Author’s Note
Many travel great
distances to attend special meetings or find themselves tuning into
various T.V. programs hoping to receive a spiritual blessing. Well, there
is one right here! A fresh look at baptism; the power and promises
surrounding it will amaze you and cause you to stand in awe of God.
Personally, baptism is far more than I had ever realized and
perhaps this is true for you also....either way, may God bless you as you
diligently seek Him.
BAPTISM
What Every
Believer
Should Know
I used to consider baptism like a wedding ring; a
public confession of my commitment to God. The wedding ring seemed to be
the perfect parallel because it doesn’t marry me, it only reveals my
marriage, just like baptism. It doesn’t save me, it only reveals I’m
saved. My thinking was this: I can be saved without baptism just as I can
be married without a ring. The Bible clearly states that we are saved by
our personal faith in Jesus Christ alone!
…if you
confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God
has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
(Romans 10:9)
HOWEVER, as I began to earnestly study baptism I
found much more than I had previously understood. Rather than a
religious ritual or symbol, God intends baptism to be a very real and
powerful spiritual blessing.
The first scripture that came to mind as I began this
booklet was Ephesians 4:4-6:
There is one body and one
Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one
faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above
all, and through all, and in you all.
There is one body. It doesn’t matter which Christian
church you attend. There is one Spirit, one hope, one Lord and one
faith. When we get to heaven the Baptists won’t have a Jesus, the
Methodists another Jesus, and the Community Churches yet another Jesus.
There will only be one Jesus worshipped by one church.
Amen! But the Scripture in Ephesians goes on further...there is only
one baptism. There are not dozens, only one. Just as surely as there
is only one Lord, there is also only one ritual in the early church
understood to be baptism.
Yet today there is so much discussion about the
purpose and practice of baptism. So many types...“Sprinklers” and
“Dunkers”, those who “lean-back”, those who “lean forward” and let’s not
forget “Squatters”. Along with these there are so many divisive teachings
...“You have to be baptized in this church.” “You have to be baptized by
this man.” “You have to be baptized in Jesus’ Name.” “You have to be
baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
A little humorous side note: At this point in my
life, I make a whole-hearted attempt to remove division from among the
church. So, I now require a baptismal candidate to be sprinkled while
approaching the water, followed by a thorough dunking wherein the person
must complete a pirouette underwater while I recite the one hundred most
frequently used Names of God.
But seriously, I have had to modify my procedure
some. I now baptize “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. In the Name of Jesus!” This way all of the bases are
covered when a believer is confronted, “Did you get baptized in Jesus’
Name, or did you get baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit?” They will simply be able to answer “Yes!” and go on with
life.
So where did baptism come from and when did it begin?
It is interesting that if I approached someone today
and said, “Have you been baptized?” they would immediately assume that I
was speaking about Christianity. They wouldn’t wonder if I was a
Buddhist. Baptism is a “Christian” thing.
This was not so in the beginning...
THE FIRST BAPTISM
The Jews had many baptisms or “cleansings” in their “Mikveh”,
which resembled a large cistern. The name, “Mikveh” is Hebrew for
“gathering” and comes straight from the first chapter of our Bible.
Then God said, "Let the waters
under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry
land appear"; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and
the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw
that it was good.
(Genesis 1:9-10)
Based on this, the Jews made a “gathering”, or a
Mikveh, just as God had done on the third day of creation. In fact, some
Rabbis believed that God was also the first in history to perform a
baptism in the Mikveh.
The earth also was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the
earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on
the earth. And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before
Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I
will destroy them with the earth…And behold, I Myself am bringing
floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which
is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.
(Genesis 6:11-13, 17)
You may think that referring to the flood as a
baptism is a far stretch. However, it was not a far stretch for the
Apostle Peter.
…the Divine longsuffering waited
in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few,
that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype
which now saves us--baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ…
(1 Peter 3:20-21)
Peter tells us that God symbolically baptized the
entire world during the flood. And what was the purpose of this baptism?
