In the gospel accounts we see three categories of baptism,
with different meanings and applications. On category has two types and meanings.
There are many examples in Scripture of each, but the following ones reveal
them clearly enough for the child of God to see.
Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance,
but the One who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to
remove His sandals. He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
a. Baptism
with water. This baptism has two types with different significance:
i.
John’s baptism unto repentance (Jewish practice)
ii.
Christian baptism, of professing believers (Acts
8:34-38)
b. Baptism
with the Holy Spirit
c. Baptism
with fire
Luke 12:50 “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and
how it consumes Me until it is finished!”
d. Baptism
as a symbol for suffering
As with any word study, context reveals the meaning. There
is danger in assuming A definition is the THE definition for a given word. This
is true for Bible study and all reading of any literature.
There are many who have stumbled over “baptism” by failing
to see all four categories, thinking water baptism is all there is and
attaching merit to getting wet. John is quite clear that water baptism he
administered was preparatory for the baptisms Jesus would perform – one unto
salvation and the second unto judgment and damnation.
All four categories are critical as they show us the
symbolic, non-physical nature of baptism; even with both types of water baptism.
1.
John’s baptism is not Christian baptism. Scripture
provides clear evidence that John’s baptism is not Christian baptism.
Acts 18:24-25 “A Jew named
Apollos, a native Alexandrian, an eloquent man who was powerful in the use of
the Scriptures, arrived in Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of
the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught the things about
Jesus accurately, although he knew only John’s baptism.”
Acts 19:1-5 “While Apollos was
in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He
found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?” “No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy
Spirit.” “Then what baptism were you baptized with?” he asked them. “With
John’s baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of
repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One who would
come after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus.”
These passages show water baptism
is not sufficient, it cannot replace or supplement knowledge of the Messiah.
The symbolism of John’s baptism is, like all baptisms, that it shows the person’s
identification with the one into whom he is baptized, even when the baptism is
symbolic and not literal (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). Being baptized “into John” was
being identified with John, in preparation for the ministry of Jesus. This was
transition from the Mosaic Covenant to the New Covenant. Being baptized into Jesus brings one into that New Covenant (Galatians
3:27).
I know of nothing in Scripture
that implies John’s baptism was Christian baptism. I know many assert this and
assume things not found in Scripture. This is not the way to determine
doctrine.
2. Christian
baptism is not salvific. Jesus told His disciples (Acts 1:5) that “John
baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many
days from now.” Note that Jesus did not say that what people needed was a
different water baptism. What is needed is to be baptized with the Holy Spirit
– this baptizes us into Christ Jesus, being united with Him. Even being water
baptized in the name of Jesus does not save: Acts 8:16-17 “For He had not
yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the
Holy Spirit.” In this passage we see water baptism in the name of Jesus and
baptism with the Holy Spirit; the first cannot save, the second cannot help but
save.
This baptism is highly symbolic. portraying the death and resurrection of
Jesus and the person’s identification with Him as the person is submersed into
the water and then raised up out of the water. It is predicated on having
believed on Jesus (Acts 8:34-38), having received the gift of the Holy Spirit
(Acts 10:47-48; 16:8). To say this water is salvific is to conflate the
ordinance of water baptism with the spiritual baptism that DOES save.
When Saul was baptized by Ananias, that water baptism is not what saved
him, as some assert. Paul’s own testimony of that event shows that his calling
upon the name of Jesus saved him, not the baptism (Acts 22:16). Paul wrote in
Romans 10 that savingly confessing Christ comes from believing on Him (Romans
10:6-13); for the bare confession apart from faith is sin (Hebrews 11:6).
3. Baptism
with the Holy Spirit is salvific. Again, the emphasize the contrast in
Scripture; baptism with the Holy Spirit is what is held up against John’s water
baptism of repentance (Acts 11:16-17); we do not see Christian water baptism
contrasted with John’s. This is because baptism with the Holy Spirit is the
work of God alone, as Jesus taught in John 3 and the apostle taught in John 1.
John wrote, “He was in the world, and the world was created through Him, yet
the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not
receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be
children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood,
or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.” (John
1:10-13) This shows that those who become children of God are made such by the
will of God and NOT by natural procreation or the will of man.
Where it is written not of the will of man, this refers not narrowly to
those trying to save themselves but to mankind in general. Some who claim water
baptism saves point out various passages wherein the one baptized is the one
acted upon – he doesn’t baptize himself. Therefore, his will is not involved.
Those who baptize are exercising their will, their flesh in the conduct of the
water baptism. By no will of the flesh or will of man does anyone become a
child of God!
In John 3, Jesus told a teacher of Israel that he must be born from above
to even see the kingdom of God (vs 3). Nicodemus misunderstands (vs 4) and “Jesus
answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and
whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that
you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its
sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is
with everyone born of the Spirit.”” (John 3:5-8)
Some teach that verse 5 refers to physical birth (water) and spiritual
birth (Spirit). The birth in verse 5 is a singular birth, not two births. Water
is used in many places to describe the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit:
Ezekiel 36:25 “I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.” This
is the work of God in cleansing His people from their sins, not washing dirt of
their bodies. Eph 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved
the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the
washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to Himself in
splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and
blameless.” This is another act of God cleansing His people of their sins,
“washing of water by the Word” to make us holy and blameless. To be born of
water and Spirit is to be made clean (freed from the power of sin) and indwelt
by the Holy Spirit.
