Discuss Murray’s view of the import of baptism.

Baptism is important to the family of God because it is to be our initiation into this family. God communicates this familial relationship through his covenant promises and covenant blessings. Baptism is the sign and seal of being engrafted into the covenant relationship with Jesus Christ, just as Abraham and his descendants were engrafted into the covenant relationship with Yahweh by circumcision.

When God gave this promise to Abraham, he sealed it with a sign of shed blood which symbolized the cutting off of sin and thus making one pure. The New Covenant realization of that purity is found in the washing away of sin by baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28: 19). Because the former sign pointed to Christ on the cross and the new sign points us back to the promise given to Abraham to “increase your numbers” (Gen 17: 2), we are able to see that this is a more perfect sign. The sign of baptism breaks open the watershed event that is the cleansing of God’s people by offering it to more than just Jewish males, but now to the woman and to the Gentile. This makes baptism vital to the modern church as she seeks to bring the message of salvation to the world.

It is that message of salvation that baptism conveys in the seemingly simple sign of washing. This is a symbol of God’s mercy, his act of propitiation that makes an unclean, unrighteous people the sons and daughters of the living God. The importance of baptism is the gospel message it conveys to us so clearly that our sins are covered and Christ’s righteousness is placed upon us. This is the nature of union with Christ, that we are in him and he is in us.

Baptism is the sign and seal of this covenant promise for salvation in Christ alone. The importance of that comes into even clearer focus as we realize that in God’s keeping of his covenant promises there is no guarantee of covenant blessing. This blessing is only for those that have been called out before the foundations of the world to bear the name of Jesus Christ on their hearts. For those individuals their baptism is a constant reminder of their being set apart from the world, that their baptism was made effectual by faith alone and by their enjoyment of God’s covenant blessings. However, for those that do not receive their baptism by faith they are reaping the grave consequences of God’s covenant cursing. This is why baptism is so important and why teaching children and adults the reality of God’s promises as realized in this sign and seal thereof upon their heart is vital to their souls.