According to Genesis 6, God was removing corruption.
We know the rest of the story well...After the earth
was cleansed, Noah released a dove from the ark which subsequently
returned to him with a leaf from an olive tree, to signify that there was
new life growing on the planet. Noah eventually lands on Mt. Ararat and
God begins a fresh start for the world. The planet had been cleansed of
its corruption by the flood and now began a new life. This gives us our
first biblical insight into baptism: Cleansing and New Life.
THE JEWISH ANGLE
The Old Testament Law had many baptisms, including
specific washings for everything from lepers (Leviticus 14:8) to leather
garments (Leviticus 13:53-54); from work equipment (Leviticus 11:32) to
war spoils (Numbers 31:23); from morticians (Numbers 19:11-12) to
ministers (Exodus 30:20). I counted at least twenty specific washings.
In the midst of these, many other traditions sprang up, such as washing
your hands prior to a meal, the correct washing of dishes, or even the
right way to wash your couch (Mark 7:2-4). Washing, washing; lots of
washing.
In reflection, most Jewish baptisms, whether biblical
or traditional, now clearly seem to be for sanitation (although we didn’t
understand this for several thousand years). If someone had a disease or
death in their household they were required by God’s Law to wash. Perhaps
to them, it was a religious ritual, but God knew that there was a blessing
of health in it for those who would obey. Today, medical science agrees
with God’s Law. When you are admitted into an emergency room with a
wound, they no longer pull out a Bible to see what they should do.
Instead they have been trained to understand that there are invisible
impurities (germs) that need to be washed out of the wound. It is no
longer a Jewish religious ceremony. But it used to be one! Is it
possible that this same cleansing is the underlying purpose of God’s
command for baptism?
When God baptized the world He was removing
corruption. When the Jew baptized a diseased man or a bowl, they were
unknowingly removing corruption. Yet there is an interesting twist…a very
interesting Scriptural law about a man who cooks and eats “road kill”...
…every person who eats what died
naturally or what was torn by beasts, whether he is a native of your own
country or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes and bathe in
water, and be unclean until evening. Then he shall be clean. But
if he does not wash them or bathe his body, then he shall bear his
guilt.
(Leviticus 17:15-16)
If you do not bathe in water and wash your clothes
after eating an animal that you found dead, then you will be defiled by
your “guilt”. This infers that the ritual washing removed more than
germs. How is that possible? Remember 1 Peter 3:21 referred to
baptism as not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the
answer of a good conscience toward God, or if you will allow a
paraphrase, the cleansing of a guilty conscience.
Here is where my personal struggle began...
“God, it’s a symbol! That’s all it is. It’s a
symbol!” Yet Leviticus 17:16 says that this washing was far greater than
a symbol. It cleansed guilt. Stop right now and point to your “guilt”.
Where is it exactly? In what part of your body does “guilt” dwell? We
can’t point to it, because it is spiritual and not physical. Is the Bible
actually saying that a physical washing in water can affect something
spiritual? If so, then baptism becomes increasingly important.
If I have applied the principle found in
Leviticus 17:16 correctly, that still leaves me with a problem. What if I
become guilty again? It doesn’t matter how many times I visit the
doctor, each new wound gets its own washing. Do I need to be re-baptized
each time I have guilt?
No! The Bible says that there is only one
baptism, not repeated baptisms. The issue does become a little clouded
when you find out that many Christians (including myself) have been
baptized more than once. (We will discuss what makes a baptism valid
before God, later in the booklet.)
As I began to read about Jewish culture, I found that
they understood baptism to be a temporary cleansing from corruption, not a
permanent one. In fact, because of this, their oral tradition (the
Mishnah) says that Ezra the scribe required each male to be immersed prior
to praying or studying Scripture. Catch that? If you wished to attend
Ezra’s Bible study or prayer meeting you would have to be baptized at the
front door. Not a foot washing, but a full-fledged bath. In fact, the
scribes who copied the sacred Scriptures were required to change their
clothes and bathe each time they copied the Name of God onto their
parchment. So Jewish tradition required repeated baptisms to remain in a
state of spiritual cleanliness before God. Scribes were squeaky clean!
