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Baptism.

Baptism described a process of being drenched (baptizo) with water, either through dipping or immersing or having water poured over them while they stood in the water. This was originally the outward act by which men and women in the early church demonstrated that they had committed themselves to Christ.

The word comes from the intensive form (baptizo) of the verb bapto - ‘to dip’, and means ‘to drench, immerse, overwhelm’. In the New Testament all examples of being baptised refer to those above the age of consent, and thus reflected a personal position, although in some cases the choice may have been limited due to circumstances.

Thus in the case of the Philippian jailer (Acts 16.25-34) we are not told whether his ‘household’ all freely consented. Wives and slaves may not have considered they had much choice, but outwardly at least their action declared their intention to be Christians. There is no reason to think that children were baptised in this case, any suggestion that this was so is pure supposition. Verse 31 can hardly mean that the jailer’s own belief saved the entire household, so that it is clear that belief was also expected of ‘the household’, which must therefore mean those of an age to be capable of believing. In verse 34 ‘all his household’ rejoice along with him, confirming that ‘all his household’ means those capable of understanding.

It is clear from the New Testament that all believers were expected to be baptised, and that this was to follow immediately after believing. It was among other things a declaration to the world that they no longer followed their previous religions, but now belonged to Christ. It was, however, more than this for it was also a declaration of repentance from sin (Acts 2.38 in line with the accounts of John the Baptiser) and an affirmation that they considered they were entering into the age of the Spirit.

But the outward coming of the Spirit to the individuals concerned preceded baptism in the case of Cornelius and his followers (Acts 10.44-48), while in the case of the Samaritans it was subsequent to it (Acts 8.14-16). In Acts 19.5 the Holy Spirit comes on the people, not when they are baptised, but when Paul lays his hands on them. Thus while baptism is a declaration that the person now intends to participate in the power of the Spirit, the two are not necessarily directly linked, and the one does not ensure the other. It is possible to be baptised without receiving the Spirit, and to receive the Spirit without being baptised. Indeed the thief on the cross (Luke 23.40-43) was not in a position to be baptised, but his salvation, declared by Jesus, surely included reception of the Spirit, without whom we are ‘none of His’ (Romans 8.9). As Jesus Himself said, ‘the wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know from where it comes or where it goes, so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3.8). We cannot tie God down to our conceptions.

Modern baptism in ‘Christendom’ is usually not specifically in accordance with Scriptural practise. Where infants are baptised it is more in hope than reality. While baptism and the reception of the Spirit are closely connected, there is nothing in Scripture that suggests that baptism automatically results in reception of the Spirit. Indeed we have seen that the opposite is the case. This is why Paul could say, ‘Christ sent me, not to baptise, but to preach the Gospel’ (1 Corinthians 1.17). It was the Gospel, and not baptism, which had the power to save. Adult baptism, on the other hand, usually comes some time after a person has become a Christian and received the Spirit (assuming that they have). The former is wishful thinking, the latter hard headed determination not to baptise people who are not genuinely converted. It is then seen mainly as a witness, although also a time of spiritual blessing. Sadly however we lose the distinctive connection between baptism and the first reception of the Spirit in the individual life, and it thus loses some of its meaning. The position is often different where Christianity is a minority religion as then baptism takes on an important role as being the defining step in moving out of another religion into Christianity.

But what is the meaning of Baptism?

As we all know, baptism was first carried out by John the Baptiser. He proclaimed a ‘baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’ (Mark 1.4: Luke 3.3), and the connection between repentance from sin and his baptism is made clear by John himself. However, he also goes on to declare that his baptism is a precursor to the age of the Spirit (Mark 1.8; Matthew 3.11; Luke 3.15-16; John 1.30-34), and he specifically parallels his baptism with water with Jesus’ coming ‘baptism with the Holy Spirit’. It is this fact which makes clear the significance of John’s baptism.

