Question 33 of 77 · Ecumenical Affirmations
Do you believe that there is but one baptism?
Yes. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 33
4One body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism. 6One God and father of all, the one who is over all and through all and in all.
The catechism now reaches the creed's clause on baptism: "We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins." As with the opening questions, the answer moves the church's confession into the candidate's own mouth: "I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins." The question asks about the number, and the single scripture given is Paul's list of the things that are one in the church.
Paul writes to the Ephesians: "One body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and father of all, the one who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6). Baptism sits in that list beside the one Lord and the one God. Because there is one Lord, there is one baptism into his name; because there is one body, there is one entrance into it. The unity of baptism rests on the unity of God.
One carries two meanings the church has always held together. There is one baptism in the sense that all Christians receive the same sacrament, whatever the congregation or century, and a person baptized with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is received as baptized by the whole church. There is also one baptism in the sense that it is given once. Article VI of the Confession of Faith describes baptism as a sign of entrance into the household of faith and a representation of the new birth; a birth happens a single time, and the church does not rebaptize. A person who was baptized as an infant and later comes to faith confirms that baptism by profession, which is the language Article VI of the Confession of Faith uses.
For the forgiveness of sins is the creed's own phrase, and the church reads it in a Wesleyan way. Baptism is a means of grace; the pardon it signifies is received by faith. A Methodist can therefore look back on one baptism with confidence, as the outward sign that God set him within the one body under the one Lord, and can spend a lifetime living into what that sign declares.