Concise Bible Dictionary:
The Greek is βάπτισμα, from βαπτίζω, to dip, plunge, wash, and so forth. The ordinance of Baptism:
1. JEWISH. In Hebrews 6:2 (βαπγισμός) the Hebrew believers were exhorted to leave “the doctrine of baptisms;” and in Hebrews 9:10 we read of “divers baptisms or washings,” but which is followed by the words “imposed until the time of reformation,” which “time” is referred to as “Christ being come.” This shows that the baptisms referred to were some part of the Jewish ritual, in which there were many washings and bathings; but none of these washings signified fully the baptism of the New Testament, which as an initiatory ordinance places the baptized in a new position: the Red Sea (1 Cor. 10:2) was a figure of this. It was the Jewish washings that the Hebrew believers were exhorted to leave, or not to be laying again as a foundation.
Further, it has often been said that the Jews received their proselytes by baptism. Of this we have no record in the Old Testament, and Josephus, who details the rites necessary for the reception of a proselyte, makes no mention of baptism. It is true that Maimonides says that proselytes were thus received; but he was not born till A. D. 1135, and was thus far too late to know what took place so long before when contemporary writers are silent on the subject.
2. BAPTISM BY JOHN. This was specially in the Jordan, to which the multitudes went out, and which is spoken of again and again as the baptism “of repentance” (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3; Acts 13:24; Acts 19:4). He challenged the multitudes who came to be baptized that they should bring forth “fruits worthy of repentance” (Matt. 3:8; Luke 3:8). He baptized those who came “confessing their sins,” (Matt. 3:6); and he exhorted the people to believe on Him who would come after him, “that is, on Christ Jesus” (Acts 19:4; Compare John 1:29, 36). The godly remnant by John’s baptism took separate ground from the national body, in expectancy of Messiah’s coming: they judged themselves, and cleared themselves of the sinful condition of the nation. The Lord was baptized by John, thus taking His place among the repentant in Israel, not as confessing sins, but as fulfilling righteousness, as He said, “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15).
3. CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. We have seen that John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance. During the Lord’s ministry before the cross, some were baptized to Him as Messiah (John 4:1). After His death and resurrection Peter preached, not repentance, but the rejected Jesus as exalted, and made Lord and Christ. When they were pricked in heart, he said to them, “Repent ... ”, but the baptism was to the remission of sins because the work was now done which gave it fully: they were baptized to the remission of sins—administratively and governmentally (Acts 2:38).
Romans 6:3-4 gives the meaning of Christian baptism to saints who had been baptized long before. It treats of the death of Christ (the sinless One,) as death to sin and to the state man was in, and draws conclusions from it for us inasmuch as He is risen. They were baptized to His death, that is, they have a part in it—they are alive to God in Him risen (and consequently also alive to Him risen—not to law), and hence sin was not to reign any longer; but there is no resurrection with Him in these verses. Baptism is prefigured by Israel’s passage through the Red Sea, not by their crossing the Jordan, though resurrection is added in Colossians 2:12, as leaving sins behind: “Having forgiven you all trespasses.” It is individual, and reception into the profession of Christianity: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” The signification of baptism goes further in Colossians than in Romans, but is always connected with a status upon earth, and not with heavenly privileges. It saves (1 Pet. 3:21); we wash away our sins in it (Acts 22:16); we go into death in it; and in Colossians 2:12, it is added, we “are risen:” hence also it is individual. The church as such has never to be brought into death, its very origin is in the resurrection of Christ (Col. 1:18); it is first-born in the new creation.
It is clear that Baptism, though in a certain aspect it places the recipient in a resurrection status, giving Christ for our life, never takes us out of the earth; but puts us in the position of Christian responsibility in it, according to newness of life, as it is said, “so we also should walk in newness of life.” There is a warning in 1 Corinthians 10:1-6. They were baptized, “but with many of them God was not well pleased.” A mere sacramental position is not enough: we have to “continue in the faith, grounded and settled” (Col. 1:23). We are called, as baptized, to walk in this world as dead and risen again, as in a wilderness. It is the expression of the outward visible church in its profession: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” In baptism we have a good conscience by the resurrection (1 Pet. 3:21). We wash away our sins in it, calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16); we are received by it into the responsible place of God’s people in this world.
With Peter, Christian baptism seems more connected with the kingdom of heaven (compare Matt. 16:19; Acts 2:38; Acts 10:48); with Paul, it was connected rather with the house of God when he did use it. Paul had a new commission. He is not found, like Peter, ministering in the midst of a known people who had promises, calling souls out of it to repentance, that they should receive remission and be separated from the untoward generation. Paul takes up man as man (though owning the Jews) and brings him into God’s presence in light. For the Gentiles it was, even in testimony, a wholly new resurrection state, not merely a good conscience through the resurrection; and baptism, which gives a status on earth founded on resurrection, forms no part of Paul’s testimony, any more than of the mission in John 20:21-23; and Paul tells us himself, that he was not sent to baptize.
Faith sees that when God brings a man into privileges on earth, he does not separate his household from him, for example (Genesis 7:1). Under Christianity this surely holds good (see 1 Cor. 7:14), and we see households were baptized by Paul.
