You know him as F but today he receives his baptismal name, JPB.
On Wednesday, JP was adopted into the B family and today he is adopted into God’s family and the TPC family.
The gift of baptism is the gift of a new family, a new identity, a new name, new privileges, and new responsibilities. So it is fitting for JP to be adopted twice in one week.
JP has a new earthly father in B, and a new Heavenly Father in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. JP has a new earthly mother in B, and a new heavenly mother in the church.
As Christians, being adopted into God’s family is our highest privilege. This is really what it means to be a Christian: You have God for your Father and the church as your family. When God adopts you into his family, other Christians become your brothers and sisters. Adoption defines what it means to be a Christian. The whole Christian life is a matter of living out our identity and status as God’s adopted children.
To be a son of God, to have the Father’s love, to have a promised inheritance, to have the church as covenant family — this is what we rejoice in as Christians.
And all of those blessings are found here in the waters of baptism. For baptism is indeed a new birth and an adoption ceremony.
What B and B have done for JP is a beautiful picture of what does for each of us in baptism. And because B and B have brought JP into their family, they now bring JP to be welcomed by water into God’s family…
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