Baptism is the clear, public, symbolic picture of the new life we have in Christ. As illustrated in baptism, we have died with Christ—died to our sin and died to ourselves—and we have been raised to life with him.4
Baptism also pictures our identification with one another in the church. Baptism unites us as brothers and sisters who share the life of Christ with one another.5 Disciple making involves inviting people into a larger community of faith where they will see the life of Christ in action and experience the love of Christ in person.
Last week in our worship gathering we celebrated three baptisms. One person was a stay-at-home mom who had grown up in church and had lived a “good” life, but recently her eyes were opened for the first time to the reality of her sinfulness, even in her supposed goodness, and she trusted in Christ as her Savior and Lord. Another was a businessman who, after years of walking with Christ, realized that he had never been obedient to being baptized in identification with Christ and his church. The third was a former alcoholic, addict, and drug smuggler who had been radically saved by God’s grace. (As a side note, recently he approached the guys in our church who lead overseas work to let them know he had skills conducive for smuggling contraband—in other words, Bibles—across borders. That is, if we were interested in using his expertise!)
As we celebrated the work of Christ in each of their lives, I praised God for the beauty of the body of Christ. Brought together from different backgrounds, and having journeyed through different struggles, we find ourselves joined together as one in the life of Christ. Disciple making involves identifying with a community of believers who show love to one another and share life with one another as we live together for the glory of God.
Earlier I mentioned Jim Shaddix, the seminary professor I went to New Orleans to study under. I am indebted to Jim for sharing his life with me in the same way Jesus did with his disciples. I gained much from sitting in classes that Jim taught, but even greater was the time we spent talking in his office, in his car on road trips, in his home with his family, and in the community as we shared the gospel.
I remember coming home one day after we had moved to New Orleans. I was in a hurry to change my clothes and leave our apartment. My wife asked what the rush was, and I told her that I was going running with Dr. Shaddix.
“Running?” she asked. “Since when are you a runner?”
“Since Dr. Shaddix asked me to run with him a couple of minutes ago,” I replied.
I hate running. I have never been one of those guys who gets delight out of running in circles and going nowhere. But as soon as Dr. Shaddix asked me to join him on a run, I was a full-fledged cross-country athlete. You see, whether running in circles around the seminary campus or sitting in his home talking about life and ministry, Jim was gracious enough to share his life with me and in the process to show me what it means to follow Christ. And I wanted that, even if it included sweating.
Being a part of a community of faith involves being exposed to the life of Christ in others. Just as we are identified with Christ and his church in baptism, we now share life in Christ with one another. So to whom can you deliberately, intentionally, and sacrificially show the life of Christ in this way? This is foundational in making disciples, and we will multiply the gospel only when we allow others to get close enough to us to see the life of Christ in action.