or works but an
inestimable gift, namely, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, peace,
comfort, joy in the Holy Spirit, salvation, life, and Christ Himself. (LW 26:352) We are Baptised – what a wonderful mountaintop
experience. After our Baptism we walk
in the desert. But this journey in the
desert will be short lived. And we do
not walk it alone. Rather as children
of God we journey together – being fed and nurtured by the Good Shepherd
Himself. We stand together “no
longer as foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and
members of God’s household” (Eph 2:19).
And before too long we will once again have a mountaintop experience
where we will rest in the heavenly realms for all eternity singing the praises
of God with all the righteous people made perfect through Christ (Hebrews
12:22-24). Together with them and all
the angels and heavenly hosts we will sing praises of the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
With the voices of many angles “numbering thousands upon thousands,
and ten thousand times ten thousand” (Rev 5:11) we will join together and
sing, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and
wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise… To him who sits on the
throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and
ever!” (Rev 5:12-14). In The Desert – Seeds Of
Doubt
For now, as we eagerly wait for this, we stand in the
desert. However, many people in the
world today do not even know they are in the desert. They are blinded by a mirage that gives them a false sense of
security. As they look around they
don’t see sin, decay and the need for Christ.
Rather the devil has blinded them by a mirage that gives them the false
feeling that everything is okay. The
one who “masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14) is so crafty
that he knows full well he can’t overpower the might of Christ given to us in
Baptism but he can do his best to stop people from living and rejoicing in the
grace and peace of those waters and words.
What a snake! Luther, in the Large Catechism, describes how the
devil works. He writes: Then comes the devil, who baits and badgers us on all
sides, but especially exerts himself where the conscience and spiritual matters
are at stake. His purpose is to make us
scorn and despise both the Word and the works of God, to tear us away from
faith, hope, and love, to draw us into unbelief, false security, and
stubbornness, or, on the contrary, to drive us into despair, atheism,
blasphemy, and countless other abominable sins. These are snares and nets; indeed, they are the real ‘flaming darts’
which are venomously shot into our hearts, not by flesh and blood but by the
devil. (LC
III, 104). The devil cannot destroy the powerful works of God so
he goes about trying to destroy us from resting in these treasures. We must continually be on guard and not for
one moment think we can rescue ourselves from the devil. We must not fall into a works
righteousness. The evil one is always
looking for ways to get at us and to try and remove us from the grace of
God. We must continue to be on guard and
to continue to pray ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’
for the devil “has a serpent’s head; if it finds an opening into which it
can slip, the whole body will irresistibly follow” (LC III, 111). So as we face temptation and as the devil
does all he can to sow seeds of doubt in us about the power and blessing of our
Baptism then let us continue to stand our ground as we dress ourselves with “the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”
(Ephesians 6:17). For with these
weapons and with the shield of faith all the ‘flaming arrows’ of the
evil one are extinguished (Eph 6:16). Snatched From The Jaws Of
The devil
If the devil played cards he would be great at
bluffing! He would always try and make
you think he has the perfect hand but in the end he would never hold the trump
card. He would try and throw all our
sin on the table. He would try and
throw down all our fears and worry. He
would throw down death itself and with a grin ask us to beat his hand. Thanks to Christ we now hold the trump
card. Whatever the devil throws down,
whether it be our sin, our guilt, our fear of death or of the future or our
fear and sadness at our past, none of it, not one thing, is able to overpower
or beat the trump card. Baptism is the
card we hold. It beats anything the
devil tries to throw down at us. In the
end his cards are rendered powerless.
The trump card, our Holy Baptism, usurps them all. It beats death, it beats sin and the
devil. For whatever the evil one throws
at us, whatever flaming arrows come shooting our way, our Holy Baptism beats
them all. For in Baptism we can be
eternally comforted in knowing that nothing in all creation, “neither death
nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither [the past nor] the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
We belong to the Triune God, in Baptism He gives us all that Christ
achieved on the cross. Luther was indeed a great pastor (he still is – I am
continually comforted by his writings!).
