Sacramental Streams

The church has long seen baptism as one of the means by which God delivers his grace to his people. Many passages in the New Testament detail the value of baptism and indicate its status as one of the primary gifts God gives. At the same time, Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus indicates the benefits of baptism should already be evident. The early church understood this and saw that God had been preparing his people for the sacrament from the very beginning. This book goes back through the Old Testament to draw on the various themes God has presented to inform and instruct his people about the sacrament he would later institute. By examining these themes in detail, it is shown that, though baptism is a one-time event in the life of the Christian, the baptized continue to receive its benefits. Baptism not only functions as an ongoing means of God's grace but as the means by which God shapes his people into the holy nation he has called them to be.