WATTS Baptism and the Hiddenness ofGod 277
ticipation in the divine life; we are drawn into the open future of God's
activity in the world through the Spirit's liberating action. This does not
imply any sense in which God's action is manipulated by our human
action; that would deny the theology of the Spirit we have put forward. To
speak of baptism as this sort of act is to describe the manner of our
response as promise and pledge, a 'yes' which is grounded in God's prior
'yes' to us in Christ and made possible by the gracious activity of the
Spirit.
In this regard baptism must be understood to be fully sacramental. The
key to this is, once again, the notion of freedom, or as Christopher Ellis
has called it 'the sacramental freedom of God'.^20 This is no mechanical
sacramentalism, but rather a genuine expectation that God will act through
the gathering of the church for worship and in the act of baptism as the
candidate makes a fully personal response in the freedom granted in Christ
through the Spirit. The act of baptism becomes a place of expected meet-
ing with the risen Lord, who is present in the Spirit who opens the future
for God in the world and thus for us in participation in the triune life of
God. In this sense baptism is eschatological, an anticipation of this unfold-
ing future, and ethical, since the future we are pledging ourselves towards
is lived with God and for God.^21
The eschatological dimension is most clearly seen in the metaphor of
dying and rising with Christ. The spiritual rebirth, death to self and res-
urrection in Christ is an anticipation of the eschatological bodily resurrec-
tion (Rom. 5.6-8). The Christian life is lived in the light of this promise of
God: it is a future which is defined by the past event of the cross. Through
the sacrifice of Christ we are set free from our bondage to past sin and
liberated to live in the light of the eschatological goal. This relationship of
the past and the future is once again an exposition of the action of the
Spirit who, through the word of God in the Church, unites us with Christ
in his death and resurrection and promises that we shall live with Christ at
the End. The word that is spoken is the gospel: the Spirit brings together
- J. Christopher Ellis, 'Baptism and the Sacramental Freedom of God', in P.S.
Fiddes (ed.), Reflections on the Water: Understanding God and the World through the
Baptism of Believers (RSG, 4; Oxford: Regents Park College; Macon, GA: Smyth &
Helwys, 1996), pp. 23-45. 'The freedom of God means that he is free to work through
the means of grace that he has given to the church' (p. 41). Once again, this does not
imply the grace of God can be dispensed on demand, but affirms that we might humbly
expect God to work in the freedom of his Spirit through the means instituted by Christ. - This is the most obvious significance of Rom. 6.1-15.