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Water baptism symbolizes the believer’s total trust in and total reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as a commitment to live obediently to Him. It also expresses unity with all the saints (Ephesians 2:19), that is, with every person in every nation on earth who is a member of the Body of Christ (Galatians 3:27–28). Water baptism conveys this and more, but it is not what saves us. Instead, we are saved by grace through faith, apart from works (Ephesians 2:8–9). We are baptized because our Lord commanded it: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
In our Easter celebrations last weekend, we started what will be a several week conversation called An Invitation to the Upside Down…because Jesus was inviting all of us to follow him in living what can only be called an upside down, inside out, counter intuitive, counter cultural life.
Anyone who genuinely follows him will live a life that can best be described as The Paradoxical Life. There is no Christianity without paradoxes because Christianity itself is one huge paradox. The truth of Christmas or the incarnation, is housed in the paradox of God becoming a man. The crucifixion paradoxically satisfies both…the mercy of God and the justice of God. The crucifixion eventually gives way to resurrection laying the foundation for the greatest paradox of all…God brings life from death.
A paradox is truth disguised as contradiction…and in some of Jesus’ most prominent teachings…he lays down the principles of his kingdom and gives us insight on what the upside down life looks like…by using the tension between two competing or paradoxical ideas.
