Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

WATTS Baptism and the Hiddenness of God 279

mental theology of baptism will surely focus on the manner of God's

presence with us in the Spirit. As I have argued, the question of the hid-

denness of God raises precisely this question and it is suggested that a

proper engagement between the concept of hiddenness and a trinitarian

theology of the Spirit in terms of the freedom of God will provide a con-

structive way forward.

What of the baptism of infants? On a surface reading it might be possi-

ble to construct a theology of infant baptism utilizing the concept of

hiddenness; indeed the very concept seems to lend itself to an approach

which looks for nothing by way of response on the part of the child. This

move should be resisted on grounds amply explored elsewhere, and in

terms of the theology of the Spirit expounded in this paper. The common

objection that paedobaptism drives a wedge between baptism, repentance

and faith must be repeated. The rite of confirmation reflects the serious

effects of this separation. More specifically, our exposition of the Spirit as

the freedom of God's future into which we are caught and in which we

make a truly human response, would deny the validity of any baptismal

practice which did not contain that element of response. To offer baptism

to babies on the basis of God's hidden activity might come perilously

close to presuming upon God's activity in a given way, as well as denying

the reality of the free human response which is a true expression of the

hidden activity of God in the freedom of the Spirit. For those who remain

committed to a sacramental paedobaptist position, does not the belief that

God will act under the cloak of the sign without any evidence of faith

simply deny the very freedom of God which we have been expounding?

The free action of the Spirit will not be contained in any ecclesiastical

vessel or font.

Equally, those who prefer a view of baptism as simply a human act of

obedience seem to deny the possibility of the sacramental freedom of God

to act wherever and whenever he pleases. God will not be excluded,

especially from signs of grace through which he has promised to act. In

baptism the free human response of the believer which is evidence of and

dependent on the reality of the hidden, free working of the Spirit of God,

signifies the union with the Christ who died, who is risen and who is to

come. As part of the normal pattern of conversion, baptism shows visibly

the reality of the hidden promise of God to which we respond. In the Spirit

we are released from the past through our union with Christ and opened to

live in anticipation of the future consummation, to live with God and for

God. This is the drama of believer's baptism.