A Remote Look at Baptism

As I read through Scripture, I find little things from time to time that I’ve skipped over the last time I’d read that passage. This is bound to happen as your spiritual growth should be renewed each day. Your walk with God is a lifelong process and because of this we should learn something new every day. In our limited knowledge, it is impossible to know everything about the Bible. This happens to me most often when I read things concerning baptism.

Discussing baptism with Christians today will get you many different responses. Some of them will be good but more often than not it will be bad. Many in the religious world have downplayed the baptism we read about in Scripture and I’m not sure why. In the meantime, the best we can do is preach to them what the Bible says concerning baptism.

            I can assume that most of us will agree that there is one baptism today (Ephesians 4:4). Despite what some might say, this baptism is water baptism.  We can see this from verses such as Acts 8:36-39 and 1 Peter 3:20-21. What we have here is an example of looking at remote context; as opposed to immediate context. Both are important in interpreting the Bible properly.

            Immediate context has to do with the context surrounding the passage in question. This could be just reading a few verses before or after the passage, or may even be the entire chapter in which the passage lies. Remote context deals with passages that are alike in nature but are not found in the same section (or maybe even book)

. Again, both are important in fully understanding how to interpret Scripture. With that said, here are some of the verses I have stumbled upon when reading up on baptism.

John 3:3 & Romans 6:4. Almost every Christian knows that we must be born again in order to be saved. Jesus equates salvation to the kingdom of God in John 3:3. Religious folks know Jesus’ words by heart yet they don’t interpret this as the act of baptism. When we read Romans 6:4 and following also, Paul says that after baptism we walk in a new life. We live this new life in Christ after we are born again. Compare this also with the “washing of regeneration” in Titus 3:5. We die to our old selves and become a new creature (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17). Baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and we are to emulate that. It’s commanded (Acts 10:48).

John 3:5 & Acts 2:38 & 1 John 5:8. This comparison has to do with the new birth as well but more about what is involved in it. Jesus says that this new birth involves “water and the Spirit”. We know this to be baptism because in Acts 2:38, Peter mentions water and the Spirit too. We actually see other verses mention both of these elements as well (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5). The water symbolizes baptism which refers to the spiritual birth of the Holy Spirit. Interesting too, is that John adds another element to the mix in 1 John 5:8. He adds Christ’s blood which is actually what cleanses us (Revelation 1:5). We contact the saving blood of Christ when we reenact His death, burial, and resurrection in baptism.

Galatians 2:20 & Romans 6:6. A verse many often know by memory is Galatians 2:20. Here, Paul tells the brethren in Galatia that he was “crucified with Christ”. I bet we don’t ask ourselves what he means by that though. How was Paul crucified if he was still living? Well Romans 6:6 uses the same language to signify that spiritual birth of baptism. We die (crucify) to our old self and resurrect to a new spiritual life in Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 & Galatians 3:27. It’s no surprise to us that we need to be in Christ in order to be saved. For it is “in Christ” where salvation is found (2 Timothy 2:10). But how do we get into Christ? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that we are baptized into His body. He also says in Galatians 3:27 that we “put on Christ”. If you want to put on Christ, you must be baptized.

Luke 24:47 & Acts 2:38; 3:19. Lastly, we have Luke 24:27. This verse may not be as famous as some of the others we’ve talked about but it is Luke’s account of what we call The Great Commission (cf. Matthew 28:16-20 & Mark 16:14-16). Here, Jesus tells the apostles to preach “repentance and remission of sins”. As we read on, they did just that. In Acts 2:38, the Jews asked what they should do since they killed the Son of God. Peter told them to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins. He says something similar in the next chapter to more people. He tells them to repent and be converted. We logically can conclude that this conversion happens when we are baptized for the remission or blotting out of our sins. God cleanses us upon this immersion.

As we read the word of God, He reveals Himself and His wisdom to us. Together with logic and reason we see the mysteries of God being shown to us. Many today minimize the importance of baptism. It's a very touchy subject. However, when we read what the Bible says, we see that it is extremely important. It gets us into Christ to contact His blood. It is for the remission of our sins to be born again. And as Peter says in 1 Peter 3:21, it saves us.