The Bible begins and ends with God in the midst of water. It is the physical substance that is
nearest to the spiritual. It is the physical source of all life. There is no known life on earth
that can survive without water. God gave birth to the world out of a mass of water as the
Holy Spirit hovered over the deep. The earth was immersed in water before it came to life.
And so it is with us. From conception to birth we are immersed in water. When the water
breaks we are born into a world totally dependent on water. Seven eighths of our body and
OF all animal life is water. Nine tenths of all plant life is water. 75% of the worlds surface is
water.
The clouds above us are floating lakes of water. They are tiny droplets so small that one
hundred billion of them would not fill a tea cup. They form the clouds that make rain
possible, which keeps the world alive. Water is the blood of the world that gives life to all
that God has created. The blood in our veins that keeps us alive is 90% water. Water supply
is not just vital for farmers, it is vital to the life of each one of us.
When everything is working normally there are about 16 billion tons of rain that fall on
U.S. soil every day. We take water for granted, but have no idea just how much of it is
needed to keep life going. Ten to twenty tons of water are needed for every bushel of corn
that is harvested. 15 to 20 tons are needed for every pound of beef, and 120 gallons for
every egg. If it was not for all the irrigation in this country we could be going through a
drought like they often do in Africa. Water is the blood of our nation just as it is all the
nations of the world.
Water is also the key factor in industry. All that man makes is just as dependent on water
as all that God has made. The production of one car requires 60 thousand gallons of water.
For every gallon of gas you put in that car, it takes 10 gallons of water to produce it. Water
is the life line of nature, and also of industry. Nothing significant happens in this world
without water.
Therefore, it is not surprising that water plays a major role in the Bible. It would take
hours just to read all of the verses in the Bible that deal with water. Some of the highlights
would be-
1. The creation.
2. The flood, where Noah and his family were saved by water, and where the most
universal symbol God ever created, the rainbow, is dependent upon water.
3. The great exodus of Israel out of Egypt by crossing the Red Sea.
4. The striking of the rock that gave water to Israel, and which the New Testament
says was Christ.
5. The crossing of Jordan into the Promise Land.
6. The 23rd Psalm where he leads us beside the still waters.
7. Jesus is the water of life, and He walked on water, and He stilled the stormy waters,
and He turned the water into wine, and He made water basic to the ordinance He gave
to the church to go into all the world and baptize. The Lord's Supper has two elements
Bread and wine, and both are products of water. Some would add His washing of feet,
another water event.
There is no escaping the importance of water for both the physical and spiritual life.
We cannot live without water, and we cannot live a life of obedience to Christ without water.
All three persons of the Godhead are identified with water. God the Father says in Jer. 2:13,
"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." Jesus said to the
woman at the well in John 4:10, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who asks you for a
drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Later in John
7:37-39 this living water is identified with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "If a man is thirsty, let
him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of
living water will flow from within him. By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believe
in Him were to receive,"
It is through faith in Christ that we receive the Spirit of Christ-the living water, and for
all eternity Jesus will lead us to springs of living water, says Rev. 7:17. Water is not only
essential for life in time, it is basic even to life in eternity. Water is forever because God
made it the key to life. In Rev. 21:6 there is a fountain of the water of life in heaven, and in
Rev. 22 there is the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God and the
Lamb, and produces the fruit of heaven. For all eternity nature and man will still depend
upon the water of life. There will be no more thirst in heaven. This may not seem relevant
to us, but for many of God's people in Bible lands this was a precious promise that meant
paradise to them.
Geoffrey Moorhouse in The Fearful Void tells of running out of water while crossing the
Sahara Desert. He almost died of dehydration, and he writes, "Almost unconscious even of
my mind, I was aware of trees somewhere ahead, somewhere beyond Ibrahim and the
Camels, who seem to be a great distance ahead. Then there was a tent. Ibrahim was
squatting by it, drinking from his brass bowl. Then a small boy was running towards me
trying not to spill what was in the bowl. The water in it was the color of diluted blood. This
was the most beautiful thing in the world, more beautiful by far than the stained glass of
Chartres, than a fugue by Bach, then the moment after ecstasy with the one woman you love,
or the moment when your son scrambled to squeeze the breath out of you and say, I think
you're smashing dad. There was nothing in the world as beautiful as this bowl full of water."
You may never have this emotional experience with water, for you would have to pay too
high of a price to have it, but we should be able to have an intellectual appreciation of this
experience.
Like the oceans, the revelation of God about water is two vast to cover. So we will
specialize on one aspect of water, which is the water of baptism. It is all a wonder, but the
water of baptism has additional wonders. It takes a lot of water to obey Christ and be
baptized. The Ethiopian Eunuch went down into the water, and Lydia was baptized in the
river, and the early church stressed the importance of being baptized in living water, that is,
in natural flowing water, like the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized. There were no churches
and baptisteries, and so this was not an option open to them, as it is to us. It was several
centuries before baptism inside was accepted as the norm.
Baptism for the early Christians was an experience with nature, as well as with God.
