SERMON: “What is a Baptist? Some History” (Rom. 3:21–28, Various)
“What is a Baptist? Some History”
(Romans
3:21–28, Various)
Series: “Reformation
Day Sermons” #7 Text: Romans
3:21–28, Various
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
October 26, 2025
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
PM Service
I.
Introduction
Today is known as Reformation Sunday. It’s typically observed the Sunday before
Reformation Day, which is October 31st every year. It’s been over 500 years now since Martin
Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg, and every year, it’s
important to remember the history that brought us to where we are.
By “we,” I mean Christians, but I also mean Baptists. Sadly, many Baptists don’t see the
Reformation as part of their history.
Some simply don’t think of history going beyond the 20th
Century, what our young people affectionally call the 1900s. There are some Baptists who would immediately
shut down at a sermon like this, thinking it’s unimportant to learn any
history, decrying it as “the traditions of men.” However, we all have traditions, and unless
we understand ours, we may already be bound by something we would seek to
avoid.
Some other Baptists have a more unique historical take. In the South especially, a group known as Landmark
Baptists believe they can trace an unbroken succession of Baptist churches back
to the New Testament era and are the true Christian churches. Baptists have
told me that we were never a part of the Reformation, that we are the true
bride of Christ while other Christians would be merely guests at the wedding
supper of the Lamb, and that there is no universal church. I was surprised to find Landmark materials even
here when I first arrived as pastor, which I promptly threw away. It simply isn’t based on any more history
than Roman Catholics claiming there’s an unbroken succession of popes going
back to Peter.
It's true that there have been believers in every
generation. Some of them were even in
the Roman Catholic Church, but they began to see problems. Sometimes, these believers also broke away
from Rome, and sometimes, they were forced out of the church. That’s what happened in the Reformation of
the sixteenth century; Martin Luther wanted to address issues present in the
church, to “reform” it, but he was condemned as a heretic and only escaped
death due to protection from the prince.
The Reformation was a pivotal movement of spiritual renewal
that marked a fundamental shift in Western consciousness and Christian
theology. His wasn’t the only voice,
though it was prominent. Key reformers
like Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others introduced transformative theological
concepts, including justification by faith alone, scriptural clarity, God’s
sovereignty, and the quest for a more biblical and pure visible church.
We’ve talked about much of this before in previous
Reformation Day sermons, but we want to drill down now into important Baptist
distinctives. We’re going to consider
three points this morning in answering what a Baptist is. First, we’ll consider our head — what
we should know about Baptist Reformation history. Second, we’ll consider our heart — the
Baptist’s biblical belief in salvation by faith alone. Third, we’ll consider our hands — the
Baptist’s response with believer’s baptism. Let’s begin this morning by considering some
of important history.
II.
First, Consider our Head (cf. Rom. 3:21–28)
But now apart from
the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the
Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His
grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed
publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, for a demonstration of
His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins
previously committed; for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present
time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in
Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by
faith apart from works of the Law.
By “head” here, I’m referring mostly to our mind. We’re considering what we should know about
Baptist Reformation history. Some 500
years ago, not many churchgoers heard words like we just read, let alone
understood them. And that brings us to
the first thing we must understand about Baptists (and Protestant Reformers in
general) — we didn’t invent the gospel message, but we recovered it. People didn’t have access to the Bible, but
now we do because of the Reformers.
There were two groups of Reformers seeking to achieve
this. The first were the magisterial or
“state church” Reformers, such as Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin. The second were called Anabaptists, seen as radicals,
who emerged as early on as the 1520s. Everyone
in these groups understood that Rome had departed from the biblical gospel and
was keeping it from the people, a message the church fathers believed and
espoused. Yet, these Reformation streams
disagreed on many points of secondary doctrine.
It's here that students of history can get confused, because
you might think the Anabaptists were early Baptists. The confusion is understandable because they
sound similar; the term “ana” means again, and the Anabaptists rejected infant
baptism and said people needed to be baptized again. Yet, these continental Reformers were not the
predecessors to Baptists; many embraced pacifism, communal living, and even
apocalyptic visions. They eventually
gave rise to groups like the Mennonites, Amish, and Hutterites — all marked by
believer’s baptism, nonresistance (pacifism), and separation from the state.
