One Baptism—The Nicene Creed for Non-Creedal Christians Post 16

 

I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.

                The last few statements of the Nicene Creed come fast and furious. In one sense, the statement about baptism is a continuation of the statement concerning the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. If baptism serves as the sacramental entry point into the church, even if one is first baptized into Christ, who was himself baptized by John in the Jordan, and then into the church, it makes sense to connect the two statements. The message here is that those who affirm the message of the creed, even if we hold its authority lightly, is that the church as a whole acknowledges that there is but one baptism, even though the one church features different practices and meanings. Many of the churches that are noncreedal, including my own, practice believer baptism by immersion. Some Baptist communities require someone to be rebaptized, even if immersed, if not in their tradition. So, as with other statements in the creed, affirmation of this statement is complicated by both theology and practice.

                Many believer baptism traditions begin their reflection with an appeal to Peter’s statement on the day of Pentecost. After Peter finished his sermon, those who heard the message asked Peter what they must do to be saved. He answered: “Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38 NRSVue). That seems like a fairly straightforward pattern, but is it a necessary pattern? After all, a few chapters later, Philip baptizes a group of Samaritan converts, but they don’t receive the Holy Spirit until Peter and John lay hands on them (Acts 8:4-17). Then, in Acts 10, the Holy Spirit falls on the household of Cornelius before they have a chance to “repent,” but this action of the Spirit leads Peter to baptize everyone (Acts 10:34-48). In other words, we must be careful about insisting on prescribed patterns.

                There is another important passage of scripture that speaks to the meaning of baptism, and that is Romans 6, where Paul speaks of baptism as a symbolic/sacramental identification of the believer with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, by which one is united with Christ (Rom. 6:1-11). Symbolically, immersion of believers seems to best represent what Paul is speaking of in this passage. That said, historically, infant baptism became the dominant form of baptism, at least of the children of believers.

                The second part of the Creed’s declaration concerning the one baptism is that it is for the remission of sins. That does seem to reflect the meaning spoken of in Peter’s Pentecost sermon, where forgiveness of sins is mentioned. In Romans 6, Paul speaks of dying to sin in the context of being buried in the waters of baptism. The symbolism of baptism works well with the idea of the removal of sin, since water is a component of washing. Thus, in baptism, our sins are washed away. One argument for infant baptism is that it washes away original sin, a concept that many noncreedal Christians reject. Nevertheless, at least symbolically, baptism serves as a sign that as we become one with Christ in baptism, our sins are forgiven and washed away.

                Baptism plays an important role in most every Christian tradition, though Quakers practice spiritual baptism without the use of water. That is true for my tradition as well. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which is part of the larger Stone-Campbell Movement, has practiced believer baptism since early on in its existence. For a while, these former Presbyterians joined with the Baptists, but a difference in baptismal theology (among other things) led to a split from the Baptists. One of the differences between Disciples and the other branches of the Stone Campbell Movement is that we practice Open Membership (those baptized as infants need not be rebaptized) [See Christopher Wilson “The Baptized Life” in We Call Ourselves Disciples, (Chalice Press, 2025), pp. 23-27]. The Disciples' theology and practice have “evolved” in large part due to our ecumenical engagement.

                With this ecumenical engagement in mind, the Disciples have affirmed the principles established by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches in the Baptism, Eucharist & Ministry Document of 1982. That statement is a useful theological statement on the meaning and practice of baptism. It acknowledges both the practices of infant and believer's baptism, as well as the various forms of baptism, including sprinkling and immersion. Regarding the meaning of Baptism, the document states: “Baptism is the sign of new life through Jesus Christ. It unites the one baptized with Christ and with his people” [BEM, “Baptism” II.2]. In making that statement, we see that it includes the two forms of uniting that are accomplished by baptism—uniting us with Christ and with the Church. From there, it covers the various effects of baptism, beginning with participation in the death and resurrection of Christ; conversion, pardoning, and cleansing; the gift of the Spirit; incorporation into the Body of Christ, and the sign of the Kingdom. It acknowledges the ways that faith factors into baptism, as well as the practices of believers and infant baptism. It also notes in section C under Baptism, a movement toward Mutual Recognition of Baptism. The document states that “Mutual recognition of baptism is acknowledged as an important sign and means of expressing the baptismal unity given in Christ. Wherever possible, mutual recognition should be expressly made by the churches.” [Baptism, Eucharist & Ministry, Faith and Order Paper No. 111]. As far as I understand, the Roman Catholic Church recognizes the baptisms of Protestant churches, whatever their practice, for this is a recognition that there is but one baptism for the remission of sins.

                It is interesting that the Creed acknowledges the one baptism but says nothing of the Eucharist. Interestingly, there appears to be more agreement on the meaning of baptism across the larger church than there is regarding the Eucharist. So, there is more work to be done on that front, but apparently, the writers of the creed of Constantinople in 381 felt the need to clarify the role of baptism in the life of the church, but not the Eucharist. It should be noted that the entire statement about the church and baptism, as well as the final eschatological statements, are not found in the creed of Nicaea, affirmed in 325.  

                Perhaps the reason for its inclusion is found in this observation by Luke Timothy Johnson, who is Roman Catholic:

 In baptism, we meet the visible, public, particular, and very much embodied nature of the church. Christians do not become Christians through an interior self-realization, or through fulfilling enough course credits, or through filling out an application for membership, but through a process of public initiation, and one that is profoundly humbling. [Johnson, The Creed, (Doubleday, 2005), p. 277].

Baptism is a reminder (as is the Eucharist) that the Christian faith, though a spiritual faith, is an embodied one. Being baptized does connect our bodies to our faith.

                I will close with this word from the Letter to the Ephesians, whether written by Paul or not:

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: ⁴ there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.  (Eph. 4:1-6).

Note the emphasis here on oneness, including the declaration that there is, as the Creed declares, but one baptism, even as there is “one Lord, one faith, … one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” As Johnson declares, “Wherever there are Christians, there is baptism” [The Creed, p. 279].