Baptism is like a diamond. It has many different facets, symbolizing many different realities of the Christian life. Baptism symbolizes forgiveness and justification, seen in the washing of water. It symbolizes regeneration by the Holy Spirit, also pictured in that same washing of water. It symbolizes being buried with Christ in his death and rising again to a new life. And baptism also symbolizes union with Christ—union with a person.
That last idea is not usually the way we think about baptism, as a symbol of being united to a person. Yet this is a very biblical way of understanding an important facet of baptism. Scripture presents this idea to us in at least three ways.
Baptized into Moses
In 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul speaks about Old Testament Israel and says that they were “baptized into Moses.” He does not say they were baptized into the Red Sea. The Red Sea was only the means—the material means—of the baptism as they passed through it. What was happening to the nation was that they were being united to Moses.
Moses was their leader. Through him they would be inculturated and instructed in the law that he would receive from Mount Sinai. As they passed through the waters, Paul says they were baptized into him. In other words, they were baptized into a name—into Moses.
Baptized into Christ
This is also how the New Testament speaks about Christian baptism. The Apostle Paul writes about being baptized with Christ into his death, burial, and resurrection in passages such as Romans 6 and Galatians 3. Through water baptism, believers are united to Christ.
The water is only the means of that baptism, but the reality of the baptism is union with Christ himself. For New Testament Christians, then, baptism is again baptism into a name—into the name of Christ.
Baptized into the Trinity
A third way the Bible speaks about baptism comes from the Great Commission. Jesus tells his disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and therefore they are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything he has commanded.
Christians—and their children—are baptized into a name: into the name of God himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Reuben’s Baptism This Morning
That is what is happening to Reuben this morning. As a covenant child of Christian parents, he is being baptized into a name—into the name of Christ, into the name of the triune God. His baptism symbolizes his union with Christ and with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Our prayer is that this outward union, visible in his water baptism, would become an inward union for Reuben by faith. We pray that he will grow up to own his baptism for himself, to love the Christ to whom he has been visibly united, and to love the God to whom he has been visibly united—the God whose name is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.