But, that didn’t mean that others weren’t questioning infant
baptism, and that brings us to the English Reformation. You might recall that the King of England had
ulterior motives for becoming Protestant.
As such, he wasn’t that concerned with ridding the Church of England of
its old traditions. As such, it often
combined Roman Catholic practices with some Reformed principles.
Frustrated with the state church, this led to people wanting
a more precise faith. They complained
about everything being Catholic relics, from hand gestures of the cross to the
vestments to worship practices such as kneeling at communion. They wanted worship “purged” to achieve simple
church worship — and their detractors began calling them “Puritans” in mockery
(a name that stuck)!
They were committed to biblical loyalty, passionate worship,
and restructuring the church according to God’s precepts, ultimately taking
Reformation principles to their logical conclusion. It was within this movement of Reformed
Puritans that the first Baptists were born.
By 1609, the first identifiable Baptist church appeared in Amsterdam,
and in 1611, there was a General Baptist church in London.
These early Baptists were “General” in that they rejected
much of what became to be defined as Calvinism, the doctrines of grace sometimes
called “TULIP.” Yet, Particular Baptists
also began appearing as early as the 1630s, those who believed in these points. By 1644, the First London Confession was
penned by seven Baptist churches which held to a Calvinistic view of salvation
and believer’s baptism by immersion. The
second confession in 1689 later solidified it.
Unsurprisingly, the Baptist faith spread to North America,
which we will talk more about tonight. For
now, it’s important to note that this history helped to preserve important
gospel truths. We can now read passages
like Romans 3 and understand the pure message of good news: Jesus Christ died
for sinners, and His payment is sufficient for all who would believe. In fact, that brings us to the next point:
III.
Second, Consider our Heart (Eph. 2:8–9)
For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God; not of works, so that no one may boast.
Baptists affirmed key Reformation convictions, including the
supreme authority of Scripture and justification by faith alone, while
rejecting distinctive Roman Catholic Church claims. They were heirs of the Reformation,
Puritanism, and separatism, driven by a commitment to biblical principles, a
desire to worship correctly, and a willingness to restructure the church
according to God’s precepts. Baptists
continued taking Reformation principles to their ultimate conclusion.
The heart of the Reformation is sola fide — faith
alone justifies us before our righteous God.
Faith plus works does not save us,
nor does faith plus baptism or faith plus church membership — just faith in the
sacrifice of Christ for our behalf. In contrast,
Rome teaches that sacraments and works of merit gives us enough grace to be
saved. In keeping with the Reformation
and Scripture, Baptists reject anything but faith alone as the means for our
salvation.
Is that what the Bible teaches? Let consider that with Ephesians 2:8–9; verse
8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Paul
connects this to verses 1–7, where he describes our spiritual deadness in sin
and God’s quickening life. In other
words, we were dead, meaning that we could do nothing — we needed God to do
something.
Salvation is “by grace,” then. This is His unmerited favor toward us,
meaning that we did nothing to earn His favor.
We were dead in sin! If we think
we can become righteous through keeping the commandments of God, we are
mistaken. As Paul said in Rom. 3:21–22,
“But now apart from the Law the
righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets, even the righteousness of
God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.” The only thing added to our faith, therefore,
is the grace of God, which prompts our faith.
Salvation isn’t mysteriously bestowed, though. We read it comes “through faith.” As Romans 10:9–10 says, if you “confess with
your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe
in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with
the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he
confesses, leading to salvation.” It’s
through our trust in the message of God in Jesus Christ that we are saved, not
by good works or a moralistic lifestyle.
Paul clarifies that here when he says that “this not of
yourselves.” His referring to the entire
salvation package, if you will. God’s grace
is certainly not of ourselves, but also faith and salvation don’t originate
with us. Instead, we read that “it is
the gift of God.”
This is how sinners such as us can be justified before a
holy and righteous Judge. We’ve violated
God’s ways in many ways, and if He’s just, He must punish the unrighteous. Yet, that punishment was poured out on
Christ, meaning that the only thing for us to do is to believe that message of
good news. We can be justified by faith
alone, as faith is the only instrumental cause for our salvation. This means that we don’t have to work off our
debts before God or worry about what-ifs; God is sovereign in our salvation!