In the Large Catechism he so succinctly summarises the blessings of
Baptism and how in it and through it we are brought into God’s kingdom. He writes: Thus we see what a great and excellent thing Baptism
is, which snatches us from the jaws of the devil and makes God our own,
overcomes and takes away sin and daily strengthens the new man, always remains
until we pass from this present misery to eternal glory. Therefore let everybody regard his Baptism
as the daily garment which he is to wear all the time. Every day should be found in faith and amid
its fruits, every day should be suppressing the old man and growing up in the
new. (LC
IV, 83). The Seal Of Ownership
St. Paul tells us “it is God who makes both us and
you stand firm in Christ. He anointed
us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a
deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor 1:21,22. Pfitzner, pages 43-44, discusses how these
words of Paul are more than likely referring to Holy Baptism). We have the seal of God upon us. We have been marked with the cross upon our
forehead and breast in Holy Baptism signifying how we now belong to God. We belong to Him – not to the devil. This has been evident in Baptism rites from
very early on. Chrysostom, in one of
his rites of Baptism from about 390 AD, speaks of the newly Baptised being
marked with Christ signifying that they no longer belong to the devil but are
now under the power and rule of the Triune God. He writes: After the renunciation of the devil and the covenant
with Christ, inasmuch as you have henceforth become his very own and have
nothing in common with that evil one, he straight away bids you to be marked
and places on your forehead the sign of the cross. That savage beast is shameless and, when he hears those words, he
grows more wild – as we might expect – and desires to assault you on
sight. Hence, God anoints your
countenance and stamps thereon the sign of the cross. In this way does God hold in check all the frenzy of the Evil
One; for the devil will not dare to look upon such a sight. Just as if he had beheld the rays of the sun
and had leaped away, so will his eyes be blinded by the sight of your face and
he will depart; for through the chrism the cross is stamped upon you. The chrism is a mixture of olive oil and
unguent; the unguent is for the bride, the oil is for the athlete. And that you may again know that it is not a
man but God himself who anoints you by the hand of the priest, listen to St
Paul when he says: It is God who is warrant for us and for you in Christ,
who anointed us. After he anoints
all your limbs with this ointment, you will be secure and able to hold the
serpent in check; you will suffer no harm. (Whitaker: 37). This ancient rite is one of many that clearly details
the power of Baptism. It rightly notes
that the evil one is in a rage when someone is Baptised because they have moved
from his dominion into the kingdom of light.
The mark of the cross is like a seal of ownership placed over us. It signifies that we have been conquered by
Jesus Christ. Our Saviour has ‘redeemed’
us; we now belong to Him (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Standing on our own we are powerless to stand up to satan. We stand in fear of him. Yet marked and sealed by Christ in Holy
Baptism it is satan who now stands in fear.
He sees the mark of Christ on us – this he cannot overcome. The evil one knows the power of Baptism and how it
means one more person has been set free by Christ. If only we today could see as much as he when it comes to the
power and effect of Baptism! The rite also
shows how Baptism is a mountaintop experience that leads one into the desert of
life. Chrysostom mentions how the “chrism
[anointing with oil] is a mixture of olive oil and unguent; the unguent is
for the bride, the oil is for the athlete.” So in Baptism we are joined to Christ. We become a part of the church and He is the groom and we (the
church) are His bride. This is our
mountaintop experience. But then the
oil is also for us as athletes. As the
people of Christ we “run with perseverance the race marked out for us”
(Hebrews 12:1). This is our journey in
the desert of life as we face all the obstacles, temptations and snares laid
out before us. But throughout the
journey we rest in the blessings of Baptism.
As Luther says “this blessed sacrament of baptism helps you because
in it God allies himself with you and becomes one with you in a gracious
covenant of comfort” (LW 35:33). Reflecting on Baptism as a ‘seal of ownership’
also helps one fight against spiritual oppression. This type of oppression can be described as a continual feeling
of having like a monkey on your back.
