Baptism
and the Cross
John
5:39 You
search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal
life; and it is they that bear witness about me
Jesus
is very clear that the Old Testament scriptures bear witness to Him.
So, when we read the Old Testament, we should always be asking
ourselves, “where is Christ in this passage?”. Reading the Old
Testament as examples of the Israelites for our obedience is
occasionally helpful, there are some moral examples to follow. Yet,
outside of Joseph in Genesis, many were more disobedient than
obedient to God and serve to illuminate our own disobedience in
thought, word and deed. They mostly show Christ's Grace in forgiving
that disobedience when they were repentant and judgment when they
weren't. So, ultimately, the Old Testament reveals the depths of
God's Grace to secure the promise of our Savior, Jesus the Christ,
through the line of Abraham, Judah and David despite their and the
nation of Israel's continued disobedience. So, the Old Testament is
about God securing His “promised seed” despite our sinful
rebellion.
So,
in understanding the Bible Christologically, we first have to
understand it typologically. Our references for this are:
Hebrews
9:23-24 Thus
it was necessary for
the copies of the heavenly things
to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into
holy places made with hands, which
are copies of the true things,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our
behalf.
and
Colossians
2:16-17 Therefore
let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or
with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These
are a shadow of the things to come,
but the substance belongs to Christ.
These
two passages (and the context of the epistles) show us that the Old
Testament Scriptures are type and shadow of Christ. The Tabernacle,
the Temple, the Mosaic Covenant were all temporary institutions
pointing to a fulfillment by the “promised seed”...Christ.
So,
what does any of this have to do with Baptism? Everything! If we
understand it as the Apostles describe it in their Epistle letters.
The first distinction we have to make is the difference between the
Baptism John the Baptist was performing, the Baptism of Christ
Himself and the Baptism He instituted in His Church.
First,
we are told John the Baptist's Baptism was a Baptism of repentance.
Even John knew there was a difference in what he was doing and what
was to come.
Matthew
3:11 “I
baptize you with water for 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.
and
in Acts we are told Apollos only “understood the Baptism of John”
and was corrected by Priscilla and Aquila:
Acts
18:24-26 Now
a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was
an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed
in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit,
he
spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though
he knew only the baptism of John.
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and
Aquila heard him, they
took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
So,
what is the difference between the baptism of John and the more
accurate way of God? First, we need to study Christ's Baptism. It's
interesting that when Christ arrived to have John Baptize Him, John
didn't want to perform it. Instead, he wanted to be baptized by
Jesus. We are told in the Scriptures repeatedly that “Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness”. What the
Scriptures call “the righteousness of faith”. So, it is apparent
in Jesus' response to John:
Matthew
3:15 But
Jesus answered him, “Let
it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.” Then he consented.
There
is something else going on in that event than Jesus' sanctification.
God Himself declared it and the Holy Spirit descended on Him. The
Trinity was revealed before John and others and the Christ was
revealed for the first time. So, God, in the fullness of the Trinity,
touched the waters in Jesus' Baptism and sanctified them for His
purposes. Early Church art portrays Jesus standing in a black Jordan
river receiving the sins of mankind washed onto Him. John's Baptism
of repentance was a washing off of humanity's sin (Original Sin and
actual sins) and washing them onto Jesus so that when He carried
those sins to the Cross He fulfilled the righteous demands of the Law
for us (Romans 8:4).
It's
interesting in Exodus when Moses encounters the burning bush that the
Lord (Christ) tells him to remove his sandals for he was standing on
“holy ground”. We know that we, as sinners, cannot touch or view
God's full holiness or we will be destroyed. Yet, Moses was commanded
to remove his sandals and touch the holy ground. The early Church
Father's saw the burning bush as a type of the Incarnation. The
holiness of God descended to earth in the form of fire, yet not
consuming the bush. In Mary, we have the fullness of God descended to
earth in her womb yet not consuming her or causing her destruction.
It's a beautiful image. Just as pre-Incarnate Christ touched the
ground before Moses and made it Holy, Christ touched the waters of
Baptism, sanctified them and made them Holy for all who would receive
His promises.
So,
John's Baptism and the Baptism of Jesus are distinctly different. So,
what of the Baptism Christ institutes?
