Last Saturday started normal and went sideways around lunchtime.. which is about par for the course around here.
Levi had been readin’ his Bible a lot lately. And let me just say, I’m proud of that. It’s a beautiful thing when a young boy starts askin’ eternal questions. But when Levi gets real quiet and real focused, it either means he’s bein’ led by the Spirit… or he’s lookin’ for a loophole.
This time, it was a little of both.
Brenda had been talkin’ to him all week about salvation and about what it means to really follow Jesus. He’d been soakin’ it up like a dry sponge. But Levi ain’t exactly the wait and ask questions type.
I was out back changin’ the oil in the mower when Bobbi Jo comes tearin’ through the yard like the house is on fire, hollerin’, “Daddy! Levi went full John the Baptist down in the creek!”
I didn’t know what that meant, but it didn’t sound like something I oughta ignore.
I slipped my boots halfway on and jogged down toward the creek, Blue barkin’ the whole way like revival broke out without him. Sure enough, there’s Levi, standin’ knee-deep in the coldest water in Georgia, arms raised, lookin’ like he’s about to call down thunder.
He sees me and grins big. “Daddy, I did it! I baptized myself!”
I blinked a few times. “You what now?”
“I prayed, and repented.. then I dunked myself three times. Once of the Father, once for the Son, and once for the Holy Spirit!”
I stood there, mostly tryin’ to figure out if I should be proud or concerned. “Son,” I said, “I appreciate the enthusiasm, but baptism ain’t a solo sport.”
He thought for a second and said, “Well, Bobbi Jo was watchin’.”
I said, “Bobbi Jo also once told us her stuffed rabbit could see angels and cried for an hour when the vacuum ate her sock. We’re not usin’ her as a witness.”
Right about then, Brenda came walkin’ down the trail.. She had that Sunday school teacher tone.
“Levi Emmett Jackson, you’re not allowed to perform your own ordinances.”
“But Mama, I meant it!”
And you know what? I believe he did. But we got him dried off and drove straight over to Pastor Bo’s. Told him the whole story. Pastor Bo laughed so hard he had to sit down, then looked at Levi and said, “Well son, seems like the Lord’s workin’ on you. But let’s do it the right way next time, with the church, and preferably with warm water.”
Levi nodded. Then asked if he could still count the creek one, just in case.
Deciphering Emmett
Levi baptized himself in the creek, and Scripture never shows a believer doing such a thing. The ordinance is always administered by another, because the Lord placed baptism in the hands of His church.
In Matthew 28, Christ commissioned His disciples to make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The assignment was given to the church, and from Pentecost forward, baptism has been carried out that way.
Levi’s heart was in the right place, but sincerity doesn’t give a believer authority over an ordinance Christ defined. The structure belongs to the One who instituted it, and the administering belongs to the people He commissioned.
Baptism also says something to those who see it. The believer confesses Christ before the watching church, and the church receives that confession and rejoices in it. Romans 6 teaches that the water represents a finished work and union with Christ in His death and resurrection. The old man is buried, and the new man is raised. That’s meant to be displayed before the church, not performed alone.