However, there was “one baptism” which was not
repeated and stood out from all others: The baptism of conversion; or when
a Gentile became a Jew. If you were not born a Jew, yet wanted to
worship the God of the Jews and convert to Judaism, it was decided that
you must meet three requirements: First you had to have the mark of
conversion. Second you had to have the baptism of conversion. Finally
you had to have the sacrifice of conversion.
THE MARK—What was the mark of a Jew?
This is My covenant which you
shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male
child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in
the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant
between Me and you.
(Genesis 17:10-11)
The Hebrew word for “sign” can be translated “mark”.
To be in the covenant between God and the Jews, you had to be marked
with circumcision. Many nations and cultures have since adopted this
practice, but it was definitely a unique command to Abraham in Genesis 17.
THE BAPTISM—After receiving the mark of
circumcision, the Gentile would then cleanse himself in the Mikveh, and
prepare for the sacrifice.
THE SACRIFICE—The sacrifice paid the penalty of
sin. If I murder someone and then bathe, while there would be no blood on
me, I would still be wanted for murder. You can be clean and still a
murderer. The baptism cleansed, but did not pay the penalty for sin. For
that, you must have a sacrifice.
And according to the law
almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of
blood there is no remission.
(Hebrews 9:22)
For the life of the flesh is
in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make
atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for
the soul.
(Leviticus 17:11)
So, first the mark, then the baptism and finally the
sacrifice. When these were completed the Gentile would now emerge as a
“child of one day”, and was considered a Jew from birth. He was literally
born again into God’s family through Abraham.
However, a Jew did not need to be born into God’s
family because he was already a descendent of Abraham. In John
chapter three Nicodemus (a Jew) couldn’t fathom what Jesus was talking
about:
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again , he cannot see
the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be
born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born
of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
(John 3:3-7)
BAPTISM TODAY
Now we know what was accepted and understood by the
Jews long before the first Christian was ever baptized. This is the
culture and society present during the days of Jesus.
Then the LORD sent a man named John the son of
Zacharias the priest to prepare Israel for her Messiah. We know him as
John the Baptist because he was baptizing everyone. Since baptism was
important to Jewish culture this was completely acceptable.
In those days John the Baptist
came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand!" For this is he who was spoken of by the
prophet Isaiah, saying:
"The voice of one crying in the
wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.'"
And John himself was clothed in
camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his
food was locusts and wild honey.
Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out
to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
(Matthew 3:1-6)
Why were they going out to him? What was the
significance? They desired to be cleansed from their sins. However,
remember, baptism did not and cannot pay the penalty for sin. It was only
an act of repentance.
Many were coming out to be baptized by him. And, not
just common people, but even Pharisees and Sadducees who were
intrigued by the idea of a washing in the wilderness by a prophet.
However, it eventually became clear that this was not an ordinary
baptism! Why do I say this? Because, John began to require the mark of
God in each person’s life before he would baptize them. The Jewish crowds
thought that the mark of God was their circumcision but John was going to
disagree…
THE “REAL” MARK
But when he saw many of the
Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? "Therefore bear
fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We
have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up
children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the
root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:7-10)
What did he say? “I will not baptize you because
you are a snake!?” He wanted to see whether they had the mark of God
first. In their mind they respond, “I’m a Jew. I’m a circumcised child
of Abraham. I have the mark!” He answers, “Not good enough! You need
repentance. No baptism without repentance.” The same thing that Peter
said a few years later.
Then Peter said to them, "Repent,
and let every one of you be baptized…(Acts 2:38)
The Bible does not say, be baptized and then repent.
The Jews understood that the mark of circumcision (the sign of the
covenant between them and God) must come first. What they did not
understand was that everyone must be “born again”, Jew and Gentile alike,
and that the true mark was not circumcision of the flesh, but of the
heart.
