We began to think yesterday on things unseen about the subject of baptism, in I hope a relatively

uncontroversial way. Except perhaps for one thing. Yesterday I was hinting that probably

too many Christians think about baptism the wrong way around. If you ask them what baptism

means, the first thing they do is talk about themselves, rather than talk about Jesus Christ.

And I was trying to say that the central meaning of baptism is that it points us to the Lord

Jesus first, not to ourselves. Like the gospel of which it's a sign, it's about Him first

and foremost. And that's true as I was hinting of all the biblical signs that we sometimes

call sacraments. First and foremost, they are reassurances to us of what the Lord has done.

You probably seen that famous optical illusion where there's either an old hag that you

see or a beautiful young woman. And many people, if they see the old hag in the picture,

seem to find it very difficult to find the beautiful woman. And you'll forgive me for saying

that sometimes I think it's a little bit like that with baptism. Some of us look at it

and see only ourselves and our faith decision. And forgive me for putting it this way, but

if we think baptism is about ourselves, then well, we're more like the old hag, after

all we're sinners. But baptism presupposes we're sinners and that we need to be cleansed.

And that's why it points us not to ourselves first, but to Christ. It points us as sinners

to the promise of cleansing and renewal there is in Jesus Christ. And that's why it gives

us such daily reassurance. It's not so much a message about our faith, but a sign that

calls us to live by faith. So we need to see something quite different in the picture

that baptism portrays. Not ourselves, the old hags, the sinners, but the beautiful women

are to put it in real life terms, the beautiful Savior.

Think about it this way. Baptism is a sign of the gospel. But how does the gospel work?

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