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The Meaning and Mode of Baptism
I’d like now to address some issues about baptism, particularly look again at its meaning, and then show how it is that the various modes of baptism that we are familiar with are each fine and suitable ways of signifying the meaning of baptism. I am writing with our upcoming baptisms in mind. Baptism has the same meaning of course when an infant is being baptized, it’s just that in the one case we anticipate the work of God, which the baptism signifies, and in the other case we reflect back on the work of God, which the baptism signifies. In both cases baptism unites the person with the visible church and real life people of God.
Baptism of course is commanded in Scripture. Neither the water, nor the words, nor the person doing the baptism are magic. They don’t in themselves create in the person the grace of God signified by the symbols, words, and people. The act of baptism is important for what it points to or signifies. As a sign, baptism points to two distinct but inseparable realities, to an inner invisible reality and to an outer visible reality. The inner reality to which the water of baptism points is that of purification, cleansing, forgiveness, regeneration, new birth, and baptism in the Holy Spirit. The outer reality to which baptism points is that of identification with the visible church, the localized external visible people of God with whom God is in covenant.
Baptism points both to an internal hidden reality and to an external visible reality. In what it symbolizes and represents, baptism reminds us that we are members both of the invisible and visible church. The two go together. We have been invisibly united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, and we have been visibly united with the space/time people of Christ, or the church. Baptism thus joins together what we too easily tear asunder – the external and internal aspect of our lives as followers of Jesus.
Thinking of the external part first, our baptism is a public, visible act whereby we are identified as belonging to Christ and being a part of the community of his people. It, like circumcision in the Old Testament, is an initiation rite, an entry rite. Baptism is a sign of belonging to the covenant people of God. It is our way of saying to God that we belong to Him and to His people. It is His way of saying to us that we are now identified with Him and His people. It is good to be reminded that in many Muslim and Hindu countries a person’s supposed conversion to Christ is not taken seriously by his family and neighbors until the person is baptized. Baptism as an external physical visible act communicates a new loyalty, a new family, a new home, and a new community. Is symbolizes a break with the old and an identification with the new.
The visible church is the community of those who profess loyalty to King Jesus and who profess to follow in His ways. The visible church is set apart by Jesus as a new humanity being renewed in Christ. We see this in the visible church’s call to be holy, as God is holy, to love one another as God in Christ has loved them, and to be agents of King Jesus in the restoration of His world to Himself. These are the elements that make up the second half of that grand recurring summation of the covenant relationship between God and His people -- “I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Baptism is a sign of being identified with this people. It says “He is my God, I am of his people.”
Frankly, our pietistic, individualistic, privatized understanding of faith in modern American evangelicalism has resulted in a diminishing of the significance of the external aspect of our walk with Christ, and the external corporate nature of the people of God. Although God does work in us as individuals, His plan and purpose in renewing His world is to call a people, a corporate entity, to Himself. His covenant is not with individuals but with a people. God is working in history in, with, and through a people, with a flesh and blood corporate entity. This people is always local, always, manifest as a specific localized gathering of professing believers. The localized corporate people of God are the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, and the flock of God. Baptism signifies our identification with the corporate people of God.
But baptism also points to an inward or hidden or reality, to the inward work of God in our hearts as believers. Water cleans. Cleansing is the basic meaning of the word “baptism,” which means to clean by dipping, washing, bathing, pouring or whatever. But in biblical times water was thought of not only as a substance that cleans. It also had a common symbolic use. Symbolically, water was used to represent purification. The cleansing aspect of water represented being ceremonially purified or rendered clean before God, set apart and available for His use. Temple artifacts (including large items such as tables) were thus sprinkled by or dipped into water in a purification rite. This symbolic act of cleansing symbolized that the article was no longer defiled, no longer separated from God.
The meaning of New Testament baptism takes up this slightly different (to us) idea of “purification” as well, a concept rooted in the Old Covenant purification laws. The water of baptism is not just a general sign of washing, which we understand well today, but of ceremonial purification, which we don’t understand so well today. The water of baptism signifies the work of God in purifying us and setting us apart as being ceremonially clean and undefiled before him. What is it that makes us defiled or impure before a holy God? It is our sin. By our sin and sinfulness we are defiled, polluted, dirty, separated, and unfit to enter into His presence. Baptism signifies the work of God whereby we are reborn, set apart, made clean, purified, rendered undefiled, forgiven, and restored to Him.
