Acts 10: 24-27, 34-48
Psalm 145
Revelations 21: 1-5
John 13: 31-35
“Baptize All Nations”
Grace and Peace to you my brothers and sisters in Christ, Amen.
Within the universal church, there is a divine revelation that all Christians will at one point struggle with and that is the concept of Original Sin. Especially in today’s age when people have a visceral reaction to the very mention of sin, as increasingly all actions should be deemed permissible according to the culture. The core of the struggle is simple, for Origin Sin is the concept that we are all born already damned to Hell. Who in their right mind would damn an innocent child who from our perspective has done absolutely nothing wrong to eternal suffering? No one, yet according to Scripture we are not born saved, and that causes many great discomfort.
I have talked to many well-meaning people and in my youth have been talked to myself as one such well-meaning person about the horrifying yet deeply Christian, I say foundationally Christian, belief that because of Original Sin we are all born automatically sinful and because God cannot have any sin within Him that would mean we are all born automatically damned to Hell. In my youth I said how can God be so evil, to not allow humans to be born automatically good? In my well-meaning, good intention filled heart, I truly wanted to believe that humans are born good. But I was naïve. I was a product of humanism and
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secularism. I listened to human emotions rather than divine Scripture.
How often I have met a Christian who didn’t understand the full depth of what it meant to be born a sinner. How often I have met a Christian who was so enslaved by their own emotions that they abandoned Scripture. How often I have met a Christian whose love for humanity was so great that their love for God became faulty.
I say this because if we were born good then why did Christ come to save us? When Christ came, he did so because not one person was ever truly good. All have failed God. Christ came and died on the cross not to condemn us but to save us… save us
because we were all already condemned; each and every one of us. I understand no one wants to say a baby is conceived already a sinner, but according to Psalm 51, we are, for it reads, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
We are conceived as sinners, and this is a tragedy that we need to acknowledge, not to but people down, but lift all nations up.
If I am good then I don’t need Christ, but because all are born evil, slaves to Satan, all are in desperate need of Christ in their lives. And by all, I mean royal “All”. This is why Christ commands us to baptize all nations, because there does not exist one person who does not need Christ, and there is no point in our life when we do not need Christ. The pioneer in Alaska is just as in need of Christ as the mother in Africa. The politician is just as in need as the electrician. An enemy Soldier is just as in need as the paraplegic veteran. The hospice patient is just as in need as the
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infant babe. All are in need and will always be in need, from conception to death, of the amazing saving grace which comes from Jesus Christ alone.
But to the one who is concerned over the salvation of their grandparent or loved one or child there is hope. For we profess that through Baptism the Holy Spirit enters into us and provides for us the one thing that we lacked at conception, the one and
only thing that supersedes our sinfulness, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. In our Baptism we all know that we have indeed been adopted into the Family of God, that God has indeed placed his seal upon our foreheads, and that the seed of faith which no human can cultivate was planted into us via the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to be baptized.
And to those who are the source of our deep concern, let it be known that there are no qualifications that needs to be met for someone to be baptized. You don’t need to be a rational thinker to be baptized. You don’t need to be a good person to be baptized. You don’t need to be wise to baptized. Nor believe in God to be baptized. The gift of baptism is granted unconditionally for God does not desire a select group of individuals to be baptized; He wants all nations to be baptized. And it is through Baptism that the Holy Spirit provides for you faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ and the knowledge of God.
Now many well-meaning people in their struggle with Original Sin may be led to claiming that all are born good and eventually learn evil. But I say stop running away from the Bible and instead use the tragedy and horror of the fallen human
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condition to enflame that compassion I know you all have for humanity. And let that compassion, guided by the Holy Spirit, lead you to following the Great Commission, to teach, preach, and baptize. If we see an infant child, instead of avoiding the problem of Original Sin by claiming the child doesn’t need Christ because they are already good, let us be compelled to realize that if said child was baptized then the Holy Spirit will enter into them and God the Father will look upon the child the same way He looks upon all his adopted children.
Now, as a caveat, I understand there are those who never had the opportunity to be baptized, what about them? To that question I ask were the Jews who died before Jesus truly abandoned by God? No, for right after Jesus died Scripture tells us that the Saints rose from the grave. Because of this I say this, God does not withhold his grace and mercy from those who die due to miscarriage. I say this because I have met several people who truly believed in Original Sin and after a miscarriage was distraught because they never had the opportunity to baptize their child. They were so filled with grief as they cried over the possibility that their child was in Hell. No, your child is not in Hell. I congratulate you for your compassion and love, as well as your faith which God has blessed you with. I praise God for your love toward your unborn child, toward your acknowledging the fallen human condition, and the absolute need for Baptism which would have provided faith for your child. To you I say be free from your shame and be free from your despair for your child is with God.
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It is this type of love that I wish all Christians to have; to have so much compassion in their hearts that they both despair over the unbaptized and desire quick baptism for all nations.
And once baptized, some hope from Romans 8, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword… No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Once Baptized always Baptized, for nothing on earth or in heaven or in hell can null and void the union granted to you through the power of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
This is the love Peter had for Cornelius and his entire family. Cornelius, a centurion and the Italian Cohort which would mean he would have been a commander for as many as 1000 Soldiers, was a devout gentile believer who feared God and was loved by the whole Jewish nation. After an angel of the Lord visited Cornelius, ordering Him to send for Peter, Cornelius, a Soldier, did as he was commanded. In preparation for Peter, Cornelius gathered his entire household, relatives, and friends. Being a high ranking Soldier, I imagine he was quite effective at gathering a large crowd. And if he did this, then it would be obvious that there would have been present infants and the elderly. So when Peter and some other apostles arrived and spoke the good news to them imagine the shock on Peter and his fellow apostles’ faces
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when they saw the Holy Spirit rest on every single individual whom Cornelius gathered.
Originally Peter wasn’t going to offer them baptism, for he didn’t want to mingle with Gentiles. It was only at the insistence of God that Peter went to speak to the Gentiles. And upon seeing the Holy Spirit rest upon every single Gentile person present, did Peter realize that the Baptism is truly for all nations, thus he commanded them all to be baptized. So on that day Peter baptized not only Cornelius, but his entire household, his relatives, and his friends, which undoubtedly would have led to the inclusion of also their households.
So it doesn’t matter, Gentile or Jew, Male or Female, Black or White, Rich or Poor, Infant or Elder… baptism is for all nations.
Let us pray,
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for allowing us to join your holy family through baptism and ask that you daily work within us so that we continue to cherish and trust in the promised fulfilled through this holy sacrament, desiring all nations to experience this comfort and to be filled with faith. In your holy name we pray: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.