For he is not a Jew who is one
outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he
is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart…
(Romans 2:28-29)
You see the true mark of God is still circumcision,
but not of the flesh. Those “snaky” Pharisees and Sadducees had a mark,
but John told them they didn’t have the real mark. The mark of God must
be in our lives prior to baptism, and that mark is circumcision of the
heart, or repentance.
Many people have been baptized who were not truly
repentant. That was true for my own self. I was baptized when I was not
repentant and in fact did not repent for another three years. I didn’t
have the mark and so, if you will, all I had was the washing away of dirt
when I was baptized. Without a repentant heart, I did not have the mark
of God in my life. Since receiving this mark, I have been re-baptized.
“I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose
sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean
out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:11-12)
In other words, “Straighten up!” because this One is
going to test our hearts. He’s going to burn up those who aren’t real and
bring those who are real to heaven.
THE BAPTISM
Then Jesus came from Galilee to
John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him,
saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?" But
Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him.
(Matthew 3:13-15)
If baptism is a cleansing of corruption, why did
Jesus get baptized? Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was without sin.
So, why was He baptized? He tells John, “It’s about the big picture
John. I’m going to walk in the way God wants men to walk. Let me do it.”
When He had been baptized, Jesus
came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to
Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting
upon Him.
And suddenly a voice came from
heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
(Matthew 3:16-17)
Now that’s a baptism, when God shouts from heaven as
they come up out of the water, “This one’s mine!” This testimony was the
reason John was baptizing.
The next day John saw Jesus
coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is
preferred before me, for He was before me.' I did not know Him; but
that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with
water." And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending
from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him,
but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see
the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with
the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of
God." (John 1:29-34)
Jesus was baptized to reveal that He is the Messiah,
the Savior. It seems that he looked like a common man (see Isaiah 53:2
and Matthew 26:48). However, His baptism was not common.
So, let’s review the three steps of being born into
the family of God:
First, the mark, which they thought was
circumcision but we have found is circumcision of the heart, or
repentance.
Second, there was a baptism to cleanse their lives
from corruption.
The final step after baptism was the sacrifice, which
paid the penalty for sin.
THE SACRIFICE
Jesus is the sacrifice! My re-birth can now be
complete because I can bear the mark of repentance, I can be baptized in
water to cleanse my corrupt life, and I can be forgiven the judgment
against me through Jesus’ sacrifice.
For I delivered to you first of
all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures
(1 Corinthians 15:3)
There is a small problem however...according to God’s
law, technically, I’m the one who has to be sacrificed for my sin.
That’s what it says:
The soul who sins shall die.
The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the
guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon
himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
(Ezekiel 18:20)
If that is true, then the only way to pay the
penalty for my sins biblically, is for me to die. God’s law says that
another cannot do it for me. But God has provided a miracle at baptism.
For you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)
At this point I sat down in my chair...When I am
baptized I am literally placed by God into Christ. I step into the
water and as I go down I step into Christ. Which means, I am
literally in Christ! PRAISE GOD!
Or do you not know that as many
of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with
Him through baptism into death…(Romans 6:3-4a)
At baptism, something supernatural occurs to fulfill
God’s law. As I go down, I’m not only washed, I’m not only cleansed…I
step into Jesus Christ and die with Him, thereby fulfilling the Law of
God. God looks down from heaven and declares that I am dead. Just as
dead as if I ceased breathing. Just as if I was buried in a coffin. It is
a settled fact……...I AM DECEASED! God declares it at my baptism!
We look at the believer being baptized and they go
down and come up, but in heaven they move from alive to dead during the
baptism. They literally, not figuratively, die. In heaven
they have paid the price for their sin. Romans then goes on to reveal an
even greater miracle.
…that just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together
in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the
likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:4b-5)
How radically changed was Jesus when He came out of
the grave? That is the change available to every believer at baptism. It
is not magical water; it is the power of God. You come up completely
new in heaven. As awesome as if you had died and were now resurrected.
