The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 9 –17
“To baptize” is a word that was copied into English directly from the original Greek “baptizo” which means, according to Strong’s “to immerse, submerge; to make overwhelmed (i.e. FULLY WET).” It had no ceremonial meaning in Greek; it isn’t a special Church-related term, it is a simple verb.
So as with so many things in the Bible, this is an absurdly simple concept grossly complicated and abused by the institution of Church. And there is really no reason for this; can you be buried in a few drops of water? Can you be covered up by pouring rain? Then why are we still talking about this?
By itself, the word “to baptize” doesn’t even necessarily imply water; ancient Greek writers spoke of having “baptized” their cucumbers in vinegar to make pickles. So it simply means “submerged”. Submerged in water, air, spirit, fire, dirt, it really doesn’t matter.
Baptism is immersion. That is the meaning of the word. Doing anything that does not completely submerge a person in water is not baptism in water. Baptism by sprinkling is a contradiction –literally, it means “submersion by sprinkling”, which is not possible.
Did Philip dip his fingers in the water and sprinkle it on the man and pronounce him baptized? Acts 8:38-39. How much water is required to baptize people? John 3:23. What does baptism represent? Romans 6:3-4. Can you be “buried” by sprinkling? (Same verse).
The only water baptism in the Bible is full submersion. The other methods of water baptism were popularized in the late Middle Ages for the convenience of priests in performing deathbed baptisms and similar rituals. Now they live on as traditions, vigorously defended, as always –but with no Biblical support.
I could spend pages arguing about the subtleties of this point, citing verses to disprove various misunderstandings, but I don’t really need to. You cannot immerse someone in water without immersing them in water. That’s really all there is to say.
METAPHORICAL BAPTISM
And yet while true water baptism can only be full immersion, there can be many metaphorical, more-or-less true from a certain point of view meanings; Paul gets into these in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, where he said Israel was, in a sense, baptized “under” the sea, and “in” the cloud.
The fact is, Israel was never truly under the sea; they walked across on dry land. And while the sea was, in a sense, a “wall” to their left and right hand, the method by which God made the sea part was clearly by blowing the water back into a bay, to lower the local water level by a few feet (Exodus 14:22).
As boringly uncinematic as that is, it illustrates that God can play fairly fast-and-loose with the definition of “baptism” when He wants to. Likewise, on Mt. Sinai, only the elders truly went up into the mountain, into the cloud proper; the rest of the people were near the cloud, at best (Exodus 24:9-15). The rest of the people weren’t even close to it, by divine order (Exodus 19:10-24).
In a different sense, the apostles were baptized in fire in Acts 2:3; and yet this is clearly not as thorough a baptism as Daniels’ friends experienced in Daniel 3:20-28, nor the baptism that awaits the evil angels in Revelation 20:10.
As you’ve seen by now, God uses a lot of symbols written in a lot of layers. He is often intentionally vague precisely so that His words can apply in a very broad sense, and be true in every sense; like how the word “day” can mean millennia or year or 24 or 12 hours, depending on the point He needs to make; and, in fact, it means all of these things simultaneously.
So God was vague about the word baptism, because the symbol applies on many levels. Just like the English word “immerse”, it has no implication as to what you are immersed in –we can use it for anything from “immersed in thought” to “immersed in nature”. We can extend the idea to “covered up with tasks” or “buried in paperwork”.
Each of these types of metaphorical baptisms has a meaning of its own; and we’ll get into those in coming lessons. But for right now it’s enough to know that they all follow the same pattern: they are all a type of immersion.
BAPTISM FOR TODAY
The NC is clear, mostly through the writings of Paul, that circumcision is no longer necessary or desirable today. And since this was inspired scripture, we know this to be true. But I want you to put yourself in Peter’s shoes for a moment.
Remember, at the time, Paul’s writings were not “scripture”. They were just another man’s thoughts –at least, as far as Peter knew. And so Peter could only take them at face value. Like all of us learning from each other, he had to weigh Paul’s arguments on their merits –did what he say make sense, or not?