At the end of Matthew’s gospel we have a commandment connected with baptism and apostolic mission to the Gentiles exclusively, but then there is nothing of repentance or remission. It is simply discipling all the nations, baptizing and then teaching them (Matt. 28:19-20). (This passage contemplates in its full sense a work to be done at the end of the age by the Jewish remnant toward the Gentiles. Christian baptism now is for Jews and Gentiles alike, that by it they should lose their standing as such, and being committed to the death of Christ be brought into Christian profession, leaving those distinctions behind them.) The direction in Luke 24:47 is repentance and remission of sins. In Mark 16:15-16 salvation belonged to him who believed and was baptized; for if he was not, he refused to be a Christian.
Scripture gives no definite teaching as to the mode of baptism, the great point being what the recipients of the ordinance were baptized to (compare Acts 19:3). The idea conveyed by the word is “washing,” as with the priests of old (Ex. 29:4), rather than “sprinkling,” as with the Levites (Num. 8:7).
As to the formula used, some have supposed that because we read in the Acts that persons were baptized “to the name of the Lord Jesus,” the instruction given in Matthew 28:19 to baptize “to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” was superseded. But this does not follow: baptism is always to some person or thing. The disciples found at Ephesus had been baptized to the baptism of John, (Acts 19:3); the Israelites had been baptized to Moses; and those baptized in the Acts were to the name of the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord; and there is no reason why this should not be combined with the words found in Matthew, and a person be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus unto the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In Acts 2:38 the preposition is ἐπί (ἐν in MSS B, C, D); in Acts 10:48 it is ἐν; and elsewhere it is εἰς.
4. BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD. This occurs in 1 Corinthians 15:29. Some maintain that the Corinthian saints had fallen into the error of holding that if some of their number had fallen asleep without being baptized, others could be baptized for them, and that Paul was condemning this. But in the language he uses there is no condemnation. If 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 inclusive be read as a parenthesis, 1 Cor. 15:18 explains 1 Cor. 15:29; and 1 Cor. 15:19 explains 1 Cor. 15:30-32. Thus, if there be no resurrection, those “fallen asleep in Christ are perished....else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead?” Why step into their place in the ranks, and be in jeopardy every hour, like soldiers in a war, if the dead rise not? What advantage was it for Paul to have fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead rise not? The allusion in the “jeopardy every hour” and in the “fighting” is to those in danger, as soldiers in a war.
From Anstey’s Doctrinal Definitions:
The word “baptise” means “putting into” and implies “immersion.” The Bible speaks of seven different baptisms in connection with persons. (In the Jew’s religion there were also various cups and pots that were ceremonially washed by being immersed in water, which were called “baptisms” – Mark 7:3-4; Heb. 6:2; 9:10.) The seven baptisms of persons are:
Israel’s Baptism Unto Moses (1 Cor. 10:1-2)
This was Israel’s formal identification with Moses their leader. It brought them into a sphere of privilege with God, as verses 2-4 indicate. It was a baptism of a mixed multitude of people; many of them later proved to be unbelievers (Heb. 3:19).
John’s Baptism Of Repentance (Matt. 3:5-6; Acts 19:3)
This was a baptism in water that disassociated the believing, repentant Jewish remnant from the national body of Jews who saw no need for it (Luke 7:29-30). It made them morally ready to receive the Messiah (Luke 1:17), whom John said would come after him (Matt. 3:11). This baptism was in view of having their sins remitted (Luke 3:3).
Christ’s Baptism Of Martyrdom Sufferings & Death (Mark 10:39)
This refers to the Lord’s sufferings from the hands of men that occasioned His death. It is something that the Lord said that the apostles (and many Christians) would share in, being persecuted unto death (Acts 12:2; 22:4; Rev. 2:10).
Christ’s Baptism Of Atoning Sufferings & Death (Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50)
This is a baptism of judgment in which the Lord was immersed when He was made a sacrifice for sin (Heb. 9:26; 10:12).
Baptism Of The Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; 1 Cor. 12:13)
This refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to dwell in believers (Acts 2), by which they were linked to Christ the Head in heaven as members of His body (1 Cor. 12:12-13). (See Baptism of the Holy Spirit.)
Baptism Of Fire (Matt. 3:11; 2 Thess. 1:8)
This is a baptism in retributive judgment (of which “fire” is a figure) which the Lord will immerse the lifeless Christian profession in at the time of His Appearing (2 Thess. 1:8).
Christian Baptism (Eph. 4:5)
This is an initiatory Christian ordinance performed “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:20). In Christian baptism, a person puts on a new name—the name of Christ (Gal. 3:27), and enters a new position on earth—the sphere of Christian profession where the Lordship of Christ is owned (Eph. 4:5). Thus, he is placed formally on Christian ground. It not only identifies a person with the death and burial of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4; Col. 2:12), but also with the resurrection of Christ (1 Peter 3:21). It was administered to Jewish believers (Acts 2:41), to Samaritan believers (Acts 8:12), to Gentile believers (Acts 8:38; 10:48), and to Christian households (Acts 16:15, 33; 1 Cor. 1:16). Contrary to popular belief, Christian baptism is not a public act or testimony to the world of one’s faith in Christ. If it were so, Paul would not have baptised the jailor in the middle of the night, but would have waited for a convenient time to do it publicly (Acts 16:33).