(As an aside, one reason we today don’t relate so well to the biblical image of sprinkling is that we are far removed culturally from the idea of ceremonial or cultic cleansing. It is hard for us to enter into this aspect of the symbolic meaning of baptism. We more easily relate to the general idea of washing, as in washing dishes, washing our hands, washing our clothes to remove dirt, and not ceremonial or cultic washing. We don’t relate so well to the biblical images of ceremonial cleansing surrounding the temple worship. This we are more naturally drawn to acts of washing that convey to us cleansing or washing in the everyday and not the cultic or temple worship sense, which is why people tend to relate more to immersion rather than sprinkling as a mode of baptism.)
It is very important that we see the relationship between the internal hidden and external visible aspects of baptism? Most of us would say that a supposed inward reality is not really real if it doesn’t show itself externally. That is, God’s work in me inwardly will manifest itself outwardly. If I claim to have experienced the work of God inwardly, then this work will prove itself outwardly. This is Paul’s powerful argument in Romans 6. If I have been baptized into Christ (It is commonly thought that in Romans 6 Paul is referring to the internal or inward or “spiritual” baptism to which the water baptism points) then I will, indeed I must, walk outwardly in newness of life. The Spirit who renews me inwardly will renew me outwardly, and in the context of the body of Christ I will bear the fruit of the Spirit – I will love, encourage, be patient, be joyful, be kind, etc. The Spirit who renews and baptizes me inwardly will gift me with gifts whereby I can build up the real visible body of Christ. The Spirit who unites me to Christ will cause me to imitate him in my outward life as I give of myself in a life of service to others.
In addition, when God changes me inwardly in making me to be undefiled in his sight, He then sets me as a new and reborn creature in Christ back into His world as part of his renewed people to make a difference in his real external world. He doesn’t cleanse and purify me merely to “get me into heaven” but he cleanses me that through me He can work to achieve his purposes for his world. He plops me as a new creature right back down into a hurting world, into the real world of space and time and history, into that world he is restoring to Himself, and he tells me to live unto Him there, just as Jesus did. He makes me to be a part of His people though whom he is working to restore His world. The inward reality of becoming spiritually purified is to show itself in a new way of life for human beings. So He plops us not just back into the world, but into real local assemblies of his people to show the world what redeemed humanity is to look like. Thus Baptism unites the internal and external.
Baptism is a water rite. The water of baptism can be applied to the person being baptized in different ways, all of which are sound and valid. The water of baptism can be sprinkled (or sloshed) upon the person, poured over the person, or can envelop the person who might be dipped completely or immersed in water of baptism. In each case the way the water which is applied signifies the cleansing work of God in purifying the person before Him. Let’s look at each of these in turn. First, let us look at “sprinkling.”
In the Old Testament there are five important types of references to “sprinkling” which are useful to our discussion here.
First, there is the sprinkling of blood upon the doorposts with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. The NIV chooses not to use the word “sprinkle” here, even though the Hebrew word is the same as in the other usages. The idea I suppose is more that of sloshing.
Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it (sprinkle or slosh it) on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs (Exodus 12:6-7).
There is a comment on this Exodus passage in the New Testament book of Hebrews. Speaking of the faith of Moses he says:
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel (Hebrews 11:28).
Second, there is the sprinkling of blood upon the people of Israel in the ceremony that ceremony whereby the Mosaic covenant is ratified. In this case the blood is referred to as the “blood of the covenant.” By receiving the sign of the blood of a slain animal upon them, the Israelite people are saying symbolically, “So be it done to us if we fail to be faithful to our covenant duties.”
When Moses went and told the people all the Lord's words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do." Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words" (Exodus 24:3-8).
When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people (Hebrews 9:19).
Third, there is the general sprinkling of blood upon various people and artifacts to guarantee ceremonial purification in the worship of the temple. Some of these passages refer to the purification rites of the Day of Atonement, some to more general purification rites.
"He (Aaron, on the day of Atonement) shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness. No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel (Leviticus 16:15-17).
Fourth, there is the sprinkling of water upon various people and temple artifacts to make them ceremonially clean.
The LORD said to Moses: "Take the Levites from among the other Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. To purify them, do this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes, and so purify themselves (Numbers 8:5-7).
"Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the Lord's tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean; his uncleanness remains on him (Numbers 19:11-13).
Fifth, there is the sprinkling referred to by the prophets whereby YHWH would once again cleanse and purify His people.
"'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ezekiel 36:24-27).
See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him -- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness--so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him (Isaiah 52:13-15).
Sprinkling then is one of the primary symbols of ceremonial washing and purification in the Old Testament. So closely were the ideas of sprinkling and cleansing connected, that as the prophets spoke of that day when YHWH would give new hearts to his people, he used the word sprinkling as the cleansing metaphor to refer to this process of rebirth, as we saw in the passage from Ezekiel.
