Hope of the World | Baptized into Hope, January 10, 2021

Baptism of the Lord - Acts 19:1-17, Year B

In the waters of our baptism, God has clothed us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and given us a full pardon. The baptism offered by John was not able to do this and if we think today that the person doing the sprinkling, pouring, or dunking has any control over what is happening in this holy moment we are wholly mistaken.

Professor James Torrance put it best: “But it is not the water, not the church, not the minister, not my faith, not my dying and rising, which forgives and heals. It is Christ who has done this for us and in us by the Spirit. So, we are baptized ‘in the name of Christ’ - not our own name - and we are baptized into a life of union with Christ, of dying and rising with Christ, in a life of communion.”

In your baptism, you have been raised into a new Hope, and that Hope is new life in the life and death of Jesus Christ.

“Remember Your Baptism and Be Thankful.”