Peter
writes in his first Epistle letter:
1
Peter 3:18-22 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous
for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and
proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not
obey,
when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was
being prepared, in
which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through
water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not
as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good
conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone
into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels,
authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
In
understanding Baptism, we see in the Scriptures an intended
connection of Baptism to the Cross of Christ. Since we know that the
Old Testament typologically points us to Christ, we can understand
Peter's connection between Noah's Ark and Christ's Cross. As Noah's
family was brought through the flood in the wooden Ark, we are
brought through the flood of Baptism in the wooden “ark” of
Christ's Cross. They are intricately connected.
1
Corinthians 10:1-4 For
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,
that
our fathers were all under the cloud, and
all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the
cloud and in the sea
and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual
drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and
the Rock was Christ.
Paul
declares that the Israelites were Baptized in the Red Sea under the
cloud which is Christ. We know the cloud was God because the same
cloud entered the Tabernacle upon it's completion. Just as Christ
brought them through the waters of the Red Sea and destroyed
Pharaoh's (the image of Satan) claim on them, He brings us through
the waters of Baptism and destroys Satan's claim on us. As Jesus
destroyed death on the Cross when He declared “it is finished”
and undoing God's curse of death on humanity, He delivers that
Promise to us in Baptism. Paul makes a direct connection in
Romans
6 :1-11 What
shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may
increase? By no means! We are those who have 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. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we
will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body
ruled by sin might be done away with,
that
we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died
has been set free from sin.
Now
if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die
again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he
died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In
the same way, count
yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
So,
Paul makes it inescapably clear that Baptism is directly tied to the
Cross of Christ. That in Baptism, we are “crucified with Christ”.
That language explains that Baptism isn't something we do for
ourselves, it's something being done to us by Christ. Slaves don't
crucify themselves. They are crucified. So, as we approach the font
of Baptism, we are “picking up our Cross” and “following Him”
into our death. Although, it is a spiritual reality in this life, we
cling to the promise Paul makes clear in that passage that we will be
“united with Him in a resurrection like His”. So, Baptism is
where promise of salvation is delivered. We weren't at Golgotha when
Christ was crucified, so we meet Christ at the font and receive the
Holy Spirit, faith and salvation as promised.
Paul
describes it again in
Titus
3:4-7 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.
“The
washing of rebirth”, not washing ourselves, but being washed.
Receiving the promise. Again the passive language implies that we are
being acted on by Christ. Baptism is His work to and in us, we do
nothing except receive His gifts. The only thing we contribute is our
sin, the thing being washed away.
and
again in
Colossians
2:11-14 In
him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands,
by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
having been buried with him in baptism, in
which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful
working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead
in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made
alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by
canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal
demands. This
he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Circumcision
was not something someone did to themselves, it was done to them
(usually as infants). It was the seal of God's promise to them. It
became the Israelite's mark that assured them that they were God's
people. Paul makes a direct connection between Baptism, circumcision
and the Cross. They are linked together in the Promise of Christ. In
Baptism we receive the same “circumcision” yet of the heart
(Romans 2:29) by Christ. It's our mark that assures us that we are
citizens in Christ's Kingdom.
In
Peter's great Pentecost sermon he says
Acts
2:37-39 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said
to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we
do?” And Peter said to them, “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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for
all who are far off,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
There
is a lot going on in this statement by Peter. First, he separates
repentance and Baptism. Repentance is not part of Baptism. Repentance
is a work of the Spirit within us when we understand the depths of
our sin. When we receive it, we are outwardly contrite. So, thinking
repentance is a prerequisite to faith makes it a work, therefore
negating Grace. Repentance and faith exist together and become the
mark of the Christian life. We know Peter understands Grace fully,
for He received it directly from Christ in John 21. So, making a
legitimate Baptism conditional on repentance is not what Peter meant
by his statement otherwise he would not have referred to Baptism as a
promise. What Peter was referring to was the belief that we could
save ourselves by works. The Pharisees had polluted the teachings of
Moses and made them, into a doctrine of self righteousness. Those
gathered at Pentecost believed they were fulfilling their duty to God
by observing the holy days. Peter was making it clear that it isn't
by obedience we are saved, it's through the promise of Christ's
Grace. Being Baptized gave the promise of the forgiveness of sins and
the gift of the Holy Spirit. The entire language of Peter is of
moving from self righteousness to passively receiving the
righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of faith. “Be
Baptized”...receive Baptism. Receive the “forgiveness of sins”
and “the Holy Spirit”. Receive the promises.
