Why Baptism
Romans 6:1-11
Since the beginning of time, water has played a significant role in the lives of human beings. It has determined where people lived, impacted how and where people planted crops. And it has had a role in the religious life of people as well. In he Old Testament, water was to separate the ashes from the meat of sacrificed animals (Numbers 19). Water is used to consecrate the priests (Leviticus 8:6). Water is used to cleanse lepers (Leviticus 14:1-8). Water is used to wash according to the Law (Hebrews 9:10). And water is used to spiritually cleanse. Jews two centuries before Jesus practiced self immersion for spiritually cleanising. Image. They did this in mikvahs which were baths used exclusively for spiritual purification and ritual cleaning. The building of the mikveh was so important in ancient times it was said to take precedence over the construction of a synagogue.
The High Priest immersed himself before entering the Holy of Holies and before priests participated in the Temple service, as well as several other occasions. Males were to immerse themselves before praying or studying. Immersion is also required after a woman has her monthly period (Lev. 15:28). Besides these, there are other times when it is customary to be immersed in the mikveh such as before Yom Kippur and before the Sabbath in order to sensitize oneself to the holiness of the day. Several Jewish groups observed ritual immersion every day to assure readiness for the coming of the Messiah., like the Essenes who immersed twice a day. Image Recent archaeological excavations have found 48 different mikvaot near the Monumental Staircase leading into the Temple Complex. Image of mikvot with 2 steps The mikveh must contain at least 200 gallons of water and had two sets of steps, one entering and another leaving so as not to defile what had been purified.
There were three prerequisites for a proselyte or convert of Judaism: Circumcision, sacrifice and immersion. Males were circumcised, marking them as one who stood apart from the peoples around him. When they had healed, they were immersed and then a sacrifice was made, a heifer or a pair of turtledoves which was brought to the priest and given as a burnt offering to God. Now the ritual of immersion was to be performed in the presence of witnesses. The convert made special preparations by cutting his nails and made a fresh profession of his faith before the designated "fathers of the baptism". This is possibly where churches got the term godfathers or godparents. When females were immersed, they were attended by other females while the male priest or rabbi stood outside the door. The converts undressed and were immersed three times, many think because the word mikveh occurs three times in the Torah. A person was totally immersed without anyone touching them because Leviticus 15:16 says, "he shall wash all his flesh in the water." This is also why no clothing was worn. Anything that prevented the water from reaching a part of the body would render the immersion invalid. The water in the Mikveh was referred to as the womb of the world, and as a convert came out of the water it was considered a new birth separating him from the pagan world. Now he was referred to as "a little child just born". We see the New Testament using similar Jewish terms as "born anew," "new creation," and "born from above."
One of the most important teachings in Judaism is that of repentance. According to both Scripture and rabbinic literature, no matter how great the sin, if a person repents and forsakes the sin before God he can be forgiven. The Jerusalem Talmud states, "nothing can stand before repentance" It was taught that water can purify the body only if the soul has first been purified through repentance and righteousness. Image John the Baptist ministered in the wilderness of Judea, calling people to repentance and then baptizing them in the waters of the Jordan River. All this was meant to re-commit people to living for God and to prepare them for the coming of the messiah. Expectations for a messiah were high in Jesus’ time, especially under the increasingly oppressive rule of the Romans. Image It was to John the Baptist that Jesus came when he was ready to commit himself to his calling and begin his ministry. Thus Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan. Image??? The earliest drawing of Christian baptism was found on the wall of a Roman catacomb in the second century showing John standing on the bank of the Jordan helping Jesus back to shore after self immersion. And you will recall that just before Jesus ascended to heaven, he left these words for the disciples as their commission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19 Thus baptism was meant to be at the heart of who we are as followers of Christ and one of the principle practices of the church.
In the first century most Christian converts were from Judaism and baptism immediately followed a person’s profession of faith. By the third and fourth centuries most converts were pagans and a period of instruction was set up between profession and baptism, generally of three years duration. By the third century several symbols and much ritual had been added to the simple baptismal service, including the sign of the cross; giving of milk, honey, and salt; unction of the head; and the white robe. Easter and Pentecost, or Epiphany in the East were the times when most baptism into the faith occurred. The favorite hour seems to have been midnight, with a torchlight service. Men were baptized first, and then the women.
The baptismal covenant is God’s initiating word to us, proclaiming our adoption by grace, and our word to God, promising our response of faith and love. When a Roman became a soldier, they took a sacred oath, called a sacramentum, which is where we get the word sacrament. The sacramentum was a pledge of total commitment to Caesar. Their life was no longer their own. All self interest was subjugated to the interests of Caesar. So the early Christians would draw a parallel to this practice. In our Baptism, we take the sacred oath of sacramentum where our self interest is subjugated to the interests of Jesus and in our baptism we become completely His. While we baptize someone only once, it is something which we continually renew and live out. And so our lives are lived in response to our baptism where the grace given to us by Jesus on the cross is now received and we live in response to grace. Image I love the practice of the Catholic Church where you do not enter the sanctuary without first dipping your hand in the waters of baptism to remind you of your baptism and what it stands for and what you have said your life will stand for from here on out.