The New Testament picks up this imagery in several places.
Peter used the same imagery of sprinkling in speaking of the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance (1 Pet 1:1-2).
Nowhere is this image used more than in the book of Hebrews. After describing at some length the sacrifices and offerings of the old covenant priests who , and arguing for the superiority of Jesus’ once for all sacrifice of himself, the writer concludes:
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:13-14)
And again:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:19-22).
And again:
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24).
The point here is that since the basic idea of baptism is that of cleansing, purification, or washing; since the basic meaning of Christian baptism is that of cleansing or purification or washing through the blood of Christ; since the act of sprinkling is often used both as a method of cleansing and a metaphor for cleansing; since the cleansing which is ours through the finished work of Christ is signified by the image of having been sprinkled by his blood; – then water baptism by sprinkling or “sloshing” is completely good and appropriate and to be recommended!
Now, let’s consider another way in which people are commonly baptized, that is by pouring or effusion. Once again, the biblically imagery is rich. There are various ways this imagery is used.
First, we see that blood is not just sprinkled in the ceremonies of the temple, but poured out as well. In the ordination and purification of Moses and his sons to the office of priest,
He (Moses) then presented the bull for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head. Moses slaughtered the bull and took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on all the horns of the altar to purify the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. So he consecrated it to make atonement for it (Leviticus 8:14-15).
Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat (Deuteronomy 12:27).
Second, Jesus specifically takes up the image of pouring when speaking of his blood, the blood of the New Covenant. Drawing from the passage above whereby Moses sprinkled or flung the blood of the covenant upon the people, Jesus refers to his new Covenant as the new Covenant in His blood. The similar imagery and parallel expression would of course convey to the Jewish reader that the blood of Jesus applied to His people would be of greater purifying effect than the blood of the sacrificial animals. Note that he speaks of this blood being poured out, whereas in the Old Testament passage which this parallels, the blood was sprinkled or flung.
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:27-28).
Third, and most significantly, that work of God which brings regeneration is referred to as a baptism (or cleansing) in the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit baptism is in fact the premier identifying sign of the New Covenant.
"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11).
Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
Baptism merely points to this work of the Spirit:
"Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." (Acts 10:47)
And who are we but those who have been baptized, or cleansed, by the one Spirit into His body:
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink (1 Corinthians 12:13).
Fourth, this cleansing work of the Spirit, this baptism of the Spirit, this spiritual washing of the believer, is signified in both Old and New Testament passages by the phrase “pouring out.”
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants (Isaiah 44:3).
'And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days (Joel 2:28-29).
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy (Acts 2:14-18).
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-8).
The point here is that it is perfectly good and right to represent the idea cleansing by the act of pouring. Thus, since baptism signifies spiritual cleansing, purification and renewal by the indwelling and baptizing Holy Spirit, then it is perfectly good and right to administer the water of baptism by way of pouring of water over the head of the one being baptized. I will say here that it is my somewhat educated opinion that this was the method most commonly employed by John the Baptist and by the early church.
Finally we come to that mode of baptism commonly called “immersion.” Now as we go to the English Old Testament we will not find the word “immerse,” nor any other word that conveys what we may think of as “full immersion” except in passages which speak of hands or artifacts being “dipped” in water, which might convey that idea. However, the words “dip” and “dipping” are given little symbolic or metaphorical significance. However, the words “washing” and “bathing” are commonly used words for cleansing in the Old and New Testaments. These words are also given symbolic significance in both Testaments. I guess these words come a little closer to conveying the idea of “full body cleansing,” which is sort of what is meant by the word “immersion,” though neither necessarily and often do not imply what we think of as full immersion.
The truth is, “full immersion” is simply not a common biblical symbol for spiritual cleansing. And so, as I baptize via the mode of “immersion,” I am thinking not of the idea of “full immersion” as such (since I want to keep to biblical images as much as possible), but of immersion as a kind of bathing or washing that clearly conveys the idea of cleansing. Certainly and unequivocally, when a person is fully immersed into the water, this adequately signifies the spiritual cleansing wrought by the Spirit, as do sprinkling and pouring. And although the words “washing” and “bathing” do not mean the same thing as “immersing,” “immersing” certainly conveys “washing” and “bathing.” So as we move on from “sprinkling” and “pouring” and look at the other major ways that cleansing is signified in the Old and New Testaments, let us look at the uses of the “cleansing” words “bathe” and “wash.”
First, we see these words used of various temple purification and cleansing rites.
"Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it. Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it. Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the LORD by fire, they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come” (Exodus 30:18-21).
In a passage referring to the ordination of Aaron and his sons for the service of the temple, we read:
Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water (Leviticus 8:6).