The presence of the evil one is with you constantly. The Lutheran Church of Australia notes that
this type of oppression is normally the result of specific sins often related
to occult practices, the use of drugs, sacrilege and other things (RRPC: 140). The Church’s rite regarding ‘spiritual
oppression’ is a continual re-emphasis on the power and blessing of
Baptism. It encourages confession and
absolution and instructs the person administering the rite to proclaim “the
significance of Baptism as the sacramental event of liberation and/or
deliverance from the kingdom of darkness and transferral to the kingdom of
light” (RRPC: 140). The spiritually
oppressed need to be reminded that “the one who was born of God [Jesus
Christ] keeps [us] safe, and the evil one cannot harm [us]” (1
John 5:18b). The oppression may last
for a period of time, but with the Word of God and by emphasising the power of
Baptism as a seal of ownership and promoting correct use of the Lord’s Supper,
the oppression will end and it will lead to the person under distress to cling
to Christ and hold firm to the words of our Lord: “My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (1 Cor 12:9). A Journey Together
As children of God we have been given the privilege
of being the people of His pasture. As
a community of saints we are privileged to live in the grace of our
Baptism. By sheer grace we have the
blessing to daily remind ourselves and each other that we are Baptised! May we model this to our children and to the
children in the congregation (Ps 78:1-7) and to all the brothers and sisters in
Christ and to the people around us who do not know Jesus as Lord. Let us joyfully begin each day by making the
sign of the cross and remembering our Baptism.
Let us remember that nothing – not sin, nor death nor the devil – will
be able to separate us from the Triune God.
And as we speak those words and make the sign of the cross we are also
reminded that Jesus Christ is with us each and every step we take as we journey
through the desert of life (Matthew 28:19-20). Each day as a Baptised
child of God will continue to have its own struggles and
temptations. But it is also a day to
once again return to and rejoice in our Baptism. As St. Paul says, our Baptism is a washing of rebirth and renewal
(Titus 3:5). Therefore each new day is
a continual washing – and a time of renewal.
It is another day where we wash in the waters of our Baptism and are
reminded that our sins are forgiven.
Baptism, as told to me recently by a fellow pastor, is like a cork in a
bucket of water. You can push that cork
as deep as you like into the water but it is going to resurface again. To keep the cork under water you need to
continually drown it. Our sinful self
is also like a cork. It continually
surfaces itself and needs to daily be drowned through repentance in the waters
of our Baptism. Daily we drown our
sinful self but just like a cork in water it resurfaces again. So we then drown our sinful self again in
the waters of our Baptism. Daily we
will wrestle against sin and against all that satan throws at us but daily we
also live in the grace of our Baptism drowning our sinful flesh and rising
again to live in the righteousness of Christ given to us the day we were
Baptised. As St. Augustine says, “Sin
is altogether forgiven in Baptism; not in such a manner that it is no longer
present, but in such a manner that it is not imputed” (LW 35:34). Daily we
live in the grace of that Almighty event.
Daily we stand up confidently against the evil one knowing that as hard
as he tries, our Baptism shall never lose its power. On daily living in our Baptism Luther puts it best when he
writes: What does Baptism mean for daily
living? It means that our sinful self, with
all its evil deeds and desires should be drowned through daily repentance; and
that day after day a new self should arise to live with God in righteousness
and purity for ever. St Paul writes in Romans 6: “We were buried therefore with Him
by Baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (SC IV, 4) When we
worship we are also living in the grace of our Baptism. As God’s people we gather around Word and
Sacrament. Our faith is strengthened
and fed as we hear the Holy Word (Romans 10:17). Our sins are forgiven as the pastor absolves us according to the
command of Christ (John 20:21-23). This
is a drowning of the old and up with the new.
We confess our sins and repent.
