One of the spiritual disciplines of the saints of yesteryears which I observe lacking in the contemporary church is the spiritual act of remembering your baptism.
Martin Luther reportedly said, “When you wash your face, remember your baptism.” The saints of the past saw baptism—not as a naked sign—but as a means of grace that can truly transform a life.
Baptism serves as “a sign and seal of the covenant of grace” (Westminster Confession of Faith, 28.1). Hence, every time we remember our baptism, we remember God’s grace in the gospel through the work of Jesus Christ that God freely imputes to the believer. Thus, every believer ought to diligently remember their baptism.
Here are four spiritual benefits we derive from remembering our baptism.
The Gift of Identity
In baptism, God gives us the gift of identity. He removes us from the world, and we identify with the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). God knows us by name as his child! Parents name their children. Likewise, God our Father names us in baptism.
In the modern world of self-discovery and self-actualisation, where people struggle with their identities to figure out who they authentically are, the Christian has no such struggle because, in baptism, God clearly tells us who we are. Remembering our baptism reinforces our identity as children of God. Though we are wretched sinners, God dearly loves us and calls us his son and daughter.
The Gift of Family
In baptism, God gives us the gift of family. We are no longer orphans in this world who need to fend for ourselves. God claims us as his own child by adopting us in Christ Jesus. Thus, in baptism, God brings us into a family that is bigger than our natural family (Acts 2:41). God grants us a spiritual family in the church where all have God as their Father, Jesus as their elder brother, and the Spirit of God indwelling them.
In a world where people struggle to find a place to belong, God gives us a family to belong. One of the beautiful realities of the church is that wherever I travel in this world, when I find Christians baptised in the name of the Triune God, I am among my brothers and sisters in the faith. However, we also belong to the church that transcends time, and we proudly call the long line of faithful saints of God our brethren in the Lord and imitate their faith.
The Gift of Security
In baptism, God gives us the gift of security. Baptism assures us of our salvation and life in Jesus Christ. John Calvin wrote, “We ought to consider that at whatever time we are baptised, we are washed and purified once for the whole of life. Wherefore, as often as we fall, we must recall the remembrance of our baptism, and thus fortify our minds, so as to feel certain and secure of the remission of sins” (Institutes, IV, 15, 3).
Since baptism is the work of God’s grace, it testifies to his faithfulness towards us. Thus, when our faith is feeble, when we have failed and sinned, our baptism reminds us of God’s unflinching faithfulness towards us to always be our God! Our failures and weaknesses can never revoke God’s unconditional covenant promise. Thus, whenever we struggle with doubts, we ought to remind ourselves that Christ has bound us to himself by the waters of baptism.
Luther suffered all his life from anxiety and depression and often found himself overcome by his own sinfulness. He often had crises of faith and doubted his very salvation. At these low points, assailed by his doubts, sins, and fears, Luther would repeatedly write on his table with chalk the Latin words baptizatus sum, meaning I have been baptised. This was Luther’s way of reminding himself that his baptism into Jesus is stronger than all his doubts and fears. By that very act of remembering his baptism, Luther experienced grace and comfort for his troubled heart. Thus, baptism as a means of grace strengthens our weak and wavering faith by assuring us of God’s unfailing love and our belonging to His covenant.
The Gift of Glory
Since baptism is all of grace, there is no ground for human boasting. In baptism, God claims us as his very child. There is nothing more glorious than to be a child of God. King Louis IX of France, known for his piety and devotion to God, said, “I think more of the place where I was baptised than of Rheims Cathedral where I was crowned. It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a Kingdom. This last I shall lose at death but the other will be my passport to an everlasting glory.”
There is an everlasting glory bestowed in baptism. As the earthly and the mundane surround us, we do well to remember our baptism and think of the heavenly realities of Christ Jesus. Amid the sorrows and misery of life, and the poverty and weight of loss, our baptism assures us that an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, is kept in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4).