Now remember, Peter had just spent 4 years walking the Earth with his beloved Master, who had taught Peter everything he knew. Peter, in turn, had dedicated his life to passing on that knowledge. Then along comes Paul, erstwhile murderer of your best friends, to inform you that most of what you were teaching was wrong –or at least, woefully incomplete.
Everything Peter believed and taught was founded on the premise that God would teach mankind through the temple and the Jewish people and the laws of Moses… yet now Paul said that was all abolished and, as far as Peter could remember, Jesus never happened to mention that! Imagine how hard that would have been to believe!
Paul was daring to say that what Jesus taught you, while true, left out hugely important facts. Yes, Jesus had admitted that there were missing pieces in your knowledge that He hadn’t told you (John 16:12). But surely He hadn’t meant such enormous gaps as the complete abolition of the Mosaic Religion!
And yet Paul had the same power of God that you had. And Paul, while a confusing writer (2 Peter 3:15-16), had unarguable wisdom. But how could Jesus have not told you that circumcision was abolished? That the laws of Moses were no longer necessary?
Under those circumstances, how hard would it have been for you to believe Paul? And yet did Paul’s arguments not make sense? See for yourself; was Abraham saved by his circumcision? Romans 4:9-12. Obviously, at the time the promises were made in Genesis 15, there had been no circumcision.
Paul reasoned –and it was hard to argue –that this meant Abraham’s first covenant was made by faith, made long before circumcision was given in Genesis 17, thus rendering circumcision unnecessary for those who have faith.
Right? I mean, God didn’t require Abraham to be circumcised before making unbreakable promises to him; he had only to believe. And since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, clearly, He wouldn’t require anyone else to be circumcised to be saved! Only to believe!
Make sure you really understand this, because it’s about to hit a lot closer to home; if Abraham was saved without being circumcised, then we don’t need to be circumcised –we just need to have faith, like he did.
Now if that’s true –and who can argue it? –then was Abraham saved in baptism, or in unbaptism? Think about that; and whatever answer you come up with… you’ll have developed some empathy for the position in which Paul placed Peter and the other Jews.
BAPTISM IS DONE AWAY
Once upon a time, back when I still thought Churches were a thing and I still attended them, I, in my sadistic way, used to enjoy springing Biblical logic puzzles on unsuspecting preachers (whose allergic reactions to logic and scripture is well documented).
My favorite was to prove that baptism was abolished. Now, mind you, I never truly believed it was abolished –just that it didn’t mean at all what they thought it meant. Because baptism, as understood by literally everyone, is simply irrational.
All Christians everywhere think themselves part of the NC; all mock OT Israel’s need of rituals and washings. Yet all embrace, in one form or another, the ritual washing of baptism. Does that make sense to you? Hebrews 9:10.
Baptism is a symbol; and a symbol that is every bit as external as circumcision (you aren’t, after all, washed inside your skin by the river). So how can an external thing represent the acceptance of an internal covenant? How can an external ritual, even when performed by a modern-day priesthood, induct you into an internal, NC relationship with God?
Obviously, I angered and frustrated a lot of ministers, who sputtered and fumed but failed to say a single coherent thing except to point to Acts 2:38; which, I agree, is in the Bible and thus is true… but so are these things!
The NT speaks repeatedly, favorably, about baptism; and yet all of the arguments Paul used to discredit circumcision apply equally well to baptism. For if you just replace “circumcision” with “baptism” in Romans 4:12-5:2, this argument is just as logical, and just as inspired as Paul’s.
Did God give him the covenant and say “this will be yours, once you’re baptized?” Certainly not. Because Abraham was saved by faith WITHOUT the works of circumcision OR the works of baptism! And yet God still confirmed the covenant about Christ with him! (Galatians 3:16-17).
A Churchian would respond “but you must be baptized in order to receive the spirit!” First, this simply isn’t true (Acts 10:47); the holy spirit was all over the place in the OT, thousands of years before John came to baptize (2 Peter 1:21).
Second, was Abraham our father justified by baptism or by faith? What saith the scriptures? Because if he wasn’t justified by circumcision, he also wasn’t justified by baptism because when he received the covenant he had done neither! He was justified by faith alone, WITHOUT the seal of the covenant!