And then we stand restored and forgiven and at peace with God (Romans
5:1). And as we leave the Divine
Service we leave comforted knowing our sins are forgiven. We can then live each day of the new week in
the same way we started it on the Sunday.
We can daily live in the grace of our Baptism drowning the old and up
with the new. And our
Saviour is one who gives abundantly.
Not only does He feed our faith, comfort us with His gospel and forgive
us our sins, He also comes to us and gives us His body and blood with the bread
and the wine. What did Jesus do the
night He was betrayed? He instituted
the Lord’s Supper! (1 Cor 11:23-26).
And even though we betray Him, even though we don’t always live in the
grace of our Baptism, even though we sin and rebel against Him and don’t love
Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and even though we don’t love
our neighbour as ourselves, He still comes to us and forgives us as we receive
Holy Communion just as He forgave His disciples of old. Visible
worship is indeed a blessing. We should
never take it for granted but continually cherish it as a blessing from God
whereby we can live in the grace of our Baptism and continue to be fed by Him
as we journey in the desert of life on our way to the promised land of
Heaven. Bonhoeffer delighted in the
blessings of being able to worship as a community. He knew its importance and how it can be so easily taken
away. He knew that it was so easy to take
for granted. He writes: Christians are privileged to live in fellowship with
other Christians. It is by the grace of
God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share
God’s Word and Sacrament. Not all
Christians receive this blessing. The
imprisoned, the sick, [and] the scattered lonely… stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a
blessing. (Bonhoeffer: 8). May we not give up
meeting together (Hebrews 10:25) but continue to encourage each other as we
journey together in the desert of life on our way to our heavenly home. It is hard enough to be in the desert of
life – it is even harder when we try and do it alone without the support and
mutual consolation of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. In Conclusion Baptism is indeed a wonderful blessing freely given by the
Triune God. I carry a small stone in my
pocket that reminds me of my Baptism.
It is not a good luck charm or anything like that. Rather it is purely a stone that makes me
think of my Baptism. Each time I place
my hand in my pocket it reminds me that I am a Baptised child of God. You would think I would get sick of that
stone by now – as though you can only think about your Baptism so much. In fact the opposite is true – I’m thinking
of getting another Baptism stone for my other pocket! Luther lived in the waters of His Baptism. He cherished it and took great comfort from
it. He knew its power and might and
Almighty blessing. He wrote that in
Baptism “every Christian has enough to study and to practice all his
life. He always has enough to do to
believe firmly what Baptism promises and brings – victory over death and the
devil, forgiveness of sin, God’s grace, the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit
with his gifts. In short, the blessings
of Baptism are so boundless that if [our] timid nature considers them, it may
well doubt whether they could all be true” (LC IV, 41-42). Our life is one lived in the desert. But we do not go it alone. This desert of life is filled with fellow
believers who travel this road with us.
And as we journey through this life into the next we do it with the
promises of God ringing in our ears.
Christ has given us eternal life through the waters and words of Baptism
and nothing can snatch us out of His hand (John 10:28). As we begin each new day in the desert of
life, surrounded by the scorching heat of sin, death and the devil blazing down
on us, may we drink deep from the watery well of our Baptism and be refreshed
and strengthened to live a new day in the grace of God as we head towards our
heavenly home. The peace of the Lord be with you. Mark Blackwell – April 2006. References Bonhoeffer, Dietrich 1954 Life
Together, SCM Press, London Luther’s Works 1961 Luther’s
Works: American Edition, various volumes, Fortress Press, Philadelphia Pfitzner, Vic 1992
Strength in Weakness – A Commentary
on 2 Corinthians, LPH, Adelaide Schubert, David, ed 1998 Rites and Resources for Pastoral Care,
Openbook, Adelaide Tappert, Theodore G, ed 1959
The Book of Concord, Fortress Press, Minneapolis Whitaker, E. C., ed 1970 Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy,
SPCK, London Wybrew, Hugh 1995 Orthodox Lent, Holy Week and Easter, SPCK, London |