We here at www.baptizedinwater.org are Reformed Baptists. The worship services in our represented churches are patterned to some degree after the Genevan Reformer John Calvin’s liturgy. We like liturgy (which literally means an order of service, which every service no matter how opposed to the term “liturgy” has), because it provides a model for worship and an anchor for the faith in anchorless times. Here is an example of a baptism liturgy that we have used. We usually do the baptism after the word is preached.
Baptism Liturgy:
Baptism is a sacrament ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a sign and seal of the inclusion of the person who through faith has come into the covenant of grace. All people are conceived and born in sin. Baptism witnesses and seals to us the remission of sins that we have in the baptism of the Holy Spirit at conversion. This is ours through the shed baptismal blood of Christ. Our death to sin and resurrection to life is symbolized as we enter the floody waters, only to be safely brought through them. Since these gifts of salvation are the gracious provision of the triune God, who is pleased to claim us as his very own, we are baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Baptism also signifies the bestowal of all the gifts of salvation through our union with Christ. Chief among these is our priestly duty to now care for the temple of God, which is the church and our own lives. Baptism arises out of the washing ceremonies of the Old Covenant, which the author of Hebrews calls “diverse baptisms.” These washing ceremonies were also a part of the covenant of grace – as they were always pointed forward to Christ and were never intended to become a means of works salvation. They were given to God’s priests, specially called by him to serve in his presence. The New Testament calls believers “a royal priesthood” and a “kingdom and priests to serve God.” Therefore, we convey baptism on those who profess faith in Christ and who can carry out the duties of a priest. This is a sign and seal of their being united to him, now part of a royal priesthood through faith, which is the gift of God.
Prayer of consecration:
Heavenly Father,
You graciously provided a way into your holy presence for the priests through the washing of their bodies and the sprinkling of the blood of animals. By these baptisms, the priest anticipated by faith the time when Christ would come to wash all sin away, cleansing with his blood and sanctifying with his word, so that by his cleansing we might enter the holy of holies and become the temple of God. Now you have seen fit to provide one lasting ordinance for your church that looks backward to that once for all cleansing of our justification and union with Christ. And it also anticipates the time when Christ will make his bride perfectly clean and perfectly washed with a glorified body and without any more sin. Our Covenant-keeping God, Eternal and Almighty Father, who by your infinite mercy and good pleasure have promised to be our God, be pleased, we pray, to fulfill your covenant promises to this professing believer, whom you have brought to our congregation. As he is presented to you and set apart by the sacrament of Holy Baptism, grant that he may be reckoned as a true child of God. Cleanse him from the guilt of Adam’s sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. May this outward washing with water that we administer according to your command produce its fruit in his life, as a perpetual sign and seal of his membership in the covenant of grace. Hear us, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ:
Through the Sacrament of Baptism we are given a sign of the new birth by the Spirit which is signified by dying under the water and being raised up to new life incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation
initiated into Christ’s holy church as a priesthood of believers. All this is God’s gift, offered to us without price.
Baptizee:
On behalf of the whole church, I ask you:
Do you believe in God and profess the Christian faith as contained in the Old and New Testaments?
Do you believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: One God in Three Persons?
I do.
Do you renounce wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?
I do.
Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, with God’s people in the church?
I do.
According to the grace given you, will you remain faithful to Christ’s holy church and serve as Christ’s representative in the world?
I will.
(Pastor to the baptizee.)
What is your full name?
(any sort of testimony of your faith in Christ that you wish to share?)
Name,
I baptize you in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
(go down/come up:)
Name,
the Lord defend you with his heavenly grace and by his spirit confirm you in the faith and fellowship of all true disciples of Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Pastor to the congregation.)
You have witnessed this covenantal sign and seal of the righteousness that comes through faith. This confession of faith by Name has been given in the presence of many witnesses. You are under an obligation to help Name grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, for together we are all the body of Christ.
Do you solemnly pledge to do everything in your power to help Name become a vital participant in the body, to hold them accountable, to pray for them, to rejoice with them, to weep with them, and to walk with them along our long journey to heaven?
We do.
Let us pray.
O God, our heavenly Father, grant that name, as (s)he grows in years, may also grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that by the restraining and renewing influence of the Holy Spirit he may ever be a true child of yours, serving you faithfully all his days.
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