SS Outline 10.25.2026
Biblical Theology and the Ordinances
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Context
Big idea: Baptism and the Supper are the gospel told in water and bread. Each one tells the whole story of Jesus, and each one tells it about the people who belong to him.
Three horizons for reading any text: textual (the passage where the ordinance is commanded), epochal (where it sits in redemptive history), canonical (the whole-Bible pattern it completes).
1. Baptism: the people who pass through the water
•Text: Matt 28:19 (the command); Rom 6:3–4 (the meaning); Acts 2:38–41 (the order: repent, be baptized, added).
•The water story: Noah, 1 Pet 3:20–21 · the Red Sea, 1 Cor 10:1–2 · the Jordan, Josh 3–4 and Matt 3:13–17 · the cross as a baptism, Luke 12:50.
•Pattern: God brings his people through the waters of judgment and out the other side.
•Why these count as types: the NT draws the line; the events are historical; each one escalates toward Christ.
•So the subject of baptism is someone who has already passed through judgment in Christ: a believer (LBCF 29.1–2).
2. The hard case: circumcision and baptism (Col 2:11–12; Gen 17:12)
•Continuity: one God, one people, one promise to Abraham (Gal 3:8, 16, 29); a sign of entry in both covenants.
•Discontinuity: Jer 31:31–34 (Heb 8:8–12): “they shall all know me.” Old-covenant membership came by birth; new-covenant membership comes by new birth (John 3:3–5).
•Col 2:11: the circumcision baptism answers to is “made without hands” (Deut 30:6; Rom 2:28–29). The sign follows the thing signified.
•Principle: the sign of a covenant matches the nature of that covenant.
3. The Supper: the people who eat with God (1 Cor 11:23–26; Luke 22:14–20)
•The meal story: Passover, Exod 12 · Sinai, Exod 24:8–11 (“the blood of the covenant”) · manna, Exod 16 and John 6:32–35 · the mountain feast, Isa 25:6–8 · Rev 19:9.
•Pattern: God feeds the people he has redeemed by blood, at his table, in his presence, with a greater feast ahead.
•The Supper looks back (1 Cor 11:26), looks around (1 Cor 10:16–17, “one bread, one body”), and looks ahead (“until he comes”). Compare LBCF 30.1.
•Because the one loaf makes the body visible, the Supper is the church’s meal, which is why the table is fenced (1 Cor 11:27–29; LBCF 30.8).
4. What the two ordinances are
BaptismThe Lord’s Supper
Tells the gospel once, at the doorTells the gospel again and again, at the table
How a person is added (Acts 2:41)How the added are seen as one body (1 Cor 10:17)
Looks forward to resurrectionLooks forward to the feast
Neither is a bare symbol and neither works by itself: to faith they are means of grace (LBCF 30.7); without faith, water and bread, and at the table, judgment (1 Cor 11:29).
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Context
Big idea: Baptism and the Supper are the gospel told in water and bread. Each one tells the whole story of Jesus, and each one tells it about the people who belong to him.
Three horizons for reading any text: textual (the passage where the ordinance is commanded), epochal (where it sits in redemptive history), canonical (the whole-Bible pattern it completes).
1. Baptism: the people who pass through the water
•Text: Matt 28:19 (the command); Rom 6:3–4 (the meaning); Acts 2:38–41 (the order: repent, be baptized, added).
•The water story: Noah, 1 Pet 3:20–21 · the Red Sea, 1 Cor 10:1–2 · the Jordan, Josh 3–4 and Matt 3:13–17 · the cross as a baptism, Luke 12:50.
•Pattern: God brings his people through the waters of judgment and out the other side.
•Why these count as types: the NT draws the line; the events are historical; each one escalates toward Christ.
•So the subject of baptism is someone who has already passed through judgment in Christ: a believer (LBCF 29.1–2).
2. The hard case: circumcision and baptism (Col 2:11–12; Gen 17:12)
•Continuity: one God, one people, one promise to Abraham (Gal 3:8, 16, 29); a sign of entry in both covenants.
•Discontinuity: Jer 31:31–34 (Heb 8:8–12): “they shall all know me.” Old-covenant membership came by birth; new-covenant membership comes by new birth (John 3:3–5).
•Col 2:11: the circumcision baptism answers to is “made without hands” (Deut 30:6; Rom 2:28–29). The sign follows the thing signified.
•Principle: the sign of a covenant matches the nature of that covenant.
3. The Supper: the people who eat with God (1 Cor 11:23–26; Luke 22:14–20)
•The meal story: Passover, Exod 12 · Sinai, Exod 24:8–11 (“the blood of the covenant”) · manna, Exod 16 and John 6:32–35 · the mountain feast, Isa 25:6–8 · Rev 19:9.
•Pattern: God feeds the people he has redeemed by blood, at his table, in his presence, with a greater feast ahead.
•The Supper looks back (1 Cor 11:26), looks around (1 Cor 10:16–17, “one bread, one body”), and looks ahead (“until he comes”). Compare LBCF 30.1.
•Because the one loaf makes the body visible, the Supper is the church’s meal, which is why the table is fenced (1 Cor 11:27–29; LBCF 30.8).
4. What the two ordinances are
BaptismThe Lord’s Supper
Tells the gospel once, at the doorTells the gospel again and again, at the table
How a person is added (Acts 2:41)How the added are seen as one body (1 Cor 10:17)
Looks forward to resurrectionLooks forward to the feast
Neither is a bare symbol and neither works by itself: to faith they are means of grace (LBCF 30.7); without faith, water and bread, and at the table, judgment (1 Cor 11:29).
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