The story is told about the baptism of King Aengus by St. Patrick in the middle of the fifth century. Sometime during the rite, St. Patrick leaned on his sharp-pointed staff and inadvertently stabbed the king’s foot. After the baptism was over, St. Patrick looked down at all the blood, realized what he had done, and begged the king’s forgiveness. Why did you suffer this pain in silence, the Saint wanted to know. The king replied, “I thought it was part of the ritual.”
But what happens in baptism and what does it really mean? In our Scripture today, Paul is saying there are three dimensions to baptism. The first is that baptism is continual death. Before there is resurrection, before there is life with Jesus, there has to be death. Baptism has always been linked with death. The Greek word for baptize is baptizo meaning, “to plunge, dip, immerse” something in water. The image is that as one goes under water to the depths and darkness, it is as if one joins Jesus as he is buried in the ground. But the greatest inhibitor towards God in this death is this thing called self. I get in the way of what God wants to do in me and through me every day. In our Scripture today (vs 6) Paul is saying that the self is ruled by sin, that is, we put our self and our needs ahead of God and others. David Sharp died two years ago trying to climb Mt Everest. What was amazing is that he did not die immediately. Climbers passed him by on their ascent up the mountain unwilling to stop and risk not reaching, the summit. That’s absurd enough to happen once but a few months later another climber was fatally hurt and though climbers didn’t stop on the ascent, they did on the way down because he was still alive. They then brought bring down the mountain. This is selfishness at its worst. There is a brokenness in us that will lead us to do the unthinkable, even things we do not believe in. Am I capable of the same thing. Yes, we all are because we are all broken. Sin is a power in our humanness which is greater than our willpower to change, correct or overcome.
Religion does not work because it believes and acknowledges God but it depends on the self. Religion is trying to find out what the will of God is and trying to do it in my own strength. My own strength is not powerful enough to allow me to overcome my own brokenness and sin. Knowing what’s right is not enough because here’s the problem: I have a lot of strong sins and desires. People do a lot of things to feed that appetite of self: choosing themselves over God. We want to live for God but we also want to live like the world. But it doesn’t work. It is only when we recognize that my way is never going to work, that we understand we must die to ourselves. This is the reminder of the Catholic church when you approach God in worship: die, die, die. Everyday a 100 times over before I act or make a decision, I have to make a decision to deny myself and the way of the world. I have to say each day that today is not about my needs or my happiness. It’s not about my wants. It’s not about my passions. It’s not about my desires. It’s not about my dreams. We have to turn totally away from self and turn to God. You have to die first.
Pat Summerall spent 50 years with the National Football League. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1952 and played with the Chicago Cardinals and New York Giants until 1961. After his retirement, he joined CBS as a broadcaster. For the next 30 years he and a fellow broadcaster partied hard off the field. "We raised Cain. I was the first guy at the bar and the last to leave." Summerall was told that if he kept on drinking he was going to die. After checking himself into the Betty Ford Clinic, his counselor urged him to seek a better life through faith. At age 66, Pat Summerall was baptized. In USA Today he told a reporter that when the minister "leaned me back in the water, I never felt so helpless. I knew I just became a Christian. My old self had died and I can’t tell you how great life has been since then."
Baptism is a heart conversion. You take ownership of Jesus. You have to say yes to Jesus’ ownership and purpose in your life but that also means a part of you has to die. You have to make a choice to leave the things you wanted to pursue for yourself and instead choose to pursue the things of God. There has to be a death before there’s a resurrection.
The second dimension is burial. Verse 3 “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Once there’s been a death, you have to bury the body. If you don’t bury the body, there’s going to be a problem: a stench. You not only need to get rid of the body, you need to bury it where you can’t get at it and it can no longer have an impact on you. Matthew 12, “When an evil spirit comes out of anyone, it goes to places seeking rest and does not find it. It will return to the house it left. When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order and then it goes and takes with it 7 other spirits more wicked than itself and they go in and live there and the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”
Russell Brownworth tells the story of John who was retired Navy, a heavy drinker and a violent man. He was very personable when you first met him; but when he drank enough beer the demons took over. John had married Rosemary only a few months before I met him; it was his fourth time at the marriage license bureau – her second. A few weeks after, Rosemary and John joined the church. We baptized Russell and it seemed they were going to make it work. Rosemary thought she could get John to quit drinking and he did.
