We now propose to examine its meaning as a figure, or type, of doctrine in the epistles.
The flood in the days of Noah is spoken of: “While the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven,” &c. (1 Pet. 3:20, 21.) Now we must admit there is no thought of sacramental grace here, or any inward and spiritual grace, but it is a like figure to the flood. Eight persons passed figuratively through death unto a new existence. There was no sacramental grace in the waters of the flood, but death. It was death to everything behind. The answer of a good conscience is not by any sacramental washing, but by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism, then, is a figure of the believer’s death with Him. The thing signified by this figure is stated elsewhere thus: “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God.” (2 Cor. 5:17.) And is not baptism a striking figure of this? We shall see this same figure wherever baptism is spoken of in the epistles. In Gal. 3:22-29, in order to prove that the Christian is no longer under law as a schoolmaster, the apostle says, “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,” &c.
A man that is dead ceases to be under the law, ceases to be Jew or Greek. Therefore baptism, being a figure of death with Christ, the believer could be no longer looked at as alive in the flesh, under law, or a Gentile under idolatry.
In Rom. 6 this truth is largely unfolded. The Holy Spirit’s object here is to show that the believer is not to sin, that grace may abound.
Now, bearing in mind that baptism is a figure, or type, of doctrine, nothing could be more expressive of death than burial in water. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.” Dead to sin, dead to law; old things reckoned passed away; all things new, and all of God. The Lord Jesus went through real death for us. Our bodies go through the figure of it in baptism. We are thus identified with Him in death; and if we have thus been planted in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. If, however, we mistake the figure—that is, buried in water—for the reality, that is, association with Christ in death and resurrection by faith, through the operation of the Spirit of God, nothing could be more fatal. We are not born again, or made children of God by baptism. Nowhere do the scriptures thus speak. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” If we say baptism is a figure of that faith, or birth, there is no objection.
Again, we read, “Buried 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.” (Col. 2:12.) The figure is here most striking. Thus baptism should utterly forbid all return to ritualism and ordinances by those who profess to be dead. Believing God, we are justified in His sight. (Rom. 4; 5) In baptism we obey a type of doctrine, which declares us disciples of the dead and risen Christ.
We have not said a word as to John 3, as it is evident the Lord did not refer to baptism, but to the new birth, as foretold in Eze. 36 As has often been said, Nicodemus could not have understood christian baptism. Baptism is used as a figure of death, but that it is not the new birth is most evident. The sure mark of the new birth is this—that he that is born of God cannot sin, or practice’ sin. He has a nature which cannot sin. (1 John 3) He that is born of God has put off the old man, is renewed in spirit, and has put on the new man. If born of God, the new nature will, and must, be manifested. But in the great house of Christendom are there not vast numbers of the baptized who distinctly prove, by practicing sin, that they are not born of God? No one can deny it.
In the beginning the house, that is, profession and reality, were identical, but would not the certain men crept in unawares (Jude) all have been baptized? And also, would not those having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof (2 Timothy), and the vessels of dishonor in the great house, have all been baptized? No doubt the baptized are in the great house of profession; but let us beware of trusting in the figure, however instructive.
There is another scripture, often quoted as though it meant baptism in water: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Titus 3:5.) Now, can this mean either salvation or washing by literal water? is it abundance of water that saves? Let it be observed, the word translated “regeneration” is not the same as the word used for “new birth.” It is never so used—indeed it only occurs in one other instance, Matt. 19:28, and there it cannot mean the new birth. Just as Israel will then pass into that new order of millennial things, so now the believer has passed from the old to the new—all new, and all of God. But this is not by water but by the hearing of the word, and faith in God: who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. It is the application of the word by the Holy Ghost. No doubt the washing of water is a figure of this, and so used— “the washing of water by the word.” (Eph. 5:26.) Is it not, then, a fatal error to put the type of baptism in the place of the great antitype—the death of Christ, by which the believer is—reconciled “in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight.” (Col. 1:22.)
What we find in scripture, then, is this—believers were separated from Judaism and heathenism unto Christ. Further, to believers it signified in figure death with Christ; dead to law, sin, the world, and the flesh; and if dead with Christ, risen with Him. Since then, it has been utterly perverted, and made to be the beginning of religious fleshly ritualism. In scripture it is the outward sign of death. As a figure it is most expressive. The Lord grant that we may realize more what it is to be dead with Christ, and alive in Him. Not merely once baptized, and then forgotten not there is one baptism; this is named amongst that which surely continues. (Eph. 4:4-6.) Thus baptism is the continuous figure of that which we reckon ourselves to be. (Rom. 6:3-11.) C.S.