This is still true for Christians on many of the missions fields of the world. Rivers, streams,
lakes, and ponds are used all over the world to immerse people in. Creation is used to
worship the God of creation. Baptism is a spiritual use of nature to glorify God. There's no
way to separate the spiritual and the natural in baptism, for they are one. We cannot do it in
the Lord's Supper either, for you cannot have bread and juice without nature and the power
of water.
Literal, physical water is not only essential to physical life, but to a life of obedience to
God, or spiritual life. The person who attempts to be spiritual without the physical is
forgetting just who it is that created the physical, and that He rejoices in it, and expects that
we will also, and use it to glorify Him. The point is, baptism links the Christian with nature.
We cannot obey God without nature. We can go inside to a man-made baptistery, but we
cannot make water. Water is essential to baptism, and so nature is essential to baptism.
Jesus began His own ministry with His baptism in the Jordan. He made baptism in water
a symbol of the transition from the old to the new. His ministry was to take the world from
the old covenant to the new covenant in his blood. Baptism is the symbol of new beginnings.
Many churches make baptism the transition from being a non-member of the local church to
becoming a member. It means new opportunity, new service, and a new voice in the local
body.
Water is a transition element. We can't explore it in depth, but water is a key factor
in the transition of the seasons. We use it all the time for transition. From work to a night of
relaxation, we take a shower in between, for we want to clean up and be refreshed for the
evening. Water gives us the feeling of newness. So it is with baptism, for it is like a spiritual
bath that cleanses us and makes us ready for a new agenda in the will of God. Every square
mile of air has a two and one half million cubic feet of water in it, and this is crucial for the
cleansing of the atmosphere. Without this water all life would soon choke on the dust and
smoke particles in the air. Water is the cleansing agent of the natural world, and God made
it the cleansing agent of the spiritual world as well. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all
sin, and 90% of blood is water. When Christ's side was pierced there came forth blood and
water.
The waters of baptism are to be seen as the symbolic cleansing agent of sin. In Acts 22:16
Ananias came to blind Saul in Damascus and said, "Get up, be baptized and wash your sins
away, calling on His name." It is faith in Christ, and calling on His name that leads to the
cleansing of sin, but this is symbolized in baptism. Only God can cleanse from sin, but He
gives the symbolic power to the water of baptism, and, thereby, gives a new slant to the old
saying that cleanliness is next to godliness.
The old man is buried in baptism, and the new man that rises out of the water is to be a
cleansed man, ready to walk a new path on the Rock, which is Christ, and no longer on the
dusty road of the world. Paul fell on the road to Damascus, and was likely quite dirty. His
baptism could have literally washed away the dirt, but it also cleanse him from his evil
attitude toward Christ and the church. Paul was a new man after his baptism because the
old was buried, and he came forth from the water to walk in newness of life.
Lydia was not a wild woman on a rampage against Christianity, and so her baptism was
not as great a cleansing, for she did not have such dirty feet as Paul. Baptism is to be seen as
the symbol of God burying our sins of the past in the deepest sea. We sing,
Let the water and the blood
From thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
Cleanliness was next to godliness in the Old Testament. All that was done in the presence
of God had to be done with the participants cleansed with water. Everything the priest did
had to be preceded by washing, just like a doctor does today before he goes into surgery.
The high priest on the day of atonement had to wash himself before he put on the holy
garments, and after he came out of the holy of holies he had to wash again in water. Our
baptism is very much like the high priest getting ready to enter the service of God. Paul in
Gal. 3:27, "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ." Just as the high priest put on the holy garments to enter God's presence, so we, in
baptism, put on the most holy garment of all, for we put on Christ. We clothe ourselves in
that which is most acceptable in the presence of God-His Son. We put on Christ and stand
before God clean and pure. Here is the wonder of water par excellence.
The fish became the symbol of the early Christians. A creature that lives in water became
their primary sign. Like fish, we are to be at home in the environment of the water of life,
and have a hard time when we find ourselves cast up on the dry land of the waves of the
world. The Christian should feel out of his element, and very uncomfortable in settings
displeasing to God. They should be eager to get back into the element of Christlike ideals.
Holiness is feeling at home in the realm of the spiritual, and like fish out of water, feeling not
at home in the realm of the worldly.
Our baptism is to mark that time in our lives when we begin to focus on the things of
Christ more completely, and let the things of the world fade into the background. Baptism is
to be that bath of transition. We are wash up and leave the grimy work of the world, and
enter into the joy of serving our Lord. Jesus began His public ministry with baptism. Paul
was baptized, and after his time in the desert, he began his public ministry. Baptism is to be
a turning point where the goal is to be immersed in the things of Christ. Baptism is a
commitment to make the Christian life more than a mere part time, and side line religion.
To rise from the water and walk in newness of life is not easy, in fact, it is impossible. Our
very failure to be able to be Christians as we ought to be, is to keep us ever conscious of our
dependence upon Christ. The wonder of wonders is that He loves us, and will use us for His
glory, even after all we have done out of His will. And the wonder of water is that Jesus uses
it to symbolize His love for us in forgiving and cleansing us from all sin. Let us now go and
worship our Creator and Redeemer by obeying Him with water.