But then less than a month after John’s baptism, John had had a particularly difficult day and he found the bottle that he had put away. John began drinking again. One night, late, Rosemary showed up at the parsonage door. She was bruised and scared. My wife and I took her in, and I went to see John the next day. When I drove up to their front yard, I was greeted by a strange sight. John had stuck empty beer cans on the end of every branch of the small orange tree in front of their trailer. The sign at the bottom of the tree read: This is for you, preacher man. John was very drunk and very loud. He greeted me at the front door and invited me in. I only asked, John, how can I help? John talked angrily for the next 20 minutes. Finally, he looked at me with a hatred that wasn’t his own and said, I’m going to make a minister out of you.
Later that day, Rosemary asked if we would accompany her to the trailer to get her clothes. We drove up and I went in first. He was calm and seemed reasonably sobered. He agreed to let Rosemary come in and get her belongings. When she came in, he immediately began to threaten her. At one point he went to get his pistol. I urged Rosemary to forget her clothes and leave; it was a bad idea to come back. But she was determined to get her clothing. When she went to the closet, John re-entered the room waving a very big pistol! After several tense moments John allowed us to return to the car and leave. Several months later, we got a letter from Rosemary thanking us for our help, and saying that she had settled in another state. Not long after that we heard about John – on the evening news. He had threatened people outside a K-Mart with his pistol, and when the police showed up he committed suicide.
If you don’t bury that sin, then it’s going to rear its ugly head and come back with a vengeance. Baptism means you’re not just setting something aside, you’re putting it in the ground. When we are baptized, we’re burying that sin where we cannot get it and it can’t get us. You can’t put it in the attic. You can store it away. You’ve got to bury it.
Third is resurrection. Now when evil or temptation knocks on the door, it is going to find new life, the presence of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is more than water. It is also where the power of God is instilled in our lives for ministry and holy living. Every single person who places their faith in Jesus Christ is given the Holy Spirit. This Spirit is the same Spirit through which God resurrected the corpse of Jesus. Paul says, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also.” Every time I try to have power over this brokenness in me which is sin, I will lose because sin is more powerful than self. Sin rules over my humanity and brokenness but Spirit rules over sin. It doesn’t matter what practices I may undertake or even how much I know, sin will always win. Living in the fullness of the Spirit, I am now free from sin ruling my life because I have been set free from sin. “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” How am I set free? By the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. How do I allow that to happen? By immersing myself in the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to immerse and letting God rule my life and guide every decision and every action.
Have you ever tried to get into the pool this time of year. How do we do it? We inch our way in, first the toe, then the ankle, then the calf and up to the knee. What do kids do? They just jump right in. And we just stay with the water up to our knees and they say, Just get in. And we answer, “I will in a minute.” Here’s the most uncomfortable place to be: one foot in and one foot out. You see, there are times when I just climb out of the pool at that point cause I know to just let myself go means there is going to be an immediate shock to my whole system. But after that then it’s gone. When you make yourself totally accessible to God, there will be an immediate shock to the system. And then comes utter joy and freedom. But as long as you stay with one foot in the world and one foot in the Holy Spirit, you’re torturing yourself. You’ve just got to let go and let God fill you and guide you with the Holy Spirit.
Paul Harvey writes about his own baptism. He said that even though he had received almost every award in broadcasting, he still felt empty inside. One summer, however, he and his wife were vacationing in Cave Creek, AZ. On Sunday morning, they decided to go to church. So they went to this little church, and there were only 12 other people present. He believed in Jesus, but he had never gone forward in a church service. He had prayed and asked Jesus to come into his heart, but he felt that there was still something that was missing." The preacher got up and announced that his sermon was going to be about baptism. Paul Harvey said, "I yawned. But as he started talking about it I found myself interested. He talked about the symbolism behind it, and how it meant surrender of one’s life to Jesus Christ, and how there was nothing really magic in the water. But there was this cleansing inside that took place when you yielded yourself to Jesus." And then he writes, "Finally, when he came to the end of his sermon he said, ‘If any of you have not been baptized, I invite you to come forward and join me here at the pulpit.’" Paul Harvey said, "To my surprise, I found myself going forward. The preacher had said there was nothing magic in the water. Yet as I descended into the depths and rose again I knew something life changing had happened – something had cleansing inside out. No longer did there seem to be two uncertain contradictory Paul Harvey’s, just one immensely happy one. I felt the fulfilling surge of the Holy Spirit in my life. The change this simple act made in my life is so immense as to be indescribable. Since totally yielding to Him in baptism, my heart can’t stop singing. Also, perhaps because baptism is such a public act & because one’s dignity gets as drenched as one’s body, I discovered a new unself-consciousness in talking about my beliefs and living for God. In fact I was a new man.”