Some have suggested a connection with the Old Testament ‘washings with water’, as though John had in mind being cleansed from sin, but in the Old Testament water in itself never ‘cleanses’, and we are specifically told in every case that the Old Testament washings left the person ‘unclean until the evening’. This statement is repeated continually with respect to washing in water, and suggests that the cleansing itself actually arises through the time alone with God after the ritual washing. Whatever the washings indicated it was not spiritual cleansing. (The idea was probably the removal of ‘earthiness’ before approaching a holy God for cleansing).

Exceptions to this in Psalm 51.2 & 7 probably refer to washing in ‘blood sprinkled water’ as the parallel ‘purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean’ in verse 7 suggests. Hyssop was used to sprinkle water purified with the ashes of a sacrifice (Numbers 19.9; 17-19). So the ‘water for impurity for the removal of sin’ was water containing the ashes of sacrifice, and was sprinkled to remove uncleanness. Notice in Numbers 19.19 how the careful distinction is made. First the person is cleansed with the sprinkling of the ash-connected water, then they wash their clothes and bathe themselves in water, then they wait for the evening when they become clean. The washing and bathing is carefully separated from the idea of cleansing, and seems therefore to have more to do with becoming physically fitter to meet God, removing the earthiness and odours, preparatory to cleansing. Ezekiel also connects this sprinkled ‘purified’ water with the purifying of Israel in a passage connected with the coming of the Spirit (Ezekiel 36.25-27). Notice that God will use ‘clean water’, i.e. water that has been cleansed.

It is of course possible that in Psalm 51.2 David had in mind the fact that as a king he did (unlike common people who lacked the facilities) indulge in regular bathing, (mingled with perfumes), and that he was not connecting it with ritual cleansing, but v.7 suggests otherwise.

So if we are to connect John’s baptism with the water of the Old Testament, it must almost certainly be with the water containing sacrificial ashes. This alone was seen as cleansing.

But a study of John’s teaching suggests something far different.

Firstly we must note that he himself speaks of his baptism as preparatory to the coming of the One who will baptise with the Spirit. As with the Old Testament prophets he sees himself as acting out in picture form a future spiritual reality.

Consider how his teaching refers constantly to the analogies of fruitfulness and harvest. The Pharisees and Sadducees are like snakes fleeing from the burning cornfields (Matthew 3.7; Luke 3.7) and should rather ‘bear fruit’ (Matthew 3.8). The judgment is like the axe laid to the root of the trees that do not bear fruit (v.10). The One who is coming comes with a winnowing fork in His hands to gather the wheat into the granary and to cast the chaff into the fire (v.12). So John has in mind all the time pictures of fruitfulness and harvest, of the threshingfloor and overflowing barns, and the clearing of chaff and of ‘dead’ trees. This powerfully suggests that when he speaks of his baptism in the light of the coming of the Spirit he has in mind the pictures common in the Old Testament prophets of fruitfulness and blessing caused by the coming of the rains, which are constantly connected with the coming of the Spirit.

Then, says the prophet Isaiah, the Spirit will be ‘poured out from above’, the land will flourish and the desert will become fruitful, and justice and righteousness, peace and confidence will abound (Isaiah 32.15-18). It is clear here that the pouring out of the Spirit includes the pouring out of rain producing fruitful harvests, but there is no doubting that it also includes a life changing activity in the hearts of men.

This is confirmed by Isaiah 44.4-5. “I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon your children, and my blessing upon your offspring”. The people will flourish “like the grass at the coming of the rainy season, like willows planted by flowing rivers”. Once again we have the life-giving rain, but here the pouring out of the Spirit is on the people, who will thus each say ‘I am the Lord’s’ (v.6). Compare Isaiah 35.6-7; 41.17-20; 55.10-13; Joel 2.23-29; Ezekiel 34.26-27 which all see the future blessing in terms of rain pouring down, floods of water, abundant fruitfulness, and so on.