If baptism is so indispensable, if the holy spirit cannot be acquired in any other way… then how did Abraham have the spirit of the Lord, his “exceeding great reward” without it? (Genesis 15:1). And the scriptures, as Paul showed, gives us a clear answer: because he believed God, and it was counted unto him for circumcision and for baptism as well.
Thus, without baptism or circumcision or any other external works, Abraham was not only able to be a PART of the NC… but the FATHER of it! So why can’t we, like him, do without baptism as well as circumcision?
Consider Mark 16:15-16; Jesus promised that “he that believes and is baptized shall be saved”. He then said “he that believes not shall be damned”… however, He failed to say “he that is baptized not shall be damned!”
We could certainly be forgiven for assuming that, but it isn’t what He said. Believing and being baptized is normal, and probably the right thing for us to do. But believing and not being baptized is not, necessarily, a recipe for damnation –otherwise, He couldn’t have saved Abraham!
THE PURPOSE OF BAPTISM
When in doubt, remember: God did not give us doctrines, dogma, magical incantations; He gave us words, explanations, symbols and metaphors. And to understand these words, you need to hear them as words, and not as holy objects in themselves; for temples and mountains and baptisms are only figures of the True (John 4:19-24, Hebrews 9:23-24).
So when trying to understand something, always, ALWAYS start with the clearest, simplest, most basic possible meaning of it. Don’t try to figure out how this applies to angels, or how it applies to Jesus and His bride; start by hearing what Jesus said, in the most obvious and down-to-Earth way possible.
So ask yourself “what is baptism?” Immersion. Now why would God use that metaphor? What does it teach us, in a real-world, practical way? Only after you truly understand the metaphor itself, can you ever hope to understand the truth BEHIND the metaphor; for if you don’t know how oxen are yoked together, how can you truly understand Jesus’ yoke?
If you can just set aside all the meanings about baptism you think you know, and just think about what baptism IS for a minute, what it MEANS… then the answer becomes face-palm obvious, as the truth always is: When you swallow something, it becomes part of you. Thus, when you are immersed in something, you become a part of it.
How hard is that? If you are baptized in the ocean, you disappear under it; the ocean level rises very, very slightly and you cease to exist as far as the world can tell. You’re part of the ocean now. A discrete part, at least until the fishes eat you; but nonetheless, part of it (Revelation 20:13).
Likewise, if you are baptized in a literal fire, the fire burns you; your flesh smokes and turns to air –to spirit –and your own carbon atoms add to the flames of the fire. Thus, by being baptized in fire, you literally become part of the fire.
Right? I mean, if you are buried in dirt, what do you become? Genesis 3:19, Job 34:15. The grave, in a sense, eats you –making you part of it (Psalms 49:14). Thus, when you die, and are baptized in dirt, it becomes YOUR HOUSE! (Job 17:13).
Now do you see the point? If you are baptized in Christ, you become PART OF CHRIST (Galatians 3:27). Why is that relevant? Galatians 3:28,29. Thus, being baptized IN Christ makes you part of ABRAHAM’S HOUSE.
And thus, baptism –in its most basic sense –signifies becoming part of whatever baptizes you; if that’s water, you’re part of the water; if it’s a cloud, that’s part of the cloud; if it’s the ekklesia of God… then it means you become part of the House of God.
CULTURAL IMMERSION
To illustrate the obviousness of this definition, ask any polyglot “what is the best way to learn a language quickly?” They won’t answer with university courses, Rosetta Stone, or even private tutors. Because everyone knows that the only good way to learn a language is the way you learned your own: total immersion.
If you want to learn Italian, you need to BE IN ITALY. Until you do, you will never speak Italian like a native. You must be surrounded by the culture, bombarded with the pop references, inundated with vocabulary; in short, to learn the Italian language –which is to say, the Italian spirit –you must be baptized in Italians.
To illustrate that from a different direction, consider immigration; let’s say an adult Chinese immigrates to the USA and tries to learn English. But Chinese is a very different language from English. English is full of sounds his tongue simply doesn’t know how to form (r and th, for example). So learning perfect English is almost impossible, even when living in the country.