If this wasn’t clear yet, Paul goes on in v. 9 to say, “Not
of works, so that no one may boast.” To
be clear, he’s talking about boasting that comes through working toward our own
salvation. As he said in Romans 3:27–28,
“Where then is boasting? It is excluded.
By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by
faith apart from works of the Law.” God
designed salvation to exclude works to prevent humans boasting in themselves. After all, if we were to earn any part of our
salvation, by bowing to statues or having lit enough candles, the sin of pride
would ensue.
That brings us back to the word grace. When we realize that it’s sola gratia,
that God’s grace alone saves us, we’re humbled and can only believe. This frees believers from performance-based
religion, fostering rest in Christ.
So, at the heart of Baptist doctrine is salvation by faith
alone. This is a Reformation legacy, but
I hope you believe it because it’s also biblical. You can’t work your way into heaven; simply
trust that Jesus did everything for you by bearing the penalty of your sin in
your place. I hope that this message
takes a load off your shoulders — this is the good news of the gospel!
Now, you might be thinking that all Christians believe this,
and the true converts to Christ do. So,
why are we Baptists? That comes in the
response to the good news of the gospel, bringing us to our final point.
IV.
Third, Consider our Hands (Rom. 6:3–4)
Or do you not know
that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His
death? Therefore we were buried with Him
through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
It’s important to put salvation first, because baptism does
not save. Rather, it’s the believer’s response,
after the fact. It symbolizes the
salvation already received by faith.
Believer’s baptism was seen as no less radical a viewpoint
for the Baptists than it was the Anabaptists.
Most of the Christian world, though it would baptize new converts from
pagan lands, baptized infants. In fact,
the state used church records of infant baptisms rather than birth records, so
a claim that only believers should be baptized was seen in some areas as
revolutionary. And this led to
persecution; for instance, in 1661, Baptist pastor John James was hanged,
drawn, and quartered in Wales for preaching without license and refusing infant
baptism for his child. To the
17th-century world, a Baptist was a religious anarchist for insisting the
church belongs to Christ alone, and only disciples should be baptized.
Yet, this was the fight that needed to be fought to continue
the spirit of Reformation. The church
was in error to accept infant baptism as normative, and it was further in error
to see baptism as something other than immersion. As Baptists patiently but boldly pushed back
against this historical error, they were continuing the Reformation principle
of getting back to Scripture and the earliest church practices. As such, we could consider these Baptists
(and ourselves) as reformata, semper reformanda — “reformed, always
reforming.”
There’s not one clear example of or command for an infant
being baptized in Scripture. Rather, we
see examples like Acts 8:36–38, where the Ethiopian eunuch believes, and then
is baptized, going into the water. When
Jesus gives the Great Commission, He says to make disciples, commanding the
baptism of those disciples (Matt. 28:19), and the word for baptism refers to
immersion, a dipping. When Jesus was
Himself baptized by John, He also went into the water. Scripture shows faith first, and baptism
second, and those baptisms were always immersions.
Baptism is a public profession, not a private infusion of
grace. It is a means of grace by
encouraging us, but it does not infuse something to balance a heavenly ledger. Jesus already did that.
Consider what Romans 6:3–4 says. In v. 3, Paul says, “Or do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His
death?” Baptism unites us with Christ’s
death, and we do it in front of people as a public profession of faith in the
Lord. It pictures dying to sin. It calls believers to reflect on their union
in Christ and sin’s defeat in their lives.
In v. 4, Paul continues, “Therefore we have been buried with
Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Burial symbolizes complete identification with
Christ’s death, leading to resurrection life. We should walk in “newness of life,” which means
holy living. This motivates
sanctification — baptism pictures our call to walk anew.
So, this is applying what we learn and our hearts to our
hands. We’re responding in faith, as we
should do in every area of our lives.
This defines Baptists: a believer’s baptism by immersion.
V.
Conclusion
In recent decades, many churches have decided to drop the
word “Baptist” from their names and signs.
They’re afraid that it’s intimidating to the community, so they refer to
themselves as nondenominational or Bible churches. Even so, they’re still Baptist to their
core. We simply advertise it.
A Baptist is someone who stands
on Reformation ground. A Baptist is
rooted in biblical truth, resting in faith alone, and has responded with
believer’s baptism.
Have you trusted Christ alone? Know that answer first. If you have, then follow Him all the way
under the baptismal water.