302 Dimensions of Baptism
in the fellowship of the divine life, and 'all things hold together' in Christ.^57
Through welcome into the Church which makes the dying and rising of
Christ visible in the world, the infant will be drawn more deeply into the
life of God, and so be shaped by the body of Christ in the first sense as
well as the second. There is, then, a kind of incorporation which belongs to
the stage of infancy—though Baptists will want to mark this by the bless-
ing of an infant rather than by baptism.
At the end of the process of initiation—whether it has begun in infancy
or in later life—a person relates to the body of Christ as a disciple, com-
missioned for service. The disciple is in covenanted relation with other
disciples in the community of the Church, and exercises the spiritual gifts
that characterize being a distinct 'limb' or member of Christ, conformed to
the person of Christ through an 'owned' faith. This is not 'full' member-
ship as contrasted with an earlier 'partial' membership; it is the kind of
membership appropriate to being a disciple of Christ on active service in
the world, sharing in the mission of God. Between the beginning and the
end of the phase of initiation, membership may be manifested in a variety
of ways. A growing child, for instance, exercising a trust in Christ which
is appropriate to being a child, will be an essential part of making the body
of Christ visible. He or she is not yet commissioned as a disciple to work
in the world (by believer's baptism or some kind of confirmation), but is
still a member of the body, contributing a feature to the face of Christwhich stands out in the community.
Those who share in the body may also share in the bread, and this is
where the third sense of 'the body of Christ' interweaves with the other
two. It is surely fitting for children who have been baptized and are an
active part of the family of the Church, on the way to the completeness of
initiation, to share in the eucharist. But if we think in terms of a process ofincorporation, the theological point is not that 'baptism admits to com-
munion' as a kind of entrance qualification or legal hurdle. The point is
that those who are members of the body, on the way to being disciples,
may share in the eucharistic body. Some Baptists, then, will want to argue
for the admission of those children to communion who have faith in Christ,
and whose membership in Christ has been made corporate in the commu-
nity through some such rite as infant 'blessing'. Though they are not yet
- Col. 1.18. Behind the redaction of this song, the notion of the whole universe as
the body of Christ is still visible.