But language is a small part of life; understanding why liquor stores are closed on Sunday, why meals come as a single plate instead of as ten separate dishes, why you can only buy fireworks twice a year, why “tea” only means herb or iced; all of these things, and a thousand others, are difficult to learn and take many years to master… and that’s if you’re already living in the USA; so imagine trying to learn them from Xian.
So the reality is, most first-generation immigrants never master the language; in fact many, consumed with the necessities of putting food on the table, never even become comfortable in the language, much less the culture. It’s all they can do to provide for their children and put them through school.
Those children, though, are born Americans. Assimilation is much easier for them, since they go to school from a young age; fluency in English is not a problem. However, since they first learn their languages, including English, from their non-fluent parents, they are saddled with an accent that most never truly lose.
Further, since they are only one generation removed from the old country, they are raised in the old culture, to some extent –although, to avoid looking strange among their school peers, they tend to distance themselves from it. Nonetheless, they are decidedly less American, culturally speaking, than their own children will be.
Their children –now the third generation of immigrants –were raised by parents who were fluent, albeit with a slight accent; by parents who have never been to the home country, parents who found little place in their lives for the outdated ways of far distant lands. Thus, this third generation is virtually impossible to distinguish from their non-immigrant friends.
How was this accomplished? Through three generations of immersion in a culture. Without any particular effort, merely by surrounding themselves in another nation, these people changed over the generations and by the third, without particular tutelage or training, they simply became American, through and through.
Why is that relevant? Deuteronomy 23:8. This is how long it takes for a people to become “natives”. And everyone knows that; and it is done through baptism in a culture. By diving into the deep end of the pool and struggling to survive, in three generations any immigrant becomes fully integrated… and everyone already knows this.
But this was a passive baptism; passive, because no particular effort was taken by the first generation to learn the culture, or to perfect the language beyond the level necessary to survive. In most cases, the first generation settled in a district already populated by their own people; a Chinese neighborhood in a city like New York or Dallas.
This made the transition easier, by surrounding themselves with people from their old country to whom they could speak the old language, who together could support stores to sell their old foods and temples to their old gods.
But simultaneously, it made the transition slower for precisely the same reasons. Because they were not truly immersed; they were swimming, but with a wetsuit on; walking in the rain, but with an umbrella. Thus, they got damp, but not truly drowned in the waters of American culture. Hence, it took three generations.
ACTIVE BAPTISM
But what if, during that very first generation, our Asian-American had lived, not in his own house in Chinatown surrounded by other Asians, but in an American home, surrounded by Americans? What if, every time he said “wit” instead of “with”, he was corrected?
What if, every time he reached for chopsticks, he was handed a fork instead? Forced to eat potatoes or corn chips instead of rice? Surely, in this case even the first generation immigrant could achieve native status while he yet lived, without waiting for three generations to pass.
It’s the difference between soaking a dirty dish and scrubbing it; passive soaking takes less work, but scrubbing is active and therefore much faster.
After all, it’s not impossible to learn a foreign language perfectly, without accent; it just takes constant conversations with natives. It requires you to not speak your old language at all, in order to force you to constantly speak and even think in the new language… and is best achieved IN THE HOUSE OF A NATIVE.
Thus, Ruth was actively baptized in the house of Israel, simply by choosing to be like an Israelite in every way, and committing to learning in an Israelite house (Ruth 1:15-17). Thus, though a Gentile, she became part of the lineage of Jesus in a single generation, through baptism in the house of Boaz.
Acts 10:24-36 shows that Peter was not legally allowed to associate with the Gentiles. How then, could they hope to become a part of the house of God, if no Jewish Christian could immerse them? They couldn’t!
And yet, believer or not, if left to himself… this immigrant would bring shame to the house (Proverbs 29:15, 17). How could he not, since he was never trained up “in the way that he should go”? Never taught what he should be like? Proverbs 29:18.
Thus, the point of baptizing Cornelius was to bring him into God’s house, so that they could be immersed in the Judeo-Christian culture (Acts 10:44-48) –and learn, precisely as an infant native would, the language, customs, and manner of life of the Way of Truth (2 Timothy 3:10, 14).
