HAYMES The Moral Miracle of Faith 327
interpretations^2 but two themes are particularly important for our reflec-
tion. The first is the notion of solidarity. Jesus becomes one in the waters
of the Jordan with those whom God is seeking to save. In the same way,
we might understand our baptism, following Jesus, as an act of solidarity
with him. We shall return to this point.
The other theme is eschatological. In the baptism of Jesus the Spirit is
present, that same Spirit who was at work in creation, active in the raising
up of Jesus, and whose coming at Pentecost is one of the signs of the New
Age of God's redemption. Baptism, for Jesus and ourselves, has past,present, and future dimensions. For Paul in Rom. 6, baptism clearly has
eschatological meaning in that the work of salvation is done and the bap-
tized live in the realm of salvation while looking for the coming Saviour
and the completion of all God's purposes in him.
One aspect of an eschatological faith is the affirmation that already the
presence of God's coming reign is with us. The salvation God has prom-
ised is already to be appropriated in hope, based on the past victorious
activity of God and the present activity of the Spirit. In Jesus, the resur-
rection has already begun, as has the judgment and the giving of the Spirit.
All these are signs of the eschatological New Age promised and pro-
claimed. The old order, dominated by sin and death, is not the final reality
and therefore is not the air the Christian breathes. Because of what God
has done in the life, cross, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, with
the coming of the Spirit, the promised age, while not completed, is already
here. It is inhabited by grace.
I have written elsewhere concerning some of the implications of this.^3 If
Jesus is the one who has broken the cycle of the world's violence, if he has
overcome sin's power, most notably in his resurrection from the dead, if
he is 'Lord' and the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has
been given, then to be 'in Christ' is to live the life of the new being, the
new age. By our faith and baptism into Christ we share a life pitched- J. Nolland, '"In such a manner it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness":
Reflections on the Place of Baptism in the Gospel of Matthew', in S.E. Porter and
A.R.Cross (eds.), Baptism, the New Testament and the Church: Historical and Con-
temporary Studies in Honour ofR.E.O. White (JSNTSup, 171; Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 1999), pp. 63-80. - B. Haymes, 'Baptism as a Political Act', in P.S. Fiddes (ed), Reflections on the
Water: Understanding God and the World through the Baptism of Believers (RSG, 4;
Oxford: Regent's Park College; Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 1996), pp. 69-83.