In a passage having to do with those ceremonially defiled due to infectious skin diseases, we read of the cleansing process:
"The person to be cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair and bathe with water; then he will be ceremonially clean. After this he may come into the camp, but he must stay outside his tent for seven days (Leviticus 14:8).
Another passage speaks of the cleansing needed for a person rendered ceremonially unclean by a sexual discharge:
Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. Whoever sits on anything that the man with a discharge sat on must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. "'Whoever touches the man who has a discharge must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. "'If the man with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, that person must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening (Leviticus 15:5-8).
On the Day of Atonement, after Aaron lays his hands on the head of the scapegoat and sends it off into the desert, he returns to the Holy Place:
"Then Aaron is to go into the Tent of Meeting and take off the linen garments he put on before he entered the Most Holy Place, and he is to leave them there. He shall bathe himself with water in a holy place and put on his regular garments. Then he shall come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people, to make atonement for himself and for the people. He shall also burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar (Leviticus 16:23-25).
Second, we see the idea of washing used metaphorically by the Psalmist for that inner cleansing he desires to experience at the hand of the Lord:
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin (Psalm 51:1-2).
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow (Psalms 51:7)
Third, we find the image of washing used throughout the New Testament to signify the cleansing which comes to the believer in Jesus.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:25-27).
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).
And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name' (Acts 22:16).
Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:1-14).
"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city (Revelation 22:14).
Fourth, many think that the idea of immersion best signifies the spiritually reality of having died and been buried with Christ. I don’t believe that these passages actually refer to water but to Spirit baptism, to the idea of our being spiritually united to Christ in his death and resurrection. I grant however that the idea of immersion adequately conveys the symbol of what we think of today when we think of death and burial. Indeed, the metaphorical connection between water baptism and burial is possibly more compelling and powerful for people today who think of burial as being enveloped by the ground, as opposed to being placed on a rock slab in a cave. Because the metaphorical connection between water baptism and burial is so psychologically compelling, it makes the immersion mode of baptism preferable for many.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (Romans 6:1-4).
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead (Colossians 2:11-12).
So there you are. No matter which mode of baptism is chosen, each signifies, albeit in a slightly different way, the cleansing which is our though the work the Triune God. Each marks out the baptized person as belonging to the covenant people of God.
There is one slight shift I would like to make as to the meaning of what is signified in the rite of baptism. Technically, baptism points not so much to what God definitely will do in the future (thinking of a child being baptized), or what He definitely has done in the past (thinking of a believing adult being baptized), but what God promises to do, if and as we repent and believe.
That is, it might be more proper to say not that the water is a sign of the invisible reality but a sign of the promise of that reality conditioned upon faith and repentance. Baptism then, is the word of the gospel made visible. And what is the good news? It is that Jesus is the long awaited King and as the King, in His life, His death, and resurrection, He has defeated death and Satan, and that a way of salvation (of cleansing, of new life, of an indwelling of the Spirit of God) has been opened up for all who would embrace the good news and follow King Jesus!
Baptism visually symbolizes and signifies the promise of the gospel. In baptism, however administered, the gospel is proclaimed to all who witness and receive the baptism. In baptism, whether we are receiving it or witnessing it, we are reminded of all the precious promises of the gospel. Calling to mind and heart these promises, we are then moved to exercise our faith and to cling ever more to the promise of God to us. God uses baptism much as He uses the Lord’s Supper to secure and affix to our hearts the sure promises of His word. Baptism like the Lord’s Supper is a certain pledge of the truth of God’s promise. Just as the water is real – however applied – so also is the certainty of his promise real. The sacrament is like then a notary public seal. It is a guarantee of the promise which impresses itself upon our person at the deepest levels of mind, heart, and spirit.. As such a guarantee, the Holy Spirit uses the rite of baptism (just as he uses the preached word) to impress the guarantee of the truth of the gospel upon the heart, to cause a spiritual faith-event to happen.
It is in this sense that something happens during a baptism. Baptism is a means of grace. That is, it is a instrument through which God chooses to communicate His grace, encourage and stimulate faith and repentance, impress the spiritual reality of His grace upon the heart, and bond Himself in relationship to person witnessing or receiving the baptism. Thus, God chooses to use the sacrament of baptism, just as he chooses to use the ongoing teaching and preaching of the gospel, to unite the person to Himself through faith, and seal unto the person through the indwelling Spirit the reality of what baptism signifies.
And so I hope that whenever we have a baptism we who witness it will enter into it just as those who are receiving it. There is blessing in it for us all. I refer you to Mark Ross’s article “Improving Your Baptism” which can also be found on this web site.
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