It’s important to note, though, that being baptized was not a sign of having mastered a culture… but a sign of being immersed in it, IN THE HOPES of mastering it. It takes many years to truly master a culture as if you had been born there –constant, personal immersion or not. 7 years would not be too high an estimate –nor would 14.
And yet, why would a native-born American or Christian support you, feed you, spend time training you? What’s in it for him? Obviously, the only thing you have to offer him is your service; your ministry; and perhaps one day, you will bring more sons into his house.
Meanwhile, in return, you’ll get the shelter of his house –in every sense of the word –along with his wisdom, and his name. And he gets a servant who may, one day, become his son (Proverbs 29:19-23). For anyone who is immersed in anything long enough, inevitably becomes part of it.
BAPTISM OF DEATH
Just as a dead person is submerged (baptized) in dirt, covered by the soil and seen no more, literally to become part of the clay from which he was made, so also a human being “dead in their sins” goes into the waters of baptism and never rises out of them! (Romans 6:3-4).
The wages of sin is death, and baptism symbolizes that death. When you “die” in those waters your old man gets crucified ( Romans 6:6), and your old body is destroyed, and you are freed from sin (Romans 6:7). So the person that rises out of the baptismal waters is symbolically a new person.
This much, most Protestants could tell you; but while true, this misses the point of baptism completely. For any one of us can go for a swim or take a bath to be “baptized”. So clearly baptism isn’t about the immersion itself; thus, baptism is just a symbol. And the MEANING of baptism is joining a house.
And, for those of us who belong to the law, who belong to the Devil’s world, who belong to an old family or an old Church, it means first we must die to that old life, to begin a new one. Which is why in Romans 6:8-13 Paul explains that the new person, instead of owing a debt to the law, now owes a debt to Jesus instead!
For dying is just that… dying. Rising out of the waters of death is something that must be done to you by someone else, and since that person SAVED your life, you OWE them your life –a concept even the world understands.
Because if it weren’t for Him, or His representative, you’d have had to stay buried in that river. So by, in a sense, resurrecting you, He is buying you back from death. Thus baptism does not symbolize freedom; for true freedom, you’d need to stay in the water and drown (Psalms 88:5, Romans 6:7).
Baptism instead symbols a transfer of ownership, the sale of your bond from the Egyptians to Moses, from Satan to God. Bathing has no effect on your salvation, whatever special holy-sounding name you might give your sacred bath; what affects your salvation is the change in your ownership that it represents.
OC Israel could, by passive baptism, gradually change their lives over generations into something more Godlike. They never did, but they could, theoretically, have done so simply by surrounding the temple, by having God’s laws around them in turn.
But NC Israel hopes to become Godlike in a single lifetime; not only to your children afar off, but to YOU (Acts 2:39). And for that, you need active baptism in the Way of Christ. Not passive baptism such as is found in Churches, but constant, minute-by-minute correction and criticism and guidance in a House! (Deuteronomy 6:7).
This is the only way to PUT these words IN A CHILD’S HEART… your heart! (Deuteronomy 6:6). Because the whole point of baptism is to die; and that means your old self, the one you realized you had when you repented, needs to die; and that’s something you can’t easily do alone.
MAGIC MIRROR
Which is why you are baptized in water. What is special about that? Proverbs 27:19. In pre-industrial times, the best mirror in the world was the surface of water. And so to see yourself as you are, what do you need? James 1:23-25.
Glancing in a mirror is nice; but you inevitably forget what you look like afterwards. So, likewise, looking at the water –a perfect mirror –once a week for a few hours is nice, but inevitably the next day you go back to work and forget what you are. But if you IMMERSE yourself in that mirror, you cannot forget!
With that thought, go back to what John said he was doing: Mark 1:4. He was baptizing them unto repentance. Remember, repentance means to act with awareness of what you are. Thus, to see your fractions as someone else sees them. So this baptism somehow helped them do that!
Which is why the Pharisees, who had only seem themselves briefly, were incapable of understanding Him (Luke 7:29-30). Because when they saw “the counsel of God against themselves”, they rejected that vision of themselves, and thus COULD NOT act “with understanding”, i.e., repentance! (verses 31-35).