So John clearly has these Scriptures in mind when he preaches, and it is surely beyond all doubt that this is what his baptism signified, the drenching with lifegiving rain that produces fruitfulness and blessing. We can compare how Jesus must also surely have these Scriptures in mind when He speaks of being ‘born from above’ (John 3.6). Thus his baptism is a picture of the coming of the life giving Spirit, and he is seeking to prepare the way for this by bringing the people to repentance from sin and baptising them as a symbol of what God is about to do. The idea is not of washing but of life-giving. Jesus further added the idea of water as life-giving and thirst-satisfying (John 4; 8.37-9). In the latter there is, however, a direct connection with the rain producing ceremony at the Feast of Tabernacles.

In John 4.1-2 we find that Jesus’ Apostles also take up the practise with Jesus’ approval, so that they too, from the start, see baptism in this light. Of course, as with all symbols, its significance will widen, but there is no reason to doubt that this is the core idea of baptism, and this is confirmed by its continual connection with the coming of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28.19; Mark 16.16 - note how the gifts of the Spirit are mentioned in connection with baptism ; Acts 2.38 - note the connection with Joel’s prophecy; Acts 3.19 - ‘times of refreshing’ associated with baptism).

Romans 6.3-4 and Colossians 2.12 look on baptism as a burial and resurrection to a new life. The water is clearly seen as life-giving. This may well reflect the idea of going down into the water, and coming out again, but it should be noted that the coming of the rains after the dry season was looked on as a kind of dying and rising again, and there is therefore a connection between the two ideas. Whether this was in Paul’s mind we do not know, but it seems probable.

Peter in 1 Peter 3.21 compares baptism with being saved through the waters in Noah’s ark, and it interesting that he specifically rejects the idea of seeing it as ‘washing’, for he says it is ‘not the washing away of the filth of the flesh’ (which was the idea of Old Testament ritual). Rather it is ‘the answer of a good conscience towards God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ’, tying in with Paul’s dying and rising again.

Paul elsewhere speaks of being ‘baptised into Christ’ (Galatians 3.27), and the context suggests that the idea is of the commitment of faith resulting in being ‘in Christ’. This is possibly amplified in 1 Corinthians 12.13 where he speaks of ‘being baptised with the Spirit (en pneumati - as in descriptions of John’s words about the baptism with the Spirit) into the body of Christ’ becoming members of His body, although water baptism may not specifically be in mind here.

An indirect reference to what baptism symbolises might be seen in 1 Corinthians 6.11 and Titus 3.5 where Paul speaks of being ‘washed --- in the Spirit of our God’ and ‘the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit’. Here again there is the idea of new life from the Spirit, which is seen as cleansing and purifying, but there is no direct connection with baptism in either contexts, which is never directly connected with washing in the Gospels or Epistles.

The only exception in the New Testament is in Acts 22.16 where Ananias says to Paul, ‘Arise and be baptised, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord’. But this may well connect with the background of ‘the washing of regeneration’ which refers to the fruitfulness of the earth, or indeed he could well be thinking of washing ‘in the blood of Jesus’ (compare Revelation 7.14). ‘Wash away your sins’ should more probably be seen as directly connected with ‘call on the name of the Lord’, rather than specifically as directly connected with ‘be baptised’. It is significant that Ananias us shown as using ’apolouo and not louo. ’apolouo is used only once in LXX, and that is to represent washing in snow (Job 9.30 - water directly from heaven), in contrast with louo which is used of ceremonial washing.

Modern man might say that Christians would surely think of baptism when washing was mentioned, but that is because we interpret baptism like that. To us the emphasis when we think of water is on washing. The early church were not in the same position. Among the majority washing was not seen as a top priority (water was too precious). It was seen as life-giving. When they thought of water they thought of the rain and its effects, and of the fruitfulness that it produced. They thought of water as thirst-quenching and life sustaining. Indeed even the Pharisaic washings were not for purposes of cleanliness but in order to remove ritual defilement. Thus, while they may have seen washing as an occasional way of becoming clean (and especially of cleaning clothes) they would not necessarily connect it with baptism.

So the prime idea of baptism would seem to be as a picture of the coming of the Holy Spirit coming like life-giving rain so that we are ‘drenched in the Holy Spirit’, and of the dying and rising again to new life that this envisaged.