Baptism is first brought before our notice by John the Baptist and is introduced in connection with his ministry as if everyone understood what it meant. It was not a novelty which needed to be explained, but a practice so common that, when adopted by John in his ministry, was understood by everyone as to its import. Baptism was simply using water as a symbol to declare dissociation from the position one was in, in order to enter into another order of things. John calls on Israel to repent and, by baptism, to declare separation from all that was contrary to their proper ground. Consequently, when those who were baptized of John heard of Christ, they justified God (Luke 7:29-3029And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. 30But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. (Luke 7:29‑30)).
The Two Sides
There are, however, two sides to baptism: It separates us from something and it identifies us with something. In this regard, baptism necessarily brings in the position from which the recipient was to be freed. He is first freed by baptism, and then the responsibilities began. Those who were baptized of John separated themselves from their present failure, so that when they heard Jesus, they glorified God, having reached that for which they had prepared themselves.
If a Gentile, for example, were baptized in order to become a Jew, he knew that the rite determined his past and his future, and it therefore had a deeper significance to him than if he had only washed after coming from the market in order to eat. The rite was the same in both cases, but the subject of the rite lent a different significance and weight to it in each case. The rite of baptism is dissociation from a present position, but it is the new ground I enter upon which determines the extent of my responsibility on account of it. By baptism I free myself to enter on it, but the character of the new position must necessarily define the extent to which I distance myself from my former position.
A New Thing
Although baptism was a well-known rite, John’s baptism was a new thing among God’s people. Hitherto they had been called on to reform as they stood; now they are called to renounce their failure. So also, after the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead and had all power given to Him in heaven and on earth, He authorizes the apostles to go and disciple all nations (the commission to them being as unlimited as His sway was universal), baptizing them to the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. In a word, man was called to surrender himself to Him who had now entire claim on him. Christ had died for all and therefore all were proved to be dead, and now risen, He had full claim over the dead and was Lord of all. Therefore by His apostles He calls on all men to own His claim and be baptized in the name of God as now revealed in trinity.
Unto His Death
When it is understood that it was the death of Christ which gave Him this claim, it must be seen that everyone who was baptized unto Christ was baptized unto His death. The ground which Christ’s baptism imposed on me was death, because His death proved that all were dead, and therefore when I owned this in baptism, I placed myself in His death. If I would assume His name, I must place myself in His death and must renounce that which would interfere with the profession I am assuming. My entire self as son of Adam must be renounced, and to do this I place myself in His death. If I have faith I rise out of it in newness of life, to walk in the name of the Lord, but whether or not I have faith, such is the ground on which I place myself. I am only saying here what the baptism of Christ entails; I do not say that every baptized person understands it in this full way.
When I come to Romans 6:33Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (Romans 6:3), I get the true meaning of baptism looked at from the resurrection side of things. Paul explains it according to the gospel committed unto him, giving its true significance to the church. Paul says, “As many as have been baptized unto Christ Jesus, have been baptized unto His death” (Rom. 6:33Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (Romans 6:3) JND). Notice that it is not said “unto His resurrection,” but simply unto His death. In being baptized unto Christ, I declare myself no longer connected with that which His death placed under judgment — my old man. How could I be baptized unto Christ and continue to stand in that which was judged in the death of Christ? How could I take His name and still admit the existence of that for which He died? By baptism I am declared apart from it, but this does not imply resurrection. Faith in the baptized one connects the soul with the risen Jesus and makes good the profession assumed in baptism, but that is going beyond baptism, for it is not unto His resurrection we are baptized, but unto His death. It may be said that the passage in Colossians 2:1212Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12) connects the idea of resurrection with baptism, but I think if the words be carefully weighed, a different conclusion will be arrived at. The Apostle had said that they were circumcised in the circumcision of Christ, and if circumcised with Him, I am also raised up with Him, baptism having expressed the fact that I was buried with Him. It is in Him, not in baptism, that I have the resurrection.
I trust the Lord will lead His people to study the subject, in order that they may put it in its right place and know in their souls its full moral bearing unto the praise of His grace who has “begotten us again to a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Amen.
Adapted from Girdle of Truth