Hebrews 6:2

BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION

‘Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands.’

Hebrews 6:2

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews in giving his hasty review of fundamental religion, passes at once, and quite naturally, from repentance—i.e. recognition of sin and human weakness, and of faith towards God—to the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands. In writing, as he does, to Jews, I would ask you to notice that he uses the plural, ‘baptisms,’ because they would have to be taught to distinguish between their own baptism—of proselytes, for instance—which was symbolical, and St. John’s baptism, which was symbolical, and that of Christ, which conferred grace, grace of a particular kind suited to a particular need.

I. Christ Jesus emphasised, ordered under the most strict sanction, and laid it upon the Church as a fundamental obligation, that all who called upon His Name, all who were admitted to His society, should be baptized. That is to say, approach Him through an outward ordinance, which now for the first time gave what it symbolised, and effected that which it seemed to suggest. The Christian sacrament of baptism has equal power now in those who will accept it by repentance and faith; but we must be careful to regard it not as a charm acting automatically on all who receive it, so that in spite of themselves they are saved from the corruption that is in the world through sin. To say so would be to contradict experience. Not all baptized persons are even moral; and to say so would be equally contrary to the Word of God and to the testimony of His Church. Baptized persons are put into a state of salvation; a state in which, if they will, they may be saved, but are not mechanically saved in spite of their own will. Placed in the good ship of the Church, they may, if they will, navigate the rough waters of this troublesome world, but they may also cast themselves out and perish. But there is one thing that no thoughtful reader of the Bible can for one moment ignore, and it is this: the immense stress which is laid in the New Testament on the sacrament of baptism.

II. In the early days of the Church, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, it was customary for the Apostles to lay their hands on the newly baptized, and they received the Holy Ghost. There are few ordinances of the Church so misunderstood as Confirmation, or more unpopular with those who just now are seeking to impose a mutilated form of Christianity on the nation in the education of our children. Confirmation is not a mere renewing of baptismal vows by those who come to this ordinance. It is only, so to speak, by accident that this renewal of vows has anything to do with Confirmation at all. It has only been made part of our Confirmation Service in the Church of England since the seventeenth century, and it is not so used in any other part of the Church, and really only serves to emphasise that most important side of all God’s means of grace: the preparation of and the willing participation of the recipients. A child is in a condition to receive God’s grace if from his heart he can renew his baptismal vows. Confirmation, the laying on of hands, is something far different. It is an ordinance of strengthening, again as we believe, designed by Him Who being Man knew what man needed—namely, Divine strength. Here is a child just going out into the world. The world lies before him, in all its seductive temptations. And it is strength the Church offers him in a special ordinance, in a special way, through the laying-on of apostolic hands, that he may continue God’s child for ever, and daily increase in God’s Holy Spirit more and more until He come to His everlasting kingdom.

—Rev. Canon Newbolt.

Illustration

‘The history of the actor is well known who in the days of Imperial Rome was set to parody this sacrament of baptism on the stage; and in submitting to be baptized before the jeering heathen audience, he, by the grace of God, you will remember, experienced the full force of that sacrament which he had set himself to deride. In and through that sacrament God met him, and he declared himself as indeed a Christian, and received the crown of martyrdom.’