shawnethomas

Adoniram Judson was born in 1788, and grew up in Massachusetts when the United States was still a new country. He graduated valedictorian of his class at Brown University, and wrote 2 books, one on grammar, and one on math. But not long afterwards, Judson was saved, and felt God calling him to go overseas on mission, so off he sailed to India with his wife Ann, two of the first missionaries ever sent from the United States!

But during the voyage, an extraordinary thing happened. Judson was translating the Bible from the original Greek language it was written in, into the language of the people he was going to minister to. But as he translated the scriptures, he saw that the meaning of the Greek New Testament word for baptism, and the clear practice of New Testament Christianity, was baptism was by immersion — dipping a person under water. So in one of the most courageous acts of conviction in religious history, Judson wrote back to the mission agency that was supporting him, and told them that he had to resign, because the group that sent him believed in baptism by sprinkling, and that was no longer his belief. When he arrived in India, Judson found Baptist missionary William Carey who baptized him and his wife by immersion. But now he and Ann were stranded, without any support, on the other side of the world! Ann wrote back to a friend, “We feel that we are alone in the world, with no real friend but each other, no one on whom we can depend but God.” But their hearts were at peace, because they knew they were right before God — and the Lord blessed his conviction, and He used Adoniram Judson in an amazing way. Judson translated the Bible into the language of Burma, and he ended up starting 100 churches with 8000 believers there before his death! 

Sadly, most of us today have never heard of Adoniram Judson. We don’t know his story; and we don’t have his convictions. But we would do well to rediscover both his story and his convictions! He had strong beliefs about baptism, but he got them primarily through his study of scripture, supplemented by what he read in church history. Baptism is one of the most important Christian practices; it is one of our two ordinances (the other being the Lord’s Supper), and it is our “initiation” into the Christian Church. In our passage for today in Matthew 3:13-17, we see the baptism of Someone much greater than Adoniram Judson. God shows us several things about baptism here in the example of the baptism of Jesus: