It goes on to recount the wonderful comfort we can gain from the assurance that Christ forgives us, liberates us from evil, protects us, governs circumstances for our salvation, promises us eternal life, and gives us the will and the strength to live for God. Practically speaking, the point is that Christ has stood in our place, fulfilling all the divine conditions for our salvation, wholeness and future hope. God's baptismal claim on us is corporate and communal. In many areas of American life the unbridled individualism that has long characterized our culture has now been tried and found wanting. However, it still lingers in many of the popular ideas we bring to church.
Baptism is no exception.
Many of us still cling to cultural ideas of baptism as a source of grace that is subject to our personal schedules, opinions, demands, tastes and preferences. We may regard baptism as a private right that goes along with being listed on the church roll. We may even find ourselves assuming that in baptism God is at our disposal. With these individualistic assumptions it is difficult to appreciate the Reformed understanding of baptism as a sacred covenant in which we and our children are inseparably united as members to Christ and to the living community of faith by the Holy Spirit. In contrast, a Biblical understanding of baptism underlines and profoundly reinforces its corporate and communal nature.