The balance of this short passage reinforces this new birth as something
entirely directed by God in such a way man cannot even detect it until he sees
evidence after the fact. Again, how does this comport with the idea that men
can baptize in water another and have that act of man effect salvation? To
claim this brings to mind the papist practice of “calling down Jesus” to “be
the water and the bread” in the papist mass. Both posit man as being in command
of the application of the saving grace of God. This is what makes both such an
abomination.
Paul shows in 1 Corinthians 12 that this baptism with the Holy Spirit is
what unites to Christ and one another. “But one and the same Spirit is
active in all these, distributing to each person as He wills. For as the body
is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one
body — so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body
— whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and we were all made to
drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:11-13) We were baptized by the Spirit into
the body of Christ. This is salvation, something water baptism cannot impart.
This is the same message we read in Galatians 3:26-27 “for you are all sons
of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ like a garment.”
4. Baptism
with fire refers to judgment, not to special gifting to certain Christians
by the Holy Spirit. Nowhere do we read that this type of gifting comes with
fire. From old, when God reigned fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah to the end of
the Bible where final judgment is portrayed as the lake of fire; fire is
consistently used to portray judgment from God. In Matthew 3 and 7, every tree
that does not bear fruit will be thrown into the fire. Weeds are thrown into
fire (Matt 13), branches that do not abide in the vine are thrown into the fire
(John 18),
The one place where a case can be made is Acts 2:1-4 “When the day of
Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound
like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole
house where they were staying. And tongues, like flames of fire that were
divided, appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Then they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages, as the
Spirit gave them ability for speech.” If Pentecost takes place again, then
I would expect the apostles to gather in a house and the Spirit come upon them.
This passage gives no refuge to those who think every Christian or “special”
Christians can claim supernatural gifts because of this event. This is not
characterized as a baptism; it was a demonstration of the Spirit’s gifting of
known languages for the purpose of declaring the gospel to Parthians, Medes,
Elamites; those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and
Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors
from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. “When this sound
occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them
speaking in his own language. And they were astounded.” If some claim to
have visited by tongues of fire they better be able to speak foreign languages
unknown to them in order to make the gospel known.
5. Baptism
serves as a symbol of suffering. This is a two-fold symbol, wherein
Scripture uses a cup and a baptism as examples of judgment that Christ suffered
– both of which describing the wrath of God poured out on Christ Jesus during
His crucifixion. This is explicitly
stated by Jesus as He describes what will take place at the end of His
ministry:
Mark 10:33-38 “Listen!
We are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief
priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death. Then they will
hand Him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock Him, spit on Him, flog Him,
and kill Him, and He will rise after three days.” Then James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, approached Him and said, “Teacher, we want You to do something for
us if we ask You.” “What do you want Me to do for you?” He asked them. They
answered Him, “Allow us to sit at Your right and at Your left in Your glory.”
But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to
drink the cup I drink or to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
The Son of Man will be flogged and
condemned to death, being raised up after three days. This is described as the
cup He must drink and the baptism He must suffer. When Jesus was being arrested
and Peter cut off the ear of a slave, Jesus responded: “Sheathe your sword!
Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given Me?” (John 18:11) His trial
and death were the cup Jesus was given. This is also shown in Matthew 26:37-42,
where the wrath of God is in the cup.
Note also, in Mark’s passage
above, the suffering of Jesus and that of His disciples is portrayed as a
baptism. In this one passage, both metaphors are tied to the suffering of Jesus
as He stood in the place of elect sinners.
David and other Psalmists
described their deep sorrows as a kind of burial beneath the billows and waves
of the Almighty. In Psalm 42:5 & 7 we read, “Why are you cast down, O my
soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” In this sorrowful lament with
his soul, he describes his afflictions in terms that point to baptism – “Deep
calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.” Three images of water: waterfalls, breakers, and waves;
all communicate the idea of a cascading waterfall pummeling the poet, with the
brutal breakers and waves of an angry ocean violently washing over his head.
These terrifying metaphors of his torment and anguish wash over him, drowning
him in his sorrows. Carried along by the Spirit of God to write these things,
perhaps the Psalmist knew not that he prophesied of the promised Messiah, but
his words were given to him by God's Spirit and anticipate the predestined
sufferings and death of Christ as a kind of baptism. The word for deep in the
psalm is used as a synonym for sheol, connecting to the death of Christ as a
submersion into the deepest waters of the place of the dead. And the water
metaphors in this psalm undoubtedly describe the suffering servant of God – “As
with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me
all the day long, “Where is your God?”” (Psalm 42:10) This is widely
recognized as prophecy of the Lord's sword-pierced side and the cruel mockery
of those who blasphemed while He hung on the cross. (this paragraph is taken
from chapter 2 of my first book, Captive to the Word of God)
Baptism is a hotly debated topic, but my experience is most
do not even take the time to define what baptism they are discussing. Most
assume water baptism is all there is; it is what natural man can see and touch.
Christian baptism in water has a place in the ongoing life of the people of
God, reflecting the baptism of Christ’s suffering for His people and the
baptism with the Holy Spirit that brought new life to the one being baptized
into water. Without the baptism of Christ’s suffering, without the baptism with
the Holy Spirit, no amount of water can bring peace with God. All that remains
is the baptism of fire, from which there is no hiding place.
