The world is full of adults who professed faith, underwent the waters of baptism upon that profession, only to have the memory of their baptism fade into the recesses of their minds. The world is also full of adults who were raised by Christian parents, were presented for baptism, were washed in the water, and yet their baptism isn’t even a memory. They have forgotten the sign and the seal of who they were to be.

When were you baptized? Do you remember it? Are there pictures or a recording of it? When is the last time you thought about your baptism? Have your parents ever told you of your baptism? How meaningful is your baptism to you?
Clarifying the Focus
Let’s be clear here. This article is about Christian living and not a debate between credobaptist (baptism upon confession) or paedobaptist (covenant infant baptism). You can find good debate on that topic elsewhere. But this article is a challenge to you, the reader. So please keep reading.
A Personal Anecdote
To be honest, when I was growing up in a Baptist church, I wanted to play in the pool. Only baptized kids were allowed to play in the pool. So, seven-year-old Bryan took the plunge. But my baptism wasn’t meaningful to me at the time.
Years later, when the Lord regenerated my heart, I looked back with shame over those squandered years. See, baptism, whether you are credobaptist or paedobaptist, is at least an initiation. Both sides of the paedo/credo baptist argument recognize that baptism is: a sign of our being engrafted into Christ, or being born again, of the remission of sins, and of giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life. (Refer to the 1689 London Baptist Confession and the Westminster Confession of Faith and see the similarities.)
Baptism: The Beginning, Not the End
Here’s the rub. Baptism isn’t the end of the story, though. Our baptism is a sign and a seal, but it is not the end goal.
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As we gather and pray on each Lord’s Day, it is as if the veil that separates our life on Earth from the blessings of our loved ones in heaven is thinned. Our prayers, our songs, our hearing of God’s Word read and preached, and our reception of the sacraments give us grace and bring us closer to that blessing for which we long and which our brother and sisters in heaven begin to enjoy. 

One thinks of the oddest things while driving to church.
One recent Sunday on my morning drive to services I had an unusually strange thought. The saints in heaven worship God and pray to God.[1] If they pray, would they perhaps pray using the Lord’s Prayer, which our Savior taught to us while on Earth?
The strict answer is, of course, that we do not know what precise prayers they pray or by what form of words. But on as I pondered on the roadway, I realized the question of the applicability of the Lord’s Prayer in heaven was in fact quite edifying and interesting.
It is very common, when discussing the experience of those who have died, to mix our own speculations in with the teachings of scripture. As in many other areas of doctrine, it is good to remember, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV) What has actually been revealed of the nature of God’s blessings to his people after death is limited, but glorious. To add to them would be like a child gluing tinsel and glitter onto exquisite works of gold and gems, and with as good of taste. We are not yet the sanctified souls that we will be in Heaven, and we are further still from the glorious perfection that we will enjoy after the resurrection.
What do we know about these future glories? We know that for the Christian “to live is Christ and to die is gain,” (Philippians 1:21), because “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Cor 5:8) The greatest blessing of Heaven, starting from the moment of death, is a profound and direct fellowship with Christ. As Samuel Rutherford wrote, “[Christ] is all Heaven and more than all Heaven.”[2] This is the great Sabbath rest of God’s people, the first stage of the eternal blessedness.
That blessedness is great indeed, yet for those dead in Christ the day of fullness is still to come. We know that they along with us “wait eagerly for … the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:23) Our Lord Jesus Christ has not yet returned to make a final end to sin and death. Until that day, suffering rules on Earth and death still claims all. Sin has not yet been fully vanquished. God’s justice is still not fulfilled visibly. No wonder that Revelation shows the martyrs in heaven pray, “how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10) Heaven, as the intermediate place between death and Christ’s return, is therefore a place of blessed anticipation. For the saints in heaven faith has not yet been fully made sight, and hope has not yet fully become present enjoyment. Though far happier than us on earth, our brothers and sisters in heaven also await the final fulfillment God’s plan of salvation.
We also know that the saints in heaven worship God. This is shown in the vision of the heavenly throne room in Revelation. Who- or whatever the elders are surrounding the throne of God, they join angels and archangels in the cries of “holy, holy, holy” and “worthy is the Lamb.” And, as we have seen, the saints under the altar make their own prayers to God for justice. Indeed, our Lord Jesus himself prays for us before the Father in heaven (Romans 8:34). Heaven is full of the glory of God, and therefore it is filled with the proper responses to His glory, including praise and prayer.
So, what then of the prayer that our Lord Jesus taught us? How would it apply to the prayers of saints in heaven, no longer burdened with the cares and temptations of this life? To answer, let us look at each part of that prayer in turn, following the divisions in the Westminster Larger Catechism.
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GK Chesterton once wrote on why things happen this way: “Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” We have a god who knows the way out of the grave. The cross was a place of total and utter disaster for the followers of Christ. That was the mark of a defeated king. But it was only through the cross that this King would conquer the grave. 

The Apostle Paul writes in II Cor. 1 about a time when he and his colleagues experienced a certain degree of affliction in Asia. It got so bad that they despaired of life itself. What was the purpose of all this? It was intended to teach them, yes, even the great Apostle Paul, that he must not rely on himself but on God who raises the dead.
How often do you see this theme repeated throughout Scripture? A man is brought to the precipice and is ready to plunge to his death only for God to show forth His power and glory through weakness.
You might recall the history of Gideon and his men as they were preparing to face the Midianites. Over the course of Judges 7, the Lord cuts down an army of 22000 men to 300 men. When their clay pots break open, the light streams out, and the scene astonishes the enemy soldiers who then go down to complete and utter defeat. Remember. We have this treasure in clay pots. The treasure of the gospel. So that when we are broken open, the Lord spreads His light to a watching world (II Cor. 4).
You may recall the history of Israel passing through the Red Sea and the mighty armies of Egypt being swallowed up as they came in hot pursuit. You may recall the armies of Sennacherib being destroyed by the angel of the Lord. You may recall the many harrowing and dangerous situations King David found himself in, only to have it proven to him, again and again, that the Lord was fighting for Him and rushing before Him like a mighty wind through the trees (II Sam 5:17-25).
It was only when in prison that the angel came to break Peter out of jail. How many times did Paul and Silas bring men to Christ when in prison?
But think also of Christians throughout history. Athanasius was only 28 years old at the council of Nicaea. His life was marked by accusations of murder and he was exiled 5x. Or Calvin who was exiled from Geneva only a couple years after being commanded by the fiery Farel to take up his work there. In the face of imminent disaster the Lord used these men as earthen vessels to spark the light of Reformation, when they were smashed and broken open.
GK Chesterton once wrote on why things happen this way: “Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” We have a god who knows the way out of the grave. The cross was a place of total and utter disaster for the followers of Christ. That was the mark of a defeated king. But it was only through the cross that this King would conquer the grave. Trudeau and Biden have no power over the grave. But Jesus does.
And so Christians do not fear in the face of imminent disaster knowing that God loves cliffhangers, knowing that God loves to use all the circumstances of our lives to advance His kingdom. Those imminent disasters are meant to teach us to rely, not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
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