This
language is also used in Christ's “Great Commission”.
Matthew
28:19-20 Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in
the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
So,
the first thing we have to clarify is to whom Christ is giving this
command. He is giving it to those who will be doing the Baptizing,
not who will be receiving Baptism. The Church is commanded to Baptize
and teach. The people receiving Baptism are not under a command to
receive it. Baptism is a gift to the recipient and the Church is
commanded to give out Christ's gifts. Satan has so perverted this in
our minds so that we have come to believe Baptism is something we do
for Jesus or worse, for ourselves, when it's actually a gift of Grace
from Christ.
Martin
Luther wrote of baptism in the Large Catechism:
Baptism
is no human trifle, but instituted by God Himself, moreover, that it
is most solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized or
we cannot be saved, lest any one regard it as a trifling matter, like
putting on a new red coat. For it is of the greatest importance that
we esteem Baptism excellent, glorious, and exalted, for which we
contend and fight chiefly, because
the world is now so full of sects clamoring that Baptism is an
external thing, and that external things are of no benefit. But
let it be ever so much an external thing, here stand God's Word and
command which institute, establish, and confirm Baptism. But what God
institutes and commands cannot be a vain, but must be a most precious
thing, though in appearance it were of less value than a straw...For
to be baptized in the name of God is to be baptized not by men, but
by God Himself. Therefore, although it is performed by human hands,
it is nevertheless truly God's own work. From this fact every one may
himself readily infer that it is a far higher work than any work
performed by a man or a saint. For what work greater than the work of
God can we do?
But
here the devil is busy to delude us with false appearances, and lead
us away from the work of God to our own works...From this now learn a
proper understanding of the subject, and how to answer the question
what Baptism is, namely thus, that it is not mere ordinary water, but
water comprehended in God's Word and command, and sanctified thereby,
so that it is nothing else than a divine water; not that the water in
itself is nobler than other water, but that God's Word and command
are added.
Therefore
it is pure wickedness and blasphemy of the devil that now our new
spirits, to mock at Baptism, omit from it God's Word and institution,
and look upon it in no other way than as water which is taken from
the well, and then blather and say: How is a handful of water to help
the soul? Aye, my friend, who does not know that water is water if
tearing things asunder is what we are after? But
how dare you thus interfere with God's order, and tear away the most
precious treasure with which God has connected and enclosed it, and
which He will not have separated? For the kernel in the water is
God's Word or command and the name of God, which is a treasure
greater and nobler than heaven and earth...In
the second place, since we know now what Baptism is, and how it is to
be regarded, we must also learn why and for what purpose it is
instituted; that is, what it profits, gives, and works. And this also
we cannot discern better than from the words of Christ above quoted:
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Therefore
state it most simply thus, that the power, work, profit, fruit, and
end of Baptism is this, namely, to save. For no one is baptized in
order that he may become a prince, but, as the words declare, that he
be saved. But to be saved, we know, is nothing else than to be
delivered from sin, death, and the devil, and to enter into the
kingdom of Christ, and to live with Him forever.
In
Baptism, we are connected to the Cross, the Promises of Christ's
Grace through Faith and not of our works. Baptism becomes a means in
which Christ delivers His promises and a place in which we can cling
to them. Christ's death and resurrection delivered His objective
justification to the world. Yet, Baptism is where we subjectively
receive it. We can point to our Baptism and declare that it's the
place where Christ delivered that Promise to ME specifically. He
saved ME at my Baptism. Even on my worst days when I feel the weight
of my sin, I can return to and cling to the promises delivered in my
Baptism and know that it is there I can be assured that I am truly a
child of God. On my best days when I'm feeling self righteous my
Baptism humbles me and in repentance for my arrogance points me back
to Christ. As Jesus promises:
John
10:25-30 Jesus answered them,“I told you, and you do not believe.
The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but
you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.
My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them
eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them
out of my hand. My
Father, who has given them to me,
is
greater than all, and
no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I
and the Father are one.”