That is how God and the angels in heaven view it and that is exactly
what happens. Newness of life.
BUT, this is only true if you have the mark of
repentance in your life. If you are baptized while unrepentant then it is
only water and dirt. However, if you have circumcision of the heart
then you go down black as charcoal in the eyes of God, are placed into
Christ where the penalty of your sin is paid and then come up as white as
fine linen with a new life!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things
have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2
Corinthians 5:17)
A super-natural act of purification from and payment
for sin. But baptism doesn’t end with that...there’s more!
THE BLESSING
The Bible says baptism not only gives us
purification from...and payment for sin, but Hallelujah, it
offers power against sin as well.
God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, raised
Jesus from the dead. So now, by faith, as I come up out of the water
according to a literal reading of Romans 6:5 I am united with Him in
His resurrection. Now, Romans 8:11 says…
But if the Spirit of Him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will
also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
That means I now have resurrection power dwelling
within me. I am now alive in the Spirit of God and therefore God gives me
the power to overcome sin and live a new life.
Repent (the mark),
and let every one of you be baptized (the cleansing) in the
Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins (the sacrifice);
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (the
blessing).
(Acts 2:38 with additions)
Baptism is awesome, awesome, awesome! You have
purified and paid for your sins and are now empowered to fight against
them.
It is not the symbol or the “public confession” that
I thought it was? This is not taught in the Scriptures.
The Ethiopian eunuch was not baptized as a public
confession:
Now as they went down the road,
they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What
hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "If you believe with
all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still.
And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized
him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord
caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his
way rejoicing. (Acts 8:36-39)
The apostle Paul was not baptized as a public
confession:
And Ananias went his way and
entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the
Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that
you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he
received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. (Acts
9:17-18)
The Philippian jailer was not baptized as a public
confession:
So they said, "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." Then
they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
And he took them the same hour of the night and
washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were
baptized.
(Acts 16:31-33)
Baptism may result in a public confession, but that
is not its primary purpose. Public confession is not to come from our
baptism but from our mouths:
if you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the
dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
To teach baptism as a public confession of faith is
to dishonor the miracle. Whether one person or a thousand attend your
baptism...whether conducted in the broad daylight or secretly at
night...whether you are submerged in a puddle or a river… whether you are
baptized by a preacher or a pew-duster it is a miraculous act of God!
CONCLUSION
How important is baptism? VERY! The most compelling
reason to be baptized is simply because God commanded it and we cannot
say that we are following Him while refusing to obey Him.
Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)
It has been my heart to reveal what the
Scriptures say about the mystery of baptism, so that we might truly
treasure the gift that God has given to us.
If God is moving on your heart to be baptized or
re-baptized, you need to consider whether you have the mark of
repentance. Can you say, “I have sinned and I repent, Lord”? When
you repent, then God will circumcise your heart. He will enter in to that
terrible place, cut it out and throw it away, just like the circumcision
of the flesh. If that was lacking from your previous baptism, then I say,
“Get baptized again!”
If perhaps you were baptized with the mark of
repentance yet are now struggling in your Christian walk, then you need to
realize the blessing of baptism. You are carrying around the Holy Spirit
who has the ability to overcome any and all sin in your life with the same
power that raised Jesus from the dead. God has given you the power to
live for Him through His Holy Spirit. At baptism you were placed into
Christ’s death on the cross:
Or do you not know that as many
of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we
also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)
Jesus Christ is now alive by the power of God and so
are you!
Does baptism save? NO!
Baptism does not save, CHRIST SAVES!
However, according to Scripture...
BAPTISM PLACES YOU IN CHRIST.
What power!
What blessing!
Now you know!
What every Believer should know!
If you have any questions about God, the Bible or if
you want prayer call 541-430-SAVE.
If you would like to purchase copies of this booklet
please contact:
Camas Valley Christian Fellowship
P.O. Box 41
Camas Valley, OR 97416
541-445-2001