And yet later, Peter said they must repent before being baptized, something John also demanded of the Pharisees (Acts 2:38, Matthew 3:7-10). So which is it? Does repentance come before, or after, baptism? Obviously, as always, both.
John was holding up a mirror, showing them their sins; and yes, they would in time forget what they saw there… but if they wouldn’t acknowledge the truth in the mirror while looking at it… why bother to bury them in it? If they don’t believe the mirror, how could it help them??
But if they saw the mirror, and the heart of man realized “Dude, I screwed up bigtime!” (Acts 2:36-37), then the next step would be to immerse them IN A HOUSE which would constantly REMIND them of their sins! A house led with a more righteous heart, who could reflect their evil deeds back at them.
The heart of these men saw, mirrored in the words which came from Peter’s heart, their sins (Luke 6:45). Thus, the mirror of the law, according to the proverb, is the heart of another man who knows the law better than you!
Which is why, if you back up a few verses from that proverb, you’ll see the context is about having a man “sharpen your countenance” (Proverbs 27:17). And then in the very next verse… the explanation of why a man would bother! (Proverbs 27:18).
Think about the symbolism you already know; what is a fig tree? The house of the human Jesus –the ekklesia, therefore. Whoever takes care of that fig tree will eat the fruit of it. And isn’t that just what Paul said? 1 Corinthians 9:5-14, 2 Timothy 2:6.
Thus, the servant who waits on his master in that fig tree will be honored by having his heart corrected by the laws in his master’s heart! A heart which will not forget what you look like, for his eyes can continually behold you, trying you, sharpening you (Psalms 11:4).
A master to scatter away your evil with his eyes (Proverbs 20:8), obviously, with the judgments of his soul and his ability to see through your self-deceptions ( Proverbs 20:5); and teach you one day to do the same for newer branches of that same fig tree –so that you, likewise, can eat of their fruits ( Proverbs 20:7).
DEAD MAN WALKING
Baptism means, first and foremost, the death of your self and everything about yourself that makes you “you”. Because YOU are a dead man walking. YOU are the cause of your problems, YOU are your own cause of death. This was the point of the last lesson.
Repentance means seeing what your fractions are, and when you do that, you will also realize you are not worth God’s time to fix you; so the point of baptism is to force you to summon the humility to let a man, a mere human like yourself, bury your former self in Jesus’ place and raise you up as a new man.
Baptism is a symbol not only of becoming part of God’s house, but becoming a disciple of the man who baptized you as well. For isn’t that what Matthew 28:19 said? “…make disciples of all the nations, giving them baptism…” (BBE). It was this baptism which MADE them INTO disciples!
Consider what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:12-16. Why would they have been saying this… if they didn’t recognize that baptism BY Paul made them PART OF Paul? That baptism of Peter made them part of Peter’s house?
Which is why baptism IS an external symbol! Because the immersion comes from outside of you, from the house of a man, not from God Himself! The whole point of becoming a disciple is to have the master’s words, his spirit, SURROUNDING you at all times.
Paul hastened to add, as I’ve said many times, that no matter who baptizes you, you are truly the disciples of Jesus, no matter which man is representing Him to you at the moment; and yet that very fact proves that a man IS representing Him at the moment to you! (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Thus, being made a disciple of Jesus by Peter, learning to be in the house of God by being in the house of Peter, in no way makes you better than someone who learned Christ through the house of Apollos.
And yet this very fact proves that people thought of themselves as disciples of these men, BECAUSE THEY WERE. Because that’s what it MEANS to be immersed by someone… you are literally a part of them! Part of THEIR house!
These apostles all belonged to a single house; they just formed different organs in that body; and the people they baptized, by extension, became part of “their” organ, and yet still part of the same body. The fact that the people themselves failed to realize that Peter and Apollos were part of the same body, doesn’t mean that they were not very much in separate houses within that body.
