Baptismal exhortation

1 John 3:24: The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.

John emphasizes throughout his letter that Christians must obey God's commandments. In this, he only repeats what Jesus said. Jesus said, If you love Me, keep My commandments. That's all that John is saying. He's not saying at all that we earn our standing with God. He is simply saying that obedience is the Christian way of life.

The way of obedience is also a way of intimate fellowship with Him. Notice what he says here in verse 24: The one who keeps God's commandments abides in God, and God abides in Him. John does not think of God up in heaven monitoring our obedience down on earth. John is not merely saying that God observes our behavior from a distance and is pleased with it. John does not believe God is imprisoned in some Deistic fourth dimension.

John says the way of obedience is not only the way to please God, not only the way of Christian living. It is also the way of mutual abiding in God through the Spirit. As we obey His commandments, we remain in Him, and He remains in us. When we walk in obedience, we become a dwelling place for God, and He becomes our dwelling place. As we obey His commandments, we are united with God in the way that God is united with Himself: Just as the Father is eternally in the Son through the Spirit, and the Son eternally in the Father through the Spirit, so as we obey the commandments of God we abide in Him and He in us. Obeying God's commandments is the way of intimate mutual indwelling. When we obey, God is our home, and we are His; as we obey, God makes room for us in Himself, and makes room for Himself in us.

Baptism, Paul says, joins us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism incorporates the baptized into Christ. The baptized are those who "abide" in the Son of God by the Spirit; the baptized are those in whom the Father and Son abide in the Spirit. Baptism marks the beginning on the way of obedience, which is the way of intimate fellowship. As Lux is baptized today, trust the Lord’s promise that He will make her His home, and that she will find many mansions waiting for her in Him.

Of course, John doesn't see this mutual abiding, this mutual indwelling, as a single event. He sees it as a life-long process and call. In baptism, Lux is being sanctified as a dwelling place for Christ in the Spirit, and is being incorporated into Christ. But in baptism, she is also being called to walk throughout her life in the way of obedient faith, and faithful obedience.

Remind her frequently of her baptism. Assure her that God is in her, and she in God. Encourage her, from this moment to the end of your lives, to walk in the way of God’s commandments, so that she may abide in Him, and He in her.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, November 26, 2006 at 08:19 AM

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