For all of Paul’s letters make it clear that each of them belonged to different houses, therefore they were part of different organs and cells in that body. Not all cells belong to the hand, some cells must belong to the colon, like it or not (1 Corinthians 12:19-27). And God puts disciples there because that’s exactly where they need to be.
Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean Apollos’ house might not actually be inferior to Peter’s house; but so what? If your house is inferior, it’s up to you, the next generation, to make it greater. God puts you in the house you belong in; so what? 1 Corinthians 12:12-18. Does a baby get to choose his parents? Romans 9:19-21.
Thus, comparing their houses among their houses was not wise (2 Corinthians 10:12); for there was nothing they had, that Paul or Apollos had not given them (1 Corinthians 4:7). And yet they were acting as if they were the kings (compare to Numbers 16:3).
They were not acting like Paul was their father (1 Corinthians 4:8, 14-17)… but everyone knew he was, for he was the one who had begotten them.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
John noted three types of baptism in Matthew 3:11. Because of these metaphorical meanings, small-minded Churchians have variously latched on to one meaning or another; Pentecostals yearn to be baptized with fire, not knowing that they are begging for 2 Peter 3:12, Hebrews 6:8, and Matthew 13:30.
Other Christians believe they are baptized in the spirit, and thus have no need for the water; except for the simple fact that they are baptized in the wrong spirit precisely because they are not baptized in water (2 Corinthians 11:4). Because remember: it isn’t about the baptism, which is just a symbol.
In a sense, baptism is what happens to mafia witnesses; the government fakes their death, uses a similar corpse in their place to fool their assassins, then spirits them away to a new city with a new identity to protect them from the death they would surely face at the hands of their enemies.
Jesus acts as your body double, the One who laid in the coffin and died in your place (2 Corinthians 5:21); and He gives you a new identity and name written in heaven (Revelation 2:17). Meanwhile, God hides you from your enemies here, on Earth, in plain sight (Luke 4:28-30).
Like with NC water baptism, the Red Sea baptism represented faking Israel’s death to their enemies, so the Egyptians would not find them; they were buried in the waters of the Red Sea –the RED Sea, notice –which pictured Jesus’ body, which was red because of the stripes He suffered (Revelation 7:14, Isaiah 53:5).
So by immersing themselves in Jesus’ body, clearly they became a part of Jesus’ body; thus, just as with NC water baptism, the Red Sea represented the start of their new life, and their new identity –they were “Hebrews” in Egypt, but “Israelites” afterwards. In fact, Exodus 10:3 is the last time the word “Hebrews” would be used for 450 years.
So yes, baptism does forgive your sins (Acts 22:12-16). But washing your flesh with water no more removes your sins than your daily bath does; it can no more take away sins than the blood of bulls and goats could (Hebrews 10:4). Which is why God created a body for Christ to save instead! (Hebrews 10:5, Ephesians 1:22-2:1).
For it is baptism IN THAT BODY that takes away your sins (Galatians 3:27, Romans 7:4-6); and it does so quite literally, as the local head of that body’s cell corrects you and drives the evil from your heart daily! (Proverbs 22:15). When you join a NEW house, you therefore… have a NEW identity! A new NAME!
Didn’t Jesus say “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein”? (Luke 18:17). It’s no accident that the very next thing that happened was the rich young man came to him –to whom he answered “if you want to have eternal life, become as a child and follow me (verses 16-22); for He treated His disciples as children (Matthew 18:5, 10-11).
Nicodemus misunderstood, and thought He meant literally (John 3:3-5). And yet, isn’t that exactly what happened? You enter the body of Christ, the woman, through water baptism. And there, you become “as a little child” in the house of the man who baptized you –your proxy father, who raises you until you are old enough to learn from your true Father.
And as always… that happens in a house (Ephesians 2:16-22), the one verse for this lesson. It is through this “one body”, that we have access to the Father; this one body, that makes us no longer aliens and immigrants, but actively baptizes us into the house of God;
Teaching us the customs, language, and way of life of this strange new country. Building us, upon the foundation of the elder(s) who baptized and raised us; until we are adult enough to become, on our own, a holy temple of the spirit of the Lord and the Father;
And thus, at that point… since we are a house of our own, capable of being the head of a house of our own.